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Professing Christians are caught between the vice grip of God’s judgment upon the “old time religion” along with compromised, corrupt and so-called “emerging” forms of doing church in His house and the escalating hostility of the world toward Christianity. In order to persevere, those that are faithful will need to walk in the ancient, biblical path marked out for us by the Lord, His apostles and the faithful saints that have gone before. As I witnessed in churches I have been part of over the years though, many stubbornly refuse to hear God’s appeal and warning; preferring instead to continue in their way to their detriment as did ancient Israel (Jeremiah 6:16-21).
Nevertheless, as the Lord leads out of His overflowing goodness, mercy and grace, in this edited 2012 blog repost I stress yet again the need for professing Christians to get properly equipped for the increasingly anti-Christian world we now find ourselves leading to a final nighttime of great tribulation. It will be a night that tests every soul and a last cup of suffering Christians are warned repeatedly by the Lord and His apostles we must drink in following Him (Matthew 10:32-33, 16:21-27, 20:20-23; Philippians 1:27-30).1 This is not now or then a time for belligerence, but sober embrace of the ancient way of Jesus Christ, the Strong Man of God (1 Peter 2:18-25)!
For this reason and without apology, for such a time as this before the fullness of the night should come, the Lord had me to write “The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics” from His Word and embedded in prophetic urgency. It is a book for every professing Christian man and woman not only to be affirmatively instructed in God’s purposes for man that gave rise to the reality of redemption through faith in the Gospel of the Son of Man, but to enable those who cling to Him for salvation to persevere faithfully through all of the troubles prophetically warned about to obtain it! Only God can and did inspire a book with instruction that remains germane through the foretold unfolding future of this present age to its end and into eternity. I stand amazed to be His vessel; to my God be the glory!
Originally Posted July 15, 2012
In light of the predominant decline of churches and given the fact that even many of the Western religious educated elite have labeled the times we are now in as “post-Christian,” it is imperative that individual Christians be more intentional about getting properly equipped spiritually to live in this new reality. This is a reality among Western nations including our own in which Christianity no longer holds a place of favor but increasing disdain and open hostility.
While many professing Christians in blissful disbelief want to remain optimistic that this new reality is only a temporary phenomenon, for many years the Holy Spirit has had me crying out and warning that the days of rebellion against God the Father and His Son as well as expanding hate filled persecution against His disciples are upon us (Psalm 2:1-3; Matthew 10:16-26; 24:9). As our Lord had His “night,” ours also is truly at hand (Luke 22:52-53; John 9:4, 15:18-20).
If the biblically foretold night of global hatred and persecution against followers of Christ were to suddenly fully descend on us in America at this very moment, very few (relatively speaking) would faithfully persevere to the end. Indeed, this is because implicit in the decline of churches is the lack or weakened state of a vibrant practice of biblical Christianity by the professing members.2 There is no Holy Ghost power to live in zeal for the Lord or to share their faith on mission for the Kingdom as a priority in these folk. In the night that by God’s mercy is slowly (yet steadily) descending on us, professing Christians have been given enough time to repent from spiritual apathy and compromise to freshly seek Him for personal renewal. Truly, only the strong in Christ will survive spiritually.
There is a prophetic urgency to my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics along with its sound, biblical instruction because of what I have written in the foregoing. The book does not offer helpful suggestions about how to be a man and is not filled with emotional stories and illustrations to make men think. It soberly presents the divine imperative for Christian men to aspire to become the man God designed us to be in the image of Jesus Christ and the strength He supplies through the Holy Spirit! In doing so in the short-term, we will work restoration in our families, churches and communities; long-term, we will be making the necessary preparation spiritually to faithfully persevere in the night that is falling.
I urge every man reading this--if you have not already, get a copy of The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. Pastors, get the book for yourself and then use the Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study to equip your men so they might equip their families. These resources are all available on our Web Site in the Strong Man Store. Finally, the so-called “persecuted church” is no longer confined to a few isolated nations. In this month of praying for persecuted believers around the globe, we that are yet able should also do what we can to feed, clothe and shelter our brothers and sisters suffering the most. Support your favorite Christian charity dedicated to this mission.
1 For more information about “the night,” get a thorough word of instruction the Lord gave me in 1987 from a broadcast entitled, The Night Is Almost Here! now available on CD or for download in the Strong Man Store.
2 Excellent statistical data to bear this out can be gleaned from Barna Research Group at www.Barna.org and Pew research at http://www.pewforum.org.
Scripture is consistent in declaring the divine hostility toward the corrupt thinking of men in their many concocted philosophies that take them away from the simple deductions that lead to God who is the Fountainhead of truth. Nevertheless, the same Scripture anticipates such behavior from rank sinners who in the face of empirical bread crumbs as vast and luminous as the universe still willfully refuse to acknowledge their Creator. What pains the heart of God above the foolish heart of the unbeliever, is for those that profess to know, love and serve Him to reject His will, way and Word through leaning on their own understanding or if you will, philosophies (Proverbs 3:5).
For years professing Christian men that have not wanted to be made to feel inferior by their secular counterparts have sought to raise the level of academic acceptance of Christianity as their discipline and credentials through personal philosophical musings they call theology. While a number have intended good to the Body of Christ, the result today is a mass of confusion and division no serious Bible student can honestly believe was commissioned by God. When the ancient standard of interpreting and applying God’s Word as it has already been written (Mark 12:18-34) is abandoned in the cause of tolerance, nobody can be wrong and everyone is potentially right or so these self-made wise folk wrongly allow. They are deceived (Jeremiah 8:8-9)!
