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In watching the destructive collapse of Western civilization under the weight of rebellion against God and His Word, one of the saddest spectacles is the marginalization of men and their absolutely essential role as fathers in the family. Yes, throughout the centuries many mothers have had to step up in the absence of their husband/fathers and done well under the adverse circumstances. However, in what is to be this short-lived day of the woman and overt rebellion against the God designed family of a man, his wife and children endorsed even by many compromising churches, men as fathers are being purposely devalued leading to the destruction of the family as we have known it for millennia. The Lord led me to blog about this and to encourage aspiring strong men of God fathers in 2013. I post it again now as the rebellion continues unabated.
Originally Posted June 16, 2013
Happy Father’s Day to all of the fathers reading this blog! By God’s design only human males can be fathers. As a critical partner with their wives in the preservation and expansion of mortal humanity (without conception and births, death would soon overtake and destroy mankind from the face of the earth), men as fathers are indispensable. But the indispensability of men as fathers goes well beyond biology to family and societal order, stability, direction and spiritual condition. In God the Father’s image, men are designed to lead their families as husbands and fathers. If they lead well, the family and families that make up a nation goes well.
However, if the men lead poorly, then the family and families that make up a nation suffers. The latter case is the present reality in our nation and many other Western nations that have independently decided fathers are only absolutely needed for the biological creation of children and are quite worthless otherwise. I offer a number of statistics in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics that show how our nation is being devastated by a redefining of what a man, woman and family is contrary to what God in His Word declares they are. Social engineers and legal authorities know about this devastation but most insist on trying to fix the problems of re-definition within the context of the rebellion that is causing it!
In their redefinition of a man, for example, men are being demanded to financially support the children they create (those that are not destroyed through State sanctioned abortion, that is), but leave the rearing to the State and mothers--isn’t that taxation without representation all over again? The result is that irresponsibility by men is being encouraged by the State which has for the sake of an anti-Christian secular worldview, inserted itself into the fathering role and responsibility. Thus, our problem in America in major part is not that married men are leading poorly as much as it is absent and irresponsible men are not leading at all thanks to the State--though as the Lord has led, I teach all men lead by their example whether they intend to or not.
Also, in the moral and spiritual climate of rebellion against God, His Son, Jesus Christ and Word, many well off feminists do not even care for the financial support of baby’s daddy since they purchase his sperm from a bank in total detachment. So deep is the anti-male authority influence of feminists on our 21st century culture (including the biblical worldview that fathers are the head of their daughters until marriage), in its many acts of creative license with the birth narrative of Christ, the 2006 film, The Nativity, written by Mark Rich and directed by Catherine Hardwicke has teenage Mary initially angrily questioning her father’s will for her to marry Joseph. This feminist attitudinal insertion is completely opposite of the New Testament Mary who finds favor with God expressly for the humility and submission she no doubt displays prior to and after hearing God’s will from the angel (Luke 1:26-38)!
Tragically, relieved of their duty from nearly all quarters many men are living large in a sinful male’s utopian world of irresponsibility that is destroying children, the fatherless, families and our nation in the process. God in His Word teaches why the role of fathers is so important. As God the Father showed with Adam in the beginning, a father gives visionary leadership to his children (Genesis 1:26-28). Where there is no such vision in a family or a nation from the father or leader respectively, they throw off restraint, chaos ensues and they perish--think high rates of child sexual exploitation, teen promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, delinquency, school dropouts, gang violence and deaths, suicide etc. (Proverbs 29:18).
God as a Father to Adam not only initiated his existence, but led, taught, provided for and protected him in Eden (Genesis 2:7-25). While children with godly fathers in the home may still rebel because of sin, men are to do with their children as God did with Adam so they have a leader to look up to, instruction with discipline, certain provision and security. When Adam sinned, God the Father pitied him and did not treat his sin with the instant death it deserved, but killed an animal shedding its blood instead and used its skin to cover his fallen creature against the day in love when He would provide an eternal atonement (Genesis 3:17-19, 21, 5:1-5; Psalm 103:13-14; John 3:16). So, men are needed to be firm yet merciful and gracious authorities to their children.
