-I believe there is a misconception in the church today about what is coming down the pike. In case you haven’t noticed, things are being shook up these days. The devil is out of hiding and on the move to subvert and pollute God’s church. His goal is to destroy it, but that will not happen. However, the church will be changed… it already has begun.
-Many Christians, myself included, have long believed we as God’s Holy body on earth will be spared much of the grief and pain that has been prophesied about. Jesus will come back in a flash and take us all home… right? We won’t have to deal with decisions about our faith that will mean life or death for us or for those we love. Right? Well, I use to believe this.
-But I have listened to wisdom and had time to think about this theology. Today, my belief about what is coming and if I will face any of it is changing.
-When I look at the totality of the Word of God and what I can understand of God’s purpose for the earth and the universe, I see that of all people, we who have the bible in its entirety and who know full well what the Gospel is have a tremendous gift and a grave responsibility. The gift is in knowing the beginning and the end. Jesus has made certain that no detail we need has been left out of His Word or the Gospel message.
-The responsibility is that, because of this knowledge, we have been given a stern duty to see to it the Gospel stay undefiled and pure in content, strong in power. We have failed… miserably. I believe I knew this before. But it took a refreshing from an old friend and a rethinking of what scripture says to change my thinking. The history of the church, now almost 2,000 years long, is a collection of good and bad. This is always the case when man gets a hold of what God has given.
-As in any age, God has always preserved a remnant that have held true to the truth as He did in the days of Elijah who cried out he was the only one left that didn’t bow to Baal. God reminded him that there were more than 7,000 who had not bowed either. So, there have always been those who held to the truth over these two millennia.
-But I fear it has been a scarce minority. The church has murdered the innocent, forced the Gospel down the throats of those who would not accept it willingly with the threat of torture, we have made millions, perhaps billions of dollars from teachings and programs and seminars and bookstores and DVDs and a host of other things that are connected to the free gift of grace God offers.
-Mankind has twisted and contorted, mutilated and defiled the purity of the Blood that was offered for the salvation of a soul, all in the name of numbers and profit and notoriety.
-Yeah… I am afraid the church has failed in its mission. Oh we have gained names on our rosters and hosts of signatures on membership cards. But, all in all, we have taken the holy ground at the foot of the cross and made it a three ring circus. Man will do anything to make a buck including selling that which cost him nothing. Am I being too harsh? Are you personally offended by what I am proposing?
-I fear I am being too easy, if anything. The history of Christianity on planet earth is ripe with bloodshed and error. We have made the rugged, blood stained cross into a golden spectacle to shine in the heavens, all in the name of looking better somehow than anyone else.
So what does our memory verse mean? “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” Our house needs cleaning and I am afraid it is too late for us to do the cleaning of it. I believe God plans a cleaning, maybe even a demolition. If God in His holiness will judge those of the world who have rejected His Son, how do you think He will judge we who have profited from His Son’s Blood?