Is God Preparing His True Churc
Is God Preparing His True Churc
Is God preparing His true Church for the Great Tribulation?
In 2 Timothy chapter 3, Paul warns Timothy (and us) that “in the last days difficult times will come.” (verse 1)
“For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…” (Jim Bakker??) And the list goes on, “…boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather lovers of God; holding to a form of godliness (or religion), although they have denied its power; and AVOID SUCH MEN AS THESE.” 2 Timothy 3:2-5.
They have a form of religion, but look at how they really are! “lovers of money…unholy…irreconcilable…without self-control… lovers of pleasure” – PTL ought to stand for People That Lust.
Is there such a thing as real Spiritual power today? YES! It is not found in wealth, numbers of followers, large expanses of land and buildings or so-called Gifts of the Spirit. To find a Scriptural demonstration of real Spiritual power, unseen in America today, look at Acts 2:36-41. 3000 souls converted to Jesus Christ and added to the Church in one day. These were not FBI conversions (takes the FBI to find them the next weekend), these people were “continually devoting themselves to the Apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer” (vs. 42).
This TRUE Spiritual power was manifest in Peter’s courageous preaching of the resurrection of Jesus Christ – not this “give and it will be given unto you, or God wants you healed” that we hear so much today. Courage to stand up and speak the truth, from a quivering coward that once denied his Lord.
Courage to go the temple during the hour of prayer (Acts 3) and in front of multitudes of enemies (Acts 4:1-3) preach the resurrection of Jesus Christ and of the dead.
Only a handful of people will openly preach the Gospel or take the Gospel to the people today. Most of these “great spiritual leaders” that have made a “name” for themselves preach to their OWN audience.
Repentance of sin that causes agnostics and atheists to fall on their knees before God and cry out for forgiveness, upon hearing the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:22-36). Repentance from religious rituals and traditions to trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
If Peter, Paul and John were alive today, I’m sure we’d have some nut try to market their healing ability. Every time I see a healing in the Book of Acts, I see Jesus Christ proclaimed. Peter and John actually had the nerve to heal a man that had no intention of being healed. He did not crawl down an aisle, beg for healing, pray all night and be anointed with oil. He poor guy was begging for money and expecting money – Peter actually had to get his attention! (Acts 3:1-8) Peter knowing that inspite of all the healings, people were going to hell just as fast as before they were healed.
Peter upon getting everybody’s attention did not ask them to step forward to be healed, or speak in tongues. Peter Preached the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees promptly laid hands on them and threw them in jail. I have never heard of preachers being thrown in jail for healing the lame or speaking in tongues. But I have heard of preachers being locked up for preaching the death, burial & resurrection of Jesus Christ in public! As a matter of fact, I’d be willing to guess that not one pastor in the Soviet prisons is there because he was a traveling “healer”. In Russia they lock you up just for mentioning the name of Jesus in a good light. In America, they just take His name in vain.
Maybe God is getting sick of the soft-gospel of health, wealth and materialism. Maybe God is weeding the liberals out of His church. Maybe God has decided to purify for Himself a bride for the wedding supper of the Lamb. When all these liberals have finally fallen, maybe just old-fashion Gospel preachers will be left for the world to persecute. Maybe when the unsaved world begins to see God severely judging those that CLAIM to be Christians, they’ll begin to fear the God of the Bible. Maybe then, “Every knee shall bow” and give Glory to Jesus Christ (Romans 14:11 & Philippians 2:10).
Jim Bakker – Gordon MacDonald – Gary Hart – Jimmy Swaggart….. Their sins were exposed.
Will God have to do the same thing to each one of us? Or will we quickly realize that we’re NEXT, and do as 1 John 1:9 suggests?
Bill Bennett
This article originated on The Salvation Online Network