Where Do We Go From Here? Bible Study Guide

How Tomorrow’s Prophecies Foreshadow Today’s Problems

Dr. David Jeremiah

• Publisher: HarperChristian Resources
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9780310140948
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Jesus Will Show You the Way Forward

Today’s headlines shout of modern plagues, social tensions, economic crises, and rampant depression. Many are asking, “What day is it on God’s prophetic calendar?” Trusted Bible teacher and pastor Dr. David Jeremiah answers this question by opening up the Word of God to reveal what it has to say about the days in which we are living and offer hope to believers.

In this ten-lesson accompanying study guide, Dr. Jeremiah deals with ten prophetic issues as current as the morning news. You will thread your way through problems that Jesus predicted—precursors of the Tribulation—and learn what steps you should take to navigate them. Even as the world collapses, you can be sure that the Lord is building His Church! You can say something, do something, pray something, preach something, and live by the convictions of Christ.

Each lesson includes:

• An outline of the main subjects and Scriptures covered during the lesson.
• An overview of Dr. Jeremiah’s teaching on the topic being studied.
• Application questions to help both individuals and small groups delve into the content and the Bible.
• A Did You Know? Section that adds a point of interest to the lesson.

This is no time to be discouraged. Your risen and exalted Lord Jesus Christ—your enthroned Savior—knows the way forward. He will show you where to go from here.

LESSON 1


A CULTURAL
PROPHECY—
SOCIALISM

MATTHEW 24:37

In this lesson we learn about the dangers of socialism and how it differs from how Christ wants His followers to live.

Venezuela was once the wealthiest nation in South America, with a per capita income almost rivaling that of the United States. The people enjoyed religious liberty, political freedom, personal dignity, and economic opportunity. Today, record numbers of Venezuelan migrants are fleeing northward, and Venezuela is tumbling into anarchy. What caused this dramatic descent into chaos? Marxist president Hugo Chávez relentlessly implemented the socialist playbook, followed by his equally socialist and dictatorial Marxist successor, Nicolás Maduro. The lessons for us are stark.

OUTLINE

I. What Does This Mean?

A. The Destruction of Monuments

B. Cancel Culture

C. The Dismantling of the Nuclear Family

D. The Redistribution of Wealth

E. Defunding the Police

II. Where Do We Go From Here?

A. Review What the Bible Says

B. Refuse to Live by Lies

C. Resolve to Follow Christ and Not Just Admire Him

D. Rethink Small Groups

E. Resist Any Way You Can

F. Remember Venezuela

OVERVIEW

Today’s socialist agendas are distressing to anyone who has studied socialism and communism. Second Timothy 3:1 says, “But understand this, that in the last days dangerous times [of great stress and trouble] will come, [difficult days that will be hard to bear]” (AMP). Jesus said it like this: “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:37).

Genesis 6:5 describes the days of Noah: “Every intent of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually.” We aren’t far off from the wickedness of Noah’s day. Socialism creates great stress and trouble, difficult days that are hard to bear. It demands a one-world system of government, reminiscent of biblical prophecy.

Revelation 13 describes the Antichrist: “He was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation.” (Revelation 13:7, NLT). Satan “deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9), and the False Prophet will “deceive those who dwell on the earth” (Revelation 13:14). The Lord warns us: “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8).

Marxism cheats people through philosophy and empty deceit. Karl Marx’s systems have led to horrific scenes. His own family and friends considered him to be possessed by a demon, and in a poem he said, “My soul, once true to God, is chosen for hell.”

Marxism is anti-God. Karl Marx hated Christianity. To him, religion was “the opium of the people.” For communism to succeed, loyalty to the Church had to be replaced by loyalty to the state. On one occasion, he described the Church as “This medieval mildew which must be scraped away.” Each successive leader saw organized religion as an enemy—a competitor that needed to be controlled or eliminated.

Marxism is totalitarian. Marxism quickly becomes totalitarian. Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini summed it up this way: “Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”

Rod Dreher adds: “Today’s totalitarianism demands allegiance to a set of progressive beliefs, many of which are incompatible with logic—and certainly with Christianity. Compliance is forced less by the state than by elites who form public opinion, and by private corporations that, thanks to technology, control our lives far more than we would like to admit.”¹

Marxism is divisive. Marxism thrives on division. In historic Marxism the division was promoted between classes of people. In today’s cultural Marxism, the exploited divide is often racial, sexual, or gender related. Whenever a socialist or Marxist can’t figure out how to respond to an issue, they call it racist.

