The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his125/ciboct88.lzh/CIBOCT88.TXT

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PER:Christian Information Bureau October 1988  by Dave Hunt

   Dear Praying Friends;

   We have discussed the kingdom/dominion/reconstruction/COR movement a
number of times. I consider it to be the fastest growing adverse
influence in the church today, and thus a primary cause for concern. It
is helping to set the stage for the coming world government of the
Antichrist by confusing key issues of prophecy. Of course, those
involved in this movement would sincerely deny that they are, or that
they wish to have any part in, helping the Antichrist in any wya. There
is another and more subtle danger - the undermining of one's personal
spiritual life as a result of this movement's unbiblical teachings.

   Those who believe that they must take over the world and establish
the Millennial kingdom for Christ in His absence either reject the
Rapture or relegate it to such a distant and unimportant position that
it has no practical value in their lives. This has serious consequences
because the hope that Christ could return at any moment is intended by
God to be one of the major purifying factors in the Christian's life (1
John 3:3). I believe that John, by the phrase, "purifieth himself," is
refering botht to doctrinal as well as moral purity. The two go
together, yet doctrine is now frequently avoided as a cause of division
rather than what it actually is, the necessary container of truth.

   One of the most unpopular doctrines today (in stark contrast to its
prominence only a few years ago) is that of the Rapture - Christ
catching His bride away to heaven (1 Thess. 4:13-18). Because Christ
has not come "quickly," as He promised (at least by our definition),
there are those who consider the Rapture a topic to be avoided.
However, the great number of statements in the area should be a
prominent part of our Christian faith and life.

   With respect to the Rapture, we are repeatedly urged to have toward
it an attitude of watching and waiting. Why is this attitude commanded
by Christ? Does it value for us, and the importance the Bible obviously
attaches to it, reside primarily in the Lord's return actually being
imminent? Indeed not.

   Whether or not the Lord's return is imminent for us, we now know in
retrospect that it was not imminent for all those generations of
Christians who came before us. If the sole value of their "expectancy"
lay in its being stisfied - i.e., in it being true that the Lord would
come imminently - then the fact that Christ has not yet returned would
leave us without any explanation for why the Lord urged this
"expectant" attitude in the first place. Therefore there must be
something improtant, something integral to a good Christian life, about
the attitude itself of expecting Christ's return at any moment. What
could this be?

   There can be no doubt that believing that we could be caught up at
any moment imparts an added seriousness to our lives. We won't be here
forever, so we should make every minute count. Moreover, it makes us
insecure in our tendency to identify ourselves too closely with a world
which is based upon ternal rather than earthly values. This attitude
certainly ought to characterize a Christian life, and a lively sense of
the possibility of Christ's imminent return is more than justified if
it has this good effect on us.

   But doen't the possibility of imminent death supply exactly the same
motive? No! While it supplies a very powerful motive indeed, there is a
great difference. The expectancy of being caught up at any moment into
the presence of our Lord in the Rapture does have some advantages over
a similar expectancy through the possibility of sudden death:

   (1) If we are in a right relationship with Christ, we can genuinely
look forward to the Rapture. Yet no one (not even Christ in the Garden)
looks foward to death. The joyful prospect of the Rapture. Yet no one
(not even Christ in the Garden) looks forward to death. the joyful
prospect of the Rapture will attract our thoughts, while the
distasteful prospect of death is something we may try to forget about,
thus making it less effective in our daily lives.

   (2) While the Rapture is similar to death in that both serve to end
one's earthly life, the Rapture does something else as well: it signals
the climax of history and opens the curtain upon its final drama. It
thus ends, in a way that death does not, all human stake in continuing
earthoy developments, such as the lives of the children left behind,
the growth or dispersiqon of the fortune accumulated, the protection of
one's personal reputation, the success of whatever earthly causes one
has espoused, and so forth.

   One way that people compe with finality of death is through such
forms of psuedo-immortality - ways in which we, or things we cared
about, "live on" after we are gone. Even Christians, who have genuine
immortality to look forward to, may nevertheless be tempted to find
consolation in some of these forms of pseudo-immortality. The Rapture,
however, undercuts all of these; and to whatever extent these
pseudo-consolations are weakened, our post-mortem hope becomes purified
of its earthly elements. Being thus forced to face the fact that our
destiny lies in heaven, we will be motivated to live with that goal in
mind.

