Against the Gates of Hell

There is a great future for the Body of Christ. Before the Lord gave Habakkuk a vision of the glorious Second Advent He told the prophet, “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it. . .” Habakkuk 2:3. As a fellowship, we too, have been given a vision. There is a future for this people. Sometimes it seems like we have waited a long time, and that promised future has not yet happened. But even though the vision tarries, “wait for it!” The vision will yet come to pass.

In the three prior issues of this newsletter, we have used this series to establish the church as the Body of Christ, the church as a counter-culture institution, and the healing of the Body. In this final installment, we look into the scriptures to see the glorious future of the Body of Christ.

God called Brother William Sowders to keep a people outside of Babylon and to build a fellowship that is based on charity, rather that politics, family loyalty, prestige, position, etc. I believe that the work which came from the fellowship of Brother Sowders is the Body of Christ. It has been wounded, battered, bruised, divided, splintered and frail – yet it is still God’s people and God’s work.

And God is going to heal this work. The greatest days of this fellowship did not occur in the days of Elco and Olmstead; we did not reach our zenith in the 1940s or 50s; the greatest days are yet future. Jesus built a church that is to go up against the gates of hell. Matthew 16:18.

The “gates of hell” that Jesus referred to probably is Babylonish preachers, or He could have been referring to death and the grave. It doesn’t matter for our purposes here, the important point is that they will not prevail over the church.

We may get weary of waiting for the fulfillment of the vision of great men who are no longer alive, but though the vision tarry, wait for it. For it will come to pass. This is no time to look for another vision. The vision we have been given is of the Lord.

But, if we are not diligent, our vision can become sealed. Isaiah 29:11-12. If we lose the vision, we will perish. Proverbs 29:18. We might exist as an institution, but we will perish as the Body of Christ. So we should write the vision. Make it plain for all to see. Keep it alive. Habakkuk 2:2.

All prophecy is fulfilled in time, in accord with the plan of God. And there are some glorious prophecies about the future of the church. One of those is Revelation 11:3-12, which speaks of two witnesses – clothed in sackcloth. These represent a people with the Old and New Testament message, law and grace. The Lord will give power to that people. They will smite the earth with plagues, bringing the judgments of the end of Gentile times. Then persecution will arise, and the Body of Christ will witness, then be slain by the eighth head of the beast.

But it will get better before it gets worse! The church will be given “power.” Revelation 11:3. That word is not in the original Greek, but was supplied by the translators. Actually, the Lord said that He would give to His two witnesses, and they would prophesy. He will give them . . . whatever is necessary for them to fulfill their mission. He will give them power, great grace, boldness, words to speak, and all things necessary for the work to be done.

In Acts 4:33, we are told that the early church had “great power” to witness and “great grace.” The Greek word for “great” in Acts 4:33 is “megas.” That is a term that modern young people can relate to. In the modern vernacular, the church had “mega-power” and “mega-grace.” That is what the Body of Christ needs today, and it will be given in God’s time.

We are familiar with the story of Elijah and his servant. The man of God sent his servant out seven times to look, and finally he saw a small cloud rise up from the sea. I Kings 18:41-46. The cloud that rose up was like a man’s hand; and that hand was a type of a five-fold ministry. We look forward to God’s hand arising out of the sea once again. Paul said there would be a glorious church in Ephesians 5:25-27. There will be showers of blessings in what we have called the latter rain.

But note in I Kings 18:41 that Elijah prophesied an abundance of rain before there was a single cloud in the sky. Today is the day that we should be prophesying an abundance of rain.

We must recognize where we are today, and where we are going as a people. This is the 21st century. We cannot be a 20th century people. Where is God working today, and what is He doing? How is He leading? What should we do now?

In I Chonicles.12:32, the men of Issachar understood the times, and knew what Israel ought to do. Do we know what time it is? Do we know what Israel ought to do? Paul said in Romans 13:11-14 that the church in Rome knew the time – do we? He told another church that of times and seasons, Paul did not need to write. I Thessalonians 5:1. (Or maybe he did. II Thessalonians 2 had to explain the times and seasons to that church.)

Do we need someone to explain the times and seasons to us? Do we know where we stand? What season is it? Ecclesiastes 3:1: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.”

