In recent years it has become more and more difficult for biblical ministries to exist in Western Civilization as far as their divine appointment in purpose, vision, and principles of living is concerned. The spirit and mood of the age has radically changed in the past fifteen years, especially in the past five to ten years. True Christianity, which now is only found in the Remnant, is increasingly viewed with disdain and animosity by the world; it is seen as that which is against everything the world now hopes to birth in its new world system/order. It will become more difficult to survive in this final, apostate Church age.
The question rightfully should be asked, “Have we entered the final world/age that preludes the coming of the visible Antichrist?” If this is true, we can expect fewer churches to want what the Remnant believe and what they possess in their personal walk with Christ. Likewise, we will witness the intense, aggressive hatred of world governments, including our own, against Christianity. The Remnant will feel the noose tightening in laws to shut down our schools, our network ministries, and our churches. Finally, governmental powers will invade the private sanctum of our homes.
The importance of the imminence of Christ’s secret coming should ever be part of the Remnant’s heartbeat, while at the same time they prepare for what seems to be the inevitable for Remnant ministries in the End Time of the last days.
The Night Season of History
One must always remember that the present Remnant is linked in a chain, yea, a “body” of men and women who have anticipated the day to dawn and the day star to arise (2 Pet. 1:19). Our generation may be the one to witness this glorious event at the very moment when the world is poised at the threshold of the prophesied Man-of-Sin world-rulership. It seems that this generation of saints has become the chosen one in history to bear up under the world’s and the Church’s climactic hatred against the Lord and against His anointed. We may witness that which God’s men of the past have only anticipated.
Although the Body of Christ is viewed as consummated and complete in God’s eyes, yet, on earth, in history, it is still filling up. The Body of Christ in this generation will face the worst of times; we are at the resolve of all the ages (1 Cor. 10:11b). At the same time, the Remnant will also be part of the hindering force mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2. Dear reader, have we arrived at the moment when the Devil, the great red dragon, is poised at the crucial position to devour this man-child that will be birthed by the woman, the institutional Church (Rev. 12)? He will do all that he can to destroy, to kill, yea, to devour that man-child before it is taken in what we believe to be the Rapture. It is our prayer to be a part of those who represent that man-child on earth in the culmination of the Body of Christ. It truly is the darkest hour of history around the world. We find ourselves as those who minister the Gospel before the Lord through the night season of history to the true Body of Christ.
The Bible speaks of the “night” and the “day” from two perspectives. (1) There is first the perspective of all humanity born in the night, the darkness of sin, and through the Lord Jesus Christ, having been brought into the light, into the day, through trusting in Him. Their nature is no longer of the night, but they have become children of the day (Eph. 5:8; Rom. 13:12). (2) There is also the biblical perspective of the night/day according to history and God’s timetable of Christ’s Second Coming. The “night season” has been long with the unfolding of the Body of Christ throughout history finding its appointment at various stages of the night. Its members all anticipated and waited for the day to dawn and the day star to arise in their hearts. Though the past two thousand years has been the night season since our Lord’s return to heaven, we must discern our portion of the night of history and not permit its powers to affect our “day” life in Christ. We are witnessing, as no other generation of that Body of Christ in history, the imminent coming of Christ; and yet the near reality of the coming of two great figures—the Antichrist and the False Prophet, men of global leadership proportion. We must remember that Satan has roaming privileges, and perhaps these have greatly increased in the End Time. For the whole world lieth in the Wicked One; he is the god of this world; three times the apostle John declares him to be “the prince of this world”—the high ruler. In Ephesians 2:2 he is the “prince of the power of the air.” Demons and all the powers of darkness that are in the air, this lower region around the earth, may be marshaled by Satan at any time. They are ready to tempt men and do mischief in the earth at his command. We are also told in Luke 4:5–7 that he controls the inhabited world. In Ephesians 2:2 we read that he works in the “children of disobedience.”
