Still in the Building?

Christian America has been stirred by the decision of the leaders of Vineyard Anaheim to secede from Vineyard USA. This decision was shocking because John Wimber was heavily involved in establishing Vineyard Anaheim, and many people see it as the mother of the Vineyard movement.

Geoff Holsclaw who is a professor at Northern Seminary and a pastor at Vineyard Grand Rapids asked and answered the following question.

Has Vineyard USA lost its “anointing”? Has God’s anointing passed to those of the Toronto Blessing, to the Kansas City Prophets, or to Bethel Redding, and The New Apostolic Reformation? (Yes, I have heard this privately...many times).

His full answer is here, but his conclusion is,

I’m certain the anointing of God’s Spirit has not left the building.

I value Geoff’s teaching, but I not sure that he is totally correct.

I decided to follow Jesus in 1974 when I studying at University (I was a late starter). After a year of seeking to follow him, I felt that I was not progressing quickly enough. I talked with a friend, and she suggested that I read the book of Acts, to see if I could discover what made the early Christians different from me. I followed her advice, and the answer to her question was obvious.

The difference was the presence of the fulness of the Holy Spirit. After claiming Luke 11:9-13, I was baptised in the Holy Spirit sitting in my bed one Saturday morning while my wife was at work. I was given a heavenly language, which has continued to refresh me until this day.

In the season that followed, we saw some amazing things. (This occurred during the Charismatic Renewal in New Zealand). The Holy Spirit seemed to be doing amazing things everywhere. This was real steak, not sizzle. People were not falling down (that did not come to until the Toronto Blessing took off twenty years later). People were being healed and delivered.

Sadly, a few years on, the activity of the Holy Spirit seemed to go into decline. Some people believe that they can almost mark the date this happened. We dealt with this decline by assuming that the Holy Spirit moves in seasons. We assumed that the season where the Holy Spirit was moving freely had come to an end, but another season of similar blessing would come again in the future.

Now, more than forty years later, I realise that we were fooling ourselves. The season of blessing did not end because the Holy Spirit lost interest or decided to pause things for a while.

I believe now that we were responsible for the end of our season of blessing. The season ended because we grieved the Holy Spirit. Looking back, I understand that we tried to take the blessing of the Holy Spirit and use it to renew the church. The problem was that the Holy Spirit was wanting to do something radically different. He wanted to transform the church to prepare it for the next season when he would establish the Kingdom of God on earth during a season of trouble on earth. We refused to heed his call to change because we believed that we could enjoy the blessing of the Spirit within the existing church structures.

The Holy Spirit cannot achieve his goals with a church that is led by big-name leaders and conducts its activities in buildings where the people of the world cannot see what he is doing. The Holy Spirit wants a church that is led by teams of elders with balanced giftings. He wants a church that is active in the places where people live. Until the church is willing to change in the way that the Holy Spirit is asking, we will continue to grieve him.

The Holy Spirit has not left the building, but it is not his happy place.

Real Gathering

Today in my bible reading I came to Ezekiel 34. I was struck that God’s main gripe against the shepherds of Israel was that they had “allowed the sheep to be scattered”. God was upset about his sheep being scattered, because it allowed the wild animals to attack them. They were picking the scattered sheep off one-by-one.

When Jesus called the disciples,

they came to him.
that they might be with him (Mark 3:13-14).

When the Holy Spirit fell on the early church,

they were all together in one place (Acts 2:1).

When thousands came to faith,

All the believers were together (Acts 2:44).

The emphasis was on being together.

Somewhere along the line, this has all changed. For the modern church, it is acceptable for the flock to be scattered all over a city, provided they are together for a couple of hours on Sunday, and perhaps an hour on Wednesday night.

The problem is that the flock is scattered for the other 6 days and 20 hours of the week, so the spiritual powers of evil can pick them off one-by-one. I presume that God is still upset when he sees his sheep scattered and vulnerable to attack.

Pastors in New Zealand are currently delighted that due to the easing of lockdown restrictions, they can now bring 100 of their scattered sheep together for a two-hour meeting on Sunday, but I am not sure if God is quite so excited, if the sheep still remain scattered and vulnerable during the rest of the week. I suspect that he wants a lot more for his people.

