 I recently received a question from a precious believer who read a “Prophecy/News Update” article. Because this question was so great, I want to put out my answer for all to read. The question was, “Can our actions change God’s plan in relation to this end time prophecy?” The prophecy referred to was the one in Revelation 6 about the fourth horseman of the apocalypse who will come – and his coming will be attended with horrific plagues that will be partly responsible for 25% of the population being killed (the other three are war, famine, and wild beast attacks).
First let me deal with this question in regard to anyone being able to change God’s sovereign plan. When it comes to God’s ultimate sovereignty, no one can change this. He knows the time frame in which He is going to do things. But, having said that, it might be wise to see just what God says about what he sovereignly is going to do. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1:8-12 (NASB) Two important things are said here about God’s ultimate sovereignty. The first is that God is working toward the, “. . . summing up of all things in Christ.” This means that ultimately we know that God will one day sum up everything in Jesus Christ. This tells us that we too should be seeking to honor, glorify, praise, and exalt Jesus – because one day it will be ALL ABOUT HIM. The second phrase used here is speaks of “God’s purpose” – the end of which is that those who hope in Christ are to be to the praise of God’s glory. This statement has huge implications, because Paul makes it in the context of the work of the gospel in the hearts and minds of men and women on this earth. God’s ultimate work is that the gospel of Jesus Christ should be the means by which men and women are saved, transformed, sanctified from sinners into those who live for the glory of God. Seeing this happen brings glory to God for His grace and mercy given through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thus ultimately – God sovereignly is working through the gospel – He is doing so to manifest His own grace – which should cause men to praise God for the glory of His grace. What does this mean for us? It means – if you believe in the sovereignty of God (which matters little – because He is sovereign if you believe He is or not), you should manifest it by both living it out in your life – and by proclaiming it to others. Ultimately – all the universe will be focused on God’s glory seen through His grace – and that grace is ONLY available through Jesus Christ, His crucifixion and resurrection. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Ephesians 3:8-12 (NASB) This passage actually speaks of God’s “eternal purpose” within it. That purpose was carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord. What is this purpose? It is known as those called by God make known the unfathomable riches of Christ. Once again, the eternal purpose of God is to have the gospel of Jesus Christ preached – this time so that even the “rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” can have the gospel made known to them. These are the angels – both the holy and the unholy ones – and even they need to hear about Jesus Christ and His gospel. Let me wrap this up for you in a few sentences. God’s ultimate purpose, as revealed in His Word, is that the all people praise God for the glory of His grace in the gospel. We are to be to the praise of the glory of that gospel grace. Look at the songs at the end of the age in Revelation – they praise God for His marvelous salvation. Believe me when I say that eternity is going to be an everlasting praise and worship service for God. It will be a time when we will sing, and sing, and sing, and shout . . . and then sing some more about God’s astounding grace in Jesus Christ! Now, back to the question that was asked. Can we change God’s plan and purpose in what happens in Revelation? The answer to that I believe is no, we cannot change it. What happens in Revelation is biblical prophecy and cannot be altered. But remember, at least in how we teach God’s Word here, that involves a 7-year Great Tribulation period. I teach that this happens after the church is snatched away in an event called, “the rapture.” Over and over again this time period is mentioned in Revelation. The things that happen in it, I believe, cannot be reversed. But also remember that we, the church, are still here and have not been raptured yet. That means that we are not currently in the Great Tribulation. We may have regular tribulation because we love Jesus, preach the gospel, and endeavor to live holy lives according to God’s Word. But the tribulation mentioned in Revelation 6 and later, that is reserved until after the rapture of the church. Let me try to give you a conclusion on all this. Can we change the events in the Great Tribulation described for us in the book of Revelation? No, we cannot do that. But, since we are not in the Great Tribulation yet, those events are not happening. We may see the gathering storm on the horizon, which may indicate that we are not far from these events beginning, but we are not “IN” the Great Tribulation. (Note: When I write in the Prophecy/News section of our webpage, I write about things which may be leading up to this time period – but I never intend to say that we are currently “IN” the Great Tribulation) Since we are NOT in the Great Tribulation, do everything you can to help others – especially in regard to the Ebola virus outbreak (or any other situation for that matter). Regarding God’s eternal purposes that cannot be revoked - I also