The Parable of two Foundations

When the church was newly born, the gospel was being spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. At that time there were many troubles and trials, much persecution and yet there was also tremendous growth. Nowadays, Christianity is the common faith among the most wealthy and powerful nations in the world. Our faith has gone from being persecuted to being openly endorsed, and yet spiritually, modern Christianity is like a fire that has burned out, leaving only a few red embers behind.

In the first century, when Christians were beaten because of their faith, did they fight back? did they grumble under their breath? No, they openly rejoiced and praised God for their own bruises and bloodshed. They actually saw pain as a blessing, a source of growth and a confirmation of the authenticity of the spirit within them. Why?

If they were being taught by modern Christian teachers, they might have learned to take persecution with grit teeth, while filling their minds with dreams of God's vengeance. But in Acts 14:22 is says that the Apostles were going from town to town,

strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”

The New Testament is absolutely full of references to the divine purpose of trials and tribulation. According to the church fathers, and to the scripture, when suffering is justified, we are being corrected, when it isn't just, we are storing up heavenly treasure. All things, even pain, work for the good of those that love God. There was no pre-trib vs post-trib debate in the days of Christ and his apostles. It wasn't assumed, it was known by the early church that the last generation of Christians would live through the great tribulation. Romans 5:1-5 is a classic teaching:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

The book of 1 Peter also has wonderful teachings about the value of suffering. It is a relatively short book, and today I'd like to focus on Chapter 4 verses 12-16:

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.

What happened to America in the wake of 9-11? Did the Christian leaders of our nation teach their congregations to bless those that cursed us? To turn the other cheek, or even to look to God for their protection? No. How different would todays world be if the church leaders had taken that course? I believe it would be very different, because in the wake of those attacks, a spirit has guided the hearts of congregations throughout America. This spirit was pro-America, pro-vengeance, and literally anti-Christ.

Because of that spirit, millions of American Christians still thirst for the blood of their Muslim enemies, while sending their children and their taxes to war. They don't bother to distinguish between their enemies and people who just sort of look like enemies. They condone killing for the sake of showing superiority. How can America dare to claim to be a righteous nation with this sort of brutal treatment of others? One could argue that we are a righteous nation because of our history before 9-11, but this spirit of brutal self-righteousness was not born with the war on Terrorism. Consider the persecution of the Indians, which killed many more people than the Nazi Holocaust; consider the treatment of slaves and immigrants; consider the fact that we created and introduced the Atomic Bomb to the world. Blood is the mortar in the foundation of this "Christian" nation. It saturates our history. We also have many pagan idols filling our Nation's capital and government buildings around the country, Yet we have an assumption that God will bless America...why should He? What makes us assume that he will? My Bible says that "The Lord does not show favoritism" and "Be not deceived, God will not be mocked, a man will reap whatever he sews".

God is speaking out through the tragedies that are plaguing America right now. And he will continue to speak this way until we listen, and we change our hearts and attitudes about everything.

If this teaching is strange to you, I encourage you to press on. Read Hebrews 12 (and I will quote verses 10-13)

Our human fathers correct us for a short time, and they do it as they think best. But God corrects us for our own good, because he wants us to be holy, as he is. It is never fun to be corrected. In fact, at the time it is always painful. But if we learn to obey by being corrected, we will do right and live at peace. Now stand up straight! Stop your knees from shaking and walk a straight path. Then lame people will be healed, instead of getting worse.

Nowadays, America is showing the world exactly what the spirit of a free and supposedly Christian nation is like, and it's terribly ugly compared to that of the early church. Jesus Himself is returning just in time to save his reputation from the deeds of his professed believers. Millions have no faith, no compassion, no forgiveness, no mercy, no clear vision, no clue about the consequences of our behavior. American Christians are drunk with the wine of Babylon, and we don't even have the decency or awareness to be ashamed of our spiritually drunken behavior.

Instead, we go to church, we sing songs, we baptize our children and invoke the name Jesus as though it would help to ward God off from searching deep into our hearts and minds and finding out the selfish truth. Within the church, we do a wonderful job of reaffirming and reassuring one another, even as we wander further and further away from the true path of faith, hope, and love. Has God changed over time? Isn't the church today supposed to resemble the early church in spirit? Has anything about God's plan for the world, or the Gospel of Jesus Christ changed over the past 2000 years? Nothing in scripture has changed, but the doctrines of Christianity have been modified to support tyranny, inquisitions, crusades, and general heartlessness. One such doctrine that has poisoned the church the most is Pre-tribulation rapture. I have discussed this issue before, several times, but it's something that Christians must come to understand, if they are to be saved from the storms and troubles that will mark Christ's return.

