THE KINGDOM NOW

THE KINGDOM NOW

This expression of "Kingdom now" was first heard by me more than 30 years ago, and was meant to describe a group of people who believed that the Kingdom of God is presently active on the earth today. It was considered by some denominational leaders that this was a "heretical" teaching. These leaders had been influenced by the teaching that came into the church in the early 1900's by Dr C, I. Scofield. He produced a Bible called The Scofield Reference Bible, which became quite popular. He introduced the theory that all of human history could be divided into seven periods of time that he called "dispensations". Hence this teaching became know as "dispensational" teaching. One part of this teaching declared that every dispensation had to end before the next one could start. This has caused a lot of confusion in the body of Christ, because it is clearly in error. God divided history into only two parts , called the Old Covenant, and the New Covenant, with the ministry of John the Baptist as the dividing point between the two. (Matt 11:11). And these words were spoken by Jesus, so we know they are true! The Kingdom came to earth with the King, Jesus at his incarnation. He often referred to the Kingdom as being "near", or "in your midst" when He was here in person. Because at the present it is invisible and exists only in the hearts of true believers, but when He comes back in the clouds of glory to receive His "Church/Bride" His Kingdom will then be fully manifested!

So those believers who are locked into this dispensational teaching, which places the Kingdom age as being yet future, naturally believe that it can't come as long as the church is still here on earth. Unfortunately this teaching has spawned many false teachings that have become popular in the church. One of these teachings, that has become a firmly established doctrine is the Pretribulation Rapture theory, that teaches that the church must be removed before the end time scenario can begin. This of course includes the church going through the period known as the "great tribulation", first prophesied by Daniel, and confirmed by Jesus in the 24^th chapter of Matthew, Paul in his second letter to the Thessalonians, and by John in Revelation. How a false doctrine like this can exist in the face of so many scriptures that teach the exact opposite, is a mystery. But I believed it, and taught it for many years. This is an example of the power of deception, which I know first hand, having believed it for over 30 years!

Thank God I heard about a different teaching known as the Prewrath Rapture, which is clearly based on scripture. We followers of Jesus will certainly not be here when God pours out His "Wrath", that Jesus bore for us on the cross, but we will go through the "wrath of the antichrist", known as the "great tribulation". As I now understand it, God will use this period of persecution to purify His Church so she will be ready for the rapture, which will be followed by God's Wrath. (Rev 15:5-8, 16:1-21)!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

Kingdom View of the world

KINGDOM VIEW OF THE WORLD.

As followers of Jesus, God expects us to develop a "world view" regarding His Kingdom principles, and how we can help them to be established in the world. We understand from (Isa 9:6-7), where we read the promise of the future coming of the One who will one day rule the world forever. We know this to be Jesus Christ, and the NT gives us the history of His birth, ministry, death, and resurrection. So we know that Jesus was "born to reign"! And from (Rom 5:17) we learn that we have been "Born again" to "reign with Him".This is both a tremendous privilege, but also a tremendous responsibility! Many followers of Jesus do not realize that this applies to us now in this

present age, because they have been taught that the Kingdom age is yet future, and won't begin until after the church age ends. But the truth is that the Kingdom came from heaven to earth with the King at His first coming as the Babe in the manger. So we are now living in the time of "the Kingdom now", although it is invisible at the present time, and will be fully manifested when Jesus comes for His second appearance in the clouds of glory, as stated clearly in various scriptures.

So what this should mean to us is that all spheres of our society should be under the control and influence of the Kingdom! This would include individuals, families, churches, governments, judicial systems, education, business and commerce, media and arts, entertainment, etc. We know that at this present time in our 21^st century. this is certainly not the case. Why is this so? And what can we do about it? The "Church" that Jesus has been in the process of building, from "born again" believers over the past 2000 years, is His chief instrument that He desires to use! We are meant to infiltrate all segments of society, and be the "salt and light" that will keep the society from becoming completely corrupt! We may think it couldn't become any worse than it already is, but I'm sure that from God's perspective He sees things differently!

As representatives of the Kingdom of God on earth, or "ambassadors" (2 Cor 5:20), we have our work cut out for us! We have the responsibility and calling to reproduce the Kingdom of God in every area of society. Jesus expects more from His followers than just being a faithful attender of some "church", He expects us to do our part to act as the conscience of society, to act as a restraint against the misuse of governing authority, we should hold the government morally accountable to live up to its delegated authority from God. Here is a quote from George Ladd "The Kingdom of God is a dynamic concept which refers to the kingly reign or rule of God which broke into history decisively in the incarnation and will come to its fulness at our Lord's return.". The Kingdom of God is transcendent and immanent-- past, present, and future! As followers of Jesus, it is essential that we understand this fact!!!

Sincerely submitted,

Dave Jamer

A CHALLENGE

A CHALLENGE

I would like to issue a challenge to those believers in Jesus who have been taught that the return of Jesus to earth to receive His Church/Bride could happen at "any moment". This is a very popular belief that is known as the Pretribulation Rapture, which had its roots back in 1832, when what has been often referred to as the "secret rapture" teaching, began in a break away group from the Presbyterian Church lad by a man named Edward Irving, who called his group the Apostolic Catholic Church. Around this time John Darby started the Plymouth Brethren movement who endorsed this teaching and made it part of his doctrine. Darby was a popular Bible teacher, and later when Dr C.I.Scofield brought out his popular reference Bible in the early 1900's which declared that all of history could be divided into seven dispensations, then when the secret rapture teaching was combined with Dr Scofield's dispensational teaching, apparently the Pretribulation Rapture doctrine was born. So with that brief background, which can be checked out in church history records, here is my challenge. I hereby challenge you to check out three scripture passages, and study them carefully without depending on your preconceived ideas about when the timing of the rapture might be.

1/ (Matt 24:1-36) These were words spoken by Jesus to His disciples, in which He answered two questions they had put to Him. Pay special attention to "time words" like "then", "Immediately after" etc. which helps to follow the sequence. Remember these are the reported words of Jesus, which are definitely true!

2/ (2 Thess 2:1-17) These are words written by the apostle Paul to this church he had planted several years earlier. And like all scripture it is inspired by the Holy Spirit

(2 Tim 3:16). Notice how clearly he declares that Jesus can't return until after the "man of lawlessness" (the antichrist) makes his appearance!

3/ (Rev 13:1-10) These words are part of the description of the "antichrist" who will arise at some future date, given by John when trying to explain what he saw in this vision, like all the other visions he recorded, were given to him by Jesus. Notice some of the expressions he uses about this man being given "authority" to do the things he will do to God's "holy people", often referred to as "saints". Who gives him this authority? We know from Jesus' statement recorded in (Matt 28:18) "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth". So I assume that He must have given this authority to this servant of Satan for a purpose. Could it be to purify His Church, to make her ready to be raptured? This is the conclusion I have come to after many years of studying these and many other scriptures. What conclusion have you come to?

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

CREATION (part 2)

 

CREATION (part 2)

In part 1 we suggested there could be two possible scenarios on creation 1/ It was created all at once in 6 days of 24 hours each, or 2/ It was created over a long period of time as a process of refining it from a formless mass of matter into a "universe" containing a globe called "earth" that was capable of sustaining human life. Of these two choices, I definitely hold to the second scenario, based on scientific facts. Like the fossil found nearly 100 years ago in Joggins NS, and has recently been in the news, estimated to be some 300 millions years old. Either way it may have happened, certainly there is no question about our Creator God being the One who made it happen! I believe there could be a "gap" of many years between verses 1 and 2 of Moses' account of creation as recorded , starting in chapter 1 of Genesis. I believe our God is perfect, and could not possibly create a universe in the condition described in verse 2, unless Moses was only referring to the first stage of many involved in preparing it for sustaining life! We may never know the answer to this question, in (Deut 29:29) we read that "The Lord our God has secrets known to no one." But because of man's interest in knowing all about our past, and especially about our future, we often fall prey to "false prophets" who pretend to know the future. Perhaps we should be content to allow God to keep some of His secrets to Himself!

