Friday
The opening Worship service and introduction by Bro. Glenn Goodwin of the Des Moines, IA Gospel Assembly.

Bro. M. Gumbo from Manchester, UK

Service Start Times:

• Friday Morning: 11am
• Friday Evening: 6pm
• Saturday Morning: 11am
• Saturday Evening: 6pm
• Sunday Morning: 11am

There will be breakfast served on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings. Dinner will be served between services on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Marriages in the body of Christ should be the best, the most godly, the most biblical marriages on earth. In prior articles, we have investigated the fact that God gave marriage to make us holy, and that love is a decision and not an emotion. Then we began addressing various aspects of a Christian marriage one at a time, covering the need for respect, for prayer, and for perseverance. Proceeding, this article will discuss the need for struggles and hardships. Yes, the need for them. They are part of the very fabric of every good marriage.

If you cut open a cocoon, the butterfly that emerges will never fly. If you help open the eggshell, the chick that emerges will be weak, and will die. The butterfly must struggle to get out of the cocoon. The chick must struggle to break out of the eggshell. Those animals need that struggle to grow strong and viable. It is God’s plan.

Is struggling also a part of God’s plan for His people so they can grow spiritually strong? Should our life be easy? What spiritual opportunities are hidden in our difficulties? Does a life of comfort produce Christian maturity?

What about married life? Should that part of life always be easy? Is there any spiritual benefit to be gained from the tough times, the uncomfortable seasons, and the marital struggles that everyone eventually encounters? In II Corinthians 4:17, Paul calls his sufferings just a light affliction – but an affliction nonetheless. And remember, this man was beaten with rods and with whips, he was stoned and left for dead, he suffered innumerable hardships, but he considered them a light affliction, and knew they were necessary to produce something very valuable.

It seems that marriage is much the same way. Fairy-tale lives are not true. Hollywood movie endings present a false concept. Nobody lives happily ever after. There are tough days and difficult times in every marriage; every single one. But they are part of the refining process; turning raw material into fine gold. Illnesses, financial struggles, family problems, and such are necessary to build the kind of relationship between a husband and a wife that can display the glory of God to the world.

A real, Christian marriage can show the world the redemptive love, the godly patience and the abiding love of God in a very real way. Learning to love and appreciate your spouse, once you realize he or she is not the person you thought they were when dating, is a difficult endeavor. Everyone who is dating has an image in their mind of who the other person is. But reality never matches perception. Marriage is learning who your partner is, and then learning to accept, respect and even love that person. That is sometimes a struggle.

Financial difficulty is a typical part of the struggle. So is child-rearing. Sometimes one marital partner has health issues; sometimes both do. Some of life’s dreams vaporize in the dazzling light of reality. Bickering, arguments, jealousy, different goals, different beliefs, different hobbies and recreation, and different circles of friends can all create hardships. But good marriages are the ones that endure hardships.

A good marriage is not something you find; it is something you build. It is something you must work for. It takes effort – struggle. It is hard work. But so is running in a marathon; yet the reward motivates some people to work hard in order to be prepared to run in that race. For them, it pays off. The struggle makes the man or the woman. So does the struggle make the marriage.

David could not have been as great a king if he had not been hated, mistreated, and persecuted by King Saul. Rejection by man drove Jeremiah closer to God. Paul’s constant rebuffing by his own countrymen made him the apostle to the Gentiles. Every hero of the faith was made and shaped by their struggles. Our faith not only is seen through our struggles, it is formed and refined by them.

Do not run from the struggles of marital life. Gain from them. Let them mature you in Christ and drive you closer to the Lord. When you just cannot communicate with your spouse, talk to the Lord. When keeping your promise is difficult, bear your cross. Let the periodic discord in the marriage be the exercise program that strengthens your spiritual muscles. Endure hardness as a good soldier of the cross. II Timothy 2:3.

This attribute relates closely with the previous one about endurance. Actually, all of the attributes of a Christian marriage are interrelated. To endure implies that there are hardships to be endured. But my focus in this point is not the endurance, but the struggle. Marriages become strong because of the struggles to overcome challenges. Marital difficulties are, by definition, difficult. Married life is not easy; it isn’t supposed to be easy.

Hard times are hard. The death of a child, for instance, can either wreck, or it can strengthen, a marriage. But it will be a difficult time either way. Marriages are either strengthened or weakened by severe financial distress, debilitating sickness, or some foolish and immature act. It is how you respond that matters.

Struggles are good for you. Financial trouble can and should draw a couple closer together. Young people should not expect to start out with just as nice a house, just as nice a car, just as nice furniture, as their parents have. It took those parents 20-30 years to achieve that financial status, and they had to scrimp and save at times. Young married couples sometimes think they should start there, and go too far in debt, and get frustrated in their attempt to have it all. But there is something good and valuable in having to do without, to have to count the cost before going to the grocery store, to saving a dollar here, and having to wish you could afford that vacation.

The race for a happy marriage is a marathon and not a sprint. You have to keep running over the long haul. It is that way with the entire Christian experience; marriage is a part of that for most people. Paul said in I Corinthians 9:24 that you must run, that you may win the prize. And Hebrews 12:1 admonishes us to run with patience, but run.

Try to look at your hardships in a different light. View them as blessed experiences. They were carefully handcrafted for you by God, and filtered through His heart of love, before they reached you. You must need them, or He wouldn’t have given them to you. Look back on your life, especially your life as a follower of the Lord. Have there been any benefits to prior difficulties? Did God bring you through them? Then He will bring you through your marital struggles and hard times as well.

Friday Night

Saturday Morning

Saturday Night

The idea of seven dispensations is controversial. Many claim there are only two – law and grace, corresponding to the Old Testament and the New Testament. But did the age of law exist before Mount Sinai? Were the Ten Commandments already known and in force before God wrote them on tables of stone? What about laws dealing with adultery, treatment of slaves, and the necessity of a priesthood? Did all the ceremonial laws and moral laws apply in the years before Moses? Is there law in the New Testament era? Was there grace in the Old Testament era? Really, any division of man’s rule raises some issues and questions. But consider if God gave man seven grand dispensations.

These seven eras explain distinct ways that God has dealt with man. Even when given every advantage, time has proven that man cannot deal with the devil, and cannot fulfill the Dominion Mandate of Genesis one. All seven dispensations are devoted to showing man and angels that there is no peace, justice or security without God. Each of the seven ends in judgment, yet each also ends with hope.

These seven distinct ages cover the entire gamut of human history. They start and end in paradise, but O what a difference between the beginning and the end of this matter. Human history begins with Paradise Lost; it ends with Paradise Restored.

