Excerpt from Peace and Safety, of 2nd Thesssalonians Study The characteristic or trait of a true prophet is to prophesy of judgment rather than peace. The emissaries of Satan normally tell you what you want to hear, but God does not care (to put it bluntly) what you want to hear. He does not try to “make it palatable” for you or to “smooth it out” so you will accept it, because God knows you are not going to ‘accept Him.’ If you are one of His, Jesus says, “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and I will draw you to myself.” So God does not waste time trying to get people to like His Word or to approve of what He declares. He just simply declares it and His people are given “ears to hear” and they hear his voice and they respond and go toward Him, no matter how hard, how difficult or how grievous the truth may be. That is what the LORD’S people do; they move in the direction of the Truth. Well, let us go back to 1st Thessalonians 5:3: For when they shall say, Peace and safety… And, perhaps, we have a misunderstanding of the word “safety,” I think. I know I did, because we think of what it means to us. “Peace and safety” means “no harm.” You are going to be “safe.” You are not going to be injured. You are going to experience “safety.” That is not what the word means (in the Bible). It does not mean “safe from harm.” This word is translated three times in the New Testament, once in Luke 1:4: That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed. The word “certainty” is this same Greek word and that is an accurate translation of what the word means. It is also found in Acts 5:23: Saying, The prison truly found we shut with all safety… They were not concerned about “safety” regulations. They were concerned with the “security,” with the “certainty” of keeping the prisoners in; they found the prison shut in a very “secure” way. This is also found in Acts 25, where the Roman wanted to write something against Paul, but he did not know what to write. It says in Acts 25:26: Of whom I have no certain thing to write unto my lord… He was unsure. He did not know what the charges should be, as he was going to send Paul to Rome and Paul was accused of crimes, but he did not know what to write down; he was “uncertain” and he had “no certain thing.” Now how does that fit this verse (in 1st Thessalonians 5:3), “For when they shall say, Peace and certainty”? You know, we are privileged due to our vantage point of having gone through the Great Tribulation period and having gone through the beginning of the Day of Judgment on May 21, 2011. The world was caught up, finally, with that message of Judgment Day because they could not escape it – it was everywhere. If they wanted to ignore it and dismiss it, they could not; if they turned their head away because it was over here, then they saw it when they turned the opposite direction. And that is one of the reasons why so many were so upset because the world attempts to run from the light, under the cover of darkness and the typical things of this world, but they could not hide! It was everywhere. But then the Day came and there was great relief because nothing happened. Nothing happened. And if ever there was a time when something was going to happen, that was the day, because Family Radio had a very outstanding witness for over 50 years and Mr. Camping had an equally outstanding witness throughout that time. It really was known that these were the people of God. The churches and the congregations had fallen away. That was known. There is no questioning that. There is no need, really, as it said here, to even state it, because the churches and congregations have fallen away to the degree that they had, so the world was “on edge.” This is it. This is the “big one.” This is a serious one. Of course, they are serious. Look at all the money they spent on billboards and on bringing this message to the world and the whole world heard and “nothing happened.” This meant the world was vindicated: “We no longer have any need to concern ourselves with the message of judgment or the end of the world. We are going to be here for some time.” Basically, that is really what it all came down to: “God is not going to end this world and, yes, I know the world is involved in wickedness like never before – it dwarfs Sodom and Gomorrah and it dwarfs the time before Noah’s day. Yet, it did not happen. We are going to be here.” It was almost a jolt of confidence that was given to the world and now they know for certainty that these things about dates and “times and seasons” (and things like that) and the coming of Christ is all hooey: “It is all hooey and now we can live as we please and there is peace and certainty, unlike any other time, because there was always that nagging threat. But we encountered this threat head on as this declaration went across the face of the earth and still nothing happened, so now there is certainty that it never will.” And, really, that is the mindset of a great many people. People do not want to hear about judgment. They do not want to hear anything about the coming of Christ or anything related to that any longer and it stems back to that worldwide proclamation of Judgment Day leading up to that Day on May 21, 2011.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Dec 2013 05:53:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015