|
The End of the Church Age...and After
Chapter 5. Early Pentecostal Rain: The Church Age
We learned that the three and a half year famine in Elijah's day ended with fire from heaven consuming the sacrifice prepared by Elijah on Mount Carmel. We know that this represented God's judgment on Christ. We also learned, in parallel fashion, that judgment fell on the 450 prophets of Baal who represented Satan. But what happened immediately following this dreadful judgment experience? We read in I Kings 18:44-45:
Likewise, following the resurrection of Christ, there was a great rain. No, it was not physical, literal rain. It was the water or the rain of the Gospel bringing forth an abundance of spiritual fruit. The season of the early Pentecostal rain had begun. This season was to continue for more than 1950 years, and its purpose was to bring in the entire Pentecostal harvest of the firstfruits. It began in earnest on the day of Pentecost. During that great and wonderful day, the Holy Spirit was poured out. That is, God the Holy Spirit was in the midst of the congregation, applying the preached Gospel message to the hearts and lives of individuals who were elected to salvation. The promise of John 14, verse 17, that the Holy Spirit would be in you (that is, in your midst), had come to pass. And as a consequence, on that Pentecostal afternoon, about 3,000 souls were saved. This consequence of people
becoming saved would be in evidence wherever there was any reasonably
faithful preaching of the Word. We must define reasonable preaching as
that which was not perfect (Jesus was the only perfect preacher), but, as
a minimum, it was in the setting of the principle that the Bible alone and
in its entirety is the Word of God. This situation of people being saved
would continue for more than 1950 years and would end only when the work
of the churches was finished.
Later, we will see that the churches' work of sending the Gospel into the world was finished during the time of the Great Tribulation. In the first years of the
spiritual season of the early Pentecostal rain, the temple in Jerusalem
was used by the New Testament church. But after a few decades, the Bible
no longer speaks of the New Testament church as having any identification
with the temple. Fact is, the temple was completely destroyed in A.D. 70.
Insofar as the synagogues were concerned, except for the synagogue in
Berea (Acts 17:10-12), they would have nothing to do with Jesus as the
Savior.
The Transition from the Synagogues to the Churches
The transition from the temple and the synagogues to the churches was very traumatic. Their spiritual leaders were filled with anger at those who left the synagogues to follow Christ. Very quickly their anger caused Stephen to be stoned to death by the temple leaders. Moreover, one of the Pharisees, named Saul of Tarsus, who later became the Apostle Paul, brought in Christians, who had left the synagogues, to be killed if they would not repent. We read in Acts Chapter 8, verses 3 and 4:
The enmity of the synagogue leaders against the New Testament church accomplished two things. First, it caused all the believers in Christ to be driven from the synagogues. Secondly, it drove the fledgling New Testament church away from Jerusalem and into all of Judea and even into other countries, beyond Israel. This greatly helped the early church to carry out Christ's command to go into all the world with the Gospel. The enmity of the synagogue leaders was so intense that after Saul of Tarsus (the Apostle Paul) became saved, they continually tried to kill him. By this means, God effectively
made a complete break between the early righteous rain season, when the
spiritual focus was on the temple and the
synagogues, and the early Pentecostal season, when the focus was on the churches and congregations, which were entirely outside and independent of the synagogues. Never again would true believers be found in the synagogues. Before the Bible was even finished, already seven churches were in full bloom. We read about them in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3. By that time, the church age had been well established. In preparation for the church age, which we have learned identifies totally with the early Pentecostal rain and its harvest of firstfruits, God wrote the first four books of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These books provided rule after rule for the church age. An outstanding activity that the churches were to be engaged in during the church age was evangelizing the world. In preparation, the twelve apostles as well as the 70 were trained in this activity, and they were sent out two by two with the Gospel. Jesus gave instructions
concerning the character and nature of the Sunday Sabbath that was
instituted the Sunday morning Jesus arose from the dead. God underscored
that all of the Old Testament ceremonial laws were ended by rending in two
the great curtain that separated the holy of holies from the holy place.
This signaled the fact that the Old Testament ceremonial laws, which all
pointed to some aspect of the Gospel, had been completed by Christ who is
the very essence of the Gospel.
God Established Rules for the Church
Age
As
the Bible was being completed, God laid down many rules that were to be
observed by the church throughout the church age. There was to be
spiritual oversight by elders and deacons. The qualifications of these
elders and deacons were very detailed. Rules concerning offerings and
congregational worship were set forth. Two new ceremonial laws were
introduced, the first was water baptism and the second was the communion
service.
Because the chief task of the church during the church age was the evangelization of the world, much more information was introduced into the Bible as the New Testament was written. This included important things, such as passages that describe the nature of salvation, the authority of the Bible and how it is to be interpreted, the believers' relationship to Christ, and Christ's relationship to God the Father and to God the Holy Spirit.
