The End Times

There is a teaching afloat amongst believers that if we live a holy and righteous life, we shall be raptured whenever the Rapture takes place. This is a half truth, and half truth is always dangerous because it is a lie. In a court of law a witness swears to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. For half truth, a witness could be jailed; he has committed perjury. We are ambassadors of Heaven, witnesses for Christ. We must tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. We must not hold back anything that is needful and profitable for the saints in this journey. If a believer does not lie, cheat, nor live an amorous life, but does not know the times and the seasons, he will be caught off guard, that day will come to him as a thief in the night. But as believers we need not be caught off guard. That day should not come upon us as a thief in the night, unawares. We are children of the day. We are children of light. We are not of the night nor of darkness(I Thess.5:4-8).

As touching living holy and righteous, there is no need for us to deceive ourselves. The Church is a mixed multitude. From both the pulpit and the pew, the Church is bedeviled with cheating, lying, falsehood, sexual immoralities, pornography, drug addiction, marital infidelity, alcoholic and sexual incontinence, embezzlement of funds, scamming, stealing and youth rebellion, greed and graft. A lot of our youths are messed up with one another in sex, drug, and pornography. There are couples who are married for 20-30 years who engage in extramarital relations. Recently a well known Christian family in town was broken up because the husband was playing around with the maid and impregnated her. They are both elders in their church. That is not to say that there are no holy and righteous believers. But they are few and far between. The genuine pastor grapples with these challenges amongst the flock. Over the years no amount of preaching and teaching on holiness and righteous living has solved these problems altogether.

Of late, the Bishop of one of the big Pentecostal churches in Nigeria called for one month prayer and fasting for repentance. In one of these meetings which I happened to attend, he told the congregation that God said their sin was too much. This Church is one of the best in this nation, and the Bishop is well respected. What about those whose bishops and pastors are fake? Everyone of us may have had experiences with brethren who cannot be trusted with anything. It is not proper for us to wash our dirty linen in public. Neither is it fitting for us to accuse one another. That will be doing the enemy’s dirty job. We are not the accuser of the brethren. Let me say it up front, in a bald language: Our Lord is coming for a glorious Church, without spot, wrinkles or any blemish. If thousands of years of teaching and preaching on holiness and righteous living cannot do, then what will? The Church must go through the Fire of purification, the school of the crucible to be rendered rapturable. This is the essence of the Great Tribulation, to take way the dross from the gold. Every goldsmith purifies gold by processing and passing it through the fire. God, being the best goldsmith that He is will do nonetheless. The purpose of the Great Tribulation is to separate the chaff from the wheat; to fit us for the kingdom. “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, He will gather the wheat into His granary; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire(Luk.3:17). It is also a certain token of the the doom of our persecutors when the Lord comes to be glorified in His holy ones(2 Thess.1:10).

The Great Tribulation is sufficient to purge, purify, and cleanse the Church. Therefore the Church will not go through the wrath of God which consists of the trumpets and the bowls(1 Thess.1:10, 5:9). However, the unbranded Jewish remnants shall go through the trumpet judgments in order to be purified, purged and cleansed. The seventh seal has no judgments of its own, but opens into the seven trumpets. The breaking of the seventh seal marks the terminus-a-quo(starting point) of the wrath of God. The very same day the Church is raptured, the seventh seal is broken and the outpouring of the wrath of God begins(Matt.24:37-39; Luk.17:26-30). In like manner, the seventh trumpet has no judgments of its own, but opens into the seven bowls. The bowls target only the branded Beast worshippers, and end in the war of Armageddon, the terminus-ad-quem(end point) of the wrath of God, at which point Jesus reclaims physical possession of the Earth for the Father.

Today believers are not studying the times and the seasons which The Father has revealed to us in His Word. We are consumed with sending one another motivational messages every day, talking about the good life, how to succeed in life by getting the good things of life, to be happy and prosperous all the time. Are we going to be happy and prosperous all the time when it is given us to suffer with Him in order that we may reign with Him(2 Tim.2:12), when we are destined to suffer tribulation and persecution on account of the word? We need not be reminded of the times and the seasons as our brother Apostle Paul said to the Thessalonians(1 Thess.5:1).

