Is the time for warning people to prepare for what is ahead coming to an end? For years, bold men and women all over America have been sounding the alarm and warning people to get prepared physically, financially, mentally, emotionally and spiritually for the great storm that is rapidly approaching. Personally, I have written more than 2,500 articles on my primary two websites combined, and so nobody can accuse me of not blowing the trumpet. It has gotten to the point that sometimes I am even tired of listening to myself warn the people. But now we are shifting into a new phase.
The other day I was reflecting on some of the things that I have been hearing lately. Sales of emergency food and supplies are way down across the entire industry. Many organizations and websites that have been instrumental in sounding the alarm for a long time are really struggling right now. On my websites, traffic has hit a bit of a plateau after experiencing a tremendous surge late last year. Overall, “prepping” was very hot just a few years ago, and at one time it was estimated that there were approximately three million “preppers” in the United States. But these days there seems to be a tremendous amount of apathy out there.
As I reflected on all of this, I came to one inescapable conclusion.
Those that wanted to get prepared have already gotten prepared by now, and those that did not want to get prepared are not likely to do so any time soon.
I personally know a lot of people that are very, very prepared and have been for a long time. Yes, there is still a small minority of people out there that only recently woke up and started prepping, but overall most of the preparation that people wanted to do has already been completed. And for those that have not done anything to prepare, you could argue with them until the moon turns to cheese and they still won’t take any action.
At this point the die has been cast. Most of those that felt that they should prepare have already prepared. Most of those that felt that they should repent have already repented. Most of those that felt that they should warn America have already sounded the alarm.
So now all that is left is to wait for the shaking to begin.
In looking back at what has transpired over the last several years, I think that it would be appropriate to say something about the failure of the church in America.
You see, if the churches of America were doing their job, all of the “watchmen” out there would not even be needed. Our voices would simply be lost in a chorus of thousands upon thousands of pastors, teachers, ministers and evangelists boldly warning people about what is coming to this nation.
But instead, there is just deafening silence coming from most of the mainstream churches.
The sad thing is that many, many church leaders understand very clearly what is coming, but they have purposely chosen not to warn the people. Some time ago, George Barna conducted a study that looked into why our churches are not addressing the key issues of the day, and what he discovered was absolutely astounding…
“‘What we’re finding is that when we ask them about all the key issues of the day, [90 percent of them are] telling us, ‘Yes, the Bible speaks to every one of these issues,” he explained. “Then we ask them: ‘Well, are you teaching your people what the Bible says about those issues?’ and the numbers drop…to less than 10 percent of pastors who say they will speak to it.”
Most churches in America don’t want to talk about the hard things, because they desperately want to make people feel comfortable. They want to entertain people and make them happy so that they will come back week after week and drop their money into the offering plate.
When it comes to defining success as a church, Barna found that there were five primary factors that were important to the majority of pastors, and none of them had anything to do with repentance and salvation through Jesus Christ…
“There are five factors that the vast majority of pastors turn to,” he outlined. “Attendance, giving, number of programs, number of staff, and square footage.”
Sadly, most Christians in America actually prefer these lukewarm churches, and the Apostle Paul warned that these times were coming nearly 2000 years ago. The following is what 2 Timothy 4:3-4 says in the Modern English Version…
3 For the time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine, but they will gather to themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, having itching ears, 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn to myths.
You may not want to hear this, but the majority of churches in America have already gone apostate, and that is the truth.
We are slowly but surely losing an entire generation of Americans, and yet our dead and dying churches just continue to slumber. I shared the following numbers in a previous article, but they bear repeating. The following comes directly out of a Pew Research Center report…
Millennials – especially the youngest Millennials, who have entered adulthood since the first Landscape Study was conducted – are far less religious than their elders. For example, only 27% of Millennials say they attend religious services on a weekly basis, compared with 51% of adults in the Silent generation. Four-in-ten of the youngest Millennials say they pray every day, compared with six-in-ten Baby Boomers and two-thirds of members of the Silent generation. Only about half of Millennials say they believe in God with absolute certainty, compared with seven-in-ten Americans in the Silent and Baby Boom cohorts. And only about four-in-ten Millennials say religion is very important in their lives, compared with more than half in the older generational cohorts.
Those numbers are absolutely horrifying. Yes, there are still a few really good churches scattered across the country. But overall, the church in America is in really sorry shape, and the numbers don’t lie. Christianity is in rapid decline in the United States, and somebody better wake up and start doing something about it.
Over the years, I can’t tell you how many dead churches that I have sat in. That is why it is so refreshing when I actually find one where the gospel is preached and where people truly love one another. I have had the privilege of sharing my message in such a church in recent months, and I wish that there were a lot more of them out there.
Unfortunately, most ministers in America are really busy doing things other than what they should be doing. For instance, have you ever heard of “clergy response teams”? If you can believe it, the government has actually recruited ministers to help the population accept martial law when it is declared someday. The following comes from KSLA News…
Could martial law ever become a reality in America? Some fear any nuclear, biological or chemical attack on U.S. soil might trigger just that. KSLA News 12 has discovered that the clergy would help the government with potentially their biggest problem: Us.
Can you believe that?
Here is more from the report…
Such clergy response teams would walk a tight-rope during martial law between the demands of the government on the one side, versus the wishes of the public on the other. “In a lot of cases, these clergy would already be known in the neighborhoods in which they’re helping to diffuse that situation,” assured Sandy Davis. He serves as the director of the Caddo-Bossier Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
For the clergy team, one of the biggest tools that they will have in helping calm the public down or to obey the law is the bible itself, specifically Romans 13. Dr. Tuberville elaborated, “because the government’s established by the Lord, you know. And, that’s what we believe in the Christian faith. That’s what’s stated in the scripture.”
I don’t know about you, but I found that article to be extremely chilling.
But this is the state of things in America today. We have a dead church that is stuffed to the gills with dead ministers, and the people are not being told the truth about the great shaking that is coming to America.
And when the great shaking comes, there will be multitudes of these dead churches and ministries that will go under and never rise again.
Meanwhile, God will be raising up a Remnant, and that Remnant is going to shake the world.
We can either keep beating our heads against the wall or keep preaching to the choir all we want. Like you said, many of us get it and have our Bibles and our provisions close at hand and are waiting for the day when we all of our toil and warnings come to fruition. For those who don’t get it by now I would chalk them up to just being out of luck. Either we can bring them into our fold and protect them in their hour of need or lock them out and allow fate to intercede. I have always been one to prescribe to the doctrine, let others do as they will and leave me to do as I will. Live and let live. Just like in Psychology, we cannot force people to listen, we cannot force people to change, we cannot force people to share in our mindset or our principles, values, beliefs, morals, or ethics. Just as in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for those who refused to listen to the warnings that the cities would be destroyed by God for those who stayed behind they got what was coming. The same could be said for those in Noah’s time. Look what happened when he first began building the ark. They laughed at him then and they were still laughing as he was rounding up the animals and the rains began to fall, they were still laughing. It wasn’t until the houses and villages started getting swept away that they finally realized he was right and they were wrong. We can only point out the warning signs, sound the alarm, and take to the hills, if no one wants to listen, or join us. Why should we continue to beat our heads against the wall, wear out our vocal chords, or cause more blisters on our fingertips from the keys on our computer keyboards. The time to get it together is over. By now we should know what to expect and have everything we need and know what to do when the time comes. Now is the time we should keep OUR eyes and ears open and OUR stuff close by. As for everyone else, as far as I’m concerned, leave them to their own devices. They had their chance and if they blew it well that’s not on the rest of us.