According to Paul the apostle, as recorded in (Eph 3:1-7), He kept the mystery of "His Church" a secret from even His OT prophets, and only revealed it to Paul and the other apostles in the NT. This is a very important truth to keep in mind, apparently God has certain secrets he doesn't want us to know, unless and until it is His perfect time. An example of this would be

(Gal 4:4-7), where Paul explains that only at the right time God sent Jesus into our world, born to a Jewish virgin maiden named Mary. This event was foretold by many of God's prophets for years before it happened "When the fullness of the time had come." NKJV The coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost recorded in (Acts 2:1-4), would be another case in point. This was a yearly feast that God's people had celebrated for many years on this date, but He chose this particular year to send His Holy Spirit to take the place of Jesus on planet earth!

From these examples we can see that God has always had a particular time and place for things to happen, as in the case of creation of our universe. And how He did it, and when it happened, or how long it took to complete is known only to Him! Likewise, when Jesus will return to earth to receive His Church/Bride is known only by the Father! No matter how many theories man has come up with as to the time and details of this great future event, no one but Father God knows for sure. But He does give us lots of warnings in scripture to be waiting expectantly for His Return!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

True Unity

TRUE UNITY

Recently while reading Paul Billheimer's book "Destined for the Throne" (one I highly recommend) this thought crossed my mind. He was talking about the Bride of Christ, which as you know is one of the scriptural names for the Church that Jesus is in the process of building. He used the term "multiple" bride, which I had never seen in print before, that I can remember. The very thought of a bride being other than a beautiful young lady in the prime of life being joined in holy matrimony with her groom at the alter of a church, is not something we can easily grasp! Yet that is what the Bible says the Church is. No wonder Paul speaks of this as being a "great mystery" which God had revealed to him about the Church. (Eph 5:32).

We understand an earthly marriage to consist of a bride (female) joined to her husband, and the two becoming one, in spirit, soul, and body. The very idea of a multiple bride somehow doesn't fit in our thinking. But not only Paul refers to the Church as the bride of Christ, John in (Rev 21:2, 9-10) calls the Church "the Bride, the wife of the Lamb". We know from this chapter that John has seen in a vision the "Completed Church" composed of every born again member of the true Church that ever lived, from every Nation. This will truly be "a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb". (Rev 7:9). We must grasp this concept of the Church before we can ever expect to see true unity in the Body. Truly a "multiple Bride", as brother Billheimer calls the church.

We will close this short article with a quote from page 55 of his book "We consider the human body as a single entity because it is united in a single consciousness. Yet Paul emphasizes it is not one, but many members. Just so, the Holy City of John's vision, which constitutes the heavenly Bride, is inhabited not by one but by an immense multitude. Yet because it will be united by a single consciousness it will compose a single, harmonious whole comparable to the human body. This is the unity toward which the Church is moving in time and which will be realized in absolute perfection by the bridehood inhabitants of the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, which John saw descending out of heaven from God. That city will be inhabited by an innumerable throng so perfectly fused into one consciousness by holy passion for her heavenly Bridegroom, that it will constitute a single organism. Can this be why God prizes unity among His people so highly and why Satan fights it so desperately?"  I believe that what wse have referred to as the "church" in this 21st century, is something far different from God's concept of the "Church", the "Body of Christ", that Jesus stated just after Peter had made the declaration in (Matt 16:16) "You are the Messiah, the Son on the Living God". This statement prompted Jesus to declare "On this rock I will build My Church" (Matt 16:18) NLT. Jesus clearly meant on Peter's declaration of faith, and not on Peter himself, as some people have believed!

