Category: Theology

Rachmiel Frydland was one of the most beloved figures of the early days of the Messianic Jewish movement in America.  Rachmiel was a rabbinic student in Poland, and as a young man fled the Nazis in the Polish forests.  He survived the Holocaust.  He knew the Rabbinic traditions well.  Then he very powerfully came to know Yeshua.  He was a teacher to many of us.  In sharing about Judaism, Rachmiel often noted that he perceived a significant distinction between the dry legalistic arguments of the Talmud and the spirit of the Siddur, the Jewish liturgical worship/prayer book for Daily and Shabbat usage.  His evaluation of the former was quite critical but his evaluation of the latter was very positive.   

I have come to agree with Rachmiel. In my view, after study and usage, I find that the Siddur provides us with a very accurate theology of the Hebrew Bible.  Praise and prayer is based on quite a comprehensive understanding.  This shows us a tradition of some people that was very attuned to the Bible, people with a strong poetic and spiritual sensitivity.  Of the sensitive poet who is a worshipper will perceive the theology of the Bible with greater accuracy than the mere intellectual scholar.  The worship of the Siddur reveals a majestic Creator, wonderful in love and mercy, but who also is a judge to be feared.  It is a God of compassion and a God of wrath.  The Siddur also reveals that salvation is only possible through the grace and mercy of God and that our good works are not able to save.  This is in contrast to the conclusion one might draw from some other Rabbinic writings. 

Someone once remarked that when Methodists sang the Methodist hymns over a significant period of time, they were discipled in a very comprehensive understanding of Methodist theology.  The basic liturgy of the Christian Churches plus the hymns of a good historic hymnal do indeed provide quite a comprehensive and solid theology.  The hymn writers usually write from a deep life of devotion and thus perceive Scriptural truth in a very deep way.  A good hymnbook teaches well on the nature of this love and mercy but also teaches us about his justice and wrath.   It reveals the greatness of salvation in Yeshua.  It also calls us to total consecration.  The hymn writers knew the majesty of God, expressed amazement at his Creation, and the danger of his running afoul of his justice and thus incurring his wrath.  We were saved by Yeshua from the wrath of God.  The hymn writers also knew the power of the Spirit that it overwhelms us, the gifts of the Spirit, and the great hope of the return of Yeshua.  Concentrations on different aspects of the life of Yeshua provide a marvelous devotional content. 

Of late, not a few have pointed out the shallowness of popular theologies today.  Some teach a love of God where there is no fear of God and a mercy of God where there is no wrath or judgment.  There is an indulgent God who looks the other way when his Law is violated.  Some teach a salvation that does not require repentance, God’s transforming work in the heart, and consecration.  I have not done a comprehensive study of contemporary worship songs.  There are some very excellent ones.  However, I wonder if one of the problems is that today’s worship content may not be discipling us in the full counsel of God in a way that Siddur, liturgy, and hymnal did in the past.  Somehow the historic worship reflected more of a comprehensive grasp of the Bible by very spiritual people.  One of the keys to good theology is taking into account all that the Bible says on a subject.  The tradition of worship is amazing on this.  I try to do that my book series and to show this approach.   In the books, Heaven, Hell and the After Live, Spiritual Warfare, and Prosperity I try to give a trustworthy survey on the Bible’s teaching as opposed to shallow and partial approaches.  I have been amazed at how much historic worship is trustworthy.  

 

In my book Passover, Key to the Book of Revelation I argue that prophetic ministry will be greatly increased before the coming return of Yeshua.  I noted in a recent post that on this present virus situation we have had some accurate prophetic voices and several as well that simply did not measure up.  One I have known for 30 years has a solid prophetic word and described what would happen back in early January before the scientific or political community was predicting the pandemic.  However, so many voices were not correct that they drown out the quality words.  

The plagues of the last days in the book of Revelation will require strong prophetic voices in various regions of the world to give both interpretation of what is happening and direction of what to do.  This will require not only accurate and strong prophetic voices, but also a much greater sharpening of God’s people in knowing the Spirit.  This is because, in the New Covenant, we all have the Spirit and are to be prophetic.  Our inner man will need to give confirmation of what is spoken.  Without a sensitive ability for accurate confirmation, we will be subject to false prophecy.  It will be both the track record of accountable prophets and the discernment of God’s people that will be key. 

