THE PROPHECY OF JOEL: THE END-TIMES CHURCH JUST BEFORE THE RETURN OF CHRIST HISTORY OF THE CHURCH
HERALDS CHRIST'S RETURN
CORRUPTION AND APOSTASY /
REFORM AND REVIVAL
CHURCH HISTORY: First DESCENT then ASCENT
Enthusiasm - Persecution - Compromise -
Apostasy - Reform - Revival - Final Clash
It is clear from the message which the Father gave to Jesus and which Jesus penned in His letters to the seven churches some fifty or sixty years after his first coming, which in turn were delivered to the Church at large by the apostle John in the Book of Revelation, that the Christian life and the Age of the Church would be exemplified by the spirit of ‘overcoming’ and 'repentance from corruption and spiritual vice', such as idolatry, rebellion, worldly lusts, stubborn pride with arrogance and disrespect for the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ. There would be trappings and pitfalls, times of trouble and doubt and times in which Satan would undermine the faith of the Church to the extent that true faith in the Full Gospel would almost become extinct. Whether it was temptations, evil, sin, idolatry or onslaughts of the Devil intended to rob, destroy and kill, overcoming would be one of the keynotes of the Church Age and its battle to ‘win Christ’ Phil 3, esp. vs. 8 and walk in the health and happiness that is salvation. There would be times of birth and glory, shame and infamy, revival and counter-reformation; but all could be graded and judged according to the ability and reality of the Church as overcomers of Satan, the World, and the carnality of their own ‘flesh’. Refer to: Bride is Overcomer of Three Great Enemies. In these final hours of Church history just before the return of Christ it would be wise for every Christian to take a close and objective view under Truth’s single eye of the progression of Church doctrine and faith. Where it conforms to Biblical truth one should emulate those who held fast as true forerunners of right faith. Where it diverted one should pray for deliverance from the infestation of crooked ways, no matter how long and widely they have been accepted by Christendom even if by the hands and works of well-meaning but imperfect shepherds. The Bible has told us things would be different, that there would be a Church among the churches which would be pure before the Lord, even one which would be so adorned with faith, hope and love that Christ would make her His eternal Bride. The other churches which attain the promises of repentance and submission will reign with Him, live in His ‘Holy Mount’, eat from His eternal garden, and more; but only one church-at-large will be His Bride due to her perfection and purity of Spirit. She will have the so-called ‘keys of David’, for she will have been ‘after God’s own heart’. Church history is the story of fulfilled prophecy and its relationship with the World and Antichrist Spirit during the time of the Age of Grace (The time between the First and Second Comings of Christ). Church history as indicated by prophecies and blessings of Jacob, Balaam, Moses, Joel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Zechariah … and the rest of the Bible’s Old Testament prophets and by Jesus’ Olivet Discourse, Peter and Paul, Jude and Gospel parables all buttress the prophistory of the Church given in The Book of Revelation and dramatically in the letters to the Churches addressed to His people by Jesus Himself. Therefore the Bible records the history of the Church so that we may learn and be wise in these last days before His return; we may rightly coin the term prophistory and apply it to the most important matter of the Church and its relationship with Christ and His Gospel (or, God’s Truth). God has given us the history of the Church written before the fact. Perhaps the greatest single prophistorical passage of all is the letters to the churches.
The church was warned, that all those who live godly lives in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. To offer comfort to the beleaguered and weary, and for impetus to continue on in the faith and promote the spirit of overcoming, Jesus presented the Church with its history before the fact. This is what may be termed ‘prophistorical’ form. Using individual churches and their characteristics, and exposing their problematical sin to them in order to typify predominant conditions which would characterize seven major successive church epochs (Seven is the number God typically uses to depict a completeness, or fullness, thus seven letters to depict the full history of the church in prophetic form), God made good on his promise that he would keep His people informed via the prophets, before He does anything at all. Amos 3:6 In the case of exposing Church difficulties and sin, God preferred to do it directly through the ministry of the greatest prophet, Jesus - Son of Man/Son of God. The purpose of this prerecorded history is to alert us to the nature of the spiritual battle so we can draw near to Him in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from and evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water [water of the Word] And let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. Heb. 10:22, 23
It was Paul in his second letter to the Thessalonians who clearly declared that there was a complete history, including a ‘falling away’ of faith in the Church (from the purity of the Gospel that would overtake the Church during its middle epochs before Christ’s return.
