One great text that laid hold of my heart in the earlier years of my ministry was Acts 13:22:
And when he [God] had removed him [Saul], he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.
This truth is further embellished in verse 36:
For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep.
In this historical narrative, these two verses declare a most demanding insight that should lay hold of the life of each child of God in every generation.
For the next two issues of Straightway, we will be drawn to this matter of “my generation.” The burden for this month’s writing is taken from the closing graduation message of Foundations Bible College and Theological Seminary given by the President of the schools on May 11th of this year.
My Own Unique Generation
These two verses in Acts 13 fall within a message preached by the Apostle Paul concerning God’s divine governments throughout the history of Israel. This historical portrait culminates with King David’s reign. Paul acknowledges that David was a man after God’s own heart. We may be hesitant to believe this in the light of David’s sin with Bathsheba and his numbering of the people in his later life. Amidst these failures, nevertheless, his overall life is viewed by heaven as having done the will of God. The word will in verse 22 is the Greek word theileimi expressing more the meaning of wish or desire of the heart. The will of God in this context may be expressed as “I wish you would do this.” This word theileimi is also used in Second Peter 3:9, “The Lord . . . is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Theileimi is not a coercive will; it is God’s wish or desire for our lives. When viewing the overall life of David, he did the wishes and desires of God. Even in his repentance he did the will of God.
In contrast to Acts 13:22 that states David “shall fulfil all my will [theileimi], Acts 13:36 states David “served his own generation by the will [boulei] of God.” The Greek word boulei here expresses the “divine counsel” of God rather than the wishes or desires of God.
Another important Greek word in Acts 13:36 is idios found in the phrase “his own generation.” It is declared that David served his own, unique, peculiar generation by the divine counsel of God. Like David, every Christian must come to see and serve his generation in the divine counsel of God. In what generation was I born in the providence of God? I was not born in the days of Jesus. I was not born in the days of Martin Luther, John Wesley, nor George Whitefield; I was not born in the Great Awakenings, nor the revivals of England, New England, Wales, and others. I was not born in the times of the Apostles nor the Puritans. Since these generations are not my generation, I must therefore know the generation in which God has divinely appointed my life. In my unique, peculiar generation here I must serve Him.
Having realized the generation to which providence has appointed my service, I must then grasp the two perspectives concerning the concept of God’s appointed will. First, I must find the theileimi, the will or wish of God for me personally; secondly, I must find the boulei, the counsel of God for this generation. Only from the Word of God will I know these two wills of God. Men tend to read the revivals of history believing these can be repeated; they try to remold this generation to fit some spiritual generation of the past. This cannot be done.
My responsibility is to find within the Scriptures God’s description of my generation and preach the divine remedy for the master needs of my unique, peculiar generation. I must do God’s counsel and I must fulfill His wish. God’s counsel [boulei] is unalterable; however, His wish and desire [theileimi] can be rejected. Although it is God’s will for all men to come to repentance, we do not see all men doing so. The theileimi will of God can be rejected or refused by an individual. This is why it can be said at the end of one’s life, “he did the will of God,” or “that man did not do the will of God for his life” (see Matthew 7:21-24).
Every true ministry, minister, and Christian must do the will or the wish of God for his or her unique generation; moreover, they must do the will of God in accordance to the counsel of God for that generation. It is not sufficient to simply have a ministry or calling. A minister today must be ever conscious of the times in which he lives and how he is contributing to his generation in the light of his generation’s needs. One must know the master truths for his generation and ever be “hitting the target” rather than simply shooting randomly. God’s Word must be for my generation; it must give me discernment to know whether something is of God or of the apostasy.
I live in the most deceptive generation of church history; signs, wonders, miracles, and works are all seen as from the Lord. Am I in a time of an awakening to God or a time of apostasy? Is Christ coming for His own, or is He not? Am I anticipating the imminent coming of my Lord, or do I know I have a good bit of time? Am I in the Tribulation Period or in the prelude of it? Is Christ coming to the clouds where I will meet Him, or is His next appearance to be at the Mount of Olives coming to fight the Battle of Armageddon? These and other questions are of great importance, for they will dictate how I will live, what I will preach, and how urgent my messages and prayer life will be.
Where Am I in Scripture?
