Revolution Era

I just wanted to thank those who have shared their thoughts with me regarding the first part of this write-up. I've been very encouraged. I've had some great questions asked too, and consequently, because of them I've been motivated me to write some additional thoughts regarding this subject (of which, I'm not really crazy about). So, here goes!

1 John 4:3,4:

But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now IS ALREADY in the world.

You, dear children, are from God and HAVE OVERCOME THEM, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (emphasis mine)

Our only mission as believers is to, "go and make disciples of all nations" (Mt 28:19). We are not permitted to judge anyone (Mt 7:1,2), including the intentions and the hearts of people. It isn't our business to try to determine who will or won't be saved. As Paul said, "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone" (1 Tim 2:1).

Nowhere in the Bible does it day that we are only to pray for those who are not destined for destruction. In fact, when Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, and when he gave them power to heal the sick and raise the dead and cast out demons,
Judas was included among them. Jesus gave Judas a chance. And whatever takes place between God and people like Judas, or Nero, or anyone else who come against God, it is between them and God. We have no right to judge, accuse, or form opinions. "God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." (1Tim 1:2). "All" means all, even people like Judas. The choice to betray Jesus was Judas', not God's. Judas chose his own destiny instead of the one Jesus had inviting him to. Again, the heart of God is, "on earth, peace and goodwill towards men" (Lk 2:14), and, that we "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in Heaven. He causes his sun to shine on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous." (Mt 5:44,45).

If you win the lottery, your wife would also win the lottery with you, right? Even if you bought the tickets and picked the winning numbers, as a good husband you would share the money with you wife. Paul said that we are sons of God and co-heirs with Christ. Now, what was one of the things Jesus won? All authority in heaven and on earth (Mt 28:18). And as his Bride, we too have won all authority in heaven and on earth. As Jesus wonderfully illustrated in Luke 15, "'My son', the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.'" (Lk 15:31). Now, not only do we have legal right over this planet, but also power to back it up: "I have given you authority to... overcome all the power of the enemy" (Lk 10:19). And finally, Psalm 115:16 says, "The highest heavens belong to God, but the earth He has given to man." What's my point? My point is we, the sons and daughters of God, are in charge. Where? Here, on earth. When? Now, today.

Now if we're in charge, why would we let The Antichrist take over the world and lead it astray? For even though Paul wrote that, "There will be terrible times in the last days" (1 Tim 3:1), he also wrote that, "where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more" (Rom 5:20). And Isaiah looked into the future and wrote, "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn." (Is 60:1-3). No matter how bad things get, God has made it so that it gets equally better. The more the sin, the more He releases grace. The more the darkness, the more He releases His glory.

Even John, after he first writes of "the beast", in 11:7, in the same chapter he also writes, "and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: 'The kingdom of the earth has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ'" (Rev 11:15). In other words, the prayer Jesus gave us to pray, "on earth as it is in heaven" (Mt 6:10), gets answered. In fact, Jesus would never give us a prayer to pray if he didn't think it would come to pass. Nor would he have given us, his church, a mission - make disciples of all nations - if he didn't think we would accomplish it. The mission determines the end. Jesus gave us the mission of discipling nations, and the prayer of his heart, that thing be here on earth as they are in heaven. That is where we are heading.

I can't let the clear, un-mystical promises and commands of Jesus be re-interpreted by mystical, unclear visions and dreams. Things like, "I [Jesus] will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." (Mt 16:18). And, "I have given you authority to... overcome all the power of the enemy, nothing will harm you." (Lk 10:19). Or, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." (Mt 28:28). These things are clear, and they came from the lips of Jesus. It it by these words then that we must filter visions and dreams in order to interprete them. Visions had by Daniel, Zechariah, John, and so on. As Paul wrote, "Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said." (1 Cor 14:29).

I can't allow the misinterpretations of men like John Nelson Darby (who twice predicted to return of Jesus and was wrong, and founder of dispensationalism), or Hal Lindsey (who also tried to predict the advent of Christ), or Tim Lahaye, who has made millions from his Left Behind franchise, determine for me how the fate of the church and our earth plays out. I refuse to spend my mental energy worrying about who the Antichrist might be or how the world might end. Jesus never called us into suspision or fear, under the guise of discernment and foresight. It's a great enough task for me to think about how to disciple nations, how to love those who may persecute me, and how to be the salt that keeps this world from decay.

I'm not saying I have it all figured out. I don't. All I know is that I can't waste my time promoting fear and destruction to the world as a reason for it to come into the love of God. I can't promote a doctrine that states one evil man will have more power than a believer, when we have been given power and authority over all the power of darkness. I can't entertain the thought of an end where I don't disciple all the nations, and where the things on earth aren't as they are in heaven. The mission and prayer Jesus gave me can't be diminished because of visions and dreams of fellow saints that have been debated for centuries. Their revelations can only serve to compliment what Jesus has promised and commanded, and not become my primary focus.

So what do I think? Like I said, I don't have it figured out. But what I do think is that if you pick up a really good history book and use it to read books like Revelation, or Daniel, or Zechariah, you might better understand what the Lord was revealing to them. I'm not saying that all they wrote has already happened - but I will say alot of it has. I won't promote the gospel because of the possibility of a beast leading the world astray. I will promote the gospel because the heart of God is to invite everyone into his loving arms and bring about a full restoration of the world (Acts 3:21). However things play out, this much I know: we win. No matter what, when, who, or how, we will always be victorious. Glory to glory, faith to faith, and strength to strength.

