Where do we think we're going? (Part 4)

We've been talking about being heavenly minded and receiving heavenly rewards.  By way of review, here is the basic

concept.  If you are a Christian every single good thing you have ever done has been permanently recorded and you will receive a reward for it in the life to come.  Now you may be wondering, "Why would God make a big deal out of little acts of kindness?  Why would God reward me for reading my Bible or praying or going to church?  I should be doing those things anyway!"

The answer to the question has to do with what's inside of us and where we live.  What is inside of us is a nature that has been contaminated by the power of sin.  It's easy to be bad.  Imagine what would happen if you just let yourself go, if you started to live by impulse alone without self control.  Most of us would be in jail before the end of the week. 

And if that weren't bad enough we have to contend with what the Bible calls the world and the devil.  The "world" is the society you live in with it's lifestyle and values.  Trying to live for God on this planet is like standing waist deep in a stream while trying to walk against the current.  There is a relentless pressure pushing you in the wrong direction.  And then there is the devil.  He really exists.  He has minions.  And they do tempt you.  They attempt to mess with your mind and twist your thinking.  And they have had thousands of years of practice in the manipulation of human souls.

You've got all of that going against you.  So this is how I would sum it all up.  For a human being, born with a sin contaminated nature, and having to struggle against the devil and the world, goodness requires a gritty determination that is very precious in the sight of God.  (Yes, I know that we can't overcome these forces on our own and that we have to rely on Him for the strength to do right.) 

So how, exactly, is this going to work?  How is He going to acknowledge and reward us?  I can't tell you exactly because I don't know exactly, but here are a couple of ideas.

Every time you meet someone for the first time in heaven God could introduce you to that person by doing a "data transfer" directly into your mind.  What kind of data would God be transmitting to you?  Think about a grandparent raving about their new grandchild. Imagine what it would be like if, when the new grandparent showed you pictures of the new grandchild, you were actually able to feel exactly what the grandparent was feeling for that child.  Imagine what it would be like if you could share those emotions along with the pictures.

God has recorded every single thing good thing that you have ever done because this information is important to Him.  It pleases Him.  And so when you meet someone for the first time you might get a sudden revelation of every single good thing they ever did and with that information you would also feel exactly what God feels when He thinks about that information.  You would actually feel the love, the tenderness, and the pride God feels when He thinks about that other person.  And they would have the same experience as God "introduced" you to them!

Here's the other idea:  reality TV!  John said that everything was being written down when he wrote the Revelation.  I wonder, if he was writing it today, if he would say that everything was being filmed?  Please keep in mind that every single thing that has ever happened could, very easily, be reproduced as a film from the mind of God who sees everything and remembers everything.

A few weeks ago a young man I know was at a wedding.  That evening, after the wedding, another wedding guest made a "move" on him.  This woman knew he was engaged to be married but apparently that didn't matter to her one bit!  They were staying at the same motel and it was only by saying "No!" repeatedly and forcefully that he was able to keep this woman out of his room (not to mention his bed).  To which we might be tempted to respond, "Ho hum!  Okay, he did the right thing, but was it really that big a deal?  Do we need to give him a Merit Badge or something?"

But that's not the way that God looks at it.  To God, every act of goodness is an important moment.  He records it.  He cherishes it.  He will reward us for it.  That reward could include something very much like our reality TV.  God might honor us by taking episodes out of our lives and turning them into entertainment in the life to come.  Wouldn't it be cool to be able to see the demon perched on this woman's shoulder (if there was one at that moment, there is no way to know for sure) whispering in her ear?  And to be able to see the thing jump over to the young man and whisper in his ear?  And then to see the young man, a committed follower of Jesus Christ, say "No!" not just to the young woman, but to his own sinful desires, to the way most of the world operates, and to the evil spirit behind the whole thing?  That episode of reality TV could then go on to explore the implications of how the young man's life turned out.  It could show the impact of the sin (had he committed it) on his later life and on his family.  Would this sexual sin have opened the door to further infidelities?  Would it have been the first step on a course that would have eventually lead him down a path that would have resulted in dishonor to God and the life long emotional scaring of his wife and children?  Then the TV program could go on to record the way his life did turn out.  We'd be able to see the whole incident from God's point of view.

In some way God is going to acknowledge us and honor us for the good we do in this life.  The actually process by which He does this will probably be much cooler than either of the two ideas that I have suggested.

