Economic Recession

He is Coming This blog is about Christianity and the Second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ

The city of Sao Paulo was dazzling that night as I stared across it from the balcony of the Italia Building. Entering the restaurant, I looked around. The receptionist, a tall blond young man with artificial manners, asked, as he knew me, "Mr Bulloon?"

I nodded with a smile and he took me to a private table in the rear. the person I was looking for was there, waiting for me. As he arose we exchanged greetings, and after a brief trivial conversation, he got to the point.

"You know I have money", he said, taking charge the situation at once. "I can buy whatever I want, travel in any place in the world, and make things happen that most people just dream about; but when night comes, I can't sleep. I feel as if I were in debt to someone. Some nights I remain awake until dawn. Tell me what I'm missing, but please don't ask me to become a member of your church and don't talk to me about Jesus".

His attitude surprised me. Although a giant in the world of business, he sat there almost begging for help, but he didn't want me to talk to him about Jesus.

"You know that I am a minister", I said.

"Yes, but can't ministers talk about anything else but religion"?

"Of course we can. I could discuss the stock market or the present exchange rate for dollars. I could talk to you about sports or about the culture of the different countries I have visited, but you have just asked me a specific question. You want to know what you are lacking and I am sure it is not stocks and bonds, travel, or culture. What you need is a spiritual sense for your life, but you don't want me to talk to you about Jesus. What can I do? If I were to tell you the solution to your problem is in India and that it would cost you a million dollars, you wouldn't hesitate a minute. You would get your private jet ready and go there immediately to look for the solution. Am I mistaken"? The man blinked several times, took a sip of water, and didn't know what to say. He was aware of the emptiness of his life. Something was seriously wrong. At the beginning of his career, when he was still young and filled with dreams and ambition, he believed that he needed money to be happy. he concentrated all his efforts on getting it and had achieved his objective. By now he was a multimillionaire and, according to his original plan, should have been satisfied but he wasn't. Instead, he felt constant anguish and couldn't identify the cause. Although looking for help, he didn't want to hear anything about God.

We talked a bit more, then said without coming to any conclusion. The classic portrait of a modern man, he had made money his god. But in spite of all his money he was empty and distraught.

"Money is a powerful horse", says the proverb. And people have always given themselves body and soul to getting as much as possible of it. "Money is the lever that moves the world", repeated the gold seekers as they risked their lives in the Amazon jungles searching for the precious metal.

The mad race for money dominates today's culture. it destroys lives, corrupts consciences, and leads to the overthrowing of governments. Yet people think that if they only had more money they would be happy, and therefore spare no effort or time to get it.

The man who spoke with me that night had discovered that money failed to bring happiness. But many, in their desperate attempt to fill the void that money cannot, fall into greed: the idolatry of money.

Greedy people live just for the getting. They accumulate riches they can't use. Afraid to spend and terrified of being poor, they never had enough. They care about no one but themselves. The apostle Paul describes this kind of people as one of the signs of the last days: "In the last days... men will be lovers of self, lovers of money".

The desire to accumulate riches makes human beings lose their sense of values. Things come to be more important than people. Always wanting to be richer, the wealthy will lie, exploit, extort, corrupt and be corrupted without caring about others. Such individuals exist in every field of human endeavor: in business, in the government, and even in churches.

It is the poor and weak who is especially suffer the consequences of the greed of others. Every day they have fewer opportunities and more poverty and misery. One evidence that the return of Christ is near is the increasing wealth for a few and extreme poverty so many.

According to the report of the UN Hunger Project, every second someone dies on the planet because of hunger. Seventy percent of them are children under 5.

November 13-17, 1996, the World Food Summit convened in Rome. one hundred eighty-five nations sent their representatives. They proposed to end hunger by 2015. Since then hunger has instead dramatically increased.

most of the deaths caused by hunger result from chronic malnutrition. Families simply don't get the food they need to survive. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that at least 820 million people suffer from hunger and malnutrition.

The Bible says that in the last days the outcry of the impoverished would lead to terrible conflicts between capital and labor. The Apostle James says: "Come now, you rich, weep, and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and you silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you.... it is in the last days that you have stored up you treasures! behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you".

Exploitation will turn those without God into loaded weapons, and time will pull the trigger. hunger is the incubator of war everywhere in the world. Constant poverty and prolonged oppression drive people into aggression and terrorism.

The struggle to survive particularly affects those living in rural areas and the edges of the great cities. Seven out of every 10 poor people, some of whom earn less than a dollar a day, dwell in such places and are especially vulnerable to being recruited for revolutionary guerrilla movements that claim to promote social justice but, unfortunately, too often end up destroying what remains of the already impoverished economy of under classes. Other victims of poverty slide into drug trafficking, and organized crime.

Careful studies of the most critical social conflicts of our time reveal that in the poorest and neediest countries revolutionary convulsions and delinquency reflect a lack of economic programs to meet the needs of growing populations. People who for decades have been without any way to improve their lives reach the place where they can't stand any more, and they end up challenging all established authority.

The majority of the modern world's social conflicts have their roots in the sense of frustration, injustice, and desperation that more and more people feel. mix in the widespread inequality and discrimination prevalent in many cultures and desperation that more and discrimination prevalent in many cultures and you have the class struggle foretold in the Bible as one of the signs of the return of the Christ.

To make matters even worse, people today are more aware of inequality and injustice than ever before. Almost everyone has access to radio, television, and other forms of communication. The media stimulate consumerism among those who have the resources to buy while at the same time flaunting an ostentatious life style beyond the reach of the great majority. The globalization of information feeds the growing anger of the neediest social classes.

No longer does most of the world just passively accept the old argument that most are destined to be poor and that they have no choice in the matter. Today, people want to change the order of things. Unfortunately, they don't realize that armed struggle is not the remedy for the problem.

The social struggle continues. It is the result of injustice, avarice, and collective selfishness. But it doesn't stop there. When the apostle James said that the wages of the workers would cry out for what they had not been paid, he was also referring to strikes and labors militancy.

As I write these lines strikes have swept the nation of Spain. The country is nearly paralyzed because public transportation workers are demanding better wages. The strikes has extended to other sectors, including funeral services and the employees of the Ministry of Justice.

