Tuesday, May 31, 2011

THE GREAT MULTITUDE

Many Christians will not believe in a time of the Great Tribulation that will occur, setting the stage for Christ Second Coming. Revelation 7:9-17 mention the "Great Multitude" of people coming out of the Great Tribulation and will not have to undergo the Day of the Lord - the latter is a one year period of God's Judgment upon the earth. The use of future tenses will and shall in these verses indicate that the conversion of this Great Multitude happens only at Christ's Return. The Great Multitude came out of the Great Tribulation are not sealed with the Holy Spirit (as no mention of such), unlike the 144,000 who are sealed with the Holy Spirit which is specifically mention (Rev 7:4).

In Scriptures, the multitude refers to people of all nationality, race and tongue as can be seen in Exodus 12:38. There is no doubt that this refers to a large group of people all all segments of society and could number in the millions, ten of millions or more. The Lord Christ was very specific in His commandments to His first disciples to 'make disciples of all nations' (Matthew 28: 19-20), not just believers who believe that He is the Son of God Who died for their sins. Disciples are more than just believers as disciples are expected to live out Christ's words and commandments in every facet of their lives.

The 'Great Multitude' refers to in Revelations 7:9 are Christian believers and non-believers living at the time of the Great Tribulation from all corners of the globe, but they do not make the grade as disciples of Christ as they fall short of God's standard. They do not have the Spirit of God indwelling within them (no mention of having being sealed) but they repented during the Great Tribulation (time of Satan's wrath) and hence will not have to undergo the one year period of God's Judgment known as the Day of the Lord. The Great Multitude will be protected from the plagues set to unleash upon earth during the time of God's Judgment. The future tenses of will and shall indicate that their conversion is completed only at Christ's Return.

The number is inumerable as the exact figure of people that falls within this group has yet to be determined, kind of fluctuating as more people truly repented and experience true conversion while some have fallen away. This will intensity as the time of Christ's Return draws near. What this means is that some will be added to the list and some will drop out of salvation. Clearly, this shows that the doctrine of once save always saved cannot hold water.

When Christ returns, the resurrected saints will be born again as immortal spirit beings to rule and reign with Christ as the King of kings. But there will also be human beings who survived the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord moving into the Millennial Kingdom. The Great Multitude of people who have just being converted will serve under the sons of God as lords, with Christ as the Lord of lords. They will form part of the structure of human government of each nation on earth under the Family of God, which consist of Christ and the born again sons of God.

It is worthy to note that during the two-and-half year of the Great Tribulation, the Two Witnesses (Rev 11:3) sent by God will have warned the nations to repent to escape the coming Judgment of God. Those who understand Bible prophecies but have not believed and obeyed will repent in time to be part of the Great Multitude. Before the onset of the Great Tribulation, many Christians have been overwhelmed by  'the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful' (Mark 4:19). Sadly, only in adversity will people repent and turn to the true God for help and salvation.
















Thursday, May 5, 2011

THE ROOTS OF DECEPTION

From the time of Christ and His first Apostles, the true Gospel and all the accompanied truth from the Holy Scriptures were preached to faithful men and women who kept them by handing the truth down through the centuries. But it wasn't easy as detractors fought tooth and nail to destroy the truth as warned by many of the early Apostles in Scriptures. After the close of the first century A.D. with the passing of the Apostle John, things took a turn for the worse. Polycarp, a trusted disciple of John had to fight to defend the true faith.

At the Mount of Olives, Jesus Christ revealed to His disciples the key events to come that will usher His Second Coming recorded in Matthew 24. The books of Daniel and Revelation record corollary accounts of events leading to Christ's return. He prophesied that deceived preachers will preach about Him (Matthew 24:5) rather than His message commissioned by God the Father (Luke 4:43) on the coming kingdom of God. The Apostle warned of this in 2 Corinthians 11: 3-4. Many have turned the Gospel of Christ into a Gospel about Christ (Galatians 1: 6-9).

According to church history, all these falsehood and lies have their roots from Simon Magus, the sorcerer recorded in Acts 8. In A.D.45, Simon founded a competing church in Rome using a mix of Babylonian pagan practices with distorted Christian principles to destroy the true church of God that denied him an apostleship. His ultimate goal was domination of the  world religion and government. The Roman emperor Constantine the Great saw Simon's brand of Christianity as a unifying force for all the squabbling peoples of Europe and proceeded to legitimize the Universal or Catholic Church.

The Universal church, with its new found status from the backing of the Roman emperor began to grow in power and stature. The true church of God became its target for martyrdom. It cast aside the Bible as insufficient and introduced extra biblical doctrines and practices, often a mixture of paganism sourced from Babylon. Such persecutions against the true church of God are prophesied in Revelation 2: 8-29; 12:6, 13, 17; Daniel 7: 23-25, where Rev 12:6 prophesied the period of 1,260 years from A.D. 325 beginning with the Council of Nicaea and ending in A.D. 1585 when Catholic dominance in England ended. Verse 13 of chapter 12 speaks of Satan's attempt to crush the true church of God and the worse that is yet to come during the Great Tribulation (verse 17).

Many left the land of their birth to escape persecution. Among the faithful are God's people known as the Lollards, Paulicians and Waldenses, to name just a few. A wealthy French merchant named Peter Waldo was converted to the true faith and began to preach the kingdom of God as taught by Jesus Christ to His close disciples. The Catholic Inquisition led by Pope Innocent 111 condemned many true church members to martyrdom by burning them alive in 1211, with 80 of Waldo's followers died at the stakes.

The Catholic church forbid the reading of Bible by laymen and made it a crime punishable by death and also made illegal the translation of the Bible into the vernacular for the common folks. After the opening of theological education starting in Oxford and Cambridge, more scholars realised  that the Catholic teachings did not harmonise with the Holy Bible.

Scholars like William Tyndale made great efforts and sacrifices to produce the Bible in the English language. His life was often in danger with threats coming from the Universal church. By the time the King James version came on the scene in 1611 with King James 1 on the throne, Europe had endured two centuries of bloody war over the translation of the Bible. But the harm of heretical teachings among the early church had infiltrated in all quarters of church life save a small remnant belonging to those who are members of the true church of God.

Many had died to give Christians the privilege to read and study the Bible in the English language. However, many are unaware that the interpretation of the Bible had been distorted through centuries of wrong indoctrination from the Universal church. In Revelation 6:2, the Bible warns us of the emergence and spread of a false faith branded in Christianity. Such deception was and still is perpetrated through a mixture of paganistic practices and unbiblical doctrines and humanistic traditions with its origin from Babylon. As warned by Christ and the New Testament writers, the deception started right after Christ's ascension to heaven and the founding of the New Testament Church.