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Get ready Church for the mountains of mans traditions are being bulldozed over by the Power of God’s Holy Spirit

Posted: October 13, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, teaching, wilderness
Tags: Bride of Christ, discipleship, Doctrines, Kingdom life, Kingdom living, Kingdom of God, radical christianity, radical disciples, the Word

Get ready Church for the mountains of mans traditions are being bulldozed over by the Power of God’s Holy Spirit….

The landscape of the modern day church is be re-landscaped back to that which was ordered from the commander in Chief, Christ Jesus, it’s King & Master. For His Kingdom in these last days is being re-aligned to the foundation upon which it was laid.

Holy Ghost fire is removing the cracked, polluted mortar and stones that has been applied over the centuries by what some might conclude where the good intentions of men, yet none the less without the authority of the Builder. For the Builder, Jesus Christ has the blue prints, for He is the Chief architect, and like a good architect, upon close inspection, when He sees things that have been constructed and set in place that are not according to His blue prints, He will order the non-authorized work to be removed. And this is exactly what is happening with the Church today.

Many of the doctrines of men that has been laid upon the true foundation of the church over the past centuries is not authentic- though from a distance appear to be correct, yet upon close review and when laid over the original blue prints, the errors are apparent, the weakened sections of the structure are exposed

Many of today’s “Leaders” are kicking against the transforming & moving wave of Holy Ghost – As He, upon the directive of the King is removing from the landscape of the church, the entrenched doctrine of the “One-man Show” that is central to what is called a “Church service” today.

For centuries, men have attempted to steal the lime-light from He who is the only WORTHY One to get the attention, Christ our Lord. The established church as rested the leadership of the Church, not upon He who is the Chief Cornerstone, rather upon individuals who are not called to such a position. there are many false flames in the landscape in today’s church, though they may have started off with the true Fire of God, they having strayed have transcended into strange fires, vacant of the Oils of Heaven.

The center stage “pastoral role” as it has been portrayed is honestly UN-biblical. Oh, now the religious crowd will jump all over this – but you know what, I do not have to answer to them, I need only answer to the one who has called me, Christ Jesus, my Lord & King. Show me in the Word of God, where the system of “church that is displayed today – you will not find within Spiritual truth – You might line up a good argument by twisting the Word, but line upon line you can not find it.

Today we have “Super-Stars” self proclaimed, though often times promoted by the religious establishment as legitimate, for they are crowd attractors which means more coins in the offering plate, who charge large sums of money, often times in the thousands, robbing the local storehouse of that which is intended for the local Brides needs. They are promoted as “Super-star” miracle workers, Prophets, Evangelist and Apostles – Again “One-man” show, Great performers yet in the wake of all the hype – peoples lives are never truly changed – it becomes an addictive spiritual drug to them as they are induced with the belief that there really are those who carry an anointing that is not available to the “regular” folks and they end up running from meeting to meeting, while to whole time their lives contain now true, lasting victory’s, mere quick fixes until the next “Show”.

With all this said, we can now take up the matter of today’s “formal meeting”-life of the church; concerning this kind of meeting- and we speak here particularly of the Sunday morning meeting [the meeting held on the “first day of the week” (Acts 20:7 and 1 Cor. 16:2)] – we turn to 1 Cor. 14:23, 26-33:

“If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad [crazy] ..?

“How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.

“If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret.

“But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.

“Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.

“If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace.

“For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted.

“And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.

“For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” (I Cor. 14:23, 26-33)

This is one of the few instances in the Bible where the “formal meeting” life of the early church is discussed, and while the circumstances which surround Paul’s mentioning of this series of particular meetings were admonitory, much can be gleaned from this passage which sheds a great deal of light on the meetings of the so-called “Apostolic Church.”

One of the first things that comes to mind in examining these meetings is that these meetings are not “one-man performance.” The meetings referenced were not a “one-man show,” but meetings in which everyone was expected to participate – either by calling out a song (that is, after all, what the psalms were all about), by teaching, by testifying to God’s goodness, etc. – and there is nothing to indicate from this passage (either by inference or direct statement) that Paul found anything amiss in any of this. True, he speaks against the confusion of the meeting, but he evidently does not attribute this to the fact that the meeting is not a “one-man performance;” instead he attributes it to the unbridled use of tongues in the meeting. And this is substantiated by the method that he suggests to end the confusion:

“When ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.

“If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret.

“But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.

“Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.

“If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace.

“For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted.” (1 Corinthians 14:26-31)

Where is there here any evidence of a “one-man show?” There is none! The meetings of the early church were characterized by mutuality and cooperation under the authority of the elders acting under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. How different this is from the “one-man shows” of today’s Christianity.

The Lord made it clear through the New Testament writes that “ALL” are to participate!

The meeting of the church should seek to emulate this form of meeting (the kind described in 1 Corinthians 14:26-31); it should be based upon the twin principles of mutual help and mutual edification. But this is impossible when the “success” of the meeting is contingent upon just one “gifted” member (or even a few “gifted” members). Under such circumstances, how can there be any mutuality? – and how can the other members ever gain any experience in ministering the Word of God? We repeat, the meeting of the church should be conducted by the church – the whole church – under the guidance of the church’s elders.

The dependence of the church on one man for the success of its meetings – meetings in which church members are encouraged to become passive and indolent, always expecting to be helped, rather than seeking, in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, to be helpful to the other members – should be discouraged.

True, “one-man shows” often have a “better flow” and “polish” to them – but more often than not, it is the same kind of “flow” and “elegance” (refinement, dignity, grace) that one can expect to see in a performance on Broadway or in a Hollywood movie. Stagecraft and “special effects” are what count there; but stagecraft and “special effects” are “pretendings” (i.e., pretenses). They’re not real. They don’t produce life. What they produce are good performances.

But they certainly don’t build up the saints. What they create in the saints is an “audience mentality” – i.e., passivity and listlessness; they don’t (indeed, they can’t) create living, active, vigorous members of the body of Christ anymore than a performance at the theater can be expected to create actors from the audience. The fact is, a “good” audience in the theater or at the movies is one that will remain silent and listen, not one whose members jump up from their seats and join the actors on stage.

Once a church’s meetings are reduced to a “performance” and dependence on stagecraft and “special effects,” it’s only natural that an atmosphere will develop in the church where only the most “gifted” saints will dare to function. Those who are not so “gifted” (i.e., eloquent, articulate, persuasive, charismatic) will be encouraged to remain silent; after all, when such saints minister, they detract from the “show’s” “professionalism” and flow (elegance). Indeed, the meetings of the church become “performances” and “productions” in which only the most “qualified” can hope to participate. The fact is, when such an atmosphere is generated, the “normal” saints become too embarrassed to even open their mouths, let alone “try out” or “audition” for “better parts” in light of the “professionalism” of the more gifted “actors” – kind of like an actor at a local theater in some small mid-western town trying to share the stage with Madonna or Tom Cruise.

“Functioning” for the normal Christian in this kind of a situation means working as a “stage-handler” – i.e., moving the stage sets around, helping the actors with their makeup, taking tickets at the box office, cleaning up after the performance, etc., and this is precisely why so many in today’s evangelical church are weak and passive. They have no opportunity to exercise themselves spiritually in the meeting-life of the church. Each member’s responsibility for the success of the meeting has been lost sight of, and passivity has hindered the spiritual development of the individual members. We must get away from the idea of the Sunday meeting of the church being a “performance.” Such thinking is carnal in the worst sense of that word – everything for the “outward man;” nothing for the “inner man.” God deliver us from this kind of church-life, from this kind of meeting-life.

What about authority in the Meetings?

Ultimately, the authority in all the meetings rests with the Holy Spirit; that authority is administered through the elders of the local assembly or house-church who are, of course – and by definition – best equipped to discern the leading of the Spirit. Concerning the elders, Peter writes:

“Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according unto God; nor yet for filthy lucre (money), but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock.” (I Peter 5:2-3)

And Paul writes,

“Let the elders that rule well be counted of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and in teaching.” (I Tim. 5:17)

Now in this context, it is important to note how the Word of God uses the term “rule” in connection with the elders. It does not mean to “lord over.” Jesus said,

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and [their] great men exercise authority over them.

“It is not [to be] so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant,

“and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave;

“just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. ” (Matt. 20:25-28)

Again, we must remember that a scriptural church does not consist of an active and a passive group of brothers and sisters, the former controlling the latter, and the latter simply submitting to their control, or the former bearing all the burden while the latter settles down in ease to enjoy the benefit of the elders’ labors. “That the members … should care for one another” is God’s purpose for His church (I Cor. 12:24).

Now the question might fairly be asked, what exactly is an example? It is a pattern for others to follow. Since elders are to be a pattern to the brethren, then obviously it is neither God’s thought for them to do all the work and the brethren none; nor for the brethren to do all the work while the elders simply stand by and command. For the elders to be a pattern to the brethren implies that the brethren work and the elders work as well; and it implies that the elders work with special diligence and care so that the brethren should have a good example to follow. The elders are overseers of their brethren, but they are not “lords,” standing aloof and commanding. Such is the scriptural conception of the rule of the elders – not only with regard to the church in general, but also with regard to their participation in the meeting-life of the church. Again, we must always bear in mind what ALL authority in the church is aiming at; it aims specifically at –

“… the perfecting of the saints … for the edifying of the body of Christ:

“Till WE ALL come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:

“That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

“But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

“From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. (Eph. 4:12-16)

The perfecting of the saints! – this is what real authority in the church is aiming at. Could there be any question regarding this matter in light of the above passage? Isn’t this what the themes of this passage clearly indicate? – “the perfecting of the saints” (plural, not singular); “the edifying (building up) of the body of Christ” (that means everyone); “we ALL” (again, everyone); “the whole body fitly joined together” (again, speaking about everyone); “edifying (building up) itself in love.” It is the duty, then, of the elders to encourage (but not necessarily to command) the participation of all the members in the meeting-life of the church.

To this end, the elders should not be aiming at a “good performance,” but full participation. This is not to say that the meetings should not have direction; they should – and it is the duty of the elders to set that direction and “flow;” but as much leeway as possible should be granted to the saints – even to the point of letting them make mistakes; after all, how is it possible to learn without making mistakes? We repeat, the meeting of the church is not a performance; if anything, it should resemble a family coming to the dinner table and conversing with one another while they eat.

As in all families, there are some who are older, and some who are younger. There are grandpas and grandmas, and there are infants. There are children and teenagers. There are mothers and dads. There are aunts and uncles. There is everyone. All are invited to come and eat, and to participate in the conversation.

In such a context is there any mother and/or father so “proper” and “correct” that they do not want to hear from all the members of the family – even the youngest and most immature? Certainly not! Sometimes the happiest moments at a family dinner – the most memorable – are when the children have something to say. How the father and mother rejoice to hear their children; to listen to them share their joys and sorrows. But how can the parents know what those joys and sorrows are unless the children speak out. Remember, dinner time is not a performance where only the grandpas and grandmas, and the mothers and dads speak? That’s not what God wants! To be sure, there should not be chaos at the table. No one wants to sit at a table where there is disorder and confusion. Let everyone speak in turn. Let everyone listen in turn.

We are entering a season when much of the world’s financial institutions are going to collapse – we are going to see a world who is seeking real answers, a real solution and the governments of this world are not going to have (actually they already do not have) the answers. Much of the churches finances are tied up in buildings today and this has caused a weakening of the Word, much of the preaching as transcended into a user friendly version – The Church at large has allow the worldly systems to influence how the operate, how they “market” they service and “their” ministry. Many of these building are going to be deserted and many ministries are going to not only go out of business, they are going to have to file bankruptcy because they have build man-made and man funded empires totally outside of the “blue-prints” of the King. Thus is already happening, such as we have seen that glass cathedrals can come crashing down, especially when the are personality focused, rather than Jesus focused holding onto the Word in all purity.

Am I sounding like a dooms day prophet?

No friends, not only is the writing upon the walls of history as it unfolds before our very eyes – it was already writing about in the Word of God -let those who have Spiritual eyes discern what the Spirit of the Living God has spoken and is speaking.

The Remnant shall survive – those whose faith is in the Lord and not in man shall, through faith over-come – the true Ekklesia shall rise up in this day and even in the face of the worlds financial structures crumbling, they shall not lack – those who are building up and sowing into God’s true and faithful storehouses, shall eat of that fruit. God is not a God of lack, He is a God of Abundance and two of the keys to the store house of His abundance is obedience and faithfulness.

Hunger for His Word, for His unadulterated Pure Word, seek and ask Holy Ghost to open the book to you as you’ve never seen it before, to expose the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven which can only be seen through Spiritual eyes, one must be Born-again of the Spirit to see the Kingdom of God!

We are living in the days when the hearts of men shall faint, when people will be running to the mountains in fear, terrible days for the unbelievers – Yet Praise God for the saved, for we are living in the days when we are seeing the Glory of the Lord rising upon His Bride.

Those who have ears, listen to what the Spirit of the Lord is speaking in these day’s, those who have Spiritual Vision, look and you shall see the Hand of the Almighty, moving the lines of nations around, reordering things that men said could never be moved.

These are days in which, having repented and crying out for His Kingdom, His Will we shall speak and see the Kingdom of God in all its authority transforming the very atmosphere, climate and culture around us. For our God is a God we can boast about, for indeed our God is an Awesome God!!!

Walking in Kingdom Life Now

Posted: October 10, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, teaching
Tags: Bride of Christ, Christian life, disciples, kingdom growth, Kingdom living, Kingdom of God, Kingdom teaching, radical christianity

Fresh kingdom life is flowing from heaven. There is an entering into spiritual life beyond where we have walked before. In this fresh life, things we believed and hoped are now becoming reality. Scriptures we have believed and trusted in by faith have become living reality in the experience of kingdom life. Things of the Spirit we have read about in the Bible and thought we understood have become real living experience as we enter the fresh flow of kingdom life.

Probably most believers, especially those who call themselves Spirit-filled, are familiar with the New Testament words to live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit. And many have sought to live and walk in the Spirit.

What most of us have had may have been only an earnest or token of the reality of living in and walking in the Spirit.

Some are now experiencing a greater fresh life of kingdom reality living in and walking in the Spirit.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit, Gal 5:25.

Some believers are awakening into a real experience of becoming dead to natural perceptions and made alive in the Spirit. In the past most of us have viewed being dead to the cares of this natural life and alive in the Spirit as a concept or goal to work toward or as a biblical truth to be sought after in some ethereal way. This has changed. The fading of natural life and living in the Spirit is more real today in this season of open heaven experience.

The natural man in all of us is blind and deaf in the heavenly spiritual realm. He cannot experience the spiritual realm. He is dead to the reality of life experience in the spiritual realm (1 Cor 2:14).

Even as believers, have we continued to see and hear in the natural more than in the spiritual?

Many believers have had far too much respect for the natural and far too little respect for the Spirit. Few in past recent centuries have truly lived and walked in the Spirit.

Even past leaders have been, for the most part, spiritually blind and deaf to the real life in the kingdom of God, living and walking in the Spirit of God (Isa 42: 18-21).

Eyes and ears are opening to the Spirit. Prisons of belief systems that have limited people to natural life experience are opening to life in the Spirit in this season of kingdom reality flowing from heaven. Some are becoming blind and deaf to natural perceptions as they cease walking in the flesh or natural mentality and begin living and walking in much higher and in-depth perception and wisdom in the Spirit.

We are now beginning to experience what it really means to be in Christ and Christ in us. It is a life of being blind and deaf to natural perceptions and earthly wisdom. It is a life in the world but so much not of the world that we take no thought and make no provision for natural needs but instead seek the kingdom of God (Mat 6:25-33) (Rom 13:14).

It is a life lived in the Spirit of Christ with clear sight and hearing in spiritual reality. It is an unlimited life of love and power in which all things are becoming possible – a life in which the Spirit of Christ in us only does what He sees and hears the Father doing and saying. It is a life of being crucified with Christ and yet alive as Christ lives in us (Gal 2:20). We are in the world as Christ is in the world (1 John 4:17). This is now becoming real experience to those who are entering the fresh flow of kingdom life from heaven.

Father God is Spirit. Christ Jesus was Spirit in heaven before coming to earth as a man and now after the cross, resurrection, ascension, and return as a “life-giving Spirit” He dwells in His Body on earth by the Spirit and is seated at the right hand of God at the same time. The kingdom flow is by the Holy Spirit bringing the Father who raised Christ from the dead and Christ who gave himself for us to abide in us. God is now with us in the Spirit that indwells us. Heaven is come to earth by Spirit God.

Everything we have of Father God, Christ Jesus, and His kingdom is in the Holy Spirit reality of the kingdom flowing now. This is no longer just a teaching or a doctrine; it is a real experience in the fresh flow of kingdom life.

Rom 8:9-14: But you are not in the flesh (natural human being) but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors; not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Living and walking in the Spirit is a higher life of far greater intelligence than walking in the natural mind.

Connecting into the Spirit accesses the spiritual intelligence and heavenly wisdom of God. It is like connecting into the ultimate computer of all creation and existence. As we put to death (become blind and deaf) to the natural and alive in the Spirit, seeing and hearing from God, mysteries and understandings that our natural minds could not possibly figure out are easily and readily available in the Spirit of God. Through abiding in Christ and He in us by the Spirit, our mortality can put on immortality. We have the quality of eternal life now. This finite can become as one with infinite eternal God.

