I never expected back in the early 1990s that my ministry emphasis on opposing the LGBT agenda would lead me to study prophecy, but as the years passed, that emphasis, and my love of world travel, provided me a unique front-lines vantage point of the culture war globally. I have thus been a witness to the systematic dismantling of Judeo-Christian civilization around the world and the central role of the LGBT movement in that process.
Perhaps the best indicator of where we are at today is the recent ruling by a judge in the United Kingdom (which was not all that long ago the most powerful and far-flung Christian empire in the history of the world) that “belief in the Bible is incompatible with human rights,” in a case about normalizing the self-evident mental illness called “transgenderism.” That brazen gambit reflects not just the long-held consensus of the ruling elites but their confidence that it can now be legally imposed on a weakened Christendom.
Around 2005, I began to recognize that none of the well-conceived and diligent efforts of the church were doing anything more than slowing the process. My growing realization that God seemed to be intentionally NOT vindicating the work of His people in anything other than small, local – and almost always defensive – battles, led me to question whether the last days were upon us.
My book “The Petros Prophecy” (which I provide freely in PDF by request), offers my Bible-based analysis of the centrality of the LGBT movement and agenda in the last days and incorporates all major references to homosexuality from Genesis to Revelation. I assert that so-called “gay theology” is the heresy of the last days warned about by the Apostle Peter in 2 Peter 2 and that the consistent warning of Scripture is that widespread social acceptance of extreme sexual perversion (most especially homosexuality) is always a harbinger of the wrath of God.
But the LGBT issue is just one factor in my conclusion that the Lord’s return is soon. Others include the phenomenon of prominent Christians renouncing their faith, the Biblical Law of Cumulative Sin and the dual phenomenon of Messianic Judaism and the Third Temple Movement in Orthodox Judaism. These (all themes of my recent WND columns) are each evidence of the closeness of the Messiah’s return.
“How then shall we live?” asks Peter rhetorically in 2 Peter 3.
For my part, I want to ensure two things. First, that I fully maximize my efforts to advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ and bring more people into the lifeboat while there is still time to do so, and second, that when He returns I am found by Him diligently resisting the demonic realm in this world and “occupying” my mission field in His name. As He said: “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing” (Matthew 24:44-45).
Thus, unlike those who consider such efforts comparable to “polishing brass on the Titanic,” I will continue to fight the “culture war” vigorously, because for me it is nothing less than the defense of Bible truth among humankind. For me there is no separation between evangelism, discipleship and pro-actively fighting evil: They are interrelated duties every Christian is expected to fulfill. I see no biblical support for the inclination of some toward passive piety: letting the world “go to hell around us” while we (metaphorically) sit on a hilltop in white robes, hoping He returns before we’re beheaded.
Yet, even as we fight on, the last days Warrior for Christ must acknowledge that our battle is a rear-guard action because the Scripture warns us that “evil men will wax worse and worse” (2 Timothy 3:13) and that at some point in the rise of apostasy, God will grant the Antichrist authority “to wage war against the saints and to conquer them” (Revelation 13:7). Some believe we’ll be raptured before that occurs, but even that camp admits that once the last days apostasy begins, it steadily increases and everyone suffers it for a time.
In response to one of my recent columns, a reader send me a pdf of Erich Sauer’s “The Triumph of the Crucified” (1951). I have so far read only a few pages, so I offer no opinion on the book as a whole – but I found Sauer’s opening comments to be a great summary of the general perspective I share with him:
“The final goal of Christianity is Jesus Christ; the end of nominal Christendom is the Antichrist. It is the unmistakable teaching of the Bible that … the kingdom of God does not reach sovereignty through growth and ascent, but only after worldwide collapse and catastrophe. Lawlessness will take the upper hand, the love of many will grow cold (Matthew 24:12), and when the Son of man comes He will find but little faith on the earth (Luke 18:8). Not Christianizing of the world with consequent Christianizing of civilization, but increasing enmity of the world unto the expulsion of Christianity – this is the path of Biblical prophecy.”
I would disagree only to limit Sauer’s summary to the last days only, and not the prior two-millennia-long Gentile era when the Christianizing of the world did in fact Christianize civilization – to a very considerable degree. I would analogize that phenomenon to the sanctification process in an individual believer: spiritual improvement in direct proportion to ones pursuit of Christlikeness – with our own efforts always falling short of the perfection promised in our glorification by Christ upon His return.
My study of prophecy has run concurrently with the rapid rise of Messianic Judaism, which I perceive as the leading edge of the cusp of the reunification of the two Hebrew houses (Judah and Israel) – the theme of which heavily dominates Old Testament prophecy and subtly permeates New Testament prophecy as well. While I do not consider myself a member of the Messianic Jewish movement (perceiving it as an emerging form of the future religion of the post-Armageddon Millennial Kingdom, and not the religion of the soon-to-be raptured Bride of Christ), I have nevertheless benefited greatly from spiritual insights I have gained in my study of its theology. And I am honored to have taught and preached in numerous Messianic Jewish congregations on issues of common interest.
I began earnest prophecy study in early 2011, and began to coalesce my findings in written form about 18 months later, gradually expanding and refining my conclusions and underlying reasoning into book form. As a Christian lawyer, I took on the challenge of analyzing Bible prophecy “de novo” (from scratch) using the Hebrew cultural perspective of the Apostles, as if none of the modern interpretations favored by various eschatological camps had been written, but at the same time carefully distinguishing the Apostles New Testament-grounded views from Judaism (where they differ), as many Messianic Jewish writers fail to do.
I am pleased to report that I am nearly finished with that project and have decided to release the book, titled “The Prodigal Son Prophecy,” in serial form over the next few months. Again, because I believe these are the last days, I am offering my work freely by request, rather than limiting access to buyers. My goal for this book is to challenge present-day eschatological “tribalism” (team identity and loyalty rooted in pre-set denominational doctrines rather than diligent personal study) and to stimulate individualized critical thinking within a purely biblical worldview.
My studies have convinced me that the last days of the church age will be very much like the first, when Christian unity was at its highest due primarily to persecution. And they have inspired me to devote my own last days to promoting post-denominational unity on the essentials of the faith as understood by the Apostles, and to exhort the remnant of the faithful church to emphasize discipleship-driven biblical literacy in our circles of influence to maximize our individual and collective fruit-bearing capacity in the present season of harvest.