In the last days’ spiritual battles, the level of disinformation and media control will be so great that merely trying to figure out the truth by intellectual pursuit will not be sufficient.  Even today in this virus situation there is much suppression of factual information so that people will only follow the received wisdom of the establishment and the media and social networking companies.  God’s people must have a supernatural source of information and other means of communication to break though the disinformation even when those who spread this disinformation mean well.  I think we will find out more about this virus and its treatment that will show how much false information became a consensus.  This may prepare us to seek a better way. 

The Spirit will be poured out in the last of the last days. There will be a great harvest and there will be supernatural means to know how to oppose the Kingdom of Darkness and how to overcome false information.  It will be essential.  Do obtain my book to encourage you in the battles we will face.  

 

I embraced the Good News and committed my life to Yeshua in the Spring of 1960.  Some of you know my testimony.  I soon became part of a Reformed Church that was very much in the Evangelical movement. My father was Jewish and my Mother a Norwegian Christian but not involved in the Church when we were growing up.  I was not raised religiously because of the Jewish/Christian marriage.  As I entered into teen years, I became part of fundamentalist ministries, camps, and Bible clubs.  In that fundamentalism, there was much legalism.  Legalism raises extra-biblical morals to a significant importance.  There was a whole list of things that Christians were not to do:  not going to movies, dancing, drinking wine or beer, listening to contemporary music, playing billiards, mixed swimming, and on and on.  When I attended Wheaton Collage during the last of the 1960s, most of the students were reacting strongly against this legalism and fundamentalism itself (though most still wanted to be Evangelicals).  Though we were young and overreacting, we never the less did believe we saw some patterns of great concern.  The biggest concern was that we knew Christians who kept the legalistic additions not in the Bible but violated the explicit Biblical standards.  We noted such things as gossip, lack of forgiveness, not seeking to reach the poor, weakness in devotional life, questionable financial dealings.  One of the biggest was gossip and causing division in the Body.  

When I entered into Jewish ministry, I realized that my knowledge of Judaism was shallow.  One of the members gave me an English translation of the most important post-Biblical Jewish book on applying the Torah.  This is the Talmud which was first in oral form and then the first part put in writing at the end of the second century by Rabbi Judah the Prince.  This first part is the Mishnah.  The commentary was next developed over the next centuries and was compiled. This second part was known as the Gemara.   Together they make up the Talmud.  As a young leader in my 20s, I decided to read through the Talmud, but not with intense concentration.  I was amazed at the level of legalism.  The Mishnah expresses a level of concern for minutiae, laws upon laws upon laws that have less and less connection to Biblical intent.  Sometimes the applications of the Torah or Law is wise.  There is also much of value in the broad thrust of Jewish traditions; the prayer traditions, the stories of godliness, and love that are really wonderful. The celebrations of the Sabbath and Feasts and their meanings are greatly enriching.   However, this legalism is an amazing phenomenon.   Recently, I decided to read through the Mishnah and again am once again amazed.  I would invite my readers to borrow a copy of the Mishnah and just go through at least part of it.  Then you will understand what I am saying here.  

Here is my point.  Though there are stellar examples of love and godliness in Jewish history, I do not think the legalism is a contribution to this attainment.  Living near Jerusalem provides so many examples of Yeshua’s words, “Straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.”  His words against the legalism of the Pharisees in Matthew 23 is the most devastating critique of legalism in history.  Living next to the ultra-Orthodox provides us with example after example of such legalism.  They are well known to Israelis and they are not attracted to this Orthodoxy.  Here is one example.  In the Jerusalem Post, the Rabbi of a sect of Orthodoxy ruled that the Sabbath elevator did not solve the problem of traveling on an elevator in Shabbat.  The Sabbath elevator stops runs up and down all day and stops on every floor. This constant stopping frustrates some.  However, it prevents the legalistic standard against Sabbath violation by pushing the buttons and thereby turning on lights and running a machine.  One couple with their children, one infant and one toddler, now had to carry them and their carriage down and up 7 flights of stairs.  The Sabbath elevator is frustrating because it stops on every floor automatically.  The Rabbi ruled against even that Sabbath elevator.  Living in high rise buildings was now impossible.  The couple complained.  “What kind of Sabbath is this for us to have to climb seven flights of stairs with our children, the carriage, and our equipment?”  One can see this legalism in the criticism of Yeshua for healing on the Sabbath.  Yeshua’s critique of legalism was not just applicable to Jewish legalism.  Indeed, the issue is that legalism tends to lead people to concern themselves with minor matters and to neglect the weightier matters of the Law.  