God is recording the fact that you are reading this blog right now.  He knows what else you could be doing with this time.  He knows how many millions of web sites there are and how you could, if you wanted to, be spending your time on something entertaining instead of trying to saturate your mind with His truth.  (Although I would like to think that some of my wilder ideas might also be at least a little bit entertaining.)  It's not wrong to read for entertainment on the web; I do it all the time.  But when you give that time to God instead of using it for something frivolous you are taking a small piece of your life and giving it to him like an offering.  He notices and He remembers.

Let me sum up by sharing with you the words of a morning prayer that I wrote.

Heavenly Father, it is my sincere desire to live for the praise of Your glory this day. 

I want to please You in everything I do. 

I want to do all my work for You. 

Make me ever mindful of the fact that You are keeping score and that seemingly insignificant actions will bring future rewards. 

Help me to understand that there are no insignificant actions - that the cameras are on and the film is rolling

My life is my ministry. 

Every day is a sermon.

Every human interaction is a witness. 

Every moment counts. 

What I said at Bob and Beth's wedding

Robert and Bethany, our hope for you is that in your marriage you will be able to live the dream.  D  R  E  A  M.  Dream.

D is for daring.

Dare to dream that you will be able to keep your wedding vows.

You are about to make a commitment to one another that includes the words “for better or for worse until death do us part.”  I’ve often wondered if some couples would be more honest if they were to promise “to have and to hold as long as you don’t get on my nerves too much, in which case I’ll drop you like a bad habit!”

Your wedding vows, the promises that you make to one another in the sight of God, are the foundation of your marriage.  By understanding what you are actually promising and making a whole hearted commitment to those vows you start off on the right path in your journey together.  By looking back on those vows and recommitting to them when the going gets tough you stay on course in your determination to live your lives according to the will of God.  Your wedding ring is a symbol of those sacred promises.  Every time you look at it or adjust it on your finger, may you be reminded of the sacred promises that you will make this day.  

As you dare to believe that you will keep your wedding promises, may you also … 

Dare to believe that you can keep the flame of romance alight.

Romance is like a fire; it will burn as long as it has fuel.  Most marriages don’t maintain an even heat when it comes to the fire of romance, and that’s okay.  To some extent it’s probably inevitable.   But when things begin to cool off, it’s up to somebody to get up and put some wood on that fire.

If you ever end up staying in a cabin in the winter where the only heat source is a wood fire in an old iron stove, along about 3:00 AM somebody is going to have to make a decision.  Do I stay in bed under the covers, where I’m actually quite warm, or do I get up and expose my body to the chill that is creeping into this room so that I can put some wood on the fire?  Do I sacrifice comfort now, or do I wait until the morning when I’ll have to get up in spite of the fact that it will probably be about 35 degrees in this cabin?  

 

Don’t think that marriage is the end of flirting and “putting the moves” on the other person.  If it’s getting a little chilly, get up out of that bed and throw some wood of the fire.  You’ve already learned how to capture each other’s hearts.  Don’t let those skills atrophy.  Continue in hot pursuit of one another.  Dare to dream that you can keep romantic love alive.  It takes a little work, but it’s certainly better than the alternative, which is emotional frostbite.

R is for being realistic

One thing I believe with all my heart:  you take Robert and add Bethany and you end up with something the world has never seen before and will never see again.  That’s not to say that you can’t learn from what others have experienced; you can.  But when you take two human personalities and mix them together there is a sense in which you are like a mad scientist mixing together two chemical compounds that have never been mixed together before.  It’s like Forest Gump’s box of chocolates.  You never know what you’re going to get.

The next few years may be among the happiest of your life, but they could also be some of the most challenging times you will ever face.  More than likely they will fall somewhere in the middle of that scale, but the fact of the matter is, no one knows exactly what will happen.

This is what we do know.  The materials you are mixing together are both wonderful and terrible.  You have two people born in the image of God and born again by the Spirit of God.  And that’s wonderful.  But you also have two sinners washed clean by the blood of Christ but not yet made perfect.  And therein lies the potential for difficulties.

If I might offer you some simple advice, I would suggest that you both go ahead and skip your first marriage and consider this your second marriage.  In a first marriage people have a tendency to love, not what they are marrying, but a collection of spare parts that they believe they can rearrange and reconstruct into a suitable spouse.  They are excited to be marrying this person, but of course, there are a number of changes that will need to be made.  And they honestly expect the other person to make all of these changes while the other person has their own little secret laundry list of improvements that they intend to make on the first person.