The answer appears in Ezekiel 37, a passage that many pastors will refer to on Pentecost Sunday, because it speaks about the Holy Spirit falling on scattered bones. However, something important is usually missed. The first thing that Ezekiel prophesied was that the bones would come together.

There was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them (Ex 37:7-8).

This was not just a casual meeting; it was a proper joining together with tendons and skin (as prescribed in Eph 4:16).

When the bones were joined together in a proper body, Ezekiel prophesied again, and the Holy Spirit came down and the body rose to new life. Scattered sheep cannot experience the fulness of the Spirit. Joining together is essential for receiving his fullness, and protection from the attacks of the enemy.

See Circuit Breaker.

Holy Spirit and Angels (5) Authority

The spiritual powers of evil get their authority to act from the people. The people with the greatest authority in nations can give them the greatest authority. That is why they work through political leaders and human governments. If a human government has given them permission to be there, the prayers of the saints cannot force them out.

The prophets and intercessors give the Holy Spirit and the angels authority to work. If they are a minority and they are rejected and persecuted by the people of the nation, they have very little earthly authority. This means that the Holy Spirit and the angels only have limited authority to work. This is why, at times, evil is able to dominate a nation.

Before the spiritual change can occur on earth, there has to be a switch in authority. The political leaders who are giving authority to the spiritual powers of evil have to give up and lose their place. The people of the nation have to respect the prophets and intercessors and give them authority. This shift in authority on earth will allow a shift in the balance of power in the spiritual realms. The spiritual powers of evil lose authority and the Holy Spirit and the angels gain authority.

The key is to understand that authority flows from earth to the spiritual realms. The battle in the spiritual realms is not a power game. The Holy Spirit always has more power. There are always twice as many angels as there are evils spirits. The battle in the spiritual realms is an authority battle. The outcomes in the spiritual realms are the consequence of the authority situation on earth.

Christians assume that powers in the spiritual realm determine what happens on earth and so they pray against them. Their premise is true, but misleading. The outcome of the spiritual struggle is determined by the authority situation on earth. The people with the greatest authority on earth determine the outcome of the spiritual struggle in the heavenlies.

Political leaders have the greatest authority in the modern world, because almost everyone submits to their government. That empowers the spiritual powers that control and manipulate them, because by agreeing with them, they give them authority. They currently have more authority than Christian prophets and intercessors. This stalemate will be broken when human faith in their governments and their coercive and military power collapse. The result will be a power shift in the spiritual realm that releases the Holy Spirit and the angels to do great things on earth.

See Collapse of Human Government.

Holy Spirit and Angels (4) Spiritual Powers of Evil

The spiritual powers of evil work in a totally different way. Groups of spirits are controlled by government-spirits (attached to a nation) or by a ruler spirit (attached to a sin, like destruction, death). They use anger, power, force and fear to bully and manipulate the spirits they control. In turn, they are controlled by cosmos dominators, which control even larger groups of spirits that are fighting with each other.

Evil spirits and grouping of evil spirits are always shifting loyalties. The hierarchies are massive and oppressive, but they are also fluid, as disputes occur and loyalties and fears shift. There are constraint intrigues and wars at all levels in the hierarchies. The only thing that unites them is hatred of Jesus and his people, but they often get distracted by hatred and fear of each other.

The dominant emotions are anger, fear, jealousy and hatred. They manifest works of the flesh in Gal 5:19-21. Every bad attitude warned against in the NT exits amongst them.

The spiritual powers of evil have a communication problem. Spirits at the bottom level only know what to do as a message comes down the hierarchy, so they just do their own thing. The spirits at the top of the hierarchies are limited to place and time, so they are not all-knowing and omnipresent like the Holy Spirit, which means their communication and organisation is totally different. They have to use hierarchies of control. However, they cannot always see what their armies are doing, so their commands are often wrong. Their commands are often distorted by the time they pass down the hierarchy. It is easy for clever deceiving angels from God to slip in wrong commands. Communication is difficult, and lines of communications are often broken as loyalties shift.

The contrast between the operation of angels and the works of the spiritual powers of evil is stark. If more Christians understood the difference, they would realise how feeble their enemy really is.

Holy Spirit and the Angels (3)

The Holy Spirit and the angels operate in perfect unity. The Holy Spirit speaks to the angels and they gladly do what he asks them to do.

