Chronicles of the End Times
Occasionally, people say, are we really in the last days? How do we know? Does it matter one way or another? We will try to answer these questions and many others in this study. But the most important question may be, how can we reach others with hope in these changing times? One part of prophecy is often emphasized over another, causing us to lose perspective and miss the blessing and beauty of prophecy in scripture. I have taken the information in this study from many authors and teachers who have their lives studying God's word. I have added some insight that the Holy Spirit taught me. With God's help, I have endeavored to keep the whole counsel of the word of God in full view to give us an accurate picture of Christ and His great love for a lost world. I pray that this will challenge you and cause you to grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, as it has me preparing it. Let's begin!
Chronicles of the End Times
Hard Sayings And Holy Ground
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Grace without obedience sounds comforting, but it can hollow out your faith. We explore the hard sayings of Jesus and the invitation to walk a narrow road that is both freeing and demanding. From the burning bush to the Gospel of John, we trace one continuous story: the same Lord who holds children on His lap also calls holy ground holy, commands allegiance, and shines light that no darkness can overcome.
We share why the Old and New Testaments belong together, and how cutting off the Old Testament weakens discipleship. You’ll hear how Colossians 1 and John 1 anchor a big view of Christ—Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer—and why that vision matters when the headlines churn and social media rewards outrage. Algorithms don’t aim to make us wise; Scripture does. So we talk about reclaiming attention, testing narratives, and letting the Word set our steps when noise and deception rise.
Along the way, we address division inside the church, the dangers of treating politics as identity, and the subtle ways contempt steals our witness. Carrying the cross isn’t about repeating Christ’s sacrifice; it’s public loyalty to His way, a daily choice to be known with Him and for Him. That identity steadies us when rumors swirl, scandals trend, and counterfeit signs promise shortcuts. The call is simple and costly: receive mercy, obey with gratitude, stand on the whole counsel of God, and love one another with clean hands and brave hearts.
If this resonates, share it with a friend who’s weary of the feed and hungry for truth. Subscribe for future episodes, leave a review to help others find the show, and tell us: what practice keeps you rooted in Scripture each week?
Welcome everyone. This is Russ Scalzo Chronicles of the End Times. Thank you for being with me today. This is episode 267. Happy to say that we are in 20 different countries, 322 different cities, and I'm thankful for every single one who's listening. Whether you are in the United States or Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Brazil, Singapore, the Netherlands, wherever you are, I am very thankful that you are tuning in. I pray a blessing upon each one of you. Today we're going to talk about a couple of hard sayings that came out of Jesus' mouth. We see it in the Word of God. Some things are hard to understand. On one hand, Jesus says, I forgive anyone who comes to me. That's what the cross is about. That's why he died for us, because he desperately loves us. And on the other hand, there's something that we must do, which is not really talked about too much anymore. It's usually kind of like a one-way street. You know, we we definitely don't want to go to hell. We want to be blessed. We want to be prosperous. We want all that stuff. But we're kind of like a little spoiled children because we don't want to really do anything else. We don't want to do our chores because, you know, if you love me, why don't you ask me to do chores around the house? You know, it's like kids, right? But God does ask something of us. Jesus asked something of us. And balance. I like to talk about balance today. Do you know that the Old Testament is just as important as the New Testament? And did you know that there are many churches that are disregarding the Old Testament as just what it is? By definition, it's old. There's a New Testament. Why bother with the old when God's created the new? Boy, that sounds real good. Except that's not scripture. If you look in Matthew chapter 13, verse 52, it says this. Then he said to them, Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old. What is he talking about? He's talking about the Old Testament and the New Testament. The same Jesus Christ that held the children on his lap and said, Don't hinder the little children from coming to me, for these are what the kingdom of God is all about. We have to be like little children in order to enter the kingdom of God. Little children have faith. They believe what they're told when they're real little. We need to have that type of faith that we believe, not what everybody says, not to be naive and foolish, but we are to believe what comes out of the mouth of God. But Jesus is also the one in the Old Testament. He is the voice of the burning bush, the presence of God, that told Moses to take off your sandals, for your standing is holy ground. He's the same God who wiped out the Egyptians to free Israel. He's the same God that decided because of Israel's disbelief and their disobedience that all those over twenty years old would die in the desert before he would take them into the promised land. He's the same God, the angel of the