It is the thing termed “iniquity” that bends our finite minds beyond understanding, the infinite mystery that makes one ask: How can a God whose every facet is framed by perfection have allowed such a thing as iniquity to exist?

That mystery brought into the world sin, thus death and all the subsequent evil involved in the separation of people from their Creator. Iniquity is on the rise in this world now, operating as powerfully as it did when it engendered rebellion in the Garden of Eden and during antediluvian times.

The introduction of its appearance is found in the following:

Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. (Ezekiel 28:14–16)

God’s Word further chronicles the effects of iniquity upon the once-magnificent created being called Lucifer:

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. (Isaiah 14:12–14)

Throughout the eons, this creature–perhaps the most glorious of all creatures before God made humans in His own image—has infected all of the created order we’re aware of. Iniquity runs rampant amongst the globalist, would-be gods–the human minions within the “powers and principalities” of Ephesians 6:12.

These, under Lucifer’s (Satan’s) guidance, are striving with all the wealth and power they have to, like that old serpent himself, usurp God’s authority. They’re attempting to change God’s order of things at every turn.

They are at the center of the rebellion found within the entities that want to change the biological order—i.e., they say a person can be the gender of their choice rather than the one they were born. These declare that man can relate to man and woman to woman sexually just as during the days of Lot in Sodom. Such anti-God thinking promotes more and more the sexual exploitation of children in ways too egregious to detail here.

This is what I term “the Lucifer syndrome.” They are of their father, the devil, as Jesus put it. They believe and practice the lies Lucifer still foists upon humankind just as he has done since he, as a serpent, entered the pristine Garden of Eden and told Eve and Adam they could be like God Himself.

The Lucifer syndrome is infecting and affecting all who want to assume authority over this judgment-bound planet. They have invented the term “climate change” in pursuit of establishing their control. We’ve witnessed their nefarious doings, especially over recent months and years.

Their Agenda 30/Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) is currently scheduled to be put on the fast track to implementation this September. Climate change, is, of course, at the heart of their plans to create crises sufficient to cause global panic. Thus, they intend to force all to come within their Great Reset blueprint, thereby bringing about changes of their own making rather than keeping things as God has determined.

There are reports that they’re doing things like putting a screen of sorts between the sun and the Earth to cut down on global warming and other “harmful effects,” as they believe.

In reading reports of weather-induced disasters, it seems God is allowing the geophysical elements to feed their frenzy. The SDG sorts, in their Lucifer-syndrome, reprobate thinking, believe all the volatile weather is caused by such things as an increased carbon footprint wrought by people’s abuse of the planet.

However, I’m convicted it is the Words of Jesus that are being played out with all the truly ramped-up, weather-related events we are seeing. (A quick review of Rapture Ready News and the reports from around the world bears this out, to be sure.)

Jesus said the following to the Judaizers who tried to get Him to silence those who were praising Him as He entered Jerusalem on the donkey:

And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. (Luke 19:40)

We are witnessing, I’m convinced, much of humankind turning their backs on God. The very elements–the created order—therefore are speaking out in witness to His glory.

The anti-God forces–those infected by the Lucifer syndrome—want to usurp God’s throne. They, whether wittingly or not, are, like their father, the devil, spreading and perpetuating the lie that man-made climate change will destroy the planet. They want all people to follow their lies down the broad way that leads away from the Savior.

This all means, I believe, the Lord is quickly setting the stage for the man of sin and his regime of control. –Thus to, through God’s judgment and wrath, bring about the end of the rebellion that began long ago when iniquity first entered the thoughts of Lucifer. It means, more importantly for believers of this Age of Grace, that the Lord Jesus is about to call His Church into the clouds of glory in the twinkling of an eye.

Here is how to go to Jesus when He makes that call:

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)

Powerful forces are at work beneath the relative tranquility that masks the true state of our nation and world. Our society boils with turbulence beneath a crumbling veneer of sophistication. It is a culture mirrored by soap opera-type fiction and hedonistic movies that have, in turn, mesmerized much of the American public. Life has indeed imitated art, while year after year, morals have degenerated and the very concept of morality has been turned upside down and inside out.

Those who don’t know Christ for salvation are given a thrill-a-minute fix to satisfy insatiable cravings for instant gratification. All too many among the saved are caught up in the lures of worldly pursuits. Americans are, for the most part, sadly, all the while descending deeper and deeper into depravity.

