The Beginning of Sorrows Has Begun

It is impossible to look at the recent events occurring around the world and not know that the “beginning of sorrows” has begun. The preachers loved or at least tolerated on television are actually walking over truth and denying any connection between present events and the Bible. They could not be more wrong or more foolish in their drive to be politically correct. How could any man of this Blessed Book not connect such apparent Divine reckoning as evidence of Bible prophecy? Jesus wrote about this period just before the Seven Years of the Great Tribulation. He said, “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 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. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” (Matthew 24:5-8)

The word “accidents” or the phrases “bad luck” or “good luck” are not acceptable to the Word of God. The Creator of this universe is a “present Landlord.” “The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” (Psalm 24:1) The Apostle Paul could not have said it better when he spoke by the Holy Ghost about this issue. He said, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” (Romans 8:28) A saint of God can absolutely trust God in every detail of his life and trust in His perfect performance of mercy and grace.

The exact same, but on an opposite side, will be true in the life of the wicked. When I say “wicked”, I mean any individual that is not living a converted life in full obedience to the Word or will of God. The unbelieving will be just as fearful as the wicked themselves when great evil comes. There is no protection for that person that claims Christ but lives in willful disobedience. “For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.” (Hebrews 10:26) It is the sacrifice of Christ and the blood that is a barrier to the destruction of your life by the forces of sin and judgment. The Blood, applied and daily sprinkled by the Holy Spirit upon every expression of your lifestyle, will keep you within the protection of your Father’s perfect will.

Outside of that barrier of the Blood of Jesus is nothing but sorrow and destruction. Sometimes it seems that destruction tarries for years and suddenly falls upon the unprotected like a relentless storm. But, destruction will eventually come every time as God’s Word has declared. Look at the words of the Spirit on this subject. “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.” (Romans 9:22) There are many examples of this in individual lives as well as cities and countries. New Orleans is a prime example of mercy that has finally come to the fruit of destruction. This past week one hundred thousand plus homosexuals were expected to descend on that city spending a suggested one hundred million dollars for the sheer joy of blasphemy. Any man is a fool that denies the connection between these ultimate blasphemies of God with the storm that has descended. Compare other natural disasters and the unity of all the populists in overcoming and rebuilding with the total chaos of human depravity that has shocked this city and you can see nothing but the wilderness of sin.

Nothing that occurs is an accident. It is always either a combination of mercy and judgment, just mercy, or just judgment. Nothing in our God’s universe just happens. “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45) The difference is most often what we do with the results. With God’s divine help and intervention the righteous rise and shine when sorrows come, but the opposite occurs with the wicked.

The Beginning of Sorrows
The destruction of Hurricane Katrina and the sorrows and pains we are all feeling is a wake-up call to America. This universe is on a dead end street to GodÂ’s judgment. We are only increasing our sorrows to ignore this fact. Every act of sin committed by every living soul is feeding the frenzy of blasphemy against God. There is no sin that does not have consequences. Your little sins may take longer to come to fruition, but they are piling up. The blasphemy against the Bible, the Son of God that sacrifices His blood, and the blasphemy against the very sacredness of human morality and beauty is creating a storm of coming reckoning. Nothing of sin and wickedness can escape the All-Seeing, All-Knowing Creator, our God of the Holy Bible.

Look at the wickedness of this week. In Charlotte there were twenty plus reports of fights and disturbances at gas stations and it is not even bad yet. The sheer chaos in New Orleans is but a small picture of coming sorrows. We have watched a brief picture on a very little scale of the coming Seven Years of the Great Tribulation. Can you imagine living in a world where two to three billion men, women, and children have died, been murdered, or brutally destroyed in the short period of a few years? If you can multiply the sorrow in New Orleans by a few million, then you will begin to understand. Millions of corpses will lie in the open and be devoured by the starving animal kingdom. Much of human population will blaspheme God for the judgment just like the multitudes in New Orleans have attacked the very expression of human compassion that has tried to help them. Human nature is on the verge of descending into such vileness that animals of destruction will seem tame in comparison.

Conclusion
The prophecy of Holy Scripture has set before us a clear and precise picture. Most of the church world has accepted the lie that they are going to set up a kingdom of righteousness. This false idea has many names: Post-Millennialism, Kingdom Dominion, A-Millennialism, etc. It is all a lie, and we are going to see very quickly what falsehood it really represents.

The beginning of the end is very evident and clear to see. Read Revelation chapter six, verses fifteen to seventeen. “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17) The “beginning of sorrows” has begun!

Joseph R. Chambers