Every Day, the Day Before
Every Day, the Day Before
By Pete Garcia
“Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” – 2 Peter 3:3-7
The world is quickly entering into a time where the concept of normal no longer exists. Phrases such as Singularity, the Convergence, the Great Reset, and the New Normal are being used more frequently to try and explain the dramatic departure from the old world order of things. In fact, it is becoming such a dynamic paradigm shift that even unbelievers (i.e. the prophetically deaf-tone people) are beginning to take notice and ask questions with regards to the strange goings-on around the world.
In fact, so many strange things are going on these days that it is just too overwhelming to try and take it all in. Even someone like myself who can usually absorb a lot has trouble absorbing beyond a certain threshold. As is often the case, these inexplicable events are shrugged off simply because we can’t know who or what to trust anymore. Some things seem too unbelievable, too overwhelming, and remain unanswered. More on this specific point later.
Despite the deluge of prophetic signs and wonders growing day by day, there still exists the cultural and geopolitical naysayers out there. These are they who pretend (and loudly so) that everything is fine and life will just keep going on the way it always has. Typically, these naysayers are often represented as the “experts.” They are often the establishment types (bureaucrats) and CINO’s (Christians In Name Only) who love pretending to be culturally relevant, socially reasonable, and yet, are almost always spiritually lukewarm. Unfortunately, these are also the same people who seem to hog the media spotlight, usually only to scoff at those “crazy Evangelicals” who actually take the bible seriously.
Fair to say, these skeptics and the act of their skepticism is not a new endeavor. Noah dealt with it in his day. Lot dealt with it in his day. Just think back to Christ’s birth and how the Wise Men showed up in Herod’s court asking, “where is He who is born King of the Jews?” A surprised King Herod turned to his own “wise men” (i.e. the experts of his day) to ask them about this, and they responded by misquoting the prophet Micah. In fact, they downplay the passage to diminish the significance of this event so as to make it more politically palatable for their king (compare Micah 5:2 with Matthew 2:5-6).
Why did they do this? Why didn’t these Pharisees walk the five or so miles with the Parthian Wise Men to Bethlehem to investigate the matter for themselves? Why did they quit believing in the promise of the coming Messiah?
Unbelief.
They quit believing and thus their skepticism resulted in pride. This is why they would not stoop themselves to go with these foreign wise men to investigate the matter for themselves. Nevertheless, religious zealotry and human pride aside, the root cause for skepticism is often the passage of time between the giving of a prophecy, and the fulfillment of it. Time often has a funny way of whittling away our beliefs, our joy, and our hope. While time is not, in and of itself, evil, how Satan manipulates our understanding of it, is.
For Satan, every decision is always tomorrow. It is always, “you have plenty of time.” It is here that Satan and his demonic forces play on our intellect. In so doing, he introduces mankind to two very subtle doctrines of devils known as incrementalism (or gradualism) and the normalcy bias with great effectiveness. He effectively plays on the passage of time and the fallen nature of this world, to dash the hopes and beliefs of those who would believe.
Just think back to when you were a kid and all the things you used to believe in. Things like magic, monsters under your bed, the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, or even more elemental things like people being generally trustworthy. We call this level of belief, naivetés, and obviously, some of these are silly and unreasonable. However, it shows the capacity we are born with to believe in the unbelievable.
Conversely, as we grow older and experience life firsthand, we realize these things are not so, and we begin to condition ourselves to lower our expectations. Lowered expectations often come from disappointment, failed relationships, deception or manipulation, mistreatment, or abuse, all of which seem to be the norm rather than the exception in our world today. The longer we live on this fallen planet, the quicker the light in our life seems to diminish. It is because the more time passes, the more we bear witness of the ugliness of this world, and we harden our hearts against it.
Perhaps this is why this generation is far more skeptical and cynical than all those generations before us. We have seen history. We have studied humanities’ collective trek through time and we are able to see just how brutal, ugly, and wicked this world can be. Speaking to that generation, Jesus said-
“And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” – Matthew 24:12
Assessment
One of the primary signs the Bible tells us of the last days is the mocking of Christ’s return. Jesus, Paul, and Peter all talked about it in connection with being in the “last” or “latter” days just before His return. Now, mockery in and of itself is not a particularly interesting sign. As mentioned previously, mockery and skepticism have been around for a very long time. However, when we put context into it, it becomes very interesting, especially given some of these overlooked thoughts.
1. Jesus stated that in the last days, deception would be everywhere and people would come pretending to be the Christ (Matt. 24:5). Now, this would be an absolutely pretentious statement, IF Christ really wasn’t who He said He was. We know with 100% certainty that the Gospels were written in the first century. We also know as a fact that in the past two thousand years, many have come claiming to be Christ. The fact that this has happened, as well as the fact Christians are still here talking about His return nearly two thousand years later, is absolute proof that Jesus was who He said He was and that He is returning soon.
Why have so many come claiming to be the Christ? Why aren’t they coming pretending to be the Buddha? The Mahdi? Gaia? Thor?
2. Peter wrote that in the last days, scoffers would come mocking the return of Christ. Aside from the fact that this is happening on a daily basis (and has with increasing intensity for decades) is also proof positive that Christ’s return is near. The only reason people would mock the return of Christ is if Christians were talking about the return of Christ. People would not increasingly mock the return of Christ if people weren’t increasingly talking about it with growing interest.
