Escapism vs. Reality - Where Do You Stand?

Recently an article came across my desk that really disturbed me.
To be honest I have tried to push it off multiple times, but it just
kept haunting me. The fire in my bones will not let me leave it be.
In this article the author talks about moral decay, the economy, and
even makes the statement that “Total and worldwide financial disaster
is inevitable.”
“Nature – The world can’t take much more of this punishment.”
“War – The hate cannot be held back any longer.”
“Immorality – The restraining force on immorality has all but fled, mostly leaving us to our own self-destructive tendencies.”
You know what? I agree with this, but what I cannot agree with is what is to come.
His solution, “The Hopeful Escape” and I guess it is with his lack
luster do nothing attitude that caused the fires to burn in my bones.
Here is what the author said..

What is troubling is that more and more ministries are taking on an
attitude of  ”Why should I worry about the evil in the world, I am going
to be raptured away.”
Folks, you all know that I stand on an imminent return, but it seems
that so many who profess a Doctrine of Immanency have pushed it to the
side and turned the rapture into a form of escapism instead of
something that goads us into action.
We as students of bible prophecy KNOW what we are to expect. We KNOW
that there will be hard times ahead, we KNOW that persecution takes
place, we KNOW that tyrants abound and many have and will pay the
ultimate price in standing for Christ.
I mean are we to expect a wonderful happy world one day and the next
when the rapture takes place all of a sudden things are really bad?
The
laws of nature, God’s law, dictates that things progress from good to
bad and from bad to worse. That is because sin is prevalent in the
world and is our sin nature. So prior to the tribulation it should be
no surprise that things will get worse.
Where did this whole “escape” come from?
Scripture tells us …

I see “looking for the blessed hope” but where is our “zealous good works” for the kingdom?
Have we become a “peculiar people”?
In this God’s Word is describing a people who make a difference to the point that they stand out in a crowd.
Problem is that we have become lax and now ministries are giving the
people what they want, some ‘what me worry” excuse and condoning the
church to just sit around and do nothing.
Nowhere in scripture are we guaranteed some easy rosy life.
Christ Himself stated the following…

More and more I am seeing sound ministries trying to sugar coat the real world and what is taking place in it.
Paul told us that perilous times shall come.
Well folks, I am here to say that they are right here, right now in 3D Technicolor staring us right in the face.
Tell me if the following things are not here…

Now let me say that I am more than ready for Christ to return,
believe me. This world sickens me and I truly understand when the bible
uses the word “vexed”.
All that Paul wrote to Timothy in chapter 3 is right in our face and in some cases being shoved down our throats.
So yea, I am ready to go home.
But as I have said, I am deeply troubled by the whole “God is not
going to let us go through the tough times” idea that is being
perpetuated out there.
In fact this whole idea is anti-biblical.
Romans 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Paul himself tells us as Christians we are sheep for the slaughter.
Peter, writing to the Christians who were being martyred he wrote the following…

Even today, we read of Pastor Yocef Nadarhani in Iran being the
latest Christian who will most likely be martyred for his faith in Jesus
Christ.
But here is the thing that really troubled me…

Folks,
I am not disregarding the rapture, no not at all. What bothers me is
that instead of using this valuable time to make a difference and share
the gospel; more and more ministries are adopting some Kumbayah, let’s
sit in the lotus position and contemplate our navels attitude.
It has gotten to the point where we think we are doing some great
work for the Lord by just holding on the little scrape of battle ground,
and maintaining the status quo. While all along we run around and pat
each other on the back for such a great job we are doing in behalf of
God.
Rubbish!
We are losing the battle while the majority of the church is sitting
on their rears doing nothing and using the rapture as their excuse to
do so.
What should we be doing?
Christ, speaking to Peter about the coming church stated..

We as Christ’s Church are called to charge the gates of hell, and they cannot prevail against us.
Instead what are we doing? We sit around and wait for the rapture to come like some limp noodle.
If we TRULY believe in the Doctrine of Immanency we would be out
sharing the gospel with every creature as Christ commanded us to do.
If we TRULY believed in the doctrine of immanency  we would not waste
a moment to make sure that we have spoken to our loved ones, our
friends, our co-workers about their eternal souls that will burn in hell
if they do not come to the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
We should be on our knees praying for all those people fervently,
knowing that they will be eternally separated from God the Father as
well as separated from us.
Friends, the torment, pain, suffering will be unimaginable and yet
this is what we are allowing those we know be condemed to; all because
we don’t want to offend or call people sinners.
Christ Himself painted a small picture for us to give us just a glimpse into hell…

Do you want your friends, family, co-workers, heck even your worst enemy to face this and worse for all of eternity?
This is what they will face if we are not out sharing the gospel in some way.
The Doctrine of Immanency is what lights that fire under us. It
instills in us the reason to live a holy and acceptable life unto Him
knowing that He can return at a moment’s notice and without warning.
But what is more troubling is the selling of false hope to the point where it is becoming common place.
Look at the statement that the author made.