The seven ages are:

1. The Age of Innocence
2. The Age of Conscience
3. The Age of Human Government
4. The Age of Promise
5. The Mosaic Law
6. The Dispensation of Grace
7. The Millennial Reign of Christ and the Redeemed

It might be good for us to see the working of God in these dispensations. But this is no mere academic exercise. The point is to see that we cannot make it on our own. We all need the Lord. Sin is so powerful that it cannot be resisted or overcome in our own lives or in the world without the salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The First Dispensation – The Age of Innocence

The Dispensation of Innocence showed that mankind was unable to serve God even without a fallen nature. This period extends from the creation of Adam and Eve until sin and the curse ended it (the Fall.) Although we do not know how long Adam and Eve were in Eden, we assume this was a short dispensation. During this era, God did not make many demands on the couple. He told them to take care of Eden, to guard and defend it, and not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This dispensation is covered by Genesis 1:26-3:24.

Sometimes we blame our fallen, sinful nature for all our problems. If we only were free of that downward pull in our minds and emotions. . . we think somehow we wouldn’t sin. We sometimes excuse our failings because that is just the way we are. We blame genetics, or circumstances, or something and say we sin because we were born sinners. If only we didn’t have this family trait of a quick temper, or if only we weren’t so susceptible to jealousy, or whatever. And it is somewhat true. It would seem logical that resisting temptation would be easier if we didn’t have this sinful nature in us. But the Dispensation of Innocence proved that, even without the fallen nature, we cannot live in paradise.

The third chapter Genesis is a major transition. It is more than just the change from the first to the second dispensation. It is the loss of innocence and the expulsion of mankind from the peace, security, painlessness and life of Eden. More importantly, it is a separation of man’s walk of fellowship with God.

In Genesis chapters one and two, we see Adam and Eve in innocence after their creation. They enjoyed total fellowship with God, as they walked and talked with Him daily in Eden. Now skip Chapter 3 for a moment and go to Chapter 4. Here the reader sees murder, lust, jealousy, lying, corruption, rebellion, and wickedness of all types. Something terrible happened to cause good to go bad, and what happened can be found in Chapter three. What happened is called sin. Every conceivable evil begins in the third chapter of Genesis with Satan.

We all know the story of Eve being tempted by Satan and how she succumbed to the temptation. Eve should not have taken Satan lightly, and we today should never take any temptation lightly. When we are presented with satanic temptation, it is a serious matter. We need an outside source of help. We need the Lord, His Word and His Spirit. Even if our spirit was pure and free of a sinful nature, we would still be susceptible to external temptation; so be prepared, and lean on heaven’s resources.

Mankind, then, was created in innocence. He was then placed in an ideal environment. There was no decay, no death, no weeds, no thorns or thistles. There was nothing in Eden that lived off of decay, because there was no death. There was not even rain or thunderstorms, because the ground was watered from a mist from below. So it was there, in the midst of beauty and perfection, that Adam and Eve were “planted”. Theirs was a simple test with a dire warning. Eve fell through pride. Adam fell through choice. The first dispensation came to an end with their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

The Second Dispensation – The Age of Conscience

The Dispensation of Conscience demonstrated that mankind cannot restore paradise by following the dictates of his conscience. There are those today who believe that man is basically good; that he is born innocent; and that if there were just more fairness in life, things would be wonderful. People think we could eliminate crime if we eradicate poverty. These people tend to blame lack of education, failure to share the wealth, and circumstances for all the evil in the world. But man, guided solely by his own conscience, degenerates into unremitting evil.

The second dispensation spans time from the fall of man to the Flood, during which time God provided a means of atonement. Animals were permitted to be killed, and their blood was shed, so that Adam and Eve and their descendants, who were fallen human beings, could be reconciled to the Creator. This dispensation is covered by Genesis 4:1 – 8:19.

Through sin and the Fall, Adam and Eve gained a knowledge of good and evil. This created a conscience that, in theory, could be the basis for making right moral judgments. They transmitted that knowledge to their descendants, and thus the human race came under this responsibility – to do good and to eschew evil. During this era, there was no government and no law. The conscience of man was to direct him to do right. There were no kings, no judges, and no policemen. This age proved that the mind cannot, of its own volition, choose right over wrong. You cannot just let your conscience be your guide. Some say, “I don’t feel condemned, so there must not be anything wrong with it.” Your feelings and your conscience are not the proper measure of right and wrong. See Proverbs 14:12.

Still, a conscience is a good thing. Guilty consciences have moved many to confess their wrongs and change. A human conscience bolstered by the active operation of the Holy Ghost can be a guide to proper Christian conduct. Our good God has given us the gift and freedom of conscience. While the innocence of the Garden of Eden has been lost, the human conscience, though marred, retains some resemblance to the image of God. The Age of Conscience ended in the 8th chapter of Genesis, but still today, even in our sinful time, fallen man still has a conscience.

In the Age of Conscience, man was to obey God through the use of his conscience. There was no code of law, as the Law of Moses. God was a moral God; could man be a moral man? The answer, of course, was no. Genesis 6:5 says that the conscience (imagination of heart) of man was only evil. Instead of maintaining righteousness through conscience, verses 11-12 show that mankind became corrupt.

Genesis, chapters 7 – 9, show the transition between the dispensation of conscience and the beginning of the age of human government. During the dispensation of conscience, man in general is aware of right and wrong, but all of the land is consumed with sin. Young and old were using their consciences to make increasingly evil choices. Because of rampant evil, God had to judge the earth and everything in it by a world-wide flood.

Each of the seven dispensations will end in judgment. Each shows that man is insufficient to live up to good, godly principles on his own. These dispensations are a display to mankind and to the angelic host the greatness of our God. Man, for all his smug superiority, cannot do right consistently. He needs divine assistance. He needs the blood of Christ, applied to his heart through the Holy Spirit, to reach the ideal.

When the waters of the Flood receded, the ark settled on a mountain peak, and God opened the door. Noah, his family, and the animals left the ark. What a sight that must have been. Also God made a covenant with Noah, and that covenant remains with humankind to this day – the earth will never again be destroyed by a flood, and the sign of the covenant was a rainbow. God’s covenant with Noah is recorded in Genesis 9:8-17. After the Flood, the human race showed its propensity to evil again. Despite knowledge and a conscience, mankind focused on evil.

The Third Dispensation – The Era of Human Government

The Age of Human Government covers that time period from God’s covenant with Noah to the call of Abraham. God’s covenant with Noah after the Flood established human government. Government was given the right to enforce such laws as capital punishment for premeditated murder. God had purified the earth of great evil and now gave man ample power to govern it. At this point we are only in the eighth chapter of the Book of Genesis, but already in the third dispensation. We don’t have a lot recorded in the Scriptures about the first four dispensations; but we do have that which is relevant to us in our day. That is the point we are trying to make in this series, and that is the lesson we are trying to receive. What do we learn from each dispensation of man? We learn that there is no peace, no contentment, no justice, no lifting of the curse, without a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus.

