The Big Picture (Updated
May ‘08)
I’ve spent a lot of time tackling specific subjects, the problems behind them, and all kinds of stuff. But I can’t think of a time where I’ve just given the whole picture in a way that you can see entirely where I am coming from. Tonight (okay it’ll probably take a few days) I want to do that, and I’m not going to use any scripture citation to do so, it’s more of straight talk. I’ll give you the “what”, the “why”, and “what to do”, but I’m not the guy for the “how to do it”. Teachers can tell you how to do things, and I’m not a teacher.
A Lack of Scripture
I want to say this carefully so you can understand it and not get mad at me just yet. Most of us consider the canon of the Bible to have been closed with Revelation, which is something that I believe. A few have tried to add their own scriptures to justify various things. I’ve heard of a man who wrote a “book” so that practicing homosexuals can feel welcomed into the kingdom of God. This is wrong and a good way to go to Hell.
The problem with not having new scriptures is that we don’t have a running commentary of God’s views of what we do. In the scriptural sense God has been silent for nearly 2000 years, so we don’t read that “Disaster A” was brought upon a certain people as punishment. Instead we tend to just look at it as a normal thing, disasters happen. In the Old Testament we can read about “Disaster A” and know that it was the direct result of what a nation did because God made sure to tell them. All we have to work with now are prophecies about the End Times as we piece together what is happening.
So in the event of God disapproving of what a nation does and doing something about it with “Disaster A”, we might just miss the reasoning behind it because we don’t have a “Thus saith the Lord to such and such nation” to prove things, unless it was already written several thousand years ago and we match it up.
Now God definitely speaks to us. The scriptures have plenty to say, and the Holy Spirit has plenty to say if we listen.
Yes, I really do think about things like this. I’ve never heard anyone else bring this particular subject up, so if your mind is already scrambling to catch up it probably is going to get worse.
We Are the Problem
This is where it gets to be “un-fun” in a hurry. The church is supposed to be helping the overall situation in the world. It should be reaching out to the hurting, bringing them in, and seeing lives changed. It should be persecuted for this, people shouldn’t understand, and people should be mad when sin is preached against because it convicts them and warns them of the wages of sin.
Now all this happens, don’t get me wrong. It just doesn’t happen enough, and people aren’t being fed all of the truth when they go to church. Not only that, but we have tremendous fights amongst ourselves, with a lot of finger pointing at people who say things that don’t fit our theology. I try to be balanced with the finger pointing; I point fingers at everybody. This means you will most likely find a few heading your direction before you reach the end of this.
With all the dysfunction in the church because of denominations and disunity, more and more sin has slipped in. What was once considered taboo is now accepted as normal. The lines keep being pushed of what will be tolerated, what will be called sin, and what will be called legalism.
We are so immersed in this; that unless we take a step back and try looking at it from the outside, we might miss it and just take it for granted. If it’s been done this way for long enough, I’m not going to see it as bad, I’ll simply accept it at face value. Most people do this, and whatever they are taught first they tend to cling to. If something happens and they get hurt by teaching, they often go winging off to the opposite extreme to avoid being hurt again.
Now let’s start getting into the “why” we are the problem.
Come and Get!
If you were to read the New Testament with an open mind and no established doctrine, you would probably see a balance in the blessings department. Does God bless His people? Oh definitely. Does He delight to have fellowship with us? Yep. Does He give good gifts to His children? Indeed He does. Does He punish and chasten for sin? Gulp, umm, yes. Does He always give you lots of possessions and prosperity? Well, no not really. Does He let you get persecuted and hated? He guaranteed it.
To fully understand what it’s like to be a Christian, you have to see all the tough things as well. During our life here on Earth it really does have its downside, and Jesus made sure to not gloss it over. Come and suffer for Jesus. Come and be hated. Come and let people reject you (and God). But while this all happens come and have peace. Come and have joy. Come and know that you have a better place waiting for you.
How much teaching is there on suffering and dying for the cause of Christ? I don’t see too many books about that on the best seller lists. No, in many cases our attitude tends to be “What’s in it for me?” when it comes to serving God. We love to hear the good stuff about love, grace, prosperity and Heaven, but it has to be balanced with the price of sin, the seriousness of disobedience, and the reality of Hell.