Lord, that went out and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in their camp in a single night. That's in Second Kings nineteen thirty five. We could go on and on about all the things that Jesus did in the Old Testament. It's funny how we look at things, but the Bible is clear. We look at scriptures like in the letter of Colossians chapter one, verse sixteen is for in him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. That's pretty powerful. Then again in the Gospel of John chapter one, he opens up with this In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. We can go on, there's many other scriptures that define that yes, Jesus was not only in the Old Testament, he was the Lord of the Old Testament. He was the captain of the host that Joshua ran into, where he said the same thing to Joshua, he said to Moses, take off your sandals where you're standing, it's holy ground. So what should our approach be? How should we grasp this, understand this, make sense out of it? We have to know that the Old Testament and the New Testament are one. The New Testament gives us salvation through Jesus Christ to the whole world. The Old Testament there was salvation too. It came from faith, like Abraham. He believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness. And that really hasn't changed. It's faith in Jesus Christ that saves us. This is what bothers me the most is a lack of balance in people. Many know very little about the Old Testament. There's so much there, it's so rich. Jesus quotes the Old Testament many times in the New Testament. That kind of balance will help us understand our relationship with Jesus Christ. It is not a one-way street. It's not Jesus, you do for me, and I'll just do what I do. That's not the way it works. He told us to pick up our cross and follow him. And what is that cross? The cross is identity with him. It's not like we have to pick up a cross and suffer like he did. He paid the price for us. That's done. But what he's saying is I want you to associate yourself with me. I want people to know that you're associated with the cross. You're part of me. You're taking on what I said, you're taking on what I told you to do, and I'm living in you by the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore you represent me. I wonder how we're doing with that. I wonder how I'm doing with that. Am I representing Christ? When we look at the world today, there's so many distractions. There's political distraction. There's fights over this and that and the other thing. We have the news banging on our heads twenty four seven. Social media twenty four seven. People on social media talking out of their side of their necks. Most of them have no idea what they're talking about. They see a headline, they tuck it under their arms, and they run with it. That's dangerous. Why? Because very soon Antichrist will appear, and he'll give you plenty of headlines to believe. And he'll follow it with a few signs and wonders. What will we do then? We need to rely on the Word of God. It's the light. Remember the Bible tells us that? It's a light unto our path, so we don't trip and fall, we don't fall over the edge of the cliff. Without that, we don't have a shot. The deception that's out there right now is so great. The devil is out there with his forces and he's dividing the church. He's causing hate between brothers and sisters in Christ. That's that's troublesome. That could steal your salvation. We are fighting for the wrong things. Yes, there's tragedy everywhere. The tragedy in Minnesota. People rebelling against the law and then getting involved and getting killed, two of them. Then you have the Epstein Files. Everybody's worried about the Epstein files. It's like a soap opera. How about the thirty thousand people that they now believe has been slaughtered in Iran? A lot of those are Christians. How about all the things that are going on in the rest of the world? No, we're not interested in those. You know why? Because we have been taught by social media. We have been instructed by the algorithm. You think that AI's not been around for a while? Oh yeah. AI has been at work at the lower levels, what we might call the first grade level, for quite a while now. And the algorithms are training us on what we should see, telling us what we can see, and training us on what to believe and how to react. It's taking the place of common sense and the Bible and traditions that have come from the Word of God. This is just a warning and I hope an encouragement. Jesus said that the road is wide to hell, and the other road is narrow, and few find it. Doesn't that send a cold chill down your spine? It is quite a contrast to Jesus loves me, this I know, I can live my best life, here I go. Let's dig in, folks. Let's not be the suckers. Let's not hate on each other because of our political influences or the color of our skin or what country we live in. If you're washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, you belong to him. You don't belong to anybody else. He's the priority. We want the blessing, we want the touch of God, we want strong, healthy bodies, we want God to be with our families. It takes more than just grabbing a hold of a few scriptures and ignoring the rest. Care for you, love you all. This is why I do what I do, because God's called me to this. Just look to the cross. He suffered for me. He suffered for you. He got spit upon for you and me. He got whipped, thorns, drilled into his skull, suffocated and died on a cross. So we might have new life. Let's pursue it with all we have. This is Russ Scalzo for Chronicles of the End Times. Keep looking up, the King is coming.