Living In Insane Times Part 1 By Rayola Kelley

Regardless of the challenging times we live in, people have an incredible ability to adapt in challenging situations, and when they come to plateaus, they develop the attitude that upon surviving such times, that they can get by no matter what is going on around them. However, their ability to put up with greater bondage and struggles are both a plus and minus. It is a plus because man gets by in spite of how enslaved he is becoming in this dark world. However, the minus is that when man is able to get by, he fails to see that the oppression will encroach even more so and that without God’s intervention there is no hope of salvation from its tentacles of death and deliverance from the despairing captivity of it that will eventually swallow him.

I am sure that many will agree with me that we are living in insane times. The question I want to ask is do we want to simply survive our times by getting by, or do we want to walk through these times to ensure victory at the end of our journey?

People’s attitude is if I survive the last assault, I certainly will survive the next. In a sense people adapting to challenging matters makes them feel more self-sufficient or infallible. It does not bring a reality check that regardless of what they managed to survive, there will be a time that the wages of death will catch up to them if they have not received the payment of Christ’s redemption for their sin. After all, Jesus came as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world and upon paying the great price of redemption with His blood, our sins can be washed away as soon as we apply the hope and promise of His blood to our lives, our sins, and our ways (Luke 9:56; John 1:29; Romans 6:23; 2 Corinthians 3:5; Hebrews 9:12; 1 John 1:9).

It is the Lord who determines our days and not our ability to survive. To me, the fact that I am still here means God is not through with me, using me, or fine tuning me. Each day represents a real opportunity to complete whatever task is before me, be faithful to do His bidding, and to continue the race until I cross the finish line into eternity. The truth is the retirement plan for God’s people is heaven and until we reach it, we must be faithful to our calling, committed to offering the best to Him, and doing what is right regardless of the circumstances (Matthew 6:34; Luke 16:10-12; Hebrews 12:1).

In thinking about the present times there are a few things I must remind myself about. First, we live in prophetic times. The Bible has warned us about the days we live in. Granted past generations during great conflicts such as wars and pestilence etc. felt they were living in prophetic times as well. We fail to realize that prophecies can have a double, or triple fulfillment to them. For example, we have all heard about the anti-Christ but the reality is there have been many anti-Christs before and since Jesus’ times. Before something can be imitated, the genuine thing had to exist (1 John 2:21-23; 4:1-3).

The other thing I have to remind myself of is that the Holy Spirit coming on Pentecost marked the beginning of this prophetic age. Like any age of this world, there is a beginning and an end to it. Everything that has been happening in this age has been leading up to its climax. Each generation has either been tested, are being tested or will be tested. Generations are being conditioned to accept the delusion of their time which will lead to greater delusion as the next generation comes under a stronger delusion (Acts 2:16-21; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12).

Whether the delusion is about God, His Word, His way, His work or His character, it is to strip God of His glory in people’s minds, strip the world of moral conscience, strip God’s people of truth, and wipe out any semblance of God in every arena possible. History shows us that God has raised up a remnant throughout history. They have been a stout group that contended for the real faith as they warned, admonished, and called for repentance to always turn from that generation’s delusion of sin, wicked philosophies, religious heresies, and death, and face the true light, the true God of heaven in brokenness and repentance (Psalm 34:18; Luke 13:3, 5; Romans 1:20-23; 2 Corinthians 13:5; 2 Peter 3:9; Jude 3).

Do we have such prophets today? In the 50s through the 60s and up, we had the influence of A. W. Tozer and Vance Havner. David Wilkerson was a powerful voice through the 80s and into the 90s. Tozer admitted he preached himself out of every pulpit because he warned the churches of an idolatrous environment the world of entertainment was setting up to change their worldview and preferences. Havner contended with people over shallow Christianity that found a false security in being associated with a denomination, while failing to have a real relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Wilkerson warned people of the prophetic judgment coming on the nation if the church did not come back to the center of truth and righteousness and the nation did not cease from wicked digression into its godless, debaucherous ways.