have a comment for us. If you will note, God’s eternal purpose is that His great salvation through Jesus Christ be seen in His redeemed, so that we would be a cause of others (and even we ourselves, since we should praise Him for the grace He gave us in salvation) giving glory to Him for His grace in Jesus. How can we do this? We do it two ways. First we do it by working out our salvation in fear and trembling – living godly, holy lives as we wait for His coming – or our own going to Him when we die and leave this world. Second, we do it by proclaiming the gospel to the world around us – seeking to see them repent and believe in Jesus Christ for their salvation. Now – you want to know what is truly awesome! We can do these two things ANY TIME IN HISTORY without worrying about something in God’s sovereignty hindering us. He desires for these things to happen – and the only thing that could hinder them from coming to pass in our individual lives – disobedience. The ONLY thing keeping us from fulfilling that eternal purpose is us making a choice to live for something else – us making a choice to NOT proclaim the gospel boldly and lovingly to the lost – us choosing to live for this present world that is passing away rather than living for the world that is to come, and that is coming even now. As I said to the person who asked this question . . . there is never a time when loving the Lord, loving your brothers and sisters in Christ, reading and studying His Word, praying and seeking God’s face, living as a servant to others in Jesus’ name, and witnessing with a loving, bold heart is not going to benefit us. Regardless of what any prophecy says – these things will bring blessing into our lives – and believe it or not – very often into the lives of those around us! Live for Jesus daily! Love God with all your heart daily! Give your life away as you love others for God’s glory and the gospel daily! These things are NEVER-MISS in the sight of God in any generation!
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 Ebola: The Pestilence of the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse?
In the book of Revelation we read in the 6th chapter about the fourth “seal judgment.” When that seal is broken and the judgment is released, what is known as the fourth horseman of the apocalypse is released upon the earth. He rides an ashen horse and has the terrifying name, “Death.” We read in this passage that following this rider is the place of the dead, also known as Hades. Authority was given to him over one-fourth of the entire population of the earth. His ride on the earth would result with four types of killing. There would be warfare represented by the sword. There would also be death because of famine and due to the wild beasts of the earth attacking humans in an unprecedented way. The fourth means by which Death would kill twenty-five percent of the earth would be through pestilence. That fourth means is what I want to address in this article. Before I continue you may want to read Revelation 6:7-8 below. “When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, "Come." I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.” (Revelation 6:7-8) The word “pestilence” is the Greek word “thanatos” which is the word “death.” So we have Death killing with death. The reason this is translated as pestilence is because this same word is used in the Greek Old Testament translation (called the Septuagint) in Exodus, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel where it is clear in the Hebrew that a plague or pestilence is meant. This is also why the term “the black death” was used often in the 14th and 15th centuries to name horrific plagues of sickness that came upon China and Europe. Therefore what we have before us in Revelation 6 is an apocalyptic outbreak of pestilence or plague that aids in killing 25% of the population. To give you a sense of what God is saying here we can look at current population totals on earth today – which roughly can be estimated at around 7 billion people. That would mean that 2,250,000,000 people would die during this time. Locally, the population of Jonesboro, Arkansas, which is currently around 76,000, would see one in four dies, which are 24,000 people dead. What could do this kind of thing? One of the four listed here is pestilence – and – we are watching what pestilence can do right now in West Africa. This is especially true in Liberia, where that country has seen the largest outbreak of Ebola in history – last count by the CDC is 2710 cases. Of these cases already 1459 have died. A regional outbreak in five West African counties now totals 5,350 cases with a death rate of around 50%. This sounds terrible enough, but recently the WHO (World Health Organization) ran numbers on what a normal outbreak looks like. The results were that if we do not get very serious about this current outbreak, it is nothing to see somewhere in the neighborhood of 300,000 plus cases of Ebola in West Africa alone. When the virus reaches this kind of proliferation – and begins to show up in increasing numbers in nations like Nigeria – some very bad things begin to happen. Let me expound on that thought – actually, not a thought, but rather a reality. Most of the nations currently affected in West Africa are small enough that it is easier to monitor whether the risk of the virus getting out of that country into the larger world population. Nigeria, on the other hand, is a nation that has airline service on a much wider scale. It also has people travelling to and from it in vastly larger numbers because