The Coming Apostasy
by Rev. Terrence G. Clark
The Rich Young ruler left Jesus’ presence sad. He had approached the Master asking him how to obtain eternal life. The Master was pleased with the young man after his positive response to having kept the commandments. He was rich, young and perhaps a representative for his generation, coming to engage the Master concerning a new life. Perhaps comparative to a young Harvard trained business executive, he was looking to fulfill the next item on the list of his societal journey. Or perhaps, he was seeking Nirvana, cosmic balance, justification, or approval from an acclaimed religious teacher.
Or, he may have come in sincerity seeking the Master, beyond the hype of the Sabbath crowd and the pomp of the religious elite to get to the heart of it all. Apparently, he trusted this new preacher. He had seen the following. He had no doubt seen or heard of the miracles. “Master", he said. The question, pointedly asked, "what must I do to obtain eternal life?” Jesus was known to say many things in his ministry that shocked the crowd. His intention however was not to create controversy. He came to bring adjustment and correction, so that the seeking would ultimately experience the fullness of God. It was so the lost and hurting would know the Father and have true relationship with Him - eternally.
“Sell what you have and give to the poor and you shall have treasure in heaven.” This obviously hit a nerve. The young man would not oblige. In fact, he left the presence of Jesus hurt, despondent and of course without what he came for. The reason - Jesus said the man trusted in his riches. Well, that was the explanation to the disciples. He first said, “How hardly are those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God.”
Their response was “Who than, can be saved?”
Interesting phrase coming from men who are often called poor men. If they are so poor, there should have been warmth that filled them, because the reciprocal would have been “it’s easy for the poor to enter the kingdom of God.” They could have said, ”Hey, we’re good. Blessed are the poor.”
Jesus illustrated, it was easier for a camel to go through the "eye of the needle" than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And I, like many, have preached about the gate at the city of Jerusalem called the "Eye of the Needle" or "The Needle’s Eye". At this gate, which was supposedly closed at night, and was only so wide and tall, required late night travelers, into the city, to unburden their camels. The humped beasts would have to on their knees pass through the gate to make it in. Definitely a redemptive story, and we get the point, but history or archeology doesn’t find that so called gate at Jerusalem.
And the reference to a camel having its burden removed is still not the same as the owner removing his. Also if the gate represents the entering the kingdom of God, grace-redemption says salvation is not of our own works. We come to him with our baggage and he cleans us up (of course, we must give it up). Anyway, getting back to the point, Jesus says, the problem was, if we trust in riches. Peter by the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 6:17) expounds that these are uncertain riches. Jesus is seeking to bring us up higher. He doesn’t care about the earthly riches in essence. He is concerned about our trust in them and trust in riches is despite what side of the zero line ours are on.
It was in one of the churches that I support that I heard the Lord say to me. Prophesy to the Pastor of Church to tell his congregation. He didn’t tell me to prophesy to the church. He said prophesy to the pastor of the church. It was reminiscent of the book of Revelation when Jesus told John to write to the angel of the church. After all Hebrews 13:17 says it was the pastor’s (appointed rulers in the church) job to watch over the souls of the congregation. Psalms 23 says the pastor or shepherd leads the flock in the path or righteousness. I Admit, I held back the totality of what the Lord originally said, although I did speak the essence. I needed to check out the word that he used. Because of its intensity, I needed to be clear of what it meant.
“Tell your people to get their house in order, because there is coming an Apostasy (the word) to the families of the people of God in Churches of the United States of America in the next 2 years.”
The Lord went on further to say, “Tell the people to check where their trust is.”
He continued, in the days to come, to further reveal to me, and for me to share with the churches, pastors, and individuals in the body of Christ.
“There is nothing wrong with using your credit cards (if done wisely of course). There is nothing wrong with having a car loan or a mortgage on a house. There is nothing wrong with securing a good job and expecting good pay check. The key is that our trust cannot be in these things.”
God must be the source of every resource. He must be the bottom-line to every financial statement and or budget. When I looked the word "apostasy" up, I found it is defined as - to turn from one thing to another. For a Christian that means to turn from trusting in God to trusting in something else. In this article, I am not judging Obamacare or correctly called The Affordable Care Act. It is however another system. All man made systems are subject to fail. A system can only be a good as its creator. ACA becomes another system that bids for our trust.