From professing Christianity’s spiritual morass has come the scripturally unconscionable Christian racist, narcissist, chauvinist, feminist, abortionist, sexual immoralist etc. As has very often been the case throughout the epoch of God’s grace and my own experience, the faithful must grasp why a certain consequence of this is that among our worst persecutors are and will be professing Christians as disobedient religionists and impostors following philosophical arguments that contrary to Scripture, condone their evil conduct (John 16:1-4; 2 Timothy 3:12-13). As I warn in this final blog of the 2011 Commentary Series, sinful human philosophies are not part of Christ’s narrow way nor are they a hedge against the approaching severe, but just judgment of God among American churches!
Originally Published June 2011
The churches of Jesus Christ have no business whatsoever being divided into philosophical camps. As the apostle Paul pointed out in his rebuke of the first century church at Corinth, division among professing Christians is a sure indicator of carnality (1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 3:1-4). Yet, nearly 2,000 years later in a world of 33,000 religions, churches are divided into over 3,000 denominations and sects.1 Even within those denominations and sects there is division and philosophical squabbling over issues of doctrine that are plainly settled in Scripture. This state of affairs is not the will of Christ who desires unity and peace within His Body (John 17:20-23; Ephesians 4:1-6).
Human philosophy is all about what sinful men think. No matter how logical or ordered those thoughts, the philosophies of sinful man always come up short. Why? Because when he begins to think he does so in the prideful assumption he has superior knowledge and wisdom (1 Corinthians 3:18-20). As it concerns the topic of a Creator, for example, sinful men have looked at the undeniable evidence in the creation (including within themselves) and decided there is not one. Instead, they have made fools of themselves suppressing the truth with lies such as “The Theory of Evolution” and certified their Creator’s just wrath against them (Romans 1:18-22).
As a created being, man must begin to seek an ordered understanding about existence from the One that gave him existence, God Almighty (Genesis 1:26, 2:7). Truly, men are fools who would rather be proud descendants of monkeys (a derogatory accusation once heaped upon my slave forefathers to justify their enslavement prior to the coming of the “enlightened” thinking of evolution) than creatures from earth’s dust uniquely made in the glorious image of the living God! All born again Christians are supposed to be united on the side of the Lord and His Word that He created us. His Church is not a worldly classroom where contrary views with Scripture are tolerated.
All born again Christians are also supposed be one in our understanding of God's creation of man as male and female in this present age. Their roles and responsibilities are not a matter of clearly flawed evolutionary development as the world philosophizes, but the purposeful and perfectly ordered assignment of an omniscient Creator (Genesis 1:27-28). Evolution needs tweaking by its creatures today because it made them unequal. God--who shows no partiality--from the beginning created man one and assigned him to imitate divine Headship over a equal counterpart separated out from him (Genesis 2:18-24, 3:20; 1 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 5:22-24; 1 Timothy 2:12-15).
Thousands of worldly religions and philosophies boil down to the reasoning of sinful men versus the declarations of a holy Creator made in His Word. In the churches, nearly all philosophical divisions can be traced to a willful break with the plain teaching of Scripture. Amazingly, God addresses even this latter day maelstrom of confusion and warns twice through Solomon--a man endued with His wisdom: "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death," (Proverbs 14:12, 16:25, NKJV). Common sense dictates everybody cannot be right. This is why our Lord Jesus also warns about carefully considering which of only two philosophical ways we will choose.
In Matthew 7:13, the Lord Jesus urges His hearers to "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it," (NKJV). Apparently, God is not as "open minded" as philosophers, false prophets and corrupt teachers would have us believe. There is a right way in Christ and it is found in the narrow way of obedience to God's Word, not the many speculative offerings of sinful human philosophy in and outside of the churches (Colossians 2:1-10). The narrow gate and way of Christ alone leads to eternal life and sadly, He says relatively speaking, "there are few that find it," (Matthew 7:14; Luke 13:22-30).
The days are coming and even now are close at hand in America when it will not matter what denomination or sect of Christianity professed believers belong to. Anti-Christians will equally hate and violently persecute all calling themselves Christians (Matthew 24:9-13). Therefore, we ought to quickly repent of our philosophical argument fed divisions or else shamefully, days shortly ahead will force us to do so. Then it will be seen who really is on the narrow and difficult way to life. Aspiring strong men and great women of God who live to please Him and do His will to the death on His side will be prominent among those in that narrow way (Revelation 12:7-11). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 I mistakenly transposed the number of world religions with denominations when I took their figures from my original source. I am now completely blown away to see that Christian denominations estimated at 33,000 would outnumber the total number of religions in the world estimated by David Barrett in his 2001 World Christian Encyclopedia to be 10,000--see https://theway21stcentury.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/how-many-christian-denominations-worldwide/. However, while those doing the estimating concede it is nearly impossible to get an accurate count, incredibly, their estimates only get worse going forward with the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary estimating that the number of Christian denominations by mid-2014 had climbed to 45,000 and are projected to reach 55,000 by 2025 (see the sub link under “The Estimates,” Center for the Study of Global Christianity at the Web Site cited in the link provided above). This is a great end time evil.
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