It has been argued that mankind will be good if it is forced to be good. Policemen, judges, courthouses and prisons will enforce righteous conduct. Some think that if we just pass enough laws, we can create a just society. So God gave mankind governmental powers. But the result was not justice and righteousness. Sadly, the dispensation of human government failed as other dispensations had failed. It resulted in a Tower of Babel on the Plains of Shinar, and man attempting to be independent of God. It ended in the confusion of tongues. This dispensation is covered by Genesis 8:20-11:32.

God gave Noah some of the principles for this new dispensation. This era provided for the institution of human government. It is seen in the provision for capital punishment for premeditated murder. This is seen in Genesis 9:6: “Whosoever sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” Remember that when Cain killed Abel, God dealt directly with Cain and did not kill him. There was no death penalty and no human government established to enforce law. In fact, God would not allow human punishment on Cain, setting a mark on him as a warning against such human judgment. But, in this dispensation, God provides for human government to punish crime.

God’s command gave humans the right to enforce the law. It allowed for kings and governors and judges and police. Crimes could be punished and murderers could even be executed. Surely this would keep evil in check and allow righteousness to flourish. But it failed and was soon corrupted by man. The age of human government started with the family of Noah walking out to see a world that had been renovated by the Flood. Wicked and vile men had been destroyed. Noah was a preacher of righteousness; a man of faith. This was a chance to establish a new order; a godly society. But, this era, too, was a failure.

It was during this time that men banded together and formed the first city-states. They also decided to build a tower. Genesis 11:4 says the tower they envisioned was to reach heaven. This “angered” God. Whatever their reason for building the tower, they were in direct disobedience to what God had told them to do. Man’s responsibility and test during the third dispensation was to obey God through the use of his conscience and human government. He failed again. The judgment? Confusion of language and scattering of the people.

The story of Abram, known as Abraham, the son of Terah, in the line from Shem, a son of Noah, is relevant to the closing of this dispensation. This genealogical line from Noah to Abram and beyond will lead ultimately to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We have now surveyed 2000 years of biblical history, and three dispensations, ending with Chapter 11 of Genesis. In these eleven chapters we have seen the Creation, the Fall of Man, Cain and Abel, Noah and The Flood, and the Tower of Babel. The story has been focused on great world events. From this point forward, we will focus more on God dealing with the lives of men. We are now nearing the end of the third dispensation and the beginning of the fourth dispensation which will open with Abraham. Abraham is very important for many reasons, one of which is that he is the bridge between these two dispensations.

Even Abram, up to the time of God’s call, lived in idolatry, Joshua 24:2, but not in poverty. Archaeology has established that Ur of the Chaldees, from which Abraham came, was a very wealthy civilization. He left the good life behind to obey God. This became a pattern for many who would follow in his footsteps. Many champions of faith have passed up a good, easy life, choosing rather to suffer afflictions with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.

The end of this dispensation of government was a dark time. True religion was almost extinct. The lamp of the Lord almost went out. God had to reveal Himself in a special revelation to an idolater in order to establish the next move, the next dispensation. It seems that God often intervenes in human affairs to shine His light just when things seem the darkest.

The Dispensation of Human Government failed and closed. Dispensation three ran from the Covenant made with Noah to the call of Abraham. Dispensation four, in the next issue of this magazine, will cover the time period continuing from Abraham to the Exodus.

The Fourth Dispensation – The Age of Promise

Some philosopher may pose the question: What is the incentive to do right? Government did not enforce righteousness. Rather, it became corrupt and despotic. Maybe the promise of great reward would prompt man to achieve a righteous, utopian society. So the fourth dispensation was the Dispensation of Promise.

After the people dispersed from the city of Babel, God called just one man, Abram. In Isaiah 51:2, God said He called Abraham alone. He entered into a covenant with one man, in order to bless the whole world. The promises of that covenant continue until today and will never be revoked. Some of those promises were unconditional. Others were conditioned on obedience. It was the violation of these conditions that resulted in Egyptian captivity and the ending of this dispensation. But it was these promises that cause the fourth dispensation to be called the Age of Promise. From this point in history, God would deal in a special way with one man, Abraham; one family, Abraham’s family; and one nation, the nation that would come from Abraham. Even in our dispensation, we are also spiritually the seed of Abraham.

Some people believe if the goal is worthy, people will all be good. If they could just see the benefits of prosperity, then there would be no stealing, no graft or corruption, no evil. So in this age, God gave a chosen people special promises of great blessings. If they could have lived up to the conditions, they would have had a utopia. But this dispensation also failed to bring the desired, post-millennial-style kingdom.

The third dispensation had ended on the Plain of Shinar when God confounded the language of the people and forced them to scatter. The fourth dispensation continued from Abraham until Moses received the Law on Mount Sinai.

Scripture for this dispensation is Genesis 12 through Exodus 18. It covers the lives of the Patriarchs. The primary persons God dealt with in this dispensation were Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. Of course, Moses is a transitional figure between the fourth and fifth dispensations. This Age of Promise takes us beyond the end of the book of Genesis.

In this era, God made great promises to Abraham: he would be the father of many nations, he would have the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession, in him all nations would be blessed, etc. These promises were reiterated to Isaac and Jacob and the 12 tribes of Israel. But the record of Genesis is lies, deceit, treachery and trickery.

The Dispensation of Promise ended with the Children of Israel serving as slaves in Egypt. Exodus 1:8; 11-14. They could say, “Where are the promised blessings?” But they had forfeited those blessings through their sins. They did not embrace the promises; they did not believe them. And they did not live up to the conditions imposed upon them. Abraham failed to believe God would give him a child through Sarah. He lied to kings instead of trusting God. Isaac failed by favoring Esau, when God had said He would bless Jacob. Isaac also lied to kings. Jacob’s failures were too numerous to list, as were the sins of his sons. Their descendants failed to believe God, even as He was delivering them from Egyptian bondage.

This dispensation, too, failed to bring the promised time of peace and blessing. It ended in judgment – like every dispensation. But please note that every dispensation also ends with a faint hope or promise of a better future. See Exodus 3:9-10.

The Fifth Dispensation –The Era of Law

In the first three dispensations, God dealt with mankind generally. In the fourth, He dealt with a called-out people: Abraham and his descendants. But promises to a special people were not enough. They needed more to attain to the righteousness that would bring a godly paradise to the earth. So God gave them something more: His law.

In the third dispensation, God had allowed mankind to form governments and establish laws to regulate conduct. But the governments quickly became tyrannical and oppressive, and the laws were unjust and unrighteous. So in this dispensation, the laws came from God Himself. If mankind failed, the fault could not be blamed on the Law.

In the dispensation of law, God gave detailed instructions about how to live, how to structure society, and how to live justly and righteously as a nation. The people said this was good; they could implement these laws and create an upright society. They said in Exodus 19:8, “All the Lord has spoken we will do.”

