Derek Prince - Most Churches Are Not The Church By Biblical Standards
This is an excerpt from: Israel and the Church: Parallel Restoration
We’re beginning once again with a proclamation from the Word of God. This one is taken from Daniel 2:20–22, and Daniel 4:34–35. What’s significant about the second part of the proclamation is it was made by King Nebuchadnezzar, a Gentile king who’d been an idolater and a persecutor of God’s people. But God had dealt with him such sovereignty and power that he came to a recognition of who the true God really is, and it’s expressed in these words.
Daniel 2, beginning at verse 20 «Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His, and He changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and raises up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with Him. For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain his hand or say to him, 'What have you done? '»
So I’m going to be speaking this evening… What’s that? The passage that Ruth and I just quoted speaks about times and seasons. Times are one of the main themes of scripture. The scripture has a great deal to say about times. We are going to be dealing with a specific time in God’s prophetic program. But just to look back for a moment, in the days of King David, when his kingdom was being established, it was said of the men of the tribe of Issachar that they had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do. If we don’t have understanding of the times as God reveals them to us, we probably will not know what to do. And then in the New Testament, after Jesus had risen from the dead and was about to take His leave of His disciples, they said to him, «Will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel»? He said to them, «It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which God has put in His own authority».
Again we see that times and seasons are under the sovereign control of God. But this evening I want to speak about another time which if referred to in scripture in Acts 3:19 and following. These are words that the Apostle Peter spoke to an assembled crowd of Jewish people in Jerusalem shortly after the day of Pentecost. I’m going to read from Acts 3:19 through 21. «Repent, therefore, and be converted that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord…» Notice again we have times, times of refreshing. And then it continues: «…that He may send Jesus the Messiah, who was before appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began».
Again notice times of restoration of all things. So Peter outlines very simply God’s program for closing this age. I believe that’s something that is of real practical concern for all of us. But, it must be initiated by a response by the people of God. So Peter says repent, turn back to God. Then he says God will set in motion the process that will bring the Messiah back again. He says repent and be converted, or turn back to God, that your sins may be blotted out so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.
So repentance leads to refreshing. This is a principle that always works for God’s people. If we are in needs of times of refreshing it will be set in motion by times of repentance. To try to seek God’s refreshing without repentance is a waste of effort. And then Peter goes on, and in this period, he says that God may send back Jesus the Messiah who was before appointed for you. Then he says whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things. When it says receive, I put in the word retain. So, heaven must retain Jesus the Messiah until the time of restoration of all things. In other words, Jesus will not come back until there is a period which is called times of restoration of all things.
So if you want to give a little outline, very simply, of God’s program to close this age, you can say it in English, it wouldn’t work in most other languages, in four words, each of which begins with the letters RE. And they are, in correct order, repentance, refreshing, restoration, and who can guess the fourth one? Return, that’s right. The return of who? The Messiah. So that’s God’s outline program to bring this age to a close. There are lots of things we don’t know but there are some things that God has revealed. Let me give that order again. Repentance, refreshing, restoration and return.
Now, I believe this program of God really began to be initiated at the beginning of the present century and now we’re very close to the close of the present century. Someone has said the minute hand on God’s clock is the Jewish people. When you see what’s happening to the Jewish people, you know what the time is. Somebody else has said the minute hand is at about 11 58, two more minutes to midnight. But my theme this evening is there is a double process of restoration taking place. God’s restoration always begins with His own people. They are the center of God’s purpose on earth. And as I understand it, according to the scripture, God has two peoples on earth to whom He has a special relationship. The first historically is Israel, the second is the church of Jesus Christ, the assembly, the ekklesia, the kayhayla.
Unfortunately, the enemy of our souls, Satan the liar, has done everything he can to confuse the issue. At present time in the professing Christian church the most appalling confusion prevails concerning the identity of Israel and the identity of the church. Because of this I was prompted last year to bring out a book which in England is called The Destiny of Israel and the Church. But that wasn’t a sufficiently dramatic title for America, so in America, it suggested too much thought, I think.
You see, I’m bilingual, I’m British and American. I speak both languages and I understand both sets of people, to some extent, as far as they can be understood. In America, which is where we are, it’s title is Prophetic Destinies, but there are two little subtitles, Who is Israel? Who is the Church? The main theme of the book is to provide the basis for an answer to those questions. The confusion about Israel is that theologians, God help them, and I want to say I’m not a theologian, I’m a teacher of the Bible. I don’t believe myself that God ever intended us to turn the Bible into a system. I don’t think any system adequately expresses the truth of the Bible. I’m content to teach what I find as God reveals it, and leave the unrevealed part to the Lord.
There has been a system of theology which has prevailed probably for seventeen centuries which has said God has given up on Israel. They’ve proved unfaithful so God has reneged on His covenant and His commitments, and He’s transferred all of that from Israel to the church. And so, now where you read Israel you should supply the church. I believe this is a source of endless confusion. In fact, I believe as long as people think that way they cannot ever have a clear picture of God’s program to close this age. I am simple minded and I’ve commented that basic truth is essentially simple. The truth is very simple: Israel is Israel and the church is the church. In this book I have analyzed every place in the New Testament where the words Israel and Israelite occur, and there are 79. I have not found a single place where Israel is used differently in the New Testament from what it is in the Old.
My personal opinion is that theory is not faithful to scripture, it’s an invention of theologians. On the other hand, there’s almost equal confusion about the church. Perhaps greater confusion. For many people today the word church signifies a physical building, wood or stone or brick, and if they got beyond that totally false concept, then the church is a whole mass of different denominations all bearing specific labels, all claiming to be Christians. I believe the real truth is summed up in one sentence in Ephesians 1 where Paul says: «God gave Jesus to be head over all things to the church which is His body».
So the true church, the scriptural New Testament church is the body of Jesus. That means to say that it is related to Jesus as a body to a head. It is joined to Him with an organic union and all individual believers are members of that body, have a part in that body, and are members of one another. And by that definition I would say 90% of what is contemporarily called the church is not the church by scriptural standard. The Greek word for church in the New Testament is ekklesia which is used in secular language and occurs in the New Testament in this sense as an assembly. Essentially, a governmental assembly. The Hebrew word corresponding would be kayhayla. That’s what the church is, it’s God’s governmental assembly with Jesus as its head, here to rule the nations for God. But, only under the headship of Jesus.