Everyone must choose

Everything comes to a head here. You are for the glory of man or you are for the glory of God. You will refuse to obey when he outlaws the worship of Jehovah in the four corners of the earth or you will go along with what he proposes. And those who refuse to give themselves over to this beast and his kingdom for the glory of man are going to be barred from this one world kingdom and ostracized from the society of men.

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Revelation 13:17, KJV

All men will be faced with a choice. All men. Revelation 13:16–17 say he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to be required to give their allegiance to him. No exemptions. No exception. He will confront every single human being. Will you give yourself over to an anti-God state, where man is united in the service of all of man's desires and where the worship of the God of Scripture is outlawed?

And like Daniel before us, the true children of God will arise and say, No! No, I don't. I will not and I cannot. I am sealed unto Jehovah God. He has purchased me with the blood of His own Son, who satisfied for all my sins. I submit to Jehovah in my mind. His purposes are the purposes of my mind. His goals are the goals of my mind. I submit to Jehovah with my life. I am unto Him in my life. I am a man who is given over to the number seven and not to the number six! The covenant of God between Him and His church is my life in every respect. The bond of this God and me is a bond of my life that will not be broken. The commands of that covenant upon me are the way I live before my God.

And it is the best way, by the way! It is the way of joy, the way of peace and the way of happiness. There is no joy in the pursuit of unbridled sin in the glory of man. There is no life in separation from the God who created all of you. What is man without God? the church will say. What is six without seven? What is all of man's pursuit, what is all of his progress, what is all of his development without using it all in a heart of submission to the Maker of it all? It is pointless! It is empty. It is depraved. It is man-centred. And it is thoroughly ugly. You are building your kingdom on sinking sand, and you are rankling the fury of Almighty God of heaven and earth by doing so. And you think that you are building a kingdom of peace in which all men on the whole face of the earth are one, united in the only thing that will unite men: The love of money and the pursuit of sin. But in making your earthly kingdom of earthly peace, centred around the service of man’s depraved desires, you are not at peace. You are making war with God! As man did at the time of the tower of Babel. The message we therefore give to you is the message of the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 57:21: There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. And you will see the truth of it soon enough, I am telling you, for the Lamb who was slain will return and will make war with you and your kingdom, and will destroy it and will send you to the pit of hell. I will not give my allegiance to the worship of man, but always and only to the worship of Jehovah God – the God of the covenant of grace, the God of seven and not of six.

And for this confession, child of God, this kingdom of united man will say, 'You have no place, then. You have no place among the company of men who are united as one. You are not one with us, and this world is not your world then, and you may not be a part of us on this world. You may not take up a place in society. You may not have a job. You may not buy goods from us. You may not sell goods. If you will not join us, then you will not receive the benefits of being a part of the glory of man in human society."

Mark well, beloved, that this will be enough for those remaining who are Christians in name only to give in, having wanted the respect of the world all along. Not willing to believe when the Lord Jesus Christ said, They hated me, and they will hate you also. They will join the anti-Christian kingdom, and they will do so all the while using Jesus Christ as their reason. They will say, This worldwide kingdom is what Christ really wanted anyway, isn’t it? All man one, at peace with each other, with wealth aplenty for all. Look, no poverty in this kingdom! We are all one together. This was the point, wasn't it? At the end of the day we have to love and we have to accept. The church has to be a part of this world! We can't have the world not respect us, after all! We must join. We must bow.

God will sift His visible church like wheat on this last day. God’s true people will refuse to compromise while many show their true colours. God's own will have to go underground in this day and seek to survive apart from the life of society.¹

Cory Griess