What's the point of:

Being made in God's image, and being conformed to the likeness of Jesus (Gen 1:26, Rom 8:29), or having "the right to sit with [Him] on [His] throne” (Rev 3:21)? Why has God “blessed us with every spiritual blessing” (Eph 1:3)? What is the reason for an “incomparably great power for us who believe” (Eph 1:19), and our Father allows us to taste “the powers of the coming age” (Heb 6:6)? Or why has our Father has even called us to live in a glorified state: “I have given them the glory you gave me…” (John 17:22)?

What is the point of having the power to heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, of being with Jesus above all other thrones, powers, and names, if in the end we fail to complete the one thing He asked us to do? What's the point of being second only to God and Christ in terms of authority, power, and position in heaven and on earth if in the end the world still turns for the worse and we, the church, escape it's destruction by the skin of our teeth? Did God endow us with the power of His Spirit and the likeness of His Son only so we end up becoming a damsel in distress needing a great rescue in times of peril? There is no point in having what we have if this is how it is going to end.

Unless, of course, things do not end this way. I think more than anything this sort of thinking is fueled by an escapism mindset. Why? Because it clears me of any responsibility whatsoever towards this earth. Not only that, it justifies fear and unbelief. Fear that the darkness in this world is bigger and stronger than me, and the lack of faith to believe that I can actually do something about it. It justifies a heart that says 'yes and Amen' to everything it sees on the news as confirmation to the spirit of accusation in my heart, instead of saying, 'I will not stand in agreement with the devil. God through me can change these circumstances'.

To believe in this endtimes theory takes no faith, ownership, or effort on my part at all. How so? Everything that is going to happen will happen regardless of what I do. Like it or not, the Antichrist is coming and so is destruction. So what do I do? Live the good Christian life until it comes. Self preservation becomes the focus of my life, not world transformation. As long as me, my family, and the few people I evangelize to make it out alive, I've done good.

Now, on the flip side, what if Jesus doesn't come back until we've done what he's asked us to, as Peter said in Acts 3:21? What if all this authority, position, and power God gave me is so that I can carry out the great task of being salt - keeping the world from decay, and light - being the revelation of Jesus - in the midst of darkness? What if making disciples of all nations means making disciples of all nations? What if praying "on earth as it is in heaven" means prayer and supplication on my part for as long as it takes to happen? What if signs and wonders, healings and miracles, are not just for us inside our church walls but for those in the corporate towers, gas station attendents, and prostitutes on the street corners as well? What's my point?

These things, or this sort of endtimes thinking, takes responsibility, ownership, and faith on my part. It's not a matter of sitting and waiting for the end to come, it's a matter of what I do determines how long it will take for the restoration of mankind and creation to take place (Rom 8:19-21; Acts 3:21). It's interesting that men like Paul, who wrote so much about the last days, was obsessed with transforming society and impacting nations. The guy was so on board the mission to disciple nations that he felt that even marriage would slow you down. The good Christian life to the immediate followers of Jesus was to do whatever it took to bring as many people as possible into the kingdom of God. Paul had taken so much ownership and responsibility upon himself to be salt and light, and a discipler of nations, that he even went as far to say, "I wish I could be cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race" (Rom 9:3). These are the same people who had Paul arrested (Acts 21:30) and eventually killed! You can't live or think that way without a true sense of ownership and responsibility towards unbelivers in the world. Paul knew that the mission was entrusted to him. He knew that through his efforts and the efforts of every beleiver would bring about a global harvest, not some cosmic event and mass destruction. That's why he was determined to go into the far reaches of the Known World (Rom 15:24).

In fact, if you read history on the early churches, you'll notice that the churches of the first 3 centuries all had this same mindset: they thought they were in the last times, therefore, they risked life and limb so that as many as possible could be saved. Today, we've kept the last days thinking, but forgotten about the 'life and limb for the salvation of as many as possible' part. Now throw in the escapism, pain free, 'every believer for themselves', rapture rescue mission as happy ending mentality, and you have what seems to be 50% of today's thinking in the church.

So, how do I land this now? Well, whatever we believe in terms of how things will take place when heaven and earth is made new, it cannot take our focus away from the task at hand. The focus of the believer is not to try and prepare for the second coming of Jesus, nor is our focus to try to figure out who the Antichrist might be. The mandate is clear: make disciples of all nations. Starting with our neighbors, our cities, our provinces and states, and our nations. We need to take ownership for our fellow citizens in the same way Paul took ownership for unbelieving Jews. At no point should we worry about how great and powerful the Antichrist, or the illusion of one, may be. We should instead focus on our own identity instead. We are sons and daughters of the King, we are anointed like Jesus by the Spirit, we are kings and priests, we are made in the likeness of God, we are bearers of authority and power over all the powers of darkness. We live in the times Zechariah prophesied about, where, "the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God" (Zec 12:8).

If we are willing to lay down our lives for fellow citizens, from mayors to adult film producers, without accusing or being a respector of persons, ike Jesus did, and if we are able to take ownership for the direction peoples in every nation are heading in, like Paul; if we can do that first and foremost, then how we view the end doesn't really matter anymore. But if my view of the end keeps me from having this heart of true love for the inhabitants of our earth, and ownership to the point of discomfort, prayer, sacrafice, and resonsibility in my heart for the salvation of this world, then we have a problem.

Anyways, these are just thoughts. Be blessed :)

~Leo.