ONLY GOD KNOWS THE FUTURE

By Pastor Mike Taylor

21” Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.
22 Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come.
23 Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.
24 Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you.” (Isaiah 41:23)

In all the years of my ministry, I am amazed and somewhat dismayed at those who claim there is no God. I had a member on a forum that I host, would not admit that there is evidence, even from our natural world that there is reason to believe there is a higher Intelligence, we call God, who made all that we see on this earth and in the heavens above. They each claim, and this one member, held to the position that there is no proof that there is a God, but what they really mean that there is no proof they are willing to accept, not that there is no proof.

“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

2 The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.

3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Psalms 14:1-3)

Likewise, Paul proclaimed why these “fools” proclaim to their own self destruction:

19 “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” (Romans 1:19-21)

The Bible is more than ample proof of the existence of God. The Bible is God's love letter to mankind that bears His signature. What is God's signature that proves His existence? Bible prophecy is that proof that there is a God and that He is in control of everything in His universe, including mankind.

Those of the scientific field who are the hardest to convince of the existence of God, are able to duplicate or even explain some of the miracles found in God's Word. No doubt, as it was in the days of Nimrod and the tower of Babel, that science will be able to duplicate many more miracles of science, because technology is moving at a lightning speed that was predicted, but foiled in the ancient past of when mankind was of one speech and language. This was to prevent their own self destruction, ahead of the time table set out by God Almighty. Their time was not yet.

5 “And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” (Genesis 11:5-6)

In our generation, no other time in history, (save the previous mentioned time), has man been able to come together as one language and imagine to do what was in his heart and mind. That is because of our technology of the computers that can translate any language and share any knowledge that man can devise. God interrupted man's attempt once to be a god unto himself, by confusing their languages, but the age of the computers has erased that barrier and man will do whatever he wishes to discover, until he produces his own destruction. Right now, man has the ability to destroy himself many times over.

MEN'S KNOWLEDGE RUNNING TO AND FRO

Man is able to reproduce many things that were thought impossible in our recent past, as in the last 100 years, man has gone from a primitive flight of the Wright Brothers, to landing on the moon, and attempting space travel with plans to even go to Mars in our solar system. But there is one miracle that belongs only to God that man can never reproduce. That miracle that belongs only to God is the future. Only God can know what will happen in our future, before it even happens. There is no other god on earth, either by man made inventions, or scientific breakthrough that can explain or predict the future. 

No other so called “diety” or sacred writing can duplicate what belongs to Almighty God. Biblical prophecy explains what the future will hold for this planet and the people who inhabit its land. That is by Divine design that God offers a challenge to those who are pretenders of His Divine nature.

As the opening scriptures shows, God issues a challenge to all who pretend to be a god unto themselves, by this challenge:

"Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.” (Isaiah 41:23)

Let us take a look ,for example what the prophet Ezekiel prophesied when describing what would happen 2500 years in advance of the future when the geopolitical alliances that have formed in the 21^st Century. It has been only 70 years ago that the world was in a world-wide war with Japan and Germany and the alliances that Ezekiel describes didn't even exist until our generation.

The modern miracle is the creation of a nation long ago sent to the four winds to becoming a nation again against all odds. From the ashes of the Holocaust that is the nation of Israel reborn, sets into motion that final confrontation of the world's powers that is being made ready for its fulfillment, even as I type this message. It doesn't matter if the time element was 70 or 700 years ago, as it make no difference.

Every single event that has happened in our recent past, and even our distant past, if they had not happened in the exact order, as God revealed them to the Old Testament prophets, would have changed the outcome of the final act of this drama we call the human race.

What if just one piece had been removed, say Hitler was not born, or one his ancestors had died at birth? Would Israel have been reborn into the Holy Land and be a nation along the Mediterranean sea? Or would the European Jews still be happy in their homes and businesses, as they had been before Hitler's madness exploded on the map of Europe?

Without one single person, known to us as the madman called Hitler, would Israel be a nation again as God had prophesied to Ezekiel and written down over 2500 years ago? It is because God saw the rise of this Nazi dictator and used him to push Israel's modern day Exodus back to the Holy Land, just as Ezekiel had written, over 2500 years in the ancient past.

