Passed the Point of No Return So Know Your Place and Do Your Job
Passed the Point of No Return
Humankind is careening toward self-annihilation.
As Christians, we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God that foretells future events. It records that Jesus said that eventually an End Time would come where much of the humanity would be destroyed in relatively short time.
Current events and conditions in the U.S and the world, signal that that predicted time is upon us.
After building nuclear missiles pointed at each other, poised to destroy humanity in mere minutes, and after stockpiling biological weapons fashioned for the purpose of indiscriminately killing innocent people around the world, superpowers relentlessly engage in increasing hostility likely to trigger the unleashing of these weapons.
For half a century, people have felt secure despite this threating nuclear age, believing government assurances that the fear of mutually assured destruction of developed nations would prevent a world-ending holocaust.
But times have changed. Today, almost no one trusts either governments or party-dominated news and social media to report truthfully. Our worst fears are confirmed day-by-day, through the witnessing of the deconstruction of civilization around us, and the decline of civilization’s greatest defender of the past century – the United States of America.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned only weeks ago, on August 2, “Today humanity is just one misunderstanding – one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.”
Guterres’ fears may be animated by reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin may employ nuclear bombs in Ukraine to end the bloody stalemate. Although Pentagon experts had believed that the Russian Army would crush Ukraine in three days, Russian forces have suffered humiliating, disproportionate loses. They have only been able to occupy 20 percent of Ukraine in six months of warfare.
In the East, China now encircles Taiwan with its fleet and claims it will attack, believing the U.S. is too weak to honor its alliance. Last week, Taiwan shot down a Chinese spy drone, and China reacted by firing a missile across Taiwan, heightening tensions and fear of impending nuclear war.
Human extinction may also be blundered into through biological weapons.
Unchallenged Senate testimony received from two highly placed infectious disease experts, Dr. Richard H. Ebright, Director at Rutgers University’s Microbiology Laboratory, and Dr. Steven Quay, the chief executive officer of Atossa Therapeutics, on August 3, 2022, exposed terrifying details about China’s biological weapons and America’s complicity in developing them.
Dr. Ebright testified that the American health agency headed by Dr. Dennis Fauci, funded the Chinese laboratory at Wuhan with a $600,000 annual grant. He convincingly showed us that that research led to the outbreak of the Covid-19.
After two years, and more than six million deaths, the Covid virus continues to shapeshift, continues to kill.
The most disturbing testimony of the Senate hearing came from Dr. Quay, who explained what was going on at the Wuhan Lab. He described action called gain-of-function research which synthetically recreates synthetic dormant plagues.
He said that the Chinese engineered and hold at Wuhan a biological weapon super virus called Nipah, that is about 60 times more deadly than Covid. Simply stated, Nipah virus, if unleashed, would kill 60 times more than the 6 million already killed by the Corona Virus.
Former White House Communications Director Pat Buchanan notes in his recent book, Suicide of a Superpower, that civilizations die from self-inflicted wounds, not murder. Buchanan presents poll data gathered over the past 20 years that show that Christian core values of the West and the United States will continue to decline. He suggests that America is killing herself.
The United States was founded as a Christian nation. The Founding Fathers and early writers spoke often that America was a Christian country.
Court decisions continued to validate that foundational fact for more than 100 years. For example, in 1891, the Supreme Court of the United in the case of The Church of the Holy Trinity v United States, held that an act of Congress that blocked the immigration of an English minister to teach in the United States was unconstitutional because Americans are a religious people, and this is a Christian nation.
The Christians who founded America created a contract with God – understanding that so long as the United States would remain a Christian nation, God would continue to bless and protect us as He had promised.
But America breached its contract with God when the courts misstated the truth, by misrepresenting our historical Christian character and declaring the United States was not a Christian nation. The court’s wrong-headed advocacy eventually bred hostility toward Christians.
The Supreme Court of the United States reversed course and contradicted itself in the Everson case, in 1947, claiming that Constitution forbids the promoting of Christianity. In 1963, in the School District of Abington Township case the Supreme Court removed Bibles from public schools.
The most remarkable court decision that highlights the court’s attack on Christianity is Roberts v Madigan, a 1992 federal appeals court decision. The Supreme Court let stand the Court of Appeal decision that books about Christianity had to be removed, but the books about other religions did not.
Simply stated, the result was nothing less than targeted hostility by the courts against Christianity.
The court’s advocacy in promoting the delusion that the United States is not a Christian country has resulted in government intervention to remove Christianity and its symbols from virtually all government-related public places.
