Sep 17, 2008

End-Times Closet Christians

By Terry James

End-of-days indicators assault the sensitivity meter of every Christian attuned to the Holy Spirit’s siren of alarm. The signals are not hidden on the back pages of newspapers or relegated as fillers to the last 60 seconds of newscasts. The headlines glare; the stories are above the fold of the front pages.

The end of something is upon us. The beginning of something the politicians like to call “change” is on the way. Even those of the non-religious, non-Christian world sense a coming tidal shift of some kind.

Mayan 2012 Prophecy

While secular media entertainment and news will rarely give attention to Bible prophecy, particularly from a pretribulation rapture viewpoint, they wholeheartedly promote and publicize predictions such as those supposedly given by Nostradamus, Edgar Casey, and others of mystical ilk. The Mayan Calendar’s “prophecy” for the year 2012 is the non-biblical foretelling most in view today.

With that date just around the corner, we can expect an increasing drumbeat of media promotion for what that long-extinct group of shamans predicted for days just ahead.

Like I have stated in previous writings on the subject of the Mayan predictions, I have a quite limited understanding. This lack of in-depth knowledge is deliberate refusal to study the “prophecy.” I prefer to concentrate upon Bible prophecy, as this is my commission, I believe. And, Bible prophecy is truth, not mystical hyperbole.

That said, here is a sketchy look at the Mayan 2012 “prophecy,” from a blog site for which the subject holds considerable fascination.

“December 21, 2012 marks the end of the Long Count and Precession Cycle. A fascinating astronomical occurrence will take place that day. The sun will be seen in a conjunction with the crossing point of the galactic equator and the ecliptic which is referred by the Mayans as the Sacred Tree. Since this is due to take place on the winter solstice, this should provide clear evidence that the proper end day of the Mayan calendar is December 21, 2012. Some say December 22nd, 23rd or even other dates. However, the solstice was an important day to the Mayans and it is logical to think that they would conclude their calendar cycle on this day, coupled with the fact of the rare astronomical occurrence set to take place that day…”(2012endofdays.org)

Now, I’m sure that clears up everything for you!

It is a dumbfounding matter to consider. Many who name the name of Christ think of Bible prophecy as unintelligible, frightening, and otherwise something to shun. These, at the same time, readily fall for the false prophets and prophesies, apparently primarily because news and entertainment media extol the foretelling abilities of the ancient and modern, non-Biblical soothsayers. This inability to discern between Truth and false prophecy is due, in my view, thanks to the seminaries and pastors of their churches, who see Bible prophecy as either already fulfilled, or as to be spiritualized, allegorized, or otherwise something meant as a good story-line of some literary sort.

All the while the signals that we are at the end of the dispensation of the age of grace (church age,) continue to pile up in every direction we look.

End-Times Signs

As stated at the top of this article, the news headlines alert spiritually attuned senses to where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline.

Geopolitics

The signs under this category are ubiquitous and prolific. Israel stands at the center of the world stage, with all nations in the process of gathering against the modern Jewish state.

Zechariah 12:1-3 flares from the pages of newspapers and hourly TV and Internet news updates. All focus is on that tiny nation-state. Iran’s leaders threaten to erase Israel from the Middle East and from off the planet. Syria’s dictator, Bashar Al-Assad, feigns desiring making a treaty with its much-hated neighbor, all the while romancing and being romanced by Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who wants a better foothold in the region.

The Arab conglomerate, led by fanatic Islamic terrorist organizations, wage never-ending jihad.

The West looks at Israel with consternation aimed at Israel, while silently approving America’s acting unilaterally to pressure that nation to accept a “Roadmap to Peace” plan at the expense of dividing Jerusalem and the tiny amount of land they possess.

The European Union (EU) continues to use its time to develop a system of control over territories that formerly comprised the Roman Empire–all within line with prophecies given by Daniel, in chapter 9 and elsewhere.

Russia courts Iran –ancient Persia—in ways that look to be setting up the coalition prophesied by Ezekiel to invade over the mountains of Israel.

China is becoming a world power that almost certainly is preparing it to be the king of the “kings of the East” foretold to invade the Middle East over the dried-up Euphrates in Revelation chapters 9 and 16.

