TEMPERATURE RISING

TEMPERATURE RISING

                As pressures continue to rise around the world, we find ourselves needing to redefine the Gospel. Ever since the Billy Graham days our Gospel has been a “Get saved and wait for Jesus to come” Gospel.             The pre-trib rapture doctrine has grown by leaps and bounds and so the church gets this idea that the world is going to hell in a hand basket, but it doesn’t really matter because Jesus is going to zap us out of here before any real persecution comes. But this is not proving to be true so far.

                If you add to this a Gospel of false grace where it doesn’t really matter what you do, just believe and you’re covered; we find the church becoming ever more complacent and carnal and self-serving.

                The Gospel of the Kingdom, on the other hand, is a “Roll up your sleeves and start doing what Jesus did” sort of proactive Gospel that has been all but lost in today’s society. Miracles have been relegated to the distant past and since we can’t really do what Jesus did, what’s the point in trying?

                But in fact it is this Gospel of the Kingdom that Jesus said must go to the whole world before the end can come. We are also commanded to do the works that Jesus did and it was right after that statement in John 14:12, 13 that Jesus said, “If you love me you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the father and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever…” At the word,         “Commandments” we seem to naturally revert to the Ten Commandments, but in truth, Jesus is referring to His previous commandment to do the works that He did and even greater works.

                In other words in effect, Jesus has said, “What you have been watching Me do, you are going to do also because I am going to give you the same Spirit that dwells in me so that you can do what I do.

                And if we doubt what He was saying here, look at the next verse John 14:17 where Jesus says to His disciples:  The Helper I am sending to you “is the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides (WITH) you and (WILL BE IN YOU.”)

                This one statement represents a major change of dispensations here on earth. In Old Testament times the Holy Spirit could be “WITH” people and He could even come UPON them in the case of prophets or kings. If they were anointed to say the priesthood or to do a certain thing such as reign as a king or to take up the office of the prophet, the Holy Spirit would come upon them and anoint them for their office.

                As a sideline here, it is interesting that within this context we see in Luke 1:35 that the Holy Spirit would come upon Mary and she would conceive and bear a Son. Well, if Mary is to give birth to the Son of God then why would God not come into her in terms of the New Birth?

                I think it is because Jesus was born of a woman, born under the law. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh. On His human side then he was born just as we are, but on His divine side He was sinless and untouched by even the smudge of sin. So HE was perfectly God and perfectly Man and so Mary, rather than being divine as the Catholics claim, she was an ordinary godly Jewess living under the old covenant and equally in need of salvation just like you and me.

                Now back to our subject. I said that this statement that Jesus made to His disciples in declaring that the Holy Spirit was WITH them and would soon be IN them represents a huge paradigm shift and the shift happened a few days later with the falling of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples at Pentecost.

                Jesus’ death indeed brought an end to the dispensation of law on stone and began a new dispensation of Law written in us upon our hearts.

                So we have been living in the age of Pentecost for about 1970 years now and we are beginning to feel the shaking and quaking of the Pentecostal paradigm as it comes into direct conflict with the antichrist spirit. We are entering into a period of great shaking where everything that can be shaken will be shaken. Hebrews 12:26-29 and  if I tend to mention certain texts quite frequently these days it is because they describe the exact period of time we are in right now. The wheat and tares must be separated and that is just what the tribulation will accomplish.

                This great shaking will end with one final test called the “Mark of the Beast” wherein we will be offered the same two choices as Adam and Eve were offered. We will either choose the tree of knowledge of good and evil or we will remain faithful to the Tree of Life and that Tree is Jesus. One tree leads to death and one to eternal life and Satan is once again saying to society, “Hath God really said?

                Notice also that in the emerging technologies they are beginning to promise offers of eternal life; perfect health and super bodies etc. Just like Satan they are saying, “ You shall not surely die. WE now have the technology to keep you alive forever.  (I have to laugh at their promises just a little, because we are being offered this eternal life by the same people that today offer us GMO foods and Vaccines and super pandemic style viruses.) but I digress.

                So history is coming full circle as the kingdoms of Christ and Satan enter into mortal combat.