When the balance tips too far in one direction or the other, everything gets distorted. Too much of the bad stuff and you can live in condemnation and have no hope. Too much of the good stuff and you can slip into complacency and lose the drive to be pure and holy.
Over the past couple hundred years the balance has slipped farther and farther to the “good” side, come and get. As a result the church has accepted more and more sin and kept it covered under the guise of grace. The balancing is going to come, but sadly very few will understand it.
I’ve Had Enough
If you
study Old Testament
And He
followed through. The exile to
God is indeed slow to anger. God is great in mercy. But when we have 2000 years of heaping up sin again without major recourse, at some point God is going to get back into action on a level that is beyond what most of us can handle thinking about. Read Revelation and tell me that a lot of people won’t die. You can’t do it, for it details so much death and destruction that anyone who thinks about going through it without a good personal relationship with God should be trembling with fear.
How many in the church have a good personal relationship with God? If they’re actively sinning and won’t repent they can’t claim to have one. If they’re living in idolatry they can’t claim to have one.
Many Offenses
There are probably too many to count, but I have a pretty good list going. Many are actually variants of what Old Testament Israel did, just with a bit of a makeover so we can’t see it as easily. So here comes a pretty good list of sin in the church that you may or may not have noticed:
Adultery
This is a pretty sticky subject, but for those who care to read, Jesus had some pretty intense definitions of adultery. The summation is that if you put away your spouse without good cause (fornication is the only one given, although the definition is somewhat up for interpretation) and marry someone else, you are committing adultery. This means that “incompatibility” or “falling out of love” or “meeting someone better” or anything like that has no credibility with God. This also means that continuing to live with the new spouse means to continue living in adultery. Adulterers do not go to Heaven. Now I think there is leeway if you remarried before getting saved (but that is my opinion, so don’t take it as fact), but doing so after coming to Christ is definitely a big problem.
I’ve heard that the divorce rate in the church is rather high, which is pretty scary news. They can’t all be committing fornication to justify the divorces.
Sacrificing Children
Ancient
Stealing
I know more than one person who is proud of their collection of illegal software, music, and movies. Other than that you’d find them to be an on-fire Christian. Some download and view things in ignorance, but many simply don’t care that they are stealing copyrighted material. The internet, as wonderful as it can be, has added more than one easy way to sin (pornography also springs to mind). I found it interesting that in Revelation thefts is mentioned as something the people will not give up. It sounds like legalism, but the Bible is very clear about where thieves end up.
Thinking about copyrights, I give full release to reproduce any of my writing in full to be redistributed. I prefer to have my name on it, and perhaps a disclaimer about being offensive will be needed. Truth hurts.
False Worship
I’ve been studying Jeremiah, and I found a place where it talks about those who came to the temple being rejected (read Chapter 7 for a good scare), even though they came to worship the Lord. When you aren’t living right, you’ve got active sin in your life, and show up to worship God, it’s abhorrent to Him. There have been days where I stood guilty as charged for this. It pollutes the church, and the pollution is heavy.
Pornography
In many ways this goes hand-in-hand with adultery. It is so easy to sin without needing to venture out of your house. I understand the addiction very well, but you have to do something about it. Quick research shows that around half of the men and a third of the women in the average church use or are addicted to porn. It gets even scarier when you find that the numbers among leadership are just about as bad.
Talking to the Dead
The Old Testament forbids seeking after the spirits of dead people. While I have not studied it extensively, for this reason I have a hard time with the term “Born-again Catholic”. Mary cannot answer you. Saint Peter is dead. If you continue doing these things after getting saved you are in direct violation of scripture. Either way a statue of Mary should be enough for someone to realize that it is an idol if they think about it.
Lying
It is a
very interesting definition of a liar that First John gives (it’s hard not to
quote it, but I really want to do this without direct citation). Saying that you know God but not keeping His
commandments makes you a liar; and liars shall be cast into the
Murder
Murder has a much broader definition than one would like. Obviously killing is murder (so abortion would actually be under this heading), but many fail to notice that hatred is murder (see First John 3) and murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. If you hate, you go to Hell, it’s very simple.
Unforgiveness
This also probably ends up under the Murder heading, but Jesus made an example of a man in a parable (see Matthew 18) who wouldn’t forgive. The unpayable debt was returned to him. If you refuse to forgive it will cost you your salvation.
Heeding False
Prophets
We were warned that false prophets shall arise, and it took me quite a while to see how they can lead people astray. A prophet is essentially an inspired man (or woman) who tells the future. My own personal experience has shown that many who prophesy in the name of the Lord are often wrong, and it’s not because God suddenly changed His mind about the situation. For me, it’s been around 50% accuracy of words in my life. With that kind of success rate I might as well go to the occult for my future. Speaking of which…
Dabbling in the
Occult
Consulting horoscopes, calling a psychic, playing around with an Ouija board, it’s very dangerous. The New Age movement has crept into the church, as has Yoga and meditation on things other than the Word of God. This is the spirit of whoredoms.
Idols of Bad
Doctrines
Quite bluntly, men will no longer endure sound doctrine. If you so much as question the validity of their pet doctrines you can expect swift and vicious rebuttal. Clinging to bad doctrine that serves to enable you to sin is idolatry.
Filtering the Bible
Reading the
Bible when you already have established doctrines enables you to keep the
doctrines, for you will always find what you want. This enables us to keep the doctrines and
teachers that are coming next:
Heaping up Teachers
We couldn’t heap up sin without help. If people were calling us on it all the time we wouldn’t be feeling too comfortable and we might actually do something about it. It might mean getting closer to God and giving up the sin, or it might mean walking away from it all and living in sin without the pretense of Godliness. Many of our teachers have enabled us to not do anything about it so that we can have the feeling of Godliness while still having the sin. We get the best of both worlds.
We have these teachers to satisfy “Itching Ear Syndrome”, which is the term I use for being told what we want to hear. We were told that it was coming by Paul, but we can’t see that we’re immersed in it. We’ve been told good things for long enough that we’ve bought into them. After all, there is at least some scriptural evidence for everything as long as you don’t bring in the balancing scriptures that finish the story.
The end
result is complacency and no need to cleanse our lives. Reality is we need massive purification. Anyway, here are some of the false doctrines
that our teachers tell us to keep us feeling happy and comfortable:
Security in Sin
And that, my friends, sums up the evil doctrine called Eternal Security. Once you know for sure that you are saved, it’s impossible for you to subsequently go to Hell, or so they will tell us. If I had to pick the doctrine that I hate the most, this would probably be it because it teaches us that our sin can no longer be enough to send us to Hell. To justify themselves and avoid the “license to sin” label that they deserve (as well as “ungodly” that they also deserve), they talk about people being “never really saved”, so when someone is in obvious sin they can be labeled as fakes who don’t have real faith.
Of course you know that you have real faith, so it couldn’t possibly be you.
It couldn’t possibly be King David either, and since he committed murder and adultery and remained saved, so can I.
Someone has to be “never saved” for it to work, so someone has to be deceiving themselves that they are really saved when they are not. Of course that couldn’t possibly be you either. It’s brilliant deception, perfect for sending millions to Hell.
This is not to say that there is no security in Christ, for there is. But your security does not override unrepentant/willful sin. Many people commit some of the very things that I have just listed yet will insist that they are eternally secure. Woe to the Eternal Security teachers!
Prosper as Your Soul
Prospers
This one is subtle, because the Bible does not teach against prosperity. It does, however, teach against loving money. When we get a nice prosperity message, how many put the balancing factor in to remind us that money cannot drive us? They can’t do that, for it would undermine the prosperity message. The deceitfulness of riches causes many to fall away. Woe to the prosperity teachers!
Subtleness is of course the key to it all. Deception just doesn’t work if you come in with a sign saying “I’m going to lie to you now.”
Ahh, Sweet Irony
For all this junk in the church it has the audacity to think it’s going to be raptured out of here before the tribulation begins. That alone should be enough to show the pre-trib rapture as the farce that it is.
Even if it were true, how many true Christians would be found that have really purified their lives and are really seeking after God so that they could be raptured? For the rest of the church (which I would guess is about 80-90%), the doctrine has no use as they wouldn’t go anyway!
Sadly we are blind to all this and have put our faith in what the pre-trib teachers tell us. Woe unto them!