Germany recently went through a chaos in which the German labor union Verdi announced that it would continue definitely its service strike in airports and railways.

In the United States General Motors announced the closing of a number of its plants and a cutback of production at others, because of a strike at one of its principal suppliers.

The same thing happened in Brazil. The Rio de Janeiro police stopped work to demand better working conditions, while in Peru to protest economic conditions. In Bolivia strikers armed with sticks were stopping traffic in five states.

Strikes constantly fill world news. The Bible long ago foretold the struggle between capital and labor. It is one of the signs of the return of Jesus Christ.

However, the Bible does not say that rich people will howl only because of the strikes. Economic turmoil keeps sweeping around the world. The United States has been going through one of the most critical times in its financial history. The stock market has gone through repeated ups and downs. Unemployment has risen, and families are losing their homes to foreclosure. In an emergency attempt to reduce the crisis, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank repeatedly lowered interest rates until inflation became a threat, because of rising oil prices.

many people in the United States keep asking: What is happening? Few know the greater dangers that could be looming on the horizon. According to Isaac Joshua, director of Conference on Economics at the University of Paris, the uncertain situation of the three strongest economies of the world is one of the most frightening aspects of the present outlook. Japan and the United States have been struggling with sluggish economies, and the outlook for Europe is gloomy. Under such conditions one cannot automatically dismiss the possibility of a worldwide economic recession. it is a financial tsunami that threatens to destroy everything in its path.

According to the specialist, the present alternatives are either a violent crisis or one that is less intense but more prolonged. And  if this is a reality for the three greatest economies of the world, imagine what would happen to the developing nations that directly or indirectly depend on the stronger financial powers.

As is so often the case it is the poor who suffer the most. At least they know what it means to suffer. Remember that nearly 800 million people go to bed hungry every night. But think about the rich, who have never known want and who cling to money as a source of security. No wonder the prophecy says they will howl because their riches will be useless to them.

When the U.S. stock market crashed in 1929 a number millionaires lost everything in a flash, and a few ended up taking their own lives. It took years for the country to overcome the trauma.

Money is important, but when human beings find themselves far from God they live permanently dissatisfied. then wealth becomes an obsession. They cling to it as if it were the only source of security. But it is nothing but unstable sand.

Jesus said: "Everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and burst against that house; and it fell and great was its fall".

Dangerous times are coming. Financial winds are starting to blow across the earth. The Bible said that it would be so. When these times arrive, where will you have built your house?

The answer is your alone.

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A Sex-Obsessed Generation

He is Coming This blog is about Christianity and the Second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ

Sunday in Amsterdam. The sun is like a ball of fire, resplendent in the infinite blue of the sky. Bright tulips nod in the garden and adorn the party. Throngs of people converse and celebrate. In the center of all excitement, holding hands and  exchanging caresses, the happy couple tells journalist details of their recent wedding. The newlyweds say they plan to adopt a child. from time to time they give each other passionate glances and smiles. The cameras of the international press record it all and send the news around the world by satellite.

Such an event would attract little journalistic interest if the focus of such attention had been an ordinary couple. But they were two men who had just come out of the church after receiving a "nuptial blessing".

The event happened in Holland in 2001. Similar incidents would later occur in Belgium, Canada, and the United States. At first, people in many countries protested them in defense of the family values and morality. To many people in it seemed like the end of the world. Today, a few years later, "gay" marriages and legally recognized civil unions of homosexual couples are common in Argentina, Denmark, Germany, France and Portugal. And, as often happens, the newest fad soon become the custom and the custom becomes part of the culture.

A recent parade of homosexuals and lesbians in Brazil brought two and a half million individuals into the streets. The city of Sao Paulo had never seen such a large mobilization of people. It seemed like a carnival, happy and colorful with floats, and banners displaying slogans. The same thing is happening every year in other great capitals of the world. Homosexuals who formerly hid their lifestyle today don't hesitate to take to the streets to advocate their position. They have rights, they say, just like everyone else. What is interesting and significant about this is dramatic way in which it fulfills Bible prophecy. The Lord Jesus had said that in the last days such behavior would be part of the popular culture.

If the matter just involved people who have nothing to do with Christianity, it would be easier to understand. After all, someone who doesn't believe in the Judeo-Christian God has no biblical conduct to adhere to.

But even in Christian circles voices such as that of Mario Ribas defend the idea that "a sensible analysis of the Bible shows that all people, regardless of race, gender and sexual orientation were received by Jesus, and therefore, I don't see why homosexuals and lesbians are wrong in their way of being". Ribas, a theologian, graduated from Princeton University in New England and is pastor of a large evangelical church.

What is happening in the christian world? Why has something that the Bible classifies as "sin" suddenly become normal? Why have some started referring to the acceptance of homosexuality as "an expression of the grace of Christ"? The words of Jesus recorded in the Bible announce that in the last days it would be like this: "It was the same as happened in the last days of Lot. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed".

How were the "days of Lot"? We find the record in the book of Genesis. The inhabitants of Sodom tried to break down Lot's door to seize two men who were his guest in his home to have sex with them. That is why the word "sodomy" is sometimes used as a synonym for homosexuality was acceptable. In the days of Lot homosexuality is acceptable, and God showed His disagreement with that kind of human behavior.

Jesus foretold that the last days would be like the days of Lot.

The Bible teaches that God loves everyone. Homosexuals like every other human being are objects of His love and mercy. But Jesus came to our world not only to forgive sinners but also to transform them and make them new creatures. The apostle Paul explains it simply that God gave life to you "when you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world,... indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were "darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn in Christ in the way,... In reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,... and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Here the apostle speaks of transformation. Every human being, no matter what their sin is, needs to undergo the miracle of conversion. Conversion involves repentance, forgiveness, and putting off the old way living. In the light of what the apostle Paul says, it is impossible to accept the politically correct idea that because of God is love He will accept any and all deviations of human conduct.

God described His character to Moses: "The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished".

The word guilty in the original language does not refer to people who sometimes do what is evil, but those who insist on living that way.

