POCKET SERMON 9: "WHY ARE WE SO AFRAID OF THE APOCALYPSE?--THE LIFTING OF THE VEIL" BY REVEREND BARBARA SEXTON "THE BIBLICAL BIOCHEMIST-WHERE SCIENCE MEETS THE CROSS"

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POCKET SERMON 9: "WHY ARE WE SO AFRAID OF THE APOCALYPSE?--THE LIFTING OF THE VEIL"
BY REVEREND BARBARA SEXTON February 8, 2010
"The Biblical Biochemist-Where Science Meets the Cross"
Dear Ones Healing Ministry
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     I have a very simple question for us here. Why, oh why, are we so SCARED and AFRAID of the coming "APOCALYPSE"? What do we fear? What do we fear will happen? Maybe you're a non-believer, a skeptic reading this, one who doesn't even believe in The Apocalypse. If so, what is it exactly that you are not believing in? What exactly are you scoffing at in those who do believe Scripture, with it's many admonitions and cautions and warnings? You non-believing secular humanists--just what are you disdaining with your different view of the world and all things identified with the 'Apocalypse'?
      Okay, let me just get to the point. Do you know what "THE APOCALYPSE" means? To those who are perishing, it means nothing.  From the standpoint of the atheist/agnostic, it isn't even going to occur. To the rest of you, I've got news for you:  The word "Apocalyse'  simply means a 'lifting of the veil'. That's it. Really, that's it.
      Well, the last thing I'd want is for you to take my word for it, since I am always saying you should 'test everything'.  For that, we once again turn to Wikipedia in order to understand our perception of things in the world that scare us half to death.  "THE APOCALYPSE": An Apocalypse (Greek: Ἀποκάλυψις Apokálypsis; "lifting of the veil" or "revelation") is a disclosure to certain privileged persons of something hidden from the majority of mankind."
      Now let me ask my fellow believers, shouldn't we feel a little silly for being so afraid of nothing? And ye of absolutely no faith, don't you feel silly having such a firm stance on this very same nothing? If not, maybe you should think about things, because that "THE BIG BAD APOCALYPSE" is not what most people think it is.
     As if to obfuscate the waters, Wikipedia goes on to say, "Today the term often refers to Armageddon or the end of the world, which may be a shortening of the phrase apokalupsis eschaton, literally "revelation at the end of the æon, or age". In Christianity The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible." 
     Here is where Armageddon is mentioned in the Bible.  The words of Jesus are in red:
15"Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed." 16Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. Revelation 16:15-16 (NIV)
       Is this the 'something' we need to worry about? Let's see.
       First, even with this knowledge, I don't completely understand all the hubbub for believers and non-believers alike. The 'end of an age' hardly sounds like something to get excited about for atheists, agnostics, secular humanists and marginal believers.  They don't really believe anything in the Bible, so the 'Apocalypse' and attendant events are not things to worry about.  But just on the off-chance that one of them are still reading here, I continue.
      And this is my private advice to true  believers and faith-seekers:  I can say definitively that Scripture does not say we will not  suffer along with others. We are promised that we may be spared the worst of it, is all.  From a semantics point-of-view, isn't it better to have our veil of ignorance LIFTED so that we might better understand the mind of God and His Will for us?  What do we have to be afraid of if we trust in Him?          
       We need not fear death, yet we do.  Yet I can imagine a time when the most skeptical among us will 'believe as they witness the greatness of God's wrath and the reappearance of His Son on this earthly plain.  The question is, will it be too late?  My faith tells me, 'no, it will not be too late for all'.
     Hard-core God-deniers and God-haters are a different story, however.They will remain hardened to the
goodness our faith brings for Christians and Jews.  This is how it is now and how it will be at the end of days, when the 'veil' is 'lifted'. People who hate God's people with all their souls, hearts, minds and body will continue to do so then.  We all have brief, sporatic opportunities to help anti-God souls change their minds.  So I ask that you pray for them and speak to and with them using all your  great gifts.  The Great Commission of Jesus Christ  tells us that we are to go forth and make believers of all nations.  We  need to warn doubters and nay-sayers of what the Bible warns is to come, so at least they are informed.

The Great Commission:
16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:16-20 (NIV)
      Christians can point out current events that stand in fulfillment of Scripture, wherever they may be.  We can  help non and marginal believers learn how to use the best how-to manual ever given to man--The Holy Bible.  We can work on this as 'the veil is lifted'. 
     It's only a veil.
     What is everybody so afraid of?
Reverend Barbara Sexton  "The Biblical Biochemist-Where Science Meets the Cross"
February 8, 2010