"Now is our Salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand" Romans 13: 11-12.
In this weighty passage, past, future and present are brought together. Past "the night is far spent"; future, "the day is at hand"; and present, "let us cast off the works of darkness....." And why all this? Because final 'salvation is nearer than when we believed...'; or in other words, because Jesus is coming.
The Christians of the Apostolic age believed that He would come in their time; and about that let it be said that whereas their perspective was wrong, their hope was right. Alas, that for long centuries since then both the perspective and the hope of multitudes of Christians have been wrong. Early the truth about the Lord's Return faded from view, and the Church set out to save the world - and today in places, the world is farther from being saved than ever it has been.
I say in places because reading the book "Back to Jerusalem" by three Chinese Church leaders, it tells of 2 billion Christians in China. It tells of 100,000 Chinese Christians committed to carry the gospel back to Jerusalem travelling down the 'Silk Road' (an ancient trade route)....and this is happening today. In the book of the Acts of the Apostles, the gospel, the Christian message was directed West by the Holy Spirit.....and it has travelled West through Europe to America, and round the world to China and now 'Back to Jerusalem'
Rev. Paul Yongi Cho has a 300.000 member congregation in S.Korea.....that was some time ago.
S. America has large Christian congregations numbering many thousands...... These things can be 'googled' and see what you discover.
But in this passage Paul says our duty is threefold. First, wake up All the maidens 'slumbered and slept' and through centuries, notwithstanding endless religeous activities, the Church which has not known, or has denied, that the Lord is coming again has been asleep, and the call rings out in this our day, Wake Up, wake up.
The second thing is to dress properly There are clothes to be 'cast off', and clothes to be 'put on'. Our night vestments, called 'the works of darkness' are to be put aside and in their place we are to 'put on the weapons of light' - for defence and holy aggression.
Stop building castles and get into the conflict.
Thirdly we must act rightly; we are to 'walk decently' as becomes people whose daily strength is in the conviction that the LOrd is on the way, and that at any time today we may see 'the flaming of His feet'
In this weighty passage, past, future and present are brought together. Past "the night is far spent"; future, "the day is at hand"; and present, "let us cast off the works of darkness....." And why all this? Because final 'salvation is nearer than when we believed...'; or in other words, because Jesus is coming.
The Christians of the Apostolic age believed that He would come in their time; and about that let it be said that whereas their perspective was wrong, their hope was right. Alas, that for long centuries since then both the perspective and the hope of multitudes of Christians have been wrong. Early the truth about the Lord's Return faded from view, and the Church set out to save the world - and today in places, the world is farther from being saved than ever it has been.
I say in places because reading the book "Back to Jerusalem" by three Chinese Church leaders, it tells of 2 billion Christians in China. It tells of 100,000 Chinese Christians committed to carry the gospel back to Jerusalem travelling down the 'Silk Road' (an ancient trade route)....and this is happening today. In the book of the Acts of the Apostles, the gospel, the Christian message was directed West by the Holy Spirit.....and it has travelled West through Europe to America, and round the world to China and now 'Back to Jerusalem'
Rev. Paul Yongi Cho has a 300.000 member congregation in S.Korea.....that was some time ago.
S. America has large Christian congregations numbering many thousands...... These things can be 'googled' and see what you discover.
But in this passage Paul says our duty is threefold. First, wake up All the maidens 'slumbered and slept' and through centuries, notwithstanding endless religeous activities, the Church which has not known, or has denied, that the Lord is coming again has been asleep, and the call rings out in this our day, Wake Up, wake up.
The second thing is to dress properly There are clothes to be 'cast off', and clothes to be 'put on'. Our night vestments, called 'the works of darkness' are to be put aside and in their place we are to 'put on the weapons of light' - for defence and holy aggression.
Stop building castles and get into the conflict.
Thirdly we must act rightly; we are to 'walk decently' as becomes people whose daily strength is in the conviction that the LOrd is on the way, and that at any time today we may see 'the flaming of His feet'
Last edited:
