In a world increasingly filled with violence and chaos, many are left wondering what the future holds for America. Join us as we explore recent events and their prophetic significance. This video delves into the implications of modern violence, societal unrest, and what Bible prophecy reveals about the times we are living in. Gain insights on how to navigate these turbulent times with faith, understanding, and hope as we look forward to what’s next for America and the world.

<p>In a world increasingly filled with violence and chaos, many are left wondering what the future holds for America. Join us as we explore recent events and their prophetic significance. This video delves into the implications of modern violence, societal unrest, and what Bible prophecy reveals about the times we are living in. Gain insights on how to navigate these turbulent times with faith, understanding, and hope as we look forward to what’s next for America and the world.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

HopeLives365

Mark Finley

What’s Next for America?


Millions throughout the United States believe that it was only by the grace of God that former President Trump was protected. He had just turned his head seconds before the shots were fired. And so there are millions that are thanking God that he was not assassinated. Now the question is, how do we respond to all this as Christians? And what does this mean in the light of Bible prophecy?

Does it have any significance whatsoever in prophecy? The first thing I want to notice is this, that as Christians, we condemn all forms of violence, whatever side of the political aisle we are on. And here on Hope Lives 365, we're not political pundits. We're not news commentators. We commentate on the news, if indeed it has a relationship to Bible prophecy, but that's not our primary purpose.

Here on Hope Lives 365, when we see news events, we compare them to Bible prophecy. But first of all, we're Christians, we're committed to Christ. And so when an event like this happens, our hearts are filled with compassion. We care for people. We care for people deeply.

And when people suffer senseless, needless violence and brutality, our hearts are pained. Secondly, when we see something like this, we certainly pray. We pray for those who have been injured. We pray for their families. Now as I reflected on this vicious assassination attempt that stunned the nation, I thought about violence in our society.

Where are we in society? Does this have any relationship to Bible prophecy? Now if the assassination of President Trump was an isolated instant, my thoughts would be considerably different. I mean, think about it. There have been attempted assassinations and assassinations of our presidents in the past.

For decades, centuries, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth when Lincoln was attending a theater in a play production in Washington, D.C. Then you think about the fact that John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, shot as he rode in his open air limousine. We think about the fact that his brother as well, Robert Kennedy was assassinated. You think about the assassination of the attempted assassination.

Fortunately, he survived on Ronald Reagan. So throughout American history, there have been assassinations of American presidents, there have been assassinations of politicians, there have been attempted assassinations multiple times in history. But here's what makes this different. Here's what gives us a much larger picture here. It's part of a pattern.

Shootings, gun violence, senseless killings, mass murders have become prevalent in our society. You say, Mark, What do you mean by that? Look, in the first 6 months of 2024, we have had, get this now, we've had 261 mass shootings. That's 1 for every single day. What is a mass shooting?

A mass shooting is defined by the FBI as a shooting in at least when at least 4 people were shot or wounded or killed. Now does Bible prophecy have anything to say about this? Where are we in the stream of time? Matthew chapter 24. And here in Matthew chapter 24, Jesus gives signs of his soon coming.

You'll remember that Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives and as he sat there he looked across the Kidron Valley and he saw the light gleaming off the temple at Jerusalem and Jesus said not 1 stone is going to be left upon another in that temple. He was speaking about the cataclysmic destruction of the temple and speaking about the fact that Titus and the Roman armies would come down, destroy, devastate Jerusalem. His disciples thought that he might be speaking about the end of the world because an event has cataclysmic destruction of the temple, must be the end. In their thinking, Jesus masterfully blended 2 events. He talked about the destruction of Jerusalem, but he talked about signs that will be on a much larger, grander scale before his coming.

And so Jesus said, take heed, Matthew 24, verse 4, take heed no 1 deceives you. Many didn't come in my name saying I'm Christ. He talks about there'll be wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, fires, floods. But what I want you to see is come down to verse 12, Matthew 24, verse 12. Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will wax cold, but he who endures to the end shall be saved." Notice what it says, lawlessness.

Lawlessness would abound. What does the word abound mean? Abound means leap forward. Abound means something that indeed is prevalent. Abound is something that is an epidemic all through society.

Listen to this amazing statement by Ellen White, Ministry of Healing, page 142. Ellen White puts it this way. We are living in the midst of an epidemic of crime. If that statement ever were true before, it's true today, at which thoughtful, God-fearing men and women stand aghast. That statement was exactly fulfilled in what we see happen on Saturday night, July 13.

When I read the statement, could it be any clearer? The indifference to human suffering. When Matthew Crooks was up there, he didn't care who he shot. It says, the brutal, fiendish destruction of human life. He didn't care.

He's killing innocent people. In fact, Jesus in that passage in Matthew chapter 24 likens our time to the time of Noah. You find it in Matthew chapter 24 verse 27, where scripture puts it this way, but as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. What was it like in the days of Noah?

