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Articles 2021-2023
Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.
(Luke 2:1)
Scripture sometimes refers to the Roman Empire as though it was the whole earth. Since the empire obviously did not cover the entire planet, it seems that God was indicating that the realm of Rome’s authority was the then–present clearest example of the world system apart from Him. So, while Caesar may have had a rather large sphere of political and military influence, the truth is that he was just playing a rather small part in God’s preparation of the world for the entrance of the true King of the nations.
Caesar’s decree interrupted the plans of many thousands of people across the realm as they now had to pick up from where they were and travel to the city of their birth. I imagine there might have been a bit of grumbling.
And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city.
(Luke 2:3)
It is doubtful that even a few had Heaven’s eternal perspective as they observed all this Caesar–generated activity. God was moving the population of a whole empire to get one couple to a specific city. The reason was that He had a plan, a purpose, a strategy, and a promise to fulfill. His promise was Christ. And according to plan, His anointed Messiah would be both eternal in origin and yet also born in the town of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2).
So, Joseph and Mary traveled to the city of David (Luke 2:4 - 5).
While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room (Greek, TOPOS – a place) for them in the inn (Greek, KATALUMA – has the idea of a dissolution, a disintegration).
The word that God chose to use for inn in the above verse conveys the idea of the end or the dissolution of a journey. Thus, by implication it can refer to a place of lodging. Interestingly, it comes from KATALUO which means to loosen down, to destroy, or to demolish. God could have used the word PANDOCHEION, a public lodging place, which Jesus used in the story of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:34). But instead, He used KATALUMA. I think the reason is because He wanted to convey not only the idea that there was no room for His Son at a physical inn but also the truth that there was simply no place for Him in what was in the process of disintegration. Because of sin, God had subjected the whole creation to futility knowing that it would one day be set free from its slavery to corruption/decay/disintegration into the glorious freedom of the children of God (Romans 8:21).
There are two kingdoms. One is marked by disintegration; the other by integration. God is integrating a people into oneness with Himself and with each other. The great sign of Heaven’s work at the end of days will be a singular people revealing one mind and motivated by one heart. In those days, this corporate “one new man” will have grown up into Him who is the Head (Ephesians 4:15). Such integrated oneness with Heaven revealed through God’s diverse people as they live in harmony with His agenda/His priorities will leave without excuse those among the nations who say there is no God (John 17:21).
And Israel will see her Messiah increasingly revealed in this presently developing corporate expression of grace. Let us pray into this emerging miracle.
Jesus was the Holy One of God, miraculously conceived and born of the virgin Mary (Luke 1:35). And because He was without sin, He could not be held by the grip of either death (Acts 2:24) nor decay/corruption (Acts 3:27). It is true that at the cross He became sin (2Corinthians 5:21). But when He died, sin died and its power was broken. And in this One where sin was annihilated, there could be no disintegration.
So, Jesus arose as the first born of all creation (Colossians 1:15), the beginning of the integration of heaven and earth. And in our own day, while the lives/the souls of multitudes are presently fragmenting, the solution to this present and ongoing dissolution is found in the only One since Adam in whom there was and is no sin, no decay, no corruption.
As a result, all who repent and are plunged into Him have not only received forgiveness, they are increasingly seeing their souls, their lives, and their families integrated from fragmentation into wholeness as they learn to abide in Him. Here is the miracle of God’s work in His people. O Lord Jesus reveal Your salvation all across the earth!
God’s apostolic strategy is for corporate Christianity to reveal the miracle. As it was for Christ two thousand years ago, so it is with us. There simply is no place for us in the city of man, the kingdom marked by disintegration. Rather, we are to be the place where God reveals on earth through a diverse people the integrated wholeness found in heaven. In other words, Church is supposed to be an emerging miracle, not an organization. Only God can make us whole. Only He can produce among us the oneness that Jesus prayed for – that as the Father dwelt in the Son and as Jesus abode in Him, the Church by living immersed in Him would be integrated into wholeness (John 17:21).
The rallying point for the healing of the creation is Christ. There is salvation in simply no one else. Heaven has no other solution, no other agenda. Christian leadership must stop seeking to rally people around themselves and their particular ministries, around certain doctrines, around specific building methodologies, around various ethnicities. There is only Christ and He is everything (Colossians 3:11). Let us gather to Him. Let us hear Heaven’s call to keep Him the central focus of our lives both individually and corporately.
The present fragmented condition of Christ’s Church testifies to the prevalence among us of our strength and our priorities that have been mingled together with those of Heaven. May our God arise into greater clarity in our midst giving us greater insight into His character, His glory, His holiness. And in seeing Him, may we experience an increasing collapse of our ways and an establishing among us of His. Arise O Lord in building Your house. Fulfill Your promise in the sight of all men that the gates of hell cannot prevail!
God’s solution to the ways, the strength, and the priorities of man in His house is His holy fire. When He sent His Son, it was His purpose to immerse in the Holy Spirit and fire those who would respond to Him (Luke 3:16). Today, His present consuming fire among us is preparing us for the coming day of the Lord.
On that day, He will bring the physical creation into the completion of the disintegration process that He set in motion when Adam sinned.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed (Greek, LUO – loosed, dissolved) with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
We could refer to that day as the coming great dissolution. But thankfully, we are being prepared for it as He brings us into harmony with His holy fiery presence. When He surfaces in us the dross sins of pride, lust, greed, jealousy, etc., let us quickly repent.
Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved (Greek, LUO), what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved (Greek, LUO), being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
(2Peter 3:11 - 12 NKJV)
The great dissolution!
But wait a minute. I thought that God intended to free the creation from its enslavement to disintegration. It’s true. He did. But He had to start somewhere. So, He became one of us. He stepped into the creation and invited all who would listen to come, to repent, to live their lives in Him, and so be saved from the present and coming dissolution.
Will God’s plan work? Of course, it will. He didn’t send a man or an angel; He came Himself to set it all in motion and to be the environment for its fulfillment. That is the very definition of commitment. And He is as committed to His purpose today as He was two thousand years ago. But our part in all of this is that we simply must turn away from those thoughts, acts, and priorities that are in harmony with the great dissolution. There is no place for us there. The creation will be dissolved in the fire of God’s holy judgment. But then He will make it new. He will reintegrate it all as He establishes new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2Peter 3:13).
In closing, we have too often read Romans 8:14 in isolation from its context. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. But notice what Paul said in the previous verse. We must by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body. Then he said that those led by the Spirit are God’s sons. Clearly, the context seems to demand that it is those who are led by the Spirit in denying the flesh who are sons of God. This is what it means to pick up our cross. And this is what the whole creation is waiting for (Romans 8:19) – a people on earth increasingly coming unto harmony with heaven. Of course, the full revelation of the sons of God will occur at the full revelation of the Son of God at His appearing. But the days of preparation are here and now.
The world is fragmenting societally, environmentally (some use the phrase climate change), economically, militarily, etc. But God’s purpose is to put on display before the whole earth the way to and the place of salvation – even Christ. Let us abide in Him, learn His ways, and live in harmony with His priorities. And let us love one another.
Donald Rumble – May 2023
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