Biblical Spirituality #2; Will the Son of man Find Faith, "in the Spirit & Power of Elijah"?

Humanistically speaking, it would indeed be very easy to offer a rosy unrealistic outlook on the world, but it would also be unjustifiable from the scriptures. There has always been the evangelization of a chosen few, a remnant of the world that is made righteous. And the closer to the end of the world that we come, this remnant will become smaller than ever. Because Satan will be loosed from the chains of his pit onto the world to deceive.

The work of the Church is to spread the gospel message to a world that is desperately in need of it. Its task is to shed light upon a world that will suffer the wrath of God. To bring a spiritual peace to a world that isn't ever going to have earthly peace, because the heart of mankind is desperately wicked. The world isn't going to get better, it will get (and has gotten) progressively worse, until the Lord returns to a world where love of God has grown so cold that there is rampant Apostasy.

Luke 18:8;

• "I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.

Nevertheless when the Son of man Cometh,
shall He find Faith on the earth?"

It's a rhetorical question illustrating the bankrupt nature of the world when Christ returns. He will return to a world where iniquity abounds because love of God has grown cold, and man in his arrogance thinks to rule himself in God's house. He will return to a world that has had Satan loosed upon it as judgment.

Jesus will return to a world where the Dragon has gathered the nations from the four corners of the earth together against God. This is the end of the matter. It will not be a golden age of worldwide bliss or of spiritual awakening of the world, but a world that is come under Judgment of God. There will be faith found only in the remnant.

While the Postmillennial view appeals to the humanity of man, the Premillennial view appeals to the traditions of man. It is basically an offshoot of the old Judaic tradition in the law-bound beliefs in nationalism, earthly governments, and genealogical glory. When studied carefully, it is both inconsistent and contradictory. Unfortunately, like its namesake Judaism, Premillennialism continually denies God's fulfillment of Old Testament prophesies (which scripture clearly declare have already been fulfilled).

Amillennialism gives us an authoritatively consistent and biblically tenable doctrine that doesn't undermine God's Word of fulfillment. We need a recognition in the Church that when God's Word says something is fulfilled (completed), then it's fulfilled.

And this makes perfect sense, because it testifies to the emphasis of God's Word on the inward man, the spiritual nature of Messiah's Kingdom, and of those who reign in it. It confirms that we are citizens of that Spiritual Kingdom (now), as prophesied, and presently reign in true peace as kings and priests unto our God.

Not in a carnal or political government in the middle eastern city of Jerusalem, but in a Spiritual Government that is upon Christ's shoulders, called The Kingdom of God, where Jesus Rules from Heaven, in His Spiritual Rule and Reign, from The Right Hand of The Throne of God, this very moment.

We are part of Jesus` Rule of the Spiritual City of Jerusalem from above, through our prayers to Him and His Lordship over our lives, working on earth in and through His Kingdom, for the advancementof The Cause of Christ, all around the world.

Earthly Jerusalem remains in bondage, rejecting this Spiritual Rule of Christ over those who are Jesus` kings and priests, seated in Heavenly Places, as His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, serving with Jesus in The Kingdom of God, as He Reigns from the Jerusalem which is above, the mother of us all;

Galatians 4:25-26;

• "For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
• But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all."

Note: That is Bible.

We are Ruled in a Spiritual Government, called The Kingdom of God, wherein we are subjects who obey the laws thereof "in Christ," who Rules over us, in His Spiritual Rule and Reign from Heaven, now, by the Power and Authority of The Lord God of The Universe.

Amillennialism is the Historic End Times System of Interpretation, from The New Testaments times, to Augustine and the Early Church Fathers, and the Early decades of The Lord`s churches, and held throughout every Century, until the present, throughout the entire New Testament Gospel Era, we call The Church Age, in which "every point" can be unambiguously justified with scripture quoted word for word.

The only detail that can even be honestly debatable as not "explicitly" stated in scripture, is the spiritual length of the time of the one thousand years. And even this belief is made abundantly clear by the context, the nature of the millennium, and other scriptures that deal with the subject of the reign of Christ. i.e., when compared with all other scriptures, it is seen to be God breathed and the only possible way that the one thousand years can be understood.

To use an analogy, if you are told to go south for ten miles, then west for ten miles, and then north ten miles, it doesn't take a Ph.D. to figure out that your position must be ten miles west of your starting point. Even though you are not explicitly told that you are ten miles west of where you started, it is the "only" possible place you can be, considering your movements.

Likewise, God has given us all the information needed to understand what is the New Covenant Millennial reign of Christ, spoken of in Revelation chapter twenty. The problem is not that the evidence is not there, the problem is in Church indoctrination and traditions. And ironically, many theologians that claim they take the scriptures very literally, have accused those of us who literally follow these scriptures concerning the reign of Christ, of following tradition instead. Nevertheless, we know that:

"If God inspired it written, it cannot be man's private interpretation, it's God's explanation. And if God, through His word, reveals what was hidden, it cannot be man's personal creation, it's God's light of illumination."-WiseManSay

A fundamental principle of sound hermeneutics is that no scripture can be looked upon as "not true." God's Word is inerrant so that even the difficult passages that we may not yet understand, we must unquestionably receive as true.

This is exactly How it all Works out, perfectly;

Our understanding has to be brought into agreement with what is written. e.g., John the Baptist said He was not Elijah (John 1:21). But Jesus said if we will receive it, this was Elijah which was prophesied to come.

Which declaration of scripture is the truth? Is this a mystery?

The answer is, both statements are truth, because John was not the Elijah who lived years before, but He was the Elijah that was prophesied to come before Christ.

So shall we wave our hands in the air and condemn Christ for "spiritualizing" a clear prophecy calling for Elijah to come before Christ? Of course not, but this is often how Premillennialists react to God's Word when it is to be understood spiritually.

Luke 1:17

• "And he shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

Thus the answer is not in stubbornly insisting that Elijah literally be reincarnated in another body to fulfill scripture according to tradition, but in our "receiving" the testimony of the whole of scripture.

We discern by the Spirit of God that the prophesy was for one to come walking in the same spirit and power that Elijah (Elias) did. Both the witness of John, and the witness of Jesus was true. But scripture has to be defined and interpreted by God, not modern day teachers or by traditions.

Let God define His own terms.
As righteous Joseph declared of mysteries:

"..do not interpretations
belong to God?"
-Genesis 40:8?

Indeed they do. So we must read scripture with the mind of Christ 1st Corinthians 2:16, that we humbly receive what God has inspired written, rather than choose to ignore it or twist it for our own purposes. It should never be about what we think is right, just by using our unaided human reasoning, but always prayerfully about what God says.