Simple Faith

Bill Henry: We believe the Bible. We believe the Word of God, and we are wanting to live the Word of God, preach the Word of God, and go out and share the gospel as given in the Word of God. Not the gospel given by say, Calvary Chapel, or the gospel given by the Roman Catholic Church, or the Lutheran Church, or the Methodist Church, or the Baptist Church. No, what does God's Word say that the gospel is?

Guest (Male): Hello and welcome to Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, coming your way from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. As he does every weekend, today Pastor Bill will bring us a look at current events and how they relate to the soon return of Jesus Christ.

Specifically today, Pastor Bill's going to look at a trend we see around us of the falling away from God's Word and His truth. It's everywhere. It's in the media, in the classroom, and even more disturbing, it's in the church. Let's join Pastor Bill now for today's important message.

Bill Henry: Well hello and welcome once again to Simple Faith Radio. What a blessing it is to be with you here this weekend, our Friday, Saturday, and Sunday program. So many things happening in the world, and it's interesting, this last Sunday, normally once a year we do a prophecy update from the pulpit. I like to expose all the people to this.

It's interesting because we had some people, not just actually one couple, leave, and they were pretty upset apparently during our second service. We have three services on Sunday mornings. The ushers could hear the fellow saying, "I didn't come here for CNN." And it's interesting and honestly it's sad how we as Christians, and I don't know where they're at with the Lord and I pray they're doing well, but a lot of times we don't want to hear the news.

We don't want to hear what's happening in the world and look at it in the light of the scripture because we weren't just doing, "Hey, this is what's on the news," and we cover news from CNN to Fox News to Epoch Times, etc., etc. We go across the board and we try to find stories that are in line with the Word of God. What does God's Word say? Because Jesus definitely gave us things to look for, especially there in Matthew 24.

Matthew really 24, and then Mark 13, Luke 21, and even into Matthew 25. You can go back to Daniel, Ezekiel, so many things. Jude, Peter, Paul, all gave us things to look for. The Holy Spirit, as He was breathing through these men, gave us things to look for, for the second coming of Christ. And Matthew 24:42, Jesus said it's the good servant who will be looking for His return. So we should always be looking and watching the news.

Not crazily, as sadly so many people that it becomes a god or where we become filled with fear, and there's plenty to be fearful of. Let me tell you this, I had over 2,400 stories lined up to share with our people. 2,400 from last year. Obviously, we couldn't do that in the 50-minute time slot we had. So I had that, and it took me a day to cut that down to 1,800 or 1,700. It was 1,800.

And then by the end of that next day, the second day it took me, I got down to 1,200. And then by the third day, the day before the study was given, I was down to 762. We got through I think the guys told me in the back we got through 400. But that's how many stories, that was kind of what I was telling everybody, that's the main thing today in the prophetic stuff. And I don't go for the crazy stuff, like oh, there was one earthquake here and it's no big deal.

No, let's look at the whole trend. What's happening in this area? What's happening in this area that Jesus said to look for? What's happening in that area? And so we had this tsunami of things happening in the world that are showing us. From the falling away of the church, which clearly spoken of by Jesus, by Paul, described by Paul in Second Timothy chapters 3 and 4, spoken of by Peter as well at the end of Second Peter especially.

And so it's this whole thing where we see the falling away, as it was in the days of Noah and it was in the days of Lot. Now, there's a lot of spiritual things happening, a lot of demonic activity during those times, but there's also mainly the thing there that I get out of that is the sexual things that are happening, just the wickedness in the days of Noah, the wickedness of men and women in the days of Lot.

And so there's other things, and the lawlessness that would be happening, Jesus said, so we looked at lawlessness. We looked at the one-world order that's to come in Revelation 13. So many things happening today. But it's interesting, one of the things happening I think within the great falling away, and that's what I want to hone in on today, is that in the last days Jesus said this would happen.

In Matthew 24:8, these are going to come like birth pangs, that they come and they recede a little bit, then they come a little harder, more frequently, recede a little bit. I had somebody post on their Facebook page the other day, "When are things going to get back to normal?" And my friend was replying, Heidi St. John, she said, "Never." And that's true because we are never getting back to normal.

This is pretty much because as we see these things happen and it gets back to quasi-normal, but not like it was before. And this is I believe what's going to continue to happen like birth pangs. But one of the things Jesus said here is you're going to be hated by all nations for My name's sake. So this is more than just even the normal persecution we're promised in Matthew 5, say in other places, we'll be hated.

