More Revivals and More Baptisms, lots more baptisms
I had planned to write about what happened to Horatio Spafford and his wife after he wrote, It is well with my soul. There is so much more to their story beyond that hymn. They endured more tragedy after losing their daughters. God used all their tragedies to establish an amazing ministry in Jerusalem which still continues today.
Following my last post, however, I heard about three more revivals: one in Brazil and two at college campuses.[i] I decided to give a brief update on the three and explore what they say about the times we are living in. Do these revivals mean we are close to the end of time, or not?
University of Arkansas
Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi campus
Brazil – Amazon Region
What do these three revivals have in common?
Of course, they have baptisms in common, but there is something else. All of them occurred in places dominated by Marxism – or supposedly, anyway. Brazil is a Marxist regime. Of course, we know that our universities are indoctrinating young people into Marxism. Where did the other revivals happen? In Marxist strongholds.
Revivals are also happening in Islamic strongholds. That doesn’t surprise me since Islamic regimes differ little from Marxist ones. Marxism is a religion masquerading as a political theory. Islam is a political ideology masquerading as a religion. We refer to both as totalitarian. As such, they are oppressive and repressive, not allowing any freedom, especially religious freedom. Their people live in abject poverty as well. Yeah, they’re not nice places to live.
Since it appears that the globalists are winning, many believe that we are experiencing the strong delusion of Thessalonians 2.
There are a few problems with that assumption. 2 Thessalonians 2 seemingly infers that the strong delusion happens after the lawless one is revealed.
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,
As of this moment, the lawless one aka Satan has not been revealed. He could be alive but the world at large is unware of his true identity. That means the strong delusion isn’t happening right now.
Furthermore, when the strong delusion happens, it will be worldwide. No doubt we’ve experienced times of great delusion such as the faux pandemic and lockdown. The vast majority bought into both. If you follow the pushback and the wins, however, you’ll see a great number now realize it was all unnecessary and harmful.
There’s ample evidence that people are rejecing the woke agenda as well. Now, if you listen to the establishment media, you wouldn’t think so. Just remember they don’t report the news, they just echo the woke message.
But has our cultural gone woke? That depends on what we mean by culture. Do we mean “society when we use the term “culture?” If our society totally bought into wokeism, then why are woke companies broke and going broker? Why do the Marxists need to censor and cancel all other viewpoints? Or why do they need to cheat to win elections and/or why do they need to replace Americans with foreigners? If the Marxists had deceived the vast majority of us, they wouldn’t need to do any of that, right? Yet, they have to do all of the above as well as use coercive tactics to ensure compliance.
Or when we speak of our culture going woke, do we mean the culture purveyors aka influencers? Without a doubt, they are pushing it but that does not surprise me. The entertainment world as a whole has been ungodly and immoral for decades. By the way, woke Hollywood is going broke because the public is rejecting their woke movies, choosing movies like Sound of Freedom instead. Ironically, China which has invested in Hollywood for decades won’t even buy their woke movies.
If you read my blog regularly, what I wrote above is familiar to you. I would add that I continue to see more woke initiatives failing. They are failing because more and more ordinary people see through the lies and are fighting back against wokeism. DEI is the latest initiative that’s failing. I’ll share that soon.
Sometimes I think the delusion being perpetrated is making us believe that the majority of people have accepted Marxism. That’s the purpose of propaganda and censorship to ensure that their voice is the only one everyone hears.
Even that isn’t working. The youth vote in the EU rejected the Green socialist agenda, much to the surprise of the Green Socialist party. Germany’s youth vote recently did as well. Despite the constant drone of European state-run media propaganda, they saw that the green agenda was ruining their lives. American college students are rejecting Marxism as well.
Kirk reported that “thousands of students showed up and HUNDREDS of new Gen Z voters got registered” at his rally at ASU and he had the same kind of turnout at Colorado University.
Why are the students motivated to vote? They want to buy a house and have a better economy. Neither of which you can do under Marxism because Marxists don’t believe in private ownership, except for themselves. Nor do they believe in having an economy.
Now some, or perhaps even many, still believe. As Lincoln said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time.” However, that’s a topic for a different time.
The ongoing revivals also make me question whether the strong delusion is happening today.
9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2 Thessalonians 2:10 implies that people are so deceived that they can’t be saved during the strong delusion. Yet, the results from the numerous revivals prove otherwise. Millions have been saved and these revivals are not over by a long shot. I just ran across another one that happened in North Carolina.
Many believe that God is judging America like He did Israel.
Depends on which kind of judgment we mean, corrective or final.
When God judged Israel in the past, it wasn’t to destroy them. It was to correct them, to bring them back to Him as the passage below indicates.
“For thus says the Lord: ‘Just as I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will bring on them all the good that I have promised them.”
America is not Israel, but He is still working to bring people to Him. The revivals prove that God is not finished with America. Nor is He finished with the world judging by the revivals happening across the globe.
There is a final judgment when God will judge all nations, not just America. Why? For how they treated Israel.
“For behold, in those days and at that time,
When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 I will also gather all nations,
And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
And I will enter into judgment with them there
On account of My people, My heritage Israel, ~ Joel 3:1-2
That judgment takes place sometime after the Great Tribulation, however. We are not currently in the Great Tribulation.
Does that mean we will see a complete defeat of the Marxists?
“From your lips to God’s ear.” 2 Thessalonians also tells us that the lawless one is already at work. Satan has been deceiving people since the Garden of Eden. The woke agenda is his latest deception. While it seems to be dying, it won’t be the last one. Satan will devise another one to fool people and it will probably be worse. Eventually, the One who restrains Satan will be taken away and Satan will then have free reign to implement the strong delusion spoken of in 2 Thessalonians.
Then how close are we to the end of times spoken in the Bible?
Hmm…let me look into my crystal ball. Oops! I don’t have one. Besides, there are no prophets today. “The law and the prophets were until John (the Baptist).”
No doubt some will argue that I misinterpreted 2 Thessalonians, contending that the events in it aren’t necessarily in chronological order. They could be right and I’m okay with that. Here’s my concern.
Force-fitting the “news” to fit these narratives or other ones prevents us from seeing the marvelous work God is doing around the world.
Christians have narratives. Yes, and can be just as guilty of force-fitting events to conform to them. I get that we want this to be the end of times for real and for God’s final judgment but we are not there yet.
Right now Jesus is saving millions of people through revivals, something countless people are praying for. When we spend time and energy following end-times narratives, we miss how He is answering our prayers. Moreover, we can’t appreciate all the blessings he bestows on us daily.
I’m not trying to diss anyone nor am I saying we shouldn’t study prophecy. We absolutely should study it along with the rest of the Bible. That’s the only way not to live in fear in this scary world and keep our sanity! Jesus is the only one that can keep us from falling.
Where are we?
14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Yes, the gospel is still being preached, meaning the end isn’t here yet.
8But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8
Acts 1:8 reminds us that Jesus calls Christians to be His witnesses. However, we tend to miss the context of his last message. Look at the two verses before it.
Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
Jesus told the disciples plainly that it wasn’t for them to know God’s timetable. Instead, their mission was to be His witnesses to the world.
His message applies to us today as well. That could change at any moment but for now, we are still called to be his witnesses to the world. Let’s not get ahead of His story.
[i] There was a revival meeting at the University of South Carolina on September 10, 2024, but I can’t find any news articles on it yet.