By Elizabeth Prata
2022: The Covid Crisis, Totalitarianism, Antichrist | John MacArthur Interview
I listened to a Q & A between Phil Johnson and John MacArthur recently. They discussed COVID and the mitigation efforts that were placed on their church, the Legacy Standard Bible, its beginnings and why we need this particular translation, the upcoming John MacArthur Old Testament Study Bible (YAY!), and interestingly, this question:
PHIL asked: “Do you ever think we will get back to normal? Post-Covid?”
TOTALITARIANISM IS HERE TO STAY
MacArthur: “I think we’re in the middle of a total takeover by totalitarianism. I think it’s the end of freedom and democracy as we’ve known it in America, and maybe even globally. It’s setting-up for antichrist world where somebody can take over everything and there can be massive slaughter of people who don’t do what they’re told. From my standpoint, I would say, this is the world that looks like it’s prepared for antichrist to dominate it. “We’re all being prepared for that kind of global power and leadership.”
John MacArthur is 83 years old. He has been a Christian for at least 65 of those years. Meaning, he has a Godly perspective of the world and not a secular one. He has been observing the world as a Christian for the better part of a century. When he says ‘from my standpoint’, he has seen much. Not that he is a prophet, but I know myself, being 61 years old and having been consciously aware of the world for 58 of those years, as we age we can see trends. We see history. We have a point of view that reaches back to see swings and drifts to and from.
When President Trump lost the 2020 election by a blatant election steal by his opposition, I knew we were done for here in America. The liberals & Democrats never, ever give up power. They will use every dirty trick to hold onto it from that moment on. I personally felt my heart drop that night, because I felt deep in my bones that this was it. Stick a fork in America…we are done. Of course I could very well be wrong, but the trends we see politically align with what the Bible says happens to a rebellious, unrepentant society. And here in America we have been given many years of peace and many blessings. We’ve squandered them.
Continuing with MacArthur’s answer:
“So I don’t think there will be a lessening of persecution. We’re gone past the post-Christian America. We are now in the Anti-Christian America. I don’t think you turn that around. I don’t think you turn the universities around. I think Universities are a hotbed of God-hating philosophy, and they are producing all the elites. So I think the church will experience more persecution. … There will be another mandate, another demand, another control, because they want to take away freedoms.”
When the top people in power are churned out one after another from anti-God, anti-Christian re-education mills (AKA Universities, and even seminaries), it’s similar to those in power when Christ walked the earth. The very people He put in place to protect His message and to educate the next generation in it, were corrupt God haters only protecting their positions and themselves (Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes).
JMac continues: “There are only two forms of government. One is the people rule themselves and government exists to protect those freedoms or the other is that government dominates them and they have no freedom. Right now we are moving from the first, to the second.”
I think anyone can see this. I used to marvel when I first became a Christian back in 2004 that America could be destroyed or in some way become weak enough not to matter at all by the end, to be just one of many junk countries swallowed up by the antichrist. I didn’t disbelieve the Bible, no, that wasn’t it. I just couldn’t see how it would happen. Yet a few years later a visible slide began. And here we are.
I remember our pride in 1969 putting a man on the moon. America could to anything! I’d thought. Not without God, we can’t. And when a society rejects God, it dies.
Probably won’t turn around
“There is such a God-hating agenda that after that there would be an act of divine judgment. It could be that it is not yet time for Christ to come. There could be a judgment tantamount to the fall of Rome, where America catapults into some horrific catastrophes socially and culturally. I mean, we’re already there morally. God has every right to destroy us at this point. I don’t see that turning around.“
He said that we are at a point like Isaiah was, where we preach and preach but no one hears and no one sees and no one repents. Phil pointed out that MacArthur has been saying this for all 40 years that Phil has known John, and that it is not a popular message. JMac agreed, but said that “it’s more urgent now than ever for evangelical Christians who profess, who believe the Bible, who stand on the Gospel to get serious.”
THE POINT – A Christian’s response: Not fear, but preparation and energized love
Here is the point. Many good and solid preachers have been saying this. Paul Washer comes to mind. He warned and warned and warned persecution in America would come (just like it has everywhere else- it was a promise God made in John 15:19–20). I named this blog The End Time because we are IN the end time. That is the time between the Ascension of Jesus until His return. So, Apostle Paul gave the warning message and the be ready message 2000 years ago, and many people like Washer and even me have been saying it for decades. It is no less important today than it was years or even centuries ago. It’s actually MORE important, because we are 2000 years closer to the judgment of God and the return of Jesus than ever!
American Christian, are you ready to make hard life choices that put Jesus in primary place in your heart and mind and strength? Choices and decisions that would be detrimental to your own comfort or position in life? Are you ready to lose your job? Lose your home? Lose your parents? Lose your life?
Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24).
There should be an urgency in American Christians when we see these things beginning to come to pass, or getting ready to come to pass, to straighten up and look up, but also look around See our neighbors laboring in the dark. Bring them the light! The lighter we are, the broader our smile, the less chaotic we are, the more we will burn brightly for Christ to them.
Are you worthy of Jesus? Prepare yourself in advance by:
–Thinking on these things,
–Growing strong in the word by being in the word,
–Having a thriving prayer life,
–Working through what likely ifs and having an outline of what you’d do if this or that occurs in your sphere.
For example, since I work in a public school it is likely I may soon have a student in my classroom who is changing gender. He or she or the parents may insist that we educators call him or her by the wrong pronoun or name, and/or give active support to the child in this process. What will I do? I have been mulling this for a couple of years. What is the right thing to do? What is biblical, kind, loving, God-fearing?
Paul Washer: Right again
Paul Washer isn’t a prophet but he is thoroughly biblical. Anyone with a Godly worldview can see what happens to a society that ignores God. But since he said them over a decade ago, they sound downright prophetic now:
Are you ready?
I am excited for the return of Jesus. If we go through persecution before that here in America, then I know He will be glorified before the wondering eyes of a watching world (though of course I’m not looking exactly forward to it). MacArthur said that even though life in California was tough for many people during COVID and the burdensome restrictions, Grace Church itself has a bursting at the seams growth and evidences a joy he he’s never seen in the church’s life before this. Adversity not only glorifies God but thrives His church!
We have the hope of Jesus! The security of a glorious future! We can share that with people who are in darkness and sin.
From Todd Friel at Wretched:
Is it possible that God is ordaining the crumbling of a once magnificent society to force us to start looking upward?
Is it possible that the demolition of the greatest nation man has ever built is because God wants us to take our eyes off earthly matters, and turn our eyes toward heaven?
Is it possible that all of the horrible temporal news we are exposed to is ordained by God because He wants His children to think more about Him and His Heavenly abode than us and our earthly homes?
Colossians COMMANDS us to do just that!
Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth.
Colossians 3:1-2
Let’s set our minds on the word “set your minds.” The Greek word “zeteo” is the same word that Jesus used to describe His mission to seek the lost. It demands a single minded, ongoing pursuit of the things that are above. That is a present tense (ongoing) command.
If your mind has been consumed with (depressing) temporal issues, may I invite you to join me in obeying God’s command to continually seek Heaven?
the-end-time.org 
Reblogged this on Truth2Freedom's Blog.
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