Nobody mocks the return of Thor and Odin, or Ragnarok, because apart from a very tiny group of Norse-religion enthusiasts, nobody is talking about it. You only mock what is relevant, and Christ has always been relevant.
3. Paul wrote that in the last days, perilous times would come. This word perilous (Greek- chalepos= exceedingly fierce, perilous), interestingly, is only used one other time in the New Testament. It was used to describe the two demonically possessed men from Gergesenes (or Gadarenes) as found in Matt. 8:28. Perilous times do not denote a time of normalcy or business as usual- it is a demonically infused dangerous situation. In fact, it marks the time of birth pangs that have been ever-present but will, in the last days, increase with growing frequency and intensity. Of interest to this topic, however, was that even the demons in the passage knew about and feared the last days;
When He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him, two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. And suddenly they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?” – Matt. 8:28-29
The fact that this legion of demons knew there was a time of judgment coming, and even knew where they were in relation to that coming time of judgment, is interesting. They stated, “Have you come to torment us before the time?” This reminds me of the passage in James 2:19 where he states that “even the demons believe and tremble” at the reality of God. Now, while they cannot know of “that day and hour,” they know enough to recognize that Christ will one day return to judge the world. Sad to say, that is a far cry more discerning than what most of our apostate false teachers (CINOs) know and believe; for their fate is far worse.
“For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) — then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.” – 2 Peter 2:5-11 (emphasis mine)
These false teachers are they whom Peter stated as being, wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever (2 Peter 2:17). Unfortunately, these mockers and skeptics often carry this foolishly cavalier attitude toward God. However, as Solomon once noted, there is no new thing under the sun.
Skeptics, skepticism, and the hardening of hearts have existed long before our generation. In fact, it was the Antediluvian generation who mercilessly mocked Noah, and the post-Antediluvian generation, who tormented a righteous Lot. These mockers even existed centuries later in the days of the tower of Babel. In fact, these mockers go back through every generation (to varying degrees) and are at present, filling up Sheol and are presently waiting in torments for the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev. 20:10-14) and then, an eternity in the Lake of Fire.
The audacity of mortal men, who are weaker than angels, proclaiming themselves either greater than God (by denying He exists), or greater than God’s servants (of whom, they beat, kill, and imprison for sharing the Good News). Think about the wrath they are storing up for themselves. Think about the demonic forces (who are more powerful than we) and how they tremble at the thought of God’s wrath. This should be cause for great concern for those denying the coming of our Lord and the truth about where we are on God’s prophetic timeline.
Conclusion
Here is that thought I asked you to hold till later.
When the rains started, the flood came.
Apart from lawlessness, we (believers and unbelievers alike) are being deluged with SO much information these days that this (in and of itself) seems to be a tactic from the very pit of hell- to overwhelm the system. Where do you think Cloward and Piven got their strategy? They recognize that we are but frail mortal beings with a finite set of skills and reasoning abilities; it doesn’t take much to overwhelm us or our human governments.
Satan knows his time is coming to an end, and he is attempting to demoralize and confuse the body of Christ in the present, so we cannot effectively bring the Gospel to a lost and dying world. He does this by a dizzying array of strategies and tactics, but the two mentioned in this brief- skepticism (hardening of hearts) and overwhelming the system, has proven to be very successful.
Perhaps this growing lack of normalcy also explains the demonic frenzy we see happening all around us today with the world becoming obsessed with redefining what normal means. This redefining was traditionally done through political correctness, however, this has splintered off into the subsections of wokism, intersectionality, social justice, and critical race theories. By these, the world wants to redefine what the following means:
Traditional marriages
Gender norms
Ethnicity and Race
Nuclear families
Normal governance
Societal and cultural norms
All of these have been deteriorating our world at an increasingly quickening pace, all the while the skeptical experts are calmly reassuring us that this deterioration is normal (i.e. the new normal). However, the end results are always the same. All of it is designed to divide and conquer, demoralize mankind, and introduce confusion into every segment of society. Ultimately, this is designed to both turn men’s faith away from God, and toward a man (the Antichrist) in whom they will give themselves wholly over to his final world system. This results in a quickening series of earth-shattering judgments which are designed (by God) to stagger men’s faith in their ability to save themselves. But is this all-new?
No.
Jesus stated that the days before His return would be like the days of Noah and Lot (Luke 17:26-30). Each of those generations mocked God and mocked the coming judgment, and they paid dearly for it. The question we have to ask ourselves is, is our generation any different? If we look around the world today, do we see people openly mocking Christ and Christians? Are we seeing the complete censoring of Christian thought in the marketplace of ideas? Are we seeing the rising persecution of Christians around the world?
Unfortunately, yes.
However, we are not to lose heart. The fact that we are seeing this major prophetic sign, should be good news to the watching believer. We are seeing this day approaching (Heb. 10:25). We are seeing the season just as we one would see the changes in the weather (1 Thess. 5:1-4). Jesus stated that when all these things (mocking and skepticism included) begin to occur, we are to look up and lift up heads our heads, because our redemption draws near (Luke 21:28).
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking every day is like the day before. None of us know what tomorrow holds, and we should spend whatever time we have remaining, not only occupying until He comes but eagerly longing for His return. Jesus is the only One who can fix this world’s problems. He is the only One who can vanquish evil. He is the only One who can fix us. Let us not be ensnared by the trappings of this world, because that will only serve to dash and thrash our hopes and energies and cause us to become distracted. Let us, however, be fixed on Christ and the world He will bring, thy Kingdom Come.
Even So, Maranatha!