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October 13, 2011
Picture of a Prophet
By Leonard Ravenhill
The prophet in his day is fully accepted of God and totally rejected by
men.
Years back, Dr. Gregory Mantle was right when he said, "No man can be
fully accepted until he is totally rejected." The prophet of the Lord is
aware of both these experiences. They are his "brand name."
The group, challenged by the prophet because they are smug and comfortably
insulated from a perishing world in their warm but untested theology, is
not likely to vote him "Man of the year" when he refers to them as
habituates of the synagogue of Satan!
The prophet comes to set up that which is upset. His work is to call into
line those who are out of line! He is unpopular because he opposes the
popular in morality and spirituality. In a day of faceless politicians and
voiceless preachers, there is not a more urgent national need than that we
cry to God for a prophet! The function of the prophet, as Austin-Sparks
once said, "has almost always been that of recovery."
The prophet is God's detective seeking for a lost treasure. The degree of
his effectiveness is determined by his measure of unpopularity. Compromise
is not known to him.
He has no price tags.
He is totally "otherworldly."
He is unquestionably controversial and unpardonably hostile.
He marches to another drummer!
He breathes the rarefied air of inspiration.
He is a "seer" who comes to lead the blind.
He lives in the heights of God and comes into the valley with a "thus saith
the Lord."
He shares some of the foreknowledge of God and so is aware of
impending judgment.
He lives in "splendid isolation."
He is forthright and outright, but he claims no birthright.
His message is "repent, be reconciled to God or else...!"
His prophecies are parried.
His truth brings torment, but his voice is never void.
He is the villain of today and the hero of tomorrow.
He is excommunicated while alive and exalted when dead!
He is dishonored with epithets when breathing and honored with
epitaphs when dead.
He is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, but few "make the grade" in his class.
He is friendless while living and famous when dead.
He is against the establishment in ministry; then he is established
as a saint by posterity.
He eats daily the bread of affliction while he ministers, but he
feeds the Bread of Life to those who listen.
He walks before men for days but has walked before God for years.
He is a scourge to the nation before he is scourged by the nation.
He announces, pronounces, and denounces!
He has a heart like a volcano and his words are as fire.
He talks to men about God.
He carries the lamp of truth amongst heretics while he is lampooned
by men.
He faces God before he faces men, but he is self-effacing.
He hides with God in the secret place, but he has nothing to hide in the marketplace.
He is naturally sensitive but supernaturally spiritual.
He has passion, purpose and pugnacity.
He is ordained of God but disdained by men.
Our national need at this hour is not that the dollar recover its
strength, or that we save face over the Watergate affair, or that we find
the answer to the ecology problem. We need a God-sent prophet!
I am bombarded with talk or letters about the coming shortages in our
national life: bread, fuel, energy. I read between the lines from people
not practiced in scaring folk. They feel that the "seven years of plenty"
are over for us. The "seven years of famine" are ahead. But the greatest
famine of all in this nation at this given moment is a FAMINE OF THE
HEARING OF THE WORDS OF GOD (Amos 8:11).
Millions have been spent on evangelism in the last twenty-five years.
Hundreds of gospel messages streak through the air over the nation every
day. Crusades have been held; healing meetings have made a vital
contribution. "Come-outers" have "come out" and settled, too, without a
nation-shaking revival. Organizers we have. Skilled preachers abound.
Multi-million dollar Christian organizations straddle the nation. BUT
where, oh where, is the prophet? Where are the incandescent men fresh from
the holy place? Where is the Moses to plead in fasting before the holiness
of the Lord for our moldy morality, our political perfidy, and sour and
sick spirituality?
GOD'S MEN ARE IN HIDING UNTIL THE DAY OF THEIR SHOWING FORTH.
They will come. The prophet is violated during his ministry, but he is
vindicated by history.
There is a terrible vacuum in evangelical Christianity today. The missing
person in our ranks is the prophet. The man with a terrible earnestness.
The man totally otherworldly. The man rejected by other men, even other
good men, because they consider him too austere, too severely committed,
too negative and unsociable.
Let him be as plain as John the Baptist.
Let him for a season be a voice crying in the wilderness of modern
theology and stagnant "churchianity."
Let him be as selfless as Paul the apostle.
Let him, too, say and live, "This ONE thing I do."
Let him reject ecclesiastical favors.
Let him be self-abasing, nonself-seeking, nonself-projecting,
nonself- righteous, nonself-glorying, nonself-promoting.
Let him say nothing that will draw men to himself but only that
which will move men to God.
Let him come daily from the throne room of a holy God, the place
where he has received the order of the day.
Let him, under God, unstop the ears of the millions who are deaf
through the clatter of shekels milked from this hour of material mesmerism.
Let him cry with a voice this century has not heard because he has
seen a vision no man in this century has seen. God send us this Moses
to lead us from the wilderness of crass materialism, where the rattlesnakes
of lust bite us and where enlightened men, totally blind spiritually, lead
us to an ever-nearing Armageddon.
God have mercy! Send us PROPHETS!
COPYRIGHT/REPRODUCTION LIMITATIONS: This data file is the sole
property of Leonard Ravenhill. It may not be altered or edited in
any way. It may be reproduced only in its entirety for circulation
as "freeware," without charge. All reproductions of this data file
must contain the copyright notice (i.e., "Copyright (C) 1994 by
Leonard Ravenhill."). This data file may not be used without the
permission of Leonard Ravenhill for resale or the enhancement of any
other product sold. This includes all of its content with the exception
of a few brief quotations. Please give the following source credit:
Copyright (C) 1994 by Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale Texas -
http://www.ravenhill.org
The prophet in his day is fully accepted of God and totally rejected by
men.
Years back, Dr. Gregory Mantle was right when he said, "No man can be
fully accepted until he is totally rejected." The prophet of the Lord is
aware of both these experiences. They are his "brand name."
The group, challenged by the prophet because they are smug and comfortably
insulated from a perishing world in their warm but untested theology, is
not likely to vote him "Man of the year" when he refers to them as
habituates of the synagogue of Satan!
The prophet comes to set up that which is upset. His work is to call into
line those who are out of line! He is unpopular because he opposes the
popular in morality and spirituality. In a day of faceless politicians and
voiceless preachers, there is not a more urgent national need than that we
cry to God for a prophet! The function of the prophet, as Austin-Sparks
once said, "has almost always been that of recovery."
The prophet is God's detective seeking for a lost treasure. The degree of
his effectiveness is determined by his measure of unpopularity. Compromise
is not known to him.
