This wicked world is reeling and stumbling like a drunken man. There is such violence, wickedness, and outright demonic activity, that there is no safety or peace to be found anywhere on earth—yet.

The inhabitants of this world are rapidly approaching (if we are not already there) the depth of depravity which characterized the days of Noah and Lot; those days were so evil that they demanded a direct intervention of judgment from God to put an end to the rebellion and wickedness characterized by them.

Today, in our supposedly “civilized” world, babies and children are being tortured, brutalized, and slaughtered in ways so horrific that rational human beings cannot even begin to fathom. Children in schools are having their faith and belief systems systematically dismantled, replaced with a rabid demonically inspired, humanistic form of Marxist globalism that hates, despises and blasphemes our Creator.

The remnant Church worldwide is being persecuted as never before in her history. The long tentacles of persecution are even enveloping the Church here in the United States. Persecution in America is ramping up and will only continue to intensify the longer that Jesus tarries His return.

No, in no way, shape, or form is there anything even remotely approaching “peace on earth”—yet.

Still, over 170 times throughout the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation, our Lord tells those of us who belong to Him to “fear not.” Why does He say that when it is obvious that genuine “peace and safety” is more impossible today than it has been ever before?

Where is the possibility of peace when we are watching the last vestiges of both civilization and civility die right before our eyes? How can there NOT be in fear when lies have become exalted above truth; violence is glorified above justice, and when insanity rather than reason are infiltrating every aspect of global society and culture?

How can there possibly be peace in a world that is hurtling at warp speed straight into the yawning jaws of hell? How can there be peace in this cesspool of depravity?

I will tell you, peace—like truth, is not some nebulous ideal. No, peace has its fountainhead—its origin in one Person.

All of our superlative ideals (truth, justice, mercy, love, peace, honor etc), ALL of these ideals to which humanity aspires, but of which humanity always falls so woefully short have their fountainhead in the Word who “became flesh” and “dwelt among us” (John 1:14).

Each one of these virtues is fulfilled completely in Jesus Christ—our Immanuel—our “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).

“Only in Christ Jesus can anyone find the “peace that passes understanding” (Philippians 4:7). Only in Christ Jesus can the “crooked paths be made straight.” Only in Him can we find “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Only in Him will we find the grace that is sufficient for any need—any travail, any adversity that may come our way. And only in Him, will we find “rest unto our souls.”

Here, in Christ, is where true peace lies—under the blood of the Lamb of God who was incarnated in human flesh, who died with the sins of the entire world being poured out upon Him who knew no sin, in order to—by His death, cancel the debt of sin for ANYONE who is willing to call upon His name in faith, believing that Jesus Christ alone is the only One who can redeem fallen mankind.

And believing that this same Jesus was raised bodily from the tomb three days later and is alive forevermore, and ALL who will call upon Him will have complete forgiveness of ALL their sins (past present, and future) and will gain ETERNAL life (John 3:16-17).

Therein lies the peace of the redeemed. It is in this gospel of redemption where true peace lies. It is in understanding that regardless of our personal circumstances, there lies within the very core of every believer, a Peace— a “joy unspeakable and full of glory” that transcends circumstance, transcends pain, transcends any earthly torment that the enemy of our souls can hurl toward us.

And yet, God’s Word is specific that there will be “peace on EARTH; goodwill towards men” (Luke 2:14).

The angels themselves, as emissaries of the Most High God, announced this coming peace to the world on the very night that the Son of God was born into this world inhabiting the body of a human infant. This Proclamation of Peace was made over 2000 years ago, and still there is no peace on earth—yet.

You see, there is no peace on earth as yet, because the story isn’t over! The great plan of God for the ages is not yet finished.

The promise of a Redeemer that God promised a destitute and fallen Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden; that “scarlet thread” of a “sacrificial lamb” whose coming would “take away” the sins of the world—that coming eternal sacrifice, was FORESHADOWED throughout millennia by the bleeding bodies of lambs, bullocks, goats, and doves as they lay quivering and bleeding on Hebrew altars, giving to the world a visual object lesson that there can be NO forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood (Hebrews 8:22).

These sacrifices of innocent animals foretold of the coming time when God the Son would wrap Himself in human flesh so that HE could come to bleed and die—to become the PERFECT sacrifice of which all others were but foreshadows, in order to redeem His own fallen creation from an eternal hell which Adam’s (and through him all mankind’s) rebellion demanded. This is the WHY of redemption.

Without the death, burial, and resurrection of the God of Glory, fallen mankind would have been eternally lost without hope, and peace would have been forever out of his reach.

God’s great plan of the ages, was revealed in the Garden of Eden. This “scarlet thread” of redemption and salvation wound its way from that very first promise of redemption given in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15). It wove from Eden to Bethlehem, where in the “fullness of time,” Jesus (God the Son) was incarnated and born in the flesh to become our Redeemer.