Evidently, social pressure to accept something that the Bible condemns is another fulfillment of the signs of the end. The open proliferation of homosexuality and the argument that it is just "a different type of sexual orientation" is an evidence that we live in the last days.

Some years ago the Natural Museum of Oslo presented an exhibit on homosexuality in the animal world. It argued that if homosexuality exist among the animals, and seems perfectly natural among them, then sexual deviation is also natural among human beings and if it's natural, then it can't be sin.

The dictionary defines the word "natural" as something done according to the property of things. The key word here is "property". What are the natural properties of things? It is natural to eat through my ears I am perfectly free to do so, but I cannot expect people to accept my idea, as something natural, normal and proper.

Our generation has lost touch with it's own nature. It lives almost entirely for physical pleasure. In the United States alone it spends every year the fabulous sum of $13 billion on pornography. You can hardly turn on your computer anymore without receiving an invitation to look at pornography. Most of the music and movies written, composed and produced now have sex as the central theme. You seldom find an advertisement that does not use sex appeal to sell the product.

What is the problem with this? Humans are physical, mental and spiritual beings. They cannot be split into separate segments. In order for what people do in life to make sense they need to do it with a complete unity of their being. To divide or fragment is fatal. If they try it they will open deep wounds in their unconscious world. Wounds that their rationalism cannot cure. No matter how often we tell ourselves that it's OK, that it's good as long as it doesn't hurt anyone, and that your private life is a matter of personal choice or preference, the reality is different. Your nature as a human being, with physical, mental and spiritual faculties, cannot cope with this. It maybe that, swept along by uncontrolled instinct, it can tolerate a distortion and perversion of its physical dimension; and perhaps our mental aspect can be convince by its own arguments that this is acceptable, but the spiritual nature rejects it.

"I am not spiritual", a man said to me one day when I visited him in prison.

he was there because he had tried to live a life without restrictions. Although unwilling to recognize it, he was still a spiritual being. If not, he would not have insisted so much on having me visit him.

Humanity's problem in our time is that we do not recognize our spiritual nature. Nevertheless, the fact that we attempt to ignore it does not change reality, Spirituality is not something we choose to be or not to be. It is beyond our control, because it came from the hands of the Creator. Our life will only be complete as we live in harmony with Him and respect the integrity and unity of how He made us.

Here is an illustration: Take a bird and put in a golden cage covered with diamonds. Put plenty of food and water in the cage, and if you like, give it air conditioning adapted to its needs. Do you think it will someday be happy? Never! it has a bird's nature and was born to be free---to fly. it is true that it needs water and food, but what makes it happy is freedom.

People think that they are free because they can do whatever they want, but they are prisoners of pleasure. Mario Veloso, poet, author, and personal friend states that formal freedom is not enough to be truly happy. A country or government can guarantee the freedom of the body, but not of the soul.

Those who live under totalitarian regimes suffer no more than those who live in societies with full freedom. Why? Because human being are prisoners of their complexes, tendencies, selfishness, ambitions, envies, and everything that constitutes the dark side of human psychology.

Such captives can never be truly happy. In their frustration many of them turn a life of pleasures and give free rein to immorality. Those who attempt to leave out the spiritual dimension of live are welding the bars of their own prison. As incredible as it may seem, the factors the imprison modern people are, according to Veloso, obscenity, pornography, violence, and homosexuality.

David Levy published a book titled Love and Sex wit Robots. After investigating the possibility of relationships between humans and robots, the author concluded that people unable to establish satisfactory relationships with other humans should substitute relationships with machines. He was not joking.

Levy's intention may be all right: but for sex to be fully satisfying and make a person happy, it has to be physical, mental, and spiritual act. I sex is only physical, it is frustrating and leads to emptiness and dissatisfaction.

So what do people do to respond to the cry of the needy heart? They plunge into all kinds of perversions and depravity. As the Bible says: "God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error".

What is the "penalty of their error" That the apostle here speaks about? he refers to all the plagues and illnesses that strike the modern world. A study carried out by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention shows the 19 million people in the United States become infected every year with Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and 65 million live permanently with such diseases in their bodies. AIDS is decimating humanity. At present, 43 million people live with AIDS. Last year alone it infected and additional 4.8 million. Worse yet, 2,000 babies acquire the disease in their mothers wombs.

The Bible foretold that all of this would be an indication that we are living at the end of time. Jesus declared: "Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts its forth its leaves, you know the summer is near; so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door".

It was late afternoon of a sad day as her life seemed to have come to it's end. Her dreams had killed her, Men had condemned her as flagrant sinner. Mistakes had filled her life, and she had loved in the wrong way. Although she had longed to be loved in return, she had only been used, leaving her with open wounds that no one could heal.

What can a person do or say when she knows that she has made mistakes and deserved to be punished for it? She can repeat what she was already doing, so that the pain she believes she deserves will be even worse. The woman had chosen this way---one that plunged her to the bottom of the pit and made her feel like trash. Although she knew that she ought to change her way of life, she didn't have the strength.

It was then that the men had caught her in the very act of sin and dragged her to the presence of Jesus. She knew she deserved to be stoned. The implacable law offered neither mercy or forgiveness. There she was. Her past was ugly. Her present, horrible. And her future non existent. Then there appeared the wonderful person of Jesus. thank God He always shows up just when we need Him most. That's how God is: he always looks for you, calls, and waits for your response.

The teacher from Galilee silently began t write in the sand, and the accusers of the poor woman disappeared one by one. Then the voice of Jesus broke the sudden silence. "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her".

No one dared, and soon the street was deserted.

"Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you"? Jesus asked.

"They're all gone", she replied, not daring even to look up.

"Neither do I condemn you" the Lord told her. "Go your way. From now on sin no more".

Twenty centuries have come and gone since the day. the voice of the Master is still heard coming down to us. His promise is "Give me your heart, and I will make it new".

What a wonderful invitation! Do you believe it? What will you do about it?

The answer is your alone.

