The Storm Before The Calm

It seems that God delights in working in ways that are opposite of what we would "naturally" expect. Or perhaps I should more accurately say that He allows Satan to work his evil temptations to lure those of us whom he can to expect the world to work in ways that are contrary to the plan of God. Either way, we tend to see things deteriorating around us (as we certainly do today) just before He brings us the victory that we are desperately praying for. Most of the wars we've fought have started out disastrously, before we won great victories sometimes over the superior forces of the enemy. Our Revolution was absurd even to contemplate that this upstart colony could take on the most powerful army, and especially their navy, and provide a reasonable challenge for them, let alone succeed in victory, guaranteeing our independence, which we succeeded in defending in 1812, after our governmental seat was virtually destroyed by the British invasion. The civil war was almost lost before we started, in the first, and second battles of "Bull Run", near Manassas, Va., and many other Confederate victories, before the Union forces final figured out that war was a dirty business and should be fought that way, rather that considering it a fun opportunity to receive prestige, and glory.

Perhaps this is the case, spiritually, as we readily see our country descending into a pit of moral depravity that is fairly nauseating to behold, all the while we are expecting to see the evidence of the great spiritual revival that the Bible assures us is to come in the last days, before Christ's return. This great awakening is reputed to be on the greatest scale the world has ever witnessed. Well, lets hope so, because we certainly do need it!

I am on record as stating that I can't see the Antichrist's rise to power to control the whole world as being possible if there is an America that stands for even a reasonable level of righteousness. We must be rendered irrelevant, if not absolutely destroyed (as I suggested a bitterly defeated Russian army might launch a nuclear first strike, before burrowing into their fall-out shelters for a thousand years; I know this sounds absurd, but the prophecies of Ezekiel 38, & 39 seem to suggest that will occur, perhaps in conjunction with the Lord's "Rapture" of His Church). I don't make this stuff up, folks, I "just calls it likes I sees it". So, the Antichrist's rise to power will seem like a great victory for him, temporarily, then (7 years later?) he is in for a big surprise, when the Lord returns to set up His Kingdom of Heaven on earth, casting the Antichrist into the Lake of Fire. So the pattern of God bringing great victory out of apparent defeat is continued,... on steroids!!!