He has no price tags.
He is totally "otherworldly."
He is unquestionably controversial and unpardonably hostile.
He marches to another drummer!
He breathes the rarefied air of inspiration.
He is a "seer" who comes to lead the blind.
He lives in the heights of God and comes into the valley with a "thus saith
the Lord."
He shares some of the foreknowledge of God and so is aware of
impending judgment.
He lives in "splendid isolation."
He is forthright and outright, but he claims no birthright.
His message is "repent, be reconciled to God or else...!"
His prophecies are parried.
His truth brings torment, but his voice is never void.
He is the villain of today and the hero of tomorrow.
He is excommunicated while alive and exalted when dead!
He is dishonored with epithets when breathing and honored with
epitaphs when dead.
He is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, but few "make the grade" in his class.
He is friendless while living and famous when dead.
He is against the establishment in ministry; then he is established
as a saint by posterity.
He eats daily the bread of affliction while he ministers, but he
feeds the Bread of Life to those who listen.
He walks before men for days but has walked before God for years.
He is a scourge to the nation before he is scourged by the nation.
He announces, pronounces, and denounces!
He has a heart like a volcano and his words are as fire.
He talks to men about God.
He carries the lamp of truth amongst heretics while he is lampooned
by men.
He faces God before he faces men, but he is self-effacing.
He hides with God in the secret place, but he has nothing to hide in the marketplace.
He is naturally sensitive but supernaturally spiritual.
He has passion, purpose and pugnacity.
He is ordained of God but disdained by men.
Our national need at this hour is not that the dollar recover its
strength, or that we save face over the Watergate affair, or that we find
the answer to the ecology problem. We need a God-sent prophet!
I am bombarded with talk or letters about the coming shortages in our
national life: bread, fuel, energy. I read between the lines from people
not practiced in scaring folk. They feel that the "seven years of plenty"
are over for us. The "seven years of famine" are ahead. But the greatest
famine of all in this nation at this given moment is a FAMINE OF THE
HEARING OF THE WORDS OF GOD (Amos 8:11).
Millions have been spent on evangelism in the last twenty-five years.
Hundreds of gospel messages streak through the air over the nation every
day. Crusades have been held; healing meetings have made a vital
contribution. "Come-outers" have "come out" and settled, too, without a
nation-shaking revival. Organizers we have. Skilled preachers abound.
Multi-million dollar Christian organizations straddle the nation. BUT
where, oh where, is the prophet? Where are the incandescent men fresh from
the holy place? Where is the Moses to plead in fasting before the holiness
of the Lord for our moldy morality, our political perfidy, and sour and
sick spirituality?
GOD'S MEN ARE IN HIDING UNTIL THE DAY OF THEIR SHOWING FORTH.
They will come. The prophet is violated during his ministry, but he is
vindicated by history.
There is a terrible vacuum in evangelical Christianity today. The missing
person in our ranks is the prophet. The man with a terrible earnestness.
The man totally otherworldly. The man rejected by other men, even other
good men, because they consider him too austere, too severely committed,
too negative and unsociable.
Let him be as plain as John the Baptist.
Let him for a season be a voice crying in the wilderness of modern
theology and stagnant "churchianity."
Let him be as selfless as Paul the apostle.
Let him, too, say and live, "This ONE thing I do."
Let him reject ecclesiastical favors.
Let him be self-abasing, nonself-seeking, nonself-projecting,
nonself- righteous, nonself-glorying, nonself-promoting.
Let him say nothing that will draw men to himself but only that
which will move men to God.
Let him come daily from the throne room of a holy God, the place
where he has received the order of the day.
Let him, under God, unstop the ears of the millions who are deaf
through the clatter of shekels milked from this hour of material mesmerism.
Let him cry with a voice this century has not heard because he has
seen a vision no man in this century has seen. God send us this Moses
to lead us from the wilderness of crass materialism, where the rattlesnakes
of lust bite us and where enlightened men, totally blind spiritually, lead
us to an ever-nearing Armageddon.
God have mercy! Send us PROPHETS!
COPYRIGHT/REPRODUCTION LIMITATIONS: This data file is the sole
property of Leonard Ravenhill. It may not be altered or edited in
any way. It may be reproduced only in its entirety for circulation
as "freeware," without charge. All reproductions of this data file
must contain the copyright notice (i.e., "Copyright (C) 1994 by
Leonard Ravenhill."). This data file may not be used without the
permission of Leonard Ravenhill for resale or the enhancement of any
other product sold. This includes all of its content with the exception
of a few brief quotations. Please give the following source credit:
Copyright (C) 1994 by Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale Texas -
http://www.ravenhill.org
October 5, 2011
I ONCE LONGED FOR NEW THINGS TO OBEY
Excellent word by Pastor Carter Conlon of Times Square Church!
Recently I have been studying the lives of Bible characters who started out well yet finished poorly. I began in full-time ministry when I was 33 years old and I am now 57. It has been an incredible journey and I know that I have been supernaturally helped all along the way. However, I noticed in the Scriptures that many men who walked mightily with God seemed to falter in the latter part of their lives. I do not know about you, but I certainly do not want to finish poorly and look back with regret at the end of this journey.
I believe that one way to avoid the pitfalls is to study the Scriptures with an open heart, for as Paul told Timothy, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16–17). The word perfect conveys the meaning of being brought to where God wants us to be—into His perfect will for each of our lives.
UZZIAH
Uzziah began his reign over Judah at the age of sixteen and ruled for fifty-two years, only to end up a leper. In his early days, he walked in the ways of God, “...and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper” (2 Chronicles 26:5). Uzziah was given a brilliant intellect and the ability to lead the people into a period of peace and advancement for the kingdom of God.
“But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the Lord his God, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense” (2 Chronicles 26:16). It is almost unthinkable that Uzziah would do such a thing. As king, he must have known that he had no authority to go into the temple and do what God reserved strictly for the priesthood. I personally do not know how to understand this other than to conclude that Uzziah must have lost the fear of God.
There is great danger in assuming that the Lord will no longer hold us accountable for what we do after having walked in the blessing of God for many years, knowing nothing but His kindness and favor. Suddenly the things we ran from in our youth somehow seem right in our eyes. It is part of that fallen human nature that ultimately wants to be its own god and determine what is good and what is evil, even if it is completely contrary to God’s Word. Perhaps this applies to you today—you have walked with God for years, experiencing His blessing and favor. Yet now you are worshiping in church while doing something that you clearly know is a violation of the Word of God. However, you mistakenly assume in your heart that you will not be held accountable.
When Azariah and the other priests went in after Uzziah to withstand him, “Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord, from beside the incense altar. And Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and, behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out from thence; yea, himself hasted also to go out, because the Lord had smitten him. And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death...” (2 Chronicles 26:19–21).
Imagine, fifty-two years of history wiped out by one foolish act! There should have been a glorious conclusion to Uzziah’s life, but instead he ended up in a leper colony, literally put away by the hand of God. The leprosy on his forehead was a type, of the disease that had taken hold of his mind. When you have walked for a long time in the blessing of the Lord, beware! Beware of the casualness; beware of assuming that because God has blessed you for so long, you are now free to do what you once knew was sin and somehow not suffer any consequences.
ASA
Asa was another king of Judah who had a promising beginning. “And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God: For he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves” (2 Chronicles 14:2–3). Asa started out with a desire to do things God’s way. He wholeheartedly served the Lord and led others into obedience, and the people built and prospered under his leadership. When the Ethiopian army came against the people of Judah with almost two-to-one odds, Asa went straight to prayer. “Lord, it does not really matter how many of them there are or how weak we are. If You are in this, we are going to win the battle, and we are going to fight it for Your glory” (see 2 Chronicles 14:11). So the Lord smote the Ethiopians.
Similarly, you have walked in impossible places. You have faced trials and times in your life when you knew you were powerless to get out of what held you captive. Yet you went into the prayer closet and cried, “Lord, I know I am weak, but it doesn’t matter because the power of Your Holy Spirit is on me. For the glory of Your name, take me out of this place and into where You want me to go!” And God did exactly that, opening the door of impossibility.
Later, during the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, the northern kingdom of Israel came and built a fortified city against one of the areas of Judah. Despite witnessing the faithfulness of God over and over, suddenly we see a turn in Asa. He did go into the house of the Lord, but this time he did not go there to pray that God would once again glorify His name in an impossible situation. Rather, Asa went into the house of the Lord to take out the treasures so he could hire a foreign army to help fight against his enemy.
Accepting Asa’s offer of silver and gold, the Syrian king sent the captains of his armies to come to Judah’s aid, causing the northern kingdom to retreat. “Then Asa the king took all Judah; and they carried away the stones of Ramah, and the timber thereof, wherewith Baasha was building; and he built therewith Geba and Mizpah” (2 Chronicles 16:6). It all certainly looked successful—they won again and outsmarted the enemy. Asa may have even given some credit to God for this. The people of Judah took down the fortified city that was being built against them and used the stones to build additional places of habitation for the people of God in Judah. What possible problem could God have with this?
CUTTING OFF YOUR OWN STRENGTH
“And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand...Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars” (2 Chronicles 16:7, 9). It all had an appearance of success, but the prophet of God said, “No! It is not success, it is foolishness. You began in the Spirit with a wholehearted trust in God, but you have turned to the flesh, scheming and reasoning how to get through. You have literally cut off the source of your own strength, and now the end result is that you are going to have trouble for the rest of your life.”
After so many years of walking with the Lord, Asa should have been open to correction. One would think that he would have fallen on his face before the Lord in repentance. But we read in verse 10, “Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in a prison house.” In other words, he locked away the voice of correction and now held the key to what could and could not be spoken.
That is exactly what the backslidden Christian will always do with the voice of God. He will come into church and conclude, “If the pastor speaks this, then I will let him out and listen. If he doesn’t, I will lock him up again. I will choose what is truth; I will choose when to bend my knee. No one has the right to tell me that what I am doing is wrong after all these years of walking with God!”
How dangerous it is when we become angry with spiritual authority! Asa probably continued to smile and walk regally and royally, yet he was filled with rage. He could not escape the thought that he was rebuked, which is often the dilemma of those who have long walked with God.
DEAD INSIDE
“And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord but to the physicians” (2 Chronicles 16:12). Uzziah was diseased in his forehead because his mind had turned against the ways of God and here we see Asa diseased in his feet because he was pursuing a direction contrary to God’s desire. However, God’s incredible mercy is still evident. As the psalmist said, “I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me” (Psalms 119:75). God faithfully allowed this ailment in order to prompt Asa to turn back to Him.
If something has come into your life that you do not understand, I encourage you to stop for a moment. Consider that all things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purpose (see Romans 8:28). Could it be that God has allowed this circumstance in your life in order to stop you from making a foolish decision? If only Asa had turned to God and asked, “Lord, why are my feet diseased?” I am sure the Lord would have sent a prophet to him if he could not discern the answer for himself. He would have heard, “You are walking on the wrong path! You are walking in the flesh. You started in the Spirit but now you are walking in your own strength!”
“And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign. And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries’ art: and they made a very great burning for him” (2 Chronicles 16:13–14). Here we see a picture of what happens when you lose dependence on the Holy Spirit. You look good, you smell sweet, but in reality you are very, very dead. The Lord said to one of the churches in the book of Revelation, “...Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead” (Revelation 3:1). The word dead means “cut off from the enlivening influence of the Holy Spirit.” It is that simple. You are now walking in the flesh. You have learned how to sing the songs, clap your hands, shout at the right time, get to church on time—yet you are cut off from the quickening influence of the Holy Spirit. That is exactly how Asa ended up!
RENEWING THE ALTAR
I believe at a significant point during Asa’s reign he could have avoided the disease in his feet just by staying on the right path. “And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded: And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God...But when they in their trouble did turn unto the Lord God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them...And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the Lord, that was before the porch of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 15:1–8).
God has been showing me one of the keys to not finishing poorly as Asa did. He renewed the altar of the Lord! The Bible describes the altar as the place where we lay our lives down as a living sacrifice for the purposes of God. It is where we agree that we should not live according to our thoughts, our way, or our will, but the Lord’s.
It is time to renew the altar. It is time to get back to that place where you once shunned all evil and embraced good—that altar! Where your heart burned when you read the Word of God because you knew it was your life and your hope—that altar! Remember when your eyes would fill with tears at the mention of Jesus’ name? Remember when you considered that being a servant was the highest calling? Get back! Get back to the place where you once longed for new things to obey—where your heart’s cry was, “Lord, what would you have me do? I want to be at work in Your kingdom. It doesn’t matter what it is—it doesn’t have to be big—it can be a broom! Just let me glorify You!”
