These are perplexing days for everyone, including the Christian. It is said of the Christian, “The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way,” Psalm25:9. Nevertheless, such is the spirit of the days that are beginning to break forth upon us, many believers are at a loss to know what to expect or what is happening!
Within a lifetime, the basic standards that governed the behaviour in our land has been overturned completely. Truly, there has been a calling “evil good, and good evil”, a putting of “darkness for light, and light for darkness” and a putting of “bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20.
Compass
The moral compass and map of God’s Word has been cast aside and the nation is adrift on an ocean of depravity and degeneracy with no knowledge or understanding of what is taking place!
Governments and churches are swept along by this tsunami of wickedness. Even fundamentalist denominations have felt the power of this spiritual earthquake and many within their ranks have faltered and lost their footing and stumbled from off the “old paths, where is the good way,’ Jeremiah 6:16.
Few pulpits seem able to define what is happening and what it is the people of God should be expecting to break forth all around them!
That ought not to be so!
It ought not to be so for the Lord has given us clear and precise descriptions of these days so that we ought neither to be surprised nor alarmed at what is happening.
I want to set before my readers just three of the many portions of God’s Word which reveal what it is that is taking place all around us, in every nation!
I. THE FIRST OF THESE HAS OFTEN BEEN QUOTED BY ME.
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. . . . . ,” 2 Timothy 3:1. The word translated “perilous”, ‘chalepos’ appears in only one other place.
“And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way,” Matthew 8:28.
It is translated in the above verse by the word “fierce”!
So, Christian, there are to come ‘fierce” times in the last days!
1. The “fierceness” manifested by the two men who encountered the Lord in “the country of the Gergesenes”, was the result of their possession by many devils. The hatred of the devils for the Saviour was seen in that the two men “met” the Saviour. The word has a military and hostile connotation! It was a warlike spirit toward the Saviour that they manifested. Indeed, that was their disposition toward all men for “no man might pass by that way.”
2. We must never forget that the “devil . . . was a murderer from the beginning.” “He abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it,” John 8:44. He is the embodiment of all evil and where he is is a most “perilous” place!
Where the devil is able to possess men and women, there you have a most evil society, marked by every form of debauchery and cruelty!
3. Is that not what we have breaking forth all around us? Like the proverbial frog put in a saucepan of cold water and set on a hot plate, we may not have noticed the “perilous” change that has been taking place all around! Change that is gradual is easily missed and overlooked!
The change that has been taking place has been marked by a departure from the teachings of God’s Word by those institutions which are supposed to uphold and declare it. Thus the beginnings of the changes I am referring to may be traced back to the introduction of ‘new doctrines’ in the pulpits of the nation’s churches.
The whole counsel of God may be seen in a wonderfully condensed yet comprehensive form in the ‘Ten Commandments’! Every one of those Commandments have been corrupted, misinterpreted, abandoned or deemed utterly irrelevant for this day by the ‘learned theologians’ of this ‘Ecumenical Age”!
With this casting away of the boundaries of holiness, the nation has run amok under the control of the devil and ‘fierce and perilous’ times have replaced the measure of decency and order where once the Word of God was given a measure of respect and adherence!
The news today, almost every day, is of gun attacks, knife attacks, cars used as weapons of murder. We have corruption amongst government figures, the ranks of the police and the fabric of decency is rent to fragments!
We have sodomy, transgenderism, abortion, infanticide and multiple murders everywhere! Marriage is a forgotten institution and adultery and illegitimacy abounds.
Such immorality is financed by State funding to a degree that it is inevitable that the nation will be reduced to penury!
This has come about in step with ecumenical and liberal apostasy in the ‘churches’ and it has taken place almost unnoticed and where it has been observed to some degree, it has not been rightly discerned as the fulfilment of the prophecy of Paul I have just referred to.
Picture
Think of what the rest of Paul\s prophetic picture of society in the last days sets forth.
“For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof,” 2Timothy 3:2-5.
Withdrawal
I suggest that each one of those adjectives can be seen in the behaviour of those all around us today! Those ‘celebrities’, within the ranks of politics, commerce and show business, particularly are marked by these unsavoury and ungodly characteristics!
The instruction of God to His people with regards these developments in society is seen in the last phrase of verse 5 — “From such turn away.”
That is not a new or strange command. It was issued in days of like rebellion and consequent judgment.
“«To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave.» Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast,” Psalm 57:1.
“Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain,” Isaiah 26:20-21.
As the days grow darker and the return of Christ draws on, the Christians are required to separate themselves more and more from society. We are to be as Israel when Egypt was plagued by the Lord. We must avoid that place under the judgment of God!
“And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth,” Exodus 8:22.
“And the LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children’s of Israel,” Exodus 9:4.
“Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail,” Exodus 9:26.
“And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings,” Exodus 10:21-23.
Thus, as the day of deliverance drew near, the day when they were to start for the ‘land that was fairer than day’, the Lord separated them from the plagues that fell on Egypt.
That is God’s will for His people today.
Sad
Sadly, as it was in the days of which Ezekiel wrote, so it is amongst us today! There are men who fail to rightly instruct God’s people and that ‘separation’ which is the will of God for His people is often times lacking!
“Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them,” Ezekiel 22:26.
Thus today amongst us we find the world’s fashions followed, behaviour copied, songs sung and follies practised!
This can only rob those who walk in this manner of the protection of the Lord from the perils and fierceness the devil and his agents are permitted of God to inflict upon mankind.