To the child with a natural father (or mother) that has forsaken him, God offers Himself a Father (Psalm 27:10, 68:5). As His tangible love, Christian men are to be mentors and spiritual fathers to the fatherless who allow it. In the day of rebellion as we now have, God sends forth His prophet to call men and their children to reconciliation to avoid his curse on top of all of the destructive natural consequences already doing their work (Malachi 4:5-6). Are we listening in the churches since our assemblies are suffering all of the same devastation as the world due to straying from God’s Word and the priority of teaching men their roles and responsibilities?
To the faithful godly fathers doing it God’s way with a made up mind, stay the course. Do not yield to the fathering instructions and ways of this condemned world system taught even in compromising churches. God’s example and instruction in His Word as well as your very real daily experience with Him as your heavenly Father are perfect. If you remain faithful the Father of fathers will bless and mightily reward your faithfulness here and now and with immortal glory in the Day of Christ. Such is the joyful hope and expectation of every aspiring strong man of God father!
In his aloneness, mortal Adam fully equipped by God for procreation yearned for the corresponding companion that would be found to help him fulfill the divine ordained mission (Genesis 1:27-28, 2:7-20). When he saw the wife God created from him, for him every part of his inner being as well as hormone in his body was set ablaze with joy and marriage was instituted by the Lord (Genesis 2:21-25)! As richly satisfying as relationship in marriage was to be, God’s priority is the mission He gave Adam and his wife reflected in her name (Genesis 3:20) and that continues to this day in spite of a raging rebellion against it that has only intensified since I posted the following blog last year. Sadly, we should only expect this rebellion to continue intensifying.
Faithful Christians that are almost always eager Bible students understand the times we are living in and what lies ahead if not in specific detail, generally. This is because they do not read into Bible prophecy to concoct theories, spiritualize, or reject it, but reverence the Source enough to allow His illumination and instruction (Mark 13:23; 2 Peter 1:19-21). They also understand and accept it as it is written along with all other objectively understood portions of the Bible. Finally, unlike some theologians of history such as Augustine that rendered allegorical what he could not understand, the faithful realize some Bible prophecy would not be opened up by God until now (Daniel 12:4, 8-10)!
Those professed Christians that are selling themselves out to rebellion against God’s program with the world in unbelief do not know what time it is.1 The Lord Jesus and His apostles repeatedly make it clear however, that the faithful--every aspiring strong man and great woman of God as I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics--must live fully by faith in Him; enduring to the end to obtain the promised salvation (Matthew 10:16-39, 24:13; Romans 1:16-17, 8:18-25; Hebrews 3:5-19).2 The Lord led me to write this edited 2012 Commentary to encourage aspiring strong men of God to remain faithful as Bible prophecy is fulfilled before our very eyes.
Originally Published April 2012
I stand amazed at our God who has made us both observers of and participants in the times such as are now unfolding. For unknown to the wicked and apparently even many professing Christians, the times we are living in were foretold millennia ago by the prophets of God in the Bible's Old Testament as well as Jesus Christ and His apostles in the New. This is all to the glory of God who reveals the end from the beginning and events long before they occur (Isaiah 44:6-8, 45:20-22, 46:5-10, 48:3-5)! God, the eternally living God who spoke time into existence (Genesis 1:3-5, 14-19) and fulfills His Word at the right time is resolutely ratcheting up this world's troubles (Matthew 24:6-7).
Not since the global flood of Noah's day had the world experienced a paradigm shift of such magnitude as the incarnation of the Son of God in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, now over 2,000 years ago. Planned from eternity (1 Peter 1:20), preliminarily announced by God in Eden on the day Adam sinned (Genesis 3:15) and fleshed out over time in revelation to His prophets, Jesus came to “save His people from their sins,” (Matthew 1:21, NKJV). In God’s perfect moment, at the right time He arrived to fulfill His mission as the apostle Paul later affirms (Romans 5:6). Interestingly, unlike the flood of Noah’s day, the world did not know He had come except those God revealed Him to.
