Sunday, July 26, 2009

The Church Against The Rapture~Jack Kelley (Update Michael James Stone)

The Church Against The Rapture

Opinion by Jack Kelley

When the Christian community gets united behind something we’re a force to be reckoned with. The 2004 Presidential election was a good example. Many of those 35 million extra votes George Bush got were from Evangelical Christians. Sadly, things like that don’t happen very often anymore. Even 9/11 didn’t produce any long term change toward unifying the Body. But try to imagine this if you can. Imagine how different this country would be today if all Christians held a Christian world view, were convinced that the Lord was coming back for us very soon, and were living their lives accordingly. Can you even begin to see the difference we’d be making? It would be amazing. America would be compared to the Israel of Solomon’s day.

To prevent the tremendous effect we would have for good, the enemy has implemented a divide and conquer strategy. He knows that as long as he can keep the Body of Christ fractured he can keep us weak. Over the years, he’s mounted a number of campaigns to implement this strategy. Gifts vs. no gifts, the inerrancy issue, and the proper method of interpretation come to mind. But one of his most successful efforts has been to take advantage of the fact that for His own reasons, God has chosen to keep the Rapture’s timing a secret.

The clues He’s given us point to our departure happening prior to the beginning of Daniel’s 70th Week. But right from the beginning Satan influenced Church leaders to conclude that denying the pre-trib pre millennial view would keep us focused on the things of this world instead of always looking up, waiting for the Lord. So even though Paul very clearly taught a pre-trib rapture of the Church, and John revealed a 1000 year Kingdom to follow it, alternate views have sprung up almost continuously since then.

Take Your Pick

Amillennialism came along in the early 400’s to teach believers not to expect any literal Kingdom, ever. It told believers that the 2nd Coming took place when Jesus came into their hearts, that the Church Age is the Millennium and that end times prophecy is not meant to be taken literally. This removed a major obstacle to having Christianity recognized by Rome.

Post millenialism taught that the 2nd Coming would take place after the 1000 year millennium which is really a golden age of Christian prosperity and dominance in the world. The prosperity gospel and Dominion theology are offshoots of post-millennialism.

The Post Tribulation Rapture view denied the doctrine of imminence by placing the Rapture after the Tribulation. Look for the anti-Christ, it says, not the Christ. Mid-Trib (aka Pre-Wrath) is a compromise between the pre and post trib views that denies imminence as well. Replacement Theology was to deny that the re-birth of Israel is an end times sign. Preterism denies all future prophetic events. Kingdom Now, or Dominionism, contends that the Lord can’t come back until we’ve done our part by converting the world. As a result of Dominionism millions of believers have been looking all their lives for a great revival that’s never coming, instead of looking for the Lord, who is.

The combined effect of all this is that most believers have been lulled to sleep with no clue as to how close we are to the End of the Age. While prophecies that Christians have been anticipating for nearly 2000 years are being fulfilled right before their eyes, they’re more concerned about the long term mortgages on their homes and the interest free financing on their cars. Having sufficient retirement income far outweighs stockpiling treasure in heaven on their list of priorities. Their endless quest for bigger and better toys distracts them from the boredom of lives that have been rendered meaningless, without purpose. False teaching about the End Times has left them ignorant of the closeness of the Lord’s return and complacent about their faith. It has stolen their joy, quenched their spirit, and made them no better off spiritually than the unbelievers who surround us. They sometimes get fired up on Sunday, but by mid-week you’d never know it happened.

Here’s what that means. According to recent surveys in the USA, less than 10% of born-again believers have a Christian world view. That means over 90% of us have been seduced into a pursuit of the same materialistic goals as our unbelieving neighbors. Over 40% have never given the first dime to the Lord’s work. Even more have never shared the Gospel with anyone. Some studies show that the abortion rate among Christians is the same as for unbelievers, as is the divorce rate, and two out of three of our children will stop going to church the minute they have a choice.

I lay most of the blame for this at the feet of so-called theologians who’ve let themselves be influenced by Satan while charged with the responsibility of teaching the Word of God. Remember, Paul’s words to the Corinthians:

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. (2 Cor. 11:13-15)

Knowingly or not, these people have bought into Satan’s lies and have taught those entrusted to them that God’s word isn’t true.