   (3) The incentive provided by death is weakened somewhat by the fact
that we generally have at least some control over its relative
imminence. Certainly we are radically contigent beings, and our lives
could be snuffed out at any time. But this is not the way people
usually die. The cancer victim could have refrained from smoking, or
added more fiber to his diet, or sought treatment earlier. The guilty
auto accident victim could have driven within the speed limit or taken
a taxi when he had too much to drink.

   Though death can come suddenly and without warning (we are not
complete masters of our own fate), it is nevertheless true that we make
decisions daily that increase or decrease the chances of our dying
tomorrow, next month, or in ten years. This not-altogether-illusory
sense of control over the time of our death reduces its incentive for
goliness by making us feel that we can afford to postpone a closer
relationship with God until next week, next month or next year. In
contrast, we have absolutely no control ober the timing of Christ's
return to earth. It will just happen "out of the blue." Belief in the
imminent return of Christ, then, does not allow us to postpone anything.

   The whole doninion/reconstruction movement is too wedded to an
ongoing earthly process stretching into the indeterminate future to be
truly faithful to the totality of what Scripture says about being
sufficiently disengaged from this world to be ready to leave it behind
at a moment's notice. I am concerned that the Reconstructionists and
the Coalition on Revival as well as other kingdom/deminion advocates
are fostering a false conception of our earthly ministry - a conception
which we must guard against lest we subtly fall into an attitude like
that of Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor, for whom Christ's return to
earth represents an interference with the mission of the Church. He has
Christ thrown into prision, where he visits him to complain:

   There is no need for Thee to come now at all. Thou must not meddle
for the time, at least... fortunately, departing Thou didst hand on the
work to us. Thou has promised, Thou hast established by Thy word, Thou
has given to us the right to bind and to unbind, and now, of course,
Thou canst not think of taking it away. Why, then, hast Thou come to
hinder us?

   All human beings are tempted to be more at home in the world than
they should be. Christians are not exempt from this temptation, and
when they succumb it often leads to an effort to reinterpret Scripture
accordingly. Reconstructionists exemplify this temptation, some even
taking it to the point of claiming that Christ returned in AD 70 in the
person of the Roman armies to destroy Jerusalem and excommunicate
Israel - and that this was the day of the church's wedding to Christ
prophesied in Revelation 19!

   Christ's return before they have taken over the world would be as
inconvient to the Reconstructionists and others in the kingdom/dominion
movement as it was to the Grand Inquisitor, and for the same reasons.

   Our hope is not in taking over this world, but in being taken to
heaven by our Lord, to be married to Him in glory and then to return
with Him as part of the armies of heaven to rescue Israel, destroy His
enemies and participate in His Millennial reign. Yet those of us who
claim to believe this too often hold the belief in theory only, while
denying it with our lives. Our hearts should be in perpetual wonder and
joy at the prospect of being suddenly caught up to be with Christ, our
bodies transformed to be like His body of glory, to be wedded to our
Lord for eternity.

   Heaven is not so much a location somewhere as it is being with
Christ wherever He may be in the universe at the time, for we will be
perpetually in His presence. It is not so much a place as it is a state
of being, enjoying a heavenly existence that is beyond our present
understanding but ought to be our continual and excited anticipation.
And in our transformed bodies, made like His body of glory, in which we
will share His resurrection life, we will reign with Him over this
earth for 1,000 years. Then we will spend an eternity during which He
will be perpetually revealing to and in us more and more of Himself,
His love and grace and kindness.

   Part of the problem with the kingdom/dominionreconstruction movement
is its mistaken notion that mortal man can accomplish what only
immortal Man, our risen Lord, and we as immortal resurrected beings
with Him, can perform. Do not settle for anything less than the
fullness of what Christ has promised! The glory that He offers is light
years beyond the COR agenda of Christianizing and taken over this
present world in these bodies of weakness and corruption.

   We can miss His best by refusing to take seriously what the Bible
clearly teaches and by not standing firm for sound doctrine. And we can
also miss out on our true reward by attempting to live in our own
strength the Christian life which only Christ can live through us. May
we be true to His Word and to Him in our daily lives. The joy and glory
He has planned and in which He desires that we participate is more than
enough to excite and inspire and motivate us. "Set your affection on
things above" (Col. 3:1-4)!

   In Christ's love, Dave Hunt

   This has been put up on the board by the kind permission of the
staff of CIB, and I would encourage you to write to the address that
was at the beginning of this message to order their monthly newsletter
for $12.00 U.S. per year (price subject to change without notice). Make
sure that chegues are on a U.S. money order and payable to:

   Christian Information Bureau

   PO Box 3120

   Camarillo Ca 93011