For thirty years He grew up quietly in the ways of His people--a carpenter’s Son. After this, He engaged in a three and one half-year ministry of preaching, teaching and mighty miracles that authenticated His identity as God’s Anointed One. Then, before the eyes of His disciples, He was arrested and crucified. They did not understand that to save them from their sins, Jesus had to die in their place by divine decree (Romans 5:7-9). They buried Him the same day He died, but on the third day after, He showed Himself to His disciples alive from the dead and explained to them from prophecy all that had happened to Him in fulfillment (Luke 24:1-45).
The Lord then revealed to His still startled disciples that they were witnesses of all that had happened to Him. They would now take on the important responsibility to proclaim what they had seen and heard as well as the resulting good news to the nations in the power of God (Luke 24:46-49)! After leading them out to the appointed spot, the Lord ascended into Heaven with the promise He would be with them (and us) to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20b; Luke 24:50-53). The mission has continued through Christ's disciples in every generation since to this hour and will continue until the last soul known to God is saved; for He has a number in mind (Romans 4:13-18, 11:25-36).
Echoing his Lord, the apostle Peter in his first and second recorded sermons told Jewish hearers that what they had been witnessing in word, power and events concerning Jesus of Nazareth to that time had been foretold by their prophets (Acts 2:14-32, 3:18-24). They were living in a divinely ordained time of prophetic fulfillment with still more to come. It is for this reason that as led by the Lord I assert we have continued all of these years since in a time of prophetic fulfillment and therefore, remain in what should be properly understood as "God's times." This being true, those who walk by faith in His Son and obedience to God have never been out of step with or behind "the times!"
From the first appearance of Christ and His successful mission, “the times” have been “God’s times” in which He is presiding over His eternal plans and superintending His longsuffering work through the faithful to preach the Gospel to all the nations. God’s longsuffering has been of His unrelenting desire in love to save (Matthew 24:14; 2 Peter 3:1-9). While by His providence, men have advanced technologically during the last 20 centuries and exponentially so in the last two, they have made no self-generated improvement spiritually or morally. Indeed, lawlessness has been increasing, love decreasing and evil men grow worse as foretold (Matthew 24:12; 2 Timothy 3:13).
Confirming prophetic fulfillment shows us closer to the end of this present age than we imagined and the next great paradigm shift in God's program: the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ! In step with "God's times," we that love Him see that we are descending like an airplane into the foretold period of severe turbulence our Lord describes as an intensifying "beginning of sorrows” or “birth pains" to include global persecution caused tribulation (Matthew 24:8-9, 15-22, NKJV). However, it leads to a safe landing in His presence (Revelation 7:9-17). Every aspiring strong man of God will be very glad he did not sell the Lord out to be in step with the world's times (Mark 8:34-38). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 Read the April 28, 2019 post, God’s Program Matters!, under the category, Call To Repent.
2 The book is available at all major internet booksellers, by order at your favorite brick and mortar bookstore or in the Strong Man Store.
In light of all that the Lord has led me to write concerning worldly feminism and the great woman of God in His image since 2011,1 as He continues to lead it is time to fully address the out of place elephant in the room of women pastors. It is not as though the Lord has not had me address this issue before. However, it has mostly been brief statements that speak to women taking authority over men in God’s house such as posts during this Covid-19 year starting with the very first in a footnote.2 In this post, the Lord in grace, mercy and at the end of His longsuffering has me make an extended case for guilty women pastors to repent now, or face His at hand severe judgment!
Search the whole Bible from beginning to end to see if there is one instance of God calling a female to serve Him as a priest in the Old Testament or pastor in the New. You will not find even one because the immutable God is consistent with Himself from creation that men are His elect leaders beginning in the home (Genesis 2:7, 18-24, 3:16, 20, 5:1-5)! As the head of his house in the Old Testament, every man answered to God for his leadership and assigned responsibilities which included leading his family in worship and teaching His way (Genesis 8:20; Deuteronomy 6:4-9). When God established Israel’s priesthood He was very specific and direct in His words to Moses.