At Mount Sinai, the Israelites encamped, and Moses went up to the mountain to hear the Word of the Lord. For them, that Word is the law. This is not just the Ten Commandments written by the finger of God on tablets of stone, but the 613 moral and ceremonial laws contained in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

The Apostle Paul asked in Galatians 3:19: “Wherefore then serveth the law?” In other words, “Why did God give us the Law of Moses?” Verse 17 mentions that the law was given 430 years after the covenant with Abraham. And Abraham lived approximately 2000 years after Adam. Why was this Mosaic Law given? I understand there to be five basic reasons for the dispensation of the Mosaic Law: 1) to magnify God’s holiness; 2) to reveal man’s sinfulness; 3) to teach the Israelites how to live in a moral society; 4) to show the Israelites their need for a Savior; and, 5) to demonstrate God’s grace and mercy.

Many scriptures could be cited in support of these points, if space allowed. The point is that man could not live up to the principles of the good law of God. Therefore, the blessings of Deuteronomy 28 never materialized. But at the end of this dispensation, Jesus came. He lived up to every precept of that law. He never sinned. But for Israel, the dispensation ended in judgment – the destruction of the nation and the temple in 70 A.D.

But each dispensation also ends with a hope of a better future. The Book of Hebrews is a monumental treatise, demonstrating the superiority of the dispensation of grace over the dispensation of law. The operative word in Hebrews is “better.” We have a better high priest, operating in a better holiest place, who offered better sacrifices, establishing a better covenant, based on better promises in a better testament.

The age of law was not the end of the plan of God. God, in His mercy, did not leave man without a remedy. He provided something better that would do what the law could not do. Hebrews 7:19 says that the law couldn’t do it, but God provided something better. And Romans 8:3 tells us that what the law couldn’t do, God sent His Son to do for us.

We are now in a dispensation of grace. God did not just show man his failure in these dispensations. Our God also provided grace for His people. He didn’t leave them in their sinful condition; He provided a remedy. The law showed, conclusively, than man cannot attain true holiness and righteousness. Grace provides a way to attain them – not through law-keeping per se, but by the Holy Spirit.

The Sixth Dispensation – The Era of Grace

The Dispensation of Grace is what we sometimes call the church age. It is highly relevant to us, because we live in this age. For the first five ages, we can only look back in history to see how God worked in the past. But in this age, we can see how God is working now. The sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross introduced a dispensation of unmerited favor, called grace. Instead of requiring man to live righteously by keeping the law, the righteousness of Another, is imputed to undeserving men and women.

Perhaps the most pertinent scripture for this age is where Paul said: By grace we are saved through faith and not our works. Ephesians 2:8-9. Great and powerful are the verses in our Bible that pertain to the grace of God. For example, Romans 3:24 says we are freely justified by grace. Now, Colossians 1:21says we have perfect peace with God through Christ.

In this dispensation, we still have all the good things God has given in the past, plus more. We now have obedience according to conscience, restraint of evil by the Holy Spirit, government, great and precious promises, God’s moral law to lead us through progressive sanctification, and the addition a new one – grace. Our test is to obey God on the basis of the above gifts He has given. We do not have to wait till the end to know that this dispensation is failing its test. How are we failing the tests? All we have to do is watch, not only the daily news on television, but some of the vile programming. The church will not save the world.

During the waning days of the fifth dispensation, Christ came and shed His blood to make payment for the sin that entered the world during the first dispensation. Colossians 1:14; Romans 5:8-21. Once the price had been paid, we were commissioned to get the word out about salvation. This is called the Good News, or the Gospel, and is defined in I Corinthians 15:1-9. To paraphrase these verses, the Gospel is the death, burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, all according to the Scriptures. It is through His sacrifice, death, shedding of blood, and Resurrection, that we now have life through Him, ministered to us by the Holy Ghost.

Salvation is a free gift offered by the grace of God, thus the name for this dispensation. Let’s consider what grace did. Starting on the Day of Pentecost, probably in the year 30 A.D., God unleashed a new force among mankind. These people were different. They had the resident gift of the Holy Ghost. Grace had touched their lives. What innocence and conscience and human government and promise and law had not done; grace did. The early church was composed of radically-transformed men and women. In one generation, this grace-filled group turned the world upside down. They produced the New Testament. They produced overcomers. In some respects, they were the early rain. They judged the Jewish world of the time and they changed the culture of the Roman Empire.

Grace made a difference. Grace supplied what was lacking in all the prior ages of man. Yet, I will show that even God’s grace was not sufficient to truly change mankind as a whole. The Gospel did not turn every evil-doer into a saint. It did not completely eliminate crime or wickedness. Grace is amazing in its effects on the individual, the family and the church. But it will not convert the world and transform our evil society into a truly-godly environment.

Every dispensation we have studied ultimately failed to bring universal peace, a just society, and the blessings of God on the cursed earth. In that respect, even the dispensation of grace will fail. Even the grace of God is not enough. People thought the church would convert the world and Christians would govern the world in true righteousness. The Imperial Church and the Dark Ages proved this wrong. The great emphasis on evangelism, while good and praiseworthy, will not result in converting the entire world.

Acts 17:30 says that it is God’s will that all people everywhere repent. But they won’t. Scriptures foretell a coming judgment that will rain down on sinners. It will be an awful time when God ends this dispensation in judgment. “And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.” Isaiah 13:11. This judgment is merited because of the transgressions of mankind. “The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word. The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.” Isaiah 24:3-6.

But every dispensation also ended with the hope for a better world. Even so, the age of grace leads directly to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the establishment of a reign of universal peace, joy and life. The seventh dispensation, really the final dispensation, will bring in the eternal kingdom of God.

The Seventh Dispensation – The Millennial Kingdom

The sixth dispensation, the Age of Grace, was particularly relevant to us because we are living in it. This dispensation is not just history; it is now. But the next age, the last dispensation, can only be studied through prophecy. It is still future. It is called the Millennial Dispensation – the 1000-year reign of Christ on earth.

Now, the focus shifts from history, where God worked in the past; and beyond God’s present truth; to the grand and glorious future for all of creation. The next dispensation, the last dispensation, will finally produce what the others could not do. In many ways, this next one will be the greatest dispensation, but it is a dispensation; it is time-limited. I define a biblical dispensation as limited periods of time wherein God works with mankind in a particular way, and which always ends in a judgment and a hope for a better future. The Millennial Age fits this definition. It is a limited period of 1000 years. God will work with humanity in a true theocracy with Jesus and His bride ruling the earth. But this dispensation will also end in a great judgment – the Battle of Gog and Magog and the Great White Throne – yet will usher in a Utopian eternity.

