The Great Falling Away And Our Great Hope (2)

 

The great falling away and our great hope (2)

 

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).

 

“But the wisdom from above [which is Jesus, Col. 2:2-3; 1 Cor. 1:30 -31] is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace” (James 3:17 – 18).

 

It is an evil thing when political movements and governments adopt the language of the Bible to propagate their agendas. It is from the abyss of the pit when they ensnare the souls of men in this language, when they deceive those who should know better, when they turn the hearts of those who profess to follow Jesus into their own messengers of hate and destruction. And what can we say when those who are charged with pastoring Christ’s sheep, instead lead them into the darkness of this present evil age?

 

Those who follow the Lamb are not called to kill; they are called to die. We are called, just as the Lamb, to overcome through laying down our lives for others, through offering ourselves to God for the life of others on the altar of the Cross, always the Cross.

 

When we violate this holy Nature which has been placed within us in our relationship with Jesus Christ, we repudiate Him, we reject our Great High Priest, we trample the Cross and our calling, we reject the Way of the Father (which is Jesus Christ) for the poisonous ways of the pit, we exchange the air of the heavenly for the noxious fumes of hell.

 

I suppose there are no words for all this, it is too incredible, but there are the images of Revelation, the images of the unthinkable, the indescribable – these images from hell ought to be worth thousands of warnings. Yet, when we lose our ear to hear the Spirit, we also lose our sight, our center of gravity in Christ, and we can no longer think or see clearly.

 

And no wonder, for not having “received the love of the truth…God sends upon us a deluding influence so that we will believe what is false, so that we may be judged who do not believe the truth but take pleasure in wickedness” (2 Thess. 2:10 – 12).

 

“You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons” (1 Cor. 10:21).

 

We think we can, otherwise we would not see the wholesale adoption and endorsement of political, social, national, and military evil by much of the professing church that we see.

 

We, who are called to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29; 12:1 – 2), are now being transformed into the image of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

 

How ironic that the image of gold of Daniel 3 has reappeared in our own time. At least in Daniel 3 there were those who were found faithful. What about today?

 

What about me?

 

What about you?

The Great Falling Away and Our Great Hope (1)

 

 

“But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron…” (1 Timothy 4:1 – 2).

 

“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant…unloving…without self-control, brutal…reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…Avoid such men as these.” (2 Timothy 3:1 – 5).

 

“Let no man deceive you, for [the Day of the Lord] will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction…” (2 Thess. 2:3).

 

What does a “falling away” look like? I suppose it has many expressions, many flavors, some perhaps obvious, many – the most dangerous – not easily discerned. I write “not easily discerned,” yet they can be discerned, for it always comes down to the Person of Jesus Christ. Is the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ the message? Are we called to follow Him as He is, consistent with the Scriptures, or are we called to follow images of Him created in our own image?

 

Perhaps I have waited too long to write about this. For sure we are over the tipping point, at least in America we are. We have passed the point of no return, as in Jeremiah’s day. We have rushed past it, bursting through the barriers of morality, compassion, sympathy, and the Gospel, trampling on the good in Christ, the beautiful in Christ, the truth in Christ. While I avoid the terms liberal and conservative and moderate for many good reasons, I will write that these “movements” and ideologies whether political, social, or theological are all destructive and that you and I are called to follow Jesus, and only Jesus. All of these ideologies strip away the image of God within us, the image of God restored within us in Christ, and would make us enemies of one another.

 

Let me share something with you, if a man or woman or young person truly comes to know Jesus, encounters Jesus, and follows Jesus; if a person spends his days and nights with Jesus, that person (let us hope) will only desire Jesus and learn to see all other movements and ideologies as whores seeking to seduce him or her away from Jesus (2 Cor. 11:1 – 3; Ezekiel Chapter 23).

 

Let me tell you something else, those who enter that glorious City, our home, the true and heavenly Jerusalem, which is the Mother of ALL the Faithful (for God only has One People and they are not based on race but found in Christ, the Seed of Abraham; Gal. 3:16; 4:21 – 31) are going to see Jesus and the Father and God is going to overwhelm them in His love and care. They are also going to be overwhelmed in love, with love, for one another – the prayer of Jesus in John 17 will be fully fulfilled in heaven and on earth.

 

And so I ask you, why not live in Jesus now? Why not live in His love now? Why allow ourselves to be seduced and deluded into hatred for others? Why engage in vitriol? Why partake of demonic anger when “righteousness is sown in peace” (James 3:13 – 18)?

 

As Nero and the Imperial Cult lead us into the abyss of hell and death and destruction, why do we not flee to the Ark of Jesus Christ? Why do we not implore those we love to come to Jesus, live in Jesus, live for Jesus?

 

Pastors, let us remember that cowards are the first ones mentioned in Revelation 21:8. Cowards are not those who do not believe the Word of God, they are those who know the Word of God and are afraid to proclaim it, afraid to call their people to Jesus, to live as citizens of heaven. Cowards are those who sell themselves and their people to the Beast, the Whore, and the present evil age. The shepherds of the Good Shepherd lay down their lives, including their economic lives, for the Master’s sheep.

 

Our hope is Jesus and only Jesus, and we are to go “outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Hebrews 13:13). Make no mistake, whatever “movement” we may be in, does not want Jesus and His Cross, for it is offensive, it is foolishness, and it brings to an end ego, pride, and boasting. Jesus and the Cross will have no image but Himself in our hearts and minds and souls.

 

The early Christians were not persecuted so much because they worshipped Jesus, they were persecuted because they would not worship the Emperor alongside Jesus, they would not buy into the Imperial Cult. The same cannot be said of us today.

 

To be continued….