‘“Now, take Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to Me as priest…,’” (Exodus 28:1, NKJV). Plainly in the foregoing God makes His sovereign choice as to who of tribe, family and gender in Israel would serve Him as priests. Then, the Lord ensures that all understand His election of Aaron and his sons to serve Him as priests is for all time by declaring to Moses: ‘“The priesthood shall be theirs for a perpetual statute. So, you shall consecrate Aaron and his sons,’” (Exodus 29:9b, NKJV). Though women were singers (Nehemiah 7:66-67), none ever led worship nor served as priests or Temple attendants but the sons of Levi.
In the New Testament that fulfills God’s promise of a New Covenant with Israel (Jeremiah 31:31-34), her promised Messiah and King inaugurates it through His shed blood at their rejecting hands. Though not descended from Aaron, Jesus Christ is God’s exalted High Priest because His Priesthood is of a different, eternal spiritual order (Matthew 21:42, 26:26-28; John 19:5-22; Acts 4:8-12; Hebrews 4:14-5:11, 7-10:18). He as God’s great High Priest has made those of us who believe on Him from either mortal gender priests to serve God in the eternal “spiritual house” He has made us to be individually and together as His living Body (Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Peter 2:4-10, NKJV).3
Yet, as the Lord and His apostles make clear, the spiritual priesthood believers enjoy through faith in Him does not invalidate God’s order of mankind and election of men to lead in the home as well as the local churches during this present mortal age. Indeed, the Lord Jesus had a golden opportunity to demonstrate any change in God’s order and did not when He appointed His twelve apostles that were all men. And later, after His resurrection when the eleven sought His will for one that would replace Judas who betrayed Him and committed suicide, the Lord has them select a man who met the apostolic criteria though, women were there including His own mother (Acts 1:9-26).4
There were no female apostles, pastors, elders, church sponsored ministry leaders or teachers over men in the first century churches or for nearly all of the centuries after until now, except in sin rebuked by Christ (Revelation 2:18-29). Paul--the Lord’s apostle specifically to us Gentiles where aberrations from God’s will from creation would be most prolific (Romans 1:18-32)--gives the reason when He presented and affirmed God’s order of mankind as the Father, Christ, man and woman to the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 11:2-10)! He and the apostle Peter also affirm God’s will that wives submit to the headship of their husbands (Ephesians 5:22-24; Colossians 3:18; 1 Peter 3:1-6).
Moreover, Paul brought the direct command of Christ to Corinth and all of the churches to adhere to God’s order when the whole church met together which he reiterated to next generation leadership, Timothy, his son in the faith (1 Corinthians 14:33-37; 1 Timothy 2:11-15). To Timothy also he sets forth the perpetual will of Christ as to who is to be considered for the positions of pastor (to include an elder since a pastor was often both) and deacons in the local churches. In laying out their qualifications, the apostle is unequivocal that only men who demonstrate ruling ability at home are to be considered for these positions (1 Timothy 3:1-13). This was no glass ceiling artificially installed by sinful men, but instructions from Christ consistent with God’s order of mankind from creation!
Seeing then, that God has made no change in His order of mankind to be honored and practiced in the churches, the change that has taken place even celebrating professed Christian women taking authority over, teaching and shepherding men as church pastors has come from them and their male supporters.5 This is rank rebellion and a “latter times” display of foretold apostasy originating from “deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons” as “the Spirit expressly” declared to the apostle Paul. For the woman pastor is a total contradiction and repudiation of Scripture and sound doctrine. Such women are out of order in the sight of God no matter how much they claim to have His calling and sanction and according to His Word, are not telling the truth (1 Timothy 4:1-2, NKJV)!6
Therefore, unless the guilty do thoroughly repent and abandon their demonically inspired rebellion and apostasy, the Lord is about to bring on you what He did the false prophets and wicked priests of old who also lied on Him and the promised end of all false teachers (Jeremiah 23:9-40, 28; Ezekiel 13; 2 Peter 2). The Lord will make you an example and omen of what lays ahead for your sister rebel feminists who make no pretense about knowing Him! Again, I exhort you to repent from your rank rebellion pursuing Satan’s dead end path to power and renown.7 Instead, in all humility and submission aspire to become a great woman of God in Christ’s image (Mark 10:35-45)! The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 My breakout blog posts challenging the satanic deceit of feminism that has infiltrated many churches take up the month of May 2015 as 2011 commentaries refuting four
classic arguments attempting to justify its presence that arise from sinful mortal flesh, not God’s Word. You do well to read these series of posts beginning May 3rd under
the category, The Cause and on May 31, 2015, What Does God’s Word Say?, under the category, Instruction if you have not already before taking to social or any other
media to assail me.
