Kitchener, Ontario,
Canada N2G 3A4
(519) 623-7000
(888) 835-7007
Principal Executive Director
Last update Jan 27 2000
URL: http://home.golden.net/~stefanm
Those church leaders who are convinced we are facing the END GAME of the church will find a growing determination to obey those Scriptures that are addressed to the church of the last days. The conviction grows firmer and stronger: the church MUST obey ! As the forces that will bring the antichrist to power gather in the backrooms of governments and economic centres, so must the local church prepare itself for coming events.
BOTH sides in this coming conflict must prepare themselves for war. Do not think, during these days of the centralizing of power and the placement of tools to totally control the private affairs of each citizen, that the church has no need to prepare !
The Scriptures are NOT optional. God's word is not polite suggestions, but commands with a built-in accountability !
The authors have spent months in research in both Biblical and logical conclusions. We have concerned ourselves about both the ministry of the church and the ordering of the personal affairs of Christian families. That research continues, and we offer to church leadership the opportunity to keep in touch with us and to access the information we are assembling (see response form in the back of this book).
Let us begin with this scenario: the pastoral and lay leadership of a local church sees the same perspective as outlined in this book. In a carefully planned manner, they have presented this challenge to the congregation -- perhaps by using this book as a series of Sunday morning messages, with copies available to the congregation; attenders are asked to "read chapter 2 before next Sunday morning", etc. This book has purposely been priced to make this a reasonable method of teaching prophecy.
The sermon series closes with the call to commitment (see Part One of this chapter). It will be a moving service as courageous saints rise to declare their commitment to be faithful unto death, to refuse the mark, to refuse to bow, to refuse to worship the beast. They will say, in the words of the hymn:
The next Sunday morning, forms are included in the bulletin on which people can indicate their commitment to be part of the END GAME of the church. The forms are collected, and a mailing/phone list is set up.
It is important that these meetings be open to any who wish to attend. The invitation to make a total commitment to faithfulness and ministry in these last days is given to all born-again Christians who believe in the inerrant Word of God. This is not an exclusive club, but open to all who will make the commitment to be one of "ELIJAH'S END GAME 7000". (See Appendix B for the Scriptures indicating Elijah's return to participate in the final days before the rapture.)
Because there is an agenda for this group, those who join later will be in a "catch-up" mode. It is essential that adequate provision be made to teach the A-B-C's to the new group so they can participate in the J-K-L's the initial group is now exploring. A variety of methods can achieve this, but we prefer teaching elders be given this task -- perhaps as an adult elective in the Sunday School program. Like church membership classes, this may become a standard, repeatable course as more and more join in.
Let us suppose this group of courageous Christians have determined to meet together twice a month to PREPARE for this last days' ministry, and actually to PERFORM that ministry. That leads us to the obvious question: what should be the agenda for this group's meetings ?
Actually, there are three main "fronts" on which progress will be made...often simultaneously. We offer the following description of these three areas -- not in order of importance and not in order of chronology.
FIRST, let us contemplate a day that is coming soon, and which Scripture clearly predicts. On that day the LAST person will be converted, and the church will be complete. The door of the church is shut, as was the door of the ark, and "time (to repent) shall be no more". The bride of Christ is ready.
On that day, literally millions upon millions of people living upon the earth will have lost their opportunity to "dwell in the house of the Lord forever".
When a tragedy occurs (an airplane crash kills 300...an earthquake kills 2000...a famine kills 50,000) it is front page news and the "top story" on the eleven o'clock TV news -- and it ought to be. Yet every one of those people would die eventually anyway. It is the SIMULTANEOUS death of so many that gives it the right to be called a tragedy.
And so it is with the souls of men and women, boys and girls. A. B. Simpson wrote a hymn describing "a hundred thousand souls a day" going into a Christless eternity. Today, with our larger population, that number would be much higher. But what shall we say of a day when the ENTIRE UNSAVED WORLD will see the door of eternal salvation closed ? In a single day the multitudes will be beyond the reach of Christ's invitation to come and be a part of His heavenly kingdom !
Jesus Himself said His return would be like the days of Noah. There came a day when Noah's preaching of 120 years ended and the ark was complete. All that would ever enter the ark were now inside, and THE DOOR WAS SHUT by the hand of Almighty God. That very day the rains began to fall.
The last days, declares Jesus, will be like the days of Noah.
Now, the local church of the last days, engaged in the END GAME strategy, will be moved within their souls to spread the gospel with an urgency born of a sense of that soon approaching day, combined with a compassion for the lost. The great commission will take on increasing importance and urgency.
Paul described a two-fold evangelistic motivation: (1) knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men... and, (2) the love of Christ constrains us. The Greek word for "constrain" is used on occasion to describe both a fever and persecution. Paul states that the love of Christ has taken hold of him like a fever, and persecutes him until he shares the gospel with the lost, for they are heading straight into the terror of God's wrath.
But there is a quandary: the last days will be characterized by social decay, hedonism and rebellion. If the church is now compelled to increase its outreach...what results will there be, and what kind of effort is in order ?
