Jesus’ life was the ultimate demonstration of God’s love and power in ministry, but after His ascension, the Church slowly began to lose touch with that. Finally, the Church lost sight of almost everything that Jesus’ ministry represented and slipped into the Dark Ages, in which even the Word of God itself was withheld from the people, and it was spoken only in Latin, and only the church leaders were allowed to read it!
Then God began to restore what the Church had lost since the time of Jesus’ ministry. Luther restored the doctrine of justification by faith, and the Bible was printed and distributed in the common language of the people.
Over the years, God has worked to restore other key concepts and doctrines—Repentance, Baptism, Healing, and Gifts of the Spirit.
As the Church experienced this slow process of restoration of all things that had been lost since Jesus’ time, the predominant message of the Church changed, over the course of the centuries, to match what God was restoring at that time.
For a while, many preachers were focusing on “hellfire and brimstone” messages, like Charles Finney and Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards’ most famous sermon was entitled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” At that time, these messages were exactly what was needed, but those same messages will not get the same reaction today. Today those same messages are likely to turn people off, and maybe even turn people away from God. Why?
God has moved on. It’s not that those messages are any less true now than they were then. It’s just that the predominant need is different now.
God announced a new phase in the restoration of all things when He sent Gabriel with a message to Roland Buck in 1977.1 It’s interesting that William Branham spoke of the significance of 1977 way back in 1933 when he said that something would happen in 1977 that would transition the Church from the “Church” age into the “Kingdom” age.2 This message is in line with the heart of what I’ve been trying to convey in these newsletters. This is also in agreement with the message and example of Heidi and Rolland Baker. Finally, this is also in agreement with Bob Jones’ death experience when he witnessed Jesus asking people only one question before they were allowed to enter into their eternal reward: “Did you learn to love?” These messages all agree.
And finally, this is also the message of Scripture, especially in the words of Matthew 25:31–46 and in the example of Jesus’ life and ministry.
**References: **
1Buck, Roland, Hunter, Charles, & Hunter, Frances (n.d.). Angels on Assignment. Retrieved from Angels on Assignment: http://angelsonassignment.org/index2.html
2Branham, William (2006, July 30). The Laodicean Church Age. Retrieved from WilliamBranham.com: http://www.williambranham.com/the_seven_church_ages/the-laodicean-church-age/