Five to six years later after a great deal of heart break and thousands of dollars in legal fees they are done with their first marriage and they then go on to marry the person that they will probably spend the rest of their life with.  Battle scarred and much wiser, they now realize that “what you see is what you are pretty much going to be stuck with” and they are much more willing to be realistic and accepting of the second person.

“What you see is pretty much what you are going to be stuck with.”  Yes, there will be some compromises along the way and you will change each other to some extent, but you have to be realistic.  And that’s just another way of saying that you have to be wise.  And now I think that it would be wise for us to go on to the letter “e.”

E is for enjoy

The apostle Paul tells us that “whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”  (Phil. 4:8)  And that would make a great motto for any marriage.

I told you a few minutes ago that there were wonderful ingredients about to be combined as you join your life together.  What Paul is telling you to do is to focus on those wonderful things and to remain focused on them.

I just got done telling you to be realistic.  Now I’m going to tell you to be realistically idealistic.  Most people will tell you to that you can’t keep the kind of feelings you are experiencing right now alive.  Most people will tell you that you can’t really keep the magic alive.  And most people would be wrong. 

Let me give you an example.  I’m going to get personal here.  This is what you get when you ask a family member to do the service.  You get personal fatherly advice mixed in with the sermon.  Thirty three years ago I asked a young woman to marry me and she said yes.  And this amazed me.  I’m an oddball.  I know this about myself.  And it was amazing to me that anyone would want to spend her life loving and living with me.  And it amazes me still.  I’ve never gotten over it because I’ve decided that I don’t want to get over it.  I’ve decided that I won’t take it for granted.  I focus on it.  I dwell on it.  

For as long as Bob can remember he’s been listening to me rant about his mother.  People who listen to me talk about my wife are fascinated when they finally get to meet her.  They keep checking out her back, expecting to see little bumps in her shirt where the angel wings are folded.

All these years I’ve been telling you something about your mom.  True things about your mom.  But I’ve also been showing you something about me.  I’ve been showing you what I have chosen to dwell on.  I’ve been demonstrating what Paul meant when he said “whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” 

There will be irritants and there will be disappointments.  The power of sin within and the example of the world around you will move you to dwell on the negative.  And you must not allow yourself to do that.  You must continue to keep at the forefront of your hearts and minds the things you are thinking and the thoughts you are feeling this day.  Your soul is like a garden and the positive things about your spouse, the things that made you fall in love in the first place, are the flowers that you must grown in that garden.  You must, as the apostle says, “dwell on these things.”

And let continue, for just a moment longer, to develop this whole idea of your soul being a garden.  You want the flowers of love to bloom there, but you must always be vigilant to keep the weeds out, and that leads us to the letter “a.”

A is for always forgive and forget

God is omniscient.  He knows everything.  How many grains of sand on this beach?  He knows.  How many sparrows are alive at this moment in North America?  He knows.  But there is one thing He has chosen not to know; there is one thing God has chosen to forget.  God refuses to remember any sin He has forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. 

If your soul is a garden then anger, bitterness, and resentment are the weeds; and since you are both imperfect people things will happen that will make those weeds grow – if you let them.  Those weeds will eventually strangle the flowers of love and leave you barren and empty inside.  And someday, in a season of testing and temptation, some dark spirit will be delighted to find all of that garbage in your soul, and he will know exactly how to use it as he attempts to destroy your marriage. 

So if you find yourself starting to dwell on some defect in your spouse, make yourself stop.  Pray for your spouse and then make yourself think of all the reasons why you choose to spend your life with that person in the first place.

Is it really possible to live this way?  Can you train your heart and mind to be like this?  Can your love, as it says in 1 Corinthians 13, really “keep no record of being wronged?”  Can you be like God and actually forgive and forget?

Yes.

You can do this and if you will do this you will find that this is nothing more or less than the gateway to joy.  

So let us boldly go through this gateway to joy for it is on the other side that we will find the letter “m.”  And “m” is a very happy letter indeed because it’s rather hot out here and I will soon have to stop because I am about to run out of letters!