Hatred for Christians is going to grow in the last days. And then he said, and this is in Matthew 24:10, "And many will fall away." But here's the interesting thing, so a lot of us we focus on that part, many will fall away. And I believe firmly that just as Israel became a nation May 14, 1948, all kinds of prophecies began or were fulfilled that day and continue to be fulfilled today as Jews continue to pour into Israel from around the world.

Story after story from France, England, United States, Australia. Jews do not feel welcome in any of these countries anymore. The Netherlands, just on and on. So they're returning to Israel, some going to Israel for the first time. But God is returning them even if they don't want to. This is a movement of God because God said He was going to do this.

Again, it's not about the Jews, it's not about the Christians, it's always about Jesus Christ, that His word does not return void, that He will honor His word, which is yes and amen. He honors His word above His name, so He will do as He has said. But it's interesting, and then many will fall away. So this is talking about the church, that there's basically I believe it's the winnowing down between the wheat and the tares if you will.

The sheep and the goats are being separated because we can't tell sometimes if somebody's really a Christian or not. But God knows, right? And so as we see this many will fall away as we see these people who profess to be Christians and they're embracing homosexuality or transgenderism or many other sins and they're saying it, "Oh it's all Jesus is fine with it," and yet that's not what the Bible clearly teaches.

So many will fall away, but it's interesting because a lot of times we miss what Jesus says right after that. He says many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. It's interesting because it goes on to say and because lawlessness will increase the love of many will wax cold or grow cold. Think about a candle being blown out. The wax stays warm for a little while.

When I was an altar boy when I was a kid, we used to like if I got to be one of the ones who got to carry the bells was the best part. But if you got to carry a candle when you came in the back and blew it out, because they're big candles, you got to dip your fingers in the candle wax. But it would slowly cool off. We have to be so careful, beloved in Christ, with all the lawlessness happening.

And even within the great falling away of the church, that as we get attacked as the anger and the bitterness, as they're going to hate us it says here, and they're going to betray us. And so we see today, if you believe in the Word of God, we are being hated by quote-unquote other Christians. We believe in certain doctrines let's say with end times and eschatology, and people disagree.

All of a sudden it used to be that we can have a peaceable agreement, we're still brothers and sisters in Christ. Not today. Today it's getting more and more vehement, it's getting more and more mean. And be careful, my point is don't return that meanness. Look, I believe basically that Jesus Christ is going to rapture the church. I believe just what the Bible says, plainly put.

We don't take the preterist view that all these prophecies were fulfilled around AD 70, that honestly that silliness. You have to spiritualize away so many prophecies from the Old Testament to the New that to me it actually becomes kind of bad because you literally have to say all these things happened. The whole world, half the world or a third of the world didn't have the oceans turned to blood or all these other things. These things did not happen.

And so again, my point is this, I believe that Jesus Christ is going to come for His church. There's going to be the rapture of the church, the taking up of the church before the tribulation. And then sometime after, and again the rapture of the church is going to be just another sign of the ultimate return of Christ. Jesus will meet us in the clouds, take us where He is as He talked about in the Gospel of John, that He will come, go to prepare a place for you, I will come and take you where I am.

It's interesting because when Jesus returns, He comes to the earth, where the rapture is he's taking us to where he's going to be. So anyway, we believe that and then sometime after the rapture again another sign of the coming of Christ, the church will be taken up. There'll be many left behind that believed they were Christians but they were not Christians, they were just religious. They were those who call out, "Lord, Lord, didn't I do this in your name? Didn't I do that in your name?"

And so then they'll start, sometime after the rapture will be the tribulation and it'll be seven years. In Daniel's it's the 70th week of Daniel that still needs to take place. And so there'll be this seven-year period where mainly God is still dealing with the nation of Israel, but His wrath is poured out upon the whole earth. Then there'll be the abomination of desolation where the Antichrist, the first three and a half years lets everybody just kind of worship as they will.

The only two that are really, seem to be the ones really attacked would be those who actually come to Christ during that time, but also the Jewish people. But that's even going to still be the second half of the tribulation when he's going to demand, he's going to basically go into the temple in Jerusalem which will have been rebuilt at this time and defame it and demand that the whole world now worship him as God.

And so then everything's going to change and then that's when even more wrath of God comes upon him, upon the whole world, and dealing also still with the nation of Israel. And then after the end of the seven years that Christ will return, He'll return to the Mount of Olives and He's going to rule and reign upon the earth for a thousand years with the church. And so we're going to be blessed to be a part of that.

