The Institute for Creation Research devotional article “The Writing of God” (www.icr.org/articles/print/15424) draws the contrast from the Scriptures between the personal writing of God on stone tablets in Exodus 32:16 in the Old Testament to the writing of God by the Spirit on tables of flesh in the believer’s heart (2 Corinthians 3:3, Hebrews 10:16) under the New Covenant. Paul calls such ones epistles of Christ whom can be known and read by all persons (2 Cor 3:2). Coupled with this is the anointing of the Spirit in each believer that enables him/her to discern and understand the spiritual truths of God, as stated by John, “But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie–just as it has taught you…” (1 John 2:27). In combination of these two–the divine law written on the heart and the anointing of the Spirit within the believer to bring understanding of divine truths–believers experience a consonance in their hearts with the teachings of the Bible that they would not otherwise have and in consequence become living testimonies of God to the world as they walk this out in every day life.

November 4, 2024 post. Taken from the Hope 100.7 Blogs page at https://myhope1007.com/how-to-pray-for-our-government-leaders/#:~:text=How%20To%20Pray%20For%20Our%20Government%20Leaders.

God sent a letter to His people when they had just lost. Because of the Jews’ idolatry and sin, God allowed Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler of Babylon, to destroy Jerusalem and carry most of the people captive back to Babylon. God told them that they were going to remain in Babylon for seventy years, but if they pray to Him and seek Him, He will hear, and they will find Him. He told them He has a hope and a future for them, and He would bring them back to their land.

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But while God’s people were stuck in a foreign land, God told them to pray for the peace and prosperity of the city where they were held captive, because if it prospers, you too will prosper (Jeremiah 29:7).

Perhaps a more familiar passage is 1 Timothy 2:1-2. There Paul wrote that petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for all people – for kings and all those in authority so that we may live peaceful and quiet lives.

In both the Old and New Testament, we are told that our lives will be better if we pray for the leaders of our government. And in both cases, the government was the enemy. I know I often do not think about praying for our leaders, and it seems an even harder task when you do not like them, but according to the Bible, our peace and prosperity depend on it.

I want to give you a few prayers for leaders to help get you started. Those in government are people just like us, but they often have unique challenges and responsibilities:

• “God, please save them. Many of our leaders do not know you. I may never have the chance to speak to them, God, but You can. Convict them of their sin and bring them to You. Show them Your love so that they may lead out of love and godliness.”
• “God, give our leaders wisdom. I sometimes have a hard time deciding what to wear, but those in government make decisions on behalf of thousands and millions of people. God, the Bible says that wisdom comes from You. Please give them wisdom and the humility to seek the advice of wise people around them.”
• “I pray for their families, God. Many leaders are under so much stress, have very busy schedules, and are away from home for extended periods of time. Their families are of course going to be affected by this. Protect them from those who would physically harm them and keep their families intact and strong.”
• “God, I ask that You enable our leaders to do their jobs and to do them well. Please let them work for our protection and peace. You have said that the government is to punish those who do evil and praise those who do good, so I pray that our leaders pass, enforce, and uphold just laws and provide an environment that allows people to do good and flourish. When government rules well, we can live in peace and open godliness. God, You said that this is pleasing to You because You desire all people to be saved. When Christians can live openly godly lives, loving their neighbors as themselves, more people will be drawn to You.”

And that is what we all want. We want to see our family, our friends, our co-workers, our country turn to God and experience His blessing. Don’t give up if our politics and government look bleak. Ask God to bless and change our leaders and turn our discouragement into praise.

POSTMILLENNIALISM IN THE GOSPELS (3)

Although labeled as Postmillenial material, this series of articles actually lays out the teaching of the kingdom of heaven instituted at Christ’s first advent with comparisons to the eschatology of postmillenialism and dispensationalism. They teach the essential nature and defining characteristics of the kingdom of God for our application today. Click the “Continue reading” link to access the article.

POSTMILLENNIALISM IN THE GOSPELS (1)

Although labeled as Postmillenial material, this series of articles actually lays out the teaching of the kingdom of heaven instituted at Christ’s first advent with comparisons to the eschatology of postmillenialism and dispensationalism. They teach the essential nature and defining characteristics of the kingdom of God for our application today. Click the “Continue reading” link to access the article.

POSTMILLENNIALISM IN THE GOSPELS (2)

Although labeled as Postmillenial material, this series of articles actually lays out the teaching of the kingdom of heaven instituted at Christ’s first advent with comparisons to the eschatology of postmillenialism and dispensationalism. They teach the essential nature and defining characteristics of the kingdom of God for our application today. Click the “Continue reading” link to access the article.