2 See the January 5, 2020 part one post of the two-part, Revelation’s Seven Churches In Time, under the category, Bible Prophecy. While the footnote points up the dis-
obedience of male pastors in allowing women to teach and take authority over men in the Lord’s house, the same is done in the body and a specific call to repentance
made to women pastors in a footnote of the April 19, 2020 post, Does Anybody Repent Anymore?, under the category, Call To Repent.
3 See the August 23, 2020 part one post, The Churches Under Judgment, under the category, Instruction.
4 See the May 20, 2018 post, The Value Of Women To Jesus Christ, under the category, God’s Creatures.
5 For those with a copy, read the second Appendix of my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. The Lord leads me to refute the lie God has made a change of
some kind in His attitude toward or implementation of the divine order of mankind. You can also read my November and December two-part Commentary,
When Did God Change? Published by the Publishing Division of Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. with fresh editing in 2019 for greater clarity and updated web
addresses in the footnotes, my book is available as is the newly released Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study at major internet booksellers such as Amazon,
Barnes & Noble and ChristianBooks.com. These book sellers with Apple also have the digital download of the book. Type the titles into their search engines if neces-
sary. You can also purchase the book and all Strong Man Of God Brand Group Study Print Resources in the Strong Man Store!
6 Because most women are in greater touch with their emotions, it is very easy for evil men (to their chagrin) and demons to manipulate their strongly held and trusted
feelings. However, no matter how strongly you may feel, the Holy Spirit will never lead you to defy and disobey God’s written Word since that would be fighting against
Himself! If Satan is wise enough not to fight against himself, how much more wise is God not to do so (Matthew 12:22-30)? Anyone is self and/or demonically deceived
to believe God would lead them to disobey His Word and in making the Holy Spirit a party to your deceit, in danger of unpardonable blasphemy against Him (Matthew 12:
31-33)!
7 And woe to the men in willful disobedience who have usurped Christ and enabled this rebellion! I especially appeal to my professed Christian black American sisters in
so many churches where their numbers are in the majority and well represented among rebel women pastors to hear the Lord through me on this (Ezekiel 33:1-9; Acts
20:26-27; Revelation 2:21). Repent and voluntarily walk away as those did that escaped the fate of famous rebels Korah, Dathan and Abiram (Numbers 16:20-35). Yeah,
it’s serious like that!
During all of my service to God, I have sought to be humble, transparent and honest about my own weaknesses in the faith while as He gave leadership and power, I proclaimed and taught His Word uncompromised. I have never represented myself as having arrived at perfection. However, like the apostle Paul as an aspiring strong man of God in the image of Christ, I have considered all worldly attainments garbage (including the favorable opinions of men) and “press” zealously toward God’s goal (Philippians 3:7-16, NKJV)! When I fail, I get back up again in confession, repentance, the forgiveness and strength my God supplies and grow as a result!
Daniel holds nothing back of the truth in confessing the transgression, sin and iniquity of his people, Israel, he righteously characterized as rebellion in their departure from God’s written Word. Twice in his confession he also points up the people’s disobedience to God’s direct instruction and warnings to them through His prophets (Daniel 9:6, 10). Besides Moses and Isaiah of the greatest of these prophets (Deuteronomy 28; Isaiah 1), Jeremiah and Ezekiel Daniel’s contemporaries were used mightily of God to graphically present and cry out against their sin, call for their repentance and pronounce His judgment upon their stubborn refusal to do so (Jeremiah 2, 11:11-17; Ezekiel 8, 12).
