The Rapture
Robert McLaughlin Part 6 The Christian re-constructionists emphasize exercising dominion authority
Robert McLaughlin
Part 6 The Christian re-constructionists emphasize exercising dominion authority
MAT 11:12 and LUK 16:16 and say that we are to take the kingdom that God has given us even by violence if necessary. What happens in this movement is that they teach their followers to use their authority in Christ to overcome all barriers to materially successful lives. They take Scriptures like PHI 4:19 out of context which says “And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Notice it says needs not wants! Of course all of this is very attractive to those in the lower-middle class life hoping to escape the economic restrictions of their lifestyles. So rather than a trust in the provisions made available from God the Father who is intimately concerned with each one of His children, and the care of the Lord Jesus Christ for His bride, they are hoping for the improvement of the world to make things better for them. The point is that their hope is not as TIT 2:13 says, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; their hope is not the hope of COL 1:27 “to whom the God decreed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery in the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of the glory.” The fact that Jesus Christ indwells you is the basis and origin of your hope, not changing the world and getting involved in politics. Hope anticipates the function of the integrity of God on our behalf. 1TH 1:3 “constantly bearing in mind your work of doctrine, and labor of love, and courage under pressure from hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of God the Father.” Hope is cultivated through the intake of doctrine. Bible doctrine in the soul gives you confidence in the future and the enjoyment of what God provides for you now and in eternity, not changing the world and making it a better place to live. JOB 4:6 “Is not your respect for God your confidence? And is not your hope the integrity of your ways?” HEB 11:1“In fact, doctrine is the reality from which we receive hope, the proof of matters not being seen.” The reality of blessing for time and eternity is found in hope or confidence of Bible doctrine not in changing the world!
The Christian re-constructionists emphasize exercising dominion authority, or their so called power in Christ, to advance His Lordship over all things. Since our Lord is the King of kings and the Lord of Lord’s they say that His dominion extends to all of life, and therefore we must take dominion and authority over the world and do it boldly. They say that the promise land belonged to Israel, but first Joshua and the Jews had to claim it by annihilating its occupants, and so we must do the same! They are supporters of prayer in schools, involvement with the Government! Blowing up abortion clinics. Getting Jesus into society, etc. What they teach is that God’s kingdom is in this world, and we must be like a church militant group confident of triumph. Yet in JOH 18:36 our Lord says, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting,”
Let’s take a look at how subtle their teaching is. They teach that Adam forfeited his lawful inheritance when he rebelled against God. Therefore Satan received this inheritance when he caused Adam to sin, so Satan conquered the world in one day by Adam’s default, so far so good. However, then they say that the Lord Jesus Christ restored the inheritance to His people when He defeated Satan on the Cross. Makes sense, but it is not Biblical. They teach that Christians are required to pursue the same program of world dominion which God originally assigned to Adam, and reassigned to Noah. Again, ignorance of dispensational truth, and an inaccurate understanding of the Word of God. They have been led astray and distracted in order to help Satan clean up his world and create further accusation against God. The point of Christian reconstructionism is that it teaches the victory of God’s kingdom on earth during and continuous with our present era. Some even think that we are in the Millennium and therefore we should do our part to change the world!
Now, a pre-millenialist, which is what I am, believes that Christ’s intervening judgment will destroy the current society, and then Christ will institute millennial conditions. Most people who get involved with this anti-rapture creature credit movement arrive at these views not from the study of scripture, but by the romantic attraction of changing the world. Many reconstructionist believe that their job is to rebuild our apostate civilization into the kingdom of God, and so pave the way for the coming Millennium. This, of course, contributes greatly to Satan’s plan to try and counterfeit the Millennium and get individuals to help him clean up the world and make it a better place to live.
