In Matthew 24 and 25 Jesus warns His saints to always be watching, for we do not know the exact time of His return to earth.  He tells them to watch for the signs that would mark the approach of the end of the age so that they would be ready, having their “lamps filled and their wicks trimmed,” spiritually speaking.

One of the signs that the end of the age is near is that men will be running “run to and fro” in search of God’s Word but will be unable to find It because the Almighty will have created a global “famine of the Word of the Lord ” (Amos 8:11,12).  We need to understand several things about this world-wide dearth of God’s Truth.  First, He assures us that His Word will never die (Mat. 24:35).  Then He promises that His Truth-teaching and obeying church will always exist (Mat. 16:18).  Therefore, we know that His Truth and His true church will be existent during the horrific time leading up to the end of this age and Christ’s return.  Notice that He does not say God’s Word will not exist, but that men will not know where it can be found.  Those searching for His Word will not know where to “FIND” His Truth because it will be, as it has always been, a “still, small voice” in the midst of a blaring storm of Satan’s “truths.”  Such is the spiritual world in which we are living–the final days of the Laodicean church age.  The difference between now and the future is that in today’s world people are not searching for God’s Truth because they believe they have it.  Such is the spiritual condition of today’s end-time church.  Read Revelation 3:14-20 for a description of the Institutional (Laodicean) Church as she exists today.

“God does nothing unless He first reveals His secrets to His servants, the prophets” (Amos 3:7).  It is the prophets’ job to warn those with ears to hear God’s Truth WHAT He has prophesied and, according to His signs, approximately WHEN those prophecies will materialize.  His prophets have been fulfilling that commission for thousands of years, beginning with Noah–a “preacher of righteousness.”  Those with eyes to see and ears to hear understand those signs and thereby know that the Great Tribulation and Day of the Lord that both Old and New Testament prophets warned us about is immanent, even “at the door.”  Only one sign remains to be manifested–Jerusalem being surrounded by armies (Lk. 21:20).  The forces that will bring that sign to pass are even now forming in Europe (the European Union) and Asia (the Russia/China concord).

The vast majority within professing Christendom knows little about the Bible.  And when told the Truth about it, they summarily reject it.  Their god–the god of this world (Satan–2 Cor. 4:4)–has been working at full effort to hide the Truth of God from them.  Proof that he has been ultimately successful is evidenced by the fact that man continues to live as he did in the days of Noah and Lot in which sin reigned in the lives of men, causing God to kill millions of them.  In the Noahic Flood God killed every human being on earth except eight people.  In the case of Lot, only three people survived God’s destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah and the other cities of the plain.  Think about the survivor rate: eight survivors out of the world’s entire population and three survivors out of several metropolitan areas.  The survivor to non-survivor was incredibly small in both cases.  Can we assume that the survival rate during the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord will be about the same as in those two acts of God?  According to Jesus, the answer is “yes” (Mat. 7:13,14; 20:16).  The ultimate question is–why?

The Holy Bible is available to the vast majority of mankind.  Also, radio, television and internet- carried ministry is available in all but the most remote areas of the world.  The ultimate answer as to why, with so much preaching available to mankind, will the vast majority of people on earth will die in their sins during the last days is “A FAMINE OF THE WORD OF THE LORD”–a spiritual blackout of the Word of God as prophesied in Amos 8:12.

The Lord always gives sinning individuals and nations a series of warnings (disease, war, crop failures, famines, droughts, floods, financial problems, etc.) before He takes them down and out because of their sins.  With rare exception, those in the Institutional Church do not believe what He said about His “cause and effect Law.”  His general proclamation relative to His C&E Law concerns sowing and reaping.  Summarized, it means that sinners receive much more than they sow.  He lays this Law out in the most elementary terms in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 which are given over totally to His C&E Law.  In summary those chapters tell us what the Lord will do FOR US if we obey Him and what He will do TO US if we disobey Him.  “But that’s old Jewish stuff” is a common refrain when I bring up the Old Testament.  Let us meditate on the following passages within God’s Truth/Word/Law/Gospel.

“HOLY MEN OF OLD spoke and wrote as they were led by the same Holy Spirit that led Jesus and the apostles (2 Pet. 1:21).  The New Testament Church is founded on the writings of the PROPHETS and the apostles (Eph. 2:20).  The Old Testament was preserved as an guide for “US upon whom the end of the age has come” (I Cor. 10:11).  We are commanded to study the ENTIRE BIBLE so that the Lord will approve of us (2 Tim. 2:15).  “ALL SCRITPURE is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:14-16).  We are to “PROVE ALL THINGS OF GOD” (I Thes. 5:21) by studying the Holy Scriptures “precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little” (Isa. 28:9-13).  The apostles taught the church out of the Old Testament in that the New Testament did not exist at that time and would not exist until all but one of them had been killed.  God’s message concerning the Old Testament is WE MUST BE ABOUT OUR FATHER’S BUSINESS OF LEARNING, BELIEVING AND OBEYING HIS HOLY WORD, INCLUDING THE OLD TESTAMENT.

The devil’s self-serving, any way you want it, only believe, all grace and no works religion that today permeates the airwaves, books, c.d.’s, movies, magazines, etc.  We must SEPARATE his perverted gospel from the true Word of God according to which God’s people must live by which they will be judged (Jn. 12:44-50 emphasis on vs 48).  Then we must judge ourselves according to that gospel.  Only those whose lives line up with “the righteous”–will be saved (I Pet. 4:17,18).

The modern day problem concerning the prophesied “famine of the Word of God” is that it has already begun to a limited degree.  As stated, Satan’s perverted gospel fills the airwaves of the world.  Even in areas where there is no access to God’s Truth, Satan’s Catholic/Protestant missionaries teach the trusting masses his “doctrines of devils” which they proclaim to be Biblical Truths (I Tim. 4:1).  As a result, to hear or read God’s real Word one must, as Jesus said, must search for and “find” His strait gate and narrow way that lead to eternal life (Mat. 7:13,14).

The modern day Truth blackout is just the beginning of the prophesied “… famine of the Word of the Lord.”  Unholy men will one day shut off God’s Word entirely, probably by labeling it “hate speech.”  As a result, only Satan’s gospel will be available to the masses.  The time will come AGAIN when the Beast and its Whore rider will control the world (Rev. 17:1-5) and will force all to be part of a one-world religion in which God’s Truth will not be accepted.  As we are told in Revelation 13 & 17 people will AGAIN be forced to observe Sunday as their Sabbath and will be told what can and can’t be done on that day.  This religious emphasis will mirror what took place within the church/state conglomerate during the height of the Roman Empire (31 B.C to 478 A.D.).  As I have pointed out in earlier series, the same governmental “Beast” and the same church “Whore” will rule the world again in the future.

During that soon-coming time some will realize that they had been deceived and will seek the  Lord’s Truth by running to and fro in search of It, but to no avail.  Man, including churchman, has worked with all of his heart against God’s Truth for 6000 years.  As a result he has lived in open rebellion against his Maker, making sin his most pronounced characteristic.  Contrary to popular religious opinion, the wages of sin is still death.  And payday is coming soon.  L.J.