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A Heartless Society

He is Coming This blog is about Christianity and the Second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ

Scene one. Midnight. The couple is resting, unaware of any danger. A young woman enters their room on tiptoes and checks to make sure the owners of the house are asleep. Then she shuts off the alarm system and turns on the light of the outside passage way to make it easier for two young men to enter. As they come in, the young woman looks for plastic gloves to protect their hands and panty hose to hide their faces. Minutes late, the men slip into the bedroom and beat the husband and wife to death. The girl watches calmly. After the couple are dead, she and one of the young men, who is her boyfriend, go to a motel to celebrate.

At 3:00 in the morning, the oldest daughter of the murdered couple arrives at home. She has been out, and before going home, she stops to pick up her little brother, who has been at an electronic game room. When they get home they confront the scene of horror and blood. The daughter looses control and curses the people who have done such horrendous deed. At the funeral in the cemetery she weeps hysterically and someone has to catch here as he starts to faint.

Some days later the police arrest the murderers. they confess and reveal that the one who thought up their evil plan helped them carry it out was the very daughter of the murdered couple. Yes, the girl who at the cemetery who wept so bitterly the day her parents were buried!.

What could happen in the mind of an 18-year-old girl that would lead her to commit such horrifying act? How can anyone explain it? Nevertheless, the Bible says that in the last days of people will be "disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good".

Scene two. While the whole world awakens from the nightmare and together turn its attention to the people affected by the devastating tsunami of 2004, the police discover and organized group who look for orphan children to be used in prostitution or to remove and sell their organs. Human hyenas taking advantage of the suffering of others to benefit themselves? But, again, it is the truth.

One day as I had lunch with a friend we discussed the incident. His eyes filled with tears, and almost instinctively, he said to me, "I'd kill those savages. They are animals and don't deserve to live".

An instant later he blushed and said, "Sorry, I forgot that I am a Christian; of course, I should never think like that".

Without realizing it, he was fulfilling another prophecy of the last days. Jesus said: "Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold".

Scene three. A harmless city in the interior. The night is darker than usual. The rain pours in torrents. Joaquin and his wife are returning home from a wedding. Having been the godparents at it and still are wearing their food clothes, they happily remember their own wedding. The years have passed and they are more in love than ever. God has given them two children. That night the children stayed home with a babysitter. Then something unexpected interrupts the husband and wife's animated conversations. By the side of the road they see a couple in trouble. Apparently there vehicle was broken down. in spite of the rain Joaquin and his wife decide to help. A terrible mistake. A few minutes later he is dead, his face disfigured by a shotgun blast. The wife has been raped and at the point of death. It will take her years to recover, and the two little children, robbed of their father at an early age, never can understand how death could be the reward for an act of kindness. Would you have the courage to stop along the highway to help someone after hearing the story?

We live in dangerous times. The apostle Paul said that in the last days people would be "brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited". Everyone would be afraid of everyone else. No one would trust anyone. Gangs on every corner would fill cities of every size. The strong would take advantage of the weak. Large cities have turned into jungles in which the wild beast are the humans who live there. The love of many has indeed, grown cold. Perhaps you see on the street corner a crippled child begging, and a short distance away you spot those who exploit of the child, waiting for daily earnings. feeling mocked and wounded in your heart, you decide never again to let anyone play you for fool.

The doorbell rings and you answer the door. A tire woman with child in her arms asks for a glass of water. Your heart moved to help, you go to the kitchen to get the water. When you return, the woman has vanished---taking with her sound system from your living room.

Do you still feel like helping? Your Christian spirit motivates to continue despite the frustrations and the deception, but the majority of people today will think long and hard before they aid others. The love of many has grown cold. Jesus had said it would. Evil will increase more and more as people who care will be fewer and fewer.

Why do people do such things? Not even they understand why. They only know that they are seeking for something and, in their headlong race to find it they hurt and wound others, even if the "others" are the people they love most.

The day I wrote this page the police, tipped off by the informer, knocked down the door of an apartment located in the most expensive part of a great city and found a scene that would disturb even the hardest heart. A 12-year-old girl had been tied up in the servant's quarter. As she hung by her arms from iron stairway, her feet almost didn't touch the floor. A piece of gauze soaked in pepper covered her mouth, and eight of her fingers had been broken. most of her nails and been torn out. "I began to shake so much i could hardly untie her", said a policeman accustomed to seeing scenes of horror. What makes the incidents especially barbaric was that the one responsible was the child's adoptive mother.

Every day, in every country, one encounters violence and abuse---even one's own home.

Alan Weisman, in his new book The World Without Us imagines how our planet would be without people. Some might think that it would be better off, but I personally don't think so. I believe that the real problem is that the human race is lost the shadows of it's distance from God.  There is no other explanation.

One early Thursday morning in June, Sirlei, a poor and struggling domestic employee who lived on a salary of $200  per month, was waiting for the bus that would take her to a medical appointment. Needing to arrive in time to get a place in line, she kept glancing impatiently at the clock. The bus was late. A few meters away the waves were breaking noisily against the beach. Sirlei kept thinking about her 3-year-old son at home. He was the reason for her every effort.

Suddenly a blow to her neck knocked her down. Next she felt a kick in her face. Instinctively tried to protect herself with her arms, but it is useless. A rain of blows and kicks on her from all sides. Her maternal instinct instantly makes her think of her child. She doesn't understand what was happening. No one could. Even today society struggles to understand why five middle-class university students felt pleasure in mutilating a defenseless woman.

The police caught them later. Their parents argued the they were just having fun. Sirlei escaped death only because a prostitute, who happened out of the time of the morning, began to scream for help.

What is it that people are looking for and can't find? Human being today seem permanently hopeless and desperate. they may deny it, argue discuss, cry out that it's not true, but they are dissatisfied. No matter what they get it's not enough. Lost in the tangled webs of their own desires, they slide into chaos that may destroy not only themselves but others.

Every year addicts consume $150 billion worth of illegal drugs. It is one of the most profitable businesses in the world after oil. if we were to add the $104 billion spent on tobacco and $525 billion on alcohol, we can understand and realize the complete inversion of values in our society.

Some believe we need to consider the legalization of drugs and other crimes associated wickedness as a sign of the last days, He was not pretending the people to be this way. He was simply describing the reality HE could foresee. The teenagers who attacked the young mother in the incident we mentioned earlier, voluntarily chose to behave the way they did. They decided to be violent and treat a fellow human being worse than an animal on their act. They weren't trying to rob her, they had money. One of them had just spent six months in Australia practicing surfing on the pretext of learning English.