of general trade traffic – with oil trade traffic requiring much larger numbers to travel in and out of the country. Two ports of call that could be quickly affected with disastrous results are the airports in Nairobi, Kenya, and in Entebbe, Uganda. Both of these airports have numerous regular flights into Europe. If the virus is carried into either of these airports – and from there into European airports – it will be loosed in ways that will dwarf what is happening in West Africa. We would be talking about millions instead of hundreds of thousands. This is why President Obama recently made a speech in which he used strong military rhetoric concerning our fight against the Ebola virus. If such a spread of this virus is to be contained – and hopefully driven back by modern medicine – it will take strong efforts to establish better public health systems in many African countries. The one thing, though, that is not being taken seriously – is how this works into God’s purpose and plan. Here is where some reading this article will probably take great offense at what I am about to say. Biblically – when outbreaks like this happen – God was addressing sin among His people. In the book of Numbers several plagues were loosed among God’s people Israel because of their sin and rebellion against Him. When God allows things like this to happen, we ought to be willing to step back and consider where we are spiritually. There should be a willingness to examine ourselves and turn back to God with all our hearts. Many of these plagues were stayed when God’s people humbled themselves and dealt in one way or another with the outbreak of sin that preceded the outbreak of plague. In light of this shouldn’t we, as God’s people, take time to examine our hearts – ask the Lord to reveal to us where we may have departed from Him – and return to Him? Many might say that we don’t have time for this – we need to address these situations medically. But even the CDC and the WHO have said that it will be very easy for this outbreak to overwhelm and drown our health systems if it continues to grow like it has. Just to give you an idea of how fast that growth can be – realize that a few cases broke out a couple of years ago and were for the most part controlled. But we have a situation were a few cases broke out a couple of months ago – followed by cases in the 10’s a few weeks later. After a month and a half these few cases grew into hundreds. After 2-3 months they were in the thousands. Now we have facts that say that these measly hundreds have grown into over 4000 cases – with a near-term potential of hundreds of thousands by Christmas this year. What should be our response as believers to this virus? I want to answer that in a couple different ways. On a health level, we need to practice good personal hygiene as well as wise health habits. We also need to support our president and our nation’s efforts to combat this through the CDC and other agencies that battle world health concerns like this. But there are also spiritual things we need to keep in mind. We need to pray for the nations of West Africa. We need to pray for the church in these areas – praying that God would protect them as well as use them in a time of tremendous need. We need to continue to send and support missionaries and relief teams like the one that was infected from Samaritan’s Purse. One of the most powerful testimonies the church of Jesus Christ can offer is that of people who will respond to this outbreak with mercy and compassion. Throughout history the church has responded this way in plague after plague. At the risk of their own lives many in the church have reacted to crises like this by taking their medical skills, much needed medicines, and most importantly the love of God (as well as the gospel into these places.) Throughout history the churches’ finest hours have often been in times like these. It is where the true selfless nature of the church should be seen. Let us pray that God would make the Ebola virus outbreak of 2014-15 one of those times. Pray for Samaritan’s Purse and other gospel-oriented aid ministries and their people as they take on such dangerous assignments for the glory of God and the advance of the gospel. Finally, let us pray and turn to God as never before. You have no idea how easy it is for a virus to enter a country and wreak havoc on its population. It is honestly pure arrogance to think that we can stop all disease through our medical efforts alone. It is also arrogance to think that our nation can sin and turn from God like it has been without some kind of action on God’s part to bring humility to such a spiritually arrogant people. May we be among those grateful for modern medicine, yet wary of elevating it to god-like, or maybe more appropriately said – God-replacing, status in our lives. May we instead be those grateful for it, but painfully aware that medicine may be able to solve the crisis in public health, but it can do little to solve the crisis of sin and rebellion against God in the human heart. May we be wise enough to realize that the providence of God has allowed this so that we might turn to Him for help in our time of need. |
 What is the Prophecy/News Update?At Calvary Chapel of Jonesboro, we believe that history is moving toward fulfilling God's plans and purposes. In an effort to help us be prepared for His appearing - and also to chronicle news items you just won't see in the national media - this page is devoted to sharing those items and their possible significance to 
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