The Coming Storm

So I just want to read this article. It says Graham, who serves as president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and head of Samaritan's Purse, gave the keynote speech Monday evening at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Orlando, Florida.

The Coming Storm and the Need to Be Ready

He says, quote, I believe there is a coming storm that we all need to be ready for. Graham said, the world has deteriorated so quickly we cannot be deceived and we cannot be fooled. We need to get ready and be prepared.

Graham said believers in the United States are, quote, living in a cancel culture that wants to destroy Christian organizations. And isn't that true? Adding that we, quote, cannot back up. We can't retreat.

We don't apologize for the gospel. Just declare it and just preach it. So that's some good advice. If you say something and it's true, don't ever apologize for it. If you say something, even if someone's offended by some sort of biblical truth that your church believes or that your pastor preaches.

And, you know, as someone who preaches every week and is on the radio, you know, back in 2020, I told Christians, hey, you can't support. Or here's why our church doesn't support Black Lives Matter, because they're an organization that was founded by Marxists.

And they are open supporters and promoters of, you know, LGBT. And we don't support that. And, you know, they tried to cancel me and that that didn't work too well. But that's what they're going to do.

They want if anything is going against the mainstream. If anything's going against, you know, corporate media, the political establishment, they want to try to force you into apologizing. Like you're holding unauthorized positions.

How dare you say this? And here's the thing. If you apologize, that's like a shark smelling blood in the water. If you apologize, they will never stop. OK, so we just need to keep going. Tell it like it is.

Declare the truth. Preach the truth. Don't ever apologize for it. Because the Marxist LGBT crowd, they're implacable. They will never be satisfied. So don't give them an inch, because if you give them an inch, they'll take a mile.

Franklin Graham, NRB, and the Pressure to Stay Silent

Back to the article. Franklin Graham says they want to shut our mouths. They don't want to hear from us. If you are not going to preach the gospel, you don't have anything to worry about. Well, that's true.

If you if you're not going to say anything controversial, if you're not going to preach the gospel, if you're just going to kind of be quiet and whatever, yeah, they'll probably leave you alone. The NRB, National Religious Broadcasters, describes itself as, quote, the world's largest gathering of Christian communicators and ministry professionals, adding that it is where everyone gets together under one roof to talk about advancing the gospel.

Countless partnerships and important connections have been formed at NRB conventions over the years, said the NRB. And as the largest marketplace dedicated to Christian media professionals, the NRB, blah, blah, blah.

Now, I actually I don't support. There's a lot of people that would show up at this National Religious Broadcasters that I absolutely would not support. But Franklin Graham is right. He is right about this.

If you speak the truth, if you preach the gospel, if you take a stand, if you fight today's issues, yeah, they're going to try to cancel you. They're going to try to go after you. I guess the good news for the person in the pew is that they're going to go after the high profile people first and then the local level.

You know, you'll be probably the last people they'll come for if it ever gets to that. You'll have a little warning if it gets real bad. I mean, that's, I don't know, that's a good thing, I guess. But Franklin Graham is right.

We are a storm is coming. And the message that he says, don't back down. Yes, very true. The article says Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a likely Republican presidential primary candidate, was also in attendance and gave remarks before the Christian media and ministry gathering.

He had a great discussion at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention on the importance of, number one, supporting families, number two, protecting children, and number three, defending religious liberty.

Political Division, Christian Identity, and the Coming Social Conflict

Now, about that, I usually try not to get too involved in the political part of the discussion. But let's face it, a lot of people hate Christianity because they think that, well, all evangelicals and, you know, Christians all vote Republican.

So that's what a lot of people think. So that's why some people hate Christians because they say, well, they're on the wrong side politically. Well, first of all, there's plenty of evangelical leaders that do not vote Republican.

Tim Keller just passed away last week. Tim Keller was a registered Democrat in New York. So there's plenty of evangelical leaders like Tim Keller, the Gospel Coalition crowd, Russell Moore, David Platt, Matt Chandler, the TGC crowd, people who speak for the ERLC.

I mean, these people are not really conservative, so I doubt that a lot of them even vote Republican. So that's the first thing. Number one, not all evangelicals vote Republican. I mean, the majority do.

But here's the thing. It doesn't really matter. Christians are all being lumped in together. If you don't fully support what the Marxists are doing, what the godless people are doing, if you don't fully support that, you're evil, you're bad.

They will hate you. So in some ways, the political element doesn't even matter. Just professing Christ and not going along with the crowd is enough for them to hate us. And here's the thing. Many people hate Christians because they know, or at least they think, I believe this is probably true, that Christians are the last thing standing in their way of their socialist utopia.

If we could just get rid of these evangelicals, we could have our Marxist socialist utopia. Of course, if they ever get it, it's not going to be a utopia. It's going to devolve into a communist hellhole.

And I'm not using the word hell in a flippant way. Let me just say it very clearly. Communism is an ideology from hell. Communism is an ideology from the pits of hell. In the 20th century, over 100 million people died because of it.

Oh, well, you know, it's just never been done properly. That's what they like to say. Yeah, yeah. Let's just try it one more time. Yeah. Okay. Well, with the weapons and the government surveillance we have now, that 100 million number could be dwarfed in the 21st century if we're not careful.

