Are these the last days?

Previous blogs in this series:

The Proof Is In The Pudding

Speculate and Manipulate

How To Know Who To Follow

It's been a struggle to figure out how to wrap up this series, knowing that what I have to say is not very popular, especially now, when so many are declaring that we are teetering on the brink of annihilation based on their belief in a widely held eschatological interpretation of John's Revelation of Jesus Christ; that it is a prophetic glimpse into the end times a.k.a. eschatology.

Question: how to study something that has yet to materialize?  

Answer: it's not possible.  

Conclusion: at best, you'll collect a pile of speculative interpretations. At worst, when those interpretations are promoted as fact, embraced as truth, and become firmly ensconced in receptive hearts the faithful embracers are rewarded with emptiness, hopelessness and fear.  Quite possibly a false teaching conceived and/or promoted by false teachers.

Case(s) In Point

Look into the lives of John Calvin (silenced a peer by burning him at the stake), Cyrus Scofield (the inspiration for the opening paragraph in How To Know Who To Follow, and John Nelson Darby is the central character rising out of my search into Holy Spirit's waking statement, "Hijacked Eschatology". 

These three men have had an enormous influence on the church.  Not a healthy, life-giving influence but one that has produced widespread despondency.  And that despondency seems to be multiplying in recent months with representatives of the church promoting the idea that what is written in the book of Revelation is being played out in today's headlines, proving, in their minds, that the dispensational interpretation conceived by Darby and promoted by Scofield must be true.  

But what if...

What if God had an enemy who knew the Word well enough to twist and pervert its meaning? An enemy who understood human nature well enough to manipulate and exploit it in order to undermine God's plan?

What if that enemy was okay with taking a century or two to set up his master plan?   What if that enemy knew his greatest weapon was the art of deception?  And that by simply twisting a few keys to unlock the mystery of John's Revelation, and whispered those key ideas to a few ambitious, pride motivated individuals placed in a few influential positions he could flood the unsuspecting church with his narrative, promoting his agenda with a repeat of the Garden's "Did God Really Say?" approach.  

The beauty of this plan would be that by using the words from the Bible, the Heirs of Salvation would be convinced that their belief is Biblical and opposing it would be either futile or defy God's plan. He  could lead them into destruction without a fight. 

Knowing the best way to predict the future is to create it, to accomplish this evil plan all that enemy would have to do is hijack eschatology.

A theory that is not too far-fetched is it?   

Is it true?  I don't know.  But hopefully I've sparked a healthy dose of scepticism for the idea that the Lord is returning in a few days for a cowering, despondent church.  And that spark might be fanned into a full on flame of your own investigative research.

How To Know Who To Follow

by Deb Moken

 

What if I told you that an unscrupulous, self-proclaimed ‘doctor’ of unknown/undeclared discipline, from the 1800's robbed the life savings’ from his unsuspecting victims by forging paperwork and signatures? And that this man was the driving force behind some of the most cherished doctrines embraced by evangelical Christians today? Or that some of the most defended doctrines were formulated and propagated by the maniacal and murderous of the 16th century?   

 Don’t worry. I won’t. Not because it’s false, but because it’s not the most effective method of producing actual changes in heart-held beliefs. Jesus would introduce new teachings by way of parable and encourage uprooting inaccurate or obsolete beliefs by asking uncomfortable questions.

 I’m not good at telling stories. But I do like to ask curiosity invoking questions hoping to initiate searches that lead to discoveries. Questions like:

    Whose teachings am I actually following?  

    Who was that guy (or gal) anyway?  

    If this person were alive today, would I go their church, buy their books or listen to their podcasts? 

    Were they known to be followers of Christ by their exhibition of love for one another? 

    Does believing this doctrine produce hope and peace, compassion and joy in my heart? 

    What effect does it appear to have in my life or the lives of others who’ve chosen to believe it?

 In Matthew 7:15-20 Jesus tells us to be on the lookout for false proclaimors of ‘truth’. If you don’t know them personally and are unable to determine the caliber of their character and sincerity (or reality) of their conversion, how can you weed out the good from the bad? The Lord instructed to check out their fruit; which are the doctrines and disciples their proclamations produce.  

 I’ve used the Lord’s method to recognize, in my own life, foul fruit. And where possible, have traced the teachings back to their ill-conceived origins. Sure enough, the discoveries made by upending a sacred cow or entrenched rock have given me all the impetus needed to erase those ideas from my world and theological views. Ideas that, I believe, were intentionally planted in the minds of the searching, watered by fear and sudo-certainty. Ideas that continue to produce bumper crops of unhealthy, impotent, and anti-christlike beliefs masquerading a truth.

Our generation doesn’t have the corner on malevolence.  Have you ever wondered who were the Jim Jones’, Vernon Howells, Charles Mansons, David Bergs and Ron Hubbards of previous centuries? Have any of  their ideas, interpretations, slants and theological grids tainted, infiltrated, and influenced the teachings we have come to believe today? Do their teachings hijack eschatology and undermine the Cross? If so, they have no place in our hearts or our pulpits. The Cross Changed Everything.

Speculate & Manipulate A Dangerous Combination

Speculate & Manipulate
A Dangerous Combination
by Deb Moken

Historically, we know that satan pays attention when God speaks and he speculates how that prophet declaration might play out. Then, based on that speculation, the enemy works to manipulate the outcome hoping to thwart God’s plan.