One of the saddest examples of this loss of moral perspective in ultra-Orthodoxy is the recent health minister in Israel, Yaakov Litzman.  Rabbi Litzman is accused with good evidence of protecting a pedophile.  An Israeli Orthodox woman was the leader of a Jewish girls school in Australia.  She is credibly accused of molesting many girls.  The government of Australia seeks to have her extradited to stand trial.  Yet, the Rabbi protects her as one his own.  “Blood is thicker than water.“  Her ability, with support from her community leaders, to avoid extradition, has been very amazing. Yet, Rabbi Litzman is one who fights in the coalition government to enforce legalistic norms for the whole society and threatened to bring down the government over his demands.     

Messianic Jews are loyal to our people.  We seek to present the Gospel so that they may be delivered and enter into the fullness of Yeshua and God’s Biblical New Covenant Judaism.  This includes secular Jews, ultra-Orthodox Jews, Modern Orthodox Jews, and traditional but not Orthodox Jews. 

 

Fundamentalism began as a movement to counter modernism and liberalism in the church world at the beginning of the 20th century.  Most noteworthy was the book of artless published in 1909 entitled, The Fundamentals.  Most of us who are conservative believers, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Charismatics, and Messianic Jews, would agree with many of these articles.  However, as time passed, the Fundamentalists lost many of the battles to the modernists in the denominations. One of the last lost was Princeton Theological Seminary in 1930.  Historians say that Fundamentalism turned inward, became defensive, and acted as if it was fighting a rearguard action. Fundamentalism eventually became dominated by Dispensationalism.  The issues with Dispensational theology are too complex to explain here. Suffice it to say that the same historians assert that Fundamentalism became insular, gave up the battle for the culture and expected an escape in the rapture (seven years before the Yeshua returns to earth, the born again are taken out of the earth).  For many the Church would be in decline, but the few faithful will escape. My professor of philosophy Arthur Holmes looked at these directions and stated, “We have lost 100 years.” In 1947 Carl Henry wrote The Uneasy Conscience Modern Fundamentalism.  Henry was the theological mentor to Billy Graham and the first editor of Christianity Today.   Henry exposed some of the critical weaknesses of Fundamentalism, its lack of social engagement, the disunity of the various streams and more. In 1959 the President of Fuller Seminary and the famous apologist, Edward Carnell wrote a blistering critique and claimed that Fundamentalism had become Orthodoxy gone cultic.  (See his Case for Orthodox Theology). This was typified by an article in the Wheaton College Year Book in 1968  where a student wrote, “But What if I don’t Want too Be a fighting Fundamentalist.”

 

I think the most glaring example of the problem was when Fundamentalist Christians rejected Billy Graham for inviting mainline denominational Christian leaders to be recognized at his evangelistic crusades.  For the Fundamentalists, he was compromising with the enemy.  

 

This was the era when the people began to distinguish themselves from Fundamentalists by calling themselves Evangelicals in contradistinction to Fundamentalist.  At Wheaton College, the flagship Evangelical liberal arts college, one just did not identify as a Fundamentalist. Though the description of Fundamentalism was exaggerated, much was true. 

 

Here are some characteristics.  

