Are We At The End Of The World Yet?

Micah 6: 9

The voice of the Lord cries to the city – and

It is sound wisdom to fear His name.  “Hear, O tribe.

Who has appointed it’s time?

Any student of the history of Euro-centric revivals has taken great interest in the stories of George Fox, William Penn, Jonathan Edwards, John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, Charles G. Finney, and Evan Roberts. Each of these great leaders made massive impact in the cities they served and were used by God to bring about significant cultural transformations in their time that still influence our time.  Each of their stories demonstrates how God incarnates Himself into our histories demonstrating that if we were to really open ourselves up to His plan and activities we could see the transformation of our cities and land (See II Chronicles 7:14).  It has been said, “Find where God is working, join Him in his work and you can become an agent of change too!”  This has been true for my life but we need more than just experiences.  We need a scriptural foundation to understand God’s purpose and work of restoration. 

Acts 3:19-21

Times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord.

He will Jesus, whom he has appointed to be the Christ.

Heaven must retain Jesus until the restoration of all things is complete

as God promised through His holy prophets long ago.

This striking verse proclaims that Jesus will not return until the restoration of all things has been completed. When does this happen?  What is the restoration that God promised through the prophets? I’m convinced that so many scriptural promises about the “restoration” has been overlooked and caused a great spiritual blindness to grip the heart of the church and has resulted in the neglect of it’s assigned task - discipling the nations.  Today, much of the church’s eschatological mindset, emerging from the paradigm shifts surrounding the agricultural period, the industrial revolution and now the technological age, dominate the evangelical perspective. The sources of this post-modern dilemma are in part from a Persian religious view known as Manichaeism that crept into western theological thought through the Gnostics. This philosophy held to a dualistic cosmology, which described the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness.  Through an ongoing process which takes place through human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of light whence it came.  In this view, Jesus would have to come back to complete the task that he assigned to the church (Matthew 28:19-20). What we believe about the future determines how we view and order our worlds.

Human history has always been replete with groups of all shapes and sizes convincing themselves that end of all ends was imminent and that they alone were on God’s side (or vice versa) in the coming cataclysm. It’s the same story dressed up in contemporary headlines, and although the expression of this trajectory of faith may vary from group to group, they all bear the hallmark of eschatological escapism. These views can become a very poisonous spiritual malaise for both the individual and the collective church. Rather than the church bringing the nations to Christ, many churches hold that the church will be rescued from this hopelessly evil world through a neo-Manichaean flight into the realm of spirit leaving the world imperiled in darkness. This Gnostic view is an underpinning of a myriad of negative eschatological perspectives, which emphasizes the withdrawal of the Holy Spirit from the earth.  These views were found their way into evangelicalism during the early 1800s.  They were immediately denounced by major “revivalist” as eschatology of heresy.  However, these views gained significant inroads through the Scoffield Reference Bible notes and were adopted by many churches at the dawn of the 20^th century.

Although this edition of my blog is not focused on eschatology,  it is important to understand that how we see God, how we ourselves, how we see others, determines how we order our world.  As a result of the myriad flawed eschatological perspectives, many believers have been misled to believe that their cities and nations cannot be reached and will be relegated to their present darkness.  However, the prophet Isaiah, as a semiotician, dug into the archeology of the future, during a great period of darkness in his time and prophesied a future filled with hope… long before Luke ever penned his words in Acts.

Isaiah 60:1-3

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory

of the Lord has risen upon you.  For behold,

darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples;

but the Lord will rise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.

Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

So, instead of seeing darkness as an evidence of the end of the world; we find Isaiah stating that the purpose of a period of darkness is for God to show off His people to the nations so that the nations themselves are drawn to Him.  This passage of scripture was written during one of the most fascinating periods of darkness in Israel’s history.  My dear friend and mentor, Dr. Leonard Sweet shared with my cohort (#5) at George Fox University his theology of darkness.  "Darkness to many Christian believers represents the devil, doom and gloom. However, think about the night.  If it wasn't for night-time we couldn't see the stars, the moon, or creatures like bats, possums, sea turtles, owls, etc.  Night has a beauty of all its own."  Night time sounds are even different from the day.  In my own perspective "night seasons" are a good period for reflection, writing, and preparing myself for the next move of the Holy Spirit.  Psalm 30:5 says, "For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning!"  Sure God may be displeased with any of us, at any time, but the scriptures declare that His favor is for life! Not death and destruction. I get so tired of hearing negative prophecies about the destruction of nations because "former sinners" think its their job to express how angry God is against their pet sins and how His wrath is coming upon us.  I'm sorry but I think all that pent up wrath that God supposedly had was nailed to a cross two-thousand years ago.  Jesus paid the penalty for everyone's sins and made salvation available to the whole world.  Another one of my dear mentors was the late Dr. Glen Foster of  Sweetwater Church Of The Valley (one of America's first mega churches) in Phoenix, Arizona. He pointed out, so rightly, that "prophecy is for the edification, exhortation, and building up of the church." (I Cor. 14:3)  He also, rightly pointed out, that Revelation 19:10 states that the "spirit of prophesy is the testimony of Jesus."  John 3:17 states very clearly that God did not send His son, Jesus, to condemn the world but to save it!  This is not universalism - this is about God's plan of salvation.  So, anyone who prophesy'ss out of a negative spirit is not operating under the "Testimony of Jesus."  Romans 2:4 states clearly that it is the goodness of God that leads people to repentance.  Not judgement, plagues, or destruction.  It simply amazes me how many "former sinners" become the temple police of other believers and cry out against everyone else's sin as though that's what brought them to Christ.  Maybe it did. But, hell, fire and brimstone was not the appeal that brought me to Christ.  It was his Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me...