There is no hierarchy or control amongst the angels of God, as it is not needed.

Archangels are not ruler-angels. They are angels that specialise in dealing with ruler/government spirits, like Michael dealt with the Prince of Persia (Jude 1:9 and Dan 10:13). A hierarchy is not needed because the Holy Spirit is not constrained by space and time, so he can speak to any angel any place any time. He can always get an angel to do what he wants done. He knows where they are and what they are all doing.

Angels work together in teams as the Holy Spirit guides them along the same path. He puts them in teams with complementary skills and tells them how to work together.

Gods angels are peaceful and happy in doing their work. They constantly praise God and have fun working together with each other.

There is harmony of purpose and peace between them. They manifest the fruit of the spirit (Gal 5:22).

Holy Spirit and the Angels (2) Angels

Angels respond to the prayers and prophecies of the saints. They act when given authority by a person with authority on earth. Frank Peretti’s Piercing the Darkness is wrong when it gives the impression at the end of the book that more Christians shouting louder gives angels more power. One person with authority in a situation is sufficient to release angels to do the will of God. (The problem is that in many situations, there is no Christian with sufficient authority).

Whereas the Holy Spirit is spirit and needs a person to work through on earth, angels are spirits with the ability to do things in the physical world. In this context:

• Angels can prevent evil spirits of various kinds from acting (Dan 10:13).

• They can provide for protection for servants of Jesus (Dan 12:1).

• Some evil spirits can prevent angels from operating, if they have greater rank, ie many evil spirits are working for them (Dan 10:12).

• Angels can carry messages to God’s people.

• They can strengthen God’s people in their struggle (Matt 4:11). I presume by physically strengthening and chasing away harassing evil spirits.

• Angels can provide food and other physical needs for Gods people (1 Kings (19:6).

• Angels can deceive the enemies of God, people and evil spirits (1 Kings 22:22). The angels that gather the nations for battle are deceiving angels. They deceive the spiritual powers that control the nations. They also deceive the leaders of the nations.

• During a physical war, angels can disrupt the enemies of God’s people (2 Kings 6:17).
  

  • Blind them, so they go to the wrong place (2 Kings 6:18).
  • Stir up wild animals and dangerous insects (Deut 7:20)
  • Send down hailstones and other forms of bad weather (Jos 10:11).
  • Direct their weapons accurately (1 Sam 17:49).
  • Do things to makes soldiers fear and flee (Jud 7:13).
  • Cause soldiers to fight against each other (Jud 7;22; 2 Chron 20:23)).
  • Confuse military leaders to think the defenders are stronger than they are (2 Sam 5:24)/
  • Angels can set up ambushes (2 Chron 20:22)
  • Send sickness and plague amongst the enemy army (Is 37:36)
  • Cause rebellion against political leaders (2 Chron 32:21).
  • Angels can strike down enemy soldiers (2 Sam 5:24)

Holy Spirit and the Angels (1)

A reader asked the following question.

How do the Holy Spirit and the angels operate on earth?

I will provide an answer in the next few posts.

Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit works in people, who are have chosen to follow Jesus. He empowers them through the gifts, giving them knowledge about what is going to happen and wisdom to know what to do. He heals sick people and forces evil spirits to leave the people that they pray for.

He works more effectively in a body than in individuals acting alone.

The Holy Spirit also speaks to angels and tells them what to do. He articulates God’s will for them.

The Holy Spirit can put ideas into the hearts of kings (Ezra 7:27). If they are persuaded by the thought, they will act on God’s will, even though they do not know him.

Two Reasons

If the Holy Spirit is not moving powerfully in a church, there are two possible reasons.

• The people have grieved the Spirit or are rejecting his leading.
• The leaders are refusing to make the changes that the Holy Spirit needs.

God is never the problem. He is always wanting to move.

Missing the Boat

I became a Christian in the early 1970s. It was an amazing time to be a follower of Jesus. The Holy Spirit was moving in amazing ways. People were coming to faith all over the place, in the oddest ways. Demons were being cast out and people were being set free. We went to conferences where people were being healed. The worship was amazing. There were no worship leaders cavorting on the stage, but the presence of God was so strong, you could hardly stand.