M is for maintaining your walk with the Lord

If you want to keep your love alive, live as closely as you can with the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of love.  There can be no substitute for time spent in His presence, speaking to Him, listening for His voice, and meditating on His word.  These spiritual disciplines will continually renew and refresh the life force of God that dwells within you.  Communion with God is the path of blessing.  Never forget that, and never, ever stray from that path; and if you do this God will comfort you, strengthen you, guide you and bless you all the days of your life. 

Here are some photos from the wedding

Where do we think we're going? (Part 3)

It's almost time for our annual mountain expedition.  This year will mark our 24th Rocky Mountain Honeymoon.  We call them honeymoons because we spend these weeks "alone together."  It's just Nancy and me.  I have some of my favorite pictures from past trips up on my computer desktop at home.  When I see those pictures I often pause, if only for a moment, and allow myself to feel the same feelings I experience when I am in the mountains.  I can almost taste the mountain air.  It is also time for me to whip myself into shape.  I exercise year round, but in the next two months I will be exercising more than I usually do.  I'm also trying to drop some weight (down 16 pounds as of this morning).  You could almost say that Nancy and I live in anticipation for that annual Mountain Trip.  We daydream about it and we prepare for it.

One of the little insights that I have come up with is the thought that we are never more than twelve weeks away from a mountain vacation.  This is true even though we only go once a year, and the reason that this is so has to do with the way we are experiencing the passing of time as we age.  The longer you life, the faster time seems to pass.

When you are young, time seems to pass very slowly.  I can still remember a four week period of my life that lasted about four months.  I think I was in the 4th grade and the period of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas seemed to last forever.  It was like I was trapped in a time warp.  Time just refused to move! 

Now the holidays seem to come and go like a blur and a months seems to last as long as a week used to.  So I have decided to use this to my psychological advantage.  If a month seems like a week used to seem then my next mountain trip will never "feel" like it's more than twelve weeks away!

In the past two posts we have been exploring what the old time saints used to call being "heavenly minded."  You become "heavenly minded" when you begin to think about heaven in much the same way that Nancy and I think about the mountains.  We prepare for it, we daydream about it, and the longer we live the closer each trip seems to be.  So how can you prepare for your trip to heaven and the life to come so that you will find yourself daydreaming about it?

Obviously it begins with conversion.  You have to repent (give up on your own ideas about life and being to try to live the way Jesus wants you to live as best you can) and believe (that Jesus died to pay for your sins and that God the Father will forgive your sins and accept you into heaven if you believe).  That's the way you begin, but many Christians never move very much beyond that beginning.  If you want to take the next step you can't do better than reading Matthew 24:42-25:46.  In this passage Jesus is teaching us to live with the rewards of heaven constantly in view.  How can we actually do this?

At the beginning of each day we must pray to God for strength to live each day the way He wants us to live.  Throughout the dayAnd at the end of each day we must pause and ask ourselves if there way anything in the way we spent our time that day that was pleasing to God.  When you start to consciously live like this the results will amaze you.

Did you spend any time in prayer that day?  Did you talk to God at all?  God wrote that down in His book and He is planning to reward you for that (Matt. 6:6).  The same thing applies to reading the Scriptures, attending Christian meetings, or doing things like reading this blog.  You may have come to this blog today and started reading and thought to yourself, "Okay, he's actually not too boring today, so I guess I'll finish this."  And then you walk away and forget that you even read the thing; but God doesn't forget that you read it.  God doesn't forget one single time you spent reading His word or attending public worship.  Not one single time.  God doesn't forget one single act of kindness.  God doesn't forget one hour of work that you did for a paycheck if you also tried to do it as an act of worship toward Him.  In one of the most astonishing, life altering statements that you can ever read Jesus said that God will not forget it if you give someone a cup of water as an act of kindness (Matthew 10:42).  Everything you've ever done is being written down in a book in heaven (Revelation 20:12).  If you are a believer God keeps no permanent record of your sins but He maintains a permanent record of each and every thing you mange to get right.

So how will this all work out when we get to heaven?  What will God do with this information?  He will sit down in an interview with you and He will go over the good things that you did incident by incident.  And yes, that will take quite a bit of time.  It won't be a matter of minutes or hours.  This interview may last for months and maybe even for years.  And when the interview is over God will honor you for your service to Him in some way that will be very, very public and literally be everlasting.  I have no idea who won the 1943 world series, but I can promise you that your good deeds will never, ever be forgotten by God or by the saints and angels in heaven.

