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The Jesus Cult was written in response to what we have occurring
around us right now. We can see man turning away from God at unparalleled
levels. Never have you seen the world in this state - open, worldwide,
rebellion! Jesus said that it would be this way in the last days
Matthew 24:36-44. Just like in the days of Noah, everything appears
normal, calm, and average. Everyday activities continue unabated.
But slowly, systematically, the mystery of iniquity works its way
into the very fiber of man's character. It is eroding away all morality,
normalcy, humanity, and sensitivity. The Bible says we have become
ingrained with, and stamped by, inordinate, perverse affections.
What is normally accepted as being "within the realm of human
behavior" is now rejected.
Look at the landscape in front of us. Men and women are tattooed
from head to toe covering every public and private area of the body.
Everything is pierced from the navel, nose, and tongue to the lips,
eyebrows, and sexual organs. People are adorned with rings on every
toe and finger. What we see now are weird, mutated, decadent presentations
of the devil's image of man.
The sad thing is that the root cause of all of this can be traced
directly back to the pulpit. Since the church is the salt of the
earth and the light of the world, when the Gospel is perverted there
is no hope for man. There is nothing more to keep the world. There
is nothing else God gives to stop the decay besides the Church.
When the Church fails in its assignment to be salt and light to
the world - to stay the hand of decay - then the world begins its
descent into decadence, rebellion, anarchy, filth, and hatred. We
see all these things before our very eyes right now.
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Paul provides a snapshot of these end times as he describes the
progressive profile of man's fallen degradation in Romans 1:18-32.
The world will be full of hatred and anarchy with wrath and murder
consuming mankind. Crime will rise to unprecedented levels. Look
at your surroundings! Look at our society! Kids are walking into
schools and blowing each other's brains out. Fifty million babies
have been burned alive in their mother's womb, pulled limb from
limb by vacuum extraction used to suction a baby from its mother's
body. Basically, people are walking around demon possessed, driven
mad by their own desires and senses because of the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. They are being driven
to insatiability. Pornography is a multi-billion dollar global industry
as men sit and watch every kind of sexually perverse activity known
to man: depravity, avarice, mutilation, and degradation now occur
at alarming rates.
Who would ever think man could degenerate to this? Who would have
thought that an educated, cultured society could plummet to these
depths? Yet, the Bible tells us the truth in spite of all of our
technology, all that we see around us, and all the things that we
glory in and think are so dynamic and illustrious. Everything defined
as "great" according to man's wisdom and abilities, now
seems to be the sign of his decadence. The mind of man, although
attaining to more knowledge, is simultaneously eroding away because
of his own carnal desires. This is why Solomon wrote in the Book
of Wisdom--Ecclesiastes 3:18, "I said in mine heart concerning
the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and
that they might see that they themselves are beasts."
Man in his fallen nature is nothing more than a beast, because
he is sensual and ingrained in his five carnal senses--what he sees;
hears; tastes; touches; and smells. This carnal nature traps him
in a world of sensual pleasure, hedonism, and insatiability. When
the carnal senses take over, he is driven by the passions and desires
of the animal kingdom. Man begins living on basic animalistic instincts
instead of being led in his spirit by the Spirit of God. He turns
to the flesh to satisfy himself instead of turning to God to willfully
obey his Heavenly Father. The very nature of rebellion says, "I
will do as I will." Satan said it five times in Isaiah 14;
I will not obey. I will do as I please. Man has now been totally
consumed by this desire to do as he wills outside of the realm of
what God wills. In this realm you will only get total depravity.
God judged King Nebuchadnezzar for this same spirit of pride in
Daniel 4:16, "Let his heart be changed from man's, and let
a beast's heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over
him."
This should let you know that man can be given the heart of a beast,
and can live like an animal. Just look at the young teenagers who
have 30, 40, or 50 sexual partners before they reach the age of
20. Lesbianism and homosexuality are at pandemic levels. Sodom and
Gomorrah is presently located in San Francisco, New York City, New
Orleans, and Miami. Now, it is making inroads into the city where
I live, Atlanta, Georgia. Even as I write this book, Atlanta has
been marked as the next Sodomite capital of the world. Homosexuality
is finding a new home in the Deep South; even the Bible Belt.
Left to himself, man is just like a peach, apple, orange or banana.
When cut off from Jesus, the vine (our life source), it is only
a matter of time before decay manifests. Separate fruit from the
vine, where it is nourished and kept alive, and at that very moment
decay begins to set in. Similarly, mankind cut off from the Life
of God, over the centuries, is decaying inside. Scripture says,
corruption comes into the world through the lust of man. When his
desires dictate to him, man degenerates into the state of an animal.
The problem is that religion has functioned like a refrigerator.
Put rotting fruit into a refrigerator and you slow the process of
decay, but the refrigerator can never stop the inevitable. Man has
set up religion to soothe his conscience and make him feel good
about himself, while the decay still works itself into the fiber
of his being. Soon we will have what the devil has wished for over
the centuries; man as a reflection of the devil himself - a beast.
What should the Christian response be? We should return to fasting,
praying, and proclaiming the Word of God with boldness. We don't
come to tell the answers to life's problems; we are here to be the
answer! Christ in us is the answer to every problem on earth. No
man, despite his best intentions, can solve the Middle East crisis,
drug abuse, pornography, child abuse, hatred, racism, perversions,
and homosexuality. Beloved, it takes an All Powerful God to solve
these problems; a God that you and I claim to represent and know
personally. Where, then, is the power of God in times like this?
God is waiting on you and I to divest ourselves of all worldly lust
and be filled with His power.
We are about to experience a rude awakening in this country and
around the world. The signs of the end of time are all around us,
and they become more and more apparent everyday. We have finally
reached an undeniable crossroad that will require a radical response
from the true Church of Jesus Christ. Will we turn to politicians,
world banking organizations, educational institutions, and economic
systems for deliverance? Or will we turn to Jesus Christ, the Son
of the living God? I believe we will see the rise of the Antichrist
come to a seat of power and global control in our day. I believe
worldwide democracy expressing the "will of the people"
will bring the man of sin to power. For this to occur, the structure
of the United States has to be shaken so the devil's plan can be
carried out. Prepare yourself for a shaking of every organized system
we've built in this country. God says He will shake everything and
every system until the only thing that remains is that which will
not be shaken. Only Jesus Christ cannot and will not be shaken.
It is not going to get any better for the world citizen, but for
the saints of God, it is time to turn your hearts towards heaven
and prepare to meet the Son of God at His second appearance. The
shaking has started. Will the shaking shake you or are you rooted
and grounded in Christ alone?
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