Ralph Martin - Two Events That Will Precede the Lord's Return: Are We Seeing Them Now?

[Music] hello brothers and sisters here i am again trying to share with you some really important things from god's word that can really help us in our daily life and really help us to be prepared for whatever may come i've been noticing on the internet lately a lot of speculation about whether we're in the end times or not and whether jesus is going to come soon or not and you know one response to the speculation is cynicism saying well i've heard this before you know uh in other times in history even in recent years people predict that the lord's coming the year 2000 the year 1000 times have been really bad before where people have speculated in this way and the lord hasn't come now the other response is to take seriously that the fact that the lord will come but also not to jump to conclusions about when uh actually in one of the epistles of peter he said people have gotten cynical you know they're kind of saying where when is the lord going to come things are the same just as they always have been and peter says no they're not the same as they've always have been the lord at one time sent a flood to destroy the wicked on the earth and next time he's going to send fire it's going to happen so don't get cynical try to hasten the coming of the lord by living lives of holiness so we can actually prepare the way for the lord's coming by being that bride that purified bride that the lord is looking for when he returns however there are some very clear signs that scripture tells us need to take place before the lord returns and that these are really things worth paying attention to we read about this in second thessalonians chapter 2 where it says now concerning the coming of our lord jesus christ and our assembling to meet him we beg you brothers not to be quickly shaken in mind or be excited either by spirit or by word or by a letter purported to be from us to the effect that the day of the lord has already come let no one deceive you in any way for that day will not come and then paul says there's two things that need to happen before the lord will return one is something that scripture refers to as an apostasy or the great rebellion so what's an apostasy an apostasy isn't something that pagans do is something that baptized christians do it's a turning away from faith on the part of those who once had faith but have departed from it who have believed the lives of the evil one and no longer follow jesus christ now i don't know whether what we're seeing today is the great apostasy that scripture is talking about here but i do know that ever since society became christian and in influence at least if not in reality ever since the emperor constantine in the fourth century uh became a christian and pretty soon christians were no longer persecuted and pretty soon christianity became the official religion of the roman empire so all the western nations in some ways adopted uh christianity as as their religion and it became very influential in country after country but what we're seeing right now is a systematic repudiation of that christian heritage in country after country uh catholic france doesn't exist anymore uh catholic italy doesn't exist anymore we still have lots of churches and lots of saints shrines but very very few italian catholics actually practice their faith and actually follow jesus and uh it's a very serious situation catholic spain the same situation there's a wonderful remnant in all these countries of dedicated catholics who are following jesus but the country as a whole is increasingly repudiating the christian faith as a guide in any way that should affect civil society same of course in the united states and in canada australia new zealand uh there's a a growing hostility towards christ in the church there's a growing aggressive effort to sideline christians from the public life to uh to say that christian views on on marriage and family are or hate speech and shouldn't be spoken about shouldn't be taken into account in making public policy so we do have a very serious situation we have a situation today where more and more catholics are believing what the world tells them rather than what the word of god the catechism of the catholic church tells them so we are living through a very great apostasy one of the most disturbing things i've seen in recent years has been the celebration in ireland when they finally legalized abortion and gay marriage people tens of thousands of people came into the streets of dublin celebrating the killing of babies and and the blatant rebellion against how god created the human race and male and female and the appropriate use of sexuality in a marriage between one man one woman open to having children those views are getting increasingly discriminated against or repudiated sometimes even legislated as as a illegal thing to say and that's happening to some pastors who are being called up before human rights tribunals because they dare to speak the word of god in these important areas now uh just a couple days ago i read that this year in ireland more people are being ordained bishops too than our or that are being ordained priests in the entire country one priest being ordained for the entire country of ireland this year pretty sad how how far they've fallen from the blessing that god gave them is one of the strongest catholic countries in the world that sent out missionaries all over the world okay so something like a great apostasy is happening we don't know whether it's the great apostasy or not but it's worth noting that a pretty significant thing is happening in terms of a repudiation of christian faith in many many traditionally christian countries the second thing that paul says needs to happen before the lord returns is a removal of a certain restraint that the lord has placed on the manifestation of evil and lawlessness a removal of the restrainer and removal of the one who restrains him so scripture scholars debate about what this could be some say perhaps it was the roman empire keeping chaos back of course that's not relevant right now some say it's the preaching of the gospel some say it's michael the archangel some say it's just simply a decision of god to protect the world from unrestrained evil until just before he returns unrestrained evil will be allowed to manifest itself as a test of people's faith as a test those whose hearts are with the lord it's a test that they'll pass those who hearts are not with the lord is attest that they'll fail with very serious consequences let's read what ii thessalonians says about those who fail the test of the end times and you know what's restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way then the lawless one will be revealed here's the good news and the lord jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his appearing and his coming so just one thing just when things seem like they're getting worse and couldn't get any more