Now we believe the Rapture is the next event because of the doctrine of immencency (He will come as a thief in the night). It states in 1 Thessalonans 1:10 and 1 Thessalonians 5:9 that we will be saved from the wrath to come. However, the “wrath” doesn’t actually start until 3 1/2 years into the tribulation. However, if we were pulled out of here right before the wrath, then we would be able to count off and know when the rapture will take place, because it’s 3 1/2/ years into the last seven. Hence, the thief in the night experience wouldn’t come true, as well as Jesus’ statement that none of us will know the day nor the hour (Matthew 24:36).

However, what’s confusing is that it seems that Jesus meshes the rapture (Matthew 24:40-41) with the experience of the wrath (like the days of Noah). So, hmmm, I’m confused.

That’s why I stated Sunday God doesn’t want us to worry about WHEN, but HOW we need to live in light of the fact that these things will happen. Read 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 and 2 Peter 3.

For all intents and purposes, we really only have two choices: 1) the rise of the anti-christ, or 2) the rapture. Throughout the span of the church, people have been waiting for both. They thought Hitler was the Anti-Christ and they thought that the rapture would happen in 1988. Why? I don’t remember – get the book.

Anyway, we at Lake Center are kind of waiting for both. We believe in a pre-tribulation rapture. That mumbo-jumbo simply means that God will make our bodies and souls disappear in an instant to meet Christ in the air and take us to heaven for a period of time. That period of time is the tribulation, or the Day of the Lord. The tribulation is supposed to last 7 years (Daniel 9:24-27). The first 3 1/2 years is going to be peaceful because some world leader will rise up and take over the world, and the world will love it. We believe the rapture will be the key thing this person needs in order to take over the world because all of the pesky Christians are out of the way. The rapture will create world-wide chaos and they will need someone to settle their hearts (much like Adolf did in Germany – hence the thought he was the Anti-Christ).

The anti-christ will sign a peace treaty with Israel and everything will be hunky dory (where did that phrase come from?). Then, he will do a lot of bad things (Daniel 9), break the treaty with Israel, and then God will break the earth by unleashing his wrath in the last 3 1/2 years (Revelation 6-19). So it is kind of a simultaneous thing. We are kind of waiting to see what person could possibly be powerful enough to unite the entire world because he will have to already be pretty powerful in order to assume power right after the rapture. That’s why you heard all of the spastic Christians declare our current president is the the Anti-Christ in light of his charisma, his name, and his ability to sway people. Too bad his approval ratings are so low.

So we are waiting for both. Next: will the rapture occur before or after he takes over the world?

Click here to view the paper.

I hope it challenges you!

The doctrine of election is frankly quite mind-blowing. Before we allow our minds to get twisted in the concept itself, let’s simply walk through the teaching of it.

In Ephesians chapter 1, there are some pretty pointed statements about the idea of election. Verse 4 is the key. It says that God “chose” us (same Greek word as in 1 Thess 1). What does it mean that He chose us? Logically, it’s the exact opposite of man choosing God.

He chose us “before the creation of the world”. This is before you and I obviously had an opportunity to sin. He chose us to be holy and blameless.

Now this is a little gray, but it is slammed home in verse 5. God predestined us to be adopted as his sons. Our destiny was set even before we were born to get saved (adopted). We are sons – the term used over and over again for the metaphor for salvation.

God chose us before the creation of world to get saved Wow.

It became obviouse to Paul that the believers in Thessalonica were adopted in light of how they responded to the gospel. It radically transformed their lives.

In 2 Kings 22, King Josiah takes the throne of Judah at a mere 8 years old. A full 18 years passed when King Josiah told a priest to collect offerings from the temple. In fulfilling his duty, Hilkiah the high priest “finds” the Book of the Law. Finds? That means it was lost, hidden away in an unknown location.

Sometimes it is very difficult to verify perfect cause and effect relationships. One current battle is the relationship between how we use fossil fuels and its relationship with climate change. Another one is how video games affect children’s behavior. Scientific testing seeks to discover not only if there is a relationship between fossil fuels and climate change, but also how much of a relationship. Psychologists research the same things when it comes to video games and children’s behavior. Even if a relationship can be found, it’s not always a one-to-one relationship, which simply means there are other factors involved. A percentage of climate change may be affected by the use of fossil fuels, but how much? Is there something else that either is affecting climate change more or in a significant enough way that we have to be just as concerned about that as we are about fossil fuels? What percentage does video games affect children’s behaviors and is there something else that is affecting children’s behaviors just as much, if not more? What about parental influence, peer influence, or simple freewill choice?

I say all of this to help you develop critically thinking skills in general, but also to point out a correlation that can be found in 2 Kings 22. I think we can all be very secure that there is a direct correlation between exposure to the Word of God and behaviors. The Israelites used the Book of the Law so little that they actually forgot where it was even located? King Josiah, where do you store your Bible? My what?