And so you begin to live with this new, revolutionary perspective.  You may be a little hit and miss at first, but as you continue on you will begin to get the hang of it.  I'll try and do things for Jesus today and at the end of the day I will spend a moment or two thinking about what I did right.  And the longer you live this way the more real heaven, and the heavenly reward will become.  You'll start to anticipate it.  You'll start daydreaming about it.  You'll begin to actually think and feel like a person with an everlasting life span.

When death comes to those you love (who are believers) it won't cut you so deeply.  You will begin to live with an everlasting perspective.  You will know that whatever time we have left down here is very, very short, and that you won't be separated from the ones you love for very long.  Months will begin to seem like weeks and years will begin to seem like months to you as you gain a more mature perspective on the passage of time.

And the longer you live this way, as your body ages, your heart will actually be moving in the opposite direction.  You will be young at heart.  Your body will begin to wind down; your physical energy will begin to diminish.  But your heart will sing with anticipation of that which is to come. 

Hello out there!

I've been blessed to have some readers from overseas.  I seem to be getting hits from Germany and Russia with some regularity.  But a week or so ago I got 443 page views of my blog from Russia -- all on the same day.  I figure that simply has to be a glitch in the software.


That being said, if you are a regular reader of this blog, and you are not on the e-mail update list (I send out e-mails letting people know I've posted new material) would you be willing to drop me a line and introduce yourself?  I'd love to know what you've found most helpful and I'd be very open to suggestions on what to write on in the future.


My e-mail is mac61107@gmail.com.  I'd love to hear from you.

Where do we think we're going? (Part 2)

As Christ followers mature in their faith they find they aren't satisfied with where they're at and they begin to focus on where they are going.  Part of being a mature Christian involves seeing something that most people never see and setting your heart on it.  Most of us will not see it with our eyes in this life but we can, and we must, see it with our hearts.  Once we've seen it will never be the same again. 

In Hebrews 11 we read that Abraham "lived as a alien in the land of promise … for he was looking for the city … whose architect and builder is God."  (vs. 9, 10)  We don't know exactly how or when it happened, but Abraham got some kind of a glimpse, some kind of a vision, and after that he was never completely satisfied with life on this planet and he was never completely at home here.  He knew there was a heavenly city.  He knew he was going to live there someday.  And that dream became the focus of His life.  This was in spite of the fact that Abraham was unbelievably wealthy by the standards of his time.  Abraham could buy anything he wanted.  For that matter, he could afford to buy a dozen of anything he wanted.  But somehow Abraham caught a glimpse of what was coming and after he had that vision nothing on earth could ever truly satisfy him again.

That same passage speaks of the people of God "seeking a country of their own."  "They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one."  (Hebrews 11:14)  So they journey on serenely, confident that God "has prepared a city for them."  (v. 16)  It is a perfect place full of perfected people.  Everyone who meets you loves you with a perfect love.  Everyone you meet will become your new best friend.  Every human interaction will be marked by kindness, consideration, and respect.

And the presence of God will be manifested in that place.  You will be able to go into the actual presence of God and gaze on Him.  He is the source of all beauty and all joy.  In His presence you will experience an overflowing joy so intense that it would overwhelm and burn out the body you are living in right now.  But in that place you will be able to experience God's love and joy like powerful drugs that will lift you into ecstasy beyond your comprehension without doing you the slightest bit of harm.

I have a friend who recently lost her father.  This is a tough time for her because her mother is also terminally ill.  But she managed to get some relief because God showed her something.  It only lasted for a moment, but she saw her dad in perfect health, just radiant and vibrant with life, walking up to the gates of that city that is now his home.

We're never going to understand life until we get some kind of a glimpse of life's goal.  This isn't something you can see with your physical eyes; it is something that God alone can reveal to the eyes of your heart.  Abraham saw something and it changed him.  It is my prayer that each of you, my dear readers, will see something, if only for a moment, that will change you for the rest of your life.

Where do we think we're going? (Part 1)

Spending time with cancer victims has led me to this conclusion:  the easiest way for me to die is the hardest for my family, and the hardest way for me to die is the easiest for my family.

