>>Can't you just feel it? The conflict is becoming
apparent in our culture. It reminds me of those
words of John Paul II, "We're now living in the final
confrontation between the Gospel and the anti-Gospel, between
the Church and the anti-Church, between Christ and
the Antichrist." And if we don't choose
to know God's word, to believe God's word,
and follow God's word, we're going be a sitting duck
for all kinds of confusion, all kinds of disorder. Those are really important choices that
people have to make. >>And these choices
are difficult. Who am I going to marry? What kind of life
am I going to live? How am I going to raise my kids? What am I going to do
with my time, my talent, and my treasure? And I have to
make a choice today. Jesus says to each one of us, "I came that you might have
life, and have it to the full." The question is: Do we want it? >>Hey, welcome to another week
of<i> The Choices We Face</i> . Peter Herbeck is with me, and we
have been brothers in the Lord and co-partners in the Gospel
for a long time, and one of the things we know that the Lord has
given us to do is to preach and teach the Gospel, and to address
the culture that we are really living in right now
and strengthen you, our dear brothers and sisters, who are facing
tremendous battles today. >>No doubt. It's a joy. Time flies. The Bible says life is
short; it's a passing shadow. It kind of feels that way
when we get back every year. I thought, didn't we
just do this a month ago? But a whole other
year has gone by. You know what? In that year, Ralph, I think
again just living with the Lord, walking with the Lord, he keeps
feeding us, and those who are in the whole ministry and people
connected, are just being fed by the Lord and new stuff He is
showing us and new conviction and energy to do
what we are doing. It's really encouraging. >>Yeah, it really, really is. It's so great. We have many opportunities
to video what we do in different locations, and so
we have got something we can share with people today. >>Good. >>Okay, well,
the topic of the talk is "Discerning the
signs of the times. What is the Spirit
saying to the Church?" I would actually like to
start by sharing with you the discernment of Cardinal Wojtyla,
who in 1976 said some pretty bold things about what he felt
the signs of the times were telling us and what
the spirit was saying. Of course, two years later, he was elected Pope, and we
know him as St. John Paul II. I had heard these words before,
but what really brought them home to me now was just a
couple of years ago the papal nuncio to the United
States, Archbishop Vigano, quoted these words to
all the American bishops. Now papal nuncios really aren't
supposed to do things like this. They are supposed
to be so diplomatic, it's really hard to understand
what they're saying. [crowd laughs] Here's what he said to
the American bishops. He says, at this point, I would
like to call your attention to the words of the
then-Cardinal Wojtyla, spoken and addressed during
the Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia from 1976. It seems to be so
profoundly prophetic. These are the words. "We are now standing in the
face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity
has ever experienced. I do not think that the wide
circle of American society, or the wider circle of the Christian community
realizes fully. We are now facing the final
confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, between
the Gospel and the anti-Gospel, between Christ and
the Antichrist. But this confrontation lies within the plans
of divine providence. It's in God's plan, and yet it's
a trial which the Church must take up and face courageously." Like Father Matt was
saying, Jesus is Lord. There is nothing that is
happening right now that He is not permitting to happen for
the salvation of the world, for the judgment of wickedness, for the vindication
of the saints. As overwhelming
sometimes as it can seem, God is permitting this
in his salvific purposes. We will get a little deeper
into that in a few minutes. Now I don't know whether this is
the final confrontation or not. Pope John Paul II, Cardinal
Wojtyla, thought it could be, but I do know that we are in
a very serious confrontation. We are actually
in a very brutal, bloody struggle
underneath the surface. It is not just a
political struggle. It is not just an
economic struggle. It is really about wicked
powers and principalities, the devil himself trying to
snuff out faith on the Earth. His purpose is so
severe and so wicked, that it led Jesus at one
point in his ministry to say, "When the Son of Man returns, will He find any
faith on the Earth?" Well, God willing, He is going
to find it amongst you, right? God willing He is going to find
it amongst this city on a hill and all the people who have
been encouraged and strengthened through it in so
many different ways. That's pretty sobering,
