A terrible story out of Tenerife

A British woman was attacked and decapitated in a supermarket in Los Cristianos on the holiday island of Tenerife yesterday afternoon. Witnesses said the deranged man used a large knife or machete he picked up in the supermarket to stab and decapitate the 62-year-old grandmother, a resident on the island. He then ran out into the street covered in blood, carrying his victim’s head and telling passers-by, “This is my treasure”.

In another news story of the incident, the mayor of the popular resort town where it occurred said, "the incident was 'the most horrific crime to hit the resort in recent years',

See, there's those superlatives again. Every day we read of the "worst" drought..."biggest tornado"..."epic flood"..."Most horrific crime"...yet each week the superlatives are surpassed by yet ANOTHER, more horrific crime, a worse epic flood, a more ferocious tornado... In truth, things are off the charts now. Natural disasters, crime, economics, we are entering uncharted territory, and we have no more words to describe these events.

Read these then I'll put up some scriptures of what this attack makes me think of in the bible. These following phrases are from the news stories of the attack. The photo below of of the man's arrest:

--had a history of violent behaviour
--the attacker spent most days sitting 50 yards from the scene of the attack 'talking to himself and gesticulating wildly'.
--'He was very disturbed and intimidating, the sort of person you would cross the road to avoid,'
--He was a bizarre individual who was known to police
--had a history of intimidating passers-by on the street
--He knocked a stranger's teeth out on the street.
--the killer lived in a 'semi-abandoned' house
--He was not the smartest looking of guys and not well groomed,
--the man was muttering and shouting

now read these excerpts from Luke and Mark:

--And when He came out onto the land, He was met by a man from the city who was possessed with demons;
--who had not put on any clothing for a long time,
--was not living in a house, but in the tombs.
--and he was bound with chains and shackles
--kept under guard, and yet he would break his bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.
--no man could bind him, no, not with chains: because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.
--And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

I do not know if this guy was demon-possessed or if he was on drugs or merely psycho. I am saying that there are similarities in the known and observed behavior of this man and the Gadarene demoniac. That the bizarre demonic or demonic-like behaviors are not relegated to the distant past when Jesus walked the earth. It happens now, too. The demon world is very real, though not usually seen. When Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 that people in the end of days would be brutal, we tend to sanitize our own epoch and not really understand true brutality. Life was cheap in biblical tims: witness the robber victim that the Samaritan helped who was lying bleeding in the road as people walked on by (reminds of me of the MARTA bus driver that dragged the elderly woman 60 feet and then just drove around her), or from the bible Lazarus the poor man dying by the side of the road of the rich man's house, dogs licking his sores. Christians were being martyred in increasingly evil ways. They knew brutality, they saw it every day.

There was real brutality then, but just because it is the new Millennium now and we can dwell in air conditioned houses in subdivisions does not mean that same kind of brutality is absent from the earth. It is not. We tend to think we live in a sanitized world because we don't see the kind of brutality the 1st century Christians saw, or even people in violent impoverished nations do today. But Satan is still given charge of this domain and he is the most brutal. And after the Restrainer is removed, brutality will be unleashed that will make the Tenerife beheading look like a picnic. That is because the antichrist will be allowed to come to full iniquity at his appointed time.

It is hard to comprehend, I know. "And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." (John 1:5) Just as the demons cannot comprehend the Light, we cannot comprehend this kind of darkness. But it is soon coming to that as the normal state of things, and they will get a lot worse after we are gone and the antichrist rises to full evil.

The grace to cling to is two-fold. We are saved by God's mercy, and we will be dwelling with Him soon! We have the Light, it is in us and nothing can snatch us out of His hand, ever. And second, the people who will be here after the rapture can turn to the Light. They can appeal to Him for forgiveness, and be with Him in the Light when it is all over. "In him was life, and that life was the light of men." Jesus said, "I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." (John 12:46) Jesus' power and love reaches all of us, it could reach even that psycho man in Tenerife: as it had reached the Gadarene demoniac: "Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind." Nothing is impossible with God!! Praise Him forever!



