People in God's Church have long hoped to escape the great tribulation that will descend on this earth just prior to the return of Jesus Christ. No one likes to suffer, and we certainly do not want our loved ones to suffer.
We have long known the kind of devastation and destruction that one day will come to pass. We are familiar with prophecies that describe horrifying carnage. We are well aware of passages like Ezekiel 5 that speak of two-thirds of Israel being destroyed early in this tribulation. We are also aware that the last third will suffer mightily throughout this period, as death and destruction continue.
World events that could easily thrust us into this period of time have accelerated in intensity over the past few years. We know that one day a catalyst will finally draw 10 kingdoms together that will "give their power and strength to the beast" (Revelation 17:13). When this happens, we know that physical tribulation will erupt.
These are not pleasant things to contemplate, but they are the reality that will prevail in the near future. Although we have focused a great deal on this soon coming physical tribulation, we have been amiss in neglecting the devastation of the dual, spiritual tribulation that has engulfed the Church for several years now.
What Tribulation?
We have been experiencing incredible devastation, and the only way to reverse this ever-weakening condition of the Church is for each of us to willingly admit our true state and repent of its cause. Perhaps one of the greatest signs that reveals the depth of weakness pervading the Church is that many ministers and members are stuck in the physical.
Spiritual apathy within the Church of God is eroding the ability to grow in depth of understanding of God's Word and to exercise true discernment and sound judgment. Minds have become so clouded and vision so dimmed that the spiritually obvious is escaping large numbers of brethren in the Body of Christ.
Let's build upon a case in point. Much of the prophecy concerning the end of this age is dual- having a physical and a spiritual fulfillment.
"For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of this world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened" (Matthew 24:21-22, NKJV).
We have always known there will be a physical fulfillment of this event, when God will have to intervene to prevent humanity from annihilating itself. But God is also going to have to intervene to save His elect, not only physically, but also spiritually.
God will save a remnant of His elect out of the physical tribulation. Jesus Christ is going to return to His temple. Much of that temple will have to be resurrected from the dead, but some of it will still be alive, at His return, as part of the Body of Christ. The Church of God cannot be destroyed, and it must exist all the way up until His return. For the sake of His plan and purpose, God will intervene and save a remnant of the present-day Church. There will indeed be those whom God will protect and preserve in safety, until the return of Jesus Christ.
Such protection and deliverance will be from a great physical tribulation that will come upon all this world. But before that happens, there is a greater, more immediate danger from tribulation that we must address.
Far too many brethren are missing what should be obvious, and they are failing to recognize that this prophecy, for the elect, is dual. There will be a great physical tribulation that will come upon this world just before the return of Jesus Christ, and God will intervene to provide physical protection and deliverance from this tribulation, but this prophecy also concerns a great spiritual tribulation that is of far greater importance to His elect. If we are not saved through this spiritual tribulation, then the physical deliverance from a physical tribulation will not be an issue at all!
Can we not grasp the true state of the Church? The end-time, great spiritual tribulation is already upon the Church, and later, a physical tribulation will come upon the world. In the meantime brethren are denying our true condition and therefore failing to address the cause of our current spiritual tribulation. This leads to a failure to repent that will in turn keep us from being able to escape this tribulation. The vast majority of the present-day Church has already fallen and failed to escape.
The second chapter of 2 Thessalonians prophesies about today's Church. It reveals what will happen at the very end of this age, just before Jesus Christ returns. As a matter of fact, Jesus Christ cannot return until this event has happened in the Church. One of the very last things that had to occur before His return was a great falling away within the Church. We knew that time would come, and now it has! The destruction and desolation far surpassed anything we could have comprehended. But sadly, some are still waiting for this "falling away" to happen. As a result, they are blind to the urgency of the times in which we live.
