Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.  Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD.

Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.  Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.  The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.  The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.  So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more (Joel 3:9-17).

This is a very comprehensive prophecy, and daunting to try to explain.  Yet it is one of the most important prophecies for those of us who have managed to live unto these final days of the Grace Age.

It begins with a call to the champions of Christianity to wake up to what God is doing, and begin to prepare for the impending, fierce attack which will be brought against us as we approach the momentous advent of the coming of our Lord.  It is the “midnight cry” of Matthew 25:1-13.  The disciples of Jesus asked Him, “When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world” (Matt. 24:1-3. As in the days of Noah, 2 Peter 3:6).

In Matthew 25, Jesus told them that, at the end of the world, all of Christianity would fall into a deep sleep, and that a cry would be made “at midnight” to arouse the “Mighty men of Christianity,” and begin to prepare them for the coming battle which will be engaged before “The Bridegroom” shall come.  We must get hold of God with our Bibles open, and find out what He is doing, and what we can do to prepare to meet the Bridegroom.

A series of traumatic events is in store for an unsuspecting Christian community.  Gentile Christianity must hear “the midnight cry” of Matthew 25, and awake, and be gathered together, and be judged (although not yet punished).  He called it the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the “valley of judgment.”  We will also go through another, inescapable challenge in another valley, “The Valley of Decision” (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43).  We will all be given the opportunity to trust in Jesus for every aspect of our lives, or to put our trust in the government of the world.  The prophecy is very clear; we will experience that valley when “The day of the LORD is near.”

When the prophet said that “The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining,” he meant that the gospel message of redemption will cease to be preached before the glory of the coming of our King shall be seen.  Iniquity abounds and the love of many has already waxed cold.  Many ministers shall withdraw out of fear of persecution, others will withdraw because their source of money has dried up.  Then there are those men and women of God who wisely see the change of the time, and are beginning to seek God for understanding of the message of this time, and of the “Day of the Lord.”

It will be an event reminiscent of the event spoken of in Acts 4:31-33.  From the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist, until that glorious manifestation of the presence of God, the primary message of the ministers of God was, “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.”  But that day, the emphasis changed, because those noble saints had entered into a new era in which they needed to be prepared for the inevitable death of the saints, even death by martyrdom.  The light of the “gospel of regeneration” did not become dim, or go out, but the entrance of a new element in the development of the Christian era required a change of emphasis in the overall message.

However, in this case, the prophet has told us that, just before the coming of “the day of the Lord’s wrath,” the light of “Redemption and Regeneration” will go out completely, and be replaced by the light of “Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet Him.”  She that is “spiritually called Jerusalem:” the Bride the Lamb’s Wife must make herself ready before the Bridegroom comes (Rev. 19:7).  “Then shall Jerusalem be holy,” as Joel the prophet declared (Joel 3:17; Rev. 21:1-11).

All of the ministers of our Lord and Savior must shake themselves out of the sleep which we have been in for so many years, and begin to preach the coming of our King.  We have been working a spiritual work of “plowing and pruning,” but the time has come for God’s army to come together “in the unity of the faith,” and fulfill the prophecy of Joel 3:1-13.

  The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but the war must be engaged, and that without political power, or the power of any carnal weapons.  We will not, however, be able to do it by any means unless we “all come in the unity of the faith,” as Paul said in Ephesians 4.

Even as I write, the enemies of God are preparing for the destruction of Christianity from off the face of the earth.  It is lamp-trimming time.  It is time to beat (our) plowshares into spiritual swords, and (our) pruning hooks into spiritual spears.  We must be able to say ‘no’ to the enemy, and to know when to do it.  Did not the Lord say, “Who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?” (Jer. 49:19 and Jer. 50:44)?  Jeremiah made the same assertion twice, in those two chapters, to emphasize the fact that God would indeed reveal to His messenger the time of the coming of our King.

When Israel came out of Egypt “a nation, great, and mighty, and populous,” they eventually took the land of promise with their swords and spears.  Later, when the Grace Age was ushered in by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the time changed and the battle became a spiritual one.  When that happened, Christianity fulfilled Isaiah 2:4, and “beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.  Those apostles and prophets became “husbandmen” for the Lord.  Since then, Christianity has had great effect around the world without using coercion.

When the temple was destroyed in A.D. 70, all that was left of “Israel” was “Spiritual Israel:” those born again, born of the Spirit. 

Almost 2,000 years have passed since that great day, and the time has changed once again.  In the last three or four decades, there has been a great effort exerted, by the enemies of truth, to prevent anything deeper than “Jesus saves” from being preached.  Also, in the background, the “Antichristian” religions of the world have been forcing their doctrine – their religions – upon the whole world by  the threat of imprisonment, or even death. 

The time has now come for Christians to learn enough of the Bible to be able to withstand the enemy’s assault, with truth and faith.  I do not know what our “Den of lions” or our “Furnace of fire” will be, but I know that the “Powers that be” have set September/October of 2010 for the transition into the World Government.

We cannot – we will not – foolishly try to resist the world powers with our own wisdom, or our own carnal strength.  We must find out from the Word of God what must be done to survive, and be “alive and remain” unto the coming of our King.  Joel said, “Wake up the mighty men.”  What do these men look like?  Who are they?  Once in a while I hear a faint voice on the radio, or the television, or the internet, but it is high time for men, like the apostle Apollos, who are mighty in the Scriptures, to rise up in fervency of spirit to begin to seek out men of like passions, and, together, humbly ask the question, “What shall we do that we might work the works of God?” (John 6:28).

God had anticipated all of these things, and is now preparing for the fulfillment of Ezekiel 20:33-38.  God is allowing the enemy to prepare an assault upon Christianity which will shake us loose from our smug confidence in “our religion.”

Ezekiel prophesied saying, “As I live saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you: and I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, and there will I plead with you face to face.”

God will soon allow something very frightening to occur in the land which will scare the children of God into making an effort toward finding the truth, and pleasing God.  Fear of God, and of the prevailing events, will make us willing to “pass under the rod,” and be brought “into the bond of the covenant.”

With great expectation, we anticipate the day when the Lutherans, the Presbyterians, the Episcopalians, the Baptists, the Methodists, the Holiness, the Pentecostals, and all of the rest, will overcome their prejudices, and with unfeigned love of God, and love of the brethren, unite together in those things which pertain to the redemption of mankind, and forebear one another in those things which pertain to the conscience only.

Only then will we be allowed to go in unto the marriage of the Lamb.