Our generation’s experience of the Holy Spirit in the 70s and early 80s was unprecedented. A few heroes in earlier generations had greater intensity, but not the widespread move we experienced. It was like the Spirit was “poured out on all flesh”.

Yet looking back to that time, it feels like our generation has missed the boat somewhere. This generation received so much, but we do not have as much to show for it as we should. The church is stultified and the culture is going down the gurgler. That is not what I would have expected following such an amazing move of the Holy Spirit.

Much is expected from those to whom much is given. Something must have gone wrong.

Pentecost

Yesterday was Pentecost Sunday. All over the world followers of Jesus longed for a fuller experience of the Holy Spirit.

The songs pleaded for the Holy Spirit to come. Prayers implored him to come and refresh us.

The motives behind the songs and prayers are good, but I wonder if we have this the wrong way round.

The prayer and the songs make it should like the problem is with God, and that he needs to do something.

He poured out the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and he has never called him back. He has already done his bit.
That means that if our experience is below par, the problem must be with us, not with him.

Perhaps we should be asking if we have grieved the Holy Spirit, and what we need to do to put that right.

Seeking the Spirit

About a year after I chose to follow Jesus, I was feeling really frustrated. I felt like I had not made much progress in learning how to follow him. It felt like I had not changed enough.

I talked to the young woman who led the study and fellowship group we belonged to. She had been a Christian most of her life, but she did not give me answers. She wisely suggested that I read the book of Acts and see if I could find out what made a difference for the new believers in the church (Thank you Airini).

I quickly read right through the book of Acts looking for the thing that made a difference. The answer jumped out from every page. Things happened and people were changed because the Holy Spirit was active. I realised that I desperately needed the Holy Spirit in my life.

The next Friday night, I went to town and visited a Christian bookstore. I bought three books about the Holy Spirit. One of them was the The Holy Spirit and You by Dennis Bennett. He was better known for Nine O’Clock in the Morning, but I did not notice that one.

On Saturday morning, my wife went to work at 6.30 am. I did not get up, but stayed in bed and read the Holy Spirit and You. By midday, I had finished the book. At the end of the book, Dennis Bennett referred to a promise in Luke 11. I got my Bible and I read it carefully.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! (Luke 11:9-13).

As I sat in my bed, it seemed obvious. I needed the Holy Spirit. The Father had promised that if I asked, he would give him to me.

So I asked.

And the Father delivered on his promise.

The Holy Spirit filled me with his presence. I began to speak in a language that I did not know (a spiritual language has been an important part of my life ever since.) It was like in the book of Acts, but in my bedroom.

About a week later, I felt led to pray for a member of my family who was sick. I just knew that if I laid my hand on her back and prayed, she would be healed. When she went to see a medical specialist a few days later, he could find no trace of the problem.

I have always said that once you have seen the Holy Spirit heal one person you are ruined. You can no longer say that God does not heal people anymore. You cannot say that the Holy Spirit does not want to heal people, because you have seen it with your own eyes.

I gained the joy of having the Holy Spirit in my life, but I gained the frustration of knowing that he could heal, but was not seeing enough of it.

When we moved to Dunedin, we belonged to a group called prayer and praise. The Holy Spirt was moving and we often prayed for people who were sick. Being a curious person, I got a notebook and listed every person we prayed for and what was wrong. The following week, I would check up and see how the person was.

After a couple of months I was surprised by the results. About a third of cases were uncertain. For example, a person had a cold and a week later, they were better, but it was not possible to definitely attribute that directly to the prayer, because they would have gotten better anyway. For another third, nothing happened. But the remaining third were clearly healed, and it seemed like it could only be the Holy Spirit who had done it. Over those few months, a dozen people were healed of sicknesses.

That experience set me off on a searching path over many years. I was puzzled why some people were healed and others were not. It was not because the Holy Spirit is not strong enough to do it. There had to be other reasons and I wanted to know what they were.

So I dug into the scriptures and looked for patterns. I investigated every healing in the Bible and studied every passage that dealt with healing. I discovered some real insights. Five years ago, I put everything I have learned in a little book called Healing. It does not contain all the answers, but the book does have some important insights.

In some ways this is the most important book I have written, yet is actually the least popular. I suspect that it because many Christians have given up on the gift of healing and just accepted sickness as a normal part of life. That is sad, because Jesus was beaten for our healing, so it would be a pity if his suffering were wasted.

