However, on the other ‘side’ of the argument, many prominent climate scientists refuted AOC’s claim, with NASA climate scientist Kate Marvel stating that climate change is not a “cliff we fall off” but rather “a slope we slide down.”
Additionally, the leader of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, Gavin Schmidt, called AOC’s 12-year deadline, “Bullshit.” He then added, “The thing to push back against is the implicit framing that there is some magic global mean temperature or total emissions that separate ‘fine’ from ‘catastrophic’. There just isn’t.”
Speaking directly to the climate-change ‘youth movement’, Australian politician and Chair of the “Environment and Energy Committee,” Craig Kelly believes that children are being “completely brainwashed” and he believes they are saying “the exact opposite of the truth” in relation to climate change. He says that, “The truth rebuts every single one of these alarmist’s slides that they carry on every single thing. They tell you from more fires to more deaths to polar bears drowning. When you look at the evidence and the peer-reviewed science, it tells the exact opposite of what’s being peddled.” He then went on in the 12-minute interview to cite many scientific facts proving that the “climate change” they are talking about is a hoax
Now, like any issue that has passionate, like-minded people on both ‘sides’, there is likely to be some ‘exaggeration’. So, I put a representative ‘sample’ of information on both in the “Resources” and “Articles” sections below for you to consider for yourself.
HOWEVER, the thing is, I AGREE with Greta Thunberg, Lucas Barrero, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Beto O’Rourke that the WORLD WILL END in the next ‘few’ decades, and that WE ARE THE “LAST GENERATION”—BUT NOT FOR THE REASON, “climate change,” that they claim will be the ‘culprit’.
I believe what the Bible says is going to happen: Believers in Jesus will be ‘raptured’ before a seven-year period of time called the “Tribulation,” which Jesus will come back to earth at the end of it to terminate the unimaginable, horrendous war called “Armageddon.” (Because the Bible says that, if Jesus didn’t return, “no human being would be saved” – Matthew 24:22). [ A 1,000-year “Millennium” will follow the Tribulation, after which God will then totally ‘remake’ the entire universe and come to live with His ‘children’ in the “New Jerusalem” on the “New Earth” for eternity! .
Millions of people believe that if we do not immediately address climate change, we will literally be in the early stages of mass extinction, and this will be the LAST GENERATION on this earth—with worldwide devastation happening in the next few decades.
A few months ago (on September 19, 2019), millions of people demonstrated across the world demanding urgent action to tackle global warming, as they united across timezones and cultures to take part in the biggest climate protest in history.
People protested from the Pacific Islands, through Australia, across Southeast Asia, Africa, into Europe, and also in the Americas. It was an explosion of the youth movement that was started by a Swedish school ‘striker’ Greta Thunberg just over a year previous to this event.
For the first time since the school ‘strikes’ for climate change that began in 2018, young people called on adults to join them—and they were heard. Trade unions representing hundreds of millions of people around the world mobilized in support, employees left their workplaces, doctors and nurses marched, and workers at firms like Amazon, Google, and Facebook also walked out to join the climate protest.
Demonstrations took place in an estimated 185 countries, but the overall message was unified. It was a demand for an urgent step—immediate action to cut emissions and stabilize the climate.
Inspired by the Swedish teenage climate activist, fellow climate-change warrior Lucas Barrero, said in his new book, “The World You Are Leaving Us,” “We are the first generation that will suffer, or rather, is already suffering the effects of the ecological and climate crisis. But we are the last generation that can do something to stop the disaster.”
Here in America, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), made headlines when she said (in January 2019) that she and other young Americans fear that “the world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change.” She also remarked that the fight to mitigate the effects of climate change is her generation’s “World War II.”
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) joined fellow Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) in predicting the climate change-induced doomsday, but he said that, “The world only has 10 years left.” (His climate change proposal, that seeks to hit net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, is estimated to cost about $5 trillion over the next ten years).
During the Gulf War, the Israeli government through the Israel Ministry of Tourism invited Dr. Beshore and some of his staff on a full-expense paid trip to “Bless the Land of Israel.” Doc and his small entourage were greeted at the Ben Gurion International airport by gas masks, a personal driver (to act as a guide) and a car. They traveled throughout Israel praying over the Land of Israel.
On that trip Dr. Beshore met with Knesset members who showed their appreciation for him. They all said that they appreciate the Evangelicals standing with Israel and appreciate that Evangelicals never picture Israel as “predatory or expansionist.” Their spokesman said, “We are simply trying to maintain defensible borders and live at peace with our neighbors. We have no desire to expand into Lebanon, Syria, Jordan or Egypt. We want to live in peace with our neighbors and to show good faith, that is why we gave back the Sinai to Egypt.” The Israelis even provided a way for Dr. Beshore to present his Scripture-based daily radio broadcasts while in Israel.
Bible prophecy has always been a passion of Doc’s since childhood. He was taught the Pre-Tribulation Rapture and he teaches it diligently. He believes all Christians should actively watch for the return of our Lord and Savior and be ready for His return at all times (Matthew 24.42-44; 25.13; Titus 2.13). He emphasizes the way we do so is by studying the Bible to learn what the signs of the “End Times” are and watch as they are fulfilled.
Doc firmly believes Christians should study books on the Bible and Bible prophecy, but the best way to understand Scripture and to come to the correct understanding of eschatology is to study the Bible itself. “As we diligently study the Bible the Holy Spirit will teach us giving us correct understanding (John 16.13; 1 John 2.17).”
Doc and Lois, his wife of 62 years, have three children, Kenette, Kenton and Kandis. Kenton is pastor of Mariners Church in Irvine, California, one of the largest churches in America where Doc teaches a large class each Sunday. His sons-in-laws are active in ministry: Kenette’s husband, Gene Mollway, is a pastor, and Kandis’ husband, David Arnold, serves as vice-president of the World Bible Society in a volunteer capacity. Doc and Lois have 11 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren. Two of their grandsons are youth pastors.
Dr. F. Kenton Beshore “Doc” as he is warm-heartedly called, was saved at the very early age of five and called to preach when he was eight. While growing up he listened to and read many books by several great dispensational teachers such as Donald Grey Barnhouse, William Pettingill and Harry Ironside.
At the age of seventeen, Dr. Beshore was licensed to preach and his first sermon was on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. In that sermon, he spoke of the promise, the plan, the purpose, the power and the Person of His Second Coming. Throughout his life, beginning at a very early age, he studied Bible prophecy. His expertise in biblical hermeneutics is second to none. If you ask him one question, be sure to have a pen and notebook handy because he will succinctly and methodically tie together passages from all over the Bible to give the appropriate answer.
Doc pastored his first church at age 18, and was ordained at 19 at Bellview Baptist Church, Memphis, Tennessee, by his pastor, Dr. Robert G. Lee. He pastored churches throughout most of his life and much of his preaching, teaching and writing has been on Bible prophecy. He taught through the entire Bible verse-by-verse before age the age of forty.
Dr. David L. Cooper was the Dr. Beshore’s mentor for ten years at the Biblical Research Society, and he became its president when Dr. Cooper went home to be with the Lord. Doc was also the editor of the Biblical Research Monthly. Possessing several earned degrees – D.D., Litt. D., D. Sac. Th., Ph. D., Th. D. – Dr. Beshore has taught at Faith Seminary and Louisiana Baptist Seminary.
The Lord enabled Doc to begin a daily radio ministry in 1956, the Bible Institute of the Air, and has grown over the years to cover most of the world, including his beloved Israel. He has produced more than 14,900 radio broadcasts. He has also taught his six-hour prophecy seminar in almost every state throughout the U.S.A.
Today, Dr. Beshore is President of the World Bible Society, which has printed and distributed Bibles in sixty-five countries (10 million in Russia since 1989 on the former Communist Party propaganda presses) and publishes a select-group of Christian books. His ministry is also very devoted to reaching the poor with the gospel and feeding them through a number of ministry projects. He is the author of The Rapture, the Apocalypse, Armageddon and the Millennium, When? When Will the Rapture Take Place? Daniel and The Messiah of the Tanach, Targums Talmud. He has written dozens of booklets that have been translated into more than forty languages. He also has dozens of Bible studies available on CD and DVD formats.
Few men of the 20th and now 21st centuries have had as great a love for the Jewish people as Dr. Beshore. In his booklet, The Messiah of the Tanach, Targums, Talmud he argues powerfully that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah. This outstanding booklet has recently been republished and Doc is attempting to mail a copy to every Jewish family and synagogue in America.
Before Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s tragic stroke, Dr. Beshore hosted a reception for him in Beverly Hills, California. He has had a number of receptions for other Israeli dignitaries and ambassadors. He has met with many Heads of State and visited Israel at least a dozen times. While Prime Minister Minachem Begin was in office, Dr. Beshore met with him and gave him a copy of the World Bible Society’s Prophecy Bible.
While in his first term, Benjamin Netanyahu invited Dr. Beshore and some of his staff into his office for a lengthy meeting. They discussed many issues relating to Israel’s safety, sovereignty and future. Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed great concern to Doc how dangerous it would be for Israel to ever go back to the pre-1967 borders. Dr. Beshore presented him with a copy of his booklet, The Messiah of the Tanach, Targums, Talmud.
