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Signs of the End Times: Sin, Separation, Lies, and Israel Part I by Mel C. Montgomery Some years ago the Lord began to deal with me concerning signs of the end times. He took me to some scriptures and signs about which I've never heard anyone preach very much. What He showed me explained many events that were occurring at the time and that have taken place since. I believe His Word gives us clear direction, shows us what to expect, and what we need to be careful about in these End Times. The Lord took me to His words in the Book of Luke: "And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. " Luke 17:26-30. Whenever I read this before the Lord pointed it out to me, I always thought, "Well, that passage isn't much help. What is so insightful about this? They ate and drank, bought and sold. Nothing unique about that." But oh my friends, what occurred in the days of Noah and Lot this is one of the most profound signs the world has ever seen, and it is being played out right before us today. Stop and think about it for a minute. What was different about the days of Noah and Lot? What happened at those two points in history that has never happened at any other point in history except then and now in the End Times? I didn't see anything unusual about those two specific periods of time until the Lord began to point it out to me by His Spirit. Let's look first at what happened in the days of Noah: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. . . And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth. . . But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." Gen. 6:5,6,8. We need to understand from this account that sin had reached a very advanced stage. If you've been a believer for any length of time at all, you've heard a number of preachers preach about the greatness of sin in Noah's day. However, sin and sinners have always been around. Even horriffic and widespread sin has been common in the earth. But in Noah's day sin had reached a point that it had never reached before. There was something additional here. Something beyond just "great" sin. Something that Christ pointed to as a "sign." I believe the different element is revealed to us in the building of the ark. Let me ask you, "Who built the ark?" Well everyone knows, the answer: Noah and his sons. Why? Why them alone? Weren't there unemployed men back then? Weren't there day laborers who would work in exchange for a meal or two? Of course there were. Then why didn't they help Noah and work in exchange for food or payment of some sort? Goodness, today even the vilest of sinners, if unemployed and hungry, will jump at the chance to do some temporary work if it will bring them in a bit of money. Sinners today join construction crews and build churches. I even know a Jehovah's Witness who contracted to do the construction clean-up work for a major addition to a Southern Baptist Church. Most people do not allow religious beliefs to stand in the way of making money! Why did Noah and his sons have to build the Ark alone, as far as we can tell, without the help of a single sinner? I believe the answer is because something had happened in that day that had never happened before. Separation. The righteous and the wicked have always existed and labored together on the earth. But by Noah's day, that scripture tells us that among the wicked, the thoughts of their hearts were "only evil continually." Only evil. Continually. I believe that by this time, the wicked had become so wicked, that the righteous and the wicked had separated into two completely different camps that had nothing to do with the other. There is nothing else that is unusual about this time. Sin, even great sin, has always been around. Eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, has been common throughout history. Nothing unusual at all about any of that. None of that gives you something from which you could derive a "sign." But at no other time in history do you have a major building project going on, including the possibility of making profit or being employed, with not one sinner interested in working in exchange for food or payment. I believe this indicates that in Noah's day the relations between the righteous and the wicked had broken down to the point that there were absolutely no dealings between the two camps. The movies got it wrong! Every time you see a movie about Noah and the ark, you see sinners gathered around the ark, mocking Noah. But the Bible gives us no indication that such mockery happened. The sinners were so separate from the righteous that they didn't even show up to mock the work of God! The separation was complete--long before the final day of destruction came. You see a similar situation in Lot's day. He was living in Sodom, which along with Gomorrah, were the two most wicked cities in history. God visited Sodom, judged it, and sent angels to deliver Lot and his family out of the city before destroying it. In the case of Sodom, as with the Earth in Noah's day, you see that sin had developed to a very advanced stage. In Noah's time the hearts of sinners were described as "only evil continually." God described the level of the sin in Sodom as "very grievous." Gen. 18:20. But I would return to my previous observation that there has always been sin, even great sin, even "very grievous" sin at times in the world. Look at the great mass murderers of history. Hitler and his concentration camps butchered millions. Stalin starved millions of Russians to death. Mao murdered millions. Pol Pot killed two million Cambodians. These were times of very grievous sin, yet Christ did not return. What was different about Lot's day? Separation. Although there was great sin under Hitler, and many