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Life, Accountability, Death & Judgment

Getting Back to Revelation’s Unchanging End Time Grid

The time has come and is long overdue for the replacement of this world’s reality with the reality of God’s Word presented in the Book of Revelation as our reference point for sound end time prophetic ministry.

 

The Lord God of Heaven is removing the reality of this world as our reference point for measuring what He is doing. We are witnessing the collapse of world communication itself as it descends into mayhem. To this time, much prophesying has been triggered off of world-reality based events and reporting. That is being taken away.

 

The Lord is forcing the prophetically attuned church to have to begin to listen to heaven for its direction and perception of the action of God, something that can no longer be mediated by what were previously considered reliable “Christian prophetic” sources for news and reporting on events.

 

The ancient writings have already told us all that is required for establishing the foundation of our understanding about these times. Any prophesying off of that foundation based merely in reflection of current events as reported through public social media and/or under influence of human moral bias is skewed and not to be followed.

 

Good intentions don’t matter here. Many are prophesying from good intention who are nevertheless skewed because their spirits are not anchored in the eternal realities of the scripture but on the social regurgitation of one another’s anointings.

 

What then has God said so we might understand what He is now saying? For everything is derived from the parameters of the ancient scriptures which cannot be broken.

 

Life and Death: Revelation’s End Time Grid

The Book of Revelation is a transgenerational book bent on unveiling the meaning of the differing realities of existence that precede and follow death. The Lord Himself opens to us the declaration that “I was dead” but now “am alive forevermore.” And so He goes on to outline the differences of import in what happens before and after death to the soul of man.

 

This is the big grid underlying all end times consciousness. It is not about specific “events” on earth transpiring among men by which to predict the soon-ness of the Lord’s coming. It is about human existence before and after death and how a man’s existence fares as the Lord is Unveiled to the earth.

 

Pre-Death Accountability

Revelation is concerned with our relationship to God on either side of death. Prior to death, existence is described as “life.” But according to the Revelation, this life is a life on trial. It is a life of accountability measured in terms of deeds. Accountability for actions is the thrust of our pre-death existence. There is to be a development of obedience to the will of God. There is to be a keeping of the commands of God. This is the expectation throughout this prophetic book.

 

The Book opens with a message to seven churches. To each are given parameters of expected performance, along with corrections (rebuke) as well as encouragements and promises for faithfulness in enduring obedience to those commands and the revealed divine will—to the “end” (i.e., to the death). Note: this is not about obedience to the law. It is about obedience to the Voice of the Spirit. (“Let him who has ears to hear, hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”)

 

All of this describes the thrust of the pre-death phase of life existence relative to God’s people, and is carried forward through the book. Further warnings and encouragements to obedience are given to the very last chapter. But the point is, everyone is on trial here and now.

 

Correlatively, the same accountability is charged to the peoples of the world, who are both warned to fear and worship God as well as facing citation for failing to do so under the His adverse judgments upon their civilizations (“neither would they repent of their murders, sorceries, fornication and thefts”).

 

This accountability phase of existence is executed in the final end times under conditions of great stress and tribulation due to the unseen action of spiritual conflict from heaven above and the netherworld (“abyss”) beneath. Both divine angelic and luciferian forces are inflicting pain and anguish upon the earth and its peoples.

 

This is the present reality. It is now! And all this age-consummating tribulation is about precipitating our sense of accountability ahead of Christ’s judging appearance. This accountability phase tribulation is fully remedial and ultimately for the entire world’s benefit, if men will take the cue from it to repent. This tribulation is true mercy through judgment.  

 

Post Death Judgment

On the other side of death, Revelation gives us to see the unchangeable judgment phase of existence. Here we are told that everyone without exception is going to be judged, and will be so according to their accountability phase actions and final disposition there. Announcing that finality, the angel declares, “Let the one …who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness...” Time is up.

 

In the post-death judgment phase of existence, a different living and dying are further expounded. Those whose lives were washed in the blood of the Lamb during the accountability phase, though having passed out of that phase existence by bodily death, are nevertheless in the judgment phase considered to be very much alive, just like the Lord Himself. These are further awarded a resurrected physical eternal life. Thus their judgment phase existence proves to be in reality a reward phase.

 

By contrast, the post-death judgment existence of those who do not surrender to the Lamb during life-on-trial turns out to be a permanent non-remedial death existence (called “second death”) in which all such are finally consigned to the destructive lake of fire.

