As we see the days fast bringing changes of apocalyptic proportion to the world, the child of God must be prepared for the coming of both Christ and the developing powers of Antichrist. There is also the growing development of the “woman” who will ride the back of this beast called Antichrist. In this issue we want to deal with these subjects as well as the Blessed Hope we have in Christ. …

The generations that prelude the coming of Antichrist must politically and religiously prepare the world for his coming. How will such a wonder of logistics take place? This article presents man’s hope through a trilogy of forces becoming prominent in the End Time of these last days. …

Prophecy in Scripture speaks of people, places, and events sometimes hundreds or even thousands of years before their fulfillments. Within Bible prophecy there is a time period designated as the End Time when Satan will attempt to culminate his plan against God. Equally, Bible prophecy reveals that God will definitely culminate His sovereign plan concerning human history and the Devil. …

This is the last Straightway issue for the year 2012. In this issue and the first issue in the coming year are expressions from my heart in the light of what I believe God’s remnant will face in the immediate and near future. This remnant must get ready for what appears to be the closing of this Church Age as well as the transition to an epoch of new political world powers. I do not pretend to be some prognosticator; however, after some forty-three years in the ministry and dedicating my life to the study of the Bible, history, and the contemporary, I believe it is evident that we are living during the overlapping of two ages. God’s people stand in the most crucial epoch of human history; it is a transitional moment, and we must be ready in heart and life for what we must face both in the light of Christ’s secret coming and the coming of Antichrist to rule the earth for a season of time. …

This second article brings us to a deeper understanding of both the principle and spirit of prophecy. The Christian finding himself in the End Time of the last days must come to know prophecy for his time, not only the seasons of prophecy but also the spirit of prophecy. This article is to reveal these burdens as well as view this rapidly changing “new order” that the world has entered. As a Christian I must see my age, and I must discern the Word of God for my times. …

The twentieth century witnessed the greatest transition in human history toward man’s desire for a new world order. No other century had faced a world war, yet alone two world wars. Because of limited transportation means, earlier wars occurred in local, restricted geographies. Because of limited weapon systems, mass destruction was never known on the scale as witnessed by the atomic bomb in the twentieth century. World War I brought new concepts to warfare; World War II brought humanity to a whole new level of thinking in regard to conquest. We witnessed faster means of transportation on the ground and in the air. Man’s concept of conquering and controlling humanity continued to increase in the earth. The twentieth century witnessed the face of the world and its governments globally change with increasing speed. …

There are seasons in Bible history where we read that God “repented” of His dealings with the nation of Israel or with mankind. The first mention of this is in Genesis 6:6: “It repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.” This repentance of God’s heart is not a change of purpose but a change of feeling, out of which develops a new course of action. This repentance is the proper divine reaction to man’s sin. Here in Genesis 6:6 the Hebrew for “it grieved Him at His heart” is even stronger: it grieved Him “into” His heart. Out of this grief, God declares, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth.” 
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With the high population in the earth, much violence and wickedness abounded during the days of Noah. However, in this passage God acknowledged the greatest problem was the mind-set of men. You will observe that the wording of the above verse brings the individuality of this truth; that which prompted great wickedness in the earth was the fact that “every imagination of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually.” …

Our last burden for this series of articles deals with our understanding of God’s will in the light of present-day Fundamentalism. What is His will for Fundamentalism? It is evident in studying church history that God intended for the historic Fundamentalist movement to arise at the most crucial hour of the history of the Church. From the very first generation of the Church, there has always been the need for contending for God’s Word. Very soon after the birth of the Church by the Holy Spirit, it was already facing the throes of a false Church and its takeover on earth. …

Standing on the threshold of apostasy, historic Fundamentalism is now dead, having capitulated to the “Neo” belief. God’s true remnant now must look only to the Word of God to find out what it is to do. While many are simply hanging on to a nostalgic memory of its nobler days, Fundamentalism has spiritually collapsed. A new breed of Fundamentalists has produced new terminologies, new definitions, and new interpretations of Scripture. …