Jesus told his disciples to heal the sick and preach the good news of the kingdom. That is what he did. We tend to preach the good news, but we do not bother about the other bit. But Jesus never said it was optional. The best proof of the reality and love of God, and his power to rescue, is someone being healed. In this secular age, the good news of Jesus will only be successful in the way we want it to be when it is accompanied by the gift of healing.

My prayer is that followers of Jesus will press into the Holy Spirit and discover more of the gift of healing that the Father promised.

Connection

A body is not built by throwing some bones in a basket. To become a mighty body empowered by the Spirit, the bones must be joined together. Each bone must be joined to at least two others by muscles and tendons. The correct bones must be joined in the right place. A body becomes dysfunctional, if just one bone is missing, or is joined to the wrong bone.

Many Christians believe that revival will come as the Holy Spirit moves in power in the body of Christ. We do need the Spirit, but this is not Ezekiel’s message. He warned that the Spirit cannot come in power until the body of Christ is joined together in strong relationships.

Being Church Where We Live, p 20.

Fullness of the Spirit

Jesus was able to carry the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

One person following Jesus is not able to carry the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Only a body of believers committed to Jesus and loving each other and living in the same place can experience the fullness of the Spirit. The modern experience of the Holy Spirit is limited, because our loves are so fragmented.

When dealing with a situation, the Holy Spirit loves to give a gift of discernment to one person a gift of faith to another and a gift of healing to a third. If these people have not learned to operate together, with total trust in each other, they might prevent the Holy Spirit from accomplishing his purposes.

More at Being Church.

Hearing

All over the world, Christians go to church on Sunday to listen to their pastor preach for an hour. For many that is how they hear God speaking, but it is a poor substitute for “God filling us with knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Col 1:9).

God want his people to learn to hear him speak directly by the Holy Spirit, and we need to hear him to be able to obey him.

But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him (1 John 2:27).

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak (John 16:13).

The problem with the Sunday preaching model is that the pastor works hard to learn how to hear God speak, because he needs to. Most people do not need to, so most do not know how to hear God speak. So his will is not done.

Going

The Holy Spirit will go to the lost without us, if we do not go with him (Being Church Where We Live, p.107).

John 7:38-39 indicates that this is one reason we need to keep on being filled with the Spirit.

Authority and Power

Healing needs both authority and power. The people saw this in Jesus.

All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!” (Luke 4:36).

When Jesus sent out the apostles, he gave them authority and power.

When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases (Luke 9:1).

Authority comes to us through what Jesus has done on the cross and by raising us with him to the right hand of the father. Power comes through the Holy Spirit.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you (Acts 1:8).

The power of the Spirit flows from the believer to the person being healed. We can see this happening with Jesus.

And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick (Luke 5:17).

All the people were trying to touch Him, for power was coming from Him and healing them all (Luke 6:19).

This is how the gift of healing operates. A person exercising this gift of the Spirit allows the power of the spirit to flow out of them to the person who needs to be healed.

The Holy Spirit does not have a physical body. He needs people to carry him the where he needs to be in the physical world. To heal people, he must work through people who love him.

The Holy Spirit has immense power, but no authority. We have authority on the earth, but no power. When we use our authority to give the Holy Spirit permission to use his power, we can do great things together for the Father. Without him, we can do nothing. Without our permission to act, he is constrained. By joining his power with our authority, we allow the Holy Spirit to do great works on earth for the Father (Kingdom Authority p. 118).

Spiritual Perceiving (7)

The Holy Spirit is lives and moves in the spiritual realms, but he can take a physical appearance. When Jesus was baptised, the Holy Spirit descended on him. Luke tells us that he came down in a physical form.

The Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove (Luke 3:22).

The Holy Spirit is a spirit, so he would not normally seen. In the situation, he deliberately took a physical form. I presume that he did this to authenticate Jesus ministry.

Luke says that the Holy Spirit looked like a dove. A Holy Spirit in physical form is a bit of a contradiction for human eyes and human minds. The best that could be done to describe his appearance was to say that it was like a dove.

Luke does not say who saw this physical appearance of the Holy Spirit. It can be assumed that Jesus perceived it. John’s gospel tells us that John the Baptist saw it too. John the Baptist said,

I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him (John 1:32).