The height of this apostasy came after Mr. Joe Tkach, Sr., gave his infamous sermon in Atlanta on December 17, 1994. That sermon attacked the very core of beliefs that exists to give nurture, hope, direction, and vision to God's people. It sought to dismantle the Sabbath, Holy Days, and the system of tithing. In the few months following that sermon, over two-thirds of the Church had fallen by the wayside. Of that total, nearly a third drifted back to traditional Christianity, from which God had earlier delivered them.
Brethren need to do the arithmetic. In your own area alone, stop and consider how many people have left the church you attended. How many simply gave up? How many have returned to traditional Christianity? How many are truly holding onto the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ? It is even more sobering when we reflect on our loved ones by looking at old pictures taken at Spokesman Club, sporting events, picnics, and other congregational activities.
We need to be watchful and pause to consider the potential meaning of what we have been experiencing and witnessing. Was the beginning of this end-time great tribulation upon the Church the very time when that destructive sermon was given? The resultant magnitude of devastation that came upon the Church parallels the account of Ezekiel 5, which is yet to be fulfilled upon physical Israel. Isn't the initial loss of two-thirds of the Church worthy to be called a time of great tribulation?
Are we being watchful and do we understand that the carnage is not yet over? Since that time, the Church has dwindled in size as it continues to be scattered. What will be left? Who will survive? The term remnant takes on a new meaning for God's people.
When we think of the great tribulation, a period of three and a half years may come to mind. If so, we may then conclude that since our experiences surpass that period of time we could not be in the time called the great tribulation. We may then regrettably disregard the relevance of these events and miss the spiritually obvious.
There are other prophetic periods toward the end of this age that speak of seven years, or 1290 days, or 1335 days. We have always tried to understand all these events. But even as Daniel was told concerning some of these very times, "...the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end" (Daniel 12:9, KJV). The end-time is upon us. Do we have ears to hear and eyes to see? There are many reasons why all timing is not understood until or even after it has been fulfilled. We are to be watchful and weigh events by God's Word because we do not know when or how all these events will be fulfilled. If we close our minds to obvious events, then we will neither be watching as we should nor will we understand what we are going through.
A prophetic cycle of 1260 days was accomplished on the Sabbath preceding Pentecost of 1998. Pentecost of that year may well have been the beginning of a final phase of prophecy concerning spiritual tribulation for the Church. If Pentecost does mark the beginning of a final phase of prophecy concerning spiritual tribulation of the Church, then we should take special note of the meaning of this day. Pentecost pictures the firstfruits of God's great plan. Such a division in time can have great meaning for us because this may be the final period where the count is fulfilled that completes the 144,000 who will be resurrected at the return of Jesus Christ. Are we in a time where the Church is being measured to determine who will be in the final count of Pentecost? After prophecy is fulfilled concerning the tribulation upon the Church, then conditions can quickly ignite on the world scene that lead to great physical tribulation.
Great tribulation on the Church can certainly occupy more than three and a half years. Will it be seven years (two prophetic periods of three and a half years)? Whatever the time, we must be watchful and understand that now is the time for exercising judgment as never before in our lives, while we seek to hold fast to the truth that God revealed to us from the beginning. Time is indeed running out for the scattered Church of God!
Without preconceived ideas of how or when things at the end of this age are fulfilled, can we admit what we have obviously been experiencing in the Church? Are you going to be a part of the remnant that escapes this great tribulation? Do you see the need to escape? Is the destruction real to you or are you still looking for to the future when 2 Thessalonians will be fulfilled? Are you still waiting, as some are, for a scattering of God's people? Are you oblivious to the famine of God's Word that afflicts today's Church?
How much more of the Body of Christ must be weakened, splintered, or destroyed before we as a people awake to the reality crying out to us from the carnage of fallen brethren? [For a deeper and more sobering view of the Church, you may request the two part sermon "Focused In Reality."]
Where is the love of God?
As Matthew 24 states, the love (Greek- agape) of many has waxed cold. This is one of the signs within the Church that Jesus Christ said would be fulfilled before He returns. This statement about the waning of God's love is directed at the Church and the Church alone! The world does not have access to this kind of love because it does not have access to God's Holy Spirit. Over the past few years, God's love has been disappearing from our midst. Brethren do not love one another as they should. It is ironic when we consider that we, of all people, have the capacity to love one another with godly love. [You may request the sermon, "Law & Love."]
