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What God is and isn’t doing in the world presently.

By Mike Schroeder

 

In light of the present perilous state our world has been put in, a lot of things are being attributed to God and/or Satan by Christian folk on social media pages that do not comport with Scripture, rightly divided. Therefore, I feel compelled to speak, from a Biblical perspective, about what God is doing and not doing in the world right now and what we, as believers, should be doing right now in response to the present peril.

 
1. God is not orchestrating/controlling events in the world with some kind of unseen hand. We are living in a dispensation of time on earth, ((“the dispensation of the grace of God,” Eph. 3:2; Col. 1:25)) and have been for going on 2000 years, in which God has, by his own decree, declared a hands-off protocol for the earth and its inhabitants. ((this doesn’t mean that the laws and principles of God laid down in Holy writ are ineffectual, nor are the violation of them without consequences. Is 55:11))
 
In other words, the world is under God’s grace, not his judgment. 2000 years of men wantonly slaughtering, murdering, raping, plundering, pillaging, defrauding and enslaving one another non-stop is proof of this. In a just world, one ruled over by God, none of this would have taken place–not ever. Under the influence of “the god of this world” ((2 Cor 4:4)) it would and does, but not under the rule of the God of heaven and earth.
 
Does this mean God is okay with all that goes on in the world? By no means! In his divine revelation, the Bible, he soundly condemns it. But he isn’t meting out judgment/punishment for it because guess what? He’s left that up to us.
 

Most folks don’t like this idea, including a lot of “Christian” folk, because they erroneously believe the Bible teaches us that we ought not to be “judgmental.” LOL! We all do more of that activity– judging good from evil, right from wrong, one person over another–more so than almost any other thing we do in life.  In fact, scripture mandates it:

“Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?”  ((1 Cor 6:3,4))

And this certainly pertains to politicians and government officials.

Every time I hear some preacher say “we ought to trust the officials we elect to public office to do the right thing (that is, don’t criticize their actions), as they are divinely ordained to do so,” and then erroneously pull Romans 13 out of its historical context as the proof text my hand goes straight to my forehead.

Of all the people on earth, elected officials should not be trusted any further than one could physically throw one of them. ((Jer 17:5:  “Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.”))

In our present political system in America, government officials are the employees, not us, therefore we not only have a right to judge what they do, but a duty.

2. Some of you believe Satan (“the god of this world”) is in control over the world. I believe he has great influence over the world and its rulers, but not total control. To claim Satan has total control assigns him powers that only God has.

Moreover, those rulers who’ve placed themselves under his control must have our compliance to complete their evil agendas, and you and I are under no mandate from God to go along with it. Indeed, we are to call it what it is: evil. To remain silent in the face of it is a form of consent ((Is. 5:20: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”))  Remember what Peter said to the ruling class in Israel who told him to stop preaching in the name of Jesus, rulership mandated to them by the government in Rome? “We ought to obey God rather than man.” ((Acts 5:29)) Thank you.

 
Of course, there are things we don’t have control over, but to say that we have no control over anything, that it’s all foreordained, or that God has handed total control over to the god of this world, is just a bunch of unBiblical, cowardly nonsense.
3.  “Because of what is going on right now, surely the rapture must be right around the corner.”  I’ve heard more than of few of my contemporaries make this claim, but I can find nothing in Scripture that supports it.  As I said before, men have been doing evil things to each other, including putting entire nations–some of them populated mostly by Christians–into a state of persecution and servitude for 20 centuries, so basing rapture timing on this is nothing more than wishful thinking. In fact, I believe the rapture is more likely to occur in good times rather than bad.  And claiming “all the signs are pointing toward the end of the age” doesn’t line up with Scripture either, because signs are for prophetic Israel, not the body of Christ in the dispensation of grace. ((1 Cor. 1:22))
 