The last dispensation occurs when the Son of God, Jesus the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, returns to Earth. At that time He will rule from Jerusalem over Israel and all of the nations for one thousand years of peace. This millennium is succinctly described in Revelation 20:1-6. According to Jeremiah 3:17, Jerusalem will then be the throne of the Lord. Isaiah 2:2-4 promises that the law will go from Zion. And Isaiah 9:7 speaks of the increase of His government.

The next dispensation will be characterized by peace, joy, the lifting of the curse, the elimination of sickness and healing of all deformities, eternal life, a universally-prosperous economy, and the elimination of all crime and establishment of a just society. Again many scriptures could be cited – if space allowed.

It will take a full 1000 years, but the Lord will restore and re-make society and the environment. All the areas under the control of Christ and His Bride will be a paradise. But every dispensation ends in judgment. Even the 1000-year reign of Christ will end in a great judgment; not on the majority of the inhabitants, but on the resolute sinners.

There will be sinners throughout the thousand years, else the Scriptures about the sinner dying one hundred years old in the Kingdom would have no meaning: “the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.” Isaiah 65:20. By the end of the 1000 years, there will still be areas of the earth that are not under Kingdom domination and control. Over the course of one thousand years, more and more nations will come under the reign of Christ, but some will never submit to that reign. There are millennial prophecies which state that there will no rainfall on those nations who refuse to worship the King in Jerusalem. Zechariah 14:16-17.

The Kingdom will have reached out to touch and cover most of the earth. However, there will be nations “in the four quarters of the earth” which have refused to submit to Christ. Other nations will only yield feigned obedience. See Psalms 66:3, center column reference. Those nations want to receive the kingdom blessings but will not fully submit to the rule and reign of Christ and His Bride.

“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.” Revelation 20:7-8. This final battle is necessary to cleanse the earth of all remnants of evil. Those who never submitted, and those who only pretended to submit, will be deceived at the end of the thousand years. Satan is that great dragon which has “deceived the whole world” for six thousand years. Revelation 12:9. At the end of this one thousand year reign of Christ, the devil will again deceive the outcast and renegade nations. “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” Psalms 2:1-3.

For one thousand years, they have resisted Christ; they are ripe targets for the devil. They have stayed in the remote areas, refusing to submit to Jesus Christ and His benevolent government. The devil leads them in one more insurrection and rebellion. Just as men refused to repent during the terrible tribulation of the seven last plagues, Revelation 16:9, they will refuse to repent and accept Christ during His one thousand year reign. Local war lords and renegade nations and kingdoms will gather together to make one final attempt to overthrow Jesus Christ and His government. They must either destroy what Christ has done, or perish themselves.

The rebels will gather and march on Jerusalem one last time. “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about….” Revelation 20:9. The Middle East will once more be a battleground. This will be the devil’s final crusade. But the armies of the outcasts will be utterly defeated. “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” Revelation 20:9-10. The devil is cast into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death, from which there is no resurrection. Revelation 20:14.

“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.” Revelation:20:11. The Great White Throne Judgment is the final judgment and ends the seventh dispensation. Everyone must give an account to God for the deeds done in this body. “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne; and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them; and they were judged every one according to their works.” Revelation 20:12-13.

The effect of the Battle of Gog and Magog, and the Great White Throne Judgment, and the second death, is to fully and ultimately eradicate all evil from the face of the earth. “What do ye imagine against the Lord? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.” Nahum 1:9. Affliction, or evil, will never rise again throughout creation. “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Romans 8:19-23.

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus.

All Christians pray. It is a central act of faith. We pray for God’s blessings on our family and friends, for our pastor and church, for the sick, for protection, for so many things. Sometimes, we petition for our own needs; and sometimes for the needs of others. But if you are having some difficult times in your marriage, have you made that situation a matter of prayer? Prayer changes things. Prayer makes a difference in every area of our lives. Have you prayed, really prayed, about your marriage? Jesus taught His disciples to pray. Paul said to pray without ceasing. Prayer should come as naturally to a Christian as breathing or eating does.

Not all prayer is intercession, petitioning God to grant specific requests. Prayer is also praise, communion, thanksgiving, communication, submission, and rejuvenation. Prayer connects us to God. Prayer is one of the tools to strengthen the inner man. It fortifies the soul for spiritual warfare. It builds spiritual reserves for arduous tasks. The Christian who fails to pray fails to grow.

How does prayer relate to Christian marriage? If we pray, will God make our marriage better? Or, if we make our marriage better, will God draw closer to us in prayer? It could be both. There is not a situation in life that cannot be made better by drawing closer to God in prayer. Your job can be better if you are closer to God. Your personal life will be better if you are more prayerful. And God can make wonders happen in your marriage if you pray more.

Don’t just constantly ask Him to make your spouse better. Ask for wisdom to be able to be better yourself. Don’t ask him to change your spouse’s attitude, ask Him to give you grace to improve your own attitude. Your changes in your heart may be the catalyst that will eventually spur your spouse to improve. That would be a wise thing to do. Just realize your spouse may wait to see if your changes are real. It will take both patience and wisdom. The Bible tells us in James 1:5, you can ask God for wisdom. Solomon did. Jesus said in Luke 21:19, “In your patience possess ye your souls.“

Many times in the Psalms we read of the prayers directed to God seeking help in times of trouble. The name of the Lord is a strong tower in our troubled times. Perhaps prayer will help you to better accept your difficult times, perhaps it will even result in the removal of some of the problems such as illness, financial hardships, etc, that have added to the turmoil of marriage. Try prayer. It just might work.

Wife, you don’t know what good you might do if you stop in the middle of a stressful situation and ask your husband to pray for you. It is hard for a man to be upset with someone that he is praying for. Maybe both of you should drop down side-by-side on your knees and spend some quality time talking to the Lord. What have you got to lose? What have you the potential to gain?

But that is not the thrust of my point here. There is a spiritual connection, almost a godly mystical connection, between a good marriage and prayer. I believe prayer and marriage are related in an entirely different way than most people think. The seminal verse on that point is found in Peter’s writings: “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.” I Peter 3:7. Consider carefully what the apostle is saying. Husband, love your wife; give her honor – that your prayers be not hindered.

Peter is connecting the central Christian act of praying to your Heavenly Father to a husband’s attitude towards his wife. He is saying you can pray all you want to, but those prayers will not be effective if your attitude toward your spouse is wrong. God sees you, not as an individual praying, but as a married person. He factors in how you treat your spouse in His response to your prayers. Think about that for a moment.

I am sure the Lord considers the way a wife treats her husband when He is responding to her prayers, too. According to our Master’s teachings in Mark 10:8, a husband and wife are not two married persons, but one flesh. God does not see them as two separate people anymore; He sees them as one. You cannot be divided and be heard.

