Since the fall of man, there has been an ever-mutating and growing system in the inhabited world. Over these thousands of years, this system has been intriguingly empowered by the Devil, hoping mankind would join him to overthrow God and His plan for the earth. This growing system has aggressively expressed its philosophical twist and mood seeking to control the world of humanity in each generation. Each generation’s emerging philosophy became its dominating worldview; this worldview was the encompassing contemporary thinking of that generation or age.

Public Christianity is deep into world apostasy. Historic Fundamentalism, a movement that was once raised up by God to stem the tide of the falling away in Christianity, is dead. It has been assimilated into Neo-Evangelicalism, and the only true saints left on the planet are the remnant of God scattered by Him throughout the world.

Both nationally and globally, we live in the most perilous and precarious hour in human history. Truly every compartment of human living has been affected. The paradigms, the foundations, and patterns of living in all compartments of humanity are radically shifting, forcing upon us new perspectives of human existence. Even the ideological powers of the government now have shifted into realms that refuse to acknowledge God and His Word. Epistemology (the study of all knowledge) has entered into a wasteland, where man has enthroned himself as God. In our pluralistic society, truth is no longer believed to be absolute; postmodernism has forsaken reason. All institutions of history are now being abandoned or redefined. The saddest paradigm shift is found in Christianity, as it is being redefined without the inclusion of the deity of Christ and the inerrancy of the Bible. Contextualization is now the norm of Christianity; it seeks to globally accommodate these changes while denying the fundamentals of the historic Christian Faith.

The Bible speaks of a trilogy for the times in which we live. It is now the last days (2 Tim. 3:1); it is the time of the end (Dan. 12); it is the last time or (in the Greek) the last hour (1 John 2:18; Rev. 3:10, a crisis hour in the earth where many antichrists appear prior to the Antichrist). We are witnessing an explosion of powerful personalities rapidly rising in the earth. More and more they are pressing for the emergence of a global government. Only the providence of God can bring about any hindrance to their evil designs.

In 1962 Thomas Kuhn coined the phrase “paradigm shift” in his influential work The Structure of Scientific Revolution. Kuhn mainly focused on paradigm shifts in science. He observed the shift from Newtonian physics (which holds time and space to be the same everywhere for all observers) to Einsteinian physics (which holds time and space to be relative to the observer’s frame of reference). A paradigm shift, according to Kuhn happens when the anomalies (deviations from what is standard, normal, or expected) and shortcomings of a current paradigm are repeatedly pointed out. Proponents of any new paradigm often boldly and assuredly promote it while garnering influential public positions. Their constant influence eventually presses new converts among those who are more likely to be open-minded to the change. Although Thomas Kuhn (a physicist) applied the term to science, his terminology now applies to any powerful shift from an established system (scientific, governmental, socioeconomic, etc.).

As the shadow of death continues to fall upon the United States of America, we grieve over the emboldened assassination of all truth and natural righteousness in the concourse of human living. In 2020 we witnessed the mandate powers of draconian governors shut down an entire nation under the guise of a pandemic promoted by the social media as well as by fake science. Almost daily we were bombarded by a unified repetitive voice announcing the darkness and looming power of this unknown virus as it crept across the world. Rarely any other news item was broadcast; a captivating obsession was heralded growing fear and panic throughout much of the nation. Our president warned us that the power of fear could be worse than the virus itself. Nonetheless, those controlling the news media took advantage of the crisis promoting an inconsistent and hypocritical public voice of so-called scientific and medical authorities while the nation was forced to its knees.

One of the great and precious truths that steps forward at this season of the year is the story of the coming of Messiah. The title Messiah is a most profound title that portrays Jesus, the Son of God. Its origin and conceptual mutation in the Old Testament is truly a powerful revelation of the divine appointment of our Lord by His Father.

In Genesis 1:11, 12, there is a divinely-ordained law declaring that everything which possessed life should bring forth after its kind: Like is to bring forth like. Within that law, the power of reproduction is ordained in the seed, a “seeding yielding seed.” This principle was not altered at the fall of man; life within the seed is to bring forth after its kind.

Luke 2:7 states, “And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” Ancient tradition places the birthplace of our Lord in a cave, for caves were used as stables in most countries with rocky terrain. The Greek word for inn is kataluma, denoting the simplest of inns. It is similar to a Syrian khan—a refuge from thieves, a shelter from the heat and dust, a place where a man and his beasts may lodge, where a trader may sell his wares, and a pilgrim may slake his thirst. However, in such inns the visitor had to do everything for himself.

One of history’s great conspiracies is found in the story of the birth of Christ. In Matthew 2 when the Magi came to Jerusalem, they had an audience with Herod, the Roman-appointed King of the Jews. They inquired of where the Christ-child should be born. When the Sanhedrin gave the prophecy of Micah to him, Herod proceeded to speak kindly to the Magi saying, “Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also” (Matt. 2:8). Herod claimed a desire to worship the baby born king, convincing the Magi that his motive was sincere. Because of his guile, they knew not the conspiracy he cleverly had plotted against the Christ-child. They did not read his evil heart. Nevertheless, through a dream God warned the Magi to go home another way.

