by William P. Welty, Ph.D.
John must have been
puzzled. Exiled to the lonely island of Patmos, he has just begun to receive
what will become known as the most elevated vision of things to come given to
any person in the history of planet earth.
The vision begins with a
resurrected, immortal Jesus of Nazareth dictating seven letters for delivery to
the pastors of seven churches that existed during the latter half of the first
century. With eyes of flames, like fire and feet like bronze that glows in a
furnace, the God-man—who once was dead and now is alive forevermore—is ill.
Call the dictated letter
eschatological symbolism if you will. Label it literary allegory. Or classify
it as apocalyptic literature influenced by Jewish visions of the end of the
world from the time between the Old and New Testaments. You can even think of
the story as mere literary license.
It really doesn’t matter
what name we use to describe the event, because the reality of the letter to
the church of Laodicea is that Jesus is sick of lukewarm Christianity. He is
about to vomit, writes the Apostle John in Revelation 3:14-17 (ISV v2.0):
To the messenger of the
church in Laodicea, write: The Amen, the witness who is faithful and true, the
originator of God’s creation, says this: I know your actions, that you are
neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. Since you are lukewarm and
neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth. You say, “I am
rich. I have become wealthy. I don’t need anything.” Yet you don’t realize that
you are miserable, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.
Bluntly speaking, Jesus of
Nazareth is sick of useless Christian lifestyles. But he doesn’t leave the
Laodicean pastor with-out a solution to the problem:
Therefore, I advise you to
buy from me gold purified in fire so you may be rich, white clothes to wear so
your shameful nakedness won’t show, and ointment to put on your eyes so you may
see.
I correct and discipline
those whom I love, so be serious and repent! Look! I am standing at the door
and knocking. If anyone listens to my voice and opens the door, I will come in
to him and eat with him, and he will eat with me.
To the one who conquers
[overcomes] I will give a place to sit with me, on my throne, just as I have
conquered [overcome] and have sat down with my Father on his throne.
Let everyone listen to
what the Spirit says to the churches. Revelation 3:18-22 (ISV
v2.0)
The United States of
America and the world in which it exists, is entering the most terrifying time
in history. The economies of virtually every nation on earth are collapsing.
Unwise American
politicians are creating dollars out of thin air, voting into existence more
than a trillion dollars merely by agreeing to loan them to businesses that
would otherwise have been reorganized through the discipline of the bankruptcy
courts and free enterprise business realities.
Meanwhile, the whole
Western world that only six months ago was saying, “I am rich. I have become
wealthy. I don’t need anything,” is now about to find out from personal
experience what it will mean to hear the third horseman of the Apocalypse cry
out, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, or three quarts of barley for a
denarius” (Revelation 6:6, ISV v2.0).
All of this trouble has
been allowed by a God who loves us and who corrects and disciplines those whom
He loves. And that’s why Chuck and Nancy Missler’s new book, The Kingdom, Power
and Glory, is going to be your road map through the times of trouble that are
about to refine God’s children and judge all of God’s enemies. God’s people
need to read this book, from cover to cover. And then read it again. And tell
all of their friends, family, and acquaintances about what is contained
therein, for the time is at hand.
The counsel contained in
this remarkable volume, will explain what the life of faith is intended by its
Author to lead to, which is divinely ordered preparation for rulership in the
coming Kingdom. For those who are in the midst of that certain and inevitable
God-ordained discomfort called adversity, The Kingdom, Power and Glory is just
what you’ll need to make sense out of a world turned upside down.
With respect to Christ’s
call to embrace our God-ordained adversity as a means to be trained on how to
rule for eternity, may all of the readers of The Kingdom, Power and Glory learn
to be firmly entrenched “overcomers” who have no need of exhortation. May we
not be the cowardly ones who bury their talents in the ground, wrongly
convinced that the God whom we serve reaps where He doesn’t sow.
Meanwhile, the ancient
words of a centuries-old poem haunt me. They’re carved in a gothic, medieval
alphabet on a towering, ornate cathedral door right in the heart of a small
town in Germany. From the looks of that door, the words carved therein date
back to the days of Martin Luther. For all I know, Dr. Luther read them one
day, and maybe the message contained in that poem started him on his spiritual
journey that eventually led him to reform, first his own life, and then the
Church of 16th-century Germany. Translated into modern English, the words take
the form of a frightening poem. No. Surely I misspoke. It’s a terrifying poem.
Here is what the poem says:
You call me eternal, then do not seek me.
You call me fair, then do not love me.
You call me gracious, then do not trust me.
You call me just, then do not fear me.
You call me life, then do not choose me.
You call me light, then do not see me.
You call me Lord, then do not respect me.
You call me Master, then do not obey me.
You call me merciful, then do not thank me.
You call me mighty, then do not honor me.
You call me noble, then do not serve me.
You call me rich, then do not ask me.
You call me Savior, then do not praise me.
You call me shepherd, then do not follow me.
You call me Way, then do not walk with me.
You call me wise, then do not heed me.
You call me Son of God, then do not worship me.
When I [sentence] you, then do not blame me.
May all of the readers of
Chuck and Nancy Missler’s The Kingdom, Power and Glory heed the warnings of
this poem, embracing that necessary virtue we call spiritual bankruptcy, which
is that certain, mandatory, and abject condition of total poverty of spirit and
soul that marks the beginning of true Christian maturity and fitness for
service in eternity.
May we all allow God to carry
us on to maturity and fitness for ruling as kings and queens in the coming
Kingdom as we rightly respond to the circumstances and adversities of this
present life.
For I reckon that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory,
which shall be revealed in us. Romans 8:18 (ISV)
[The above Foreword to The Kingdom, Power &
Glory book was written by William P. Welty, Ph.D., Executive Director of The
ISV Foundation, translators of the Holy Bible: International Standard Version.]
