Tragedy or Comedy?

SO MANY SECTS AND CULTISH STRAINS OF PSEUDO-CHRISTIANITY have been founded on the basis of plucking one Scripture out of context and then using it to support whatever pet belief that sect or cult majors on. I could write a whole book about this phenomenon. I do not know whether it would be a tragedy or a comedy or both. Because the use of some of these ‘cowboy texts’ is a complete joke, arousing guffaws alongside head-shaking disbelief. Yet, the outcome for the credibility of the Church as a whole is absolutely catastrophic, as so many gullible people fall for the siren strains of these impostors.

As the apostasy in the visible church has deepened during the past century and more, the cavalier use of such texts has increased. This has particularly been the case with the widespread growth of wacky eschatological systems such as Dispensationalism and delusions about a one-thousand-year period preceding or succeeding the coming of Christ.

A delusion which has particularly taken hold of many people today — especially in the Charismatic Movement — is that there will be a global ‘awakening’ or ‘revival’ before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. The idea seems to be that in order for the victory of Christ over Satan to be demonstrated to the world, such a ‘Christianization’ of the world needs to happen, or it will look like Satan has won. But this is not how the eye of faith sees things. Believers are to walk by faith rather than by sight, rather than only making judgements by what is visible (2 Corinthians 5:7). There has been a failure to realize that evil is being allowed to come to its head and show itself for what it really is, instead of all the ludicrous pretence of human ‘civilization’ or ‘the ascent of man’.

The Conceit that There Will Be a Global Revival Belongs in
the Same Erroneous Category as the So-Called “Rapture”

This false belief in a global revival has come about through a false interpretation and application of the Scripture which says that “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the sea is filled with water” (Isaiah 11:9; cf. Habakkuk 2:14). They claim that this text refers to a future Christianised world prior to the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the final judgement. But this is to pluck a verse out of its context, where it clearly refers primarily to the conditions which will prevail in a wholly renewed creation, after the Lord’s return, in the new heaven and new earth. As Professor E.J. Young comments on these verses:

“When the Messiah has completed His Messianic work, peace is introduced into the hearts of men, and insofar as men are true to the principles of peace which they have received from the Messiah, so far do the blessings depicted herein obtain. In its fullness, however, this condition will not be realized until the earth is covered with the knowledge of the Lord, and that condition will only obtain in the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness”.

Edward J. Young, The Book of Isaiah (Eerdmans, 1965), Vol.1, p.391

So, let me again emphasise this point:  The concept of the world being wholly (or almost wholly) Christianized through a ‘great awakening’ or ‘global revival’ before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ has no basis whatsoever in Scripture and holds out a false hope by which many saints will either become dispirited or they will cherish dreams which cannot find fulfilment. To hold such a belief is as erroneous and even as wacky as the idea of a so-called ‘Rapture’ of the saints before the great tribulation.

The Shattering of the Power of the Holy People

In contrast to the prophetic systems devised by men, the Word of God tells a very different story; for there are many places, in both Old and New Testaments which speak of the saints finally being ‘overcome’ by the powers of evil on the earth when the time for the preaching of the Gospel has come to an end. The prophet, Daniel, tells us of the time at the end of history, which corresponds to Satan’s “little season” or ‘short period of time’ (Revelation 20:3), as being one in which (prior to Christ’s return) war will be waged by a God-hating Antichrist

“against the saints and prevailing against them, until the Ancient of Days arrived and pronounced judgment in favour of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for them to possess the kingdom”.

Daniel 7:21-22

Although such persecution has happened on many occasions during the Church Age, the situation here is particularly associated with the activities of the final manifestation of Antichrist as the “man of lawlessness” (2 Thessalonians 2:3). Here, the adversary of Jehovah-Christ is said to be ‘prevailing against’ the people of God in the days before the return of the Lord Jesus — a reference which clearly militates against any idea of this present world being in the throes of a global revival. Just to emphasise this point, we should note that Daniel then adds that the Antichrist

“will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Most High, intending to change the appointed times and laws; and the saints will be given into his hand…”.

Daniel 7:25

Then, in the following chapter 8 of Daniel, this period prior to the Lord’s return is described as one in which the Antichrist “shall destroy…the holy people” (Daniel 8:24), and will even take a stand “against the Prince of princes”, i.e., the Lord Jesus Christ. But this tyrannical world-system will be miraculously destroyed by the Lord — and as the text so beautifully puts it, will be “broken off without human means” (Daniel 8:25; cf. 2 Thssalonians 2:8). This is an echo of the way in which the formidable Goliath (a type of the Antichrist) was miraculously destroyed by little David (a type of Christ), in whose hand it was said “there was no sword” (1 Samuel 17:50). Thus, Goliath was destroyed without human means, just as will be the Antichrist. It is in this which the saints take their comfort rather than in fictitious mass revivals.