When the high priest found the Book of the Law and read it to King Josiah, he tore his clothes in despair. He soon realized how far his people had strayed from following God. Exposure to the Scriptures directly relates to behaviors. But wait, it’s not a one-to-one correlations. Why? C’mon – think about it. Is there anyone who is exposed the Bible on a regular basis but still doesn’t change his or her behavior? Ah! Welcome personal choice.

The Book of the Law affected King Josiah’s behavior because his heart was teachable. How do I know that? His response. Whenever you and I are exposed to truth, we quickly find out how teachable we are. You and I both know of people who, when exposed to the truth, make excuses, get defensive, or turn the table and attack the truth-tellers. Nowhere is this more offensive and disheartening than with believers.

Our entire Christian experience begins with teachability. Teachability is a basic attitude that says, “I know I am blind in many areas of my life and I need insight and help in growing.” When we come to the cross for the first time, we are saying, “God, I am blind and I am asking you to forgive me of my sins. You know all, and I am clueless. Please forgive me and allow me to spend eternity with you. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did for me on the cross.” It’s a beautiful, humble moment. King Josiah had a similar experience.

However, for some reason, the Israelites, and many Christians, somehow lose that attitude of teachability. How do I know? I have given truth to many believers and they make excuses, get defensive, or turn the table and attack me. When it comes to blatant sin, it’s easy to come to peace with the conflict. However, when you speak truth into someone’s life and it’s not a blatant sin issue, their maturity and teachability is truly revealed. Personal growth involves all truth. The attitude of teachability should be ubiquitous (ever-present) in and throughout your life. Many of us are so motivated to seek truth and grow. The principle: Whenever you think you’ve “arrived”, you are further away than you’ve ever been. One simple acid test: how do you respond when truth is given to you?

King Josiah was exposed to truth and reformed Judah and had a revival. The Pharisees were exposed to the Scriptures on a regular basis but thought they had “arrived” and there downfall was secure.

Questions:
Is there any blatant sin in my life? What do the Scriptures say?
If not, how powerful of a believer am I? What do other people say? Ask as many people as you can this question: “Where am I blind?” and “How can I grow?” Ask your spouse, your family, and most importantly, those who don’t think the world of you.
Don’t you just love pain?

At this moment of intensity, King Solomon is blown away and he has no choice but to praise the God of heaven. He has one theme in his praise: God has fulfilled His promises.

From the moment God brought Israel out of Egypt until that very moment, God fulfilled promises. If you have been reading through the Old Testament, you will feel that it has been a roller coaster ride. You will also quickly realize that between man and God, only one of us didn’t keep their word.

One mental technique I use to help keep myself faithful until the end is the principle of “what do I want to feel when I look back?” Think about the times you have failed; the times you listened to your sinful impulses and you were so driven emotionally to flesh out those impulses. You felt so right, and then it was over. You reflected and then repented to the God of heaven. Why can’t we have those reflections and those emotions before we listen and live out our impulses? Ugh! The God of our Lord Jesus Christ will keep his promise: As far as the east is from the west, I will remove your transgressions from you. Beautiful promises.

Solomon doesn’t stop there – he turns to the altar – the center of sacrifice, and dedicates the temple. The outline of his prayer is as follows:

1. Declaration of the character of God (23-24)
2. Pleading with God to keep His promises (25-26)
3. Be here, stay here, and forgive! (27-30)
4. Bring justice! (31-32)
5. If you punish us because we’ve blown it, and turn to you again, forgive! (33-34)
6. If you punish us because we’ve blown it, and turn to you again, forgive! (35-36)
7. If you punish us because we’ve blown it, and turn to you again, forgive! (37-40)
8. If Gentiles come and seek you, grant their requests! (41-43)
9. If your people are far away and turn toward you, grant their requests! (44-45
10. If you punish us because we’ve blown it, and turn to you again, forgive! (46-51)
11. May you answer us when we cry out to you! (52-53)

Are you sensing a pattern here? The temple is the place of sacrifice, forgiveness, and worship. God’s people come to the presence of God to acknowledge the sacrifice, seek forgiveness, and worship the God of heaven. How much more, Christian, do we need to believe and accept His sacrifice, forgiveness, and then turn to worship Him?

He has promised to forgive if we come to Him with a repentant heart – that is His promise! He has also promised to punish if we reject and turn away from Him. The perfect balance of grace and truth (John 1:14). Which mindset do you need today? What word (grace or truth) will draw you closer to Him?

These are examples of statements from two kingdoms. When it comes to discussing the kingdom with our Lord, we can either begin our sentence with We want or We are . . .

We want to go back to Egypt. We want to be like all the other nations. We want . . .

Begin your evaluation of self within the kingdom as `We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’

I have been so intrigued by this little story tucked right in the middle of Luke. Don’t miss its power.

