Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was a young German Lutheran pastor, theologian and one of the founding members of the Confessing Church. He also wrote one of the best-known books, The cost of Discipleship and he joined a group of conspirators whose attempted assassination of Hitler failed which led to his arrest and subsequent death in April 1945. Bonhoffer said the way Christians defeat their enemies is by loving and praying for them.

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:43-45 NKJV)

The Lord Jesus Christ, commands us that we are to pray for those that despitefully use and persecute us. Jesus doesn’t promise that when we our enemies and do good to them they will not persecute us. They will of course persecute us. But if we pray for them we are taking their distress and poverty, their guilt and perdition upon ourselves, and pleading to God for them, and in the process we are doing for them what they cannot do for themselves.

The following excerpt is taken from his book The Cost of Discipleship, where Bonhoeffer quotes A.F.C. Vilma, another German theologian. Vilma has a prophetic word for us in relation to loving our enemies in times of persecution that will increase and therefore we to need to pray corporately for the persecutors:

This commandment that we should love our enemies and forgo revenge will grow even more urgent in the holy struggle which lies before us and in which we partly have already been engaged for years. In it love and hate engage in mortal combat. It is the urgent duty of every Christian soul to prepare itself for it. The time is coming when the confession of the Living God will incur not only the hatred and the fury of the world, for on the whole it has come to that already, but complete ostracism from human society as we call it. The Christians will be hounded from place to place, subjected to physical assault, maltreatment and death of every kind. We are approaching an age of widespread persecution.

There lies the true significance of all the movements and conflicts of our age. Our adversaries seek to root out the Christian Church and the Christian faith because they cannot live side by side with us, because they see in every word we utter and every deed we do, even when they are not specifically directed against them, a condemnation of their own words and deeds. They are not far wrong. They suspect too that we are indifferent to their condemnation. Indeed they must admit that it is utterly futile to condemn us. We do not reciprocate their hatred and contention, although they would like it better if we did, and so sink to their own level.

And how is the battle to be fought? Soon the time will come when we shall pray, not as isolated individuals, but as a corporate body, a congregation, a church: we shall pray in multitudes (albeit in relatively small multitudes) and among the thousands and thousands of apostates we shall loudly praise and confess the Lord Who was crucified and is risen and shall come again.

And what prayer, what confession, what hymn of praise will it be? It will be a prayer of earnest love for these very sons of perdition who stand around and gaze at us with eyes aflame with hatred, and who perhaps already have raised their hands to kill us. It will be a prayer for the peace of these erring, devastated and bewildered souls, a prayer for the same love and peace which we ourselves enjoy, a prayer which will penetrate to the depths of their souls and rend their hearts more grievously than anything they can do to us.

Yes the church which is really waiting for its Lord, and which discerns the signs of the times of decision, must fling itself with its utmost power and with the panoply of its holy life into this prayer of love.

Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. (Revelation 4:11) It was Augustine who said O God! You have created us for Yourself and our hearts are restless unless they find rest in You.”

True success in life and business is defined as having an eternal relationship with God and loving others as you love yourself. The reason why we have become a very selfish and self-centered society is that we’ve been taught that success is primarily concerned with achieving your own dreams, making big profits in business and increasing your production. All these are noble goals but they cannot bring true fulfillment and happiness. That is why Solomon said:

Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 2:11 NKJV)

Most of us have struggled with a decision about a vocational choice. We intuitively felt that we wanted our life to count for something. Most of the advice we’ve got was based on economics, where we could make a good living. But we felt that life must ultimately have more value than anticipating a pay check. There must come a time in each person life, when they sicken of their seemingly purposeless existence, and they hear a voice within say: ‘‘there has to be more to life than this.’’

There is a story of a prominent businessman who was speaking at a conference near Oxford University and said with a single tear rolling down his well-tanned cheek that:

As you know, I have been very fortunate in my career and I’ve made a lot of money-far more than I ever dreamed of, far more than I could ever spend, far more than my family needs. To be honest, one of my motives for making so much money was simple-to have the money to hire people to do what I don’t like doing. But there’s one thing I’ve never been able to hire anyone to do for me: find my own sense of purpose and fulfillment. I’d give anything to discover that!

Another actress had this to say concerning the emptiness in life without a relationship with Jesus Christ:

I thought it was very peculiar that I had acquired everything I had wanted as a child-wealth, fame and accomplishment in my career, I had beautiful children and a lifestyle that seemed terrific, and yet I was totally and miserably unhappy. I found it very frightening that one could acquire all these things and still be so miserable.

True fulfillment and happiness comes only when we are in the right relationship with God and with other people in our lives. I need to emphasize that if you are a Christian you need to find out what God has in mind for you especially His purpose for you as you move towards the accomplishment of your dreams. Don’t copy the custom of this world.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 16:25) O Lord pleads Jeremiah in the name of the people, I know that the determination of the way of a man is not in himself; it is not in man even in a strong man or in a man at his best to direct his own steps. (Jeremiah 10:23 AMP) Jesus also said: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it.”(Matthew 7:13)

Knowing God Intimately

The ultimate purpose of life is to know the one true God. It means to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand Him and out of this knowledge there comes eternal life, divine life, which is the life of God Himself in the life of a believer. And this is eternal life that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (John 17:3 AMP) It is knowing God intimately as a Person not as a theological concept.

This is a person-to-person relationship and it is a spiritual union. Our souls yearn for this relationship. Every pleasure we experience and every meaningful relationship we make in this world is just a small taste of the ultimate relationship of our soul with our Creator.