In the final chapter of the Book of Daniel, far from being told that the Church will bring about a largely Christianised world, the prophet is informed by an angel that it is only “When the power of the holy people has finally been shattered, all these things will be completed”, and the end of the age will come (Daniel 12:7). The Scriptures clearly show that we are inexorably building up NOT to a time of global revival but to a time when the power of the holy people — believers, the saints — will be completely shattered! This is the realistic understanding of where this world is heading, and it does not at all imply any failure to the Gospel.

Similarly, this same pattern of the “shattering of the holy people” is borne out repeatedly in the prophecies of the Book of Revelation, which shows that there will come a moment when the witness of the Church in the Gospel Age will have been completed and Satan (“the beast that comes up from the abyss”) will then be entirely unbound from his former restriction and “wage war with them, and will overpower and kill them”, to the great rejoicing of the unbelieving world (Revelation 11:7). Elsewhere, when the Apostle is describing the culmination of the satanic world-system in the rule of the Antichrist, he speaks of the fact that it will be “permitted to wage war against the saints and to conquer them”, and also to have “authority over every tribe and people and language and nation” (Revelation 13:7).

The Vital Importance of Understanding How and Why Evil
is Permitted to Come to Its Inevitable Climax

It is clear that this ‘war with the saints’ is really a war against the Lord God — against the transcendent Jehovah of the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ. However, when the antichristian world-system embarks on its “little season” under its ruler, Satan, waging war against the Lamb of God (the Lord Jesus Christ), the Lamb “will triumph over them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and He will be accompanied by His called and chosen and faithful ones” (see Revelation 17:12-14).

Thus, in the moment that Satan will appear to have achieved his much desired suppression of the saints and dominion over the kingdoms of the world, in fact just the opposite will be true. This is always the Lord’s way of working: He permits evil to appear to be in the ascendency but then He shows His sovereignty by overturning it to His glory. So, when Satan appeared to have destroyed the Saviour of the world through His execution on the cross, this was in fact God’s supreme victory as Jesus’ death on the cross and His subsequent resurrection secured salvation and eternal life for all those who repent and believe in Him. This is why Paul says that God “made a public spectacle” of the forces of darkness, “triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15). They were absolutely routed and ridiculed. To the faithless eyes of the world, it seemed as if Christ had been ‘taken out’. But to the saints, it is the supreme victory.

This will also be the case at the time of the end. When Satan, the fallen angels (demons), the Antichrist and his followers will imagine that they have finally achieved their sought-after dominion over the world… to their terrible surprise, loud voices will be heard in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).

The great ‘Mystery of God’ is that, all along, every nook and cranny of history — no matter how dark or evil — is leading to the moment when the Lord God Almighty will take His great power and reign (Revelation 11:17). This visibility of the Divine victory could have been executed at any moment in time, if He had so chosen it; but that has not been God’s manner of working. In just the same way that the Lord Jesus dispensed with calling down twelve legions of angels to assist Him in avoiding arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:53), so the Sovereign Creator has put in abeyance the moment when He could so easily have wiped out Satan and taken His great power and reigned. The power of evil has first to come to its visible fullness in order to be ripe for judgement — then the end will come and there will ‘be delay no longer’ (Revelation 10:6-7). But until that moment, the saints will suffer and cry out “in a loud voice, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You avenge our blood and judge those who dwell upon the earth?’” (Revelation 6:10) — most especially as the time of the end draws near. This is the reality and we had better be prepared for it. For only those who persevere to the end will be saved (Matthew 24:13).

When Christ Returns, the World Will Be as it Was in Noah’s Day
& in the Time of Sodom, with the Church as a “little flock”

Let it again be said: the Bible does not present a picture of a Christianised world prior to Jesus’ Second Coming. On the contrary, according to the Lord Jesus Himself, when He returns to wind up this present evil age, the overall state of the planet will be very similar to the time of Noah just prior to the Flood (Luke 17:26-27), and the time of Sodom just prior to the cataclysm which destroyed that city (Luke 17:28-30). How were things in the time of Noah?  Read Genesis 6:5,11-12 to find out. How were things in the city of Sodom?  Read Genesis 18:20-21. The picture here, in both illustrations, is of a wholly sinful, unconcerned world, steeped in evil, apostasy, sexual depravity, false prophecy and false teaching, carrying on its business without any concern to know spiritual Truth. With great relevance, Prof. R.C.H. Lenski makes the following astute observation in his comment on Revelation 12:6:

“The old Jewish dream of a grand Jewish dominion over all the nations of the world — a dream that is constantly being revived to this day in the minds of all those who work to make the kingdom of God an outward world power and dominion — is just about the opposite of what John is here given to see in regard to the church. Ever, here on earth, she is not on the throne but in a place in the wilderness, a little flock under the cross. But the day of her final… “ransoming”, “redemption” (Luke 21:28; Romans 8:23; Ephesians 1:13-14), is fast drawing nigh”.

R.C.H. Lenski, Interpretation of Revelation (Augsburg, 1963), pp.370-371

It is most important that the saints grasp these truths, otherwise they will become greatly downcast when they suffer at the hands of the world, imagining that a ‘great awakening’ or ‘global revival’ is coming. However, the stark truth of an oppressed Church on earth is always displayed in Scripture in the context of spiritual supremacy and heavenly glory. In the eyes of the world, the church is a weakling; but with the spiritual eyesight (insight) of the believer and in the eyes of God she is beautiful, powerful, and ultimately triumphant (cf. Isaiah 43:1-7). If we fool the Lord’s people into believing that the history of this planet is leading to a largely-converted world which will usher in the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we are inculcating a grave deception which will serve only to create a false sense of worldly security and complacency. It is not up to us to ‘Christianize’ the world but to bring in the elect of God through the proclamation of the true Gospel of repentance. There are those who seem to think that the Church is required to hand a largely Christianized world over to Christ when He returns as a sort of gift, as if saying, “Look what we have done for You”. This is a complete fable and fabrication. I have even had people say to me, “I want to ensure that there is a decent world here for Jesus to come back to”. The mind boggles at the inanity of such a remark.

So, let us be quite clear on this; rather than advocating the appearance of any Golden Age for the Church immediately before Christ returns, the Scriptures show an outwardly ruinous phase of apostasy, false religion, pseudo-prophets and teachers, greatly increased demonic activity and the intensified persecution of faithful believers. When the Lord Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8), the clear implication in that place is that — apart from the remnant of faithful ones, i.e. the comparatively “few” who “have been chosen” (Matthew 22:14) who are also the comparatively “few” who find life (Matthew 7:14) — the Lord Jesus will not find much in the way of faith on the earth when He returns. So much then for a ‘great awakening’ or ‘global revival’!

Certainly, there will be a steady flow of new saints being admitted into the kingdom throughout this Gospel Age — sometimes more, sometimes less — but the entire idea of mass revival is a flawed one. In any case, so many of such alleged “revival” incidents in history have been the result of mesmerism, suggestion, and emotional manipulation. Genuine conversion experience is only substantiated by the subsequent spiritual walk. I am far more interested in someone’s testimony if it is about the witness of their subsequent day-to-day comportment and their denial of self rather than some flashy experience in a ‘hot’ tent meeting which they can brag about endlessly thereafter (which is merely spiritual virtue-signalling)!

Disciples of Christ Are Blessed in the Heavenlies Rather than in Earthly Terms

Regarding the naked reality of this complete “shattering of the power” of the Church before Christ returns, Prof. H.C. Leupold writes, in his comment on Daniel 12:7,

“Hard though this seems, it is merely one of those necessities to which human pride and self-will put the grace of God before God’s gracious purposes can be accomplished. Strangely, man is so set on trusting in himself and depending on his own power that, unless that power is reduced to a helpless minimum, he will refuse to put his confidence wholly in the good Lord. Only after we have been rendered weak are we capable of becoming truly strong. Israel of O.T. days had to be reduced to the impotence of the last times before the Saviour could come. So her trust in self will have to be broken again before the Christ can return. It is far more important to know that than to be able to foretell in exact terms of years how long this old world order is still to continue”.

H.C. Leupold, Exposition of Daniel (Baker Book House, 1969), p.541

The profound truth which lies at the heart of all these verses in Daniel and Revelation is echoed in that great saying of the Apostle that “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Scripture reveals — no matter how events may appear to the contrary — that the oppressed saints throughout this age are blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3; 2:6). Take note that the Scripture says that believers receive their blessings “in the heavenly realms”; for (contrary to the mass of apostate ‘prosperity teachers’ in the churches today) it is not in earthly terms that the saints primarily receive their blessings but in spiritual ones. Unless one has a simple grasp of these facts, one will live either in dreams or in misery rather than in biblical reality. The symbolic ‘crown of life’ is worn by simple faith and trust rather than by the evidence of our eyes, until we come into glory (see Revelation 2:10).

Although in the world we will indeed have tribulation, we can “take courage” because the Lord Jesus Christ assures us that He has already “overcome the world” (John 16:33) — a reality which only faithful disciples of Christ can perceive with the eyes of faith. The saints of the first two centuries were painfully and exquisitely aware of all this, which is why they were able to be gobbled up by lions with joy in their hearts. As the end of this Age draws to a close, believers will again have to muster that same strength in the Lord in the face of the widespread persecution which will inevitably develop, and is even already doing so as human depravity, debauchery, narcissism, lawlessness and human hubris accelerate, while those who come to Christ quietly proliferate.

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2023
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]