those words of Jesus. When the Son of Man returns,
will He find faith on the Earth? Now, when Cardinal Wojtyla wrote
this down in a book called<i> Sign</i> <i>of Contradiction</i> , he linked it
to what the scripture tells us about the final confrontation. 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2. So let's take a look at 2
Thessalonians Chapter 2 to see what light we can get about
what is going on in this final confrontation or
this confrontation. Maybe it's not the final one. Maybe it's a good dress
rehearsal though, you know, and what wisdom we can get for
how to conduct ourselves so we are with Jesus through it all. It begins, "Let no one
deceive you in any way." And Paul was addressing
confusion amongst Christians about so-called prophesies
they were receiving that the Lord had already returned. And Paul says the Lord will not
return until two things happen. I am going to paraphrase
here because of time. The first thing that Paul
identifies that needs to happen before the Lord returns is
something he describes as a great apostasy. Now what is an apostasy? Apostasy isn't something
that Pagans do. It is something
that Christians do. It is the turning
away from faith on the part of those
who once had faith. I don't know whether this is
the great apostasy or not, but I know it's a pretty great apostasy that we are
going through right now. If you look at the statistics
of church attendance, number of baptisms,
Catholic marriages, almost anything you can measure
over the last 40 to 50 years, it is just going down like that in the western
Christian countries. Hundreds of millions of people
who have been baptized and confirmed are no longer living
as disciples of Jesus Christ and have been captured by the enemy. They may not know they have
been captured by the enemy, but even sometimes people who
still come to church are coming not with the mind of Christ,
but with the mind of the world, with the spirit of the age. They have been indoctrinated. They have been captured. They have been corrupted,
and they don't even know it because they still have
the Christian language, but the meaning of it and the
power of it and the truth of it has really been neutered. Paul says the day is coming
where people will hold on to the form of religion,
but deny its power. And that is why
the power dimension of the Holy Spirit
is so important. The two arms of God are the Word
of God and the Spirit of God. That is why Franciscan
University almost has a unique mission in the Catholic Church
to uphold both the power of the truth of God's word and the
power of the Holy Spirit, and those things need
to go together. That is why the charismatic
dimension of the Church is in a particular spirituality,
an optional extra for those who like to come to
conferences like this, but the whole Church needs
the power of Pentecost. The whole Church needs every
single working of the Holy Spirit and every single truth
of God's word in order for us to deal with this confrontation. The second thing that Paul says
needs to happen before the Lord returns is that a restrainer
that has been holding back the work of evil needs
to be removed. Whoa. The restrainer that is
putting a limit on evil and lawlessness needs to be removed. When that restrainer on
wickedness and lawlessness is removed, we are going to see a
manifestation of wickedness and evil like the world
has never seen. We are going to see the
appearance of the Antichrist. We are going to see widespread deception, and confusion,
and division, and conflict. But then, the Lord appears
and puts an end to it all. [crowd cheers] Just when things are looking as
bad as they possibly could be, the Lord appears because his
purposes have been fulfilled. What could his purposes possibly be in allowing evil
to manifest itself? 1 Corinthians Chapter 11 says
there must be divisions among you, so those who hold to
the true faith can be revealed. There must be divisions among
you so those who are in the sound way of the
Lord can stand forth. It is kind of shocking words, but that is really
what scripture says. Now, I don't know whether the
restrainer on evil has been removed or not, but I do
know that there has been an absolutely aggressive
removing restraint on evil, wickedness and immorality in
our culture that we thought we would never live to see. Whether it is abortion
or euthanasia, but right now the rebellion,
the most fundamental rebellion against God's creative will in
making the male and female, and the bold declaration that we
can be who we want to be and we don't have to accept the
nature that God has given us, that is a profound rebellion,
and it is being celebrated. Parades are parading gross
immorality, mocking God, mocking those who hold
to the word of God. We are living in a
culture that is like that. But not only that, but political
and economic pressure is being brought to bear on
those who dare to resist. It's like the modern equivalent of burning incense