The Bible is clear that God starts with His house and His people when judgment begins, but we have convinced ourselves that we have a free ticket out, God couldn’t possibly let His people go through the tribulation! He couldn’t possibly let a lot of things happen by that reasoning, yet they did. Three men thrown in a fiery furnace, Stephen being stoned, how could God let those things happen?
Is There Any Good
News?
Yes! Yes there is! It would not be fair or the whole truth to leave out the good parts. There is a remnant, there will be many who come out of the tribulation with purified garments, and you can be part of that number! Many will be unwilling to deny Christ and will die for their faith; you may have the honor of becoming a martyr. The key is to have inverted thinking, because just about everything that seems normal and right needs to be turned around, since God’s ways are not our ways.
Instead of shrinking back from persecution you should be glad. When you’re hated you should rejoice. When you’re thought of as a lunatic for your faith you know you’re on the right track. When everyone respects you, look out, it’s a bad thing!
Prepare for
Tribulation
We have God’s promise that He will win in the end, our job is to hold on and be overcomers even when it looks like we are losing. Tribulation has a purifying effect, so you are going to have a tough choice to make. Will you be purified and pay the price on Earth, or will you go the way of the world and have a few years of being accepted in exchange for your soul? There will be massive deception that will cause many to accept the mark of the beast, you need to determine now that you won’t do it and keep your eyes wide open.
Cling to God, teach others about Him. Mourn over all the sin in the church, weep for those who are dying and don’t even know it. Allow God to transform you so you become more and more like Christ.
We’re Not Quite There
RFID chips are being implanted into people even now; they can do all sorts of neat things when they have them. I think it is a generation (technology wise) or two from being the true “mark of the beast”, because they do not yet have GPS technology in them. Our society isn’t quite cashless yet, although we’re getting closer. Cards have been gaining steam, just a few years ago I would have been shocked to go into a fast-food restaurant and be able to pay with a debit or credit card. How much easier to just wave your hand near a reader and it gets debited from your bank account!
I’m sorry,
but our great county has to go down.
Things will focus more in other lands, particularly
I expect
that
A terrorist strike in the right location could kill our communications, internet could become a rarity, and power might be a rare blessing. Food may become scarce. Keep the faith.
Efforts to rebuild might just help the world system, now we’ll put in readers for the microchips and if you get the implant you have some access back into the rich, cushy life that we’ve enjoyed for so long. Many of us are so spoiled by the good things that we have (even if we work hard to get them) that we’ll do anything to get them back. Perfect fodder for taking the mark, keep your eyes on Jesus!
The False Prophet
My guess is that the false prophet spoken of in Revelation will be the Pope, either this one or the next. Imagine if the most powerful religious leader in the world stood up and said of another man “This guy has the answers we need.” Or “Our Lord has returned; let us obey what he says.” Many would think to themselves “Well, the Pope believes in him, that’s good enough for me!”
The Antichrist
He is, of course, the man we associate with the End Times. Who is he? I don’t know, nor do I really care at this point. He will be very, very deceptive and say great sounding things that will make many agree to do things his way.
Prepare Yourself Now!
Again, I’m not the “how to” guy, but if you go into this knowing what is happening, you’ll handle it better. Wherever your trust in God lies today, you’re going to want to strengthen it so you have unshakable faith, built on the Rock. Deal with fear now. It is strange, but the fearful are the first on the list of people who are going to the lake of fire, even before the unbelieving. Purify your life, cleanse yourself, deal with sin, ask the Holy Spirit to show you what needs to change in you. God is faithful and true and more than willing to work with you if you will do your part. Pray for others, so many will die in their sin, it is such a shame.
You will have to conscientiously walk away from mainstream teaching, hard as that is. Most of what is out there is not sound doctrine anymore, it’s exactly what was predicted.
Consider Carefully
If I am right, you are now responsible for all of this. You don’t have an excuse for illegal copyrighted material anymore (for instance); you have been told that it is stealing so you need to deal with it. You must consider whether I am for real or if I am a fake. I too am predicting the future, so I could be a false prophet. I am more than willing to bet my soul that I am right, even though the Bible is very clear about what happens to those who lead God’s people astray. You need to consider whether you will listen to the big names out there who deliver counsel. Some of the big-time leaders and ministries have said things that do not line up with the Bible and they will answer for it.
The great
and dreadful day of the Lord is coming!