Putting to death the deeds (workings) of the body (natural man) by the Spirit allows us to LIVE by the Spirit and no longer by the natural. Thus, it is possible to no longer walk as mere man limited with natural human intellect and understanding but to walk as joint heirs of all heavenly attributes with Christ, led entirely by the Spirit as living spiritual beings in earth bodies, sons of God.

Without faith it is impossible to please God.

FAITH is the key to accessing the Holy Spirit and the kingdom realm that is above and greater than the natural.

God has provided and is providing the way out of the prison of thinking the Holy Spirit is a lesser part of the triune God. The Holy Spirit is more than a messenger sent from God. Father and Son are in the Holy Spirit. We have only one God in three manifestations. The kingdom of God is in the Holy Spirit. Angels are spirit beings sent as messengers and ministers from God. Holy Spirit is God. You cannot come to God without believing that He is and diligently seeking Him.

Heb 11:6: But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Believing in the Holy Spirit is faith in God that empowers and enables us to live and walk in the kingdom of God life now. Dishonoring or blaspheming the Holy Spirit blocks access to God and His kingdom (Mark 3:28-29).

Receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1-7) (Acts 1:8) – live in the Spirit – walk in the Spirit and Christ Jesus, and the Father will establish the kingdom of God in you.
Faith is dissolved when hope becomes manifest reality.
When we really live and walk in the reality of spiritual kingdom, faith is no longer required; it has matured into reality.

Heb 11:1: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Rom 8:24: For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?

Yes, multitudes across the whole earth are by faith seeking the kingdom in hope of its coming and redemption. Sadly most all do not yet see that the kingdom comes first in the Spirit by the Spirit. Christ Jesus can live in us by the Spirit to impart the reality of walking in the kingdom of God now in this moment. The kingdom of God will not rule in this world until many sons of God are alive by the Spirit and are walking in the Spirit. Only then will the natural world be renewed by the impact of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is within you if indeed Christ dwells in you by the Spirit.

At this moment, I do not believe I have ever said anything more important than this. The kingdom of God is now alive and is consuming, filling, empowering in rapturous ecstasy those who are entering, and it is available to all who will seek it with all their hearts.

The Lord would have me speak personally for a moment to describe a bit of what this is like for me. It is like heaven has come down and encapsulates me in a heavenly Spirit bubble that moves with me as I move about. Spirit flow seems to rest deep in my chest and flow out to form the bubble of Spirit encompassing my life. In this place everything is seen in Spirit, and instruction is immediately available. There is no delay in reaching God. Communion, and conversation is instant almost all the time. Things in the Spirit are very primary and close, and things in the natural are secondary and a bit distant.

Walking in the Spirit is a very real tangible experience of life in Christ in us. Experiences may vary, and what is happening to me may be different in others. However, I have the distinct feeling that there will be such an awesome reality of the presence of God in the Spirit, that those who are entering will know they are no longer in faith hoping for that which has now become reality.

Is there faith for more? Yes, but now for me it is not my faith but the faith of Christ who is my life. There is great rest in walking in Christ knowing He really lives in me in practical spiritual kingdom reality.

Gal 2:20: I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Keep on pursuing love. It never fails
and His kingdom never ends.

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

Spiritual Church (Ekklesia)

Posted: October 7, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, teaching, wilderness
Tags: Book of Acts Church, Bride of Christ, Kingdom life, kingdom of darkness, Kingdom of God, Spirit led life

We are as explorers moving day by day further into a new land , a land we have never before seen, filled with things we have not yet known. Almost every day of our journey reveals awesome sights about which we may have heard but were unable to understand or even imagine until our eyes feast upon it, and all of our senses are quickened as we examine it with great excitement. Suddenly, what we have only read about and could not fully understand now makes perfect sense as we partake of and experience the reality of that which has previously been only a promise.

The future has come to us now. The glorious reality of God and His kingdom reality is presenting itself more as we reach each new horizon and partake of the previously unseen spiritual reality of God. Truly our eyes are lifted up unto the hills of God far above the darkness of the fallen world unto the heavenly order descending from above. Truly what God has prepared for those that love Him had never entered our natural minds until this blessed day in which the Holy Spirit is revealing it to a new generation of maturing sons of God.

We are more than being revived. We are being made alive in areas where we have never lived before. Our spiritual senses and spiritual lives have been so dulled by centuries of natural living and natural reasoning and understanding that, though we were alive, we were as dead being blind and deaf to supernatural spiritual reality.

The supernatural works of God were foreign and appeared impossible to us. We relegated all current supernatural to only demonic sorcery. The supernatural gifts of the Spirit that should have been part of our daily lives were not functioning. Our natural animal instinctive living led us to look unto our own ways devised by our prideful natural minds to provide for our natural appetites, while the world died spiritually and drifted into a realm of deep darkness far from the light and life of spiritual living in God.

We made church into a human endeavor of natural functions and developed religion in an attempt to reach God with our natural efforts. We took a devious shortcut to life and developed religious forms and ways to eliminate the costly real way of the cross of self denial and acceptance of spiritual reality. In bypassing our personal cross experience, we missed the resurrection life of Jesus that came to move us out of our natural ways and into the supernatural spiritual ways of resurrection life in God.

Praise God we have come to a new horizon, and the brightness of the light of God has appeared. Forerunner scouts have returned to the camp of explorers with glorious reports of real spiritual life of God just ahead, and we are moving out at first daylight to experience the real assembling of God with His people in spiritual gatherings with God.

The Ekklesia church is not a natural thing it is a spiritual reality. The Ekklesia is made up of spiritual beings called out of the natural world and into spiritual reality gathered unto God in the Spirit – a spiritual gathering of living stones � an assembly of Spirit God, Jesus, many angels, and spirits of just men made mature in Jesus. All of our questions about headship, structure, and organization of church are dissolved as the Ekklesia comes together in the Spirit in the heavenly New Jerusalem on earth as it is in heaven.

Heb 12:22-24: But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

For many centuries the church has been, for the most part, a gathering of natural beings with only occasional visitations of the Spirit touching the spirit within mankind. For the most part, natural effort went into performing religious rituals and praying mostly faithless prayers to a perceived distant God. It became a lukewarm church primarily concerned with social order and well-being. Skilled orators preached from a level of a higher caste than the ordinary laity who sat quietly at weekly meetings. Some received a sense of guilt and need for repentance of their sins, while others day-dreamed or fought to stay awake.

Probably no one even thought or dreamed of a gathering of spiritual beings on earth together with an innumerable company of angels, God the judge of all, Jesus the firstborn, and spirits of just men made perfect. We are so accustomed to living in the natural earthly side of our natural/spiritual being that the concept of the spiritual heavenly Jerusalem gathering on earth is hard for us to even think.

I believe God is speaking to His people today to step out of our natural side into our spiritual being side and look over the next horizon into the gathering of spiritual beings with Christ Jesus, Father God, holy angels, and spirits of others redeemed by the blood and living in the better things of the spiritual realm. The Holy Spirit brings all this to pass. Our spirits come together with the Holy Spirit and the entire God family and multitudes of angels.

Can we see it? Can we allow the reality of the spiritual Ekklesia to enter into our minds? Can we prepare now to come together in our next gathering as spiritual beings and not as natural people? No longer filled with conversation and considerations of natural things but filled with spiritual things � waiting upon the Spirit, instead of natural planning. This is moving into the next horizon of the reality of walking in the Spirit, abiding in Him and He in us. This is God dwelling with His people. The light of His glory will fill the room, and our hearts will knit together with God and one another.

2 Cor 6:16: �.. For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.”

Rev 21:3: And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.

Rev 21:23: The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.

Supernatural will become natural in spiritual gatherings. There will be no need for pumping and hype, no need for natural human intervention and control. The Spirit of God will rule as the headship of Christ Jesus becomes fully evident. It is the family of God from heaven and earth coming together, worshiping the One who sits upon the throne in perfect harmony � multitudes of angels blending their voices with the spirits of justified men in heavenly melody rising to high crescendos and flowing as a mountain stream lightly through the valley and suddenly flowing with great strength and joy into a glorious waterfall to again come into deep pools of fresh sweet clear life in perfect peace – heaven and earth in perfect harmony praising God upon the throne.

Mat 18:20: “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

John 4:23-24: “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.

Ron McGatlin

The Preterist Spirit of Deception

Posted: September 19, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, teaching, wilderness
Tags: Bride of Christ, Doctrines, kingdom growth, kingdom of darkness, Kingdom of God, radical christianity, Spirit led life

The Preterist Spirit of Deception
William B. Chalfant

Introduction

Some months ago I wrote a refutation of the teaching of a prominent “partial” preterist, who has been very active in spreading this doctrine throughout the ranks of apostolic pentecostals. I wrote at that time that I did not think that the teaching of prophecy should be a “point of fellowship”. I have been forced to modify that stand when I begin to thoroughly understand the intentions and the purpose of preterism. This is an extremely dangerous teaching, which, when taken to its ultimate conclusions, is contrary to true revival and the preaching of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who reject a future millennium, and effectively teach and preach against the future catching up of the Bride (whether before, during, or after the tribulation) and the imminent coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, at least in a basic premillennial sense, ought to realize that they are being very detrimental to the body of Christ. Their teaching is quite patently false, and untenable in the Scripture. Partial preterism is an untenable compromise between the more consistent “full preterism” and the apostolic teaching which is basic premillennialism.

A “partial preterist” stand invariably seems to settle upon the heresy of amillennialism, which is contrary to apostolic teaching in the Scriptures. It is a variation of the doctrine of Hymenaeus, whom Paul delivered to Satan because of his blasphemous teaching that the resurrection was past (1 Timothy 1.20, 2 Timothy 2.17,18). This type of teaching eats like a cancer on the body of Christ.

I do not wish to have a bad spirit, and I do not wish to cease to be a gentleman, but I cannot help but condemn this false notion that the majority of New Testament prophecy has already been fulfilled in the first century, when common historical knowledge and Scripture shows that it has not. This is ignorance compounded with deception. Moreover, the witness of the Holy Ghost shows us that this is simply deception.

The Rosetta Stone Prophecy Of The Sixth Seal

The Bible is one third prophecy. Prophecies concerning the second coming of the Lord, the future of the New Testament church, and the endtimes (the tribulation, the millennium, the last judgment, etc.), are all interconnected. There are common threads which run throughout these prophecies.

The “sixth seal” of Revelation 6 is a “key” to coordinating and assimilating certain endtime prophecies (in both testaments) associated with one particular event in prophecy. It is like a “rosetta stone”. In other words, the identification of the common elements of the “sixth seal” brings certain prophecies into harmony with one another.

The Heavenly Signs In The Sun, The Moon, And The Stars

For example, the common “key elements” associated with the sixth seal of Revelation 6 are the heavenly signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, as well as the sign of the “heavens departing as a scroll”. The sixth seal also has a “relationship” with the period which some identify as the “Great Tribulation” in that, when the Great Tribulation of three and one-half years shown to be concluded, then the sixth seal is opened (Rev. 6.12, Matt. 24.29). The sixth seal announces the beginning of the “wrath of God”. Surely, no one thinks the wrath of God upon the entire world has already taken place.

One of the serious errors of interpretation of the preterist view is to reduce the wrath of God upon the nations to simply the wrath of God upon the city of Jerusalem and the Jews. We take the literal view unless the literal view is shown to be an utter impossibility. That is the method of the apostles. God says what He means and means what He says. The preterist, on the other hand, is fixated upon Jerusalem and 70 AD. He must perforce compress and twist (especially Old Testament) prophecies pertaining to the entire world, and compress them to fit his scheme of first century Jerusalem being the object of almost all endtime prophecies. He does by playing upon words such as “earth”, “world”, and attempting to “provincialize” prophecies that concern the world to isolated areas in the Middle East. This is not the case as we shall attempt to show.

History Does Not Record The Fulfillment Of Endtime Prophecies That Are Worldwide In Scope

The reason why the preterist must reduce prophecies in scope, and, in many cases, attempt to show that they have already come to pass centuries ago, is because he cannot maintain his preterist scheme without doing this. He must destroy the future endtime scope of many prophecies in order to maintain his preterist argument. Of course, there are a number of prophecies pertaining to the first coming of the Lord that have been fulfilled, and there are some other prophecies that have been fulfilled, obviously. But the great class of endtime prophecies pertaining to the cataclysmic events preceding the second coming of the Lord have not yet been fulfilled (although we see the dawning and the working of their fulfillment in a number of events today). They are associated with the coming judgment of this world, and with the Blessed Hope of the Christian for the return of Jesus Christ. Herein is where the preterist and the amillennialist do great damage.

The singular heavenly events associated with the opening of the sixth seal, and with certain other prophecies pertaining to the last days, have never yet been reported in history, and may be assumed not to have happened yet, as, for example, in Revelation 6 we read of a future “great earthquake”, “the sun (turning dark), the moon becoming “as blood”, and the stars “(falling) from heaven” (vss. 12,13). Moreover, the “heaven (will depart) as a scroll when it is rolled together”, and “every mountain and island (will be) moved out of their places” (vs.14,15). This is such an astounding worldwide event, we are told, that:

…the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men,and every bondman, and every free man, (will hide) themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains. -Revelation 6.15,16 KJV

And yet preterists want to tell us that this prophecy (written in c.96 AD no less) merely refers to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD! In order to handle such prophecies as this, the preterist must resort to the method of extreme allegorism, interpreting events in an exaggerated way, and actually twisting the plain statements of Scripture in order to facilitate his theories. One of his great allies, preserved by the Catholic church, was the Jewish traitor Josephus, who was a Roman sycophant.

Even the questionable reporting of the first century Jewish historian Josephus does not present a view

of such a worldwide, unusual astronomical event as is described in Revelation 6, which was written well after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD ( 96 AD, according to many ancient and modern historians). And even if we were to determine that the book of Revelation was written before 70 AD (which is very doubtful), the worldwide catastrophic events of Revelation 6 cannot be shown to have already occurred in history. This is why the preterist must tenaciously cling to his allegorical “biblical imagery” method of prophetic interpretation. Without the extreme allegorism of his method of interpretation, his scheme will not stand at all.

The Old Testament Prophets Were Concerned With More Than Just The City Of Jerusalem

Preterists, by and large, seem to think that most of the Old Testament prophecy concerns only Old Testament events or the 70 AD destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. They seem to reject the idea that Old Testament prophecy concerns future cataclysmic endtime events on a worldwide scale.

Isaiah 13 also prophesies of events involved with the opening of the sixth seal seen in Revelation 6, clearly indicating that this prophecy pertains to more than the destruction of a mere city in Israel:

Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. -Isaiah 13.9-13 KJV

Obviously, this is not just a localized vengeance against the lone city of Jerusalem ,but it involves the entire world with great events occurring, which even obscure the atmosphere, and involve a “shaking of the heavens”, and with the planet being knocked off of her axis, or out of her orbit (“the earth shall remove out of her place”). Is this just “Old Testament biblical imagery”, as preterists conveniently claim, or is this a prophecy of the endtimes concerning the entire planet? The interpretation of the preterist would have us believe that God is only speaking about a city and the surrounding provincial area in the first century. I believe this preterist method of interpretation comes originally from the German school of higher criticism, which sought a way to do away with the miraculous and the extraordinary.

Joel Foresaw Worldwide, Cataclysmic Events

Joel also prophesies of events surrounding the sixth seal:

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pout out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those day will I pour out my spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. -Joel 2.28-31 KJV

This time period cannot be restricted to the first century (although the first part of the prophecy begins to be fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, not too long after the “last days” had begun). Joel is also obviously referring to the last day sixth seal in verse 31. The common elements of the sixth seal are the heavenly signs pertaining to the sun, the moon, and the stars. These heavenly signs immediately precede the wrath of God and the “day of the Lord”.

The First Century Shows No Evidence Of The Sixth Seal Worldwide, Cataclysmic Events Seen In Joel, Revelation 6, And In Isaiah 13

We saw in Revelation 6 and in Isaiah 13 that these “sixth seal” heavenly signs were of a worldwide nature. There is no evidence of any such worldwide, catastophic signs such as these in the first century that is credible. Where, for example, in the first century during the siege of Jerusalem does one see “kings of the earth”, “great men, rich men, chief captains, might men, and every bondman and every free man” hiding themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, crying out, “hide us…from the wrath of the Lamb” (Rev. 6.16)? The wrath of the Roman army is not the wrath of the Lamb, nor was it seen on a scale outlined in the endtime prophecies. The “day of the Lord” is ushered in with worldwide catastrophic signs and wonders. This did not happen in the first century. The New Testament church was launched with the beginning of the outpouring of the Spirit in “the last days” (plural), but the conclusion of the “last days” prophecy in Joel is yet to be fulfilled. This lets us know that the “last days” (plural) did not conclude in the first century, but have not yet ended (the apostle Peter and David have caused us to realize that a day in God’s eyes could be as long as a “thousand years”, 2 Peter 3.8, Psalms 90.4). The term “day” is used in several different ways in the Bible.

The Daniel 2 Prophecy Informs Us That The “Latter Days” Extend Into The Modern “Nation-State” Era Of History

A careful reading of Daniel 2 will demonstrate that the period of time referred to in prophecy as “the last days”, “the latter times”, “latter days” etc., extends into the modern times of the “nation states”, which arose following the demise of the Roman empire (“the legs of iron”). We are now living in the period of the “feet part of iron and part of clay” (Daniel 2.33).

