For the past several months I have been teaching through the book of Revelation on Sunday mornings, and we have arrived in the middle of the book at the twelfth chapter. Now the middle part of the book of Revelation is an amazing walk into the future and how God is going to bring judgment upon the earth because man’s rebellion against Him. This is probably the most intense section of the entire Bible as we see the wrath and intensity of the God of the universe amp up on the deliberate sin and rebellion that has played out on the earth especially in the past century or so as man moves further and further away from the creator. There really are a great number of God-haters out there who think they are more knowledgeable and powerful than God.
We can find the roots to the rebellious nature of man, if we go all the way back to the garden of Eden, but more recently we have seen it amp up over the past four hundred years or so. It started with the period in history that began in the late 1600’s called the Age of Reason or the Age of Enlightenment. This was a time when the thinkers of the day began rejecting the premise that God created this world and revealed Himself through the Bible. They rejected the truth about God sending down His son, the Lord Jesus Christ to die on the cross bringing salvation through believing in Him for the forgiveness of our sins.
Instead, the think tank of the day turned to their own theories for truth culminating in Charles Darwin introducing the theory of evolution instead of creation. This man took a trip to the beautiful Galapagos Islands off of South America in the 1830’s and instead of praising God for the amazing animals and species he saw, he concocted a theory stating that all of God’s detailed intricate creation happened by some random chance, and the world bought it.
In the midst of all this science we saw two great spiritual awakenings take place as people of faith pushed back with the truth of God as creator. The first great spiritual awakening occurred between 1730 and 1770 in England, Germany and Scotland and the second occurred in the early 1800’s in America which led to great moral reforms and missionary expansion to India, China, Africa and South America. So you can see there has always been a great battle between truth and error, right and wrong, and good and evil going on for the minds and souls of mankind.
In recent history we have seen that science has delved into the realm of artificial intelligence and advanced technology and has taken their battle to the next level. And this is where we are today. Believers are praying for a third Great Awakening to come to offset this great movement into new depths of technology and AI which in its worse form is declaring that we can all be gods who can live a life of greatest worth without the true God. AI wants man to return to the idea that if we could all just come together, we could save the world and achieve our greatest dreams.
The good news is that God saw all this coming and even as the days get darker, He has provided the truth from His word that tells us how much He loves each and every soul that has ever been created. He even stepped out of heaven’s glory to come to earth as a man called Jesus Christ who gave His life as a sacrifice for mankind. He says to man, simply believe, and your soul will be saved and go to heaven when you die. What a glorious truth that is ours for the taking. Ephesians 2:8-9 reads, For by grace are you saved through faith, and this not of yourself. It is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one can boast. That means that no one can say I earned my salvation through being a good person. Even “good” people must be saved by faith.
Thank you for reading and as spring comes this year I pray that we all see the amazing intelligent design in nature around us and turn to God in faith believing He is who He said He. God bless!