 

(Depending on how the destruction is perceived in light of Old Testament descriptions, that burning may allowably be understood to eventually terminate in annihilation. Under no condition may it be understood to be purgative, redemptive, restorative or reconciling, being an interpretational “adding” which Revelation itself forbids.)

 

Restoring the Ancient Landmarks

What has been described to this point in this article is actually nothing new. It has been understood for centuries from the time Revelation was first written. What is new is that believers in the present generation have largely lost and “removed the ancient landmark” of this foundational understanding from their prophetic worldview.

 

People are today being born into the kingdom ignorant of this foundation, having nothing more than a platform of current cultural interface for calibrating their prophetic understanding and presenting the Lord to men.  There is little understanding of the accountability and judgment phases of purpose behind these end times that defines well grounded prophetic ministry as presented us in this Book. 

 

This loss of foundation has led to sand-based prophetic house building producing skewed man-pleasing prophesying tied to the ephemerality of human culture and politics. As the nether world storms Revelation predicts increase upon culture, these culture-based prophetic houses and their humanist non-offending gospels are going to be blown down.

 

Revelation gives the only true context for what is to characterize human culture at the time of the return of the Lord. It shows us a world culture that in the main is decrepit and debauched, demonstrating the fundamentally evil nature of man. It does not show us a world of misled innocents lost amid a culture getting better and better under “kingdom influence.” Revelation shows us a clash of spiritual kingdoms in the extreme leading to a final hardened line between the redeemed and the damned, not a developing harmony between them.

 

The Lord’s Universal Priority

Revelation also gives the only true context for appreciating the Lord’s priorities and for His agenda. His agenda is not about building beautiful prophetic destinies here and now for believers under the mantra “God has a wonderful plan for your life” (even though in the ultimate reality, it is a wonderful plan). The Lord’s agenda ahead of His return is the direct confrontation of the system of this world and the world’s culture with the claim of His lordship over the earth. And the priority of His redemptivity of men is with respect to that claim to lordship.

 

God’s priority is not in promising to build you a better home business, or an obviously fruitful ministry or having the best family money can’t buy, and certainly not in promising you a happy relationship with national society. The priority remains the perfecting of end time accountability ahead of final judgment. 

 

Properly Founding “Life-Local” Prophecy

This is by no means a dissing of God’s desire to locally bless us and to give us “life-local” promises regarding our homes and families and ministries and our welfare as well as create windows of temporary redemptive impact on surrounding culture. Some ascetic wilderness prophets do dis that, and that is error. God in fact uses life-local promises to draw us and attract us to Himself. God does give us a legitimate expectation of His earth side blessing of and purpose for us.

 

The problem however is that outside the context of the last days priorities God has demonstrated through the Book of Revelation, all life-local prophesying failing of this foundation can only create skewed prophesying leading to dashed expectations and ruined hopes as society around us fails to come into any lasting conformity with hopes of “national revival” based on such prophesying.

 

Recalibrating the Prophetic Grid

This brings us back to the original point regarding the collapse of world communication. As noted, world communication and news reporting is now rapidly descending into the debauchery of that on which it reports. This is exposing the unreliability of prophetic ministry tied to such reporting.

 

So much of our end time perspective here in the West has been extremely wishful because we have ministered under a false sense of cultural accommodation and reliability of cultural communication and reporting.

 

But that reliability is now going out the window. There is basically nothing you can believe anymore about anything you hear on news, most of which is mere garbage rumor mongering. Mainstream “news” has now fallen to the level of the supermarket tabloids of past generations.

 

This means that prophesying about what will happen anywhere about anything tied to the grid of national reporting is useless. And prophecy that does not have any better foundation than news reporting and social media for its communication is also destined for the tabloid heap. This affects everything being “prophesied” about national revival or anything else through public Christian media and magazines.

 

Hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches,

 

“Get back to MY grid for ministering end time prophetic truth.”

 

That grid is found in the Book of Revelation, perhaps the most neglected New Testament book after Jude.

 

This is the Spirit’s burden for us as the dynamic of our hearing is being forced to change away from dependence on and interface with culturally-tied prophetic news sources. If we will start getting back to the already laid prophetic Word of God, we will gain the one right and unshakable grid for prophetically interpreting everything we are hearing and witnessing.

 

“Fear God and give Him glory, for the hour of His judgment is come.”

 

Stand fast,




Chris Anderson
New Meadow Neck, Rhode Island

First Love Ministry
- a ministry of Anglemar Fellowship
http://www.firstloveministry.org

11/18



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