 

1. Simplistic theological approaches.  Sometimes doing biblical theology is not easy. There are different emphases in the Bible and not everything fits a simple black and with the system.  Fundamentalism is given to black and white thinking.
2. Inability to effectively engage the larger culture and become salt and light in it.  Since the world is going downhill, we are to just get people saved and into the lifeboat.  The culture is part of a sinking ship, the world. 
3. Fear of those who are not speaking the same language and towing the same black and white thinking. 
4. A critical spirit that easily sallies off in tirades of criticism of those who are not in the same camp.
5. A fear of contamination.  One may be holy, but if one connects to one that is not sufficiently separated, then one becomes unholy by association 
6. A sectarian spirit that easily separates from those seen as not theologically pure enough and not sufficiently holy (not by the Bible commands but extra standards of holiness in the Fundamentalist camp.)  This is part of a hypercritical spirit that heresy hunts and constantly looks for error that is greatly feared. Really the Fundamentalist is insecure.   
7. Emphasis on doctrinal points that do not hold up to sound scholarship. For example, the pre-tribulation rapture is a litmus test.  Its rejection is thought to be the first step toward liberalism.
8. An inability to understand the views of others and to engage them with respect showing that they have first been understood.  Fundamentalism is characterized by refuting straw man misrepresentation of others.
9. Skepticism and rejection of new insights, directions, and methods. 
10. Difficulty in engaging others who are not perceived as people in whom God may be working. If they are not born again, there is great guardedness. 

 

When I graduated from Wheaton, I was very glad to know that I would not have to deal with Fundamentalists. I could name names, denominations, associations, etc. but will refrain. I became a Lutheran and then was ordained in the Presbyterian Church. I was an Evangelical Presbyterian. This was before Messianic Judaism (1971).  

 

Generally, the Messianic Jewish movement has transcended Fundamentalism.  Embracing Jewish life in Yeshua was rejected by Fundamentalists who saw it as an aberration on the issue of the Church as a third race of former Jews and Gentiles.  Messianic Jews found their support among Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and Charismatics. Pentecostalism at one time was quite Fundamentalist but is not so today. This transcendence of Fundamentalism is characteristic of Messianic Jews in the United States, Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, England, and Australia.  

 

When I was a student at Wheaton College over 50 years ago, I learned that if one wants to have an understanding of any area of existence, one has to take into account all of the relevant evidence/information available and seek to comprehend it together, as a whole.  This is so for writing history as well as for understanding movements, be they political or theological. In philosophy, we call this test of truth, comprehensiveness. To pass the test, the theory in science, historical account or even a description of a political, social or religious movement, has to take into account all of the relevant evidence.

 

Almost 40 years ago, we believe God helped us understand Ephesians 4:11 ff.  Though the government of the Church is by a plurality of elders, both in a local congregation and an association of congregations, we came to believe that God gives different kinds of giftings to leaders who are called to do different things. (The idea of the restoration of five-fold ministry understanding goes back to the early Pentecostals of over 100 years ago.) Indeed, if one wants to see a strong pastoral congregation, one does not put an evangelist in charge unless he also has the gift of pastor.  Sometimes more than one of the Ephesians 4 gifts is given to one person. Jerry Dirmann, a leader in the Foursquare Church denomination, recently gave a good summary. It matches the synopsis I gave in my 1982 book, Growing to Maturity.  We came to believe that leaders of a growing movement of congregations are biblically functioning in the role of apostles.  Apostle, I should add, with a little “a” in function, but not at the same level as the original Apostles of whom some wrote the Scriptures and were the Eyewitnesses of the Messiah Event.  Though we reject titles before our names, we generally accept the importance of understanding who has been given the gifts and calling to function in various roles. This keeps us from tripping over one another.  In the same way, as the Assembly of God in Australia and the Pentecostal Holiness Church denomination today, we added this aspect to our representative form of government in our network (1984).

 