This world is ripening fast for not only globalism of government but also for hatred of the saints. Christ warned in Matthew 24:9 that we will be “hated of all nations.” In Matthew 10:22 we will be “hated of all men.” The Remnant must get ready for the culmination of the Night Season.
Strange Things Happen in the Night
The Bible reveals a number of strange happenings in the night season.
(1) We read of disciples sleeping in the night, in a garden, when they should have been watching and praying. We must be on guard for apathy and indifference becoming paralyzing powers in our day. Truly, “lukewarmness” is the spirit that pervades the End-time church. The soul and the life tend to sleep; perhaps the cares of life contribute to this. Tiredness of body often becomes the excuse for our spiritual apathy. Even wise and foolish virgins sleep in the night (Matt. 25). But this is not good for the Christian.
(2) Betrayals under the guise of a kiss take place in the night season. We are going to witness betrayals under the guise of love by friends with whom we once broke bread. Betrayals will happen within families; it will happen in churches and ministries. Court trials against the righteous take place at night as they did with the Lord.
(3) Disciples scattered at night when the Lord was betrayed. The End Time will be a time of great fear. Recantations of words and life, “I know Him not,” will become more frequent events within conservative Christianity.
(4) Disciples denied their Lord in the night season, as did Peter. The pressure of political and religious correctness will become so strong that many will capitulate to the Neo-Christianity after first abandoning a true walk with God.
(5) We can expect to see more and more offenses come. Jesus told His disciples on the eve of His betrayal, “Ye shall be offended because of me this night.” We tend to be offended when truth steps forward.
(6) Eyes wax dim in the night season, as did Eli’s in 1 Samuel 3. The Word of the Lord is precious or scarce in the night season, and there is no open vision (prime-vision preaching) in the night. This is becoming more frequent among ministers of our day; this is why our churches are so dead and carnal. Church programs have endeavored to bring synthetic life to churches that have been dead a long time now.
(7) Nehemiah viewed the ruins of sacred Jerusalem by night. The sad reality of such a plight today is that the Church has become accustomed to the ruins of their own destruction and death; they believe it is simply part of the Church’s existence.
(8) Warnings came to Joseph in the night season, leading him to flee by night with a young child and His mother. We will need to discern the will of God for these days when the wicked hunt for the godly.
(9) Imprisonment is found in the night, yet as with Paul and Silas it was with singing and praising of God. There will be the hope such as Paul had in his night seasons: “And the night following the Lord stood by me.”
(10) Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 11:23, “For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread.” The Lord’s Supper was appointed in the night season. To partake of the Lord is most important in the night season. It was not a breakfast or lunch; it was a supper late into the night. We will need this privilege as the night season deepens.
(11) There is the hope of the Rapture to take place in a night season: “I tell you in that night there shall be two in the bed, one taken and the other left.” Jesus warned that He would come as a thief in the night.
(12) And, there is the hope, aboard our boat in the storm of life in the night season, that Christ will come to meet us (John 6:15–21), and we will immediately be found at the shore of heaven. Let us pray at this late hour, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
It truly will be very difficult to live in the night season. I have witnessed in my travels that it is becoming more difficult for youth to find the will of God. It is not impossible, but it will take a more fervent pursuit of heart to find the will of God today than in former days. One’s tenacity will have to be so great and aggressive that unless he takes the kingdom by violence, it will not be taken at this time in history. For this reason, some of the greatest saints that have ever lived will be living at the time of the Rapture: it will take a greater walk with God amidst all the powers of darkness endeavoring to destroy godliness in the earth.
The Need of Watchmen and Priests in the Night
This is a time when we desperately need watchmen telling us of the night season:
The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come (Isa. 21:11, 12).