It is because of this that the Creator of all life has sent a New Message into the world, a Message unlike all the great Messages that the Creator has sent here before. Humanity must now realize its great predicament and recognize the one chosen to bring this New Message into the world.
He is not a god. He is not an angel. He is a man. But he has been burdened and charged with this responsibility, a responsibility that he alone cannot bear.
Humanity does not have an answer for the great threshold it is facing. It does not have a solution. It knows nothing of the Greater Community of life into which it is now emerging. And it does not realize the power and the extent of a declining world to deprive it of its most fundamental rights and opportunities.
It will take great courage and strength to face these things. You will have to set aside your grievances, your anger and your repudiation of others to have the strength and courage to face a changing world and a new reality.
God knows that you cannot do this alone without great support and guidance, and that is why the New Message has been sent into the world. This Message is so great and vast. It deals with every aspect of the human experience, particularly revealing the deeper nature of human spirituality and the deeper Mind that exists within each person—a deeper Mind that is here to guide and to protect each person, a deeper Mind that is waiting to be discovered and followed and expressed.
If humanity is to survive the Great Waves of change, if it is to have the restraint to refuse the inducements and the persuasions of those who are here in the world, then it must grow up and become mature and responsible, realizing its strength and recognizing its hazards.
This is not a time for the faint of heart or the ambivalent. This is not a time for those who are greedy or , for they will not fare well in the Great Waves of change. And they will not have the strength to withstand the persuasions and the influence that will be cast over humanity by those from the universe who are skilled in these efforts.
You are facing a devastated world where it will take everything humanity has to establish and secure its position here—a great sharing of resources, a great sharing of scientific knowledge, a disarmament and a cessation of conflict and hostilities.
This must be the consensus of the world facing a Greater Community of life, for the universe that you are facing is unlike what people expect and anticipate. It is a universe that is not human and has no regard for the human family, save a few races who are free and who would value your freedom, even from afar.
But those free races are not in the world today, and those who are, are deceiving humanity—casting persuasion and influence over the weak minded, seeking to establish their influence in the corridors of power in government, religion and commerce.
This is the great predicament you face. It was destined to happen, for you cannot escape the reality of the Greater Community. It has not come before because humanity was not well established and did not demonstrate the potential for power until quite recently.
The New World Prophecy Home » The Message » The New World Prophecy »
The Creator of all life has sent a New Message into the world, a New Message unlike anything that humanity has ever received before, a New Revelation for this time and for the times to come, and with it a greater prophecy about humanity’s future and the great danger that the human family now faces.
God’s Revelations are rare. They do not come often at all, and their wisdom and the depth of their teaching are meant to last a very long time. For it will take people a very long time to fathom the depths of this New Revelation. It will take centuries to fathom its depths. But humanity does not have centuries now. It has reached a great threshold, a turning point in its evolution where it will have to face a world in decline—a world that has been overused and abused through human greed, human ignorance and human conflict.
It is a time when humanity will have to face a world of declining resources and environmental disruption, a time when it will have to face the Great Waves of change, which are now coming to the world and which are already striking many, many places at this time.
Humanity has reached a great threshold where it will have to face the realities of life in the universe and the encounter with certain forces and groups who are here to take advantage of humanity’s tribulations, humanity’s ignorance and naiveté. It is a time unlike any time ever before, and the dangers and the opportunities for the human family are greater now than at any time ever before.
In the face of the Great Waves of change and competition from the universe over who will be dominant and sovereign within this world, humanity will face a great decision—a decision for its leaders, its governments and its peoples. Will it fight and struggle over who has access to the remaining resources of the world? Will it ignore the evidence of Intervention here by races who are here to prey upon humanity’s weakness and humanity’s conflicts? Or will nations and leaders and peoples recognize the great danger that faces all of humanity, living in a declining world, facing now competition from beyond? Will it choose, then, in light of this, a greater cooperation—a greater uniting of resources, wisdom and strength, individual talent and collective abilities, to secure the world and to prevent Intervention here, which it is within humanity’s power to accomplish?
People know not of the great times in which they live though many people all over the world are feeling anxiety and trepidation about the future. And well they should, for humanity is facing a very difficult set of circumstances now.
It is facing shortages of food, water and vital energy resources around the world, which will affect ever-growing numbers of people as you proceed. It is facing a world that will be devastated by a changing climate and by the destruction of humanity’s ability to grow enough food and supply enough water. It is facing growing economic and political instability, which will reveal not only human corruption, but the weakness and the fragility of the infrastructure upon which all of humanity is now built.
People live their lives preoccupied with little things, striving to meet important requirements and fanciful notions if they can afford it. But little do they know they are facing such a great trial and tribulation in the world, a trial and tribulation for which humanity is unprepared and largely unaware.
Rapture Ready’s Goals I don’t have any lofty goals for this web site. I look at myself as one voice among many. Right now, only a few prophecy-related web sites provide regular news updates. I foresee a time when there will be several major prophetic ministries that are based primarily on the web. Today, books, radio, and television programs are the principal source of mass media information, but soon the web will be taking over this role.
Because of my lack of any great writing ability, I see myself as only playing a supportive role in the mission to advance the teachings of the pre-trib rapture, the soon return of Jesus Christ, and the coming destruction of this current world system.
The primary reason I started posting my two cents on the web was because I noticed that a number of cults and people with different views on prophecy were setting up shop on the web but there were only a few voices of opposition to counter them.
I don’t think I will ever go too far with this page. I’m looking for those folks who will soon arise and establish more successful internet ministries. I am always looking to impart my ideas about prophecy to the minds of others more capable than I. By doing so, I will be advancing my thoughts on prophecy to a greater audience than I would have ever been capable of reaching myself.
At the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, if our works are what we bring to the banquet table, some great men of God will be blessed enough to bring the main course, some the breads and vegetables, and other the salads and desserts. I’d like to be blessed enough to be able to bring the salt and pepper.
I guess the most important thing to keep in mind is that it’s better to be one of those Christians who at least brings something to the marriage supper than to be one who shows up empty handed. More Articles What Should Christians Be Doing?
In late September of 1995, the web came into bloom, so I made the switch to the internet service provider, Novia. That is, I did so after trying CompuServe, Prodigy, AOL, Genie, and another local provider. It took me two weeks to figure out the HTML coding. On October 9 of that year, the Rapture Index was up and running.
On August 17, 1997, I renamed this web page “Rapture Ready,” mainly because the word “index” fails to show up on most internet word searches.
In March of 1999, I purchased the dot-com name “Rapture Ready.” The decision was forced on me. Because I had not yet registered the site’s name, people started asking me if they could use my domain name. After coughing up 40 bucks to buy the dot-com name from Network Solutions, I found a web hosting service called 11Net that became the home of RaptureReady.com.
When I got back from an Icelandic tour of duty with the U.S. Air Force in December of 1999, I discovered that my 266 MHz Gateway 2000, which I had bought in 1997, had failed to survived the trip home. I then purchased a 533 MHz computer made by Hewlett-Packard.
In May 2000, I started the message board. After a false start with a worthless service called Beseen, Mark Neumann pointed me to Ezboard.com, which, for what it provides, has been an incredibly reliable service.
In October 2000, RaptureReady.com was drawing so much traffic that it became necessary to move to a better web hosting service with a larger bandwidth. I found westhost.com to be a great host for what was still my secondary site. Novia.net continued to reign as my king of web traffic. During February 2001, RaptureReady.com started getting more hits than the Novia.net site.
On March 28, 2001, Raptureme.com was created to provide for more bandwidth. After I switched to a cable modem, I decided to cancel my account with Novia. That action made raptureme.com the number two site.
In July 2002, Rapture was featured in a Time magazine cover story about the Left Behind book series. The traffic generated by the media exposure was the catalyst for the creation of several mirror sites: tribulation.us, tribulation.ws, rr-rapture.com, and anti-antichirst.org were created to provide extra bandwidth.
In April 2004, Lunarpage.com abruptly dropped raptureready.com because of the high traffic load the site was placing on their server. The site was moved to a managed dedicated server.
About The founder of Rapture Ready Published on: January 30, 2019 by RR7 Category:Understanding Bible Based Truth
Above All Things Q. What is the most important decision you can make in your life?
A. What you do with Jesus Christ’s free gift of eternal life.
In the early 1980s, I spent several months searching for the elusive gift called eternal salvation. I had prayed the sinner’s prayer several times, and because I still felt the same, I figured God and Todd had somehow failed to make that final connection.
My fixation on the idea that I needed to experience some sort of supernatural transformation kept me searching. When people asked me about when I had become a Christian, I’d honestly answer, “Well, not yet,” to their surprise.
The breakthrough came on the night of August 11, 1983 at a country church located in the backroads of northwest Iowa. It was there that I discovered I had been a knucklehead for not realizing how simple the process was: You confess Jesus as your Savior and you believe His blood is able to wash away your sins.
Because of its pure simplicity, the story of the thief on the cross has to be my favorite conversion story. One of the two thieves crucified with Jesus acknowledged he was in big trouble by saying to his fellow malefactor, “We receive the due reward.” He then affirmed Jesus’ sinless state by proclaiming, “This man has done nothing amiss;” and finally he asked Jesus, “Remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom” (Luke 23:41-42). Know Your Rapture Ready History
I don’t know of anyone who watches more news broadcasts, reads more news articles, or browses more news-related web pages than yours truly.
The earliest indication that I had a strong interest in world news was when I attended elementary school. We used to receive a weekly current events magazine that was tailored to young readers. I was fascinated with the international content of those magazine articles.
When I was in junior high school, the history instructor would hold a class competition every Friday to test our knowledge of current events. I would correctly answer just about every question; it amazed me how little my fellow classmates knew about the most basic news stories of the day.
During the early 1980s, my interest in current events started to expand into an interest in prophecy. No particular person or incident sparked my interest in this subject; I just began to realize that if the events outlined in the Bible were going to someday take precedence over every other occurrence in our lives, I would be wise to take note of those events now.
I started The Rapture Index when I noticed how wide-ranging different prophecy commentators’ observations were regarding the signs of the times. The Index was designed to standardize the most-watched prophetic signs and to determine whether end-time trends were occurring.
In 1987, I bought my first computer, an Apple II clone made by the Franklin Computer Co. One of the first projects I worked on with that computer was a list of some 45 prophetic topics that will likely become active before Jesus Christ’s return for His Church.
In 1989, I purchased a 286 PC, and had to switch all my Basic files over to DOS. The following year, I discovered the Internet when I signed up with a local bulletin board service. At that time, several Omaha BBSs were part of a nationwide newsgroup network. I first started publishing my Rapture Index updates in that newsgroup’s religious section.
In 1991, I started using the nationwide online service, Delphi, which gave me two outlets for publishing my comments relating to prophecy. Because the two systems were in two different formats, I decided to discontinue posting on the BBS once it became too much to handle. Sometime during 1991, I upgraded my computer to a Packard-Bell 486. Two years later, I was the proud owner of a generic-brand Pentium 60.
Larry Spargimino Dr. Larry Spargimino is truly one of the most talented and busiest people I know in any walk of life. I am thankful to God that Larry chose to bring his tremendous energy and his talents to the Lord’s work in general, and to God’s prophetic work in particular. On a personal note, I’m humbly gratified to call him one of my closest friends.
Larry Spargimino was born into a Roman Catholic family in New York City. He went to parochial school and attended Mass, but was not very serious about issues of ultimate concern until his teen years.
As a teenager, he became engrossed in a search to know God. One day he picked up a Roman Catholic Study Bible and noticed that the notes at the bottom of the page seemed to contradict what the text of Scripture was saying. This threw him into confusion and led him to become an agnostic. “If the ‘experts’ who write the study notes don’t know what the Bible is teaching,” thought Larry, “how can anyone really know anything about God and how to get to Heaven?”
In his early twenties, Larry met a Chinese foreign student named Ming-Joan, whom he later married. Jennifer (her English name) shared the Gospel with him, and then gave him a Bible that her aunt had given her before she left Hong Kong for study in America. Larry began to study the Bible in depth but had many questions that Jennifer could not answer.
The young woman then introduced Larry to a Chinese pastor in New York City who had done much reading and was strong in apologetics. He was a Christian Reformed pastor who had studied with Cornelius Van Til at Westminster Seminary.
Larry was amazed at the logical consistency of Scripture and how a mind held captive by the Word of God came to have a depth of knowledge and understanding that was beyond natural reason. He also came to realize that human righteousness counts for nothing with God.
Larry put his faith in Christ and became a member of the Christian Reformed Church. He accepted a covenantal view of history and embraced amillennialism.
After much study, however, Larry felt that the amil position was not reflected by the Bible. He embraced postmillennialism for a time, but came to see that the only view that does justice to all of Scripture is premillennial dispensationalism. Larry believes that “all Scripture is for us, but not all Scripture is about us.” He believes that if the interpreter fails to carefully divide the Word of God on the basis of principles taught by the Bible itself, we will end up judaizing the New Testament and allegorizing the Old.
After his conversion, Larry received the M. Div. and Ph. D. degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He has been pastor of local churches, dean of a Bible College, seminary professor and Christian school principal.
Larry is currently the associate pastor and editor with Southwest Radio Church Ministries, and is regularly heard on Southwest’s “Watchman on the Wall” broadcast. He is also editor of The Bible in the News magazine.
He has written several books. His Anti-Prophets was the first full-length critique of preterism from a dispensational, premillennial viewpoint.
He has also written Religion of Peace or Refuge of Terror? and Is Muhammad in the Bible? His latest book, Suddenly No More Time, relates the exponential curve to Bible prophecy, all published by Hearthstone.
Larry has contributed a chapter to The End Times Controversy: The Second Coming Under Attack (Harvest House).
In addition to his work at Southwest Radio Church Ministries, Larry currently teaches graduate courses at the American Christian College and Seminary in Oklahoma City. He and his wife are members at the Trinity Chinese Baptist Church, where he teaches a college and career Sunday school class and preaches on a regular basis.
Points For Prayer, Thoughtful Reflection and Serious Self-examination Pray for Christian ministries in Ukraine and in European countries that are taking refugees, such as Poland. While Poland is a Catholic country, there are several evangelical churches providing food and shelter for refugees, and also sharing the Gospel. Not everyone who quotes Jesus is doing Jesus’ work. President Putin quoted Jesus, but I do not believe Jesus is happy with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The war in the Ukraine has persuaded many people that we need a “New World Order.” Nations with weapons—especially nuclear weapons and chemical and biological weapons—pose definite risks to the human race. No matter how the war in Ukraine turns out, Putin’s attack on a small nation gave the world a time and motive to put aside differences and stand united against the Russian bully. That sounds noble, but those who know the dangers of globalism know that world unity is a harbinger of a world government, a world economy, and a world church. Bad news, but it is coming! In Riga, Latvia, on the road in front of the Russian Embassy, there is a sign: “Putin: The Hague is waiting for you.” The wanton destruction of Ukrainian lives and property by Russian troops is indeed morally wrong and must be condemned. However, Putin’s fears that Russia will be grievously harmed by the destruction of moral and religious values that are the bedrock of civilization are certainly justified. America has a serious problem that Russia doesn’t want. The Blaze News for March 8, 2022, announced: “Biden requests $2.6 billion from Congress to fund global gender equity programs.” Do we have $2.6 billion to spend for a fabricated cause when the threat of World War III is hanging over our head like Damocles’ sword? And the madness continues. U.S. troops are being brought back from their posts to be schooled in sensitivity training and the proper use of pronouns for those who have transitioned. Putin looks at stuff like this and he is horrified. So are many Americans! We should all be horrified. This is madness. Vladimir Putin wants to leave a noble legacy. This desire may have been strengthened by the fact that he may be suffering from cancer. Putin has been seen with Dr. Yevgeny Selivanov, who specializes in thyroid cancer. If he is leaving this world, Putin first wants to do something noble to earn God’s love so his sins will be forgiven; second, he identifies faithfulness to God with faithfulness to Russia. He sees patriotism and godly behavior as a faithful “Russian Orthodox Christian” as part of the same package. This is a warning to conservative Christians in America. We love America and know that it is more than a place; it is also an idea. But we must never equate love for God, with love for our America. We should never feel that God has let us down if, in the next presidential election, a God-hating, America-hating candidate wins! It could happen. Despite the low scores Joe Biden is getting in the polls, America may have come so far in the wrong direction that a large number of Americans may still vote for a Joe Biden kind of a leader. I see Donald Trump as having accomplished much good despite the continual media thrashing he received, but let’s not make him a patron saint. I believe that there will be worldwide revival, but I do not believe that it will be centered in America. Now is the time to heed Romans 12:1–2. It is the will of God to have the Spirit of God use the Word of God to make the children of God more like the Son of God.
Larry Spargimino Dr. Larry Spargimino is co-host of the SWRC broadcast and joined the ministry in 1998. Larry researches and writes books and articles for the ministry, assists on tours, and helps answer listeners' theological questions when they call the ministry. Larry holds a doctorate from Southwestern Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and pastors a local church.
On July 17, 2021, Vladimir Putin took part in the unveiling of a second equestrian monument honoring Czar Nicholas II, who is seen riding a horse and holding a Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) cross. He is called the “Last Christian Czar in Russia.” Putin is also seen dedicating a statue to Russian Christian dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the man who spent a decade in the Russian gulag and who gave the reason for Russia’s decline as—“We have forgotten God. That’s why this has happened to us.” Surprisingly, Putin voiced displeasure with the Stalinist regime and called Solzhenitsyn “a true Russian patriot” who suffered “horrible abuse with millions of Russians under the gulag system.” Putin said, “December 11 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Solzhenitsyn—a day of remembrance and respect and a day to revisit his literary legacy, his social and philosophical heritage (Michael J. Matt, Remnant tv). Do you ever think President Joe Biden—or Carter, Clinton, or Obama—would dedicate a statue to a Christian hero, say Billy Graham, and praise Graham with such glowing words?
Pride, Patriotism and Putin A PBS News Hour Special Report, aired on 7/10/17, quoted a Russian Orthodox priest who said, “The state and my faith are united. They can’t be separated. The values of the church and the state coincide.”
What does this all mean for understanding the Russian invasion of Ukraine? PBS reporter Nick Schifrin explained and said, “In Russia faith is patriotic. The Orthodox Church criticizes liberal Western values as heresies, while Orthodox priests bless Russian weapons and endorse Putin politically and personally. The president’s faith increases his popularity.”
This seems to be a common view. Marcel H. Vanherpen writes, “Traditional values have become the rallying cry of extreme Right populist parties, which are sponsored by Moscow in its effort to undermine Western Liberal Democracy and universal human rights.” Indeed, the Kremlin has delighted in the ideological relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian Nationalism. Though the ROC is much like Roman Catholicism in many ways, it is very different in that Roman Catholicism has no specific connection with any nation or political system, whereas the ROC is Russian in every way. The Moscow Patriarchate considers Moscow as the “Third Rome,” the spiritual center for all ROC believers. To be Russian is to be a member of the Russian Orthodox Church. Anything less borders on hostility against “Mother Russia.”
“Bad Boy Zelensky” Russia sees Ukrainian president Zelensky as a danger to traditional values. Good looking and a Ukrainian TV star, Zelensky has already had to deal with hecklers who think he is taking the country in the wrong direction and somehow receiving a payoff from George Soros.
Pinknews.co.uk printed Zelensky’s response to an angry heckler who threw a number of charges at Zelensky. His response:
“I don’t know Mr. Soros. I’m not his toadie so I can’t continue with his tasks because I have nothing to do with them, I’m not engaged in the legislation of prostitution which doesn’t exist in the country. Legislation of anything in the country can only be implemented through Ukrainian law if changes to the legislation are approved. This means by the hands of the Ukrainian parliament and by approval of laws.”
When Zelensky saw an attack on Ukraine’s gay people coming he became visibly agitated. “Regarding LGBT—I don’t want to say anything negative because we all live in an open society where each one can choose the language they speak, their ethnicity and s*xual orientation. … Leave those finally at peace, for God’s sake!”
8]Saint Vladimir and the Brutal Cleansing of an Empire Larry Spargimino May 24, 2022 Since February of 2022 the world has been shocked by the devastation the Russian military has brought upon Ukraine. While state media in Russia, and some groups in America, have claimed that the death toll has been “doctored” to deliberately arouse outrage at Russian nationalism, the abundant testimony of observers and Christian aid workers on the ground plus numerous satellite photos, leads me to believe that the wanton destruction of property and the targeting of civilians is real.
The attack on a maternity hospital, the use of cluster munitions and thermobaric bombs that suck oxygen out of lungs, and the testimony of refugees who have escaped to Poland and elsewhere testify, to the “scorched-earth” policy of the Russian military. What is Russia trying to accomplish? Are they afraid that Ukraine would join NATO? Are the Russians trying to stop the alleged “Nazification” of Ukraine? Or is there something else driving the madness?
The Real Vladimir Putin On May 7, 2018, 65-year-old Vladimir Putin was sworn in as president of Russia for another six-year term, having been elected with 77% of the nation’s vote. The ceremony was low-key. No one realized it at the time, but Russian Orthodox head Patriarch Krill gave Putin a treasured 18th-century icon. After the ceremony, Mr. Putin attended a prayer service at the Cathedral of the Annunciation.
This would seem to be strange behavior for a communist. Aren’t they generally atheists? Is Vladimir Putin a follower of Jesus?
In a pro-war rally in March of 2022 justifying the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Putin said: “Words from the Holy Bible come to my head: ‘There is no greater love than if someone gives his soul for his friends,’” a paraphrase of John 15:13.
In a WorldNetDaily piece titled, “Is Putin chiefly motivated by spiritual beliefs” (3/14/22), Dr. Michael Brown argues that Vladimir Putin is really not threatened by the expansion of NATO, but by the moral degeneracy of the West. In a speech given on September 19, 2013, Putin said:
“Another serious challenge to Russia’s identity is linked to events taking place in the world. Here there are both foreign policy and moral aspects. We can see how many of the Euro-Atlantic countries are actually redirecting their roots, including the Christian values that constitute the basis of Western civilization. They are denying moral principles and all traditional identities: national, cultural, religious and even s*xual. … The excesses of political correctness have reached the point where people are seriously talking about registering political parties whose aim is to promote pedophilia. People in many European countries are embarrassed or afraid to talk about their religious affiliations.”
President Putin’s return to what he views as Russia’s Orthodox Christian faith has become increasingly more public and open in recent years. While zealots in America’s cancel culture are pulling down statues that enshrine past heroes, Russia is doing just the opposite.
I thank you for the marriages that are doing great, Lord. Pray, we praise you for that. And, Lord, we thank you that you haven't abandoned the ones that are struggling in their marriages today, right now. So we pray, Lord, for a special Grace on them, a special anointing, Lord, that you'd comfort them, that you'd lead them in the truth, that you give courage and wisdom, Lord, you give them everything that they need in order to leave this place tonight and know what they're being called to do by you next. I pray, Lord, that we would be a Church that rallies around our single brothers and sisters, our married brothers and sisters and there would be such a source of encouragement for everyone who is just trying to honor you in the areas of life that we are called to be glorified in us individually, Jesus and be glorified in us, corporately as your Church at Gospel city bless us, bless us, Jesus it's not wrong to ask that bless us so that we can know you more and walk with you more intimately in Jesus name we pray Amen.
Speak the truth in love. Don't Nag. And this is for men and for women. Enlist help from the Church. Ask brothers in Christ to reach out to your husband.
Ask sisters in Christ to reach out to your wife. Do not be ashamed of this. Talk about it, because what's the alternative? Suffering in silence alone. Reach out for help.
Fight for your marriage and use any Godly means possible. Biblical counseling cannot be off the table. Jessica and I entertained this idea back when I preached the sermon series on love. I shared with you all about a hard patch that we went through not too long ago where I was really detached from her emotionally. I offered to go to counseling.
It didn't come to that, but if it did, I would go. My marriage is worth that. And yours is to women married to a believing husband who is exercising his authority in a God honoring way, and to men married to a believing wife who is honoring her husband's authority in a God honoring way. Don't stop praying for your spouse. You see a theme here.
Pray for your spouse. Don't stop living a godly life in front of them. Be grateful for this marriage because many Christian marriages struggle. Don't become complacent. Just because it's good today, it doesn't mean it will be good tomorrow.
Don't be afraid. Just be aware that the enemy prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. But celebrate God's goodness in your marriage and thank him for being the center of it. It's rare in our day to have a great marriage. Praise God for it and to married men and women who feel convicted after hearing a message like this.
If the Holy Spirit has shone a light on any area in your marriage where you have fallen short and have sinned against your spouse in any way, humble yourself. Confess that sin to God and to them, and ask them for their forgiveness in areas that are big or small. Small issues left unaddressed eventually will become big issues. And if you feel overwhelmed and under equipped to love your husband or wife the way you know God is calling you to simply ask the Lord for help. He wants your marriage to flourish infinitely more than you do and has made himself available to help you.
When your marriage flourishes, you get joy. And when your marriage flourishes, God gets glory in this world because people will see the picture of his son loving his bride. We pray with me in the worship team. Could you come back up and get ready to lead us, Lord, because we're your kids, because we're saved by your Grace and given your Holy Spirit and adopted into your family and are one with you now, Lord, all we want is your people is to have your word and to know your word and to live out your Word. I pray, Lord, for a growing conviction for every single one of your people across the globe, a firm conviction to say, Just give us the word of God and Lord, in that give us the Grace and the help that we need to understand what Your word says and the power that is greater than ourselves, that we need to actually walk out what Your word is calling us to do.
We confess, God, this is too lofty of a thing for us to live in a marriage like we just heard about from Paul in Ephesians Five. This is too great. It's too wonderful. I can't, but you can. And I pray, Lord, that you would pour out you'd lavish your mercy and your Grace on married couples in Gospel City Church.
According to the designer's design, husbands love their wives by laying down their lives for them and leading them not according to their own whims and dreams and desires, but by advocating for and aligning everything in their life together according to the Word of God. And they treat their wives as if they were their very own bodies, providing and caring for his wife's needs. Wives recognize the role that God has called their husbands to fulfill, and they longed to submit to their leadership. That takes the entire family into the will of God. They give themselves to help their husbands accomplish all that God is calling their family to do, using her unique strengths and gifting and personality to complement the unique strengths and gifting and personality of her husband.
And there's no competition. There's only teamwork to get the job done of living for God's glory in everything. In a marriage like this, a husband will feel respected and a wife will feel loved, which shouldn't be surprising, since this is how God designed it to be. I'm going to wrap up this message by addressing a question that I received a couple of weeks ago. When I asked you to submit your questions about marriage and singleness.
I had one person ask a question, and it was a good one. So I'm going to answer that here, and then I'm going to talk to some individual groups of people who are here in this room tonight in light of some of the things we just heard about marriage. Okay, so here's the one question that came in, and it was referring to this text in Ephesians. They asked, who are single women supposed to submit to if they don't have a husband, and how would they do it? This is a great, thoughtful question, and here's the short answer.
Every family has a head, and that authority is the husband or dad. Your father is the head of the family until or if you get married. When a woman gets married, she comes out from under the covering of her father and is now under the covering of her husband. When a man gets married, he comes out from under the same covering and now provides that covering for his new wife. When it comes to submitting to dad's authority in the family, you can use the same parameters we've heard regarding submission in this message as a guideline.