A lot of people say that if you want a stronger marriage, you should develop a stronger prayer life. And there is some truth in that. But maybe we have it backwards. Does God’s Word tell us that if we want a stronger prayer life, we need a stronger marriage? I believe that is the whole point of I Peter 3:7.

You see, no one is truly spiritual if they are married and aren’t building a strong, Christian marriage. Married saints, your first and most important ministry is to minister to your spouse. Prayer and marriage are also mentioned together in I Corinthians 7. Verse 5 speaks of sex. In verses 2-4, Paul was encouraging married couples to have physical relations. Then in verse 5 he says you may want to abstain for a limited time for a period of concentrated prayer and fasting. But come together in conjugal relations again. My point in referring to this scripture is to show that a good marriage and prayer go together.

If there is discord in the home, you cannot have a good relationship with God. Really, if there is something in your heart against any brother or sister in the Lord, your prayer to God will not be accepted. Jesus said so in Matthew 5:23-24. If you have ought in your heart against your brother, leave your gift at the altar and go and first be reconciled to your brother, before God will accept your gift. That principle applies in the home as well. In Mark 11:25-26, Jesus said if you stand to pray and have something in your heart against anyone, you must forgive. The implication is that God won’t hear your prayer if your interpersonal relationships are not right. Your prayers will be hindered.

In listing the things that God considers hateful, and that are an abomination to Him, Proverbs 6:19 includes the person who sows discord. Our Heavenly Father despises discord in His creation. The two places where the Lord should never find discord is in the church and in the Christian home. God hates discord in the home.

So wives, treat your husband as a gift from God – he is. Husbands, treat your wife as if she were extremely valuable – she is. You may find that more of your prayers are answered if you do right in your own home.

To order by mail, send your full payment (check or cash) along with your mailing address to:

Gospel Assembly Church
7135 Meredith Drive
Urbandale, IA 50322

To order online, please visit the Store and purchase the May Convention 2010.

Jesus said the second greatest of all the commandments is to love thy neighbor. He taught that we are to love even our enemies. Divine love, or charity, is greater than both hope and faith – Paul so taught. We can sometimes love our enemies better than we love our own spouse. Those whom ought to be the closest to us, those who promised and swore before God to love and cherish us, are sometimes the ones we love the least. Little children, such things ought not to be.

Hate springs quickly from the human heart. It doesn’t have to be taught. Whenever we are provoked, hatred rises up. But love isn’t that way. Love never springs up instantly. Nobody “falls” in love. Infatuation and lust are quick to appear, but not true love. Love is not an unbidden natural response. It is something that must be acquired. It must be pursued, sought for, and attained.

It is really sad when a wife says, “I don’t love you,” to her husband. It is just as sad when a husband tells his wife that he never did love her. Sometimes one will say that they made a mistake, and married the wrong person. Those statements are supposed to be offensive – inflicting hurt on the other party. But in truth, they are an admission of failure.

The person who says that is really admitting that he or she didn’t learn to love their spouse. The Christian thing to do is to learn to love people – even your enemies. If you haven’t acquired love for your spouse, then you haven’t acted as a Christian. Please let me state this without you being insulted: If you don’t love your spouse, you are admitting you have failed to live as a Christian.

There is a common misconception in society. It is not only common, but dangerous. Society thinks love is an emotion. It is not. It certainly has emotional contexts and connotations, but love is not an emotion. It is a decision. You decide to love someone. If you say to your wife, “I don’t love you;” you are saying you have decided not to love her. How does that statement compare with the truth of Scripture?

I John 4:20 asks, how can you love God, and not love your brother or sister? Can you love God and not love your spouse? Let’s look closer at some of the verses alluded to earlier. This is God’s Word, and it is for us to implement in our lives. We are to keep His Commandments.

In Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment. It was an interesting question. We already know the answer, so the question doesn’t stump us today. But it was a hot issue in Jesus’ time. Some said circumcision was the greatest commandment, because it set God’s people apart from the world. Others said the Sabbath, as no other people had a day of rest. Still others said the sacrifices and ceremonies of the law were the greatest, for they covered the sins of the people. The Jews were divided into camps, each declaring they knew what was the greatest commandment. They tempted Jesus to take sides in this debate.

Jesus said love was the greatest commandment. If Jesus had said one of the other commandments, He would have been rejected by those who held that their particular opinion was the right one. But He rose above the debate to give the true answer – one all sides had overlooked. My topic is marriage here. In the midst of debates and arguments in the home, somebody has to rise up above the din and implement the greatest commandment. Your spouse is your neighbor. Love your neighbor.

Jesus said to love God, and your neighbor. It is easy to love God. He is good all the time. He doesn’t get on our nerves. He doesn’t yell at us. He is always loveable. Loving your marriage partner, well that isn’t always easy. But he or she is your neighbor.

Think about it. How can we love God? He is so different from us. He is a Spirit; we are flesh. He is sinless; we are thoroughly infused with sin. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, as far as the heaven is above the earth. He is eternal; and we are temporal. He is unlimited; we are beset with limitations. We are not much like God. How can we love Him? Yet we do.

If we can love God when we are so different from God, how much easier should it be to love another human being, the one you married? We have many more similarities with our spouse than we do with our God. We are both flesh and blood; we live side-by-side with them. They are much more like us than our God is. Can we decide to love them?

Matthew 5:43-44 is where Jesus told His followers that they cannot just love neighbors; He said to love your enemies. This again proves that love is not an emotion. Nobody naturally “feels” like loving an enemy. You have to decide to love them – despite what they have done or are doing to you. It is the Christian thing to do. If a child of God can decide to love their enemy, why can’t they decide to love their spouse? Is their spouse their enemy? It doesn’t matter whether they are or are not. Our only response to them is to love them. What if they don’t love me back? It doesn’t matter. Your enemies probably won’t love you back either, but you are still to love them. Remember, love is a decision.

Too many people are confused. They have been told that love is a many-splendored thing. They think they fall in love. They think love is over when the “spark” is gone. They feel love is some giddy, emotional attachment. They are wrong. Love can have wonderful emotions connected with it. But the decision to love is not an emotional decision. It is a choice. If you base your choice of who to love on emotions, you are going to have a lot of trouble in life. Base your decisions on higher things than emotions – duty, commitment, responsibility, service, and such noble criteria.

God’s Word commands in Colossians 3:19: husbands, love your wives. It teaches in Titus 2:4 that wives are to love their husbands. These are not biblical suggestions. This isn’t optional. This is the Word of God for your life. If you are married, decide to love your spouse. Decide right now. Whether you feel like it or not, choose to love the person you swore before God that you would cherish and honor in sickness and in health, till death.

There are many things I intend to cover in subsequent articles about Christian marriage. I remind you that the purpose behind it is to demonstrate the love of God for His people. Marriage is designed to make you holy; even more than it is designed to make you happy. I have biblical guidelines to present later in this series that will improve your marriage. But the number one step in this is to choose to love your spouse. That choice means it doesn’t matter what he or she does. It doesn’t matter whether they are nice to you. It doesn’t matter whether physical relations are good or absent. Love is constant and abiding. Love is deliberate. You are supposed to love your wife. You are supposed to love your husband.

