Prophetic Insights
Is This It?
I recently preached at a church in New Zealand which has diligently pursued, faithfully hosted, and lovingly nurtured revival for the past 10 plus years. I honoured them for this, but then felt compelled to ask,
"Is this it?"
They understood and were not in the least offended by my question or my unequivocal answer, "No! This is not it."
While being scrupulously careful to always be thankful for everything that the Lord has done, and continues to do...it is imperative that we cleave to the point-of-view that there will always be more to come down from Heaven until "that great and dreadful day of the Lord". The Church will never have "arrived" until our King and Head Himself arrives, to sit upon His own Throne on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in Israel.
"To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne." (Rev 3.21)
Until then, there will always be so much more of God and Heaven for us to receive and obtain.
"You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that...I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." (Jn 1.50-51)
"Now to Him Who, in consequence of the action of His power that is at work in us, is able to carry out His purpose and do superabundantly, far over and above all that we dare ask or think - infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes and dreams." (Eph 3.20 Amplified)
We have yet to see Heaven open, with the following consequences:
"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." (2 Pe 3.9)
"And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 Jn 2.2)
"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people...I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below...And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Ac 2.16-21)
"Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: 'The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.' " (Ro 11.25-26)
And we have yet to see eclipsed in our day:
"It was judged by military men on the ground that between twenty and thirty thousand persons were assembled. Four of five preachers spoke at the same time in different parts of the encampment without confusion...They were of one mind and soul; the salvation of sinners was the one object...People were struck down, lying insensible for fifteen minutes to six, eight, or ten hours...At one time at least 500 (were) swept down in a moment with shrieks and shouts as if a battery of a thousand guns had been opened upon them." (Cane Ridge Revival, Kentucky, August 1801)
"For the evening meetings the (Wellington) Town Hall had been engaged. The first night, a Sunday, saw an audience of approximately 800. The next night this had increased to 1600. The third night the place, holding 3000, was full...One night at least 1000 people could not gain admittance...(Smith Wigglesworth) burst out, 'You will remember what I say - this revival we have had is nothing to what God is yet going to do.' " ('Wigglesworth Down Under' by Pastor Harry V. Roberts, 1922)
"A revival means the Holy Ghost descending upon a Church or a community or a countryside in power and in might...people are to be seen walking about the lanes and the streets and the roads in a district in the small hours of the morning crying out for peace with God...men working in the fields are suddenly compelled to fall on their knees and to cry out to God for mercy. That is revival. The Spirit of God is shed abroad and comes down in authority and power." (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, 1899-1981)
It is my considered and steadily-held conviction that we are presently teetering on the edge (fulcrum?) of a "new thing" (Is 43.19) from God; a "final" revival which will incorporate and yet eclipse all past visitations of the Holy Spirit in Jesus' name. Such an event is as inevitable as the Second Coming. What is uncertain is our participation? We may yet choose to quibble and fall away from such an overwhelming and theology-blowing prospect...or run into it, upon our knees!
"For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay." (Hab 2.3)
"The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house, says the Lord Almighty." (Hag 2.9)
Check Your Foundations
Irrespective of location and magnitude, earthquakes should prompt the Christian Church to check its foundations.
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock...But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand." (Mt 7.24-27)
"Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. The words 'once more' indicate the removing of what can be shaken - that is, created things - so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe." (Heb 12.26-29)
A decisive and essential aspect of the establishment of the Kingdom of God upon this earth, is the shaking and agitating and convulsing of everything. Thus the unshakeable and well-founded Kingdom is made evident and alone remains. The rest is destined to decay, disintegration and oblivion.
"Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name. And in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!" (Mt 7.21-23)
"The moment the torrent struck that house (without a foundation), it collapsed and its destruction was complete." (Lk 6.49)
God has ordained that His Church shall be built upon a particular, unshakeable foundation; that which He has decreed, as opposed to what man finds to be humanly and seasonally convenient and opportune,
"Consequently,you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." (Eph 2.19-22)
Of first importance, if a local church is to weather and prosper in the tumult and upheaval promised in these Last Days, it must be utterly dependent upon the entire apostolic and prophetic testimony of both the Old and the New Testament Scriptures. And of equal importance, it must deliberately and pro-actively place itself under the Lordship of Jesus via consistent, long-term, cultivated relationships with acknowledged, veteran apostles and prophets, who have evident national responsibility and credibility. (They do not necessarily have to belong to the current charismatic in-crowd...adored by the flockers and self-appointed spiritual glitterati and cognoscente!)
It will not be enough to belong to the fastest-growing, "flavour-of-the-month" Denomination or Movement. Nor will it suffice to be the biggest church in town, with the most attractive and efficient leader, or leadership team.
What's more, God will make the search for His foundation stones as difficult for us as He possibly can. Why? Because there is in fact no "hole-in-the-wall" which will conveniently dispense apostles and prophets upon the presentation of a credit card and the push of a button. Consequently, many local church pastors and leaders put this matter in the "too-hard" basket, praying that the promised "earthquake" will go around them. Others just randomly jump "into bed" with whatever person or programme looks as if it might temporarily prop up their trembling and teetering (and soon to collapse) religious ziggurats!
"Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God." (Ro 8.14)
The true foundation of the Church (and therefore of any and every local church) is neither institutional nor organisational...is it Personal, insofar as "Christ Jesus himself" is "the chief cornerstone", and "in him the whole building is joined together and rises..." (Eph 2.20-21)
Therefore, the other essential and indispensable ingredients of an unshakeable foundation (the apostles and prophets) must of necessity also be personal. Which is to say, local church leaders are going to have to find their own way to those particular persons...apostolic and prophetic men and women, whom Jesus Christ has selected and ordained shall be yoked to Him in your particular assembly's foundation.
If you keep putting this task back down to the bottom of your "to do" list , then soon enough you will be up to your ecclesiastical eyeballs in bovine scatology...and deservedly so! Your church may simply "refuse" to grow, because the foundation being faulty will not carry the weight of the superstructure you've designed to impose upon it. This consequence is the mercy of God to you.
Another bad scenario (ironically) is that your church will grow, and then (inevitably) at a certain crucial moment, the faulty and therefore inadequate foundation will begin to break down and crumble under the burden of your "success". At least in this situation there is usually an opportunity for the building's occupants to escape. More often than not, there is some forewarning (to the observant) that a Movement or a ministry is on the skids.
The worse possible outcome is that your church is hit by an inescapable Last Days' "earthquake", the phony foundation disintegrates, the building collapses, and your "family" are buried in the wreckage.
And that pastor, would be "your bad"!
"See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed." (Isa 28.16)
"Jesus Christ of Nazareth...is 'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone (and cornerstone).' " (Ac 4.10-11)
"By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1 Co 3.10-11)
"The wall of the city (the new Jerusalem) had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." (Rev 21.14)
The sum of this matter is, that the Church's true foundation is the Lord Jesus Himself, and those apostles and prophets ordained by Him to bear with Him the full weight and burden of His House in every place, at all times, and under all circumstances. Anything less or other is bogus, a sham, and therefore lies under the solemn, inevitable judgement of Jehovah!
"Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, 'The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone (and capstone),' and, 'A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.' " (1 Pe 2.7-8)
"Jesus said to them...He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed (grind him to powder)." (Mt 21.42-44)
"In vain the surge's angry shock,
In vain the drifting sands:
Unharmed upon the eternal Rock
The eternal City stands."
(Hymn 209, PCNZ)
Discerning His Body
"For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgement on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep." (1 Co 11.29-30)
In my travels around the Church over the past 18 years, I have found the "celebration" of the Lord's Supper, Communion, the Eucharist, etc etc...often disheartening and sometimes even alarming!
In some congregations it is an erratic or random event, involving a poorly-prepared, slapdash preamble, unrecognizable elements (cracker biscuits and cordial?), and lackadaisical reception! There are even churches and Denominations which have dispensed with the tradition altogether, holding it to be a custom which is irrelevant, or beneath their "exalted" spirituality.
"But you profane (my name) by saying of the Lord's Table, It is defiled and of its food, It is contemptible. And you say, What a burden! And you sniff at it contemptuously, says the Lord Almighty." (Mal 1.12-13)
But what say our Church Fathers?
Ignatius Theophorus was the third bishop of Antioch, who was martyred in Rome in 107. It is not improbable that he sat at the feet of some of the first Apostles...most likely John the Beloved! Of Communion he wrote, "I desire the bread of God which is the flesh of Christ who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible."
Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons (130-202), "provided the first great outline of Christian doctrine, a creed and a definition of the Scriptural canon". Concerning the Lord's Supper he taught, "Breaking one bread, which is the medicine of immortality, the antidote against death which gives eternal life in Jesus Christ...Just as the bread, which is made from the earth, when God is invoked is no longer common bread but the Eucharist ("thanksgiving") both earthly and heavenly, so our bodies, after we have received the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, since they hold the hope of the resurrection."
And Augustine (354-430), the bishop of Hippo in North Africa and "one of the great minds of the later classical world...the greatest of the Fathers", taught concerning the Eucharist, "It is the mystery of yourselves that is laid on the Lord's table; it is the mystery of yourselves that you receive. To that which you are, you answer 'Amen', and in answering you assent. For you hear the words 'the body of Christ', and you reply 'Amen'. "
Thomas Aquinas (1226-1274) was the "Angelic Doctor" whose "Summa Theologica" still underpins much of our theology today. He proposed concerning the Bread and the Wine, "The proper effect of the Eucharist is the transformation of man into God."
And lest we forget the continued and lively existence of the Orthodox Church in "the east" (after The Great Schism of 1054), their scholar Nicolas Cabasilas (1323-1391) wrote, "(In Holy Communion) the Bread of Life Himself changes the person who eats, assimilating and transforming him into Himself."
Might there not be a matter deserving our further attention here?
"For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.' For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup." (1 Cor 11.23-28)
I do believe that our contemporary understanding and conduct of Communion suffers from over-analysis on the one hand...and a studied nonchalance on the other. Many are over-eager to nail down "scientifically" what happens to the bread and the wine; others "study" to determine precisely what does not happen to the elements!
Nevertheless, it is quite clear to me that the Lord Jesus, the Apostle Paul, and our Church Fathers are entirely agreed upon this one thing. Something of ultimate and absolute importance takes place when the Community of Faith gathers around the Table of the Lord to prayerfully share broken bread and poured out wine in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And if we are prepared to treat this event thus (individually and corporately), it seems to me that Jesus promises (according to 1 Cor 11.30) to "feed" us with His strength and His health.
"For you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living...How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfil my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people." (Ps 116.8-14)
"But here is the bread that comes down from heaven which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that comes down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world...I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him." (Jn 6.50-56)
P.S. Our "modern" Church Father, the consummate revivalist and churchman John Wesley, described Communion as, "A converting ordinance."
Our Great Prophet
"A prophet is not without honour." (Mt 13.57)
"Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward." (Mt 10.41)
"To me Muri Thompson was and always will be New Zealand's great prophet...God's benchmark for all generations to come."
I made this claim in an interview some years ago, and was somewhat taken aback by the reaction. My statement generated a bit of huffing and puffing as I recall, with some dear folk objecting to my evaluation. This reminds me how shot-through the contemporary Pentecostal, Charismatic and Revival Movements are by selfish ambition, jealousy and rivalry!
"The acts of the sinful nature are obvious...discord, jealousy...selfish ambition, dissensions." (Gal 5.19-20)
"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." (Php 2.3)
"For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice." (Jas 2.16)
Ironically, Muri would have found such a debate over his standing an irrelevant comedy and farce, as he was humble to the core. Labels and status-identity interested him not at all; his great concern was a life lived in obedience to the commands and decrees of Almighty God. He was deaf to the applause of the Faithful, coveting instead Jehovah's benediction.
Few New Zealanders would know that his biography is contained in a substantial book called "Ambassadors for Christ" (Moody Press), which profiles "Christians whose service for the Lord has ignited the flame of love and hope throughout the world". In this volume, his name sits comfortably alongside such luminaries as James Hudson Taylor and Dr. Billy Graham.
