The Vacuum

There’s a saying, “Can’t see the forest for the trees.” It means an abundance of details can obscure the larger picture they are all a part of. Such is the case with current events. We are inundated with news from both the domestic and international fronts that seems disparate and disconnected. Stepping back and observing them from a Biblical perspective, there is a consistent theme tying them together.

The final pieces are being set on the stage for the End Times. 

Consider . . .

Global Political Chaos

The quality of political leadership across the world is abysmal. The Canadian, British, Israeli governments are struggling to find their center. The partisanship of US politics threatens to tear it apart.  There is even talk in some quarters of a new Civil War between Red and Blue States. Japan, with the world’s oldest monarchy in its Emperor’s Chrysanthemum Throne, faces an uncertain future. Middle East leaders keep only a tenuous grip on power. The democracies of Europe face regular upheavals in wildly shifting electorates swinging from a far-left to the radical-right.

What to glean from this is the political fragility of our world and the gapping leadership vacuum across the board. It is as though the world is being prepared to receive someone, anyone, who will step forward with a clear vision of a better day and a workable plan to get there. Enter: The Antichrist.

Geo-political Realignment

A picture appeared in the world press some time ago of three men shaking hands in front of the flags of their respective countries; Russian president Vladimir Putin was in the middle, flanked by Turkish president Erdogan and Iranian president Hassan Rouhani. The picture was extremely provocative in light of the prophecy of Ezekiel 38 which speaks of an end times collation led by those three countries that makes a surprise attack on Israel. This is the first time in history when these three countries have had warm relations with each other. The relationship between Russia and Iran has run hot and cold for centuries, usually cold. But Turkey and Russia have been classic opponents in a game of brinkmanship over control of the Middle East. As President Erdogan’s Islamist government has disconnected from Modern Turkey’s traditional appeal to Europe toward a more Asian orientation, Russia has courted them. Turkey’s military, by many accounts the real power in Turkish politics, has now shifted its supply from American to Russian arms. A planned sale of American F-35 fighter jets was suspended as Turkey purchased cutting-edge Russian SU-57’s and SU-35’s.

Moral Chaos / Identity Dysfunction

Maybe most troubling of all is the radical redefinition of what it means to be human taking place across the world. The LGBTQ+ revolution isn’t just a “Western” phenomenon. It has taken root in the Far East and those Asian nations seeking to emerge onto the world stage as viable players in the global economy and community. Gender, understood by civilizations and societies for thousands of years as synonymous with biological sex, has been wrested from that verity and made into a mere social construct to be decided by each individual. Gender is now so fluid the individual may even flow between a multitude of genders within the scope of a single day. Political correctness demands that before addressing someone, we ask what pronoun they desire to be referred to by.

Illustrative of this moral insanity is the case of seven-year-old James Younger whose story you can read in The Texan. Caught in a bitter custody battle, a Texas court ruled in favor of sole custody being given to James’ mother who supports his transition to being a girl named Luna. James’ father contends that when James is with him, he chooses to identify as a boy. The court, after contentious testimony from both sides in the debate, awarded the mother sole custody and demanded the father affirm by all means possible his son’s transition to being a girl. Such legal enforcement of a scientifically dubious but socially-hip proposition as transgenderism indicates how far the worldview governing modern society has shifted from a Judeo-Christian worldview to a secular mindset. 

The moral chaos and rank injustice that will ensue from Transgenderism’s paradigm-exploding impact on what it means to be human will unravel the ties that make society possible. History has already shown, when everyone does what is right in their own eyes, oppression and ruin are the result. 

Nature abhors a vacuum. Something always moves to fill it. If a Holy Spirit revival doesn’t arrive to rescue us, a spirit of darkness will appear offering a new order that will appear a solution, but is in fact a prelude to hell.

Lance Ralston

Lance is the founding and lead pastor of Calvary Chapel Oxnard where he has served since 1982. Lance & David Guzik co-pastored the church for six years before David planted a church in a nearby community.

Lance & his wife Lynn were married in 1980 and have three adult children and five grandchildren. Lance loves teaching the Bible, History, and Leadership. He holds Masters-of-Arts in Biblical Studies and Ministry.
Lance serves as a chaplain for both the Oxnard and Port Hueneme Police Departments and enjoys backpacking, wood-working, working out, gardening, home improvement projects, reading, and graphic design.

The popular Communio Sanctorum: History of the Christian Church podcast can be found in both audio and video at the Into His Image website along with a growing inventory of Lances teaching.