The Passover itself is a witness against us and of our failure to yield ourselves to Jesus Christ living in us. As a people, we have become very weak and spiritually sick. Most pathetic of all is that so many are falling asleep. Over the years we have been failing to grasp the depth of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ which enables us to love one another by His life dwelling in us. Many talk about love and Jesus Christ, as in traditional Christianity, but fail to exercise that love. Instead they abandon or work to destroy truths that God restored to the Church during the time of Philadelphia.
"And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.' In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep" (1 Corinthians 11:24-30, NKJV). This can have both physical and spiritual consequences in our lives.
At baptism and the laying on of hands, we enter into a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ and God the Father. That covenant includes our desire to yield ourselves to His life dwelling in and through us. We entered into this agreement so that by the power of the Holy Spirit we might be able to confess or acknowledge the very life of God and Jesus Christ by the way we live. Today, many do not allow that life and power to dwell in them and thereby are working against the purpose of God. Brethren are actually working against the purpose of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, not only that we might be forgiven of our sins, but that we might be saved by His life living in and through us in the Body of Christ.
"Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life" (Romans 5:9-10, NKJV). We can be forgiven of sin and begin to have a relationship with God through the death of Jesus Christ. Then we can be saved by our very minds and lives being changed through receiving the life of Jesus Christ living in and through us. It isn't enough to be forgiven of sin; our very minds must be transformed in thinking.
When Jesus told the disciples about the coming of the Holy Spirit, He said, "it will dwell with you and shall be in you." He went on to say, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: Because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you" (John 14:18-20, KJV). These very scriptures, that we read on Passover evening, reveal what Jesus Christ said would begin to happen in the lives of all who are a part of the Body of Christ. It began on the day of Pentecost.
Too many do not understand what Jesus Christ meant when He said, "I will come to you" (verse 18). He was not speaking of His second coming! He was revealing what would shortly begin to happen on Pentecost in the Body of Christ and would continue to happen over the following centuries each time someone had hands laid upon them and received the Holy Spirit. The expression "I will come to you" is not in future tense. In Greek it is present indicative, middle voice, and is somewhat like present progressive in English. It shows that Jesus Christ will come to us and continue coming to us in a present and ongoing way. In other words, once we are begotten of God, He is going to live in and through us by the power of the Holy Spirit. He will make His dwelling or abode in us.
This is why Jesus went on to explain, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home [KJV, abode] with him" (John 14:23, NKJV). "Abide [Greek- dwell, live] in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:4-5, NKJV).
Jesus Christ suffered and died so that He and His Father might be able to dwell in us. This is the power that transforms our very minds and ultimately saves us. If we fail to yield ourselves to this, then we take lightly the death and suffering of Jesus Christ. The result will be an inability to treat one another in the Body of Christ as we are commanded. In this two-fold way, we will not be rightly discerning the Body of Christ.
Discerning the Body of Christ is spiritually profound. We must grasp the magnitude of the purpose of Christ's sacrifice for us, so He can dwell in us to save us. We must grasp the importance of His life dwelling in us producing a right relationship with God our Father and Jesus Christ, and thereby yielding right relationships within the Body of Christ.
Let's go back and read those verses in 1 Corinthians from another translation and get to the heart and core of the problem. "This can only mean that whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes again. So that, whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord without proper reverence is sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. No, a man should thoroughly examine himself, and only then should he eat the bread or drink the cup. He that eats and drinks carelessly is eating and drinking a condemnation of himself, for he is blind to the presence of the Body. It is careless participation which is the reason for the many feeble and sickly Christians in your church, and the explanation of the fact that many of you are spiritually asleep" (1 Corinthians 11:26-30, Phillips translation).