Most ministers of the Gospel, let alone their congregants know nothing of the Book of Revelation: it is too mysterious and symbolic; nor the subject matter of the Olivet Discourse(Matt.24,25; Mk.13; Luk.21). They know nothing about the background of Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians. They don’t understand the Book of the Prophet Daniel. Whenever they teach or preach from these books, they spiritualize, allegorize, contextualise, customize, and personalize them, leaving the primary interpretation untouched. They ignore the fact that if believers are taught the primary interpretation of the Scriptures, they will be able to apply them to their own lives.

Some ministers assume that because of the confusion of views about the Eighth And Final Beast Empire, there is no way we can know the truth about the identity of this empire and it’s emperor, the antiChrist. Though there are a variety of views about the Eghth And Final Beast Empire, the Scriptures are clear as to its composition. All the descendants of Noah after the flood are involved. They are listed in the Table Of Nations in Genesis 10, 11. Gog who is the head of Magog is also the ruler of Meshech and Tuval; he is the antiChrist. Magog, Meshech, and Tuval are the legs of iron, and the iron in the ten toes which is the Roman Empire in the statue of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Dan.2. The patrician families that founded Rome in the plain of Latium came from the nomadic tribes of Magog, Meshech, and Tuval(Ezek.38:3). The other peoples groups are Persia(Tiras), Cush(Sudan) which some inappropriately translate as Ethiopia. What is called Ethiopia today was formerly called Abyssinia. Queen Candace who was referred to as Queen of Ethiopia in the KJV was actually Queen Candice of Mero, an ancient kingdom in what is modern day Sudan(Acts 8:27). To complete the list are Phut(Libya, Tunisia, and parts of Algeria), Gomer, and Togarmah(Turkey, Azerbaijan), Javan(Greece or Greek Syria), Babylon(Iraq) which is Arphaxad(Ezek.38:4-6; Rev.13:2).

The Medes who are the Kurdish people of today are not part of the Eighth And Final Beast Empire of Satan. The Kurds are found in southern Turkey, northern Iraq, north and eastern Syria, western Iran, with pockets in Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia. Although they started the Medopersian Empire about 550 BC before the Persians joined, thereafter the Persians became dominant. So, the Medes(Madai) will not be part of the bear of Rev.13:2. This accounts for its absence in the list of peoples groups in Ezek.38:3-6. They may however be allied to the antiChrist. They will be the first to attack Babylon before it will be finally annihilated by the kings of the Eighth And Final Beast Empire(Is.13:17,18; Rev.17:16,17). Saddam Hussein killed their women and children with poison gas in the 1980s. Even today, they are persecuted in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. If we study the migration of the various descendants of Noah we can identify these peoples groups and where they settled. The European Union is not synonymous with the Eighth And Final Beast Empire of Satan, though members states like Javan(Greece) and Magog(Germany, Austria etc) are involved.

The same also is true about the identity of the antiChrist. Of late some like Joel Rosenberg and Walid Shoebet have come up with the idea of the Islamic antiChrist and Mideast Beast. They believe and teach that the antiChrist will be a Muslim from the Mideast. They believe that Turkey will be the power behind the Eighth And Final Beast Empire. Other figures like Nero, Juan Carlos of Spain, and the Pope have been identified as the antiChrist. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The Scriptures have always been clear as to whom the antiChrist will be. He will be a man who has ruled over one of the 7 previous Beast Empires of Satan, was killed with a military weapon in battle, died, descended into the bottomless pit, and ascends out of it to rule over the Eighth And Final Beast Empire(Rev.13:3; 17:8-11). If he ascended out of the bottomless pit, he must have been imprisoned there as one of the fallen evil angels. Human spirits do not go to the shaft of the abyss. They go to paradise or Hell depending on their relationship with God. So the antiChrist is not a human spirit. He is the son of perdition or destruction(2 Thess.2:3). The Greek word translated perdition or destruction is Apolleumi. Apollyon(Greek) or Abaddon(Hebrew) is the king and angel of the bottomless pit(Rev.9:11). The antiChrist because he ascended out from the bottomless pit is the son of Apolleumi(destruction or perdition). Apollyon is the king and the angel of the bottomless pit.