You go back to Genesis chapter 6. What a description of our day. If God destroyed the world with a flood in the days of Noah because of its corruption and violence, Could it be that the handwriting is on the wall? Could it be like in Daniel's day, where the handwriting wrote, thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting? God has numbered thy kingdom and finished it.

Could it be that soon Jesus will say that the accumulated figures of sin have reached a certain level and it's time, time, It's closing time. What was it like in the days of Noah? Genesis chapter 6, verse 5. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was evil continually. What is it that goes through the mind of a mass killer that enables him to be so brutal to commit such senseless violence?

Now, listen, verse 11. This is the days of Noah. The earth was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence. Are we living in a violent society today? Is the earth once again filled with violence?

I am not talking about an isolated assassination attempt as horrible, as horrific, as despicable as that is. But I'm talking about a pattern, a pattern of violence. I'm talking about senseless killings. I'm talking about brutality in this society. In an amazing statement in the ninth volume of the Testimonies, page 11, Ellen White says, men possessed with demons are taking the lives of men, women, and little children.

Men have become infatuated with vice and every species of evil prevails. Men possessed with demons are walking our land. How is it that the devil prepares for this demon possession? How is it that the devil desensitizes us without at times or even knowing it to evil and to brutality? How could it be, for example, that Paul's prediction to young Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 1 would be fulfilled?

How might this happen? Notice 2 Timothy 3 verse 1 says, but know this, in the last days perilous times will come. In the last days what kind of times will come? Perilous. Other translations say, on the last days, dangerous times will come.

How does the devil condition the mind to create senseless murder and dehumanization of peoples? I'm going to suggest to you this morning, today, tonight, whenever you're watching this, I'm going to suggest to you this morning, today, tonight, whenever you're watching this, I'm going to suggest to you that there's a reason for this. And this is what the devil is doing. The devil is desensitizing us to human value and human worth through mass media, through social media, through mass media, with games for our kids, with mass killings on TV. The average American child has already seen 14, 000 murders on television.

The average kid today, teenager, saturating their mind with violent games. You say, oh that doesn't make a difference, that doesn't impact people. Let me share with you a couple studies. Okay, on Friday, July 22, in 2016, a gunman kills 9 people in a mall in Munich, Germany. I'm reading from the news report.

The 18-year-old shooter was subsequently characterized by the media as being under psychiatric care and harbouring at least 2 obsessions. So this kid who kills them in the mall in Germany has 2 obsessions. What are they? 1 was an obsession with mass shootings, including that of Andries Breivik, who ultimately killed 77 people in Norway in 2011. And another was an obsession with video games.

So this kid has this obsession with video games. Look, a Los Angeles, California news report stated that the gunman was an avid player of first-person shooter video games, including Counter-Strike, while another headline from CNN declared, Munich gunman, a fan of violent video games, Rampage Killers, had planned attack for a year. Now this high profile incident was hardly the first link to popular culture and violent crime. Notably, in the aftermath of the 1999 Columbine shooting, media sources implicated and later said that music, video games, and Gothic Aztec may be their cause factors. Look, other recent instances have echoed that certain similar claims that popular culture has a nefarious, that's an evil influence on its consumers.

What does Scripture say in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18? By beholding, we become changed. So parents, be aware of what your kids are watching. You say, well, they're not going to become masculine. No, they may not be.

But they are being desensitized to human values. They are looking inward and becoming more depressed, more discouraged because of all of that. Now, what does all of this have to do with Satan's master plan? Satan wants to take control of the minds of men and women in a violent society, And he's using violent media, TV and movies as part of his plan to destabilize society, to create havoc, hysteria and chaos. Once that happens, It'll be part of a master plan.

Why would this be part of Satan's master plan? Why would Satan be attempting to use violence? Brutality Senseless killings as part of a master plan to destabilize society and bring society into chaos. Why would he, for example, be ramping up crime in our streets and smash and grab robberies? Why would he be ramping up the whole idea of lawlessness in society?

And why would he be ramping up emphasis on drug culture, alcohol, and violence? What would be behind all that? Is there some kind of sinister master strategy? This scheme is part of a mind-conditioning process to lead people to be so disturbed by these horrible, despicable crimes and violence in our society that this is what happens. They fall for a counter-religious revival.

They put pressure on their legislators to rein in this violence. What's this gonna lead to? When society is falling apart, when there's chaos throughout society, it will lead to a false religious revival, which will lead to the pendulum to swing the other way to a totalitarian, authoritarian, law and order society. And don't we hear that cry today? A cry to return to law, a cry for law and order simply because out of this confusion the devil desires a grassroots movement to call for law and order that ultimately leads to the restriction of religious liberties in a mighty false revival, accompanied by false signs and false miracles under the Antichrist.

Look, 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 8 to 10. 2 Thessalonians 2, Verse 8 to 10. Notice what we read here about the devil's strategy in the last days of earth's history. Second Thessalonians 2. We're looking there at verses 8 to 10.

What is the devil's strategy? We're gonna start with verse 7. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. The mystery of lawlessness, what does the devil do? He tries to create lawlessness.