The question is, why did the warnings of truth during the different generations have such an adverse effect? It was because that generation had been conditioned to accept a watered-down version of Christianity that would not go against the flow of the present acceptable tide. There was enough worldly compromise to not cause the fleshly lust too much grief about its pursuits, enough reference to spirituality that the religious conscience was put spiritually to sleep, enough intellectual clout to silence discernment, and enough expertise and debate that pride could embrace whatever made it feel good, look good, and appear good, while hiding its wickedness and tyranny. Consider how far down we have come. Take the woke philosophy. The Bible warns us to beware of such philosophies that find their basis in the world. Before woke, we were conditioned to show tolerance according to the liberal philosophy that everything goes except that which dare opposes its lack of moral accountability. Tolerance has become a substitute for God’s longsuffering, while woke embraces a type of sick tolerance in the name of love. It tolerates all sin regardless of how abominable the practices are while God shows longsuffering to give man time to repent of such wickedness. The world’s tolerance is conditional and hypocritical because it is only allotted to a few who come into agreement with it. It placates the elite while leading duped sheep to the slaughter. However, God’s Spirit will not always strive with the sinner in such a corrupt, wicked environment. Let’s face it, we are living “in the days of Noah” (Genesis 6:3; Matthew 24:37-39; Colossians 2:8; 2 Peter 3:9).

Now consider where woke has led us. Society is becoming so insane that we can change gender and become some species of animal. The latest I read is about a man who on his right side wore a tux and on his left side a wedding dress because he married himself since all of his prior relationships were a bust. Talk about insanity! If that is not bad enough, I know of cases where people married their pets in an official ceremony.

Whether it is the woke philosophy, the tolerant culture, the policies of Marxism that control people through big businesses, the causes of Socialism to redistribute the wealth of the world to create slaves and poverty for all of us, the hateful radicalism of the Black Lives Matter, the injustice of Social Justice, and the rendering of humans into transhumanism, it will produce nothing but insanity. It is obvious mankind has been conditioned to slide into a slime pit to become nothing but sacrificed pawns in Satan’s scheme to create a world without God and His people.

This scheme is called the mystery of iniquity (2 Thessalonians 2:7). In each generation our worldview has been subtly changed, our moral standard ebbed away, sacred institutions such as marriage and the family trashed, and righteousness a target of persecution, scoffing, and mockery. We are at a point where people openly call good evil and evil good. We are a society turned upside down, inside out and being crushed from the top down between the demonic world, wicked agendas of one-world government movements, and the insanity it produces even in the religious world.

Where is the Church in all of this? I remember back in the early 1990s listening to a pastor tell us we must apologize to the minorities for what our fathers did to them. I remember thinking that it was unscriptural due to what we are told in Ezekiel 18:19-32 as well as insane. Now the same blatant, unscriptural, insane belief is being promoted through Critical Race Theory in every arena.

The visible Church is adjusting their religion to whatever trends are flowing through the world in order to attract the world into its lifeless, defiled edifices. Homosexual marriages are taking place, and now drag queens and transgenders are being welcomed with open arms, all in the name of love and tolerance. Clearly, the love being propagated here is not God’s love which will never rejoice in iniquity, but will always be pure, honorable and holy (1 Corinthians 13:6).

Keep in mind, the organized church is part of the world’s systems. Whether they are flowing with the philosophies and practices of the world, the condition of local churches will always come down to the pastors and leadership as to whether they stand as a light to expose the darkness or if they are part of the darkness.

What can we learn from all of this? It is easy! Everything of, or that belongs to, or operates according to, and is inspired by the world is absolutely corrupt to the very core. Keep in mind Satan is the god of this world. It is natural to look towards the world and get a bit seduced by its glitter of false promises of happiness and success, but the world has nothing of substance to offer. It is an enemy of God and truth, and it is a spiderweb geared towards taking the lust of the flesh captive, while requiring those who want to freely partake of its deadly fruit to first sell their souls (Matthew 16:26; 2 Corinthians 4:3-4; James 4:4).

Is the world becoming strange to you and you strange to it? Praise God, because that is the way it must be. We are of another kingdom and must come out and be separate from this world. We don’t belong here and the more insane it becomes the more of a stranger we will become in it. We must avoid becoming entangled in it if we are going to stand distinct and with authority. If we are going to be strong and do exploits, we must know our God. If we are going to discern and identify the counterfeits, we must know God’s Word and ways. We must not just get by; we must be ready to stand and endure to the end the great darkness overtaking the world. We must not settle for what we have been told, but we must know what is true and learn to hear what the Spirit is saying in regard to the days and times we are living in (Matthew 24:13; John 16:13; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; 2 Timothy 2:3-4).

In closing we must remember that these lies make up the great delusion in the end of the last days. They began as little seeds, but a little leaven, leavens the whole lump (1 Corinthians 5:6-7). It is clear, we must know God and know His Word so that we will be equipped to discern the spirit, resist temptation with His Word, and stand against the lies of this age as good soldiers of the cross.