You hate to listen to the news these days because it’s mostly bad news.  A good day in Chicago means that only ten people have been shot. Anti-Semitism is up tremendously since the conflict in Israel, with increasing attacks on Jewish people around the world. We should not think that we could not be next. In fact, the whole world will hate us.

Luke 6:22 says: “How blessed are you whenever people hate you, avoid you, insult you, and slander you because of the Son of Man!” (International Standard Version throughout). The reason is: We do not fit in.  A people willing to kill the unborn and turn their nose at obeying God will not tolerate righteous people within their midst because those who obey God make them look bad.

However, there will eventually be peace on earth without wars, conflicts and killings, when the glorious Kingdom of God will rule. Let us look at some encouraging Scriptures in regard to this.

Isaiah 2:2 tells us: “It will come about in the last days that the mountain that is the LORD’s Temple will be established as the highest of mountains, and will be raised above the hills; all the nations will stream to it.”

Isaiah 2:3 continues: “Many groups of people will come, commenting, ‘Come! Let’s go up to the Temple of the God of Jacob, that they may teach us his ways. Then let’s walk in his paths.’”

Isaiah 2:4 says: “He will judge between the nations, and will render verdicts for the benefit of many. ‘They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nations will not raise swords against nations, and they will not learn warfare anymore.’”

War and hatred are taught at a very young age, but in the future, peace and love will be taught instead, and killing and violence will be abolished.

Also note this setting:

Isaiah 11:6 reads:  “The wolf will live with the lamb; the leopard will lie down with the young goat. The calf and the lion will graze together, and a little child will lead them.”

This depicts an era of safety for children, where they are not abused or harmed in any way. Zechariah 8:5 elaborates: “The city parks will be filled with boys and girls. They will play in the city’s open parks.”

Again, these Scriptures picture a time of peace and safety for children and all of mankind.

Today, we read of children being shot in the streets, kidnapped and abused by evil people. All of this will change in the not too distant future, so we must not be discouraged by events going on, but look to the future when all the evils in this world will cease once and for all.

I recall a song sung by the Ambassador choir, titled: “It won’t be long now.” The time is much closer than when this song was sung in the seventies, and it cannot come soon enough.

When looking at the Sacrifice of Christ from an analytical point of view, we come to the conclusion as to how complete it was, covering every base as it were. Blood, the lifeline of any human being, was shed for our sins to be forgiven. Life is in the blood, it is the human common denominator, and loss of it leads to death.

Christ could have chosen a more pleasant way to die, but He did not for a reason. The one thing which cannot be said to Him is: “I suffered more than You.”

We have all gone through painful experiences. For some women it is very painful to have a child, and for all of us passing a kidney stone is very painful also. Crushing-type injuries are particularly painful.

But none of us has been beaten, punched in the face, slapped, scourged (from which, in many cases, the tortured person died with the subsequent loss of blood), hung on a stake for six hours and then being speared in the side to finish us off. Why go through so much physical suffering? A spear through the heart, without the previous excruciating pain, would have been quick and just as deadly in shedding blood and being killed.

Isaiah answers that question. In Isaiah 53:5, we read: “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.”

This is restated by Peter in 1 Peter 2:24: “…who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.”

So there was a reason for all the physical wounding—it was for our physical healing. We can be anointed by God’s ministers and ask God to apply the beating and suffering of Christ to our physical healing.

There are several types of wounds, and Christ suffered them all:

–Contusion:  The medical term for bruising. He was hit on the head with rods and punched.

–Abrasion:  An open wound caused by rubbing against something which breaks the skin. The crown jamming down on His brow

–Laceration: The tearing of soft body tissue from the scourging.

–Avulsion: Chunks of tissue were removed totally. Psalm 22:17, prophesying Christ’s torture, states: “I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me.” Avulsion causes severe bleeding, referring to the scourging and the crucifixion.

–Puncture:  A punctured wound is a deep wound that occurs due to something sharp and pointed, such as a nail. This applied when Christ’s hands and feet were pierced and when He was nailed to the stake.

–Incision: Cuts through the skin and muscles. This describes the moment when He was speared in the side deep enough to cut the artery running down the spine.

So we can see that the wounding of Christ was complete and thus can be applied to our physical healing.

Christ’s Sacrifice was a complete one. He shed His blood for the forgiveness of our sins and He permitted evil men to wound Him for our physical healing. We must therefore appreciate all of His suffering and His death for us, so that, ultimately, all of mankind could be reconciled to God and be given an opportunity to be in the God Family.

With everything going on in the world and with every day bringing some new development, usually in a negative way, we have to wonder how long this madness is going to go on.

With the event of Donald Trump vacating the White House, for some of us who held the belief that it all was going to end in 1975, it brings back memories of the goalpost being moved.

It appeared like there was going to be a second term for Mr. Trump beginning in 2021 and that he would during that term be somehow involved with the building of the temple in Jerusalem which would usher in events leading up to the great tribulation and the return of Christ after the tribulation. All of that appears now to be pushed sometime into the future, and can lead some of us to be somewhat rattled at the prospect of things going on for several more years.

I recall that in 1971, during a ministerial visit, we told the minister we were planning to buy a house. His response was, “Why bother, we are fleeing next year,” to which I responded, “We will just have to sell it when the time comes.” Well, that never happened and some brethren left the church over it. Some had delayed pursuing further education or having dental work done and as a result lost their zeal.

