Here is a lesson from James Montgomery Boice, the preacher and theologian from the mid-century last century. He is teaching from Hosea 6. The sermon is titled The Repentance That Does Not Count. In this lesson, Boice is teaching about the elements of untrue repentance, and true repentance, as national Israel seems to be repenting but is not. Their lips speak words but their heart is far from the LORD.

By the way, if you want great preaching on the actual texts of the Old Testament prophets, Boice is a wonderful resource. I just finished listening to his series from Daniel. Now he is on to Hosea. You can find him on Expositor.FM, or OnePlace.com.

Here is Hosea 6:1-3

Israel and Judah Are Unrepentant

1“Come, let us return to the LORD;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
2After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.
3Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD;
his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth.”

These verses are not really a genuine repentance, Dr Boice said. Can you detect what’s wrong? They seem to have the right vocabulary, like the words “return”, a great Hebrew word, the very thing that God had been calling Israel to do. Or in verse 3 the word acknowledge or “know”. It’s the very thing God had accused them of not having, knowledge. So, doesn’t it sound good and proper? Doesn’t it sound orthodox? asked Dr Boice.

It does sound orthodox, but it doesn’t sound genuine. Two things are missing. First of all, there is no mention of sin. That’s the obvious one. There is not one phrase within this confession that lets us know the people are aware they’re sinners. They want to return, they want to be healed, they want to acknowledge, they want to be revived- all those things. But they make not the slightest indication at any point that they have done wrong. This is not the prayer from the publican that Jesus extolled, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. (Luke 18:13).

At this point Dr Boice comments that there is a practical application that can be made in the present day. He preached this sermon sometime around 1976, a time when Newsweek (then, an influential weekly magazine) declared 1976 The Year of the Evangelical. President Jimmy Carter’s convictions were highlighted, and there seemed to be a resulting great deal of religious interest, yet without an awareness of sin. There has never been a movement of the Spirit of God in history without an awareness of sin on a profound personal and cultural level as well. Consequently, when there’s been a revival when this element has been present there has been a turning from sin to God and there has been something like national renewal. We don’t see any of that in our time.

The second thing that’s missing is harder to detect than the lack of mention of sin. What’s missing is any truly personal relationship with God. The only time we become aware of our sin is when we become aware of God. When we become aware of God we become aware of our need for rescue from sin. When we become aware of our sin, we become aware of God in His greatness, Boice explained. Without those elements, it reduces religion to simply an equation. The Israelites figured, if they just get the equation right with all its proper elements in the right place, God would be gracious to them, just the same as if you threw the right number of chemicals into a vat with a spark then there’s an explosion. God doesn’t work that way. He is not impersonal. He won’t be used, which is precisely what this implies. God is faithful to His nature and what He wants is a genuine repentance which these verses do not contain.

So what should be done? The answer is simply not to repent in inadequate terms but offer a genuine repentance, which is not in Hosea chapter 6 or 7 or 8 or any chapter until you get to the end, chapter 14. There is a repentance that counts.

Source

Here from the MacArthur Study Bible, we read the invitation from the LORD to Israel, to return to Him in genuine repentance-

Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. 2Take with you words and return to the LORD; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. 3Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.” (Hosea 14:1-2).

Israel was invited to return, bringing words of repentance accompanied by obedience, repaying God’s gracious acceptance of them with “vows of our lips,” explains MacArthur.

Israel will express genuine repentance, at the end of the Great Tribulation (Zechariah 12:10-14). Their repentance will be accompanied by mourning, fitly so. It will be accompanied by an acknowledgement at long last of who Jesus is. Israel’s sorrow will be national and personal, every family throughout national Israel will mourn and cry out to the Lord. As Boice mentioned above, there has never been a movement of the Spirit of God in history without an awareness of sin on a profound personal and cultural level as well. Israel will demonstrate that in the end. And because the Lord is true to His nature, Hosea records the result of their repentance:

I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. 5I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; 6his shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon. 7They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow; they shall flourish like the grain; they shall blossom like the vine; their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. (Hosea 14:4-7)

Repentance that DOES count includes those elements, which are a profound sorrow for sin, and acknowledging who God is. As David said when he mourned his sin with Bathsheba-

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. (Psalm 51:4)

As Hosea recorded, genuine repentance includes vows too, these would be vows of obedience to God.

We all sin, sadly. Paul said “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24) and I have cried that myself more than once this week alone. Yet Jesus is forgiving- when we express genuine repentance, mourning our sin, (2 Corinthians 7:10) acknowledgment of who He is, and vowing obedience and actually then obeying. (Matthew 3:8) we are genuinely pleasing the Lord with our attitude.