No, the shame of Babylonian captivity Daniel also asserts twice in his confession to God did not come without prior warning over many years in His longsuffering, forbearance and readiness to mercifully forgive as Israel ‘“rebelled against Him,’” (Daniel 9:7-9, NKJV). Thus, it was that after long sounding his trumpet of warning, Daniel’s fellow prophet in exile, Ezekiel, as God’s watchman to the rebellious captives (whose ministry my own is patterned) learned Jerusalem had fallen into the hands of the Babylonians and directed by Him, announced its complete desolation (Ezekiel 33:1-9, 21-29). Praying with painful hindsight and agreement with God’s written Word, Daniel confesses to Him why.
He prays: ‘“Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law and has departed so as not to obey Your voice.’” As a foretold consequence, he acknowledges they now, had a desolate homeland, holy city, Jerusalem, and Temple as righteous judgment from God (Daniel 9:11-12, NKJV). I remind us in America again that Israel is the only chosen people and nation of God in history.4 Yet, He brought upon them His righteous judgment stemming from their departure from His Word in disobedience as well as stubborn refusal to repent. Now, if He did this to Israel, where do the many guilty in our nation get off asserting an exceptional standing that exempts us from the same (Jeremiah 25:15-29)?
This is a great falsehood in the land that is working tangible desolations commensurate with the nation’s moral ruin (Micah 3:8-12). For in the arrogance of this self-deceit, the guilty are refusing to humble themselves and repent before God Almighty while He intensifies the desolations upon our nation in our plain view through calamities such as devastating storms, out of season tornadoes, wildfires and His unrelenting Coronavirus pestilence (Isaiah 45:6-7).5 Like Israel, will you foolishly continue not to see ‘“all this disaster has come upon us’” because of transgression, sin and iniquity refusing to repent and ‘“understand’” God’s ‘“truth,’” (Deuteronomy 31:14-32:47; Daniel 9:13, NKJV)?
The foregoing is especially heartbreaking in a land filled with so many professed Christians, their churches and religious educated elites that ostensibly know God and His truth fully written, but who willfully refuse to acknowledge the obvious for all manner of motives. Is not this scenario of spiritual dullness through preoccupation with Christianity as manmade religion how it is that the biblical instruction of salvation by grace through faith alone had to be uncovered again by Martin Luther, a broken and miserable German priest searching for the living God using his Latin Vulgate and Greek Bible translations after over a millennium of corrupt Catholicism usurped and buried it?
Because God is holy, righteous and just, sin not confessed and repented of always has consequences no matter who it is that is guilty! The plain fact is Israel in sin not confessed or repented of was guilty before God. Consequently, as Daniel declares soberly to God in his prayer about Israel’s obstinacy (and ours too), ‘“Therefore the LORD has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice.’”6 He adds in simple humility, ‘“we have sinned, we have done wickedly;’” including himself in again with his people despite that he was godly (Daniel 9:14-15, NKJV).7 Daniel confessed and repented even though, Israel in the disaster as many today, still refused to do so!
In spite of his people’s failure to do right, Daniel closes his prayer appealing to God in all of His ‘“righteousness’” to ‘“let Your anger and fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem…,’” (Daniel 9:16, NKJV). God’s righteousness here was to honor His Word; the prophecy He gave Jeremiah to limit Jerusalem’s desolation at the time to “seventy years,” (Jeremiah 25:1-11; NKJV). Daniel then, appeals to God to hear him and take pity on the ‘“desolate’” state of His ‘“sanctuary’” as well as the ‘“desolations’” of the people as He looks out on the situation not in accord with their ‘“righteous deeds’” since they had none, but His ‘“great mercies,’” (Daniel 9:17-18, NKJV). Finally, he exhorts God to ‘“forgive…listen and act,’” (Daniel 9:19, NKJV). Should professed Christians pray otherwise?
