Posted by
ValiantForTruth on Saturday, January 29, 2011 10:48:31 AM
"...I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" [Matthew 16:18].
Re: http://townhall.com/columnists/DavidStokes/2011/01/29/all_church_is_local/
Pastor Stokes has given us testimony of the reality of the ultimate purposes of the Creator of heaven and earth. Christ is building His universal church by calling His people through the local churches under the authority of the Apostles' eyewitness testimony given to the churches as fulfillment of the will of God...
“I do not pray for these alone [the Apostles], but also for those who will believe in Me through their word..." [John 17:20].
Now in light of 1 John 5:14, would we think that Jesus is making a petition contrary to the will of God?
'Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us' [1 John 5:14].
Will we doubt that God who does all things after the counsel of His own will is fulfilling Christ's prayer in ways other than according to His will? At His ascension and coronation, Christ receives the worship of heaven...
Worthy is the Lamb to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For He was slain,
And has redeemed us to God by His blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
And has made us kings and priests to our God;
And we shall reign on the earth. [Revelation 5]
The world mocks and the forces of darkness resist, but the Lamb has already redeemed His people. He is now gathering them from every nation and His faithfulness is to all generations. This world continues to exist only until all come to faith for none of the given ones will be lost [John 6:37-40].
But how are the redeemed to be kings and priests? They offer up the sacrifices of thanksgiving for mercy received and in grace they reign over sin and death. Sin is on longer their master and death is but the shedding of their body of corruption, which awaits the resurrection of the body. Being born again of the Spirit, they have already experienced the first resurrection. Over them the second death has no power.
There are far too many today who preach dependence on men and nations, but these things are temporal. Men and nations come and go for the world and things of the world are passing away, but Christ is eternal and His kingdom is everlasting. We applaud Paster Stokes for reminding us of the things of faith which are not passing away, but are in process of coming to completion.