Posted on 01/27/2014 9:13:09 PM PST by pastorbillrandles
And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:1-8)
There was a time when I would have answered the open question Jesus asked, with a confident affirmative. “Will the Son of Man find faith?”, Of course! Early in my walk I came under the influence of the “Word of Faith” movement. We were recieving the ‘revelation knowledge’, the deeper teachings, which would usher in the world’s most powerful Revival ! We were the cutting edge, the Head and not the tale, doing the works of Jesus, What do you mean will the Son of Man find faith? Of course He will!
Gradually, the Holy Spirit led me to see the errors of Copeland,Hagin, and the other “Word of Faith” heretics, and I had to painfully renounce the teachings I had once embraced. I attended a Word of Faith Pastor’s conference sometime in the mid 1980′s, and a pastor arrived driving a car with a ‘vanity liscence plate”, which said ” iamagod”.
My wife and I looked at each other in shock, and both of us uttered the same question,”What have we gotten ourselves into?”. I heard the Holy Spirit clearly, for a thought came to me, saying,”All he is doing is taking your teachers to their logical conclusion”.
This began a long, humbling season of re-examination of everything we believed. It didn’t happen over a weekend either, it took about 5 years. (I know others of you have gone through this, but try doing this as a Pastor! Our church grew from about 80 to about 20, it was amazing!). Many of my friends didn’t understand, as I steadily deconstructed the errors I once promoted, and I lost a lot of friends. But isn’t Truth everything?
Eventually I got into writing books, exposing the heresies of the Latter Rain, Spiritual warfare and Toronto movement.
I once went to Toronto with my wife, to experience the Airport Vineyard for ourselves, and to interview some of the thousands of confessing Christians, (including pastors) who came from around the world, to participate in Spiritual drunkenness, being subjected to Trance like states, false prophecy, the open mockery of the Sacred.
We would ask them, “Are you not aware of the warnings of the last days deceptions, and of the danger of false prophets and false Christs(Anointings)”? Almost without exception these devotees of the Toronto Blessing would tell us that yes they knew of the deceptions, but that it didn’t apply to them!
They had been prophesied over by the likes of Rick Joyner, Bob Jones, John Arnott, Rodney Howard Browne and others, that they were the final “Chosen generation”, the “Jospeh Company” that God had raised up for the powerful “End Times Revival” which would sweep the world, bringing in one billion souls! Joyner even prophesied that the apostles and prophets of old would be lined up to shake hands with this mighty company, so mighty would be their exploits.
Another false leader had told them that since the letters ‘USA’ is in the center of Jerusalem,God had a special plan for the body of Christ in America!
In other words these people have been conditioned for more than twenty years to believe to believe that the end times warnings don’t apply to them. They are the “Cutting edged Christians”, with the most “Powerful anointing” ever, for supposedly as far as the quality of christians, God saved the best for last!
Alas! A whole generation of christians has no idea what is coming upon the earth! They are simply unprepared, spiritually and psychologically for the test which is coming with rapidity! This should cause us to weep and plead for our brothers and sisters in this situation.
‘Will the Son of Man find Faith?’ is not a gimmick, it is an open question.
Jesus isn’t asking of there will be christians when he comes, of course there will be, all kinds of them! There is a lot of faith, and general christian faith at that.
But the parable illustrated specifically the kind of faith Jesus is looking for, in view of his return; the faith like unto the desperate widow woman, with no other earthly recourse to oppression, than to ceaselessly cry out for Vindication.
This is the faith which will not accept the status quo, as it goes further and further from anything remotely acceptable. This is the faith which will not ’faint’,finding a way to ‘realistically deal’ with modern contingencies, such as accepting homosexuality, perversion, multi faith ecumenism.
The World spirit seeks not only to shut the church up, silencing her witness to Christ, especially on those points where the world spirit is challenging the Word of God. The Silence of the church is not enough to satisfy the Spirit of this World, we are going to literally be subjected to pressure, seeking to force us to confess to what we know isn’t true!
The Faith Jesus seeks in view of His coming is the Faith which cries out day and night for deliverance from this world, unashamedly rejecting the current perverted world order, ad crying out for the Kingdom of God.
God shall avenge His elect, who cry out day and night to Him, and Know, that He will avenge them speedily! Maranatha!
If the Old Testament and the history of the Church is any guide, I wouldn’t put any money on it, and at least on the surface I am coming from a radically different theological tradition from yourself. Climbing the same mountain from different sides.
Today the judge would just throw her in the slammer for contempt of court.
This parable is not a parallel one; it is one of contrast! It is to be understood that God's desire for instant prayer communication and reaction to it is exactly opposite to that of the characters depicted in this vignette, and a Christian's mode of presenting his concerns should be of utter trust in a hearing, righteous, and compassionate personal God and Father.
Having brought a perceived concern to an All-knowing God's attention, we should leave the burden there in wholly persistent, patient, continual trust and go on--not continually remaining in willful, defiant opposition thrashing at a seemingly deaf and unresponsive authority until God's patience is worn thin and He accedes to fulfilling one's insistent demands and preconceived outcomes!
In this teaching, Jesus was not calling for inistent, unremitting, faithless importunance (as many interpret this passage and urge us to adopt), He was counselling agaist such an attitude.
You might ponder on the story of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1:1-19 to see trustful humility in action.
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If one approaches The God with unconfessed and unforgiven sin in one's heart, He will not hear. Was not that well-known and understood by Jesus' audience?
"If I regard iniquity in my heart, He will not hear (me)" (Ps. 66:18 AV)
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