David described this longing of fellowship of God when he said: O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1) It was C.S. Lewis who wrote that:

What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that that they could ‘be like gods’- could set up on their own as if they had created themselves-be their own masters-invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history-money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery-the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

God made us: invented us a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about a relationship with Him. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

A royal palace is too small for a man who lives for himself, but a little hut is great and splendid for one who is living for God. David said: I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. (Psalms 84:10)

All human accomplishments will one day disappear; we must keep this in mind in order to live wisely. Earthly possessions and accomplishments are ultimately meaningless. Only the pursuit of the Lord Himself brings real satisfaction and fulfillment. True wisdom is found in the Lord and true happiness come from pleasing Him and serving others. (See Proverbs 8:17-36)

At some point every one of us confronts the question: Who am I? Other questions may be even deeper than this one- for example: What is the meaning of life itself? How do I find and fulfill the central purpose of my life? Why am I here? Where am I going? As human beings we are all on a search for significance.

We desire to make a difference. We long to live a legacy. All other standards of success-wealth, power, position, knowledge, friendships, titles-grow tiny and hollow if we do not satisfy this deeper longing.

The Russian novelist, Tolstoy, put it this way: What is life for? To die? To kill myself at once? No, I am afraid. To wait for death till it comes? I fear that even more. Then I must live. But what for? In order to die? And I could not escape from that circle.’’The Bible is the only book which answers all these questions which tells us our:

1.  Origin:      Where we came from?
2.  Identity:     Who are we?
3.  Meaning:   Why are we here?
4.  Morality:    How should we live?
5.  Destiny:     Where are we going?

We are individuals created in the image and likeness of God. (Genesis 1:27; Psalms139:14) Since we are made in the image and likeness of God, we are creatures of supreme worth. We are loved by God and endowed with certain God-given rights and responsibilities. We were all put on earth to give glory to God.  (John 3:16-18; 1:12; Galatians 4:5)

Since Adam and Eve sinned, each of us remains in that fallen state so that the choices we make have implications in eternity. The choice we make is to accept the ransom that Jesus paid in order to free us from eternal separation from the Father and welcome us into His eternal presence.

We then serve Jesus Christ as ambassadors for Him to help others make that informed choice. (Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21) Since God loved us, we should love Him and others. The Bible tells us God set eternity in the heart of man.  He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end (Ecclesiastes 3:11 AMP) and the “whole duty of man” is to fear God and keep His commandments” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)

Lastly like it or not we will all die. If we believe in Jesus Christ we know where we are going. We will be with Him forever. God’s infinite justice demands that He punish our sins, but because of His infinite love, He has taken our punishment on Himself by dying on the cross. (Isaiah 53:4, 10, 12; Romans 3:26) This was the only way he could justify us sinners (John 14:6) His gift of salvation from eternal punishment is free to all people of the world. (John 3:16)

This gift cannot be earned through good works or any kind of merit, and God cannot force us to love and serve Him, each one of us must choose for ourselves whom we will serve. (Joshua 24:15; John 3:18) All the answers to all these questions depend on the existence of God.  For everything comes from Him and exists by His power and is intended for His glory.

If God exists, then there is ultimate meaning and purpose to our lives. And if there is a real purpose to your life, then there must be a real right and wrong way to live this life. Choices we make have consequences because they not only affect you here, but will affect you in eternity. On the other hand if at all there is no God then our lives ultimately mean nothing.

Since there is no enduring purpose to life, there is no right or wrong way to live our lives. And it doesn’t matter how you live or what you believe—your destiny is dust. If you want to ignore the overwhelming evidence all around you, as someone said “you are free to do so, you can reject Christ, but you cannot honestly say there’s not enough evidence to believe in Him. (See Romans 1:19-22)

The most important event in the history of mankind is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The most important fact in the life of mankind is the reality of God and His divine revelation to us through His Holy Word.

The most important decision in the life of any human is the choice they must make in regard to their personal faith in Jesus Christ. Our lives have eternal value because an infinite and personal God explains where we came from, why we are here, and where we would go after death.

Never believe that lie from Satan that your life is meaningless or that your circumstances won’t change. God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for you and me. That is how much He loves you.

However, in order for Him to save you, you have to make a conscious, intelligent, personal decision to repent, believe and call upon His name. He loves you with an everlasting love “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.” (John 3:16)

You are God’s treasure, joy and His prize and He died on the cross that you and I might live. He has known you since the foundations of the earth were established and He has plans for your life: “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

Although society might want to dehumanize you, you should not fear. But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. (1 John 4:4) The Lord also says:

But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! “Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God.  But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Luke 12:5-7 NKJV)

What ever Happened in Your Past–You are Not an Accident!

You are not a result of sex or of your parents but of sovereignty, predestination and purpose.  Before you were a seed in your father’s loins, you were a seed in heart of God. Before you were formed in your mother’s womb; you were formed in the mind of God. The sex that brought you into the world may have been illegitimate, but you are not.

You shouldn’t ever say that you are an accident. Don’t ever feel inferior because of the way you entered this world. Your arrival on planet earth was not an accident; it was planned by God. Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations. (Jeremiah 1:5)  David wrote:

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” (Psalms 139:13-16)

Consider the wonder of how God created you and me in this compelling scientific evidence given by Dr. Grant Jeffrey in his book Creation: Remarkable Evidence of God’s Design

When humans engage in sexual intercourse, over 200 million microscopic sperms are released from the male to begin a critical journey lasting between four and six minutes until the potential winners in the race for human life arrive at their goal—the woman’s egg, the ova. Out of the thousand or so potential winners of the race, the Creator has designed us so that only one single sperm will be permitted to penetrate the ova to produce a new baby.

The sperms are produced at a rate of approximately sixteen every second, and are produced and stored outside the male torso due to the need to keep the sperm production operating at 96 degrees Fahrenheit, two degrees cooler than the normal body temperature of 98.6. The testicles respond to variations in body and atmospheric temperature by being drawn closer to the torso when it is cool and descending away from the torso when it too hot to maintain the correct temperature.

Once the one successful sperm penetrates the ova, the DNA in the sperm combines instantly with the DNA of the ova. The combined sperm and ova form the zygote, the first new cell of the future baby, which represents the total genetic combination of man and woman or husband and wife is the miracle of a new human life.

