TWILIGHT’s LAST GLEAMING HOW AMERICA’s LAST DAYS CAN BE YOUR BEST DAYS DR. ROBERT JEFFRESS [[Worthy Publishing logo]] i TWILIGHT’s LAST GLEAMING To Dr. and Mrs. William S. Spears . Thank you, Bill and Candye, for your faithful friendship through the years. You are shining examples of what it means to be a light for the gospel of Jesus Christ in this darkening world. I will be eternally grateful for your consistent encouragement to me and to our ministry at First Baptist Church, Dallas. iii TWILIGHT’s LAST GLEAMING Here is a book that I can enthusiastically recommend to those who think that we as believers should simply share the gospel and then hunker down and wait for the demise of the United States. This prominent pastor presents the interesting thesis that we cannot pre- vent the ultimate destruction of our nation, but we can delay it by our involvement in many areas of American life, including politics. Best of all, he is wholly committed to the primacy of the gospel, which ul- timately is the only hope for the transformation of the human heart and the restoration of those values on which America was founded. This book is realistic, inspiring, and filled with hope. —Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer Senior Pastor, The Moody Church When Robert Jeffress writes, “The only way to change our nation is by changing the individuals who make up our nation by introducing them to Jesus Christ,” he prescribes the only workable and biblical formula that offers hope to this dying land which is now on spiritual, economic, and cultural life support. —Cal Thomas Syndicated and USA Today columnist, Fox News contributor Dr. Jeffress is without a doubt a concerned, courageous voice cry- ing out in the wilderness of deception of darkness. What he boldly shares should be prayerfully considered by all who care about our future. —James Robison President, LIFE Outreach International iv TWILIGHT’s LAST GLEAMING In our current social order, few pastors I have ever known are as courageous or consistent in calling the saints to righteousness as is Dr. Robert Jeffress. Twilight’s Last Gleaming is a classic case in point, and every believer who reads it will be blessed and stirred to good works. —Paige Patterson Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary It is an age-old question: Why are we still here? Why is it that, when we surrendered our lives to Christ, He did not immediately take us to be with Him forever? The short answer is this: In the sovereign purposes of God, He intends to accomplish much in and through His people. In his remarkable new book, Twilight’s Last Gleaming, Robert Jeffress unpacks and applies this biblical truth in a way that is both insightful and transforming. Surely this is a much-needed book for the church in this hour of human history. —Frank Wright, PhD President and CEO, National Religious Broadcasters v TWILIGHT’s LAST GLEAMING Copyright © 2012 by Robert Jeffress Published by Worthy Publishing, a division of Worthy Media, Inc., 134 Franklin Road, Suite 200, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. Helping people experience the heart of God eBook available at www.worthypublishing.com Audio distributed through Oasis Audio; visit www.oasisaudio.com _________________________________________________________________________________ Library of Congress Cataloguing Information Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-936034-58-1 [TK] _________________________________________________________________________________ All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other— except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Scripture quotations marked niv are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked nasb are from the New American Standard Bible®. Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked nlt are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation, Inc. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Published in association with Yates & Yates, www.yates2.com For foreign and subsidiary rights, contact Riggins International Rights Services, Inc.; www.rigginsrights.com Cover Design: Cover Image: Interior Design and Typesetting: Kimberly Sagmiller, Fudge Creative Printed in the United States of America 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 xxx 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 vi TWILIGHT’s LAST GLEAMING CONTENTS Foreword by Mike Huckabee . 1 1. The Beginning of the End . 3 2. When a Nation Implodes . 34 3. No Time for Tolerance . 68 4. How a Christian Should Vote . 93 5. For Pastors Only . 126 6. When Persecution Comes . 167 7. Last-Days Living . 190 For Further Reflection . 221 Notes . 229 About the Author . 245 vii TWILIGHT’s LAST GLEAMING FOREWORD If you are looking for a sweet little “bookette” that is politically cor- rect and safe to read and share with staunch unbelievers so as not to offend them, then put this book down and keep looking. Dr. Robert Jeffress must not have gotten the memo that says that the pastor of a prominent landmark church that is one of the most influential churches of Christendom is supposed to be noncontro- versial, nonconfrontational, and nonpolitical. Uh-oh! This book is bold! Even while maintaining a kind, gracious, and broken spirit, Dr. Jeffress pulls no punches in calling a lethargic church to its feet for the fight to delay a coming collapse of our nation. Dr. Jeffress made national news when in the fall of 2010, he broke from the ranks of the “bridled” when he openly declared the threat of radical Islam to our country and culture. No politician has been as blunt in describing the enslavement of women, the violence toward dissidents, and the tyrannical rule of those seeking to impose sharia law. And Dr. Jeffress wasn’t trying to win votes. In fact, he wasn’t even trying to win friends! He was simply proclaiming truth and letting people hear it straight without candy-coating it with preacherisms. I have admired Dr. Robert Jeffress as pastor of one of the world’s great churches and have enjoyed his company and insight as a friend, but in this book, I stand in awe of the clarity of his convictions and the clarion call for believers to come out of hiding and act like they serve a King! Read this book prayerfully. Then give it to a friend and urge them to read it. Time is of the essence! Thankfully, Mike Huckabee 1 CHAPTER 1: The Beginning of the End CHAPTER 1 The Beginning of the End everal years ago conservative commentator and former Fox News luminary Glenn Beck tapped into the growing sense of Sangst that Americans—especially Christian Americans—were feeling about the condition of our country. In August 2010, Beck announced he would hold a nonpartisan rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. with the goal of “Restoring Honor” to America. Some reports estimated that as many as three hundred thousand people attended the event. I happened to be in D.C. the day before the rally, so after fin- ishing my meetings I strolled down to the National Mall that warm 3 TWILIGHT’s LAST GLEAMING Friday evening and was surprised to see hundreds of people already setting up tents along the mall, preparing to spend the night in order to secure a prime spot for the rally. A father who had traveled hun- dreds of miles with his young family to attend was asked why he had come. “I really don’t know, but I realize something is not right in our country and I want to do something about it.” That feeling that “something is not right in our country” is not limited to a group of conservatives crowding the National Mall in Washington. According to a recent Gallup Poll, 59 percent of Ameri- cans feel that our country is headed in the wrong direction.1 I have a feeling that because you picked up this book, you are probably in- cluded in that statistic—and for good reason. Perhaps you are deeply disturbed about . • the wholesale effort to remove any and all restrictions on same-sex marriages, abortion, and embryonic stem cell research; • the failure to protect our borders against illegal immigra- tion, threatening the fiscal and physical well-being of our nation; • the runaway fiscal deficit that will enslave our children and grandchildren with trillions of dollars of debt; • the hesitancy of government officials, shackled by political correctness, to recognize and verbalize that we are in a war against terror; • the willingness to abrogate Americans’ First Amendment rights at home to prevent offending Islamic extremists abroad; • the denial by secularists and even some professing Chris- tians that America was founded as a Christian nation. 4 CHAPTER 1: The Beginning of the End You wonder what you should do—and can do—to put the brakes on a country that is seemingly about to go over the cliff. You have an abiding love for your country. You have an even greater allegiance to your Christian faith. You have genuine concerns about the kind of nation in which your children and grandchildren will live. Whatever his motivation, I admire Glenn Beck for his willing- ness to do something to help turn around a country that has lost his way. As I left D.C. the Saturday morning of Beck’s rally and looked out the airplane window at the hundreds of thousands of patriots gathered below, I began wondering what I could do to make a differ- ence in my country.