He disobeyed God in heaven. He led Adam and Eve to disobey. He creates this lawlessness all through society, this corruption, this brutality, for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Verse 8, and then the lawless 1, See, he is the 1 that stabilizes. He is the 1 that creates rebellion against law.

And the lawless 1 will be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of his mouth, destroy with the brightness of his coming. The coming of the lawless 1, verse 9, is according to the working of Satan. It's the Antichrist. With all power, science, and lying wonders, with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved, for this reason, God's gonna send them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie. Let's unpack that.

The lawless 1 destabilizes society. There's chaos and confusion everywhere in society. Satan begins to work, what did it say in 2 Thessalonians 2? False signs, false wonders. Those that did not receive the love of the truth are taken in.

They receive this false, they are deluded. And as they are deluded, what do they do? They say, we need a common day of rest and worship. And this common day of rest and worship comes from where? From the people.

Look, here is a statement in the book, Great Controversy by Ellen White. You find it there in Great Controversy, page 592. Political corruption is destroying love and justice and regard for truth. And even in free America, rulers and legislators in order to secure public favor will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance." So legislators, politicians, it's not some dictator arises, not some authoritarian, But what do these politicians do? Because they want votes, they yield to what?

The popular demand. Why? Because we're in a time of chaos and we need to get back to law and order for a law enforcing Sunday observance. I continue to read. Liberty of conscience, which is caused so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected.

In the soon coming conflict, we shall see exemplified the prophet's words in Ellen White Quote's Revelation 12, verse 17. The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Where are we in the stream of time? As we look out over our world, we see unprecedented natural disasters. We see typhoon, tornado, cyclone, hurricane, flood.

As we look out over our world, we see instability among nations, the Middle East, Africa, Europe. As we look out over our world, what do we see? We see an economies of the world, they're on a slender thread. But when we look out over our world in the light of this assassination attempt, that thank God did not succeed on former President Trump. What do we see?

We see a pattern of brutality. We see a pattern of violence. We see a pattern in media today. And when you look at media, and I hope you don't look at it very much, what do you see? You see brutality in video games.

You see violence in video games. You see brutality on television. You see brutality in the media. And you combine that with the media's emphasis, Hollywood's emphasis, and I speak straightly to you, you combine that with Hollywood's emphasis on spiritualism and what's going to happen. According to prophecy, there will be a total absolute reaction against all of this.

And the pendulum will swing from ultra-liberalism to ultra-conservatism. It will swing from the left to the right. Legislators will yield to the people's desire for law and order in society, and as the result of that will force a decree for a common day of rest in worship where people can rest. It'll be a family day as proposed. Where do we stand in all this?

What is God's call to your heart and mine? If there ever was a time that our hearts must be anchored in Christ, it is today. When Jesus concludes his sermon on last day events, He says, he speaks in Luke 21 verse 25, he speaks about on earth distress of nations. Then he says in verse 26 of Luke 21, Men's hearts will be failing them for fear in the expectation of those things that are coming on the earth. What is it that drives them?

What is it that motivates them? What is it that impresses the average person? Their heart is failing with fear, so they put pressure on the legislators to do something about it, to bring law and order back to our society. But what does scripture say? Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and great glory.

Verse 28, When these things begin to happen, look up, lift up your heads, your redemption draws nigh. When these things do what? Begin to happen. If there ever was a time that our hearts ought to be right with God, It's now. If there ever was a time that we should sing deep within our soul, nothing between my soul and my Savior.

Not of this world's elusive dream. Nothing preventing the least of his favor. Keep the way clear, nothing between. Is there something between your heart and your Savior? This is a time that God is leading us to repentance.

This is a time that God is leading us to confession. This is a time that God is leading us with brokenheartedness to know Christ, not in some superficial way, but deeply know Christ and have him enshrined in the throne of our hearts. If there ever was a time to tell the story it's today, if there ever was a time to share a piece of literature, to share a book, to give a Bible study, If there ever was a time to tell the story it's today. If there ever was a time to share a piece of literature, to share a book, to give a Bible study. If there ever was a time to be involved in mission, in soul winning, We're living on the verge of the kingdom and that time is today.

Would you like to commit your life to Jesus once again and commit your life to the thing that really matters, preparing for the coming of Christ? Somebody said the 2 most important days in your life are the day that you were born and the day you discover why you were born. You were born for a purpose at this moment in Earth's history to be a powerful witness for Christ in this generation. Would you like to make that decision right now? Dear Lord, we praise you and we thank you for the opportunity to know truth, to understand Bible prophecy, and to prepare for what's coming upon the world as an overwhelming surprise.

Oh my Father, we commit our lives to you. May there be nothing between us and our Savior. Fill our hearts with your love and with a commitment to share your grace with the world. In Jesus' name, amen. This media was brought to you by AudioVerse, a website dedicated to spreading God's Word through free sermon audio and much more.

If you would like to know more about Audioverse, or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audioverse.org.

Back to Menu

What’s Next for America?

Description

Sponsor

Recorded

Sound Doctrine