End Times Signs of Society

As Tim said, the Signs of Society are particularly heartbreaking because we can see them happening all around us. They bear testimony to the breakdown of our own society as it rushes headlong toward a post-Christian, secular future.

Tim Moore: Nathan and I will drill down on the rapid decline in morality and the abandonment of objective truth throughout Western culture. But, there is hope even in the midst of this painful assessment of where we are today. We’ll get to that in just a minute, but let’s return to Romans chapter 1 to understand what Paul warned would happen as individuals and societies turn away from God. Nathan, what did Paul have to say?

Nathan Jones: Well, if you want to go to any chapter that really explains well, there are two that we will bring up in this program, but the first one is Romans 1, it is the go to understanding the signs of society. Why is society degrading, and what is the cause? And you can go, I’ll start in verse 18, I’ll got back a bit, it says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against…” Who? “…the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,…” Why? “…they suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” So, a sign of a failing society is they suppress the truth. “Because what may be known of God is manifest to them,” in other words general revelation, “for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. They neither acknowledge God, nor did they glorify Him, nor were they thankful.” So the result is what? “They are futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

So, that is the very first step of a society that is leaving its Judea Christian roots, or falling into a collapse, falling into degradation you could say, is the first thing they do is they see the signs of creation that if they do not recognize God there has to be an Architect, there’s got to be a Designer. They say, “no,” we just came about through Evolution and time, and mutations and things like that, they deny there is a Creator. So, the Bible says that their foolish hearts become darkened, and that is the first step on the downward decline of a society.

Tim Moore: It sure is. As a matter of fact it goes on to say, “that professing to be wise they become fools.” And certainly our society gloats in its wisdom, and its technological advancement, and yet we are becoming more and more foolish day by day. We are exchanging the glory of God and the revealed revelation of Scripture in the person of Jesus Christ to follow after all sorts of secular false gods, and really idols. And that’s why it says in verse 24, “Therefore God gave them,” these people who reject Him, “over to the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.” And surely we’ve seen that in a plethora of sexual, I guess, unleashed sexual promiscuity throughout the 60s, 70s, even through this day and God has given our society over to all sorts of degradation.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, you can go back probably to the 20s with the Scopes Monkey Trial, as Evolution started getting a foothold into the school systems and it started edging out Christianity and the Bible. We saw the reading of the Word disappear, I believe it was the late 50’s early 60’s. The end of the Pledge of the Allegiance in my time growing up, and other things. And so, when they became foolish, and they denied there is a God you brought up a great point, the second step toward the fall of decline is sexual promiscuity. You live for sexuality. Your laws are about trying to protect you to be able to have sex with whatever, and whomever, and wherever without any consequences whatsoever. And I think there is a great passage we will get to that in 2 Peter.

But it’s interesting too that once the sexual revolution happens, then it goes to the third step downward, and that is where we read in verse 26 is that we move from regular sexuality to perverse sexuality. “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another,” and it say so things, and so on. So, God gave them, it’s interesting God gave them over to a debase mind to do the things which are not fitting.

And it goes on to say society then becomes represented by, “unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; envy, murder, deceit, strife, evil-mindedness; whisperers, backstabbers, haters of God,” it goes on and on and on. But I think we’ve seen, especially I remember in the 90s when homosexuality really started taking off Ellen DeGeneres kind of popularized it, and then society embraced it. But just as you know in the last ten years, we’ve gone from acceptance of homosexuality down to we are now to the point that we are even seeing advocacy for pedophile.

Tim Moore: Yeah, it is being celebrated to the point of our country, our national government is advocating that other nations embrace the same endorsement of, and celebration of homosexuality that our culture and society has. You know you mentioned, I’m going to back up one second, about the trajectory of prayer and other things being removed from the schools, the society rejecting God. There was also a perfect storm even in some of the other medical advancements. So, when our society developed, and started using the pill it gave a freedom for unfettered sexual exploration outside of marriage. And of course then we had no-fault divorce, we don’t want anybody to be held to a godly, ordained relationship of marriage. So it just threw off the fetters, in the language of Psalm 2 and all the rest of the promiscuity followed on. And in terms of homosexuality it got to the point that even with the AIDS and HIV epidemic back several years ago, you couldn’t tie that to homosexuality even though all the evidence pointed that way. And we are seeing that again with the outbreak of this so called Monkey Pox which is demonstrably tied to homosexual activity, and yet you can’t even call it for what it is because that might cast a cloud on that kind of behavior. And so, we’ve just turned everything upside down. And yet, that was not the end.