Since that time, we have become connected to streams of churches that have the same view as we do.  I would encourage you to research some of our historic relational partners. For many years, I served on the accountability board of Larry Kreider’s Dove Network and related to his network in East Africa under Ibrahim Omandi.  They are just one example. Do look them up on the Internet. One of our most important partners was Olen Griffing in Dallas, who planted Shady Grove Church. Olen is the spiritual father of Robert Morris who leads Gateway Church.  This is the 3rd largest Church in America and the #1 missions giving Church in America.  They include us in their mission! Morris’ spiritual father, Olen, is now at Gateway.  The first meeting of the International Coalition of Apostles met at his church. Olen was an original founder with us in starting Messianic Jewish Bible Institutes that came out of the greatest Evangelistic success in Jewish ministry since the first century.  Jack Hayford, the former President of Foursquare Churches, transferred his school, The King’s University, to Gateway Church under Robert Morris. Jack and Robert both related to new stream movements as well as to Pentecostal denominational people. Jonathan Bernis led this effort in the former Soviet Union.  You can easily find Gateway Church and Jewish Voice Ministries. Another amazing movement in Mozambique, under Rolland and Heidi Baker, began with orphanages and now consists of thousands of churches, a university and 3,500 in the schools that will feed the university. (The book Always Enough documents this.)  Heidi led an amazing meeting at King of Kings Congregation in Jerusalem.  We can also note Oral Roberts University, the main charismatic university in America, where Pentecostals and five-fold stream people attend.  The school itself could be seen as connected to these new movements as well as the older Pentecostalism. Christ For the Nations Bible School is another school that teaches five-fold ministry.

 

To honestly and critically evaluate movements, one has to do much travel and research.  My level of such travel and research is more than most, but still very limited. In recent years, books have been written that seek to describe what is happening in the world.  Two of the best are The Next Christendom by Phillip Jenkins at Pennsylvania State University (this was a national religion award-winning book), and Miracles, The Credibility of New Testament Miracles by Craig Keener of Asbury Seminary.  This 1000-page book is amazing, but Craig apologizes for the limits of his world travels!  I have traveled to several nations to evaluate. I have been to East Africa, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, the Caribbean, Europe, Singapore, China, Japan, and Korea.  Peter Wagner, for many years at Fuller Seminary, traveled to research what is happening in the world and wrote several books on it.

 

Here is a summary of what these people found.

 

1. The advance of Christianity in the world is rapid and multiplying so fast that we cannot keep up with it.  The Christianity that is so advancing is mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, the Global South, and is significantly different from conventional Western Christianity.  It looks like the pages of the Book of Acts.
2. It is characterized by amazing signs and wonders, miracles that are frequent, documented and credible.
3. It is driven by Pentecostals but even more so by associations of congregations that do not fit the classical denominational arrangements but are more decentralized and “grassroots”.  The new associations and streams are growing much more rapidly than the older Pentecostalism.
4. The growing associations are generally led by a strong team of leaders under a visionary leader who is passionate for Gospel expansion.  These new associations are, by some calculations, the largest and fastest-growing segments of Protestant Christianity today.
5. Some use the terms apostles and prophets to describe their leadership.  Some, though functioning in the same way, do not use the term apostle(s) for their leader(s).

 

So where is the problem?  One of these researchers, Peter Wagner, in his later book gave a name to this phenomenon.  He called what was happening in the world the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). He was not suggesting that the rapidly growing churches in India, China or Africa were linked in some kind of grand organization.  Most of them had no idea of what was happening in other regions of the world. Most had no contact with other movements like theirs. If they all came together, they would have fierce disagreements on many things.

 

We could think all of this is wonderful in an unqualified way, but rapid growth under strong leaders can also have negative aspects.  We have spoken strongly about some of the problematic issues. Some networks have solid leadership and accountability structures. Some do not but instead take on an almost “tribal chieftain” style of leadership.  Some are solid in Bible doctrine, but others are very weak due to lack of education and can come up with strange interpretations of the Bible. Really, it is hard to keep up.

 

Wagner’s name, New Apostolic Reformation, for the phenomena that was happening all over the world (but more in the 3rd world or global south), is a name for movements that include some denominations that we noted above and so many varied types and styles that I still think no one really has a full grasp of it.  Wagner and John Kelly sought to start an association to bring people together who did not know of one another’s existence to bring them into mutual dialogue and exposure, and to learn from one another and to see greater maturity, but it is a very small, almost tiny percentage of the whole of five-fold movements.  Most who come are from North and South America, but some Africans also attend. There is no organization called NAR. It was a label given to what had been happening in the last 50 years.