Remember that Satan’s major objective is to be like God, as found in ISA 14:14 where Satan said “I will make myself like the Most High.” This is actually one of the most important principles concerning Satan, and it also one of the least known. This is why we are warned in 2CO 2:11 “in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.” Satan has deceived the world, including the Christian church, to make us think that he is totally opposite of God. In fact one of the meanings of 2TH 2:4 which says that Satan opposes and exalts himself above every so‑called god or object of worship, is that Satan makes you think that he is something that he is not. Satan wants you to think that he is this ugly looking creature with a red epidermis, carrying a trident. This isn’t the devil at all, the devil is the most beautiful creature whoever came from the hand of God. Probably one of the most shocking things you will ever hear is the fact that the devil is not interested in getting people to sin. Instead, he is vitally interested in getting you to perform human good. If you are a do-gooder living under the power of your old sin nature, the devil applauds you, and he doesn’t bother with you. Satan is actively interested in putting down any believer anywhere who knows Bible doctrine. Satan is interested in performing all the good he can, and eliminating the bad. Satan is not interested in immorality, immorality is embarrassing to him because he is the ruler of this world. As the greatest creature ever created, this world is an insult to his leadership. Satan’s plan is to get humans to produce as much human good as possible, and to infiltrate the plan of God with human good, and the only way he can do so is to persuade believers to perform human good. However, Satan cannot do this to a believer who has knowledge of Bible doctrine, but he can do it to a believer who is ignorant of doctrine and therefore a sucker for human good. Human good appeals to approbation lust, to power lust, and to the old sin nature. As far as most believers are personally concerned, the only contact the devil will have with them will be the fact that they performed X amount of human good to help the devil clean up this world. Government, morals, education, art, commercialism, vast enterprises and organizations, and religious activity are included in the Satan’s plan to deceive the human race. In fact, the presence evil in the world is not due to Satan’s intention to have it so, but rather his inability to control the human race.
This is why God’s plan for the human race is not to clean up the devil’s world, rather it is to offer salvation to the unbeliever and knowledge of Bible doctrine to the believer. What make his deceptions so great are the overt similarities that he has with God. Throughout history and prophecy there can be no doubt about the fact that the one thing Satan is after is worship from man. That’s why he said to the Lord Jesus Christ in LUK 4:6 “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” That’s why during the Tribulation period, the man of sin will demand the worship of the people of the earth, or they will pay the penalty of death (REV 13:4; REV 13:8; REV 13:12; REV 14:9-11; REV 19:20).
Remember that the unregenerate and even regenerate humanity are said to be deceived by Satan. Their delusion is both tragic and disgraceful because they don’t have to be deceived. In REV 12:9“And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world;” In REV 20:3 “and threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed {it} over him, so that he should not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed;”
Many religious leaders today have dreams of a transformed, regenerated world as a result of human effort by means of Christian service and Christian values, and this is without foundation according to the Word of God. This is a perfect description of what’s going on today with most churches and with most Christians who are involved with, trying to make the world a better place to live. This is what happens when individuals do not understand the importance of the Rapture position. The Church is not here to help the devil clean up his world. Satan’s deceptions in this area will continue until he is bound and consigned to the Abyss. Who will bind Satan and place him in that prison? It is not the Church or the believer that binds Satan, it is the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is a form of deception which has seized members of the human race so that they have failed to see the uncomplicated teaching of the Bible with respect to the course and end of evil. Evil is cleaning up the devil’s world! HEB 5:12-14, For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.