If that was a short question, short answer. Now I want to just talk to a couple of different groups of people in the room here right now. Two women who are married to an unbelieving husband or two men who are married to an unbelievable wife. Don't stop praying for your spouse. Don't stop living a godly life in front of them since you can't experience intimacy in Christ with them.
Lean into your Church family for that and for support, and do not divorce them if they are willing to live peaceably with you.
Sorry. To women married to a believing husband who is not exercising his authority in a God honoring way, and to men married to a believing wife who is not honoring her husband's authority in a God honoring way. Don't stop praying for your spouse. Don't stop living a godly life in front of them. Don't deceive yourself into thinking you have a biblical marriage if you don't actually happen to have one.
It's not a biblical marriage just because you are both Christians. Here's another quote from Leslie Vernon. I quoted her earlier from the same book, The Emotionally Destructive Marriage. When you are the only one in your marriage caring, repenting, being respectful and honest, sacrificing and working toward being a better spouse. You are a godly wife or husband, but you don't have a healthy or biblical marriage.
End Quote remember, you don't live a godly life because they do or because they don't. You live a godly life because you are a Christian. You don't wait for them to get their act together before you start doing the right thing. Listen well. Ask good questions.
The husband and wife can talk about anything in life and anything the Word has to say about it. So to understand everything in verses 24, you need to know that it's connected to the husband leading in everything according to what God says about everything. So Paul finishes thought on how husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the Church, Jesus demonstrated his love by dying for the Church and by washing her with the Word of God. But Paul isn't finished with husbands yet, and so neither am I. Verse 29 to 30 he goes on to say that a husband is to love his wife as his own body.
Verse 29 says, for no one ever hates his own flesh, but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the Church. Since we are members of his body, when you get married, you become one with the other person, mysteriously, spiritually and in a sense, even physically. Paul says in our passage in Ephesians that husband and wife are one flesh and that the wife is his own body. But it's just not that the wife is not just that the wife is her husband's body only because we read Paul saying this in one Corinthians, chapter seven, verse four. A wife does not have the right over her own body, but her husband does.
In the same way, a husband does not have the right over his own body, but his wife does. There's a oneness that is mutual in the marital Union. And this doesn't mean that the wife is free to do whatever she wants to her husband, because now he's her body. This doesn't mean that the husband is free to do whatever he wants to his wife. It means because they are one, the husband is to love his wife.
Gas is she is his own body. Husband, what do you want for your own body? And this is not a trick question. Food, water, clothes, home, comfort, safety. Protection.
Fun. Pleasure. Purpose you want those things for you. This verse tells you to make sure you give these things to your wife. That's how you love her.
That's how you lead her and you do them for her sake. But you're also doing them for your own sake because she is your body and you are hers. Verse 29 says that you are to provide and care for her. Remember last week in our message about singleness, we look at the self test to see if God has called you to marriage. If you're single.
Single women. If you are looking for a husband, do you look to see if he exhibits Godly leadership in the relationships he is in while he is single? Does he let the word of God have authority in everything in his life? Because if he doesn't, what makes you think he's going to leave you with the word of God being the authority in everything in your life together after you're married? And if he can't or won't provide for and care for himself while he is single, if he won't fix the broken shower, what makes you think he is capable or willing to provide for and care for you after you're married?
Paul ends the passage this way for this reason in verse 31. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is profound, but I'm talking about Christ and the Church. To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband. So here's a vision of how this works together when we live.
He also says that husbands are to love their wives like Christ did the Church by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the Word. We see that in verses 26 Jesus said this about the relationship between the Word and our spiritual cleansing. Speaking to his disciples, he said in John 15 Three, you are already clean because of the Word I've spoken to you. What's the connection between the Word of God and our cleansing? Well, Jesus speaks the Word, the eternal truth of the Gospel, and his Word reveals everything that we need to know about Him, about us and our world, about what he has done to make us right with God, and about his will for our lives.
And when people hear the Word of God and respond in faith to it, they are cleansed of their sin. The finished work of the cross is applied to their life, and when they continue to hear and heed the Word of God, they are continually cleansed by it. The Word of God does many things, but not the least of them is that it spiritually cleanses, the one who hears and responds to it in faith. Husbands are called to love their wives by speaking teaching, modeling the Word of God to them, washing them with the water of the Word. Of course, husbands are to speak or to first speak and teach it to themselves.
But then it's their responsibility to relay the Word of God to their wife and to their family. This right here is what can help us understand verse 24 from earlier Remember I said that we had a clue that would help us understand why wives are to submit to their imperfect husbands in everything. This is it. Wives aren't supposed to submit to their husbands in everything according to the husband's own will, desire, foolishness or imagination. Wives are to submit to their husbands in everything because husbands are to relate to their wives what God has to say to them and their family about everything.
This is how we are to understand money, work, giving, serving, friendship, Ministry, sex, kids, parenting, etc. Etc. Etc. But what the Word of God has to say about them. We want and God wants everything in our life to be sanctified, cleansed, set apart to Him and for Him.
He wants this for us so that he can be the center of everything that he has designed for our good. And when he is at the center, we can experience abundance and flourishing in everything. God's Word is the authority, and that's why the wife should submit in everything, because the husband is supposed to point to what God's Word says about everything. And wives know the Word because this will bring you great joy when your husband leads you according to the Word. You can follow Him with great confidence and joy when you recognize he is leading you by the Word of God.
And if they aren't leading you according to the Word, then you can lovingly speak into your husband's life to encourage him and point him back to the Word. But you can only do this if you know the Word yourself. In a perfect world, the husband and wife are learning the Word together and the husband is taking the initiative and leadership in this area. But if the husband won't lead you in the Word, wife do whatever you can to learn it one way or the other. It will be lonely to do it by yourself.
And that's not the way it was designed, but it's the way that it has to be done if you want to follow Jesus. Husbands want this from your wives want them to know the Word and to help keep you accountable to lead the family according to it. Be open to them discussing the Word and how it impacts the direction of the family. Invite it. Make it a spoken and unspoken reality in the home.
So every Christian has a responsibility to love every other Christian. But that doesn't contradict the fact that husbands are called to love their wives in a special way. Godly leadership and authority by the husband in marriage is all about loving his wife. How Paul says in verses 25, Husbands are to love their wives just as Christ loved the Church, and this should leave us all awestruck. As Christ loved the Church, we are called to meditate on all the ways Jesus demonstrated that got a love to his people, and then husbands are to love their wives in the same way as Jesus did.
Jesus is the model we look to to see how a man should treat his life treat his wife. How did Jesus love the Church? Well, Paul points to two ways in verses 25 and 26. First, he says Jesus gave himself for her to make her Holy. We see this at the end of verse 25.
Jesus loved the Church so much that he gave his life as a willing sacrifice so that she would he saved. Jesus loved his people so much that he was willing to die for them and not just willing. He actually died on the cross for their sins so that we could live forever with him. Paul says that husbands are to love their wives in the same way our sacrifices husbands doesn't forgive our wife's sins. Only Christ's sacrifice does that.
But the sacrifices we are to make for our wives demonstrates the love we have for our wives. We choose to lower ourselves to die in a sense so that our wives can be lifted up and blessed. We choose to be wronged if it serves to bless our wife. We choose to be uncomfortable if it means that she can know comfort we choose to go without if it means that she can have. We choose to be the ones to begin the process of reconciliation after a fight.
Even in those rare moments when we are only 1% to blame, we are to be the first ones to say, I'm sorry. These are all ways we die figuratively for our wives. But we will die literally too if we need to. We will give our lives so that our wives can live. That's one of the reasons that men go to war.
It's not just because Amen are generally bigger, stronger, and faster than women, because we are. We go to die so that our wives can live like Jesus died for his bride, the Church so she could live. Dying figuratively might be harder than dying literally. If I literally died for my wife, that would be a one time decision and then it would be over, and I'd be in heaven and it would be great.
When I figuratively die for my wife, though I am dying constantly, again and again and again so that she can flourish. And there's no quota that we can where we reach, where we can say as husbands, you know what? I think I've died enough. Her turn to die.
No, we die so that they can live. And we do that till death do us part. Husbands, love your wives. As Christ loved the Church and gave himself for her. Paul goes on.
He also says that husbands are to love their wives like Christ did the Church by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the Word. We see that in verses 26 Jesus said this about the relationship between the Word and our spiritual cleansing. Speaking to his disciples, he said in John 15 Three, you are already clean because of the Word I've spoken to you. What's the connection between the Word of God and our cleansing? Well, Jesus speaks the Word, the eternal truth of the Gospel, and his Word reveals everything that we need to know about Him, about us and our world, about what he has done to make us right with God, and about his will for our lives.
Now, an obvious discrepancy should pop up in your minds right away. And if it hasn't popped up yet, let me just go ahead and tell you what it is. Wives, your husband is not Jesus, and this is a big deal. The Church can submit to Jesus in everything, and it can do it blindly because of who he is. He is perfect sinless, the source of all wisdom and goodness.
He is God. There could be a lot of confidence submitting to someone when he is God, but that's not your husband. No matter what he tells you, your husband isn't God, and he doesn't make only wise choices all the time. He doesn't operate in love all the time. But Paul is still telling wives to submit to these imperfect men in everything.