Nathan Jones: You just killed the video on YouTube, we are going to be banned now for you just saying that. I mean we are at this time where good and evil are as Isaiah 5:20, is that people call good evil and evil good. I think too if you go back to the early 20th Century when Evolution was accepted, God was pushed aside, and you saw God pulled out of the family. Well, Satan always attacks the family. So, he went after the nuclear family through sexual promiscuity. So, in my generation, your generation growing up in the 70s and 80s then we were growing up in a vast amount of divorces. And with the divorces you’ve got children who are growing up without the solid family unit, and they became more family with their friends, and their friends of course being kids are bad influences.

Tim Moore: We called them latch key children when I was a kid.

Nathan Jones: Yeah I was one.

Tim Moore: Kids that came home there was nobody at home. They raised themselves to a degree during the daytime and got into more trouble, I would argue, than kids in previous generations.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, I’ve always had strong parents, but they worked and so you had to let yourself in and all, and you could do, hopefully I didn’t, but the kids would get in trouble. But then when they started growing up, and you got into the 90s and the college scene, sexual practicing, which is big in college, started going into more and more things. Well, now Generation Z, our children’s generation is being called the queerest generation in American history. They’ve left just sexual promiscuity and they’ve gone into full blown polyamory, and homosexuality. And we’re not harking on the sin per se, but we are seeing that the Romans 1 pattern is based on this fall. And what is interesting is that every time that people respond and society falls, God takes a step back, and remember the verse says He leaves them to a debased mind. So, He allows the society to fall apart. That is a certain type of wrath.

Tim Moore: It certainly is a certain type of wrath.

Nathan Jones: Abandonment wrath.

Tim Moore: It’s abandonment wrath. And the other thing we could point to even with the breakdown of the nuclear family, our own government at one time undermined the idea of having both a mother and a father there present with children, and so they would provide different payouts to women who would not be married. And so, it led to continuing and increasing breakdown of the family. To the point that now many in our culture scoff at men, they call it all aggressive masculinity.

Nathan Jones: Toxic.

Tim Moore: Toxic. Yeah, toxic masculinity. To the point that men themselves, by in large in our society, have been emasculated. I mean I get mailings in the mail with advertisements and it shows men that look more like women then men advertising makeup of all things these days. And so, just as you indicated the last giving over is in chapter 1:28 when it said, “because they didn’t even acknowledge God anymore, He gave them over to a depraved mind.” And boy, you talk about a depraved mind, we have a new Supreme Court Justice who can’t even define what the word woman means. And others in our society who like to advocate that men can give birth, and women can father children, this is crazy. It is an absolutely depraved mind that our society is celebrating.

Nathan Jones: We’ve gone a long ways from that Murphy Brown incident, remember with Dan Quayle? Where he spoke out against single motherhood, and society just ripped him, and called him stupid. And now we’ve got a society today that basically says you don’t need your parents, or you should celebrated—the military has a recruitment video that celebrates same-sex parents for recruiting.

This all goes to 2 Timothy 3:1-5 which is a prophecy about the end time culture, not just in the United States side, but the global culture is degrading. Homosexuality and perversion, that third step in the Roman’s process has captured the entire world. Even Israel, you go to Israel and Tel Aviv is the homosexual capital. But it says, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be…” What? “…lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.”

So, what we’ve got here we have the love of self, which is Humanism. We have the love of money, which is Materialism. And then we have the love of pleasure, which is Hedonism. And when those three dominate your life what do you have? You have apathy. You have this desire that life is worthless. And we’ve seen our suicide rates skyrocket.

Tim Moore: You have nihilism which is basically a giving over to absolute depression and despondency, and that is happening as you said in droves, especially in younger generations who should be optimistic about what the future holds, but they aren’t overwhelmingly. They see absolute despair lying ahead of them. So, we’ve talked about the unfettered sexual licentiousness, the flagrant homosexuality, even to the point of, this galls my spirit, I know it has to offend a Holy God, the LGBTQ++ movement today.