Comments

  1. A little off topic but wanted to ask a question. You and I follow the same doctrine and I would appreciate your opinion. I have felt led to follow end time events and to tell everyone that I can that Jesus is coming soon. I'm so into it that when my husband and I were talking about moving, I thought we should stay where we are because investing in a new home won't do us any good because we won't be here (on earth) much longer. I still pay my bills and retirement plan of coarse, but the feeling of immanence is influencing my decisions on long-term issues. I don't think there's anything wrong with that as long as my decisions are based on Biblical fact and the leading of the Holy Ghost. But my family and friends (who are saved) just do not feel that sense of immanence that I do. I'm starting to doubt myself. Am I nuts?

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  2. Anonymous,

    I can appreciate the stresses of a married couple or a family at slightly or greatly different stages of belief in a certain doctrine. Jack Kelley answered a similar question as yours, here
    http://gracethrufaith.com/ask-a-bible-teacher/planning-to-go-or-planning-to-stay/

    No one knows why the Spirit may prompt someone to make what seems like a long-term decision, such as moving. If the rapture comes in three months, but you DID move, (if it was the Spirit's prompting) it may be that he had a work for you to do in a new place. If the rapture comes tomorrow and you still had planned to move (if it was the Spirit's prompting) then you will be glad to face Jesus because you were obedient to the end. You finished the race, as Paul said.

    I feel the sense of imminence but I still live as if I will live until a ripe old age, even though I don't feel that I will, because I feel the rapture will come sooner. Even though time may be short, the Spirit is still working in the world, and we obey right up until the end. No one knows how or why the Spirit prompts people to do certain things but if it is from the Spirit then it is important to obey. Don't let the times influence your decisions, let the Spirit do that.

    As far as doubting yourself, don't do that. Refer to the bible in all things. Paul said we are children of the Light and we will not be surprised. We should look up when these things start to appear, for our Redemption draweth nigh. We should feel imminence because He told us what to look for and we see those things now. Even Joel Rosenberg said today "The Lord has a message burning on His heart. The Day of the Lord is coming; surely it is near. He wants Israel to be ready. He wants the Church to be ready. Through the Holy Scriptures, He is calling to all who will listen to get their hearts ready to meet the Lord face to face. Are you ready?" and Joel is notoriously conservative with never mentioning times or nearness.

    Jack Kelley wrote "Paul said that being children of the light we shouldn’t be taken by surprise as the time of the end draws near (1 Thes. 5:4). That means if it’s coming soon, we should be able to look around us and see clear signs to that effect. Many serious students of prophecy believe the signs are very clear."

    The best thing to do is pray about any decision you and your family might be considering at this time. Stand strong in faith, (ALL things of faith, including- but not only- end times doctrines), Pray for His soon return, and live fully obedient to His will. It is the best thing we can do.

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  3. Not trying to nit pick here at all but you seemed to make a distinction between being possessed and being on drugs.

    While I DO AGREE there is a distinction often they go hand-in-hand; narcotic drugs are a major form of sorcery even though they are never presented by the media etc. that way. And that includes marijuana.

    Marijuana is often called a "gateway" drug - and that's exactly what it is - a gateway to demons and the supernatural. I used marijuana for years and I know there is an extra "sense" you acquire using the drug. I'm not sure I can explain it, but anyone who has used marijuana can probably attest to this.

    I believe now that the "extra sense" is a demon(s.)

    The criminal was obviously afflicted but we know that the affliction (no matter what it is) all comes from the same source.

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  4. Wow, that is just so frightening to even imagine; I can't begin to wonder how it would feel to WITNESS it. I'm so thankful I have Jesus.

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  5. I do make a distinction between drug use and sorcery. But as you say it is a nitpick. The root word for sorcery in the Greek, as the word is used in the bible, (esp Rev 21:8) is pharmakeia. Pharmakeia means spell giving potion. Also means

    --the use or the administering of drugs
    --poisoning
    --sorcery, magical arts, often found in connection with idolatry and fostered by it
    --metaph. the deceptions and seductions of idolatry

    The strict meaning has changed now, the person could be possessed, which is one thing, or using drugs, which is another. They are not the same thing, though they could be intertwined.

    I wrote an essay on the blog about Pharmakeia and spirituality, here-
    http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2010/06/pharmakeia-psycedelic-drugs-and.html

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