Is it the end of the Church Age? This I’ve been observing for some years.
If God wants people to follow church, they will. But the decline in traditional church has been steady, even though there has been an increase in the number of new believers for decades.
What’s going on?
It is the end of the Church Age, I believe. The Age where Christendom dominates the setting of universal values has ended. We see that in Western culture. That which is abhorrent to God as evidenced in scripture has become the celebrated norm. Wrong has become right and right certainly has become wrong. Abortion on demand, LGTB rights been declared and opposing values are considered to be a demonstration of intolerance rather than conviction.
A dear Messianic acquaintance has said, the Church Age finished when Jerusalem was liberated from Gentile control in 1967. That would concur with the demise of values that began then and is continuing now. Certainly the morality as expressed by Judeo-Christian values has been in decline since the Sixties.
I believe the power and authority of the Church in our society has gone. Moving forward, I don’t believe God’s strategy is to regain its influence, but rather to allow a Godly transformation to occur, so that the principles of God can again protect the people.
What we need to do is to turn from our traditional concept of the practices of Christianity that are based on Constantine Christianity – aka Roman Catholicism and the spill over into Protestantism – and return to the 1st Century church that embraced its Judeo roots. Jesus was Jewish; as he was steeped in the culture God favoured, so must we learn to celebrate the festivals – not as Law but because it is what delights the LORD.
The Church Age has ended, with our false dates and festivals. We need to return to the Sabbath and the Festivals ordained by God.