Except for Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany, none of the emperors of the other seven Beast Empires would be recognizable were they to be seen in the streets of our cities today. Photography had not been invented in their times. This is the one singular factor that will give the antiChrist overwhelming influence over the lives of the living wicked earth-dwellers when he is unveiled at the midpoint of the 70th week. He shall be recognized as a dead man who had ruled one of the seven previous Beast Empires and has come back to life to rule over the Eighth And Final Beast Empire. Those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s book of Life shall be frightened and awed to submission(Rev.13:4).

Besides, Robert Van Kampen of blessed memory had conclusively proven is his wonderful work, The Sign, that the antiChrist is Hitler come back to life. The Ottoman Empire is not one of the seven previous Beast Empires of Satan. They are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medopersia, Greece, Rome, and Nazi Germany(Dan.2,7; Rev.17:9-11). Both Assyria and Babylon existed in the same general area of modern Iraq. The other title of the antiChrist is Gog of the land of Magog, the head of Meshech, and Tuval(Ezek.38:2). From the table of nations in Gen.10, 11, and their subsequent migration and settlement, it is evident that the Magogites are the Germanic peoples of Germany, Austria, the Sudetenland in The Czech Republic, Silesia in modern day Poland and ethnic Germans in areas southwest of Moscow in the present Russian Federation. The original Anglo-Saxons who settled England came from Lower Saxony in Bavaria, Germany. The original Franks out of whom came The French were also ethnic Germans. These are historical facts that can be verified. As I pointed out earlier, the only way to settle these issues is to study the Table Of Nations in Gen.10, 11, and their subsequent migration and settlement following their dispersion after the confusion of languages at Babel in the plain of Shinar which is modern day Iraq, which is biblical Babylon. That way, there will be no confusion as to the composition of the Eighth And Final Beast Empire; one can readily identify the various peoples groups.

We the Pentecostals, with our prosperity message, are the major culprits. If the Church Age were to continue for another 100 years, we shall be 180 degrees off course. I have always wondered how any believer can live holy and righteous without knowledge of the times and the seasons. If we think of holiness and righteousness only in terms of not cheating, nor lying nor fornicating, we have missed it already. What about the spirit of the age? Majority of christian youths spend a greater part of their time playing video games. Sharing messages on WhatsApp. The volume of such messages per day alarms me. There is no how one can read all these messages and still have time to educate oneself in the word of God. Some of the messages look spiritual on the surface, but indeed they are very hollow. When I was a senior in the secondary school, I exchanged letters with my one and only girl friend. When I entered the university, I got born again. On graduation eight years later, I returned to my village and found these letters in my cupboard. I had carbon copies of my letters to her. I read through them over again; they were very hollow. I wondered what was exciting about these letters in the first place. What happened? I had become wiser.

When I was a medical student in Ife, one of our revered professors of cardiology, Dr. J. J. Andy would interpret what was going on in the cardiac chambers and valves by palpating the pulse. We, the students would be awed and puzzled. Once, he observed the look of awe and amazement as well as admiration for his skills and expertise on my face, and said to me: ” don’t worry, in 20 years time you will be wiser.” To tell you the truth, I became wiser in few years. In 20 to 25 years of the modern world, the changes that will take place will certainly make some of us wiser, however the fools will remain foolish(Rev.22:11). The Scriptures tell us where the world is headed. The future of this world is prewritten history. Those that will understand it are those who have already learned it from the Scriptures. How can anyone accurately interpret current affairs without proper understanding of the End Times? Do you know what? You can become wiser in a couple of hours, days, months, and years by studying these things for yourself. Some are consumed with football and other sports. Some literally live in the Internet. What about the cares of this life which are legitimate anyway? Our Lord Jesus warned us about them nonetheless(Matt.13:22). There is a tendency for them to displace and crowd out God in our lives.

The Church as well as the world is being primed for the antiChrist harvest, and most pastors, the pretribbers amongst them do not warn the sheep under their care. There is a lot of antipathy towards this teaching that the Church must of necessity go through the Great Tribulation. The attitude of some others is nonchalant. Let me feed my family first and send my children to school before I can listen to any talk about Heaven, Hell, the Great Tribulation and the Rapture. Do you know that one day you may be so old that you find no pleasure in these things(Eccl.12:1-7), and unable to read one good book in a year. There will be tribulation and persecution on account of the word(Matt.13:21). In Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, our brother, Apostle Paul confirmed the souls of the disciples, exhorted them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God(Acts 14:22).

