William P Goff
February 8, 2020
One day a long time ago a Shepherd Boy was tending his master’s Sheep not far from the village. One day as he sat watching the Sheep, he remembered His Master had told him to call for help should a Wolf attack the flock and the Villagers would drive it away. So now, though he had not seen a Wolf, he ran toward the village shouting at the top of his voice, “Wolf! Wolf!”
As he expected, the Villagers who heard the cry dropped their work and ran in great excitement to the pasture. But when they got there, they found the Boy had shouted a false alarm.
A few days later the Shepherd Boy again shouted, “Wolf! Wolf!” Again, the Villagers ran to help him, only to find another false statement.
Then one evening as the sun was setting behind the forest a Wolf really did spring from the underbrush and fall upon the Sheep.
In terror the Boy ran toward the village shouting “Wolf! Wolf!” But though the Villagers heard the cry, they did not run or take any action. “We will not be fooled again,” they said. We’ve heard that cry too many times.
That night the Wolf killed a great many of the sheep.
Now this story is not true, it’s a fable, written by a Greek slave and story-teller named “Aesop” thought to have lived between 620 and 560 BCE. — He wrote a collection of stories designed to teach moral lessons.
From this fable, the idea of crying wolf developed. Interpretation= If you sound an alarm repeatedly when it is not true, people are bound to disbelieve it when it is true.
I came into COG in 1984 – at that time the pulpits were repeatedly warning that the end was upon us. They even reported how earthquakes were increasing back then.
But were they? Where exactly where we in Bible prophesy back then?
And more importantly, exactly where are we today in regard to end time prophesy and the return of our Savior? (Lots of speculation out there, but what does scripture tell us?)
Can we know for sure?
AMOS 3:7 Our Lord does nothing without revealing his secrets to His servant.
JOHN 16:13 Spirit of Truth will guide you into ALL Truth, even show you things to come.
Today when we watch or hear the news, we constantly hear words being used like “Unprecedented’ and “Apocalyptic” concerning current day events.
Unprecedented = without previous instance; never before known or experienced; unexampled or unparalleled.
Things are different now brethren, we need to know where we are in bible prophesy, and we need to know what is coming next, and what we need to be doing now.
I checked up on what the pulpits were proclaiming back then in the 80ies concerning earthquakes, and found that they were NOT increasing, but averaging about the same each year in frequency and magnitude. But I’m here to tell you brethren, things are different now. Earthquakes are now increasing.
And not only quakes, but currently “all” the super volcanoes around the globe (not most, not a few, not many, but “all” the super volcanoes around the world) are currently “expanding” which according to the scientists (and undisputed by them) is a sure sign of eruption.
Things are different now.
According to the USGS website, the number of earthquakes around the world of magnitude 6.0 or greater increased dramatically starting in the year 2000.
Notice something else:
(All Three Gospels specify earthquakes in divers places.)
Most modern translations of the bible say “divers” means “various” – which would also hold true – but some commentaries say that word “divers” means tropical, or along the coast.
If you look at a chart today of where the majority of earthquakes are taking place, they are along the coast lines of the continents.
Divers = Strong’s # 2596 meaning Down, or in a downward motion. Earthquakes today are placed into three categories:
A The ones that move the land mass downward,
B upwards
C Horizontally “Divers Place fits with class A downward, (class A is also considered by these earthquake surveys to be the most common or “normal” ones these days, which in turn is pushing lava up in Volcanoes)
Brethren, things are different now, and we need to be careful not to overlook the signs of the times in which we are NOW living.
(How about Wars?) Just a couple of years ago I was researching how many countries around the world were at war. The report was that there were 40 countries at either war or major conflict. But things are different now.
Now, according to the “Global Peace Index” there are only 10 countries around the world that are not at war or major conflict.
(How about Disasters and such?) They have also been increasing at an alarming rate. The recent wildfire season was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire season ever recorded in California, with a total of 8,527 fires.
When we hear of forest fire devastation, we normally hear of the area affected or burnt, measured in “thousands” of acres. But the forest fired destruction taking place now days (like the fires in Australia) are being measured in the “millions” of acres.
