Michael Bresciani
Churches: this is the time to return to your first love!
By Michael Bresciani
When Christ addressed the first seven churches in Asia he rebuked five, on one he was neutral, but he commended only one. If the first century church was already leaning toward apostasy, where will these last day's churches be found?
The great falling away is referenced several times in scripture, but those with a world view are not guided by the Bible, nor do they believe in the prophetic aspects of this great God breathed book. As a result, they are the crowds that go about fulfilling prophecy while they reject it or deny it.
Not a day passes without a new report of some old historic church or denomination sinking to accommodate the new liberal theology of the day. Charisma News recently reported on a list of eight well known ministers and evangelical leaders that have decided to join in with the perversions of the LGBT crowd. The piece entitled "8 Evangelical Leaders Who Have Publicly Embraced Apostasy" also said, that the former pastor of the Mars Hill church, Rob Bell, contends that old line conservative churches will soon be a thing of the past.
Bell remarked, Evangelicals should no longer be assumed to be conservatives. He described "a very narrow, politically intertwined, culturally ghettoized, evangelical subculture" that he sees dying out."
Not so Mr. Bell.
Not only will the verses that condemn sodomy and perversion never change, but the promise that the church will endure intact until the end of time will also – never change. The number may shrink, but the faithful will remain faithful until the end whether in life or in death.
According to the Prophet Daniel, even as the wicked make great strides in destroying all vestiges of morality and use flatteries to woo the weakest ones to join them, the church will remain and continue to put out the great message of salvation through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
"And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits." (Dan 11: 32)
We may be asked to die for our faith, but we will not die out as Mr. Bell suggests.
The world will plunge into apostasy on every level, faith, religion, politics, morality, academics, family, entertainment, ideologies and almost every area of public and private life, but the faithful will remain – faithful.
It is their faithful adherence to the gospel that proves how wrong this world is, and it is the prophetic gauge or litmus test as to how close the return of the Lord Jesus Christ is in our time.
There are only two steps to take for the church to recover in these trying times.
The first is to return to your first love. (Rev 2: 4) Our first love is Jesus Christ and his gospel.
The second is to hold fast to every word of God in its entirety. No part of it will abate or be changed until all is fulfilled.
"Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." (Rev 3: 3)
We are living in a time when all, but a very few pre-millennial prophecies have, yet, to be fulfilled. This means that the predicted apostasy is right on time, and while we must guard against it, it is not to be feared. We must remember that Christ told his disciples to preach his gospel to everyone and when they rejected it, they were told to turn their backs and look for new ground.
Now is the day to leave behind what cannot be assuaged and move on to the rest.
This is best reflected in the last message of Christ given to us in the very last book of the bible and directed at the last day's crowd both here and around the entire world. To wit:
"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still." (Rev 22: 11)
The one thing that seems to fly over the heads of those so willing to give into the world to make friends of the sinners is that the world loves to see the church fail, but in truth has no love for the ecclesiastical body.
The entire seventeenth chapter of Revelation is devoted to the relationship between the world and the church in the last days of time. It is there that the church is depicted as a cheating whore. The party goes on for a while between the world and the church, but in the end, the world turns against the church and destroys it completely.
Not everyone will understand this, but it is a simple truth that has existed as long as men have inhabited this planet.
Put simply, the world loves the betrayal, but it always secretly harbors a deep hatred against a worthless traitor.
The apostate church shown in Revelation seventeen parties and colludes with the world for a season, but in the end her fate is sealed. To wit:
"And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire." (Rev 17: 16)
© Michael Bresciani
July 22, 2017
When Christ addressed the first seven churches in Asia he rebuked five, on one he was neutral, but he commended only one. If the first century church was already leaning toward apostasy, where will these last day's churches be found?
The great falling away is referenced several times in scripture, but those with a world view are not guided by the Bible, nor do they believe in the prophetic aspects of this great God breathed book. As a result, they are the crowds that go about fulfilling prophecy while they reject it or deny it.
Not a day passes without a new report of some old historic church or denomination sinking to accommodate the new liberal theology of the day. Charisma News recently reported on a list of eight well known ministers and evangelical leaders that have decided to join in with the perversions of the LGBT crowd. The piece entitled "8 Evangelical Leaders Who Have Publicly Embraced Apostasy" also said, that the former pastor of the Mars Hill church, Rob Bell, contends that old line conservative churches will soon be a thing of the past.
Bell remarked, Evangelicals should no longer be assumed to be conservatives. He described "a very narrow, politically intertwined, culturally ghettoized, evangelical subculture" that he sees dying out."
Not so Mr. Bell.
Not only will the verses that condemn sodomy and perversion never change, but the promise that the church will endure intact until the end of time will also – never change. The number may shrink, but the faithful will remain faithful until the end whether in life or in death.
According to the Prophet Daniel, even as the wicked make great strides in destroying all vestiges of morality and use flatteries to woo the weakest ones to join them, the church will remain and continue to put out the great message of salvation through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
"And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits." (Dan 11: 32)
We may be asked to die for our faith, but we will not die out as Mr. Bell suggests.
The world will plunge into apostasy on every level, faith, religion, politics, morality, academics, family, entertainment, ideologies and almost every area of public and private life, but the faithful will remain – faithful.
It is their faithful adherence to the gospel that proves how wrong this world is, and it is the prophetic gauge or litmus test as to how close the return of the Lord Jesus Christ is in our time.
There are only two steps to take for the church to recover in these trying times.
The first is to return to your first love. (Rev 2: 4) Our first love is Jesus Christ and his gospel.
The second is to hold fast to every word of God in its entirety. No part of it will abate or be changed until all is fulfilled.
"Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." (Rev 3: 3)
We are living in a time when all, but a very few pre-millennial prophecies have, yet, to be fulfilled. This means that the predicted apostasy is right on time, and while we must guard against it, it is not to be feared. We must remember that Christ told his disciples to preach his gospel to everyone and when they rejected it, they were told to turn their backs and look for new ground.
Now is the day to leave behind what cannot be assuaged and move on to the rest.
This is best reflected in the last message of Christ given to us in the very last book of the bible and directed at the last day's crowd both here and around the entire world. To wit:
"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still." (Rev 22: 11)
The one thing that seems to fly over the heads of those so willing to give into the world to make friends of the sinners is that the world loves to see the church fail, but in truth has no love for the ecclesiastical body.
The entire seventeenth chapter of Revelation is devoted to the relationship between the world and the church in the last days of time. It is there that the church is depicted as a cheating whore. The party goes on for a while between the world and the church, but in the end, the world turns against the church and destroys it completely.
Not everyone will understand this, but it is a simple truth that has existed as long as men have inhabited this planet.
Put simply, the world loves the betrayal, but it always secretly harbors a deep hatred against a worthless traitor.
The apostate church shown in Revelation seventeen parties and colludes with the world for a season, but in the end her fate is sealed. To wit:
"And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire." (Rev 17: 16)
© Michael Bresciani
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