Nathan Jones: There’s always a new letter.

Tim Moore: Yeah, there is always a new letter, they’ll get the whole alphabet eventually, but they’ve taken the rainbow, which is a symbol of God’s promise that He would never again destroy the earth, that is a holy symbol and they’ve appropriated it to be a symbol of abomination. And if you see a rainbow today on a flag you don’t think of Noah’s Ark you think of the LGBTQ agenda. We have confusion over basic truths, as I said. An epidemic of divorce.

The other thing that is happening in our country is people escaping through mind-numbing drug use, whether it is prescribed, frankly, or so called recreational. And many, many states are legalizing drugs that in the past were recognized as abhorrent to the functioning of our society.

We’ve seen the abomination of millions of babies being aborted in their mother’s wombs. Churches that would claim to honor Christ that now denigrate His Word, deny His deity, and national leaders who flaunt deceitfulness and sin. And boy, have we got an epidemic of that at every level of government.

Nathan Jones: You said it. This reminds me of Matthew 24:12, “And because lawlessness will abound,” and we’ve seen this especially in 2020 with the whole pandemic lawlessness, “the love of many will grow cold.” Tim, we saw the 2022 mid-term elections what was the number one issue for Democrats? Abortion. They came out in droves to hope that their states would overturn pro-life movements. And how can there be less love than a mother who doesn’t love their own child inside of them?

Tim Moore: Well, it is convicting to all of us that we tolerate these things, as the Lord had a word of admonishment for the Church at Thyatira. How many things do as Christians tolerate instead of saying, no, we’re not going to just go along with some of these things. You know in the same chapter there of chapter 24 of Matthew the Lord telling us that we would recognize the various signs we are talking about as pointing to His soon coming, said in verse 37, “That the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.” And there are several aspects of the days of Noah, but we know that the Lord finally had had enough and poured out wrath upon the whole earth because it was filled with wickedness.

Nathan Jones: And that’s how the Lord actually works. I mean you think about it there are a few times where we were wondering if a certain people, like the Amalekites for instance when the Canaanites were supposed to be destroyed and the Lord would say, not yet because the measure of their wickedness isn’t in full. In other words the wrath of God is like a cup, it fills up, and fills up, and fills up until finally the people are so evil that they deserve the wrath of God, they deserve the punishment and that is when He steps in.

And the Lord said, we covered this is the signs of nature episode, the previous one, and this one we can refer back to when Jesus said that the signs leading up to His return they would increase in frequency and intensity and one of those signs would be as we said, the signs of nature. Fearful events. Scary events in society. And that the nature of the people would be at point where God’s wrath was ready and the Tribulation would commence. But first, and it is a blessing, right? What happens before the Tribulation?

Tim Moore: Yeah, before the Tribulation the Rapture when the Lord comes for His Church and we are rescued from the wrath that is to come. So, He does not intend us for wrath, there is now no condemnation for any of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ, only blessing, only good. Yes, there will be little “t” tribulation during this life, but not the big “T” Tribulation that awaits those who have rejected God and upon which He will out pour His wrath. You know I think some in our own society think, almost looking backwards, but we are a Christian nation, God surely wouldn’t judge us like others. And I’m reminded that is not the model of Scripture. Matter of fact God held Judah, and Israel liable for their sin, perhaps even to a great degree at times than the pagan nations around them. Why?

Nathan Jones: Well, you can see in the history of Israel which is really fascinating, and I always wondered this when I was young, that Israel would be fiery for the Lord and then the next generation would be kind of apathetic, and then the third generation would be outright rebellious, and then the fourth generation would feel God’s wrath and He would send some kind of disaster, usually a foreign nation attacking them or something. Which would bring them back to Him, and they’d be on fire for the Lord and then their kids would be apathetic, and that cycle would go on and on. And I was like what is wrong with these people? Why can’t the Israelites get this right? Well I’ve been around the block enough now in America to see, oh, my goodness, we are now in that fourth generation. We’ve seen the rebelliousness of our parents; we are now in the destruction generation. And so, that should terrify most people.

Tim Moore: It really should. And yet, do we have enough core understanding?