Germans cooperated with the Nazis, not all did. We see in the lives of Corrie Ten Boom, and in the account of Anne Frank's family, there were Germans who secretly hid Jews and worked for righteousness. Some of these weren't even born-again Christians. They were just humane people with the courage to do what they believed was right. Some were rank sinners, but they hated the darkness of the Nazis. So although sin was great in those days, there was still some humanitarian sinners around. There was still an overlapping of the camps of the righteous and the wicked. Sinners and saints both fought together to bring down Hitler. In the days of Lot that was not so. When the angels came to deliver Lot, the men of Sodom were so saturated with sin that the only response they could give to the appearance of holy angels of God was to attempt to rape them. Two men had evidently pledged to marry Lot's daughters, but they didn't seem too serious about their pledge. When Lot told them the Lord was going to destroy the city, and he was leaving and taking with him his wife and the daughters to whom these men were engaged, they didn't follow or care. No one left Sodom except Lot, his wife, and two daughters. Think about it--people were the same back then as they are now. If a prominent person in your locale suddenly announced that God was going to destroy the place at any moment, and fled with his family out of your the area, wouldn't at least one person in your town wander out after them to see what was going on? Certainly. However, no one came out after Lot and his family. Not one person followed, even to mock him. This shows to me that like in Noah's day, the righteous and the wicked had separated into two completely different camps that had nothing to do with each other. I believe the scriptures indicate that the sign that Christ was pointing to from Noah's and Lot's days was the total separation of the righteous and the wicked--long before the final day of destruction came. This was not the only time that Christ gave separation as a sign of the End Times. Examine with me the Parable of the Tares of the Field: "Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. . . Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field." "He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." Mat. 13:24-43. Notice in that parable that the first stage of the harvest is that the angels would be sent forth to gather the wicked, "the tares," into bundles. The process is progressive. More and more tares gathered and bound together. More and more obvious difference between the children of light and the children of darkness. Until eventually the separation will be complete, with the righteous shining like the sun, and the wicked cast into fire. A few verses later, Christ continues emphasizing the separation that will occur in the end times between the righteous and the wicked: "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Mat. 13;47-50. When I used to read these scriptures, I would think of the Rapture, the "catching away" of the church. But these Scriptures are not speaking of the Rapture in which the righteous will be taken away from the earth. This is speaking of severing "the wicked from among the just"--taking place BEFORE the Rapture. You saw the same separation take place BEFORE the flood of Noah and BEFORE the destruction of Sodom. Four times Christ indicated the righteous and the wicked would separate before the final conclusion of the age. Yet, I've never heard anyone preach this fact. But it explains much that is taking place in our day. The two camps, and what they are being separated unto are as follows: The Righteous The Wicked Separated unto: Separated unto: Truth Lies Light Darkness Holiness Sin Clarity Confusion Humility Ego Serving others Serving self The Fruit of the Spirit The Works of the Flesh Word of God Opinions of men Spirit of Truth Father of Lies Everlasting Life Eternal Death Heaven Hell The righteous and the wicked are on two different roads, going to two different places. We are preparing to join He Who Is Truth. They are unknowingly preparing to join the Father of Lies. And the closer we get to the return of Christ, the greater the distance is going to be between these diverging roads. The distance will grow so great between us and the wicked, that it will be identical to the days of Noah and Lot. There will be little if any fellowship between us and unrepentant people who simply do not want God. A great change is coming before Christ returns. As we submit to this separating process, obeying God's word, judging ourselves, putting away the sin "that doth so easily beset us," you know what is going to happen? We are going to shine with more and more spiritual light and glory, until as Christ put it: "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kindgom of their Father." At the same time, the wicked will sink into deeper and deeper darkness and sin until "as it was in the days of Noah and Lot" their thoughts will be "only evil continually," and their level of sin will be "very grievous." When the Trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more, and the saints of God rise up to meet the Lord in the air, it will be the same as when the flood came and when the fire fell--the righteous and the wicked will have nothing in common with each other. What the Lord Said to Me I was in Tulsa at one of Elizabeth Sloan's Holy Ghost meetings a few months back, and as the Holy Ghost began moving in the services, the Lord reminded me in my spirit of the truths I'm sharing with you. He had shown me these things years ago, and I had seen the separating process continue between the righteous and the wicked down to that day. In that meeting the Lord told me two things by the Holy Spirit and