 

The accusations against these movements are almost ridiculous.  One author points to a tiny number of aberrant leaders or streams and represents this as characteristic.  This frequently happens when critics evaluate movements of which they are not a part and have no detailed experience.  In Pentecostalism, for example, there was an offshoot called the Oneness Pentecostals. They denied the Trinity and claimed that one was not saved unless baptized in the name of Jesus only (not Father, Son and Spirit) and spoke in tongues.  But to say that this is typical, or worse, a defining characteristic of Pentecostalism would be foolish. In the Messianic Jewish Movement we have a mainstream. But there are offshoots. Some, who are not Messianic Jews, teach that the churches are made up of descendants of the northern tribes of Israel or that the Church is Ephraim.  Other groups teach that all Christians are responsible to keep the whole Law. The mainstream Messianic Jewish movement does not teach these things, but those who are aberrant do. They are not us. The Mainstream is very Evangelical in doctrine.

 

The Latter Rain movement, a mighty revival in Canada in 1948 that has greatly fostered Gospel progress world-wide, was key to the birth of the charismatic movement.  However, there was an aberrant group that taught that some Christians could attain to their resurrection bodies before the coming of the Lord. This was called the “Manifest Sons” doctrine, but the Latter Rain was not characterized by this. One really wild claim is that the NAR believes in the “Manifest Sons” doctrine.  I have never met one person in the new stream churches that believed this in my 40 years of ministry. Yes, such folks are out there. Many of the practices of the charismatic movement were from the Latter Rain practices. In a similar way, there are new stream churches that teach an unbiblical doctrine of prosperity, but most do not.  The “Word of Faith” stream churches do embrace and teach five-fold, but they have hardly related at all to other five stream movements. I have a book refuting this false teaching entitled, Prosperity, What the Bible Really Teaches.

 

In reality, the only thing one can say about these movements is that they believe in the five-fold ministry and operate in a network of congregations or churches.  Other than that, they are so diverse. Most believe in the soon return of Yeshua, and some believe Christians will take over the world before Yeshua returns. Some believe in unbiblical prosperity, but others teach such a strong doctrine of the cross that they live in extreme disciplined simplicity.  Some believe in a “chieftain” type model of authority. Some believe in a very humble projection of authority and act in mutual submission. Some believe that we can receive new revelation but that it has to be consistent with the Bible. Most reject this but accept the Spirit helping us and revealing the meaning of the Bible.  If they speak of revelation beyond this, it is to understand the demonic and angelic realms and spiritual warfare. Some are heavily involved in that kind of spiritual warfare prayer while others are not.

 

I have put what we believe about doctrine and government in two books.  One is Growing to Maturity (1982) and the other is Relational Leadership (2015).  Growing to Maturity has been the most used manual for discipleship and basic doctrine in the Messianic Jewish World for the past 38 years.

 

We do embrace the reality that God is doing something powerful in the new streams, but we approach these streams carefully and seek to be an influence in solid doctrine and government. They do not have the hundred-year record of working out their issues like the Pentecostals.  These movements are very recent. In some cases, such as the underground churches in China, they had no choice but to be new streams.

Announcement:  Before I write on this topic, I have an announcement.  Yuli Edelstein, the Likud speaker of the Knesset has resigned.  This opens the door for a vote on a new speaker next week, which will be chosen by Blue and White.  What will happen in trying to form a government, no one knows. I still pray for a unity government in Israel.  

 

There have been many prophetic responses to the Corona Virus.  Some of these responses are credible and some are a projection of the limited theology of the prophet.  Some who are giving prophecy on a national or world level are not sufficiently proven on this level to be giving such words.  I have seen prophets minister in personal prophetic prophecy with amazing accuracy. In some meetings at 100% though their overall track record in such prophecy may be more like 90%.  They describe personal details about the person who is the subject of ministry at levels that amaze. The testimony of the ones receiving shows this. I have received very accurate prophecy and these prophecies have been a great blessing and strengthened me for future battles.  However, I have seen again and again that when such prophets speak on a national and international level, it is usually wrong. Many years ago, one prophet gave a major prophetic word against invading Iraq. He was able to get it to the President. At the time he was almost discredited but proved to be amazingly right.  The war was a disaster. Saddam did protect the Christians who have since been decimated. He was a buffer against Iran. Many years ago, my colleague Asher Intrater, shared that one prophesies out of the soul and to the extent that the soul is pure, one hears more clearly. The way to accuracy includes a holy life and immersion in the Word.  Many prophetic people build their theology on some passages in the Bible but then misapply them because they are not interpreted in the context of the whole world. I argued in my book Passover, Key to the Book of Revelation, that God would raise such credible international prophets that have great accuracy.  In my view, this has not yet happened or happened in a very limited way, though there are some credible international voices at a beginning level.  