A sociologist try to explain their behavior as a product of the present-day culture of impunity. but the truth is something else. the Prophet Jeremiah wrote: "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it"?

The problem of human beings is their twisted and evil heart. Violent by nature, it is evil deceitful, untrustworthy, perverse, and cruel. Education can teach people how to disguise their evil intentions but it can never transform their hearts. They will still  be dishonest and selfish no matter how sophisticated they become. For example, those who present passionate speeches in favor of peace may at the same time actively promote war. Five of the countries that earn most from the sale of arms are in the U.N. Security Council.

Only Jesus can change or transform the heart. he doesn't work from the outside. His transformation begins deep inside, reaching the roots of human behavior. "And i will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart  of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh".

I have seen the transformation that Jesus can bring to the lives of people who accept Him as their personal Savior. Nothing is impossible for Jesus. There is no one who cannot be helped and turned around.

One day He came to Bethany and found that His friend Lazarus had been dead for four days. His flesh had already started to decompose. no one could ever imagine the remedy for a problem like that. Science can do nothing and money is useless. So is technology and everything else. But Jesus came, and when He did, life came too, Because He is life.

When Jesus said, "Lazarus, come forth!" the dead man sprang back to life. I have seen Jesus do the same miracle today. i see it every day in the countries where I conduct evangelistic crusades. People who were spiritually dead come back to life, destroyed homes are made new, and broken dreams are converted into reality. Jesus life, and wherever He comes in, there is fullness of life.

I met Andres in the one of the most violent cities of the world. He had spent years in prison paying in for his crimes. But Jesus found him there. One cold winter night Andres was dying. Shaking violently with cold, nearly frozen, he expected to die. It was in that condition that he heard me on the radio of a cellmate. That night the spirit of God touched his heart. Although he had heard about Jesus many times, he thought religion was for weaklings and had always considered himself to be tough. Heartless and cruel, he had chosen a life of crime when he was scarcely an adolescent, and he blamed society for not having given him any alternative.

That night he felt himself a few minutes from death, and the thought terrified him. Yet in the dark shadows of that night he began to understand that God loved him and wanted to give him a new heart. After crying out to Jesus for a second chance, he fell asleep.

The next morning the sun streamed in his window, breaking through the clouds in spite of the thick fog. He was in the sick ward of the prison.

"I was alive", he told me, unable to hide his emotions. "I hadn't died. God was giving me a second chance".

It has been 30 years since that cold night in the freezing prison cell. Andres is today a living testimony of the transforming power of Christ. Now free, he is doing an outstanding work for an NGO dedicated to reaching delinquent children and youth.

The marvelous Christ who touched the life of Andres as he was dying can also enter to your heart if you will let Him. Read what Jesus says to you: "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest".

Life without Christ is, indeed, a heavy burden. The weariness of spirit that some people call depression become the illness that destroys many lives without killing the bodies. In the last days we have given it a more sophisticated name, but it is still the weariness of being alive. But Jesus urges: "Come to me". He wants to give you rest and peace. Isn't that what you've been longing for?

The answer is yours alone.

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Earthquakes and Hurricanes

He is Coming This blog is about Christianity and the Second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ

Eleven-year-old Ismael Gumuda weeps his tragedy. Sorry to be alive, he would have preferred to be dead and feel nothing. Every time he remembers his brother he cries again. How can he ever get the images out of his mind? By day he sees them constantly. At night they return as nightmares. He can't forget the day that the gigantic wave tore his 7-year-old brother from his arms.

They where at school, practicing their part in the upcoming New Year's celebration, when they heard the terrible roar of a thousand thunders. That noise mark the end of his life forever. "We turned around and saw a giant wave, higher than the school building, crashing on us", he says, wiping away his tears. "I grabbed my brother and held him as tight as I could, but a wave separated us. There was nothing I could do to help him. He looked at me terrified, wanting me to help but I couldn't. The water is stronger than I was. I survived only because the wave carried me and set me down at the foot of the mountain but my brother disappeared; he was swallowed up by the sea. I miss him a lot and I pray for him".

The teachers at the school where he studies have noticed that Ismael is not the same since the tsunami. He has lost weight, and he is always remote quite. Ismael is one of the students at Ban Tlaynork who took part in a program of psychological rehabilitation sponsored by UNICEF in Thailand.

The early morning hours of December 26, 2004, will remain forever in memory of those who experienced its horror. Even though the years may go by, they will continue to feel shaken and perplexed.

Until that day many people had never heard of a tsunami. Suddenly, now everyone is aware of a frightening reality. What name can you give to a destructive force that, in a fraction of a second, tore away islands, made cities disappear, and and ended nearly 200,000 lives? Where could anyone run to find shelter from a force that was equivalent to the explosion of a million atomic bombs like the one that destroyed Hiroshima during World War II?

The morning of horror shook the planet to its foundations. The killer blow, a seaquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale, set in motion wave action that started in the extreme northern point of Indonesia and swept along the coast of Thailand, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. More than 6,700 kilometers from there it killed hundreds of people on the east coast of Africa and then continued thousands of kilometers more, sending huge waves crashing onto the shores of Chile South America.

People understood, in a tragic way, how small they were when faced with the fury of nature.

The trauma experienced by the world as 2004 came to its close was only a foretaste of a 2005 filled with natural disasters. Weeks after the tsunami of Indonesia a series of hurricanes brought floods and death to Central America and the United States. hurricane Katrina caused intensive damage and left the U.S. city of New Orleans under water for weeks. Sludge reeking of death replaced the famous French ambiance of the city considered as the home of blues and jazz.

On October 8 of that same year another gigantic earthquake shook Pakistan and India, killing thousands, wounding tens of thousands, and leaving millions of people without shelter. Some days later, Hurricane Stan would kill more than 70,000 in Guatemala and southern Mexico, and the Yamatec Volcano in El Salvador would erupt, leading to still more deaths. At least 7,500 families had to evacuate.

