Godly Forces
Go To The Antichrist
There are at least three major forces of the last days that are of God:
The return of the Jews to the land of Israel.
The latter-rain revival.
The perfecting of the godly remnant.
The return of the Jews to the land of Israel.
No doctrine is taught more clearly in the Scriptures than that of the return of the Jews in the last days to the land of Israel. The return is mentioned many times in the Old Testament.
And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. (Isaiah 11:12)
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. (Jeremiah 16:14,15)
Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. (Ezekiel 11:17)
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. (Luke 21:24)
And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: (Romans 11:26)
It is an error to believe that God will not fulfill His promises to the people who are Jewish by race. God indeed shall fulfill His promises and shall gather them and pour out His Spirit upon them as He has promised.
It is significant that some of the chief spokesmen of Reconstructionism (the movement of Christian people that seeks to gain control of the power and wealth of the world) maintain that God is finished with the Jews, that Judaism is evil. They are against the idea that God will turn again to the Jews and that Israel will become the leading Christian nation of the world, which is the promise of Isaiah. They cannot accept the fact that the Kingdom finally will come to Israel.
The Charismatic leaders who speak against Israel in this way reveal that Satan is in them. Satan greatly fears the Jews and their return to the land of Israel. He knows that his rulership of the world will be brought to an end only when Christ takes His place on the throne of David.
It is not true that the Christians are the new Jews, the new Israel. It indeed is true that the Gentile saints have been grafted on the one true olive tree, the one Seed of Abraham. But there are numerous passages of the Scriptures that have to do with the Jews as a race, and these passages shall be fulfilled to the letter.
In our day we are beholding the wonderful sight of the Jews returning to the land of Israel. Also, Christ is opening the eyes of many Jews to the truth concerning Himself. It indeed is a great day for the Jews and for all who love God's original chosen people.
As is to be expected, many Gentile nations, as well as those "Christians" who are part of Babylon or the False Prophet (the attempt of Christians to employ the power of the soul to work miracles), despise the Jews and do not pray for the peace of Jerusalem. It is to be hoped that the Jews of the land of Israel will cease trusting in their political alliances and turn to the God of their fathers. Only then will they be protected from the pressure exerted on them by the larger nations.
God has promised to be an enemy of the enemy of the Jews. The true, victorious Christians pray for the Jews and support them in every manner possible. The deceived Christians have been deluded into believing that God no longer regards the Jews as His chosen people.
The Gentile nations will continue to betray the Jews, as they always have. God will curse every nation that deals treacherously with the Jews and bless every nation that assists the Jews as they return and rebuild the nation of Israel. Woe to the people who do not help the Jews in this hour, for the Lord Jesus shall send them into everlasting fire at His appearing! (Matthew 25:41).
The most significant sociological event of the twentieth century is the return of the Jews to the land of Israel. It is the responsibility and privilege of every person who loves Jesus to assist His Jewish brothers and sisters as they return to the land.
The latter-rain revival.
Another godly force that will be prominent in the last days is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as the "latter rain." The land of Israel has two important periods of rainfall: the fall, planting (former) rain, and the spring, harvest (latter) rain. Joel, Hosea, and Zechariah speak of the downpour of the "latter rain" of the Spirit of God.
Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. (Joel 2:23)
Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. (Hosea 6:3)
Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. (Zechariah 10:1)
It is the writer's point of view that the two witnesses of Revelation, Chapter 11 portray symbolically the double portion of God's Spirit, the latter rain, empowering the members of Christ's Body to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God with unprecedented power and authority.
The witnesses will torment all those who dwell on the earth by bringing various plagues along with their message of repentance. If such plagues were not forthcoming, people would not repent. The Christian preachers and teachers would assure them no repentance is necessary since every believer is complete in Christ.
But the awesome disasters wrought by the hands of the end-time witnesses will sweep away the chaff of Christian teaching and cause the people to bow their hearts in repentance before the God the whole earth.
The former-rain outpouring of the Holy Spirit portrayed in the Book of Acts gave birth to the Christian Church. The outpouring of the latter rain, the harvest downpour, will bring the Church to maturity. It is our point of view that during the latter-rain dispensation of grace and glory the majority of the inhabitants of the earth will make at least a nominal profession of Christ.
The perfecting of the godly remnant.
A third godly force that will operate in the last days is the perfecting of the godly remnant of the Church. The Scriptures speak several times of a remnant of Israel who will play an important role in the establishing of the Kingdom of God on the earth. The story of Gideon's triumph, which may be the strongest of the Old Testament types of the Day of the Lord, portrays a remnant gaining victory over the enemy.
A remnant shall be saved.
Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: (Romans 9:27)
Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. (Romans 11:5)
The Scripture teaches that the remnant (which may be portraying the firstfruits of the Bride of the Lamb, consisting of both Jews and Gentiles) will be purified by suffering before the Lord returns.
And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. (Isaiah 4:3,4)
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. (Zechariah 13:9)
The doctrine of the remnant is important. There is an abundance of emphasis in both the Old Testament and the New Testament to support the view that only a remnant of the Church will be resurrected when the Lord appears the next time. It is the holy remnant who, as a fulfillment of the type of David's mighty men, will return with the Lord in order to establish His Kingdom on the earth.
And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. (Micah 5:8)
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, (Jude 1:14)
Notice, in the following passage, that it is the members of the ruling priesthood who are given back their bodies in the first resurrection:
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power [authority], but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. (Revelation 20:6)
Most of the Lord's elect are not ready for the Battle of Armageddon. But a warrior-remnant is being formed who will ride with Jesus in that day.
Today the Bride of the Lamb can be found in the babylonish Christian religious system. The Lord Jesus is speaking to the heart of His Bride, calling her to come away with Him. She must be purged completely of worldliness, lust, and self-seeking. Then she must learn to lean on the Lord in every area of personality and behavior.
The Bride is being brought down to the Valley of Achor. She is passing through the fires of judgment. All that is covetous and grasping in her is being revealed by the Light of God, and then buried with Christ in crucifixion.
When the judgment has been finished she will sing there, in the place of judgment, as in the days of her youth. Her first love for Jesus—that which the religious system tends to destroy—will be restored to her. She no longer will refer to Jesus as Lord, but as "my Husband." She will come up out of this wilderness leaning on her Beloved.
And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi [my husband]; and shalt call me no more Baali [my master]. (Hosea 2:16)
When the Bride has been purified, as was Queen Esther, she will cry, "Come, Lord Jesus." It is that plea coming from a perfected Church that will bring back the Lord.