worse and all hell is breaking loose and it looks like christians are you know a disappearing minority the lord will appear and put down the work of evil reward his faithful ones and usher in the kingdom of his father the coming of the lawless one by the activity of satan satan's behind all this will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders that's why real signs and wonders are important real signs and wonders should draw people to jesus false signs and wonders draw people to something else than someone else and with every wicked deception for those who are to perish because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved so satan works through false signs and wonders that mesmerize people that attract people but don't bring them to repentance and faith and he also works through every wicked deception remember jesus said satan is a liar and a murderer so one of the ways that satan works is by infiltrating lies there's even one place in a letter to timothy where paul says the day is coming when the doctrines of demons will be infiltrated into the church through plausible liars well that that time is certainly here we have such confusion in the church so many lies people are believing so much confusion so much lack of a clear sound of the trumpet that uh we're living in those times and jesus has told us we would be living in those times and those times have in some way been present all throughout church history false teachers and false prophets but who is going to perish in this final trial and the catechism talks about this final trial that the church must go through who's going to perish in the final trial those who refuse to love the truth and so be saved brothers and sisters we need to treasure the word of god we need to treasure what god has revealed to us we need to take it seriously we need to base our life on it it's the only solid ground there is it's the only thing that will protect us from being misled by the end time confusion and if we're not in the end time confusion we're in a time of tremendously great confusion which the same principle applies therefore god sends upon them a strong delusion to make them believe what is false so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in immorality this is a hard saying it's possible the lord is revealing to us that if you harden your heart if you close your heart to the light of god to the truth of god you can so consign yourself to darkness and unrepentance you can become so hardened in sin so hardened and unbelief so hardened in cynicism that actually you become a victim of even greater darkness and greater delusion a greater a greater belonging to satan sometimes without even realizing it so what's the lesson for us today well i don't know if the lord is about to come or not i do know that some of the signs of his coming that paul talks about in second thessalonians chapter 2 may indeed be present right now but we're only going to know whether what we're experiencing right now by way of a great apostasy or by way of a tremendous revelation of lawlessness and we're seeing a tremendous revelation of lawlessness we're seeing a tremendous removal of all kinds of restraint on on moral behavior all kinds of rebellion against the god creating us male and female all kinds of rebellion against the law of our countries uh all kinds of deception about uh about what's going on you know still is to dealing uh assault is assault violence is violence breaking the laws breaking the law killing people is killing people and we can't justify it under any circumstance at all and yet it's being justified it's being ignored it's being encouraged it's being used so brothers and sisters we're living in serious times whether this is the time before the lord comes or not i don't know but i do know that we're all being put to the test today we're all being put to the test today are we going to remain faithful even though so many of our fellow catholics are turning away are we going to remain faithful to the revealed word of god as it comes to us in scripture in the catechism of the catholic church even though lots of people are questioning it putting in doubt and saying it's old-fashioned we got to get with the times we've got to get on the right side of history brothers and sisters if we're trying to get on the right side of history today what people are calling the right side of history we are going over a cliff we need to hold on to god's word we need to be faithful no matter what other people are doing we need to pass the test of this time same thing with uh deception we we just can't close our hearts to the truth and sometimes out of pride we don't want to humble ourselves and accept a painful truth sometimes we don't want to admit that there's things in our life that really need to change sometimes we don't want to admit to sometimes we're rationalizing sin in our life even though we are and it's going to take a really grace of god for us to swallow our pride and humble ourselves and kneel down and confess our sins and go to confession if it's a serious sin because we need to be right with god we really do we need to be right with church we need to be right with god we need to be filled with his word we need to be clear about what the truth is and we need to be decisive and determined and clear about for me and my household we will serve the lord i know a lot of us now are saddened by division in our households a lot of us can't answer for our households anymore but we've got to answer for as many people that we have responsibility for who are willing to listen to us as we can and for those who are not willing to listen to us that we have some responsibility for we need as the myriad children myriad fatima encourage the children to do pray and fast for the salvation of sinners for the conversion of sinners for souls that's what it's all about that's what these two signs are trying to alert us to we are certainly living in a time where apostasy is happening and great deception is happening and our only protection and our great protection is to be firmly grounded and rooted in jesus christ that clinging to his word eating his body drinking his blood being with our fellow brothers and sisters who are trying to live the catholic life that's what we're trying to do each week as we bring these videos to you we're trying to encourage you and strengthen you so that the trial that we're now going through maybe a trial that you pass a test that you may pass and that you become more deeply rooted in jesus christ because you are faithful in the face of temptation in the face of trial in the face of apostasy in the face of lawlessness amen [Music] you

Channel: Renewal Ministries

Views: 281,550

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Keywords: Christianity, Jesus, Christ, Evangelism, Mission, Spirituality, Evangelization, Religion, Catholic, Church, God, Trinity

Id: oY67yLXwcuM

Length: 15min 51sec (951 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 01 2020