This “scarlet thread,” led on from the manger to the cross, where the sin debt for “whosoever will” was paid in full by Jesus who offered Himself as the spotless Lamb of God, to be sacrificed for the sins of the world (John 1:29). It led to the empty tomb where Christ arose bodily from the embrace of death, victorious—having conquered forever sin, death, the grave and Satan, that serpent of old—the deceiver of mankind.

It lead to the mountain, where the resurrected Christ in His immortal body ascended back to the Father; where He now waits, seated at the right hand of the Father, awaiting the time when His “bride” —the Church, will be complete; after which He will step into our atmosphere and with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, will call for the “dead in Christ” to ARISE from the grave. And then for those who are alive who are part of His beloved Church, His shout will reverberate throughout the heavens for us to ‘Come Up HERE!” (Revelation 4:1) where we will “meet Him in the air” ( 1 Thessalonians 4:17), where we will be with Him forever.

You see, we are in the waiting period before His millennial kingdom begins. We are living in the closing stages of this wicked, rebellious, unrepentant, sin-saturated world system.

Before “peace on earth” can reign, there must first be a cleansing of sin from this planet. The Bible tells us in Romans chapter 8 verses 22-23, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travail in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, and waiting for the adoption, and the REDEMPTION OF OUR BODY.”

This is speaking of the day of the Resurrection/Rapture; that day when we will exchange these mortal bodies for immortal ones. The time of judgment that is quickly coming upon a fallen world in order to cleanse it from all wicked, rebellious, God-hating people, and to cleanse the earth from the effects of sin; to prepare, renovate and restore this sin warped earth for the return of its rightful King and for His ensuing kingdom.

We are living on the very cusp of the coming time when “the kingdoms of this world (will) become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and HE shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:14).

Oh my beloved brethren, this soon coming time is when the proclamation of “Peace on earth, goodwill toward men” will become a reality; a reality that will last forever, for “of HIS kingdom there will be NO end” (Luke 1:33).

There ALREADY IS “peace that passes understanding” and “joy unspeakable” in the hearts of those within whom the Holy Spirit dwells.

The Prince of Peace already reigns within those whom He has saved from the “wages of sin” and who have been gifted with eternal life (Romans 6:23).

But one day, VERY SOON, this same Jesus who was born in a manger, is coming back to the earth that He created. This time, He is not coming as a helpless baby “born for to die,” but as the roaring, conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

He is coming to end wickedness upon this earth—to show Himself as Messiah to the remnant of the house of Israel; to rescue His people, the Jews, from an otherwise certain annihilation. And finally, He is returning (this time followed by His already rescued and glorified Bride) in order to set up His kingdom here on a renovated and sin cleansed world—to establish PEACE.

Beloved friends, that time is almost here! The Prince of Peace is coming. First FOR His Church, then seven years later, WITH His Church.

Rejoice and make yourselves ready, for the King of Glory is coming! And with Him, He is bringing PEACE.

The world in which we live has gone spiraling out of control. Every day (sometimes multiple times a day) there is a new tragedy unfolding, whether it is from natural disasters, or more and more frequently, from violence and bloodshed caused by Man himself.

We here in America have largely been spared the violence perpetrated upon our citizenry by fanatical persons or groups, but that is rapidly changing as we suffer more and more violence loosed upon our shores and within our own neighborhoods. During times of crises whether personal, national, or global, the human heart has always cried out with gut wrenching pain and pathos, “WHY GOD, WHY?”

Those of us who know the Lord and are known by Him as His children, must be able to give an answer to a lost, frightened, and hurting world. We will not, of course, be able to give a specific answer to each specific tragedy that occurs, for we can never know or comprehend the infinite mind of our holy Creator.

But we who know and belong to the living God do have answers that the lost and dying desperately need to hear. We have been given access to the source of wisdom and discernment through God’s own Word to us—the Bible, and we should and must point the lost, the confused, the hurting, and the weary to the God of Glory who has revealed Himself, His plan, and the destiny of all creation. Those answers are to be found within the pages of His written Word.

This is the reason that we must, at all cost, return to the biblical study of sound doctrine; for therein lies the truth that so many are seeking and that so few are finding in the failing times in which we live. There, within the pages of Holy Scripture, lies the answers to the great cries of “WHY.”

We are told by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in 1 Peter 3:15 that we are to “be ready ALWAYS] to give an answer to every man that asks a REASON for the hope that is in you [us].”

We are expected to be equipped enough to be able to go to the Scriptures and expound from them answers that give hope to those who are in such desperate need. We, as modern Christians are so lacking in our own command and understanding of scripture that we are not able to give reasoned answers.

For the vast majority, the modern church has made and fashioned an “image’ of God that is nothing more than a touchy-feely, happy-talk god who bears no resemblance to the real God of Glory. This “god” is nothing more than a false, imaginary “god” with no more power or reality than a clay figurine.