And then there'll be a great rebellion through the numbers of the sands of the sea of people rebelling against God, but just in a moment, in a flash they're all just wiped out. And then the earth will dissolve away basically, there'll be a new heavens, a new earth, a new Jerusalem will descend. And so it's a beautiful thing. So that's what we believe. And if you don't believe that, we're okay, I can still say that you're a Christian, but we just disagree.

But that's not happening anymore. If we support Israel like the Bible tells us to support Israel, all of a sudden now we're evil and we're wicked and this terrible stuff. But it's interesting because in Second Peter we read this in chapter 3 and verse 3: "To begin with you must know and understand this, that scoffers or mockers will come in the last days with scoffing. People who walk after their own fleshly desires and say, where is the promise of His coming?"

"For since the forefathers fell asleep all things have continued exactly as they did from the beginning of creation." And so it's interesting because we notice that these are people who profess Christ because they say for since the forefathers, literally in the Greek our forefathers fell asleep. And so they're claiming the Christians, whether it be Charles Spurgeon, whether it be Martyn Lloyd-Jones, whether it be Chuck Smith or others who have especially Chuck Smith, John Walvoord, all these just neat men of God that we preach the rapture of the church.

And so all of a sudden you're saying, well gosh see, things are continuing on just like this and that. All these signs happening, they're not signs, that's what they're saying. And you know, they've been saying the promise of His coming. Hal Lindsey started back in the 60s and 70s. Well, there's guys like J.C. Ryle back in the 1800s, a contemporary of Charles Spurgeon, and even Charles Spurgeon said that Israel was going to come back to the land because the prophecy said so, literally.

And so again, my point is this, we have scoffers today. They're not just scoffing though. It was scoffing, but now it's turned into hatred. You talk about people like Candace Owens, you talk about people like Tucker Carlson and others within the quote-unquote church. And they're now attacking people, calling what did Tucker Carlson said, if we actually believe what the Bible says, that's what in my words but he said that we have a virus, some kind of mind thing.

It's just wicked. There's no other things about it and but again it's what God said would happen. They would come after each other and that's what they're doing. Why? Because we're told here that they're walking after their own fleshly desires. You see, I don't know if you've noticed this, but it's more those who are in the church who actually believe the Bible and live by the Word of God that are the ones being attacked.

Now, I'm not talking King James Only or Textus Receptus Only and all this kind of stuff. I'm not King James Only. I love the King James Bible, but it's antiquated, it's not perfect as I've heard some people say. I like the Textus Receptus more than the others which kind of evolved into what's called the Majority Text, a lot more than the Byzantine and other things. I've done my homework, I know these things.

But my point is this: we believe the Bible. We believe the Word of God and we are wanting to live the Word of God, preach the Word of God and go out and share the gospel as given in the Word of God. Not the gospel given by say, Calvary Chapel, or the gospel given by the Roman Catholic Church or the Lutheran Church or the Methodist Church or the Baptist Church. No, what does God's Word say that the gospel is?

And we go out and we call people to repentance and new life in Jesus Christ. We call them to believe in the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross for our sins. We believe that God raised Him on the third day. We believe in Jesus to be the Lord and Savior of our lives. That's the gospel because then we're then born again into the kingdom of God and we're born anew in our spirits are regenerated and brought to life.

And so all of a sudden the things of the spirit make sense, the things of the Word of God make sense to us. We're going to hunger now after reading the Word of God. And not just reading, but knowing the Word of God and obeying the Word of God because we know the God of the Word. This is His Word. They're alive. It's living, these 66 books sharper than any two-edged sword.

And so again be careful what you get caught up into today. Do your homework, be a Berean. There's a fellow named Chuck Missler, I used to do worship for Chuck back in the 90s, was one of the guys that was blessed to do that. Sweet man, but he was one of the most brilliant guys I've ever known. And but I just one of the things he'd always say, be a Berean, check everything I say to the Word of God. And I say the same thing today.

Look, don't just believe me. Well this guy's on the radio so he must have it all together, everything he must say is true. No, go to the Word of God and see whether these things be true or not, as we see in the book of Acts that the Bereans did. They listened to Paul and said, well let's go check out the Bible, God's Word, and let's see if what he says is true, what he says is biblical. And these things are biblical.