Our brother, Apostle Paul was in Thessalonica for very short time. No sooner had he started the church in Thessalonica than he had to leave due to opposition from civil authorities. Within that short period of time he had taught them not only the message of salvation, but also that the church will go through the Great Tribulation before being raptured. The order of his message was salvation, and then the antiChrist before the Rapture. In the southern part of Nigeria, where we are not terror bombed by Boko Haram, the end times have been relegated to the back burner if at all mentioned. After convert class, the new believers is notured and weaned on, and inundated with the prosperity message and messages about the good life. I always ask myself, if our Lord Jesus and Apostle Paul were here today, will the content of their messages be the same as the ones we hear in our churches today? I doubt very much.

In Sweden in 2015, 98% of all transactions were cashless. Cashlessness will soon be acceptable all over the world. We have BVN in Nigeria. One day, there will be a worldwide BVN. By then, the number of digits may expand to 18. This with some biometric data specific to the individual may be introduced hypodermically into the body. Tattoo marks are now fashionable especially among sports celebrities. And our youths see them as role models. Wearable chips with which one can lock and unlock one’s phones, tablets and computers, homes and offices and cars and electronic gadgets are fast becoming fashionable amongst the upwardly mobile. The Scandinavian countries are far ahead of the rest of the world in these things. Many in Sweden wear chips and are branded already. And you know what? They brag about it. It will not be long before it becomes fashionable in Nigeria and the rest of the world.

There is talk right now about the global generation. The global generation will be a generation of cyborgs. ‎A cyborg is Homo Sapiens Sapiens who controls everything around him with wearable chips implanted in various parts of the body, and is turn controlled by a giant computer somewhere run by a Big Brother. These things are very tempting especially for the youth who may be under peer pressure to belong, and besides, there are obvious benefits. Some day chips may be implemented in the brain to aid memory, solve problems etc. It will be a huge temptation for Christians who are students especially in institutions of higher learning as these chips may enhance performances in their academic pursuits. Some of these biometric implants are as small as a grain of rice. Will a believer that is so hybridised be acceptable to God? In the ancient world as it is still practised today, people wear their gods on their bodies as necklaces, earrings, nose rings, bangles, scarification marks, etc. This is the reason why God forbade the children of Israel from stripping these items from the corpses of their enemies slain in battle, nor take their images lest they become a snare to them(Exod.34:12-16). How could these inanimate objects become a snare to the children of Israel? They were dedicated to the gods of their enemies. They were initiated objects. Anyone who has dealt with demons knows they are very legalistic. They always go for what is theirs. It is for the same reason that we should not take the mark of the Beast(Rev.13:16-18). My advice to believers is that we should avoid biometric implants. This of course excludes cardiac pacemakers and insulin pumps and other biomechanisms that deliver drugs to patients.

Most of us think that the computer is innocuous. Some of us do not understand that there are satanic forces behind the explosion in computer technology. Why do some of these computer programmers smoke ganjar in other to perform. Or do we not understand that performance enhancement drugs bring one into contact with demonic forces as do other temple defiling sins. In the field of robotics and artificial intelligence(AI), there is what is called fuzzy logic. How can a mere combination of digits 0-9 yield intelligence. One of my sons-in-the Lord has observed that some complex computer programmes are demonic incantations. Some of these robots and drones and driverless and flying cars will be employed as killing machines during the day of the Lord to wipe out a third of impenitent humanity(Rev.9:13-21). So let them go ahead.

There are some amongst us who do not see anything wrong with the explosion in technology. ‎Martin Heidegger, the German philosopher, over a century ago warned that technology was going to destroy the world. There are some of us believers who see the explosion in computer technology as very innocuous. But it is the seemingly innocuous things that are very dangerous. The explosion in computer technology is in no doubt beneficial to the Church in so many ways, more so in the area of evangelism. But I have met some nuclear evangelists who intimated to me in confidence that the best method of evangelism is still one-to-one correspondence. Does it cross our minds that the explosion in computer technology is preparatory to the advent of the antiChrist? How can the antiChrist control the world without globalization, cashlessness, cyborgs, robots, drones, and internet of things, and of course a unified religion which is the goal of ecumenism? Satan’s plan to defeat Christ is to destroy or disqualify humanity. Without fear of being labelled a scare monger and paranoid, if God does not intervene, Satan will achieve his goal, even though it is a tall order.