For Example:

In Eden God declared, “Her seed will crush your head.”  

His eschatological speculation:  One of her kids is going to destroy me. 

His attempt at manipulating the future: Kill her offspring. 

His tactic?  Provoke jealousy in Cain (who, as the oldest, quite possibly thought himself slated to be the Eternally-Lauded-Enemy-Head-Crusher as well.  

Satan succeeded in provoking Cain to murder his own brother, Abel, but he missed the truth of God’s prophetic declaration by a mile.

Fast forward a couple of centuries and God finds a man, with whom He could enter into a covenant, 

Abram.  From his family the world’s Redeemer would come. Satan’s eschatological speculation led to the attempted manipulation the bloodline hoping to derail the plan. His deceptive reasoning seemed to make sense to the humans involved. A little extramarital sex, some more jealousy, and things were looking mighty muddy. And to the enemy's ire, God continued to execute His plan in spite of the mud.

Then there were Joseph’s brothers (Abraham's great grandsons) who satan provoked to hatred. They originally thought it’d be good to murder the kid, but decided to make some money in the process by selling him into slavery.

And let's not forget the two rulers satan inspired to murder the babies of Abraham's posterity:  Pharaoh in Egypt and Herod in Bethlehem. 

4,000 years of recorded history of God interacting and making covenants with His creation.  We are shown how the enemy attempted to thwart God’s plan, and how humans, both wittingly and unwittingly fell into satan’s alternate/ulterior agenda.  FOUR. THOUSAND. YEARS.  

 And then came The Cross!

God won.  I like to remind myself that God, using only dirt (humans having been formed from it), air (He breathed into us life), and a promise (the woman’s seed is going to crush your head) crafted His magnificent plan to redeem humanity from the prison-state referred to as the law of sin and death. That plan was so beyond the enemy’s realm of comprehension. So certain, he was, that every possible loop-hole had been closed, making his ransom demands completely unattainable; the blood of a sinless man. God’s plan succeeded.  

It’s important to recognize that this was a legal issue, fought, argued, and won in the universe’s highest court.  The throne of God.  

Jesus won.  Not going to win.  Not, "I’ve read the end of the book and we win”. JESUS WON! Past tense. It may seem like simple semantics, but it’s not.  It’s one of the enemy’s tactical maneuvers to deceive the Free into believing there’s another appeal in process.  There is not.  That is what I believe the Book of Revelation is all about.  That is why the Cross didn't postpone everything.  The Cross Changed everything!  

Again, I hope you’ll join me as I explore and expose some of the tactics the enemy has used to keep the facts of his case hidden.  It’s some fascinating stuff.  ‘Till next time, just remember, The Cross Changed Everything!  

The Proof Is In The Pudding

The Proof Is In The Pudding

by Deb Moken

“Wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”That quote, from Jesus, has been crucial in my navigation through the past 20 years.  After a few decades under the proverbial belt of doctrinal teachings, I had to do some serious weeding.  To determine what could stay and what had to go in my heart’s collection of beliefs was to simply answer the questions, “What has this particular doctrine or belief brought into my life?”, “Does it produce any fruit that reproduced God’s wisdom?” If not I did my best to drop it like a hot rock.  

Warning!  What follows may be distressing to many of my readers.  I ask, if you choose to continue, that you do so with an open mind. If you’ve read my book, What If The Cross Changed Everything?, you already know my interpretation of John’s Revelation of Jesus Christ aka The Book of Revelation, is different than the very popular one currently en vogue. My intent was to offer an alternative interpretation based on a Biblical foundation and historical reference, void of speculation and the sensational.

Hijacked  

It’s a simple concept.  A vehicle, carrying passengers, is overtaken by a person or group with a different purpose or destination.  The unwitting passengers are forced into the hijacker’s plan. Travelers become trapped.

Hijackers have an agenda. They might simply want the vehicle. They might be looking for a large audience to hear their message and believe a high-profile hijacking will provide a world-wide platform. Or they might want valuable collateral to leverage a ransom. Regardless of the motive, the hijacked are at an enormous disadvantage.  They are powerless, unprepared and taken completely off-guard.

Eschatology

Eschatology is a less familiar term which means the study of end-times. Forgive me for pointing out the obvious here, but isn’t it impossible to study something that has yet to exist? Perhaps a more accurate definition would be the theoretical speculation based on Biblical references presumed to be referencing future events.

Putting It Together

There we were cruising along in the vehicle of life and WHAM, it feels like we were hijacked by 2020. The world, as we knew it, appears to have gone completely insane. And the Christian Church seems to have been, in spite of the well-known, widely-held, vehemently-espoused doctrines built on the foundation of dispensationalism*, like victims of a hijacking, appear powerless, unprepared and taken completely off-guard; in spite of the head-lines that seem to fall in near perfect alignment with the dispensational interpretation of The Book of Revelation. 

What's Up With That?

I asked the Lord for insight and He gave me a two word answer, “Hijacked eschatology.”

Stay tuned… this is some empowering, exciting, faith building, Christ honoring, God blessing stuff!

*The Left Behind series is based on the dispensation doctrine.