Christian, please remember what Revelation 12:12 states: “Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”
THIS IS WHAT IS HAPPENING ALL AROUND US TODAY!
II. THE SECOND PORTION OF SCRIPTURE I HAVE ALSO OFTEN QUOTED!
“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness,” 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12.
Attention
I would draw your attention to the final words of this portion.
“. . . . they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
Here is God acting in a manner many Christians will find it difficult to accept as being possible for the Lord to act! He shall send them “strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth”.
If men reject the truth of God, then the Lord will give them that which they prefer with the result that they will be damned.
What men prefer rather than the gospel God will be given them with the inevitable consequences!
I personally do not believe there will ever be again the scenes of ‘national’ revival that have been seen in the past in such times of blessing as witnessed in the days of Whitefield and the Wesleys.
It is as the days of Noah! The Lord was set on destroying wicked man from the earth. Noah never prayed for revival! He knew that was contrary to the ‘revealed’ will of God!
“And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them,” Genesis 6:5-7.
There were one hundred and twenty years in which Noah preached and doubtless warned of the coming judgment but there was no heeding of what he said.
“For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be,” Matthew 24:38-39.
These are the sort of ‘days’ we are beginning to see prevailing across the world!
Deafness and blindness
No, we are living in the last days when on a national level the truth of God has been rejected and cast away. In my boyhood, even amongst those who did not personally believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, His name was generally respected and revered. There was a general regard for the Lord’s Day and church-going was the habit of a great majority of citizens. When a gospel mission was organised, be it in a church or an Orange hall or a tent, I believe I am correct in saying that a large section of those living in the area of the mission would have attended and that not just on one occasion to ‘show their face’.
How different it is now! From every quarter there comes a common lament — it is hard to get people in under the sound of the gospel. If truth be told, even professing Christians do not attend as faithfully as once was the custom.
Why is that? The spirit of apostasy, spread by the majority of pulpits has contaminated the nation and there is a turning away from and against the Lord!
As it was long ago, in Old Testament times, so it is again.
“And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim: and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger. And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies,” Judges 2:11-14.
There is a following of “other gods, of the gods of the people” today. The names “Baal and Ashtaroth” may not be heard but nevertheless ‘idols’ abound in society today. The ‘gods’ of entertainment, of money-making, of leisure and sport, of lounging about watching television — these and many other ‘idols’ are the objects of love and devotion amongst the nation! I know farmers who are too busy milking cows, families who plan Sabbath outings and visits to the seaside so that attending the house of God is not considered. Shopping is the Sabbath occupation of thousands and they may be seen devoutly engaged in that pursuit by those travelling to God’s house on the Lord’s Day to worship in accordance with the Lord’s commandment!!
Remember the warning the Lord gave to Israel by Moses.
“But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee,” Deuteronomy 28:15, then follows the terrible judgments that shall befall the nation.
“And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, ” Deuteronomy 28:23.
There will be no moisture, no showers of rain nor dew descending down from it. Mercy is cut off!
Penalty
They who turn their back upon the Lord ought not to be surprised that the Lord will turn His back on them and punish such by allowing the devil’s lies to flood the land!
“Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: they would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil,” Proverbs 1:24-33.
That is what is happening world-wide today, even as Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica!
III. THE THIRD PORTION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE THAT I WOULD DRAW YOU ATTENTION TO CAME FROM THE LIPS OF THE SAVIOUR.
“And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable (the sower). And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: that seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them,” Mark 4:10-12.
The things of the gospel are a ‘mystery’ to all who are “without” or outside. It is a reference to those “that are without God,” 1 Corinthians 5:13. The word means ‘outside of’. It is clearly seen that this is the meaning by its use in Hebrews 13:12-13. “Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.”
The rejection of the gospel is equivalent to a refusing to enter ‘the ark’ and being lost in the flood of judgment, outside the ark, when it happens.
Change.
Paul described the change in the relationship of the position of the unconverted to God which faith in Christ brings about.
“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ,” Ephesians 2:12-13.
The hymn writer, Robert Murray McCheyne, (1837) put it well:
I once was a stranger to grace and to God,
I knew not my danger, and felt not my load;
Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree,
Jehovah Tsidkenu was nothing to me.
In our unconverted state we are separated from God and ‘outside’ of the fold and in the danger of damnation, as the Saviour warns: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him,” John 3:36.
The benefits and blessings of the gospel are NOT for those who are “without”. In conversion there is a wonderful work wrought whereby we are brought into an indissoluble union with Christ.
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name,” John 1:12.
We receive Him by faith, in a manner pictured for us by the way in which we receive food for our physical bodies.
“I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die,”John 6:48-50.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit,” Romans 8:1.
Turning away from God!
As the world turns away from God and His Word, under the influence of the false prophets, of whom Peter spoke. “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of,” 2 Peter 2:1-2, even so nations have been visited with judgment, blindness and ignorance as gospel light is withdrawn!
We read that the wicked men in Sodom who were threatening Lot, were judged in a manner illustrative of what is happening today worldwide.
“And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. But the men (the angles sent by God) put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door,” Genesis 19:9-11.
There is no shortage of ‘religious activity’ today. Rejecting the Bible does not mean men have rejected ‘religion’. No! Across the world men are wearying themselves looking for the door that, because of their defiance of Him, God has blinded them to!
So, Christian, as you observe the confusion out there in the nations of the world, just bear in mind these three passages of Holy Scripture and you will understand why it is happening and the direction the world is taking as the glorious and victorious day of Christ’s return draws on!
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
6th November 2025