Antichrist
Brethren often find it hard to believe Jesus Christ's warning about many false ministers in the Church, at the end, before His return. It may be even harder to understand how the term antichrist could describe someone in the Church.
"Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?" (1 John 2:22, KJV). If we fail to yield ourselves to the life of Jesus Christ living in us, then we are liars. We are lying against God and the covenant we made. If we fail to yield ourselves to His life living in us, then we are denying His very purpose as our Messiah, who came to die for us and save us.
Truth itself is miraculously revealed to us through the power of God's spirit, revealing it to our minds. Anyone who abandons, pollutes, alters, or attacks the truths that God has revealed to us automatically cuts oneself off from the life of Christ living in them. They can no longer have true fellowship with God and certainly cannot have spiritual fellowship with other faithful brethren.
"Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: Let that therefore abide [Greek- dwell, live] in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain [Greek- dwell, abide, live] in you, ye also shall continue [Greek- dwell, abide, live] in the Son, and in the Father" (1 John 2:22-24, KJV).
We are to confess or acknowledge by our life that we are yielding to Jesus Christ dwelling in us. We should desire it with all our being. But what was John talking about when he spoke of that which we heard from the beginning which should be dwelling in us?
This goes back to what he was saying at the beginning of the chapter, "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 2:4, KJV). A person who professes a relationship with God but does not keep the commandments of God is a liar. The only way such a person can keep the commandments of God is by the life of Jesus Christ living in him. If he denies Christ and the Father, so that they cannot dwell in him, he is not able to keep the commandments in spirit and truth, and is therefore, most certainly, a liar. Anyone who turns away from the doctrines and teachings that God has spiritually revealed to us, from the beginning, is denying God and Jesus Christ, and is thereby fighting, resisting, and lying against God and His purpose for us.
"But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love [Greek, agape] of God perfected: hereby know we are in him. He that saith he abideth [Greek- dwells, lives] in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard from the beginning" (1 John 2:5-7, KJV).
What is the word that we have heard from the beginning? It is the most basic law of how man is to live his life. But he has failed and been unable to keep it. "For this is the message [Greek- commandment] that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another" (1 John 3:11, KJV). It is an old commandment, but it is being made new through the new covenant. Now, Jesus Christ can live in our lives and make this a reality. We will now be able to live this kind of love toward others if we do not deny Him, but choose to continually yield ourselves to His life in us. "Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you; because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth" (1 John 2:8, KJV).
Could it be any clearer how we as God's people are going to be known? It will be revealed first and foremost by how we relate to one another in the Body of Christ. On Passover, we read these words of Jesus Christ: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love [Greek, agape] one to another" (1 John 13:34-35, KJV). Only those in the Body of Christ can experience the love of God. The world does not have access to it.
Hopefully we can now go on to gain a better understanding of God's love as revealed through the apostle John, even as he went on to give further instruction to the Church. "And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another. This is love [Greek, agape], that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist" (2 John 5-7, KJV).
This last verse lends itself to misunderstanding in a way similar to John 14:18. Those "who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh" is not past tense. It is not a reference about some who may be questioning whether Jesus Christ came as a human being and dwelt in a human body. In Greek, this word is present passive participle, in middle voice. It is present and ongoing. It is referring to brethren who "deny" or "confess not" the life of Jesus Christ dwelling in and through them. Being impregnated with God's Spirit is not enough. We must continually yield our lives to His life dwelling in us which will be reflected in how we treat one another. If we fail to hold fast to the truths that God has restored and delivered to us and fail to keep His commandments, then we cut ourselves off from God and the power of His spirit dwelling in us. If we are cut off from the life of Jesus Christ and God the Father dwelling in us, then we will not be able to live the kind of life of love toward one another that we have just read about. And if we fail to live such a life of love toward one another, then we manifest that we are not true disciples.
Again, this is not talking about people in the world, because they do not have the ability to yield themselves to the life of Jesus Christ dwelling in them . This has only been granted to those who are called and baptized into Jesus Christ. John is addressing the fact that there are deceivers who do not yield themselves to the life of Jesus Christ continually coming in their lives, in their flesh.