This remarkable new cell begins instantaneously to divide and grow until a new human being with trillions of cells is born nine months later. The zygote cell will descend through the fallopian tube until it reaches the womb. The zygote cell attaches itself to the wall of the mother’s uterus and begins its nine-month growth cycle, living within a marvelous protective fluid known as the amnion liquid, which forms within a special sac in the womb that protects the growing baby from blows or accidents.

That is why you are so special. You are important; you are a unique individual with a unique destiny to discover. You are not an accident, you are not the result of sex or of people-they were just the means to get you here. Your real sense comes from knowing that God knew you before  you entered your mother’s womb, and your days were written for you; waiting for you to live them.

You were born for a purpose and a predestined plan from God, and no matter how old you are, God is able to take the good and the bad and work it into something beautiful. Romans 8:28 says “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

The Bible also says that “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9 NKJV) It cost Jesus everything He had to buy you and me back to Himself. He did not give up His eternal power when He became human, but He set aside His glory and His rights and by so doing He made us rich because we received eternal life.

Perhaps you have never seen yourself as important. You have low-self esteem and a poor self-image. You may have had a life of pain and disappointment: a deprived and unhappy childhood, a marriage that ended in divorce, or a career that ended prematurely and never materialized, a sexual or emotional abuse, or years wasted in immorality, drugs, and alcohol.

The past and future both portray the same message from the enemy: you are a failure! You are a not a failure to Jesus Christ. Why? Because He loved you so much that He gave up everything to redeem you for Himself. Confess these words from the Apostle Paul: “Jesus loved me and gave Himself for me.”(Galatians 2:20).” You are so precious and beautiful! You cost Jesus all that He had and even if you were the only one on this planet He would have died for you, and you are His forever, nothing or no one will ever pluck you out of His hands!

Jesus Christ will reveal Himself to you because He longs to commune with you. He knows your hurts and disappointments and He longs for you to come and sit at His feet and dine with Him. If you long for this kind of intimacy with God as your Father, He is more desirous of that intimate relationship with you than you are.

Once you experience His presence, nothing on this earth will ever satisfy you. I am writing this through personal experience, you can’t even find the right words in English that can describe the splendor that awaits you in the Most Holy place. Every one of us who wants a deeper communion with the Lord will have one. But the question is: Are you willing to wait for Him to commune with you?

He is waiting to fellowship with you if you are hungry and thirsty enough. The Lord promises that He who believes in Me (who cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me) as the Scripture has said, from his innermost being shall flow continuously springs and rivers of living water. (John 7:38 AMP)  If at all you have don’t know the Lord as a real Father. No human being in your life will ever be a real father to you. But first you must know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, so that you can receive the gift of eternal life. The Bible says:

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:11-13 NKJV)

After that I would advise you to start with a simple act of quietly waiting in His presence. After prayerfully reading and meditating on His Word, the Lord will make His presence known and He will reveal Himself to you the way He sees fit. There is no formula for His presence. “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)

Source of Graphic: Purpose Driven Life

The Bible is the Word of God, and Christ is the Word of God. The Bible perfectly reveals Christ; Christ perfectly fulfills the Bible. The Bible is the written Word of God; Christ is the personal Word of God. Before His incarnation Christ was the eternal Word with the Father. In His incarnation Christ is the Word made flesh. The same Holy Spirit that reveals God through His written Word also reveals God in the Word made flesh, Jesus of Nazareth. All the sermons in Acts were about a Man Jesus Christ.

Christ is the Word of God

The Apostles preached Jesus Christ. They preached His death, burial, and resurrection and especially emphasized His resurrection as proof that He was God in the flesh. Throughout its pages the Bible declares itself to be the “Word of God.” On the other hand, in a number of passages the same title –“the Word” or “the Word of God”—is given to Jesus Christ Himself For example:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was God (John 1:1) And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacle (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us; and we [actually] saw His glory ( His honor, His majesty), such glory as an only begotten son receives from his father, full of grace (favor, loving-kindness) and truth.” (John 1:14 AMP)

He (Christ) is dressed in a robe dyed by dipping in blood, and the title by which He is called is The Word of God. (Revelation 9:13)

Jesus’ life is a testimony to His belief in the divine authority of the Scriptures. At the age of 12 He confounded the spiritual leaders of Israel with His knowledge of God’s Word (Luke 2:41-51)

Jesus said “You search and investigate and pore over the Scriptures diligently, because you suppose and trust that you have eternal life through them. And these [very Scriptures] testify about Me!” (John 5:39 AMP) Most importantly, Jesus affirmed the Scriptures as the inspired Word of God. On one occasion as Jesus was teaching, a certain woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him:

Blessed (happy and to be envied) is the womb that bore You and the breasts that You sucked! But He said, Blessed (happy and to be envied) rather are those who hear the Word and obey and practice it!” (Luke 11:27-28 AMP).

Jesus used Scripture to teach the fundamentals of kingdom living (Matthew 5-7) He used Scripture to confront and confound Satan (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13). He used Scripture to teach His disciples after His resurrection and to open their minds to understand the Scriptures “Then beginning with Moses and [throughout] all the Prophets, He went on explaining and interpreting to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning and referring to Himself. (Luke 24:27, 44-45)

Jesus quoted Moses, the Psalms, and the prophets. The disciples of Jesus evidenced the same respect for the Scriptures. The Gospel of Matthew quotes Old Testament passages repeatedly from beginning to end, attempting to prove to Jewish readers that Jesus fulfilled messianic prophecy.

Paul said: Every Scripture is God breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God’s will in thought, purpose, and action), So that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17 AMP).

In His Sermon on the Mount, delivered early in His ministry, Jesus affirmed that He had come to fulfill the Scriptures. He said that heaven and earth would pass away before one jot would pass away—thereby affirming the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures.

At the end of His ministry, in the last prayer He prayed with His disciples, Jesus referred to the Scriptures as the Word of God and then added, “Thy word is truth.” (John 17: 14-17) At one point Nicodemus confronted the Pharisees with their failure to keep their own laws. The temple guards came back impressed by Jesus, and one of the Pharisees–Nicodemus was defending Him.

When the temple guards returned without having arrested Jesus, the leading priests and Pharisees demanded,”Why didn’t you bring Him in?” “We have never heard anyone speak like this!” the guards responded……Then Nicodemus, who came to Jesus before at night and was one of them, asked, Does our Law convict a man without giving him a hearing and finding out what he has done? They answered him, Are you too from Galilee? Search the Scriptures yourself, and you will see that no prophet comes (will rise to prominence) from Galilee” (John 7: 45-52).

Yet God had fulfilled this through Isaiah when he clearly predicted in Scripture: Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever. In the land of Zebulum and of Naphtali, beside the sea, beyond the Jordan River, in Galilee where so many Gentiles live, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined”(Isaiah 9:1-3 NLT).

Divinely inspired Word of God

 The Bible itself claims to be divinely inspired. More than 3,000 times the biblical writers claim to be speaking the words of God. Over and over, the writers say, “Thus says the Lord,” or “The Lord said.” These are the common phrases in the Bible. The writers also repeatedly refer to the Scriptures as “the Word of God” (1 Sam. 9:27 and Acts 6:2), and they affirm that it is inspired by God (see 2 Timothy 3:16).

Peter writes: Yet first you must understand this, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of any personal or private or special interpretation (loosening, solving). For no prophecy ever originated because some man willed it to do so it never came by human impulse, but men spoke from God who were borne along (moved and impelled) by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 2:20-21). The apostle John asserted that the one who loves the Lord is the one who “keeps His Word” (1 John 2:5)

The Holy Spirit Teaches Word.

The Scriptures are not hard to understand if we rely on the Holy Spirit who is the teacher and revealer of His Word. The Word of God alone is our standard of judgment in spiritual things. This Word can only be explained by the Holy Spirit and that today as well in former times, He is the teacher of His people.

The Scriptures were not written for intellectuals and one doesn’t have to have a PhD to understand what the Holy Spirit is saying through the apostles and prophets. The Scriptures were written for the common person.

The Scriptures were written to convict people of sin and draw them to salvation in Jesus. It is God’s Word alone-as we hear and do it, as we study and apply it—that is able to build up within us a strong, secure edifice of faith, laid upon the foundation of Christ Himself.

Library of many Books

The reason why we use the Bible to interpret the Bible is because it is not one Book.  It is a collection of 66 books written by more than 40 authors over a period of 1,600 years. The Bible is a whole library of many kinds of books. God arranged the Bible so that we could read one book at a time. David Pawson a widely respected Bible teacher tells us:

God gave us His Word in books, but not in chapters and verses. That was the work of two bishops, French and Irish, centuries later. It became easier to find a text and ignore context.

The authors of these 66 books came from every walk of life, kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scholars, tax collectors, farmers, and medical doctors. They wrote in every conceivable place—palaces, dungeons, on islands, in the wilderness, in cities, and in the midst of wars. They wrote in different moods, ranging from heights of ecstasy to the depths of despair and sorrow.

They spoke on hundreds of controversial subjects. They wrote in three different languages. They utilized every conceivable literary style—history, law, poetry, biography, memoirs, letters, sermons, drama, parables, prophecy—you name it! Yet, despite all their diversity, their writings interlock with a harmony and continuity from Genesis to Revelation that can only be explained by pointing to Divine inspiration.

 Conclusion

The Bible is God’s truth about Himself. God uses this Word to draw us into a deep, personal relationship with Him. The Bible tells us how we should relate to Him and it was originally given to Israelites so that they would know the Lord their God from personal experience. The Bible tells us we are all infected with a virus called sin but God provided a Lamb to rescue us from eternal destruction. Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29).

The Bible is the authoritative Word of God, and its message has changed millions of lives throughout history. It has survived despite the numerous efforts of so many to destroy it. The permanence of God’s Word was attested by Isaiah when he wrote, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8).

The existence of numerous specific sites that are referenced in the Gospels have been confirmed by archaeologists. Based on the very methods that literary and historical scholars use today, the only reasonable and logical conclusion that we can draw is that the Bible is the most reliable book of antiquity.

Charles H. Spurgeon, the preacher from London, was invited to come and give a series of 10 lectures in defence of the Bible. He wired back, “I will not come, the Bible needs no defense.” Turn it loose, and like a lion, it will defend itself.” I believe that, and I believe the Word of God needs no defense. We only need to preach it. 

Today the most preaching and personal prophetic words focus mainly on achieving personal success so that we can enjoy comfort and security. God wants you happy and blessed; there is a successful lifestyle waiting for you! There is nothing wrong with that. But if you conduct a study for yourself of the prophecies found in New Testament and the epistles, you will find only a few that prophesy a good life. Most dealt with chains, tribulations, and death that awaited those who would bring glory to God which is quite different from the prophecies of today.

It is been an easy thing to walk in the West as the follower of Jesus. But if persecution breaks out in the Western Church, I don’t think we are prepared or equipped for that day that might come upon us. Many prophets have been warning that where we walk we walk in peace and freedom of speech, there is yet coming a time, when even to speak the name of Jesus will bring such persecution that many of the saints and leaders of the church will count the cost and will not endure.

The question is: have pastors or other church leaders prepared the saints for persecution? The answer is only a small remnant has taught their congregations to suffer hardship for the sake of Christ. Most people have a lot of faith but no endurance or perseverance. They’ve been taught to prosper and build the finest buildings but this will not sustain us in the coming days.  Christians should expect some kind of trouble.

Jesus Christ was honest in telling His followers what to expect. Likewise when Paul and Barnabas had preached the good news (Gospel) to that town and made disciples of many of the people, they went back to Lystra and Iconium and Antioch, establishing and strengthening the souls and the hearts of the disciples, urging and warning and encouraging them to stand firm in the faith, and telling them that it is through many hardships and tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:20-22)

Therefore preachers and evangelists should be honest in promising people who come to follow Jesus that there might suffer some kind of tribulation. But they can cheer up because Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us. We should acknowledge that persecution might happen. For instance, if a pastor has been removed from the pulpit, this can easily stop the functioning of a church. In fact a tactic of the communists when taking over a country has been to identify the pastor and all full-time workers and remove them from the areas.

If one’s pastor is suddenly thrown into jail, his spouse imprisoned for taking a stand against evil, or children removed from the home because God’s Word is taught, it is likely to shake the most grounded person. However, the mental shock will be much less to the individual who has acknowledged that this is likely to happen.

Examples were People were not Prepared

Pastors and religious leaders were oblivious to the Russian revolution that was about to take place. On the eve of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, conferences were being held in two hotels on the Moscow Street. At the consultation sponsored by the Orthodox Church, clergy vestments, garments, and articles were the principle agenda.

In other meeting, Vladimir Lenin and his colleagues were finalizing plans to overthrow the existing regime. Could the churches in Western nations be in a similar situation? You bet! They are going about with their business as usual ignoring the impeding distress that is now settling in.

Richard Wumbrand (1909-2001) was a Romanian Jewish Christian minister. He was severely persecuted, tortured and imprisoned after publicly declaring that Communism and Christianity were incompatible.  He wrote that:

Some regimes come to power without having real power….The initial situation does not last long. During that time they infiltrate the churches, putting in their men in leadership. They find out the weaknesses of pastors….They explain that they would make those weaknesses known. Then, at a certain moment the great persecution begins. In Romania such a clamp-down happened in one day. All the Catholic bishops went to prison, along with innumerable priests, monks, and nuns. Then many Protestant pastors of all denominations were arrested. Many died in prison.

Some Bible teachers believe that the Christians will be able to escape every kind of persecution. The problem is that most people have little knowledge of the persecution that is already going on across the world. In China the Christians were told, “Don’t worry, before the tribulation comes, you will be “raptured.”Then came a terrible persecution and millions of Christians were tortured to death. Corrie Ten Boon heard a Bishop from China saying:

We have failed. We should have made the people strong for persecution rather than telling them Jesus would come first.”Turning to me, he said, “You still have time. Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when persecution comes—to stand and not faint.

Jan Pit in her book Persecution: It Will Never Happen Here says:

During the appalling Vietnam War, church leaders from a certain Christian group held their annual conference. The southern Vietnamese city resembled a fortress. There were soldiers everywhere, barricades, and a terrifying collection of weaponry. Daily attacks were being made on the city by the communist Viet Cong, yet the pastors continued to discuss the various activities which they would embark upon in the ensuing years. They even adopted a ten-year plan. Despite all the evidence, no one there thought it possible for South Vietnam to be overthrown. All were convinced the country would remain open to mission work. The church remained—unprepared.

The Possibility of Underground Churches in the West

 Richard Wumbrand said:

It is not possible to give a course on the church underground, in a short time. I would urge you to put this question before your synod, before your denomination, and to ask absolutely that courses on the underground church be introduced.” …..We have to make the preparations now, before we are imprisoned. In prison you lose everything…..Nobody resists who has not renounced the pleasures of life beforehand.

There are four ways churches or Christian businesses are likely to respond as pressure comes from government or other sources:

1. The church or business closes;

2. They attempt to co-exist with government regulations;

3. They resist and become a protest business or if it is a church;

4. They go underground.

In situations like that the Church faces two alternatives social-political compromise with anti-Christian forces or incur the wrath of a controlled political religious hierarchy if it refuses to compromise. But since most of these two alternatives have already been posed in many parts of the world, there is no reason to believe that it will not happen in the West. What then should we do? We need as Christians top prepare ourselves and be sure that our children have a clear example before them if their turn comes.

The Holy Spirit may lead different people and churches to respond differently. There are examples from Scripture of people who reacted in diverse ways. The House Church movement has been the means of great growth of the Body of Christ in China. When all churches were officially closed as a result of the Cultural Revolution in 1996, people began meeting in homes.

The number has varied through the years with only five or six people in some, hundreds in others, and thousands in a few. Denominational lines are gone so that the only question asked is “Do you belong to Jesus?” Sometimes believers came together at the same time with no prior announcement. They reported, “The Lord Himself told us to come.

When Idi Amin banned Christian sects and denominations in Uganda, people had to decide whether to join official churches or form house fellowships. It is reported In Persecution: It Will Never Happen Here?, that “within days of the ban, thousands of secret house fellowships had sprung up across the land.”

The type of church leadership which is widely accepted in Western society, with one man the centre of all activity, cannot continue in a repressive society. It is easy for the authorities to remove the key man and stop that church’s impact. Believers may have to worship alone, in their homes, or corporately but secretly.

I also agree with Chuck Missler who believes in Koinonia. He believes that real believers will increasingly meet in homes. The day may come that they don’t arrive all at the same time, but drift in singly, so as not to call to attention to themselves. We are locked in a very serious struggle in the West.

The Torches of Nero, by Henryk Siemiradzki. According to Tacitus, Nero targeted Christians as those responsible for the fire. Source

The great fire in London started on 2 September 1666. Historians tell us it began at the bakery of Thomas Farriner and caused a lot of damage. Two hundred thousand people lost their homes which were mostly timber framed structures. The monetary value of loss and damage was estimated at £10,000,000 (over £1 billion in 2005 )

Altogether 90 churches were destroyed, although 52 of them were later rebuilt by architect Christopher Wren, including his masterpiece St. Paul’s Cathedral on Ludgate Hill completed in 1710.  Who were the scapegoats for the fire? The French Catholics were blamed.

On 19 July AD 64 a fire began in the city of Rome which lasted for three days. The fire destroyed the centre of Rome, including temples and houses. According to historian Tacitus, the citizens blamed Nero. They knew he wanted to demolish old buildings and construct new magnificent structures, so they assumed he was behind it.

To diffuse the blame Nero blamed the Christians as responsible for the fire, and so began the persecution of Christians.  Christians were tortured, they were covered with the skins of beasts and made to crawl around the amphitheaters, while they were torn by dogs, lions and other wild beasts. They were nailed to crosses and burnt alive to provide lighting for Nero’s parties.

In the end around AD 476 it was the Roman Empire which collapsed and Christianity flourished. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Christians were persecuted, jailed, or executed for their faith in Jesus Christ sometimes by the state church.It was the Church of England that persecuted the Pilgrims and Puritans.  Many evangelical Christians were beheaded or burned at the stake for heresy by the Church of England or the Crown. But as John Foxe wrote:

And yet, notwithstanding all these continued persecutions and horrible punishments, the church daily increased, deeply rooted on the doctrine of the apostles and of men apostolical, and watered plenteously with the blood of saints.

Tertullian, one of the early church fathers, also said:

All your ingenious cruelties can accomplish nothing; they are only a lure to this sect. Our number increases the more you destroy us. The blood of the Christians is their seed.

However, the greatest persecutions against Christians, was not during the Roman Empire, the Spanish Inquisition or the Middle Ages, but this persecution has been during the twentieth century. Millions of Christians have been persecuted and killed by the followers of Karl Marx, Lenin, Mao, Hitler and other dominated communist and socialist countries. Thousands of churches were closed in Russia and others burned to the ground. This is how Solzhenitsyn described what happened:

Churches were stripped of their valuables… Tens of thousands of churches were torn down or desecrated, leaving behind a disfigured wasteland that bore no resemblance to Russia as such….People were condemned to live in this dark and mute wilderness for decades, groping their way to God…..15,000,000 peasants were brought to death for the purpose of destroying our national way of life and of extirpating religion from the countryside….Hatred of religion is rooted in Communism…..The ruinous revolution has swallowed up sixty million of our people.

Today in Egypt, Nigeria and other African countries, Christians are being massacred but this persecution of Christians might not be manifested in only these countries. It is now emerging in many Western countries, and especially in England and America. There are so many instances where Christians are being marginalized and persecuted in the West.  In fact as Paul McGuire warned us:

There is a coming a wave of persecution against Bible believing Christians in Western nations such as Great Britain, France, Australia, Germany, the United States and other nations….There is sweeping legislation in these Western nations designed to restrict, fine and imprison Christian’s who believe the Bible literally.

In Germany Christian Home Schooling were seized from their homes and sent away secret psychiatric hospitals while their Christian mothers were strip searched by “storm troopers.” German police now escort German home schooling children to public school because the German courts have ruled that Germany cannot tolerate “parallel societies,” which simply means that the German government does not want Christian children taught Christian morality and a belief in God. They want all children of the German State, as Hitler did, to be taught humanism and anything against sexual “morality.

Another report by the Christian Institute: Marginalizing Christians, Instances of Christians being sidelined in modern Britain, examines the growing marginalization of Christians and catalogues many cases of discrimination. For instance, in January 2009, a poll was conducted that showed more than four out of five churchgoers (84 percent) think that religious freedoms of speech and action, are at risk in the UK. A similar proportion (82 percent) feel it is becoming more difficult to live as a Christian in an increasingly secular country. So called “equality and diversity” laws have also made it worse as Christians are considered intolerant.

Three years ago in May 2010, Dale Mcalphine  was handing out gospel tracts to shoppers when he told one of those who was passing by and a gay police community support officer that he believed homosexuality was one of a number of sins that go against the Word of God. He was then arrested and locked up in prison for up to seven hours and charged with using abusive words contrary to the Public Order Act 1986.  Mr. Mcalpine had delivered open-air sermons and handed out tracts in Workington for years without any trouble with the police, but this was one of his worst moments of his life. He said:

I felt deeply shocked and humiliated that I had been arrested in my own town and treated like a common criminal in front of people I know…..My freedom was taken away on the hearsay of someone who disliked what I said, and I was charged under a law that doesn’t apply. I was not homophobic and I have gay friends, but I feel compelled to urge people to abandon all types of sins so they can seek salvation. ‘If you are preaching hate and calling on people to harm others, it is right that is against the law. But I would never do that. If we have a free society, I should be allowed to preach the Gospel as generations have before me.

Christian campaigners were alarmed that the police seemed to be using legislation originally introduced to deal with violent and abusive rioters and football hooligans to curb free speech.”Listen to Peter Hitchens who wrote an article in the Daily Mail–How long until Christians are blackmailed for daring to speak? 

The Public Order Act of 1986 was not meant to permit the arrest of Christian preachers in English towns for quoting from the Bible. But it has. The Civil Partnerships Act 2004 was not meant to force public servants to approve of homosexuality. But it has. The Sexual Offenses Act of 1967 was not meant to lead to a state of affairs where it is increasingly dangerous to say anything critical about homosexuality. But it did.

And the laws of Britain, being entirely based upon the Christian Bible, were not meant to be used by a sneering judge to declare that Christianity had no higher status in this ancient Christian civilization than Islam, Buddhism or Hinduism.

How did it happen that in the course of less than 50 years we moved so rapidly from one wrong to another? We have travelled in almost no time from repression, through a brief moment of mutual tolerance, to a new repression. How long before Christians are being blackmailed by work colleagues, for daring to speak their illegal views openly?

Daily the confidence of the new regime grows….And if Christianity has officially ceased to be the basis of our law and the source of our state’s authority (a view which makes nonsense of the Coronation Service) who, and what – apart from the brute power of the manipulated mob – is to decide in future what is right, and what is not, and what can be said, and what cannot? This process, if not halted, will lead in the end to the Thought Police and the naked rule of power.

