The Battle is Spiritual

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”  Ephesians 6:12

Darth Vadar, in the Star Wars saga, invited his son, Luke Skywalker, to “come to the dark side”.  If you ask me, it seems like an awful lot of folks have taken Darth Vadar up on his call and have left what we used to call “normality” and have slowly slipped or jumped headlong into the realm of insanity.  The dark side has always been with us since Lucifier, also know as Satan or the devil, who was formerly a heavenly angel, decided that he wanted to be the boss of everything and was subsequently kicked out of heaven for challenging the LORD God in an effort to dethrone Him (Isaiah 14:12-15).  Heaven’s loss, which was not really a loss for heaven, was also earth’s loss, because earth is stuck with that liar and deceiver, but not forever.  The narrative in Isaiah goes on to say that Satan “made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof” taking a great majority of the earth’s population as prisoners of sin and death.  Some folks, not understanding the reality of hell, brag about how they will party because all of their friends will be there.  But, as one of my former pastors used to say, “if you go to hell, you will go as an intruder”.  Thus the party will be over before it gets started.

And the battle still rages between good and evil with seemingly no end in sight, but those of us who have read the back of the Book, the only Book that God ever wrote, know that there will be an end to Satan’s attacks eventually.  But for now, until the final trumpet sounds ushering in the reign of our rightful king, King Jesus, it will be business as usual, or rather a continued slide down the slippery slope of spiritual wickedness.  It seems that the farther along we go, that slope gets steeper and steeper causing all those who inhabit the dark side to move exponentially toward the point of no return.  There is still time for things to turn around, but it will take something really drastic to cause people to wake up, see the Light, and realize the depths to which humans have sunk in their “wokeness”, political correctness, and in their sin against the God of all creation.

In Matthew 24, Jesus gave His disciples (and us) an overview of what it will be like at the end of the world as we know it.  Coming from a loving home, my parents took me to church and lived before me as followers of Jesus Christ.  I have tried to continue their example in my own home.  Forty or so years ago, I would read this passage in Matthew and was thankful that things were not nearly as bad as described.  I also read in the book of Revelation about the seven churches and Jesus’ condemnation of many of the things that they were doing.  No church is perfect, because it is made up of imperfect people, but my experience in church was that of hearing the gospel preached and folks coming to Christ to be saved.  I continued to read that some really horrible things were going to happen in the end times.  Folks will not be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast (Revelation 13:17).  All of these things that I read in scripture years ago seemed so far off that I assumed it would be hundreds of years before these things begin to happen.

And then guess what?  Just as Jesus said in Matthew 24:8, what we are seeing now, the pandemic, devastating storms, and the hatred and destruction that has taken place over the last year, I believe are the “beginning of sorrows”.  Bad things have always occurred, but not to the extent that we are experiencing them now.  Some places are requiring for folks to have the COVID shot before they will permit people to enter their establishments.  I don’t believe the COVID shot is the “mark of the beast”, but it certainly seems like a trial run to test people’s acceptance or refusal of a government mandate.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a Georgia Tech engineer to figure out that these aren’t just coincidences.  There are no coincidences with God.  Those of us who are awake, not “woke”, and are in tune with the word of God, can see that this is a spiritual battle between good and evil, the Lord and Satan, and we must be prepared by outfitting ourselves with the “whole armor of God, that we may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand” (Ephesians 6:13).

There are Christians who believe that the “rapture”, the gathering of all believers out of the world by Jesus Christ (I Thessalonians 4:13-18), will take place prior to the time of the antichrist.  I sure hope that they are right.  There is scripture to back up the “pre-tribulation” view.  There are others who assume that Christians will go through half of the seven year tribulation period, the “mid-tribulation view” and then others who believe that Christians will have to endure the entire tribulation period, the “post-tribulation view”.  I sure hope that they are wrong.  Regardless of who is right and who is wrong about the timing of Jesus’ return to claim His bride, the church, we need to be ready for that day when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ to hear His analysis of how well or poorly we did on earth as His representatives.  But after that we will be privileged to attend the wedding feast of the Bridegroom and His bride.  I have been to some fancy weddings and receptions, but this one will be more than we can imagine.  I look forward to the time when there are no more wars or battles, earthly or spiritual, just nothing but peace and harmony forevermore.