According to the Center for Research in the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), affiliated with the World Health Organization, just from January to October of 2005 almost 100,000 people perished from natural disasters. At its headquarters in Belgium, CRED maintains a database of world disasters. According to the organization, the number of disasters recorded has increased notably since 1900.

The year 2005 could have passed into history as having the greatest number of natural disasters. But the next year recorded even more natural cataclysms. To complete the somber picture, Marko Nikola, secretary general of the International Red Cross, stated that 2007 had 20 percent more catastrophes than 2006. Researchers currently calculate that disasters affect 250 million people every 10 years. In half of these cases the element of destruction is water.

Water is life. If there is not enough life ceases. But to much can kill. The worst water-related disaster took place on the Yellow River in China. It killed about four million people. According to the IPCC "it is probable that extreme meteorological episodes will increase in frequency and strength during the twenty-first century due to climate changes".

Face with this reality, people everywhere are asking: What is happening to our planet? Has it gone mad? When will all of this end? The answers are even more macabre. Many religious people are preaching divine wrath and destruction of the world. The astrologists are blaming the influence of the stars, while the scientific community attributes everything to global warming provoked by human mismanagement of the earth and it resources.

"Global warming" is a relatively new expression. Science uses it to explain the earth's increase in average annual temperature. Nobody questions that the Earth has become warmer in recent decades. Specifically, the process began at the start of the Industrial Revolution when society gave more importance to productivity than quality of human life.

Gases, released by factories, motor vehicles, forest fires, and other industrial and personal activity have been both destroying the protective ozone layer and creating a "greenhouse" effect that traps more of the heat from the sun's rays. As a result, the earth's temperature is increasing, glaciers are melting, and the sea level is rising.

Since 1961 the sea level has crept up at a rate of one to two millimeters per year. The IPCC calculates that if the temperature continues to rise at the same rate that it has recent decades, the sea level will be up between 20 to 149 centimeters by the end of the century.

Seven of the warmest years on record have been recorded since 2001. The northern hemisphere has about 5 percent less average snowfall than in 1966.

As a child I sometimes traveled from Lima to Jauja, the city where I was born. The journey involves the highest rail line in the world. the blankets of snow covering the distant peaks always fascinated me. Perpetual snows covered the summits of the beautiful Ticlio range of the Andes. But the last time I was in that part of the Andes i felt heartsick to see the hills barren. Nature seemed to be dying. I heard a sad moaning caused by the cold wind that blew over the mountains. And I thought to myself, The scientific reports we have been hearing are real. Some assume that the changes won't affect us, because we are far from such places. But the transformations are rapidly spreading.

It is undeniable that the planet is warmer now and that humans are partly to blame. The scientific community believes that, at this point, further increase in temperature is inevitable. The sea level will continue to rise at least during the present century even if tomorrow we could completely eliminate the emission of the gases causing the greenhouse effect.

As it has become aware of the danger, the world has turned its attention to the environment. Ecology has become a sort of religion. In schools everywhere---from kindergarten to university---students are learning about taking better care of the planet.  But thins don't seems to be improving. In fact, the Bible says they will grow worse and worse, and that fact is one of the signs announcing the coming of Jesus.

Al Gore, a former candidate for president of the United States, received the Nobel Prize for peace in 2007 for his documentary film Earth in the Balance, regarded by the United Nations as "an effort to disseminate a warning to the world about man-made climate change". The film shows the human concern for saving the planet, but also remind us of humanity's inability to see what is really about to happen.

Sami Soanki, director of the Max Plank Institute for Solar System Research located near Gottingen, Germany, says that in the past 60 years, in addition to the human tampering with the environment, for un-explainable reasons the sun itself has gotten hotter, contributing to the warming of the climate and consequent increase in natural disasters.

Unexplainable reasons? Jesus said it many centuries ago: "There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken". Doesn't that sound like a description of our day? There really is "dismay among nations", and "perplexity at the roaring of the sea".

And yet we need to be careful and not confuse things. The fact that we see such natural disasters does not mean that God is causing them. He explains the nature of His relationships of the human race. '''For I know the plans that I have for you', declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope'''.

That is good news. God will not allow humanity to destroy itself. Because He loves us He will intervene in history and put an end to human mistakes and errors. Doesn't that tell us that the glorious coming of Christ awaits us just over the horizon?

We have no need to fear. The love of God can fill our hearts with hope. The Christian hope is assurance, certainty, and confidence even when from a human perspective there appears no way out.

Many years ago, when my little son was 6 years old, he was lost in the city of more than 2 million of inhabitants. My wife and I ran frantically from place to place, trying to find him. Having only recently arrived in Brazil and were still learning Portuguese, we wept in description. What to do? Where to turn? The child has totally disappeared. To find him in the midst of so many people would be something like finding a needle in a haystack.

Seeing our desperation, a guard told us: "The police are looking for your child. If he is still in the downtown area, they will find him when the businesses close".

And so it was. At 6:00 that evening the number of people  in the center of the city began to diminish. Employees returned home after a long day work. The streets began to be more deserted and the shadows of the night began to be more deserted and the shadows of the night began to fall on the city like a black sheet. A cold June wind began to blow.

We continued to look, and to our great joy, we found him. there he was, seated on an abandoned box, playing with a stone, unaware of the suffering of his parents. Weeping, we embraced him covered him with kisses.

Later I asked him: "Weren't you afraid"?

"Afraid? Why?" he asked innocently.

"When children get lost they are afraid", I told him.

He opened his eyes with surprise. "I wasn't lost, Daddy. I was just waiting. Weren't you going to look for me"?

Look around you. Do you see the darkness closing in because of natural disasters? Earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes are spreading fear. The forecast of science are terrifying. Even  in the midst of such fearful expectation and dark omens I want you to know that Jesus will be arriving soon, and that He is coming to look for you. There is hope. The eternal morning is already starting to dawn. As the day grows brighter, read the promise that God has given: "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow with you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you".

The answer is yours alone.

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Religious Skepticism and Secularism

He is Coming This blog is about Christianity and the Second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ

The sun was kissing New York City passionately that August day in 1995, sending the temperature into triple digits. I tried to cool off with an ice-cold lemonade at a bar in Rockefeller Center.

