More from Gerald Weston.
Let the fear-mongering run amok!
Where would the COG be today without its fear-mongering?
Instead of resting in peace with the one they claim to follow, regardless of worldly situations, Weston and other COG leaders live in a constant state of fear and trembling.
Whether the pandemic, war, supply chain issues, or the high cost of filling our tanks, these problems are all self-inflicted, in the context of the world at large, though you personally had little to do with it. Civilization is unraveling, and people see this. It is during times of instability and desperation that leaders come to the fore who can look good at the beginning, but who may take the world down a destructive path. Napoleon, Hitler, and Mussolini came to power as problem solvers, but their leadership did not work out well in the end.
It is comforting to think that mankind will muddle through this time of instability, that we will have a “soft landing” for inflation, or that Russia and Ukraine will cut a deal, and Europe will get back to normal. It is comforting to think that famine will be averted in the Middle East and Africa where Ukraine and Russia supply most grain products. Comforting as such thoughts may be, this is not likely reality.
We do not know every twist and turn along the way to the supreme crisis at the end of the age that will usher in the return of Jesus Christ to save humanity from foolish, sinful ways, but we know that we will see conditions far worse than they are today. The Bible indicates there will be a time of short-term prosperity (Revelation 18), but ultimately, many of us will live to see the greatest time of trouble the world has ever known (Matthew 24:21-22; Jeremiah 30:7; Daniel 12:1).
Yet, there is hope for the people of God. Revelation 12 speaks of a time in the future when God will protect His zealous ones in a wilderness place on earth. After Satan tries one more time to knock God off His throne, he will be cast back down (vv. 7-10). He will immediately go after the true Church of God (vv. 12-13), but God will take His people to a place of safety on earth (v.14). This is not a “rapture,” a doctrine in which many falsely place their hope. Heaven is never spoken of as a “wilderness” in Scripture. This is a place on the earth where a small flock will be saved from Satan’s clutches and will experience a deliverance similar to what the children of Israel saw when they fled from Egypt (vv. 15-16).
The last verse of Revelation 12 confirms that the prophecy is not about physical Israel, but about the Church of God. Not all true Christians (and that is far fewer than most people realize) will be protected during the three-and-a-half years of the Great Tribulation and Day of the Lord. “And the dragon was enraged with the woman [the Church], and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (v. 17). Clearly there are two groups of true Christians spoken of in these verses—those who are zealously doing the Work for which they are called (see Revelation 3:8-10) and those who keep God’s commandments and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, but are self-satisfied and complacent (compare Revelation 3:15-19).