When we ponder the awesome task of evangelizing the world, which God assigned to the truly saved during the season of the early Pentecostal rain, we can understand at least some of the reasons why God established the churches the way He did. We must remember that at least for the first 1400 years or so of the church age, there was no printing press. The only Bibles that were available were handwritten, and they were exceedingly few in number. And most of the people were illiterate. Therefore, God structured the church in such a way that illiterate people could be served with the Gospel. Qualified men who could teach (that is, they had access to the Scriptures and could read and study them), were appointed as elders, deacons, evangelists, and pastors. They were to be the means by which the written Word of God could be taught to the people of the congregation. After each congregation was established, qualified men were sent out from that congregation to establish other congregations. God details this in Acts Chapter 13, where we read of Paul and Barnabas being sent forth as missionaries from the church that had been established in Antioch of Syria. As churches faithfully carried out the rules set forth in the Bible for the church age, the people who attended the church were placed under the spiritual care of those who had the spiritual oversight of the congregation. At the same time, this external evidence of the kingdom of God in the world reached out into the distant lands of the world so that by the time the church age had come to an end, churches had been established in a very high percentage of the cities and villages throughout the world. It was God's good pleasure to
continue to use this method of reaching the world with Christ's message
until God had securely established the ability of believers to reach whole
continents for hours each day with the true Gospel. That is, God guided
men to develop worldwide communication by radio, by Internet, by satellite
broadcasting, etc. We will examine this phenomenon more fully in Chapter 9
of this study.
The Temple, Israel, Jerusalem,
Judah
Symbolically, God speaks of the churches of the church age as the
temple, as Israel, as Jerusalem, and as Judah. Unless we understand this,
a number of passages that help us to understand the times and the seasons
will remain obscure. Therefore, before we continue this study, we will
look at the verses that set forth this symbolism.
First of all, the Bible clearly identifies the true believers as Jews in the spiritual sense. That is the reason why, in turn, He identifies them with a temple, Israel, Jerusalem, and Judea. All of these entities originally were identified only
In these important verses, God is showing us that in God's sight, a true Jew is not a blood descendant of Abraham, who shows this by physical circumcision, but a true Jew by God's definition is anyone who has been circumcised in the heart. That is, his sins have been cut off. That means a true Jew by God's definition is anyone who has become saved. This truth is reinforced by the language of Galatians 3, verse 7:
Abraham was the progenitor of the physical nation of Jews. In this verse, God is reiterating what we read in Romans 2:28-29, that a true Jew is someone who has begun to trust in the Lord Jesus. To be sure that we understand this, the Bible declares in Galatians 3:26-29:
In this passage, God is indicating that each and every believer, whether physically a Jew or a Gentile, is spiritually a descendant of Abraham, thus making him spiritually a Jew. This is easily understood if we recognize that those who believe are sons of God, as we read in Romans 8:14:
As sons of God we are sons of Christ who in His flesh was the son of David, the son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1). Since Christ is the son of David who was a Jew, and we are sons of Christ, then we who are saved are also sons of David, and therefore, we are also Jews. We can now understand why Jesus identifies the believers with the temple, with Israel, with Jerusalem, and with Judah. These are all entities that are entirely identified with Jesus. Let us, therefore, learn what the Bible says of believers being the temple. In I Corinthians 3:16, we read: The context of this verse begins in verse 9, where we read: The foundation of the temple is indicated in verse 11: For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.The building blocks that are built into this temple are indicated in verse 12:
It
should be immediately apparent that the true believers are typified by
gold, silver, and precious stones. The are the lively (living) stones who
are built up into a spiritual house (I Peter 2:5). On the other hand, the wood, hay, and stubble must relate to the unsaved church members. Fire does not destroy gold or silver, but fire will utterly destroy wood, hay, and stubble. Thus, the Bible is teaching that the spiritual temple is a spiritual
house representing the churches and congregations, but within the churches there are people who are truly saved (gold, silver, precious stones), and those who are not saved (wood, hay, stubble). The churches that have existed during the season of the church age are also typified as spiritual Israel. In Galatians 6:16, we read of believers that they are the Israel of God. In Revelation 7, God speaks of 144,000 of all the tribes of Israel who were sealed (Revelation 7:4). The Bible then names 12,000 from each of twelve tribes of Israel, but the tribe of Daniel is not named. One tribe had to remain unnamed because in actuality, there were thirteen tribes. There were twelve sons of Jacob who became the heads of tribes, but Joseph was given the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, who were the sons of Joseph. Thus, the total number of tribes was thirteen. Therefore, when Revelation 7:4 speaks of 144,000 of all the tribes of Israel, it is immediately apparent that the twelve tribes named are actually the complete fullness of the Israel of God, which includes all the churches of the church age. The numbers 12,000 and 144,000 symbolically represent the complete fullness of all those who would become saved in the early Pentecostal rain season of the New Testament church era. It might be noted that the 144,000 are presented in Revelation 14 as those who have their Father's name written on their foreheads (Revelation 14:1), they were redeemed from the earth (Revelation 14:3), and they are the firstfruits (Revelation 14:4). Remember we learned earlier in this study that the firstfruits are the harvest of the early Pentecostal rain. Later in this study, we will look at the significance of the statement that the 144,000 were sealed. These same twelve tribes are spoken of in James 1:1: These twelve tribes are also called firstfruits in James 1:18: Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