Notice also that before he renewed the altar of the Lord, Asa took courage and put away all the idols in the land. Today, if you have doubtful practices in your life, put them away. If you have embraced sin, erroneously believing that there will be no judgment for it, flee from it as quickly as you can. Walk in what is right and do not ever lose the fear of God. Do not get to the place where you cannot be corrected—where you fail because of success; where you falter because there has been a history of faithfulness. God is wonderful, loving, just, and kind, but you cannot mock Him. You cannot play games with a holy God—there must be honesty in the heart.
Perhaps you have put away all the known idols in your life, yet you still find yourself with no passion for the things of God. If this is where you are today, your only hope is to come to God and say, “Oh, Lord, help me to renew the altar. Bring me back to the place where I counted it a privilege to lay down my life. Bring me back to the place where I once longed for new things to obey!” As you come to the Lord with an honest cry in your heart, He will answer you. He will see to it that you not only start well, but that you finish the race with your hands raised, with a crown of righteousness laid up for you, and your voice giving Him praise! Hallelujah!
Carter Conlon
©2011 Times Square Church
Recently I have been studying the lives of Bible characters who started out well yet finished poorly. I began in full-time ministry when I was 33 years old and I am now 57. It has been an incredible journey and I know that I have been supernaturally helped all along the way. However, I noticed in the Scriptures that many men who walked mightily with God seemed to falter in the latter part of their lives. I do not know about you, but I certainly do not want to finish poorly and look back with regret at the end of this journey.
I believe that one way to avoid the pitfalls is to study the Scriptures with an open heart, for as Paul told Timothy, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16–17). The word perfect conveys the meaning of being brought to where God wants us to be—into His perfect will for each of our lives.
UZZIAH
Uzziah began his reign over Judah at the age of sixteen and ruled for fifty-two years, only to end up a leper. In his early days, he walked in the ways of God, “...and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper” (2 Chronicles 26:5). Uzziah was given a brilliant intellect and the ability to lead the people into a period of peace and advancement for the kingdom of God.
“But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the Lord his God, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense” (2 Chronicles 26:16). It is almost unthinkable that Uzziah would do such a thing. As king, he must have known that he had no authority to go into the temple and do what God reserved strictly for the priesthood. I personally do not know how to understand this other than to conclude that Uzziah must have lost the fear of God.
There is great danger in assuming that the Lord will no longer hold us accountable for what we do after having walked in the blessing of God for many years, knowing nothing but His kindness and favor. Suddenly the things we ran from in our youth somehow seem right in our eyes. It is part of that fallen human nature that ultimately wants to be its own god and determine what is good and what is evil, even if it is completely contrary to God’s Word. Perhaps this applies to you today—you have walked with God for years, experiencing His blessing and favor. Yet now you are worshiping in church while doing something that you clearly know is a violation of the Word of God. However, you mistakenly assume in your heart that you will not be held accountable.
When Azariah and the other priests went in after Uzziah to withstand him, “Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord, from beside the incense altar. And Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and, behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out from thence; yea, himself hasted also to go out, because the Lord had smitten him. And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death...” (2 Chronicles 26:19–21).
Imagine, fifty-two years of history wiped out by one foolish act! There should have been a glorious conclusion to Uzziah’s life, but instead he ended up in a leper colony, literally put away by the hand of God. The leprosy on his forehead was a type, of the disease that had taken hold of his mind. When you have walked for a long time in the blessing of the Lord, beware! Beware of the casualness; beware of assuming that because God has blessed you for so long, you are now free to do what you once knew was sin and somehow not suffer any consequences.
ASA
Asa was another king of Judah who had a promising beginning. “And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God: For he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves” (2 Chronicles 14:2–3). Asa started out with a desire to do things God’s way. He wholeheartedly served the Lord and led others into obedience, and the people built and prospered under his leadership. When the Ethiopian army came against the people of Judah with almost two-to-one odds, Asa went straight to prayer. “Lord, it does not really matter how many of them there are or how weak we are. If You are in this, we are going to win the battle, and we are going to fight it for Your glory” (see 2 Chronicles 14:11). So the Lord smote the Ethiopians.
Similarly, you have walked in impossible places. You have faced trials and times in your life when you knew you were powerless to get out of what held you captive. Yet you went into the prayer closet and cried, “Lord, I know I am weak, but it doesn’t matter because the power of Your Holy Spirit is on me. For the glory of Your name, take me out of this place and into where You want me to go!” And God did exactly that, opening the door of impossibility.
Later, during the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, the northern kingdom of Israel came and built a fortified city against one of the areas of Judah. Despite witnessing the faithfulness of God over and over, suddenly we see a turn in Asa. He did go into the house of the Lord, but this time he did not go there to pray that God would once again glorify His name in an impossible situation. Rather, Asa went into the house of the Lord to take out the treasures so he could hire a foreign army to help fight against his enemy.
Accepting Asa’s offer of silver and gold, the Syrian king sent the captains of his armies to come to Judah’s aid, causing the northern kingdom to retreat. “Then Asa the king took all Judah; and they carried away the stones of Ramah, and the timber thereof, wherewith Baasha was building; and he built therewith Geba and Mizpah” (2 Chronicles 16:6). It all certainly looked successful—they won again and outsmarted the enemy. Asa may have even given some credit to God for this. The people of Judah took down the fortified city that was being built against them and used the stones to build additional places of habitation for the people of God in Judah. What possible problem could God have with this?
CUTTING OFF YOUR OWN STRENGTH
“And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand...Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars” (2 Chronicles 16:7, 9). It all had an appearance of success, but the prophet of God said, “No! It is not success, it is foolishness. You began in the Spirit with a wholehearted trust in God, but you have turned to the flesh, scheming and reasoning how to get through. You have literally cut off the source of your own strength, and now the end result is that you are going to have trouble for the rest of your life.”
After so many years of walking with the Lord, Asa should have been open to correction. One would think that he would have fallen on his face before the Lord in repentance. But we read in verse 10, “Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in a prison house.” In other words, he locked away the voice of correction and now held the key to what could and could not be spoken.
That is exactly what the backslidden Christian will always do with the voice of God. He will come into church and conclude, “If the pastor speaks this, then I will let him out and listen. If he doesn’t, I will lock him up again. I will choose what is truth; I will choose when to bend my knee. No one has the right to tell me that what I am doing is wrong after all these years of walking with God!”
How dangerous it is when we become angry with spiritual authority! Asa probably continued to smile and walk regally and royally, yet he was filled with rage. He could not escape the thought that he was rebuked, which is often the dilemma of those who have long walked with God.