God truly has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. Perhaps the question needs to be asked: How has God done this? The answer is very clear in the Scriptures: He has done this through His Word, which is His Revelation. In the context of Ephesians 1:9–12, His revealed Word is called the “mystery.” God has given this mystery to His saints, those who believe His Word, those who enter into His Truth. He gives wisdom and intelligence in divine things which none of the unredeemed has ever had in all the ages of the past. While there were numerous saints of God in former times, none has had the intelligence in divine things which we ought to have through the fullness of God’s Word today and the insight appointed for the End Time of the last days. Even the angels were never given a complete revelation of what was coming; nonetheless, they are learning the wisdom, the counsels, the purpose of God, as they behold His grace displayed in us. We are not to view divine mysteries simply as lines of truth upon which to exercise our human intelligence; we are to be sanctified through the truth. The Word is given by God for the spiritual man as well as for sight for the times of history. …

What is God’s economy for this time in history? I fear that many good ministers do not see this truth. Though their preaching is fundamentally sound, it has tended toward “generic” preaching. They simply prepare what they can, basically a “general” message. However, it must be acknowledged that they are not preaching the “mystery of the will of God” for this time, for this dispensation, or for the working of God in this generation. We have allowed the Dispensationalists to hurt the very term, limiting it to dispensations of conscience, law, and grace. Every age in history has its dispensation of God, His economy, His working for that generation, in the light of that generation. Although we speak about a lot of things that are taking place in the world today, are we preparing our people for these times and for the future? Do we discern how God is working now, rather than just how He worked fifty years ago? The Lord must make known the mystery of His will, His heart’s desire for this time in history, for me and for His people, and how He is working at this time in history. …

During a crucial time of Judah’s history, the evil counselor Rabshakeh was sent by the King of Assyria to intimidate the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Jerusalem at this time was the only city in Canaan unconquered by the Assyrians. Rabshakeh declared to the Judean leaders that the Assyrians would overthrow the city of Jerusalem and scatter the inhabitants to its other conquered lands. When Hezekiah the king of Judah received this disturbing news, he sent word to Isaiah the prophet: “This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth” (Isa. 37:3). …

What a sobering word Isaiah gives early in his book: “Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant” (Isa. 1:9). The commencement of the Book of Isaiah refers to the vision of Isaiah which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. What did this prophet see concerning his contemporary, his Judah and Jerusalem? Two entities are presented here: Judah—the people, and Jerusalem—the city of God where the people reside. In our day of the End Time (the consummation of the church ages), the spiritual Judah is the people who are to be the people of praise, and Jerusalem would appropriately be the institutional Church. …

The remnant of God has been found in every generation of human history. What makes the end-time remnant unique is found in the fact of its being the most tested of any generation. This testing and trying will be found in many ways: through the ploys and temptations of the world, the Devil, and even the flesh and self. The greater the ploys and temptations, the greater will be the need of God’s Word and Spirit. …

Continuing our burden from the Book of Daniel, in this article we are drawn to chapter 10, the beginning of a vision of Daniel that continues unbroken to the end of the book. In this chapter Daniel is once again seen as a man who would not cease from prayer. Previously in chapter 6, when threatened with the lion’s den, this prophet continued to engage in his holy vocation of prayer. He never ceased from praying; he never vacated his devotions to his God. It was through this channel of prayer that Daniel kept in touch with heaven and by which he received his revelations of coming events. Without his habit of prayer Daniel would have succumbed to being a typical Jew in the captivity. Prayer opened heaven to his prophetic gaze and unrolled the panorama of coming events to his sight. In chapter 9, for example, during Daniel’s daylong prayer God revealed to him the vision of the seventy weeks. This vision has become a critical key-insight concerning the End Time for the Christian. How we must all watch and pray! …

In chapter 9, Daniel wondered if the times of the Gentiles would soon be over, at least concerning the deliverance of the Jews. Nevertheless, he learned that another seventy weeks of years were appointed for them. During this appointed “Times of the Gentiles,” what would be the relationship now between the Gentiles and the Jews? This burden culminates in chapter 12, where Daniel is told of a coming time, a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation of Israel. The nation of Israel has had several times of great trouble throughout its history leading up to this final trouble prophesied; these times must be noted with care. …