Interestingly enough, Ezekiel had just that same commission. He was sent to Babylon with a message for the wayward Israelites, and was TOLD BY GOD that he would have no converts ! They were hard-hearted and would not receive his message.
Ezekiel went to Babylon and sat by the river for seven days ...and said nothing. Well, what's the use ? If there won't be any converts, why bother ? Then came the word of the Lord in a most stern manner:
WHETHER OUR SOCIETY WILL LISTEN OR NOT, we must deliver the message...or face judgement with their blood upon our hands !
Consider with us the principle which we call "moving the responsibility along". We start with the leadership of the local church... where the responsibility lies at the beginning.
We agree with Dr. A. W. Tozer that the church is the only place where the sheep expect the shepherd to give birth to the lambs ! We agree that the WHOLE CONGREGATION has an obligation to witness to the whole community.
BUT...unless the church leadership lays the tracks on which the congregation can run, the responsibility continues to rest squarely on the leadership. But if the leadership sets up a program for witnessing that enables the congregants to witness, they have MOVED THE RESPONSIBILITY from the leadership to the congregation.
Now, if the congregation does NOT take advantage of the training and the tools, and does NOT get the gospel into the community, then the responsibility remains upon them. They have been told what to do; they have been shown how to do it. They are now responsible before God for the blood of the lost.
BUT...if the people take up the challenge and take the gospel into the community, they MOVE THE RESPONSIBILITY ALONG to the people of the community. Now the community members are responsible.
Why else would God have Noah preach for 120 years while the ark was preparing ? God knew that only eight souls (Noah and his family) would enter the ark. Why then all this fruitless preaching ? Because God wanted to MOVE THE RESPONSIBILITY ALONG ! Those who died in the flood had no excuse. The truth was available to them.
THAT is where God wants the responsibility to be ! Why else would He have sent Ezekiel to Babylon ? God wants His messengers to give to the lost the OPPORTUNITY to respond to the gospel.
This aspect of evangelism -- moving the responsibility along -- is an essential concept for the church of the last days. In a time of spiritual decline and hardness of heart, we must make the individuals of the community responsible for their own fate.
There is one more consideration to this ministry of evangelism in the last days. The compassion of Christ that constrains us is not satisfied with only moving the responsibility along, not content only to deliver our souls from bloodguiltiness; we groan within ourselves in sympathetic vibration with the Holy Spirit, crying out "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked...why will you die ?"
Thus our second goal is to see as many respond to the gospel as possible. THIS leads us to be as effective as possible in our evangelism...to train ourselves to witness...to locate the best evangelism tools...to do the job in spiritual power and evident compassion for the lost...to rescue as many as we can. We can provide such a training course, called the "Be Ready Seminar", based on I Peter 3:15:
A personal testimony is in order. In my most recent pastorate I challenged my congregation to join me in a last days outreach. Some would deliver items door to door; some would make phone calls; some would stuff envelopes. There would be plenty of jobs to suit each person's abilities and personality. In a series of messages entitled, "The Jericho Road", I spoke of the ministry of Jesus to Bartimaeus and Zacheus; I told of the good Samaritan. I invited people voluntarily to join a new outreach group as we head down "the Jericho Road" to reach our community with the gospel. Six people responded. I didn't need numbers -- I needed vision and commitment. I introduced them to the best evangelistic tool I know of today, and proposed a plan. That plan involved a book of about 100 pages, written with a grade six vocabulary, costing just 35 cents per copy. Half a million copies are in print, and over 50,000 people have indicated salvation through reading the book. A free copy of that book (written by a C&MA evangelist) is available through the response page at the end of this book.
Together our "Jericho Road" went to the church board to present the plan. Materials were ordered in quantity, details were put in place, and we invited others in the church to join us; our young people responded well, as did many adults. Within a short time we had placed the gospel in every home in our town of 5000, in every home in several villages nearby, and in every home in all the rural routes between. In addition, a tuck-in invited every person to a "meet-the-author" night -- and the auditorium was full. People we had never seen before at any church function came, and heard the gospel reinforced by the author himself. Counsellors had been trained, and knew how to lead a person to Christ through repentance and faith. What a glorious witness we had waged !
I left that pastorate with the inner assurance -- in a stronger way than I had in any other pastorate -- that I was FREE FROM THE BLOOD OF ALL MEN ! We had moved the responsibility along; we had placed the gospel in every home; we had invited every family to come to the Saviour. What a blessed release in my soul !
Information on that entire program (including the "Be Ready Seminar") is available through the authors (see titlepage).
Before we leave the subject of evangelism, consider the ultimate context in which this END GAME evangelism takes place. In a previous chapter we described the coming revival in a final, fierce, toe-to-toe struggle against Satan and his followers. Satan has been cast down to the earth; knowing that his time is short, he viciously persecutes the now-courageous church. Two mighty witnesses will preach and perform miracles in Jerusalem, and the whole world will see them. A mighty ingathering of souls will increase the church just before the rapture...and all the seed that has previously been planted has the potential to spring up to eternal life ! Perhaps many in my former parish, who did not respond while I was there, will in that day pull that book from the shelf and the seed will fall into prepared, fruitful soil. Amen. So be it.
