Section Navigation (click to expand)
Scroll to current section
Scroll to current section

The Day of the LORD: Having Departed, God Returns for War!

So, here’s the question: Do you hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches of the 21st Century (Rev. 3:22)? Or, is God irrelevant to you? Do you believe that He hears what you think and say, and retaliates? HE DOES. For example, we have been solemnly warned to regard a present-tense voice which speaks to the Church today, not yesterday. It was written, “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Heb. 4:7)! Is God practically irrelevant to you, my reader? Perhaps you have shut him out of your Church! Perhaps that’s why you don’t hear His voice. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20), the resurrected, ascended, and living Lord Jesus said! This gracious door-knocking should not go unanswered by backslidden Churches! Jesus of Nazareth was at the door, my reader! It is better to dine with Christ in friendly communion than to meet Him at the point of a sword! Let all backslidden Churches take heed to the warning, when Christ said: “Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will FIGHT against them with the sword of My Mouth” (Rev. 2:16, Hos. 6:5)! Yes, God can and will fight against the Churches of the New Testament, just like He fought against the Nation and People of Israel and Judah in the Old Testament. When and if the LORD departs from the Church, it is for war! Let me explain.

Fearfully, God can, has, and will abandon New Testament Churches like as He abandoned the Temple in the Old Testament; albeit, most do not understand the implications. Historically speaking, the Glory of God could, would, and did depart from Israel, but how does this doctrine coexist with the threatening of God via “the days of visitation” (the visitation: Jer. 5:29, 6:15, 8:5-12, 9:9, 10:15, 14:10, 23:12, Hos. 9:7)? When God spoke of His reaction to Israelite apostasy in this regard, saying, “that I should go far off from My Sanctuary” (Ezek. 8:6), or like Jeremiah expressed under prophetic utterance, “lest My soul depart from thee” (Jer. 6:7-8), or when the Lord lamented, saying, “Oh…that I might leave My people and go from them” (Jer. 9:1-3), or when God would finally fulfill the pronouncement, “I have left Mine heritage” (Jer. 12:7-12), how then does the Lord threaten the people of Israel regarding their day of visitation when, namely – HE COMES! – and, yet, His arrival was expressing the execution of damnation and not the restoration of salvation? You see, my reader, God joined heathen armies and wielded the barbarian peoples (the Assyrians and the Babylonians) as hand-held weapons in His Almighty hands (like an axe) to destroy the Temple, People, Nation, and Land of Israel and Judah (Isa. 10:5-15, Jer. 34:21-22)!

People today will claim, “It can’t happen to the Church of the New Testament!” Quoting the promise, “…upon this Rock I will build My Church; and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). Right? Of the aforementioned, this much is true: The Gates of Hell cannot prevail against a Church when Jesus is IN THE CHURCH! But, what about when Jesus is forced out the door? Remember what the Lord Jesus said to the Church of Laodicea, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock…” (Rev. 3:20). Are you in disbelief? Also, do you remember when the Lord Jesus said to the Church of Ephesus, “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy Candlestick out of his place, except thou repent” (Rev. 2:5). Apparently, Church Members can do something to offend the Living Christ and make Him leave (2 Cor. 6:14-7:1). The Candlestick cannot prevail against the High Priest who dresses it, but the High Priest can take away the Candlestick so as to allow the encroachment of darkness. Also, from another angle, the Devil’s Darkness cannot prevail against the Light of Christ, but Jesus can remove the Light of Christ (the Candlestick) from a Church because of prevalent deeds of darkness. Even so, the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against the Church Universal or the Church Inter-Generational and Eternal, but the Gates of Hell can and will prevail against a Church that Jesus abandons! Jesus is GOD. New Testament Church Members, here’s your warning: “Be not highminded, but fear…” (Rom. 11:20)! Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” (Rom. 11:22).

Who was cut off? The Jews of the 1st century just like the Jews of pastime centuries. Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos, and Zechariah, for example, spoke of the cessation of the legal identity which was inherent with the special and immediate presence of God, meaning that, when the Glory of God departed the legal identity was lost, and each prophet was careful to declare that the reason the Glory of God departed was because the charges of conduct which demanded holiness and cleanliness were defied… therefore because the legal identity of the people was forfeited and God departed, when God visited the people again it was for damnation instead of salvation, for the fury of war instead of the friendliness of family, because the Israelites became God’s enemies instead of God’s Family. [For more information, see “The Glory of God Departing & Returning to the Church”.]