In the article “On Missing Jesus’ Point” (see https://postmillennialworldview.com/2024/05/24/on-missing-jesus-point/) Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr. makes the case that the reductionistic approach to the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 and parallel passages in Mark and Luke by futurists and orthodox preterists serve to miss the hermeneutical mark in mining the meaning of those passages as well as the whole New Testament eschatology. In other words, application of these opposite interpretations to the entire scope of Scriptures by either school is misleading the adherents resulting in erroneous interpretations and systems of doctrine.

The author clears the dilemma up by introducing the preterist-futurist approach to hermeneutics that ensures a genuine interpretation of the intended meaning of bible passages, maintaining the proper contextual setting, especially for eschatological scriptures. This leverages the doctrinal solidity of the “orthodox preterist who theologically remains within the historic Christianity regarding the fundamentals of the faith once for all delivered to the saints,” while balanced by a partial preterist approach that discretionally applies the preterist hermeneutic only when called for by the biblical context. Likewise, this system includes use of a futurist interpretation when the passage of scripture clearly warrants it.

The Olivet Discourse is best-suited for application of this in that Jesus is addressing both the first-century destruction of Jerusalem and His second-coming in answer to his disciple’s two-part question (Matt 24:1, 22). The preterist approach properly addresses the first point (24:36) and the futurist interpretation addresses the second point (chapter 25). In contrast, David Turner is noted to say that “the preterist and futurist views [i.e., separately] are both reductionistic and cannot handle the complexities of the passage that stem from the disciples’ dual question about the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world. A valid approach to the passage must handle both of these matters.”

The article continues with calling attention particularly to the misinterpretations produced by the reductionism of the futurist view of the end-times great tribulation vs. a balanced non-reductionistic viewpoint. This contrast adroitly illuminates the extreme errors stemming from pure futurism that often results in missing Jesus’ point on eschatological passages.

The article “Genesis Proves Postmillenialism” by Kendall Langford (see https://postmillennialworldview.com/2024/04/26/genesis-proves-postmillennialism/) spotlights the Postmillennial eschatology showing that it is solidly rooted in Genesis and that it captures the essence of God’s victorious kingdom building plan throughout the ages during the entire history on earth until the second coming of Christ. It is in fact a unified teaching throughout the entire bible culminating in Christ’s Great Commission of Matthew 28:19, 20 that, through the Gospel, God will literally succeed in conquering and subjecting all nations on earth to the Lordship of Christ, thereby bringing about total transformation and an eventual redemption of mankind through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, and reversal of the Fall from the first Adam. “Central to this perspective is the understanding of what eschatology is. Eschatology is not the poorly written conclusion or the explosive plane crash of an otherwise glorious trip. Eschatology is concerned with how everything that was lost in the first Adam will be restored under the Lordship of the second Adam, Jesus Christ. Eschatology is not the final chapter where everything falls apart; it is the story of how everything comes back together in Jesus. This distinction is crucial. With that in mind, Postmillennialism acknowledges that everything that fell in the first creation will be healed and restored by Jesus in His new creation, the Kingdom. To clarify, we are saying that this New Creation kingdom began when He ascended into heaven and will not be finished until everything is restored when He makes ‘His blessings flow far as the curse is found’ (Joy to the World; Isaac Watts, 1719).” This truth truly glorifies God in Christ with an ultimate vindication of victory over Satan’s ruinous destruction of earth and mankind. This truth can be transformative for the Church today in motivating believers to do the kingdom building work of the Great Commission to have a part in its fulfillment, as opposed to the pessimistic mentality of hunkering down as in a raging storm in waiting for a secret rapture to escape a Satanic catastrophe enveloping the earth that would spell an unthinkable defeat of God’s plan of the ages.

This perspective changes when we see that God’s plan of the ages for His Son is to establish His kingdom throughout the entire earth to restore earth to its original creation as described in Genesis: “To construct a Biblical eschatology, we must begin where the Bible begins. In the first chapter of Genesis, we see God’s plans and purposes for the world. A world made out of nothing. A world constructed without sin. A world in perfect conformity to the will of the Father, such that everything we behold in Genesis 1 pleases Him and is called very good by Him. If there was ever a way to discern the kind of world God would want, we must look no further than the one He made.” The author continues to develop this theme from Genesis establishing the foundational aspects of biblically correct eschatology.

