In His Matthew 24 prophecy, Jesus mentions false religion and wars as signs that would come on the world scene soon after the founding of the New Testament Church. Then He goes on to warn about other signs (His “voices”–curses) that He would send upon mankind because of sin. In His discourse Jesus warned about famines, pestilences (disease pandemics) and earthquakes with which He would strike the world’s peoples if they failed to truly repent of their sins, turn from their evil ways and obey His Law. The fact that those signs have come to pass at various times in various places proves that man has not stopped sinning.

Throughout recent history there have been epidemics and pandemics which have killed millions of people. Diseases such as the Black Plague, the influenza epidemic as well as several offshoots of it such as the swine flue and the bird flue, AIDS, COVID-19, whooping cough, leprosy, polio, scarlet fever and others have wreaked havoc on mankind. There have been earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, wildfires and other so-called “natural disasters” that have destroy property and killed numerous people in various places at various times. Recently there have been numerous earthquakes and tsunamies that have plagued parts of the earth with regularity.

However, there is one sign that has not appeared on the level of the other disasters Jesus warned about. That situation will change in the next few years. I believe that the next curse with which God will punish sinning man, specifically the United States, is FAMINE. Famine is normally the result of either the lack of rain or an infestation of vegetation-eating insects over large areas of land that prevent the raising of crops, gardens, and grass needed for animals to survive. The lack of food crops such as corn and wheat, combined with the lack of meat from cattle will create a famine such as the world has never experienced in that it will afflict the entire world at one time. Read about an ancient famine brought on by man’s sins and what God did through His prophet in First Kings chapter 18.

Though certain parts of the globe have experienced the severe lack of food at various times, the world in general has never experienced a global Revelation six (pale horse) famine and black horse curse (death from famine conditions) prophesied by the Lord. That is about to change. Which brings us to what will be the primary cause of the civil war that will, in this generation, cause a world-wide conflict which will pit God’s “little flock” against the rest of the world, including the world’s governments.

If I am hearing the Lord correctly, the factor that will cause the Lord to shut up heaven, thereby sending the world into a global famine will involve a global, governmentally-enforced Sunday Sabbath
law. Both the United Nations and the European Union recognize Sunday as the official day of rest day for the nations within their respective domains. Today I watched Donald Trump say that he would be pushing for a national Sunday Sabbath Law for the United States. As I stated earlier in this series, Pope Francis, who controls the vast numbers of Catholics in this nation and around the world, has declared that the Catholic-instituted Sunday Sabbath Law dictated in 364 A.D. at the Council of Laodicea will be enforced relative to those religions which join the coalition that he is working to form. But there are those who are resisting such a law. So what is the problem with a Sunday Sabbath Law which does not allow stores to do business and prevents people from buying, selling or working on Sunday.

The problem is that SUNDAY IS NOT GOD’S SABBATH DAY. The Creator of the weekly Sabbath dictates that His people observe Saturday (the 7th day of the week) as His Sabbath, a COMMAND which He wrote in stone as the fourth commandment of His eternal Law. In Genesis 2:3 it is written that upon creating His day of rest God “blessed the seventh day and sanctified it” (set it aside for holy use). Then in Isaiah 58:13 He calls HIS SABBATH “… My holy day, the holy (day) of the Lord.” In numerous places in the Holy Scriptures He honors the seventh day of each week and gives explicit instructions as to how His people must honor it. Read Exodus 20:8-11/ Isaiah 58:13,14/ Deuteronomy 5:12-15/ Matthew 12:8 and Mark 3:2.

Though I do not yet have a clear vision of exactly when the Sabbath controversy will become a universal consideration, I know that it will play an important role in the coming spiritual war that will pit God’s people against Satan’s people. I firmly believe that the enforced Sunday Sabbath observance will be THE FACTOR that will cause God to curse the earth with drought and famine which will cause the world to turn on His people. As I stated in a previous posting, the governments will join with the churches to come against those who refuse to observe Satan’s Sunday Sabbath. It will be during the time leading up to the outbreak of the Sabbath conflict that the world will see the works of God take place like never before in history. Satan’s role in the lives of human beings generally and religious people specifically will be exposed for what it is and will reveal who is supplying the power behind it. In summary, the coming world-wide famine will be caused by the same factor that has caused all other “horsemen” (Rev. 6) to ravage the world’s populations–SIN, WHICH GOD DEFINES AS “THE TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW” (1 JN. 3:4). Note that FIRST JOHN IS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, WHICH MEANS THAT IT APPLIES TO THE MODERN DAY CHURCH WHICH REFUSES TO OBEY GOD’S SABBATH LAW, THEREBY MAKING HER GUILTY OF INIQUITY (LAWLESSNESS) WHICH CHRIST ADDRESSES IN MATTHEW 7:21-23.

The suffering caused by the global famine will be the central cause of the coming conflict between God’s people and Satan’s people. It will shape up in the following manner: The world in general will be suffering greatly due to the lack of food. However, one tiny group of people will not lack for food–God’s holy saints. This disparity will cause the rest of the world to hate them. Adding to their hate will be the fact that God’s apostles will tell the world’s people why they are suffering–because of their sins, their observance of Satan’s Sabbath being one of those sins.

This hate-fueled warfare against “the problem” will not be a new phenomenon. In the book of Genesis we find that God has rejected Cain’s offering because it was not what He required. He had accepted Abel’s offering because it was what He had required. So why did Cain kill Abel? BECAUSE CAIN REFUSED TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS OWN FAILURE. SO WHO WAS THE PROBLEM CAUSER? ABEL, OF COURSE. BY OBEYING GOD, ABLE SET THE STANDARD THAT CAIN HAD TO DUPLICATE–OR ELSE BE REJECTED. SO CAIN’S PROBLEM WAS ABEL–NO ABEL=NO PROBLEM. THE SOLUTION–GET RID OF THE PROBLEM. The same thing will happen globally in the coming days. God’s people will be “the problem” and their elimination will be “the solution.” However, God has promised to not allow that to happen.

In the final analysis, the world’s people, led by Satan’s false prophet, will believe that God’s saints are the cause of the famine and will declare war on them in the belief that if they are eliminated the famine will come to an end. But God’s saints will win–bigly and publicly as their miraculous exploits will be seen by people all over the world as God’s Holy Spirit shows mankind who is in charge–HE IS. Read First Kings chapter 18 to see what types of miracles will be displayed world-wide through television and the internet. Mankind will have no excuse for not believing in the Biblical God.

And yet mankind will not repent and turn to the One Who is afflicting them with starvation. Read Second Chronicles 7:13-13-15. Immediately before the Great Tribulation begins the Lord will take His true saints to their place of safety, called “her (the church’s) place” where, for the next 3 1/2 years He will protect and provide for her as first, the Great Tribulation (2 1/2 yrs), then the Day of the Lord (1 yr) will ravage sinning mankind like never before. Read about the church’s place of safety using the key word–Safety. Read about the Tribulation/Day of the Lord using the key word–Tribulation.

The ultimate question is: WHO COMPRISES GOD’S TRUE CHURCH? The answer is: THOSE WHO LOVE FATHER AND SON ENOUGH TO OBEY THEIR TEN COMMANDMENT LAW–INCLUDING COMMANDMENT #4. Read (again) John 14:15,23; 15:10,13,14/ First John 2:3-5/ Matthew 7:21-23; 12:46-50/ Luke 10:16. L.J.