I was in the heart of Manhattan. My teacher, a Frenchman born in the United States, was having a beer. We had never spoken outside the classroom before, or discussed anything except academic subjects. Now he asked me who I was and what I did. When we heard my answer, his expression changed. Taking another slow draft of beer, he looked at me like a lost child and asked: "Is it possible to believe in God today?"

Sensing the irony in his voice, I smiled and kept on drinking my lemonade.

From then on, every time we spoke the teacher guided our conversation to matters of religion. He claimed to have no spiritual quest. Instead, he just wanted to prove to me that God doesn't exist. I let him talk. Listening carefully to what he had  to say was upsetting and confusing. Those who were listening got tangled in the spider web of the speaker's own reasoning. I just listened and smiled.

The mind of this distinguished man, apparently successful in life, was brilliant and inquisitive. His ability to argue was outstanding. He could easily prove to anyone that it is night even if the sun is shining brightly overhead. According to his view of things, he and everything he had achieved in life are absolute proof that human beings have no need of God.

The days went by. Nothing is more effective than the time for analyzing the consistency of concepts. During the one of the last conversations he made a show of arguments against the existence of God. I saw no need to keep on discussing the matter, but he insisted. I began to wonder what he was really trying to accomplish. Finally when he stopped for breath, I said, "All right, professor, let's just imagine that you are right. There really no God. And let's imagine too that you have a son, an only son who is 20 years old and in the flower of life.  A son you love, for who you would gladly give your life. To your sorrow, he gets addicted to drugs. You, as his father, have already than all you can to help him. You look for the best specialist, you place him in the finest rehabilitation programs, you weep, you cry out and suffer. But nothing and no one is able to do anything to help your son get free from the clutches of the vice. But you have attempted to prove to me that God does not exist. Tell me, then, where will you turn if He doesn't? What hope is there for yours son?".

The man shifted nervously from one side to another on the brown sofa. His eyes seemed moist. Usually they pierced right through me. This time the eyes were sad. I could see the emotion on his face. Suffering and pain. Without realizing it, I had touch an open wound in his heart. The wound bled. For a moment he attempted tos say something, but did not succeed. Wordless, he got up, nodded goodbye and left. and as he departed, I saw him discreetly wiping away a tear.

The following day I learned that he did have a son---20-years-old---who had been completely destroyed by drugs. Now I think I can understand his rebellion. his strange intellectual pride, even the irony of his questions.

Some weeks later, before returning to Brazil, I stopped by to take leave of my professor. He accompanied me in silence to the ground floor. There we embraced. We both know our conversation had not yet finished. He was emotional. Words didn't come, though---they had stuck in his throat. Suddenly he swallowed and whispered in my ear.

"Pastor, you know I don't believe in God, but you do. Please, ask Him to help my boy".

I felt sorry for this distinguished scholar. It made me sad to see this eyes filled with tears, feeling helpless before the misfortune of the son he loved. and yet incapable of seeking a solution with God. He was a product of generation of the time just before the second coming of Jesus. The apostle Paul describes is this way: "For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations".

The basic problem of people in our time is pride. They have, indeed, become "futile in their speculations". The spanish journalist Francisco Umbral, a columnist for the newspaper El Mundo, illustrated the appostle's statement. Shortly before he died he wrote "Nietzsche and all the others that we know about shut the door on the old world decreeing the death of God and the loneliness of man. This is modernity, and there is nothing to do about it. Archaic institutions, such as the church, are living today for only for residual reason".

Umbral could have cited Kant, Schopenhauer, Feuerbach, Marx, or Freud to show his modernity. We shouldn't be surprised. The Bible said it a long time ago. In our current era called "postmodern" we find an abundance of such thinking. It is a general tendency, especially in the developed countries. Many intellectuals think and offer their opinions with a "pride of reasoning". Liking to be called free thinkers, they do not wish to have a commitment with anything or anyone. And even less with someone they could never see or touch, such as God.

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False Christ and False Prophets

He is Coming This blog is about Christianity and the Second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ

As he moves with carefully studied studied gestures his speech mingles irony an d bravado. A watch set with diamonds adorns his wrist, he travels from place to place in luxurious vehicles, and he lives in a $7 million mansion. He says he is the Christ reincarnate. When journalist ask why he uses expensive clothing if Jesus walked on the earth with an old tunic and a pair of worn sandals, he replies: "in my first coming I was here to suffer and die. Now I have come back to reign."

Born in Puerto Rico, Jose Luis Miranda has two tattoos with the numbers 666 on his forearm. He claims to both Christ and the antichrist because he teaches a different message from the one proclaimed by the suffering Jesus. "Now," according to Miranda "he is a king reincarnate and victorious."

And he's not the only one. In a house in Boqueirao, Curitina, in Brazil, a curtain opens and there appears decked out in a white tunic and red cape, with a crown of thorns on his and a wooden scepter in jis left hand, the former vegetable salesman Luri Thais, 49. He sits on a throne and declares in cathedral tones: "I am Inri Christ, the son of God, the reincarnation of Jesus, the way, the truth and the life."

For a number of years this" Inri Christ" has been touring the world. Expelled from England, he went to France. During the past few years he has set up a headquarters in Brasilia.

Meanwhile, in a remote corner of Siberia, in a little village called "The House of the Dawn," a gentleman with a white tunic long brown hair, and a timid enigmatic smile says he is the Christ, who has comeback to save humanity. He doesn't tell this to everyone---only to his disciples. But there are thousands of them, and they worship him as a true god. They believe he is reincarnation of Jesus Christ. His birth name is Sergei Torop, a former Russian soldier. He calls himself Vissarion and says he is "the giver of new life."

Kevin Sullivan, a journalist from the United States, published in the Washington Post an interview with a number of Vissarion's disciples. What they told Sullivan surprised him. Lula Derbina, for example, was a translator for the International Red Cross, and she had found Vissarions what she had been looking for all her life. "I fully believe he is Jesus Christ. I know that as surely as I know I am breathing," she stated.