The Lord knows we need men who have discernment of the night season. Yes, they must preach of the Blessed Hope, to proclaim that the morning cometh, the day is to dawn. Nevertheless, they must also preach of the night season. This is where we are. There is the imperative need of watchmen who discern the times, the seasons, both of global governments as well as the blatant apostasy of the churches, including Fundamentalist churches. Very few see the times in which we live.
Found within the Songs of Degrees (Psalm 120 through 134) is the concluding psalm dedicated to the changing of the priestly watch. In the first two verses, we read of the first band of priests completing their duties and leaving the temple, but giving instructions to the priests who will take their place on the night watch. Verse 3 gives an antiphonal response of words from the priests now taking the duty of those leaving.
As the priests leaving the temple call back to the ones now taking the duty, the words are heard:
Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord.
They give words of admonition: “We are now departing; we cannot stay on in the House of God; we therefore entrust to you this matter of ministering to the Lord. May you minister well, ye servants of the Lord. Lift up your hands and bless God!” Oh, how these ministers of Israel loved God and loved His House! How they exhorted those servants of the Lord not only to merely watch the night but also to give thanks and praise from their hearts. In the Bible some eighty times the word blessed is found in the context of blessing God: giving worship and praise to Him for who He is and for what He has done on behalf of those He loves. Yes, the cry in earnest is, “You must perform your duties, but you must love your God from the depth of your heart amidst the duties.” Then the response comes from the priests who have taken the place of those leaving, “The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.”
Along with watchmen, there is the need for such priests in the relays of the watch, who have been given the watchword throughout history. Are we that generation that has taken the final watch before Christ’s soon return?
In the final year before my father, Dr. O. Talmadge Spence, passed away, we had many conversations about the Foundations Ministries and its future, about Fundamentalism and its falling away, and about what he believed I would face as the next president and pastor of the ministry. He warned me of situations and changes in the world and in Fundamentalism far worse than what he had faced. Though my father could not speak the last four months of his life, in our times together he conversed by writing on paper. He encouraged me in the Word and will of God for the days ahead. He pressed the maintenance of the ministry and its spiritual walk with God. He saw other schools failing and compromising, and he warned me of such dangers.
Dr. O. Talmadge Spence saw Foundations historically as a “Divinity” school rather than a “Scholastic” or a “Mystic” school. The scholastic school arose in Church history with the obvious emphasis upon academics to deepen the Church’s knowledge; but such schools became spiritually cold and purely academic. In reaction to this, there was the mystic school, which placed the emphasis upon the inward life to the neglect of the knowledge of Scripture. Finally, the divinity school was born in a desire to wed the two together: a school of academic studies in the Word of God and adjacent studies with the pursuit of a spiritual walk with God. This type of school was imperative to be maintained before the Lord.
That final year of my father’s life was the transitional year as he left this world and I stepped into the burden of prime leadership. Those months were important to both of us: responses of the heart to one another; encouragement to one another as he would go to heaven and I would continue here on earth. There was to be no murmuring or complaining from either heart but simply the giving of blessings to one another. Such blessings are authoritative, for only those who serve the Lord with faithful hearts can bring down the blessing of Zion to others.
The Night Season: Our Divine Appointment
God’s men watch the night in God’s House. They stand, watch, serve, and testify for the glory of God. The night watch is a very trying period, especially late in the night when the watchers tend to fall asleep. Such men are called upon to guard the interest of the Lord, taking up the long vigil of the night. Amidst their duties, they must also lift up their hands in prayer and praise; they must minister to the satisfaction and pleasure of the Lord. They cannot fulfill their duty merely in a legal way. Such priests of the temple may be guards, or watchers, or porters at the doors, or keepers of the sanctuary, or preparers of the sacrifices. Nevertheless, they cannot carry out their duties properly without the heart stayed upon the Lord. We can become so occupied with the job, or even make the ministry so much the object of our soul that the Lord is crowded out of the heart. We may do the job well and may perform our tasks correctly, but the Lord may not have been satisfied with our heart in the matter. This is what the exhorters in Psalm 134 called to those of the night watch: “Bless the Lord”—make the Lord happy, please Him, and satisfy the Lord in what you perform. All ministering must be done from the heart of love for God; everything must be done with a spirit of praise.