I remember years ago one would never breach this topic and throw out
some speculative date. Yet it is becoming more and more common place
today.
It seems that we have run from crystal ball to crystal ball. We forget that truly only the Father in Heaven knows.
What right do we have to toss out some date just because it is the
feast of trumpets? To be honest it happens every year and every year
Rosh Hashanah comes and goes.
It was funny while I was at a conference a well known bible prophecy
teacher came down on this and in jest said that if he was God he would
return the day after Rosh Hashanah.
He then asked how many Christians would be ready for that?
He stated “not many” and I agree with him.
Because we no longer respect or revere the Doctrine of Immanency, and
because we no longer have respect for the Doctrine of Immanency we now
make the rapture some elitist escape ideal instead of something to
spur us on in charging the gates of hell, being the salt and light of
the world.
To attest to this fact just look around you, apostasy runs rampant,
more missionaries coming home than going out, hedonism, perversion and
the list goes on.
Why?
Because we have not occupied till He returns.
I do not see the times of the Gentiles being fulfilled. In other
words we have not fulfilled what we need to do as the church, that being
to share the gospel.
Do you realize that millions upon millions of people do not have the knowledge of the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ?
The Joshua Project shows that 6,889 individual people groups or 2.83
billion unreached people who have no knowledge of God, the Bible or His
Son Jesus Christ. (1)
To put that in perspective the world’s population is currently
estimated to be 6.97 billion by the United States Census Bureau as of
July 1, 2011.
That means that 2.83 billion people or approximately 1/3 of the world
who has no knowledge of the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me remind you what Christ commanded…

Now when Christ said “nations” this is not referring to countries with boarders. He is speaking of people groups.
Do you know that 2,848 people groups in the world have neither
Scripture portions (God’s written word) or audio recordings (God’s
spoken word) available in their primary language?(1)
Scripture says…

6889 people groups (nations) have no idea who Jesus Christ is.
How can they when they don’t even have God’s word in their own language?
They are not going to learn of God’s blood atonement through the
stars, the trees or some other all inclusive mumbo jumbo that is
floating around out there either.
It is only by God’s Word and His Word alone that illuminates the path
of salvation. That is a fact because  God’s Word states it as so.
So what does this boil down to? It means that not “all the world” has
been evangelized for Christ and that we have not gone to “all
nations.”
Hal
Lindsey stated at the Understanding the Times conference back in 2005 
that “when the last gentile hears the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,
well strap on your rocket packs because we are going home.”
Well, to be honest, we have not fulfilled the time of the gentiles
with approximately 1/3 of the earth having absolutely no knowledge of
God, His Word or His Son.
Folks, God does not lie nor does he change His mind. He has given us
the criteria that is needed. What has happened is that we have twisted
and contorted His Word to fit our ideas of the way it should be. In
other words, we have fallen  short.
We no longer occupy till He returns (Luke 19:13) nor are we ALWAYS ready to share the hope that is within us (1 Peter 3:15).
We are just sitting on our laurels waiting for the rapture to come along and sweep us away.
Folks, I know that this is rocking a lot of people’s boats and I will
probably lose readers over this, but we must look at God’s Word and
stop cherry picking what we want to believe in.
Hard times are coming, that is a fact.
Now we can sit around singing Kumbayah like the grasshopper did with
the ants. OR we can start getting ready to weather these hard times so
that we are better positioned to share the hope/Gospel that is within
us.
Out of hard times the one thing that people are open to is hope, but
how can we share the hope if we ourselves are standing in some soup
kitchen line or begging on some street corner?
We have got to get away from this escapist idea and face up to the
fact that we have made our beds and now we have the consequences to
face.
We can wish and believe all we want, but God does not lie. He is not
going to rapture out a church that has not finished its job.
Let me remind you also that He is not going to rapture us out just
because the US is facing a time of hardship either. This is an elitist
idea that some ministries are also gravitating to as well.
It is not our place to be throwing out dates, giving out false hopes, outlandish speculations or sugar coating the truth.
We are here to boldly proclaim the gospel and to let the world know
that there are consequences in not accepting Christ as your personal
savior. Those consequences are eternal damnation to Hell by a Just and
Righteous God.
But the sad thing is that so many ministries out there are promoting
this “happy happy joy joy” escapist attitude and so many more are
buying into it.
Out of this, who will be the first to be blamed?
It sure won’t be those ministries selling the candy coated ideas.
People will blame God because He was suppose to whisk them all away
but He didn’t and now they (the people who listened to the candy coated
ministers) are feeling hardship in their lives.
I pray that people wake up while there is still time to do as Noah did and build an ark for their families.
The storm is coming, but like Noah and his family, we will have to weather the storm.
Now just to make it clear, In this I am not saying that we are in the
tribulation. That is a whole different topic for an article at another
time and besides we are all still here.
History repeats itself. Empires rise and empires fall, hard times
come and go, there is a season for all things. Solomon clearly
illustrated that.
So knowing that a season of hard times are coming. And knowing this
you still have not built an ark for you and your family, let me ask,
“how long can you tread water?”
But more importantly how effective for the Lord will you be when hardship takes place?

By Ray Gano

Endnotes
1 – http://www.joshuaproject.net/great-commission-statistics.php