The Church of the End Times
By U.S. Army Chaplain (Col.) David J. Giammona, Ret.
Here is the scene: Two prominent leaders of the church have just been beaten and thrown into jail. For good measure, they are placed in a highly secure area and placed in stocks. The charge? Upsetting the status quo by preaching the gospel and delivering a girl from demonic possession.
This was, of course, Acts 16, and the leaders were the Apostle Paul and Silas. However, these kinds of scenes are being played out throughout the world and may be coming here to America in the not-too-distant future.
More than 70 million Christians have been martyred since the time of Christ. The late David B. Barrett, a researcher at the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, states that one million believers died for their faith in Nazi Germany during World War II, and that 15 million Orthodox Christians were murdered in Russia between the years of 1917 and 1950.
This means that multiplied millions of Christians have been martyred since the beginning of the 20th century.
Under the Obama administration, many anti-Christian and anti-Jewish laws and regulations were quietly instituted right under the noses of most Americans. If this trend had continued under Hillary Clinton if she had won the presidency, America would have seen many more discriminatory laws, regulations, and practices under the guise of promoting freedom for all. Here are a few examples, as cited by Wallbuilders, but there are literally hundreds more:
· February 2013 – The Obama Administration announces that the rights of religious conscience for individuals will not be protected under the Affordable Care Act.
· January 2013 – Pastor Louie Giglio is pressured to remove himself from praying at the inauguration after it is discovered he once preached a sermon supporting the biblical definition of marriage.
· January 2012 – The Obama administration argues that the First Amendment provides no protection for churches and synagogues in hiring their pastors and rabbis.
· April 2011 – For the first time in American history, Obama urges passage of a non-discrimination law that does not contain hiring protections for religious groups, forcing religious organizations to hire according to federal mandates without regard to the dictates of their own faith, thus eliminating conscience protection in hiring.
Progressive Agenda to Obliterate Christianity in America
If things don’t change, all this means we’re headed toward a new normal in America.
Yes, President Donald Trump has upset the applecart for the time being and has tried to reinstitute and protect the rights of Christians. Make no mistake about it, but there is an agenda that means to obliterate religion in America.
You see, in the minds of the far left, and increasingly even in the moderate left, religion is blocking the advance of humanitarian freedoms and reform. Religion (conservative Christians and Orthodox Jews) must be removed in order to promote the entire platform of socialists and progressives. They believe that government is the answer to mankind’s problems and that humanism (man is the center of the universe) will lead us to a brighter tomorrow.
For socialism and humanism to work, the church must be marginalized, or at best, eliminated. This battle will define the future state of the church in the end times in America and around the world.
Most pastors agree that the church in its current form and structure is not meeting the mission and mandate of our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s become entwined in relevancy and popular culture and isn’t a catalyst for changing sinners into saints.
Today, there is a deluge of leadership training, program adjustments, social media promotions, musical revolutions, and a host of other well-meaning, self-help efforts that have not addressed the real issue: powerful, supernatural people of God that do mighty exploits as templated in the New Testament.
The Post-Billy Graham World
We live in what I call a post-Billy Graham world, meaning that there may not be another mega-evangelist that is going to lead this nation to repentance. Billy Graham’s daughter, Ann Graham Lotz, believes that there is a connection with the passing of her dad and the second coming of Christ.
Many believers have relied on the great evangelists to bring the message of Christ to a lost and dying world. I believe it may have led to a lethargy in interest in evangelism within the church. After all, if there are great evangelists doing the work of converting the lost, why do I need to do anything?
As Pastor John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard church, once famously said: “When do we get to do the stuff?” Wimber had recently been saved and he asked a lay leader at a church, “When do we get to do the stuff? You know, the stuff here in the Bible; the stuff Jesus did, like healing the sick, raising the dead, healing the blind – stuff like that?” He was told that they didn’t do that anymore – only what they did in their weekly services. John replied, “You mean I gave up drugs for that?”
As we, the church, look for the next energized and astounding megachurch pastor, the vast minions are left holding the bag and wondering when the “stuff” is going to happen. Well, my view is this: we do not need any more training on reaching across cultural boundaries, relevancy in a postmodern era, and the newest musical wave of great sounding harmonic interventions called worship. We need an army of supernatural, Bible believing, hard hitting, powerful people of God that are willing to turn a generation upside down for Christ.
We Need an Army of Supernatural People of God
The million-dollar question is how do we do that? We start by stop preaching fluff and nice sounding, theologically-correct sermons and give the people coming to our services the necessary spiritual ammunition so that they can do the stuff. We must stop building megachurches that center on one person in the pulpit and start promoting small groups within the church that are led by trained, able-bodied believers who are proven “stuff doers.”
Stop pampering the crowds and start effectively managing believers that are trained in the supernatural flow of the Holy Spirit.
I once did a chapel service in Iraq that really templates what I’m talking about. Since we were in an active war zone, all the chapel participants were required to bring their weapons with them and place them on the floor beside them.
The whole chapel was prepared for imminent combat as evidenced by all the rifles, Squad Automatic Weapons (SAWs), and other assorted weaponry, that were scattered throughout the building. They came ready for war and left ready for war. They knew they were in combat and they dressed and prepared for the occasion. It’s the same for the church.
We can no longer rely on the megachurch pastors to do the work of the church. As we approach the time of the end, there is the very real possibility that we won’t be able to do “church” as in the past.
In fact, the church that we now know may not even be in existence as we inch closer to the rise of the Antichrist, the establishment of a new world order, the beginning of the Tribulation, the downward spiral of the world economy, the increasing proliferation of Islam (the world’s fastest-growing religion), and the coming war involving Israel in the Middle East.
I think minister Francis Chan has it right. He stepped down from his position as a megachurch pastor to form small groups in the Bay Area.
He has mentioned on more than one occasion that the day of the megachurch has passed because you cannot simply have one person with gifts as the center of the movement of Jesus Christ.
Change is coming whether we like it or not. Let’s prepare now for what is about to take place.
Founder and president of the Warrior Refuge, U.S. Army Chaplain (Col.) David Giammona retired in June 2018 after 32 years of military service in the Army. His last assignment was the Installation Management Command (IMCOM) in San Antonio, Texas where he was responsible for religious support at all 75 Army installations around the world. An ordained Assemblies of God minister since 1988, Giammona has dedicated his life to writing and speaking with a focus on preparing the church and warning the world regarding the end times. Learn more about him at www.warriorrefuge.com, https://www.facebook.com/GiammonaDavid, www.facebook.com/TheWarriorRefuge.