One method by which Satan aims at disqualifying humans is by hybridizing them. Hybrid humans or humanoids or transhumans are not acceptable to God. ‎One method of hybridization is by intermarriage between fallen angels and human females(Gen.6:1-4). It was for this reason that God wiped out the people of Noah’s day, leaving only Noah and his family because they were the only ones who were pure humans(Gen.6:5-8). The statement that Noah was righteousness in his generation(Gen.6:9) is better translated Noah was pure in his descendants. It did not mean that Noah and his sons were without sin or sinless. There is not a just man upon the earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not(Eccl.7:20). Every man will proclaim his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find(Prov.20:6). For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God(Rom.3:23). Although those fallen angels who embarked on this mission for Satan are incarcerated in darkness in the shaft of the abyss alongside their humanoid offspring awaiting the judgment of the great Day(2 Pet.2:4; Jude 6), Satan has other fallen angels he can employ in the same mission. Besides, humanity can be hybridised through technology. Both processes are ongoing in the present, the large majority of the people of God are ignorant of it.

Today, in the Amazon forest as well as in some African forests, away from the prying eyes of activists, there are laboratories working hard to incorporate animal and plant genes into human genome all in an attempt to produce a more viable human being. Hitler embarked on Eugenics in order to produce a pure Aryan race. Will the antiChrist do any less? The British biologist Aubrey De Gray has a seven point plan to overcome death. This is the whole aim of Singularity. Raymond Kurzweil, Google’s director of technology, has written a book, “Singularity Is Near,” in which he talked about Singularity and its goals. They have established Singularity University in America where they are secretly and silently pursuing these goals. They want to live for ever in this sinful body. If you think this is scare mongering or esothetic academia, or speculative eschatology, why did God confound the language of humanity? Because as long as they are united, they will archive their goal. Do you think that fallen humanity have jettisoned his goal to live his life independent of God, in defiance to His laws and commandments? The same plan that was foiled by God in the plain of Shinar where fallen humanity built the Tower Of Babel is still being pursued by fallen humanity today in institutions of higher learning, academic citadels, laboratories, firms, secret societies, religious institutions, and in the corridors of power.

If God does not intervene in human history as He has done in the past, either Aubrey De Gray or some others after him will breakthrough, and sinful man will be locked in a death-doomed and sinful body for ever. But God will not allow this to happen. For man to breakthrough the Earth’s atmosphere into space, he had 21 questions to answer. He did and broke through to space. To overcome death, man has only seven questions to answer. They may be tougher and more formidable than the 21 in relation to space, but they can be answered. Without divine obstruction, man will one day answer those questions; it is a matter of time. There is a saying amongst the Igbos that “what has no way to do it, has a way to do it,” meaning that every question no matter how tough, has an answer, and every problem no matter how seemingly indissoluble is solvable.

When I was in the Bible School in the US, one of my classmates was an retired Colonel in the Israeli army. One day in class, we were discussing questions of this sort. He told us he did a stint at West Point. One day, in class, there was a question about certain practical problem in the battlefield which his professor, an American general, told them has no solution. He said, he showed them how to solve it. His professor was amazed. There are problems in this life which ordinarily are beyond human solution. “But there is a spirit in man: the inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding”(Job 32:8). Men can be inspired by the Holy Spirit, demons or drugs, more recently by biometric implants and gene alterations. And human gene can be altered by vaccination. There was a philosopher who confessed that he could not understand the writings of another till he took nitrous oxide. We, the people of God, who live at the edge of history, must be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves to avoid being swept along by this satanic insanity. There are some believers who teach, with an air of sanctity that we should concern ourselves with only what God is doing. They forget that we are involved in warfare. And that in warfare combatants spend time and resources to gather information about their enemies, their strengths, weaknesses and strategies.

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”(Hos.4:6).

For us to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves(Matt.10:16), we must be knowledgeable in the word of God in relation to the End Times. We are not spending money trying to spy on our enemy. God has revealed to us his activities already in His word. And we do well to take heed.

