The Coming Storm

Is a final revival with mighty signs and supernatural wonders the solution to the church's ills and the salvation of this fallen world?

Popular preachers and self-anointed prophets promise that a great “revival” is about to begin. It will be characterized by unprecedented “signs and wonders.” Billions of souls will be brought into the Kingdom. Evil governments will fall, and righteousness will prevail across the Earth, paving the way for Christ’s return. This vision is the rallying cry, the raison d'être, of the contemporary Charismatic Movement and today’s “prophets and apostles.”

[Photo by Pascal Debrunner on Unsplash]

This expectation must be compared with what Scripture says. Jesus, for example, began to “draw all men” to himself when he was nailed to the Roman Cross, not because of his supernatural powers. The “power and wisdom of God” are found in the proclamation of a “Crucified Messiah,” in the “Word of the Cross.”

Hearts are won to the Gospel by disciples whose lives are conformed to Christ’s Death, men and women who daily deny themselves, take up the cross, and “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” in service to his kingdom and others.

Jesus of Nazareth was the “Suffering Servant of Yahweh,” not a conquering warrior-king who forcefully subdued his subjects, and certainly not a magician like Simon Magus who awed the Samaritans with his parlor tricks - (“They heeded him, because that of long time he had amazed them with his sorceries” – Acts 8:9).

The assumption that “signs and wonders” will convince millions of men and women who Jesus is and cause them to believe the Gospel stands in sharp tension with the story found in the four gospel accounts.

Jesus performed many “signs and wonders.” However, his miracles failed to convince anyone that he was the Son of God. Even after he calmed the violent storm on the Sea of Galilee, his dumbfounded disciples could only ask, "Who is this man?!" Only after his sacrificial Death and Resurrection did they begin to understand who he was and what it meant to be the Messiah of Israel.

In Mark's gospel, the man who recognizes Jesus as the Son of God is the centurion in charge of his execution squad, and he did so at the very moment when Christ died on the Cross. Despite performing deeds that, “if they may be written one by one, not even the world itself would have room for the books written,” Christ died alone, abandoned by his closest associates even though they had witnessed his greatest miracles.

Nowhere does the New Testament predict this final super revival characterized by mighty “signs and wonders” that will win the world to the Faith, bless the saints with  unending prosperity and health, and empower the Church to conquer the “Seven Mountains of Culture.”

DECEPTION AND APOSTASY

Instead, Scripture warns of coming deceivers, a final apostasy, tribulation and persecution, and the arrival of the Man of Lawlessness. The great “falling away” and the unveiling of this “Lawless One” must occur before Jesus returns to “gather his elect.”

Christ’s disciples will be persecuted rather than embraced by the nations. We will know “tribulation.” However, we will proclaim the Gospel despite opposition. The Church must complete this task before the “end.” The Spirit empowers us to preach the Gospel “with boldness” even when persecuted.

Like Paul, we will learn to rejoice “in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake, for when we are weak, then are we strong” - (Matthew 24:9-13, 24:31, Acts 4:29, 2 Corinthians 12:10, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12):

• “Then will they deliver you to tribulation and kill you. You will be hated by all nations… Many will stumble and betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and deceive many. Because lawlessness will abound, the love of the many will grow cold. Only he who endures to the end will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole habitable earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

In his warning, Christ stressed the term “many.” Many deceivers and false prophets will come, and many believers will be deceived and fall away from the faith and instead turn to “lawlessness.”

Jesus was not talking about the occasional false teacher but a horde of deceivers, including “false anointed ones” and “false prophets” who spread misleading information about Christ’s return and use “great signs and wonders” to deceive, “if possible, the elect.” Satan is not out to hoodwink those already lost and without hope. He is coming for the Church of Jesus Christ - (Matthew 24:5, 23-27).

Furthermore, the New Testament warns of deceivers who use “signs and wonders” to deceive the “elect.”  In the Book of Revelation, for example, the “False Prophet” performs “great signs” that deceive many and cause them to give their allegiance to the “Beast.” The Dragon’s “war” is not waged against Israel or other nation-states, but against the “saints,” those who have the “faith of Jesus” and his “testimony,” those who “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” – (Revelation 12:17, 13:7, 14:4, 14:12).

Paul is specific. The “Day of the Lord” will not come until two inextricably linked events occur – the “Apostasy” and the “revelation of the Man of Lawlessness” who will “seat himself in the Sanctuary of God” - (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12).

The Greek term translated as “apostasy” or ‘apostasia’ refers to the abandonment of the true faith. When Paul warned that this “Lawless One” will deceive those who “refuse the love of the truth,” he was speaking of believers who apostatize. This is confirmed when he defines this “truth” as the “tradition you have received” from Paul and his apostolic coworkers.

The relevant question is whether this “Apostasy” is still in our future or already underway. Considering the many false prophecies and deceptive teachings propagated openly by today’s self-declared “apostles and prophets,” perhaps the more important question is whether the “Man of Lawlessness” will be revealed very soon since apostasy is all around us.

We are not without hope. Because Jesus and his apostles warned us about the tribulation of the Church, we can avoid deception by heeding their teachings. Paul assured the Thessalonians they would not be overwhelmed by the “Lawless One” so long as they “held fast” to the Apostolic Tradition.

In short, we must learn the Word of God and hold tightly to it regardless of what anyone does or says.

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SEE ALSO:

• Misdirection and Apostasy - (Believers watching for apostasy to occur outside the Church will miss the real thing since it is operating stealthily inside our congregations)

• Goal of the Church - (Jesus has tasked his disciples with proclaiming the Good News of GOD’s Kingdom in and to every nation on the Earth)

• The Danger Within - (The Greatest threat to the church of Jesus is posed by the deceivers who propagate false doctrines and misleading information in the church)