The SECOND strategic ministry of the church of the last days is in response to clear predictions of Scripture; let the reader contemplate the following collection of Scriptures, and the "anti-dote" becomes obvious. Please notice the words in capitals.
I taught a 16-lesson course on prophecy in my home some years ago. Just before teaching the final lesson, I asked the group if they could sum up in a sentence the most important lesson they had drawn from the series. The first person to respond said, "The Christians of the last days MUST be people of the Book !" There was instant agreement from all in the room. Her discernment was perfect, and she said it so eloquently. I repeat...
"The Christians of the last days MUST be people of the book !"
In the church world today there are many people who have been drawn into charismatic circles of influence. Some of these people did not have a strong Biblical foundation to build upon; some were unstable to begin with. Then, when they were exposed to intense encounters with spiritual forces, they acted overzealously and in strange ways at times. This has caused division in the Body of Christ and at times driven people away from the Lord.
There is coming a time of intense spiritual warfare on earth. Simultaneously there will be revival and persecution, false prophets and true, miracle workers with both divine and satanic power, doctrines of devils and Holy Spirit empowered witnesses. If current circumstances have brought confusion to some, how much worse will it be when God pours out His Spirit in full measure in the last days.
We MUST have a solid Bible foundation and be mature in the Lord if we are going to be able to serve Him properly in the last days.
Never before in church history has the ministry of Bible teaching been more important or more strategic. "ELIJAH'S END GAME 7000" must be very well taught in the doctrines of Scripture with special emphasis on prophetic Scripture. Apologetics must be part of the curriculum as well.
This teaching must be Bible-content oriented. The teaching needed in the last days at the local church level will not be the high-tech clergy training of modern Bible colleges with their liberal arts, psychology and philosophy. It is not scholarship and commentary that is needed; it is Scripture and Bible content that will hold back the forces of evil deception and strengthen the saints. The old Bible institute curriculum that trained pastors and missionaries who manned pulpits and mission stations for a century will be the mainstay of the church of the last days. Once more, we contextualize this end-time ministry. It is vitally needed at the very time average Christians are in love with the spirit of the age and are "dull of hearing". During the very time the church needs teachers-in-training as never before, there is a decided lack of interest in proper doctrinal study. So this ministry, like evangelism, will have its "move-the-responsibility-along" aspect as well. It is the obligation of the church leadership to make this teaching available, or the responsibility will rest upon the leadership.
If the leadership does its duty, and the people do not respond, the responsibility rests upon them. They are accountable for what they know and for what they could have known.
When the rapid growth of the church occurs in the final ingathering of souls during the revival just before the rapture ...given the very strong influences of false teachers with their evil doctrines...given the intense persecution that will face the new believers with martyrdom choices...there MUST be an army of well-taught, well-grounded Bible teachers to minister in the last days...and we must be preparing for that ministry NOW.
I heard recently of a persecuted church in a small Asian nation; conversion to Christianity was punishable by two years in prison.
Church leaders planned well. Bible teachers were placed in local jails with a two-year Bible school curriculum. It was easy to get their teachers put in jail -- all they had to do was preach on street corners, get arrested and sentenced -- and presto ! -- the state-supported Prison Bible Institute was in business. Whenever a teacher completed his sentence and was released from prison, another trained teacher would go back to the street corner to preach and be jailed ! What a strategy to loose a steady stream of graduates into the church and into society !
Space does not allow us to quote the many Scriptures that refer to the ministry and gift of teaching in the church, and the abundant commands to learn, to grow in knowledge, etc. We refer the reader to the excellent presentation called "Race Against Time" that will be immensely helpful in alerting the congregation to this essential aspect of END GAME discipleship (see response form in the back of the book). That same response form offers information on the Bible Institute curriculum and credit system offered by Bible Research International. In fact, the first course ("Journey to the Centre of Life") provides an ideal beginning for ELIJAH'S END GAME 7000 -- it puts it all in context !
This program is one way in which this END GAME strategy can be integrated with the normal Christian Education program of the local church. There are a number of courses available that relate well to this END GAME ministry: Man in God's Image (spirit, soul and body); Spiritual Authority and the Church; the Character of God (filled with the fullness of God); the Authority of the Believer; Christian Evidences (apologetics), etc. Information is available on request. And, of course, there are other sources from which excellent courses may be available, though perhaps not integrated with the END GAME goals suggested in this book.
So...let us teach and train that minority of committed Christians who see the vision of the last days...and our graduates will play an increasingly important and strategic part in the program of God as we come closer to the end.
Before we proceed to the final section of this chapter, we select only one Scripture to conclude this discussion on teaching in the last days. It is the "constitution" of the Christian education program of the local church. It is NOT optional. It is the instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ, Head of the church, through the Apostle Paul:
Now we proceed to the final section of this chapter dealing with the administration aspect of the church of the last days.
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156 Bedford Road, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2G 3A4 (519) 623-7000 (888) 835-7007 |
Rev. Harvey G. Lainson, B.B.R. Principal Executive Director Last update Jan 27 2000 URL: http://home.golden.net/~stefanm |