The Appearance of Defeat
When Jesus hung shredded and dead on the cross, it looked like anything but victory. His disciples fled in despair and there was no comforting voice from heaven to explain the situation and lessen the pain. He had told them He would be put to death, but somehow they didn't really believe it. And they certainly didn't expect it to be like that. Although it looked like total defeat, it was the greatest victory ever.
The Wisdom of the Cross
It was the wisdom of God being expressed --- that wisdom that spiritual victory arises out of the ashes of natural defeat. Death precedes resurrection. It is the wisdom that God desires to demonstrate through His church at the end of this age as expressed in Ephesians 3:9-11.
Jesus said to Follow Him
A similar scenario will take place at the end of this age when the church is “turned over” to the antichrist system for three and one-half years. The fifth seal in the book of Revelation reads of a quota of martyrs that is set not by the devil, but by God. In the midst of this, when things are at their darkest, we are told not to fear but that the events are birth pains. This requires an spiritual and eternal view, not a short-term view in the natural. The natural things, including in many cases our bodies, are scheduled for destruction so that God's higher purposes may be served.
It is going to be a challenge to see beyond the natural in these times and put all hope in the eternal. It is going to be a challenge to embrace this as the outworking of the love of the Father to conform His saints into the likeness of Jesus, to defeat the enemy, and to restore all creation. Jesus warns that in the midst of this, many will fall away and the love of most will grow cold.
We are so saturated by natural events that we forget that God said that the things that we cannot see are the real things and the things we can see are not. Those who have their hopes resting on the things of this world --- even their physical well-being --- are going to be shaken when these things Jesus warned us about come to pass.
Vision of the Eternal
Our hope and vision must be for the eternal joy beyond. And we must not be stumbled by the things that are coming in the natural. For as Jesus explains, these things are but birth pains serving a higher purpose. And that is why we are told to glory in nothing but in the cross of Jesus Christ. For it is God's wisdom of the cross that is the wisdom behind this amazing plan. Even as Jesus' body was destroyed on the cross, so will many if not most of His church be destroyed on this earth as they are given over as sheep to be slaughtered. Paul said this because he understood it and lived it out. And we must understand it as well so that when the time comes, we can also live it out. It is the pathway of God's restoration of His people and His creation.
The leaders in the church are not preaching this message. They do not seem to understand the book of Revelation and its application to the church. The love of God for His church is forced into natural terms that men can relate to only in this lifetime and not in eternity. We are not being properly prepared. We have been deceived by the enemy and sold a cheap grace belief system that caters to the flesh. It is in the enemy's best interests to keep us so deceived that we fall away.
But those who endure to the end and are saved will overcome by the Blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and by loving not their lives unto death just like the Bible says.
V. Kuenzi
Restoring the Vision of the End-times Church