Muri Thompson was born with a hole in his heart in 1930, in the little Northland settlement of Mamaranui, close to Dargaville. In spite of setbacks to his health throughout his life, he did not spare himself as a servant, determining to "burn out rather than rust out". In the 1950s he was a pioneer evangelist with Open Air Campaigners, travelling to Chicago and Toronto to plant that Mission in North America. Returning to New Zealand and still struggling with his health, Muri prayed, "Lord, if You give me my life, I will serve my Maori people by preaching the gospel to them." God did...and Muri Thompson did, conducting crusades "up and down New Zealand" in the 1960s and early 70s.
In 1970 he witnessed first-hand, stoked the fires of, and preached in the Solomon Islands' Revival. In one village of 150, he witnessed a building hastily constructed to hold 2000, filled and overflowing with people and the Holy Spirit's power. During that same decade he was the "catalyst and driving force" behind the "Jesus Marches" which mobilised tens of thousands of Christians in 12 major cities, to take to the streets and demonstrate for "a moral and spiritual revival" throughout New Zealand. Outside Parliament in Wellington, Muri told the rally of 20,000, "We are not here telling the government what to do. We are telling the government and the nation what we intend to do." He did however call on the then prime minister to appoint a day of "prayer, fasting, repenting and self-humbling".
Muri was "typically" prophetic in that he did "hear" from God, and prophesied to and over individuals, with (sometimes frightening!) penetrating acuteness and power. But as important and impressive as this is, it is not what makes a prophet, a prophet...as is all too quickly and popularly imagined these days! What sets a prophet apart from a Christian leader with the gift of prophecy, is that the prophet carries about in his person and being, authentic "national concern and national responsibility"...for the Church, the State, or both. Elijah "summoned the people from all over Israel" to meet him on Mount Carmel; people went out to John the Baptist "from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan".
In Muri's case, it was God's burden for national revival, and for his Maori people. Sadly, too many of his people accused him of being a "sell-out" to the White Man's religion. Also tragically large numbers of European Christians feared and criticised his identification with Maori language and culture, as spiritual compromise?
The prophetic burden which he then carried, is still valid and very much "alive and kicking" today. In 1961 he challenged thus, "The Maori can fulfill a role in the affairs of the nation, the world...but this is not happening. Why has the voice of the Church been muted? Is it no longer the champion of the underdog, the guardian of human rights and dignity?
"The disintegration of the Maori is the sin not of a race, but of a nation that has sold its soul on the altar of greed and selfishness.
"To accuse one race is to denounce both; to censure one is to rebuke the other. To heap reproach on one can only be another form of self-accusation, for both peoples are wedded in a common way of life and destiny.
"Only the impact of a spiritual rebirth and (spiritual) revolution can truly determine the future of this people, for it is righteousness that exalteth a nation: sin is a reproach to any people."
Muri collapsed and died while ministering at a theological college, on a Sunday evening early on in 1992. Towards the end of that same year, I resigned from being a pastor in a church in Auckland. And then, at the beginning of 1993, I launched out as an itinerant preacher. Through these 18 years of travelling far-and-wide, I've come across people who claim to be Muri's "spiritual sons", or have a dramatic tale to tell of their closeness to "the great man"! But curiously, I can't remember them among the very thin trickle of visitors during his final winter, when the cold and wet worked against his failing health.
I do not recall seeing them in the hall where his body lay, even as his spirit approached The Throne. Nor can I call to mind their faces among those gathered around his open grave at Mamaranui, where the rain fell and beat against pages 100-101 of my "Book of Common Order" and its prayers of committal, "We have entrusted our brother Muri into the hands of God, and we now commit his body to the ground..."
Why mention this? Because, talk is cheap...and while a considerable part of exercising prophetic responsibility is about words, the "walk" is at least as (if not more) important as the "talk".
"The false and the genuine prophet," according to the 1st C book of Church practice, 'The Didache', "will be known by their ways. If a prophet teaches the truth but does not practise what he teaches, he is a false prophet."
There's more to being a prophet than running around conferences, being handed "Jeremiah 1.5" on a plate, and then making a lunge for the spotlight and headlines by spouting gazumping "precognitions".
"You have asked me a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be done for you, but if you do not see me, it shall not be so." (2 Ki 2.10)
"But Jehoshaphat asked, Is there not a prophet of the Lord here, that we may enquire of the Lord through Him? An officer of the king of Israel answered, Elisha son of Shaphat is here. He used to pour water on the hands of Elijah (that is, he was Elijah's personal servant)." (2 Ki 3.11)
Muri Thompson was a prophet of God, singularly devoid of airs and graces, and worldly ambition. He was neither a poseur nor a pontificator. But he did constantly thirst and seek the Presence and Unction of God, and was uncommonly and startlingly jealous for the honour and integrity of the Word of the Lord...no matter how unwelcome or out-of-sync with popular demand and expectation. He appeared (so far as I could personally observe) to accept humbly and philosophically being deliberately marginalised and discredited by church leaders...some of whom actually owed their ministries and position to his prophetic endorsement and encouraging mentoring. He sincerely, diligently, intelligently and perpetually worked to build the Body of Christ and establish the Kingdom of God. He did not waste valuable time trying to build a throne to sit himself on; he did not have his hand in the till. (Two customs which seem to attract plaudits these days, rather than condemnation?)
That's the "benchmark for all generations to come", of which I spoke. Take it, or leave it!
"Every cycle has its prophets - as guiding stars; and they are the burning candles of the Lord to light the spiritual temple on earth, for the time being. When they have done their work, they will pass away; but the candlesticks will remain, and other lights will be placed in them." (Antoinette Doolittle, Shaker Elder, 19th C)
"The meek and mild mediocrity of most of us stands in sharp contrast to that volcanic, upheaving, shaggy power of the prophets, whose descendants we are meant to be." (Thomas Kelly, Quaker, 1893-1941)
"A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house." (Mt 13.57)
Creation Prophesies
"Woe to him who builds his realm by unjust gain...The stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it." (Hab 2.9-11)
"And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out." (Lk 19.40)
By-and-large, modern Western Civilisation and its Christianity, ignorantly and arrogantly treat Creation as insensate and dumb! (It's financially convenient?) As a consequence, great tracts of the Church are almost completely deaf and blind to one of God's major, contemporary sources of communication and prophecy.
