I took this picture from the deck of my house a few mornings ago. It reminded me of the words of our Savior.

“When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?” (Matthew 16:2-3)

There is definitely a dearth of discernment when it comes to the signs of the times among today’s saints. The people of God today are much like the Pharisees of yesterday, who continuously called for a sign from Christ to prove His Messiahship, while Christ daily worked multiple miracles before their very eyes. Although the signs of the times can be seen everywhere today, they appear imperceptible and impervious to the contemporary church in America, which can’t get a peek of them peering through the peephole of its preconceived ideas.

A storm is coming, the likes of which we have never seen nor could have ever imagined. It’s dark clouds are clearly gathering, and with it demonic forces for the cataclysmic and consummate battle of the ages. Still, as this spiritual tsunami rises and crest right over our heads, we sit around in our churches smug in false securities, believing our government to be our perpetual protector rather than our prospective persecutor and our future deliverance from end-time tribulation assured by a false doctrine; namely, the secret rapture of the Christian church. 

If there’s ever been a time to follow the Apostle Paul’s admonition to wake up, because the days are evil, today is that time (Ephesians 5:14-16). We are not only living in evil days in the here-and-now, but unprecedented evil is on the immediate horizon! If we fail to perceive it and to prepare for it, we will be swept away by it. Therefore, it is imperative that the church immediately prepare itself for what is certainly to come. Only by doing so can we make ourselves less visible and vulnerable to forthcoming persecution, and remain, as much as possible, a formidable force for Christ in the dark days ahead.

To this end I’m beginning a series of articles in The Wilderness Voice with this article today. The series will serve as a serious call to contemporary Christians in America to return to the New Testament blueprint for the church and to the Master’s plan of evangelism, which not only helped the first century church to flourish under fierce persecution, but can also help the twenty-first century church to do so as well, even under the fiercest of persecutions, that of the perilous times of the last days. 

I ask that you read these articles carefully and, more importantly, prayerfully. Take nothing from them to heart, except what God burns into your heart. Only adhere to what is confirmed to you by the Holy Scripture and the Holy Spirit, and to what your own spirit and conscience can affirm. I caution you before we commence, that what you’re about to read is, in my opinion, as important as anything I’ve ever penned. In addition, it is also the most timely and critical oracle—onerous burden—this old prophet has ever received from Christ to proclaim to His church. Hold on, this won’t be easy or enjoyable, but it is essential to the church’s future existence in an antichrist America that is suddenly and swiftly becoming something positively beastly.