Yes, that's what he's saying. Now I'm going to hold off on explaining this further until after we see how Paul addresses husbands, because there's another clue in the verse is to come that will help us understand this verse to wives here more clearly where Paul tells them to submit in everything. So we're going to come back to this. So let's switch gears now and talk to husbands. And we have some work to do, men, because one of the reasons we have so much work to do is that for the past several decades, we have been like frogs in a frying pan, slowly and systematically being conformed by the world into the image of Albundy and Homer Simpson, instead of being transformed into the likeness of Christ.
Culture has made Amen into a joke, a caricature, and we haven't resisted. Well, generally speaking, we have bought in hook, line, and sinned. The bar has been set so low for what men and husbands and fathers are to be, and on a whole, we have settled for it. So pay attention, brothers, and let's begin to write the ship. Sound good?
Your next feeling on your outline. In marriage, the husband is to love his wife. In marriage, the husband is to love his wife. Before we look at the ways in which husbands are called to love their wives, I want to point out an observation. I want you to notice how it's love that Paul calls husbands, too.
Paul doesn't tell them here to rule or dominate they aren't told to exercise authority here. It's the wives that are reminded of the husband's authority back in verses 24. But Paul doesn't reiterate that fact to the husbands here. In verses 25, he doesn't tell them that. He doesn't tell them they are the authority he tells them to love.
Do you know what kind of love Paul is talking about here? We looked at this word a few months back in a series we did on the topic of love. Paul is calling husbands to agape their wives, and agape is the best kind of love. When you agape love something or someone, you value the object of your love so much that you would do anything that was required of you that would produce the very best outcome for them, regardless if they deserved it or not, and regardless of what it may cost you to secure that for them. Agape love is a love of the will.
Now, like all Christians are called to submit to one another, all of us are called to love one another too. We are told this by Jesus in Matthew chapter 22, verse 39, where he says to love your neighbor as yourself. And in John 1334 to 35, Jesus says to his disciples, I give you a new command, love one another just as I have loved you. You are also to love one another. By this, everyone will know that you're my disciples if you love one another.
This would be a good thing to keep in mind if you are a wife who has an issue with the concept of being under the authority of her husband. If you do have a problem with it, are you saying that it's okay for Christ to be under the authority of an equal? But it's beneath you to be under the authority of an equal? It's just something to think about now. We don't see it until we get to the end of our passage in Ephesians, but there we can see that marriage was designed to paint a picture to the world, a picture of the gospel.
Pick it up in verse 31 says, for this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is profound, but I'm talking about Christ and the Church. In the living parable that is marriage, the husband represents Christ and the wife represents the Church. How the husband and wife interact within their marriage is supposed to show the entire world a picture of how Jesus interacts with his bride. The Church.
Jesus and his Church have different roles and they relate to one another in different ways. That picture can only be seen in a marriage where there is a distinction in the roles within it. The fact that the Church is the bride of Christ makes sense because it's the wife who represents the Church in the marriage analogy, and the fact that Christ himself is a man makes it necessary that husbands will be the ones to reflect him in the marriage analogy. This is why husbands and wives have the roles within marriage that they have right here in the picture. Christ has the authority over the Church and that is portrayed by the husband having authority over the wife, and the Church submits to Christ and that's portrayed by the wife submitting to the husband.
When you understand this mystery that marriage paints a picture of Christ and the Church, not only could you understand the role distinction within marriage between a man and a woman, you can also begin to understand why same sex marriage isn't marriage, why it can't be because marriage is ultimately about the gospel. Marriage has nothing to do with our perceived personal rights and desires. Two men in a romantic relationship or two women in a romantic relationship cannot paint a picture of the gospel since God says that the picture of marriage is the man Christ dying for his bride. Did Christ die on the cross for Christ? No.
But that's the picture you get if two men are in a marriage relationship together. Or does the bride of Christ submit to the bride of Christ? No, but that is the picture that two women in a marriage relationship would paint for us. When you understand the main point of marriage is that it paints a picture that displays the glory of the gospel in how Christ the husband loves his bride. The Church, you will have to concede that there's no such thing as same-sex marriage.
It doesn't exist. It can't next question, what realms or areas of life is this submitting to occur? This is the next feeling on your outline. The wife is to submit to her husband in everything. I take this point straight from the text.
This is what it says in verse 24. It says, now as the Church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. Now, everything doesn't include sin, and I hope this is obvious. You don't submit to your husband if he's leading you to sin. But other than that, wives submit in everything.
Are Christians to submit to the authority of Jesus and everything? Yes. And Paul says, as the Church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands and everything. Again, there's a parallel and a pattern, and this parallel is one clue to understanding this verse. Wives are to look at how the whole Church lives submitted to Christ as a model for how she is to submit in marriage.
You remember that if you were here with us that week, it was a great message. God has established various offices of authority in the world and the office is meant to be respected even if the person holding the office isn't doing respectful things. An office of authority is good, but the person occupying an office can be either a blessing or a curse. Examples of Offices of Authority Parents, Employers teachers, political leaders Husbands Pastor All of these are good offices of authority, but we can imagine what it would be like to have bad parents or a bad boss, or a bad Prime Minister or a bad pastor. But just because some of the people who are in these offices aren't good, it doesn't mean the office isn't good and worthy of respect.
The office of a husband is a good office. It's just a sad reality that not all men who are husbands are good husbands. Okay, but why do husbands have this office of authority in marriage? Why not the other way around? Or why any distinction at all?
Well, it's true, and it's good to know that the Bible does call for mutual submission between and towards all members within the body. Of Christ in Ephesians Chapter In verses 21, which is the verses immediately preceding the passage that we're looking at, we see that Paul calls for a mutual submitting to every other Christian. All brothers and sisters in Christ are to submit to one another in love. But not all brothers and sisters in Christ are married to each other. Not all brothers and sisters in Christ become one flesh with each other.
Marriage is a special Union of two people into one shared life together, and this shared life is lived out in the context of the whole Church. What Paul says in Ephesians chapter Five, verse 21 does not contradict what he says in the next couple of verses. There's a unique relationship between a husband and a wife when they become one flesh in marriage. There is a lead help dynamic that exists in the new oneness that they share. Back in part one of this series, we looked at God's design for relationships in Genesis chapter one and two before a sin came into the picture and ruined everything we saw in Genesis three.
That tension regarding the roles within marriage came about as a consequence of sin, but the roles were established in the garden. The husband leads and the wife helps. God put that in before the fall. And the same truth is taught throughout the Scriptures and the Bible is uniform on this position. Husbands are never called to submit to the authority of their wife.
In the Scriptures, it is only wives that are called to submit to the authority of their husbands. I'll put a great verse in the Bible to help people who have a hard time with this idea. One Corinthians, chapter Eleven, verses Three I think I have it on your outline that says, But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man and the man is the head of the woman and God is the head of Christ. This is a great verse is shows us that husbands are not free from being under authority. They are not an autonomous authority walking around doing whatever they want or they shouldn't be anyway.
They are under the authority of Christ. And in case wives still feel left out thinking they are singled out as the only ones who are under authority. Paul says in this verse that even Christ is under authority. He is under the authority of his heavenly Father. Jesus didn't have any problem being under authority.
I go with Jesus on this. The point is that you have a higher authority and any time your husband would ask you to do something that God has said is wrong, you are in no way to submit to these requests, these types of asks, or these kinds of demands. You do not submit to sin. You would not say it with a haughty or arrogant attitude, but rather with a winsome submissive longing. One, he will be able to discern in you a longing that he not do that wrong thing so that you could enjoy his leadership in your marriage.
You feel that I will not follow your lead on this. I want to follow your leadership, but I cannot in this moment in this way. Number five, submission does not mean getting all of her spiritual strength from her husband. He's not giving her any spiritual strength in our text, and she's got lots of it. Her hope is in God and she's probably going to Church on Sunday without him getting her strength elsewhere, getting her worldview elsewhere.
And six, submission does not mean living or acting in fear. This Godfearing wife Peter is talking about is fearless. I love the Scriptures and I'm a complimentarian, and I believe that men are called to a unique kind of leadership in marriage. I believe that women are called to a unique kind of submission in marriage, and I think it's a beautiful thing the way those two roles complement and serve one another. If we probe the depths and keep digging into the Scriptures, even though they're written in another time, they will shape a marriage today into a beautiful thing.
So we can learn a little bit about what submission is by learning what it isn't. But why is it that the wife is called to submit to her husband and not the other way around? Here's the answer and it's a really popular one in this day and age we live in. Please note my sarcasm and it's the next film in your outline. The husband is the authority in the Marriage verse 22 says this in our text back to Ephesians, chapter five, verse 22.
Wives, submit to your husband's as to the Lord because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the Church. We're given a parallel comparison by Paul. He tells us that Christ is the head of the Church. No Christian will disagree with that. Then he tells us that the husband is the head of the wife.
Some Christians will disagree with that, but Paul draws a connection between the two using the word as wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the Church. Submit is a hard word for some people, and I don't think the word authority is any easier. I'd like to remind you of something we looked at earlier in this series that a person's value is not tied to the role that they have in society or in any relationship that they are in. If you have a different role in a relationship from the other person, you maintain the exact same value as the other person who has a different role than you do. Remember, this is a Mago day stuff.
