Look Up: Your Redemption Draws Near
Watchman Fellowship derives its name from Ezekiel 33 where God tells Ezekiel that he is to be a watchman to the house of Israel and to warn of dangers that approach. For over four decades the mission of Watchman Fellowship, warning of religious deceptions, has been an application of God’s commission to Ezekiel to be a watchman for God’s people.
We are posting a number of e-letters Make Sure Ministries has received from David Henke, founder of Watchman Fellowship, Inc., an apologetics ministry, on a variety of subjects. They will post on Tuesdays into the foreseeable future. As always, we appreciate your comments. Please consider clicking on the link following this blog to learn more about Watchman Fellowship and what they have to offer. E-letters have been slightly edited for clarity.
Ezekiel is a book of prophecy. Does Watchman’s mission have any prophetic significance? Yes, it does!! Religious deception will be one of the signs of the “last days.”
Watchman’s mission field is part of prophetic fulfillment, the rise of false Christs (Matthew 24 and Luke 21) and apostasy and heresy in the Church are a significant element of end time evidences. The Anti-Christ himself will be a religious deceiver. The book of 2 Thess. 2:3-4 says he will “proclaim himself to be God.”
It wasn’t until the 1950’s that the Church began taking the gospel affirmatively to the cults. Previous to that the Church would expel and denounce the heretics and it ended there. Mission work with the cults, however, began with Walter Martin and a very few others.
Most modern counter-cult ministries today had their beginning in the 1970’s as a sort of spiritual children of Dr. Martin. Isaiah 59:19 says, “When the enemy of the LORD comes in like a flood the Spirit of the LORD will raise up a standard against him.” The various ministries to cults and new religious movements are that “standard” that God has raised up.
Jesus said repeatedly in His Olivet Discourse “Let no man deceive you.” He also said one of the ways false teachers would deceive is to say that “I am Christ” and “the time is at hand” (Luke 21:8) as a way to entice people away from the true gospel.
Perhaps the most dramatic example of this warning is fulfilled in Jehovah’s Witnesses. Their founder, Charles Taze Russell, claimed in Volume 2 of his Studies in the Scriptures, that they collectively are “the Christ class” (page 252), and that Armageddon will take place in 1914 (page 99), and the book is titled The Time is At Hand. It is as if Jesus had them specifically in mind when He gave his warning.
Jesus said “No man knows the day or the hour,” and that is always true. But He also chided the Pharisees for knowing the signs concerning the weather but not discerning the times they lived in. They could have studied Daniel’s prophecy in chapter 9:24-27 and they could have been at the gates to welcome Him on the exact day of His Triumphal Entry.
Jesus said, “When you see these things begin to happen look up for your redemption draws near.” After the Covid virus of 2020 we could easily think we are in the beginning of the birth pangs Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24.
Birth pangs begin slow and then intensify in pain and frequency until birth. It will be this way before the end of days. We must pay attention to what Bible prophecy says and compare it with the what is happening in the world. However, we are not to venture predictions that will lead to misplaced hopes.
My booklet entitled Look Up: Your Redemption Draws Near is on my website.
By some circumstance this booklet made its way into the hands of Israeli F-15 pilots. Their comment was that “It’s very interesting. Can we make copies?”
January 29, 2021 E-Letter
Copyright© 2019 Watchman Fellowship, All rights reserved. Used by permission of David Henke.
Website: www.watchman-ga.org
Email: dhenkewatchman@gmail.com
