Unleashing the Beast

314 / U NLEASHING THE B EAST

of our life. He advises us not to conform to a false sense of security and be lulled into spiritual slumber. If we do, the consequences could be overwhelming. Again, as believers, we have a heavenly Father who protects us from our enemies. Yet, how does He protect us from ourselves and our own sense of invincibility? When there is a flaw within us that is not dealt with, when there is a lifestyle of sin that goes ignored, He will allow things to happen so that we will turn back to Him and purge those things from our lives. Likewise, He will allow negative things to happen to a haughty, unrepentant church (or nation) as a whole. A MERICA IN THE E ND T IME In Ecclesiastes 3:15, we are taught God sees to it that historical patterns repeat themselves. In fact, the Scripture reveals that to truly understand what is happening today and to discern what will happen tomorrow, we must be familiar with what happened yesterday. This is important because God's people in America need to know where this nation fits into the Lord's purposes so that we will not be taken unawares. According to my friend Bill Cloud, there are historical patterns unique to the 20 th century that hint at what the future might hold for this country and her citizens. Those patterns are found in the developments that led to and the consequences of both World Wars. Few people remember, but World War I actually began as the result of an act of terror carried out by a Serb