Difficult Times Will Come in the Last Days

By Matthew Rice  /  Rapture Ready

Paul enumerates various end-times perversities in 2 Timothy 3, amongst which are people who are “blasphemers.”

A strange item in the news caught my attention yesterday and, distressingly, this blasphemer’s accusation against our God distantly resonated with me. It must be met with God’s truth.

Here is the blasphemy: God is predatory in the virgin conception of our Savior. Mary was taken advantage of by an all-powerful deity. This college professor’s (and satanist’s) tweets can be found in the following article:

https://thinkamericana.com/2018/12/07/minnesota-state-university-professor-accuses-god-of-being-predatory-mary-didnt-give-consent/

So, why did this resonate with me? All born-again believers in Jesus Christ truly care for the weak, poor and marginalized. This is because we are “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). God has placed this compassion in our hearts. We feel this way because God feels this way!  If God were a sinful man, we might think He indeed took advantage of a poor young woman.

One individual astutely pointed out to this blasphemous teacher of the next generation that Mary indeed did give consent (“may it be done to me according to your word”) in Luke 1:38.

Not to be outdone, the professor’s response was: “The biblical god regularly punished disobedience. The power difference (deity vs mortal) and the potential for violence for saying “no” negates her “yes.” To put someone in this position is an unethical abuse of power at best and grossly predatory at worst” (see the above-referenced article).

Do you hear the subtle serpent hiss in this response? “God is nothing more than a sinful man.  He is a bully and abuser!” Even worse: “God is a sexual predator!” Does this sound somewhat similar to the Genesis 3 accusation that “God is a liar” (“You surely will not die!” verse 4)? And the inference: “God is a powerful bully and wants no challenge to His authority” (“you will be like God” verse 5)!

This is nothing more than a front-on attack of God’s nature and character. A biblical response to this would certainly contain the argument of Creator and creation. The infinitely pure and perfect Creator can certainly do as He wishes with His creation (the Potter has the right to make from the clay whatever He wishes—Romans 9:21).

But Satan, through his emissary here, is attacking the very goodness of our God. Remember Psalm 119:68: “You are good and do good”!  Our God is pure goodness. All His deeds are bathed in goodness! In addition, our God is pure love (1 John 4:16)!  All that He does is done only in love, even if it is difficult for us at the time. Never forget Jesus, the Son of His love, and what He suffered doing only the Father’s will. The Lord disciplines only those whom He loves (Hebrews 12:5-6).

When God chose Mary to be the mother of His soon-to-be incarnated Son, this was done out of pure love and goodness toward Mary. What a privilege! How countless would be the godly women throughout human history who would have loved to have birthed the Lord Jesus Christ!  Can you imagine the joy and privilege of raising the only truly perfect baby/child/adolescent and young man?

Ever since the original lie and the fall of humankind, Satan has been bad-mouthing God’s character through his emissaries (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). A curious (and frankly terrifying) phenomenon occurs when a reprobate truly sets his will against the Lord Jesus Christ: God may further harden and even validate (to the reprobate) his opinion. Think of wicked Pharoah, who hardened his heart against God’s will, followed by God further hardening Pharoah’s heart, ultimately for a good end. To the pure in heart, God is always seen as He truly is: pure, holy, righteous, loving, merciful and gracious.

Here is that same principle spelled out by King David: “With the merciful You show yourself merciful; with the blameless man You show yourself blameless; with the purified You show yourself pure; and with the crooked You make yourself seem tortuous” (Psalm 18:25-26). The Hebrew word for tortuous has been translated as: froward, shrewd, perverse, wayward, etc.)[i].   To the perverted mind, God will always be perverted. This is projection at its most blasphemous level. Fallen, lost humans project their fallenness onto God and onto God’s representatives: His church. They project what they themselves are.

In these last days – and the snatching away of God’s church could happen any day now – this type of reprobate mind, this blasphemy, will be ever more common. What should you do about it? There are many applications:

First, never send your son or daughter to a so-called institution of higher learning that has reprobate minds instructing them.

Second, pray for this man that he might be snatched from the fire (Jude 23). But, by the grace of God, that man could be you. Remember, our beloved brother Paul was at one time a “blasphemer and a persecutor and violent aggressor” against Christ’s church (1 Timothy 1:13).

Third, in whatever way God has gifted you, “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Timothy 4:5). Love your neighbor. Leave gospel tracts at the gas station. Visit the prisoners. Feed the hungry.

Finally, “Straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28)!  Soon now, very soon, we are going to see the Lord!

Maranatha!

Matthew Rice

[i] The Hebrew word here means properly perverse; a man of a perverse and wicked mind. It is derived from a verb – עקשׁ ‛âqash – which means, to turn the wrong way, to wrest, to pervert. It would be applicable to a man who perverts or wrests the words of others from their true meaning; who prevaricates or is deceitful in his own conduct; who is not straightforward in his dealings; who takes advantage of circumstances to impose on others, and to promote his own ends; who is sour, harsh, crabbed, unaccommodating, unyielding, unkind.

https://www.raptureready.com/2018/12/11/difficult-times-will-come-last-days-matthew-rice/

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