“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and [by] our gathering together unto him,
That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [will let], until he be taken out of the way.
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.
Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given [us] everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,
Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work. 2Thess. 2
Paul’s words in 2 Thessalonians would seem to include the surfacing of the actual Antichrist person which must precede the actual Return of Christ to earth on the day of Armageddon. In hind sight we can readily detect that the subsequent history and course of the Church Age proves the prophecy of a great falling away, and gives credence to the suggestion that the Antichrist person must appear upon a world stage within a handful of years before the Second Coming. This, of course, does not include the Rapture for we know not the day, nor the hour of Christ’s appearing in the clouds which will precede the Second Coming by an unknown, but relatively short interval of time, probably a decade or less. The course of this age is, however, directly charted by the meaning attached the character of the individual churches and shows the course of Church history to be consistent with the way in which the Church at large grew over the centuries. History confirms the character of the churches in the seven letters to be a mapping of Church history. The Church was established in enthusiasm for good works, persecuted by the Roman Empire and once it had become the accepted religion of the state she descended into ignorance and faithlessness and lusted after a kingdom on earth, something which God never promised the Church in this Age of Grace. Then after many years a general revival took hold and marched gradually on until this very day, the days prior to and contemporaneous with the appearance of the Antichrist on the world stage. Joel prophesies of the withering corruption and apostasy of the Church and its latter day revival in general terms in Joel's three chapter book. The last days revival of all things in the Church will occur just prior to Christ's Return. This is specifically told in the second chapter in which God promises to restore all things lost and revive the power of the spirit to the body of Christ to enhance and enliven their end times faith. (See the sidebar for the text chapter two 15-32). The course of this history runs like an inverted bell-shaped curve, beginning with raw and high powered primitive faith in the spirit, descending to the depths of corruption and forms without godliness, to a gradual ascent out of darkness on toward the even loftier heights that had been experienced in the infant days of the Church, to a mature faith with eyes peeled for the appearing and Second Coming the Master's son who after a long journey is coming to claim back what is His Kingdom which He with His very own blood. The final clash in the Church being set up which will pit the pilgrims of a worldly weak and powerless, but spiritually obedient church of simple faith who wait wait upon the Lord versus the worldly church of the 'gimme' people who want their reward in this life, refuse to suffer with Christ so that the may reign with Him, and seek political clout and the earthly gain of political and social power so that they may acquire all the blessings and riches of this temporal life.
This course was mapped out for the church in two chapters in the book of Revelation in which Jesus addressed letters to each of the seven archetype churches. The course of church history is rendered in symbolic terms in these successive letters by characterizing each church in general terms. Understanding the basic specifics and areas to overcome for each individual church archetype, can be seen in simple terms by the following one word identifier for tagging each church which can be understood as representing the successive epochs in church the inverted bell-shape curved history of the Church.
- Enthusiasm (Ephesus)
- Persecution (Smyrna)
- Compromise (Pergamos)
- Apostasy (Thyatira)
- Reform (Sardis)
- Revival (Philadelphia)
- Clash (Laodicea)
The most slender of historical knowledge about the Church Age unearths the sorry truth that the Church has not always been the ‘overcomer’ it should be. Sometimes, in small pockets here and in mini revivals and one generation movements there - it has overcome. Either way, each phase of Church history could have stood as a sign of the veracity and infallibility of God’s word for those who had eyes to see it in their day, even in the darkest days of Church apostasy. As with all the ‘Signs of Christ’s Return’, each epoch of Church history was constructed in such a way as to shed light on the singular promise to the world that Jesus Christ will indeed return. That Jesus will first appear to ‘rapture’ the faithful, and then later at His Second Coming at Armageddon, is the hardest thing to have an active living faith for. Jesus’ appearance and return stands alone, bolstered by many great and unrelenting signs of its certainty to show all lover’s of Scripture that they are in the waning moments of this Age of Grace. Everything the world offers, everything the unbelieving Church will spout off about tries to obscure the signs of Christ’s Return so that the faithful or the would-be faithful would b e subverted from their faith. Peter says in his second letter chapter 3:
“I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
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:
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
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.