Austrian lawyer Gudrun Kugler is the director of the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians.  Her think tank recently released a Report on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe. In that report she writes that:

Christianity has been around what now is Europe since the first century, with some parts of the New Testament written to people in Greece and Rome. But a new report is warning that open hostility to Christianity across the continent is on the rise and intolerance is being paired with legislative power to attack and violate the religious rights of the faithful. She cites page after page of examples of persecution and hostility towards free and open demonstrations of Christians across Europe. Christians are being marginalized and taken to courts over issues related to faith.

She found that European Christians are under attack for their freedom of expression, freedom of conscience parental rights, hate crimes, emblems representing Christianity are being destroyed and they are subjected to negative stereotyping in the media.

According to the report, in Austria the government enforced sex education guidelines that “practically prohibit the teaching of authentic Christian sexual values,” and in Germany, a mother of eight was jailed for eight days after she refused to send her nine-year-old son to school for its sexual education program. She said:

I have the impression that journalists and policy-makers are often more anti-Christian than their fellow citizens. But they shape the mood of the country. What we observe is that Christians are increasingly being described as “homophobic, sexist, intolerant and unworldly.  But there’s a good reason for the attacks, too, she noted. Christianity and the cross are a constant bone of contention. Perhaps crucifixes and other religious imagery are reminders that people ought to put their lives in order. Christians are also the last obstacle to a new vision of secularity which is so politically correct that it verges on totalitarianism.

Another family that was lost sea for weeks attempted to leave the U.S. over what they considered government interference in religion. Hannah Gastonguay said her family was fed up with government control in the U.S.

As Christians they said they didn’t believe in“abortion, homosexuality, and in the state-controlled church,” U.S. “churches aren’t their own,” Gastonguay said, suggesting that government regulation interfered with religious independence. Jesus isn’t the head of the church. God isn’t the head of the church.”

Among other differences, she said they had a problem with being “forced to pay these taxes that pay for abortions we don’t agree with.”The Gastonguays weren’t members of any church, and Hannah Gastonguay said their faith came from reading the Bible and through prayer.

Could we be on the verge on totalitarianism? Yes and time is running out, in fact if you believe in End Times Bible Prophecy, disagree with any government especially the United States, or concerned about the sanctity of marriage, sanctity of human life, critical of the United Nations, critical of communist countries, anti-war, critical of the Federal Reserve, critical of job outsourcing to China or India or any other issue the government deems as “Hate Crime” you will be labeled a terrorist.

Persecutions have been the normal experience for believers. The Bible doesn’t teach that when the going gets tough in Western nations, God is going to rapture the Western church. The Bible teaches persecution and tribulation are part of the Christian walk. But there is hope because God is on His throne. Remember Peter said God was able to keep Lot even in Sodom and Gomorrah and so He will keep us until His time.

In the meantime we need to pray for the grace to endure and to remain faithful whatever the cost. We should be teaching people to fall in love with Jesus, develop that intimate relationship with Him on a personal daily basis. We should also be spending our time, talents, and resources for the Kingdom of God and spiritually and practically preparing ourselves for this increasing persecution.

When Jesus was giving His progression of events regarding the last days, He again used that key word “Then” they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. (Matthew 24:9) There is worldwide hostility towards Christians and anti-Semitism is increasing around the world.

Voice of Martyrs (VOM) reports that more martyrs for Jesus Christ died in the 20th century than in all previous 19 centuries combined. This century will most likely prove to be more repressive and bloody. The precedent has already been set for designating Christianity a terrorist organization and a promoter of hate speech. The world is more anti-Christian than ever since the first centuries in Rome.

Everyone one of us must endure some suffering in this life. It may be physical suffering, sickness, death of a loved one, rejection by friends or relatives and many more. Whatever the cause of that suffering, we all try to avoid it as much as possible. That is the reason why Christians often avoid talking about this subject, although the Bible clearly teaches that Christians will be subject to all causes of suffering common to all men, plus the added persecution that comes with following Jesus Christ.

Today Christian brothers and sisters in the Middle East, North Korea and countries are being persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, and killed by the puppet regimes being put in power by Western governments. It is now a verifiable fact in many conflicts involving Muslims; the West’s intervention has led to persecution of Christians from Nigeria to the so called recently West supported “Arab Spring” which has become a nightmare. This has in some cases, decimated the indigenous Christian population, all in the name of this New World Order.

When you read and study the New Testament, you will find three words used which all embrace trouble. They are suffering, tribulation and affliction, these words differ but each of them practically means trouble of some kind. The Lord made it very clear to His disciples that tribulation belonged to the world, and they could not hope to escape it, or that they should not expect to be carried through this life on flowery beds on ease. He told them to have peace, and to be of good cheer; because he had overcome the world and its tribulations, so they might do the same. That is the encouragement from the Lord.

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33 KJV)

Paul taught the same lesson again and again throughout his ministry, when he and Barnabas had preached the Gospel and made disciples. He established and strengthened the souls and the hearts of the disciples, urging, and warning and encouraging them to stand firm in the faith and telling them that:

It is through many hardships and tribulations that we must enter into the kingdom of God. (Acts 14: 21-22)

Paul describes the troubles of life by comforting us that life’s troubles cannot be compared with the final glory of heaven, which shall be the reward of all who endure. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18 KJV) Paul further made it clear that the afflictions which come to the children of God in this world are light afflictions compared with the weight of glory that awaits all that are patient, submissive, and faithful in all their troubles.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:17-18 NKJV) Paul, in urging patience in tribulation, tells us what to do when tribulation and suffering comes:

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5: 1-5 NKJV)

There might be great suffering for God’s people in the years ahead as prophesied by the Lord Jesus, Jeremiah and Daniel, but we have a great promise of hope for the future. The suffering we go through makes this world undesirable and we long for our heavenly home. This is the world where trouble never comes. But the path of tribulation leads to that place and those who are in heaven went there through tribulation of some kind.