The current wholesale plunge of the world into unfettered rebellion against God and His divine laws is on full display for all to see. For many, these events may beg the question of whether God providentially intervenes in the affairs of nations as He once did as recorded in the Bible. From Genesis 12 on, divine activity in the ancient world from the perspective of the Scriptures was centered on the establishment of God’s redemptive plan, beginning with the promises made to Abraham while sojourning in the land of Canaan and the typologies later given to Israel, which God established as the only theocratic kingdom on earth in its day. References to divine activity with the gentile nations in the world in the biblical narratives of the Old Testament were limited to those of the ancient Near East in the vicinity of Palestine and typically involved Israel in various ways. After the first advent of Christ, the scriptures of the New Testament turned the focus to Christ, His disciples, and the Church, where any mention of the nations of the early first century, aside from Israel, was almost entirely limited to the Roman empire that provided the back drop and stage for the narratives and teachings of the emergence of Christianity. Likewise, the major theme of the book of Revelation involves the Roman empire and its impact on God’s kingdom (Israel and the Church) in the first century. Since that time the spread of the gospel has expanded the boundaries of the Church to nearly all nations of the world. The scope of God’s providential workings and government beyond the New Testament period in history up to the present can be analyzed by historians and bible scholars in hindsight, i.e., it would no longer be confined to the ancient Roman world. For instance, the events of the Reformation are manifestations of Providence writ exceedingly large, that spread throughout Christendom in the 15th and 16th centuries, that has been well documented.

But the answer to how divine providential activity may be perceived to be manifested in modern times, humanly speaking, primarily depends on a person’s theology and the doctrinal beliefs he or she holds. Much is left to interpretation to decide if contemporaneous signs and events reveal aspects of divine activity or involvement in any part of the world and any society outside of the the kingdom of God in the Church. Eschatology can address this issue to a large degree for Christians depending on the doctrinal school, i.e., Premillenial, Amillenial, Postmillenial, etc., that provides a framework that aids in this challenge. The school of eschatology can significantly shape the interpretation of how God is acting in current affairs, and the individual’s outlook of the future, that can vary significantly between the different schools. For instance, the Premillenialist sees that events today are winding up to the advent of the rule of the Anti-Christ, the battle of Armegeddon, the onset of the Great Tribulation, and ultimately the Rapture in our time. The Postmillenialist sees none of those occurring, but that current world events are merely part of the ebb and flow of history directed by God to gradually bring all nations into the discipleship of Christ through the gospel, enfolding all governments into the kingdom of Christ, bringing in the Golden Age of the future, in fulfillment of the Great Commission of Matthew 28. An argument can be made that these are further nuanced by different approaches of interpretation of the book of Revelation, such as literalism, orthodox preterism, historicism, literature genre, idealism, etc. These are the tools often employed by students of the Bible to understand what is going on and where things are headed for humanity and the Church.

In the continuationist camp, there is the school of belief that much of this mystery in deciphering current and future events is actively addressed by God through His provision of the speaking gifts of the charismata in the church body, particularly the gift of prophecy. This school generally encompasses the charismatic and Pentecostal groups. Many in this school hold, not only a continuationist position of spiritual gifts, but that God still communicates directly and regularly to His spokespersons about His providential workings in contemporaneous and future events, along with words of encouragement, edification, exhortation, biblical instruction, and hope (Amos 3:7; Acts 11:27; 21:11; 1 Cor 14:3; 2 Tim 3:16). And, although its eschatology to some degree is emergent, it is normally cast within the framework of the Bible and referenced solidly to the Scriptures—they hold the high view of the Scriptures of the Bible as God’s final, supreme authoritative Word that is above any kind of charismata-based message. This biblical school could challenge the entrenched viewpoints within Christian circles that (a) God no longer gives fresh revelation to His people of His activities and plans for His church and the world in the here and now, (b) God does not act in the current affairs of the world’s empires as He did in the past, (c) God no longer rescues His children from the dangers and threats of their enemies or intervenes during times of trouble, (d) God no longer performs supernatural works for His glory or the furtherance of His kingdom, and (e) even under the present New Covenant, God is NO LONGER THE SAME today as He was in the periods of the Old and New Testaments. In other words, it challenges the prevailing mindset of viewing God in a deistic way in our day, that is, the attitude that God has little involvement, if any, with the daily affairs in the world, of nations, or even of Christians. From the standpoint of the aforementioned charismatic school, such views are unbiblical (Heb 13:8; 2 Cor 1:20).

