By Jim Torres “Towers”
Four in ten Americans and 77% of Evangelical Christians believe we are now living in the end times. I’ve been saying that for over forty years. During those forty some years such exclamations were falling on deaf ears. American society was just beginning to crumble and hardly anyone took notice. At the time I was living in Hollywood, California pursuing a career in the movies. Those were the turbulent days of drugs, sex, and rock and roll. I had only been a Christian for a few years but still I recoiled at the blatant in your face sub-culture that was brewing. Having been out in the world, as it were, I knew these things existed but my God, you kept such shameful things in the closet! Now, it was just beginning to be in your face.
I tried to live in Hollywood twice but couldn’t adapt to the moral rot. The first time wasn’t so bad, but even then it was getting crazy out there. At first there were only a handful of fruitcakes on the streets hoping to be noticed. I coped with it as best I could and figured they were just needy people. Today, night time on Hollywood and Vine has become a three ring circus. All constraints have been loosened. It is becoming a living nightmare, a virtual hell on earth. It was as if all the looney bins had been opened across the country and all of the inmates ended up in Hollywood. Could it be that our Creator has given these people over to reprobate minds? That seems to be the only logical explanation.
Today, forty years later there are no constraints and everybody is doing their own thing everywhere across the country. Closets are no more. Scoffers abound everywhere. Nothing is sacred anymore. Everything is out in the open and people with their tongues sticking out and twerking are everywhere making fun of those more straight laced. More often than not they poke fun at Christians as well. Maybe we’ve got it coming from our many years of apathy, slick money hungry so-called televangelist’s shenanigans and downright hypocrisy.
Every big city in the USA is teeming with violence. Police officers are hard pressed to make the right decisions when so many people are against the law and moral absolutes. If you take the time to read between the lines or follow the trails of some of the individuals shot and killed, they usually lead to previous arrests of the perps, and often their predisposition to a life of crime. They more often than not have an extensive rap sheet. And so, we have a subculture of hard core criminals and thugs. Having said that, some policemen are taking things too far, shooting first and asking questions later, but who can blame them for fearing for their lives?
The present generation is devoid of role models and everyone does as he or she pleases. It’s Sodom and Gomorra all over again. What are right thinking individuals to do? All too often we Christian believers hide behind the walls of the church with like-minded brethren, cowering in fear. Believing that we will soon be rescued by the rapture of the church we often smirk confidently when confronted by these stark realities. Suppose we also have to go through still darker times? Are you ready to face them with resolve and conviction?
Are you a shirker, a phony or a hypocrite? I hope not. Considering the things mentioned these must be the end times, what with all the apostasy going on in so many churches. Even the Laodicean church wasn’t as bad as what many of the churches in the United States have become, and Jesus said of them, “Because you are neither hot nor cold I will spew you out of my mouth.” The American church is in freefall. They don’t want to heed any warnings nor can they see the signs of the end times developing before their very eyes. There is no sense of urgency, no looking skyward, no expectation of Christ’s return for his own, and no anticipation of participating at the marriage supper of the lamb. Life here is too sweet with no one to answer to.
Many other carnal Christians donate money only out of compulsion to gain God’s favor in the form of yet more financial gain. Did you ever notice that only the huge churches that promise “blessings” are growing by leaps and bounds? Yet these same churches never preach about repentance or sin. Homosexuals with no inclination to repent of their putrid lifestyle lead the music ministry. Many have become glutinous individuals, eating sumptuous delicacies with their finger tips and sucking the juices from off them, their bellies hanging over their belts. Gossip, jokes and one-upmanship is the name of the game in many churches today. Biblical prophecy is frowned upon in most churches yet the New Testament tells us that prophecy is of utmost importance.
God doesn’t delight in wimpy, self-absorbed and fearful fruitcakes. Cowards will have to answer to Almighty God for their apathy and fearfulness. Although we can fool others, we can’t fool God with our self-made piety and speech. The scriptures say that “judgment will begin in the house of God” and God doesn’t lie, and that judgment may happen sooner than we dare think.
Knowing that God can save to the uttermost, and although our country may be doomed, maybe we can still be able to snatch some from the wrath of God which is soon to come in the form of the Tribulation period.
We believers in Christ and the God of the bible must be courageous. We must quit being shrinking violets. Nobody respects a wimp or wishy-washy person. We should know what we believe, tell others about God’s great salvation and do it out of concern and love for a dying world for Christ’s sake. This requires taking risks, but it’s well worth the effort just in knowing you’re doing the right thing. That’s what God intends for us to do. Doing so draws us closer to God as well. We are to be co-laborers in His harvest field in which humanity is overly ripe and even rotting in the fields of life. We, the church of God, must repent for our apathy, fearfulness, misplaced trust in money and outright hypocrisy.
“You believe there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe – and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?”
YBIC
Jim Torres “Towers”
jt.filmmaker@yahoo.com