The Truth is, we don’t know when all the end-time events are going to be fulfilled; in fact, it might not be in my lifetime as I am getting close to eighty. There are quite a few of us in our late seventies and early eighties. Does that mean we throw in the towel and give up? No, we push on till the end. We endeavor to persevere till the task we have been given individually is complete, since whether we see Christ return or we die before His return, if we remain faithful to the end, our reward of eternal life is sealed.

Paul, more than most, went through trials that would really discourage the average person, and he did it all for the hope of the resurrection which is our hope. When he realized that Christ would not return in his lifetime, this was his summary: “Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8).

This promise stands true for all who endure to the end, so let’s ensure we focus on that and not be discouraged because it appears the return of Christ is a little further off than what we may have anticipated.

This phrase, as quoted in the title of this Editorial, was coined by Pilate in the presence of Christ during His trial (John 18:38), just prior to His crucifixion. We know of course that the Bible tells us that God’s Word, the whole Bible, is Truth. So are His commandments.  Psalm 119:151 states: “You are near, O LORD, And all Your commandments are truth.”

John 17:17 quotes Christ’s words to the Father as follows: “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”

Truth seems to be in short supply these days with all the lies, half-truths, gross exaggerations, hyperboles, and the miss-spoken (nice way to say that one lies) and false statements which are prevalent today. All of this adds credence to the old adage: “Believe nothing that you hear and only half of what you see.” This makes the world we live in pretty pathetic. The news media constantly pushes lies, and so do a lot of politicians and of course the governments, at times.

How did we reach such a state? The originator and father of lies is Satan, as stated by Christ in John 8:44: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”

When dealing with man, Satan spoke that original lie to Eve in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 3:4 records this lie:  “Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die.’” By telling this lie to Eve, as they DID die, he was also saying that God was a liar who had told them they would die for eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Talk about twisting and perverting the Truth! Satan was guilty of what he was accusing God of, that is, of lying.

We see this approach today in some politicians. One in particular was accusing the President of the USA for four years of being a Russian spy, a collaborator with and an agent for Russia which was a blatant lie without merit or proof, but the mainstream media ate it up and spread that lie. In the last few days it has been revealed that in the past, that politician was apparently associated with a real Chinese spy who helped him raise money to get into Congress. So what he accused the President of was what he seemed to have been guilty of himself. This may help to explain why few people believe what politicians say.

Another politician spent four years saying without proof that he had evidence that the American President was colluding with the Russians. This turned out to be a lie, and that politician was called by a news commentator as being a “congenital liar.” That description would really look good on one’s resume!

Thankfully, this age of lies and deceit is coming to an end when we will have just government on earth under the leadership of Jesus Christ in the Millennium. Isaiah 9:7 reports in advance: “Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”

Notice, judgment and justice will prevail from that time forward. It will be a world where lies and deception are no more, and when we can truly reap the fruits of Truth.

When listening to the news on a typical day in the US right now, we hear about six to ten murders in several major cities, coupled with a dozen or so shootings. Recently, several young children have been killed as a result of the riots and turmoil. One was around eighteen months old. A senior lady walking on the street in the daytime was punched in the head and knocked to the ground for no apparent reason. A similar occurrence happened to a man hit with an object and knocked to the ground.  There are riots and protests every evening, and in some cities it has been going on for months with looting, violence and fires being set ablaze, destroying businesses, and as a result, several police officers have been killed and many more injured.

California and Oregon are having the worst forest fires in their history and there is chaos, hatred and violence everywhere.

It doesn’t seem to dawn on the mainstream media or on the nation that something is wrong here. The nation is under a curse for its sins.

One of the states is trying to introduce a law where sexually assaulting children would be legal as long as the child consents to it. They are trying to make pedophilia legal. Crime is up, violence is up, and there doesn’t seem to be any decrease in sight.

Satan is on the loose and having a hay day. I recently attended a wedding where the Anglican priest, performing the ceremony, is living in a “common law” relationship with his girlfriend who is also a priest and takes great pride in telling others she is a priest, all the while living in sin.  I take it, sin is in the Anglican church.

What an abomination and wrong example to set while there is absolutely no shame there. Laws are being introduced to abort babies up to and including the ninth month.

Israel sacrificed their newborn on the altar of Baal, something that did not even enter the mind of God.

Jeremiah 32:35 tells us: “And they built the high places of Baal which are in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I did not command them, nor did it come into My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.”

You can be assured that killing the unborn did not enter into His mind either.

When Abraham was “negotiating” with Christ about how many righteous there were in Sodom, they settled on ten, even though Christ knew there was only one righteous, and that was Lot. 2 Peter 2:6-8 explains: “…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)…”

Also, the whole city was corrupt and perverted since all the men were at the door of Lot’s house, including children, wanting to have sexual relations with the two angels inside the house who they thought were ordinary men.

Genesis 19:4 states: “Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house.”

Undoubtedly, the women also approved of such conduct.

Now, one may argue that not everyone is perverted and wicked today. The problem is that what is going on is accepted by most. The thinking is, everyone to his own, and very few are crying out for people to repent of their sinning ways.

Romans 1:22-32 says:

“Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.

“Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”

As a result, the US and other English-speaking nations, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, are going down to destruction for their sins and perversions, and it puts a huge onus on us to cry out fervently to God: “Thy kingdom come!”…  and it  cannot be soon enough.