God’s first New Covenant church-wide call to turn away from heathenism and to Him came in the early 1700’s. Sending forth His Holy Spirit to touch the hearts of professing Christians, He moved on both soul and spirit in an effort to turn the church from her hell-bound way and toward the Kingdom of God. For His efforts He received the same response as was demonstrated by ancient Israel, the difference being that Israel knew and professed the truth. With the exception of God’s tiny remnant, by the 1700’s the Institutional Church had rejected the Scriptures and the God Who wrote them. Having been led astray by Satan’s false prophets sent out to scratch professing Christendom’s various ear itches, God, in His grace, called out to them to learn of Him, believe Him and embrace Him. Having abandoned His Word, those who heard His awakening call had only heathenism as the basis from which to answer His call. Knowing only Satan’s principles, doctrines and customs which they believed to be God’s Truth, church people responded with zeal. Having rejected God’s Truth and forced to operate from their foundation of false truth, the only place to go was into more false truth. Churches filled, baptisms increased, etc. In other words, the people got religion. Unfortunately, it was man’s religion consisting of more of Satan’s theology. Contrary to God’s command that the church go to His Word to find His Truth, then believe and obey it, the church simply consumed more of Satan’s truth and called it a God-sent awakening. Religious zeal ruled the day. Revivals broke out, people got baptized and rebaptized. Men and women “surrendered to the ministry” in record numbers. All heaven broke out–temporarily. As was the case with the Israelites, business as usual is Satan’s business. In the aftermath of the Great Awakening, God was once again pronounced persona non grata. Then, as now, the God of the Bible is nowhere to be found in professing Christendom.

The next Great Awakening in America took place in the early 1800’s and spread mostly throughout the Western states. Predictably, the people emulated their progenitors by refusing to consult God’s Word and simply dug deeper into church theology, got religion, caught fire, then died. Business as usual once again ruled the day. Other movements have been experienced by professing Christendom as God put forth His call to come to him. Other parts of the world, Indonesia for example, have heard the call of God, resulting in the same outcome.

In the 1970’s God sent His Holy Spirit into the church system with more power than ever before, resulting in what was called the Charismatic Movement which was characterized by healing, deliverance and other manifestations of the Spirit of God. I was a part of that movement and continue to be. But unlike my compatriots of that day, I have answered God’s call to “Come up hither.” See the posting by that name. As a result of the church’s failure to return to the Scriptures, believe and obey them, the Charismatic Movement eventually died out.

More recently God sent forth another call to the Institutional Church. This time Satan channeled the zeal that resulted into what today is known as the “Social Gospel.” The emphasis generated by this movement does not emphasize God, His Word and His Kingdom of God message, but rather on public service. Public service is good. However, it is not the church’s job to render it. As was Scripturally proven in the posting titled Church Generosity, the only job God assigned to the church was to live His Truth and spread it. Religious man, finding himself without God, must do something to justify his self-designation as “Christian.” Neither believing nor obeying God’s Word, the Social Gospel, performed in the name of the very Lord against Whom he has rebelled, has provided churchman with “proof” of his close relationship with the Author of the world’s most purchased and least believed Book.

I recently heard of an interdenominational group that has come together for the purpose of praying down another Great Awakening from God. They will succeed. The next posting contains my personal projection based on a combination of Bible prophecy, current societal events and church apostasy. To be continued. L.J.