THE FOCUS OF THE TRIBULATION IS THE APOSTATE CHURCH

 Bernard Pyron

1 Peter 4:17 says  "For the time [is come] that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if [it] first [begin] at us, what shall the end [be] of them that obey not the gospel of God? "

Many who profess to be Christians believe that they need not accept all the doctrines taught in the Bible and can follow theologies that contradict what Scripture teaches, and still be saved. But the Bible does not support this idea. Look first at Matthew 7: 13-14 and 21:

"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide [is] the gate, and broad [is] the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait [is] the gate, and narrow [is] the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

John 3: 31 says "But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." The opposite of light is darkness and he who is not in Christ's truth is in darkness. Christ tells us in John 4; 23-24 that "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God [is] a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship [him] in spirit and in truth."

John 8: 44 teaches that "Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." He is talking to the Pharisees, but the devil tries to lead all of us away from the truth.

Then there is that great statement of Jesus in John 14: 6, "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" Christ not only speaks the truth, he is himself the truth.

In John 14: 16-17 Christ promises to send the Holy Spirit, whose mission is to bring us to Christ's truth. "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; [Even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."

Finally, in John 17: 15-17 Jesus prays to the Father, saying "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. " Here is the doctrine that we are sanctified through the truth in God's word. If we do not accept and love all of Christ's truth, how can we be sanctified?

In Romans 1: 18 Paul begins his teaching on the three stages of God's judgment on those who fall into  error or unrepented sin.  "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;" God's anger comes down on those who do not accept his truth. And adding false doctrines to one's beliefs will also bring on the wrath of the Lord.

In Romans 1: 21 Paul says the first stage of God's judgment for rejecting his truth

and abiding in lies is "...their foolish heart was darkened.' Next, in verses 24 and 27 he

notes that God brings stronger judgment by giving those who reject truth over to vile affections. He uses the example of homosexuality, but there are other ways of dishonoring our bodies.

Finally, God's most severe judgment in seen in verse 28. God gives them over to a reprobate mind. Their minds go bad and when this happens they really have a hard time of ever coming out of it.

In Galatians 5: 7 Paul admonishes the Galatians for accepting the false doctrines of the Judaizers who wanted to return Paul's Christians back to the the ceremonial law of

physical Israel. "Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the

truth? " They failed to obey the truth because they added false doctrines taught them by the Judaizers. Many of the false doctrines around today

are a form of Judaizing of Christianity. Dispensationalism, at least in its older or

classical form, exalts physical and unsaved Israel above spiritual Israel. And in different

ways, Christian Identity and Sacred Name Theology raise physical and unsaved Israel

above spiritual Israel. Christian Identity says we Anglo-Saxons and Celts are somehow

the "lost tribes of Israel" and are blessed by God because of that race identity. Sacred Name Theology wants to return to the "Hebrew Roots' of Christianity by honoring physical Israel.

We not only need to begin to have a love of the truth and to start

being in the truth, we also must stay in the truth. John 15; 4-6 says;

"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye [are] the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast [them] into the fire, and they are burned."

Abide means to stay. To abide in Christ's truth means to stay in it.

There is that statement in John 8: 31-32 that is taken out of context by some academics to mean that learning swecular truths will make us free. "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, [then] are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

Knowing the truth will make you free of sin and the death sentence on man for sin, executed by Satan.

It is hard enough to get on the road to Christ's truth by reading
Scripture and reading or hearing how others interpret the Bible.
False doctrines like dispensationalism become stumbling blocks that make it
even harder to find what truth is.

Look what Ezekiel 14: 4 says about stumblng blocks. "Therefore
speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every
man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart,
and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and
cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh
according to the multitude of his idols;"

God may give you over to your false doctrines as stumbling blocks.
Get out of false doctrines as fast as you can.

II Thessalonians 2: 10-12. states the doctrine that Christians must have a love

for the truth and be in the truth, and that loving Christ's truth is a part

of being saved.
" And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish;
because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be
saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that
they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who
believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. "
If you persist in fase doctrines, God may send you strong delusion
which may lock you in so its even harder to
get out of it.

II Thessalonians 2: 10-12 explains the basis for God's wrath upon the present day apostate church. The Church -  the 501C(3) incorporated organizations - no longer has a love for the truth and is not in the truth. This is why judgment must begin at the house of God and what the Trumpet Judgments of the Tribulation are about. The Judgments are God's wrath upon his Church for falling away from his truth.

The Tribulation is mainly about those who are
counted as being in the kingdom of God, what the
dispensationalists call the Church. A key Scripture
for this is Zechariah 13: 8-9, which divides the Church
into three groups. Two thirds are to be cut off and will
die, which is not only physical death but also being
cut off from eternal life with Christ. One third is to be
brought through the fire, which is the Tribulation. They turn
from being in false doctrines due to accepting theologies
rather than the truth of Scripture, cry out to the Lord and he
accepts them.

Then, in Revelation 9, the Fifth and Sixth Trumpet Judgments
there are three main players. The apostate Church members who
go bad are called metaphorically the locust-scorpions of the Fifth
Trumpet and the serpents of the Sixth Trumpet. The locust-scorpions
do not have the powder to kill but only to torment that one third
who come out of strong delusion to the truth. The serpents have the
power to kill the one third who at that time afre in the truth
and can be called the Multitude.

Revelation 9 does not say who carries out the jailing and killing
of the Multitude. Its probably the government who is in the role
of the Roman authority, Pilate, who had Christ crucified.
The scribes and Pharisees are represented in the Tribulaton as the
serpents who demand that the government kill the Multitude
for having incorrect Christian doctrine. The locust-scorpions are
in the role of Judas who betrayed Christ.

The locust-scorpions and serpents take the mark of the Beast, in
fact they join the Beast and one interpretration of Revelation
13 1-2 is that the scorpions and serpents at one level are
the Beast.

Revelation 17 shows us metaphorically a woman riding the Beast.
Before they turn away from theology and accept the truth, the
Multitude are riding the Beast, which at one level is the government
as well as the financial elite, and at another level is the locust-
scorpions and serpents. However, the Multitude are not steering
the government Beast as the scorpions and serpents are
trying to do.

And so Rick Warren and John Hagee are important to look at because
they and their many followers are riding the goverment Beast,
trying to steer it in one case to make war for national
and physical Israel who they consider the chosen people, and in the
other case to use government to help set up Warren's world wide
evangelical regime which propagates false doctrines, or another
Jesus and another Gospel.

The abomination of desolation is giving up the position of
spiritual Israel as a chosen generation in Christ and raising up
physical and unsaved Israel which is hated by a jealous God.

The Beast as government will persecute and murder the Multude
but only after the Multitude is betrayed by the scorpions and
turned into the government by the serpents, the modern day
Pharsees.

John 16: 2: tells us that. "They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the
time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God
service."

Matthew 10: 17: says "But beware of men: for they shall deliver you up
to the
councils, and they shall scourge you in their synagogues."

The two thirds of the Church who go bad will think they are doing God
a service
by having the Multitude killed.

I Corinthisns 14: 29 says "Let the prophets speak two or three,

and let the other judge."

Let the prophets speak two or three and let us decide whether we
believe them, or interpret what they are saying in Scripture to mean
that when the Tribulation hits two thirds of the Church will have
gone so bad
that they will want to jail and murder that one third who turns to
the truth.

Which group will you be in if you are alive at the start of the
Trumpet
Judgments of Revelation 9?