Insincere repentance is what we often see today, among those who claim Christianity but are only displaying a religious interest yet without an awareness of sin. And when sin is mentioned, we are told we are judgmental, intolerant, and just plain mean. The same elements must be present in a genuine repentance that were commanded in Hosea’s day, 2,700 years ago, are required now.

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ (Luke 18:13)

The tax collector’s humility is notable in everything about his posture and behavior. Here was a man who had been made to face the reality of his own sin, and his only response was abject humility and repentance. God be merciful…he had no hope but the mercy of God. The is the point to which the Law aims to bring every sinner. ~MacArthur Study Bible

For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death.(Romans 8:2)

Therefore bless the Lord Jesus; mighty Victor, gentle Shepherd, merciful Father.

Tim Challies posted a great essay on how to start your personal theological library. He’d linked to lots of fantastic free resources to show that a quick kick-start can be done. All of the links were to online, downloadable materials, and for the person who reads stuff online or on the laptop/phone, it’s a resource you definitely want to bookmark.

A Secret Way to Kick-Start your Theological Library by Tim Challies

Please read Mr Challies’ essay. I’m sure I’m in a minority when I say I don’t like to read on the computer but would rather have a solid book on my lap. In my essay I want to discuss starting your personal, theological library in hard copies.

We’re on this earth for such a short time and the Lord has given each of us resources of one kind or another to make His name known and to help grow the church and its members. He has urged us to use these resources to glorify Him.

One legitimate use of money is to support the Lord’s work through the religious institutions the Lord established (Matthew 23:23; Mark 12:41-44; Luke 8:1-3). We tithe or make offerings. We pay our taxes. We help the poor and needy, and we support missions. These are all biblical uses of our money. (Source)

Then we move into the realm of our giftings. If you’re gifted with a love of hospitality you might use your money to take in needy children or adults so you can house them and feed them. If your gift is toward administration you might be using your money for purchasing things your church needs in order to run effectively. If you have the gift of mercy you might be using your money on gas to drive to a mission to serve, or using your money to support a hospice or hospital.

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. (1 Timothy 6:17)

We all have a ministry. It might not be formal, incorporated, or within the walls of the church, but we all do. In one way or another, you minister to people. In this essay I ask you to think about after using your money for the above things, to consider using your resources toward your ministry in a focused, intentional way.

If you possess the gift of teaching, you might want to use your money on books and materials that edify and teach the brethren. Over time I’ve built my own theological library, but always with an eye to having it be more like a lending library. Except for my John MacArthur Commentaries, I consider all other books that have come into my possession as temporary guests. Once I read them, I lend them. I know some of them won’t get back to me and that’s OK. Before I was saved I had a lot of pride in the number of my 6-foot-tall bookcases stuffed with quality books, some of them rare. It’s taken a long time of self-discipline and submission to the Spirit to turn my mind from acquiring and coveting to freely giving away “my” books, which aren’t mine to begin with.

And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15)

I read them, so as to grow in sanctification myself and be able to discern when a person might benefit from the resource I’m sharing. I read them also so I know for sure it’s a valid resource. I don’t want to defeat my purpose in giving someone a resource who needs building up only to discover it’s not a good resource after all!

You might not have a formal ministry, but we all minister to each other in lots of ways. If you’re the bookish sort, consider these various ways to build your theological library on a budget.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. (Romans 19:17-19)

–Sometimes people send me theology books! Bonus!

–Sometimes you might receive a gift certificate to a bookstore or to Amazon or other online book store. Please consider using all or most of it to build your library. The local public library has secular novels and other books you can read for free. All other books beside the Bible and theological books serve a leisure purpose, and you know that evaporates pretty fast. Theological books written to edify the brethren might save someone’s soul- and that lasts forever.

–When Amazon, Westminster Books, or Banner of Truth have a sale, look hard for theological books or other materials to purchase. I gave away my Gladys Aylward book and then another friend was interested in it so I looked today and Amazon is having a sale on that book for $5, so of course I bought two! Westminster has books in the Bargain section costing anywhere from 50 cents to just two or three dollars. There’s Tim Challies’ Free Stuff Friday Giveaways, supersales, two for one sales, Public Library sales (hey, it’s possible!) … take advantage of all of these.