This is but one example of Bible prophecy that came to pass in intricate details that if one element of the historical past had been removed, then prophecy would have crumbled and we would not be seeing what we are seeing this day in our generation. But let us take a moment and review some of the prophecies that God foretold and has been coming to pass.



I am reminded of the word of our Lord Jesus Christ as He sat on the Mount of Olives and His disciples came to Him, as just prior Jesus had told them that the Temple that was the center of their culture would be torn down, and “not one stone would be upon another, that would not be cast down”.

Jesus told them in details what would be the sign of the coming of the end of this age, and He made several statements that even now, are coming true.

"And as He sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you." (Matthew 24:3-4)

Anyone who has their eyes wide open and listening closely will see the deception of our politicians, the elite who live in Hollywood (who even think we would listen to them) and the leftist media that has raised deception to an art form.

The biggest lie that Satan likes to foster on an unbelieving world is that “he does not exist”. And the deception in our world is Satan inspired, the “father of all lies”
We see the deception right now of those who are swimming neck deep in the Swamp we call Washington DC, frantic that there are those that want to drain this swamp and bring in conservative members to help our new POTUS Trump do just that. I have been listening to those who are slamming Judge Roy Moore from a “so called victim” from a reported 40 year old sexual assault on a 14 year old girl, who is just now coming forward and represented by the extreme Feminist lawyer, Gloria Allred who loves the limelight. 

My first impression, why all the emotional tears from an episode that happened 40 years ago, and makes a person wonder how much the left Democratic party paid the woman to make this claim when this man has been a judge for many, many years and just now wants to run for the Senate? Do I smell a dead fish in Denmark? And today, I see where her step-son is saying she is making this whole affair up. Even Allen West reports that there is evidence the woman has been paid to lie.

But deception?  Not us.  This is the 21st century! We're too smart to be easily deceived. Really??


THE RISE OF EVIL THAT COVERS THIS EARTH.

Our Lord Jesus went on to itemize what would be apparent in the last days and He spoke of the increase and intensity of wars on the scene growing worse and worse.

 "And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. " (24:6)

Wars have been a major portion of the history of this country in our domestic era starting with the Civil War and going into World War 1 &2. Since then, I don't believe there has been a decade that we have not been involved in some type of war in the international community. But the threat of World War 3 looms with North Korea rattling her sabers threatening to annihilate the USA, and the POTUS threatening to destroy North Korea in “fire and fury” that no one has ever seen before.

Of course, this does nothing but draw in Russia and China into the same Cold War that we thought history had abolished with the fall of the Iron Curtain and the demise of the Soviet Union. But as Jesus told us, the end was not yet, and it wasn't....YET.

Next, Jesus goes on to explain to His disciples that there would come a “great “FALLING AWAY”

"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition" (2 Thessalonians 2:3)

In all my born days, would I have imagined the expulsion of anything that pertains to the God of the Bible from the halls of government, our class rooms, and the dumbing down of the masses to anything that speaks of righteous living and the precepts found in your Bible. But that is what we have seen, with Brown vs. the Board of Education in the 60s taking prayer out of the classroom, Roe V. Wade in the 70s and the ongoing slaughter of innocent life in and out of the womb of an inconvenienced mother, to the legalization of same sex marriage and all things pushed by a minority population known as the LGBT, or homosexuals of this country that make up only 1% of the population.

Let us not forget the random gun violence that makes one wonder if this is not staged to take away our 2^nd amendment rights, and/or people possessed by evil. In our day, I would say the world has truly gone mad.


LOVE OF MANY HAVE GROWN COLD

Jesus goes on to say that another detail that will be present at the end of this age.
"And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." (Matthew 24:12) --

Anybody else notice how many parents are murdering their children lately? We just had a case, beside Roe V. Wade that invades our culture, of a mother who killed her 10 year old daughter and then committed suicide. Anyone of us can state their own local news to report the same happening in your area as this epidemic of the love of many growing cold reaching epic proportions. Each of you can make  a case for the increasing tolerance of sin and the collapsing moral structure of society .