So what do we say to those who are genuinely hurting; what comfort do we give to the broken, the angry, the confused, the hurting, the frightened, and the lost? Do we give them platitudes? Do we give them only half-truths, or worse, do we just slink away and give them no answers at all because we ourselves do not really have enough grounding in sound doctrine to answer them back?

If this is how we respond, then shame on us! We can and must become better equipped to minister than this! So then, what do we say to “WHY?”

First of all, we point them to the person of God who reveals Himself as the SOVEREIGN LORD—the One who not only created everything (Genesis 1:1; John 1), but the One who has destined and planned the “” from the beginning” (Isaiah 46:9-11).

We tell of His sovereignty—that there is NOTHING that happens that takes Him by surprise, and that He is in complete control of all things; that it is He who is bringing all things to a conclusion that He not only foreknew and planned, but that He revealed in all of history (past and future) to ALL who are willing to study His Word. He is the sovereign God who has let all of humanity “in” on His plans for time and eternity!

Next, we distinguish that this same God who made everything and pronounced it “very good,” did so ALREADY KNOWING that His prized and greatly loved creation “made in His image” would rebel and betray Him. And, knowing this fact from before He ever spoke the first particle of matter into existence, He (God the Father) had already purposed to send Jesus (God the Son) to die to bring redemption to fallen mankind; in order that He (Jesus Christ) might pay the penalty for the sins of all of the descendants of Adam’s race, so that “all who (will) call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

He did this because “ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), for there is “none righteous, no not one” (Romans 3:10). First, we must explain that bad things happen because “all have sinned.” This fallen nature that infects all of mankind is the result of sin. Sin brought about the death of all things. Everything in the created universe is degenerating as a result of sin, and sin exists because of a rebellious heart.

We further explain that the BAD NEWS is that as the human drama unfolds, Jesus, unlike the leader or god of any other religion, was HONEST and told us exactly what will occur as human history draws to a close and WHY it is happening. He never “sugar coats” or mitigates the destruction and havoc that sin has caused and still causes.

In addition, God warned us about “perilous times” in which we live today. He told us exactly what the attitudes and actions of man would be like in the closing days of human history. He warned all believers of what our treatment would be during these “perilous times” just prior to His return; first for His Church in the Rapture, and finally as the conquering King at the Second Coming (John 16:33; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; 1 John 3:13).

Finally, after bringing those who are hurting and/or angry face to face with the bad news, we give them the GOOD NEWS—the REASON for the hope that is in us! It is this: “For God SO LOVED the world that He gave His only begotten Son. That WHOSOEVER believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

The answer to “WHY” is because of SIN. Sin corrupts, sin kills, sin destroys, sin perverts, sin damns! But God is sovereign, holy, just, merciful—not willing that any should perish (eternally), because God IS LOVE!

Sometimes He steps in and supernaturally protects and delivers, and sometimes He allows the results of sin to run its course in order to: Draw the lost to Him so that they may be spared an eternity in hell, or grow the believer in grace, to mold us, fashion us, to be more like Him. ( He who suffered so much on our behalf, not just in His physical body, but in His holiness by bearing our sins and paying our sin debt.)

Remember the story of Mary, Martha and Lazarus? What looked like callousness on the part of Jesus was actually a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate to ALL—those who loved and followed Him and those who did not, that He (Jesus) really IS “the resurrection and the life!”

We are finite creatures. We cannot help but see things from our limited points of view, but God is infinite. He is beyond and outside of time and space, and His ways are far above our understanding.

Sin caused death, decay, and destruction. This cosmos, including our world and all that is in it, is hurtling toward the termination point.

Satan and all the hurt, death and destruction he has caused WILL be judged. Sin WILL be dealt the final blow, and death (the final enemy) WILL be swallowed up in victory for ALL who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.

This world is dying. This is why bad things are multiplying in scope and severity. God’s Word has told us what happened to His perfect creation; SIN polluted everything.

Sin occurred because of man’s rebellious heart. God told us in His Word what He did to redeem Adam’s fallen race. He sent His Son to pay the debt of sin that no man could ever pay. He told us what DID happen, what IS happening and what WILL happen in the near future.

Justice is coming. It may seem to be coming slowly, but that is because “God is not willing that ANY should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance.” Yet, in our anguish and our grief, let us not overlook the blessed peace of God’s infinite mercy and His boundless grace demonstrated so lovingly by this: “In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the unjust.”

The grace of God, extended to all who will accept it, is the HOPE that sustains us! And for all, who of their own free will reject this gift of grace so freely offered, then there is a coming judgment that is certain.

Let us cry out loud from now until Jesus calls us home, the good news of the free pardon of grace that saves sinners and breaks the chains of sin forever. There is a new world coming! Proclaim this to the world. May God bless us and equip us to answer a sin sick world when it asks “WHY” by pointing them to the only One who IS the answer—Jesus Christ.

alice.joan.childs@gmail.com