Hope diminishes excruciatingly slow as the best efforts of firefighters and rescue personnel search frantically for survivors of the building collapse in Surfside Florida.

No one would dare to say this is not a fearsome tragedy, and yet it carries with it the portent of many dreads and woes yet to come.

Are these kind of events divinely appointed, are they coincidence, or simple eventuation? It would be beyond the best prognosticators to decide which things are ordinary and which things are true divine interventional occurrences.

What is reasonable to say is that the causes of these events are often far separated from the reasons, with or without divine intervention.

In Luke’s gospel Jesus addressed a tragedy in which a tower fell and killed eighteen people. The disciples were anxious to get Christ’s take on the matter. Was it God, chance, or something else entirely? It was heavy on their minds.

Jesus spoke about it in a way that diverted their attention away from the tragedy and pointed their attention directly back to their own lives.

In a matter of fact, “let the dead bury the dead” (Mt. 8:22) kind of reply, Jesus said:

“Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Lk. 13:4-5).

Christ endeavored to shift their focus away from the temporary, the tragedy, the chaos, all by warning that they needed to connect to God and his forgiveness long before any tragedy struck.

Is it cold? Not at all, because only seconds after death, that advice would be perceived as the warmest and most loving advice ever given.

Imploring sinners to repent can be tiresome

Most people lazily decide to let history unfold as if it were just a matter of time and chance (Eccl. 9:11). Only the most biblically literate can understand the fact that the prophetic always takes precedence over the historic. There is a way the entire world is going to go; it is pre-determined, and it is as sure as the proverbial rising of the sun.

Warning sinners to repent is part and parcel of the known outcome of it all. But while some ignore all the warnings, it does not mean we have no part in the outcome. We are going to have our part in the final product.

We can influence the outcome in a myriad of ways. We can—by example, sharing, witnessing, preaching, writing, helping those in need, impassioned and loving prayer, imprecatory prayer, and weeping—create a profound and everlasting effect on the outcome of all things.

And yet for all of that, prophecy concludes that people will get much worse as the latter days approach in full force.

While the scriptures tell us we should not become weary or give up, they do tell us that there is a time to move on. Even God said he would not always strive with men, but he has a cutoff point.

“He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy” (Pr. 29:1).

For the Christians there is also a day to heed a new message as time begins to run the clock down That message will be echoed by the voices of preachers and prophets throughout the world.

What is that message? – the last days prophets will tell the world that they may take it or leave it, it is entirely up to them.

Think our politicians are bad—the next great world leader is empowered by the father of lies

The controversy about President Biden receiving communion takes on a perverted twist which is far from laughable. Why is the Catholic church even debating the matter?

Someone who believes that 60 million aborted babies are not enough, and men can magically turn into women, is hardly ready for communion without a full and serious repentance.

But, soon enough a man will rise to power in the same general geographical area as the old Roman Empire, who will make Biden look like an angel.

Jesus declared that Satan was a liar and the father of lies. Later, as he addresses John, who is exiled on the Isle of Patmos, Christ warned that the man at issue would be empowered directly by the spirit of the father of lies. (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12) (Rev 13:4-5)

In a nation and a world more willing to accept lies than ever before, this man will be welcomed with open arms. In a post-truth world, he will be just what the doctor ordered.

How close are we to the revealing of this man? This writer shares the opinion with millions of believers around the world that he is alive today and perhaps only a year or two away, if even that, from taking the reins of power across the globe.

While America still has more active Christians who believe all of scripture, the numbers of those who believe is rapidly falling. It is hard to accept, but this is also the work of God. Believers are ushered into the Kingdom of God, but what unbelievers are unaware of is that they too are ushered, by God, into a world of reprobation. It is the natural outcome of believing lies. To wit:

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Rom. 1:28).

Unbelievers think they live, love, and go any way they want, but in fact they are “ushered” into the place of reprobation just as surely as sheep go to the slaughter.

We think lies can be humorous, fashionable, practical, and useful to establish fate and fortune, but God places lies, and those who love lies, in a category with whoremongers, murderers, and sorcerers.

“For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie” (Rev. 22:15).

America’s whoppers bubbling up from the dark sea of reprobation

The list is far too long for one article, so we will limit ourselves to the most recent and most egregious lies of our present time.

• All white people are racists, according to "critical race theory."

• Defunding the police is a good idea that will make us all happier and much more civil.

• Aborting more children will free women and hold back crowding.

• Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were legitimately elected without a trace of fraud, impropriety, or lying.

• The drugs, child trafficking, and death at our southern border are not a crisis.

• It is OK to elect people who love power more than the people they govern.

• To save America from itself, we must teach our children to hate America.

• The Bible is an antiquated, spurious, and highly questionable book of poetry, nonsense, and wishful thinking.

• People can choose any old religion to get saved—even without a Savior.

• Men are not sinful, they just need to deal with guilt through therapy, modern psychology, and lots of love and kisses from their mommies.

• Despite mountains of errors in Carbon 14 tests, no explanation for the unproven process of interspecies evolution, and billions of missing transitional links from all species—we insist that we have evolved from simian mammals (monkeys).

• No one will hold us accountable for our sins, lack of morality, or corrupt ethics in this world or the next.

Here is one truth, spoken by Jesus Christ, that if believed and taken to heart will eliminate every lie in the above list. Don’t go reprobate, take a serious look.

“And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (Jn. 12:47-48).

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