The form of deception that Satan uses to blind believers is that of negative volition toward doctrine. So when God declares, as he does throughout the Bible, that the world is to continue with increasing deception and to continue to live in the lie until it is crushed by the infinite power of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is little ground for any attempts to save the world or to transform it. That’s exactly what those who reject the doctrine of the Rapture are trying to do, clean up, save and transform the world. It’s an amazing principle when you think of it! Here is this world that abuses people, misuses them, takes advantage of them and yet people invest all of their time in trying to make it better! The point is that most Christians are involved with movements and programs to try and make this world a better place to live. If you try to point out the danger, you are considered to be a heretic and even evil. When in reality, these apostate believers are so influenced by evil that they cannot even see their very own deception. As Isaiah said in chapter 5 verse 20 they call evil good and good evil. ISA 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Christians should not be involved in the attempted rescue of that which God has doomed to destruction which is this world system. This world system is by its’ very nature anti-God. Again this is a perfect description of what’s going on in Christianity today. God has doomed this world, under its present leader Satan to destruction, and yet so many believers are working overtime to try and preserve the world that God has doomed. They are forgetting of course the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ controls history. Think of it, here is this world that the Bible describes as anti-god, and here are all these Christians sidetracked, minus doctrine, trying to clean up the devils world. One of the greatest delusions Satan imposes is the supposition that only such things as society considers evil could originate with the devil, if indeed there is a devil at all to originate anything. Actually it is the Word of God which reveals the fact that governments, morals, education, art, commercialism, vast enterprises and organizations, and much of religious activity are all a part of the deception of Satan. Satan even uses all the good which he can in the world to try and accomplish his goal which is to be equal with God.
What are the things he aims to accomplish?
He aims to be like the most high! That is why the presence of evil in the world is not due to Satan’s intention to have it so but the fact that Satan’s ambition has led him to undertake more than any creature could ever handle. The Bible teaches that the world system must be destroyed, not its evil alone, but all that is in it, both good and bad. God will include nothing of Satan’s failure into that kingdom which He will set up in the earth. All the programs out today, whether Christian or non-Christian will be rejected when the Lord comes back to set up His kingdom. So the Satanic lie is expanded to the point where its manifestation embraces all that is in the world and it is built on the one original idea which characterizes it all, namely, independence of God. One thing that Satan promotes is independence from God. He is the father of creature credit! Today scores of believers are involved with trying to clean up the world and make it presentable for the Lord, when in reality they are helping the super creature genius, Satan! Those of the world system are not influenced by God’s word. Even cosmic Christians are not influenced by Bible doctrine. This reveals the far-reaching effect of the Satanic deception.
There you have the reason why many things that Christians are involved with are classified as evil. They are not dedicated to doctrine. They are not accurate in their doctrine. They are not interested in doctrine. They are too busy cleaning up the devils world. Too busy getting prayer back into schools. Too busy because they are involved in politics! Too busy blowing up abortion clinics. Too busy trying to make the world a better place to live. Too busy sticking their nose into other people’s business. In a priest or client nation to God, there exist all the concepts of freedom, including privacy, the sacredness of property and life, free enterprise, and little government with big people. Yet evangelicals today want to pass laws which would, in effect, make all unbelievers outlaws. Under freedom, people have the right to believe in Christ, to be evangelized, and to say no or yes to the Gospel. People’s rights must be protected whether we agree with them or not. Furthermore, believers in a client nation should be free to find their right pastor and learn the details of the PPOG from him, and as a result, to have a fantastic historical invisible impact. In any client nation there are both believers and unbelievers, as well as many other religions besides Christianity. There is no such thing as so-called Christian laws. The standards for Christianity are found only in the PPOG and in our portfolio of invisible assets.
Therefore, we have no right to interfere in the lives of others and dictate what they should wear, how they should think, or what they should say. The impact of Christianity is found only in evangelism, yet few believers understand Salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Therefore, to outlaw a certain segment of society because they do not adhere to Christian principles is a disaster. To force a superficial theory of Christianity on all people becomes tantamount to tyranny. We have the right to our opinions, but so do other believers and others who are involved in cults and religions. People have the right to believe what they want to believe. We have no right to persecute or imprison such people. The Bible clearly emphasizes that the impact of Christianity on a nation is definitely spiritual. Christians have civil responsibility in military service, paying taxes, and in fulfilling certain civic responsibilities. This does not include violence, destruction of property, intrusion on the privacy of anyone, or any form of civil disobedience.
Yet Christian leaders in evangelicalism today are advocating civil disobedience. The separation of Church and state demands that the believer understand his role in society in terms of the will, plan, and purpose of God for the Church-age believer as a member of the Royal Family of God
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Robert McLaughlin