The End Time Church

Many Christians agree that we are living in the end times.  Although people have been claiming that His return was near since Christ’s resurrection, the signs today are overwhelming.   One of the signs that Paul gave us that Christ’s return would be near, was the change in the church before Christ’s return.

Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 6:3–10 that there will be people who teach false doctrines that do not align with the instructions of Jesus Christ.  He goes on to say that these men (and women) have been robbed of the truth and think of godliness as a means to financial gains.  In order to find the fulfillment of this prophesy all you have to do is turn on your television and flip through the Christian channels.  It will not take long for you to find a television evangelist who meets these criteria.  It saddens me that many evangelists and churches today, focus more on financial gain then building God’s Kingdom.  It seems that the modern church has become better at making money then winning souls! 

Paul goes into more detail about these people in his next letter to Timothy.  2 Timothy 3:1-9 warns us about godlessness in the last days.  “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,  without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,  treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—  having a form of godliness but denying its power”.  He goes on to say that these people are “always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth”.

1 Timothy 4:1-7 tells us that “in the end times many will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons”.  Again in 2 Timothy 4:1-5 Paul tells us that “the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths”.  This has never been truer then it is today.  I realized this one day when I was looking for an apocrypha book in a “Books A Million” store.  An employee told me that the book was listed in the “New Age” section of the store.  The titles of the books found in the New Age section sounded like many of the sermon titles preached in several of the church pulpits today.  Examples of some of these titles were, “Power thinking for Personal Success”, “Learning to Attract Wealth, Health, and Happiness”,  and “Ask and it Shall Be Given, Learning to Manifest Your Desires”. 

An end time church will be influenced by the world instead of influencing the world.  This church will be under the same bondages as the people outside of the church.  It would be one that is more self seeking then outward seeking.  This church will bend its beliefs to match society, instead of being set apart from the world.  The teachings of this church will encourage its members to be complacent because, after all, God does not care what Christians do anyway.  The end time church would be one that is a lot like the churches that we see today.

The hard part is being set apart and holding onto sound doctrine.  Paul gives us the following command, “not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” Hebrews 10:25.  He also tells us in 1 Timothy 3:6 that we are to warn the Brothers and Sisters in Christ about these things.  Even though it can be very frustrating, we are not to separate ourselves from the church, but be the church to a dying and perverse generation.  As a Christian we have to study the Word of God ourselves so that we will not be swayed here and there by every wind of teaching, Ephesians 4:14.

“But he who stands firm to the end will be saved”, Matthew 24:14

God Bless

Jake <><

Desperate for Christ

Just before Christmas I had a distant relative pass away from natural causes. She was in her nineties and had lived a long Christian life. My family went to pay our respects during visitation and saw many family members that we had not seen in quite some time. My parents were in attendance and agreed to watch our three children in the back of the funeral home while my wife and I went up front to comfort family and friends. My parents briefly explained to our children that their great, great, great Aunt had gone on to be with Jesus. As Andrea and I started to make our way forward, our daughter Emma began to get frantic wanting to go with us. This was unlike her, and I questioned why the sudden outrage. She anxiously told me that she wanted to go up front to see Jesus too. I soon realized that she had misunderstood my parents and thought that we were going up front to see Jesus.

This episode made me wonder if Jesus had been standing up front, how many people would have been frantic, like Emma, just to catch a glimpse of Him? I also wondered how many people, many claiming to be Christians, would have found their way to the back of the funeral in shame of their lives of complacency. It also made me question myself; what would I have done?

I also thought back 2000 years ago, when Jesus first came to dwell among us, the people who accepted Him, and those who turned Him away. Most of the “religious” people of that time missed their Messiah. It was the common and unlearned that accepted Jesus as the King of kings. As this blog focuses mostly on end time prophecies I want us all to keep in mind that it was the Bible scholars of that time that missed all of the signs that clearly pointed to Jesus’ first coming. It was the fishermen, tax collectors, and common people that did not have preconceived ideas and were willing to ignore the religious hype of that time that realized that Jesus had came as “God among us”.

One of my favorite statements that I have mentioned before is that “Most Bible scholars do not let the Bible get in the way of their theories”. This is very sad, but I believe many times is very true. The one thing that I want us to remember as we study God’s Word deeper is the fact that we could be wrong. We need to be careful not to simply follow our church or denomination over God’s Word. I believe that every denomination brings something different to the Christian table that everyone can learn from, but no one denomination has everything absolutely right.

Are you desperately seeking Christ as my daughter did during this recent funeral? Have you found your relationship with Christ stale and complacent? Do you have a knowledge of who Christ is, but do not have a relationship with Him? James 2:19 tells us that “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder”. Just because you have knowledge of Christ does not mean that you will make it to heaven. 2011 is the best time ever to make Christ the center of your life. It is the year that we can get down off of the throne of our life and let Christ take his place on our throne. Please in this upcoming year do not get lost in the religion of Christianity, but rather focus on the relationship of Christianity. Remember it was the “religious” that missed Christ the first time, and it will probably be the same at His second coming. Let us not forget that Christ gave us a Simple Truth about the End Times to know about His second coming. God Bless and Happy New Year.