Sincerely submitted

Dave Jamer

PAUL'S FINAL WORDS

PAUL'S FINAL WORDS

Recently I took the time to read the "final words" with which Paul always ended his various letters to the young churches he had started. It was an interesting exercise that I would suggest everyone should do. It was sort of a trade mark of his, and was often accompanied with his personal signature. His letters were all actually written by one of his faithful helpers, who sometimes identified themselves, but not always. Because some false apostles were circulating letters that they said were from Paul, he liked to identify his own with his personal trade mark. At the end of Romans, which was his longest, and most detailed of all his letters, you need to read the last 10 verses of chapter 16. He started verse 17 with "And now I make one more appeal to dear brothers and sisters. Watch out for people who cause divisions, and upset people's faith by teaching things contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them." This has been going on in the church for centuries, ever since the church became joined to the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine in the fourth century!

Shortly after that date, various theologians started teaching their separate doctrines. Each one believed his particular doctrine was correct, and therefore all others must be wrong! This has been the source of confusion and numerous church splits down through the centuries. Finally God was able to get enough church leaders to agree on a common list of manuscripts to compile what came to be known as our "Holy Bible", composed of 66 books. There have been many translations from these original manuscripts, and now translated into many different languages. But God has guided the writing and protection of His Word down through the years. God directed Paul to write in his second letter to his young associate Timothy, in (2 Tim 3:16-17) some very confirming words about the scriptures! Because the Bible is the Eternal Word of God, we can depend on it to check out the accuracy of any "doctrines" and all so-called "prophetic words" given by any man down through history even until today. Paul preached to the people of Berea, and it is recorded in (Acts 17:11) "And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those of Thessalonica, and they searched the scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching them the truth." This is the same way we should check out any word that is supposed to be from God, because many "false prophets" are still putting out their dangerous doctrines today. Jesus warned us of this in (Matt 24:5, 11, 24) so we "must" beware!!
Sincerely submitted
Dave Jamer 

PAUL'S THORN

PAUL'S THORN

In Paul's second letter to the church in Corinth he mentions receiving a "thorn in my flesh" (2 Cor 12:7). I have heard many suggestions as to what this thorn could have been, that God had apparently given him and refused to remove, even though he had asked 3 times for its removal. What could this be that a great man of God like Paul the apostle who wrote much of the NT be given by his Lord and Master to endure? Just recently I read a book by Gene Edwards called "Climb the Highest Mountain", in which he suggests what it might have been, and after a close reading of the book of Acts again, I'm inclined to agree with him.

As we know, when Paul and Barnabas were prayed for and sent out from the elders in the church at Antioch of Syria, (Acts 13:1-3), they became the first team of "apostles" (sent ones) on their first missionary journey. They went first to cities in what was called Galatia; the first was Antioch of Pisidia, then to Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. In each of these cities they preached the gospel, the (good news about Jesus), starting with the Jews in the local Synagogue, and then to the gentiles who were interested.These 4 churches were comprised mostly of former gentiles (non Jews), plus a few Jewish converts. Apparently one or more of these religious Jews, possibly a priest or high ranking Pharisee from Jerusalem, may have been the "spies" that Paul refers to in (Gal 2:4). It would seem that this man, or group of men, followed Paul around from church to church, and spread a different message to these young believers in Jesus. They were "false apostles" or counterfeits, and tried to destroy the work of Paul. This was his main purpose in writing this letter to the churches (plural) in Galatia, rather than to an individual church, as in the case of most of his other letters. Also in his second letter to the church in Corinth, (2 Cor 11:3-4, and 12-15), he mentions these false apostles, but does not name them. Notice here he says clearly they come with a "different spirit", preaching a "different gospel" that presented a "different Jesus" than what Paul had brought to them!

If we look around the church scene today, we can easily see that this same thing is happening in many church circles. Certain "religious" people are spreading many so-called gospels that are not the gospel that Paul taught. Jesus warned that this would happen in these last days that we are called to live in. (Matt 24:4,5,11,24). So by all means, beware!!
Sincerely submitted.
Dave Jamer