And it was given unto him to make war with the
saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and
tongues, and nations.
---The Book of
the Revelation, Chapter 13, verse 7
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All
Bible-believing Christians are (or should be) aware that there will come a
period of time when evil will rule the earth, until Jesus returns to save it.
Some people find
this too depressing to contemplate.
But if we fail
to heed the prophecy, we will be less equipped to react as we should.
Be assured that
evil will have its day, and during the Great Tribulation, the wrath of Satan
will consume this world, even to the brink of destruction. The following
passage makes that clear:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark 13:20
King James
Version (KJV)
20 And
except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but
for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, then, what
should we do? Should we throw up our hands in despair, and yield to evil?
Never!
I find nowhere
in the Bible, Old or New Testament, where believers in God are told to refrain
from opposing evil.
Even at the
height of the brutality of Hitler and Hirohito from the 1930-45 era, many people
inside Germany and Japan courageously stood against evil. But the juggernaut of
totalitarian rule crushed them. Courage seemed futile. Evil seemed unstoppable.
Millions upon
millions of people were wantonly slaughtered by the Germans and Japanese. Their
names are largely forgotten, their individual stories untold.
But God knows.
As Americans, we
tend to be conditioned by the sports analogy to war. Two sides line up, there
is a contest, and one side is victorious, while the other is defeated. Even in the
most realistic of war movies, the action is played out in less than an
afternoon, in the comfort of an air conditioned theater.
The war we are
in now began in heaven, when a third of the angels rebelled. It continued into
the Garden of Eden, where mankind fell from grace. The battles were fought in
Egypt, in the Promised Land, and at Jericho. Sometimes it seemed that all was
lost --- the entire nation of Israel was led into a slavery that lasted 70
years. The Temple of Jerusalem was twice destroyed. And then came the
Holocaust.
We are in the
midst of that war, and as Christians and Jews, were are footsoldiers in the
struggle to defeat evil.
We cannot, of
course, succeed without God. But fortunately, God has already gone ahead of us and won the victory.
----------------------------------------------------------
Numbers Ch 13
30 And Caleb stilled the
people before Moses, and said, Let
us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
31 But the men
that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for
they are stronger than we.
32 And they
brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children
of Israel, saying, The
land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the
inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great
stature.
33 And there we
saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of
the giants: and we were in
our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
Numbers Ch 14
2 And all the
children of Israel murmured
against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them,
Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God
we had died in this wilderness!
3 And wherefore
hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives
and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
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Let us not be
like the Israelite exiles who feared to seize the Promised Land.
Yes, we have
many trials and tribulations ahead of us.
But God has
already gone ahead of us and won the victory for us.
God will walk
with us THROUGH the valley of the shadow of death.
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As to what will
happen in the following days and months, I do not, of course know.
But I am sure
that my faith will be tested by fire.
I am sure that I
will be commanded by evil people to renounce my faith, to betray God, and to
join forces with evil.
I know that I
will fear, that I will feel dread, and that the spectre of death will confront
me.
Only through God
will I find the courage to press on forward, to resist evil, and if necessary,
to die in the cause of good.
But whatever I
do, I will know this:
The Lord is my
Shepherd.
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