It is not clear if the other people who were present saw what John saw. John may have seen more, because the Spirit had been upon him since his birth (Luke 1:41).

Church Governance (5)

The only statement made about governance in the New Testament is that Jesus is Lord of Lords and head of the church. He has authority over the church. There is no record of him delegating it to anyone else. God expects those who belong to Jesus to obey him.

Jesus words are clear.

If you love me, keep my commands (John 14:15).

Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me (John 14:21).

These verses raise an important question. How does Jesus exercise this authority. He gives the answer in a verse that is sandwiched between the two just quoted.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth (John 14:16-17).

The gift of the Spirit makes it possible for the church to obey Jesus.

The Holy Spirit knows God’s will, so he can tell us what Jesus wants us to do. We do Jesus will by obeying the voice of the Holy Spirit. We do not need another authority or intermediary to tell us what to do.

Jesus has not given the Holy Spirit authority over the church. He can only tell us Jesus will, and leave it to us to decide if we will we obey it. He can speak to us, but he cannot make us obey his words.

We give the Holy Spirit authority, when we chose to obey his voice, but we can withdraw that submission at any time by choosing to ignore his leading. That removes his authority.

Rob Bell’s Problem: The Holy Spirit Can't Win??

Rob Bell caused quite a stir last year with his book Love Wins. The book is provoked by a dilemma that many Christians feel. How could a loving God create billions of humans knowing that most of them will end up in hell. He says,

Millions of Christians have struggled with how to reconcile God's love and God's judgment: Has God created billions of people over thousands of years only to select a few to go to heaven and everyone else to suffer forever in hell? Is this acceptable to God? How is this "good news?" (Love Wins).

This is a valid concern. Christian trot out various solutions, but most fall short. Rob came up with a different solution. He suggested that God would give people a second charge after death. When people see their lives from an eternal perspective, they will change their attitude and accept God’s love.

Rob’s gets his solution wrong because he begins with a wrong assumption that has been missed by critics and defenders. He makes the same assumption as many Christians.

Most of the people who will live on earth will not be saved.

Once this assumption is accepted, God’s love problem becomes a problem, because it is not consistent with this outcome. However, the problem is not with God’s love. The real problem is a basic assumption that denies the ability of the Holy Spirit to accomplish God's purpose.

This wrong assumption comes from assuming that the future will be the same as the past. Because only a minority of people living on earth have come to Jesus up till now, Rob Bell, and most other Christians, assume that the future will be the same. They assume that we have seen the best that the Holy Spirit can do. This belief is wrong.

The Bible teaches that the future will not be the same as the past. The time will come when the glory of the Kingdom of God comes to fulfilment on earth. During that season, most of the people living on earth will choose to be followers of Jesus. Many more people will live on earth during the Kingdom age, so over the whole of history, the vast majority of people who live on earth will find salvation through Jesus. The number lost will be quite small. I explain how this works in Times and Seasons.

Since the time of Jesus, several billion people have come to faith in him, far short of the multitude that John was promised. History will have to go on for much longer for this countless multitude to be brought in.

If the world were to end now, the number of people lost would far exceed those who are saved. This score makes God seem quite mean, as the vast majority of people who have lived on earth would go to eternal destruction. This impression is wrong, because it judges God’s performance on the first half of the game, when half the team is missing and the coach is seriously constrained.

By the time the game is complete, the score will have changed dramatically. During the second half, most of those who live on earth will be saved and only a minority lost. The second half could be five times longer than the first half, so the total saved will be enormous. The few billion people lost during the Times of the Gentiles will be minute compared to the thousands of billions that will come to Jesus in the future. The final score will be far more respectable, and better reflect God’s character. God is gracious and generous, so he will not be stingy with salvation. He will allow history to continue for long enough to ensure that the number saved will vastly exceed the number who are lost (Times and Seasons p. 108).

Once this truth is understood, Rob Bell’s problem disappears. The huge number of people sharing God’s heavenly glory will be proof of his love. God’s love wins, because the Holy Spirit is a winner, not by lowering the bar.

Holy Spirit

Most Christians believe that God’s will only be done seriously on earth when Jesus returns and rules from Jerusalem. This common belief is preposterous. It is an insult to the Holy Spirit, because he is the one responsible for getting God’s will done on earth.