"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.
Download or email Part 1 Download or email Part 2 Download or email Part 3 Unity in Times of Testing
Nonetheless, let's continue. Verse 30 of Acts 27…
"And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, when they had let down the skiff into the sea, under pretense of putting out anchors from the prow,"
Many will fall away in the Last Days; let's look at backsliders. In Jude's epistle he describes backsliders inside the church. There are as many backsliders in the church as there are outside it. Proverbs says that the backslider of heart shall be filled with his own ways. (Pr. 14:14) Backsliders often scheme when they try to leave. They stop coming to church, to fellowship, to prayer meeting, etc. on one pretense after another; they begin manipulating and scheming. What they're really trying to do is get away from the ship, because they have gotten away from the ship's Owner. Verse 31…
"Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, 'Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.'"
Remember, fellowship is always important. Like 1 Peter, the epistle to the Hebrews is a very Jewish book which draws on the Jewish concept of fellowship.
"Forsake not the assembling one with another, especially as you see the Day approaching" (Heb. 10:25).
If too many bricks are removed from strategic places, the roof of the building will fall in. Christians are going to have to stand together, or they will never be able to stand-alone.
Let me qualify that: There is a unity of the Spirit and there is a unity of man. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth; you cannot build a unity of the Holy Spirit on a lie. The ecumenical and interfaith movements are trying to do this, to build unity on a lie. True unity of the Spirit, however, can only be built on the truth. Ecumenism builds unity on a deception, they do have “unity of the spirit”, and the question is, which spirit? Much of what people are calling the “unity of the Holy Spirit” is really a man-made unity that compromises the truth of God's Word for the sake of organizational politics.
This is Page 14 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.