To know through Scripture where we are in history is a great strength to the heart. While this is the greatest hour to be a Christian, it is also the most difficult hour to be a Christian. Every Christian throughout history has been divinely appointed to live proving God’s grace in his unique generation. We are to live this Christian life with and for the Saviour to His glory. At the same time, we are called upon by God’s grace in our appointed generation to be light to this world and salt to this earth. Being a light to our generation is not simply sharing the Gospel in evangelism; we are to be a light against sin, error, and the apostasy. Accompanying light is salt; we must be a restrainer of all evil and wrong against God.

American history will mark the year 2020 as its most crucial year yet. This year has seen state powers manifesting mandates that literally have altered the living of its citizens, even boldly attacking many churches through heavy fines or closings (comfortably ignored by the media). These mandates also extended to closing or limiting attendance to small businesses in many states. Some governors confined travel and even dictated what could or could not be purchased. With all their mandates, still well over one thousand cities were subjected to burnings, riots, and destruction from so-called “peaceful demonstrations” by Marxist organizations (and financially sponsored by billionaires who sympathize with America’s overthrow).

Presently our country is experiencing the radical powers of not only the Antifa and Black Lives Matter movements but also the political beasts of the Washington swamp with its social media cohorts. Their overwhelming forceful, demonically energized anger against America and its Constitution is found throughout the boisterous political spectrum of liberalism; all are seeking a complete overthrow of the America we once knew. Today, in America we are in the throes of a revolutionary movement of “cancel culture.” The current Covid-19 pandemic has been politically manipulated to catapult our nation into a sweeping and aggressive movement to destroy and redefine this once-honored country.

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, our beloved country has experienced a silent, growing revolution in American culture that has evolved this year into an explosive, oppressive, and intentionally harmful culture that is being forced upon America and its citizens. This cultural revolution has surpassed the turbulent cultural wars of the 1960s. Though this cultural revolution began as a slow, hidden (but radical) change promoted through our government, it has now entered a nightmare of terroristic evil that is bringing about the birth of a new America. This new ideological culture has taken place in the hearts and minds of a growing segment of our nation.

The article “Preparing for Our Appointed Times” first appeared in a Straightway edition in 2000 (rpt. 2013). Reflecting upon this article, we believe another reprint of its message would be most appropriate in the light of the present distress. The year 2020 is the product of the gathering momentum of previous years, and we are amazed how pertinent our burden from 2000 is for today. May the Lord bless its truth for this hour in history as we witness the worsening of our government’s Deep State intrusion into areas of the Christian life that only God should control.

These are the sobering words penned by the prophet Daniel describing the feet and toes of the image of a man that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream. Depicting a series of world empires, the feet and toes of this image reveal the last world empire that culminates man’s final attempt to control all humanity. This dream was interpreted to the Babylonian king in response to his disturbing thoughts concerning what would follow his reign. Clearly, the dream was sent to him by the God of heaven, Who condescended to unveil to him what the unfolding of governmental history would be in the coming years after his rule. Yea, the revelatory dream disclosed the entire scope in God’s providence of the “times of the Gentiles.” Nevertheless, the dream culminated with Christ’s kingdom destroying the image of man and filling the entire earth as the final chapter of earth’s history.

Several secular authors of the twentieth century became alarmed at the direction the United States of America was heading. Although they contributed no spiritual insight, they foresaw a path of choices and directives that would bring the West to the precipice of destruction. As secularists, they had insight into the final overthrow of personal freedoms and liberties that would bring a sad end to the Western world.

Fear has been the major weapon of compelling force wielded by governments during these recent months of 2020. The human mind instinctively seeks relief from fear and especially the growing angst of the unseen and unknown. When crises come, Christians naturally seek consolation from Scripture and through prayer and faith in God. But if we place our faith in natural hopes or dwell upon that which is creating fear, we become totally unrealistic, irrational, and unfaithful to God. This can produce reactions that drive us away from God and His Word.

Because Christ directs our attention to the days of Noah and Lot, we must draw from the insights of those times for our own season in history. In reflecting upon Genesis chapters 6 and 19, we carefully observe the parallelism of those days with our days. The growing intense violence and wickedness found in Genesis 6 are clearly like our day. The aggressive and expanding rise of sodomy (in the powers of homosexuality and lesbianism) has also evilly pervaded our society (Gen. 19).

We have yet to see how the world will look after this global lockdown; what increasing similarities will now emerge among world governments. Only God knows the truth behind all that we have experienced since the world entered this confrontation with an unseen virus. He alone knows what is real and what is part of “the Lie.” Yet, we must continue to trust that “the earth is the LORD’S and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” (Ps. 24:1). Our Sovereign God is still in absolute control of it all.