“But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.”(2 Tim.3:13).

There is a whole lot of deception going on in the world today, in religion, politics, and corridors of power, in institutions of higher learning, and in science and technology etc.

The third method of hybridization which I have earlier hinted at is by becoming a cyborg. This method is the most subtle because it does not directly involve fallen angels or demons cohabiting with human females, nor gene manipulation. Besides, it is very exciting.

As pertaining to scare mongering with which we have been labeled by some of our scathing and virulent critics, let me say we are scare mangers to the extent to which Jesus is a scare monger, because we are echoes of His voice. Jesus warned His disciples in the Olivet Discourse to take heed that no one deceives them: for many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. He warned them that there shall be wars and rumours of wars. He told them there shall be famines, pestilences and earthquakes. He told them that Jerusalem shall be surrounded with armies. He told them to leave the city as quickly and as far as possible when this event occurs. Those outside the city should not enter into it. Those on the house top should not come down to take anything. Woe to them that are with child and those who give suck in those days. He said, pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the sabbath day. He said during this period, many shall fall away from the faith, and shall betray one another. Family members shall betray one another, and a man’s foes shall be members of his own household. Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold(Matt.24:12). What could be scarier than this scenario graphically painted by our Lord in the Olivet Discourse? The pretribs got around it by telling us the Church shall be raptured before the antiChrist rears up his ugly head.

The synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke gave the same testimony(Matt.24; Mk.13; Luk.17). Our beloved brother, Apostle Paul gave the same testimony. He said before the day of the Lord, the man of lawlessness, the antiChrist must be unveiled and there shall be massive falling away from the Faith( 2 Thess.2:3). John the revelator testified that the antiChrist shall make war with the saints and overcome them(Dan.7:25; Rev.13:7), he will make war with the remnant of the seed of the woman who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus(Rev.12:17). He said some believers shall be killed and some taken captive(Rev.6:9-11; 13:10). He also testified in the Gospel of John that in the world believers shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world(Jon.6:33). Apostle Peter testified that the saints shall experience strange trial. It is the same Greek word “peirazmos” that is used in Rev.3:10 to describe the trial that shall come upon all those who dwell upon the earth(1 Pet.4:12,13). If Jesus, Peter, Paul, John, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are scare mongers, then we are glad to be so labeled because all we do is to echo and re-echo their voices. The prophets Isaiah, Joel, and others testify there shall be cosmic disturbances before the day of the Lord in which the Rapture will take place(Joel2:30-31; Is.24:23). Need we say any less?

Let me say something about money. Most believers today say it is alright to have plenty money as long as one does not love money. They comfort themselves with the scripture, “the love of money is the root of all evils.”(1 Tim.6:10). It is possible to have plenty of money and not love money. It is also possible to be poor and love money. The reverse is also true. There are many poor people who are greedy. And there are rich people who are not greedy, and vice versa. But by and large, it is harder to enter into the Kingdom with plenty money.

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle’s gate than a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God”(Luk.18:25).

The rich young ruler was sorrowful because he would have to give up his wealth in order to accomplish God’s will for his life. He earned his money in an honest and legitimate way. He was not crooked in his business dealings. He lived holy and righteous, nonetheless he was disqualified. Where a man’s treasure is, that is where his heart will be(Matt.6:21). More poor people have provocative faith in God than the rich, and more poor people are called than the rich(Jam.2:5). However, abject poverty is a curse, but godliness with contentment is great gain; for we brought nothing into this world, and it certain that we carry nothing out(1 Tim.6:6,7). Our prayer should be, God give me food that is sufficient for me; give neither riches nor poverty. If we are in abject poverty, we may steal, and bring shame to the name of the Lord. If we are excessive rich, we may become foolish, and curse God in our hearts. Loving money is not the only bad thing the Scriptures say about money. Money itself is an unrighteousness Mammon(Luk.16:9). It is deceitful(Matt.13:22). If we think we can have plenty of it without being deceived, we are already deceived. It lays one open to a whole lot of temptations, foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction(1 Tim.6:9). We should be satisfied and content with Daddy meeting our basic needs. Having food and remaint, let us be therewith content. Show me a congregation that have plenty of the things of this life, and I will show one that is worldly.

Money is one of those things that Satan introduced into human history as the god of this age. There is no buying and selling in Heaven. There is no currency in Heaven. In Heaven everyone produces maximally and takes what one needs. The early Church in Jerusalem practised communitarian system of collective coexistence.

“And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”(Acts 2:44-47).“

“And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”(Acts 4:32-37).

These preachers of righteousness and holiness, how many of them share the material thing they own with other believers? I don’t know any congregation where this is practised today. There may be, but I don’t know. It may be found amongst believers who are persecuted like in Indonesia, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, China, Northern parts of Nigeria, North Korea, etc. However, the Church shall revert back to this prestine form of collective coexistence during the Great Tribulation. Because then, it will done on us that we do not own anything that we possess. And besides, the antiChrist and his cronies shall impound and confiscate them. We should be careful what we build because the antiMessiah may turn them into dunghills and draught house no sooner than we are done. It has more eternal value to invest in human souls than in white elephant projects. In the day of the Lord, all these things shall be destroyed. What manner of men ought we to be? What should be our attitude towards material wealth?(2 Pet.3:10-12).

When you are here and the antiChrist signs a seven year peace agreement with Israel(Dan.9:27a), please sell all that you have, landed properties and all, use the proceeds to find yourself a safe haven, and give the rest to indigent and needy believers to do the same. Because, three and one-half years later they will be impounded by the antiMessiah and his cronies. So, we have three and one-half years to prepare, stock away food, medicine and other supplies from the starting point of the 70th seven of Daniel. Pastors, please close your accounts and those of the church, sell your church properties, give the proceeds to the needy amongst the brethren to find safe havens for themselves and loved ones. If you don’t, you will certainly be remiss.

Let me say one word about Pretribulation Rapture. In Nigeria, the holiness and righteousness preachers tell us we shall be raptured whenever the Rapture takes place if we live holy and righteous without telling us the condition under which the Rapture will take place. Those who teach this view know nothing about the end times. They do not even teach about the end times at all here in this country. So, how then are they going to live right and holy in the midst of the chaotic confusion of the present times?

In the US, the pretribbers tell us that the Rapture can occur at any time, without any prophesied events preceeding it. But every week, these hypocrites hold one prophecy conference or the other. What are they prophesying about? They also tell us like Tim LaHaye of blessed memory, Thomas Ice, Joel Rosenberg, and our beloved Pastor John Hagee, who loves and gives to Israel so graciously and generously, that the last war that shall be fought before the Rapture takes place is the Gog and Magog war(Ezek.38,39). Is that not a prophesied event? If the Rapture will take place before the great tribulation, how can the Gog and Magog war be fought before the Rapture takes place? A war at end of which is built the Fourth and Millennial Temple(Ezek.40-43)? The Gog and Magog war is nothing other than the war of Armageddon, the last battle of the end times in which our Lord Jesus Christ will physically repossess the Earth by summarily defeating the antiChrist and his armies and allies, and the kings and armies of the other nations that shall be gathered against Him. Who are the remnant of the woman who have the testimony of Jesus Christ with whom the Dragon went to make war?(Rev.12:17). Who are the Great Multitude which no man could number?(Rev.7:9-17). This innumerable multitude, were they all young converts to Christianity who got murdered by the antiChrist and his acolytes during the Great Tribulation? Does not the Scripture teach that the Rapture will occur after the tribulation of those days?(Matt.24:29-31). Does not the scripture teach that the antiChrist shall be unveiled to perpetrate the Great Tribulation against the saints of the Mast High, and that there will an apostasy, a massive rebellion and falling away from the Faith due to persecution by the antiChrist before the dead saints are raised from the dead and the living saints translated to meet the Lord in the air?(2 Thess.2:3,4; 1Thess.4:13-18). Do we not know that it is an eternal honor to be raptured alive? How can such a generation shy away from or evade the toughest battle of the ages? No on has ever changed nor will ever change the time of the Rapture; it will occur after the Great Tribulation of those days.

“For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.”(Heb.10:37).

I challenge you to study these things for yourselves brethren. Don’t believe anything unless you can prove with at least two or three Scriptures. Shalom! He cometh.

Avraham Shallom.