Deuteronomy 24:5 is a very interesting scripture. A newlywed husband was to spend the first year of marriage working to cheer his wife. During that time, he could not even go to war. This command was given when the children of Israel were a warrior nation. They were about to conquer Canaan. For most of the Old Testament era, Israel needed soldiers to fight in real battles. But here was a commandment forbidding young soldiers from fighting for a year after getting married. Why? God was telling newlyweds to work on making each other happy. The marriage relationship needed to be started on a good foundation. Separation necessary for warfare was not good for building a life together. So no war for one year.

Since this is a commandment of God, it is reasonable to assume that making your marital partner happy pleases God. Our Lord cares whether you have a good marriage or not. He made provision in His law when able-bodied men were needed on the front lines of the battles. He is concerned that we have the opportunity to be happily married.

We don’t fight those kinds of physical wars in the body of Christ today. But the principle might still have validity. We are still to work at making our spouse happy. We may not have done it as well as we should have in the first year of marriage, but it isn’t too late. We can still dedicate time and effort, not to please ourselves, but to make our wife or husband happy. This requires daily sacrifice. To really live you must die. To receive, you must give. To be loved, you must love. It isn’t easy. We are mistaken if we think it should be easy. It is sometimes hard to love someone. But it is your Christian duty, and the commitment you have made. It pleases God when you love one of His children.

There are many more scriptures about love and loving others. The Bible is a book about love. We don’t have the time or space to cover them all. But let’s look again at one more. I John 4:20-21 says: “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.” So as a Christian you must love your brother – even if he is your husband. Again, this is not a suggestion; it is a biblical command.

Remember, marriage shows us that we are called to yield at times to another, to find joy, happiness and fulfillment in giving love to another person. The true beauty in Christianity is in learning how to love. Very few situations test our Christian faith as much as marriage. If we can decide to love in that circumstance, we are demonstrating true love. Loving your spouse is a highly-spiritual act.

We have had many messages on the earmarks of the body of Christ. We have studied the body, and talked a lot about what distinguishes the body of Christ from Babylon. I would like to review the characteristics of the body, but only as a prelude to looking into the identifying characteristics of Babylon.

We can say that some characteristics identify the body and everything else is Babylon, but that may not be totally accurate. Some churches and fellowships are not Mystery Babylon, not one of her harlot daughters, and yet not the beloved of the Lord. They are one of the virgins without number. See Song of Solomon 6:8.

What makes Babylon Babylon? First, what makes the body of Christ the body of Christ? It is vital that we know what the body of Christ is, and how it is distinguished from Babylon. When Bro. Lloyd Goodwin first came to Africa in 1978, he said he was the first true man of God in the body of Christ to come to Africa in 2000 years. Pastors who had come to listen to him rose up with challenges. They asked him what he thought they had been doing for years. Brother Goodwin told them they were in Babylon. There is a difference between Babylon and the body of Christ.

St. Paul's Cathedral in London, UK

There are at least five distinct characteristics that are earmarks, or identifying marks of the body of Christ. Let’s just review those in summary form:

1. A different message. This fellowship goes deeper into the Word of God than any other people. We don’t just have a few professional scholars, but the average layperson has a deep love for, and an understanding of, the Bible. The ministry of the Word is our prime focus.

• The importance of doctrine. We value truth. We constantly seek to correct erroneous understandings of the Bible. We want the message that the early church preached.
• Foundational truths. There are at least six foundational truths that distinguish this people from all other groups. These are: the godhead; the mortality of the soul; hell; the limited body of Christ; the separate bride of Christ; and understanding the beast and Babylon.

2. A different spirit. The attitude of the people is one of charity; the divine love of God of I Corinthians 13.

3. A different purpose. The mission of this body is not just to save the lost at any cost; it is not even just to prepare people to inherit eternal life – our purpose is to give the world one final witness and to prepare the rulers of the world to come.

4. A different order. To the fullest extent possible, we seek to follow New Testament order in our services. The pattern of worship is different. The lack of a pre-planned agenda for each service, the openness of each service, etc. are all different than most church organizations.

5. A different organizational structure. We are not a denomination. Our churches are not organized into a man-made organization. We don’t have membership rolls, a ministerial hierarchy or an earthly headquarters.

It would be tempting to say that anything that does not meet these essential points is Babylon; but that may not be true. What, then, are some of the identifying marks of Mystery Babylon? Remember that it was the apostasy of the early church that created Christian Babylon. What was once pure and holy became contaminated and profane. Isaiah 1:21-23 prophetically proclaims that the faithful city (the true work of God on the earth) did become a harlot. In fact, the early church was corrupted by apostasy until it became the mother of harlots.

How can we identify the subtle trends that lead a church which was once part of the body into Babylon? Every true church in the first century eventually had the candlestick removed. What must we avoid to prevent that from happening to us? What makes Babylon, Babylon?

I offer the following partial list of the earmarks of Babylon.

1. Traditions which void the Scriptures

It is tempting to say that traditions which are not found in the Bible are a characteristic of Babylon. And they are; but not every tradition is Babylonish. Our local church has a tradition of praying at the close of each worship service, but that does not violate the Bible. Some traditions are good, godly and appropriate.

But Jesus strongly condemned the traditions of the Jews in Mark 7:1-13. Those traditions were wrong because they transgressed the commandments of God. When a people attach a deep religious significance to a tradition; when they enforce traditions on the people without biblical sanction; when they inflict punishment on those who do not conform to traditions, they are Babylonish.

And whenever traditions are in conflict with the mandates of the Bible, those traditions are wrong, and even sinful. We should constantly re-evaluate any traditions that creep into our worship. There are things about African culture that we cannot have in our church services. There are things about American culture that we cannot allow to be a part of our church operations. We want the culture of the Bible.

2.A man-made organizational structure

The spirit of Babylon is a spirit of a man-made organization. In II Samuel 6, King David attempted to bring the ark of God to Jerusalem. They placed it upon a new oxcart. But the Lord was displeased, and there was a breach. In I Chronicles 15:2, it is reported that David understood that the ark could not be carried on a man-made cart, but had to be borne on the shoulders of the men of God.

Even so, the body of Christ cannot have a written constitution, bylaws, supervisory directives, and an earthly headquarters. Our headquarters, our home office, is in heaven. But an earmark of Babylon is the development of an organizational framework.

Voting, caucusing, politicking, and lobbying in state, regional and national legislative bodies are foreign to the operation of the body of Christ. Just as there is no earthly executive branch providing government over men called of God, so there is no legislative branch adopting rules, regulations and laws to govern men of God.

