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Daily Bread -
November 20, 2008
by Robert J. Wieland
The
Lord Jesus Christ loves His church on earth so much that He has sent
seven special messages to His world church in seven eras of its
history since the time of Jesus and His apostles. They are recorded
for us in Revelation chapters 2 and 3:
“
Ephesus”(2:1-7) is the first church,
that of the apostles. The Lord Jesus is happy with that “church,”
for He commends them for enduring persecution and for thinking
clearly and exercising inspired discernment (“you cannot endure them
which are evil”). The Christians there have “labored” patiently.
But
He has one thing against that “church”: “You have left your first
love [agape].”
Careful scholars have detailed how the leaders of the early church
step by step abandoned the truths of agape and substituted
the pagan Hellenistic concepts of love. The people blindly followed
them! The Dark Ages had begun with that false doctrine imported.
Even
the great Protestant Reformation of the 16th century did not succeed
in completely overcoming the Hellenistic ideas that had watered down
agape.
What
happened was that there developed a superficial view of the extent
of the sacrifice of Christ on His cross. The idea was lost that
Jesus had not only gone to sleep for a weekend before His
resurrection, but that on His cross He had actually died the “second
death” of the whole world (see Rev. 2:11, and 20:6, 14). He was
serious when He screamed while on His cross, “My God, why have You
forsaken Me?” Christ endured going to hell!
In
consequence of losing this great truth of what happened on the
cross, the early church soon fell prey to Hellenistic ideas imported
into the church, one of which was the pagan doctrine of natural
immortality. Today almost all Christian churches handicap themselves
by holding to that Hellenistic idea.
Those
who mistakenly received that false Hellenistic idea were still
seventh-day Sabbath observers; but having accepted that pagan
doctrine, they soon abandoned the true Sabbath and embraced the
observance of the great “day of the sun” (Sunday) in place of the
Lord’s true holy Sabbath. Now the Dark Ages became even darker.
But
there is Good News: the Books of Daniel and Revelation pinpoint the
end of the Dark Ages as coming at the close of the 1260 years of
papal supremacy, which began in 538A.D. and extended to 1798 when,
for the first time, the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation began to
become widely understood.
Fast
forwarding to the end of those Dark Ages, we find that the Holy
Spirit raises up a world-wide people who distinguish themselves as
those “who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of
Jesus Christ” (Rev. 12:17).
That
is what is happening today, the world around. Come, take your place
with them! The Lord Jesus has prepared a “place” for you there.
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