Another imperative question to ask is “where am I in Scripture?” Can I find myself and my generation in the Scriptures? Where am I in the history of humanity in the light of God’s Word? Although a minister of the Gospel can prepare a message of truth, is that message serving the immediate need of his generation? Many ministers are simply preaching generic sermons that are not effectual for their generation. They believe as long as the sermon contains truth, that is all that is necessary. As a teacher of the Bible in a seminary, I can teach all forms of epistemology to the students and it be true; nevertheless, am I preparing the students in this epistemology to face and minister to their generation? Yes, it is an imperative question: where am I in history? Can I find my generation and myself in Scripture?
What kind of a day are we in? It is evident in the Scriptures and their description that we live and minister at the “end” of the Last Days. Such a consciousness should make a great difference in my approach to living, preaching, and teaching. There must be a point in history where God begins preparing for the coming of Antichrist who will solely rule the world for three and one-half years. Necessarily so, a generation or two leading up to his coming must witness the global populace paving the way for this wicked man’s coming. We know that Christ’s first coming commenced the “Last Days” (according to Peter’s words in Acts 2:16). We have been in the Last Days for two thousand years. Each must prayerfully ask the question in reading the Scriptures where is he found in this time of the Last Days. Am I still in the beginning of the Last Days? Or the middle? Or at the end of the Last Days? Am I at the beginning of the Church ages? Or in the middle? Or at the end of the Church ages? It is a question that every preacher needs to answer in the light of the Word of God.
When the disciples asked Christ three questions in Matthew 24:3, their final question was “Tell us . . . of the end of the world.” This word world in the Greek is aion meaning “age.” The disciples wanted to know about the end of the age. Is this the end of the first century age? Or the end of the Church age? Or the end of the Great Tribulation Period age? Or the literal end of the world (age) itself? Where do I find myself in this question, if at all? Again, answering these questions will profoundly affect the way I preach, the way I teach, and the way I live. I am to serve my unique, peculiar generation in the light of the will or counsel of God.
The ministry of Foundations Bible College and Theological Seminary came into existence because our Founder, Dr. O. Talmadge Spence, believed the Scriptures clearly revealed that our generation was part of the great falling away that was to be known in the end time of the Last Days. There certainly has been a falling away, a defection, or an apostasy throughout Church history. But Second Thessalonians 2:3 declared, “For that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first.” The context of “that day” is in the first and second verses:
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
This day of Christ is the secret rapture in which Christ will come as a thief in the night to gather unto Himself His saints. This is not in open display of Christ’s coming with His armies as presented both in Zechariah 14 and Revelation 19.
Our present concern is what will precede this coming? This Scripture declares there will be “the [Gr.] falling away.” In the aftermath of this apostasy after the day of Christ, that man of sin, the son of perdition, will be revealed (2:3b). It must be acknowledged that apostasy has been in every generation since the first coming of Christ; however, there has never been an apostasy that has pervaded every aspect of human epistemology as it has today. There is a difference between “an” apostasy and “the” apostasy. The falling away today is found in every compartment of life: the family, marriage, education, music, art, philosophy, medicine, science, etc. They have all fallen away from the first principles of their foundation of existence. The deepest and saddest failure is the defection globally that has taken place in the institutional church. The public view of true Christianity is dead, and similarly we are witnessing the public death of true historic Christian Fundamentalism.
We believe we are living at the end of the Church ages. As Israel perfected its apostasy with the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus Christ their Messiah, the present Church like the historic Laodicean Church has rejected its head and capstone—we are in a Christless Church age. Do I believe we are living in the apostasy? If so, my preaching must be different than if I believed we were not. Do I believe the hope for the remnant is its rapture out of the institutional church? If so, His imminent coming will cause me to “watch and pray” as He exhorted in the Olivet Discourse. If I do not believe in a secret coming but only the open coming at the end of the Tribulation Period, then there is no imminent coming of Christ for my generation (unless I believe I am living at the “end” of the Tribulation Period).