Galina Osphepkova, 54, was recently divorced and the mother of two children when someone showed her a video. In it she heard Vissarion mentioned that he had returned to Earth because people had forgotten the words and teaching he left 2,000 years ago. "I felt my heart pounding and I knew: "This is true.' He really is the one. He is the second incarnation of Christ."

Jesus mentioned false christs as a sign of His return to Earth, but it seems clear that He was not referring only to the ones I had just mentioned, or to the dozens of others who will certainly continue to do so in the future. He also said there would be false prophets---people who believe that God has sent them to offer instant solutions to our problems. They make promises of miraculous healing and financial prosperity. Many of them claim that the blessings are reserved for people who have "faith" measured by the amount of money they send in. Such "prophets" have proliferated during the past few years, with learned how to use radio, television, and other media to reach the masses. Some of them have built extensive financial empires.

They support their arguments by "testimonies" of people who claim they have had miracles performed for them. They even quote the Bible to affirm that "no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with Him". here's what Jesus said about them: "Not everyone who says to ME, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me  on that they, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness'''.

How could people who work miracles and do wonderful things in the name of Jesus not have His approval? The answer is in the text: They never did the will of the Father. Instead they acted according to their own way of doing and seeing things.

In a way, all such false prophets and people who say they are the Christ are a fulfillment of prophecy, but the matter goes beyond delude people or those who take advantage of and benefit from the credulity and fanaticism of others. When Jesus spoke of false christ He said that they would "show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect". The elect those who have accepted God's invitation to turn aside from lying and deception, from all that is false and live only by the truth---would not easily deceived by a miraculous healing or believe simply because someone says they are the reincarnation of Jesus.

If even enlightened people can be deceived it is because the matter is much more serious that we may have thought. The key word here is "deceived". According to Jesus, during the last days there will be a deception so clever, so powerful, that it will sweep away millions. Who will be behind this deception and how will it come about? The Bible gives us the answer.

In the Book of Revelation we find that the father of lies, the master of deception in the last days, will be the same one who in the beginning swept away a third of the angels with his seductions and lies. The apostles John saw this in vision: "And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him".

Note the one of the characteristics of this evil being is that he "deceives the whole world". Specializing in deception instead of the force, he convinces people and makes them want to follow him. They actually believe in what he teaches and are convinced that hes is right.

The strategy that he uses to persuade the multitudes to follow him voluntarily is one of the seduction and lies. Jesus described the deceiver as someone who "does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever hes speaks in a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies".

The last battle, the one that book of Revelation calls "Armageddon" and that will take place just before the return of Christ, will not be a conflict involving cannons or missiles. It will not be East and West, nor socialism against capitalism. The last battle of the ages will be between reality and fiction, between the truth and error, between good and evil. And its battlefield is the human heart.

The enemy is a liar by nature, and he will attempt to deceive as many as possible in the last days of history, including even the most cautious. To achieve this, of course, he will not come as he truly is. If he did that no one the enemy will camouflage himself. "Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light". If he disguises himself as an "angel of light", that means he will be a spiritual, religious personality, a miracle worker. If not, he would never be able to trick so many people with hi clever schemes.

The apostle's Paul describes the way the deceiver will seek to achieve his goals: "Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,... that you may not be quickly shaken.... Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes he seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being of God".

Here we have a vital key to understanding the matter. The apostle states that before the Lord Jesus returns to earth we will see this "apostasy" and the coming of the "man of sin". Who is the "man of sin" that refers to? What is the "apostasy" he is talking about and when it will happen?

Paul himself mentions other characteristics of the "man of sin". He says that he "opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship". But he exalts himself against God in a strange way. He "opposes" without opposing. Instead speaking against God, he disguises himself as God", The "man of sin" fights against God by pretending to be God. Multitudes believe him, follow him, and accept his teaching. But in doing so they naturally fall into apostasy---that is, rebellion against God.

Do you know of any religious power in our time that attributes to itself divine power? Have you ever seen a religious institution that pretends to have authority even to change what is written in the Word of God? That would be scary! The day that you witness human beings exalting themselves as God's exclusive representative, you can know that this is part of the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

Jesus said that when the time of His return is near we will see "the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in a holy place (let the reader understand)". The phrase "let the reader understand" is in the parenthesis, Not all will understand. It will depend on the attitude with which we search for the truth. God reveals Himself only to those who seek Him with sincerity and humility of heart.

And what is this "abomination of desolation" that the prophet Daniel talks about? To learn the answer we need to got to the book of Daniel in which we read about a religious power that "will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law". It says that this power "grew up to the host of heaven" and "even magnified itself to be equal with Commander of the host... and it will fling truth to the ground and perform its will and prosper".

Notice that, at some point in history, this religious power would attempt to "make alterations in times and in law" and that it would "fling truth to the ground". Why such hatred for truth? Because behind this power is the father of lies. Truth and lies are like light and darkness--they don't belong together. The enemy of God would invent a false and deceitful law to get people's attention away from the true law. He would do all this using his weapons of choice; deception and seduction.

Deception is a key word for understanding Satan's plan. The dictionary says that it mean: "To give a lie the appearance of truth. To induce someone to believe and hold to be certain what is not". As a result, deception involves leaving someone into error, to direct them astray. In Matthew 24 Jesus repeats the warning against deception four times, saying that it will be the most powerful instruments of the enemy in the last days.

When I was a little boy, one day I ran away from home fear of being punished. I had done something wrong and knew that my Mother would be settling accounts with me soon. So I ran and ran and ran, believing that at the infinite point of the horizon I could hide from mistakes. Afraid to stop, I ran not knowing where I was going I simply ran.

The sun was setting over the wheat fields. The shadows of night mingled with my fears, imprisoning me. The distant call of the owls seemed like mocking laughter. Tired, cold, and hungry, I curled up under the eaves of an abandoned house, overcome by fatigue. I have no idea how long I slept. I only know that I woke up startled. A hand was gently brushing my face. It was my mother.

"It's OK, son", she whispered tenderly in my ears. "You ran to much. Now it's time to go back. Let's go home".

This is the most beautiful truth of all time. You, too, have run too much. You have suffered, you have wept. But Jesus says: "You've run enough, my child. Now it's time to go home. Come! I'll show you the way".

Will you accept His invitation?

The answers is your alone.

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