The Duties of the Night Priests
Around 6:00 PM the night watch of the priests began. They had to perform many duties and responsibilities. First Chronicles 9:33 states, “And these are the singers, chief of the fathers of the Levites, who remaining in the chambers were free: for they were employed in that work day and night.” Yes, there was music even during the night. We can envision the scene: the laborious work of the day over, and thus the night in the temple begins. The last notes of the temple music of the public worship have died out, and the worshippers have slowly retired, some after lingering for private prayer or else tarrying in one of the marble porches. The temple faced the east and now the sun was sinking in the west. The new company of priests and Levites who were to conduct the services on the morrow would come up from Ophel. Those who have officiated during the day are preparing to leave by another gate. They have put off their linen breeches and coats, depositing them in the appointed chambers, and have resumed the dress of ordinary laymen, and with their sandals. The priests were required to be barefooted during their actual ministry but could wear sandals when they were not on duty.
A variety of duties were set for the night watch of the priests. By day and night it was the duty to keep guard at the gates, to prevent, so far as possible, the unclean from entering. To them the duties of temple police were also entrusted under the command of an official known to us in the New Testament as the “captain of the guard.” At night, guards were placed in 24 stations about the gates and courts: 21 of these by Levites; the other 3 were in the inner gates by priests. Each guard consisted of 10 men; so that in all, 210 Levites and 30 priests held these posts. The temple guards were relieved by day but not during the night. The Romans divided the night into four watches; the Jews, however, had only three watches, with the fourth being really the “morning watch.” When Jesus said, “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching,” He was expressly referring to the second and third watches as those of the deepest sleep seasons of the night.
During the night the captain of the temple made his rounds. On his approach the guards had to rise and salute him in a particular manner. Any guard found asleep when on duty was beaten, or his garments were set on fire. We read of this urgent warning by Christ in Revelation 16:15, “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” Much was needed in preparing the wood, the oil, the incense, the animals for the next priests who would come on duty. The priest whose duty it was to superintend the arrangements might any moment knock at the door and demand entrance. He came suddenly and unexpectedly; no one knew when. He came and knocked, and the priest on the other side had to open to him. Then all who had prepared, and were ceremonially washed, would come and cast lots for the appointment for their night duties.
Conclusion
We must carefully note those words of Revelation 16:15, “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” This blessing is given at a peculiar time in the unfolding of the Book of Revelation. Christ comes as a thief in the night (which we noted in Matt. 24:43). It is to be observed that in the two advents of Christ (one for the saints out of the final Church age, and the other to set up His Kingdom), the first one is that of the Rapture, His coming to the clouds for His saints; the other is of His coming from the clouds with His saints to Armageddon. It is in Revelation 16:15 that He gives the warning of His coming and how will he find His servants, His priests. He will come suddenly and unexpectedly. Therefore, His priests must be ever watching and alert. Whatever God has called us to—whether preacher, teacher, musician, layman—the priority must be Christ for our lives. Will we be ready at the door of His coming? Or will our garments be burned? Our calling and duties for Christ must be in the light of His coming—to be ready for the summons.
Proverbs 8:34 states, “Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, and waiting at the posts of my doors.” One of the great deficits of this night season is lack of wisdom in living and thus making decisions that draw us further and further away from God and His will for our lives. This is why wisdom is so important to the Christian life: to hear her call, to listen for her. This wisdom personified in the Book of Proverbs is Christ. We must listen to the Word of God, anticipating it for our lives. May we long for His coming, watching daily at His gates, and waiting at the posts of His doors. This watching and waiting are most needed at this last watch of the night season.
In our next article we must view God’s providence in this night season, and then in a third article what we will face in this final watch before His coming.