We have learned thus far that the members of the churches and congregations throughout the church age are typified as a spiritual temple and by a spiritual Israel consisting of twelve tribes. The reason that the Book of James speaks of "firstfruits" is that this book is particularly focused upon those within the congregation during the church age. Of course, every book of the Bible is for all believers, including those who are saved during the latter rain. However, the Book of James particularly focuses upon those in the churches during the church age season. The harsh language is to help those in the churches examine themselves to determine if they are truly saved. Also, we read the accusation that those in the churches are "adulterers and adulteresses" (James 4:4). The unsaved in the churches are still in spiritual fornication against the law of God (Romans 7:1-3). Therefore, God provides the Book of James as a warning particularly to those in the churches. With this in mind, we can see why James 1:18 was written the way it was. We also know that the members of churches and congregations were typified by Jerusalem and Judea. In Revelation 21:2 we read:
This verse is speaking of the whole body of believers who throughout eternity future are called the new Jerusalem. In Galatians 4:25-26, the Bible speaks of a present Jerusalem:
The context shows that the Jerusalem which now is consists of individuals who are still in spiritual bondage. That is, they have not become saved even though God calls them a Jerusalem. But these verses also speak of a Jerusalem above. This Jerusalem can relate only to those who have become saved. We read in Ephesians 2:4-6:
In principle, true believers are seated in the heavenlies with Christ even though we live on this earth and serve as His ambassadors. Thus, the external corporate church on earth was made up of the Jerusalem above (those who are saved), and the Jerusalem which now is (those who think they are saved but they are still in bondage to sin). All these individuals made up the local churches and congregations. Therefore, the churches are spiritually called Jerusalem. Thus, we see a parallel as God speaks of the churches as a temple and as Jerusalem. In the temple, those who were saved were called gold, silver, and precious stones. They are called the Jerusalem above. However, also in the temple there are those who are called wood, hay, and stubble. They are called the Jerusalem which now is. The churches are also called Judea because Jerusalem was the capital of Judea. We read in Luke 21:20-21:
These
verses link Jerusalem and Judea together. As we continue in this study, we
will look very carefully at these verses.
In the Biblical account of the spiritual condition of these congregations, we read that already the church in Ephesus had lost its first love. To love God
is to keep His commandments (John 14:21, 24). Thus, they were already beginning to teach doctrines that were not based faithfully upon the Bible. So, God tells them if they do not repent, He will remove their candlestick. If their candlestick is removed, it means there is no light of the true Gospel coming from that church. They will be a dead church. In fact, the church of Sardis had already become a dead church even though some true believers were still a part of it (Revelation 3:1). God was almost ready to vomit the church of Laodicea out of His mouth (Revelation 3:16). The church of Thyatira was troubled by a spiritually adulterous woman whom God called Jezebel (Revelation 2:20). The church at Pergamos had allowed a wicked group called the Nicolaitans to operate in the church (Revelation 2:15). Indeed, these kinds of problems
existed in the churches throughout the church age. At times, it would
become so bad that the churches were entirely removed. The seven churches
of Revelation, for example, finally ceased to exist. However, because the
churches were God's method of evangelizing the world, new churches would
be established even as some churches ceased to function. Throughout the
church age, God in His mercy and patience continued to use churches as His
means to get the Gospel into the world.
In
fact, the spiritual situation that prevailed throughout the church age in
many ways paralleled the situation that prevailed during the 344 years
that Judah existed as a nation. Judah had its high places. They were small
places of worship constructed on a convenient hill. But Jehovah was not
worshipped there. They were places where false gods were worshipped. Thus,
Judah was engaging in spiritual harlotry.
Even when faithful God-fearing kings reigned, with two exceptions the high places were never removed from the land of Israel. God overlooked this obvious spiritual adultery, but He warned them that eventually, God would bring judgment on Israel and Judah because of the existence of those high places. As our study continues, we will look more carefully at this. Amazingly, the same situation prevailed throughout the church age. Doctrines that were held and taught by churches that were not faithful to the Bible are the equivalent of those Old Testament high places. This is true because any church doctrine that is obeyed by the members of the church is an act of worship of the one who commanded that this doctrine be obeyed. When we obey God's commandments, it is an indication that we are surrendering our will to Him, the one who wants our obedience to that command. Thus, if the
congregation obeys doctrines that were designed in the minds of church theologians, and those doctrines do not come from the Bible, then in a real sense, the minds of those theologians are being worshipped. Obedience to that false doctrine becomes the equivalent of a high place of the Old Testament.
Amazingly, God has overlooked these spiritual high places that have existed throughout the church age. In spite of them, for more than 1950 years, God used defective churches to do God's work of reaching the elect with the Gospel. It is true that at times during the season of the early Pentecostal rain, which we call the church age, the spiritual condition of the churches was very weak. But at other times, glorious chapters were written into the history of the church age as believers were willing to be burned at the stake rather than be unfaithful to their Savior. However, even as the Old
Testament season of the early righteous rain ended with a three and a half
year famine of hearing the Word of God, which was also a time that
identified with severe judgment, so, too, the church age season ended with
a time symbolized by three and a half years during which there was an
intense spiritual famine together with God's judgment. We will look
carefully at this sad fact as we continue this study.
|