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October 2010 Newsletter

This news letter is a follow-up to September's newsletter,

"As in the Days of Noah", written by Nicholas Jackson

After the previous newsletter As in the Days of Noah  was sent out, there came a reply with challenging questions over the teaching. I am sure there are many more people who were challenged in the same way as this person was and many who have the same questions that were raised. We understand that this teaching does go against a trend of modern day church teaching that seeks to paint a view of eschatology [end time events] around an event titled the rapture . This has taught the church to look for a way of escape rather than to stand in the victory of Messiah Jesus in the earth. I appeal to you all, if you have struggled through the teaching from last month's newsletter, to seek the Lord earnestly about it, asking Him for revelation from the Word.

The unfolding Revelation of God's Word

God continues to unfold the revelation of His Word to us as we walk with Him and with each other. It is time for all of us who are members of the Body of Christ to humble down and allow the Word of God to speak to us, not assuming we know what it says before we read it. Paul writes to the Philippians, and to us, that we are to have a mind to press towards the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you  (Phil.3:14-15). God wants us all to walk together in a mature mind, that is, in an attitude of being willing to give up everything for the sake of Jesus and the gospel. When we do, even where we do not see things the same way, we can trust that God will reveal areas of uncertainty to us.

It is so important to enter into the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him [Jesus Christ]  (Eph.1:17). Otherwise we become wise in our own opinion  (Rom.11:25) and become puffed up on behalf of one against the other  (1Cor.4:6c). The apostle Paul warns us to not think beyond what is written  (1Cor.4:6b). Let us commit ourselves to the unfolding revelation of God's Word, admitting that we do not have the full knowledge and understanding, but we do have the Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ  (2Tim.3:15b).

God is restoring to us the victorious gospel!

What we have noticed with the introduction of the rapture teaching in the early 1800s is a decline in the church of believing in the victory of the gospel and the Messiahship of Jesus, that is, that He has already been exalted to the throne of God and is ruling and reigning in heaven and earth (Acts 2:33-36; Matt.28:18). Many have been looking for a way out and waiting for a rapture to take them to heaven while leaving the world to be overrun by the devil.

Preaching and teaching Jesus as the Christ

The early apostles came preaching a very simple but profound gospel; And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ  (Acts5:42). The apostle Paul's last years were spent preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence &  (Acts28:31). The apostle Paul suffered many things for this gospel but was able to declare, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us  (Rom.8:35, 37).

To preach Jesus as the Christ is to preach that Jesus is King. To preach the kingdom of God is to declare God's rulership in the earth through the Messiah, that He must reign till all His enemies are made a footstool for His feet  (1Cor.15:25). Through preaching the manifold wisdom of God to principalities and powers  (Eph.3:10), all His enemies will bow before Him!

 We may suffer for preaching this but we have a promise that it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven &  (2Thess.1:6-7). Even Nebuchadnezzar had to learn through serious anguish of soul that Heaven rules!  (Dan.4:26b). We are not in a losing battle: Our King has won and we are not to rest until He makes Jerusalem [a picture of the Bride Church] a praise in the earth  (Is.62:7).

Our inheritance - Heaven or earth?

The testimony of Scripture is that God preserves and safeguards the righteous in His judgement of the wicked. He preserved Noah in the earth while the wicked were judged. As much as some people may want to argue that Noah was taken up  above the flood and that is pointing to us going to a heavenly location in the time of judgement, the fact remains that Noah remained in the earthly sphere. God did not take him out of the destruction but kept him safe in the midst of it. It is also interesting that when Jesus comes we will meet Him in the air, that is, in the earthly realm (1Thess.4:17).

When Jesus comes it is written that These [ungodly and disobedient people] shall be punished with everlasting destruction &when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints &  (2Thess.1:9-10a). Notice that two things happen at the same time and no one goes anywhere. The destruction of the wicked happens at the same time the saints are glorified and the only person who has ventured from one place to another is the Lord Jesus Himself as He is revealed from heaven  into the earthly realm. 1Thessalonians 4:16 says, for the Lord Himself will descend from heaven. 

Will the earth literally be destroyed?

The point that was made in last month's teaching was that while God had said in Noah's day I will destroy them [the wicked] with the earth  (Gen.6:13b), the earth was not literally destroyed as such. But Peter even says, the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water  (2Pet.3:6). So it was the wickedness in the earth and the world system of evil that was destroyed: its way of life perished. Noah, in a sense, inherited a new earth - a place where the wickedness had been cleansed and where Noah, who was righteous before Me [God] in this generation  (Gen.7:1), could dwell in peace. Likewise Peter says that we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells  (2Peter3:13). Notice, the new heavens and new earth is characterised as a dwelling place of righteousness, that is, where people walk by faith in Jesus Christ receiving His grace.

