May 4/07

Where are we in the history of the Church?

The average Christian has no real knowledge of what God is about to do in the next twenty or thirty years. Most would acknowledge that their concept of Christ’s return is that it is immanent, however this has been said for centuries and even millenniums.

What the majority believe is that His return could be at any time, the rapture according to the majority must come before the great tribulation, for the saints to escape this difficult time. The scriptures do not teach this. Jesus in Matt. 24:21&22, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no nor ever shall be. And except those days be shortened, there shall no flesh be saved, but for the elect’s (bride) sake those days shall be shortened.” (31/2 yr.) Again in verse 29&30 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken: AND THEN shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." 

We have another parable that Jesus told Matt. 13: 24, About the kingdom of heaven was likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. When men slept his enemy sowed tares among the wheat. As the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. His servants wanted to get rid of them, but the householder said, “ Let them both grow together till the end of the harvest; and I will say to the reapers, Gather together FIRST the tares, and bind them into bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.

Later the disciple came and asked Jesus to explain the parable of the tares to us. Ver. 40 “ As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world (age). 41. “The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity. 42. And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43. Than shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. (Millennium). Who has ears to hear let him hear.” These two scriptures spoken by Jesus should take away any doubt as to where or when the catching away takes place. There are many more scriptures that support this pre-tribulation theory. Some of the movies that are going around are not scriptural, like “Left Behind” It is the Bride that is left behind and the unrighteous taken. Tribulation is for the perfecting of the saints. (tried as by fire) and judgment on the unrighteous) 

I believe the scriptures teach that God has a set time for everything that He does.  When the fullness of time had come, Christ was born as the Lamb of God to be sacrificed at the close of the Old Testament Age.  Galatians 4:4 “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law.” Here we see that He was born into the Old Testament law, and came to fulfill the law.  Even thou the story of Jesus and John the Baptists’ birth are recorded in the New Testament, they lived and ministered in the Old Testament days.  When Christ was sacrificed on the cross and arose on the third day on the first Easter morning, it was a new era, The New Testament Age, the Age of the Holy Spirit. Old Testament age lasted 4000 years or 4 of God’s days. (2 Peter 3: 8) 

In Ephesians 1:10 we read, ”That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him:” Here we see that God works in dispensations of time. This experience is what some of us will participate in, when we get to the end of this second millennium. The reason I say this is because we still are in 1978, because our calendar should have started with Christ’s resurrection not from His birth, as our existing calendar does. Accordingly we are 20 some years before we enter into the thousand years of The Kingdom of God (millennium)

There is much going to happen in the natural as well as the spiritual before this era arrives. The church will go through much persecution, and the world will go through much the same as the church. The purpose of persecution to the church is to purify the Christians in preparation for Christ’s return, to become over comers. Persecution of the unbelievers is to draw them to Christ.

In order to understand what God is doing in these end times, we have to look at how God dealt with the Old Testament church. We will see that God is very much interested in threes. Three is the number for God’s fullness. God is a triune being, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. God created us in His image, therefore we are body, soul, and spirit. When He instituted the feasts, there were three feasts that God commanded for Moses to instruct the people to keep yearly, namely Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.  When Christ came into the world He came to fulfill these feasts so that we as Gentiles could enter into these experiences through faith believing that He is our salvation, sanctification and glorification.  Also the Temple was divided into three sanctuaries, Outer court, (salvation) Holy place (sanctification) Holy of Holy’s (glorification). 

As I mentioned earlier that some of us will not be ready to enter into what God wants for all of us, when He appears at the end of this age.  Even Paul in Philippians 3:11 says “If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” Here we have Paul, an Apostle and follower of Christ all his life, seems not to sure that he will be part of the first resurrection. Later in verse 14 he says” I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Paul did not question his salvation, of getting to heaven, but he wanted the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. In other words he wanted to be part of the first resurrection to reign and rule with Christ, during the thousand year reign, when the Gospel of the Kingdom is going to be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations, and then shall the end come. Matt. 24: 14 

The question that all of us have to ask ourselves is, how many of us Christians will experience the glory of Tabernacles? As I said our walk with the Lord is patterned after Christ’s walk as He fulfilled the feasts that every Jew had to keep. The pathway for the believer is not complicated. It is relayed to us in scripture as three steps. Christ was the Passover Lamb, (justification by faith) He Died on the very day that the Jews celebrated the Passover. Pentecost ( our down payment of the Holy Spirit) When the day of Pentecost was come, they were all with one accord in one place, (Acts 2:1& 3) and Tabernacles (the fullness of God.) We can search the scriptures and see that the first two feasts were literally fulfilled by Christ on the very day that the Jews celebrated these feasts. However we cannot find that Tabernacles is fulfilled in scripture, or to this day.

