A friend recently shared an article from Christianity Today on Facebook. The article is about a new Hulu series – The Handmaid’s Tale – based on the novel of the same name in which America has become a fundamentalist theocracy where women are totally subjugated for the sole purpose of procreation. I won’t rehash what the Christianity Today article has to say about the new series in this BriRant.
But in her post, my friend asked a very good question – “Are we really moving toward this sort of subjugation in our own society?”
The short answer – Yes we are!
But it’s not fundamentalist Christianity which is in the process of subjugating the nation and world, but satan’s counterfeit – Islam. It’s happening around the world, and right here in the good ol’ USA even as I type. What’s unbelievable is that nearly all American’s fail to recognize this happening right in front of their noses. Even in that, though, there’s good news. In His Word, God had foretold this…
2 Thessalonians 2:7-12 [NKJV]
7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
This passage calls God’s Holy Spirit “He who now restrains.” It is God’s Spirit alone which has thus far prevented society from literally going to Hell. God is waiting patiently even in the midst of the rampant evil we see throughout the world until all who will choose to call upon the Name of Jesus for salvation have done so. But the current situation will not continue for long. God’s Word – The Bible – speaks over and over again about a coming day of judgment He calls “The Day of the Lord.” On that day, Jesus will descend from Heaven with a shout, the voice of the Archangel, and the sound of God’s trumpet to gather His faithful believers to Him, overthrow the evil worldly regime of satan under which we currently live, and (re)establish God’s reign over the Earth as it is now in Heaven…
2 Peter 2:8-10
8But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
10But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
On that Day, God will judge all mankind for our sin. Those whom He condemns in their sin, will be cast into a lake of fire where they will suffer eternal torment. Those He acquits will enter into the joy of eternal life in the presence of God. God’s judgment will not be based on our own works, whether good or evil, but solely on Jesus’ sacrificial death for our sins on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead by the power of God’s Spirit. There is only one criterion upon which God will base His judgment of each individual person – whether that person’s name is written in the Lamb’s (Jesus’) book of life…
Revelation 20:11-15
11Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
The natural question, then is, “What must one do in order to have one’s name written in the Lamb’s book of life?” Jesus Himself makes it clear…
John 14:5-6
5Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
The Bible says that all of us have sinned – yes all of us. We must first believe that Jesus died in our place for the forgiveness of our sins and that God raised Him from the dead by the power of His Spirit. Believing this truth, we then confess our sins to Him with our mouths and repent (turn away) from them, asking Jesus to fill us with His Spirit and direct our lives from now on. Yes. It’s that simple, and Jesus also promises that those who have trusted thus in Him will never die, and will forever be His no matter how evil satan’s Islamic regime becomes, until Jesus calls us to Him, or returns for us on the Day of the Lord…
John 10:27-30
27My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. 30I and My Father are one.”