GNITN: Prophecy Update Elon Musk vs. the Wrath of the Woke

#824

Prophecy Update:

Elon Musk vs. the Wrath of the Woke

Who Are These People?

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (2 Tim 3:1-5, NKJV)

The perilous times Paul talked about wasn’t just prevalent in his time. When he said that these times are coming in “the last days” it means now as well as then. And this list is easy to document as we look at current headlines. While I can and have broken down this list when I was looking at something to teach on I was drawn to so many people just acting on their baser fleshly natures. We have people who refuse to leave their government jobs and actually try and sabotage their work spaces out of rebellion. Then we have mobs of people attacking cars made by a company whose owner they see as the enemy. They decide to key the cars even if people see them doing it. Even worse they are setting the cars on fire to protest his work to eliminate out of control spending, something one would think is a good thing. Unfortunately, this violence isn’t limited to cars. It is seen in public discourse where people think they can call people any foul thing they want and hide behind free speech to do it. And now they are doing something called swatting where they call 911 and falsely say a crime is being committed at a home of a person they don’t agree with. This of course means that heavily armed police are dispatched to deal with it when in reality there is nothing happening. Paul saw this way back then.

A Very Violent World

If we look at what Jesus also said about the times just before He returns again, there won’t be an end to the violence and despicable behavior. He told people that when His second coming it will be like it was in the days of Noah. Oftentimes people mention things about the Pre-Flood time but leave out that they were extremely violent. However, it must be noted that whenever you take God out the equation of the creation, life gets valued lower and lower until it no longer has the value God intended. In one of his commentaries historian Flavius Josephus tell us about that time:

But Tubal, one of his children by the other wife, exceeded all men in strength, and was very expert and famous in martial performances. He procured what tended to the pleasures of the body by that method; and first of all invented the art of making brass. Lamech was also the father of a daughter, whose name was Naamah. And because he was so skillful in matters of divine revelation, that he knew he was to be punished for Cain's murder of his brother, he made that known to his wives. Nay, even while Adam was alive, it came to pass that the posterity of Cain became exceeding wicked, every one successively dying, one after another, more wicked than the former. They were intolerable in war, and vehement in robberies; and if any one were slow to murder people, yet was he bold in his profligate behavior, in acting unjustly, and doing injuries for gain.(Josephus 1.2.2)

Tubal is also credited by the rabbis as having created the first sword, the perfect killing weapon.

Like Father, Like Son

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually. (Gen 6:5, KJV)

To more fully understand this statement, we need to go back to Gen 4 and read about Lamech who descended from the line of Cain who was cursed by God:

²³Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say; for I have slain a man [merely] for wounding me, and a young man [only] for striking and bruising me. ²⁴If Cain is avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech [will be avenged] seventy-sevenfold. (Gen 4:23-24, KJV)

Lamech was powerful and abused that power and the growing technology that developed. We see the beginning of God-ordained technology and arts attributed to Lamech and his progeny. This does not mean they were created by Satan or cursed but that they were used to make this lineage of men haughty and prideful. To them, this power was their god. This isn’t too unlike the growing power of social media that came out of the Internet. People can encourage violence from their followers without nary a care about who it hurts or, in some cases, kills. They literally can justify any violence because it serves the greater good. They are no different than Lamech.

And They Were Violent Because Of Their Arrogance

The earth was depraved and putrid in God's sight, and the land was filled with violence (desecration, infringement, outrage, assault, and lust for power).

And God looked upon the world and saw how degenerate, debased, and vicious it was, for all humanity had corrupted their way upon the earth and lost their true direction. God said to Noah, I intend to make an end of all flesh, for through men the land is filled with violence; and behold, I will destroy them and the land. (Genesis 6:11-13, AMPC)

When God says something once, we should listen, but when He says it twice, we should really take notice. They were violent. Lamech said if someone even hit or bruised him, he would kill him. And his revenge would be ten times what Cain did to Abel. This was not simple retribution; this was revenge to the max. Lamech never forgot what he considered the severe injustice done to Cain by God.

Always In Their Thoughts

How evil were these people? Genesis 6:5 tells us. Here is what it says in several versions:

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually…(AMP)

God saw that human evil was out of control. People thought evil, imagined evil—evil, evil, evil from morning to night. (MSG)

 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. (NIV)

Think of that; how it must have been to have no good thoughts in your mind. And then realize there were around 9 billion people alive then (estimates vary greatly but even this figure is conservative by some formulas). Then realize that only eight people survived the flood. We can only imagine what was happening every day on this planet before the Flood. But we can get an idea of what by looking at other scriptures.

Their Purposes And Desires

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. (Matt 15:19, NASB)

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, (Romans 1:28, NASB)

Putting these scriptures together with the Genesis account and the list will grow. Going back to the first chapter of Romans we see that when man sears his conscience what behaviors follow:

 ²¹For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²²Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

 ²⁴Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

 ²⁶Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

 ²⁸Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. ²⁹They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. ³²Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. (Rom 1:21-32, NIV)

The question is then, do we have any hope of stemming the tide?

Taming A Tiger

Going back to 2 Timothy 3 we have one word translated as “savage” but other words like “fierce,” “brutal,” “cruel” and “unmerciful” are used. While other generations have been violent and brutal, it seems like the times we live in is unusually vicious and venomous. The word used here is anémeros (an-ay'-mer-os) and can mean “not tame.” I am constantly amazed at reports of the utter savagery of people as they do all manner of unspeakable things to their fellow men and women. Crime shows are all over the media and they illustrate not just hurting someone but cruelly doing so. One stab to the heart will kill, but accounts of innumerable stabs are not uncommon. They call them crimes of passion, but really they should be labeled as untamed barbarism. Going back to Guzik we find this account of the ferocity of our times:

A newspaper article in the 1990s described how an Oxnard man was accused of murdering his roommate after the two disagreed over the brand of beer the man had brought home. The accused man brought home Natural Light, and the murdered man wanted him to bring home Michelob. As he poured the Natural Light down the kitchen sink, he was stabbed to death.

If we needed an example from the times in which Paul and Timothy lived, we need go no further than the Romans who perfected the process of crucifixion and built the Colosseum where all manner of cruelty became entertainment. Contrast that with our times when the Colosseum is replaced by the television, computer and theater screens and the salient fact that such ferocity can be accessed 24/7/365. Inhumanity is a big draw and unfortunately extremely profitable. Putting the tiger back in the cage is a lost cause for us as we simply don’t have enough tiger tamers or cages.

Hope Given

We know that hope was given all the way back in Genesis 3:15 that Satan would be beaten by a child born to a woman. And even in the days of Noah, that hope was true. We, of course live on the other side of that prophecy because we know who that son was and how He did and will defeat Satan’s plans for mankind. And it is this hope that allows us to live our lives for the next offer of hope and that is an eternity with God. He preserved Noah and his family to start over again and in similar fashion, Jesus allows us to start over from “East of Eden” back to the New Heavens and New Earth. Let us trust in His promises and live as the citizens of Heaven we are.