For example, Creation's proclamation of God's "eternal power and Godhead" is so "intelligible and clearly visible", that all mankind is left "without a rag of excuse" for not offering Him either "praise or thanksgiving". (Ro 1.20-21) And when the Lord Jesus says that "the stones would immediately cry out", that's not some cutesy-pie piece of figurative poetry...it's rock-hard reality! If the religious Establishment of that day had taken His statement literally, the outcome and end of their elitist lives might well have been vastly different and more positive.
Right now, Creation is prophesying both positively and negatively to the human race, concerning where we are at in the countdown to "the great and dreadful day of the Lord". (Mal 4.5)
"The trees in the woods will shout for joy when the Lord comes to rule the earth...Clap your hands, you rivers; you hills, sing together with joy before the Lord, because he comes to rule the earth." (Ps 96.12-13; 98.8)
"The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God." (Ro 8.19-21)
The often shocking juxtaposition of Creation's extravagant beauty and destructive savagery, is a real Word from the Lord, designed to activate and promote in us all an ever-burgeoning and fierce longing for His Parousia and Second Advent..."when perfection comes" and "the imperfect disappears". (1 Co 13.10)
Creation's immediate and personal involvement in God's salvation of the planet is glimpsed in the experience of the Christian hermit-prophet, Thomas Merton. He wrote in his diary on 13/11/1965, "This morning...in front of the hermitage, I saw a wounded deer limping along in the field, one leg incapacitated. I was terribly sad at this and began weeping bitterly. Then something quite extraordinary happened. I will never forget standing there weeping and looking at the deer standing still looking at me questioningly for a long time, a minute or so. The deer bounded off without any sign of trouble."
And it is proposed in the writings of one such as Isaac the Syrian, bishop of Nineveh in the 7th C, "The humble man approaches the beasts of prey, and as soon as they see him their wildness is tamed. They come up to him and follow him as their master, wagging their tails and licking his hands and feet. For they smell on him the smell that Adam had before the Fall, when the animals gathered before him in paradise and gave them their names."
(Church History is replete with accounts of wild animals being tamed by Christian hermits and recluses, intercessors...most notably Francis of Assisi and the wolf!)
But Creation also has the power to prophesy negatively concerning our progress into the Last Days. This I believe the Lord Jesus Himself is speaking of in passages such as Matthew 24 and Luke 21,
"There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pangs." (vs 7-8)
"There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences (fatal, epidemic diseases) in various places...At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." (vs 11 and 27)
All too often, Christians enthusiastically grab or shrink back from serious consideration of such passages in the Bible, as they seem to portray God gratuitously smashing the human race by way of punishment for sin. But an alternative view and interpretation of Matthew 24 and Luke 21 has been advocated by the German abbess (theologian, botanist, artist), Hildegard of Bingen. In the 12th C she wrote,
"All of creation God gives to mankind to use. If this privilege is misused, God's justice permits creation to punish humanity."
So, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, tidal waves, hurricanes etc etc, are neither meaningless accidents, nor are they a fickle God randomly lashing out. But they are Creation's agonising longing (and warnings) concerning its own and our salvation, intensifying as Jesus' return gets closer.
"For we know that up to this very moment of time every part of the created world shares in groans of anguish (sighs and throbs with pain) as the new age is born; not only so, but we ourselves, who already have the gift of the Spirit as a first instalment of what is to come, are also groaning within ourselves as we wait for God to make us his sons and set our whole being free." (Ro 8.22-23)
So, what some may mindlessly call "acts of God", and others dismiss as meaningless, mute disasters, are in fact prophecy, alerting us to speedily-approaching Perfection and Judgement.
"Go...and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected." (Lk 13.32)
"For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings...And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him." (Heb 2.10, 5.9)
"The Lord will perfect that which concerns me." (Ps 138.8)
"You will be faultless on the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Co 1.8)
"He became what we are that He might make us what He is...For the Word was not degraded by receiving a body, rather, He deified what He put on." (Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria, 296-373)
"The seed of God is in us. Now the seed of a pear tree grows into a pear tree; and a hazel seed grows into a hazel tree; a seed of God grows into God." (Meister Eckhart, Dominican scholar and mystic, 13th C)
"How long shall the land mourn, and herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein?" (Jer 12.4)
"For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing (the curse) the land mourns; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their (the prophets') course is evil, and their force is not right." (Jer 23.10)
I Re-Think & Repent
I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before (God). Yet...you guide me with your counsel...Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you." (Psalm 73.22-25)
I have no tolerance left whatsoever for self-righteous, "know-it-all" Christians. This is because, the older that I get, the less I find to applaud in myself, while the gaps in my knowledge and understanding are daily growing more cavernous.
In a recent dream (13/6/10), I was compelled by striking and unusual images to "see" as never before the following:
1) These Last Days are going to be a time of increasingly intense persecution for the Church, all over the world. But during this Tribulation, Believers will not be diminished, but will rather grow up into Christ the Lord. (Ephesians 4.13)
"For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now - and never to be equaled again. If these days had not been cut short no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened." (Matthew 24.21-22)
"Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring - those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus." (Revelation 12.17)
2) The sharpest point of this final, satanic harassment will be against God's Jewish People, who are going to be shaken and sifted "among all nations". (Amos 9.9)
"It will be a time of trouble for Jacob, but he will be saved out of it." (Jeremiah 30.7. Also Daniel 12.1, Joel 2.1-2)
3) There are going to be God-ordained sanctuaries and places-of-refuge for Jews in flight. New Zealand is one country so appointed and designated.
"The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach." (Revelation 12.14)
In this essay, I will expand points two and three:
2) Suffering before glory.
The Jewish prophet, Art Katz, devoted his ministry in large measure to faithfully and dynamically warning his own beloved kinsmen, Israel, that "suffering before the glory is the great axis of Israel's prophetic tradition"! He received few plaudits from anyone in the Church (and much opprobrium from Believers in The Land), when he predicted that "according to the ponderous weight of Scripture, a last days' attrition is still future for the Jewish People and of such severity that only a remnant will survive."