What does Jesus promise for those who remain faithful in spite of persecution and lawlessness? “He who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13). You can only learn endurance by enduring. Endurance is the way God prepares us for what lies ahead. Scripture tells us: My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.  But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. (James 1:2-4)

Continuing with His discourse and a sense of progression regarding the last days, Jesus said, the world will be characterized by wars and rumors of wars (Matthew 24:6). We’ve seen two kinds of wars: political wars and ethic wars.  It is undeniable that World War 1 and World War II were both essentially political wars fought by world powers to establish their dominion. But what has been forgotten “apart from the genocide of the Jews, racism remains one of the great neglected subjects of World War II.

Jesus said, For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. (Matthew 24:7) The word nation in Greek is ethnos, from which we get the word ethnic. The nations will be afflicted with internal political strife that will lead to civil wars.  Before World War I began in 1914, there was an ethnic war between the Turks in the Middle East and Christian Armenians. The Turks massacred one million Christian Armenians. This was not a political a war; it was an ethnic war.

Today ethnic wars are breaking out everywhere. Along with war, there will be famines, pestilences and earthquakes. All these represent the beginning of birth pangs of the coming kingdom.  Today there is also famine in many areas of the world and wherever there is famine; pestilences are more likely to follow. Earth quakes have also increased in frequency and intensity in the last fifty to hundred years.

It was after World War 1, that the League of Nations was formed to ensure that another 10 million people would not die in another global conflict. But the League of Nations was powerless to prevent World War II. This war brought more suffering to humanity than any other event in the 20^th century. Nearly 60 million people died throughout the six years of that war that included atomic bombs, cities completely destroyed and the Jewish Holocaust.

The atrocities perpetrated by fascist Germany against the Jews, minorities, and other independent-minded individuals before and during World War II triggered shock and horror across the world. When the war ended, the victorious nations met to adopt measures intended to prevent a repetition of these murderous acts and to forward peace. The result was the founding of the United Nations in 1945 which has also failed to prevent the numerous wars taking place throughout the world.

Out of this nightmare of war sprung the dreaded atomic age. Aleksander Solzhenitsyn described it as a “godless embitterment” that could have moved ostensibly Christian States to employ poison gas, a weapon so obviously beyond the limits of humanity. The same kind of defect, the flaw of a consciousness lacking all divine dimension, was manifested after World War II when the West yielded to the satanic temptation of a nuclear umbrella.”

This was indeed a godless embitterment considering the infamous words of Bob Lewis, co-pilot of the Enola Gay, following the detonation of a first nuclear weapon. My God what have we done? What had they done, indeed?

Scientists tell us there is enough nuclear explosive material in existence on earth to destroy the entire human race fifty times over. As Solzhenitsyn had noted that it was equivalent to saying:

Let’s cast off worries, let’s free the younger generation from their duties and obligations, let’s make no effort to defend ourselves, to say nothing of defending others-let’s stop our ears to the groans emanating from the East, and let us live instead in the pursuit of happiness….. If danger should threaten us, we shall be protected by the nuclear bomb; if not, then let the world burn in Hell for all we care….. The pitifully helpless state to which the contemporary West has sunk is in large measure due to this fatal error: the belief that the defense of peace depends not on stout hearts and steadfast men, but solely on the nuclear bomb…Today’s world has reached a stage which, if it had been described to preceding centuries, would have called forth the cry: “This is the Apocalypse!”Yet we have grown used to this kind of world; we even feel at home in it.

History tells us that evil governments did wipe out 170,000,000 innocent non-military lives in the 20^th Century alone:

• Governments murdered four times as many civilians as were killed in all the international and domestic wars combined.
• Governments murdered millions more people than were killed by common criminal.

The United States has reportedly bombed the following countries since World War II:

• China: 1945-46; 1950-53
• Korea: 1950-53
• Guatemala: 1954; 1967-69
• Indonesia: 1958
• Cuba: 1959-60
• Vietnam: 1961-73
• Congo: 1964
• Laos: 1964-73
• Peru: 1965
• Cambodia: 1969-70
• Granada: 1983
• Libya: 1986;2011
• El Salvador: 1980s
• Nicaragua: 1980s
• Panama: 1989
• Iraq: 1991-2001; 2003-09
• Sudan: 1988
• Afghanistan: 1988; 2003-09
• Yugoslavia: 1999.

From 1945 to the present time, the United States has bombed nineteen different countries under the guise of defending America’s sovereignty, interests and promoting democracy.It’s estimated that America has more than 150 military bases around the world. Why all these bases? The precise answer according to one source is:

The function of the military is to ensure that the powers that be stay in power, that the structures of injustice that cause poverty not be changed. This rather than any concern for freedom or justice is the primary reason for the build-up of the American military presence around the world…. Cain’s sin of killing Abel has now reached its logical conclusion. We are prepared to destroy the whole world for our own selfish purposes.

Dostoevsky also warned that:

Great events could come upon us and catch us intellectually unprepared. This is precisely what has happened. And he predicted that “the world will be saved only after it has been possessed by the demon of evil.” Whether it really will be saved we shall have to wait and see: this will depend on our conscience, on our spiritual lucidity, on our individual and combined efforts in the face of catastrophic circumstances. But it has already come to pass that the demon of evil, like a whirlwind, triumphantly circles all five continents of the earth.

Look at the governments that disarmed and killed their citizens as shown on the JPFO Genocide Chart. It is very sad because people that have been given the responsibility to preserve life are instead taking those very lives they sworn to protect because of money, power, greed and racism.

What should we do as Christians? We are to: “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21: 36) We are not to be led by fear. Jesus says,  See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet…. All these are the beginning of sorrows….(Matthew 24:6-8)

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