And so to come back to the Word of God. And we, if this is you, you do believe the Word of God and you are heart-telling others, you're already noticing a lot of churches, especially let's say after COVID and all the spiritual things that happened during that time. You come back to church and my pastor's not preaching the Word like he used to. Matter of fact, he's kind of soft on sin. Hey, they're actually having a woman teach on Sunday mornings over men and women, just like the Bible says not to do.

Because they become extra-biblical. Well, you know that's misogynistic and that's old-fashioned and that's the old-time religion. Well, give me that old-time religion, give me that old-time religion. It was good enough for Jesus and it's good enough for me. Now, I'm not talking about the legalism, I'm not talking about man. God's Spirit is alive. We have an abundant life in Jesus Christ. That is available to every single believer in Jesus, no matter what we've been through.

I look at Paul in his life, I mean he was whipped and stoned and had everything taken away from him, near death several times, even died for a time and went to the third heaven he talks about it. Saw things that would be he said illegal for him to tell us about. Look, and he still had that great hope, that certain hope in Jesus Christ.

And so as we are continued and I think the persecution's going to get greater and greater, and not just from the world which it is. We see all over the world that Christianity has already been the number one persecuted religion for all recorded time that we've had recorded. But it's even getting worse. And it's going to get worse and worse here in the first-world countries, quote-unquote.

And a lot of it's going to come from people that call you or used to call you a brother or sister in Christ. It's a wicked thing, it's a sad thing. These people have deluded themselves. And by the way, don't be deluded. You can't say you love Jesus and then hate the Jews for example. And sadly so many are doing that today. Well they're ruling the world. That's such hogwash.

Those are such lies from the pit of hell. Oh well you haven't seen the YouTube stuff I've seen. Yeah you're right I haven't and I won't. I've seen some of the garbage and it's all a bunch of garbage. Oh well but this is quoted from so-and-so and they take scriptures out of context. I always ask people, where are you going to church? And 98 percent of those people never come back and tell me they're going to church.

They're not even being held accountable for their false doctrines and believing this false junk and so many other lies. But but again, here's the thing: if you love Jesus, you're going to love even the sinner. You're going to be able to love those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who despitefully use you. Why? Because we're in Christ.

And look even if the Jews were ruling the world, which the Bible tells us that Satan's by the way the fallen ruler of this world for now, but even if it were the Jews, we'd still, we're still commanded to love them and bless them. Not spread lies and gossip and rumor and hate them. That's wickedness. But that's just one thing. As Christians, be careful as we are hated, don't return the hate.

No by the grace of God we return hate with love. By the grace of God we return terrible words with words of blessing. By the grace of God we walk and continue in the spirit and not walking in the flesh.

Guest (Male): Stay with us because Pastor Bill will be right back with some very encouraging words for us as we face the challenges of being a Christian in the year 2026. This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you Pastor Bill's weekend prophecy update.

It's our sincere hope and prayer that you've been blessed by the words you heard from Pastor Bill today. If you'd like to hear today's message again, go to oneplace.com and search for Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry. We also have a large number of Pastor Bill's Sunday and Wednesday messages archived at simplefaith.org. That's our website. Just go there and click the media tab and you'll find a huge archive of Pastor Bill's past messages.

And if you'd like to contact us, just click the contact tab at our website again at simplefaith.org. And there's a tab at the top of the homepage where you can also send in a prayer request. And if you'd like to call us, our phone number is area code 833-BYGRACE. That's 833-294-7223. And if you'd like to write us, we love hearing from you that way as well. Our mailing address is Post Office Box 55, Battle Ground, Washington 98604.

At Simple Faith Calvary Chapel, we have three services on Sunday morning at 8:00, 9:45, and 11:30. We also have a great time of studying God's Word on Wednesday night at 7:00. For more information and directions, go to simplefaith.org. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Now to bring today's program to a close, here's Pastor Bill.

Bill Henry: Just remember, I just want to encourage you today: you're not alone in these days. You're not crazy. Jesus said these times would come and it's all coming together and all for His glory. But remember you're His child. Be in the Word like you've never been, be in prayer like you've never been, be fasting and be in fellowship and be serving and be tithing and giving and be going out and sharing the gospel, making disciples like never before. Time is short.

Whether that's another day or two or whether that's another 50 years, we're still to be having our hands at the plow but watching for the return of our Lord Jesus. Lord bless you, may He keep you, and as we like to say, we'll see you here, there, or in the air. God bless you.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today, be sure to join us next time here on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, brought you by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington.