The Regime: Evil Advances / Before They Were Left Behind by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

Author:Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Christian / Futuristic, FICTION / Religious
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2013-04-30T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-FOUR

THERE HAD BEEN NOTHING flashy or dramatic about Pastor Vernon Billings. He simply had a natural, down-home way about him, knew how to keep his audience’s attention, and put his emphasis on the message and not on himself. He actually seemed to be keeping Chloe’s attention too, no small feat. Irene couldn’t wait to find out what she had thought of her first Sunday school class at the new church.

Pastor Billings’s message was straightforward and informative. He made the Scripture so clear that Irene felt as if she were drinking fresh water. And it wasn’t an easy passage to explain; at least she didn’t think it was.

His bottom line was that the apostle John was writing about two families: the family of God and the family of Satan. Christians were forgiven and pulled out of Satan’s family, so they were now part of God’s family. They were not to love Satan or his family or the world that is controlled by him.

But what was all that business in John’s letter about little children, fathers, and young men? The pastor explained that the Greek word translated “little children” in verse 12 was actually different from the word translated the same way in verse 13. The first word, he said, referred to offspring of any age, while the second reference was literally to little children. According to the pastor, John repeated his message to hammer home the point of the believer’s belonging to the family of God.

As for the references to fathers, young men, and little children, Pastor Billings explained that these signified different stages of spiritual maturity. Could Irene ever relate to that! She so wanted to grow and become mature in her faith. But she believed she was stagnating. How she would love to make New Hope her church.

The truly spiritual person—the fathers, the pastor said—was spiritually mature because he had come to know God in His fullness. He referred to Philippians 3:10: “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”

Pastor Billings further explained that the second stage of spiritual maturity—the young men—was made up of those who may not yet know God in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, but who did know sound doctrine. They had read and been taught and had an arsenal to help them stand against the deceit of the devil.

That’s where Irene had thought she was, or was at least getting there with Jackie’s help. Now she wasn’t so sure.

Finally the pastor explained that the earliest stage of spiritual maturity for the believer—the little children—comprised those who had only the most rudimentary knowledge of God and needed to grow the most. Irene feared the rest of her family was not even at that door yet and were thus vulnerable to the falsehood and deception the evil one tried to foist upon people.

Irene’s head and heart were so full when she and Jackie went to retrieve their kids that she hardly knew where to begin.

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