Times are different now brethren. (Including wild animal attacks which are also included in end time prophesy.) (Leviticus 26:22) (Deuteronomy 32:24) (Revelation 6:8.) According to “Nature Conservancy” (a global environmental non-profit.) They are reporting that Mountain lion attacks are up. There was the deadly attack outside Seattle last May, and then the woman who was killed on Mount Hood, in Oregon, in October, then the Colorado jogger who killed a cougar with his bare hands after being attacked in February, and now a mom on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, who saved her son from a hungry cat. The attacks from these cats have dramatically increased.
Lynn Cullens, executive director of the Mountain Lion Foundation (a conservation group) Says In the past 100 years, there have been fewer than two dozen fatal cougar attacks in North America. Before the current swarm of events, there hadn’t been a fatal attack on this continent since 2008. But now times have changed.
How about “Coyote” attacks?
Wildlife experts who have studied coyote attacks across Canada and the United States are genuinely stumped or baffled by recent coyote attacks.
These attacks just don’t match up with coyote behavior, said Stanley Gehrt, a wildlife biologist and professor at Ohio State University. “Coyotes, when they’re acting normally, should show fear of people,” But in most recent cases, the animals simply aren’t behaving as expected.
Coyote attacks are up in many (if not all) States. I recently read that a man killed a coyote with his bare hands after the animal attacked his 2-year-old son during a family walk in New Hampshire, according to USA Today.
According to Florida Fish and Wildlife data, more than 5,000 people statewide have contacted the FWC to report coyote sightings over the past four years, including complaints of pets being killed by coyotes. The number of reports in Central Florida have been growing each year now according to state records.
How about plagues? Now we have the Coronavirus out of China.
How about “pestilence?” Our Savior also mentioned pestilence as a sign. Currently hundreds of millions of locusts are swarming in E. Africa with unprecedented size and destructive potential. According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, eight E. African countries are currently being plagued by these locusts.
Also, Pakistan & India are currently being plagued by them.
(The report goes on to say) The Desert Locust, the most devastating of all locust species, are eating up crops in areas already susceptible to food and water shortages. There swarms have been measured to be of unprecedented size, some 40 miles long by 25 miles wide.
(One swarm stopped just short of one of our brethren’s property.)
Jenifer Laerke of the UN humanitarian office in Geneva, says that even one small swarm of these insects can consume enough food for 35,000 people in a single day. What we are witnessing in east Africa and across much of the Middle East right now is hard to believe. 360 billion locusts are eating everything in sight, and UN officials are warning that this plague of “Biblical proportions” could get many times worse over the next several months.
Australian town on lockdown after ‘biblical bat-tornado plague’ hits. On Wednesday night (February 5, 2020), Mayor Raymon Jayo reported that thousands of bats are currently overtaking a North Queensland town, reaching Biblical proportions.
The skies above Ingham, Queensland, are so thick with bats that the local hospital’s helicopters were grounded, and parents are afraid to send their kids to school. Aussies have been freaked out by this “unprecedented” ‘biblical plague’ of fruit bats.
How about famine?
According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition, 821 million were going hungry in 2017 or one in every nine people, New evidence continues to signal that the number of hungry people in the world is growing, according to “World Vision”
In Africa, alone hunger is increasing at an alarming rate. (And this report was made before this recent outbreak of the Desert Locusts) They state that 237 million sub-Saharan Africans are chronically undernourished and experiencing hunger. (Famine is also currently in every corner of Kenya.)
Even our local school stopped lunch program for lack of food to cook.
Many students arrive at school hungry with empty bellies, and go home for lunch and find little to no food for lunch. (We are constantly stopped by people asking for something to eat, can’t help them all, but we do help street kids.)
How about Christian persecution?
Open Doors International (A community of Christians who come together to support persecuted believers) report that in over 73 countries the level of persecution is now being measured as: extreme, very high, or high.
The number of persecuted Christians continues to grow year after year: “260 million Christians are experiencing high levels of persecution,” says the new 2020 report. This represents a 6% increase from 2019; then, 245 million Christians were persecuted and that was a 14% increase from 2018, when 215 million was the number. Most of what I am reporting here is not broadcast on the evening news. BUT it’s truly happening.