The Greatest Generation

What the secular media calls America’s greatest generation, those who fought and won WW2, is also the generation that sat in the pews of the great denominational churches of the 40’s and 50’s. There they were taught that God didn’t create the Heavens and the Earth in 6 days and Moses didn’t write the Torah. Daniel didn’t write Daniel, Isaiah didn’t write Isaiah, Jesus didn’t feed 5000 or walk on water, and on and on. To make God small enough to fit in their minds the denominational theologians made Him too small to meet our needs. Amillennialism became their eschatology of choice because with a God that small it was easy to believe that nothing was ever going to happen. He isn’t really going to return, they say, and even if he does it certainly won’t be now. Some were actually saying that he had died. Because of their teaching, millions of Christians are asleep at the switch during the most important and exciting time in the history of man.

It’s not because prophecy has ever failed, it’s because like the Saducees before them, the theologians stopped believing it and so the teachers stopped teaching it. Jesus addressed this in his letter to the Church at Sardis, a model of the mainline denominations. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. (Rev. 3:3) The Saducees missed the chance to be on the Lord’s team at the time of the first coming because they stopped believing the prophecies. Liberal theologians and their students are missing the 2nd one for the same reason.

Now another great attack against End Times prophecy has come in the name of the Emerging Church. Leaders of this movement don’t teach the Bible much at all because their success is based on saying nothing that could offend the people in their pews. Consequently there’s no talk of being born again or getting ready for the Lord’s return. They talk of being followers of the Lord not just believers in Him, but in truth there’s very little discussion of what either means. Their pews and their bank accounts are full, and their members are kept busy with projects that often do a lot of Earthly good but aren’t designed to bring any one any closer to the Kingdom. The study of prophecy is viewed as non productive and a distraction from their goals, one of which is to strive for a 50/50 split in their membership between believers and non-believers. The reason for this is that the non-believers can help to form a consensus that will draw the believers away from the moral and spiritual absolutes of traditional Christianity. As with the revival seeking Charismatics there is a thread of dominionism running through the emerging Church’s doctrine. It helps keep them focused on the things of this world.

Which One Are You?

So the liberals are amillennial and couldn’t tell a rapture from a rupture. Pentecostal, charismatic, and emerging congregations are often dominionists, although for different reasons. Catholics and some conservative protestants are post-trib. Almost all have been tainted by replacement theology, and hardly any study prophecy. That leaves the evangelicals and even among us there’s growing disagreement.

It’s popular to just smile and say of the protestant church, “On the essentials of salvation we all agree, but in the non-essentials there’s room for lots of different opinions.” Baloney. The Bible is not a document written to provide a debating society with lots of different positions. It’s the Word of God and it’s not subject to man’s opinion. Though we may not like it all, we don’t have the right to re-interpret it to suit our desires.

But while we sit around arguing about what it says, the world is falling apart and the time is getting short. The Lord’s coming back and 90% of the Church is distracted by the world and doesn’t have a clue it’s about to happen.

God said, “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please … what I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.” (Isaiah 46:10-11) It’s not that He’s stopped performing on this promise, it’s just that most of the Church has stopped believing it and no longer expects it.

Of the 5 crowns believers can win as rewards for the way they live, one will be given to those who long for His appearing. (2 Tim. 4:8) It has always fascinated me that it’s called the Crown of Righteousness. Most folks would think that one would go to those who led exemplary lives. Not so. Our righteousness is imputed to us by faith. Longing for His return is a sign of faith in His promise that He will. (John 14:1-3) I wonder how many of those they’ll be handing out. My Thoughts 09-13-08

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United the Bride is the beauty of the gospel personified and were it to be that we would only focus on the gospel we would turn the world upside down.

But are we looking to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith?

Or are we Socializing prosperity and evangelizing America as the Land of Promise rathet than living the promise Jesus said, I come Quickly?

We are about the business of someone, but I can easily say, it is not about the Will the Father would have us to do.

Jesus came to do the Will of His Father and owned nothing.

Are you proud of what you got? Are you glad of your possessions?

Do you hear God speak?

Not a strange request, because Jesus said you WOULD hear his voice, but the issue is whether you really want to?

Do you want to know what God would say to you today? We as a Bride, should klnow the One we love and if we don't then ask yourself?

Who are you serving? A savior you heard about or a Living God you know. Jesus is coming, but you need to know now who he is and hear his voice lest you find him a stranger and he cast you out....

What are you listening to when he wants to speak to you?

Michael James Stone

Let The Man Speak (When is it too much of the President?)

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Let The Man Speak

Since the election of Barack Obama, we have been treated to the most televised President in history. And in case he hadn't shown us that beaming smile often enough, his failing health care plan was the cue for his latest tactic, which the press has described as "all Obama, all the time." Eleven straight days and counting. Obama has shown up every single day to tout one of his pet programs, usually health care with an occasional foray into race relations.