                We need to get our spiritual ducks in a row. We need to become proactive in our faith. We need to take seriously Jesus command to do the works that He did and even greater works. There is a showdown coming between the works of Christ and the works of Satan. It is like Moses before Pharaoh all over again. It is like Yeshua before Pilate all over again. It is like the Spanish inquisition all over again and so it is time to get a couple of things straight.

                Concerning one of these issues, Paul gave a very specific answer to a specific question. Some false teachers had come through Thessalonica telling the people that the day of the Lord and the Rapture had already taken place and they were now in the Tribulation. And it was not a hard thing to sell because the church was under persecution and being forced to worship the Roman Emperor or die. It was the perfect antichrist situation and the people were worried that they had missed the rapture.

                Now mind you, they would not have been fooled into thinking that the second coming had taken place because they knew from Zechariah 14 that when Jesus returned He would set foot on the Mt. of Olives and He would march into Jerusalem to rule the nations with a rod of iron for 1000 years. They were not being misled by that event. They were being misled concerning the rapture or first resurrection and catching away of the Bride. This coming is promised to the church to happen before the wrath of God is poured out…. But not necessarily before tribulation comes.

                So now we are ready to hear what Paul explained to them concerning both the coming of the Lord and our gathering together to Him.

                To this question he said: Let no one in any way deceive you for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

                So a few things have to happen before the rapture can take place (and that sort of shoots a hole in the doctrine of immanency where they say that nothing has to happen before Jesus can come), but if that were so, then why did Jesus give us all of the signs leading up to His coming in Mt. 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21? Why did He warn us not to take the Mark of the Beast?

                So what are the things that must take place before the rapture can happen?

1.       A Restrainer must be taken out of the way. ( 2 Thess. 2:7, 8)

2.       A great apostasy must take place. (2 Thess. 2:3

3.       The antichrist must be revealed. ( 2 Thess. 2:3)

4.       He must take his seat in the temple of God. (2Thess. 2:4)

5.       Then he will be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming.

                So, all of these events must happen just prior to Jesus’ return.

                I believe that the Restrainer is the Holy Spirit as He dwells in His church, the Body of Christ. So some teach here that the Holy Spirit is taken out of the way as the church is raptured, but it doesn’t say that. It says that it is a great apostasy that clears the way for the antichrist to come. The church isn’t raptured at this point, rather a large chunk of the church abandons the faith and joins the ranks of the enemy thus clearing the way for the antichrist.

                We see this apostasy taking place today as millions of Christians abandon the true Gospel. They are merging together into a global religion of peace and the environment and social concerns while abandoning the Cross and the blood of Jesus and repentance and holy living and doing the works of Christ, for a social gospel under the False Prophet.

                It is this apostate church that will usher in the antichrist and it is this apostate church that will turn around and persecute those who stick with the Bible, and the Holy Spirit, the literal miracles of Christ and obedience to Jesus’ commandments both in terms of morality and worship as well as doing the works of Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

                 And even though we may be grossly outnumbered by the followers of Satan and persecuted for our faith, we will yet make a demonstration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that will defeat the enemy no matter how big he is.

                As for the antichrist  taking his seat in the temple of God, we all know that our bodies are the temple of God and so Satan is going to inhabit all who reject Christ. They will become a habitation of demons. However, as a literal/physical parallel to this I believe that the antichrist will help to build and then inhabit the literal temple in Jerusalem. He wants to take the place of Jesus and to be worshipped as God and he will stop at nothing to get his way.

                Do I believe in the rapture? Yes. Do I believe that it happens prior to the second coming of Christ? Yes. I believe this because it says on both the old and new Testaments that at the second coming Jesus will return WITH His saints (Rev. 19:14 Zech. 14:5, 1 Thess. 3:13) and He will bring WITH Him those who have fallen asleep. (1Thess. 4:14.)

                And we are not destined for wrath: 1 Thess. 5:9, Rom. 5:9, 1 Thess. 1:10, Rev 14:12-14.

                So, that’s the way I see it friends. And so we must indeed roll up our sleeves and get about the business of doing the works of Christ in the world and living by compassion for the poor, the hungry, the needy, the sick and the lame. We need the promised power of God that will attend these last days of the final harvest… and we must learn to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony and we must love not our lives even unto death.. Either way, we win… for to live is Christ and to die is gain. Shalom.