Thank you so much for your web ministry. Your insights are so articulate and thoughtful, I cannot tell you the number of times that you put so succinctly what I have been feeling/thinking especially in terms of praying for this nation. I have a question regarding end time harvest. I feel an urgency to share the gospel, yet I find mostly hard hearts and itching ears for a completely different gospel. My question is, will there be a great end time harvest as I have always been taught or is Luke 18:8 a more accurate description of the time we are in (which I believe to be the end time)? I appreciate your input.
As you might know, I believe the 7 letters to 7 churches in Revelation 2-3 are prophetic as well as historical. Two of them give us a clear indication of what’s coming for the Church. The 6th letter, to Philadelphia, has a message for the Church of the Rapture. It says, I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. (Rev. 3:8)
The 7th letter was written to the apostate Church, Laodicea. It says, You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. (Rev. 3:17)
When you compare these two statements, you can see that at the End of the Age the true church will grow weaker while the apostate church will become big and wealthy.
Paul agreed when he wrote that the time would come when men would not put up with sound doctrine but instead, to suit their own desires,would gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. (2 Tim 4:3)
These and other verses have led me to conclude that the great apostasy Paul also wrote about (2 Thes. 2:3) refers to the flight of “name only” Christians from the true Church into the apostate Church as the end of the age approaches.