| A SECULAR TRIFECTA |
| Trifecta: A secular system of forecasting in which the observer must pick the first three winners in the correct sequence i.e., crossing the finish line in exact order. Judeo-Christian scripture clearly identifies the order of endtime events. However, for the present, the unbelieving world chooses to ignore and guffaw over and about prophetic scripture and its foresightedness regarding the order of things to come. |
| Scripturally knowledgeable observers are now able to foresee the coming endtime conflagrations from positions of stark reality. The emerging global community is racing to soldier-up, establish new territorial imperatives, and form previously unimagined geopolitical alliances and coalitions. Whoever thought Russia would become a primary catalyst to underwrite the emerging Middle East Islamic caliphate? Answer, anyone who understands biblical eschatological prophecy as it relates directly to the Islamic vs. Israeli struggle: one for dominance of, and if possible, annihilation of the same, and the other for the legitimate right to exist in its UN sanctioned State. |
| Today there are many who believe prophetic dominos are lining up for a series of catastrophic events which will recast the gravitas of existing economic global centers, bring quasi-religious factions against one another militarily with enormous consequences, and reordering of global geopolitical power consortiums. The secular global gaming table is being divided, in part, into: |
| - control and acquisition of energy resources and commodities, acceleration of high technology advancements, and services, control and monopoly of international monetary funds/exchanges, and military strongholds and their offensive superiorities. |
| So what's new about these contemporary tilts? The erstwhile and postmodern media pundits almost all chortle, "History is replete with such trends, nothing new here!" The vast majority of the commercial media, secular driven News services, and cable-news talking heads seem to be clueless as to the signs of the times(1) in which we live, at the beginning of the 21st C. Prayerfully, without seeming to cast stones, the Christian Church in America has sorrowfully few evangelists, preachers, teachers who operate in the office of Watchmen-on-the-wall(2) declaring the prophesized Last Day outworking of God's Plan for final sanctification of The Church(3), and preparing the Jewish peoples for their coming Messiah, Christ Jesus, the Son of The living God. |
| Prophetic and eschatological-centered scripture is so often viewed as a wet blanket and harbinger for losing church membership. Nevertheless, there are those Spirit-led oracles, which defy the skeptical commonplace wisdoms, and preach the Word as it is written along with having the anointing to endure and persevere in the face of mounting opposition from the secular world, as well as, some parts of the Christian Community. |
| Endtime prophetic events are clearly and unequivocally ordered, and as such, will not interchange their times of occurrence. Well-recognized scriptural examples in dispensational eschatology are: |
| Armageddon will not come before the signing of the False Peace Accord between Israel and the Islamized-Palestinian Front. The Tribulation Period will not commence before the known appearing of the Anti-Christ. True and lasting Peace will not inhabit the earth until the eschaton(4) Sanctified Christians will not be included in the wrath of the Tribulation Period.(5) Those sanctified In Christ will not appear at the White Throne Judgment(6) "Jesus saith unto him, I am he way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me". [Jhn. 14:6] There are no other ways, means or avenues to the Father?s Throne |
| These events will occur in their preordained order. As in a trifecta, the second and third will follow the first. Considerable popular discourse abounds regarding which "one" will come first, if any. For the pretribulationist, Christ's appearing (not His 2nd Advent) will precede the commencement of the Tribulation Period. Festering debate circles around Pre-Trib., Mid-Trib., Post-Trib., Preterits (70 A.D.) interpretative views. Google-site is replete with tortured commentaries and scholarly essays on all tangents of this discussion. Well-regarded scholars have written exhaustively on this topic alone. If one is not a pretribulationalist, then they have an anguished and tormented set of times to endure during the Tribulation Period, until the 2nd Advent (return) of Christ. |
| The fulfilling of God's endtime Purpose and the outworking of His endtime Plan(7) will execute as setout in scripture. God's blueprint in Scripture is what makes the significant difference when compared to secular hypothesizing and mankind's contrived prognostications for near-future events. There is no gaming or wagering in God's timetable and when one understands He finished the end before He began the beginning, then we can have unshakable confidence in His outworking, no matter how difficult it may be to humanly understand. Secularism has no other option but to wager on imagined outcomes and make inconvenient changes as its plans go awry. |
| Secularism is in full court denial of an Absolute God. Counterfeit religious persuasions (particularity quasi-Christian) are even more dangerous, in that they convolute and distort God's intent, purpose, and presence. Contemporary "modified Christian' theology and religious renewal-thought are becoming prevalent throughout the Christian Church Community. Christian Fundamentalism is now being touted as a passé religious bias, right-wing Christian Conservatism is "out-of-touch" with mainstream America, and scripture-centered eschatology is considered, by many, to be a throwback to a time before the enlightenment of modernity. America's support and defense of Israel is also seen, by more than just a few, as a millstone around our national neck. |
| Secularism is well into its race to outdistance and champion orthodox-Christianity. The secular trifecta begins with the stripping out of God's Commandments in social/cultural expression, legally liberalizing social/cultural "rights" and safeguards, and redirect America's worship of The Creator to an ever enlarging allegiance to worship the creation. [See Rom. 1:25, 28] Conservation of natural resources [energy related], economic instability [Dollar], climatic preoccupations [warming/cooling], civil liberties [immigration], and terrorism [domestic and foreign] top America's agenda of utmost importance. God's presence is being willfully diminished and, in some strongholds, is being thrown under the bus, so to speak. Secular preoccupations are relevant to our stability as a culture/nation, God's preoccupations are essential to one's place in eternity. Gas prices seem to be trumping eternity. |
| Many churches in America today, and even more so abroad, now foist a gospel devoid of sin, a need for redemption, a bloodless atonement, yet offer instead a highly popularized "psycho/social gospel" of self-actualization, personal accumulation and happy-talk. We read the admonishment of the Apostle Paul in Heb. 12:1-2: |
| "... let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God". |
| Let us each one know well the race we are running, the prize to be won, and the One who has marked out the course. The secular trifecta is circular at best, has no discernable endpoint, and is mankind's lame effort to simulate God's marked-course along His pathway of life's journey. |
| Jon D. Hannum, Ph.D. |
| (1) Matt. 16:3b - "O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" |
| (2) Ezek. 33:1-6 - Watchman on the wall. |
| (3) Eph. 5:27 "He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that |
| she should be holy and without blemish". |
| (4) Eschaton - The return of Jesus. From the Greek "eschatos," which means "last." (New Testament) day at the end of time following Armageddon when God will decree the fates of all individual humans according to the good and evil of their earthly lives. [worldwebonline.com] |
| (5) 1 Th. 5:9 - "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ," |
| (6) Rev. 20:11-15 -- Final judgment for unbelievers occurs at the Great White Throne. "Books" (pl. form) refers to the |
| cataloging of the thought- and action-life of all men. "Book" (singular) is a reference to the Lamb's Book of Life in |
| which the names of all the redeemed are recorded. The event is for the purpose of demonstrating the perfect justice |
| of God in His judgments. [BSB] |
| (7) Eph. 1:10b - "He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth; |
| in Him". |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|