THE EMERGENCE OF THE ANTI-CHRIST

 Daniel says that the Anti-Christ's seminal act of power will be to make peace between Israel and her neighbors. Until this generation, there was no Israel to be at war with.  The world is crying for a leader who can solve global problems like “climate change”,  nuclear proliferation, the Middle East, terrorism and outlaw nations. I remember what was said back in the 1950s that was repeated in our century:

“What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the alliances of all people and to lift us out of the economic morass into which we are sinking. Send us such a man, and be he god or devil, we will receive him.” Henri Spaak circa 1957-1960 Secretary General of NATO“**********The time has come to deepen economic and currency union “For this renewed push towards integration we need strong political leadership.” (Deutsche Bank President 2011)

The world is ripe for the coming of the lawless one. But make no mistake, the man will not be on the scene until the church is removed.

6 “And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders” (2^nd Thessalonians 2:6-9)

I've made that clear for many messages past, that we may think we know who the man is, but we will never see him do what the bible says he will do, and that is confirm a 7 year treaty with Israel. This may even be after the Ezekiel 38-39, Gog-Magog war that decimates Islam and most likely Russia.

EARTHQUAKES, FAMINES, WARS AND PESTILENCE.

Jesus explains that the time of the end will be as a woman in labor pains, with growing intensity and frequency as the time approaches. Each of these events have been the scourge of mankind since the time of the fall of our first parents, but nothing in the recent past, or historically has seen the rise of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions like we see today. The earth seems to be in convulsions, trying to cast our the sin of mankind that it has afflicted on this planet.

Ethnic wars rage all over the planet, but central in third world countries of the Middle east, the African plains, and the Far East like North Korea. Entire populations face mass extinction from starvation, or from diseases that have long vanished from our world.

News reports of the Black Plague have sprung up in the news in Madagascar and migrating into the African countryside on its Western borders. Many believe this is a manufactured biological warfare designed to de-populate Africa, that could get away from the perpetrators and spread world-wide. Let us not forget to mention diseases that have long thought to be eradicated, such as Tuberculosis, Small-pox, and the new kid on the block, HIV or AIDS that continues to ravage those of the homosexual community and spreads in the heterosexual community because of illicit sexual relations. The spread of this portion of the downfall of mankind just grows more intense with each passing day that heralds the end of this age.

THE DAYS OF NOAH AND LOT

"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5)

37 “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,

39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matthew 24:37-39)

Wickedness is the hallmark of this day and age and can be proven by just turning on your TV, or pick up a newspaper, or even surf the internet. You can read about maniacs that blow up a bus full of children, or crucifying Christians on crosses, or beheading those who will not bow the knee to Islam. Or how about the latest domestic terrorism that shoots up an outdoor theater with an automatic weapon and kills over 50 people and hurt hundreds in a rampage of hedonism in Las Vegas?

If you turn on that big, black box in the corner of your living room, anything that your heart's desire can be viewed on this screen from murder, to rape, to pornography, and sitcoms that glorify homosexuality ie. “modern family” and Will and Grace. Not to mention Disney putting out a sitcom on homosexuality as normal aimed at children called “Andi Mack” where a child figures out he's gay and comes out to his friends...Disney? You mean Mickey Mouse has gone gay?

Television could be described as 'imagination in a box'. We are entertained by vicariously participating in the story line. What entertains us the most? Based on the most popular TV series, the answer is undoubtedly all the above.

But concerning Lot, Lot lived in Sodom, a place where homosexuality was rampant and widely accepted as an acceptable alternative lifestyle.  Today we have the passage of the same sex marriage act, or legalizing abortion in the recent past, or the “gay lobby” that pushes their agenda to allow all expressions of sexual contact to be legal, even the sin of pedophilia. Ever hear of NAMBLA, which advocate the legalization of sex with minor children? We in this nation live in modern Sodom and Gomorrah, and we know what happened to those of those two cities?...God destroyed them with fire a brimstone, that can only be similar to a nuclear blast.


