Pete Garcia: Things To Come And The Spirit Of Prophecy

The Spirit of Prophecy

 Pete Garcia

The cross is the center of the world’s history; the incarnation of Christ and the crucifixion of our Lord are the pivot round which all the events of the ages revolve. The testimony of Christ was the spirit of prophecy, and the growing power of Jesus is the spirit of history. – Alexander Maclaren

Even before the creation of our reality, before the age of men and angels, a sovereign God looked down through the passageway of time and determined to Himself, the why and how to perfectly orchestrate the plan of redemption for mankind.

Thus, the universe in its totality, mankind’s shared history, the ever-persistent now, and the unknown future, are all equally foreknown to God. Nothing is hidden from Him. He is perfectly in control. He is perfectly in command of every molecule that floats through our existence. He knows every star by name. He knows the goings-on of every sparrow. He knows how many hairs we have on our heads. He knows the number of every hair of every head that has ever lived. He upholds the foundations of reality by His sheer willpower, without exhausting an ounce of effort. Nothing escapes His knowledge. No power, ruler, authority, prince, king, angel, demon, or ‘titan of industry,’ can bring anything to pass without His permission.

For over two thousand years, the Bible has accurately predicted thousands of events. From the naming of kings, to the rise and fall of five kingdoms who would shape the ancient (and future) world. The Bible records the coming of the Messiah; His birth, life, ministry, miracles, death, and resurrection. It even records how and why He would die. The Bible accurately predicted the nation of Israel’s deliverance (Egypt), travails (wandering), success (Saul, David, Solomon), its conquest (Assyria, Babylon, and Rome), as well as its national resurrection (1948). Furthermore, the Bible predicts in the last days, the world will be divided under the leadership of ten kings, who will then submit themselves to one ruler (the Antichrist). This Antichrist will then force everyone on earth, on pain of death, to either take his mark or be beheaded (Rev. 13).

These experts refuse to accept objective truth, at the very moment in time, when the geopolitical/economic/technological conditions on the ground are happening. This ironically is juxtaposed with a society consumed with the spirit of Antichrist. They are blinded, and cannot even bring themselves to acknowledge their own blindness, because of pride. Now, I’m certain, many people labored months, pouring untold gallons of their own sweat-equity into their document. However, their work is all for naught and will be wrong (as usual).

Here is what the Bible states will actually happen:

1. Israel would be resurrected as a nation after a nearly two-millennia diaspora and reclaim Jerusalem as their capital (Deut. 4:31, 30:1-10, Isa. 11:11-12, 66:8-9, Ezek. 36:22-24, Amos 9:14-15, Zech. 12:2-3, Matt. 24:15, Luke 21:24)

2. A world increasingly deteriorating morally and spiritually leading to increased lawlessness, wars/rumors of wars, and men’s heart waxing cold against God (Matt. 24:3-14, 2 Tim. 3:1-7, 2 Peter 3:3-9)

3. A world buckling under its own problems (Earthquakes, pestilences, rumors of war, human conflict, signs in the sun, moon, and stars), all the while knowledge and travel is increasing, adding to man’s potential for pretending nothing is wrong and adopting a false normalcy bias (Dan. 12:4, Luke 17:26-29, 1 Thess. 5:1-9)

4. A world increasingly becoming God-hating and Christ-rejecting- while embracing paganism, secularism, ecumenicalism, satanism, and pantheism, even the last days’ Christian church would become lukewarm and ineffective (1 John 2:18, 4:3, 2 John 1:7, Romans 1:18-32, Rev. 3:14-22)

5. A world caught off guard by a divinely predicted and appointed, rescue operation known as the Rapture of the Church (John 14:1-3, 1 Thess. 4:13-5:9; 1 Cor 15:51-56, Revelation 3:10)

6. A world at war with no mention of a super nation like the United States anywhere to be found in Scripture, should be sending up red flags to all these think tanks, but they aren’t (Gog-Magog coalition, Red Horse- global conflict) (Ezekiel 38-39, Rev. 6:3-4)

7. A world thrown into chaos, and then united by crisis, divides itself into ten regions, who then is taken over by one man (Dan. 2:42-45, Rev. 6:1-2, 13, 17)

8. A world subjugated by 21 divinely appointed judgments (Rev. 6-18) which ultimately destroys all the oceans, trees, rivers, and even the sky; all enemies vanquished and conquered by a returning and victorious Jesus Christ (Zech. 12, 14, Rev. 19)

9. The true, new world order with Christ Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords restores the earth back to its former state of paradise (Isaiah 2, Revelation 20)

All of history before the Cross led to the One whom it would bear. All of history since points back to His victory by conquering death and hell. In His triumph, He has promised to return and has given us His Holy Spirit and His Word to see that day approaching. Because God is ever-faithful until the end, we can trust His plan and know true peace. He has promised us that we who are watching, would not be caught unawares.

The world at the present regards us born-again believers as rubes, brutes, ignorant, and foolish for worshipping a God we cannot see. However, we who know Him and have a personal relationship with Him, know the power of God to change lives and to change us from the inside out. This is something no human religion, philosophy, ideology, or otherwise, could ever do. Furthermore, even we who hold close to the prophetic promises, are viewed as the lowest of the low, because we dared have faith in a plan of redemption clearly articulated in the world’s most perfect book.

We have the trusted eyewitnesses (the patriarchs, prophets, apostles), who, often at the pain of death, swore with dying breaths of their allegiance to our God and to our Lord Jesus Christ. These men were instructed to put together, by divine inspiration, a book no human(s) could ever do on their own accord, accurately predicting hundreds of events years, decades, and even centuries into the future with perfect fulfillment.

This is why we don’t need the NIC to play God. This is why we don’t need a 156-page document produced every four years with untold millions of hours and taxpayer dollars poured into it to see what direction the world is going. This is why you don’t need the United Nations to promote their godless agendas (2020, 2030, etc.) to save the planet. This is why you don’t need the media to repeatedly drive you into a frenzy over their constant doomsday predictions. You just need Jesus. Once you know Him, only then can you know and understand His plans for the future as detailed extensively in the Bible.

In closing, God foreknew man’s potential to amass great knowledge (Gen. 11:6), and in that knowledge, become prideful and abandon their need for Him (Prov. 16:18). Playing against that pride, God chose those things enlightened men would find foolish, to accomplish His perfect plan.

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.” – 1 Corinthians 1:26-31