Most Charismatic and/or Charismatic-leaning churches and denominations tend to agree that we are in the “End Times.” The point of this article isn’t to argue whether we are or aren’t in that era, but to look at a serious failure of the Church as a whole—a failure that for reasons I don’t understand hasn’t managed to correct itself in roughly 2,000 years.
To see what this glaring failure is, let us take a look at John 11:23-26, which says:
“Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’
Martha said to Him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’
Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?’
See it yet? If not, let me share it with you.
Even though 2,000 years ago, while he was here on earth,Jesus corrected someone on their end-times beliefs, we are still looking toward a last-day resurrection instead of living it out right now. Yes, the glaring error of the church is our end-times view of the resurrection.
Think about it—in John 11, Martha is upset her brother has died. She says to Jesus “I know I will see him again when everyone gets resurrected at the end of time.” Jesus replies by basically saying “Yeah, I get that, but not only can he live right now, but he will live right now” and then goes on to demonstrate then and there what he just told Martha by raising Lazarus from the dead.
The thing I can’t understand is why, 2000 years later, we are still so focused on the end-of-days resurrection that most people completely ignore Jesus’ response to Martha. It has huge implications for our beliefs! He didn’t argue with Martha’s theology or tell her there wouldn’t be an end-of-days resurrection, which leaves us to assume that there will be one. However, we have passed over the fact that Jesus ignored it because when He is present, an end-times resurrection becomes completely irrelevant. How so? Let’s take a look at what Jesus replied to her.
“He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” In normal-day language, he said “If you die, then you will be raised from the dead and live again, right here, right now. If you are still alive and believe in me then you will never die.”
News flash! The Church has been so focused on the last-day resurrection that we have all but completely ignored the fact that Jesus literally told us that if we believe in Him then we never have to physically die!! And if we don’t die, we will never need an end-times resurrection. Think about the ramifications of that! This is the glaring failure of the end-times church—we have learned to give up when Jesus has told us over and over again that He has planned something totally different for us.
If we don’t actually have to die physically, then wouldn’t we start living our lives differently? Instead of planning for retirement for when we grow old and feeble, would we start making plans like Caleb in the Old Testament? He wasn’t reclining on pillows while someone woke him up after his mid-morning nap and wiped the drool from his chin. While he was in his 80’s he both commanded and led a war charge to take over a new territory—not the picture of someone who had one foot in the grave.
If people like Caleb in the Old Testament can access this while living under an inferior covenant, isn’t it time that we, the children of God, living under the new covenant that gives life, do far better? It is time we get the revelation of the gospel that Jesus and Paul preached—the gospel of life and immortality (2 Timothy 1:10-11) that says that because Jesus has taken the keys of death, hell, and the grave and has destroyed the written code of laws set against us, that we are no longer subject to physical death and have the right and authority to command life into any and every situation. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. It’s been 2000 years, isn’t it time we started doing something about it?
To read more of God’s plan for our future and how to get there, grab a copy of my book “The Gospel of Life and Immortality,” available on both Kindle and in Print on Amazon.
