Will He?

 "But when the Son of Man returns, how many will He find on earth who have faith?" Luke 18:8...."Christ is not coming back for a defeated, whining, moaning, broken, and divided church, but a glorious and overcoming one." Samuel Rodriguez

What kind of faith do you think Jesus was speaking of in Luke 18:8? Do you think he meant the kind of weak-kneed, compromising, lukewarm type that we so much of in the contemporary church? Is such "faith" really faith at all? Have we deceived ourselves into thinking that it is?

There are a number of different strains of theological thought as to what conditions will be prevailing in and around the church when Christ does return, as the Bible clearly states that He will. All of their proponents believe they can find sufficient Scriptural evidence to support these views. It's not my purpose here to debate any of them, or even express my personal belief, other than to say that I am looking for His return, as His Word instructs, and that I believe that the faith He expects to see in His church bears no resemblance to that mentioned above. How could He? Why would He? No, I believe that when He returns, He will find His people living a strong, vibrant, overcoming faith. The question for each of us is, will He find it in us?

Jesus said that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church. Too many of us have adopted a view that is opposite to that. The church is to be assaulting the strongholds of hell and the devil, and these are found everywhere in our culture. The foundation of all of them is built upon lies. Lies that originate with the Father of Lies, Satan. We are not to passively hole up in our church buildings and try to keep the enemy out. We're to engage him wherever he's found. We do it by speaking His truth in love. We deconstruct the foundation of lies. We do it by refusing to be silenced, though he is working mightily to do just that at this very moment. We don't attack the people through whom he works, and who have been deceived. We come against, in Holy Spirit power, the demonic strongholds he's established. The kind of milktoast faith described above will never be up to the battle. Will we be up to that battle?

Our culture has fallen to its present state mainly because the church has failed to be the church as commanded by Christ. We have not been one in Christ. We've been so wrapped up in bickering about our differences, telling each other that we're the ones who are closest to Him. I personally embrace a Wesleyan-Arminian theology and view of Scripture. This will cause some real difference in interpretation with my Calvinist brothers. Yet none of these differences will cause them to cease to be my brothers. Too many of us act as if it does. I also would differ from my Charismatic and Pentecostal brethren as to how they believe what the fullness of His Spirit entails, but again, none of the difference causes them to cease to be my brethren. We are one in Christ, but our petty arguments have tarnished our witness and weakened our presence in the culture. We need to repent of this, and come together as His triumphant people, and pull down the enemy's strongholds. The time for it is now. We've already wasted too much time. The enemy grew stronger, and bolder, while we grew weaker and more timid.

I don't know if His return will be tomorrow or a thousand years from now. What I do sense and know is that He is calling His church to leave our comfortable "faith" and begin to live a radical one, which only seems radical to us because we've lived such a comfortable one. I want to live in such faith, always looking for His sure return, and always speaking and living His truth, even when the world seeks to silence me. Especially when it seeks to silence me. To silence us. This is the faith He expects to find. It is the only faith that will stand in the testing that is upon us and will likely grow more severe. Will He find such faith in you? In me? In us?

Blessings,

Pastor O