–Our pastor at the old church I attended resigned and he left his theological library behind. The Associate Pastor called me to come over and pick through. I was so blessed! If you’re attending seminary, look for the Seminary Library used sales or castoffs or discards. If a seminary near you has a sale, make a point to save the date and go. Hopefully your pastor won’t resign, but maybe there might come a day when someone is cleaning out their theological library and you could take advantage if invited.

–If ever you receive a donation consider turning it to buying materials for your ministry.

–Sacrifice. The Lord wants us to subvert our fleshly tendencies to indulge and to give sacrificially. Sadly, it has taken a long time to squelch my life-long habit of accumulating books to keep for myself and to turn my mind to the idea of immediately and happily giving them away as a ministry to edify a sister. I have been selfish for a long time but I’m learning how to build my theological library. It takes time and it’s happening slowly, but it IS happening. It will for you too.

You’ll see. If your ministry is helps, perhaps you’ve noticed the Spirit draw you to yard sales or thrift stores that are selling the exact baking pan you need for when you next make a certain kind of cake for a grieving person. If your ministry is administration, perhaps you’ve noticed the pattern of just happening to be at the right place when an office store is going out of business and you have opportunity to buy administrative items for your church or ministry or mission.

If you have a ministry, think about building it in a focused and intentional fashion. Mine’s teaching and discipling, so I’m building my theological library in all these and other focused ways. Then read the books yourself so you will grow, and then you will have a first-hand knowledge of what books to share with whom.

What Paul said:

I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. (Romans 15:14)

Related:

The Joy of self-discipline

As Christians we are not free agents. If we claim the blood of Christ and a regenerated heart, we are under certain authorities. You and I are not a free agent.

We cannot make personal decisions without considering the authority we are under. And when we sin, we hurt those with whom we have relationships, known AND unknown. We are not independent.

1. We are under authority of Jesus Christ.
for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:20

Barnes’ Notes says of the verse:

as the Christian is thus purchased, ransomed, redeemed, he is bound to devote himself to God only, and to keep his commands, and to flee from a licentious life.

2. If you’re married, you are under authority of your husband.
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. Ephesians 5:22.
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. Colossians 3:18

The verse is a fact, we are to submit to the husband’s authority. This is an absolute truth whether the husband is a belligerent oaf or the most Godly man in the world. The biblical command to submit does not change depending on the character or the behavior of the husband. The Lord gave spouses one legitimate out from a marriage, adultery. You are a wife under authority of the husband. You are not a free agent. (Note John MacArthur’s biblical answer to physical abuse here)

3. You are a member of a church. Therefore you are under authority of your pastor.
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. (Hebrews 13:17).

Gill’s Exposition says of the verse:

These the apostle exhorts them to “obey”: by constantly tending upon the word preached by them, and hearkening to it; by receiving it with faith and love, as it appears agreeable to the Scriptures; for a contrary behaviour is pernicious to souls, and highly resented by God.

4. You are one with the brethren. What you do affects us all.
so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. (1 Corinthians 12:25-26)

You are not a free agent. Certain behavior is expected of you.

Just as when one member is honored, we are all honored, the implicit adverse is that when one member DIShonors, all are dishonored. All the brethren whether collected in one local congregation or all over the world, are connected. What one does, affects all.

4. You are under authority to the elder women who are teaching you, if you are being discipled.
Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. (Titus 2:3-5).

Sometimes when in the throes of a heated decision we’re making, one might forget the authorities to whom we are submitted. Our decisions, actions, and even sins affect one and all. We are one body. 2 Peter 2:2 says that  int he last days false teachers’ teachings will incite some to bring the truth into disrepute by their behavior.

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. (2 Peter 2:1-2).

2 Peter 2:18, Jude 1:4 also speak of some of the faithful whose decisions bring disrepute onto Jesus. Please be mindful that we are not free agents in this world. We need to remember that both our sins and our good works affect all of us. Our bond-servanthood to Jesus and our life and labors under authority of various people are not a hardship though. Rest easy my sisters, because Jesus declared,

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:29-30)

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, (2 Timothy 3:1-2a).
The list that Paul outlines in this verse and the next three verses are devastating. Here they are:

lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.(2 Timothy 3:2b-5).

There are many objectionable behaviors that are listed in those verses which Paul says will be symptomatic of the last days. It’s terrible even to think about.

There are two kinds of last days that people think of when they think of ‘last days.’ There are the Last Days which are now, in between Jesus’ ascension and His return. Most people do not think of these as the last days, but they are, complete with wrath, too. Romans 1:18 says God is now revealing His wrath against all ungodliness. Ephesians 5:6 says not to be deceived by anyone with empty words, “because of such things God’s wrath comes on the sons of disobedience.”

