Preparing for the Future

The vision of the future has to do with our soon-coming King, not a soon-going church.

We have an incorrect vision of the future, and this is why Christian people are not prepared for the Divine judgments that are to fall on America. One incorrect vision is that of the "rapture" of the believers before they experience suffering. Another incorrect vision is that of emphasizing God’s love without balancing our teaching with God’s wrath.

(9/12/2005) The burden of the Word of the Lord for today focused on the true vision of the Day of the Lord, the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth. According to the Prophets of the Old Testament, the Day of the Lord will be a terrible time of the outpouring of God’s wrath. The righteous will be saved with difficulty.

This is why we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

The Apostle commanded us to put on the whole armour of God that we may be able to stand in the evil day. We have not done this because of incorrect teaching. Therefore we are not prepared to stand.

There are several passages of the Scriptures that portray the return to earth of the Lord Jesus Christ accompanied by the armies of saints and angels. The nineteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation is one such passage.

A parallel passage, that we employ frequently, is the second chapter of the Book of Joel. While the immediate context may be referring to locusts, it is obvious that behind this immediate, temporary application we can see the true nature of the Day of the Lord, the time when "the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine."

There is only one period in all of earth’s history when this heavenly uproar takes place, and that is when the Lord Jesus returns to earth with His army. These signs in the heavens are the calling card of the Lord Jesus.

As we study verses one through eleven of the second chapter of the Book of Joel we notice the expression "a large and mighty army comes." The true vision of the Day of the Lord is not the removal of the Christian Church to Heaven—a totally unscriptural and destructive vision. The true vision is that of a large and mighty army.

This army is being prepared today in Heaven and on the earth. Each member of the army is one of God’s elect. The qualities of character that must be possessed by each soldier are described in verses seven and eight. A close study of these qualities will reveal steps of growth that we must take today if we hope to be prepared to ride with the Commander in Chief in that Day.

Today many of us are woefully unprepared. The emphasis on an any-moment rapture so God’s pets will not suffer any inconvenience (tell this to the people from New Orleans), plus the overemphasis on God’s love, have created a set of believers who are silly, fatuous, careless, self-cantered, self-seeking, knowing little or nothing of what it means to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow the Master.

This is not Joel’s army. This is not the armies clothed in the white linen of our righteous deeds who will ride alongside the Word of God as He descends from Heaven to install God’s Kingdom on the earth.

We have been deceived by well-meaning but deceived teachers of the Gospel. What we have today is not the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, the Gospel that teaches us of the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth. What we have is the gospel of the flight to Heaven of immature, undisciplined, soulish professors of faith in Christ who become angry with God if they are disappointed in any manner.

The Book of Romans speaks of the revealing of the sons of God who will release the creation from the chains of corruption until people are able to walk in glorious freedom of the Holy Spirit. This revelation of God’s handiwork will take place at the descent of Christ from Heaven. This is Joel’s army.

But woe to the hypocrites in the churches when the army of Christ descends with Him. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. The soft, compromising believers of today will not be able to dwell with the Devouring Fire of Israel.

It is time today for God’s ministers to sound the alarm, to blow the trumpet in Zion, as it were. If we have assured the believers that they are just about to be carried off to Heaven in order to escape unpleasantness in the earth; that God is so loving He sees them through Christ and is unaware of their adultery, fornication, lying, unforgiveness, maliciousness, worship of money; that they cannot possibly hear anything negative at the judgment seat of Christ; that Divine grace is an alternative to godly behaviour; then we need to repent and preach the text of the New Testament instead of our traditions.

Otherwise we are going to stand with our spiritually immature babies and answer to Christ for our neglect of His plan of redemption.

The scene is as bad as I am portraying, if not worse. There is still time for us to repent and return to the Gospel. The Lamb is looking today for those who will seek Him earnestly until they find He is helping them prepare for the great and terrible day of the Lord. When we enter a victorious life in Christ we are fed each day with the hidden manna, that is, with His body and blood. As we turn away from our sinful nature and choose to deny our worldliness, our fleshly passions, and our self-will, we are given of His body and blood. These are our Resurrection. These are our Life. It is the Lamb’s body and blood that will raise us to Him when He appears in the clouds, and even now, spiritually, is raising us to Him that we might live by His Life.

Let us be ready to endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ. Divine judgment most certainly shall be poured out on America because we have not repented of our aborting of children, our worship of the dollar, our sexual perversions and ungodly displays.

The World Trade Centre. The war in Iraq. Fiscal problems. The flood in New Orleans. The realistic threat that one day soon terrorists will set of nuclear devices in our country, or blow up one of our nuclear power stations, or poison our water, or fill the air with poisonous vapours. What will it take to alert America to the fact that God is speaking?

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