For this they willingly are ignorant of… “
Every true believer must overcome the forces that would deter them from their faith in Christ’s promise that He will return in the Father's chosen time. …
Joel’s Prophecy:Two Signs in One: THE CHURCH
DRYNESS and CORRUPTION
LATTER DAY RAIN
and RESTORATION
by LeRoy J. Gardenier
Corruption
As I write this piece another beautiful Spring with its flowering trees and bushes, its lambent breezes and moisture-laden air, and its promise of a blissful and bountiful Summer has come and is, even now, nearly gone. I'm always grateful that the Lord has brought us through the winter season and let us see once again the recurring awesome miracle of burgeoning new life so simply but so glowingly revealed in the natural world around us. The Psalms are full of appreciation for what the naturalists of an earlier century called "the productions of nature". Praying Psalm 104 is my favorite way of praising God for this particular daily benefit. Verse 24 of that psalm just about says it all: "O Lord, how manifold are they works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches".
I feel a sense of responsibility toward the earth, but no special calling to try to renew it with the fervor of full time ecologists and environmentalists like the Green People. I'm particularly thankful for sparkling springs and plush, leaf-laden Summers when I think back fourteen years to the Summer of 1981. That was the Spring and Summer that the gypsy moth caterpillars devoured so many tree and shrub leaves in this area. It was an awful chilling experience to see the relentless, inexorable invasion to have to behold the inevitable destruction and desolation. Earlier that year, in January of 1981, I had heard a Biblical teaching based on Joel 1:4 and 2:25. I was so impressed by this presentation and its application to the spiritual history of the Church that I made detailed notes on it and even sketched a symbolic tree with its various components -fruits, leaves, branches and trunk - and how they were affected. Little did I realize the Lord would give us a real life confirmation and object lesson using actual caterpillars to bring about disheartening destruction. In His mercy the invasion was eventually stayed. Even before late summer there were small but unmistakable signs of assured restoration.
A PLAN, A PROMISE AND A PLEA
The fourth verse of chapter one in Joel states: "That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten". According to the Biblical teaching I mentioned, the Church is represented by a tree. You remember the Lord Jesus likened the Kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed which, when grown, becomes a tree (Mt. 13:31/Mk. 4:31/Lk. 13:19). The palmerworm is the first to attack and completely devour. It takes some time to do its nefarious work but the palmerworm represents those sinister spiritual forces that attack, destroy and devour all eighteen Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Ghost. Close upon the blight left by the palmerworm comes the locust, the second invader. These (like the gypsy moth caterpillars which we became so familiar with) go for the tree's main source of life - the leaves. In this spiritual teaching the leaves stand for the power and the very presence of the Holy Ghost. The locusts are those vicious spirits who would remove and eradicate the reality of the Blessed Holy Ghost, the Third Person of the Trinity. In the wake of the locust comes the cankerworm. This third force seizes upon the twigs and the branches of the tree. The cankerworm seeks to invade the limbs and, eventually, utterly kill them. Keeping the spiritual analogy, the twigs and branches of the tree represent holiness and that separation from the world necessary to keep oneself pure and undefiled before God. The cumulative effect of these three clandestine forces is to render the tree lifeless and vulnerable to evil influences within and without. The final conqueror, the one that seals the doom of this once mighty oak is the caterpillar. The ultimate invader doesn't attack fruit or devour leaves nor destroy branches, for none of these are now left. The caterpillar stands for the final destroyer. It lives and pursues its dreary destructive work in the rotten trunk of that once highly visible, bountifully productive, stately and venerable old tree. The rotted trunk, the debris-filled remains of something once grand and glorious represents those apostate teachings that insist on justification not by faith but rather by works. These are the religious and occult systems that insinuate themselves into an already infested Church and reduce it to a mere shadow of its former vigorous self.
This clear, graphic, perceptive teaching about the Church makes no claim to be an historical, chronological prospect of the Church Age, though in hind sight it clearly was a statement of the state of corruption which would befall the Church. Peter had said on the day of the first Pentecost that the beginnings of the Church were literally fulfilled by what Joel had declared in his prophecy. Peter said; “this is that which the prophet Joel had declared” when he foretold that God would pour out his Spirit upon all flesh, etc.. I do not pretend to say that the foretelling of Church being worm-eaten in the spirit is in any wise meant to be an accurate biological or anthropological presentation or explanation of the condition of the Church. If this simple but powerful scheme of spiritual symbolism witnesses to your spirit, then you'll recognize some of the heretical and schismatic teaching that have caused such havoc in the Church and helped bring it into the condition that the apostle Paul had dubbed by the Spirit, the “great falling away”, a description which is allegorically rendered in Joel.