The statements of two kingdoms reflect which kingdom we find most compelling.

Wow.

Fear. Here it is again. What is the deal with all of the fear? Forget that question. It’s unanswerable. Fear is ubiquitous (ever-present). Fear will be here and won’t go away until eternity. The most repeated command in Scripture: Do not fear. How is that possible? I don’t think he is telling us to never experience fear – that’s impossible. If my child runs out into traffic, I am going to fear and that fear is going to create a thrust of adrenaline inside of me to grab my child before catastrophe strikes. I believe the Lord is telling us to not be ruled by fear. Most of our fears hang with us for extended periods of time. Although sometimes we have an “instant” fear (like a child running out into the road), but most of our fears exist with us. Do not fear. Don’t let your fears keep you from doing what you’re supposed to.

The Israelites were afraid. They saw the “giants” of the land and they were afraid. I don’t buy for one second that Caleb and Joshua weren’t afraid when they first evaluated the land. Remember, courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s deciding something else is more important than fear.

We fear when we are in the presence of something more powerful than ourselves.

We have courage when we trust in the God who is more powerful than the objects of our fear.

Caleb and Joshua trusted. The rest did not. They once again distrusted the character of God by thinking that they were going to die in war. They would rather experience the horror of slavery than the horror of their fears. Fear is faith in what you don’t want to happen. God was blown away. How could we possibly believe, in light of all He has done, that He doesn’t have the absolute best for us in mind? How can we possibly believe, in light of all He has done, that He won’t fight the wars for us?

Fast forward to their first battle: Jericho. What did they have to do? Walk, play instruments, and scream. Wow. Those poor people. We have tons of faith in things that we don’t want to happen, and almost no faith in the God who is in control of what happens.

Fear makes us run away, it makes us rush into compulsive actions, or it makes us sprint into the shadow of his wings. The Israelites ran from the promised land, and then after God judged them, they compulsively decided to go into battle when they realized what the judgment was. Caleb and Joshua ran into the shadow of his wings.

We must war before we rest, but our war is not on the outside, it’s on the battlefields of our hearts.

If you woke up tomorrow and discovered you were living a life sold out to God, what would be different about you? If you struggle inwardly right now with living that life, what are you afraid of? What will you lose if you live that life? What are you afraid of giving up? Have courage. Your fears won’t go away, but you must decide something else is more important than your fears.

This last Sunday, I approached a passage that many pastors probably fear to tread! That doesn’t mean I’m special, just a little too willing to take on difficult things.

The passage is Matthew 7:21-23: (NIV) “Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, `I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

The main discussion of my sermon circled around how we as humans respond to fear in one of two ways: we either are driven by fear to God, or we are driven by fear away from God. In 1 Samuel 8, the leaders of Israel were driven by fear to make a horrible decision: ask for a king like all of the other nations have.

I won’t repeat my sermon here, you can listen to it at www.lakecenter.org. I approached Matthew 7 to talk about a healthy fear each of us should have as believers.

This is a very difficult passage to understand. First, it follows a description of false prophets by Christ. Many Bibles have a subtitle over verse 15, to distinguish it from the topic of verses 13-14. However, there is not a subtitle in my Bible over verse 21, separating it from verses 15-20. In some of your Bibles, there is. Understand that subtitles are not inspired! They are simply helpful tools placed there by the publishers to introduce a new topic.

I suggested that we need to separate the two passages. Verses 15-20 talk about false prophets, but verses 21-23 may be talking about believers. Here are my thoughts:

1.      Not everyone who says to Christ, “Lord, Lord”. 1 Corinthians 12:3 tells us that no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. However, Philippians 2 states that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The latter passage is describing an exalted Christ, so it’s probably at the judgment of all people. The people in Matthew 7 seemingly called Jesus “Lord” when they were living on earth, so 1 Corinthians 12 applies here. Question: how can people say that Jesus is Lord when they can only do so by the Holy Spirit? It could be momentarily, like the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18 when they momentarily declared “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!” The same could be true of those in Matthew 7, but not likely. These were likely true believers. More evidence:

2.      Not everyone who says to Christ, “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father in Heaven. The main question: Is the kingdom of heaven salvation, or is it a kingdom that people can enter in eternity based upon their obedience and faithfulness? If it’s salvation, then the only people who can enter are those who do the will of God. Isn’t this works salvation? If I say, “I entered the kingdom of heaven (salvation) because I obeyed God.” That seems like works-based salvation to me. If the kingdom of heaven is not equal to salvation, but the display of great reward by those who did obey, it makes sense. This is a very difficult thought! In other words, some people will be saved, but won’t be in the kingdom. Salvation is a gift and all can receive it. Entering the kingdom is based upon rewards given for obedience. Endless books can be written on this, so allow me to throw the thought out and allow study and discussion to proceed from here.