 

Here are some of the prophetic words that I think come from a projection of limited theological bias.  

 

One flow of leaders and churches that teach that God does not bring judgment during this period or at least until the Great Tribulation, has prophesied that this plague is not from God but totally from the Devil.  We are to overcome it by faith and spiritual warfare prayer and doing deeds of love. They are having an international online conference to proclaim this. Here prophecy is colored by simply failing to read the words of the New Covenant Scriptures which again and again show that God still brings judgment in this age.  Anyone ever heard of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5?

 

Other prophetic voices claim that this is the beginning of judgments and that it is a call for repentance. It is from God and due to sin. If you know the stream and the theology of these folks, this is not surprising. There is certainly an element of truth to what they are saying, but God’s working is more complex and the relationship of the Devil and God in such matters is not easy to sort out, not the least in the book of Revelation. Why would the Devil be used of God to bring plagues (Rev. 9) and why do the angels of heaven pour out plagues? And why does the Devil do God’s bidding?  

 

Another voice from the movement that does not like gatherings beyond home groups, and believes only in house congregations argues that God has shut down the larger meetings to bring the Church into the right order.  Of course, many cannot even do this and only can meet by computer! Maybe God is trying to shut down meetings altogether and launch the computer church where we do not gather at all? 

 

I would take a long look at the Biblical concept of “The Day of the Lord.”  It is a foundational Biblical theme. This is the day of God intervening in mighty judgment on the wicked but at the same time, it is a day of deliverance for his people.  There are proximate Days of the Lord, but there will ultimately be a final Day of the Lord before the Second coming. When there are events at this level of world crisis, it is well to look at this Biblical idea and see if it fits the view of this being a “day of the Lord.”  Certainly, such a world plague fits. However, it is obviously not yet the Day of the Lord but could be a prelude. Here are some things in summary that others have presented that I think are worthy and some things I believe I see in the Spirit. I am not seeking to put this out there as if I am a prophet and am not making big claims. 

 

1. This plague is a demonic thing because the Devil comes to steal, kill and destroy.  Yeshua came that we might have life.   
2. The Devil is on a leash and God is ultimately sovereign.  So God has allowed this plague for his purposes. What God is after in this and what the Devil is after are two different things. So this is a judgment from God. 
3. The plague is an opportunity for believers to dial down, renew life in their families, pursue deeper prayer, and to strengthen faith.  It is to identify with those suffering and to intercede for the suffering of the world and for the healing of the Gospel to go forth. 
4. It is an opportunity to release healing gifts, especially through health professionals who have faith and can bring prayer with their medical expertise. 
5. It is an opportunity to organize our congregations into prayer cells, home groups and to advance in fellowship through the wonderful gifts of technology that help us in these times.   The fellowship built during this time can outlast the shutdowns. This does not mean that God is against bigger meetings. In the Book of Acts, the larger meeting in Solomon’s Portico was also important.  It is important that every pastor, elder, home group leader, and five-fold ministry leader spur their congregations to be meeting in ways to strengthen prayer and relationships. Congregations that did not emphasize small groups before will be more challenged to organize people into such support groups, but they should do the best they can to do so.
6. The world is under judgment.  When corporate judgments fall on the world from God’s point of view, though there is demonic attack, whole nations and peoples do suffer.  This is to lead to repentance and also to lead to prayer for mercy and deliverance. 

 

In addition, I do think the Devil wants to use this plague to attack the United States and Israel especially because of the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and the promises of the Land to the Jewish people.  Whatever different readers think of Donald Trump personally, the issue of Jerusalem and Israel is very important to God. We do need to pray that this progress is not set back. Political derailment though this challenge poses a threat to the progress made with Israel.  

 

In all of this God has shut us up to much greater individual and family seeking of the face of God.