But the birth of the church, as cited by Peter as a fulfillment of Joel, can be seen also in the Jesus’ first letter to the addressed to the church at Ephesus, the only church of the seven letters which was of actual apostolic origin, being founded by Paul. The persecution, used to stave off worldliness and corruption and to preserve apostolic fervency and separation is represented by the hardship and persecution of the church of Smyrna, while the corrupted condition of the post-Constantine Church and the power of the Papacy, which ushered in the degradation and worldliness of the Medieval Church equates to the church of Pergamos and Thyatira, churches spirited by the false prophet Balaam and the infamous witch and sorceress, Jezebel. It is during the predominant time of these two latter churches that the very nature and person of Jesus Christ became an issue of intense debate. The gifts and the fruits of the Holy Ghost were obscured by ceaseless discussions about the procession of the Holy Ghost - whether from the Father or the Son, or from both! Creeds and theological formulas became more important than conformity to God's Word. The power of the Holy Ghost, which was so evident in the apostolic nurturing era and selfless persecuted Church of the second and third centuries was replaced by man-made systems of patriarchates, councils and synods in a determined effort to revive and rebuild what the Nicolaitane clergy perceived to be a "perfect" human organization - a Holy Roman Empire and an Augustinian ideal of a city of God on earth. The very presence of the Holy Ghost was all but lost in a church that continued to name the true Trinity but, in all reality, believed in the deity of the old religion - the father, the child and the mother. With the marriage between the church and the state hopes of true holiness were all but lost. Eremetical and monastic separation from the world promoted not holiness but rather perversity and, at best, inspired a fanciful romanticism manifested in Mariolatry (Mary-worship) and the code of chivalry. From time to time the true doctrine of justification by faith held sway over hungry hearts and many clung to Jesus and Him alone both throughout life and in death. Justification by works actualized in numberless religious rituals, practices and impressive penitential acts kept people thinking that they knew, loved and served God when, at best, they only knew about Him!
In these dark years, through these Pergamum and Thyatiran epochs, the Church slugged and floundered in deep apostasy, ruling the domain of men, but dredging along in the very bottom of God’s spiritual waters. The sign of the time of Joel’s prophecy about the people of God in the days of the end being fulfilled, so that the rise to a brilliant light and the restoration of Joel could be fulfilled as another sign that Christ would return, to those who would be living even closer to the second advent.
Restoration
A Sign of the End:
Joel's
Restoration of the Church
Four times the Psalmist cries out: "I am poor and needy" (Ps. 40:17/70:5/86:1/109:22). Most of us, believers included, would do most anything to avoid coming to such an impoverished state. Yet, throughout Scripture, it is the willingness to accept and admit our true position that alone disposes us to receive the genuine riches God has prepared for us. "Blessed are the poor in spirit," says our Lord, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Mt.5:3/Lk. 6:20). And after a sweeping call to true repentance, from the greatest in society to the least - the elders to those that suck the breasts (Joel 2:16) is the blessed promise of restoration given. "And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed" (Joel 2:25-26).
It is tough enough to contend with and strive to find solution to the many vexing problems that arise naturally from the heredity that has been passed down to us. Otherwise sensible and sane people are frantically losing their grip on reality owing to the seemingly insurmountable problems mankind has afflicted on the earth's ecosystems. Spiritual people have known all along that there are forces more ominous and potentially infinitely more destructive than what man can perpetrate against himself and against his fellow creatures. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" Eph. 6:12. How vain and puny are the personal makeovers in the face of individual spiritual responsibilities and priorities. How presumptuous and arrogant are the determined attempts by stubborn and prideful man to save, restore and redeem the planet. Christians may not be able to unite and agree upon forms of worship, the finer points of doctrine or, as yet, a precise understanding of the Body of Christ. Yet, knowing what the Father has brought us through; believing for what He has in store for us; there is nothing to keep us from being one in the love of Jesus by being obedient to the Holy Ghost "...that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world." (Phil. 2:15) There can be no doubt that the final and full restoration of life and vitality in the church hinges upon ‘the pouring out of the spirit upon all flesh’, in accordance with the great prophecy of Joel. Any power and spirituality to worship God in spirit and in truth, and to walk in all His ways not leaning on our own understanding but trusting in Him with our whole heart is contingent on the ruling power of the Holy Ghost within the core being of the individual serious disciple of Jesus Christ. The restoration within the church and body of Christ is contingent wholly upon the living presence of the Holy Ghost, the third person of the Trinity and the one whom Jesus sent.
The revival of our decimated church has been a lengthy process which can be traced to the origins of what historians might identify with the blithe title modern times. The church had sunk into the Dark Ages along with society itself and had crawled through Medieval Times under the iron rule of ignorance and suspicion. Persecutions, idolatry, even witchcraft ruled over the Church and was the spirit which guided the so-called Holy Inquisition and the competition between kings and bishops for secular power and rule over the dominions of man and God. Great men such as John Hus and John Wycliff gave up their lives in godly efforts to bring in reform of a hollowed out and barren Church. Much of the efforts of reform centered around the heated controversy to make God’s Word, particularly the Bible, available to the masses. The Church was at that time dominated by the One and Only Catholic priesthood under the monarchy of the Papacy in Rome. The Roman Catholic Church was vested with secular powers by the kings and princes of Europe to have legal and secular authority to control all moral laws with every sort of legal authority and deterrent to enforce its church agenda and laws, including confiscation of property, imprisonment, torture and capital punishment. Not even Imperial Rome had allowed this kind of broad sweeping authority and power to its subject provinces and states, including the Sanhedrin in Israel. (See Holy Inquisition) Understandably, because of the way the heart of man is corruptible, the Popes and priests of the Church weren’t amenable to change and were never persuaded to relinquish their personal absolute power. A few daring men began many projects to make the Word available for the common man, but resistance against reform was fierce and untiring. Some inroads were made by Hus, Wycliff, Tyndale and others but their overall efforts were successfully thwarted for nearly two hundred years through the 14th and 15th centuries. In the East where the Greek and other Orthodox Churches ruled their power was not as great and their methods not always so severe but they held a similar sway over the potentates in their Baltic and Asiatic realms and similarly bogus doctrines and idolatrous infestations had gone unabated by any effective reforms.
The actual breakthrough for reformation was ushered in successfully when the Catholic priest, Martin Luther, posted his famed ninety-five thesis on a Cathedral door which listed systematically all the reasons he could think of decrying the hideous practice known as ‘indulgences’. The practice of ‘Indulgence’ was a system by which a believer could purchase for cash or other means of payment forgiveness and absolution for sins committed or for future sins, including any sort of the worst evils. Of course the price for murder, adultery, simony (the selling of church offices and power) bearing false witness or disrespect of the church authority were prorated according the magnitude and regularity of the crime. Anything can be bought for a price. Of course, this system has not died out or gone away in the churches even today. It lives on in various guises and disguise such as the purgatory system still alive and well in Roman Catholicism, tithing systems in all denominations and non-denominations, and other means by which shepherds ignorantly put themselves up for sale for a price and subtly encourage the sheep to believe that salvation can be bought and paid for by their works, and better still by ready cash. Indulgences simply told people that God could be paid off. Though this was the issue in which God chose to make a stand for reform and used Martin Luther to stand immovable in it was the pivotal point and the effective beginning of the revival and restoration of the end-times church. (BOOK REVIEW: Martin Luther Here I Stand) Though Martin Luther was the vessel it was all God’s doing and it marks the beginning of 450 year march toward revival out of apostasy and full restoration of the beauty and power of the primitive apostolic church. Just as the vision of Joel prophesies, the latter rain has fallen in these last days giving water to the vines and wheat fields, dispelling the long festering ignorance and reviving knowledge (see: The Seven Pillars of Knowldege for the twentieth century revival of knowledge in the Church), so that the fruit of the spirit flourishes, so that the sign of revival and restoration of a purer bride-like church is unmistakably seen and even experienced by the searching eye of the end-times oriented believer, for the purpose of encouraging and inspiring belief that a part of Christ’s church is being carefully groomed for His second coming.
> THE FIRST TWO HUNDRED YEARS OF REFORM AND REVIVAL: 15OO - 1700
> WESLEY AND THE METHODISTS: 1700 -1800
> REBIRTH OF PENTACOSTALISM: 1800-1900
> FULFILLING JOEL’S VISION OF RESTORATION BY THE SPIRIT: 1900 – 2000
> ANSWERING THE CALL OF THE SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE: 2000 - ?