“It is well for us that, amidst all the variableness of life, there is One whom change cannot affect; One whose heart can never alter, and on whose brow mutability can make no furrows. All things else have changed—all things are changing. The sun itself grows dim with age; the world is waxing old; the folding up of the worn-out vesture has commenced; the heavens and earth must soon pass away; they shall perish, they shall wax old as doth a garment; but there is One who only hath immortality, of whose years there is no end, and in whose person there is no change. The delight which the mariner feels, when, after having been tossed about for many a day, he steps again upon the solid shore, is the satisfaction of a Christian when, amidst all the changes of this troublous life, he rests the foot of his faith upon this truth—“I am the Lord, I change not.”
The stability which the anchor gives the ship when it has at last obtained a hold-fast, is like that which the Christian’s hope affords him when it fixes itself upon this glorious truth. With God “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Whatever his attributes were of old, they are now; his power, his wisdom, his justice, his truth, are alike unchanged. He has ever been the refuge of his people, their stronghold in the day of trouble, and he is their sure Helper still. He is unchanged in his love. He has loved his people with “an everlasting love”; he loves them now as much as ever he did, and when all earthly things shall have melted in the last conflagration, his love will still wear the dew of its youth. Precious is the assurance that he changes not! The wheel of providence revolves, but its axle is eternal love.
“Death and change are busy ever, Man decays, and ages move; But his mercy waneth never; God is wisdom, God is love.” -Christian Sermon Classics: Morning and Evening (Morning, November 2) by Charles Spurgeon

“God’s people have ‘by faith conquered kingdoms and performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions … became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight’ (Heb. 11:33-34). But you say, ‘That was under the Old Covenant.’ Yes, that’s true. But don’t we have a better covenant, with a better High Priest, and better promises? (Heb. 7:22, 8:6). We should at least expect God to do for His people under the New Covenant what He did for His elect under the Old Covenant. If God poured out blessings for His elect under the Old Covenant, why should we expect anything less under the New and Better Covenant? But we know that God is doing far more for His New Covenant people. God is ‘able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us…’” –Something Greater is Here by Gary DeMar (pg. 4)

On the one hand, there seems to be unbelief, blindness or lack of awareness of the active providence of God in the world today, including in the affairs of nations. This has penetrated the thinking of many in the Church as a virtual or practical deism or even anti-supernaturalism. On the other hand there is a dismal outlook on world events and the Church where Providence is seen to be actively fomenting a catastrophe over the whole earth and bringing certain peril and destruction upon the Church at large with little hope other than a so-called rapture to escape from the world and its dangers. Together these views, having infiltrated evangelical Christianity, have paralyzed the Church from achieving its Great Commission mandate in our time. It has resulted in the Church stalling in its efforts to regain the dominion mandate over the earth and from being used as an instrument of Christ, its Head, to crush Satan under His feet.

In contrast, within the aforementioned school, the present-day message of God is now warning His people to quit compromising with the world, wallowing in unbelief, and watering down or neutering His Word in the Bible, but to turn back whole-heartedly to Christ, because a great shaking is underway and reaching a climax to destroy the current evil world empires and bring in the days of the restoration (Acts 3:19) and establishment of the kingdom of Christ on earth in its fulness. This will manifest in great progress toward the fulfillment of the Messianic eschatological prophecies in the Psalms, Daniel, Isaiah, Joel, etc., including the Gospels’ parables, of the establishment of the kingdom of God through Christ over the entire world that crushes and removes the present kingdoms (Dan. 2:34f). The overspreading of Christ’s worldwide kingdom will be accompanied by a tremendous outpouring of the Spirit in revivals that sweep across nations worldwide as multitudes convert to Christ and stream into the churches, overfilling them as never before. But many of those who are not for Christ will be swept away with the wicked in judgement in these days.

As stated previously, this is from the standpoint of the continuationist school that addresses the problem of the interpretation of Providence at work on the world scene through the ministry of the charismata of the Holy Spirit in combination with eschatological doctrine. Note that it must be understood by the reader there is no connection implied with the New Apostolic Reformation movement.

In the online article “LITERALISM AND MESSIAH’S REJECTION” (see https://postmillennialworldview.com/2024/04/12/literalism-and-messiahs-rejection/) Dr. Kenneth Gentry documents from the New Testament how the mainstream culture in Israel during the days of Jesus’s ministry always interpreted His statements literally when He was often speaking metaphorically or in spiritual terms. This was a significant factor leading to their rejection and crucifixion of Him. This disproves the validity of literalism as a reliable hermeneutical method that is touted by dispensationalists. Instead, literalism is a handicap for interpreting the scriptures. Check this out for yourself in this article published on the Postmillennial Worldview website.

For many in Evangelicalism today, the saving work of Christ has been so distanced from his person that the notion of a saving personal union with the incarnate, crucified, resurrected, living Jesus strikes us as rather outlandish.
— Read on www.crossway.org/articles/could-you-be-emphasizing-the-saving-work-of-christ-too-much/

The balance to the message of the Gospel is in Paul’s statement in Cols 1:27, “27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” This theme is an expansion within Colossians of Christ’s root teaching of abiding in Him as the true vine (John 15), and His prayer for His personal indwelling of the believer (John 17:20-23), through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (John 14:16f). These are essential truths that must see a revival within the church today.