This attrition, according to Art, "is likely the destruction of the hope that the existence of the State of Israel has been to many, only to see that State be reduced to ruin and desolation."
But the prophet does not anticipate a catastrophe which culminates in utter destruction...but rather complete and final salvation. He looks forward to a "remarkable, direct, supernatural intervention of God out of ultimate distress and disaster from which there could not have been any other than a divine deliverance." As Art's esteemed confrere and Bible scholar, Reginald Kelly, has similarly so succinctly articulated, "The Church must come to understand what Israel will learn in the crucible of Jacob's trouble; namely He will not spare to bring all the way down, just so that He might raise His afflicted all the way up to sit in heavenly places in Christ, to behold his beauty forever."
"In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel. Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem." (Isaiah 4.2-3)
"How awful that day will be! None will be like it. It will be a time of trouble for Jacob, but he will be saved out of it. In that day, declares the Lord Almighty, I will break the yoke off their necks and will tear off their bonds; no longer will foreigners enslave them. Instead, they will serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them." (Jeremiah 30.7-9)
"For I will give the command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations as grain is shaken in a sieve...In that day I will restore David's fallen tent. I will repair its broken places, and restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be." (Amos 9.9-12)
"I will bring you into the desert of the nations and there, face to face, I will execute judgement upon you...I will take note of you as you pass under my rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. I will purge you of those who revolt and rebel against me." (Ezekiel 20.33-38)
"I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured...Half of the city will go into exile...Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations...On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives...The Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him...The Lord will be king over the whole earth." (Zechariah 14.1-9)
"And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob." (Romans 11.26)
Up until now, my humanity has quailed before and reeled back from any prospect of God's beloved Israel having to pass through anything even remotely approaching another Catastrophe! But the "ponderous weight" of the Scriptures, and my most recent dream, obliges me to embrace just such a purview!
"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?...Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." (Romans 10.14-17)
I now embrace this unbearable (unbelievable?) prospect, because it is true. I embrace it also out of the sense of prophetic responsibility...that all of God's People may know in advance and so prepare themselves by:
* Cleaving fast to God our Saviour, the Crucified One.
"The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Acts 2.20-21)
* Participating creatively in ultimate crisis.
"I give you this instruction, in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience." (1 Timothy 1.18-19)
According to the flip-side of Ezekiel 13.3-5, true prophets go up "to the breaks in the wall to repair it for the house of Israel so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the Lord".
"So he said he would destroy them - had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them." (Psalm 106.23)
"Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city." (Jeremiah 5.1)
"I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so that I would not have to destroy it..." (Ezekiel 22.30)
Could it be that during this approaching hour of Israel's extremity, the Church may at last discover true Christ-likeness. Not pontificating from worldly prominences, but upon bruised knees, "watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth." (Isaiah 62.6-7)
3) New Zealand a sanctuary.
It is now clear to me, that New Zealand has been marked-out by God to be a refuge and a sanctuary for His beloved Israel in flight, during her last Tribulation. I guess all that needs to be said in this regard is, "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (Revelation 3.19-22)
"I will bring you into the desert of the nations and there, face to face, I will execute judgement upon you." (Ezekiel 20.35)
"At that time, declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they will be my people. This is what the Lord says: The people who survive the sword will find favour in the desert; I will come to give rest to Israel." (Jeremiah 31.2)
"Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her." (Hosea 2.14)
Will the Church in New Zealand be able to hear anything above the din of our collective lust for novelty and success, as well as sensual pleasure and satisfaction...all cleverly disguised as zeal and piety? Will we hear his "still small voice", urging us to build extra accommodations in out-of-the-way places, and press the Government to alter its immigration quotas in favour of God's Jewish People? Will we start laying aside cash, ready to feed, house and clothe Rachel's refugee Children? Will we give up praying for ourselves first and all the time, and start to give our best and most fervent prayers "first for the Jew"? I'm not really all that confident that we will be able to get our spiritually-obese selves out of our own (and God's) way? But then again, "nothing is impossible with God". (Luke 1.37)
"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." (Romans 1.16)
"The King will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did (fed, invited in, clothed) for one of the least of these (Jewish) brothers of mine, you did for me." (Matthew 25.40)
Grim Consolation
In recent days, many New Zealand editors and commentators have reared up onto their hind legs, baying for Israel's "blood". Some have even had the temerity to patronise the Jewish State, suggesting "cute, little" New Zealand can teach Israelis a thing or two about being citizens of the world. (It is extraordinary the complete destruction of vision and rationality that results from journalists having their heads firmly wedged in their own fundamentals!)
Late last year, I wrote in the concluding chapter of "A Great Sign": "Today, while Israel has been for a few brief years (especially during the 1950s and 60s) the 'darling' of the international community, the black stormclouds of prejudice, double-standards and rank hatred are piling up again on every horizon.
"In the end, there will really be only one 'nation' left capable or willing to stand against the tide of destruction which 'the serpent' will spew out 'like a river' (Rev 12.15) against Israel...People, Land and State."
And that "nation" is? Well, it is supposed to be the Church!
In the meantime, as controversy inevitably intensifies and swirls like smog around Israel, we need to take seriously such sentiments as have been plainly expressed by Rabbi Chaim Potok, in his 1978 book, "Wanderings". He there explains that Israel "is a warmth for Jews everywhere".
This is the case "despite the failures and disappointments felt when dreams are soiled by the muck of reality and the weaknesses of human beings.
"What a price we have paid for that land: seven thousand killed in the War of Independence; another thousand killed in the 1956 Sinai Campaign and the 1967 Six-Day War; three thousand killed in the October 1973 war; hundreds killed by terrorist raids.
"We offer ourselves grim consolation: all the wars have cost us less than three days at Auschwitz (Nazi death camp)...The Jew sees all his contemporary history refracted through the ocean of blood that is the Holocaust."
No brazen re-write of Middle East history, nor trendy pursuit of partisan "social justice", will ever diminish the depth of that "ocean"...not even by so much as a fraction of one millimetre. Nor should it!