DEAD INSIDE
“And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord but to the physicians” (2 Chronicles 16:12). Uzziah was diseased in his forehead because his mind had turned against the ways of God and here we see Asa diseased in his feet because he was pursuing a direction contrary to God’s desire. However, God’s incredible mercy is still evident. As the psalmist said, “I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me” (Psalms 119:75). God faithfully allowed this ailment in order to prompt Asa to turn back to Him.
If something has come into your life that you do not understand, I encourage you to stop for a moment. Consider that all things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purpose (see Romans 8:28). Could it be that God has allowed this circumstance in your life in order to stop you from making a foolish decision? If only Asa had turned to God and asked, “Lord, why are my feet diseased?” I am sure the Lord would have sent a prophet to him if he could not discern the answer for himself. He would have heard, “You are walking on the wrong path! You are walking in the flesh. You started in the Spirit but now you are walking in your own strength!”
“And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign. And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries’ art: and they made a very great burning for him” (2 Chronicles 16:13–14). Here we see a picture of what happens when you lose dependence on the Holy Spirit. You look good, you smell sweet, but in reality you are very, very dead. The Lord said to one of the churches in the book of Revelation, “...Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead” (Revelation 3:1). The word dead means “cut off from the enlivening influence of the Holy Spirit.” It is that simple. You are now walking in the flesh. You have learned how to sing the songs, clap your hands, shout at the right time, get to church on time—yet you are cut off from the quickening influence of the Holy Spirit. That is exactly how Asa ended up!
RENEWING THE ALTAR
I believe at a significant point during Asa’s reign he could have avoided the disease in his feet just by staying on the right path. “And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded: And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God...But when they in their trouble did turn unto the Lord God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them...And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the Lord, that was before the porch of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 15:1–8).
God has been showing me one of the keys to not finishing poorly as Asa did. He renewed the altar of the Lord! The Bible describes the altar as the place where we lay our lives down as a living sacrifice for the purposes of God. It is where we agree that we should not live according to our thoughts, our way, or our will, but the Lord’s.
It is time to renew the altar. It is time to get back to that place where you once shunned all evil and embraced good—that altar! Where your heart burned when you read the Word of God because you knew it was your life and your hope—that altar! Remember when your eyes would fill with tears at the mention of Jesus’ name? Remember when you considered that being a servant was the highest calling? Get back! Get back to the place where you once longed for new things to obey—where your heart’s cry was, “Lord, what would you have me do? I want to be at work in Your kingdom. It doesn’t matter what it is—it doesn’t have to be big—it can be a broom! Just let me glorify You!”
Notice also that before he renewed the altar of the Lord, Asa took courage and put away all the idols in the land. Today, if you have doubtful practices in your life, put them away. If you have embraced sin, erroneously believing that there will be no judgment for it, flee from it as quickly as you can. Walk in what is right and do not ever lose the fear of God. Do not get to the place where you cannot be corrected—where you fail because of success; where you falter because there has been a history of faithfulness. God is wonderful, loving, just, and kind, but you cannot mock Him. You cannot play games with a holy God—there must be honesty in the heart.
Perhaps you have put away all the known idols in your life, yet you still find yourself with no passion for the things of God. If this is where you are today, your only hope is to come to God and say, “Oh, Lord, help me to renew the altar. Bring me back to the place where I counted it a privilege to lay down my life. Bring me back to the place where I once longed for new things to obey!” As you come to the Lord with an honest cry in your heart, He will answer you. He will see to it that you not only start well, but that you finish the race with your hands raised, with a crown of righteousness laid up for you, and your voice giving Him praise! Hallelujah!
Carter Conlon
©2011 Times Square Church
October 2, 2011
Is Your Eschatology Showing?
by T. A. McMahon
When I became a believer, the most popular Christian book of the day was The Late Great Planet Earth, written by Hal Lindsey. It stimulated a great deal of interest in biblical prophecy and, in particular, in the doctrine of the Rapture of the church. Prophecy and the Rapture were two theological concepts that were foreign to someone like me, who had been raised in the Roman Catholic Church. I couldn't figure out what either one of them was about or what they had to do with Christianity.
As I grew in my understanding of the Scriptures, however, I began to get very excited about both doctrines. The idea that Jesus could be coming back at any time to take me to heaven to be with Him was indeed a blessed hope (Titus 2:12-13). Yet only a few years later I noticed that some of my evangelical friends (and just Christians in general) didn't share my excitement--or at least the interest in it seemed to be on the wane.
Enthusiasm appeared to be fading into a blasé attitude regarding the imminent return of Jesus for His bride. Great expectation wilted to a posture of semi-confusion: "He could be returning prior to the Great Tribulation," or "He may come back for us midway through the Tribulation," or "perhaps at the end of the Tribulation." To keep it from becoming a debate issue among evangelicals, some called themselves "pan-tribbers," meaning pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib--whatever panned out would be fine with them.
A number of things contributed to that attitude. It was recognized that the timing of the Rapture was not a doctrine that was essential for salvation, nor was a belief in it critical. It would take place for those who were truly born again--whether or not they believed that it would, and no matter when they believed it would take place. Thus the feeling among many grew that it was no big deal what one believed.
Some were also intimidated by the rise of anti-Rapture teachers, who were quite militant and aggressive in their attempts to prove that the doctrine wasn't in the Bible or even that it was heretical. The problem with these objections is that they reflect the thinking of men rather than the teaching of God, something that is always a recipe for serious problems (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25). This also raises a question (which for most evangelicals didn't seem relevant 30 years ago but today begs an answer) that is quite significant: Is your eschatology showing?
Eschatology is the study of what the Bible teaches about the End Times. It considers the events that will take place related to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ: what will precede His return, what will happen during His return, and what takes place following His coming back to earth. Obviously, since He hasn't returned yet (though some would dispute that), all of the related teachings make up biblical prophecy. So, eschatology has to do with what the Scriptures teach prophetically about the Last Days.
What, then, do I mean by asking, "Is your eschatology showing?"
Scripture tells us that the just (i.e., justified believers) shall live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:7, Galatians 3:1, Hebrews 10:38). This means that what we believe must be lived out in order for our lives to be fruitful and pleasing to the Lord. If our understanding of what the Word of God says will take place in the future is not true to the Scriptures, our activities based upon that misunderstanding will be unfruitful and even spiritually destructive. I have given some reasons above why people avoid eschatological issues, to which I could add that some regard them as too far in the future to be of any practical concern or value in their lifetime. That's never been the case, and the practical realities of eschatological beliefs are becoming more evident every day.