WORLD-WIDE INSTANTANEOUS COMMUNICATION.

"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached  in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." (Matthew 24:14)

The Gospel has spread all over the world with the invention of the internet and websites that preach the Gospel are seen in all the countries of the world that have TV access or computers. With all this information flooding the world, there will be no corner of the earth that the Gospel has not penetrated. Jesus said that when that happens THEN the end will come. 

So it could come at any moment, as this prophecy has been fulfilled. I look on the stats of my blog and notice that the message has gone from the east to the west all over this globe. How much more has this message gone out, as there are thousands of Christian websites and blogs that preach the Gospel besides mine. I am but a drop in the flood of information that seeks to reach the world for Jesus Christ. Jesus was talking about our day.


RELIGIOUS DECEPTION

"For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." (Matthew 24:24)

I could make a list of such deceivers. But so could you. There is now a big push to bring all religions under one banner, headed by the Roman Catholic Church. The daughters of this Gnostic religion that came out because of Martin Luther and the Reformation, has all but jumped on board to make this a reality. This deception also has reached the Protestant denominations that preach a Prosperity Gospel and proclaim this life to be the best yet to come. Only they don't realize that the sins of mankind and the debauchery will only get worse and worse.

The Bible speaks of this deception growing stronger when the “false Prophet” proclaims the coming Anti-Christ to be a god on earth. And that my friend, could be just around the corner. If the coming of the “lawless one” is close, then how close is the coming of our Lord Jesus for His Church? Even closer than what we see happening around us.



Our God, ABBA Father,and our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of the Old and the New Testament has been right on a multitude of past prophesies that could take many papers to speak of and prove that the Bible is the only Book that has written prophesies that have come to pass to the very letter. God knows the end from the beginning, as He is outside of time and see man's history much as a reel to reel movie. He knows how this all will end, and He controls the levers of history.

Bible prophecy is the Signature of God, the proof of His existence and the assurance we have of our salvation.

"So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11)

CONCLUSION

Just from this quick rundown of what our Lord spoke of in Matthew 24 and Old Testament prophets briefly mentioned what would come to pass, should make a body sit back and analyze how this all could come about and be predicted with such accuracy in a Book that many discount as so much religious fables. But Fables don't have a tendency to come true.

The Bible is full of prophesies that have come to pass, and if the Bible has been 100% correct, the coherent mind would believe that the rest that are coming upon us, even now, will come to pass as well. It only proves that there is a God in Heaven, who looks down upon our world and made man to be in His image, but made for the sole reason that God wanted a family. God will have His family, as He sent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God to be a ransom for those who would believe. 

You see, Jesus died for the WHOLE world, but knew that the whole world would not all believe, but follow after the “father of lies” Satan the devil, as they loved unrighteousness and their sinful lifestyles, more than they loved the Lord God.

But that is not what God wants, or desires...as He sent His Son to redeem His family that was lost in the Garden of Eden.

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2^nd Peter 3:9)

But God in His infinite wisdom, knew that not all would accept His free gift of salvation through His Son, Jesus, but it was a freewill choice given to those who wanted to follow Him out of love and a desire to be obedient to His will. God did not want robots, but children who love Him.

So will you love Him? Will you follow Him and accept His free gift of mercy and grace? If you be honest with yourself and think for yourself and not from the “adversary” the devil, you will admit God is real, as the heavens and creation scream of His existence. But how do you come to a God who by all standards found in your Bible is a HOLY GOD that will not allow sin into His presence...God made is very simple.

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16-18)
God is calling to those who will listen to His message of Grace and Mercy and has given the only way to come to a God that the world says does not exist, but prophecy fulfilled says they are deceived. Will you be deceived?


9 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
1. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” (Romans 10:9-11)

This is Pastor Mike Taylor, praying you believe in the only Way back to God, Jesus Christ, our Lord. If you need prayer, counseling, or just a listening ear, then email me at realteam1999@sbcglobal.net,  God bless you all.

TILL WE MEET AT JESUS FEET.