The Blessed Poor
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5.3)
"Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." (Luke 6.20)
"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." (2 Corinthians 8.9)
"(As servants of God)...poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything." (2 Corinthians 6.10)
"Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." (Acts 3.6)
"All men are required by God to have a spirit of poverty...to do without everything you can do without...occasionally all food, the approval of your neighbours, your own certainty of being in the right - but, above all, the sense of comfort. A comfortable servant might begin to serve comfort instead of serving (God)." (James K. Baxter, New Zealand prophet, 1971)
There has always been an important tradition within the wider Christian Community, of respect for those who believe that their calling to be disciples of Jesus includes their publicly embracing physical poverty. Perhaps the best known would be Francesco Bernadone...Francis of Assisi (Italy, 13th C). After a dramatic conversion experience, he set out to live his life in literal agreement with Matthew 10.7-10:
"As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belt; take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep."
In a very short space of time, Francis drew fervent followers (the "little brothers"), and together "possessing nothing they wandered about like children careless of the day, teaching or preaching, passing the night in hay-lofts or under church porches...or deserted huts." (Father Pascal Robinson, 1905)
When critics questioned him concerning his "extreme" lifestyle, Francis joyfully explained that he had married "lady poverty...a fairer bride than any of you have seen". (By this he meant, he had intentionally and totally surrendered all his worldly goods, honours and privileges to Jesus Christ!)
Another (less well-known) "husband" of "lady poverty" was Benedict Joseph Labre, a Frenchman who lived in the 18th C. From a very early age he had felt drawn to a life devoted to prayer and simplicity, but did not find a "home" in any of the monasteries or hermitages he tried to enter. He eventually felt that the Lord was calling him to live as a vagrant and a beggar, and consecrate himself completely to a life of prayer. He collapsed and died of malnutrition aged 35, on the steps of a church in Rome. This, after years of wandering all over Europe in bare feet, begging food and sleeping rough. Benedict believed he had been called (according to 1 Corinthians 4.10) to be a "fool for Christ", to "recall to men's minds the poverty of our Lord" which has made us "rich".
After his death, street-people testified that they had witnessed him miraculously multiplying and distributing to the needy, bread he had been given. Others bore witness that beggars had been healed when Benedict prayed for them. Among the very few possessions he carried about in an old sack, was a New Testament.
Now, what meaneth this? Well, for a start, this kind of thinking usually sets Protestants off big-time; roaring forth Bible verses (which justify private property and personal wealth) or rebuking "poverty spirits". It could be profitably recalled that Protestantism in its infancy was massively embraced by the merchant classes of Europe. It's just possible that they were biased in their study of the Scriptures, searching for vindication for their beloved capitalism and a desire for personal riches?
Nevertheless, my concern here is to lay bare God's probable reason for "seizing" some of His People and "espousing" them to "lady poverty". The outstanding explanation is that these Christians are prophets, who through their own persons and lifestyles are saying something immensely important to the Church on behalf of Jesus.
1) Poverty is not about the absence of wealth and possessions; it is our inability to generate riches. The poverty which the Lord says is "blessed", is knowing our complete and utter and total dependence upon Him for everything. As the New Zealand poet and prophet, James K. Baxter (who visibly and dramatically married "lady poverty" in the late 1960s) prayed: "Jesus is my water; Jesus is my food; Jesus is my prestige; Jesus is my money, Jesus is my love..." The recognition and acceptance of this radical and utterly helpless reliance upon Him, is the heart and beginning of true faith and genuine sanity for everyone...not just a few extremos!
2) This sign of poverty is a direct challenge to our widely accepted Western lifestyles, which are actually driven by the devil and the world...rather than the true Truth of the Bible, applied to us by the Spirit of Truth. Modern Christianity has been subverted and corrupted by "democracy"...the sense that what becomes acceptable to a majority of Believers is made the norm, rather than the plain teaching of Scripture.
3) This prophetic sign also directly questions our (usually scarcely considered) values and attitudes towards our neighbours who are less fortunate than we are...no matter what the cause of their privation or penury might be.
4) And finally, it is always salutary to be reminded of just how few of this world's goods we really do need to be secure and happy. Increasingly our (christian?) material appetites are being formed for us by ad agencies and their overpaid Mandarins. The so-called "prosperity gospel" is a modern, Western aberration and heresy. It is often practised as little more than a pyramid scheme in some local churches...the money flows upwards to enrich "the man of God" and his clique. The biblical pattern has ever been for the money to flow downwards, to finally reach the poorest of the poor!
The Holy Spirit via the Apostle Paul, articulates perfectly that prosperity which is Godly and permissible and acceptable:
"I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (Philippians 4.11-13)
"But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." (1 Timothy 6.6-10)
"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.' " (Hebrews 13.5)
In a world (and a Church too?) overly driven by the desire for fortune and fame and power, it is imperative to remember (according to Karl Barth, 1948) that in His poverty and meekness "Jesus Christ, nailed to the cross as a criminal, created order in the realm of creation; the order in which man can live eternally as the redeemed, converted child of God."
The hermit-poet, Thomas Merton, wrote in 1949 that he existed apart from God "in the depths of an awful poverty which is nevertheless loved by Him. I am never allowed to forget that poverty. I wish I knew her beauty as well as Saint Francis did - for the external poverty he married was simply the expression of the nothingness which he loved in himself. This week, the week full of the Holy Ghost - I found out once more something of the joy there is in being nothing..."
And by 1962, Thomas Merton continued convinced that "where the Lord sees the small point of poverty and extenuation and helplessness to which the monk is reduced, the solitary and the man of tears, then He must come down and be born there in this anguish, and make it constantly a point of infinite joy, a seed of peace in the world."
Judgement in Proportion
"In 1859 a great revival wave visited our country (the USA), sweeping a half million souls into the fountain of salvation. Immediately the terrible carnage of 1861-65 (the American Civil War) followed. And so, as we anticipate the coming revival, which is already assuming rapidly worldwide proportions, we wonder if judgement will follow mercy, as at other times. And judgement in proportion to the mercy extended."
