The religious tolerance hype is touted from elementary school and up. Kids seem to be ashamed to say that Christ could be “better” or more authentic and believable than the leaders or founders of any other religions. We apparently have not taught our children that Christ is not the leader of a great religion. We have failed to make it clear to them that he is not the founder of a new religion but he is the Savior of the world.
Being ashamed to proclaim the universality of Christianity is a close cousin to being ashamed of Christ and his words. That shame will be reciprocated by Christ at his return. (Luke 9:26)
On the fear of proclaiming the universality of Christ and his message missionary and seminarian Stephen Neill said; “This Christian claim (of universal validity) is naturally offensive to the adherents of every other religious system. It is almost as offensive to modern man, brought up in the atmosphere of relativism, in which tolerance is regarded almost as the highest of the virtues. But we must not suppose that this claim to universal validity is something that can quietly be removed from the Gospel without changing it into something entirely different from what it is...Jesus' life, his method, and his message do not make sense, unless they are interpreted in the light of his own conviction that he was in fact the final and decisive word of God to men...For the human sickness there is one specific remedy, and this is it. There is no other. (Stephen Neill (1900-1984), Christian Faith and Other Faiths.)
The late Evangelist Rev. Vance Havner often said that the church acted as if it were going to send up a rocket but in reality ignited something akin to a firecracker.
Author Annie Dillard clearly shared Havner’s views; she said “On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of the conditions. Does any-one have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping God may wake some day and take offense, or the waking God may draw us out to where we can never return.” (Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk)
Some American youth are not the slightest bit ashamed of the gospel; in fact their zeal could shame some of the veteran believers in the church. Teens and younger children are taking part in the renewed prophetic thrust of the gospel in America and even now are weighing in significantly through ministries like those of Ron Luce and “Teen Mania.” This also is part of the promised renewal of the message that will even be preached by children in the last days. (Joel 2:28.)
Those involved in today’s more overtly prophetic ministries may refer to themselves as lay people, evangelists, witnesses, apologists, theologians, preachers, ministers, pastors, or nothing at all. It won’t be titles and letters behind their names that stand out but their boldness and the purity of the gospel message they preach. The most powerful among them is more likely to be the leader of a house church or store front church than the pastor of a huge mega church in the suburbs of America.
Nazi death camp survivors Bill Basansky, who pastors the Life International Church in Ft. Myers Florida and the highly esteemed author and evangelist, the late Corrie Ten Boom both said the same thing about sectarianism and denominationalism. When people were subjected to imprisonment and horrible conditions they asked only one question to people about their faith, “Do you love Him.” (Jesus) A positive answer to that question caused instant fellowship among believers. Those conditions and a positive response to the question are fast becoming more prevalent in our world and more of a necessity than at any other time in history.
The line between various churches should always have been whether they preach the gospel or not. The day of doctrinal or denominational differences, minor polity differences and ceremonial or liturgical differences is about to become a thing of the past. Isn’t it is about time?
The command to preach the gospel came early in Christianity. It was in fact the very last thing Christ said as he ascended to be with the Father. (Mt 28:19f) The promise that it would be preached in a more prophetically driven manner is sprinkled throughout the bible but is promised to change exponentially as the last days approach.
That young men, old men, women and children would all start to speak up in the last days is a promise of Joel 2:28f. That it would become both dangerous and costly to make these proclamations is also noted in passages like Da 11:35, Mt 24:19, Jn 16:2, Rev 13:7.
When men, young and old, women and children can hardly proclaim the message any longer we find God still provides a witness. First he chooses angels Rev 8:3. Perhaps concurrent with those angelic proclamations or in close proximity to them will be the voices of the two final “prophets” that will preach on earth just before Christ returns. Their ministry is not concealed in an obscure bible passage but an entire chapter is given to explain how they turn the world upside down. (Rev 11:1f)
These two prophets do not show up to shock the world but are a natural outcome of the upwardly spiraling output of prophetic power and utterance in the last days. They are the icing on the cake. The only voice to be heard after their ministry is finished (violently) is Gods.
After all that warning you would think that everyone would avoid the worst by being well prepared. Not so, these messages will go unheeded by countless millions in the days to come. In the user comments listing of the well known IMDb internet movie review site, the phrase used to define the entire plot of the Oscar winning movie “Cool Hand Luke” starring Paul Newman is “Some men you just can’t reach.”
If we associate Luke with God’s prophets the most well known line in the movie applies even better…"What we've got here is a failure to communicate."
Author Resource:-
Rev Bresciani is the author of two books. He also is a columnist for several online sites and magazines. His articles are read throughout the world. For more articles and news from around the globe visit "The Website for Insight" http://www.americanprophet.org
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.christian-article-bank.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites