2004-03-19
Good Morning Cherished Readers,
Last week’s message contained the four main theories debated amongst theologians about the Millennium and the rapture (taking up of the believers to Christ for “a meeting in the air”-1THESS 4: 13-17). And yes, there is a lot for us to ponder. You’ll remember that I encouraged each of us to take what we have learned and go to the Lord about it on our knees. It’s okay for us to agree to disagree on this non-salvation based issue, as long as we do it in the love Christ commanded us to have in JN 13: 34-35. As I said last week, my intent is not to step on anyone’s toes in expressing what follows.
Amillennialists do not believe in a literal millennial kingdom where Christ will rule and reign for 1000 years. They also deny that a chronological order of end times events with parenthetical interruptions to further understanding is presented in the book of Revelation. This is in direct contrast to Pre-millennialists who do believe in a literal millennial kingdom where Christ reigns for one thousand years, during which time the devil is bound and thrown into the abyss-so he can’t deceive the nations until this thousand years is over. They feel the believers in Christ will be raptured before the coming of the antichrist and the onset of the seven years of Tribulation. I’ll deal mostly with these two groups, since they seem to make up the majority of believers.
The overriding question for this segment of messages is: Can one live the lifestyle presented in the Sermon on the Mount today, or must he wait until some future time for it to be possible? Some people believe that it presents such a lofty lifestyle that today’s people simply couldn’t live up to it. These people feel the book of Matthew is directed at the Jews, and the lifestyle is impossible for them to live out while mankind is dealing with the problems the sinful flesh still brings.
We know Christ will rule as “King of kings and Lord of lords” from REV 19: 11-16. He will rule with a “rod of iron” [PS 2: 9]. All those who believe in Him and endure in their faith will rule with Him [RO 8: 17]. We need to look carefully at the Sermon on the Mount to find out if it pertains only to life during the Millennium, or if it applies right now and forever. MT 5: 5, which is in the future tense, gives us a starting place. “Blessed are the meek [the humble]: they shall inherit the earth.” However, by the time of the Millennium, the believers (saints) will have already inherited the earth. Since MT 5: 3 is in the present tense, those poor in spirit have inherited the Kingdom. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” This would indicate that the meekness [humility] would have to occur in our lives prior to the Millennium time. Remember that one really can’t acknowledge being poor in spirit without humbling himself before God first.
If we have already inherited the earth at the time of the Millennium, would we be persecuted for the sake of righteousness? I don’t believe so. Look at MT 5: 10-11, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake.” We must ask: will the saints be persecuted and insulted when Jesus Christ comes in all His glory to reign over the earth, and we are to rule and reign with Him? My answer to this question is: Certainly not!
These are some of the reasons I believe that the Sermon on the Mount is a lifestyle for people from Christ’s time and beyond, including today and in the future. MT 5: 39-41 is about turning the other cheek when provoked [not taking revenge], about generosity toward people even when their behavior is bad [in this society, this extends to not be litigious], about going the extra mile for people, and about not refusing to lend things to people who ask to borrow them. All of these behaviors go against the fleshly nature, but can be accomplished with faithful obedience to God. During the Millennium, the saints won’t be slapped about, forced to go the extra mile, and persecuted by their enemies. Remember that during that time the devil is bound in the abyss. That is why we can rest assured that Christ meant for us to live the lifestyle of the Sermon on the Mount today. What we all need to do is to read and reread MT 5-7 and examine the conduct of our lives to see if there are any conflicts between what we do and God’s will for us through Christ. This isn’t an easy task, because it requires us to possibly face some painful truths about ourselves. Once we have discovered the sins in our lives, we must take the next logical step-apostolic, brave, and necessary action to “not conform to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by the renewal of your mind” [RO 12: 2]. Let me leave you with this wonderful acronym which really puts God’s focus on the points discussed here. BIBLE= Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth.
PRAYER: O Lord, once again we are forced by Your teaching through Christ to humble ourselves before You, to acknowledge our sinful ways and our status as sinners. How can we escape our utter need for Your direction in our lives through the Holy Spirit? Without Him to take control of our unruly fleshly responses to temptation, our lives are worthless and under Satan’s control. Moreover, denying that we can live the lifestyle of the Sermon on the Mount leads a person to spiritual death. With You and Your love, guidance, goodness, compassion, patience, and justice, we are able to understand the instruction the Spirit gives us, have the courage to follow through on the changes He directs us to make, and to look forward to eternal life of bliss, joy, and fellowship with You. Yes, Dearest Abba, the consequences from denying Your sovereignty and supremacy in our lives are unthinkable! We can claim 2 COR 10: 4-5 amongst many other passages in the Scriptures to use in this effort to conform to Your always-righteous will. “The weapons we use in our fight are not the world’s weapons but God’s powerful weapons, which we use to destroy strongholds. We destroy false arguments; we pull down every proud obstacle that is raised against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey Christ.” We acknowledge the great sacrifice You made of Your only begotten Son on the cross, so we can gain salvation with our faith in Him and our repentance [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 25; HE 10: 10]. You generously cause Your Spirit to indwell within every true believer. 2 COR 5: 17 tells us that “In union with Christ, we become a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come.” COL 3: 9-10 gives us illumination on what that means. “Do not lie to one another, for you nave put off the old self with its habits and have put on the new self. This is the new being which God, it’s Creator, is constantly renewing in His own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of Himself.” We humbly beseech You, Dear Lord, to keep blessing our lives, to give us the self-discipline to make daily study of Your word a priority, to keep the channel of communication through prayer open to us, and to help us to be diligent, loyal servants. We dedicate our lives to Your glory and offer You our heartfelt thanks and praise for who You are and what You do for us. In Christ’s name, amen.
Next week, I’m led to write more about why the lifestyle Christ sets out for us can and should be lived today and throughout our lives. We’ll take a closer look at the beatitudes in MT 5-7. I take personal delight in the fact that God never asks us to make a change that we can’t make. He doesn’t promise us it will be easy, but He knows it is in our best interest to do it. I had to learn to trust Him in many ways through our trials of the last six years. To begin, He led me to deepen my prayer life and make it more active. I’m sure He was annoyed at my procrastination, but is pleased that I’m finally getting down to the task. I prayed to Him to make me less selfish, and He’s hard at work at that task, convicting me whenever I fall back into my old habits. Praying for others in need has helped that a lot. By no means is this writer perfect. I have a long way to go! By allowing Peter and I to have the tremendous financial problems we have had and then slowly making available ways for us to gradually climb toward getting back on our feet, God is demonstrating that we can and must keep on trusting Him. Both of us almost lost our lives this last year through serious illness. God used this situation to show us that He is not done with us yet, and that we should focus for the rest of our physical lives serving Him in ways pleasing to Him. How do we know what these ways are? His word, listening to His direction when praying, learning from these circumstances, serving Him in our congregation, being His friend, and always allowing the Son to be in leadership in our lives is the way. There’s no question that my clumsy stumbling efforts must at some times frustrate our loving and patient Abba and at other times make Him break out in uncontrollable laughter. But, He has never deserted me, nor will He ever desert any other believer endeavoring to endure in his faith. I hope you find comfort in that as I do.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn