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.

Fear is one of the great powers that potentially can obsess and control our thought life. The concept of fear begins in the mind as one’s thought life observes and reacts to circumstances of life. Fear may even arise by musing on circumstances that may not exist at the present time; however, these circumstances may have been real in the past or potentially may become real in the future. Fear is a mental feeling or an emotion prompted by a thought. A person who fears something does not want it to happen; knowing its inevitability, he dreads the darkness and pain surrounding the contemplation of it. The fear response comes from sensing danger that may surround a coming circumstance. Perhaps in the natural understanding, fear is the body’s way of protecting itself from confronting situations that may be dangerous.

We have come to a most crucial hour in the history of the world that has overwhelmingly pressed upon humanity an unprecedented global panic. This consciousness now borders on mass hysteria fed by both the news media and the politicization of the liberal faction of government and “deep-state” powers. Transcending just a single nation, this consciousness is affecting all of humanity. We have been catapulted into a global aggressive takeover. What does this mean for the Christian? How should we then live as we face the world’s mandate regarding the coronavirus known as COVID-19?

Since the Fall, man has been in the night season of history; we Christians with anticipation are awaiting the coming day. There is a scriptural sense in which we as Christians are of the day (Rom. 13:11–14). This “day” is also found in the scriptural context of the second coming of Christ for His saints (2 Pet. 1:20) as well as in the context of Christ setting up His kingdom. Thus, though we are children of the day, we anticipate the dawning of the Day of Christ in history.

In global crises, the world places its faith in its governments without the consciousness of God. Even in our present viral crisis, irrespective of the means or methods of this pandemic, God sovereignly is in full control of all events. When mankind is not conscious of God in these events, then there will be no true hope. In contrast, the biblical Christian is a person with hope, no matter how difficult life becomes either in his personal life or its relationship to global life on earth.

In order to discern his age, the Christian must possess five realities of life. First, he must be born again. The reason many professing people do not see what is happening in our day is simply that they are not born again. Jesus stated in John 3 that except a man be born again he can neither enter nor see the kingdom of God (vv. 5, 3). The new birth provides (for the first time) spiritual sight for one to see his age.