Then there are the last days that most people think of when they think of last days- the Great Tribulation. Unlike now, when God’s wrath is being revealed indirectly, during the Great Tribulation God’s wrath will be poured out directly. It will be a time of distress that will be unlike any previous time in all of history. (Matthew 24:21).

The Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21), is also known as the Time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 3:7), and The Day of the Lord or just The Day (Isaiah 2:12, Isaiah 13:6, Isaiah 13:9, Isaiah 34:8, Jeremiah 46:10, Lamentations 2:22, Ezekiel 13:5, Ezekiel 30:3, Joel 1:15,Joel 2:1, Joel 2:11, Joel 2:31, Joel 3:14, Amos 5:18, Amos 5:20, Obadiah 1:15, Zephaniah 1:7, Zephaniah 1:8, Zephaniah 1:14, Zephaniah 1:18, Zephaniah 2:2, Zephaniah 2:3,Zechariah 14:1, Malachi 4:5, Acts 2:20, 1 Corinthians 5:5, 2 Corinthians 1:14, 1 Thessalonians 5:2, 2 Peter 3:10).

You can see by that list of verses above that the Last Days doctrine is mentioned numerous times in scripture. The Last Days is a big theme in the Bible. We do well to study it.

So, these are all the last days- it’s the time now and the time to come when God will directly punish the unbelieving world. Thankfully, the Church will have been raptured prior to the end when the wrath is poured out. (Revelation 3:10, FMI go here).

Today I’ll focus on the last days warning that people will be lovers of self.

The Greek word for lovers of self is a compound word, defined by Strong’s Concordance:

phílautos (an adjective, derived from 5384 /phílos, “lover” and 846 /autós, “of self”) – properly, a lover of self, describing someone preoccupied with their own selfish desires (self-interests). It is only used in 2 Tim 3:2.

A characteristic of the last days is that the time between Jesus’ ascension and His return the world will become worse and worse. (2 Timothy 3:13). One of those ways the world will become worse is that people will increasingly be lovers of self. In modern psychological terms this is called narcissism, which is defined as,

Narcissus (1590s) by Caravaggio

“…the pursuit of gratification from vanity or egotistic admiration of one’s own attributes. The term originated from Greek mythology, where the young Narcissus fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool of water.”

We’re all used to the regular kind of selfishness, love of self in the stead of love of God is the root of all base sins. We’re today inundated with selfies, selfie sticks, the “Me Generation” and all that. That’s what sinners do- they love themselves. The last days characteristic of people being lovers of self is more than that.
Barnes Notes brings clarity to the section of the verse:

For men shall be lovers of their own selves – It shall be one of the characteristics of those times that men shall be eminently selfish – evidently under the garb of religion; 2 Timothy 3:5. The word here used – φίλαυτος philautos – does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament. It means a lover of oneself, “selfish.” Such a love of self as to lead us to secure our salvation, is proper. But this interferes with the rights and happiness of no other persons. The selfishness which is condemned, is that regard to our own interests which interferes with the rights and comforts of others; which makes self the central and leading object of living; and which tramples on all that would interfere with that. As such, it is a base, and hateful, and narrow passion; but it has been so common in the world that no one can doubt the correctness of the prophecy of the apostle that it would exist “in the last times.”

Therefore, the Timothy verse points this selfishness of a worse kind. As Barnes said, this is selfishness under the garb of religion. I can think of nothing worse than a sin parading as righteousness.
Here are a few examples of this kind of love of self that plagues the church. In today’s church world the brethren are grieved by a new fad called narcigesis. It comes from a combination of the aforementioned definition of narcissism (narci-)and the proper term exegesis (-gesis). Exegesis is explained by GotQuestions– “the exposition or explanation of a text based on a careful, objective analysis. The word exegesis literally means “to lead out of.” That means that the interpreter is led to his conclusions by following the text.” Christians are called to properly exegete a biblical text. Of course, we are not called to be narcissistic in any way. The opposite in fact, we are to think of others higher than ourself. (Philippians 2:3).

Stand Up For the Truth explains the term narcigesis:

When we force the Bible to mean that we are at the center of the story, and when we are taught that every teaching, every command and everything God asks His people to do becomes about our own personal faith journeys, that is what is known as narcissistic eisegesis, and it is a type of teaching prevalent in the Seeker Friendly movement sweeping the United States and the world.