When someone is battling cancer they usually suffer and if the illness is terminal by the time they are ready to die their family is usually ready to let them go.  Their loved ones don't want to see them suffer any longer.  On the other hand, if you get hit by a bus and die instantly, assuming you are going to heaven, that's a great way to go.  No hospital.  No suffering.  Maybe an instant of pain and bang!  You're standing over your dead body wondering what just happened.  And then you see the angel who's come to fetch you to your real home and suddenly everything becomes clear.  That's easy for you, but it comes as a terrible shock to the people who love you.

The point that I want to make is that if you mind is right, there really isn't that much difference between dying in a protracted struggle with cancer and getting hit with a bus.  In either case, your suffering is finally over.

Sometimes we are suffering and we don't even know it.   The only time in our lives when we were treated right was when we were babies.  All we had to do was show up and we were a big deal.  Everyone loved us.  Everyone was kind to us.

Then we got a little older and all of a sudden we weren't so special any more.  We weren't a big deal.  Adults were no as excited to see us.  Then we began to interact with other little kids and we found out what life was really life.  We got insulted.  Some of the cruelest things that were ever said to us were said to us by other children.  In some cases we got beat up.

Something inside of us began to tense up.  We couldn't truly relax around other people.  We had to keep up our defenses.  We never really loose that fear of being mocked and ridiculed.  Some of us won't go back to a high school reunion because we don't want to relieve the memories of the way we were treated and the things that were said to us.

And then you die, and if you are a Christian, you go back to being the way you were when you were a baby.  You are taken to this perfect place where everyone treats you like a VIP.  Everyone loves you.  No one will ever ridicule you or be mean to you ever again.  Complete strangers will love you just as much ore more than your mother loved you.  Everyone will be unfailingly kind to you.  And that part of your heart that is all tensed up, that has been tensed up since you were a little kid, will finally be able to relax and interacting with others will be a continuous joy to you.  Once you've spent some time in heaven an experienced the perfection of true, brotherly love, you wouldn't be willing to come back here for anything.

As delightful as your interaction with other humans will be, it will pale in comparison to the delight you will find as you spend time in the presence of God.  The Spirit of God will flow unhindered through your being like a spring breeze.  You will experience infinite love, perfect peace, and the fullness of joy.  You will look back at the happy times on earth and realize that the best thing about them was the absence of pain.  Your soul will, for the first time, be fully satisfied.   

You will look back on your earthly life and say, "I was always thirsty inside.  Sometimes I was less thirsty than at other times; I called those less thirsty times happiness.  But I was never really happy.  The very best that earthly life has to offer now has no appeal to me.  In the presence of God is the fullness of joy.  I would never want to go back to the emptiness and thirst of my earthly life."

So you're in the prime of life; you've got your health, a good job, and a good family; and all of a sudden you get hit by a bus.  And everyone says, "It's so sad.  He had so much to live for." 

But people who really understand life would say the same thing about that man that they would say about a man dying after a long struggle with cancer.  They would say, "Well, at least his sufferings are finally over." 

The identity of the Anitchrist

What we call the end times centers around a seven year period of time that is frequently referred to as the tribulation.  The Bible is crystal clear about the beginning of this seven year period; it starts when Antichrist signs a treaty with the state of Israel.  The state of Israel is already in existence, but what about the Antichrist?  As it turns out we have a great deal of information that should enable us to see the Antichrist coming.

This is a brief synopsis of what you should be looking for.  We are looking for a ten nation confederacy/alliance/empire to arise out of the old Roman Empire.  It will contain two different kinds of people.  One group will be a military powerhouse, kind of like Germany in WWII; the other group will consist of militarily weak nations, kind of like Italy in WWII.  If I had to guess the two groups are Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa and the "used to be Christian" nations of Western Europe.  Don't ask me which group will be the military powerhouse; right now the Europeans are more powerful, but only because they have better technology.  These two groups will not work well together and will require a great deal of diplomatic effort to maintain their relationship.  Scripture indicates that this alliance will be involved in a great deal of military activity.

Once this ten nation alliance is in place, at some point, three heads of state will be removed and a fourth person will emerge and take control of the ten nations.  If that person goes ahead and signs a treaty with Israel then you can pretty well take it to the bank that person is the Antichrist.  (If you are wondering where all this came from, see Daniel 2 and 7.  And please, keep in mind that probably 80% of Bible believing Bible teachers in North America would agree with my basic interpretation of those passages.)

