English – Chinese
“Jesus said to him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me” (John 14:6 MKJV).
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes on Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the Name of the only-begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18 MKJV).
“He who believes on the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him” (John 3:36 MKJV).
“As the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who calls out to the Lord for help will be saved’” (Romans 10:13 GNB).
Frequently I am drawn into conversations about how bad things are getting. We talk about the strange and adverse weather conditions the world over – the earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, droughts, floods, and heat waves. We talk about the rising price of oil and the consequent inflation, the growth of the bio-fuel industry and the grave consequences of the price of food sharply increasing to subject a third of the world to near starvation.
Then there is the real estate crisis in the U.S. with large banks in trouble and a staggering federal debt, climbing wildly by the minute. Americans and others are embroiled in a war they cannot win, though they hold out vain hopes and promises. Enemies are threatening from several directions – Russia with its new economic clout and political turnaround by Putin, China with its piracy of patents and flooding America and the world with its products while unemploying millions of Americans, and Islam aggressively taking over the world with its oil revenues.
There is the Middle East crisis, the Muslims slaughtering non-Muslims and other sects of Islam. We hear Ahmadinejad, Hezbollah, Fatah, and Al Qaeda threatening and swearing to annihilate Israel. With that is the threat of nuclear war from Iran, Pakistan, Russia, and other countries.
We talk about corruption in politics, government, religion, and every significant nation, institution, and organization on earth. In the world of medicine, people are dying like flies from every kind of disease one can imagine, with new ones coming and old ones reviving, much of this caused by the medical world and the pharmaceutical and petrochemical industries. In the food industry we have, along with the chemical toxins applied to nearly everything consumed, the threat of a multitude of Frankenfoods unleashed on an unsuspecting and ignorant public, produced by ruthless money and power-hungry corporations like Monsanto and Cargill, who stop at nothing to grow and prosper.
There is the oppression of the masses by government institutions such as the FDA, Health Canada, CFIA, EPA, and so many others like the medical associations. There are the educational institutions that push humanism, atheism, and evolution. There is the proliferating promotion of philosophies and lifestyles like homosexuality, fornication, abortion, antiChrist religion, feminism, drugs (mostly legal), all contrary to God and the Scriptures.
The religious scene is the vilest of them all. Millions of nominal Christians are hypocritically preaching virtue but doing as they please, withholding nothing from themselves to please their lusts. Of those who are disciplined to any extent on the physical plane, their doctrines, philosophies, and attitudes contradict God and the Scriptures, and just try to tell them differently.
I could go on and on about corporate greed, governmental corruption, social lawlessness and immorality, environmental pollution, super bugs, threatening plagues, widespread crime, conspiracies at work to enslave or destroy our world, legal and illegal drugs, you name it. It is the world madly abandoning itself to every vice and pleasure imaginable.
At one time, there was one in a million standing on the street corner wearing a gown, sporting a beard and a sign that warned of the end of the world. But now many more are seeing the end coming, not because they are crazed, but because it is happening. They see the evil and the omens of pending doom everywhere – on the streets, in the offices and stores, in all the media, the news, sitcoms, movies, and at other places of entertainment, including churches and homes. It is indelibly etched in every visage. It has become a vile world – corrupt, greedy, uncaring, fearful, insensitive, and so, so foolish and stupid, abhorrently godless.
But what is the point of all this kind of talk and thought? Where are we going with this negative news? What profit is there in it? By focusing on these things, are we getting anywhere? I say, “No.”
So what is the answer? What can we say to those who reflect and remark on these things? That depends on the person and why they are bringing these matters up. Are they complaining, diverting attention from themselves, or entertaining themselves with sensationalism? Are they curious? Or are they genuinely looking for answers, willing and prepared to act, whatever the cost may be?
Here is the answer for those interested in the only answer there is:
It begins with you and you alone. You must go to God and get in touch with Him directly. You must turn from your independence of Him. Every aspect of your life must be surrendered to Him. There is no other way. And only He can do this for you. One will find that if he or she tries to be good or right or pleasing to God in any way, or tries to change intrinsically, that one will fail miserably. That is what happened to me as I sought after God – but He succeeded where I failed. He gave me the grace to continue searching after Him, after Reality and Truth, even if I was failing and felt it was a hopeless endeavor. The message to the sincere seeker is: Don’t quit.
God will make known to you that there are not many ways to Him, only one. That way is the Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for sinners and after three days was raised from the dead, victorious over all things. After finding Him and identifying with His death, burial, and resurrection, all questions of concern to you will begin to be answered. You will realize that the world is on a collision course, but it will not concern you because you will know that God is in full control of everything. All things must take their course.
There may be those who need to hear that the only way they can weather the coming storm, the mother of all storms, is to be grounded in Jesus Christ. He is the One and Only Authorized Mediator between God and man. There is no other. Knowing Him, having repented of sin, one will perceive the troubles of this world with understanding, from a new and reasonable perspective. Fears, doubts, and confusion will disappear. Sure hope will be established, and nothing will move the one planted in Jesus Christ, the Foundational Rock of Life.
“How then shall they call on Him in Whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of Whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without preaching? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things!’” (Romans 10:14-15 MKJV)
We are here as His representatives to direct you to God. We know the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We have met Him because He has revealed Himself to us, and we are here to tell you that if He so chooses, if He has determined to give you salvation at this time, then you will gladly hear and receive what we have to say. Our words are life-changing; they are perfectly able, with faith from God, to bring about the change you need in your life so as to not perish with the world. If you cannot hear or receive us, there is no hope for you now; perhaps in another life or time, but not now. God will make known His will for you plainly enough to us.
– Victor Hafichuk (August 24, 2008)