4 See the two-part post that begins August 2, 2020, Flavorless Salt Is Worthless, under the category, Call To Repent.
5 Read the July 5, 2020 post, Decision At The Crossroads, under the category, Call To Repent. For all including professed Christians in unbelief that want to redefine God Almighty out of existence or in one’s personally determined image of Him, He is who He is and does what He pleases as it is written (Exodus 3:13-14; Psalm 135:-6; Isaiah 40:12-26)! As a result, mortals should fear in the face of His power rather than dismiss Him through hearts proudly hardened. Or don’t you realize that He who with a word instantly stilled storms (Mark 4:35-41) is also able to permit them with other calamities as works of Satan (Job 1:6-19; Lamentations 3:37-38; Amos 3:6b) and summon them at whatever intensity He wills as He shall do in His wrath before the end of these “latter days,” (Psalm 135:7; Jeremiah 25:30-38,30:23-24, NKJV)?
6 As the harlot daughters of Catholicism in the over 500 years since Luther launched the Protestant Reformation with his biblical rediscovery of God’s salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone, the guilty have shared fully in their mother’s harlotries of disobedience, feat of choking off sound doctrine and being stubbornly unwilling to repent. This is to their terminal judgment with their mother (2 Timothy 3:1-12; Revelation 16:19b, 17-19:4)!
7 While in my book,The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, the Lord leads me to hold up faithfulness as the character trait Daniel exemplifies, obviously humility is also among the many character traits of Christ and the aspiring strong man of God in His image he displays. Get my book along with its companion works The Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study at your favorite internet book seller and in the Strong Man Store.
While the Lord Jesus most assuredly initially speaks to the seven messengers and the corporate assemblies of Asia they lead, He concludes every message speaking to the individuals that make them up. The proof of this beyond His repeated use of the phrase “He who has an ear...” in Revelation 2-3 I have already referenced is another like it: “To him” or “He who overcomes.” The Lord unmistakably addresses Himself to any individual within the particular church He is speaking to that will give heed to His words. This is not unusual since His Church is made up of individuals that have believed on Him as “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” (Matthew 16:13-18, NKJV)!
Nevertheless, an elementary truth Christ knows, but many religionists especially fail to grasp is that not everyone assembled together in a local church is truly a born again believer in Him (John 3:1-8). There are “false brethren,” “impostors” and de facto apostates in many ostensibly “Christian” churches that even hold titles of authority (Galatians 2:1-5; 2 Timothy 3:13; Titus 1:10-16, NKJV). This is due to a number of reasons to include the lowered, unbiblical standards of membership many have tied to the practice of Christianity as a religious invention of men and the purposeful infiltration of Satan’s emissaries (2 Corinthians 11:10-15; Jude 3-4). Thus, a local church anywhere on the planet is not necessarily the Church in miniature!5
As a consequence, membership in a local church is not tantamount to membership in the Church of Jesus Christ either. So-called “opening the doors of the church” to invite non-members “to join” without ascertaining their actual spiritual status or presenting the biblical Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) with the requirement to repent and believe it is traditional in many religion bound Protestant churches desperate to fill empty pews.6 However, it is not membership with benefits as in a worldly social club affiliation that the writer of Hebrews advocates in his exhortation, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,” (Hebrews 10:24-25, NKJV).7
His advocacy is for the regular gathering together of the Lord’s faithful as individuals to Him in any number and kind of settings to include jails and homes (Acts 1:12-14, 2:40-47, 12:1-12, 16:23-25; Romans 16:5). The well intended and wicked religionists that have made membership, regular attendance and participation in local, corporate brick and mortar churches alone the standard and core of the Christian experience rather than relationship with Christ and the New Testament understanding of assembling together as His Church have set the unknowing, biblically illiterate and weak among them up for spiritual disaster in these latter days. Truly, what will these folk do when they can’t “go to church” anymore as is the case for our persecuted brethren in many places?