How does the Rapture tie into all this?  The most popular interpretation says that the rapture will come very near to the beginning of the seven year period.  I personally believe that the Rapture will happen in the second half of the seven year treaty period, but doesn't affect my main point one way or the other.  If the rapture happens anywhere near the beginning of the treaty period it would just about require that we would be able to see the ten nation alliance in existence before the rapture actually happens.  With a pre-trib Rapture it is also possible that the we might still be here when Antichrist removes three heads of state and takes power.  If the Rapture comes after the beginning of the seven years, then boys and girls, the church will definitely be here to see Antichrist take power and sign that treaty.

Now some of you may be saying, "If what you say is true, and it 80% of evangelical Bible teachers would agree with it, why don't we hear more discussion about this ten nation alliance?"  The answer is not very flattering to the church.  If conditions were right, you would be hearing a great deal about the ten nation alliance.  Back in the 60's and 70's when the Common Market and then the European Union were coming together you heard about the ten nations all the time.  People would say things like "Israel is in place and Antichrist's kingdom is being formed.  The end is very near!"  But then the European Union got larger than ten nations and the focus shifted away from the ten nations.  Here is the thing:  what I've shared with you, what I've told you to look for, isn't something that is "hot" right now.  I can't write a book on this and sell a million copies.  I can't make people's pulse race and have pastors waiting in line for me to come speak at their church.  But even though it's not "hot," it's still pretty standard Biblical interpretation at the present time.

Waiting for a ten nation alliance isn't very exciting, but wars and natural disasters are very exciting (as long as you don't have to live through them).  Jesus spoke of these signs at the beginning of Matthew 24, and whenever we get a new crop of wars or natural disasters someone writes a book and explains that the coming of Jesus is right around the corner.  The only problem with this is that people have been making these claims for 2,000 years and for 2,000 years they have been wrong.  This doesn't mean that Matthew 24 is wrong, it means that we need some kind of a guide that will help us to understand which wars and natural disasters Jesus is referring to so that we don't go off the deep end every time a calamity happens.  And the book of Daniel gives us that key.

If you read a little farther in Matthew 24 you will find that Jesus references events from the book of Daniel!  The people he was teaching were familiar with the book of Daniel.  So they took the information about the wars and the natural disasters and incorporated it into what they already knew.  And they knew about the ten kings.  They knew about three kings being removed from power.  And they knew that the man who would take over that alliance would be the Antichrist.

Let me close with this.  There was a man named Irenaeus.  He was the Bishop of Lyon around 180 A.D.  He was originally trained by a man named Polycarp.  And Polycarp was trained by (drum roll please) the Apostle John.  Irenaeus lived at a time when the Roman Empire was intact.  So what was he looking for as he waited for the second coming?  Here is my paraphrase.

"In the last days the Roman Empire will be divided up among ten kings.  The Antichrist will kill three of these kings and rule over the other seven."  (From "Against Heresies," Book Five, Chapter 26.)

Why is it important that we remain clear on these issues?  Once upon a time there was a man who went off to fight in a great war.  One of the enemy rulers was a man named Mussolini.  Mussolini was the dictator of Italy and he was bragging that he was recreating the Roman Empire.  So the man going off to war had the whole thing explained to him by a preacher.  Mussolini was the Antichrist and the end of the world was very, very near.  That man was part of a bomber crew that was shot out of the sky on it's third mission.  The man parachuted to safety and was put in a POW camp where he met a minister and became a born again Christian.  That man is my father.  He's in his late 80's now and we don't discuss complex subjects like Bible prophecy, but back in the day we did have a little talk about the subject.  Dad understood that the man who had taught him had made some major mistakes, but he didn't confuse a man making mistakes about what the Bible says with the Bible having mistakes in it.  Not everyone is that wise. 

I wonder about the other guys who listened to that preacher (and there were a whole lot of preachers giving that same message back in those days).  Did any of them come to the conclusion that the Bible is full of bunk when the news reached them that Mussolini had been hanged by his own people?

If we live long enough strange and maybe even terrible things will happen.  They always do.  And when they do people are going to be asking themselves, is this the end?  And you'll be able to explain it to them and maybe, just maybe, keep an irresponsible brother (who may or may not be a famous preacher/author) from damaging precious souls with false information.  A ten nation alliance; three rulers removed from power; the guy who removes them from power takes over and signs a treaty with Israel.  If you are alive at that point you might want to stop making deposits in your retirement savings plan.