Bible Tools

One can only imagine how long this sin sick world can continue on. With the increase of violence, wars, social unrest, disease, droughts, famines, and a growing list of other sorrows how can such a world continue to exist? We have polluted most of our air and water; worst of all we have polluted our minds. This society has become corrupt and sick beyond belief, so much so that God destroyed the world once (Genesis chapters 6 and 7) and this time He is sending Jesus back, not to destroy the world but to save it (John 3:17) and put it under the subjection or ruler ship of the Government of God, under His supreme authority to usher in universal peace and happiness.

Man has waged countless wars; untold hundreds of millions have died in conflicts throughout the history of man. We have seen in our generation alone two world wars that killed over a hundred million people most of which were innocent civilians and of course the millions of soldiers who died in combat, and millions more over these past six thousand years were, outside of war, also the victims of murder and other gruesome crimes. Man has inflicted pain and misery upon himself, fellow man, the environment and wildlife.

Because of mans greed forests have been cut down for the lumber, the landscape carved up to dig for gold, oil and other natural resources; also, many species of animals have become extinct at the hands of man. When will it all end? How long can man suffer? The good new is that it is all going to end very shortly perhaps even in our own lifetime! The good new is that God Almighty will not allow the human race to continue with its evil ways that leads to misery, death and destruction!

Already this is the third year into this new century we have seen numerous terrorist attacks, two major wars (War on terrorism and Iraq) and the spread of killer diseases, and it is not over yet, there is more to come. We have not yet gone through the wrath of God (Revelation chapters 9,10 and 16) for our personal and societies collective sins, nor have we yet gone through the hell and the persecutions that is to be brought on by the Anti-Christ (Revelation 13:7) and of course God's wrath against the Anti-Christ and his system and those who have the mark of the beast (Revelation 19:19-20). We must go through hell on earth before Jesus Christ returns, and if you think the world is in bad shape now you haven't seen anything yet! It's going to get a lot worse than things are right now.

So the question that you are being asked is are you ready for the return of Jesus Christ? Have you prepared yourself for His return? "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night…" (2 Peter 3:10). Although we will see the heavenly signs Jesus Christ will not announce His coming and of that day and hour no body knows (Matthew 24:36), so is it any wonder that scripture says He will return as a thief. Jesus did outline in the twenty-forth chapter of Matthew events leading up to His coming. He speaks of war, disease, rebellious children, and false preachers, preaching in His name while deceiving the masses with a false concept of Christ. He speaks of religious persecutions and a whole litany of abominations and sins that are to happen before He returns to this earth. Read chapter twenty-four; does this generation that Christ speaks of sound familiar to you? It should - that is our generation! Even though Christ will not announce His return, when He does return unexpectedly the entire world will witness it, and man will not be happy to see Him. "Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him… And all the tribes of the earth shall mourn because of Him…" (Revelation 1:7). For the saints this return will be a glorious occasion, but for the rest of the word it will not be a welcomed event.

So how can we as Christians and non-Christian prepare for this event of the second coming of Jesus Christ? "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2). The first step in preparing for the Kingdom of God is to repent; repent of what? To repent of SIN, in our modern world sin is a nasty three-letter word that people hate to use, they would prefer "Alternative lifestyle," but God is not politically correct. In the eyes of God, sin is sin and there is no way around it. So what sinful acts must a person overcome in order to be ready for the return of Jesus and to enter the Kingdom of God? First of all to repent and prepare for Christ we must stop breaking God's Ten Commandments. Exodus chapter twenty lists God's Ten Commandments. Jesus says, "…If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments" (Matthew 19:17). The true Almighty God does not want us following after false pagan gods, and He does not want us using His name in vain (Using His name in cussing, or claiming to be one of His when your not!). We are told not to steal or murder, these are part of His Ten Commandments, not "Ten Suggestions or Ten Good Moral Teachings," they are COMMANDMENTS!

God also commands us to keep His annual holy Feast days (Leviticus chapter 23) that represent the sacrifice of Christ and the soon coming Kingdom of God. No it is not Easter or Christmas, in fact these days have strange and unusual names but they are rich in meaning and tapestry. These feast days include the Feast of Passover, Days of Unleavened bread, Pentecost, Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles and several other holy days. Yes they do have odd name but they are full of spiritual meaning and God expects us to keep these annual feasts. God does not want us partaking in pagan rites such as Christmas, Easter or New Years, "Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?… Thus you have made commandment of God of no effect because of your tradition" (Matthew 15:3,6). Note: The animal sacrifice that was once (Two thousand years ago) associated with these feasts are thankfully no longer in practice since Jesus Christ was our sacrifice, He shed His own blood for our sins. He is our Passover, 1Corinthians 5:7.

Keeping the commandments will not save you, however they will help prepare you to enter into the Kingdom, in fact keeping the law of God is an act of worship and obedience to Him. In order to make ourselves ready we must after repentance be baptized in full water submersion to be spiritually cleansed of our sins and to commit our live to trusting, serving and obeying Jesus Christ our Saviour and God our heavenly Father. "He who is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:16), "Or do you not know as many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life" (Romans 6:3-4). Once we receive God forgiveness, grace and Holy Spirit we can begin to live a life of overcoming preparing ourselves to enter into His Kingdom.

In order to get ready for the return of Christ other sins we must overcome besides commandment breaking is our personal sins we commit against other people and ourselves, not to mention sinning against God. The sins we must now also put behind us are greed, lust, dishonesty, hatred, theft, drunkenness, and a whole endless list of sins that may disqualify us from entering the Kingdom (Galatians 5:19-21). Sin is extremely difficult to overcome and is one hundred percent impossible without the Holy Spirit and the help of God Almighty. Even with God's help until we are changed from flesh to spirit (1Corinthians 15:50-58) we can never really totally overcome sin, but we must make an effort to do our best, God knows our weaknesses, and if we are willing he will help us overcome them.