But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the vision of thy head upon thy bed, are these. -Daniel 2.28 KJV

It is clear from Daniel 2 that the term “latter days” refers not only to the “legs of iron” (the Roman empire, which extends chronologically approximately from 168 BC to 476 AD, in the case of the “western leg”, and to 1453 AD, in the case of the “eastern leg”), but must also refer to the succeeding “feet part of iron and part of clay”, which, of course, extends into our modern times, the times of the modern nation-states. The return of the Lord Jesus Christ (“the Stone made without hands”) is prophesied to occur during the period of “the feet (made) part of iron and part of clay”. Thus, the return of the Lord Jesus Christ could not have occurred during the period of “the legs of iron” (the Roman empire), but must occur during the succeeding period of the “feet” (or modern times). The “Stone” smashes the “feet” and not “the legs”. Moreover, the Stone smashes the Gentile system and not Jerusalem in the endtimes.

Joel Actually Prophesies Of The Deliverance Of Jerusalem Rather Than Its First Century Judgment

In fact, Joel, rather than prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem, actually prophesies of its deliverance:

For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem. I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. -Joel 3.1,2 KJV

Joel wrote these prophecies during 835-796 BC. They were not fulfilled during the Babylonian invasion of 586 BC. when the Temple and the city were basically destroyed. They were not fulfilled during the 66-70 AD assault of the Romans on Jerusalem, when only the Temple was destroyed by fire. They will be fulfilled during the endtimes. If Joel 2.28,29 was fulfilled in approximately 33 AD at Pentecost, we ought to expect that Joel 3.1,2 will similarly be precisely fulfilled. This did not happen in 70 AD. There is coming a day in the which all nations will be gathered against Jerusalem, and God will rise up against the nations of the world to deliver Jerusalem. It has to happen because the word of God is true.

Dispersion Never Refers To The Apostolic Church But Rather To The Jews

Notice that God, in that day, will “plead with them (all nations) there for my people, for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations”. It is not the apostolic church that was “scattered among the nations”, but rather the nation of Israel (the Jews) (see Luke 21.24). Moreover, God is not going to “plead with them” (the nations) for His people the Jews in 70 AD. That would be impossible since history shows He did not. Any “pleading” with the Jews (not the nations) in 70 AD would have come before the worldwide dispersion by the Romans. Moreover, this word “plead” is the Hebrew word shaphat, which means “to judge” or “to contend (with)”. It is some future date that God will “plead”with the nations for His people (a future date that is associated with the sixth seal in Revelation 6). How, therefore, can Revelation 6, and these prophecies centering around the sixth seal, simply refer to 70 AD in the first century? When Titus came with his Roman armies, we certainly do not see the Lord Jesus Christ “pleading” with all nations on the behalf of His people the Jews. Rather we see “the days of vengeance” on Jerusalem and the Jews that Jesus spoke about in Luke 21. Why, then, would anyone want to maintain that the prophecy of Joel was completely fulfilled in the first century?

Some Preterists Maintain Endtime Prophecies Are Simply “Old Testament Imagery”

Since it is impossible to make the worldwide, catastrophic events prophesied in the Old and New Testaments fit the provincial Jewish rebellion of 66-70 AD, preterists resort to a biblical interpretative method that brought the world the trinity doctrine: allegorism, or, in its new preterist dress, “biblical imagery”. Using this fanciful method of interpretation, prophecy can mean almost anything anyone wants it to mean. Any careful student of the Bible will realize that this type of interpretative method is the exception rather than the rule in biblical prophecy.

Types And Shadows Do Not Permit Fanciful Flights Into Imaginative Allegory

Of course, types and shadows are used, even in a literal interpretative method. Men are often referred to as “sheep”, “tares”, and “goats”. Israel becomes a “fig tree”, and men are even called “foxes” and “serpents”, while demons are “birds”. But “types” and “shadows” never do away with the reality of described events.

When the Bible says that Jesus ascended up to heaven, and “a cloud received him out of their sight” (Acts 1.9), we are expected to understand that this is a physical description of His ascension When prophecy states that He will come in the clouds of heaven, and the angels said that He would return to earth “in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1.11), then we are expected to understand that, in this scenario, “clouds” refer to atmospheric clouds that we see almost every day. In other words, clouds must be clouds, unless the context dictates that they cannot possibly be physical clouds.

When Hebrews 12.1 refers to a “cloud of witnesses”, we know that this is not referring to atmospheric clouds in the sky. No one has ever seen human beings form an atmospheric “cloud”! But the return of Jesus Christ back to earth is reported to be visible to every eye on a worldwide (and even in an “otherworldly”) scale. There are a number of ways in which this could be even physically accomplished. Moreover, we are taught that not only all of the “kindreds of the earth”, but those who are physically deceased, will see His visible return (Revelation 1.7, Daniel 7.13, Zechariah 12.10, Matthew 24.30, Matthew 26.64). Zechariah 14 describes this second coming in some detail. The Lord’s feet shall actually stand “in that day” upon the mount of Olives (Zechariah 14.4), following His return to earth at Armageddon. This could not possibly have happened in the first century.

I would invite any student of the word of God to investigate the details of the prophesied battle of Armageddon throughout the word of God. Don’t just take one or two passages and then allegorize them. Joel says that “all nations” will be gathered against Jerusalem one day (not just the Roman armies of Titus). Zechariah says the same. At Armageddon, Zechariah says that the Lord Himself will personally go forth to “fight against those nations” gathered against Jerusalem (Zechariah 14.3). This is not Titus against the Jews in 66-70 AD! The spirits of devils go forth to draw the kings or rulers of the earth to “gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty” (Revelation 16.14). The location is given as “Armageddon” (Joel’s “valley of Jehoshaphat”, or “the judgment of Jehovah”, or, as some have said, the plain of Esdraelon, the valley of Jezreel). At any rate, this great battlefield will have the fate of the city of Jerusalem, and indeed the fate of the world, as its focus, when the nations of the world will be gathered there (Revelation 19.19). The armies of the beast will be defeated by the personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ and not by the armies of Titus, whom, some preterists would have us believe, was serving the beast (as some of them say Nero was the beast!). Thus preterism confuses and obscures the truth of endtime prophecies.

We have seen in the prophecy of Joel how that the “last days” cannot possibly be restricted to the first century only, since the “last days” also envision worldwide, catastrophic events and the deliverance of the city of Jerusalem (as opposed to the preterist interpretation of the destruction of the Temple only in 70 AD). Moreover, the prophecy of Joel does not foretell the use of the Roman armies to destroy the city of Jerusalem, but rather foretells a time when the Lord Himself will plead with “all nations” who have come against the city of Jerusalem, which is the exact opposite of the preterist scenario.

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. -Joel 3.14-16 KJV

There is the classic key element of the sixth seal (“the sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining”). This prophecy is directed to the nations of the world (during the time of the “feet of clay mixed with iron in Daniel 2) and not to the Romans of the first century. It speaks of the future day of the Lord. Moreover, it speaks of the Lord coming to the rescue of Jerusalem (“The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem…”), which is hardly the case in 70 AD. Certainly the Lord did not come to the rescue of the Jews in 70 AD. They were being judged for their rejection of the Messiah. A worldwide dispersion of the Jews resulted. Moreover, this prophecy also speaks of the Lord actually sitting in the valley of Jehoshaphat (Megiddo) to judge the nations. Again, hardly 70 AD and the destruction of Jerusalem at that time. Therefore, how can preterists say that Joel was fulfilled in the first century?

There can be little doubt that these endtime prophecies refer to more than just the first century destruction of the city of Jerusalem. And yet Peter said that these events were “in the last days” ( “in the last days saith God”, Acts 2.17). It is evident that, at least in the apostle Peter’s mind, the “last days” encompassed not only the events of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost in Jerusalem, but included the final battle of Armageddon and the actual return of the Lord to Jerusalem, which still have not occurred some 2000 years later. Therefore, to maintain that the “last days” only pertained to the first century is entirely inadequate. In the mind of the preterist, the “last days” apparently only refer to the “last days” of the Mosaic covenant period. But the Mosaic covenant ended on that day that the veil of the Temple was rent from top to bottom as the Savior died on Calvary. It did not end later in 70 AD.

The prophecy in Isaiah 34, which is also connected with the sixth seal, further points out that these events cannot be restricted to just the first century and the destruction of Jerusalem as preterists maintain:

Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is herein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. -Isaiah 34.1-4 KJV

It is easy to see from this passage that the prophet is not just speaking of first century Jerusalem. Yet this passage is a companion passage to Joel 2 and 3, to Isaiah 13, and to Revelation 6 and Matthew 24. It contains elements that are closely associated with the sixth seal, and the day of the LORD. It cannot be restricted to the first century and the 70 AD destruction of the Temple. The “indignation (wrath) of the LORD” is upon “all nations” (not just Jerusalem). The “host of heaven” is to be “dissolved”, and the “heavens…rolled together as a scroll” (reference Revelation 6.14). If this is a companion passage to the aforementioned prophecies, which describe the same events, then one would be foolish to say that Revelation 6 was fulfilled in the first century and pertained to the destruction of Jerusalem.

Jesus Himself also makes a reference to the events of the sixth seal prophecy in Matthew 24, when He says:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. -Matthew 24.29,30 KJV

Again, there are a number of things which should be pointed out in the above passage:

(1) Jesus connects this prophecy with the other sixth seal prophecies, which we have already seen in Revelation, Isaiah, Joel, and Zechariah. Right after the tribulation and just before His coming we see the worldwide, catastrophic signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars. There is the shaking of the powers of heaven.

(2) The worldwide catastrophic signs are connected with the wrath of God upon the nations, the day of the Lord, and the return of the Lord to earth at Armageddon. They have nothing to do with some sort of an “invisible coming in judgment” at Jerusalem in 70 AD as preterism attempts to manufacture.

Important Differences In the Luke 21 Prophecy of The Destruction of Jerusalem

While this particular passage is placed among other passages referring to the endtime Great Tribulation period, and other events associated with the return of the Lord, there are some important differences in this passage that should be pointed out:

The brief Luke 21 passage (Luke 21.20-24), pertaining to the destruction of Jerusalem, is different from the prophecies in Mark 13 and in Matthew 24, even though it is inserted in the midst of other endtime prophecies. Let me explain.

In Luke 21.20-24, Jesus is speaking obviously of the 66-70 AD assault upon Jerusalem by the Roman armies in the first century, whereas, in Matthew 24 and in Mark 13, He is speaking of a future tribulation which will come upon the Jews (and which some believe will come upon the church). Note some very vital differences in Luke 21.20-24:

Jesus does not call the “great tribulation” thlipsis, as He does in the Matthew 24 and Mark 13 descriptions, but rather He calls it “distress” (anangke), an entirely different word (vs. 23). In verse 22 of Luke 21 He says of this period of time, “these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled”. Not all things which were ever prophesied concerning the entire endtimes, but rather “all things which were written” concerning these particular days.

Luke 21 Describes The First Century Worldwide Dispersion Of The Jews And Prophesies Of The Times Of The Gentiles Whereas Matthew 24 And Mark 13 Does Not

Moreover, only in Luke 21 does Jesus inform us that this must be a first century event (which has already been recorded in history). He says that the Jews will “be led away captive into all nations” (vs. 24). This is the worldwide dispersion promoted under the Romans, and is historically verified. It has lasted nearly 1900 plus years. In this Luke 21 prophecy, Jesus also tells us that the city of Jerusalem “shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21.24). This is not speaking of the “fullness of the Gentiles”, as in Roman 11, which describes the future time when the full number of Gentiles will be placed in the body of Christ, the New Testament church. This is rather speaking of the “reign” of the Gentile system of empires over the nation of Israel. Jesus places this domination of the Gentiles in opposition to the downfall of Jerusalem.

We know the “times of the Gentiles” could not possibly have been “fulfilled” in the first century, since Daniel 2 is quite clear that the Gentile times of rule will extend beyond the Roman empire (the two legs of iron of Nebuchadnezzar’s Image, which lasted until at least 1453 AD when the Turks conquered Constantinople or Byzantium) into the successive modern day “feet of iron mixed with clay” (see Daniel 2 for a description of the Gentile empire system, which will be smashed by the return of Jesus Christ, the Sone made without hands). The “times of the Gentiles” may have recently began to come to an end when a Jewish General conquered the entire city of Jerusalem in 1967, although the status of the Palestinian areas is not clear. Moreover, the worldwide dispersion of the Jews certainly did not end in the first century!

No Reference To The Abomination Of Desolation In Luke 21

In the Luke 21 passage, there is significantly no reference to “the abomination of desolation”. There is a specific warning about the placement of the Abomination of Desolation seen in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 for the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea to flee, but in the Luke 21 passage, the warning is not because of the “abomination of desolation”, but it is rather because the city will be surrounded by armies. Jesus, in Mark 13 and Matthew 24, says that the Abomination of Desolation has to be the same one that Daniel warned about. In Daniel 11, the ruler who places the “Abomination of Desolation” in the holy place is a “vile person”, he “will do according to his will”, “he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god”, he “shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods”, and he “shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished”. He will not “regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women”, nor “regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above all” (see Daniel 11). Paul says that he is a “man of sin”, who “opposes and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped”, and he “as God sitteth in the temple of god, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2.4). Nero, who was a cowardly suicide for example, fails to “qualify” as the one who placed the Abomination of Desolation in the holy place, thus setting off “the great tribulation”. Titus certainly could not “qualify”, since Josephus and the preterists have made him practically an “agent of God”. There is just no individual in the first century who could qualify as the “man of sin”, who did the things that Gabriel, Jesus, and Paul warned us about. Preterists are forced to dredge up lesser men, procurators and Jewish rebel leaders, for example, to force them into the scriptural mold of the Anti-christ

In the Luke 21 passage, the coming of the Roman armies are a signal to flee, but in the Matthew 24 and Mark 13 passages, the signal to flee is “when you see the abomination of desolation…stand in the holy place” (Matthew 24.15 and Mark 13.14). Matthew 24 and Mark 13 are connected with the prophecies in Daniel, but Luke 21 is not. Matthew 24 and Mark 13 describe an endtime event (the great tribulation) which immediately precedes the coming of the Lord, while the passage in Luke 21.20-24 describes the 66-70 AD assault upon Jerusalem.

Certainly there is a break in Luke 21.25 with the passage of Luke 21.20-24. Luke 21.25 speaks of the coming of the Lord, but it is not in context with Luke 21.20-24. Luke 21.25 is rather in context with Matthew 24.29,30 and Mark 13.24-27. That there is a “break” between Luke 21.24 and Luke 21.25 anyone can easily see by comparing the events described in Matthew and Mark with the events described in Luke 21. This is evident to anyone who carefully compares these three passages. A cursory reading will deceive someone into missing the differences. Luke did not describe the details of the “great tribulation” period of three and one-half years, and he did not mention the the placement of the Abomination of Desolation which initiates the “great tribulation” period. Luke, unlike Matthew and Mark, did not mention the reference of Jesus to Daniel the prophet because Luke was not describing the “great tribulation” period. Jesus prophesied of the endtimes and Jesus prophesied of the 70 AD destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.

In the Matthew 24 prophecy, Matthew 24.2 is the only mention of the 70 AD destruction of the Temple (the first century punishment of the Jews). Nothing is said of the Roman armies, the worldwide dispersion, or the “times of the Gentiles”. The succeeding prophecy covers the church age, the endtimes, the great tribulation period, and the coming of the Lord. Mark 13 has the same pattern (many scholars think that Matthew derived much of his gospel from Mark as a resource). Mark 13.2 is the only reference to the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. The rest of the Mark 13 prophecy pertains to the church age, the great tribulation period, and the coming of the Lord.

The conclusion is, therefore, that Luke 21.20-24 refers to the 66-70 AD assault upon Jerusalem (the Jewish rebellion), while Matthew 24 and Mark 13 make only a slight reference to the destruction of the Temple (one verse), and the rest of their prophecy refers to the church age, the great tribulation as described also in Daniel, beginning with the Abomination of Desolation, and concluding with the glorious coming of the Lord. Luke 21.25-28 breaks with Luke 21.20-24 and describes the second coming of the Lord from the sixth seal to His triumphant return at Armageddon.

Daniel says concerning this “great tribulation” period

And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. -Daniel 12.1,2 KJV

The prophecy of Daniel connects a general resurrection following in the immediate general time frame of the “great tribulation” period. Jesus also connects His triumphant return from on high immediately following the end of the “great tribulation” period (Matthew 24.29,30). For these reasons we cannot establish that Luke 21 is connected with the “great tribulation” period at all. For in Luke 21, the Jews are scattered worldwide and dispersed. This worldwide dispersion of the Jews is limited in that it will only last “until the times of the Gentiles” be fulfilled.

Preterists have erred in that they have been unwilling to note the differences between Matt. 24 and Luke

21 concerning these prophecies, but lumped them all together because it helps them in their scheme to link the coming of the Lord (in judgment) to 70 AD. It is important to rightly divide the word of truth. One (Luke 21.20-24) is a prophecy which introduced the dispersion of the Jews among the Gentiles in 70 AD, while the other (Matthew 24) is a prophecy which introduces the coming of the Lord in power and glory at the end of the church age (an event which has not yet occurred).