Here is a "theology" which today we usually consider the territory and preserve of "nutters" and those who seem to be so much more eager to see God destroy, rather than save. Be that as it may, these are the words and the convictions of a leader of, and widely-respected commentator upon, the 1906 Azusa Street (Los Angeles) Revival, Frank Bartleman. What are we to do with this un-pinned hand grenade of a declaration? Bustle past in embarrassment? Verbally machine-gun it to smithereens? I believe that such "different" and "difficult" perspectives deserve to be heard. Their words (strange though they may sound to us) merit pondering, until we've sucked all the marrow from the bones...and then spat the splinters out!
In this instance, Frank Bartleman is trying to make sense of something genuinely wonderful (a revival) being rapidly succeeded by something terrible (a civil war), by viewing it through the lens of God's law of consequences:
"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." (Galatians 6.7-9)
He is clearly making the case, that if the American Church and State had overwhelmingly embraced the 1859 Great Awakening, the causes of the American Civil War could have been amended through repentance, prayer, and holiness of life...rather than armies, bullets, and fratricide. Many of Frank Bartleman's confreres - that first generation of modern Pentecostals - later came to understand the Great 1914-18 War in the same light; a judgement or chastening consequence of Europe's failure to receive and appropriate the contemporary restoration of the fullness of the Person and power of the Holy Spirit to the Church.
(It is depressingly necessary to recall that in Germany in 1908, Evangelical leaders from throughout that nation signed the "Berlin Accord", thereby collectively opposing and rejecting the 1904-05 Welsh Revival, Azusa Street, and the infant Pentecostal Movement.)
Too often today Christians by-pass any kind of sober consideration of the "judgement of God", because it seems to propose a view and an idea of the Lord as lashing out against sinners with arbitrary punishment...even unto death! (I say "arbitrary", because all to often preachers who are loud along these lines, usually have in their gun-sights - not themselves or their favoured disciples - but their opponents, whom they have already judged deserving of anger and punishment.)
This kind of angle or perspective when propounded is non-biblical, infantile, and self-absorbed; it takes into account not at all the Person and nature and action of the holy Lamb of God:
"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." (John 3.17)
"He is the one who turns aside God's wrath, taking away our sins, and not only ours but also the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2.2)
"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as the one who would turn aside his wrath, taking away our sins." (1 John 4.10)
The august Reformer, John Calvin (Geneva, 16th C) insisted that the Old Testament could only ever be understood by Christians when observed and studied through the lens of our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself suffering on the Cross to redeem us sinners. Therefore, every text of the Jewish Scriptures (no matter how apparently full of the destruction of the ungodly!) can now only ever be explained and set forth correctly and sanely, in the context of the over-arching mercy of the Lamb of God.
"He was led like a lamb to the slaughter...the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed." (Isaiah 53.7&5)
"Then Moses said, 'Now show me your glory.' And the Lord said, 'I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.' " (Exodus 33.18-19)
"My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgements come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness." (Isaiah 26.9)
Clearly it is in our own best interests for the judgements of God to be on the earth. Therein lies our hope and health, for by them we may learn to do what is right. But His exertions along these lines are not to "whack" people, or to "take them out". He's not gunning for our destruction, as some seem enthusiastically to believe and also long for. He is constantly seeking to save us...and if not with the carrot of grace, then with the stick of correction.
"God's kindness leads you to repentance". (Romans 2.4)
"Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." (Hebrews 12.10-11)
God's way and method of instruction and formation via judgement, is for us to reap the unpleasant consequences of our rebellious or foolish actions...and likewise to harvest the pleasant fruit of obedient and wise deeds. (I do affirm, that timely repentance and just reparation can kill those seeds of destruction, rebelliously or foolishly sown!)
So, to return to the beginning of this peroration. Bad deeds have bad consequences; good deeds good...and try as they might, the religious spin-doctors cannot foil this principle any more than they can resist gravity!
In spite of a general "conspiracy" to downplay, belittle or even explain away The 90s Revival, it really was a global awakening which, can quite easily be argued, exceeded in many respects the 1904-05 Welsh Revival. It was a distinct and unique, historical Move of the Spirit. It was to some extent (here in New Zealand) widely welcomed for a season. But that reception was by no means universal. Eventually a majority dropped off the pace...the scene-sters got bored or freaked out when their "bill" arrived, leaders fell to squabbling over who was bigger than who in the revival "zoo", and as the flood-tide slackened, the "pharisees" swarmed off their fences to covertly "knife" isolated and exhausted revivalists. (Not a pretty picture. No wonder no one wants to talk about it. Stalinist-like religious amnesia is indeed a force to be reckoned with. But you will never make history, if you refuse to honour history!)
So...what meaneth this? Well, if Brother Frank Bartleman is talking through a hole in his head...then it meaneth absolutely nothing. But if he is accurately applying the unmistakable principle and law of sowing and reaping, then do we really yet see, acknowledge and receive our own present education through God's judgement? For very many Christians it seems to be "business as usual"...doing church in line with where the crowds seem to be, and where the power-brokers have raised their flags. For others it's "give me more, Lord"...the hard-core spiritual, party-animals still at the "bar", convinced that the good times must go on forever because someone else has already paid, and that they are beating the law of consequences!
The following are areas of current New Zealand life where I believe it is probable that our Nation and Church are currently "enjoying" God's "judgement in proportion to the mercy extended":
1) Murders are increasing, to the point of almost becoming commonplace. Homicide is the destruction of the Image of God, which is present in every human being...either fragmented or in the process of restoration. As John of the Cross has pointed out, "God sustains and is present in every soul, even that of the worst sinner." Thus, when a human being's life is taken, it is in fact an attack on God's Being and existence in our society.
2) Nihilism and self-destruction amongst too many of our beloved young people, who are part of one of the most privileged generations in the history of civilisation.
3) Financial collapse and corruption, caused by the "loss" of millions of dollars in savings of ordinary, everyday New Zealanders. Those usually implicated masquerade as bankers, financial advisers, and property developers.
4) Chaotic Church life...growth by transfer and not conversion; the breakdown of affectionate honour for leadership; leadership brutality and totalitarianism; an "I'll do as I please and stuff you!" attitude to local church membership.
