What is the future of the church? Are church leaders pushing church doctrine in the wrong direction?
The Bible tells God's plan from the world's creation until the end of this period. Jesus was in the world about two thousand years ago and will come again to save humanity in His second coming. We Christians are waiting for His second coming, and the Jews are waiting for this same coming, which they consider to be the first. Jesus does not appear now as a poor carpenter's son but as a powerful king and Messiah. This is why the Jews then did not accept Jesus as the Messiah they were waiting for. According to them, the Messiah cannot be a humble carpenter's son, but He must be a powerful king. When the Followers of Jesus asked Jesus about the timeline of future events and the end times, Jesus said that He doesn't know either, only the Father in Heaven knows. Many believers use different calculation formulas to solve the timeline of these events and moments. So far, all the attempts have been wrong. There are prophetic announcements of when Jesus' return would take place.
Believers often focus on God's actions, but what happens in the world is also affected by Satan's goals to try to counter God's plan. God has had a certain plan for this world and creation from the beginning, and the Bible talks about it. But the Bible also talks about Satan's activities and goals. So, what is Satan's plan and role in this? He tries with all his might to prevent the realization of God's plan.
But why does Satan act the way he does? He knows that he will lose the competition with Jesus and will be condemned to perdition. He knows that, but he also doesn't know the time he has left. He tries to delay the fulfillment of God's plan for his benefit and to give himself more time.
In the Bible, Jesus tells the events of the end times in chapter 24 of the Gospel of Matthew. The Followers of Jesus asked Jesus to tell them: “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world And Jesus answered and said unto them, “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.”
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come”.
So, Jesus tells us exactly what events will happen before His second coming, but not the year or any other precise timeline. The timeline of the world is dependent on the course of events, not the passage of time. It can be compared to two sporting events, football (soccer), which is called the king of games, and tennis, which is called the game of kings. If you go to watch a football match, you can accurately judge the end of the match, the match lasts 90 minutes. The referee gives a few more minutes to play after evaluating the delays that occurred in the game when the game was not played so that the actual playing time would be 90 minutes. But if you go to a tennis match, you have no way of knowing whether the match will last for half an hour or even more than five hours. In football, you can't know if there will be a winner or a draw in the match, but in tennis, you know that the match will continue until the winner is determined. The match ends with the last match ball. World events are like a tennis match: we don't know how long it will take, but we know that the winner will be found out and He is Jesus. So, Jesus gave a clear description of the events of the end times just like the description of the last match ball: "The gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, as a witness unto all nations, and then the end will come".
Satan began thwarting God's plan shortly after creation. The first attempt to undo God's plan took place already in Paradise, where Satan tempted Eve to taste the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We must remember that Adam and Eve were the most perfect man and woman who ever lived on earth. Eve was just created by God, and she had all the qualities that God wanted a woman to have. Curiosity, desire to make some changes to the prevailing state of being, or even an interest in supernatural things. The case is already told on the second page of the Bible. The reader may be surprised by Eve's quick fall and forgetting God's command. However, years or decades had probably already passed since God had forbidden touching the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve must have thought in her mind that the ban is still in effect. The fruit of the tree seemed attractive, and she often went to admire the tree and its fruit. Why would it be somehow dangerous? Perhaps the prohibition only applied to the time when God told the prohibition. After all, the situation had changed completely different from then. Even God has not spoken on the subject anymore. Satan supported Eve's doubts by saying that God surely would not have meant such a thing literally and "Did God say that". What bad could come from one fruit of the tree?
And so, Satan succeeded in misleading Eve because God wanted to allow mankind the free will to choose whether they follow God's will or their own. It must also be noted that Satan did not force Eve to taste the forbidden fruit but enticed her with his unvarnished promises of a better supernatural understanding. And especially that tasting would not result in death, which God had warned about. Satan knew the right route to this deception, he must have followed Eve's actions and noticed Eve often observing the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and its fruits. First, you had to tempt Eve and then Eve would tempt Adam. Satan did not need then and will never need to use coercive means, he knows people's weaknesses, and by appealing to them he makes people act according to his own will. And to do very cruel and unfair things to each other.