You know, it's been said that you vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out of communism. This is no joke. There's already war in Europe right now. World War One was from 1914 to 1918.

Think about it. We're only 23 years into this century. There's plenty of time left. A lot of people think that, well, we're beyond that type of thing. You know, there could never be another world war.

Well, let me be clear on this. There will be another world war. I guarantee it. The Bible tells us there will be another world war. There could be more than one, but at the very least, biblically, there is the time period we call the Tribulation.

There's the Battle of Armageddon, right? The rise of the figure known as the Antichrist, the Mark of the Beast. You know, many people, many people think that the pandemic was just a trial run to see how submissive the population would be.

And I'm not saying that that's true or not true. But let's face it. People were pretty submissive. Yeah, I think they could probably get away with just about anything. And most people aren't going to do anything about it.

Revelation 13, the Beast, and the Worship of Satan

My point is, when the Antichrist does come, the people of the world are not going to resist him. They're going to go along with it and they're going to love it. The Book of Revelation, chapter 13, verses three and four, says this.

And all the world marveled and followed the beast. The beast is just a title for the Antichrist. In all the world, the Apostle John said, they marveled. They love this guy. They followed the beast and they worshipped the dragon who gave authority to the beast.

And they worshipped the beast. Okay, so who's the dragon? They worshipped the dragon. The people of this world, they will worship Satan. And that doesn't have to be like a crass form of Satanism where they're sitting in a dark room with a goat head and a candle or something weird like that.

I mean, let's face it. The people of this world, look around. They're already following after the devil. They just don't even realize it. Of course, some of them do. They know they are opposed to the Christian God, which is enough.

So what's this passage saying in Revelation, chapter 13? The whole world will follow after Satan, which is sort of already happening. And they will embrace his false Messiah, the Antichrist. Now, here's a dose of truth that some people might not like.

But who's the most beloved religious leader on earth right now?

It's the Pope.

The Pope is a Marxist and a globalist. And he's trying to open the door for even Catholicism to embrace homosexuality. And he's pushing for climate change laws and all of the rest. And, you know, there's a lot of reasonable Roman Catholics who see that.

There's a lot of Roman Catholics who don't even like the Pope. They see the problem. But there will be this world ruler. This world ruler, he's like political slash religious. People will look to him and reverence him and basically worship him.

Don't think that it can't happen. The Bible says it will happen. So all of that to say this, we are clearly headed in the wrong direction. We are clearly headed in a dangerous direction. Back to the article earlier this month, Franklin Graham gave the keynote address at the commencement ceremony for the graduates of Liberty University, most prominent evangelical academic institution based in Lynchburg, Virginia.

In his remarks to graduates, Graham said that he was praying that, quote, this class will stand for truth, giving a warning that, quote, our world is changing for the worse. It has changed so much just in the time since you set foot on this campus.

In a few years or a few years ago, Graham said, think of how much it has changed. The increase in violence, the moral decline. And obviously, again, he's right about that. Things have changed so much just in the last four to six years.

Graham says, I can't help but think that the heart of God is grieved as he looks at our world today, our country. Oh, I love our country, but it's in a downward spiral morally. And it's not just in a downward spiral morally.

It's in a downward spiral spiritually, economically, and politically. And there's very few people who would disagree with that. Next month is what? Pride month. Yeah, a lot of pastors. So what do you think about pride month?

Oh, well, you know, well, see, just the wishy-washy response. It grieves me to say this, but a lot of pastors are kind of like Eli. You know, Eli the priest. Sons were vile doing all these things. He didn't really want to do anything about it.

What's the clear biblical response to all that? Well, we know what it is. People don't want to talk about it. They don't want to say it. So the message for Christians, to wrap all this up, the message for Christians is we need to remain vigilant.

We need to stay strong in the Lord. If you've been drifting, there's people listening right now. You know you've been drifting. Maybe you've got out of church. Maybe you're not reading your Bible much.

Maybe you feel like you're getting lukewarm about your faith. You know, you're not really hot, but you're not really cold. You're not really in, you're not really out. You're just kind of drifting along.

Listen, you can't remain neutral. Jesus said in Matthew 12 verse 30, He who is not with me is against me. If a person is not intentional about following Christ, they will be swept away by all of this.

You may be swept away by all of this. So my word to you this morning is repent of your lukewarmness. If that describes you, and it doesn't describe everybody, but if it does, repent of your lukewarmness.

Get into a good Bible-believing church where the pastor gets what's happening in the world. Again, too many pastors are like Eli, or they're asleep at the wheel. The worst possible situation is they know what's going on.

They just lack the courage to fight today's battle. Just think about how so many were willing to submit to the globalists and close down their church for what, six months or a year.

Because of the flu.

Just imagine how quick they're going to fold if real persecution came. So if you're not in a good Bible-believing church, find one, join one, get serving. If you haven't been baptized, get baptized. This is the time to get serious.

Jesus said in Revelation chapter 3, To those who remain lukewarm, Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory says, I will vomit people like that out of my mouth, and I don't want to be that person. But he went on to say this, and we'll close with this.

Revelation chapter 3. Christ says, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.