I was sharing this with a pastor of church over lunch the other day and he interrupted and said it’s happening already. This was an isolated case, but a confirmation none the less. A woman who had been coming faithfully to his church had just stop coming. Hence, they went to visit her (a thing that pastors do). They found her home. She was detached, spiritually. She said she didn’t know why, but all of sudden, she just wanted to try something else.
We live in a physical material world and most of our decisions during the day seem to be physical or material. One rarely thinks about God when they sit and start the car or gulp water from the office fountain. A believer may bring God into bill paying time if the account is close to bottom. However, that may seem to be detached from God if duty, obligation, or having lights and TV become the focus.
The Lord said to me, the key to identifying the level of trust in each area of life, is directly correlated to how much you give thanks to God concerning that area of life. Thanksgiving always reconnects the resource to the source.
When we pray of over our meal and say in sincerity, “Father in heaven, thank you for this food.” We acknowledge that it came from him, despite the $2.79 or more you paid for the loaf of bread. The word "Lord", taken back to its etymology, expresses a “bread provider” so Jesus is Lord---Bread Provider.
Not only does thanksgiving serve as a place identifying our supplier, it invites him to partake of the meal and any part of our life. In Revelation 3:20, He says he stands at the door of the heart knocking. If any man opens that door he will come in and break bread.
The Economy & The Environment Changed
Thanksgiving not only invites him in, but when he comes in, he never comes without affect and blessings. Jesus was preaching for 3 days and the crowd of 5,000 men plus their families had not eaten. They were caught in God’s glory listening to the Living Bread of Life talk about the Father kingdom.
When it came time to leave, the disciples informed Jesus that the people would faint if they tried to leave without eating. He responded, ”You feed them.”
They responded, “We don’t have enough money and there isn’t any place to buy the food.”
A boy in the crowd responded (I love this story). He had brought his lunch of two fish and five loaves of bread - smart kid. The boy offered and they brought this to the Master, who gave thanks for it, broke it into pieces, and give to the disciples. The disciples divided the crowds into groups of fifty and distributed the food to them and so forth. Everybody ate to the full. There were seven baskets of food left over. It appears, in this story, Jesus was the only one who knew what ignited miracles. He gave thanks. Today people are concerned about the economy. Factories shut down; move away and people are pushed into the unemployment market. The environment gets burden more. People look to the government to help or fix it.
The church is the body of Christ. If the head gave thanks for what was in front of him and magnanimously changed the economy, whereas everybody ate and there was more than enough. It works also for the body. The Church (supernatural body of Christ) has the power to change the environment of the earth, when we would on purpose give thanks for what God has given.
Some do not believe that a prophetic word from God can still come today through individuals. If that’s you just take this is a thought and go right to the scripture which reminds over and over where the seat of our trust should be.
Principles to Assure True Trust In God
The Lord shared with me that the way to firm up your [trustor] heart is the same way we got saved. Roman 10:6-10 tells us to believe in our heart and confess with our mouth the Lordship of Jesus.
1. Walk through your house and speak to your estate. Speak to your resources and remind them that Jesus is your Lord and he is your source.
2. Thank God for what he has blessed you with but remind yourself that if that were to go, God would hold you up and continue to feed you.
3. Make the Word of God your bottom-line. Before you make any decision find a scripture to support it. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you.
4. Spend time with God in prayer and in His Word. The more you do, the more you will become conscious of Him and know he’s got you. 2 Timothy 1:7 - "God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind".
God wants us to prosper and I believe he wants to show off his goodness in us before Jesus returns. It is still the goodness of the Lord that leads men to repentance.
Ephesians 1:12 says we are called to the “Praise of His Glory, who first trusted in Christ.”
For him to get the glory from our blessings, the praise must rest solely on Him as the source. God wants our trust. It’s in this place of hardcore trust that he can fully manifest his fullness to us and keep us through any every situation to come, in this world, nation, or time.
Additional Verses to Meditate On
Jude 1:24, 25 - "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen."
Philippians 4:19 - "My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in Glory."
Proverbs 3:25,26 - "Do not be afraid of sudden terror, Nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes; For the Lord will be your confidence, And will keep your foot from being caught."