Apostasis Lexicon also explains this fad and adds to it:

Narcigesis – A biblical hermeneutic where one reads themselves into the bible and writes God out of it.
Narciguesswork – A biblical hermeneutic used when a preacher not only reads himself/herself into the text, but encourages the audience to guess how they too can read themselves into the text.

We are loving ourselves so much in these last days that we are inserting ourselves into the Bible so we can love ourselves even more. Of course, the more we loves ourselves, the less we love God. As a perfect example of narcigesis, with the above definitions in mind, we have preacher Beth Moore narcigeting a text from Acts 16:14. That text is recounting how Lydia from Thyatira, a seller of purple, became converted. In this clip from Moore’s “teaching” onActs 16:14, at the 1:10 minute mark and the 2:15 mark she says,

You and I are about to personalize it [the biblical text], and adapt it to ourself. We’re about to put ourselves in the storyline because that’s what Jesus is after today. …You are the woman in the story today.

No we are not the woman in the story today. I am not from Thyatira. I am not named Lydia. I do not sell purple dye. I am not the woman in the story and Moore has no business teaching 11,000 women in her audience to be so narcissistic as to believe we are.
Narcigesis such as Moore’s and others’, teaches that sometime Jesus changed His mind about scripture pointing to Him, (Luke 24:27) and now these false teachers say, scripture points to you. I think not. I also do not think that Beth Moore knows what “Jesus is after”. Note that she is teaching 11,000 women from her inside personal knowledge of what she says Jesus wants. In that, Moore is also demonstrating a massive love of self. It takes a high amount of love of self to be so confident that you regularly hear from and have visions of Jesus and go forward with teaching from this direct revelation and not the Bible.

Of course Moore is not the only false teacher preaching ourselves into the Bible. It just happened to be a perfect recent example of religious love of self. This fad has become so widespread, that new Apps are being developed to support it. The ToYouBible is now here. Touted as,

The Bible that reads in your name™”A personalized Bible app for smartphones and tablets. Just enter your name and gender and read the Bible with your name.

Listen to this clip, and no it is not a parody.

Secular Psychologists say that as narcissism increases empathy decreases.

Narcissism is a serious social and psychological problem. The term refers to an inflated view of the self, coupled with relative indifference to others. People who are high in this trait fail to help others unless there is immediate gain or recognition to themselves for doing so; often think they are above the law and therefore violate it; and readily trample over others in their efforts to rise to the “top,” which is where they think they belong. A world full of narcissists would be a sad world indeed.

Look back up at the terrible characteristics Paul listed which will be prevalent in the Last Days. It is a world which is full of self-loving, brutal people. And I’m talking about the church. Not the true church of course, but it means the church and the people in the church that have a form of Godliness, but deny its power. It is a sad world indeed.
The good news is that the world ahead for true Christians is gloriously awaiting us and it is a place where we will be gloriously joyful. At a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall be changed into imperishable and raised through the clouds to meet Jesus in the air! (1 Cor 15:52, 1 Thess 4:17). We will not miss the sermons and ‘teachings’ that focus on us, making it all about us. We will gaze into the face of Jesus and everything, every day we will see Him, the most glorious Person in the universe. With Jesus in the Bible to learn about now, and with the anticipation of seeing Him and being with Him forever (1 Thessalonians 4:17), why, WHY, would anyone preach about us? Oh well, the heart is sick, who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9).

As a strategy to combat the tendency to love one’s self, the Bible gives us urgings and advice. Here are a few. Humility is key.

Galatians 5:26
Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying one another.

Ephesians 5:21
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Philippians 1:17
The former, however, preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing they can add to the distress of my chains.

Colossians 3:12
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

1 Peter 3:8
Finally, all of you, be like-minded and sympathetic, love as brothers, be tender-hearted and humble.

Once again, God’s word helps us. At the beginning we have a warning about people who love themselves, and at the end we have several of many verses advising us to be humble and loving. Humility is hard, so ask the Spirit for help. Loving others is a choice. Choose love, choose humility. This honors Jesus.

This week I’m going to write about the prophecies regarding the Last Days. I hope to shed some Biblical light on these prophecies. I’ll do my best to show through scripture what the last days are, when they are, and why they must happen.

There are two kinds of last days. There are the Last Days which are now and which the Lord is not directly pouring out His wrath upon the unbelieving world or punishing Israel. Some people separate the two kinds as distinct and other people put them all into one general time frame.