The Lord Jesus also speaks to the individuals that make up the seven churches of Asia because His standards of Church membership and discipleship are high. This is the second part of His prophetic warning. Contrary to popular manmade Christianity, people are not just going to get into Heaven and receive immortal glory “any old how.” Repeatedly the Lord declares it is “him” or “he that overcomes.” The two churches of Asia He commends in full are composed of saints that have endured persecution driven “tribulation,” “poverty,” “prison” and testing; persevering as our Lord “Faithful and True” to the death in faithfulness (Revelation 2:8-11, 3:7-14, NKJV). These faithful saints keep His “works until the end,” (Revelation 2:26, NKJV).8
That the end for persevering faithful saints on earth includes going through “the great tribulation” is bound up in the unfolding prophetic content the apostle John is to write concerning “the things which will take place after this;” that is, prophetic reality contemporary with the seven churches of Asia, but also beyond them (Revelation 1:19, NKJV). Revelation 5:1-10 shows Christ as the “Root of David” and “the Lamb” along with “the saints” and His Church to that moment already in Heaven (NKJV). In the overview prophetic sweep of earth activity up to Christ’s Second Coming embodied in the seals of Revelation 6, the fifth seal (vs. 9-11) makes clear martyrdom in suffering among His saints on earth will be God’s permitted norm--something they are prepared for (Romans 8:31-39).
Revelation 7:9-17 indisputably shows individual saints from “all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues” “come out of the great tribulation” which along with what God does in the heavens and upon the earth, involves all manner of suffering and martyrdom in the all out war finally prosecuted against us by the Antichrist (think Hitler’s “final solution”) as other parts of Bible prophecy and Revelation corroborates (Daniel 7:15-25, 8:15-25; Matthew 24:9-22; Revelation 12:7-13:18, 14:6-13, NKJV). God will also permit the Antichrist to destroy brick and mortar church buildings as is already occurring in many places amidst all of his destructive acts; eliciting a cry from Heaven for God’s people to exit she that is “The Mother Of Harlots” and owns treasured property (Revelation 17:1-18:8, NKJV).
Nevertheless, at the end of the three and a half years of the great tribulation and before the full outpour of God’s wrath, as He promised, the Lord will suddenly appear in clouds of glory. With His thunderous shout, the commanding voice of an archangel and blast of God’s trumpet, the Lord will gather all of His saints to Himself in the sky. The dead in Christ will be raised first and take flight to Him, while the remnant of faithful saints still alive will bypass death, be translated and follow after them (Matthew 24:29-31; Mark 13:24-27; 1 Corinthians 15:50-57; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12; Revelation 14:14-16, 16:15, 19:6-16)! The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
5 It is the universal Church made up of His faithful followers that Christ builds “and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18, NKJV) not every
single local church calling itself Christian (2 Timothy 2:19-21).
6 When unbelievers “join” they are by default impostors, false brethren, devils and tools of Satan as are willful or de facto apostates whether they realize it or not. Is
it any wonder the inevitable historic real life carnal church drama created is making for great film and television drama in these latter days while simultaneously
bringing shame to Christ?
7 Temporal membership in a local brick and mortar church certainly does have its benefits, but they do not exceed the greater benefits of membership in the univer-
sal Church of Jesus Christ! As a result, the value of membership in a local church apart from authentic relationship with Christ and membership in His Church is
exalted well beyond its value and over sold. Moreover, churches that use joining as a test of loyalty to them especially when they are unfaithfully sinning against
Christ are hypocritical and wicked (Matthew 23:15)! Even so, a local brick and mortar church that faithfully preaches the biblical Gospel for salvation, teaches and
diligently strives to model obedience to God’s Word as it is written, equips the saints for and facilitates them in biblical ministry and mission as a priority is well
pleasing to the Lord and useful in His Kingdom causes during the time that is left to operate openly. See the July 23, 2017 post, Churchmen In The Two Minute
Drill, under the category, The Cause. Also read the timely essay, What Hath The Church Fathers To Do With Your Local Church by Stephen Presley, in the Fall
2019 edition of Southwestern News, P. 54-57, to see that even in scholarly circles there is an appreciation of the consequential increase in hostility of Western cul-
tures including our own toward Christianity and discussion of the right response among the churches.
8 Such is every aspiring strong man and great woman of God I write and instruct about from God’s Word in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. If
you want to learn the foundational biblical expectations of Christ for His followers and be equipped to faithfully live them out to the end, get a print copy or digital
download of my book at major internet booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBooks.com and Apple (digital only). You can also get a print copy
of the book in the Strong Man Store. If you would like a foretaste of what is taught in the book, read my two-part 2019 post that begins August 18, Lined Up Be-
hind Jesus, under the category, Instruction.
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