Contending for the faith | Making Disciples | Equipping the Saints for Ministry

The Tsunamis
by Rayola Kelley

If you are like me, you are watching world events, knowing that what was prophesied in the Bible is coming true before our very eyes. Depending on where you put your focus, it can be either very frightening or it can bring an assurance that it is now time to look up and keep looking up for the fulfillment of the Blessed Hope promised in the Bible. The Blessed Hope is Jesus is coming back, first for His Church, and then to put things right.

Meanwhile, we live in a time where everything that happens will be anything but right. It will look as if evil will ultimately triumph in every situation, injustice will be rampant, despair will be the prevailing mood, death the victor, and hopelessness the reality. It will speak of the culmination of history as the environment during Noah’s time takes center stage and the likes of a Nimrod, who first established the kingdom of Babel, begins to become increasingly blatant as each of these individuals openly take strides in order to gain world dominance.

As you watch the diverse power plays take place between individuals in high places of finance, religious kingdoms, worldly governments, and political maneuvers, it is obvious that these different powers are on a collision course. Granted, they may be using each other to arrive at a particular goal and to get rid of any hindrances and obstacles, but in the end they will turn on each other to devour the other in order to gain world dominance. After all, you cannot change the nature of a wolf, and these people are nothing more than predators.

Caught in the middle of the power struggle are those who are trying to maintain some semblance of life. They want to secure a life that will guarantee them a measure of security and stability. However, behind the scenes are the predators, prowling around, making plans, and scoping out the lay of the land and to accomplish their objectives. They do not care who they use, take captive, or sacrifice to fulfill their wicked agendas.

However, there is something these foolish, godless individuals do not realize and that is wickedness causes a backlash. It comes in the form of what I call a “tsunami.” The sowing of wickedness causes cracks in foundations, its ways send shock waves through every part of the land, and it deadly fruits create a wave of judgment and destruction that travels through the ocean of humanity, bringing ruin and despair everywhere it hits. Eventually, this wave will take captive everyone who is not hidden in the ark of God, Jesus, including those who have created it.

This brings us to what I consider the different tsunamis in the Bible. The first one was that of deception. We see this wave hitting the Garden of Eden. In her innocence, Eve had no idea of the tsunami of deception that was coming at her full speed ahead. She was completely beguiled, proving she was not prepared to discern its dangerous ascent on her; therefore, she quickly fell victim to it, and was drawn out into the ocean of judgment by the receding waves of transgression (2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14). We know that due to his own inward condition, Adam also allowed himself to be taken captive by the waves of transgression as he gave way to temptation. We can point fingers at who had the greatest fault for being taken captive by such a destructive wave, but the harsh reality is that because of what happened in the Garden of Eden all mankind was taken out by this tsunami to taste death and destruction. Praise God, He provided the lifesaver of His Son to pull us out of this deadly wave with cords of love, mercy, and grace.

Jesus warns us that in the end days another great wave of deception will hit this world (Matthew 24:4-5, 23-25). This deception will be very religious in nature. It will offer a different Jesus, be motivated by a wrong spirit, and will preach a different gospel (2 Corinthians 11:3-15). It will come across as truth, but it will be a false light that will blind people to the tsunami that is behind it. In fact, we are told in 2 Thessalonians 2:11 that God will be sending this tsunami to test the hearts of His people. The only way to be prepared to avoid being washed away by this force to taste the bitterness of judgment and death is to love the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12).

To love the truth means you must believe that God’s Word is truth. In essence, you must love God and His Word with everything in you. Jesus overcame deception in the wilderness by quoting the Word of God (Matthew 4:1-11). If you believe the Word, you will not take pleasure in unrighteousness; rather, you will flee it in pursuit of what is true and right according to the instruction and holiness of the Lord (2 Timothy 2:22).

This brings us to the next tsunami. It has to do with imagination. It is said of Noah’s day inGenesis 6:5, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” There is a great tsunami that is now taking the minds of man into captivity.

The present wave comes as a war that has been waged by Hollywood and the music industry on morality. It has come in the form of pornography (fornication), lawlessness, and hatred. Granted, the waves were small as it conditioned us with the idea of romance and happiness. However, each time the tide rolled out, it left its impact on the terrain of man’s mind, allowing for the following wave to gain momentum to take additional territory with more blatant presentations of the immoral and the abominable.