Nathan Jones: We don’t and that’s the problem.

Tim Moore: And that’s the problem. We’ll get to what our role is in just a moment. But I’m reminded even what the Lord said through the prophet Ezekiel. So if you turn to Ezekiel 16, speaking of Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities we think of as so abominable God destroyed them outright. But he says, “As I live,” declares the Lord God, “Sodom, your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food, but she did not help the poor and needy. They were wicked, they were haughty and committed abominations before Me.” The things we have been talking on today. “Therefore I removed them when I saw it.” He goes on to talk about Samaria. But the gist of this message is that as He is talking to His people, Judah and Israel, their sins are even more egregious in God’s eyes. And I go back to the statement I’ve made before, because they should have known better.

My parents sometimes punished me far worse than my friend’s received punishment because as my parent’s said, “Well, you knew better.” And certainly our society has at one time at least, known better. We still like to think of ourselves as a Christian nation. Shouldn’t a Christian nation know better than to behave as we are behaving, or to tolerate the things that we collectively are tolerating?

Nathan Jones: I mean we are a country that, and it is historically proven, there are people denying it now which shows the depravity, we were based on Judeo Christian values, all the way back to the Mayflower Compact even. And so, why do we not see America in Bible prophecy? It’s obvious because America does not make it into the end times, at least in the form that we are in. We do know that eventually the United States will become part of the Antichrist global government, we will join it, we will come against Israel and try to destroy it. But it seems that the super power status of any nation is only tied to their love of the Lord, and their ability to send missionaries out.

We can look back to the British Empire which during the 1800s was a great sending agency for missionaries all over the world, and they were the world power. But after World War I they kind of turned against the Lord, and the German School of Higher Criticism got in. They gave up God and they fell through that Romans 1 declination. We were the superpower of the world, now China is rising. Well, why China? Who has the largest population of Christians in the world right now? It’s the underground church in China. The Lord is blessing China despite their suffering and persecution.

Tim Moore: Despite their government.

Nathan Jones: So, whenever a country turns to the Lord, even if it is a remnant the Lord will bless that nation.

Tim Moore: Well, let’s bring this home to us personally. And I want to make a point, we obviously have been tracking along this year, and we will throughout this year with our Lamplighter series focusing on the Signs of the Times. So, in January and February we talked about the Signs of Nature, just as one of our previous episode on the signs. We in the past have talked about other times when we have highlighted the departing glory of God from this nation. And this month’s Lamplighter magazine will also be focusing, and does focus on the Signs of Society. So, we would encourage you to either order that magazine, start subscribing or go to our website where you can read it for free.

But Nathan for a Christian one of the challenges is what do I do? How should I live in this day and age? And that is why the resources we are offering today, and what we want to focus on in these last few minutes is living for Christ in the end times. If there is rising apostasy. If there is spiritual degradation in our own formally Christian society, how should we live? Well, Dr. David Reagan in his great book, “Living for Christ in the End Times,” tells us how we can live, and so we would like to offer this to our viewers today.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, folks, this is an excellent book about how do we live in these times? These times are rough. It kind of reminds me of the verse here in 1 Peter 4 which describes what the end times are like, which Dr. Reagan addresses in here, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.”

Tim Moore: Amen.

Nathan Jones: And so, I found this book to be a great blessing because it really did encourage me living in these times, because you know we all want the Lord to come and take us up to Heaven and be done with this. But for right now the Lord’s got us here for a duty to perform to share the Gospel with people and live holy lives, and this book is a good guide to help you through that.

Tim Moore: You know for a gift of only $20 or more we will be glad to send you a copy of “Living for Christ in the End Times,” and that includes shipping. So, just call the number on your screen or reach out to us on our online store which is new and revamped and we will be glad to send you a copy.

But this brings up another point. It is easy to get discouraged and to watch the TV news and to think it is all hopeless. And we’ve talked about the despair that is rising even in the youth. That attitude is somewhat reflected in Scripture.

I’m reminded of Elijah, immediately after his victory, really the Lord’s victory over the prophets of Baal there at Mount Carmel he ran off afraid of an ungodly woman. And he felt dejected and rejected by his people and he had a little pity party and said, “I’m the only one left.” And the Lord had to remind him, and He did this very poignantly in 1 Kings 19:18 that he was not the only one, there was a remnant, there were still 7,000 in Israel who have not bowed their knee to Baal. And so, even in the midst of darkness, God offered hope.