There are the last days after the rapture when Jesus will pour out His wrath upon the unbelieving world and punish Israel. That time is also known as the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21), the Time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 3:7), and The Day of the Lord or just The Day (Isaiah 2:12, Isaiah 13:6, Isaiah 13:9, Isaiah 34:8, Jeremiah 46:10, Lamentations 2:22, Ezekiel 13:5, Ezekiel 30:3, Joel 1:15, Joel 2:1, Joel 2:11, Joel 2:31, Joel 3:14, Amos 5:18, Amos 5:20, Obadiah 1:15, Zephaniah 1:7, Zephaniah 1:8, Zephaniah 1:14, Zephaniah 1:18, Zephaniah 2:2, Zephaniah 2:3, Zechariah 14:1, Malachi 4:5, Acts 2:20, 1 Corinthians 5:5, 2 Corinthians 1:14, 1 Thessalonians 5:2, 2 Peter 3:10).

Personally I think of the two as one general time frame, the wrath being generally revealed now in these last days (as per Romans 1:18) and then wrath being directly poured out during the Great Tribulation after the Rapture, as all one “last days”. I think this because it is all the time between Jesus’ two appearances, from His ascension to His second coming.

In the New Testament, Hebrews 1:2 acknowledges that “last days” are now and that God has spoken to us by His Son. 2 Peter 3:3-4 mentions the last days, so does 1 Peter 1:20, and Jude 1:18. John MacArthur preached that the last days are now, in the sermon Understanding the Seducing Spirit. MacArthur also includes the Millennial Kingdom as part of the Last Times.

All of these verses tell us that the last times are the times after Christ came in His first coming. When Christ came, He began the last times, the Messianic era. The Messianic era begins with the coming of Jesus Christ. So we are now living in the last times, between His first coming and the Second Coming when He sets up His glory on the earth and then into the eternal Kingdom, all of that is the last times. We are living then in the last times. “My little children, it is the last days now.” It is the time of Messiah, He has already come, He is now building His Kingdom in the hearts of men and will return to establish it on the earth and then throughout eternity. We are living in the last times.

Over all, you can see that the last days are not some mysterious future days but are in fact happening now.

One distinctive quality of the Last Days is God’s wrath when it is directly poured out. It is not popular to speak of His wrath. Christians today like to focus on His love. That is all well and good, God’s love is a fine, wonderful thing. But so is His wrath. It is God’s wrath that Jesus mentioned. It is wrath that we are warned to flee from.

His wrath is a holy, justified, perfect wrath that will cleanse the earth of sin and sinners and perversity and putridness it has been cursed with since the Fall. It will restore the earth to its perfect state, it will show the Lord holy and just. We must pay attention to the wrath. We must include the wrath in the Gospel message and warn that these are the last days.

God’s wrath is part of the Last Days. Since the last days are now, the New Testament speaks of the wrath that already abides on those who do not believe, (John 3:36), rests on those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18), on those with impenitent hearts who are storing up God’s wrath (Romans 2:5). The Lord has created vessels of wrath prepared for destruction (Romans 9:22). And much more. Do a BibleGateway search in the New Testament for wrath and you will find 36 verses discussing it.

As for the Bible’s discussion of the wrath on the Day of the Lord, that also is sobering. Pasted below are all the verses I could find which speak of the Day of The Lord in the last times when His vengeance will be poured out. The Day of the Lord’s anger is a real, coming event. He is holding it back now, and showing it only in indirect ways. Only the Lord knows when it will begin directly, and thankfully, Christians won’t be on earth to bear it. However, just reading about the Last Days and His promise of destruction of those who live in unrighteousness is a very serious thought, which pierces my heart and makes me shudder.

Book of 1 Thessalonians discusses it at length

Book of 2 Thessalonians discusses it at length

Isaiah 2:12 For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:

Isaiah 13:6 Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

Isaiah 13:9 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

Isaiah 34:8 For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

Jeremiah 46:10 For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord God of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.

Lamentations 2:22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the Lord’s anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

Ezekiel 13:5 Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord.

Ezekiel 30:3 For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.

Joel 1:15 Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

Joel 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

Joel 2:11 And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

Joel 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.

Joel 3:14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.

Amos 5:18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.

Amos 5:20 Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

Obadiah 1:15 For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.

Zephaniah 1:7 Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God: for the day of the Lord is at hand: for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests.

Zephaniah 1:8 And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord’s sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.

Zephaniah 1:14 The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.

Zephaniah 1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

Zephaniah 2:2 Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you.

Zephaniah 2:3 Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.

Zechariah 14:1 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.