The Rich Young ruler left Jesus’ presence sad. He had approached the Master asking him how to obtain eternal life. The Master was pleased with the young man after his positive response to having kept the commandments. He was rich, young and perhaps a representative for his generation, coming to engage the Master concerning a new life. Perhaps comparative to a young Harvard trained business executive, he was looking to fulfill the next item on the list of his societal journey. Or perhaps, he was seeking Nirvana, cosmic balance, justification, or approval from an acclaimed religious teacher.
Or, he may have come in sincerity seeking the Master, beyond the hype of the Sabbath crowd and the pomp of the religious elite to get to the heart of it all. Apparently, he trusted this new preacher. He had seen the following. He had no doubt seen or heard of the miracles. “Master", he said. The question, pointedly asked, "what must I do to obtain eternal life?” Jesus was known to say many things in his ministry that shocked the crowd. His intention however was not to create controversy. He came to bring adjustment and correction, so that the seeking would ultimately experience the fullness of God. It was so the lost and hurting would know the Father and have true relationship with Him - eternally.
“Sell what you have and give to the poor and you shall have treasure in heaven.” This obviously hit a nerve. The young man would not oblige. In fact, he left the presence of Jesus hurt, despondent and of course without what he came for. The reason - Jesus said the man trusted in his riches. Well, that was the explanation to the disciples. He first said, “How hardly are those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God.”
Their response was “Who than, can be saved?”
Interesting phrase coming from men who are often called poor men. If they are so poor, there should have been warmth that filled them, because the reciprocal would have been “it’s easy for the poor to enter the kingdom of God.” They could have said, ”Hey, we’re good. Blessed are the poor.”
Jesus illustrated, it was easier for a camel to go through the "eye of the needle" than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And I, like many, have preached about the gate at the city of Jerusalem called the "Eye of the Needle" or "The Needle’s Eye". At this gate, which was supposedly closed at night, and was only so wide and tall, required late night travelers, into the city, to unburden their camels. The humped beasts would have to on their knees pass through the gate to make it in. Definitely a redemptive story, and we get the point, but history or archeology doesn’t find that so called gate at Jerusalem.
And the reference to a camel having its burden removed is still not the same as the owner removing his. Also if the gate represents the entering the kingdom of God, grace-redemption says salvation is not of our own works. We come to him with our baggage and he cleans us up (of course, we must give it up). Anyway, getting back to the point, Jesus says, the problem was, if we trust in riches. Peter by the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 6:17) expounds that these are uncertain riches. Jesus is seeking to bring us up higher. He doesn’t care about the earthly riches in essence. He is concerned about our trust in them and trust in riches is despite what side of the zero line ours are on.
It was in one of the churches that I support that I heard the Lord say to me. Prophesy to the Pastor of Church to tell his congregation. He didn’t tell me to prophesy to the church. He said prophesy to the pastor of the church. It was reminiscent of the book of Revelation when Jesus told John to write to the angel of the church. After all Hebrews 13:17 says it was the pastor’s (appointed rulers in the church) job to watch over the souls of the congregation. Psalms 23 says the pastor or shepherd leads the flock in the path or righteousness. I Admit, I held back the totality of what the Lord originally said, although I did speak the essence. I needed to check out the word that he used. Because of its intensity, I needed to be clear of what it meant.
“Tell your people to get their house in order, because there is coming an Apostasy (the word) to the families of the people of God in Churches of the United States of America in the next 2 years.”
The Lord went on further to say, “Tell the people to check where their trust is.”
He continued, in the days to come, to further reveal to me, and for me to share with the churches, pastors, and individuals in the body of Christ.
“There is nothing wrong with using your credit cards (if done wisely of course). There is nothing wrong with having a car loan or a mortgage on a house. There is nothing wrong with securing a good job and expecting good pay check. The key is that our trust cannot be in these things.”
God must be the source of every resource. He must be the bottom-line to every financial statement and or budget. When I looked the word "apostasy" up, I found it is defined as - to turn from one thing to another. For a Christian that means to turn from trusting in God to trusting in something else. In this article, I am not judging Obamacare or correctly called The Affordable Care Act. It is however another system. All man made systems are subject to fail. A system can only be a good as its creator. ACA becomes another system that bids for our trust.
