This is the final climactic message from the recent Olivet Convocation in Madison, Ohio. Travis Bennett spoke to us from Matthew 24, Revelation and other passages, to reveal to us something of the heart of God, and the Glory of the age to come. Reggie Kelly is also heard in this message as well as questions and comments from various attendees of the conference. Do NOT miss Part 4!
Except Your Righteousness Shall Exceed…
I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Mt 5:20 We need to seek the Lord concerning the best means to turn this apocalyptic perspective among the orthodox to the […]
The Mystery of God
We’re were discussing Rev. 10:7 this morning. Do you see “the mystery of God” as “He preached to His servants the prophets” that was no longer “delayed” and was “finished” the same as “the mystery of Israel?” Do you think the angel in Rev. 10:7 is the same as the […]
Michael’s Middle of the Week Victory in Heaven
[…] Michael’s middle of the week victory in heaven, and the affect this will have, not only in the realm of the mystery of iniquity (incarnation of Satan), but also in the realm of the believer’s inward life, is a topic close to my heart. Basically, it is nothing that is not already true and available in the gospel, but I am fully convinced that the church will be straightened to a corporate fullness that will be particularly constrained by the events of the last seven years. (see a piece I wrote some while back called, “Where God is Taking the Church”, posted on our website.)
I take the view that the church (true church or godly remnant) will know with absolute certainty when the seven years has begun. Perhaps even before the door of the seven years has shut tightly behind us, I believe there will be an increased corporate earnestness and urgency of travail and intercession among many, analogous to Daniel’s intercessory self abasement. I believe Michael’s authority to evict Satan at the set time is bound to the church’s travail, which comes in response, not only to the time, but to the revelation of the Spirit concerning what is at stake. […]
Only by the sight of Him: A Meditation
When I was a very young boy, I used to worry deeply about the Jews. I knew nothing of any promise concerning a future hope for them. I knew only that unless they were able to somehow forgive those who had done such things to them, they could not be […]
“When saw we Thee?”
[…] When it comes to Israel’s unbelief, it is amazing to see all that conspires to reinforce it. Not only centuries of “Christian” antisemitic behavior, but even how certain verses are translated, let alone interpreted, compounds the distance between church and synagogue. Take for example the Jewish translation of Zech 12:10. Compare it with most Christian translations and you will see what I mean. Of course, Christian linguists, such as Walter Kaiser in his book, “the Messiah in the Old Testament” argues the translation question with decisive evidence for the messianic interpretation. But the average believer must take considerable pains to be informed. It may be effective on some occasions, but it’s not always quite as easy as quoting Zech 12:10 as proof that the Jewish nation pierced their own Messiah. .
Or take Dan 9:25-26. Our translations stress our Christian conviction that the anointed one that is “cut off” is the Messiah by capitalizing the word for anointed and translating the passage with a definite article, “the Messiah the Prince”. This is all legitimate, but the informed Jewish position sees this as speaking only of “an anointed prince,” which they typically interpret as referring to Onias III, the officiating high priest who was murdered when Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the Jewish alter in the 2nd century B.C, who, of course, became the great archetype of the Antichrist in later apocalyptic literature. [..]
The Mystery of the Gospel Hidden in the Old Testament
[…] Then there is what Paul calls “the mystery of the faith,” which, while it includes all the above, includes also the pattern of resurrection of death, of deliverance out of affliction and weakness. We see it in Joseph, David, Daniel, all the prophets, and ultimately and perfectly in Christ as the suffering Servant of servants. I call it the Jacob’s trouble principle, whereby Christ is always revealed at the end of strength (see Deut 32:36; Dan 12:7). This is how it is that “the just shall live by faith” This is particularly the issue in tracing the character and necessity of Israel’s king as coming first in the form of the suffering Servant. This is the pattern seen so clearly in both Joseph and David, and in Zechariah’s prophecy that sees the Messiah as a priest upon His throne (Zech 6L13). It is the tremendous mystery of the incarnation of the seed of the woman in the poor and afflicted. This should be to some real measure evident in every believer, since it is the mystery of “Christ in you” (Col 1:27), just as it was no less the mystery of “the Spirit of Christ which was in them” (1Pet 1:11). […]
Regeneration and Indwelling in the Old Testament
…At Pentecost it became clear that the Spirit promised in connection with the coming day of the Lord had come ‘already’ in unexpected advance of that day. Now it could be seen that the Spirit and the new baptism of power and life is inextricably bound to the new revelation of Jesus as the Messiah and mediator of the everlasting righteousness. It could now be seen that only the righteousness provided through the cross of Christ can avail for an everlasting justification (But how then were Old Testament saints justified if not by same precious blood?). Hence, the Spirit becomes the sign that seals and vindicates God’s once and for all acceptance of Jesus’ sacrifice, who is now shown as the exalted Servant and Lord over all. …
The Remnant Tasting the Bitterness of the Nations
[…] In considering judgment on nations and particular localities, we should remember the pattern we observe in scripture. However righteous and set apart, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel were required to taste the bitterness of exile along with the rest of the apostate nation. Therefore, though the end of an individual may be quite different in the ‘long run’, he or she may well be required to suffer in the judgements that descend on a nation whose iniquity has come to full. That is the pattern we see in Israel’s exile, and I can’t see where it would be too different in a world where the church is called to be a ‘diaspora’ people, scattered throughout the earth as a witness people. Why, even the church’s sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s table are suitably quite portable. We are a pilgrim people, in every place, and often on the move.
The church is called to be a light in a dark world. What part of the world does not lie in wickedness? Where does one go to hide their loved ones from the judgment that hovers over a cursed land? If we flee from certain levels of societal debauchery that seems to especially concentrated in some cities or nations more than others, we might well be fleeing to a worse place where God has marked a perhaps more hidden but just as hateful kind of pride. […]
The Gentile Church: An Unexpected Anomaly
[…] This future reinstatement of the ‘natural branches’ awaits ‘the set time’ (Ps 102:13; Dan 11:27, 29, 35).
That time of fulfillment is clearly future, as shown in Paul’s reference to Isa 59:21 together with a number of other clear passages that speak of Israel’s restoration at the future day of the Lord, also called the ‘last day’ (see Dan 12:1-2 for the time of Israel’s national “deliverance”). That is the time that the final Antichrist is destroyed (Dan 11:36 -12:2 with 2Thes 2:4-8) when Christ returns to establish His thousand year reign over the nations out of a restored Jerusalem. “In that day” Israel receives the revelation that has already come to you and me through the gospel (compare Isa 8:16-17; 66:8; Ezek 39:22-29 with Zech 12:10 and Mt 23:39). In the future ‘day of God’s power’ (Ps 110:3), the surviving remnant of the unequaled tribulation becomes willing concerning the gospel because it has just passed through the greatest trial in their nation’s history, a time called “Jacob’s trouble” (Jer 30:7; Dan 12:1; Mt 24:21). Tom believes with me that the church will be here during this time and that it will be the witness people that God will use to prepare Jewish hearts as we share with them many of the tribulations and persecutions of this final time of judgment and divine pleading (see Ezek 20:33-38; Amos 9:8-15). […]