"In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions." (1 Samuel 3.1)
"We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, nor is there any among us who knows how long." (Psalm 74.9)
"Her gates have sunk into the ground; their bars he has broken and destroyed. Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations, and her prophets no longer find visions from the Lord." (Lamentations 2.9)
"Calamity upon calamity will come, and rumour upon rumour. They will try to get a vision from the prophet; the teaching of the law by the priests will be lost, as will the counsel of the elders." (Ezekiel 7.26)
" 'You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.' Jesus then left them and went away." (Matthew 16.3-4)
Do we see our signs?
Shadowless Light
"Because the flesh of sinful human beings riots against the spirit, all life in the flesh is battle and suffering," wrote Edith Stein in 1942, while SS killers hunted for her in occupied Holland.
As the Nazi's noose tightened around this beautiful, Jewish Carmelite's convent in Echt, Edith (Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) continued labouring over a book about the remarkable life and teaching of the 16th C Spanish contemplative and reformer, John of the Cross. She was arrested on August 2 and transported into the east. Seven days later Edith arrived at Auschwitz death camp where she was immediately murdered.
Her religious sisters back at her convent in Holland found the manuscript of Edith's "profound study" lying open in her room. It was published under the title, "The Science of the Cross". Reading her book ought to provoke tears of joy and anguish...for the existence and then the destruction of such a refined intellect and spirit.
Speaking of union with God as the ultimate goal of human existence, Edith continued (on from our first paragraph), "(Jesus Christ) chases away satan and all evil spirits wherever he personally encounters them. He snatches souls from the tyranny of the evil ones. Relentlessly he uncovers human malice wherever it approaches him in delusion, disguise, and obduracy. To all who recognize their own sinfulness, remorsefully acknowledge it, and long to be liberated from it, he extends his hand. But he demands that they follow him unconditionally, and renounce everything that can oppose his Spirit within them...
"(On the cross) he pays divine Justice the ransom for the accumulated debt of sin for all times and opens the sluice of paternal Mercy for all who have the courage to embrace the cross and the crucified one. Into them he pours his divine light and life...The pain of yearning for the fullness of life persists until, through the door of actual physical death, entrance into the shadowless light is gained."
("The Science of the Cross" Edith Stein. Transl. Josephine Koeppel OCD. Institute of Carmelite Studies, Washington DC, 2002)
The Church must never ever tire nor cease staring the horrors of Hitler's Germany full in the face. Especially we must constantly and unflinchingly regard the marginalization and seduction of the great majority of Teutonic Christendom, and the destruction of such completely luminous and gifted saints like Edith. For it is only by so doing that we may yet escape our own seduction by antichrist in these Last Days. Above all lessons to be learned out of those desperately dark days is this...that any kind of "marriage" of the Crucified One and the kingdoms of this world is simply impossible, and completely and utterly out of the question.
"Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. 'All this I will give you,' he said, 'if you bow down and worship me.' " (Matthew 4.8-9)
"Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself." (John 6.15)
"Jesus said, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.' " (John 18.36)
By the time Hitler slithered onto the stage of history, Christianity had for generations been permeating the warp and weft of the fabric of German Society. And yet, the greater part of that nation's Church proved no match for antichrist. Why? Because God's People wanted to "marry" themselves to a "kingdom of the world"! It seduced them, took what it wanted (a cloak of morality and respectability), and then cast them away...and at the same time, by government decree, that "kingdom" murdered those Believers who dared to oppose it.
Immediately before Sophie Scholl (a Christian aged 21) was beheaded by the Nazi Regime for distributing leaflets, she cried out against the awful darkness, "How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause. (It is) such a fine, sunny day and I have to go. But what does my death matter, if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action."
The cold-blooded murder of Edith (twice a martyr for being Jewish and a lover of Jesus), and of Sophie, must put paid to any kind of illusion (delusion?) that the Church can ride to glory and power and influence of the back of the State!
"I will explain to you the mystery of the woman (the great prostitute, who sits on many waters) and of the beast she rides, which has the seven heads and ten horns. The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction...The ten horns you saw are ten kings...(they) will give their power and authority to the beast. They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them...The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will leave her to ruin and leave her naked..." (Revelation 17)
But the prospect of Church-State power is a strong drug which some Christians (especially leaders) find impossible to decline. But the consequences are very real and incomprehensibly destructive. (Hitler's Reich Minister, Hans Frank repented and turned to Christ immediately before his execution as a Nazi war criminal. His last words were, "I am thankful for the kind treatment during my captivity, and I ask God to accept me with mercy." He also chillingly said, "A thousand years will pass and the guilt of Germany will not be erased.")
I doubt very much if that part of the Church in the United States which so absolutely and completely identified with the most recent Republican Administration ("God is in the White House!") will ever recover its private and public integrity. Their defeat at the last Presidential Elections should be regarded and embraced as the mercy of God. Now decent folk may have the opportunity to step out of the shambles (butcher's slaughter house) of the corridors of power, and return to dwell in "the courts of our God". (Sadly, they have already been replaced by yet another in-crowd, eager for their few seconds in fame's illusory and deceiving spotlight!)
Increasingly as the End approaches, traditionally blurred lines and distinctions are suddenly going to become very, very clear. Do not leave your alignment too late. It is most likely that those who seek to keep one foot in both camps (lusting after Church-State power) will end up belonging to what is to perish...or to neither.
"The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One...The One enthroned in heaven laughs...saying, 'I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.' I will proclaim the decree of the Lord: He said to me, 'You are my Son; today I have become your Father. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, and the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.' " (Psalm 2)
It should be our joy and our privilege to kneel with Sophie Scholl in her cell, after her sham trial and minutes before her martyrdom, and hear her prayer, "Dear God. All I can do is stammer to You. I can do nothing but hold out my heart to You. You created us in Your image. I beg You from the bottom of my heart...I beseech You, even though I know nothing about You, You alone are my salvation. I beg You, please don't turn away from me, dear God...my glorious Father."
Emmanuel (God with us) alone is our Salvation. Not the National Party nor the Labour Party. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats nor the Conservatives nor the Liberals! Jesus is Lord!
"Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him." (Psalm 2.12)
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." (John 6.68)
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him." (Matthew 25.31-32)
