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[God at Pentecost] “gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, ...
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the Body of Christ,
UNTILto equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the Body of Christ,
we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…”
errors in human thinking, somewhere, but two particular errors in Christian thinking have hidden some of the most precious works of the Holy Spirit among God’s people, and consequently hindered the purposes of God among us.
two errors may be characterised as –
| 1. | Holy Spirit gifts ended back then; and, |
| 2. | Jesus may return at any moment. |
| 1. | The first error is that the Holy Spirit altered His behaviour in Christian Church history when the last piece of our New Testament was written. |
| 2. | The second error began to be taught during the 19th century that the Lord Jesus may return at any moment to snatch His people away, after which the Antichrist will rule this world for a time (usually for 7-years). |
See:
A Chronology
of Confusion
The Gifts Ended Back Then – (the gifts of the Holy Spirit)
Meaning: the Holy Spirit changed His behaviour in the Christian Church by discontinuing His spiritual gifts of 'apostle', 'prophet', 'prophecy', 'tongues', etc., because the New Testament was now completed.
Some have made this date to be the destruction of Jerusalem’s temple in 70AD, others, because they know the book of Revelation was written later than that speculate about various other dates. Generally the passage of Holy Scripture used (and abused) to try and show this is 1 Corinthians 13, verses 8 to 13: with the assumption that ‘perfect’ or ‘complete’ (τέλειος) means a completed Bible.
the words of Holy Scripture do not mean what we happen to have in our minds when we read them; no matter what etymology (origin) an individual word may have. Their meaning comes from their own context in the Scripture in which they are used. This passage is really pointing instead to the completion of the Church of Jesus in its resurrection at Christ’s return, and not in any sense to a set of writings called the New Testament of which the readers of that time, to whom it was addressed, had never heard.
note of what it actually says.
| "For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect (complete) comes, the partial will pass away… For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known [by God]." |
as the Bible puts it elsewhere:
| “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.” |
But these twisters of Holy Scripture would have us believe that “then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” has already happened nearly two thousand years ago (the Bible completed), and that “face to face” simply means being able to read it.
reality, this theory was developed to find some way of denying the supernatural, or expalin the lack thereof, in Christian experience today. It is simply the discomforted twisting of unbelief trying to justify itself.
heading quote above from Ephesians 4 actually says it all.
Sometimes the words of Jesus in Matthew 24:14, concerning the gospel reaching ‘all nations’, have been twisted to simply refer to geographic coverage rather than to the people, the lost, so as to say that this has already been done, and so that precondition marker is now past. It reads –
| "And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." |
Jesus gives us the final sign of the end (about the holy place) in the next verse for us to know when that work is done, and Paul explains that this can only occur when God permits and not before –
| "Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day [the Rapture] will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God [see Matt.24:15], proclaiming himself to be God." |
is good to hear the confirmation of this from the Apostle Peter, that Christian obedience (spreading the gospel message in obedience) hastens the coming of Christ’s return. That is, our behaviour affects the time of Christ’s return.
| "...waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!" |
is what the Spirit had said through Paul, as quoted above from Ephesians 4: the spiritual maturity of the Christian Church in its ministry is the terminus point of this age, and nothing less than this is acceptable to God.
as the Father had said to Jesus at His ascension –
| "sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool". |
And it is happening world-wide in the spiritual restoration of God’s people, equipped with the grace gifts of God's Spirit!