Gleam, glitter, and unparalleled techno-gadgetry have procured Americans hours upon hours of time for pleasure-seeking and, it is more than abundantly obvious, for mischief-making. While the moguls of science do provide great benefits for human health, wealth, and achievement, to see the direction all of this is sweeping us, we only have to consider the news. We’re not a society that’s getting better and better every day and in every way, like the New Age evolutionary thinkers would have us believe. Feeding our voracious appetites for more exciting thrills and greater pleasures has only generated phenomenal growth in criminal activity. Those who perceive themselves to be the have-nots ravenously want the material things the propagandists flash before their lusting eyes. Because Big Brother government has, in effect, destroyed the work ethic through give-away welfare programs (but can in no way give this dependent class the shimmering lifestyle it lusts after), the rip in the fabric of society widens daily as the ungovernable elements engage in the only occupation they believe can secure for them the thrills and pleasures they seek. As a result, gang members as young as seven live and often die in their unattainable pursuits.

Last-Days Scenarios

Can there be any doubt that the end-of-the-age conditions and activities God’s Word predicts are now being played out before our eyes? The similarities between the biblical descriptions and the news reports are stunningly evident.

Human atrocities against fellow humans are pandemic. Stories of debased behavior are so numerous that news articles that would have formerly been front-page headlines now are relegated to pages farther back because even more heinous stories overshadow them.

Jesus Himself prophesied about the generation on earth at the time of His Second Advent: “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:37). He said, while talking with His disciples on the Mount of Olives, that generation, like the pre-Flood society of Noah’s day, will be “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” (Matthew 24:38). Like in Noah’s day, society will be conducting business as usual, desensitized to the perversities going on around them and even more desensitized to any consideration of the things of God and divine judgment.

Daniel the prophet said: “And the end of it shall be with a flood” (Daniel 9: 26), meaning a flood of wicked behavior and of God’s wrath and judgment pour upon the unrepentant, blasphemous people of the apocalypse. Jesus said the generation alive at the end of the age will be totally immersed in doing what is right in their own eyes, as were the folks of Noah’s day. The people of that earlier generation were getting married, going to parties, and engaging in commerce while their perversions, debaucheries, violence, and blasphemies were simply well-accepted, even welcome, ingredients in the culture and society of the time. Jesus said they were carrying on as usual “until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the son of man be” (Matthew 24:28–39).

Jesus was saying that people living at the time of His return will have become so rebellious as to have rejected the notion of a Creator God. Their thinking will have become so reprobate, their consciences so seared, that many will even forget that such a God was ever said to have existed! Christ’s coming will be so swift and startling that it will be like the horror of that long-ago, worldwide deluge that destroyed all but those who were found righteous in God’s eyes. Just prior to that Flood, Enoch disappeared, having been translated into the presence of the God with whom he walked righteously (Genesis 5:24). Noah and his family were supernaturally preserved upon the raging sea that engulfed the entire earth (Genesis 8).

Jesus also drew the parallel between the time of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the days that will immediately precede the consummation of the age. “Also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 17:28–29).

Peter the apostle wrote about Lot’s days of interaction with the people of Sodom: “For that righteous man [Lot] dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds” (2 Peter 2:8). Peter then went on to imply the type of behavior that greatly disturbed Lot—the sort of behavior that inevitably brings on Almighty God’s indignation and judgment:

But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they; self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities…. But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption, And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. Spots they are and blemishes, reveling with their own deceiving while they feast with you. Having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls; an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children, Who have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray…. These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with the tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that are just escaping from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption; for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. (2 Peter 2:8–19)

God’s Word speaks powerfully of His opinion about the vile activities that were commonplace during Lot’s day warning all generations that His righteous judgment must and will fall on those who engage in ungodly enterprises:

Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. In like manner also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities…these speak evil of those things which they know not; but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them! For they have gone in the way of Cain…. Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. (Jude 7–13)

The Holy Scripture then rolls before the mind’s eye of our imagination the awesome truth within the words, “it is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10: 31). As the book of Jude continues:

And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convict all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage. But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; How they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These are they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. (Jude 14–19).

Apologies to Sodom and Gomorrah

Ruth Bell Graham said, in surveying the growing wickedness in our nation, that if God did not judge the United States, He would surely have to apologize to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Many years have passed since Mrs. Graham made that (in my opinion, very correct) assessment. Does the fact that the United States has not been obliterated by fire and brimstone, consumed in a thermonuclear holocaust or by supernatural fire, mean our conduct is improving enough that the Almighty will not judge us like He did those ancient cities? Or does it mean Mrs. Graham was wrong?