The love of God has waxed cold in the Church. False ministers abound, and brethren find it difficult to discern what is true and what is not. "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us" (1 John 3:18-24, KJV).
Our lives are to reflect the life of God and Jesus Christ in us. This will be manifested in our attitude and relationship toward other brethren in the Body of Christ. If we fail to be faithful stewards of the truths God has delivered to us as a people, then we will not be able to experience this kind of Godly love with true brethren in the Body of Christ. That physical and spiritual relationship within the Church is essential to spiritual development. This is God's purpose- to bring us into a full family relationship- first of all with Him and then with those whom He has called into His fellowship. If we fail to remain faithful to God's truth, to His word miraculously revealed to us, then we will not be able to have a true relationship with Him, and we will be cut off from a true fellowship with true brethren.
Many brethren today are frantically trying to build false bridges of pseudo-fellowship in an effort to recreate what is missing in their lives. Any fellowship composed of brethren who are turning away from the truth once delivered will not produce true spiritual fellowship, but only a pseudo one. Such people like to speak about love and Jesus Christ. These same people tolerate error in others or themselves and thereby work against the truth God restored to the Church during Philadelphia.
Any who seek to escape this present tribulation upon the Church must do as Paul instructed for those who take the Passover. All must examine themselves to see if they are indeed being faithful stewards of the truths God delivered to us when He opened our mind. Most have apostatized and turned from the truth God restored to the Church. Doing so has robbed them of a true spiritual fellowship with God and His Church. Turning from the truth once delivered also turns one away from the Body of Christ and from proper understanding and thankfulness for the Passover.
Do you need to recapture truth and rebuild on the Temple of God? This must be your quest if you truly desire to be among the elect at the end of this age and to escape the spiritual tribulation upon the Church.
A Remnant Will Escape
Most of the present-day Church has been decimated. We are experiencing the end-time great spiritual tribulation. We should desire to escape and seek to be saved from it. God called us so we could be saved at this time and be in the first great resurrection.
Many have been deceived and conquered. People have been so physically minded that they have been blinded by events of recent years. Too many have had a greater focus on being saved physically in a place of safety from a physical tribulation than they have of being saved spiritually and escaping the great spiritual tribulation of the Church. Do you think God is more concerned with saving your physical life than He is about saving your spiritual one? Which is more important? Where is your focus?
Yes, too many are stuck in the physical. Is it any wonder that relationships are suffering? Is it any wonder we haven't been grasping the depth of the meaning of Passover as we should?
As a people, we have not lived faithfully before God. Matthew 25 reveals that all of us have either slumbered or slept. We were neither faithful to the charge of being spiritually alert and watchful, nor of being ready for the bridegroom's coming. We must repent and seek God's favor and help so that we may be part of the remnant that will live as the bride who makes herself ready.
The choice is yours! Will you humble yourself and cry out to God for deliverance? God promises to bring a remnant through this tribulation and for the elect's sake He will even cut it short. "And it shall come to pass, that whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call" (Joel 2:32, KJV).
Yes, the spiritual tribulation will be cut short, or we would not survive. God will bring a remnant through this time. However, if we do not survive the spiritual tribulation upon the Church, then our hope of deliverance and safety through the time of physical tribulation on this world will be of little consequence. If we can indeed be a part of the remnant that escapes the spiritual tribulation, then we can go forward and seek a place of safety from physical tribulation.
Jesus Christ gave us the instruction we must heed regarding this time of tribulation. After describing the tribulation to the disciples, He said, "Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man" (Luke 21:36, KJV). In the Greek, the word translated as "Watch" means "to keep awake, to abstain totally from sleep." We are to be spiritually alert. We can only do that through the means described in this article. In order to be saved we must yield ourselves to the life of Jesus Christ dwelling in us. Only by His life dwelling in us may we be accounted worthy to escape and stand before Him at His return.