The Bible makes clear that when a country embraces and then rejects God, that God will remove His protection over that nation – and the blessings which include peace and prosperity are withdrawn. As America’s leaders have turned the America away from acknowledgment of the One True God and rejected our contract with Him, we are reaping the harvest of our leaders’ evil conduct.
Violent crime, on a scale unimagined a generation ago, rips apart many large cities throughout the United States, owing to the immoral politicking of urban leaders who have defunded police in many metropolitan centers.
City of New York officials admit that the number of murders increased by 34 percent in 2022 over the past year, robberies went up 37 percent, and burglaries increased 25 percent. Similarly, Baltimore is experiencing its highest murder rate in its history, and per capita, Philadelphia suffers the worst murder rate in the country with over 300 slain and 1,400 shot in 2022.
Chicago, in 2021 saw the highest murder rate in more than 25 years and more than 3,500 persons shot. Carjackings in Chicago have continued to increase with almost 1,000 so far in 2022. More than half of all suspects arrested for violent carjacking in Chicago in 2022 as of July, were juveniles. The same holds true in many U.S. cities controlled by politicians and administrations who promote their minority views of so-called social justice and reject Christian values.
In New Orleans, this year, when a teenager went on trial and was found guilty of violently carjacking three lone women in one day, Mayor LaToya Cantrell succeeded in getting the assailant off the hook with no jail time by convincing the judge to let him go.
Almost one million people died from drug overdoses in the U.S. in the past 20 years. Recent statistics show the situation is getting far worse. From 2019 to 2020 overdose deaths increased by 30 percent.
Suicide is at an all time high. The annual U.S. suicide rate increased 30 percent from 2000 to 2020.
Not only does the present government administration of the United States seem impotent or unwilling to correct any of these domestic evils, but America’s ability protect itself, its allies, and her trading partners is coming to an end.
With regard to Taiwan, the President publicly clings to our promise to defend the island nation in the event of a Communist Chinese attack, while his staff indicates in social media accounts that the administration will not. It was just the same kind of mixed signals that came out the State Department in that emboldened the Communists to attack South Korea in 1950.
Until now, through absolute control of international financial organizations such as the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. has succeeded in pressuring other countries to not challenge the interests of the United States.
But today, five economic giants (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) collectively called BRICS, have been working together to break free of America’s economic dominance. Each of those five countries have developed their own regional alliances with a total of 76 member nations. At their 2022 Summit, BRICS agreed to establish their own world bank in Shanghai called the NDB, or New Development Bank. All this means the beginning of the end of American dominance of world economy and the use of the dollar as the world standard of currency.
The point of no return, or PNR, is a threshold event marked by pilots and navigators when a vessel has exhausted too much fuel to turn around. The only option is to go forward because there is no going back.
It is the view of this Christian, that considering all these observations together, that we have reached the point of no return.
The End
The Gospels record a core teaching of Jesus that in a distant time, known only the Father in heaven, that Jesus would return to gather His people into a new kingdom of God, and judge the world.
Jesus said,
The Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather from His kingdom everything that causes sin as well as all the law breakers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
But before that happens, both Jesus and Apostle Paul described that there would be a great wrath or tribulation before Jesus returns.
Jesus warned,
If these days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.
What Jesus is explaining is that as the End Time approaches, the enemy Satan will so take over all the earth, that if Jesus were to delay in coming back, all the church would be overwhelmed and destroyed. (Mt 24:22)
So when will this happen?
Jesus said that once the Gospel had been preached to all the peoples of the world that the End would come. (MT 24:14) That moment is at hand.
Rapidly expanding instant communications coming to rural areas of the world through satellite enabled communications and proliferation of mobile phone to the world’s most remote regions suggests that all the people groups are soon reachable to be given the Gospel.
There are approximately 3,000 active satellites in orbit today. Elon Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX, has announced that he intends to launch another 7,500.
So with that happening, if we believe the Bible as we must, and we see civilization deconstructing around us, and we are passing the point of no return, we must know that the End is at hand.
But fear not. For God is on His throne, and His will shall be done.
Know Your Place
Queen Esther was challenged by her kinsman Mordecai to risk her life to save her Jewish people with the words, You were born for such a time as this. God means those words to apply to you in the same way Esther took up the challenge 2,500 years ago.
Paul wrote to the Ephesians,
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.
You may understand that to mean that with each generation of the church, God has given every believer tasks to perform and personal gifts to accomplish the work.
It is no coincidence that you live in this last generation of the present age. God created you and placed you in the timeline for this pivotal moment to do good works for Him and the church.
In Ephesians, Paul continues,
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip His people for the work of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.
Does this mean that you must evangelize or teach as well? Maybe, but not necessarily.
