A Special Opportunity

I suppose each and every one of us looks at Christmas in these almost godless days and wonder, what happened! What happened to those Christmases of the past when the emphasis was on the Lord Jesus Christ, when goodwill toward men meant something more than an exchange of gifts and where going to church was not just a social and feel-good event? Oh, those of us who read this magazine may know that Jesus was not born in December, but it didn’t matter in days past, because with so many Christians offering Him a special place in their hearts, the immensity of the worship seemed to elevate the feeling of closeness and brought us into a relationship too special to describe. And while Christmas today does not offer the same immensity of worship, there is still the potential of a greater closeness at this time of year and whatever one thinks of the holiday, that precious extra closeness is worth it.

Still, we can look at this Christmas of 2014 in sad astonishment as we see the Lord Jesus Christ pushed far into the background. Today, we have holiday trees, a festival of lights, a god of all religions, generic carols, and on and on and on. Babylon has done its best to outlaw Jesus and is aided by a growing number of theologians who are pushing Him aside in favour of a one-world religion, accompanied by the humanistic battle cry that all religions lead to God. Sadly, even leaders of our own groups are jumping on the “Christ is Not Divine” bandwagon. The Satanic plan, of course, is to first de-deify Him, then discredit His presence and finally to do away with Him as any significant entity. The ungodly conspirators want a world without Christ and that world is moving very quickly forward.

In Luke 18: 8 we read, “Nevertheless when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” You know, a world without Christ is a world without faith. There are those who will point to the church today and say that Christ is not forgotten. But, I’m talking about the real Christ, not the one described by most of our theologians today. To those of us who have our eyes open, so to speak, it is a melancholic thought to visualize this world slowly yet surely sinking into a world without Christ. Yet, it would not be the first time the world was without Him. In Ephesians 2:12, we read, “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” We were brought back at that time because our ancestors realized that there is no hope without Christ; that living without Him was like being in the darkness without light.

Well, the light is dimming in our world today, and we are slipping into deep darkness. This is why Christmas can still such a special time for those who still deeply believe, because, although the numbers are less so each year, it helps to keep the light from going out completely.

Happily, though, we must pray the light shall never go completely out. And we must be resolute to face the battle on the horizon. Indeed, Christians everywhere, even the milk toast ones, will soon be faced with the decision to declare ourselves for Jesus Christ, to put on the full armour of God and to immerse ourselves into the fight against this wicked Babylon in which we live, a dammed society that is so determined to put the memory of Jesus Christ into oblivion.

And so, as we travel through these days leading up to Christmas this year, we know that Jesus’ return is at the doorstep. That we are soon to come to that point where there will be great gnashing of teeth from people caught up in the darkness, those people who took the easy path and followed the Babylonian way, while relinquishing the ways of Jesus Christ. Those who disavowed the great message of Ephesians, “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.”

Remember, when He does return, He will be coming as the avenger. We learn from Luke 4 that when he preached in the synagogue in Nazareth, this is what took place, “And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are buried. To preach the acceptable day of the Lord. And then he closed the book…”

Jesus did not totally read verse two of Isaiah 61, which contains these words, “and the day of vengeance of our God.”

Of course, these words describe the Second Advent when Christ will be returning as King of kings and Lord of lords. It describes the words leading up to Luke 18:8 that I quoted earlier, “And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you he will avenge them speedily…”

My dear friends, this is an all-important Christmas. Don’t let it pass without the thoughts of Jesus Christ becoming firmly emblazoned upon our minds. Don’t let it pass without re-committing ourselves to His ways and endeavouring to separate ourselves from the ways of the world.

We are about to enter the year 2015. Is it an important year, I think so and I alluded to this in a recent article “Look to 2016”. And so, I would like to end this article on a little bit of a prophetic note, not that we can ever look at prophecy in any other way than to confirm God’s Word, in other words, after the fact. Still, it is always thought-provoking to consider possibilities. Israel was told not to make treaties, etc. with foreign nations, yet throughout history, we did. But, here’s an interesting fact, both noted Bible scholar Howard Rand and Christian writer Stephen Jones pinpointed 1945/46 as the end of 70 jubilees from the Exodus. In October 1945 the United Nations was created and the Israel nations were among the nation members. On January 10, 1946 the first United Nation General Assembly was held in London, England. If we were to add 70 years from both 1945 and 1946 we would arrive at 2015/2016. Look at what Bible scholars E.W. Bullinger and Ed. F. Vallowe have to say about the number “70”.

Bullinger: “Seventy” is the product of two of the perfect numbers, 7 and 10. Hence, 7 x 10 signifies perfect spiritual order carried out with all spiritual power and significance. Both spirit and order are greatly emphasized.

Vallowe: The number “70” stands for “Israel and her Restoration”. In his lengthy explanation, through Scripture, he showed how 70 is the number connected with God’s punishment of Israel for her disobedience and as one example he pointed to the seventy years Israel lived in exile in Babylon.

Let’s use this Christmas as a good time to re-align with what is important, not the cares of the world but with our precious Lord and Saviour, so we may be accounted worthy to escape all the things that must come to pass. God Bless all of us.