THE GREAT TRIBULATION CANNOT FIT THE FIRST CENTURY

A study of the Great Tribulation (“the Time of Jacob’s Trouble” according to Jeremiah 30.7) shows that this period did not occur in the first century. There are a number of reasons why the Great Tribulation, as it is described to us in the scriptures, could not have taken place in the first century, and did not take place, given the historical record that we have. It is wrong to try to “force” this prophesied event into the first century if it did not indeed actually happen during the first century.

Some Reasons Why The Great Tribulation (The Time of Jacob’s Trouble) Cannot Fit The First Century:

(1) There was no “beast” in the first century, who caused all of the inhabitants of the earth to receive a mark in their forehead or in their right hand so that they could buy or sell (Revelation 13.15-18). Such a commandment to the Jews would have caused a widescale riot because of the Scriptural prohibition against receiving marks in the flesh (Leviticus 19.28). The technological capacity did not exist.

(2) There are no historical reports of the ministry of the Two Witnesses, with the astounding Old Testament miraculous signs done by them, fire being called down from heaven, water into blood, plagues upon the masses of humanity, etc. (Revelation 11.3-7).

(3) There are no historical reports of the public murder of these Two Witnesses in the city of Jerusalem in the first century, which was witnessed and rejoiced over worldwide by the nations (Revelation 11.8-11). The communications and technological ability did not then exist as it does today.

(4) There are no historical reports of the public resurrection of these Two Witnesses (Revelation 11.11,12).

(5) There are no historical reports of a great earthquake in Jerusalem immediately following the public resurrection and ascension of these Two Witnesses, which is a public event.

There are many other notable events prophesied to occur during the time of the “great tribulation” period. If this already happened in the first century, we should expect some historical evidence pertaining to this, other than the corrupted report of the Roman sycophant Josephus, which does not (even with its Catholic interpretations) satisfy any of these prophecies.

WHAT ABOUT THE FEW CONFUSING PASSAGES CONCERNING HIS COMING?

Should we jump to false conclusions because there are a few passages of doubtful interpretation concerning the time period of the coming of the Lord? Folks who want to attack a doctrinal system always find a few mice to throw into the elephant pen. I don’t think so. First of all, the scripture is quite clear that no man knows the day nor the hour of His return (Matthew 25.13). Then why would we want to add a 70 AD “return” to prove that we did know when (even though we might unscripturally qualify this coming by calling it “a coming in judgment)”? Thus we would unfortunately join the “date setters”. Only we would set our dates behind rather than in front! I do not believe in date setting.

One Day Is As A Thousand Years But He Could Come At Any Moment
But Actually He Has Already Supposedly “Come In Judgment” Invisibly?

Peter, as noted, following the psalmist David, used the idea that “one day is as a thousand years” (2 Peter 3.8, Psalms 90.4) in his interpretation of prophecy. Therefore, the “last days” could indeed encompass several thousand years. But the preterists, in effect, hold that this teaching of Peter’s is no longer valid. The “last days” is restricted to the same generation in which the man Jesus lived. Jesus, they say, had to come in the time of His own generation or else the Bible is in error and misinterpreted. Since the preterists know that Jesus really did not come a second time in the first century, they have invented a substitute type of “coming (in judgment)”. This was an “invisible” coming, just like the supposed 1914 coming and the 1842 coming of the Russellites and the Seventh Day Adventists.

Jesus made it quite clear that no man knew the day or hour of His coming, and that He could come at any moment. Our responsibility was to preach His return and to be ready at any time for His return, even though He went into “a far country” and tarried “a long time”. This “at-any-moment” coming some of the preterists by their teaching have effectively destroyed, and have damaged the readiness and the expectancy of the saints for the return of their Lord. They claim that they still preach the coming of the Lord, but I am very doubtful that this is true, since there is little or no evidence of it.

What About Matthew 10.23?

This scripture has more than one interpretation. While it is true to say that it has only one correct interpretation, it is dogmatic and incorrect to say that it has only one interpretation. Moreover, it must be interpreted in its context. Matthew 10.23 was a saying of Jesus which was written down many years after His resurrection. This was one of those statements where even the “inflection” of the Lord’s voice might have conveyed a special meaning. But we cannot go on “inflections”. The book of Matthew was written, according to some sources, 58-68 AD. That would certainly put the writing of the book before the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. And the context of Matthew 10.22 must also be considered for Matthew 10.23 to be understood:

And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come. -Matthew 10.22,23

Jesus has put this passage in the context of “enduring to the end”. Therefore, verse 23 also has to be in the context of the “end” of things.

Also, the context involves “persecution”. Moreover, the phrase “the cities of Israel” has to be in contrast with the phrase “all men”. Jesus was warning His disciples that the task was formidable, and that they would be “hated of all men” for His name’s sake. It was a daunting task that involved persecution and opposition, but enduring to the end and never giving up was the only way to survive. In fact, the disciples would not even have gone over all the cities of Israel with the gospel before His return, because there was only a 37 year period before the uprising in Jerusalem was crushed by the Romans. It is doubtful today that the apostles (and disciples of today) have even yet gone over all the cities of Israel. Many of the disciples left Jerusalem many years before the 66-70 AD Jewish Rebellion. In other words, we don’t have to presuppose a 70 AD invisible “coming” of the Lord to understand the difficulties in going over the cities of Israel with the gospel before He returns in glory!

It is presumptuous to put a time element on this type of a passage. There are two many variables. What does “enduring to the end” mean time-wise? Are we not still required even today at this late date to “endure to the end”? How can His disciples be “hated of all men” if their activities are so short-lived as to be restricted to a small number of years in one little country in the first century?

What relationship does the phrase “hated of all men” have to do with the length of the time involved before He returns? By 70 AD, the gospel had not yet been preached in the New World to the Indians unless we want to believe the book of Mormon. The gospel had not yet been preached to the Eskimoes, or to the Australians or the New Zealanders. Yes, it had been preached to the known ancient world (the relative boundaries of the ancient Roman empire), but not to “every nation” as Jesus required in Matthew 24.14.

The apostle Paul’s remarks in Romans and in Colossians must be taken in their context. For example, in Romans 10 the apostle Paul is referring to Psalms 19.1-4 and the declaration of creation concerning the glory of God. He is not speaking about the Acts 2.38 message of the gospel of the kingdom. Paul’s question, “Have they not heard?” (Romans 10.18) is referring to Psalms 19 and the witness of creation to savage mankind (not the gospel of Acts 2.38). In Colossians 1.6 Paul uses the phrase to the effect that the gospel has come into “all the world”, but we must consider that he means “all the known ancient world”. Certainly, the apostles of the first century reached all of their known (ancient) world (Mark 16.20 says they “went forth, and preached every where”), but the commandment is to “(preach) the gospel of the kingdom in all the world for a witness unto all nations” (Matthew 24.14). That is the unfinished task of the New Testament church. The “full number” of the Gentiles is apparently not yet come in, and the task of the New Testament church remains. Were it finished, then there should be no need for the witness to remain on earth, because He says, “and then shall the end come” (vs. 14).

That is why there is another interpretation to the effect that the disciples would not even have gone over every community in their own little country before the return of the Lord. It takes men years sometimes to reach a city. They pour out their labor and some even spend their lives there. To blithely think that in just a short number of years the disciples could have reached the entire country of Israel with the gospel is a bit ambitious. This is especially true when we realize that the Jews very shortly after Pentecost basically rejected the gospel and the disciples had to turn to the Gentiles. Surely, one is not prepared to maintain that the disciples had thoroughly gone over every city in Israel before the Jews turned away from the gospel?

It is not correct to assert that there is one, and only one, interpretation of Matthew 10.23. Moreover, Matthew 10.23, if it be interpreted to mean that Jesus had in mind a “coming judgment of Israel and Jerusalem” when He spoke of His return, simply does not mesh with the rest of the scriptures pertaining to His return. In other words, if we apply the understanding of “a coming in judgment of Israel” across the board to the scriptures pertaining to the coming of the Lord, we cause confusion. If one can prove that all of the cities of Israel have been “gone over” since 70 AD then that might help place the fulfillment of this prophecy in the 70 AD attack upon Jerusalem, but if all of the cities of Israel have not been “gone over”, then the fulfillment of this prophecy remains open.

What About Matthew 16.28?

Matthew 16.28 cannot be taken out of context. It must be understood in relation to Matthew 16.27:

For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. -Matthew 16.27,28 KJV

Whatever we do with Matthew 16.28, we cannot use it to represent some kind of an invisible “coming in judgment” in 70 AD. If the coming were “invisible”, then who would “see it”?

The reason is that when Matthew 16.28 is taken in context with Matthew 16.27 it becomes obvious that Jesus is not speaking about a 70 AD “coming in judgment”. Jesus is speaking about His triumphant personal return to earth at the end of the (new covenant) age. He is referring to His return from on high at Armageddon. And no one surely holds that Armageddon has already occurred. Surely not!

Jesus is coming “in the glory of his Father with his angels”. This glorious coming did not happen in the first century and there is no scriptural or other confirmation that it did. This is the return from on high, when, as John wrote, “every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him” (Revelation 1.7). Moreover, the church would have been already “caught up” to meet the Lord in the air (that is, if you hold a pre-trib position, both pre-trib and post-trib would hold that seeing the Lord come would be synonymous with being caught up to meet Him when He comes). The church age would have ended and there would be a ruling and reigning church with Christ here personally on the earth in the Millennium. The milennial reign presupposes more than just a spiritual, invisible coming. Revelation 5.10 says that we shall reign on earth with Him. Paul says that we do not yet have our crowns but will one day receive them (2 Tim. 4.8). How could we be already reigning in the millennium without having received our crowns in heaven, and having come back to earth with Him to reign? At what point did this happen?

Moreover, at the coming of the Lord mentioned in Matthew 16.27 the rewards are given to “every man according to his works”. Have the rewards already been passed out?

If Matthew 16.28 relates to the “coming in judgment” in 70 AD, then where is Matthew 16.27 (the verse above) in 70 AD?

Were crowns already given in the first century? Were the rewards already passed out at His coming which some were supposed to be alive and seeing in that century? And where does that leave the rest of the New Testament church in the centuries following the first century? Will the rewards be passed out twice? Once for the invisible coming, and then later when the rest of the church is caught up at His genuine second coming.

Almost the exact description of this coming is given in Matthew 25.31,32, “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats”.

This is not a 70 AD “coming in judgment”. In 70 AD, the Lord did not return with His holy angels, according to any evidence that we have. The Lord did not sit down to judge the nations in 70 AD. So we can establish that this coming “in the glory of his Father with his angels” did not happen in 70 AD. Some of the epistles were written after 70 AD (see 1,2,3 John). Why didn’t they mention all of this? Why didn’t some of the apostolic men, who knew the apostles personally, mention this? Why wasn’t the disappearance of the great apostle John noted if he remained alive until the invisible coming and then disappeared? We have some of the men’s writings who knew these apostles.

We Still Must Explain Matthew 16.28

That still leaves us with the problem of explaining Matthew 16.28 concerning those who were standing there listening to Jesus, who would not taste of death “till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom”. We do note that the word “see” is significant. It is possible to see something that you will never live to personally experience. Moses was allowed to “see” the Promised Land of Canaan, but he never personally lived to experience it.

Jesus did not say that there were those standing there with Him who would not taste of death until the Son of man came. Rather Jesus said that they would not taste of death until they saw the coming of the Son of man in his kingdom. They would live to see His coming. We know, for example, that the apostle John saw his visions of the coming of the Lord before he (John) died. (1) since we know that Jesus has not yet returned in the glory of His Father with His holy angels, and (2) since we know that all of the men with Him that day died, it is the best answer available. To say that Jesus had to return before the end of the first century because of this one scripture is like trying to make the word of God fit our preconceived notions. But Matthew 16.28 cannot be interpreted without Matthew 16.27. Matthew 16.27 will simply not fit a date of 70 AD. There is no evidence that the Lord came back in 70 AD in the “glory of His Father, with the holy angels” and judged the nations. Therefore, Matthew 16.28 does not pertain to a 70 AD coming. Moreover, we have written evidence that John did see the coming of the Lord (96 AD) before John died.

What About John 21.18-24?

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkest whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. But this speak he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me. Then Peter, turning about seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following: which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? -John 21.18-24 KJV

Preterists believe that Jesus indicated by this that He would “come in judgment” in 70 AD. They base this upon the fact that John was certainly still alive in 70 AD and so the 70 AD must represent the “coming of the Lord”. But this is not the explanation that John gave nor is it the only explanation.

The disciples, according to John’s explanation, misunderstood Jesus to be saying that John would not die. From the sources that I have, the Gospel of John could have been written as late as 90 AD (which is 20 years after the destruction of Jerusalem). Others believe it was written earlier. If the Gospel was written 20 years after the destruction of Jerusalem, then it would hardly make sense for John to continue speaking of the story that he would remain until the coming of the Lord (in judgment of Jerusalem) if that had already occurred. This passage in John 21 has nothing to do with any “coming of the Lord in judgment in 70 AD”. John lived to such a ripe old age, according to historical reports, that many may have believed that he would indeed remain until the Lord returned. Certainly, the teaching of the imminent return of the Lord was taught in the first century. John wa still living and they were still looking.

Is It Right To Dismiss Many Old Testament Prophecies As Not Being Literal?

There is a dangerous tendency, in my opinion, among preterists to “spiritualize away” those prophecies that are inconvenient to them. They use (as noted) such phrases as “biblical imagery” to do away with the precise reality of prophetic passages. The apostles never resorted to the explanation of “biblical imagery” in their interpretation of prophecies. Matthew, for example, is very literal and generally precise in his interpretation of prophecies (e.g., the virgin birth means the virgin birth, Egypt means Egypt, a donkey means a donkey, and, even as we noted, if types and shadows are used, the context is a real event etc.). We don’t see such refuges as “biblical imagery” (generally speaking) in the biblical interpretation of prophecy in the apostles.

Is It Possible That The Euphrates River Could By Dried Up?

The “drying up of the Euphrates river” in Revelation 16.12, according to some preterists, does not mean that a river will actually be dried up, but it is “simply…biblical imagery”. No matter that civil engineers in this day and age have actually damned up rivers (and literally dried them up). No matter that this is actually happening today in biblical places like Iraq and Turkey, it is still just “biblical imagery”. The Bible does not mean what it says-when it is not convenient to someone’s doctrine. To my way of thinking, this is exactly what the amillennialists, such as the Campellites, have resorted to in order to refute the clear meaning of prophecies. Apostolics heretofore have never held this. One wonders, what else will preterists next decide to “spiritualize” away. Baptism? Speaking in tongues? Once the door to allegorization is open, there is no limit. I really believe this is what helped to ancient Catholic church to deny the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

They allegorized it to the point that when the priest laid his hand upon the supplicant, confirmation came and they were said to have received the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands. Baptism in the Protestant church world simply became a “symbol” of what God had done inwardly. If you apply the liberal use of “allegory” to prophecy, then the next step is to apply it to salvation and living for God.

Nahum 1.4 states God “drieth up all the rivers”, but Larry Smith, in his Coming Of The Lord states, “Nahum wasn’t suggesting a physical fulfillment; he-just like Revelation-was simply using biblical imagery”. But anyone who has ever seen an extended drouth in the dry middle east could tell you very well that the rivers can indeed “dry up”. But, that aside, there is an important difference between Nahum 1.4 and Revelation 16.12. Revelation 16.12 mentions a specific river by name, which is much more than mere “biblical imagery”. Moreover, the geographical location of the Euphrates is significant, since it is on the advancing route of the armies of the “kings of the east”. An invading land army from the east would almost surely have to cross the Euphrates river on their way to Israel. Take a look at a map.

According to Larry Smith, the prophecies in Joel 2, Matthew 24, and Revelation 6 are all “biblical imagery” (p.10). How can one arrive at a clear understanding of biblical prophecy if much of it is just “biblical imagery”.

The apostle Peter does not hold this view that prophecy is only “biblical imagery” in his interpretation of Joel 2.

For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come. -Acts 2.15-20 KJV

Certainly, Peter is not affirming that the prophecies in Joel merely are “biblical imagery”, but are to be taken literally. Do you see my point when I say that eventually, as they apply allegorism to prophecy, they will then apply to salvational experience? The activity of the Holy Ghost is described in real, literal terms (prophesying, seeing visions, dreaming dreams). In fact, the audience was actually seeing and hearing the specific literal activity that Peter was describing from Joel’s prophecy. It is interesting at the beginning of the church age, Peter is describing a prophecy that is being partly fulfilled in front of their very eyes, and he adds the part concerning the sixth seal of Revelation 6, which has yet to be fulfilled. If the first part is literally fulfilled, then one would expect the second part to also be literally fulfilled. It has not yet been fulfilled. You will have to search assiduously through the New Testament to find an example of apostles using the “biblical imagery” approach. It is a dangerous approach to prophetic interpretation.

Paul’s Lone Use of Allegory

I note one example by Paul in Galatians 4. This is called allegory and is seen very rarely in the New Testament. It is the exception rather than the rule. This is the only example I can find. It is not sufficient to hang a whole system of prophetic interpretation on it, as Larry Smith and others have done. Paul is speaking of the mother of the church (“Jerusalem which is above”). The city of Jerusalem he sadly relates is (currently at that time) “in bondage with her children” (Gal. 4.25). But someday, according to prophecy, the city of Jerusalem will no longer be “in bondage with her children”.