Even before the Henry Louis Gates Jr. dustup over racial relations interrupted the President's stream of consciousness there have been signs that this President isn't nearly as unflappable as he would have us believe. Full sentences are declining. Umms and uhhs are increasing. Disjointed responses to simple question seem to be the order of the day, often wandering off into territory unrelated to the actual questions. Even George Bush II's mangled English didn't wander this far off track.

Much has been made of Obama's use of teleprompters, and most of what has been said is accurate. But as the mystical Obama spell wears off, and the obviousness of planted questions sinks in on the American public, the press has begun to go off-script to ask questions which don't leave this smooth-talker with his trusty ready-made answers. With reporter Helen Thomas's one-rounder with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, the manipulation of the press is becoming a bit more difficult. And with the Gates planted question, it is even becoming apparent that despite being prepared for the question, the President is fully capable of taking the wrong position and completely misunderstanding why his words would anger so many average Americans.

The constant appearances on TV are not having their desired effect. The more he babbles about health care, the more obvious it becomes that this is just an ego trip and that Obama simply doesn't have the least idea what the plan is other than it must be good--after all, he's proposing it. The average American wants to believe what a President is saying, but when that President can't even come close to explaining a plan that will intrude into nearly every area of American life and health, they begin to have serious doubts. "Hope" and "change" are no substitute for hard facts and coherent explanations, and Obama is flailing.

RINO writer Peggy Noonan, who was extremely kind to Obama both before and after the November election, has summed it up when she says: "The White House has misread the national mood. The problem isn't that they didn't 'bend the curve,' or didn't 'sell it right.' Back then the mood was 'change is for the good.' But that altered as the full implications of the financial crash seeped in. The crash gave everyone a diminished sense of their own margin for error. It gave them a diminished sense of their country's margin for error. Americans are not in a chance-taking mood. They're not in a spending mood, not after the unprecedented spending of the past year, from the end of the Bush era through the first six months of Obama. Here the Congressional Budget Office report that a health care bill would not save money but would instead cost more than a trillion dollars in the next decade was decisive. People say bureaucrats never do anything. The bureaucrats of CBO might have killed health care."

To which I would add, Obama's less-than-adequate efforts on TV to downplay the costs, or merely lie about them, have resulted in even more distrust rather than less. The American people are asking "Why should we support a plan that spends our grandchildren into poverty when you can't even explain the basics?" "We must have a health care bill before the August recess" just isn't cutting it anymore.

As Noonan put it: "His news conference the other night was bad. He was filibustery and spinny and gave long and largely unfollowable answers that seemed aimed at limiting the number of questions asked and running out the clock. You don't do that when you're fully confident. Far more seriously, he didn't seem to be telling the truth. We need to create a new national health care program in order to cut down on government spending? Who would believe that? Would anybody?" Good question, Peg.

The President's plan ignores the thousands of doctors who daily reduce patients' bills and underbill patients who are in financial trouble. How are you going to do that when the plan is run by government bureaucrats? Portions of the proposed bill seem to indicate that such a practice by doctors truly trying to help their patients out could be criminalized. Pseudo-intellectuals who run the government have ideas about which risks you take and how they should limit your access to treatment. Reaching old age will now become one of those "risks." The silly non-Harvard average Joe who eats too much, or smokes, may find his access severely limited or entirely eliminated. And while the bill takes the right of choice away from the citizens, one "right to choose" that is mandated is the right to choose a paid-for abortion. Not a popular position.

Obamacare has now become the lead in a long litany of programs that the American people are not only questioning, but actively opposing. TARP, Cap and Tax, and Czars in every closet are turning the molehill of oppostion into a mountain. And leading the chorus of "we know what's best for you" is Barack Obama, singing off-tune and forgetting the words. Instead of sounding like an operatic diva, he's beginning to sound more and more like Roseanne Barr singing the national anthem.

Obama summed up his skewed sense of logic, facts, and American freedom by saying he might be like the person who might not buy health insurance if left to his own devices. If he gets hit by a bus, "the rest of us have to pay for it." First, I would hope that the owner of the bus chose to purchase insurance. Second, it doesn't explain how the rest of us are not going to pay for it anyway, with or without national health insurance. If he gets hit by a bus, but he's also an overweight smoker does he get less care, thus "costing the rest of us" less? It's called "choice," Mr. President. You want to take it away from us, but you can't explain why your way is better.