Thoughts on Eschatology Part 2 - Unless the Lord Builds the House...

Will the Third Holy Temple be Rebuilt Soon? This was the headline I saw when I opened my email this morning. A ministry working in Israel sent it to me claiming that this temple must be built in order for the Messiah to come. They were citing passages like Exodus 25:8 where God says to Moses to make a sanctuary for Him so He can dwell among his people. Passages from Haggai about neglecting to build the Lord's house were also used to help with this project. Did God send us the better in Jesus so that we can go back to this?

What if I told you that the third temple is already here with its priests and sacrifices?

And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What's more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. 1 Peter 2:5

Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 6:16 that YOU are the temple of the living God and that God dwells and walks in you! Jesus and His body are the fulfillment of Exodus 25:8. The message of Hebrews is that God has done away with earthly temples and the sacrificial system. To teach that God is going to one day rebuild a temple, accept sacrifices, and go back to the law is serious error. Hebrews 10 clearly states that Christ took away the first, that he may establish the second. After He had offered ONE SACRIFICE for sins FOR EVER, SAT DOWN on the right hand of God and NOW WAITS for His enemies to be made His footstool (Hebrews 10:12,13). To miss the mark and go back to this system does despite to the Spirit of grace. The third temple God is building is us and it's going to be more glorious than any earthly temple ever could be.

In John 4 Jesus is speaking with the woman at the well. She questions him as to where the proper place of worship is. Do we worship on the mountain our fathers worshipped on here in Samaria or on the mountain in Jerusalem? Jesus responds to her by saying that neither mountain is the appropriate place for worship. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him (John 4:24). The Father is not seeking to dwell in a temple made with hands, but in the temple of His people.

Why is this important? Because today many Christians see a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem as a sign of Christ's soon return. This along with the message of gloom and doom have done a great disservice to the Church. Books like Left Behind and The Harbinger present a very bleak view of the last days. While certainly entertaining they don't present an accurate picture of the word of God. There's no place for scare tactics in bringing in the lost. If we bring people into the Church with a message of fear we're going to have to keep reinforcing this message to keep them there. On the contrary it is the goodness of God that leads people to repentance (Romans 2:4). Christ's return is referred to as the Blessed Hope, not the dreaded horror.

The most serious error in much of the current ‘prophetic’ teaching of today is the claim that the future of Christendom is to be read not in terms of Revival and Victory, but of growing impotence and apostasy, and that the only hope of the world is that the Lord will by His visible coming and reign complete the task which He has so plainly entrusted to the church. - Oswald T. Allis

Instead of doom and gloom let's look at Christ's return through the lens of victory and hope. While most of the Church is complaining about the giants in the land, God is raising up Caleb's and Joshua's who see things from a higher perspective. Your identity is not on the other side of the Jordan warring with the enemy (or with God for that matter) but in the Promised Land which is Christ. We haven't gone this way before. The threshold of the Most Holy Place has just been crossed. Let's enter in to all that God has for us.

Heaven is much closer than you think. In Luke 17:20 the Pharisees, like many today, were asking Jesus when the Kingdom of God should come. He answered them by saying that Kingdom doesn't come by observation, nor will they say here it is or there it is because the Kingdom of God is within (or among) you! Christ IN you (plural) (Colossians 1:27) is the hope of glory. He is coming to be glorified IN His Saints (2 Thessalonians 1:10). It's time we stopped looking for the disappearance of the Saints, but rather for His appearing.

Christ's coming is not to be understood as any minute but rather UNTIL.

1. Until His enemies are made His footstool.

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. - Hebrews 10:12,13

Christ is currently seated in Heavenly places on the throne of David. Much teaching today says that there is coming a day where Christ will reign on His throne. Either way what you believe concerning this has huge implications for your eschatology. If he's not currently seated than neither are you! To plant one's foot on the neck of a prostrate foe was a symbol of complete victory. Leading up to the return of Christ we are going to see more ground gained for His Kingdom than ever before. This is not a time where we are going to be retreating into caves but a time where we will be a city set on a hill giving light to the nations.

2.Until the restoration of all things.

Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. - Acts 3:19-21

Here we see that times of refreshing and the restoration are coming before the return of Christ. The word for refresh in the Greek means a recovery of breath. Might I suggest that the Church is experiencing a second wind. If your Church, family, life, etc is tired and exhausted receive the breath of the Lord on your life right now. New Covenant prophets prophesy the breath of God and not the wrath of God. The Spirit is moving mightily in these days so that ALL THINGS will be restored.

3. Until we all come to the unity of the faith.

Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. - Ephesians 4:13

The belief that the Church is growing weak and impotent is dismantled in light of this passage. The body that Christ is returning to is going to be in equal proportion to the head. As He is SO ARE WE in this world (1 John 4:17). It's time leaders are raised up like the Apostle Paul who labor as though in birth for Christ to be fully formed in His Church. Come outside of your tribes and join up with others in the body of Christ. Christ is uniting, not dividing, His Church!