Everyone is made in the image of God. Therefore everyone has the exact same value regardless of their role. I'd also like to remind you of something. Jeff caught us a few weeks back when he delivered the message to us about COLVID. In that message, he devoted some time to talking about offices of authority.
That really happened. Piper just looked at him and said, you're not well. You have an unbelievably distorted view of this fellow heir of the Grace of life. You don't understand the Bible. You're taking a word like authority or leadership or submission, and then you're stepping away from the Bible and filling those words up with stuff that you want to do.
You are not getting this from the Bible. As a Christian man myself, who is also a husband and a father, it makes me very angry when I think about the fact that there are terrible men who are husbands and dads doing terrible things to their wives and kids, all because they terribly misconstrue what the Bible says. It makes me angry at them and it makes me sad for the woman and the kids who have to endure the very opposite of what God designed for them to experience in the home. If you've ever been hurt by a husband or a dad, I want to share this quote with you by an author named Leslie Vernick from her book entitled The Emotionally Destructive Marriage. In it, she says this when you are rejected or unloved, disrespected or abused, it is awful and hurts you deeply.
But it is not a statement about who you are. It doesn't mean you are unworthy of love or care any more than the rejection of Jesus meant. He was unworthy of love and respect.
There might be someone here today who needed to hear that submission never leaves the brain at the altar. All throughout the marriage, the husband would he relating to and conversing with and problem solving alongside their wife, who is an individual who thinks and feels and dreams and wonders and processes things independently from him, often in ways that are much different than his and that has thoughts that are very much worth listening to. It should be the working out of a one flesh Union. Leadership does not mean you do not listen. Leadership doesn't even mean always getting the last word.
Good leadership often says you were right and I was wrong. Not dictation, never listening, not even having the last word. If you asked my wife Jessica, what does submission look like for the Church in AZ, one thing she would say is that this isn't an issue for us. We agree that if we can't agree, BJ's going to make the call. That's really basic.
And you know what? It almost never happens. One of the reasons almost never happens is that we've been together a long time and we know what each other thinks. Another important reason is that I often yield to Jess. I don't need to be right or to have my way or to have the last word.
Number three. Next fill in your outline. Submission does not mean you do not try to influence your husband. Submission does not mean avoiding the effort to influence or change the husband. The whole point of the text in one Peter three is win him.
Her life is devoted to changing this husband from an unbeliever to a believer. Can you imagine if somebody said submission means stop trying to change your husband? Well, I would get what they might be saying with that. But if your husband is living in sin or your wife is living in sin or unbelief, you want them to change. And you wouldn't be a loving person if you didn't if you stopped wanting that.
Number four, submission is not putting the will of the husband before the will of Christ. Christ is for Lord now and for the Lord's sake. She will submit to the husband, but he is not her Lord. Therefore, whenever she must choose between the two, she chooses Jesus. If her husband says, let's get involved in a scam or let's watch porn together, her choice is clear.
And I'm not Spiderman either. But even I have enough Spidey sense to know that some women might be getting antsy at this point, and maybe some men, too. If you hang with me, we will see that this submitting that Paul is talking about is a good thing. Not an easy thing all the time, but a good thing nevertheless to get a sense of what it means for a wife to submit to her husband. We're going to make a quick jump to another passage found in one Peter, where the Apostle Peter addresses the same subject, but he talks about submitting to a husband even if he's not a Christian.
I'm going to read the passage and then give you six really quick things that submission is not. And I think this will go a long way in helping us understand what submission is. So here's what the Apostle Peter says in one Peter three, one to six. In the same way, wives submit to your own husband so that even if some disobey the word, they may be won over without a word. By the way their wives live when they observe your pure, reverent lives.
Don't let your beauty consist of outward things like elaborate hairstyles and wearing gold jewelry or fine clothes, but rather what is inside the heart, the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit which is of great worth in God's sight. For in the past, the Holy woman who put their hope in God also adorned themselves in this way. Submitting to their own husbands just as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord, you have become her children. When you do what is good and do not fear any intimidation. Okay, six things that submission is not number one and this is going to be the next filling on your outline.
Submission is not agreeing on everything. Submission is not agreeing on everything. For instance, the Christian faith, because some of the husbands in one Peter three, one to six are unbelievers. If in that situation the husband said to his wife, you can't have that religion. In this family we worship Allah or whatever this wife says.
I'm sorry, but I cannot do that. It's possible to be submissive and refuse to think what your husband says you should think. This text doesn't make sense without that. In this text, the wife has sworn allegiance to Jesus. Jesus is now her Lord and her King.
She's an alien and an exile in her marriage. This husband belongs to another God and she's called to live with him. She's not called to get a divorce over issues of religion. If he says, I don't want you to be a Christian, what does she say? She says, I love you.
I want to be submissive to you. I intend to be submissive to you. But on this point I have no choice. I belong to Jesus. You may send her away and that happens in one Corinthians, chapter seven, The Unbeliever Splits which would be a great tragedy.
A submission does not mean you must agree with the opinions of your husband, even on things as fundamental and serious as the Christian faith. God has made you with the mind. You have to think you are a person, not a body and not a machine. You're a thinking being who is able to process whether the gospel is true, and if it's true, you believe it. If he says, you can't believe that you humbly and submissively, do not submit to that number two in the next Phillip on your outline.
Submission does not mean leaving your brain at the altar. Submission does not mean leaving your brain at the altar. Now maybe this is the same point, but it needs to be said this way too. Any man who says, I do the thinking in this family is sick and has a sick view of his authority. John Piper shares that he dealt with a couple one time the wife said her husband demanded that she get permission to go to the bathroom.
I want to pray. I'm going to lead you in a prayer right now. You could pray this prayer silently with me, making these words your own if they reflect what's in your heart and in your life. And if you're not in a bad marriage right now, consider praying silently for your brothers or sisters during these few moments. Who are you?
Close your eyes. Let's pray together.
Dear God, sometimes I'm afraid to open my eyes and see what's going on in my home. I don't want to know. It scares me. But I want to trust you with my life, my children and my marriage. I want to believe that you see what's going on and you want it to stop.
I want to know your wisdom and your ways so that I am not destroyed by the pain I am in. Help me, God, take one step at a time. Amen. Okay. Those are four ways that you might respond to what you hear here and know that however you do respond, God loves you so much, and we are happy that you are here with us tonight.
Okay, so let's jump in to our text, Ephesians, chapter five, verses 22 to 23. Here's what the Apostle Paul says, Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife. As Christ is the head of the Church, he is the savior of the body. Now, as the Church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands love your wives.
Just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for her to make her Holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the would. He did this to present the Church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but Holy and blameless. In the same way husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hates his own flesh, but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the Church, since we are members of his body. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.
This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the Church. To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband. Paul starts off by addressing wives, and so that's where we're going to start, too. Here's the first fill in on your outline. In marriage, the wife is to submit to her husband according to the Strong's concordance.
Here's the definition of the word submit. It's the Greek word hypotaso, and it means to place or rank under, to subjects or to obey. We see this word submit used in a variety of ways and relationships. In the Bible, this word was used by Luke to describe the way Jesus related to his parents growing up. In Luke chapter two, verse 51, it says, Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them.
It's the same word hupotaso. This word was used by Paul to describe the way citizens are to relate to their government. In Romans 13 one it says, Let everyone submit pupil Castle to the governing authorities, since there's no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God. And this word was also used by Paul to describe the way a person's own spirit is to relate to them. Where he says this in one Corinthians 1432 and the Prophet's spirits are subjects.
There's the word to the prophets. And in our text, this word was used by Paul to describe the way wives are to relate to their husbands. Ephesians 522 Wives submit to your husband's. What does this submitting look like practically in marriage? I'm no Sherlock Holmes, but even I can detect that this word submits rubs some people the wrong way.
You might kick back against what you hear, thinking to yourself or saying out loud. Even I don't like that. I don't believe that, and I won't believe that. And that's fine. You can try to do marriage according to your own wisdom.
That's your prerogative. God gives you the freedom to choose whatever you want, but you will not be the exception. You will not be the first one to reject God and his ways and find blessing in that choice, whether it's applied to marriage or to anything else in your life. Or you might be overconfident. When you hear what I share with you about marriage, thinking to yourself or saying out loud, I am nailing it, or I'm going to nail it if or when I ever get married one day.
And if that's you, you might want to take notes of the Rich Young Ruler who came to Jesus one day. Matthew, chapter 19, starting to verses 16, says this. Just then, someone, the Rich Young Ruler came up and asked him, Jesus, Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life? Why do you ask me about what is good? He said to him, there's only one who is good.
If you want to enter into life, keep the Commandments. Which ones? He asked him. Jesus answered, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.
I've kept all of these, the young man told him. What do I still lack? What was the young man's response? I'm doing everything right. Jesus.
Was he, though? No. But he thought he was. And you could respond to this message on marriage like the Rich Young Ruler responded to Jesus. And if you do, you will probably miss out on anything.
The Lord might want to show you that's lacking in your life. Or you might be crushed beyond hope. When you hear about God's design for marriage, thinking to yourself or even saying out loud, who could ever do that? That sounds impossible. The bar for marriage is set so high, why even bother trying?