to the emperor. It's the modern equivalent to
what the Book of Revelation talks about,
the mark of the beast. In order to do business in
certain states in certain ways you have to bow before the
falsehood that is being presented as freedom,
and it is an incredible lie. And we're living in-
the gloves are off. The gloves are off. But Satan is like romping
through the peoples of the world, harvesting
as many souls as he can, because many say that
he knows his time is short. Thanks be to God. But it makes me think of what
the Old Testament talked about when the walls were down,
the walls of protection on the Lord's vineyard, and the wild
boar was running through the vineyard, ripping up
the vine of the Lord. That is what is
happening right now. This has made me think
of C.S. Lewis' final volume in his space trilogy, which is
called<i> That Hideous Strength</i> . Just when it looked like evil
had gained complete control over the world, just when it looked
like there was no room for freedom left, this little group
of ordinary English people, you know how they can be so
polite and eccentric, all that kind of stuff, they
have ordinary conversations, they talk about how
they dislike weather, whatever the weather is,
and things like that. But they have kept a pure heart,
and they have had discernment about what is coming from evil
and what is good and wholesome, and they are gathered in
this little place called St. Ann's Manor, and it
looks like it is all over, evil has completely gained
control of the world, when all of a sudden,
angels descend. Mary descends. C.S. Lewis does this, of course,
in an imaginary way. He says Charity descends,
with a capital C, and there is such a purity, and there
is such a luminous, there is such holiness, there is
such an infinite goodness about charity that they
almost can't handle it. And through that little
band in St. Ann's Manor, this wicked evil somehow that
has gripped the whole world that has looked unbeatable, crumbles. That is how it is going to be. So all of us have to gather
together in our own St. Ann's Manor and look to the hills
from which our help comes. Our help comes
from the mountains. Our help is in the name of the
Lord who made Heaven and Earth. We look to the Lord. Teresa of Avila said, "If you
just keep your eyes on Jesus, you will reach
your destination." That is all we have to do. When we are faced with
overwhelming obstacles, when we are faced with
overwhelming and puzzling circumstances we just have to
say, "Jesus, I trust in You." You know Peter,
even though I gave that talk, as I was listening
to it, I was like, "Wow, that's amazing. How did I say that,
or how did I see that?" >>That was some good preaching. It was very clear. >>I felt like something was
cutting to the heart of things. >>There was a prophetic message
from the spirit, I think. It was anointed. I felt like it was an
anointed presentation. What I mean by that, the spirit,
the weight of the Holy Spirit is upon the message,
and there is clarity, there is power,
there is dynamic there. It's so good. >>And what's being
revealed is so awesome. >>It is hard to imagine that
the removal of the restrainer is even going to be worse
than what is happening, because the wholesale
rejection of God and God's way. >>And what restraints
are left, almost, we are almost
at the point of... >>Peter Kreeft kind of puts
it this way when he reads it. He said he thinks in some ways
we are at the final time in history that sort of, like the
fundamental things the enemy needed to do to
kind of get it unlocked and moving in his direction
before He shows up, is the destruction
of family life, and the deconstruction
of the human person, of what it means to
be a human being, you know. The definition of a man,
the definition of a woman, definition of a family,
all made by God. These two great institutions
are under mortal attack. The family through sexual
revolution and all the rest of it, all that deconstruction
and breaking down. That's where people
meet the Lord. That's where they learn
to love like the Lord. That's where they
see the face of God. The father and mother are
mirroring the trinity and all that in the family. And then you see
it in the Church, and you see the collapse of
the Church throughout the West. You said those two things are
powerful signs, and if they keep going, it's like the
foundation is laid. Right now it doesn't look like
there is any turning back on it. It looks like the force of
culture and the powers that be are really after making sure
everybody genuflects to what is going on in the world. I was just saying
to you earlier, for example you were referring
to the gay pride parades in the context of the talk,
and there is a lot of just perversion promoted there. It is really shocking to see
it is actually happening in Toronto or
San Francisco, wherever. >>All the political leaders
are flocking to be seen, to be supporters,