The most prevalent eschatological teachings in church history are Premillennialism and Amillennialism. Premillennialism is the belief that Jesus Christ will return to earth in an event known as the Second Coming, which will be at the beginning of His thousand-year reign from Jerusalem. Then there is Amillennialism. Amillennialists do not believe in a literal thousand-year reign of Jesus on the earth; rather, He is said to have taken dominion over the earth right after His resurrection and now rules from heaven.
A somewhat related view is that of Postmillennialism, which declares that Christ's Second Coming will take place following His figurative millennial reign from heaven.
Is the eschatological view of Amillennialism showing? Yes, and it has been for millennia, starting back in the fourth century. Augustine, the chief architect of the major dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church, is credited with introducing Amillennialism in his book The City of God.
To maintain some semblance of biblical veracity, Amillennialists must spiritualize nearly all of the prophetic scriptures related to Israel and the Millennium because a literal interpretation completely contradicts their eschatology. Spiritualizing is a process of interpretation that disregards the plain sense of the text in order to ascertain a "higher" meaning, especially one that reinforces one's doctrinal bias. That approach to interpreting the Word of God, however, has had terribly destructive consequences. For example, the prophetic scriptures that refer to Israel have been spiritualized by Amillennialists to apply to the church. That false doctrine is known as replacement theology, although in replacing Israel with the church, those who teach such things major on the blessings and rarely if ever apply to the church the curses directed at Israel.
Roman Catholicism started the Amillennial ball rolling, and it was continued by the Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin, with the difference, of course, being their belief that the Protestant church rather than the Church of Rome had replaced Israel. Among its other problems, replacement theology has been instrumental in sowing the seeds of anti-Semitism within Christendom. The Catholic Church published more than 100 anti-Semitic documents between the sixth and twentieth centuries (see A Woman Rides the Beast).
Luther, in particular, exemplified anti-Semitism among the reformers. The vicious diatribes in his writings such as On the Jews and Their Lies, although not based solely on his Amillennialism, were certainly dependent on it.
Calvin's Amillennialism was the basis for his attempt to create a Christian utopia in the city of Geneva, which he controlled. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Amillennialism was the breeding ground for Preterism. During the counterreformation, Jesuit priest Luis de Alcasar interpreted the prophecies of the Book of Revelation as having already been fulfilled in the first century A.D. It wasn't until the early eighteenth century, however, that Preterism, the belief that most, if not all, biblical prophecies have been fulfilled, began to be espoused by Protestants.
That, of course, was then--but what about today? Amillennialism is the most common eschatological belief among professing Christians. It is the view of Roman Catholics, Greek and Russian Orthodox churches, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Episcopalians, the Church of Christ, some Independent Baptists, and most Calvinists (with some notable exceptions). In the last quarter-century Amillennialism has spawned Christian Reconstructionism/Theonomy, a latter-day attempt similar to Calvin's failed experiment to set up the "City of God" in Geneva.
The goal today, however, is far more ambitious as it seeks to take dominion over the world. The Reconstructionists, a.k.a. Theonomists, are all about setting up the Kingdom of God on earth through the implementation of the Old and New Testament laws and principles. An offshoot of Reconstructionism is the Coalition On Revival, or COR. This is a movement that made some headway in the decade of the '90s through the support of leading evangelicals and through the political activism of the religious right.
Its strategy is to make the Christian worldview dominant in all "spheres of society": education, science, politics, the arts, the military, and so forth. As the name more than implies, the eschatology of COR, or Coalition on Revival, is focused on bringing about worldwide revival, something that most Christians would find favorable. That may be the reason that some highly visible evangelical leaders who do not hold to an Amillennial theology--or its offspring--signed the original COR Manifesto. As one might expect, the Coalition On Revival is decidedly anti-Prophecy and anti-Rapture. The biblical doctrines of Prophecy and the Rapture do not support the agendas or goals of the Amillennial-driven COR proponents.
Though Christian Reconstructionism and the Coalition On Revival seem to be past their heyday of influence within Christendom, they are regarded by some as nothing more than a passing trend. I disagree. Trends such as the Manifest Sons of God, the Shepherding Movement, the Word/Faith teachings, the Church Growth trend, the Emerging Church Movement, and so on and so forth, come in waves much like an ocean wave, which approaches the beach, crests, and then crashes upon the sand, dumping whatever debris it carries. What's deposited by the wave sometimes sticks in the sand, while other flotsam disappears back out to sea. That's the way it is with unbiblical teachings and trends that have attracted large numbers of Christians throughout church history.
The Kingdom-dominionism of the Latter-rain, Manifest Sons of God movement that I mentioned earlier is a classic example. It started in Canada in the mid-1940s, and has ebbed and flowed throughout Christendom, particularly among Pentecostals and Charismatics. You can see its heretical teachings reflected today in so-called spiritual revivals and movements such as the Toronto Blessing, the Brownsville Revival, the Kansas City Prophets, the International House of Prayer (IHOP), and the New Apostolic Reformation.
Christian Reconstructionism influences and Coalition On Revival concepts are also making a modest yet effective return. There is a high-quality apologetics series produced by Focus on the Family titled The Truth Project(see TBC 9/11) that has been capturing the hearts and minds of young-adult evangelicals throughout the country. Significant doctrinal problems arise, however, because a major "scriptural worldview" of the series, albeit unstated, is Amillennialism. Some of the key teachers are Calvinists. Reconstructionism is never mentioned; nevertheless, the central teachings of Reconstructionism and Theonomy are apparent.
Scripture clearly rejects Amillennialism. The Bible foretells that the imminent Rapture of the church, the Great Tribulation, the Second Coming, the Millennial Reign of Christ, the Dissolving of Our Present Heavens and Earth, and the Creating of a New Heaven and New Earth, will all take place, in that order. That prophetic biblical scenario, however, does not fit with Amillennialism (or Postmillennialism) or any of the other attempts to usher in the Kingdom of God (See Whatever Happened to Heaven? Resource Pages).
The true scriptural view is that the biblical events that I just listed will literally take place and need to be considered in regard to any plans or agendas of men or ministries. We should not expect worldwide revival or a global Christian transformation--not, that is, until the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ, because the Bible declares that the Last Days will be characterized by great spiritual deception in the world and apostasy in the church. Does that mean that we should bail out on the world? No. But there is no scriptural basis for believing that the world will be or can be transformed through biblical law or biblical principles.