There are many ways to serve. In any army, only a fraction of the troops are on the frontlines in direct engagement. The majority of soldiers, Marines, sailors and airman are support personnel, such as mechanics, cooks, and computer techs.
Look to what Paul said to the Corinthians.
To each one, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. And God distributes the gifts to each one as He determines.
So your gift may be preaching or healing, or like the vast majority – it may be supporting and helping.
Seek to know the will of God for your life, and do it.
Do not delay. Do not waste your time just sitting around waiting for an answer. Sometimes God’s answer is no answer. So rise up and start doing. Martin Luther said that if he knew with certainty that the Lord will return tomorrow, he would plant an apple tree today.
Do Your Job
Here is a checklist of things to fortify yourself to do the job that God planned for you.
Prayer Changes Everything
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians pray unceasingly. And to the Ephesians he wrote,
With every prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and to this end be alert.
Pray by yourself, and pray with believers. Jesus said,
Where two or more are gathered in My name, there I am in their midst. Paul told the Corinthians to pray to receive the greater gifts. And Jesus said, whatever you ask in My name, it will be given unto you.
Avoid Distractions
Focus on one goal and avoid distractions.
Paul wrote to Timothy,
No solider gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.
The writer of Hebrews wrote,
Let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith.
Deuteronomy 10:12 says to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul. Being so fully committed does not leave room for much else, does it?
A.W Tozer said that the Holy Spirit wants to fill you and empower you, but He cannot because your soul is filled with too much stuff. Today we have too many distractions that separate from our ability to work for Christ – too much entertainment, too many commitments, too many food choices, too many idols to pursue.
Appropriate the Faith of Christ
When Paul described for the Corinthians the gifts of the Spirt that all believers possess to build the Body of Christ, he included the gift of faith. Paul helped us to understand what he meant when he asked the Galatians rhetorically,
Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? And he asks again, Does God then give you the Spirit and work miracles among your by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard?
That is the power of faith and believing – the gift to manifest the power and will of God on earth. The writer of Hebrews wrote,
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.
Paul wrote to the Ephesians, that in our spiritual battle with the enemy,
Above all else, take up the shield of faith.
Reinhard Bonnke said that when he was sick with malaria in Africa just before he was to deliver a message to a large gathering, he believed he could not preach because he was so ill and lacked the strength to stand and talk. He prayed that he would appropriate the faith of Christ, knowing that at that time his own faith was not strong enough to go on. He received the faith of Christ, and he preached, with malaria, and there were many healings and miracles.
So it does not matter how you feel. What matters is that in faith, you believe in the power of God, and that you do your job.
Operate in the Gifts of the Spirit
It may seem like a daunting challenge to you to go forward as a soldier of Christ in this spiritual battle. You may feel alone and unequipped. Consider how the Apostle Paul shared the same fear when he wrote to the Corinthians,
And I was with you in weakness and fear and with much trembling. My conversation and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not be based on human wisdom but on the power of God.
So Paul explained that he acknowledged he had no natural ability to preach nor the physical presence to inspire confidence in him, but rather, it was only by the spiritual gift of the power of God, through faith, that he achieved any success at Corinth.
The same power is available to you today.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians,
For in Him, you have been enriched in every way with spiritual gifts. Therefore, do not lack any spiritual gifts as you eagerly await the return of our Lord Jesus.
And Paul described for the Corinthians how long the gifts of the Holy Spirit would remain with the Body of Christ. He wrote that the gifts would end when the Perfect returns – the return of Christ. (1 Cor 13:10)
There are those in the church who have it in their minds that the gifts of the Spirit ended 2,000 years ago. But that notion is contradicted by the documented history of the church researched by many modern Christian scholars such as Dr. Craig Keener, Dr. J.P. Moreland, and Dr. Jack Deere.
Asbury Seminary Professor Dr. Craig Keener’s monumental 1,100-page treatise Miracles documents hundreds of supernatural signs and wonders that have occurred and continue today, and reach back to the time of the apostles. He notes that in some parts of the world today, ministers report as much of 80 percent of new conversions occur as the result of converts witnessing the power of the Holy Spirit to perform signs, wonders, and miracles.
And consider this final point.
Jesus said that He would never leave us or forsake us. Although He told His disciples that He would return to the Father and reign from heaven, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit who would remain with us forever.
Paul explains the power of the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 6, to both build and defend the Body of Christ. Is it right for believers to think that Jesus would break His promise and withdraw the power of the Spirit from the Body of Christ in this climatic time of need? No.
Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.
So since we have passed the point of no return, trust the promises of God. Know your place and do your job with confidence and with mighty power.