Why, then, should we think that the rest of the prophecy is simply “biblical imagery” without any literal reality in Joel and in Acts 2? “Wonders in heaven above” are references to real astronomical phenomena (e.g., the sun turned into darkness-a good description of an eclipse; the moon turned into “blood”). These activities are represented by the sixth seal in Revelation 6, which announces the coming wrath of God. At the end of the entire church age (represented by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the beginning, which is the hallmark of this age), the endtime troubles begin in earnest.

Are we to understand that Peter announces the opening of the great church age, but then lets us know that it will be followed just 30 some years later by the “coming of the Lord in judgment” (70 AD), and that all of these “biblical imageries” in Isaiah, Joel, and Zechariah, etc., pertain to something that will happen only 30 some years later? The Lord is coming 30 years later? History tells us that the great apostle John lived some 31 years (died 101 AD) after the 70 AD destruction of the Temple-why did John write of such a momentous event as the coming of the Lord (in judgment), since this supposedly fulfilled the prophecies of Revelation? Irenaeus, who reportedly sat under a disciple of John’s reported that John wrote his prophecy in c.96 AD. Why are there no writings of apostolic authority explaining that the preterist interpretation of the book of Revelation was the correct interpretaton? There were apostles, as I noted, and their close companions, living after the momentous events of 70 AD.

Joel Used The Phrase “Nigh At Hand” For An Event Some 800 Years Later

Joel states, “the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand” (Joel 2.1). This is even more troubling since the preterist accepts such a late fulfillment of this prophecy (800 years later after Joel wrote it, and not in Joel’s generation) while rejecting any later fulfillment of other similar prophecies, such as those in Matthew and Revelation.

How is it that the prophet Joel could use a phrase like “nigh at hand” to prophesy of something that some preterists believe did not actually take place until about 800 years later? How is it that “futurists” are incorrect in using such phrases as “the time is at hand”, “I come quickly”, “nigh at hand”, but it is okay for preterists to use such phrases for an event that won’t occur for some 800 years? You can’t say “nigh at hand” means one thing for Old Testament prophecies and another thing for New Testament prophecies like Revelation 1.3.

What is the difference between 800 years and 2000 years in God’s sight? I will tell you the truth: not much. One day with the Lord is as a thousand years. If it is permissible for Joel to use the phrase “nigh at hand” for an event that is hundreds of years in the future then it is likewise permissible for the apostle John to use the phrase “the time is at hand” (Revelation 1.3) for events that are still unfilfilled hundreds of years later.

The prophet Zephaniah (who prophesied 640-608 BC) also used the phrase “near” in his prophecy. He wrote, “The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly” (Zephaniah 1.14). How could both Joel and Zephaniah say the day of the Lord was “nigh” or “near” centuries ago, and it not come to pass in their generation? Do you suppose that the phrases “at hand”, “nigh”, “shortly come to pass”, might have a larger meaning in prophetic language? Perhaps preterists ought to take another look at these phrases, especially Revelation 1.3. Much of their argument for prophecy being fulfilled in the first century hinges upon their incorrect interpretation of such phrases as “at hand” and “this generation”, which they have re-interpreted to fit their scheme. Someone forgot to tell Joel and Zephaniah what the preterists believe.

Preterism Attempts To Relegate Endtime Prophecy To Old Testament Events

Using the prophecy in Isaiah 34, which is identified with Revelation 6 and Matthew 24, by similar use of key words, Brother Smith, in his Coming Of The Lord, etc. attempts to relegate this prophecy to “Isaiah’s prophecies about the defeat of two Old Testament cities, Idumea and Bozrah”. Idumea was not even a city, and is actually ancient Jordan, and Bozrah was a former capital city. That is how far-fetched such interpretations are (in the vein of the German higher criticism).

Isaiah 34.4, however, uses key terminology, and lets us know that this is an endtime prophecy, linked to Revelation 6 and Matthew 24 (the sixth seal).

We know from Isaiah 34.2 that these prophecies refer to more than just modern-day Jordan since Isaiah says, “For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all armies…”. Moreover, we know that this is not some provincial prophecy to come to pass in Old Testament days, since Isaiah 34.8 says, “For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion”. This is not speaking of the Lord’s vengeance upon the Jews, but rather upon the heathen nations. That is a much larger judgment.

Not only does this prophecy involve “all nations, and his (the Lord’s) fury upon all armies”, but it clearly is related to other endtime prophecies pertaining to the end of the age. This is why Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth did not quote all of Isaiah 61.2 in Luke 4.19, purposely leaving off “and the day of the vengeance of our God”. Jesus, at His first coming, only fulfilled part of Isaiah 61.2.

The period of the church age would intervene before the rest of the endtime events continued. That is why Jesus stopped at that point.

Revelation 6.12-14 gives a similar description:

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. -Revelation 6.12-14 KJV

The exact terminology is used in Isaiah 34.4 that is used in Revelation 6.13,14. Both of these passages point to the wrath of the Lord upon all nations in the end of the world. We also know from Jesus that the worldwide “wrath of the Lord” did not follow the 70 AD destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (Luke 21.20-24), but that rather the dispersion of the Jews worldwide and the occupation of the city by the Gentiles came about in 70 AD rather followed the destruction of the Temple.

This prophecy above is much more widespread in its application than just Idumea and Bozrah. Idumea and Bozrah share in the judgments incorporated in this endtime event, but the event is much more widespread than just modern-day Jordan. It is an incorrect interpretation to attempt to dismiss these prophecies as merely Old Testament prophecies concerning Old Testament countries during that period of time. These are endtime prophecies associated with the sixth seal and key worldwide endtime elements.

Is The Book of Revelation “Nothing More Than Biblical Imagery That Describes God’s Destruction of Jerusalem”?

As anyone knows, who has studied the book of Revelation, it is far more than just “biblical imagery” which describes “the destruction of Jerusalem” in 70 AD (actually, the Temple was destroyed by fire, but the city iteself was not destroyed until 135 AD). A vast amount of endtime events, which could not possibly apply only to the destruction of Jerusalem, are described in detail in the book of Revelation. Any careful study of the great prophetic book will confirm this. We have mentioned some in this article.

Some Comments About The Importance of The Date of Revelation

The importance of the date of the book of Revelation is especially crucial to the theory of the preterists. Because if it cannot be shown that the book of Revelation was written before 70 AD, then the whole scheme of preterism, as many are putting it forth, falls to the ground and is shown to be utterly false.

Some preterists maintain that the book of Revelation actually refers to Nero as the then current “king” (or emperor) of Rome (Revelation 17.10). This is a tenuous identification, at best. There are a lot of variations in calculating the list of Roman kings (or emperors). For example, if Caesar himself is included as the first “king” (and certainly he held this stature, even though he technically was not crowned), then Nero would not be the fifth “king”, but would be the “sixth king” (Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius (Caligula), Claudius, Nero). Then “five would be fallen” and Nero might be the one “who is”. But is he?

One of the problems with asserting that Nero is the king mentioned in Revelation 17.10 (“one is”) is the next verse. Moreover, there were three “rivals” following the suicide of Nero (Galba, Otho, Vitellius, 68,69 AD). Vespasian then ruled 69-79 AD, Titus 79-81 AD, and Domitian 81-96 AD.

The year 69 AD is sometimes called “the year of the three emperors”, because Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, all ruled for short periods during this year (Tacitus, in his Annals, covers this period fairly well). Galba, who was proclaimed emperor in June 68 upon the death of Nero, later quarreled with his ally, Otho. And Otho, with the help of the Praetorian guard, took the throne from Galba in January 69 AD. Otho was defeated by Vitellius in 69 AD, who reigned until he himself was defeated by General Vespasian, who took the throne December 22, 69 AD.

Thus, if we count Nero as the 6th emperor (“five are fallen, and one is”, Rev. 17.10), and of the “7 kings” mentioned by John, then Galba would be the seventh king, who must “continue a short space”. But the “eighth king”, then, following this pattern, would be “the beast that was, and is not”. This beast, if we follow this pattern so that we might identify Nero as “the sixth king” (“one is”), and thus establish the “early date” for the book of Revelation, would have to be “Otho”. Was Otho the beast? Not likely.

Marcus Salvius Otho (32-69 AD) had been a favorite of Nero, and he was the husband of Poppaea Sabina (d.65 AD). Poppaea became the mistress of Nero in 58 AD, after he sent Otho out of the country to govern Lusitania (Portugal), so as to make a “cuckold” out of him. Otho, in support of Galba, returned to Rome upon the death of Nero in June 68 AD, and followed Galba as emperor himself in January 69 AD, with the help of the Praetorian guard.

Are we to understand that this man Otho was the “beast” since he was indeed the “eighth king” (if you count Nero as the sixth)? If Otho was the beast, does he possess all of the qualities of the beast? Where are the historical evidences pertaining to this? If Galba did not succeed Nero, to be followed by Otho and Vitellius, then someone please show why this is historically incorrect?

If we were to somehow (deviously, I would think) discount Galba, Otho, and Vitellius (due to their short reigns), then the “seventh king” would be Vespasian (assuming we were still counting Julius Caesar as the first king). Some accept Galba as the “seventh king” (explaining that he had a short reign), they discount Otho and Vitellius, and make Vespasian the eighth king. It soon becomes evident that all attempts to use the Roman emperor’s list to satisfy Revelation 17.10,11, in order to make Nero the “king” reigning when John wrote Revelation, are doomed to confusion and failure. Nero’s persecution was basically confined to Rome and he certainly doesn’t “measure up” to the beast of Revelation or Daniel either. He was a “momma’s boy” and largely manipulated by others, including women. Granted he was evil and a psychopath. Many men have filled that bill.

Moreover, if Nero is said to be the “sixth king” (“five are fallen, and one is”, Rev. 17.10), then the “eighth king” must be the “beast”, and must be of “the seven”. He (“the eighth king”) is the same beast of Revelation 13 with the a deadly head wound. Of course, none of these things match any history that we have concerning these Roman emperors. We can see how arbitrary this all is. Is this better than the dispensationalist “date setters” and the “red heifer” crowd? I don’t think so. I reject the date setters and the “red heifer” sensationalism, but I cannot swallow this historical “doublespeak”, attempting to rewrite history to destroy prophecy or make it conform erroneously to history. It is confusion.

The conclusion must therefore be that the “seven kings” that John speaks about in Revelation 17 do not appear to have anything to do with the ancient Roman emperors (although Revelation 17.10,11 seems to speak of one “king” who “is” either reigning or living when John’s vision came to him, who, is, in some way, associated with the “eighth king”, who is “of the seven”). But we do not really know who these “seven kings” are. We do know that the “eighth king”, who is the “beast” stems from them. But like as in Daniel, the Little Horn stems from among a series of kings, but seems to arrive on the scene centuries later.

John also speaks of another “ten kings”, who will “receive power as kings one hour with the beast” (Rev. 17.12), and they “will make war with the Lamb” (Rev. 17.14). These ten kings seem to be identified in Scripture with the “ten toes” (iron mixed with clay) of Daniel 2, and we know that this would refer to a period of time subsequent to 1453 AD (that is, in modern times). This hardly harmonizes with the events of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. The Roman emperor (supposedly the instrument of judgment against the Jews) makes war “with the Lamb” with the help of ten other kings? Since we know from Daniel 2 that the 10 kings are most likely associated with the feet of clay mixed with iron (the last day Gentile empire which is smashed with the Stone “cut out without hands”, or Christ, in the very endtimes), we ought to consider that these seven kings could be interpreted as the empires of the Gentiles, and the “one” who “is” would merely represent the empire of Rome, which was the Gentile empire in existence at that time. But we do not know that for sure.

At least that is an alternative explanation that has more credibility than using the seven Roman emperors, and trying to identify one of them as the “beast” so as to put forward a first century endtime scheme.

Brother Smith (p.38) lists several theories concerning these kings. He says, “The fall of Jerusalem occurred, just as the Bible said it would, in the days of the ten kings of the Roman empire” (ibid). We will show, however, that the “ten kings” are associated with the future “the little horn” (the anti-christ) and they are associated with an empire subsequent to the first century Roman empire.

How do these interpreters arrive at the fall of Jerusalem occurring in the days of the ten kings? “The main school of thought”, says Brother Smith, “taught by most is that Nero Caesar was the sixth king, and Vespasian the 10th king, who was in power at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem” (ibid). It is obvious to the insightful reader, who has been following our discussion of the Roman emperors, that this is contrived by these interpreters.

There are a number of things to consider. For Nero to be considered “the sixth king”, then Julius Caesar has to be considered a king and he was never crowned (he refused the crown three times, it is reported). Instead he was assassinated before he could ascend a throne.

Many lists show the following: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero. Nero is listed as the “fifth king”. Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, would then be the sixth, seventh, and eighth, respectively, and Vespasian would be the ninth king. Besides all of this, the seven kings listed by Revelation 17 are in addition to the ten kings!

And so the statement by Brother Smith has no relevance at all. Moreover, Revelation 17 calls the “eighth king”, which arises out of “the seven kings”, the “beast”. While many of the Roman emperors (who all refused the title of “king”, by the way) were “beastly” in their behavior, which one of them could ever hope to qualify for the characteristics and the powers of the “beast” identified by Daniel and John? Explain to us how Vespasian, for example, can be identified as the “beast”? Did Vespasian have a “false prophet”, who could call fire down from heaven (Rev.13.14)? Not hardly. Vespasian’s reported character no where near matches the prophesied “character” or description of the beast.

Then Brother Smith goes on to say, “The other school of thought is that Nero was the seventh king and Pompey the first, which would make Vespasian the little horn of Daniel 7.8 who came up among the ten, before whom three were plucked up by the roots (Pulpit Commentary, vol. 13, p.225)” (p.38). These three kings, who were plucked up by the roots, Smith wants to make them to be: Galba, Otho, Vitellius (see our description of these men). But remember, the “ten kings” are separate from the eight kings of Revelation 17! Revelation 17.12 states, “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast”. This is how far-fetched such theories get.

The ten kings are not even part and parcel of the seven kings! They do not even have their power “as yet” when the angel spoke to John. Furthermore, these ten kings, when they get their power, will give their power to the eighth king (the beast). So think about this: they supposedly (following Brother Smith’s scheme) will give all their power in “one hour” to the eighth king (the beast), but we are to believe that they actually are part and parcel of the seven kings (Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, and Galba). But three of the ten were supposedly already plucked up by the eighth (Vespasian), that being Galba, Otho, and Vitellius.

Anyone can see that these schemes are self-serving and they have no connection with reality. The truth of the matter is that there are seven kings, and the eighth king is the beast. There are also another ten kings (and it is three of these ten who are plucked up by the little horn, sometimes called “the beast” also). The “ten kings” will cooperate with the eighth king (the beast) and give their power to him in “one hour” when they attempt to make war against the Lamb (Christ). It has nothing to do with the first century, but occurs in a time subsequent to the Roman empire (during the time of the feet and the 10 toes of the image seen

in Daniel 2). The ten kings are only associated with the eighth king, which comes of the seven kings. The seven kings are not part of the 10 kings and this is where the preterist confusion here comes in.

After I sent my critique to Larry Smith, and he has seen that the Roman emperors will not fit, and so he has substituted the Roman procurators, who governed Judea and Jerusalem, “after the death of Herod Agrippa I”. Gessius Florus, Smith claims, had a short governorship during 65 AD, and, because of unrest and trouble there, Nero himself took direct control of Judea. Smith says, “This made Nero the eighth king” (p.67, The Coming Of The Lord). Nero reportedly then gave power to officials over ten districts within Palestine, and this would be the “ten kings” of Revelation 10!

Smith does not apparently even read Revelation 17. Revelation 17 clearly shows that these ten kings give “their power and strength unto the beast” (17.13). Are these petty officials in these ten districts of Palestine to give “their power and their authority” to Nero (if he is selected still to be the beast, since it seems that Smith has identified Nero as the “eighth king” (Revelation 17.11). Are these ten petty officials in Palestine to “make war with the Lamb” (Revelation 17.14)?

Moreover, these ten kings “hate the whore…and burn her with fire” (Revelation 17.16). Revelation 17.18 identify this woman as “that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth”. Are we to believe this woman is Jerusalem? Surely, no one is ready to maintain that the occupied city of Jerusalem, in the poor province of Judea, was at that time reigning over the kings of the earth? Moreover, it was not the ten petty officials of Palestine who assaulted and burned the Temple in 70 AD, but it was the army of the Roman general Titus. The cowardly Nero committed suicide in June of 68 AD, and so he missed being cast alive into the Lake of Fire according to Revelation 19.20.

Did The Son of Man Came In The Clouds of Glory In The Days of Vespasian?

Brother Smith concludes from this discussion that since the destruction of Jerusalem took place during the reign of Vespasian, that “This resulted in the Son of Man coming with the clouds to the Ancient of Days as is found in Daniel 7.13,14, and being given a kingdom and dominion that would not pass away or be destroyed” (p.38). See below as we give an explanation of the passage in Daniel 7. It could not possibly match anything like that happening in the first century. First of all, Jerusalem would have to have been the headquarters of Jesus Christ on earth since 70 AD, and the millennium would have been instituted.