Malachi 4:5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:

Acts 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come:

1 Corinthians 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

2 Corinthians 1:14 As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

The Lord’s anger is burning against people now in these last days, he has revealed it in consciences and in circumstances and in weather…but then will come a day when all that dwell on the earth will know it is the LORD who is causing the earth’s problems, and then, who can stand in the great day of His wrath?

Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17)

The takeaways are:

• The Last Days are happening now
• The wrath of God already indirectly abides on the earth and the unrighteous
• The wrath of God will be directly poured out at the end of the Last Days during the Great Tribulation
• Don’t avoid talking about the wrath- both the OT and the NT promise it during the Last Days and the Great Day, so we should heed the warnings and include it in the Gospel Message.

I watched two documentary series on Netflix, one was imaginatively called The Sixties, the other was called The Seventies. I was born in 1960 and my first memory was in February 1963, I was 2 years and 2 months old. I remember the 60s from that point on, very clearly. It was a terrible decade. The protests, chaos, riots, marches, cultural decline … it was chaotic to my young eyes. But when I watched The Seventies documentary, I was surprised to learn that decade was in fact much worse. The groundwork satan had laid in America during the rebellions of the 1960s came to ugly fruition in the ’70s.

In one episode of the documentary The Seventies in particular, the Feminist marches and Feminist agenda was covered. What came with that was the sexual revolution. What came with that was the homosexual revolution.

The homosexual revolution is acknowledged to have begun in 1969 at the Stonewall riots. America of the 1950s and 1960s was legally against the sodomites and the lesbians, and Stonewall was the catalyst to their militant journey to forcing America to accept normalization of their perverse sexual behavioral choices.

According to Wikipedia about Stonewall,

Very few establishments welcomed openly gay people in the 1950s and 1960s. Those that did were often bars, although bar owners and managers were rarely gay. At the time, the Stonewall Inn was owned by the Mafia. It catered to an assortment of patrons and was known to be popular among the poorest and most marginalized people in the gay community: drag queens, transgender people, effeminate young men, butch lesbians, male prostitutes, and homeless youth. Police raids on gay bars were routine in the 1960s, but officers quickly lost control of the situation at the Stonewall Inn. They attracted a crowd that was incited to riot. Tensions between New York City police and gay residents of Greenwich Village erupted into more protests the next evening, and again several nights later. Within weeks, Village residents quickly organized into activist groups to concentrate efforts on establishing places for gays and lesbians to be open about their sexual orientation without fear of being arrested.

Within 6 months of the Stonewall riot, two pro-gay organizations had been formed, and in June of 1970 the first “Gay Pride” parade was held In NYC. The rest of the 1970s was an accelerating snowball of forced homosexual acceptance into society that has never ended to this day.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, says Newton’s Third Law, and that Law can be applied to cultural movements too. For every 1970s homosexual parade, march, or gay push into the culture of America, there was a push-back. The push back came first in the form of Anita Bryant. Again, according to Wikipedia,

Anita Jane Bryant (born March 25, 1940) is an American singer, former Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner, and former spokeswoman (brand ambassador) for the Florida Citrus Commission (marketing orange juice). She scored four Top 40 hits in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including “Paper Roses”, which reached #5. She later became known as an outspoken opponent of gay rights and for her 1977 “Save Our Children” campaign to repeal a local ordinance in Dade County, Florida, that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, an involvement that significantly affected her popularity and career in show business.

You know the saying, “A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine”? Anita Bryant said that in her commercials. It can’t be stated emphatically enough how popular Mrs Bryant was in the 1960s and 1970s. She was the emblem of American wholesomeness due to her success at the Miss America Pageant, she had a national platform due to her work as Florida Orange Juice spokeswoman, and her music career was a chart success. In 1960 after licentious behavior by Jim Morrison of the Doors, she helped organize and participate in a Rally for Decency. Mrs Bryant was a strong Christian and was public about it.

According to Wikipedia, the homosexual battle with Mrs Bryant at the center began in Dade County, FL.