This is tragic for many reasons. It’s very hurtful to be branded a racist when one has done or said nothing that would lead a rational person to make such an accusation. Once racism has been pinned on a person, it’s almost impossible to get rid of the label. But there’s another seldom-discussed sadness with playing the race card: If everything is racist, nothing is racist. All of us know there are still racial issues that need to be dealt with in America and around the world, but the true issues get lost in the avalanche of unwarranted accusations.

Marxism is deadly. In 1999, The Black Book of Communism endeavored to tabulate a Marxist-Leninist death toll. It revealed 20 million deaths in the USSR, 65 million deaths in China, 1 million deaths in Vietnam, 2 million deaths in North Korea, 2 million deaths in Cambodia, 1 million deaths in Eastern Europe, 150,000 deaths in Latin America, and 1.7 million deaths in Ethiopia.

According to historian Paul Kengor, the death count that resulted from Marxism between 1917 and 1979 would “equate to a rate of multiple thousands of dead per day over the course of a century.” World I and World War II would need to be combined and doubled to get near communism’s butcher bill.² Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn taught that “socialism of any type and shade leads to a total destruction of the human spirit and to a leveling of mankind.”

What Does This Mean?

This new political trajectory in our nation is more than just a trend. It is a seismic shift toward a Marxist agenda. We are harvesting the weeds from Karl Marx’s toxic garden. If we look closely, we can draw the connections.

The Destruction of Monuments

It’s become common in recent years to see videos of protesters defacing and removing statues and monuments they consider to be offensive. When we witness these events, we’re seeing a concerted effort to attack and ultimately erase the past.

The word remember is found 164 times in the Old Testament. “Remember the former things of old,” God said through the prophet Isaiah, “for I am God, and there is none like Me” (46:9). On the basis of past mercies, we can build a future of grace. We can say with the psalmist, “For You, O God, have . . . given me the heritage of those who fear Your name” (Psalm 61:5).

Biblical heroes built monuments to remind future generations of God’s goodness and guidance. When God parted the waters of the Jordan River, Joshua said, “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’ then you shall let your children know, saying, ‘Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land’ ” (Joshua 4:21–22).

Psalm 77:11 says, “Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.” But revisionist historians are scrubbing our children’s textbooks of all that is biblical or Christian, and they are rewriting our history to suit their own secular and socialist agendas.

Cancel Culture

In cultural Marxism, there can be no room for tolerance or dissenting opinions. Dreher wrote, “Today in our societies, dissenters . . . find their businesses, careers, and reputations destroyed. They are pushed out of the public square, stigmatized, canceled, and demonized as racists, sexists, homophobes and the like. And they are afraid to resist, because they are confident that no one will join them or defend them.”³

Before the First Amendment is ushered out the door, let’s reflect on what it says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and t...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Ebook Instructions
• Contents
• How to Use This Study Guide
• Introduction
• Lesson 1: A Cultural Prophecy—Socialism (Matthew 24:37)
• Lesson 2: An International Prophecy—Globalism (Revelation 13:3)
• Lesson 3: A Biological Prophecy—Pandemic (Matthew 24:7)
• Lesson 4: A Financial Prophecy—Economic Chaos (Revelation 13:17)
• Lesson 5: A Theological Prophecy—The Falling Away (2 Thessalonians 2:3)
• Lesson 6: A Biographical Prophecy—End Times People (2 Timothy 3:13)
• Lesson 7: A Political Prophecy—Cancel Culture (Matthew 24:10–12)
• Lesson 8: A Spiritual Prophecy—Spiritual Famine (Amos 8:11)
• Lesson 9: A Geographical Prophecy—Jerusalem (Ezekiel 5:5)
• Lesson 10: The Final Prophecy—The Triumph of the Gospel (Revelation 17:14)
• Leader’s Guide
• About Dr. David Jeremiah and Turning Point
• Stay Connected to the Teaching of Dr. David Jeremiah