One thing is sure. God is never wrong and thus never needs to apologize for His actions. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8.) His immutability is perfectly consistent. Thankfully, and praise His holy name, so is His quality of mercy, His slowness to anger and wrath—else the little, though tremendously prideful, creature called man would have ceased to exist long ago.

The reason God has not yet brought about the removal of His Church and hasn’t yet let Daniel’s end-times flood of evil deluge a judgment-deserving world of rebels is found in the following:

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 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. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. (2 Peter 3:8–10a)

Don’t let the day of God’s wrath being poured out on a judgment-deserving world be part of your future. Accept Christ this moment and be assured of being lifted to the safe harbor of Heaven for all of eternity. Here is how:

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

Looking at the surface of evil in the world taking place, it appears that this world is out of control. No one can be faulted for having such a view of world conditions.

When we see things like young children being considered legal/legitimate fodder for sexual predators (now called “minor-attracted persons” instead of “pedophiles”), things really do look out of control.

When we see one of the two major political parties championing those who push agendas the MAP advocates embrace, what other conclusion can be drawn other than that this world has gone insane?

Without meaning to get political, in the sense of promoting one party over another, we remember a biblically pronounced end to this kind of turning one’s back on the God of Heaven.

During a convention a decade or so ago, when someone asked the Democrat Convention attendees whether God should be mentioned within the proceedings, the loud and definite answer by all in attendance was a resounding “No!” There was no doubt whatsoever that they wanted any mention of God left out of proceedings.

As I’ve mentioned numerous times, here is what God says about those who turn their backs on Him:

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those Things which are not convenient. (Romans 1:28)

Again, not intending to stray far into politics, what I see through the prism of God’s prophetic Word must be interjected here. Anyone being honest as they watch this presidential administration surely has questions like the following: How have we reached such a place in this nation that the top three people in the presidential administration are seemingly unable to demonstrate normal mental function?

These—the president, the vice president, and the press spokesperson—have actually become almost laughingstocks to observers outside their political party, their leftist ideology, and the mainstream media (which, mentioning in the same breath is perhaps redundant). Their mental acuity is, it seems to me, inadequate to the challenge in addressing legitimate issues on the national and international scene.

These are avid adherents of the platform presented by the political party that verbally shouted God out of their midst.

Of course, kicking God out of anything isn’t possible with the omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent God of Heaven. To that end, He continues to have that anti-God party in “derision,” just as He indicated He will do to anyone against Him:

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” (Psalms 2:2–4)

A careful dissection of things going on over recent years shows time after time that the Lord has intervened to slow down the Ephesians 6:12 minions, both demonic and human, in their effort to hurry the process of bringing Antichrist to the end-times world stage.

One of the signals the Restrainer was involved in during the American political process is illustrated, I believe, by the following observation from one prophecy writer:

Apparently, the evil forces behind these arenas of the falling away believe that as long as America stands, their cause will not climax in victory. Thus, we see a concentrated effort to bring America down to an entity without sovereignty.

One cannot deny the true meaning of that statement muttered by President Obama at the annual DC Correspondents’ Dinner on April 30, 2016: “The end of the Republic has never looked better!” He was so caught up with anticipation that Hillary Clinton would be the winner of the 2016 presidential election that he could not contain himself. Thus, the goal of destroying the United States from her perch at the top of the nations is Satan’s plan in his drive to pose as God in the place of the God of the universe…

Topple the United States and the whole world will go down. Why? America is the only nation which allows its citizens the freedom of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as individual rights coming from God, not the state. That arrangement just cannot be allowed by those who envision a New World Order and a one-world government where no such freedom is planned—except for the elite. (“Is the Real Restrainer Now Restraining?” Gene Lawley,  https://www.raptureready.com/2019/06/11/real-restrainer-now-restraining-gene-lawley)

The Lord intervened in that 2016 presidential election in ways that drove those thinking they had things that would “fundamentally transform America” insane and spewing every sort of vitriol against the candidate who won that election. And the insanity continues to this moment, as indeed, the anti-America-as-founded forces seem to be making significant headway in their drive to fundamentally change this nation.

Despite the growing wickedness that certainly must make this like the days of Lot in Sodom in the holy eyes of God, His judgment and wrath continue to build, reserved for that promised “twinkling of an eye” moment—the glorious fraction of a second when Christ calls the Church—all born-again believers—to Himself.

Here is how to be part of that call so that you can, along with all saints of this Age of Grace, have joy in the Heavenly Father’s presence forever:

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. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)