We can be one hundred percent sure that just as the first two feasts were fulfilled by Christ on the very day that the Jews celebrated these feasts, so also “the catching away” of the Saints will be on the day that the Jews Celebrate this feast. This is the point in time when the over comers are caught up to the throne to be presented as sons of God. The catching away to the sanctuary in heaven and then back again to earth (the same day just as Jesus did) is the beginning of the time when the manifested sons of God are revealed. These are the first of the first- fruits to fulfill the Fruitfulness Mandate.

The scripture says that when He shall appear we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. What this means is that just as Christ could reveal himself in a natural body of flesh and bone ( minus blood) He could disappear from their site just as He did to the two on the road to Emmaus, as He broke bread and then they recognized Him. (John 24: 20-31) Just as the Apostle Paul wanted the “high calling of God” (Phil.3:11), to reign with Him and be the hands and feet of Christ to the world in the Age to come, so also we should be the over comers that Christ demands of us. 

The Christians that are not part of the Tabernacle experience will not be resurrected till the end of the thousand year reign, They will live in their natural bodies ministering through out this glorious age, but subject to natural death, except that a child shall die a hundred years old. (Isaiah 65: 20) This is because Satan is bound and our whole earth will experience restitution of all things. These Christians will be resurrected at the great white throne judgement, where the goats and the sheep will be separated. If any ones name is not found in the book of life, they are cast into the lake of fire.

We have had many spiritual moves of God over the past several centuries. Many have come to the Lord through the Passover Feast (justification by faith) There also have been Pentecost revivals and many of the main line churches responded, and were baptized w/ the Holy Spirit (sanctification).  Those that did were ridiculed by many of the evangelical churches in the earlier years. I remember in our community where I grew up, some one from the community joined a Pentecostal church and everyone was over whelmed that a Christian would become a Pentecost. Today we seem to have accepted them as brothers and sisters.  When in fact any one moving into this experience is actually moving ahead in his spiritual life with God. When Tabernacles comes at the close of this age those that enter into it will be glorified. Just as no one can enter into sanctification unless they are justified, no one can enter Tabernacles (glorified) unless they are sanctified. Man looks on the outward but God looks at the heart. It is not up to us to judge.

There can be no fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles without the birthing of Christ in The corporate body of the overcomer company.  That is the Son that will prevent Jesus Christ from losing His inheritance in the earth. The son of His right hand will inherit all things with Christ as a co- heir with Him (Rom. 8:17)

It is important to study the law, for it reveals the divine plan and forms the basis of all New Testament theology and Christian living. It establishes the progression of our Christian walk through the revelation of the feast days as they progress from justification to sanctification and finally to glorification. The law of the manchild in Deut. 25 is the clearest law of Sonship in scripture, and yet this law is one of the least understood. Men discard the law when they do not understand it from the divine perspective, or they use it legalistically when they interpret it with an Old Covenant mindset. 

In Romans 8: 17 – 23 Paul is explaining the events of these last days, about the revealing of the sons of God, and how all creation is waiting and groaning, and we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. (Tabernacles) Also Rev. 12: 1 – 6 is the Church (woman) giving birth to a man child. (manifested sons) The over comers within the Church with much pain and travail being birthed. The dragon

standing to devour the man child as soon as it was born. This man child that was to reign and rule all nations with a rod of iron, (Rev.2:27) and this man child (over comers) was caught up unto God and His throne. This will all happen at Tabernacles, which is the first resurrection. During this tribulation time, the dragon (devil) tries to destroy or kill the man child, but God catches him up to heaven and His throne and is glorified. 

Let us all follow Paul’s example when he makes this statement in Philp.3:10 & 11, “That I might know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain the resurrection of the dead. (Tabernacles) Ver.14 “I press toward the mark for the “high calling” (to rule and reign with Christ in the millennium) of God in Christ Jesus Let us all strive for the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Dave Loewen

Triune Last Days Ministries