4. Until He receives the early and latter rain.

Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. - James 5:7

The early and latter rain speaks of the outpouring of the Spirit resulting in a harvest. Before Christ returns we are going to see a harvest on unprecedented levels like we have never seen before. The early rain was poured out on the day of Pentecost and this latter rain is being poured out in this season of Tabernacles. The time of ingathering is upon us.

Don't be discouraged by the fear-mongers. Christ has given you His peace. Your future is bright!

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. - John 14:27

In conclusion my goal is not to present a rosy, everything will pan out picture of the future. All those who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. However it's possible to live in victory and joy while outside pressure is piling up on you. The early Church suffered much persecution but grew daily and moved in mighty signs and wonders. Christ's Kingdom though starting as small as a simple stone is becoming a mountain that will fill the whole earth. Don't despise the day of small beginnings. The Lord is for you and not against you. Fear is not in your future!

The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts. - Haggai 2:9

Recommended Reading:

The Revelation of Jesus Christ - Lynn Hiles

Surprised by Hope - NT Wright

Victorious Eschatology - Martin Trench, Harold Eberle (Kris Vallotton recommends this in his book Heavy Rain)

Whose Right It Is: A Handbook of Covenantal Theology - Kelley Varner

Thoughts on Eschatology Part 1 - The Lens of the Kingdom

The Christian life can be seen as that of a journey. We're constantly on the move going from glory to glory and from faith to faith while maintaining a posture of rest. Proverbs 4:18 declares, "The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day." As a Church God is moving us progressively forward in order that Christ may be fully formed in us (Gal 4:19).

While the point of this post isn't my journey let me share a little of it with you. Like many Christians in the bay area I grew up in a Christian home that was birthed out of the Jesus people movement. It wasn't until I was in High School that I decided to get serious about my faith. God put a hunger in my spirit for Him. I was all in. The Church I was in at the time was great. I was being fed daily and had made a great group of friends that encouraged me in the things of the Lord. After some time I felt that something was lacking. It wasn't until I had made some friends at the local Pentecostal church that I found out what it was. To the disappointment of many I ended up at the Pentecostal church. My life was immersed in this Church. After High School I attended Bible College there and ended up teaching in their Bible College in Kinshasa, DRC. During the time I was a part of this Church I had traveled around the world, seen miracles, signs, and wonders, and knew that God had called me to His service. After some time I felt the Lord leading me away from this Church. I praise God for all I learned there and wouldn't have traded it for anything but I to say I walked away with a certain lens in my approach to Scripture would have been a huge understatement. The past ten years have been huge for me in that I've learned so much but more importantly I've unlearned a lot.

My point in sharing my story is that we all have a lens or worldview through which we view the Scripture whether it comes from our culture, our family, our denominations, etc. Our lens isn't always a bad thing but it can blind us to what the Lord has for us. The Lord is calling us upwards and onwards and its going to require us laying aside every weight, and the sin which so easily besets us. This is going to require us to at times see things in a whole new light. To my brothers who have kept the Passover in salvation and to those who have been filled with the Spirit in Pentecost the Lord is calling us on to Tabernacles where we are filled with all the fullness of God.

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19

What we believe determines how we live. Therefore it is imperative that we search the Scriptures and listen to the voice of the Spirit to lead us on this journey. The purpose of these posts is to challenge teachings that have crept in the Church that weaken and divide the body of Christ. I have no desire to go outside the bounds of orthodoxy but I have every desire to dismantle anything not built on a proper foundation.

It was Karl Barth who said, "take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible." I agree with Barth however I think many of us have interpreted our Bible from our newspaper. When you read the paper or watch TV it looks as though the Gospel will not prevail. But when we open our Bibles it is very clear that it will. When did we let the newspaper or current events become our authority for doctrine? It's time we rethink some of what we've been taught.

In the Bible God has promised the Church that the gates of hell will not prevail against her, that all the ends of the earth will turn to the Lord and that all the families of the earth will worship Him. It's my prayer that victory and hope will replace doom and gloom in your eschatology.

If your theology brings you back to the place where you go back to outward temples made with hands, and the ashes of red heifers, and the blood of bulls and goats - somewhere you missed the point. - Lynn Hiles

We can no longer interpret the New Testament through an Old Testament lens. The Old Testament must be interpreted through the New Testament. Because of this we've taken passages like Isaiah 2 and pushed them so far into the future instead of making them a present reality today. When we believe a message of doom and gloom we are resigned to say "that is just how the world is" as opposed to taking a stand and changing the way things are. War, poverty, aids, etc are things that we as a Church must challenge not sit back and let happen. It's time we stop letting culture influence us and for us to start influencing the culture.

