Christendom in the last days

4 April, 2011

A defining aspect of apostate Christianity in the last days seems almost certain to be the rejection of biblical teaching concerning the last days.

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, "where is the promise of his coming?" for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

(II Peter 3:3-7)

It's not hard to appreciate that the excess hype surrounding prophecy in past decades has created a certain degree of "last days fatigue", and there is certainly no reason to criticize those who simply do not have a particular interest in the subject. However it would be completely against the teachings of Peter, John, Timothy, Paul and Jesus himself to tell other Christians either that there will be no time of judgment or to tell them they shouldn't give any thought to such matters. Unfortunately there are very prominent leaders today who are teaching one or other of these very things. Consider the following:

When the disciples wanted to talk about prophecy, Jesus quickly switched the conversation to evangelism. He wanted them to concentrate on their mission in the world. He said in essence, "The details of my return are none of your business. What is your business is the mission I have given you. Focus on that!"

- Rick Warren

Warren's account is completely at odds with the two-chapter answer Jesus gave to the apostles when they asked him about the end of the age in Matthew 24. Nor does it align with the special blessing promised in the book of Revelation for those who read the book (Rev 1:3).

And here's the other form of misleading teaching concerning end times:

Christians in the power centres of modernity (England in the 1800's, and the United States in the 1900's) saw nothing ahead in the secular story of industrial modernity… nothing but spiritual decline and global destruction. Their only hope? A skyhook Second Coming, wrapping up the whole of creation like an empty candy wrapper and throwing it in the cosmic dumpster so God can finally bring our souls to heaven.

- Brian McLaren

The suggestion here is that end times teaching was purely the product of man's circumstances and thinking. Such as suggestion is ludicrous to anyone who really knows the bible since the bible is jam packed with chapters and passages concerning "the last days", "the time of Jacob's Trouble", "The Day Of The Lord", "the return of Christ" and so forth.

These kind of unscriptural rejections of prophetic teaching are becoming increasingly common and increasingly mimicked by everyday church goers. It begs the question, why will biblical teaching concerning prophecy and end times be unpopular in most churches leading up to (and even during) the end times? In all likelihood this condition reflects the fact that many churches are increasingly embracing the world's goals for a humanistic and man-made utopian society, rather than continuing to wait for Christ to overthrow the kingdoms of man and replace them with the perfect government of Christ (the clear biblical narrative we've seen in this study). In the eyes of these kinds of churches those Christians who still expect divine judgment and the overthrow of mans kingdoms will more and more be seen as fatalistic, negative and anti-environmental; a blight on the brave new spirit of global cooperation that the apostate church believes will "save the world".

You see the bible does not predict the demise of churches in the last days; rather it predicts that people will have a religion that resembles true Christianity but lacks the power of it.

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, …Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

(II Timothy 3:1,2 & 5)

This isn't to say that people won't believe in signs and wonders for II Thessalonians 2:9 tells us that Antichrist himself comes "after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders". The power they deny is more likely to relate to the watering down of the miracles and divine person of Christ; and by consequence it will be the denial and loss of true Christian power in their own lives.

The state of the church in the last days may be further explained by the last church Jesus gives a message to at the start of Revelation.

Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and know not that you art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich; and white raiment, that thou may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness does not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

(Revelation 3:17-20)

If this church is representative of the End Times church then this is the era of the "saved individual". We see from the passage that the church as a whole is apostate but that there are individuals within it who have a relationship with the Lord.

There is a distinct contrast between the apostate state of the church described by a number of New Testament writers in the last days and the true Christians of these times spoken of by Jesus, and by John in Revelation. Whereas the apostate church goes the way of the world, the true church is ultimately cast off from the economic system (Rev 13:17) and persecuted by the Antichrist and his followers. How can two such disparate entities both exist within that which is called Christendom? The truth no doubt is that they cannot co-exist, thus at some point a great tearing apart must occur. Forget denominations, from God's perspective there are really only two types of Christians; those with oil in their lamps and those without (Matthew 25:1-12), or the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30). In other words true and false; those who genuinely know God and those who don't. Right now these are mixed into pretty much all denominations but as pressures come to bear, and people's true colours are pressed into exposure beyond the current "politeness", these two groups are likely to be torn painfully apart. In the middle will be many who for a time will probably find themselves terribly confused, not quite knowing which way to jump. This is likely to be a very traumatic time for many Christians, churches and Christian families and we may see again the outworking of this statements Jesus made about the effects of his ministry:

Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."

(Luke 12:51-53)

This is the opposite of what any of us really want, nevertheless if truth is under attack it is worse to compromise and fall into apostasy than it is to be reviled by many who by nature we love as family or friends. The opposite of standing for truth, and accepting persecution or ridicule, is the huge ecumenical push for togetherness (at all cost) that we've seen within visible institutional Christendom in recent decades. This primarily political movement only seems to have created a dumbed down oneness that looks like it will eventually hold hands with the Pope, moderate Islam and the New Age and proclaim that we "all worship the same God". True spiritual oneness would be a great thing, but this coming together has been more of an unreformation that has only accelerated spiritual decline and birthed the infant one world apostate church of end times.

A word of warning though; it's easy for biblical believers to overreact against all this and become more isolationist and protective than ever, but in the end that only results in the true testimony being weakened while the tares are left to take over. In understanding the apostasy of the church in the last days genuine Christians not only need to know what to separate from, but what to bring together. Rather than being put off "togetherness" by worldly ecumenicalism, Christians need to respond with their own spiritual ecumenicalism; bringing together and strengthening that which remains in order that a clear and contrasting testimony of the truth can go out to the world. They also need to be large hearted; not proclaiming narrow isolationism but reaching out to those in apostate Christianity with love in the hope that many will "come out of her" (Come out of the harlot church - Rev 18:4). Ultimately it is important that the true church seize the opportunity in the latter days to work together in proclaiming biblical truth and an unadulterated gospel message to a hurting, confused and often searching world. Indeed this good news of salvation through Jesus Christ, despite being a 2000 year old message, should have a very real and renewed poignancy as we see that the return of Jesus really does draw near.

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