The temptations set by Satan are many and constantly available. Some can be offered wealth, some power, some a good position in society or some organization, some fame, honor, or admiration. One big temptation is when people are told that they are somehow better than other people, and other people are correspondingly worse, or even that those others do not meet the value of humanity at all. Such can simply be removed from among the better ones, for example. Only people who believe in propaganda, work systematically, are efficient, and blindly follow the regulations are needed for complete elimination.
One essential thing in God's plan is the people of Israel, who have been given the promise of their land and an important mission until the end of this world. Another essential thing in God's plan is the church, which has also been given an important mission until the end of this age.
That's why one of Satan's important tasks is to destroy the people of Israel and prevent them from returning to their land. Another important goal of Satan is to spoil the teaching of the Christian churches and to stay in the truth. Satan continues to pose the question to the church: "Did God say that". God's plan described in the Bible needs the existing nation of Israel to be fulfilled as such. Without Israel's return to the entire Holy Land promised to them, God's plan described in the Bible would not be fulfilled. Without a church filled with believers and the Holy Spirit, God's plan described in the Bible will not be fulfilled either.
Satan can entice a nation or a group of nations to destroy the Jewish nation or demand the dismemberment of the state of Israel and divide Jerusalem into the capital of several states, but he cannot destroy the Christian nation, because there is no such thing. There are only Christian individuals who believe that the Bible is the word of God, and it is true, and it is meant to be a guide for mankind. They are found in all ethnic groups, nations, and Christian churches. Of course, there are nominally Christian states and there are nominally Christian churches, but do they act according to the truth of the Bible, and do they believe that the word of the Bible is God's word to mankind? And do they believe that the word of the Bible is true even today?
Although this book focuses on the persecution of Jews, the situation of the congregation also has a strong influence on the matter. When the church does not respect or does not consider the word of the Bible as truth, it also enables discrimination and persecution against Jews. Or if the message of the Bible is not understood correctly, even in such a way that Israel's position as the chosen people is no longer considered correct, but Christendom has been put in place of the chosen people. Christians would have all the blessings promised by the Bible. Instead, all punishments would still belong to the Jews. For example, the events that led to the Holocaust were often accepted by the major churches, or at least they were not widely opposed. For example, the Vatican knew about the fate of the Holocaust victims, but diplomatic relations with Germany were considered more important and the matter was kept silent. Many churches also opposed the oppression of Jews or the Holocaust, but it was about individual priests who put their position or advancement as priests at stake. Many of them also lost their lives in concentration camps.
Today, churches and congregations want to be organizations that even understand the phenomena condemned by the Bible and seek the world's approval. The most important task of the churches would seem to be the acceptance of different minorities. Other religions are also treated with equal acceptance. Many churches think that it is no longer worth it or it is no longer even right to try to evangelize otherwise believers. Let's think that everyone will be blessed by their faith. Instead, the sermons talk about good deeds and nature conservation. They are both important things, but the most important task of churches and congregations is to tell about the gospel and show sin as sin.
In many churches, for example, they consider whether same-sex couples should be married or blessed. Why does the clergy have to think about this when the Bible clearly states that gay relationships are actions against the word of God? This does not mean that homosexuals cannot form relationships that are accepted by society, but the church, which operates according to the Bible, cannot bless them. In the past, couples who had divorced from their previous marriage were no longer remarried in the church to a new marriage. Now even priests can be married many times.
The Bible says that the shepherd of the church must be a man who has one wife. Even a small child can say if a bachelor, a man who has had several wives, or a woman can be the pastor of the church. But if you have studied theology for many years at university, you no longer know how to answer that. The Catholic Church is a completely bachelor-led organization, and after many years of secrecy, the grim result of such an activity has been revealed. In the Lutheran Church, most priests are starting to be female. With this kind of action, in the name of equality, you will get points from the people. But according to the word of the Bible, it is not. And it's not a question of equality, it's a question of organization. There are many tasks in the congregation, but the shepherd's task is reserved for men.
Timo Vilo
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