If I were living in the Tribulation Period, I could know the day and perhaps even the hour of His coming, for it is clearly designated by the beginning of Daniel’s Last Week. From the day that Antichrist signs his covenant with the Jews, the countdown of the seven years begins. It is at the end of those seven years that Christ will come back with His armies (Zechariah 14:3-4 and Revelation 19) to fight the Battle of Armageddon. This open coming should not take us unawares; this coming is not “in an hour that ye think not.” Discerning which coming I am nearest will affect my preaching and my teaching. If I am convinced that I will go through the Tribulation Period, then I do not need to “watch and pray.” What kind of days am I living in? Are these the days of the preaching of the true Christ or the false Christ? Is the world getting worse or better? Is it the end of the Last Days, or is it the beginning? How do I read my Bible? Where do I see myself in Scripture?
The Master Truths for a Generation
Having found my generation and myself in the Scriptures, what are the master truths I must be preaching if I am in touch with God? Every generation of Christ’s overcomers have preached the message for their unique, peculiar generation. For example, in the days of the Pre-Reformers (1300s) such as John Wycliffe, the pre-eminent message exalted the supreme authority of God’s Word against Romanism. It was from this master truth that the Reformers (1500s) drew their doctrines of justification by faith, the universal priesthood of all believers, salvation by grace alone, and the sovereignty of God. If the Scriptures were not the supreme authority, then all doctrine from the Scriptures could have been questioned. These men gave their prime-vision lives to the preaching of the master truths they saw for their generation.
Later, another generation came; they are known as the Revivalists (1700s). While they drew from these previous truths, the master truth and emphasis for their generation was that of pursuing a “heart” relationship with God, heart purity, and the great commandment, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, soul, mind, and strength.” In spite of their theological persuasions they all saw the need of their “heart” before God, and the breaking of the power of sin within that heart. Remember the words of Augustus M. Toplady: “Be of sin the double cure, cleanse me from its guilt and power.” How often we sing the hymns of the past and discern not the truth contained therein.
What is the master truth for our generation? If I discern my generation within the Scriptures, is there to be found a master truth with which I must permeate all of my preaching and teaching? There seems to be four master truths that must be part of the consistent fabric of preaching for our times to meet our unique, peculiar generation.
We read in the Scriptures of a man who was in a similar generation to ours: his name was Enoch. The first important characteristic of this godly man that is also a master truth for our generation was that he “walked with God” (Genesis 5:24), or in Hebrews 11:5, he “pleased God.” One of the greatest truths needed for our time is communion with God, a walk with God, or how to please God. This truth has been lost in the debris of the aggressive push for evangelism in our generation. There is little preaching today calling us to godly and holy living, both within and without. We get them saved (whatever that means), and leave them to do the best they can. The philosophy today is get them so busy in church work they will not have time to dwell on their carnal and worldly thoughts and proclivities (similar to what the hierarchy advised the reformer Martin Luther to do in order to forget about his sins). We are being told that God will accept our work for Him without having a private, personal, consecrated life. Few pastors have entered such a private life to say nothing of exhorting their parishioners to such a life. This is why a “false” view of eternal security is such a popular doctrine today: people are always living either at the border of sin or totally in sin while still desiring to go to heaven. Where are the godly men and women today whose lives are comparable to the walk of the spiritual giants of the 1700s and 1800s? Such a walk that pleased God was the norm back then. Rarely is such a life exampled today. Why? There is no calling, no exhortation, and no pleading for a higher and deeper walk with God. In truth, such a man or woman today would be intimidated, ridiculed, talked against, and maligned as being a legalist, a “holier than thou,” and one who thinks he is better than others. But such a message is imperative to be ready for the coming of Christ.
A second characteristic of Enoch that is also a master truth for our day is found in Jude 14-15. “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all.” Like Enoch who preached against the apostasy of his generation, it is imperative that we face our generation with these truths. Apostasy is always a defection from truth. Apostasy is not a term applied to cults, Islam, and Eastern religions, for they never had the truth. This apostasy is referring to the Christian church that has known the truth and has fallen away from it. We must deal with this in our preaching and teaching. We must deal with it in our churches as contemporary Christian music has become a powerful influence; and, we must deal with it in schools capitulating to the Neo-Evangelicals who are part of the global apostasy of our times. A minister who does not preach against the apostasy of his time is not in touch with God for his generation.