Even in Kenya Christians are being persecuted and killed. There is a terrorist group out of Somalia called “Al-Shabab” They like to pull busses over in remote areas and kill the Christian passengers. Famine, pestilence, earthquakes, wars, all these are nothing new, but what has changed is that they are all increasing now at an alarming rate. Things are different now brethren, signs are here now 24/7.
These current signs are now a milestone in prophetic events. Matthew 24/7 is a milestone. And 24/7 is what our Lord is bringing to our attention in Matthew 24/7 that’s where it says “Nation shall rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and famines, and pestilence, and earthquakes. That’s all happening 24/7 and its recorded in Chapter & verse 24/7 Then the very next Verse, verse 8 (8 the number that means “new beginning”) tells us about what is now beginning. Verse 8 “All these are the beginning of sorrows.” Brethren, according to the Scriptures, the current increase in all these signs tell us “All these are the beginning of sorrows.”
I believe this is where we are today in Bible Prophesy. And don’t be fooled here; don’t think that we are still a long way off from the return of Christ and the establishing of His Kingdom, because that word “sorrows” here is referring to “Labor Pains.” Travail. NOT ‘False Labor” That’s History. We are now in Labor. Kingdom of God is soon to be birthed. This labor, this Pain & Sorrows will increase around this world until Hard Labor comes and the Kingdom of God arrives.
My message today is not to scare you, my message is to try and get us to wake up and discern the times in which we are living. Times are different now. We are not living at the time that our Savior began to build His church, we are living at the time when He is going to complete the building of His church.
This is a time to be sure that we have our High Calling on the front burner of our lives. This is the time we need to be sure we are “complete” and “ready” for His return. There is a lot coming that is just ahead of us now, and it is going to transpire very rapidly and over a very short time. And we have to be careful that it doesn’t take us unawares!
That’s why our Lord reiterates numerous times in Matthew 24 & 25 at this juncture in time, this Milestone in time, to WATCH! Stay Awake Luke 21: 34 – 36 (“Cares” mean Worries Anxieties.)
Other translations say: worries – worldly worries – anxieties of day-to-day life – Don’t be too busy with worldly things –
MSG translation puts it like this:
But be on your guard. Don’t let the sharp edge of your expectation get dulled by parties and drinking and shopping. Otherwise, that Day is going to take you by complete surprise, spring on you suddenly like a trap, for it’s going to come on everyone, everywhere, at once. So, whatever you do, don’t go to sleep at the switch. Pray constantly that you will have the strength and wits to make it through everything that’s coming and end up on your feet before the Son of Man.”
Matthew 25 speaks of a “Midnight Cry” that is going to wake up the 10 sleeping virgins that are in God’s church. Does that include you and me brethren? Are we also asleep at this Juncture in time, this Milestone in time?
If we are asleep, we can attribute that to men, men in pulpits who have divided the COG into hundreds of different groups, men with different agendas. Brethren, don’t be fooled by men. Men have divided the church into hundreds of separate groups, BUT in God’s eyes, there are only “2” yes two groups out there, the “Wise” & the “Foolish” – the “Sheep” and the “Goats”.
When I look around at many of the splinter cog organizations (especially the larger groups) and listen to their messages, they seem to be oblivious to the signs of the times in which we are now living. They seem to feel that the return of the Messiah is far off. And many brethren love to hear their smooth words. Many don’t want to hear the words “end time” even mentioned these days. I mentioned “end time” a while back to a young father in God’s church, he cut me short and said” I don’t want to hear anything about “end times” I’ve been hearing that it’s the “end of the age” my whole life. Its doom and gloom, I want to live a while (he said) and enjoy life.
Sad to say, I think his attitude, is echoed amongst many in God’s church today. Not many want to hear Truth, they want fables, they want smooth words like prophesied in Isaiah 30:1 & 8-10 and 2 Timothy 4:3-4
Brethren, if the events that are currently taking place around the world were happening back in the 80ies, the church would have been going berserk, in anticipation of Christ’s return. But on the contrary, the church seems to be asleep and unshaken by these current dramatic prophetic events.
It is quite true that our Savior has been “Tarrying” But that tarrying is now coming to an end. And let us not be ignorant concerning WHY He has been tarrying: 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Times are different now brethren. Don’t be fooled by the “wolf crying” of the past. Let us wake up, let us discern the signs of the times in which we are NOW living!