There a many God-given promises of restoration found in the prophetic promises in the scriptures that have not been fulfilled yet - The Hebrew Scriptures are loaded with them.  Students of both scripture and church history know that since the early days of church history, each time of refreshing recorded throughout history contributes to us a bigger and bigger picture for personal, corporate, and national transformation. Romans 1:17 says "we go faith to faith, glory to glory!" Churches revived have changed the course of history. It has been said, “As the church goes, so goes the nation.” The great German church historian, Philip Schaff, once asked a very vital question, “How shall we labor with effect to build up the church, if we have no thorough knowledge of her history, or fail to apprehend it from the proper point of observation. History is, and must continue to be, next to God’s word, the richest foundation of wisdom and surest Guide to all successful practical activity.” 

People left to their own spiritual devises, misinterpretation and negativity rarely occasion the faith needed for believing that whole cities and nations can come to Christ.

Isaiah 66:8

Who has ever heard of such things? Who has ever seen things like this?

Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment?

Yet, no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children.

I would like to challenge Christian people to explore the history of revivals and the transformational results they brought into their own time and cities.  Each revival provides a foundation for faith for us to believe for “times of refreshing” in our own time, in our own generation.  Every revival of the past also provides a picture of what God wants to do in our generation.  If ever there was a time in our history that we needed both revival and transformation, it is now!  But, our understanding of both revival and transformation needs to be scripturally defined, explored, and evidenced through the church’s journey of faith. Hosea 4:6 states, “My People are destroyed for their lack of knowledge.”  When today’s leaders talk about transformation we need to be asking transformation of what, from what, to what!  Too much of the church’s teachings on transformation remain undefined and vague.   But the scriptures are clear that God has something in mind for our cities and nations.  None of these prophetic promises have been fulfilled and may be the reason the heavens are still retaining Jesus from returning in our time. 

Numbers 14:21

But, truly, as I live, the earth shall be filled

with the glory of the Lord

Psalm 102:18

This will be written down for the following generation;

That generation which shall praise the Lord.

Isaiah 40:5

And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,

and all flesh will see it together.

Habakkuk 2:14

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,

As the waters cover the sea.

Jesus words were very clear in Matthew 24:14 “And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be proclaimed throughout the whole world to set the evidence before all nations; and then the end shall come.  Many 20^th Century leaders have felt they have accomplished this job. However, 88% of GenX and 98% of GenY has never been presented with the Gospel let alone discipled into our faith.  Psalm 145:4 states that One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts.  It is imperative to understand that just because the last generation of leaders felt they have done their job,,, the evidence remains that less than 4% in America alone has now made America the greatest mission field in the world.  As we look at the scriptures and revival history we need to re-examine our responsibility in bringing our neighborhoods, regions, cities and nation to the Lord. I believe the Best Is yet to come.  In the 1980's God spoke to me that a day was coming when we would see stadiums become church facilities.  That has now happened.  But along with those prophetic words he also said to me... "The Day Is Coming when I will visit whole cities and nations and in an instant they will be saved!"  God is coming for a glorious Church not a weak, defeated one. (Eph 5:27)  He's coming for a praising generation to come.  This is not going to be a left over group of distraught Christians... whole nations and cities are going to be transformed by unpresidented moves of the Holy Spirit. ( Here's an example http://www.godencounter.org/hebrides-revival )  God is a God of Restoration...  but he's not coming to restore religious systems to prop up old religious regimes. He's preparing the nations for one of the greatest visitations of His spirit before he allows Jesus to return. (See Psalm 110:1; Joel 2:21-28)  A question we must ask ourselves, "If God were to pour out His spirit and our entire city were to be saved in an instant would the church be ready to disciple all those new converts?  Is that what Matthew 25:1-13 is about?