It should be apparent that one's Amillennial beliefs have practical consequences for anyone who lives those doctrines out in his life. However, the same is true for those who claim to be Premillennialists, who believe that Jesus must return in order to begin His literal one-thousand-year reign on this earth.
What does the Bible say regarding the living out of a Premillennial eschatology? First of all, the doctrine is characterized primarily as a believer's "blessed hope": "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:12-13). Verse 12 indicates what our lives should be like as we are "looking for that blessed hope": "Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;" John, the beloved, and likely the last of the apostles to go to be with Jesus, gives us this exhortation, which no doubt he himself lived out: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (1 John 3:2-3).
Jesus said, "If a man love me, he will keep my words" (John 14:23). And in Luke 6:46, Jesus posed this question: "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" We need to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith, once and for all delivered unto the saints.
Paul wasn't simply passing on some platitudes or a take-it-or-leave-it suggestion to young Timothy when he wrote, "But thou, O man of God, flee [sinful] things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. I give thee charge in the sight of God...that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Timothy 6:11-14).
Our lives need to reflect what Paul wrote as we look forward to Christ's appearing. To that John adds, "...abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming" (1 John 2:28). Peter not only wraps it up for us, he mentions the difficulties involved and then underscores where our hearts need to be as we look forward to an event that will be more exciting than anyone of us can imagine. He declares, "Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls" (1 Peter 1:6-9).
I hope and pray that our true biblical eschatology is showing. Maranatha! TBC
Quotable
Second Corinthians 5:10 assures us, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." Do you really believe as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ that there will be a day on which you will stand before His throne? We will each go one-on-one with the God of this universe. Can you imagine that? Do you think it will matter on that day whether you told a very lost and dying world about the only answer for a soul--Jesus? Yes, it will. It will matter whether you shared the most precious thing you have with everyone you could.
Mark Cahill, One Thing You Can't Do in Heaven
When I became a believer, the most popular Christian book of the day was The Late Great Planet Earth, written by Hal Lindsey. It stimulated a great deal of interest in biblical prophecy and, in particular, in the doctrine of the Rapture of the church. Prophecy and the Rapture were two theological concepts that were foreign to someone like me, who had been raised in the Roman Catholic Church. I couldn't figure out what either one of them was about or what they had to do with Christianity.
As I grew in my understanding of the Scriptures, however, I began to get very excited about both doctrines. The idea that Jesus could be coming back at any time to take me to heaven to be with Him was indeed a blessed hope (Titus 2:12-13). Yet only a few years later I noticed that some of my evangelical friends (and just Christians in general) didn't share my excitement--or at least the interest in it seemed to be on the wane.
Enthusiasm appeared to be fading into a blasé attitude regarding the imminent return of Jesus for His bride. Great expectation wilted to a posture of semi-confusion: "He could be returning prior to the Great Tribulation," or "He may come back for us midway through the Tribulation," or "perhaps at the end of the Tribulation." To keep it from becoming a debate issue among evangelicals, some called themselves "pan-tribbers," meaning pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib--whatever panned out would be fine with them.
A number of things contributed to that attitude. It was recognized that the timing of the Rapture was not a doctrine that was essential for salvation, nor was a belief in it critical. It would take place for those who were truly born again--whether or not they believed that it would, and no matter when they believed it would take place. Thus the feeling among many grew that it was no big deal what one believed.
Some were also intimidated by the rise of anti-Rapture teachers, who were quite militant and aggressive in their attempts to prove that the doctrine wasn't in the Bible or even that it was heretical. The problem with these objections is that they reflect the thinking of men rather than the teaching of God, something that is always a recipe for serious problems (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25). This also raises a question (which for most evangelicals didn't seem relevant 30 years ago but today begs an answer) that is quite significant: Is your eschatology showing?
Eschatology is the study of what the Bible teaches about the End Times. It considers the events that will take place related to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ: what will precede His return, what will happen during His return, and what takes place following His coming back to earth. Obviously, since He hasn't returned yet (though some would dispute that), all of the related teachings make up biblical prophecy. So, eschatology has to do with what the Scriptures teach prophetically about the Last Days.
What, then, do I mean by asking, "Is your eschatology showing?"
Scripture tells us that the just (i.e., justified believers) shall live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:7, Galatians 3:1, Hebrews 10:38). This means that what we believe must be lived out in order for our lives to be fruitful and pleasing to the Lord. If our understanding of what the Word of God says will take place in the future is not true to the Scriptures, our activities based upon that misunderstanding will be unfruitful and even spiritually destructive. I have given some reasons above why people avoid eschatological issues, to which I could add that some regard them as too far in the future to be of any practical concern or value in their lifetime. That's never been the case, and the practical realities of eschatological beliefs are becoming more evident every day.
The most prevalent eschatological teachings in church history are Premillennialism and Amillennialism. Premillennialism is the belief that Jesus Christ will return to earth in an event known as the Second Coming, which will be at the beginning of His thousand-year reign from Jerusalem. Then there is Amillennialism. Amillennialists do not believe in a literal thousand-year reign of Jesus on the earth; rather, He is said to have taken dominion over the earth right after His resurrection and now rules from heaven.
A somewhat related view is that of Postmillennialism, which declares that Christ's Second Coming will take place following His figurative millennial reign from heaven.
Is the eschatological view of Amillennialism showing? Yes, and it has been for millennia, starting back in the fourth century. Augustine, the chief architect of the major dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church, is credited with introducing Amillennialism in his book The City of God.
To maintain some semblance of biblical veracity, Amillennialists must spiritualize nearly all of the prophetic scriptures related to Israel and the Millennium because a literal interpretation completely contradicts their eschatology. Spiritualizing is a process of interpretation that disregards the plain sense of the text in order to ascertain a "higher" meaning, especially one that reinforces one's doctrinal bias. That approach to interpreting the Word of God, however, has had terribly destructive consequences. For example, the prophetic scriptures that refer to Israel have been spiritualized by Amillennialists to apply to the church. That false doctrine is known as replacement theology, although in replacing Israel with the church, those who teach such things major on the blessings and rarely if ever apply to the church the curses directed at Israel.
Roman Catholicism started the Amillennial ball rolling, and it was continued by the Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin, with the difference, of course, being their belief that the Protestant church rather than the Church of Rome had replaced Israel. Among its other problems, replacement theology has been instrumental in sowing the seeds of anti-Semitism within Christendom. The Catholic Church published more than 100 anti-Semitic documents between the sixth and twentieth centuries (see A Woman Rides the Beast).