3.      Jesus says in verse 22: “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’” Can people preach in the name of Christ and not be saved? I guess it’s possible. But what about driving out demons? This is impossible. Look at Luke 11:15-20. Jesus was accused of driving out demons by the power of Satan. Jesus uses logic to call that idea “ridiculous”. How can Satan drive himself out? I do it by the power of God! So these people in Matthew 7 call Jesus Lord, preach in his name, and drive out demons in his name. These aren’t believers???

If they are believers, what is their crime? First, Jesus seems to be contrasting what these people did with doing the will of the Father. Look at the Pharisees. Jesus said that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, then we won’t enter the kingdom of heaven. Good luck with that. They “obeyed” the law almost perfectly. We also know that the Pharisees were beautiful on the outside, but wicked on the inside (Matthew 23:27-28). They did “good works”, but their hearts were evil. It’s all about the heart. Is the will of God better described in Matthew 25:31-46? There is a clear distinction between those saved, and those not saved. The main acid test for obedience is that care for those less fortunate. One very interesting question that boggles my mind: Jesus tells the “goats” to be cast into the eternal fire. Why? You read it.

Back to Matthew 7. There’s only one of two options here: either these people are Pharisees who have the “lingo” and actions down, but are not really true believers. It seems confusing in light of my reasoning above. If these are true believers, then many of you can agree with me up to this point. What throws this whole idea into confusion is what Jesus says to them: “I never know you. Away from me, you evildoers!” I never knew you? If he never knew them, then were they ever believers? As well, he tells them to leave, and calls them evildoers! What is going on here?

Here is an email I received early this week:

Hey PG, 

You said that you were expecting emails, so here is an email.

 I have to disagree with your position on Matthew 7:21-23 as being directed toward Believers.  I think that this passage is directed toward those who followed false teachings about Christ and the way to salvation. 

 If we consider the context, the verses immediately before vs. 21 are referencing false prophets. 

The Bible is clear that there is only one way to be forgiven of sin and that is by believing in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.  No other person, method or work can give eternal life.  In an attempt to be tolerant, however, some people assert that all religions are equally valid paths to God.  Even though we have a right to hold our own opinions regarding salvation, that doesn’t mean that everyone who holds some type of belief system will be accepted by Christ.   

When they call Him Lord in vs. 21, I believe that the people are acknowledging that they know who He is and perhaps that they thought that they had made a commitment to Him (for example salvation based upon works or being a good person).  In vs. 22, the people then begin to argue their position telling Jesus about all of the things that they did, presumably in His name, to earn their place in the Kingdom of Heaven.

 Lastly, if we regard vs. 23 as speaking to Believers, “But I will reply, I never knew you.  Get away from Me, you who break God’s laws,” it would contradict Scripture.

 John 10:14  “I am the Good Shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know Me.”

Some of my thoughts to this person:

First, this person “considers the context”. There isn’t much context all the way through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). If you scan over the sermon, you see that Jesus jumps from one topic to another. The only “context” is the overall sermon. He hits one unrelated topic after another. If you believe that he is talking about false prophets, then I ask you this: the false prophets in verses 15-20 bear bad fruit. The people in verses 21-23 are bearing good fruit (prophesying in his name, casting out demons, and performing miracles). None of us would call this “bad” fruit, and a person’s fruit is exactly how Jesus told us to differentiate good trees from bad ones.

Second, I can see their point about trusting in good works for their salvation, not in the work of Christ. However, at this point in time, it’s before the “the work of Christ on the cross”. Nevertheless, it’s still by faith in God that people in the OT were saved. The Pharisees banked everything on their own righteousness and were wicked. This may be the case here, because Jesus tells them that they break God’s laws, even though they were doing good works. Interesting.

I am still wondering about the other passages I noted above (1 Corinthians 12, and Luke 11). How did these people call him “Lord” and drive out demons if they weren’t believers?  Jesus asks the Pharisees in Luke 11, “If I cast out demons by Beelzebub, how do your sons cast them out? They will be your judges!”

The best point this person has is the “I never knew you” statement. I agree. There could be false prophets who speak lies against the gospel (verses 15-20), and there are Pharisee-type people who believe they are following God, but are really far from him. These two passages are probably separate, describing two different groups of people.

To summarize, here are four interpretations:

1.      Verses 21-23 are simply continuing the discussion of verses 15-20.

2.      The two passages are separate: the first group is made up of false prophets and the second group aligns with the Pharisees.

3.      The two passages are separate: the first group is made up of false prophets, the second group are believers who validate themselves, miss the point of Christianity (caring for those in need), and are cast out of the kingdom.

4.      The two passages are separate: the first group is made up of false prophets, the second group are believers who lost their salvation.

Application point: there are people who think they are incredible followers of God who are in for a rude awakening.

What’s your interpretation? What’s your evidence?