Withstand the evil day and Stand!

For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time." - Revelation 12:12

I am a big thinker. Some people are good with facts, they show up on Jeopardy! and win lots of money. When you think things through, as I do, it's a slower process. It requires taking pieces of information from many sources and formulating a hypothesis. Later, you test the hypothesis, If it bears out, you believe it to be true.

As a minister of the Word of God, and under the fear of God that "teachers will be judged more harshly," I need to test the hypothesis daily. I am in continuous fear that I will teach incorrectly and my blessing lost which is unrecoverable.

Things are going to change.

After you construct an abstract structure of Lego blocks, if it toppled, you would create a variation of the structure or something new. As the corona virus presses in, people are losing their jobs. How they first got their jobs may have been about skills and availability vs. location. Originally a waitress took a commuting job. As the dust settles, will he/she be called back? Because of all the people who were fired, she may earn the same pay locally when a job is available. Could a local job opening, at the same pay as the old commuting job, create a new variation of small communities? It would be a throwback to the 70's. In the 70's there were no internet job portals but instead newspaper ads and filling out applications locally by hand.

Because of social distancing, there has never been a better time for a home church than now. As churches close their doors to large gatherings, the opportunity to have small home churches is at hand. I've considered a "lawn-church" allowing people to attend and maintain "social distancing." Social distancing has not changed our radio ministry, "Deeper Word," remote bible studies, and using social media (like Facebook) to convey the message that "God is still on the throne."

Mega-ministries with large buildings, cost overhead, and other needs hope that people will watch "simulcasts" over the internet and be inclined to tithe (or donate). Will churches fold under the financial burden and survive? Will the message in the mega-ministries change? One local mega-ministry banned me from discussing End Times. They feared topical confusion in sharing this Gospel to a mixed assembly of people from Baptist, Catholic and other backgrounds. I take a different viewpoint. If the End Times is a likened to a bus on a collision course to kill you, do you discuss theological differences or get out of the way of the bus? Corona virus has made people face their personal destiny and has raised the apocalyptic eyes of the faithful.

In my other blog entry, I discussed that corona virus can be used as a political platform for the antichrist demonstrating that if handled centrally (that is by him) it would have been done better. The next pandemic, or world crisis, may introduce the concept that countries can no longer be sovereign but instead must be lead centrally.

As I saw images of people on lines outside of brick & mortar stores waiting to enter with the hope of buying... something... anything from their grocery list, I wondered about how this same antichrist spirit will create in people the need for world-wide rationing so toilet paper is available to every global citizen. (Sounds crazy now, but...) With a chip-in-the-hand each person will be allowed to purchase the "prescribed" quantity of product(s). With the swipe of your hand under a scanner, the "system" will know who you are, what you purchased, and what you are allowed to buy. No more standing outside the store waiting to see if anything is on the shelves. But these are the very things Jesus said would happen in the End Times.

One thing is sure: this is not the end. People are surviving. Depending on the region, there may be an abundance of housing for sale within an area "hard hit" by the virus. We already discussed the shift in people who may work locally, instead of commuting. Some businesses will close. Some services will expand - cleaning services, for example. If this problem becomes "as bad as it can be," people will be burying their dead loved ones. It will leave holes in families as sons and daughters become patriarchs and matriarchs of the family. There will be a huge shifting of wealth as beneficiaries receive small, or great sums of money. In some cases, there will be great losses as without a "last will and testament" the state government may receive as much as 50% of an estate. Further, as stocks are valued for a beneficiary on the death date, the low price of stocks today will have a huge consequence on the tax burden of the beneficiary when they "sell-high."

Inside the church, we have to continue to tell them, "God is good."

Inside the church, we have to continue to tell them, "God is in control."

Inside the church, we have to continue to tell them, "Jesus loves you."

We have to be ready to love. We have to be ready to share. We have to be open to how this is going to play out. We have to be aware that the devil can use this to build out a new foundation for himself. His time, however, is short.

What are your thoughts?

Bill Kassler - Deeper Word

3/20/2020

FutureComing.com