4. Some contend that preaching the gospel is the only thing God has ordained for the believer to be doing in the world. Right. That’s why just about any place you go you see millions of believers in Christ crowding the sidewalks, the byways and highways doing this and nothing else. ((The fact is, anyone could do this now–in other words, the gospel has “free course” in America–if they wanted to because we have had a government that doesn’t stand in the way of it. But if we sit on our thumbs waiting on God to intervene or rapture us, we will surely wake up to the day when this activity, among other freedoms we enjoy, will be a crime.)) No, 99% of them are spending most of their time going about their lives at secular jobs, starting up and running businesses, providing homes for their families, paying bills, buying and selling, laying up for their future retirement, taking vacations and generally partaking of and enjoying the things most other people in the world enjoy, ((with some exceptions, of course, Ref. Exd. 20:3-17; 1 Thess 5:22; 1 Cor. 6:14; et. al.)) sharing their faith whenever “a door of utterance” ((Col. 4:3)) avails itself.
Conclusion

God is not responsible for the rise and fall of nations and empires, men are. And that’s because certain men are never content with what they have, and in their obsession to get “more” and control everything around them,  they bring destruction upon entire populations of people and their environments. And others, because of their perverse obsession with comfort and ease, safety and security, sheepishly go along with these control freak’s agendas. 

Sometimes this happens with one individual in authority, i.e., a “dictator,” and sometimes it is a ruling oligarchy or cabal that brings it about. With the American empire, so far, it is the latter of the two bringing about its downfall. Does this downfall constitute “the end” of the so-called “free world,” of which many believe America has been the leader, and the inevitable institution of a dictatorial new government over the entire world?

I believe that this is clearly what the ruling elite of the world desire but by no means is it inevitable.  Empires seeking this have come and gone over the last two millennia without it happening, the latest of which was the former Soviet empire, the USSR, the break-up of which happened as a result of the collapse of its economy. This collapse actually caused a return to the state of things before the communist takeover following the Bolshevik revolution, with all the satellite states surrounding Russia that were under the control of the Soviets becoming independent states in their own right. And most of those countries have prospered since the break-up. The fact is, the world now has more independent nation-states than it did a hundred years ago.

My hope is that this will be what eventually happens with the U.S. empire–in my opinion, it simply cannot be sustained on the present course– which would be a return to the original set-up of independent, sovereign state confederations, perhaps joining in mutually beneficial alliances with one another, but without the kind of dictatorial, all-powerful, over-reaching central authority that now exists in Washington.

But whatever is to be is up to me–and you. If you wish to join me in advocating for this dissolution of the current order, and returning to the original blueprint that created the freest and most prosperous country in the history of the world, then I welcome you and will do what I can to support your efforts.

I am not so naive to think that the transition back to this order of things will be painless, as the economic collapse and bankruptcy of the Federal government and destruction of the currency are going to cause a lot of pain and upheaval for many Americans who have made no preparations for this. Also, there could be violent outbreaks and lawlessness in some parts of the country, and a possibility, God forbid, of some kind of civil war, but neither is that an inevitability.

In the meantime, I implore you to pray for a peaceful solution to the present peril in which we all find ourselves, and although it’s not likely, for wise decisions by the “authorities,” ((1 Tim. 2:2)) speak out against the evil that the oligarchy has planned, ((Micah 6:6; Prov. 24:10-12)) and expose at every opportunity their lies and subterfuge and prepare yourselves to take action against it and resolve to do so if it comes to that. The overriding message ‘they’ need to hear, loud and clear, is that we are not going to sit by complacently and accept the slave state they have planned for us.
Amen.

All scripture references are taken from the King James Bible.

Related articles:
If God is in control, why is there so much suffering and injustice in the world?;

 

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Are you saved? Jesus Christ—“who knew no sin”—and his sacrificial death on the Cross, has made the way for “everyone that believeth…to be reconciled to God. History has shown that whatever peace man has achieved in the world can only be temporary. The Bible says that individual men and women can know, beyond a doubt, that they are saved and bound for heaven, and therefore have absolute and permanent peace, regardless of what is going on in the world, by trusting Jesus Christ and his death on the cross for their eternal salvation. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Have you done this? If not, why not now?

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Posted by Mike Schroeder in

About the author

Mike Schroeder is pastor and teacher of Amazing Grace Bible Study Fellowship in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he resides with his wife, Jean.
www.agbsf.com

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