and that's disgusting. >>That's a revelation
about an idolatrous heart. There is idolatry going
on in those situations. The politicians in that case
are putting something first. My success as a politician, my
place, so what do I have to do? I have to jump out in front of
one of these parades and get excited and be happy and affirm
everybody in the context of it, and never say a single word
that there might be something a little off about what
is going on here. >>They may even
think that deep down, but they are choosing political
popularity over their own conscience in many ways. It was shocking to me
to see a picture of the Canadian Prime Minister
putting his arms around this naked woman in
one of these parades. I'm like, come on. >>It's almost like we will do
anything to maintain our power, our place, our influence,
the adulation of people. >>To be cool; to be
on the cutting edge; to be with the liberal
agenda or whatever. >>I think of John
in his first letter. He warns against
love of this world. It makes you an enemy of God. He warns us about the
lust of the flesh, the pursuit of
pleasure in the flesh, the lust of the eyes that is the
glitter, the gold, the diamonds, the money, the everything,
and the pride of life, which is seeking honor and
recognition from the world. Those three things are so
alive in the world right now. Even so far,
you see how much the enemy is gripping
the culture and society. Even business now, who these
issues should be almost irrelevant for them, some
businesses, powerful businesses, are forcing their employees
to go to these parades, saying you better show up
there and if you don't, you're a hater in some fashion. So it's a coercion. It's a collusion and a
coercion to affirm evil. They wouldn't force anybody
to go to the St. Patrick's Day parade in New York or the
Fourth of July parade. But why these parades, of all
parades, are they literally using their power to get people
to go and to affirm it and never speak against it? Where do you think
that comes from? >>Well, some of these companies
are now saying if you kind of try to protect religious
freedom in your state, we are going to pull our
companies out of your state. >>We are going to try to
financially cripple you. >>We are going to
come against you. We are going to put
you out of business. It's like the powers and
principalities have really gotten a hold of a lot of the
levers of power in our society, and people are signing on to
something that is really evil. But some of these companies are
actually run by people who are personally very engaged in these
behaviors, and they are using shareholders money, so to
speak, to advance an agenda. >>When you affirmed again,
our help comes from the name of the Lord who made Heaven
and Earth, He made us. We belong to him. The culture now,
as you mentioned in there, is the great good is aggressive
self creative freedom, that our hope and our happiness
is in my capacity to create for myself the meaning of
life, who I am, what I am, what happiness is going to be. That is a direct, very deep
profound rejection of God's rightful claim over his
creation, and we celebrate it as a great good, but it is
a profound rebellion. That passage from 2
Thessalonians that you read is so clear, and the wrath of God
is coming against that stuff. It really is. We have to be careful. I noticed, Ralph, in the
beginning of that section in 2 Thessalonians Chapter 1 Paul
is addressing the Thessalonians, and he says this, "Therefore we
ourselves boast of you in the churches of God for your
steadfastness and your faith in all your persecutions,
and in the afflictions which you are enduring." We are entering
into persecution. We are entering into affliction. The Lord is permitting it. A great test is here for us,
brothers and sisters, and we have to take it seriously and
if we are not, as you said, putting Jesus at the center and
holding onto Christ and living for Him, we will find ourselves
jumping into parades and celebrating things that offend
God profoundly because we have more fear of men than
we have fear of God. >>That is really true, Peter. That is really, really true. It is almost like we are being
required by our culture to actually live something
of a penitential life. We have to deny
ourselves certain things. We have to deny ourselves
certain acceptances, certain popularity, certain
comforts, of not standing out, of not being different, and it is almost like
Christians are going to have to live a different lifestyle
than even they have been used to in order not to be corrupted by
the culture we are living in, and we really need to support
each other in this. There need to be informal
communities developing, and we need to be
with other people who can help us
keep our heads clear. There is just a lot of things
we need to now kind of take a concern for our life if we
are not going to be co-opted by this incredible pressure. >>If you think about it,
we have been paying attention to just the life