 Jesus said that the meek & shall inherit the earth  (Matt.5:5) and He also taught us to pray Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven  (Matt.6:10). God's plan is for the earth to be inherited by humble people who will receive His kingdom rulership and pray to see the reality of Heaven's life here on the earth.

The kingdom of heaven is revealed in the earth

The parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13 is a parable concerning the kingdom of heaven. When Jesus interprets the parable He says that the field is the world  (Matt.13:38). Where does Jesus say the kingdom of heaven is? It is in the world! The kingdom of heaven is to be found in the earth and we are born again to enter it (John3:5-6).

He plants the sons of the kingdom in the world and they grow up together with the tares which are the sons of the devil. When both are in maturity, then comes harvest time when The Son of Man will send out His angels [messengers], and they will gather out of His kingdom [which is in the world] all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire...  (Matt.13:41-42a). Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father  (Matt.13:43). The kingdom of heaven is revealed in the world with no more wickedness; the fire has burnt it all up (2Pet.3:10-12).

The elements will melt with fervent heat

It is interesting to note that the word used for "elements" in 2 Peter 3:10 & 12 is the same Greek word used in Colossians 2:8, and translated basic principles ; in Colossians 2:20, it is again basic principles . In Galatians 4:3, the NKJV translates the word as "elements":: in bondage to the elements of the world .

The same word is used in Galatians 4:9 how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements , to which you desire to be in bondage . It is also used in Hebrews 5:12 in a positive context and translated as principles, the first principles of the oracles of God .  

Elements translates the Greek word stoicheion  and is found in Strong's Concordance Greek #4747. This word means: something orderly in arrangement. It literally means: 'constituent' and figuratively 'a proposition'. It can be used positively or negatively, and in the Bible it is mostly used in negative context of the rudimentary principles of this world.

In these contexts the word is actually used to describe basic teachings of the world system. They are worldly doctrines, false teachings and doctrines of demons that bring bondage rather than the freedom which is found in the truth of God's word (John8:32). God said through Jeremiah, Is not My word like a fire  (Jer.23:29). It is the fire of God's word that burns up the weak and beggarly elements, the false doctrines of the world so that there is only righteousness left: a new heavens and a new earth.

Jesus said, I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!  (Lu.12:49). He had just been talking about judging the wicked servant who abused his authority and was about to begin to share how He did not come to bring peace but a sword that would even divide natural families. He came to bring judgement! The fire of His word is what He sends on the earth!

Establishing the kingdom; the mystery revealed

God is at work to establish His kingdom in the earth. Daniel said that it will be as a stone that...became a great mountain and filled the whole earth  (Dan.2:35). He also says that this kingdom will break in pieces and consume  all other kingdoms (Dan.2:44). This kingdom however will never be destroyed  [see Revelation 11:15].

The gospel that Jesus and the apostles preached was a gospel that reveals the glory and power of Jesus the Messiah, the King who is the Ruler of the kings of the earth  (Rev.1:5). It is a gospel that will reign victorious in every generation until His glory is revealed in all the earth - the glory which is seen in the face of Jesus Christ (2Cor.4:6) as He manifests His word through preaching  (Tit.1:3). The mystery is that in Christ, God is bringing all things in heaven and on earth together in Him (Eph1:10).

Heaven will be seen to rule in the earth!

Who was taken away?

Some people seem quite sure that in Matthew24:39 Jesus was talking of Noah and his family being taken away in the flood. Please re-read that passage carefully and honestly.

In verse 39 it says that they did not know until the flood came and took them all away... . Noah and his family knew the flood was coming; that is why Noah built the ark!

It is true that Jesus said that the Son of Man will come at an hour that we do not expect. However, Paul says in 1Thessalonians5:2-5, For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, 'Peace and safety!' then sudden destruction comes upon them...and they shall not escape. But you brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of the Light and sons of the Day. We are not of the night or of darkness. 

Paul is saying that if we are in the light, we will be ready for the Day and it will not overtake us or be sudden and unexpected. The wicked on the earth in Noah's day did not know until the flood came and took them all away. Noah knew perfectly well what was happening - he had prepared for it for quite some time. He was a son of the Day!

Please think upon these things, Nicholas.

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