Socioeconomics

The Apostle Paul’s forewarnings of “perilous times,” found in 2 Timothy, chapter 3, are coming alive in our daily lives today.

Politicians and people within every other category of societal interaction are increasingly self-centered. They are boasters, proud, blasphemers. They exhibit, through abortion, homosexuality, and general anger with their fellow humankind, that they are without natural affection.

More and more of the human race is fierce, incontinent (out of control with addictions), and in general lovers of themselves more than lovers of God or their fellow man.

Religion

Within nominal Christianity and ecumenical circles of world religion, the siren song of deluding spirits and doctrines of devils lure people to the reefs of false belief systems, where their souls are dashed to pieces. The social gospel they espouse is filled with feel-good and do-good religiosity. The man-centered system, rather than bring the proponents of and adherents to the humanistic, save-the-planet ideology to account to the Creator, injects the luciferian delusion that they are doing good, thus will attain heaven--wherever and whatever that is-when moving to the next life.

Tragically, many Christians in the ultra-comfortable theater seats are bedazzled by the humanistic ministers who appear highly successful, in terms of numbers in the pews, dollars gathered, and national and world spotlights trained on them. The Bible, however, terms them “ravening wolves,” because they feed on the flocks that seek the riches the false teachers claim God provides, based upon a formula of "give to get."

Some among the “Christian” churches seek to make alliances with those who collectively turn Christ’s words of John 14: 6 upside down. They agree with the likes of Oprah that there are many ways to God, like spokes on a wheel lead to the axle. In that sense, the apostasia (falling away) of 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, is well underway--a major signal of where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline.

Closet Christians

And, this brings us to the crux of the article’s title. This is an era of “closet” Christianity. It is a time when, it seems, there is too high a price to be paid for standing for Christ in the public place.

The attitude is so pervasive that the legislators of the American political processes have allowed liberal-minded judges to legislate God out of classrooms and practically every other public place.

It is more comfortable to simply say to one’s self –to anyone who would question the silence—“I believe a person’s religious beliefs should be held in private. We shouldn’t impose our beliefs on others."

But those who oppose God DO seek to impose their beliefs on the rest of us. Proof is in the fact that it is deemed perfectly okay for judges to overrule the majority opinions of the voters and, by judicial fiat, install the godless activity of, for major example, murdering nearly 50 million children in their mothers’ wombs since the Supreme Court decision of Roe vs. Wade in 1973.

The overwhelmingly liberal news media in America, along with the entertainment industry, promotes and lauds the freedom to use abortion as after-the-fact birth control, without very much opposition by a majority of the “Christian” churches. It is simply easier to take the path of least resistance –to not rock the societal boat, to not appear to be out of step with the contemporary, "if-it-feels-good-do-it" culture.

Those in this category who call themselves “Christians” stay in their closets of expediency and anonymity. They are caught up in the pleasures this life has to offer, and don’t intend to have those things threatened by a world hostile to the gospel message and true Bible doctrine. Their privacy is their comfort zone, and their “Christianity” stays locked behind the closet doors of their right to keep their thoughts on religion to themselves.

Jesus said this about that view of Christianity: “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:34-36).

Closet Christianity Commended

There is another type of closet Christianity, of course, that the Lord commends in the most glowing of terms. Jesus’ own words gives the heavenly Father’s view of this type of being a “closet Christian”: "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly” (Matt. 6:6).

Christians are to use the prayer closet for communing with the heavenly Father through His Son Jesus, who, through the Holy Spirit, makes intercession for God’s children. Great and mighty things are the result of prayer warriors –those who bring petitions and supplications before the throne.

But, once the prayers are finished, it is time to leave the closet. It is time to lift Christ up so the whole world will see and recognize Him, and will, through the call of the Holy Spirit, come to the Savior for redemption and reconciliation with the Father.

Again, Jesus said: “No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth [it] in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light” (Luke 11:33).

Christ is coming to take His church home to be with the heavenly Father (John 14: 1-3). His shout “Come up here!” could happen at any moment! Meanwhile, let us strive to be the right kind of closet Christians.