We pray "your kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven." The Kingdom of God comes it does not go. An escape from the created order, rather than the redemption of it is an unbiblical view of the Kingdom. This message is that the Kingdom has arrived on earth, not that we can leave earth an go to Heaven. Jesus came to save the world, not save us from the world.

Life is a dress rehearsal for Heaven" is much closer to Gnosticism than biblical Christianity. Life on earth is what Jesus came to restore. - Derek Vreeland

When we view salvation as an escape from the physical world as opposed to saving us within it we've let Gnosticism creep into our theology. While Jesus' Kingdom is not of this world it is very much for and in this world. Our message is not dying and going to heaven but rather one of new creation.

Christ's Kingdom has come. Daniel's stone was cut out without hands, struck the image and is becoming a great mountain that will fill the whole earth (Dan 2:35). The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Hab 2:14). Let this be your present hope.

Plow in Hope

"...because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop." 1 Corinthians 9:10

Plow in hope. I've been hearing this phrase again and again in my spirit. The Christian life while not always easy is to be a life full of hope. It's going to require plowing at times. Plowing requires work. We break up hard ground by cutting through, overturning, and softening the ground that is unprepared to receive seed. Once we've finished plowing we plant seeds, water, and prune in order to reap our harvest.

Many in the Church today are in the fields plowing without hope. They're breaking up hard ground, and sowing seeds but seeing no results. A hopeless gospel is no gospel at all. I pray that this post will breathe hope into you again.

"And this hope will not disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love." Romans 5:5

The Christian hope is such that it shall be fulfilled. We have an expectant hope that what we have plowed, sown into and threshed will bring forth much fruit.

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Galatians 6:7

This Scripture has been used many times to scare the Saints into right behavior. While I do believe in the principle of sowing and reaping we have to recognize that in Christ we haven't reaped everything we've ever sown. Knowing this we have no excuse to sow bad seed. Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? By no means. Grace is a teacher. It teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts so that we can live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world (Titus 2:11,12). You sow good seed, you're going to reap a good harvest. To whom much is given much is required.

Whatever A MAN sows, that shall he reap. There are really only two types of men on the earth. There are those who are in Adam and those who are in Christ. Adam sowed to the flesh and for 4000 years we have reaped corruption. Jesus sowed to the Spirit and we have received life everlasting. As Brother Lynn Hiles says, "He took what I had coming so I could receive what He had coming."

'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." John 12:24

The death of Christ was a sowing into the earth with the promise of a great harvest to come. He became poor so that through His poverty you could be made rich (2 Cor 8:9). He took our sickness so that we can have His health (Isaiah 53:4). He was bruised for our iniquities and chastised so we could have peace. He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we could be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor 5:21)! Christian you have a harvest coming that you don't even know about! In Luke 6 Jesus and His disciples enter the Sabbath field and pick the heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat them. As a Church we have entered into a season of rest where we have ceased from our own labors (Hebrews 4). When we enter into Christ we enter into His rest. Jesus and His disciples were picking the grain because a harvest has come. Keep plowing in hope as your harvest is coming on this Sabbath day.

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

You aren't alone in the fields. The Lord is with you. Where you go He goes. He is working with you and will confirm the word you preach with signs following (Mark 16:20). Be strong and don't become weary in well doing. You will reap a harvest if you don't give up.

Plow in hope. This year be daring and plant seeds you haven't planted before. Sow into places you haven't sowed into before. If you believe the Lord has given you a dream pursue it with all your heart. Most of all pursue Him. He will not deny the hunger He has put inside of you.

The dreams that have died in the past let the Lord breathe fresh life into them again. The tears you have sown will be turned into joy (Psalm 126:5). God is giving you new ground. There's grace for this in this season.

Thresh in hope. Threshing is where the worthless stalk is removed from the valuable grain. Every branch that bears fruit is pruned in order to bring forth much fruit (John 15:2). Pruning is never fun but you can rest assured that in it the Father has a purpose. He is preparing you for much fruit and is going to bring you forth as pure gold. Threshing in hope also speaks of having a "culture of honor." It's where we choose to see people after the spirit as God sees them and not after the flesh. Things don't always look nice when refinement is taking place. Rest assured that He who has begun a good work in you (and your brothers) will carry it to completion (Phil 1:6).

Don't be afraid to put your hand to the plow in 2012. Keep your eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of your faith and the fallow ground will be broken up. Plant seeds of righteousness, water, prune and you will see your harvest!

I pray that hope surprises you in 2012! Let HOPE be the banner over you and your Church. May hope infuse your relationships with others in the body of Christ locally and universal. May your eschatology turn from fear to one of hope. The Lord has HOPE stored up for you.... and this hope does not disappoint. Blessings!