That did not happen. All the nations of the world would be under the rule of Christ, His apostles, and the church. That did not happen. I realize that partial preterists use the argument that they still believe in a future second coming of Jesus at a later date, and that they see the 70 AD “coming” as an invisible coming of the Lord in “judgment”. But they use this manufactured “invisible coming of the Lord in judgment” as a lynchpin to commandeer many of the endtime prophetic events, which they connect with this so-called “invisible coming”. If they indeed believe in a future second coming, then they should admit that Matthew 24.29-31 ties this coming of the Lord in with the conclusion of the Great Tribulation period. The Bible says that “immediately after the tribulation” that the sign of the Son of man (will appear) in heaven (vs. 30). And so it is incorrect to substitute a made-up “invisible coming in judgment” at this point in Matthew 24. The coming that is immediately after the tribulation is the second coming that partial preterists admit is still future. This connection makes it impossible for the tribulation to have occurred in 66-70 AD.

The Date of The Apocalypse: External And Internal Evidence

There are, of course, arguments for and against the “early date” (66-68 AD) and the “late date” (96 AD) for the apocalyptic vision of John on the isle of Patmos.

The greatest external evidence is the early witness of the prominent Catholic bishop Irenaeus (130-202 AD) of Lyons, France. Irenaeus, in his Against Heresies (V.30.3) clearly states that the apostle John saw his vision on the isle of Patmos in c.96 AD during the reign of the emperor Domitian.

Irenaeus, in speaking of the difficulty in naming the Antichrist wrote:

We will not, however, incur the risk of pronouncing positively as to the name of Antichrist; for if it were necessary that his name should be distinctly revealed in this present time, it would have been announced by him who beheld the apocalyptic vision. For that was seen no very long time since, but almost in our day, towards the end of Domitian’s reign”. -Against Heresies (V.30.3)

There seems to be no confusion on the part of Irenaeus. He expresses no doubt at all as to the time of the “apocalyptic vision” nor as to the emperor’s name. Irenaeus claims to have come from Smyrna and to have sat under the ministry of Polycarp, who, in turn, had sat under the teaching of the apostle John. There should be no doubt as to the veracity of this statement, especially when we realize that no Catholic church father in ancient times questioned it for hundreds of years. Why should we think that this ancient bishop would like about a specific fact that others during his day could easily have refuted?

Brother Smith’s criticism of Irenaeus is not really valid when we realize that John 8.57 accurately relates an incorrect testimony from the Jews that Jesus was not yet “fifty years old”.

We know better, but we can forgive Irenaeus for this error, and that does not necessarily imply that Irenaeus was incorrect in what he said about the date of the apocalyptic vision of John. Irenaeus is a valuable witness since he reportedly sat under the bishop Polycarp, who himself had sat under the apostle John. It is very likely that much of John’s ministry and life was made known to Irenaeus through Polycarp. We understand that Irenaeus was wrong in his theology, but

we doubt that he would have made a mistake about something that was common knowledge among the ancients.

Robert Grant, and other scholars, believe that Irenaeus also had available to him, the five books of Papias (60-130 AD), called The Lord’s Gospel, or The Sayings of The Lord. Papias was a man who personally knew the apostle John and other disciples who had seen the Lord. In other words, Irenaeus knew what he was talking about. The event he was speaking about had occurred only some 80 years earlier. Eighty years ago, in our time, would be the year 1921. A comparative view of this would be something that the Pentecostal Pioneer Andrew Urshan had told Brother Nathaniel Urshan, who, in turn, told us. Would we give more stock to that than something said hundreds of years later by someone like Epiphanius of Salamis?

A number of ancient Catholic writers also confirmed the later date (96 AD) for the book of Revelation. Not all of them seemed to have just quoted from Irenaeus, since there were obviously other ancient sources (I just mentioned one probable source, Papias). There was Hippolytus of Rome (170-235 AD), Jerome (340-420 AD), his friend Orosius, and Eusebius (260-340 AD), who had numerous histories and sources at his disposal ,including the writings of the ancient apostolic church historian Hegesippus (120-185 AD), Victorinus (d. 303 AD), and Sulpicius Severus, to mention a few.

These all attested to the later date. We have no reason to believe that these ancient writers would purposely give an incorrect date.

Internal Evidence For The Later Date (96 AD)

There are a number of points of internal evidence in the book of Revelation that scholars have pointed out:

The term “the Lord’s day” (Rev. 1.10) was not seen in the earlier decades (e.g., 60’s), but rather another expression such as the “first day of the week” was used. However, it is admitted that the expression “the day of the Lord” also has a solid backgrround of use by the Old Testament prophets, where it refers to the coming millennium and the events precipitating that.

Gnosticism was still in its infancy during the 60’s. Paul only alluded to it (1 Timothy 6.20), but the book of Revelation shows already developed gnostic sects -groups such as the Nicolaitans and the Balaamities. This indicates a later date of writing. By the end of the first century Gnostics were actually “mutilating” the scriptures, and thus we see the warning in Rev. 22.18,19.

This was not the case in the 60’s when the apostle Paul barely mentioned “gnosis” in 1 Timothy. Paul does mention an epistle that was not from his own writing and warned them about that. Problems in the seven churches of Asia minor were too developed for the earlier date: Ephesus had lost its first love, there was a synagogue of Satan in Smyrna, in Pergamos the Nicolaitans and the Balaamites were prevalent, Thyratira had a Jezebel, Sardis had only a few names left which not defiled their “garments”, and Laodicea had become so lukewarm and offensive that Christ threatened to spew it out of His mouth.

These things had not had time in the day of Paul’s epistles to develop in Ephesus and in Laodicea. It is very doubtful that they would have developed this far in the first generation churches as soon as the 60’s. Thus a later date (96 AD) makes much more sense. Paul makes no such reference to any of these problems in his epistles written earlier. Phillip Schaff believed that the apostle John was not even resident in Ephesus until near the close of the Nero’s life. The churches in Asia minor had been largely planted by the apostle Paul. It was probably not until after the death of the apostle

Paul in Rome in about 67 AD that John took the guidance of the Asia minor churches. Paul makes no mention of John (except for the reference to John being at a Jerusalem conference in circa 55,56 AD or before, in the epistle to the Galatians).

There is an ancient story about John in Clement of Alexandra which relates that John was a very old man when he returned from the island of Patmos, but was still able to ride a horse to the lair of a robber who was a Christian backslider so that he might reclaim the young man to Christ. If John were a teenager when Jesus called him c.30 AD, then he was as old as 81 when he returned from Patmos, but he would have only been about 50 in 65 AD-hardly an “old man”. Nero’s “modus operandi” was to put to death Christians (e.g., Peter and Paul at Rome), while Domitian used the punishment of exile. Thus it is more likely that John’s exile indicates that it was in the time of Domitian (96 AD).

In view of these things, and in view of the fact that preterists cannot show that John wrote Revelation as mainly a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, we ought to reject the preterist viewpoint concerning the book of Revelation. Moreover, the composition of the Gospel of John cannot be shown to have been written earlier than 80 AD-90 AD, according to learned scholars, such as Rudolf Bultmann, in his commentary on The Gospel of John. Preterists will ask that if John wrote his Gospel in 80 AD, for example, how is it that he said nothing about the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD? Could it be that there were other reasons for not making reference to the destruction of the Temple? It is not conclusive to state simply that the absence of any references to the destruction of the Temple in the New Testament canon proves that these works were written prior to 70 AD. That is an argument from silence. Both Scripture and history prove preterism to be false. It is a very serious deception.

-Brother William B. Chalfant

Study that ye be not deceived

Posted: September 5, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, teaching, wilderness
Tags: Book of Acts Church, Bride of Christ, discipleship, Doctrines, false disciple, Kingdom life, Kingdom living, Kingdom of God, radical disciples, Spirit led life, the Word

Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth. ( 2 Tim 2:15)

We live in the era of great technological advancements, with a wealth of different scriptural views out there it is ever so easy to be swayed from one doctrine to another simply by the mastery of the writer. We are bombarded with different opinions that if our foundation is week we can fall for that which is not of the Lord.

So many depend upon the study of others and blindly trust what they teach and write with never taking to the One who has been sent of the Father to guide in all Spiritual truths. Yet we are the ones ultimately responsible for that which we believe and adhere too.

The King James translates that as “study.” However, modern translations typically do not agree because the meaning and usage of this English word has changed. To us, study means “hit the books,” “learn,” “analyze, investigate, examine, scrutinize,” or “earnestly contemplate.” But the Greek word means something quite a bit different. It literally means to “make speed,” “to hurry.” It conveys the sense of “to make earnest effort; be prompt to labor.”

In almost all modern translations, “study” is rendered “be diligent,” “work hard,” or “do your best.”

The primary question, then, is, “What can we do to show ourselves approved by God?” because God’s charge is, “Hurry to do it! Be quick about it! Be diligent at it. Do your best.”

As well shepherd/teachers are held at a higher responsibility of the Lord to teaching the truth – This means as teachers we are held accountable for what we teach. Many such persons today are swayed by emotions with the desire for unity out-weighing the commands of the Lord to bring correction and rebuke when the Spirit call’s for it.

But again, as individual’s we must guard our hearts that we be not fooled and led astray by a false doctrine. Proverbs 4: 23 state’s this plainly:

“Guard your heart more than anything else, because the source of your life flows from it’.

Many today in their zealousness to see the signs, wonders and miracles of the Lord have been swayed by false teachings which are not of the Lord, chasing after strange fires. Via the internet and media we have inundated with what appears to be of the Lord, yet in truth grieves the Holy Ghost for it is but the promotion of what man can do and people are been worshiping men and ministries rather than the Lord God Himself.

I myself fell into such deception and for several years wondered around in this wilderness of strange fires. I praise God for Holy Ghost never relented in His sending up red flags and with such there was always a sense of unrest. For where the Lord is being mocked the Spirit will not rest.

More and more Holy Ghost drew me to the Word and as I began to weigh the things I saw happening in the “ministry” to the Word of God and allowed Holy Ghost to bring forth truth and revelation the doorway to what was of God began to open.

Today I still believe in signs, wonders and miracles – yet I do not either chase after them or worship them. I can but look out side at nature itself and see the Glory of the Lord – I can look at a new born child and see the wonder of God.

Have I seen or experienced miracles?

Yes I have and I know that we serve the same God of the Old and New Testament who can show up as He did in the Bible, the same God who parted the Red sea, Who can raise the dead and heal the leper. Yet again, I choose not to worship the signs, rather I choose to worship He from whom the signs come from.

I pray daily for discernment that I be not fooled by false signs, wonders and miracles and I believe that if we truly allow Holy Ghost to lead our lives and keep our eyes on the Lord we shall not be fooled. For the Word proclaims:

“For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect–if that were possible”. (Mark 134:22)

Notice the Lord says “if that were possible”. Is it possible? Yes it is if we leave it upon our own wisdom and ability to distinguish between what is true and what is false – yet if we are led of the Spirit we shall never be fooled.

Brother and sisters let us walk with Spiritual eyes open, being ever led of the Spirit of the Lord God Almighty, that we not be counted among those who have been led astray having falling for a false gospel being deceived by the light of a false and strange fire.

We are in a day that calls for radical disciples, equipped with Holy Ghost vision, empowered to bring down the walls of deception with the authority of their King, Jesus the Christ, to not only quench the fiery darts of the enemy but to also thru the power of His Spirit put out the strange fires built in the camp of the saints.

For we serve an Awesome and loving Father, who desires the very best for His children and longs to see the Bride break forth in the power of His Authority that He may release His Glory thru them for the world to see.

KINGDOM BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION Pt 2

Posted: July 28, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, wilderness
Tags: Bride of Christ, disciples, kingdom growth, Kingdom life, Kingdom living, Kingdom of God

KINGDOM BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION

Part 2 – Managing Kingdom Wealth

Money and wealth are viewed and managed in a very different manner in the heavenly kingdom lifestyle than in Babylon.

In Babylon, money was diligently sought after to meet needs and then to fulfill desires for more material things and social status. Whether through working at a job or owning a business, the people sought to accumulate money and the things it would buy. Seeking money or seeking to meet our own needs was never God’s perfect design.

Jesus brought forth much teaching on kingdom order because it had been lost through the ages of Babylonian-style rule. Seeking to meet our own needs and to get more stuff created a greater stress on people that God ever intended for mankind to experience. In seeking money we become the servant of money. Jesus clearly spoke God’s instruction as He explained the kingdom way. In God’s order, we seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness and things are added to us.

Mat 6:24,32-33: No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

The concept of seeking the kingdom and God’s righteousness has been very misunderstood and misapplied by most Christians. Seeking the kingdom first has been viewed largely as doing religious church-type things, which were considered holy. “Secular” type things, such as work and business were considered unholy. In the Babylonian system a false distinction has been made between holy and secular.
Secular is not the opposite of holy. Profane is the opposite of holy. Both business and church things can be holy or they can both be profane.

The kingdom of God includes all of life and all is to be holy (set apart to God). Seeking the kingdom means seeking God’s rule for all of life. And seeking His righteousness means seeking His purposes and order in all things. Righteousness is His right way of being and doing. It is being in perfect alignment with His instruction and desire. If we seek first the kingdom and righteousness, then “all these things” will be added because we will become productive and useful servants in meeting the needs of mankind and the world around us. This is not a magic or supernatural thing. It is a basic reality of natural kingdom life. Our treasure really is where our heart is.

There is contentment and excitement in serving God with our whole lives and doing things His way. Whatever our service or work happens to be, it is rewarding and easy to do with our whole hearts. Not at all like the burdensome, worrisome striving of seeking money. What we chased after and could never have enough of comes to us when we stop seeking it and start seeking the real kingdom of God and His righteous way of doing and being.

We know the Lord is our source and strength. Love motivates us to serve more, but it also causes us to be content with what we have. Our contentment does not rest in what we have, but in Who we have.

Philippians 4:11: Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.

Hebrews 13:5: Let your conduct be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, �I will never leave you nor forsake you.�

Covetousness and self-seeking is the desire for and reaching for more than I already have. Materialism is one of the most common idols in the Babylonian system. It is important to understand that wealth and material things are not inherently evil. Money is not the root of evil. The love of money is the root of evil. Having wealth is not evil. Receiving profit is not evil. However, it is wrong to seek wealth or money rather than seeking the kingdom of God and trusting Him to meet our needs.

Matthew 6:33: �But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.�

1 Timothy 6:5-8: …useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.

Godliness + Contentment = Great Gain.

Godliness (God-seeking, God-serving) is righteous obedience to God, which aligns us with His universal laws and purposes. Contentment is not desiring more than I already have.

Those who seek after money can never keep or enjoy wealth.

1 Timothy 6:9-11: But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.

James 5:1-3: Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.

Who are the rich people that these miseries are coming upon?

�Rich� is a relative term. A brother in one of the developing nations would consider many of you reading this rich. If you ask a man with one million dollars, �Are you rich?� He would probably say, �No, I�m not rich at all,� and would point toward the man with more and say, �He�s rich.� A rich person is one who owns any amount of wealth that is not given over to God�s control for His use.

Garments that are being worn do not become moth-eaten; gold and silver coins that are being used do not corrode. Riches that are being used to meet the needs of mankind will not destroy the one who possesses them. If our lives are wholly given over to God�s control, all of our possessions will be His and will be used in His kingdom. In a very real sense, no matter how much God has placed in our possession, we have no riches. They all belong one hundred percent to God.

We do not seek wealth. We become wealthy while seeking to serve. We do not hold back any part for ourselves. However, because of our obedience, He will give us a portion as our own to enjoy. He will give us the power to eat of it and to rejoice. We must seek His direction for His goods at all times. We must not take it upon ourselves to keep some of His wealth for ourselves.

Luke 18:24b: �How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God.�

Ecclesiastes 5:10,13: He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity. There is a severe evil which I have seen under the sun: Riches kept for their owner to his hurt.

Only the God-seeking, God-serving person can enjoy wealth.

Proverbs 10:22: The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.

Ecclesiastes 5:19: As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor- this is the gift of God.

1 Timothy 6:17: Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.

God desires for His people to possess and manage His earth with all its abundance for Him.

We must be managers of God�s goods and not owners.

God gives a portion of His creation into our hands to manage for Him. We grow in wealth as we do a good job of managing what He has given us to manage. God adds more to us as we become faithful and wise managers of the portion He has placed in our hands. If we do not manage it well, it will be removed from us and given to one who will manage it in accordance with God�s heavenly kingdom wisdom and instruction.

Luke 19:12-13,16-20,22a, 24-26: �A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, �Do business till I come.�

�Then came the first, saying, �Master, your mina has earned ten minas.� And he said to him, �Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.� And the second came, saying, �Master, your mina has earned five minas.� Likewise he said to him, �You also be over five cities.�

�And another came, saying �Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief.� And the master said to him, �Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant.� And he said to those who stood by �Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas�. But they said to him, � Master, he has ten minas.�

�For I say to you, that to everyone who has more will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.�

Matthew 25: 14-l 5, 19-21, 24a, 25-26a, 28, 30: �For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.

�After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, �Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.� His lord said to him, �Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.�

�Then he who had received the one talent came and said, �…and I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.� But his lord answered and said to him, �You wicked and lazy servant…� Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. …And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.��

We are given the Master�s money to do business with until He calls for it. If we manage His money in alignment with kingdom principles, we will have a good report at our accounting time. The most profitable way to do business is according to God’s instruction and in accordance with His kingdom principles.

There are many principles to be considered and there are always balancing principles in God�s kingdom. We must seek God’s direction by the Holy Spirit. Principles are like �road signs� to assist our hearing and provide valuable understanding. But we must hear God�s direction.

One of the major principles is to use money to do good. If we put money to work creating activity (commerce, industry, etc.), which will put people to work meeting each other�s needs, then we are headed in the direction of kingdom prosperity. We will do more long-term good by this type of investing, than we would have done by giving away all the money to meet an immediate need.

What we do with the money we have is more important than how much money we receive. How we use what we have today determines what we will have tomorrow. Many of us have not understood that God gave us money to use to do business. We erroneously thought it was all for us to use for our own desires and needs. We have thrown away our financial future by increasing our lifestyle just because we had more money. We have used money to make us feel better. Babylon�s business pattern is to �get all you can, and can all you get�.

Do not serve money, but serve God with money. Do not hide it or consume it. Do not give it away if God has not said to. Use it to do kingdom business that meets needs. Seek God�s direction and further understanding of His principles about how and where to do business.

If we diligently use all God has given us to serve Him by doing business, we will be given more. It will be added to us. All that we possess should be available to be used to meet the needs of mankind, and especially those of the household of faith.

Man has three basic areas of need: those that relate to his spirit, those that relate to his soul (mind, will, and emotions), and those that relate to his body. Anything that God leads us to do with the resources He has given us to meet needs in any of these three areas is doing business. Whether it is preaching the Word, growing potatoes, or teaching physics, if it meets the needs of the brethren, it is doing business in the kingdom of God.

Ask God, How does what I do meet the needs of mankind? And what can I do better to add more value to mankind?

Start with what you have. A warm smile and an encouraging word can meet a need in a person�s soul. A prayer and a thought from the Word can meet needs of the spirit of a person. Doing that extra amount on the job with a good attitude can meet someone�s needs. Cooperating with the boss and speaking a good word about him can meet more needs than complaining and giving a bad report. Consider what you have, what is in your hand, what gifts and talents you have. Then, ask God how they may be used to meet the needs of others.

Would investing that extra $25 in someone�s kingdom business or ministry help meet their need for capital so they could meet more needs? Could contributing your talents and abilities to help a ministry or kingdom business meet needs? Could improving your own skills enable you to meet more needs?

In Babylon, people go to school to get more education so that they can get more money, so that they can have more power and more things they want. In the kingdom, we sharpen our tools by getting more education and training so that we can meet more and greater needs of others. The more skilled we are, the more we can do. The more we do, the more we will be blessed in return. The more we are blessed, the more we have to use. Love causes us to make the best we can of ourselves and of what we have.

Two dimensions of meeting needs

There is more than one dimension in meeting needs. There is both quantity and quality. You can meet a little need for a lot of people, or you can meet a great need for a few people. Manufacturing chewing gum can put a good taste in millions of people�s mouths; doing brain surgery can greatly impact a few people. The total amount of value added to mankind could be the same in either case. So, if you can�t do something big, do a whole lot of the little things that you can do, while at the same seeking to improve your skills so that you can do more.

Loving-kindness In Kingdom Business

Loving-kindness in kingdom business replaces pretended affection and pandering in Babylonian business operation. In Babylon, most customers expect to receive an offer of help or service by a businessperson. Underlying their question, “Can I help you?” is their real thought of, “Can I get some of your money?” Customers do not expect a businessperson to really care about them beyond what they can get from them. Once people learn that in the kingdom, the businessperson really cares about them, and not just about their money, they develop a whole new attitude. If they know that you really care, they will trust you with their business. Whether we are supplying a spiritual need or a physical need, love will cause us to really care about others� needs and well being. Loving-kindness cannot be faked in the kingdom of God. A phony will be spotted.

Love cares about fellow workers, including the boss. Love causes employees to feel a great sense of security and loyalty because they care about one another and know the boss cares about them and has their interest in mind. Love cares about the quality of product or service being provided. Love is the key to increased productivity, quality and efficiency.

The essence of God�s love permeates every aspect of kingdom-life. The thirteenth chapter of 1st Corinthians draws a picture of what love is. It teaches that, no matter how great our gifts or works are, they are meaningless without love. Love makes it happen and keeps it in order in the kingdom.

Love is the greatest mystery in the world. There is no other force or power in the world as great as love. Love will cause us to give up our very lives. Only after love motivates us to die to our self-focused life, can we know resurrection life. Just as Jesus gave up His life for others and was resurrected to a far greater life, we will experience a far greater life now on earth as love motivates us to selflessly serve. The Babylonian-style world cannot comprehend the value of the love of God. It is a mystery to the people of Babylon.

Keep on Pursuing Love
It Will Never Fail,

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

Kingdom Business Transformation – Part 1

Posted: July 22, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, teaching, wilderness
Tags: disciples, kingdom growth, Kingdom life, Kingdom living, Kingdom of God, Spirit led life

Part 1 – The Ministry of Business

By Ron McGatlin

Every adult believer is involved in the business/ministry of Kingdom Life.

Business is a primary foundational part of the kingdom of God.

The foundational principles of Babylonian-style business are opposite to the New Jerusalem kingdom of God business principles.

All productive enterprise in the world can be qualified as either business or ministry. Almost every mature adult is involved in business. Some may own businesses, others work at jobs in businesses, others do the business of managing a household or family and everyone manages the business of his own personal life.

In the kingdom of God, both ministry and business have exactly the same basic foundational purpose. What we each do with our lives involves business/ministry. Before we consider how kingdom business is to be done we must consider God’s purpose for our involvement in business or ministry. In the kingdom, the primary purpose of business or ministry is to serve God by providing for the needs of mankind and the world around us.

Kingdom business or ministry is caring for God’s people and managing the resources of His earth.

God’s love is the primary motivational force of all kingdom business and ministry. Through love, people serve one another.

The love of God will cause us to lay down our lives for our brothers. We will seek to provide for our brothers’ needs. Jesus’ love coming forth in us will cause us to serve one another. We become humble servants and not proud rulers. We keep His commandments to love God and love one another.

Galatians 5:13-14: For you brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love – serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

In the kingdom both ministry and business exist for the primary purpose of meeting needs. The only distinction between ministry and business is the type of needs met.

Ministry generally seeks to meet spiritual needs of people. Business is focused mostly on meeting physical needs. However, there is much overlap and both may meet mental and emotional needs. All areas of kingdom enterprise are important to God.

The desire to serve stemming from love is the foundation of kingdom enterprise. We serve Jesus as we serve mankind by providing for peoples’ needs. We are able to do a good job of providing because love has ordered our lives. Love brings unity and cooperation that enables greater production. We are to do good to all people but especially to the people of God.

Gal 6:10: Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

The Sheep and Goats of Business/Ministry

In the parable of the sheep and the goats, the only factor considered by the Lord when dividing the sheep from the goats was whether an individual had provided for the needs of the brethren. Those, who had provided for the needs of the brethren, were told to “come inherit the kingdom” (Matthew 25:31-46).

No one can provide food for the hungry or clothes for the naked unless they first acquire food and clothing. We cannot supply what we do not have. Someone must grow, transport and process food; one must obtain fiber, process it into cloth, and then sew it into clothing. Or, one must, through production of some sort, obtain money to pay others for food and clothing. Obviously, the sheep in the above parable were involved in industry–the production and distribution of goods and services.

The kingdom principle Jesus is teaching here is greater than just giving away some of our surplus to the needy. The principle is that, because of the love of God, we desire to serve and because of the gifts and power of God working with us, our lives become productive. We become highly productive in business activities of manufacturing, farming, building, education, transportation, processing and a myriad of other enterprises providing for the needs of people.

What does my job, business/ministry do to meet the needs of mankind and the world around us?

This concept is hard for most people living in heavily populated areas to grasp. In the modern setting the importance of what our production does for others is sometimes lost because of a disconnect in seeing the end use of what we do and how needs are met by our labors.

For a moment, imagine life in a small, godly, frontier village that has no access to outside provisions. The people of the village would all know one another and care about the well being and the needs of each other. The different people would develop their God-given gifts into various skills to help supply the needs of the people of the village. Someone might be adept at growing certain needed food or animal feed items. Someone else might become good at raising and providing poultry products and others beef or pork products. Someone else might be a dairyman and provide milk products to their neighbors. Someone else may be good at cabin building and woodworking, and another at blacksmithing and so on. When a need in the village arises, someone will seek to meet that need for the people. Working together, they will provide for one another and will be happy to trade the produce of their skills and labor for the produce of others to meet their needs and the needs of the others in the village.

In this small village no one tries to get rich at the expense of others and no one seeks to hinder or harm another. Loving concern for one another causes industrious activity (business) producing goods and services to meet needs. The love of God brings order and cooperation. Now, expand the view in your mind from the small village to nations and then the world and God’s plan for business in the kingdom begins to come into view.

The more our love leads us to provide for the needs of mankind, the more we will reap. The law of sowing and reaping never fails. The more we provide, the more we will receive. Our needs will be provided for and we will have more to use to provide for the needs of the brethren and the world.

As we grow in the business of producing and providing for the brethren, more people are required to help with the enterprise. This means productive employment for more people. Jobs are created and people join together to work in the enterprise of providing for peoples’ needs. All this comes from the root of love that causes a desire to provide for the needs of people and the planet.

The sheep that serve by meeting the needs of the brethren inherit the kingdom of God quality of life (true prosperity). The goats that do not serve by meeting the needs of the brethren have only continuous lack (real poverty).

The thing that divides the sheep from the goats is the love and life of Christ Jesus in the sheep.

The sheep inherited the kingdom of God because they produced. They became productive kingdom servants/rulers as they met the needs of the brethren. Love motivated them to cooperate with and serve the brethren. The goats were motivated by unlove to use what they had only for themselves. The goats do not enter the kingdom. They are separated from God’s heavenly blessings in this life.

Life is the presence of God and serving His purposes. The kingdom of God lifestyle is abundant life, eternal life, now and forever. Death is separation from God and His purposes.

The end result of Babylonian business/ministry is death (separation from God and His purposes).

The Babylonian system has perverted the purpose of business in the minds of most people, including Christians. The perverted purpose of business has also infested ministry. Love is not involved in business in the Babylonian-patterned world. Unlove is assumed in all business transactions in the Babylonian world system. Need and greed are the primary motivational forces behind business and work.

The primary purposes of business in Babylon, is to control in order to meet personal needs and gain personal wealth. People, in the Babylonian system, work at a job or business to get money. They normally give little or no thought to what the job they are working at does to serve God by meeting the needs of mankind and the world. Generally, work is a tiresome dread for them because they are doing something that they don’t want to do but must do to get their paycheck. They have become as harlots–selling themselves to provide for their needs and wants. For the most part, this is considered normal in Babylonian-style business.

Christians caught in this system may believe it is God’s design for them to work at their jobs to get money and that church and church-related things represent their only opportunities to serve God. They also may believe that paying a tithe, plus some offerings, from the produce of their labors satisfies God and makes it all acceptable. Being a good slave and obeying your master is commendable and about the best that can be done in Babylonian captivity. Even in captivity, being a good servant can lead to ruling. God can bless those who remain faithful to Him even in captivity. However, we all need to know that in the kingdom work and business are vital parts of serving God.

God is not leaving His people captive in Babylon. God is delivering us into His marvelous, heavenly kingdom of light and love. We are learning the ways of New Jerusalem in every facet of our lives, including our families and businesses.

The greater principles of kingdom life and business found in the Bible are becoming more ingrained in the hearts of God’s people as we continue to move toward the kingdom of God life on earth.

Keep on pursuing Love. Love never fails
and His kingdom never ends.

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

A Different America

Posted: June 22, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, wilderness
Tags: grace, Kingdom of God, Kingdom teaching, radical christianity, worldly kingdom

History books are written and re-written according to what someone wants to say to promote their position. I don’t know what the history books will eventually say about the America that I grew up in, but I do know what I have seen and experienced over the past 75 years. In that period of time, it is like I lived in another country in those early years and at some point moved into the country that I live in now. Both from a natural and from a spiritual perspective, it is indeed a different place than the one that I knew. My hope and faith is that 75 years from now there will be a different and better nation and world than the one we live in now. I pray and believe it will be a much more godly world.

I remember sincere patriotism that was real and was deserved. The most godly nation in the world became the most powerful force in the world for good. The world was filled with bad things like Hitler and his rampage that brought about World War ll. However, America was always seen as on the side of right, fighting for freedom and liberty of the oppressed peoples. Always seeking to stop the invaders and prevent their oppression of other peoples and nations.

The churches that were on almost every other major street corner in small town America may not have had it all right but were corporately the greatest force in the world for sending the message of Christ Jesus as Saviour to all the world. Multitudes of sincere and dedicated missionaries left their families and the safety of their homeland to take the message of the cross to most every land in the world. They gave their lives without reservation to help the people of the world. To carry the gospel of Jesus Christ was a noble and highly respected service to the world.

From the fertile farm lands of America, more tons of food than anyone can count have been delivered into foreign lands to feed the hungry. Medical missionaries left potentially lucrative medical practices in America to help the suffering and carry the love of God to the remote regions of the world. We could go on and on with the sacrifices of many lives and much goods that have flowed to the world from America. Back when I was young, it really felt so good to be an American and to know that you and your country would give its all to preserve peace and freedom and well-being for the world.

In those days there were bad things in America, but not nearly so much, and at least we knew bad things were bad. A man and woman who lived together unmarried was a shame and a disgrace to their families and the community. It was called shacking up and was rarely practiced and then only by the non Christian bottom rung of immoral society. Women were moms and wives, and men worked hard to provide for their families. Meals were family affairs where much communication and informal training took place as parents passed on the wisdom of their fathers to the children.

Prisons were few, and the people who were in them were seen as different from the general population. Movies and even early TV shows were believable and taught good morals. The good guys always won, and it was not hard to tell them from the bad guys.

A child born out of wedlock was known as a bastard child and was a rare happening. Some people had pre-marital sex, but they knew it was bad and usually got married sometimes by what was called a shotgun wedding. That is the girls dad showed up with a shot gun and politely told the young man that he had taken his daughter’s virginity and would find it greatly to his advantage and continued good health to marry her NOW. After the wedding he was accepted as part of the family.

Homosexuality was not tolerated and was known to be a deadly sin. None of us could have possibly imagined that this would become known as a lifestyle alternative with gay marriages. Even the word gay meant a happy excited light feeling back then and had nothing to do with sexual perversion. No one could have imagined the violent in-your-face and in-God’s-face actions of homosexuals of today. Neither could we have believed the push by society to train our children in public schools in the acceptance of this life-damaging practice.

A man’s word was his bond and most would suffer great loss before they would go back on their word to someone. A written contract was not needed when a man gave his word, and a handshake sealed the deal.

When someone had need, the neighbors jumped in to do what they could to help. Welfare was not needed to be administered by the federal government. The local community took care of its own. When state-run welfare did begin, it was a shame to have to live off of someone else’s money, and only people in the most dire situations would accept this charity.

Americans were among the best educated in the world. Illegal drugs were unheard of in schools and across the countryside. Only in the big city slums were drugs a problem. There was alcohol, but even that was not for sale everywhere. Many areas of the country were known as dry, and no liquor was legally sold in those areas.

Housing was modest and simple. Only the most affluent had brick homes. Fishing boats used paddles, and only the rich had boats with motors. Time payment credit plans were just getting started, and most saved their hard earned money until they had enough to buy what they needed. Children were even taught to save at school.

Most higher learning institutions began for the purpose of teaching the Bible and biblical standards of life and conduct to the people. Public prayer was normal in schools and the name of Jesus was commonly used in prayer as the Son of God and not a curse word.

I could go on and on with how things have changed in my 75 years, but I think you get the picture. It wasn’t perfect, and there was bad stuff; but it was a very different America.

What happened? How has America fallen into spreading the filth of Hollywood and perversions of sin and filth to the world? How is it that young people are trained in sexual immorality and violence as pleasure? How have our business, church, and government leaders become known as greedy and selfish? How is it that the great institutions of learning have become filled with hate for Christ Jesus and the truth of the word of God? How has it happened that we have become known as the invader rather than the protector? How is it that “One Nation Under God” has rejected its God and is hated by much of the people of the world? All this and much more has come about in my lifetime.

Is it that there was always a hidden crack in our solid quest for liberty? Was our foundation of a nation under God noble and right but with an underlying flaw? In our early national history, had we preached Jesus to the native Americans while driving them from their homes, taking their land, and breaking the strength of their existence? What about the importation of Africans and treating them as chattel property rather than human beings. Yes, the strength of the church and the work of God played a big part in the continuing cleansing of the evils of oppression committed in the foundations of America.

During my lifetime there have been great strides toward righting these wrongs. But did we have deep within the fabric of our culture a remaining need that led to greed and immorality? And is that what is surfacing again as we become seen by many as the aggressor and the oppressor instead of the deliverer for the oppressed?

Is our underlying flaw a fatal flaw?

