"The Future History of the Church, Part 1"
A typological and midrashic examination of what will happen in the future of the church by seeing how the past history of the church is recapitulated eschatologically; how past events happen again in the Last Days. What to expect, and what to prepare for.
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Whenever you read the history of Kings and Chronicles, Jeremiah and Isaiah – the events leading up to the captivity – it teaches about the end. Remember Proverbs 5:10:
"Lest aliens be filled with your wealth, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner;"
King Hezekiah showed his treasure to the king of Babylon (2 Ki. 20:12-18). There will be a blossoming of Babylon, the false religious system, in the Last Days. They will want the treasures of the house of the Lord. When you find Evangelicals who are ecumenical – people like John Wimber and George Carey – they are showing our treasures to the king of Babylon and the king of Babylon will plunder those treasures. What happened before the Babylonian captivity and what caused it to happen – the sacrifice of babies, the show of our treasures to the king of Babylon, the following of false prophets instead of listening to true ones, thinking that God wants us rich and because we are rich we've got it made – these are the same things that preceded it.
All of this Gnosticism and other errors are based in eliticism, or simply put, spiritual pride. Be very careful about this. I got a letter a while back from Roger Foster who did not like the fact that I challenged him on his annihilationism. He claims there is no eternal hell so I showed him that the Greek word used in regards to hell for “forever and ever” is the same term used to describe God's glory, the high priesthood of Jesus, and our salvation. Hence, if the torment of hell is not truly eternal, then neither is God's glory, Jesus' high priesthood, or our salvation. As soon as you begin telling unsaved people that if they don't repent and come to Jesus when they die they'll cease to exist, they will say, “So what? That's what we believe anyway”. Unfortunately, that is the theology in back of the March for Jesus. That is what Graham Kendrick and Roger Forster believe; people don't realize this. I like the idea of Christians standing together proclaiming Jesus and preaching the Gospel, but in Dominion theology proclamation into the heavenlies replaces evangelism. Graham Kendrick is a very talented musician and hymn writer; probably the best since Charles Wesley, many people would say. However, all of his songs contain these Dominionist ideas – "We proclaim, we announce, we are triumphant," etc. The problem is this: When you deal with Gnosticism its adherents will always use the same terms we use, but they will mean different things by them. Let me explain:
A Roman Catholic theologian and a Protestant one will have an ecumenical dialogue at a theological forum. The Protestant will say, "We're saved by grace" and the Jesuit will agree, "Yes, we're saved by grace". Well, it seems they both agree and the Reformation was a mistake. However, the Hebrew word for “grace” is “hesed”; it is God's mercy in the covenant. The Greek word is “charism”, meaning “gift”. The English word is “undeserved favor” from the Latin “grazia”. So when we speak of “grace” these are the things we think of. To a Roman Catholic, however, grace is an ethereal substance earned by the sacraments administered by a priest. Therefore they can both agree “we're saved by grace”, but they mean two totally different things by the term “grace”.
When you witness to someone in the New Age movement you may tell them, "I saw the light." You're thinking of the true Light that came into the world according to John 1. They will respond by saying, "I also saw the light"; only they mean an “illumination of cosmic consciousness”. You can both say that you saw the light when you give your respective testimonies, but you have two different definitions of “light”.
Similarly, when Restorationists use terms like “victory”, “kingdom”, “triumph”, “dominion”, “proclamation”, they mean different things by those terms than you do. They use Biblical terms in unbiblical ways just as a Roman Catholic or a New Ager will. Indeed, Roman Catholicism, Restorationism, and Gnosticism all come from the same place: Alexandria. They all have roots in that theology.
This is Page 8 of 16 of PART 3
Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.