Luther, in particular, exemplified anti-Semitism among the reformers. The vicious diatribes in his writings such as On the Jews and Their Lies, although not based solely on his Amillennialism, were certainly dependent on it.
Calvin's Amillennialism was the basis for his attempt to create a Christian utopia in the city of Geneva, which he controlled. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Amillennialism was the breeding ground for Preterism. During the counterreformation, Jesuit priest Luis de Alcasar interpreted the prophecies of the Book of Revelation as having already been fulfilled in the first century A.D. It wasn't until the early eighteenth century, however, that Preterism, the belief that most, if not all, biblical prophecies have been fulfilled, began to be espoused by Protestants.
That, of course, was then--but what about today? Amillennialism is the most common eschatological belief among professing Christians. It is the view of Roman Catholics, Greek and Russian Orthodox churches, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Episcopalians, the Church of Christ, some Independent Baptists, and most Calvinists (with some notable exceptions). In the last quarter-century Amillennialism has spawned Christian Reconstructionism/Theonomy, a latter-day attempt similar to Calvin's failed experiment to set up the "City of God" in Geneva.
The goal today, however, is far more ambitious as it seeks to take dominion over the world. The Reconstructionists, a.k.a. Theonomists, are all about setting up the Kingdom of God on earth through the implementation of the Old and New Testament laws and principles. An offshoot of Reconstructionism is the Coalition On Revival, or COR. This is a movement that made some headway in the decade of the '90s through the support of leading evangelicals and through the political activism of the religious right.
Its strategy is to make the Christian worldview dominant in all "spheres of society": education, science, politics, the arts, the military, and so forth. As the name more than implies, the eschatology of COR, or Coalition on Revival, is focused on bringing about worldwide revival, something that most Christians would find favorable. That may be the reason that some highly visible evangelical leaders who do not hold to an Amillennial theology--or its offspring--signed the original COR Manifesto. As one might expect, the Coalition On Revival is decidedly anti-Prophecy and anti-Rapture. The biblical doctrines of Prophecy and the Rapture do not support the agendas or goals of the Amillennial-driven COR proponents.
Though Christian Reconstructionism and the Coalition On Revival seem to be past their heyday of influence within Christendom, they are regarded by some as nothing more than a passing trend. I disagree. Trends such as the Manifest Sons of God, the Shepherding Movement, the Word/Faith teachings, the Church Growth trend, the Emerging Church Movement, and so on and so forth, come in waves much like an ocean wave, which approaches the beach, crests, and then crashes upon the sand, dumping whatever debris it carries. What's deposited by the wave sometimes sticks in the sand, while other flotsam disappears back out to sea. That's the way it is with unbiblical teachings and trends that have attracted large numbers of Christians throughout church history.
The Kingdom-dominionism of the Latter-rain, Manifest Sons of God movement that I mentioned earlier is a classic example. It started in Canada in the mid-1940s, and has ebbed and flowed throughout Christendom, particularly among Pentecostals and Charismatics. You can see its heretical teachings reflected today in so-called spiritual revivals and movements such as the Toronto Blessing, the Brownsville Revival, the Kansas City Prophets, the International House of Prayer (IHOP), and the New Apostolic Reformation.
Christian Reconstructionism influences and Coalition On Revival concepts are also making a modest yet effective return. There is a high-quality apologetics series produced by Focus on the Family titled The Truth Project(see TBC 9/11) that has been capturing the hearts and minds of young-adult evangelicals throughout the country. Significant doctrinal problems arise, however, because a major "scriptural worldview" of the series, albeit unstated, is Amillennialism. Some of the key teachers are Calvinists. Reconstructionism is never mentioned; nevertheless, the central teachings of Reconstructionism and Theonomy are apparent.
Scripture clearly rejects Amillennialism. The Bible foretells that the imminent Rapture of the church, the Great Tribulation, the Second Coming, the Millennial Reign of Christ, the Dissolving of Our Present Heavens and Earth, and the Creating of a New Heaven and New Earth, will all take place, in that order. That prophetic biblical scenario, however, does not fit with Amillennialism (or Postmillennialism) or any of the other attempts to usher in the Kingdom of God (See Whatever Happened to Heaven? Resource Pages).
The true scriptural view is that the biblical events that I just listed will literally take place and need to be considered in regard to any plans or agendas of men or ministries. We should not expect worldwide revival or a global Christian transformation--not, that is, until the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ, because the Bible declares that the Last Days will be characterized by great spiritual deception in the world and apostasy in the church. Does that mean that we should bail out on the world? No. But there is no scriptural basis for believing that the world will be or can be transformed through biblical law or biblical principles.
It should be apparent that one's Amillennial beliefs have practical consequences for anyone who lives those doctrines out in his life. However, the same is true for those who claim to be Premillennialists, who believe that Jesus must return in order to begin His literal one-thousand-year reign on this earth.
What does the Bible say regarding the living out of a Premillennial eschatology? First of all, the doctrine is characterized primarily as a believer's "blessed hope": "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:12-13). Verse 12 indicates what our lives should be like as we are "looking for that blessed hope": "Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;" John, the beloved, and likely the last of the apostles to go to be with Jesus, gives us this exhortation, which no doubt he himself lived out: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (1 John 3:2-3).
Jesus said, "If a man love me, he will keep my words" (John 14:23). And in Luke 6:46, Jesus posed this question: "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" We need to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith, once and for all delivered unto the saints.
Paul wasn't simply passing on some platitudes or a take-it-or-leave-it suggestion to young Timothy when he wrote, "But thou, O man of God, flee [sinful] things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. I give thee charge in the sight of God...that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Timothy 6:11-14).
Our lives need to reflect what Paul wrote as we look forward to Christ's appearing. To that John adds, "...abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming" (1 John 2:28). Peter not only wraps it up for us, he mentions the difficulties involved and then underscores where our hearts need to be as we look forward to an event that will be more exciting than anyone of us can imagine. He declares, "Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls" (1 Peter 1:6-9).
I hope and pray that our true biblical eschatology is showing. Maranatha! TBC
Quotable
Second Corinthians 5:10 assures us, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." Do you really believe as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ that there will be a day on which you will stand before His throne? We will each go one-on-one with the God of this universe. Can you imagine that? Do you think it will matter on that day whether you told a very lost and dying world about the only answer for a soul--Jesus? Yes, it will. It will matter whether you shared the most precious thing you have with everyone you could.
Mark Cahill, One Thing You Can't Do in Heaven
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