American and Western Christians flee from suffering these days. We see suffering as punishment intended for the unjust, and comfort and wealth as the blessing of God. Tribulation is not an honor anymore, it's a terror. Why? Because of the commonly held belief in a pre-tribulation rapture. This sick, twisted, blasphemous new tradition is the greatest weapon that Satan has unloosed upon modern Christendom. Our conflict in the middle east is fueled by Christian Zionism, which exists only because of the foundational belief of pre-trib rapture. Instead of fighting against the end of days, millions of people who call themselves Christians are working to bring about the end of days. We're being used as pawns of the devil, while thinking of ourselves as the Knights of Jesus Christ. But he warned us against this poisonous thinking:

Luke 7:21-23

Not everyone who calls me their Lord will get into the kingdom of heaven. Only the ones who obey my Father in heaven will get in. On the day of judgment many will call me their Lord. They will say, "We preached in your name, and in your name we forced out demons and worked many miracles." But I will tell them, "I will have nothing to do with you! Get out of my sight, you evil people!

We are in the midst of tremendous famines, wars, pestilence etc. What's more, once the nuclear war starts, a whole long list of end-times prophecy will be filled in a very short period of time....and all of these things will happen without a rapture. Everyone will experience the tribulation; the saved as well as the lost. Those who cling to their belief in a pre-trib rapture as though it were the same thing as their faith in Jesus Christ will be devastated by the coming storm of tribulation. They will feel abandoned and forgotten by God almighty. The foundation of their faith will crumble entirely.

On the other hand, there will be Christians who had not been raised on the escapist fairy tale of the rapture, and those who have been given the grace to see it for the heresy it is. They will be Christians who suffer on behalf of others, whose hearts are broken by the pain that war and institutionalized selfishness cause. These believers will rejoice in the Lord as we witness his judgment and seek his coming, because we will recognize how Good is being called Evil, and Evil is calling itself Good. We will not just stand firm in the midst of tribulation, we will stand even taller as events get worse and the storm rages furiously around us.

And this is what Jesus meant in his parable of the Two houses:

Anyone who hears and obeys these teachings of mine is like a wise person who built a house on solid rock. Rain poured down, rivers flooded, and winds beat against that house. But it did not fall, because it was built on solid rock.

Anyone who hears my teachings and doesn't obey them is like a foolish person who built a house on sand. The rain poured down, the rivers flooded, and the winds blew and beat against that house. Finally, it fell with a crash.

Jesus has an undeniable, supernatural ability to condense intricate and elaborate truths into parables. He paints pictures with words; his parables are like encoded mysteries, meant to be dismissed by those who take them at surface value, while understood by those who have "Eyes to see and ears to hear". If you can envision the two houses mentioned in the parable above, you will notice that they seem on the surface and before trouble to be virtually identical. There is nothing to distinguish the two. They are both, by definition, houses. It is only when troubles come that the integrity of one stands, while the other crumbles. The state of our church today is in serious disrepair, because we are now in the storm. The Christians of Acts rejoiced in their persecution because their ability to withstand it was a gift from the Holy Spirit. They loved being given the opportunity to demonstrate to others how truly God had touched them. According to Jesus, there is no honor in loving those that love you, because even the heathens do that...but special honor comes when you love your enemies, when you do good to those that hurt you, when you turn the other cheek, when you go the extra mile, and obey the calling and commands of Jesus Christ.

To obey the teachings of Christ with joy is to have a solid foundation. On the other hand to simply pretend to follow him without going through the effort of establishing your foundation on the Rock himself is utterly foolish. There are none who can build on the Rock of Christ who do not obey his commands. And all who obey his commands, even without knowing that they are His, are building on the solid rock.

The storm is upon us. God is in the process of judging the entire world. People must come to terms with this because it's really happening. It's not too late for individual people to repent, but it is too late to avoid the consequences of our collective actions. The house will fall, but there is time to escape it before all the walls start crumbling down. Time is very very short, but the doors are still open.

Seek the Lord while he may be found.