The Battle Of The Ages

Ephesians 6:10-18

A declaration of war is the document that heads of state often use to unite and galvanize a people into common action against an enemy that is threatening the very life and existence of a nation. Those who remember the terrible days of World War Two will never forget the words of Churchill as he declared war upon the Nazi powers and called the peoples of the British Commonwealth to unite in a valiant effort to defend the homeland.

After the infamous day of Pearl Harbor, the words of Roosevelt were equally challenging to the American people. Even the Old Testament is replete with examples of prophets, judges, and kings calling Israel into counsel and making a declaration of war against her enemies.

In His Word, God states what should be the obvious; we Christians are already at war. Satan has declared war upon the saints and against the souls of mankind. He is a terrible foe. A powerful and dreaded enemy. He vengefully walks the face of the earth seeking whom he may devour. He is called the adversary. The accuser.  The wicked one. As someone said long ago, “Evil is not something, it is someone!”

A paraphrase of Ephesians 6:12 clearly states the situation of our war, “For our wrestling match is not with persons with bodies, but against rulership, and the realms of authority, against the world dominators of the present darkness, against spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies.”

It is obviously a worldwide conflict. Wherever God’s people are gathered, Satan’s war strategy involves hindering and harming the cause of Christ. Just as in days gone by, Christian soldiers who are in God’s army on the earth today have a real and continuing battle on their hands. No hold is barred and no quarter is given by the forces of evil arrayed against the saints of God. His weapons of sin, temptation and compromise have never been more powerful or fearsome than in our day and time.

This war is also a personal confrontation. Hand to hand combat of the dirtiest and most difficult sort is the order of the day. It’s person to person and eyeball to eyeball. Satan is not confined to hell or Hades, nor is he residing solely on the surface of the earth. He has a headquarters in the heavenlies. He rules over a band of rebellious angels. He controls myriads of demonic spirits.Apparently he has sub-rulers in delegated areas of authority on earth. Neither empires, kingdoms, nations, states, communities, or cities escape his malevolent attention. Sovereigns, dictators, princes, potentates and democratically elected officials are all subject to his power and control. He promotes anarchy and is delighted with the breakdown of law and order. He is known as the lawless one in the scriptures.

In all out war there can be no neutrality. In the spiritual warfare that still rages the real issue is whose side are you on? Jesus said no man can serve two masters. Someone has said that the hottest fires of hell are reserved for those who in times of great crisis try to maintain their neutrality.

Watchmen On The Walls Of Our World

I’ll never forget my first guard duty. I drew the midnight watch. Some called it the graveyard shift. It was bitterly cold. The memory of my extreme discomfort still lingers in the corners of my mind. The exhaustion of boot camp. The stress of a demanding and unfamiliar task. The lateness of the hour. The devastating cold and my desire to do well. All these made my fight to stay awake and alert one of the most memorable battles of my young life.

But it was only make belief. Training for the day when I might be called on to stand guard in a real life or death situation. My greatest fear was that I might fall asleep or give an inept or inadequate response to the challenge of those who would test me.

The story of Pearl Harbor clearly illustrates the need for watchmen who are alert and wide awake to the danger of an enemy attack. That infamous surprise attack was only successful because a number of responsible people were obviously asleep on their watch. The culprits ranged all the way down the chain of command; from those who were in command to the lowly officer who ignored the warnings of the operators of a primitive radar system. They had the blood of thousands of sailors, soldiers, airmen and civilians upon their hands.

When I was stationed for a time at Hickam Air Force Base just outside Honolulu during the Korean conflict, my living quarters still bore the pock marks of the strafing of Japanese planes.Just across a green was the large boarded up mess hall where dozens had died when a bomb had fallen in the midst of a sleepy Sunday morning breakfast. Anyone visiting the Battleship Arizona Memorial can still sense the tragedy of hundreds of young lives being snuffed out and their bodies being entombed in a watery grave; all because the watchmen did not give a warning cry. It would seem the ruins of the World Trade Center might also speak eloquently of the need for faithful watchmen on the walls of our world today.

Good and faithful watchmen have always been a scarce commodity. God in His Word places a premium upon spiritual watchmen. The Old Testament prophet, Ezekiel, clearly enunciated the principle that watchmen on the spiritual walls of the world are absolutely responsible to warn the world’s inhabitants of the spiritual danger of rejecting God and His Son.

If we who are called as watchmen and witnesses today go to sleep on the job, the spiritual blood of a lost and dying world will be upon our hands. We are only called to give a certain sound and effective cry. If people do not respond, we will be free of responsibility and will stand with clean hands before our God at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

In light of this awesome and eternal responsibility, may we take our calling as watchmen on the walls of our contemporary world seriously and be ever alert to the forces of darkness that threaten us on every hand. May we always stand ready to cry out and warn those who are lost of the danger of rejecting the Son of God!

Jesus Is Coming Again

Obviously the second coming is one of the most important subjects in the Bible. Enoch, the seventh from Adam spoke of it. So did Job in the oldest book in the Bible. Then every prophet of God focused upon it. About one verse out of twenty-five in the New Testament relates to it in some way. In one sense, the whole of the Old and New Testaments relate to His second coming. God’s time line of dealing with man on earth culminates with this great climatic event. His coming is our blessed hope.

Is Jesus coming again? I believe so. People are thinking about the end of the world today more than ever before. Many books are being written about matters of the end time. Popular secular movies focus on apocalyptic events. New Age gurus with Messiah complexes mix a little fact with a lot of fancy to manipulate followers to participate in terrible, tragic and futile acts. Every earthquake, natural disaster, shocking crime, political fiasco, military conflict, mass famine, threat of worldwide disease plague or terrorism, reminds us of the signs of the end times so clearly outlined by our Saviour.

But even so, it seems His coming will surprise the world. Jesus said that no man knows the time of His coming. He will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. He said, "At an hour when you think not, even so, shall the Son of Man come."

The prophetic clock of God’s eternal time table is ticking. No angel or demon can hinder or stop it’s progress. Man has a date with destiny. God’s eternal purpose will be consummated. No mortal man, priest or potentate, rich or poor, popular or powerful, can stop the movement of the hands of God’s prophetic clock. Every grain of sand trickling through the hour glass of time brings us closer to the end time events predicted in the Word of God. - John White

We cannot stop time, nor should we wish to, but we can put it to good use in the meantime. We can do as the prophet said, "Prepare to meet our God.." We can follow the advice of the wise man and redeem the time. Or as one poet has said, "In time, take time, while time does last. For time is not time, when time is past."

In order to wisely live in these times we are commanded to be watchful. In order to be watchful we need to be informed about future events of the second coming. Since it is appointed to man once to die and after this the judgment, the second coming should be important in our thinking and life. We should start each day with the thought and prayer, "Lord help me live this day in the light of your coming."

Someone has said, "No man lives carelessly whose last thoughts at night or first thoughts in the morning are, "Jesus is coming." We who are Christians should help our lost friends understand what it will be like to be left behind at His coming. Living with an acute awareness of the second coming should move every Christian to be a constant, consistent and compassionate witness of Jesus.

It is significant that after Paul tells us we Christians must all appear at the Judgment Seat of Christ, where it will be made apparent whether our life has been valuable or worthless in the Lord’s service, that he follows this with this statement, "Therefore knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men" I believe this could only imply that we should be deeply concerned and committed to warning the lost of the judgement to come upon those who reject the gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. (See II Cor. 5:10-11, I Cor. 3:9-15) Did you ever consider that the only thing or entity we can take from this world to the world to come is the soul of another human being? (Prov. 11:30, Dan. 12:3)