The blinders are off.
Regardless of what side of the political aisle one may be positioned, the rhetoric has accelerated to a level of crudeness that has rarely been seen or heard in the popular press and social media in the past. Recently I was treated to this gem of an insult. “…That hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.”
Doesn’t sound familiar? It would be if you were alive in 1796 during the presidential election between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. The quotation was written by James Callender, a political journalist who was hired by Jefferson to smear Adams. Callender published this quotation in a pamphlet entitled “The Prospect Before Us” characterizing then-candidate Adams in a very unflattering and false light. As many a historian of American politics can attest, the vulgar name calling has always been present. However, with the seemingly instant dissemination of information through the internet, the pace and levels of caustic rhetoric appear to be accelerated, exacerbating and inflaming already tense rivalries.
As I perused the latest exchanges between politicians, celebrities and the news media, I was reminded of the Tribulation period. In these coming harrowing days that are prophesied by Jesus Christ, the restraining influence of God, the Holy Spirit, will be removed, and the Antichrist will reign. Is what we are now witnessing a chilling foretaste of what the world will be like during the Tribulation when hell literally breaks loose?
And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders.
2 Thessalonians 2:6-9 (ESV)
All believers in Jesus Christ will be taken away from this earth and received in Heaven to meet Jesus Christ, their Lord and Savior, just before the Tribulation begins. Undoubtedly many in the world will rejoice that Christians are no longer around but this event should be a dire warning that the restraining influence of God, the Holy Spirit, will be removed and the judgment on the earth, prophesied in the Book of Revelation, will begin.
Until that day, all true believers in Jesus Christ should make every effort to share the Good News of Jesus Christ to all who are able to hear it. Only by confessing and repenting of one’s sins and accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will one gain salvation and eternal life. If we truly love our family, friends, and co-workers, we should desire nothing less for them.
Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.
The Bereans Blog 