Sound The Trumpet : Why Do The Heathen Rage

Must Listen

Must Read

What Art Thinks

Pre-Millennialism

Today's Headlines

Sorry... Not Available

Locally Contributed...

Audio

Video

Special Interest

Weekly Commentary

14100

“Why Do The Heathen Rage”
by Art Sadlier
July 3rd, 2011

This world system is opposed to God and His Word and His will. Satan is the one who is controlling this present world system. In that sense he is called the God of this world. The apostle Paul describes the activity of Satan in trying to preserve his kingdom at the present time, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them," (2 Corinthians 4:4). Satan has blinded the minds of men to the gospel and to the truth of God and will of God for them.

Satan has always led his subjects to rebel against God and His Word and His will. The scriptures reveal that in the last days the rebellion of men against God will reach a climax. David, in the Psalms, describes that day, which speaks clearly of our own day.

“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us,” (Psalm 2:1-3). We have seen the climax of this rebellion in the present hour.

There are four areas in which this rebellion has turned into a rage in our lifetime.

First, let us define the rebellion. Notice the phrase “Take counsel together” this implies a universal rebellion, a rebellion in which the whole world is involved. In the four areas that we will deal with, though it is rare thing, we find that the whole world joins together in a common cause.

Second, notice who the focus of the world is upon, “Against the Lord, and his anointed.” In each of the four areas we will look at, the rage of rebellion is against God and His Christ.

Third, notice the thing that the rebellion is focused on, “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us,” (verse 3). God has decreed in His Word some instructions that are binding on all men. Unregenerate men rebel at the thought that they are accountable to God, but that rebellion does not alter the fact that all men are accountable to God. “The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” (Psalm 24:1).

“I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm....” (Jeremiah 27:5).

“Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die,” (Ezekiel 18:4).

It is the Word of God that these men are rebelling against.

The first area in which the whole world has come together to rage against, is the very being and existence of God. In Genesis 1:1 we read, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” In our lifetime men have attacked that statement with the evolutionary theory. They reject the fact that God created the heavens and the earth and they reject the very existence of God. We have witnessed the rage and fury that the whole world has heaped upon those who deny this false theory and those who affirm the Word of God. Why do the heathen rage? They rage because they will not permit the thought of the rule of God over them. That is a universal rage, and it is a situation that is peculiar to the last days in the sense that the people of the world have taken counsel together to attack God and His very existence. The theory of evolutionis truly universal in its espousal and is universally advocated. It is a blatant attack on the very existence of God.

The Second area in which we have seen a universal attack on God’s Word and God’s will is in the area of abortion. In the last 60 years there has been over 1 billion babies murdered in their mother’s wombs. Again, in this area there has been a universal rage against those who would stand against the slaughter of innocent babies. Again this is a recent phenomenon; that the world should come together in such a common cause.

The Third area in which the whole world has come together in common cause is in the matter of homosexuality. The whole world is today in a rage against those who will not acknowledge or approve of the homosexual life style. This perversion of God’s Word is bringing the peoples of the world together in a common cause. It is not just a common cause to permit homosexuality, but a move to demand that all appove of homosexuality.

The Fourth area that has brought the world together in a common cause is the determination to take away Israel’s Promised Land. The nations are determined to give Israel’s land to those to whom it does not belong. This again is in defiance of God and His Word. Some are moved by a dogged determination and some are in a rage against Israel and will not rest until Israel is defeated. In many cases nations that are at odds have come together in a unity they have never known before. It seems to me that no other cause in all of history has so united a divided world as this determination to destroy Israel and the Jew.

The record of modern history is that if God is for it we are against it. Nothing can better describe our present society than Psalm 1:1-3; it is worth repeating, “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”

We who are God's people have read the last chapter of the book, and we know how it all comes out in the end. We see it in verse 4, “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision.”

David tells us about the end of it all in Psalm 37:9-10, “For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.”

If you are on the wrong side, it is time to switch sides. Colossians 1:13-14, “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13