I was sharing this with a pastor of church over lunch the other day and he interrupted and said it’s happening already. This was an isolated case, but a confirmation none the less. A woman who had been coming faithfully to his church had just stop coming. Hence, they went to visit her (a thing that pastors do). They found her home. She was detached, spiritually. She said she didn’t know why, but all of sudden, she just wanted to try something else.
We live in a physical material world and most of our decisions during the day seem to be physical or material. One rarely thinks about God when they sit and start the car or gulp water from the office fountain. A believer may bring God into bill paying time if the account is close to bottom. However, that may seem to be detached from God if duty, obligation, or having lights and TV become the focus.
The Lord said to me, the key to identifying the level of trust in each area of life, is directly correlated to how much you give thanks to God concerning that area of life. Thanksgiving always reconnects the resource to the source.
When we pray of over our meal and say in sincerity, “Father in heaven, thank you for this food.” We acknowledge that it came from him, despite the $2.79 or more you paid for the loaf of bread. The word "Lord", taken back to its etymology, expresses a “bread provider” so Jesus is Lord---Bread Provider.
Not only does thanksgiving serve as a place identifying our supplier, it invites him to partake of the meal and any part of our life. In Revelation 3:20, He says he stands at the door of the heart knocking. If any man opens that door he will come in and break bread.
The Economy & The Environment Changed
Thanksgiving not only invites him in, but when he comes in, he never comes without affect and blessings. Jesus was preaching for 3 days and the crowd of 5,000 men plus their families had not eaten. They were caught in God’s glory listening to the Living Bread of Life talk about the Father kingdom.
When it came time to leave, the disciples informed Jesus that the people would faint if they tried to leave without eating. He responded, ”You feed them.”
They responded, “We don’t have enough money and there isn’t any place to buy the food.”
A boy in the crowd responded (I love this story). He had brought his lunch of two fish and five loaves of bread - smart kid. The boy offered and they brought this to the Master, who gave thanks for it, broke it into pieces, and give to the disciples. The disciples divided the crowds into groups of fifty and distributed the food to them and so forth. Everybody ate to the full. There were seven baskets of food left over. It appears, in this story, Jesus was the only one who knew what ignited miracles. He gave thanks. Today people are concerned about the economy. Factories shut down; move away and people are pushed into the unemployment market. The environment gets burden more. People look to the government to help or fix it.
The church is the body of Christ. If the head gave thanks for what was in front of him and magnanimously changed the economy, whereas everybody ate and there was more than enough. It works also for the body. The Church (supernatural body of Christ) has the power to change the environment of the earth, when we would on purpose give thanks for what God has given.
Some do not believe that a prophetic word from God can still come today through individuals. If that’s you just take this is a thought and go right to the scripture which reminds over and over where the seat of our trust should be.
Principles to Assure True Trust In God
The Lord shared with me that the way to firm up your [trustor] heart is the same way we got saved. Roman 10:6-10 tells us to believe in our heart and confess with our mouth the Lordship of Jesus.
1. Walk through your house and speak to your estate. Speak to your resources and remind them that Jesus is your Lord and he is your source.
2. Thank God for what he has blessed you with but remind yourself that if that were to go, God would hold you up and continue to feed you.
3. Make the Word of God your bottom-line. Before you make any decision find a scripture to support it. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you.
4. Spend time with God in prayer and in His Word. The more you do, the more you will become conscious of Him and know he’s got you. 2 Timothy 1:7 - "God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind".
God wants us to prosper and I believe he wants to show off his goodness in us before Jesus returns. It is still the goodness of the Lord that leads men to repentance.
Ephesians 1:12 says we are called to the “Praise of His Glory, who first trusted in Christ.”
For him to get the glory from our blessings, the praise must rest solely on Him as the source. God wants our trust. It’s in this place of hardcore trust that he can fully manifest his fullness to us and keep us through any every situation to come, in this world, nation, or time.
Additional Verses to Meditate On
Jude 1:24, 25 - "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen."
Philippians 4:19 - "My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in Glory."
Proverbs 3:25,26 - "Do not be afraid of sudden terror, Nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes; For the Lord will be your confidence, And will keep your foot from being caught."