All of us are experiencing the Great Apostacy predicted centuries ago in Holy Writ. This is my interpretation of what's going on, submitted for your consideration..........
In the year 1948 on the fourteeth day of May, the British mandate for Palestine was replaced by the State of Israel.
[background=rgb(255, 255, 255)]Arab states invaded the next day.[/background]
In the years since 1948, it has often been suggested that this singular event was the fulfillment of the dry bones prophecy of Exekiel 37.
The Jewish race, once dead and scattered, were gathered together in the ancient place of their original homeland. They were the dry bones, dead but not alive.
To this skeleton of humanity a living society and nation was attached and given life. Today Israel lives, whether other nations and people wish it or not.
The dry bones became alive and walked among men.
At about the same time a general ossification began to work its way into the church. Despite the known necessity to reform, despite a massive national American revival twenty years after Israel's birth, the rigidity and waning of the church grew faster and more pervasive.
At its core is the definition and the person of Jesus Christ.
Today protestantism as we once knew it no longer exists. It has forgotten Jesus, who He was and what He is as well as the anticipation of His imminent return.
What remains is in a condition of self-destruction. Its empty philosophy and ingrown social skills can not address secular hedonism nor the dangers of fascism gone wild. Far from saving the world, protestantism can no longer save itself. The glory of Roman Catholicism is a thing of the past. Accoding to every statistical analysis the church is dwindling at an unimaginable pace; globally.
The church is under attack from all sides.
That which was alive no longer walks among men.
To date, Israel has survived all invasions and attacks.
To date, the church is defeated at every turn and in all directions. The Great Apostacy is under way.
Do you see the contradiction, the events existing in indirect proportion to one another - exactly as prophecied in the pages of Holy Scripture?
Israel rises and the church declines. It's exactly like the fortunes of John the baptiser and Jesus the Christ.
Quite soon Jesus will return from the kingdom of the clouds to save - ISRAEL.
He does not come for the church. It will already be gone, for that is the indication clearly stated by the prophecy of the great global apostasy. Some believe that the church will have been evacuated in some sort of mysterious cosmic disappearing act. What actually seems to be happening is death and corruption. Today the church is dead. There is still flesh on the bones, but it is no longer able to react to its environment. Sounds like death to me!
The church is indeed disappearing. Not in miraculous fashion as in the dreams of writers of religious fiction, but as a process of inglorious decay and rot. Jesus does not come for the church. He comes for Israel.
No pretended prophet is capable of such a thing. No half dead legend can do so.
Only a man reborn from the grave with the powers of life and death in His hand can do that.
In all the sad long tale of the history of man only one such person has ever been able to do the things that Jesus did or can hold our hopes for the future as He does.
Only a god can do that.
It has been truly said that the ossification of the church began with the removal of Christ as One who has earned our respect and who is deserving of our worship, from the very position of God. Once done, the hollow shell that once was the glorious church on earth will be easily crushed by the enemies of God; the world.
With Jesus' return, however, all discussions and debates about Him will be reduced to a few dusty footnotes in the sad history of mankind. They will be there if anyone will care to read them, but with Our Lord back on earth seated upon His rightful throne in history, I doubt few will bother to look.
but that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...