Recovering the Lost Mystery of the Gospel

A Little Faith / Few Survivors

 

In light of the Lord's question about the doubtful substance of end time faith, two other certainties about the end times stand out to me. For one, at Christ's return there will be only a relatively small number of people left on the earth: 

Isa. 13:11 Thus I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless. 12 I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold and mankind than the gold of Ophir.

 

Joel 2:32 And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD will be delivered; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as the LORD has said, even among the survivors whom the LORD calls. 

Mt. 24:22 "Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short."  

 

Clearly, the ax is going to be laid to the root of all humanity itself, as it was once before with Noah.

 

The other thing I know is that the few people who are left on earth will be characterized by one thing: contriteness and humility--and that these are those with whom the Lord is going to manifestly dwell:

 

Zeph. 3:11 "In that day you will feel no shame because of all your deeds by which you have rebelled against Me; for then I will remove from your midst your proud, exulting ones, and you will never again be haughty on My holy mountain. 12 But I will leave among you a humble and lowly people, and they will take refuge in the name of the LORD."

 

Isa. 57:15 For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, "I dwell {on} a high and holy place, and {also} with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite."

 

There seems to be a correlation between the small expectation of faith the Lord has at His return, and the small number of humble people left on earth. Whoever these last survivors are, they will have the faith the Lord is expecting to find, and because of which they will be spared. These survivors will be marked with an utter humility before the Lord of Glory who has reduced to nothing everyone's understanding about Himself.

 

If this is so, it suggests to me that for all our numbers now and our confident handle on faith, something about our faith now must not touch what God marks as faith then. Yet as faith, it must have been part of our New Covenant all along. It must have been available to us. It's just that whatever it is, we still haven't gotten it after 2000 years. Is it possible there is something about Paul's gospel we still haven't gotten after all these centuries?

 

 

- Systemic Problems

 

I'll level with you. These thoughts haven't come to me in a vacuum. The truth is, if you look at church history and you look at us now, and if you have pursued the Lord for any length of time with any kind of prophetic sensibility, then you know there are systemic problems of unbelief that have never been overcome in the body of Christ--despite all the restoration that has taken place.

 

To this day unresolved divisional fault lines over issues, practices and behaviors remain in the background of even the most "cutting edge" churches and movements. Every new movement arises to confront prevailing unbeliefs, only to retain its own new unbeliefs or import unbeliefs that have been resolved by other movements.

 

Year after year, generation to generation, the same conflicts show up. Some overcome carnal mindedness regarding certain light. Others remain carnally minded regarding that light, and so persecute the former. The carnal continue to rule over the spiritually mature in church government. Misunderstandings and prejudices persist. Revelationally, much has changed over the centuries. Yet fundamentally, nothing has changed.

 

Part 3

Chris Anderson
New Meadow Neck, Rhode Island

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

05/06

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