- Dec 31, 2010
- 5,193
- 2,396
- 113
- Faith
- Christian
- Country
- United States
I was brought up in the Marine Corps and moved from place to place growing up. When I was seventeen I moved in with my Granny here in Virginia to a place with the community like Mayberry, the love like the Waltons, and a Pentecostal Holiness church which was at that time very lively. It was an amazing thing to me to here the voice of God himself speak in the sanctuary. A message wound be given out in tongues and another would interpret. There was a fear, confidence, and gladness when the Holy Spirit would speak.
And then... My generation grew up. We had a lady around my age interpret a message in tongues saying that 'she felt' that the Lord was coming in three years. Crazy stuff like that just killed the beauty of the church. It seemed like the Spirit of the Lord just packed his bags and said... See ya!
I have come to believe that the church would progress in ages in which we have the following...
1. Ephesus – Apostolic – Leaving the first love… “All they which are in Asia be turned away from me…” – II Tim 1:15
2. Smyrna – Martyrs – Persecutions ten days… Foxes Book of Martyrs describes ten Roman persecutions.
3. Pergamos – Orthodox – A pyrgos is a fortified structure – Needed for the dark ages.
4. Thyatira – Catholic – The Spirit of Jezebel is to persecute, control, and to dominate. Can invade any church!
5. Sardis – Protestant – A sardius is a gem, elegant yet hard and rigid. Doctrine in the head, little in the heart.
6. Philadelphia – Methodist – To obtain sanctification was to do so with love.
7. Laodicea – Charismatic – Rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing?
It was if God was preserving the beauty of the Wesleyan ways just long enough for me to experience it... And then it vanished away.
Another thing, and that is everyone was expecting the Lord to return at any time. This expectancy also seemed to vanish away. I myself thought that we would all be rejoicing and in the beauty of worship, and then, the trumpet would sound calling us away.
3 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 2 Peter 3
It is basically clear to me that we must endure the Laodicean times, however long that may be. __________________
And then... My generation grew up. We had a lady around my age interpret a message in tongues saying that 'she felt' that the Lord was coming in three years. Crazy stuff like that just killed the beauty of the church. It seemed like the Spirit of the Lord just packed his bags and said... See ya!
I have come to believe that the church would progress in ages in which we have the following...
1. Ephesus – Apostolic – Leaving the first love… “All they which are in Asia be turned away from me…” – II Tim 1:15
2. Smyrna – Martyrs – Persecutions ten days… Foxes Book of Martyrs describes ten Roman persecutions.
3. Pergamos – Orthodox – A pyrgos is a fortified structure – Needed for the dark ages.
4. Thyatira – Catholic – The Spirit of Jezebel is to persecute, control, and to dominate. Can invade any church!
5. Sardis – Protestant – A sardius is a gem, elegant yet hard and rigid. Doctrine in the head, little in the heart.
6. Philadelphia – Methodist – To obtain sanctification was to do so with love.
7. Laodicea – Charismatic – Rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing?
It was if God was preserving the beauty of the Wesleyan ways just long enough for me to experience it... And then it vanished away.
Another thing, and that is everyone was expecting the Lord to return at any time. This expectancy also seemed to vanish away. I myself thought that we would all be rejoicing and in the beauty of worship, and then, the trumpet would sound calling us away.
3 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 2 Peter 3
It is basically clear to me that we must endure the Laodicean times, however long that may be. __________________