And what we're going to hear about marriage is too lofty for any one of us to do in our own strength. And here's the encouragement that I can give to you on the front end. You can't do it on your own, but with God, you can. That's the secret to experiencing the abundant life that God has designed for you. He calls you to an impossible way of life, but he also gives you the Holy Spirit so that you have a power greater than yourself, equipping you to do impossible things that you could never do on your own.
This applies to marriage, or you might get emotional when you hear about God's design for marriage. And that's okay thinking to yourself or saying out loud, I'm in a marriage right now, and it's not going good at all. And the thought of it makes my heart break into a million pieces. If that is any of you. I want to take this moment to acknowledge you and the situation that you're in, and I want to do the single best thing that any of us could do in your situation.
In the final message of this miniseries, we shift our focus to some essential truths God’s Word reveals about marriage.
Amen. Amen. Amen. We are wrapping up. Our verse is relationships two nights, and we're tying the bow on it by taking some time to talk about marriage.
Here's. What you need to know about marriage. Right out of the gas is God's idea. It's not a social construct. It's not something that has evolved into existence over thousands of years.
It's not something we've arrived at after a lot of trial and error. God instituted marriage at the very beginning, back in Genesis Two, after we made Adam and Eve. The scripture says this in Genesis 224. This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. God designed marriage, and when he did, he didn't set the two new lovebirds free to live their new married life.
However, they wanted to completely detach from him. He created their marriage and all marriages with a purpose, and he alone sets its parameters. When God designed marriage, he placed himself in the center of its design. And like everything else God designed, he designed marriage to be a blessing, so that those who are married would flourish in that relationship. Keep him in the center.
The design works as it was made to, but take him out of the center and the design falls apart. Statistically, marriages are not flourishing in our world today. In the US, almost 50% of all marriages will end in divorce or separation. Researchers estimate that 41% of all first marriages end in divorce, 60% of second marriages end in divorce, and 73% of all third marriages end in divorce. It doesn't get much better when you cross the border and come up to Canada where we live.
Although Statistics Canada has not been collecting Canada's annual marriage and divorce rates since 2008, it seems fairly widely accepted that over 40% of Canadian marriages are expected to end in divorce. The Toronto Sun reported that Canada has the 29th highest divorce rate of the 87 countries surveyed, and marriage rates have declined. While common law relationships are becoming more common in every province and territory, data show 21.1% of Canadians were in common law relationships, a number that has increased from 6.3% in 1981. In a recent poll by Angus Reid Institute found 53% of Canadian adults felt marriage wasn't necessary. We shouldn't be surprised when we hear statistics like this, because our culture has been systematically dismantling what God designed marriage to be.
For several decades now, humanity has tried to alter the definition of marriage and infuse it with his own purposes and desires into it. But as hard as humanity has tried to do those things, they have done so in vain. Reject God. Everything falls apart. Rejected the designer.
The design begins to crumble. So if we want our marriages to flourish, we have to align our marriages with God and his waste. So if you have your Bible with you, and I hope you do, go ahead and turn to Ephesians chapter five, verses 22 to 33. If you haven't done so already, this is going to be our text. It's a very well known passage addressed to husbands and wives, a sometimes misused passage.
But when rightly applied, it's a powerful and transforming passage of God breathed scripture. We're going to hear what God says to both wives and husbands individually. Then we'll be able to envision what a Godly marriage was designed to look like. And as you might imagine, and especially if you've been with us for the first three parts of this series, you can guess that not everyone will respond the same way to what I share here tonight. I can think of four different ways a person might respond to this message on marriage.
But you came in and you pursued us, Jesus you came and lived and died and rose again to make a way for our sins to be removed. To make a way for us to have access to you and to your father simply through placing faith in you. And anyone who is a Christian today and anyone who will become a Christian in the days to come is one simply because you loved us first and we responded to your pursuing love. I pray for all of my single and married brothers and sisters, Lord, that whatever law in life that they have right now, whatever station in life that they're walking in right now, Lord, that they would turn the entirety of that life over to you and say, Lord, I want you to rule and reign and to be God over every part, every square inch of my life is yours. Satisfy me, Lord, if I'm single, Lord, be my satisfaction if I'm married and wherever I am and whatever station of life I'm in be glorified in my life and use my life to that end, Lord to maximize your glory in this world meet us in prayer meet us in our devotion bless us, Jesus we pray in your name Amen.
Do they let his word do the authority over their singleness and do they want his word to be the authority over your marriage? I almost didn't get married because I wasn't mature enough at the time. I had been dating Jessica for a few months and then one day in my apartment that I owned and had a mortgage on, which showed some financial responsibility. But here's the other instability of immaturity. My shower broke broke one day, and what a mature person would do is to call the plumber and have them come over that day or the next and fix the shower.
But that's not what this guy did. This guy let it go unaddressed for a day and then two and then three and then four, well over a week, maybe even a couple of weeks before I addressed it. Yes, I bathed throughout that time, but I just would bathe at work or at the gym or at a friend's house. I just found a way to it just wasn't a pressing issue for me to address the shower. You got to think of in your mind.
My girlfriend at the time is a Christian woman, mature and sees a man who won't fix his shower, plays the tape down. So what's going to happen when we get married? She's thinking to herself, and we have a family or not even just me and him. And the shower breaks. Am I going to have to go down to the river to have a shower?
Who's going to fix the shower? And there's a couple of other things that verse is the relationship at that time, but it was a big one. And because of that, she said, I don't think I can get married to you because of this. Broke up with me, devastated. I can tell you this that same day or the next day.
I called the plumber really quick and the shower was fixed. You can't go into a marriage guaranteeing that the other person will change. They might, they might not. So you have to make sure that you weigh the good with the bad and see if you're going to take the bad with the good. You can't turn a blind eye to the immaturity that exists because it's going to come with that person into the marriage.
If they're growing spiritually in their singleness, there's a good chance, not a guarantee that they will continue to grow when they're married. And if you're curious what happened with that? I got mature and we ended up getting married to me and Jess anyway. Okay, that's the end of the quiz. You assess your score.
And if or when you come to the place in your life where you can answer yes to each of the questions on this little quiz, that would be an indicator that God may be calling you to get married. It's not an airtight perfect method, but I think it checks a lot of the boxes you would need checked before transitioning into that new stage of life. So let me close with this. It's not easy. As a single person, when you're feeling loneliness, s*xual desire, a Godly desire for a spouse and or a family.
God knows every thought, every fear, and every disappointment. He sees them and most definitely has not forgotten them. Singles need to be reassured that God is faithful. And if you are single, be reminded that God has not withheld his very best from you and that's if you remained unmarried, he has not withheld his very best from you. Jesus came so that you can have abundant life in him.
You pray with me, Father. I just thank you that you sent your son to complete people. We were so lost, every single one of us, Lord. So lost, so broken, so unsatisfied, so incomplete apart from you, as a byproduct of rejecting you and walking in sin, walking in spiritual darkness. I just praise you, Father, that you loved us so much that you didn't just give us what we wanted and give us what we deserve, which is a life apart from you.
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What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
However, on the other ‘side’ of the argument, many prominent climate scientists refuted AOC’s claim, with NASA climate scientist Kate Marvel stating that climate change is not a “cliff we fall off” but rather “a slope we slide down.”Additionally, the leader of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, Gavin Schmidt, called AOC’s 12-year deadline, “Bullshit.” He then added, “The thing to push back against is the implicit framing that there is some magic global mean temperature or total emissions that separate ‘fine’ from ‘catastrophic’. There just isn’t.”
Speaking directly to the climate-change ‘youth movement’, Australian politician and Chair of the “Environment and Energy Committee,” Craig Kelly believes that children are being “completely brainwashed” and he believes they are saying “the exact opposite of the truth” in relation to climate change. He says that, “The truth rebuts every single one of these alarmist’s slides that they carry on every single thing. They tell you from more fires to more deaths to polar bears drowning. When you look at the evidence and the peer-reviewed science, it tells the exact opposite of what’s being peddled.” He then went on in the 12-minute interview to cite many scientific facts proving that the “climate change” they are talking about is a hoax
Now, like any issue that has passionate, like-minded people on both ‘sides’, there is likely to be some ‘exaggeration’. So, I put a representative ‘sample’ of information on both in the “Resources” and “Articles” sections below for you to consider for yourself.
HOWEVER, the thing is, I AGREE with Greta Thunberg, Lucas Barrero, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Beto O’Rourke that the WORLD WILL END in the next ‘few’ decades, and that WE ARE THE “LAST GENERATION”—BUT NOT FOR THE REASON, “climate change,” that they claim will be the ‘culprit’.
I believe what the Bible says is going to happen: Believers in Jesus will be ‘raptured’ before a seven-year period of time called the “Tribulation,” which Jesus will come back to earth at the end of it to terminate the unimaginable, horrendous war called “Armageddon.” (Because the Bible says that, if Jesus didn’t return, “no human being would be saved” – Matthew 24:22). [ A 1,000-year “Millennium” will follow the Tribulation, after which God will then totally ‘remake’ the entire universe and come to live with His ‘children’ in the “New Jerusalem” on the “New Earth” for eternity! .