And so, today we are not alone, there are other believers who are faithful, you may have to seek them out and collect together with them because sometimes it is harder even to find faithful people in any given city, but they are out there, and God wants us to be encouraged.

Nathan Jones: Yes, Jan Markell calls them the remnant church, and I’ve started using that phrase because it is very much true. People that love the Lord, they love Bible prophecy, they love the idea of His returning. They look to 1 Thessalonians 5, which I think is a great exhortment and encouragement to the believers. “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them…” In other words this evil society will have destruction come upon them one day.

Tim Moore: Yes, but the destruction will come upon them, and they will be surprised. And yet the next verses tell us what?

Nathan Jones: “…destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.” So all these evil pedophiles, and murderers, and killers, and liars and rapists their destruction is coming. “And they shall not escape. But you, brethren,…” here is the advice, “…are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day.” And Brother, as long as we are close to the Lord, we read His Bible, the Holy Spirit dwells in us, and we can know the times we live in. We know that this evil system will end, and Jesus’ system is coming, His Millennial Kingdom; a time of peace, and righteousness, and justice.

Tim Moore: So, even as we talk about a very dark cloud descending on our society, and it is evident all around us, I mean turn on the News it is truly heartbreaking. And yet, there is a silver lining to this very dark cloud and that is the fact that it tells us that the Lord is coming soon. And to finish out the passage you just read, Nathan, in verse 6 of chapter 5 of 1 Thessalonians Paul says, “so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.” Alert for what? Alert for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and sober about being about His business. Not discouraged, not dejected, but really motivated, invigorated. In other words the finish line is right ahead let’s sprint to the finish line.

Nathan Jones: A man can’t choose the times they live in, I certainly would not choose this time, but we have the Lord here to guide us and direct us to doing His will. As 2 Peter says, “The Lord isn’t slow in keep His promises, as some understanding slowness, He is patient wanting all to come to repentance.” When the last person who has accepted the Lord in the Church Age becomes saved He will return, He will take us up to Heaven and this evil system will finally be destroyed.

Tim Moore: So, there is an element that we have not just a privilege but a responsibility to be active partners with the Lord, co-laborers with Christ, sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the glorious message that He is coming. Again, advising our friends and neighbors to flee from the wrath to come, and into the loving arms of our Savior. We pray you have already done so, but that you will join Nathan and me, all of us here at Lamb & Lion Ministries in proclaiming Jesus is indeed coming soon.

Closing

Tim Moore: Nathan and I are as heartbroken as all of you to look out at our formerly Christian nation and witness the degradation of spiritual and moral discernment—let alone the rising tide of lawlessness, chaos, and wickedness. My fifth grandchild was born this year and I personally wonder what kind of world he will grow up in if the Lord tarries.

Nathan Jones: We cannot sugarcoat the reality that is. God was clear when He called out Israel and Judah for their sins and their disregard of His blessings: in spite of their chosen status, He would send judgment that would decimate the people and the Promised Land.

Tim Moore: Too many Americans think we are immune from God’s judgment. They seem to assume God’s throne is draped with an American flag. That false impression makes an idol out of a nation—something other people and other nations are also prone to do.

But the Word of God is clear. If anything, God sets higher expectations for those who ought to know better. Certainly, our nation once resolved to embrace our Christian heritage and bear witness to the blessing of Christian godliness. But now, America revels in its own wickedness.

Nathan Jones: And yet, that is exactly what the Bible describes in the End Times. All the nations in the world will eventually come against the Lord and His Anointed. We are seeing that trajectory manifest itself before our very eyes—which tells us that Jesus is at the very gates of heaven, ready to come and rescue His Bride.

Tim Moore: Revelation 2 and 3 contain 14 promises for those who overcome. We pray that you have put your trust in our soon-returning King, and that you are determined to overcome the persecution, the chaos, and the discouragement that is rising all around us.

Until next week, join us in “Looking up and being watchful, for our Redemption is drawing near.” Godspeed!!

End of Program