Each wave has been designed to rob families and societies of more innocence, defile what is right, and destroy all that is true and absolute. Tragically, each time the wave recedes, the moral foundation has been eroded away. With internet the possibilities of filling our minds with absolute filth is endless, and as a result, our society is paying a price too great to imagine, leaving in its wake broken lives, families, and societies. Sadly, this wave has so desensitized many, even in the Church, that it seems that most no longer blink at or abhor the immoral, godless presentations that flash upon the different screens of our TVs and monitors. These desensitized individuals do not realize that each wave sweeps them further from the center of all that is true, pure, and right.

It is for this reason that we are instructed in 2 Corinthians 10:5 to cast down such imaginations and everything that would exalt itself against the Person and work of God. Keep in mind, all idolatry exists first in the mind and heart. When we believe that what we have imagined is important because of the lust of our eyes, we are erecting those images to a place of significance and idolatry. These images not only take our thoughts captive, but they will sweep up the affections of the heart with them. Once we bring the idolatry down, we can bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

The next tsunami has to do with ideas. Today there is a tsunami of ideology sweeping our world. We see this type of wave taking center stage in the case of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11. To understand Babel, we must understand the character of the one who founded it. His name was Nimrod (Genesis 10:10).

It is said of Nimrod that he began to be a mighty in the earth. The Bible describes this might by referring to him as a “mighty hunter” before the Lord (Genesis 10:9). Some interpret this as Nimrod hunting for the souls of men. The reason they believe this is because of the attitude that came forth out of Babel in Genesis 11:6c, “and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.”

When you consider Genesis 11:4, you realize that what man had in mind to do was build a lasting memorial to himself. At this time the idea these people held was that if they came together in common agreement, they could reach the heavens with the intent of bringing God down from His height in order to exalt themselves and other gods (such as creation, the Zodiac, and so forth).

This is where we see the making of a one world-government run by man (tyranny), a one world-religious system that exalts man (humanism), and a one world-economic system (Communism) which would promote the type of memorial man wanted to establish for himself. This ideology pointed to the type of agreement that appeared as if even the God of heaven could not withstand. However, to be part of this agreement man would have to sell his soul to the cause of opposing his Creator. In essence, he would have to sell it to gain the world.

Consider the world we live in today. The ideology of Babel is alive and well. The educational system and the media are spewing forth propaganda that promotes the ideology and philosophy of Babel. With the help of the educational and media avenues, those in power are asking people to sell their souls by compromising the truth, negating righteousness, and flinging themselves into the waves of this evil cause. In fact, thanks to the many godless leaders and wicked financial infidels they are reliving Babel all over again. Due to the tsunami they have created with the help of the god of this world, Satan, they think they are going to succeed in bringing God down, establish a lasting memorial to man, and usher in a utopia for themselves.  Since these individuals must rid the world of 80% of the population in order to control it, one must ask what about those “fortunate” souls who happen to survive these people’s waves of destruction? The answer is simple enough—the “peons” who are left will be required to mindlessly serve the image that has been created by these sons of Belial.

The truth is the ideology of the wicked is doomed. As with Babel, the Lord will come down and put a simple but powerful wrench in their plans. Only this time, the sky will part and Jesus will return as the King of kings and the Lord of lords to judge them. Like those at Babel, these wicked leaders may make inroads into bringing about Satan’s wicked plan of being the ultimate ruler of this world, but the Son of God will usher in a day of reckoning for each of them. All of their attempts will be blown into the air by the winds of judgment and disbursed into the fires of wrath to be remembered no more.

Colossians 2:8 states, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” As Christians, we must not turn our minds over to the world’s way of thinking. The Bible is clear, we are to let the mind of Christ be developed in us. We must make sure our minds are not conformed to this world, but are constantly being transformed by the renewing of the Spirit that is being wrought in us by the Word of God.

We must come out and be separate from the influences of this present age as we take ownership of our souls by possessing them in patience. We must be watchmen over our spiritual lives, and be alert to the times in which we live to prepare ourselves to stand in faith as each tsunami approaches, withstand with truth when it begins to hit the shoreline of our resolve, and continue to stand in hope when it begins to consume the terrain around us. Clearly, we must do all of this knowing that we stand on the Rock, and that in the near future our Lord will come and set all matters right.

It is clear that some of the waves attached to the coming tsunamis have already hit our shores. As they recede, we must recognize that they are warning us that behind them is gathering greater waves of tribulation that will escalate with the momentum that is now present in the world. As Christians, we must not allow the roar of these waves to grip us with fear. We must choose to remember that our hope is not here in this world. It is in such remembrance that we can also take the opportunity to look up in complete assurance, knowing that our redemption indeed draws near.