in China recently, some of what goes on
in China these days. I remember reading an article. There was a conversation from the Director of Religious
Affairs for the Government. He came right out in
public in a public article, it was all published, and he
warned all party members to remember that they cannot have
any faith, and if they did they were going to be punished,
because he said your faith is undermining what we believe in, which is dialectical
materialism, which is really believing there
is no God, and then they force people, and they are
trying to force the Church to limit its power
and its influence and its capacity to be there. So not only in the
West is all this happening, but also in the East. There is this global pressure of one kind or another to not
acknowledge God and let people freely pursue God
and celebrate that. >>It's really ironic, Peter,
Satan tried to cut people off from God through communism, and
he succeeded in a lot of ways. But now he is trying to cut
people off from God from another totalitarianism, this kind of
totalitarianism of the left you might say, right here in western
culture, compelling people, punishing people, keeping
them from opportunities, not letting them enter certain
universities if they hold certain views,
or get certain jobs. These are the same tactics the
communists used to force people to corrupt their conscience
and go along to get along. >>And Peter said don't be
surprised by the fiery ordeal that you are entering into,
that you are living in. Brothers and sisters throughout
Christian history have gone through stuff like this that
is being rejected by society. Christian history is
full of martyrs and persecutions and the rest of it. The question is,
how are we going to respond? >>Right, right. We really need to strengthen our own relationship
with the Lord, don't we? We really need to get clear
about who we are following and who we are obeying when there is
a conflict between the teaching of Christ and what our
culture is telling us. We really need to know what
we are going to go with, and a lot of people
aren't there right now. That's why we have
this program, isn't it? That's why we are doing what we
are doing at Renewal Ministries. Well Peter, thanks so much for
being a partner in the Gospel and preaching and teaching
the Word that we know is so important for people
to hear today. >>You're welcome. >>I have written a booklet
called<i> What Happens When I Die</i> , and we need to get ready
for the conflict we are in. We need to get ready for
appearing before the judgment seat of Christ, and this little
booklet can be a tremendous help in getting clear about how we
have to live so that our life ends up a tremendous success
rather than a tragic, horrifying failure. It is also a good booklet that
we could use to awaken other people to what really matters
and to what is truly going on, put them in touch with realities
that people oftentimes don't want to talk about,
but it's going to happen. So we would like to make this
booklet available to you at no cost, just for the asking. The easiest way to get it
is just to go to our website, renewalministries.net, or you
can call the 800 number that is appearing on the screen and we
will get it right off to you, because there really
is a battle going on. There is really a war going on. The devil is like a roaring
lion seeking to devour souls. Every day he is firing fiery
darts trying to corrupt us, trying to tempt us, trying to
appeal to that lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes and pride
of life that Peter was just talking about on the program. We really need to learn how to pick up our cross every
day and follow Jesus. We really need to learn how
to renounce those disordered desires and choose through
Jesus in the face of whatever temptation, whatever
pressure, whatever threats, whatever discomfort we are
being threatened with. Until next week, this is Ralph
Martin and Peter Herbeck, wishing you a life that just
keeps your eyes on Jesus. As Teresa of Avila said,
just keep your eyes on Jesus, just keep choosing Him,
just keep looking to him, just keep following Him, and you will end up where the
Lord really wants you to be. We all die, but not
all deaths are the same. To die in unrepentant sin is a
bitter death that will only lead to the indescribable agony of
eternal separation from God. But to die as a Christian,
our sins forgiven, is to die a very
different kind of death, the death which has
now been transformed into a doorway to paradise. I have written a booklet called<i>
What Happens When I Die</i> to help you and I end up in paradise,
rather than in Hell. Go to our website,
renewalministries.net and simply click on the booklet, or call
the number on the screen and we will send it right out to you
just for the asking for free. What a gift we have been given. We can die in the love of
Christ and be with Him forever. ♪