instructed me to share them with others. First of all He said in my spirit: "The separation has already begun." My friends, this thing has been going on since the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell and Christians began sharing the Good News of Christ's death and resurrection. All throughout these centuries, God has been inviting people into His kingdom, and separating the righteous from the wicked--spiritually. The separation has already begun, and I am convinced that it has been accelerating in the last few years. Secondly He said in my spirit: "Let My Spirit separate you." When we sense something God is doing, we are going to be tempted to get into the flesh and try to do something ahead of His timing. Don't do that. Just realize that slowly, steadily, God is separating us from the wicked. It is similar to when you have two plants growing side by side, and you decide to uproot them, separate them, and plant them somewhere else. When you first pull them out of the ground, all you see is two plants sticking up out of a ball of dirt. Then you begin to gently knock away the dirt, and you see that the roots of the two plants are impossibly tangled together. So you get a hose and begin washing away the dirt in which the roots are entangled. In that same manner, the Lord is washing the dirt away from us: ". . . even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." Eph. 5:25. Through the preaching and teaching of His word, the Lord is carefully untangling our roots, and slowly pulling us apart from the wicked, and He has great patience in doing so. Don't get ahead of the Lord and say, "Martha! I'm cancelling our membership in the PTA! That's all of the devil anyway!" No. Don't do anything drastic. Don't start assuming that everything around you is filled with the Devil. Just realize that as you submit to God and to the leading of His Spirit, you will find yourself less and less interested in certain worldy activities and associations. Brace yourself, because you will find them having less and less interest in you and the relationship you have with your God. It will get to the point, for example, where the sports TV programs that you used to watch for hours, will become less and less interesting, until you'll reach the place where once you've watched them for a few minutes, you'll be ready to turn them off. You simply will have no interest in them. So it will be with many activites that are not overtly wrong. They just aren't centered in some way around God, and you'll like them less and less. I believe I am to specifically directed also to encourage you to commit yourself with an even greater commitment to your local church. Remember Paul's instruction: " Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." Hebrews 10:25. The closer we get to the Day of the Lord's return, the more we will find ourselves assembling together with our fellow brethren. Why? Because we need each other. We will find fellowship with worldly people and worldly events less and less sustainable. We simply won't want to be around them, and they definitely won't want to be around us. Realize also that you need your pastor. If he is truly called of God, then God has put within him an unction to lead you. As the coming of the Lord approaches, and the Holy Spirit further separates us unto Himself, your pastor is going to perceive things and know things a step or two ahead of you. Therefore, when he is taking steps to lead you into holiness and into a closer relationship with God, you will need to follow his lead and not just automatically question everything he does. We are going to see times in which the pastor we are following will say something like, "We are getting too worldly in this [certain area]. I want us all to fast and pray for 24 hours [or some other period of time] repent, and put this [situation] behind us." And when those times come, you need to realize that your pastor is looking out for your soul. He knows that one day before much longer he will have to give an account for your spiritual life, and he wants to be able to do so in joy, and not in grief. So join in and submit to his leadership as he is leading you closer to holiness and godliness in Jesus Christ. You see, the separation process that has begun, and that is accelerating is a part of our being prepared for His coming. Our spiritual ancestors, the Christians of the generations before us, were much more aware of the separation process than we are. They had a strong revelation of the holiness of God, and the need to be spiritually ready when Christ comes. They used to sing songs like, "Are You Ready For the Judgment Day?" "I'll See You in the Rapture Some Sweet Day" and "The King is Coming!" The chorus of one such song said: "I'm getting ready to leave this world. I'm getting ready for those gates of pearl. I'm keeping my garments white, Watching both day and night, I'm getting getting ready to leave this world!" Have you noticed that we don't sing those kinds of songs anymore? Do you know why we don't? Because they are no longer true of this generation of Christians. We are not getting ready to leave this world. We're not ready at all for the gates of pearl. Most Christians are making no effort whatsoever to keep their garments white from the stain of sin. The last thing on our minds is leaving this world. Yet, we are facing that very prospect. Our long-awaited King is finally coming, and the Spirit of God is separating us and preparing us for His coming. And the more we separate from sin, the brighter our lights are going to shine. In Part II I will share with you a warning that the Lord has shown me both from His word and by His Spirit. Continued in Part II (To be posted soon)
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