A third characteristic of Enoch that is also a master truth for our day concerns his translation. It was by “faith” he was translated (Hebrews 11:5); this is a key truth in the rapture of God’s remnant out of the institutional church. It is “unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:28). This passage cannot be referring to the open coming of Christ in Revelation 19 because “every eye shall see him” then. This is the Blessed Hope for the remnant, the elect, the true Church; the rapture is not for the institutional church. The institutional church is the very core of the global apostasy. Christ’s coming must ever be part of our preaching for our generation.
The fourth imperative master truth for our generation is found in Matthew 25, concerning the parable of the ten virgins. At the outset of this parable, the ten went out to meet the bridegroom; they were certainly expecting him then. Nevertheless, “while the Bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept” (25:5). It is evident that the apostles and writers of the New Testament were expecting Christ to return during their lifetime. But He has tarried for some 2,000 years. There has been much slumbering and sleeping throughout these years. Nevertheless, the truth of Christ’s second coming was greatly revived in the mid-1800s; it was also the key theme of the first Congress of Fundamentalists in the 1850s. Such reviving seems to have commenced the “midnight” season when “there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him” (25:6). We have had an awakening cry in the last two or three generations of Church history; we are in the time of a necessary trimming of the lamps, a call to revival and the additional oil for the life. The oil in the Bible is the Holy Spirit, and this is the hour and generation where the remnant must be seeking revival, trimming their lamps, and procuring the additional supply of oil. In many believers, this truth is not found in their “theological system,” and they will need to go outside their system to find this truth, i.e., to those who sell such oil. Although the Charismatics have arisen in history to call us to a false and deceptive view of the Holy Spirit, there is likewise in Fundamentalism a similar view. Those who have been preaching this need of the Holy Spirit realize something has been lacking in their theological system. When they have called upon this truth, it has not always been from a true, biblical perspective. Revival for the remnant is a master truth for our generation, but it is not the revival of Wales, England, or others of the past. It is the latter rain for our own, unique, peculiar generation that cannot be duplicated from a previous generation. This is where many ministers are failing; they are looking to a past generation and not into the Scriptures for the need of our present generation. There will be a difference.
Conclusion
In our unique, peculiar generation, there will be no return of the public Church to the Philadelphian revival powers of the 1700s. Godliness and holiness are no longer the pulse of heart in a cry for purity. The situation has become so acute that the falling away globally is permanent and irrevocable. The true Body of Christ in the end time of the last days is called a “remnant,” the “elect,” and it seems to be getting smaller the nearer we get to the coming of the Lord and the coming of Antichrist. Revival will come to a true remnant in this season, but there will be imitations to arise as Satan tries to deceive with the “sound” and “look” of the real. There are those who seem to discern the problems today that Fundamentalism is in (i.e., the family, marriage, carnality, worldliness, changes taking place in Christian schools, and the extreme deficit of personal spirituality). Nevertheless, they are offering a wrong antidote that is leading toward Arminianism, an outward form of godliness that denies and rejects the power of it (due to their theological system).
All the theological systems are failing in this generation. Our only hope is to get back to the Scriptures alone, for they were written by God and not by some man who thought he saw all the truth—the Scriptures are not of any private interpretation (II Peter 1:20-21). The theological systems are a private interpretation. No one man has seen all truth in order to claim a complete and perfected system. No one! If so, we would stop our quest for truth with Christ and not search the Scriptures for more insight for the next generation. We cannot go back to those of the 1600s to find our “system” for the second coming, for it was not God’s time to reveal that truth as the master truth. Therefore, with all due respect to them, they will lack the insight for the master truth of the next generation. It simply was not God’s time. Revelation came from God in history over a period of 1,656 years through 40 to 44 writers; it came progressively. When we come to Christ, we do not see all of the truth at that time; it comes progressively over the years that we grow in that light. The same is to be found in the unfolding of insight to God’s remnant in history; the insight has been progressively rendered according to the generation. Every generation will see more or reject it. The greatest insight to truth could be in the final generation of the remnant just before the secret coming of Christ back for His own.
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1-3).
It is in my unique, peculiar generation that I must do the will of God, that I must preach the word of God, with anticipation of His coming and His receiving me unto Himself. May God enable the remnant preacher to see his generation and the will of God for his life. May this also be true for everyone who is part of the true remnant in the days of the wholesale falling away.