In 1977, Dade County, Florida, passed an ordinance sponsored by Bryant’s former friend Ruth Shack that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Bryant led a highly publicized campaign to repeal the ordinance as the leader of a coalition named Save Our Children. The campaign was based on conservative Christian beliefs regarding the sinfulness of homosexuality and the perceived threat of homosexual recruitment of children and child molestation. Bryant stated:

What these people really want, hidden behind obscure legal phrases, is the legal right to propose to our children that theirs is an acceptable alternate way of life. […] I will lead such a crusade to stop it as this country has not seen before

From the vantage point of nearly 40 years of American cultural history, we can see that Mrs Bryant was exactly right. The Dade County ordinance was among the first of its kind in America to pass and the homosexual lobby was elated, but then shattered when it was overturned. From a March 1977 Chicago Tribune article, Mrs Bryant is reported as saying,

According to American Blog,

The victory in [Dade County] Florida is an especially exciting win for gay rights advocates as Florida was the scene of one of the most bitter battles in American gay rights history, when singer and former Florida orange juice spokeswoman Anita Bryant organized the successful repeal of Dade County, Florida’s new ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. After winning in Florida, Bryant then went national, and led several battles across the country against gay rights. I’ll let Ms. Bryant speak for herself:

“As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children” and “If gays are granted rights, next we’ll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and to nail biters.”

As to the reference to St. Bernards, well, haven’t we seen people advocating for the right to marry their pets, as for one example? And don’t we know from the Bible that sexual deviancy knows no depths? Leviticus 18:23 forbids the practice of bestiality. Left to their own devices, bestiality had become a problem.

From the same Chicago Tribune article in March 1977, Mrs Bryant said,

One legacy Mrs Bryant left during that heated time was that she led a legislative ban on gay adoptions in Florida that held up for nearly 40 years. The legislation forbid homosexuals from adopting children, a ban that was only recently overturned in 2015. In this article we read,

In her book “A New Day,” she stated, “I made a stand, not against homosexuals as persons, but against legislation that would tend to ‘normalize’ and abet their lifestyle and would especially afford them influence over our children who attended private, religious school.” She became the leader of a group called Save Our Children, and her highly publicized campaign against gay rights took off. She was quoted in a news conference that can still be seen on YouTube video clips today saying, “The war goes on to save our children because the seed of sexual sickness that germinated in Dade County has already been transplanted by misguided liberals in the U.S. Congress.”

Again, she was right. The Bible says that once depravity sets in so deeply as evidenced by the deviant homosexual lifestyle, it means they have been given over to a depraved mind. They simply cannot think straight anymore. (Romans 1:26-32).

There was a famous incident that occurred when Mrs Bryant and her husband were being interviewed at a press conference in Des Moines Iowa in 1977. Let me preface this by saying that in the documentary I watched Mrs Bryant emphasize that she does not hate homosexuals. She said in the clip that she loves them as people because like all people, they are made in the image of God. Their sin of homosexuality, like any sin such as thievery, adultery, or any other sin, can be forgiven if the sinner repents. They can then be an ex-homosexual just like a thief can be an ex-thief and an adulterer can be an ex-adulterer. This is a clip I searched high and low for online but have been unable to find. I only saw it on the documentary. I did read in several archived newspaper interviews that Mrs Bryant said her toughest job is to convince people that she loves all sinners and just urges homosexuals and all sinners to repent.

The intolerance of the homosexual lobby is potent. They set out to destroy reputations and crush businesses by any means they deem necessary. They are an intolerant group that bullies with impunity, and seeks to squash the rights of those with opposing views to express them. This is where the famous incident comes in. A man named Thom Higgins from Minneapolis drove to where Mrs Bryant was going to be, which was Des Moines Iowa, and as she was politely answering questions of a reporter, Higgins smashed a pie in Mrs Bryant’s face. Mrs Bryant asked that security not take the man out and she and her husband prayed on the spot for the Lord to deliver Higgins from his deviant lifestyle. Imagine such intolerance. Thom Higgins drove 243 miles, from Minneapolis to Des Moines, just to throw a strawberry-rhubarb pie in her face and humiliate her. That’s a powerful bunch of anger and hatred.

Mrs Bryant continued throughout the decade to work toward legislative change through proper channels. However, her stand against homosexuality took its toll on both her career and her marriage. The intolerant homosexual lobby boycotted Florida Orange Juice (gay bars took the drink the screwdriver off the menu and swapped it for the “Anita Bryant”, made with vodka and apple juice.

The Orange Juice commission declined to renew her contract. Her music career fizzled as the Homosexual Lobby poisoned the well for her name, so the music industry was increasingly reluctant to touch her. And sadly, her Christian witness suffered also. She divorced her husband for unbiblical reasons, and the Moral Majority began to decline inviting her for speaking invitations. Bryant later went bankrupt.

Would you be willing to suffer national humiliation, career destruction, a toll on your marriage, and a name that is synonymous with hate and bigotry (according to today’s culture) just for taking a stand for biblical sexuality? Anita Bryant did. I applaud her for it and I consider her to be an American Christian heroine.

But the homosexuals sure do hate Anita Bryant.