Our fellowship was busy working for God in the 20th century. But the Sowderite movement was not center-stage in that century. It was not prominent; it did not have an impact on the world at large. God was working with a people on the backside of the desert, preparing them for a future. That future is nearly here.

The two great movements of the 20th century, from God’s point of view, and on the great stage of world attention, were Zionism and Pentecostalism.

Zionism brought God’s people back to their own land, the land God had promised to Abraham. World War I produced the Balfour Declaration, and World War II produced the holocaust that led to the establishment of the nation of Israel. This was a fulfillment of many Bible prophecies.

Pentecostalism burst on the scene to restore and bring a measure of acceptability to biblical teachings and worship. In 100 years, it grew like a mustard seed. Now, even the Attorney General of the United States is a tongues-speaking Pentecostal. There are some Catholic Cardinals that speak in tongues. But the Body of Christ has labored in relative obscurity for a century.

Obscured in the greater Pentecostal wave, the Body of Christ in the 20th Century was just a still, small voice. See I Kings 19:11-12. To be sure, the Body of Christ was a powerful movement, but it did not have much impact on the 20th century society. Paul asked the Galatians, “You started out so well, who hindered you?” – or words to that effect, Galatians 5:7. The Body of Christ started out well, also. Through the first half of the 20th century, there was continual growth, numbers, strength, facilities, some presence even in religious circles. And great things happened in the second half of the century; but there were splits, divisions, sectionalism, bickering, delusions, and more.

Like the people in Haggai 1:9, We looked for much and, lo, it came to little.

I believe the Lord is going to heal us and move the Body of Christ to center stage, soon. The great movements of the last century were Zionism and Pentecostalism; but the great moves of the 21st century will be a healed Body of Christ and a healed 8th head of the beast.

During the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, He sent His ministry out to preach two times, there were two miraculous draughts of fishes, there were two miraculous feedings of the multitudes, and there were two cleansings of the temple. Can we derive any significance from the fact that Jesus did each of these activities twice? There was a reason for everything Christ did. There is a message in each of these activities that He duplicated.

First, He sent out a ministry twice. In Matthew 10:1,5, He sent the 12, Then in Luke 10:1, at a later time, He sent a larger group on a second mission. Perhaps, at the end of the church age, the Lord will send out His ministry again.

Second, Jesus also showed His power in two great catches of fish. However, in Luke 5:4-7, the net broke. The ship began to sink. Even so, the early church’s net broke. Apostasy set in, and iniquity abounded. The ship of Zion sank. Jesus asked His apostles to cast out the net again, at the end of His earthly ministry. John 21:3-11. The second time, the net didn’t break; the ship did not sink. A powerful church at the end of the Gentile age can be a net that will not break.

Third, there were two feedings of the multitude. The first feeding was on the Jewish side of the Sea of Galilee. Matthew 14:13-21. He miraculously feed the multitude, and had His disciples collect 12 baskets full of fragments. The second feeding was on the Gentile side of the sea. Matthew 15:32-38. At this second feeding, the fragments amounted to seven baskets full. Why did Jesus make too much? It would have been as great a miracle if the entire crowds were fed with not one bit of food left over. But in Matthew 16:9-10, Jesus asked His followers to remember the number of baskets from each feeding. Perhaps there was prophetic significance to this. The early church began with 12 apostles, and they were full of the Holy Ghost and knowledge to feed God’s people. Will the church age end with seven outstanding apostles, who are also full of the Holy Ghost, with a message that will again feed God’s people?

Finally, Jesus also cleansed the temple twice. The cleansing at the beginning of His ministry is in John 2:14-17.

The second cleansing was at the end of His ministry and, is in Luke 19:45-46. The temple is a type of the true church. Jesus cleansed that temple at the beginning of the church age. He sent a cleansed church out to face the world on the Day of Pentecost. Even so, there will be a cleansing of the temple again at the end of the church age. A newly-cleansed church will be sent out a second time, to reap a great harvest.

The church that started in the Upper Room in a blaze of glory will not end its mission in a fizzle!

The church that turned the 1st century world upside down will not end without making an impact on the 21st century.

The church that brought consternation to the priests of apostate and false religion and caught the attention of world rulers will not die in obscurity!

The Body of Christ will fulfill the types from Jesus ministry. There is still a glorious future for the church. We can look forward with hope. In the near future, we can look for these prophecies to be fulfilled.