The flaw must be identified and corrected if it is not to be fatal. Perhaps many views at different levels would be seen by various people as the primary flaw. However, the need is to get to the very deepest level of the problem, recognize it, and change it. In my opinion, the Lord is in this season revealing the fatal flaw that has been the downfall of every powerful nation of history and is now in the process of taking down America and the coalition of western powers.

Our potentially fatal flaw did not originate in America. It was seeded into this nation from its European roots. The early settlers brought it with them as one of their greatest strengths. Some of you may think I have gone mad when I reveal to you what I believe the fatal flaw of America and other powerful nations over two millennia of history has been. However, please see me through and consider the full depth of this situation before you cancel your subscription or send me hate mail.

The fatal flaw is religion and religious systems. Let me explain. The only nation or power on earth that will ever remain without end is the nation ruled by God, empowered by Him and directed by Him. It is the assigned role of the church, the holy people of God, to bring forth the pure holy reality of Christ Jesus in man by the Holy Spirit to rule and reign on earth. The religious church systems failed to do this and substituted empty religion for the reality of the love and power of God indwelling the people through Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Religion has enough appearance of godliness to cause the people to think they are where they are supposed to be with God. Therefore, the people stop seeking for more of God and His kingdom. Religion is like a vaccination that keeps us from catching the real thing. When in reality, religion has only the appearance of godliness without the power and reality of God. Our nations without the power and reality of God have moved far from the ways of God and established man-centered, self-focused secular ways that were easily infiltrated with spiritual darkness.

2 Tim 3:5: having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

Mark 7:9: He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.

Col 2:8: Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

Religion instead of the reality of relationship with God is our fatal flaw. This is why our forefathers could preach Jesus to the Native Americans and destroy their lives at the same time. That is why this nation could buy and sell Africans and go to church on Sunday and pray. This is why Christian leaders fall into greed and immorality. That is why the deceptions of spiritual blindness allow this nation to be led by the greed and lust of the hearts of deceived people. That is why the western nations are becoming a violent immoral people fit for destruction.

I am not anti-American and not anti-Western and surely not anti-church. I love America, the church, and all the western nations, and I am sincerely thankful for all the value we have been. I love too much to sit back and say nothing when God is speaking and our hope depends on seeing who we really are and in what condition we really are. I love too much to not search for a road to change.

The good news is that the road has been found, and the way is open. Many people are getting up and moving out on the road to the reality of God and the establishment of His nation of holy people within many nations. People are moving out of the religious systems that are the fatal flaw and moving into Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit, becoming the holy purified Body of Christ. The kingdom of God from heaven can come forth in His people on earth. A fresh new extreme abandonment of all that our greed and lust has built and a passionate to-the-death commitment to God is the way to God’s power and love flowing rivers of living water into the nations of the world. There is a passion for God and for His people coming forth in people. Especially youth are giving birth to a new generation with a new level of passion for God and His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Rev 12:11: “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

Kingdom revival is a passionate move of God in people that leads to the kingdom of God lifestyle in the made-alive people of God. It is the life-giving Spirit moving upon and within, transforming ordinary people into maturing supernaturally-empowered men and women of God. People in every walk of life and every part of the world can get in as the Spirit of God is moving across the world. The substitute religion is being washed away by the life-giving Spirit of Christ Jesus moving upon our hearts. Get connected to and become one with the Spirit of Christ and connect with other passionate believers; then preach the kingdom, anticipating the power of God to move through you to touch and change the lives of the people who come within the sphere of the Spirit flowing through your life. Let your faith become without limitation and speak the truth in love. Do the work set before you, and we shall see the hand of God move to bring change and heal our fatal flaw.

This is not a time of fear and despair. This is the time to do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

Psa 33:12: Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.

Psa 144:15: Happy are the people who are in such a state; Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!

Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

Forsake not the poor!

Posted: June 14, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, teaching, wilderness
Tags: Bride of Christ, Kingdom life, Kingdom living, Kingdom of God, Kingdom teaching, radical christianity

“After an absence of several years, I came to Jerusalem to bring my people gifts for the poor and to present offerings.” (Acts 24:17), “All they asked was that I should remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do”. (Gal 2:10)

It appears that the ministry to the poor was an important part of the early church as they lived out the teaching of Christ our Lord. Some have endeavored to say that these passages imply only to the Jews in Judah, and one could surely use this example as an excuse not to feed the poor, yet the admonishment of the Master to minister unto the poor erases this conclusion. The heart of the Father is that all would receive His Salvation and one of the ways we have in which to do so is to reach out to the needy that they may taste of the Fathers mercy through over service.

As we study the history of the church we find that there have been many times in which Christians have had to defend to their church’s responsibility to care for the poor. Sadly I believe that we are living in such a time right now, a time in which Christians have become polarized on issues and otherwise strong evangelical churches are afraid to take stands in areas that the Bible makes clear are of great interest to our God.

Many have believed the lie that it is the liberals who are concerned about the poor and that we conservatives have been given the higher calling of evangelizing the lost world. To be sure, many a liberal has fallen prey to the trap that neglects evangelism almost entirely. But we have no Biblical excuse for neglecting the physical needs of the poor and solely evangelizing them. To be Biblical is to be concerned about both the physical and the spiritual realm at the same time.

A true student of the Word clearly sees that the Bible itself leaves no doubt about what the people of God should think and do in regards to the poor;

“thou shall open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in the land.” (Deut 15:11b)

“blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.” (Ps 41:1)

“he that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.” (Prov 19:17)

And we go on to see this aspect of the Fathers heart being lived out and taught by His Son as we see Jesus eager to see ministry to the poor continue. In Matt 25 as Jesus foretells the separating of the sheep from the goats, the sheep are characterized as those who did something about the plight of the stranger, the sick, the hungry, the thirsty, the poorly clothed, and the person in prison. In Luke 16 Jesus tells the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, and Jesus makes it very clear that the rich man is in Hell for his unbelief characterized by his lack of urgency in helping Lazarus the transient in his midst.

We also can conclude that the leaders of the early church were very adamant about ministry to the poor. The apostle James was very upset in his letter about favoritism being shown to the rich. When Paul met with the leaders of the church in Jerusalem he tells us, “only they would that we should remember the poor, the same thing which I also was eager to do (Gal.2:10).” Interestingly, Hebrews 13:1 tells us that if we minister to strangers, we may very well have met an angel without knowing about it!

Unfortunately ministry to the poor, especially those living on the streets is not easy work! There are always concerns about safety. Some have mental problems and in addition to being hard to communicate with they also can be violent. We have all heard stories of good samaritans who have lost their lives simply because they cared enough to help somebody.

Now, the church needs a plan. Instead of expecting the pastor to display Solomon like wisdom and mother Teresa like care every time a person in need stops by, there should be thoughtful reflection given to the conditions under which the church should help (wisdom and discernment). There should also be a designated fund set up which the pastor can use to help people with. Otherwise the good-hearted pastor will go broke doing what he believes to be his Christian duty.

As well, it may be helpful to separate in-church assistance from out of church assistance. From time to time there may be members who need care and the church is in a place to take an offering for a car, or groceries or for whatever. At times like this when members of the church have a need the church should not just pray for the need, the church should meet the need. One of the outcomes of this will be the strengthening of the body. Out of church assistance, however, and by that I mean ministry to those in need such as the homeless, should have as its goals compassionate assistance and evangelism. The gospel should be shared!

Again, there are always those who will come up with a number of scenarios in regard to the safety of the “church” and “its members”. To this I believe that as we walk in the wisdom of the Lord, seeking Holy Spirit guidance and realize that the Lord is our shield and our protector we will willingly and obediently sacrifice our time and energy with the understanding that we are living out, as did our Lord, the Fathers desire that the world may not merely hear about His love and compassion but that they would, through our lives, experience it as well.

For indeed we serve an Awesome God!

HE HEART-TREE – THE LIFE-STRUCTURE OF MAN

Posted: April 10, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, teaching
Tags: Bride of Christ, disciples, Kingdom living, Kingdom of God, Kingdom teaching

THE LIFE-STRUCTURE OF MAN

Trees are often used in Scripture to symbolize men or the life-structure of a man. In the figurative language of Scripture, the tree, the root, the soil it grows in, and the seed that the tree grew from are all important in understanding God’s plan (kingdom pattern) for the individual and exposing the enemy’s scheme for causing affliction.

Isaiah 55:12: For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Isaiah 61:3: To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.

In the parable of the sower and other scriptures, the heart of man is referred to as soil.

Our heart is our spirit and soul.

Our spirit is who we are and relates to the spiritual realm.

Our soul is our mind, will, and emotions and relates to the natural realm through the bodies in which we live.

The heart of man, like soil, will grow whatever is planted in it. The soil does not determine the type of tree that will grow. The seed does. The same soil, that will grow a pecan tree when a pecan is planted in it, will grow a peach tree if a peach seed is planted in it. A thorn tree will grow if the soil is planted with the seed of a thorn tree. Our heart-soil does not in itself determine our tree or life-structure. Rather, the seed that is planted will determine the nature of our tree or life-structure. The fruit of the tree (our actions or deeds) will be determined by the nature of tree (life-structure) that grew from the type of seed planted.

Matthew 7:16-20: You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Matthew 12:33-35: Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth good things, and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, brings forth evil things.

In the above passages, the Lord speaks of the tree (life-structure) and its fruit (deeds) coming forth from the soil of the heart of man.

The “Heart-Tree” of our life is either good or bad and will bear either good or bad fruit according to the tree. The seed planted determined the type of tree.

As we see in Matthew 13:19, the seed is a word. A word is more than just letters arranged on a page; it is a pattern that is alive and able to grow into a structure of life that bears fruit. It can be a vision, picture, image, an action or a combination or series of these things. A communication in any form is a word or seed.

Since there are two kinds of trees and two kinds of fruit, obviously there are two kinds of seeds, good and bad. Good seeds are good words or living patterns Bad seeds are bad words or living patterns.

All words or seeds ultimately have their origin from either the tree of life or the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which produces death. Every word, seed, action, or communication of any form has its source in either God or the devil.

A child planted with inordinate premature, sexual activity will grow a life-structure of sexual confusion and disorder. A child planted with legalistic rigid harshness will grow a life-structure of frustrated perfectionism. A child planted with violent acts will grow a life-structure of fear and aggression. A child planted with unconditional love and peaceful security will grow a healthy, happy life-structure.

The seed of the kingdom of God is a special, good seed that will grow the life and rule of God.

THE ENEMY’S SCHEME

UNGODLY HERITAGE
(OPEN TO BAD SEED)

Our ungodly heritage causes our heart-soil to be born with an openness to bad seed.

The ungodly heritage of Adam has passed down through the generations. We were each conceived and born with a heritage that goes back to Adam. Sin and the curse of death entered through Adam and spread to all men. Through our forefathers, the sin of Adam reaches to each of us.

Romans 5:19: Therefore just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.

Psalm 51:5: Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.

Though we bear no personal accountability for the sins of our parents and forefathers, each of us are born under the curse of sin and must at some time become personally accountable for our own sin. However, we are directly affected by the inheritance of the iniquity (tendency to sin) of our forefathers.

Exodus 20: 5-6: …. visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Leviticus 26: 39: And those of you who are left shall waste away in their iniquity in your enemies lands; also in their fathers iniquities; which are with them, they shall waste away.

Exodus 34: 7b: … visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.

The sin of Adam, working through our heritage (the iniquity or perversions of our forefathers), serves as a big hammer to drive the wedge of sin into our own heart-soil, causing an opening for bad seed to be planted. Then, in our own experience, the seeds are planted and our life-structure (Heart-Tree) begins to grow. Eventually our lives will bear the fruit of it.

UNGODLY LIFE EXPERIENCE
(CLOSED TO GOOD SEED)

Our ungodly experience causes our heart-soil to be unable to grow the kingdom of God seed (the good seed).

Matthew 13:3-9: Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying; Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

THE WAYSIDE SOIL

Matthew 13:19: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.

Notice that this scripture refers specifically to the word of the kingdom. It does not say the word of “being born again” or some other word from God cannot be received.

The word of the kingdom cannot be received or understood in the hard-pressed soil of our heart. The heavy, wounding footsteps of man and his ox cart’s wheels may have pressed down the soil of our heart and made it hard. These wounding experiences and the hard-press of life have damaged our soil and our ability to receive the good seed that could have produced a kingdom life-structure. Because it cannot penetrate the hardened soil, the enemy easily and quickly steals the word of the kingdom from us. The wayside heart must be plowed to break up the hardened soil, and then healed by the gentle rain of the Holy Spirit before it can receive the good seed.

THE STONY SOIL

Matthew 13:20-21: But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

The word of the kingdom of God cannot be brought to fruition in a stony heart. The stones represent hardened, firm, previous convictions. If we are so convinced that we already know how things are (what the Bible says, what life is like, what people are like, what we ourselves are like, etc.), then we will not grow the new life-structure to maturity. We will let it go when challenged, because negative, hardened, previous beliefs or convictions will prohibit the word of the kingdom of God from taking deep root in our heart. Rocks of earlier, hardened beliefs or convictions must be either thrown out or smashed before the kingdom life comes to fruition

THE THORNY SOIL

Matthew 13:22: Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

The word of the kingdom cannot be brought to fruition in a heart growing thorn bushes of the cares of this life. If feel we must have anything of this life in addition to, or apart from what God desires for us, we have thorn bushes. We must love God above all else and be fully content with Him and his desired provision for us. The thorn bushes must be uprooted and thrown out before the kingdom life can come to fruition.

GOD’S KINGDOM PATTERN

THE GOOD SOIL

Matthew 13:23: But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces; some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

The word of the kingdom of God will be received and grow to fruition in the good heart-soil. The good soil is the heart that is healed of wounds, has had its stones of hardened, previous convictions thrown out, and the thorn bushes of cares of this life pulled up and discarded. This heart can produce the kingdom of God lifestyle. It will be fruitful in producing the kingdom of God on earth. It will not receive the bad seed but is ready to grow the good seed.

We are told in Scripture to be careful what we hear–what we plant in our soil. It is God’s plan for us to receive good seed. If we are filled with the peace of God, our hearts will receive only good seed, which will grow a good tree (life-structure). This will produce good fruit (deeds or actions).

The peace of God guards our hearts from bad seed.

Philippians 4: 7b-9: … and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

Proverbs 23: 7a: For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.

We will be formed by the thoughts we think–by the words in any form that we receive into our hearts. Our heart-soil grows whatever we allow to be planted in it, whether good or bad. Whether it is a spoken word or some action carried out against us, if we allow it to be planted in our heart-soil, it will determine our life-structure thereby, determining our feelings, self-image, attitude and eventually, our actions whether good or bad. We will live in peace or in turmoil and stress, according to what we decide to allow to be planted in our heart-soil.

What are you allowing to be planted in your soil? What are you watching, listening to, and thinking about?

What did you plant in your heart-soil from the time you were born until you were about six years old? Obviously you had no choice at that young age. Someone else decided what would be planted in your heart-soil at that time. It is a known fact that most of our life-structure was formed in us as small children. Before we developed the ability to choose, the seeds that would determine the majority of our life-structure were already planted. What kind of seed was planted in our soil from the time we were in our mother’s womb until five or six years old?

Unfortunately, not all of us grew up surrounded by the peace of God. Many of us did not have our heart-soil planted with seeds of unconditional love and acceptance. On the contrary, we may have received seeds of a conditional, performance-based kind of love and grew up feeling unaccepted. Or, we may have felt little or no love at all. Anything short of unconditional, affirming love and acceptance becomes a bad seed. If so, then the seeds of unlove and rejection sown into our heart-soil began to grow into our life-structure.

God’s kingdom pattern is that we be planted with good seed and grow a good life-structure (a Good Heart-Tree). If, however, this was not so, then Jesus came to uproot our bad life-structure (the Bad Heart-Tree), heal our heart-soil, and replant it with His good seed to grow His good life-structure (the Good Heart-Tree).

God has given us the ability to take the cover off and see the methods or schemes the enemy has used and is using to afflict individuals and cause them to afflict others. We know his plan is to kill, steal, and destroy. Once we see his plot to kill us, steal all we have including our faith and joy, and to destroy the plan and work of God, we can make the necessary adjustments to appropriate the ministry of Jesus to destroy all the schemes of the enemy and establish God’s kingdom patterns.

Understanding God’s kingdom patterns for individuals, families, businesses, and all aspects of life and planting them in our heart will produce abundant life. Learning to personally appropriate the ministry of Christ will bring about the uprooting of the old and the planting of the new tree. Jesus has provided and is providing everything we need to completely destroy the old work of the enemy and establish the new work of God in our life.

We are absolutely without excuse. The enemy would like to cause us to believe that because it was planted in us, we can do nothing about it. To say, I can’t help it; someone did it to me, is to say, Jesus is not sufficient to meet my need. His blood, resurrection life, and omnipotent power are not enough to fix me.

If we attempt to avert our responsibility by placing the blame on others (the ones that did it to me), then we are deceived. It really does not matter who did it; ultimately, it was the enemy who did it. And the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, has been and is manifest to destroy the work of the enemy. He is no respecter of persons. His freedom-giving ministry is available to all. His ministry begins with our real repentance, not our phony excuses. Our escape and defense mechanisms are designed by the enemy and brought forth in our soul to prevent true repentance.

Keep on Pursuing Love
It Will Never Fail,

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

Radical Disciples – A Remnant Revolution

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HE HEART-TREE – THE LIFE-STRUCTURE OF MAN