A very important principle to us in this fellowship is found in I Corinthians 11:3-4. Bro. William Sowders taught us that the head of a man of God is Christ. Any God-called man ministering with an earthly covering dishonors Christ. An organization is an earthly covering. Credentials to preach, issued by a religious organization, are an earmark of Babylon.

3. Regional bishops / Ministerial hierarchy

The concepts of regional bishops and a ministerial hierarchy crept into the early church. Popular pastors developed greater authority – all with the best of intentions. As pastors sent out other men into the ministry, those men naturally looked back to their pastors for advice, guidance and direction. Others became influential, leading men, because of their intelligence, great gifts from God, or influential churches. Others naturally deferred to them.

Initially, many of these men were honorable men, just trying to be a benefit to the general church. But power continued to flow to them, and power can corrupt. When there were vacancies in churches, the powerful, the influential preachers in the region were called upon to send out, and ordain, other pastors. Instead of calling a group of local elders “bishops,” that title began to be reserved for the leading, influential men.

This was a part of the falling away of the early church. Like Diotrephes, some men loved to have preeminence. III John 9. They accumulated influence and power. There is something in the nature of men to seek positions of authority. But there is also something corrupting about such power.

Jesus was against men seeking offices of authority. Matthew 23:6-12. We should be very careful that we do not set up a ministerial hierarchy. To do so would be a step toward apostasy and Babylon.

4. A strange spirit

The spirit that characterized the worship services of Babylonish churches is strange. We are not referring to the Holy Spirit of God, but to the mannerisms, the sounds, the types of music sang and played, and everything that goes into religious worship. Maybe it doesn’t seem strange to the religious world, but it is to the Lord and to His people.

When Moses and Joshua returned to the camp of Israel from Mount Sinai in Exodus 32, they heard a strange sound. Verse 17. Joshua was alarmed at the sound. The people had made a golden calf and were worshipping around it in a strange manner. The spirit around the golden calf was noticeably different than the spirit when the children of Israel were rejoicing after the parting of the Red Sea and the defeat of Pharaoh. It was different than the spirit that would characterize the worship at the tabernacle Moses was going to have constructed.

In Leviticus 10:1-2, two priests of the Lord, Nadab and Abihu, offered strange fire on the altar of God. Whatever was strange about the fire these two priests offered, God did not recognize it as true worship. He judged them for offering it. See Numbers 3:4. These were sons of Aaron; they had functioned as priests to the people. Exodus 24:1, 9-11. But they started some strange worship.

An earmark of Babylon is a strange style of worship. There is an order in the body of Christ, one that the Lord recognizes and honors. We cannot substitute something strange in our music, in our preaching, in our spiritual activities, lest we become Babylonish.

5. A ritual-based order

Jesus warned in Matthew 15:9 that people could worship Him in vain. In Matthew 7:21-23, He said He would reject people who claimed to prophesy in His name, cast out evil spirits, and do many wonderful works. Some religious worship, even worship of Jesus, is in vain. In Matthew 6:7, Jesus said that vain repetitions are not true worship. Yet Babylon’s standard worship rituals are nothing more than vain repetitions.

Worship in Old Testament Israel was very ritualistic. Holy days, offerings, temple ceremonies, etc., were all teaching tools to point Israel to their Redeemer. But the New Testament church is not ritualistic. The congregation is not to be passive while observing a professional priesthood perform sacred rituals. Worship is not that way in the body of Christ. Even the rituals we have, communion and water baptism, require participation by the saints.

Rituals, of course, demand professional priests. New Testament order did not make use of the Levitical priesthood. There are five offices in the ministry: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. There is no office of priest. Only Jesus Christ is a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. In the church, we are all a royal priesthood. I Peter 2:9.

Babylon does not have Spirit-led services; their worship services are pre-planned and pre-programmed. Sermons can be announced at least a week in advance, every song is determined before the service begins, who will speak, how long they will speak, and other such items are in a pre-set agenda.

It was not so in the early church. Acts 13:2 was a Spirit-led service. While they were ministering, or serving, the Holy Ghost spoke – likely in tongues and interpretation – saying to send out Barnabas and Saul for a work the Lord had for them. “How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.” I Corinthians 14:26.

We believe in being led by the Spirit. The spirit of Babylon does not give room for the Holy Ghost to operate.

6. False doctrine/ smooth things

Babylon started as false religion – teaching things that were not the truth. An earmark of Babylon has always been a turning away from truth to fables, errors, and messages that only tickle ears, but don’t change hearts. A rebellious people will not listen to truth; instead Isaiah 30:9-10 says they will ask the prophets to prophesy smooth things. They want their messages to be easy to swallow. The preachers are not to make any demands on the people. Do not ask them to sacrifice, or to change their lives.

In II Timothy 4:3-4, Paul wrote against preachers who just tickle the ears of the saints. The Gospel is supposed to challenge the people to change for the better; it is not to flatter their vanity. The early church transformed into Babylon because the preachers did not stand firm on the order and truth given to them by Jesus and His apostles.

Jeremiah 50:6 says that it is the shepherds who caused the sheep to wander. But the saints are willing accomplices in this. Jeremiah 5:31 says that when the prophets prophesy falsely, the people love to have it so. At least most of them do.

The problem with this, of course, is that it leads to corruption of the purity of the church. It is not body order. It facilitates apostasy. When preachers stop preaching against worldliness, and when the church forgets that it has been called out of the world, it becomes Babylon.

Paul warned in II Timothy 3:1 that in the last days of the early church the people would be turned away from truth. That is because false teachers would prophesy smooth things. Those became the popular preachers. Those “hard” preachers, who condemned worldliness and demanded discipleship, were not so popular.

Where did these false preachers and false teachings come from? Jude 4 says that those who were leading the church into error crept in unawares. They did not come in from outside the fellowship. They were raised up in the fellowship, but to the surprise of many, they corrupted the truth. Paul wasn’t as worried about outsiders corrupting the Ephesian church; he said that men would arise from the inside, speaking perverse things, to draw away their own disciples. Acts 20:30.

The Apostle Peter wrote in II Peter 2:1-3 that there would be false teachers in the church. They would not come in from outside; they would be among the people. They would “privily” bring in “damnable heresies.” Respected preachers would err from the truth, and stealthily corrupt the work of the Lord. When truth is overwhelmed by error, that is Babylon. We may not have all the truth, but we are coming out of error, and not going into error. That is an important distinction. The body of Christ may not have every truth right; but we are not moving into apostasy.

This is a 4 part series, we will be posting these series on a weekly basis and will update this post with each new installment of the series until its complete.

• The Missionary Journeys of Paul – Part 1
• The Missionary Journeys of Paul – Part 2
• The Missionary Journeys of Paul – Part 3
• The Missionary Journeys of Paul – Part 4