PRO:Is God preparing His true Church for the Great Tribulation?  by Bill Bennett

   In 2 Timothy chapter 3, Paul warns Timothy (and us) that "in the
last days difficult times will come." (verse 1)

   "For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money..." (Jim Bakker??)
And the list goes on, "...boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to
parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious
gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous,
reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather lovers of God; holding
to a form of godliness (or religion), although they have denied its
power; and AVOID SUCH MEN AS THESE." 2 Timothy 3:2-5.

   They have a form of religion, but look at how they really are!
"lovers of money...unholy...irreconcilable...without self-control...
lovers of pleasure" - PTL ought to stand for People That Lust.

   Is there such a thing as real Spiritual power today? YES! It is not
found in wealth, numbers of followers, large expanses of land and
buildings or so-called Gifts of the Spirit. To find a Scriptural
demonstration of real Spiritual power, unseen in America today, look at
Acts 2:36-41. 3000 souls converted to Jesus Christ and added to the
Church in one day. These were not FBI conversions (takes the FBI to
find them the next weekend), these people were "continually devoting
themselves to the Apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking
of bread and prayer" (vs. 42).

   This TRUE Spiritual power was manifest in Peter's courageous
preaching of the resurrection of Jesus Christ - not this "give and it
will be given unto you, or God wants you healed" that we hear so much
today. Courage to stand up and speak the truth, from a quivering coward
that once denied his Lord.

   Courage to go the temple during the hour of prayer (Acts 3) and in
front of multitudes of enemies (Acts 4:1-3) preach the resurrection of
Jesus Christ and of the dead.

   Only a handful of people will openly preach the Gospel or take the
Gospel to the people today. Most of these "great spiritual leaders"
that have made a "name" for themselves preach to their OWN audience.

   Repentance of sin that causes agnostics and atheists to fall on
their knees before God and cry out for forgiveness, upon hearing the
death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:22-36).
Repentance from religious rituals and traditions to trust in Jesus
Christ for the forgiveness of sins.

   If Peter, Paul and John were alive today, I'm sure we'd have some
nut try to market their healing ability. Every time I see a healing in
the Book of Acts, I see Jesus Christ proclaimed. Peter and John
actually had the nerve to heal a man that had no intention of being
healed. He did not crawl down an aisle, beg for healing, pray all night
and be anointed with oil. He poor guy was begging for money and
expecting money - Peter actually had to get his attention! (Acts 3:1-8)
Peter knowing that inspite of all the healings, people were going to
hell just as fast as before they were healed.

   Peter upon getting everybody's attention did not ask them to step
forward to be healed, or speak in tongues. Peter Preached the death,
burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The priests and the captain of
the temple guard and the Sadducees promptly laid hands on them and
threw them in jail. I have never heard of preachers being thrown in
jail for healing the lame or speaking in tongues. But I have heard of
preachers being locked up for preaching the death, burial &
resurrection of Jesus Christ in public! As a matter of fact, I'd be
willing to guess that not one pastor in the Soviet prisons is there
because he was a traveling "healer". In Russia they lock you up just
for mentioning the name of Jesus in a good light. In America, they just
take His name in vain.

   Maybe God is getting sick of the soft-gospel of health, wealth and
materialism. Maybe God is weeding the liberals out of His church. Maybe
God has decided to purify for Himself a bride for the wedding supper of
the Lamb. When all these liberals have finally fallen, maybe just
old-fashion Gospel preachers will be left for the world to persecute.
Maybe when the unsaved world begins to see God severely judging those
that CLAIM to be Christians, they'll begin to fear the God of the
Bible. Maybe then, "Every knee shall bow" and give Glory to Jesus
Christ (Romans 14:11 & Philippians 2:10).

   Jim Bakker - Gordon MacDonald - Gary Hart - Jimmy Swaggart.....
Their sins were exposed.

   Will God have to do the same thing to each one of us? Or will we
quickly realize that we're NEXT, and do as 1 John 1:9 suggests?

   Bill Bennett

   This article originated on The Salvation Online Network
