The Church is Far from Being Ready for the Second Coming

As the body of Christ awaits the return of their savior, He is preparing the wedding for His bride, the Church. Revelation 19:7 reads: “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.”

Believers of Christ must prepare themselves for His return by staying prayerful, obedient, faithful and without spot or blemish. This means that believers should be focused on the Word and living a holy and sanctified life.

As a unit, the church must utilize the Spirit to grow and build upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, do the work of the Lord in their lives, and keep themselves unspotted from the world. This is the least expected from them as believers, which means the church is far from ready.

The problem is the church has become caught up in the affairs of the world and have allowed the world to infiltrate the mission. The love of money through prosperity preaching has corrupted the message of the gospel and taught people that financial prosperity is the will of God.

Politics have made preachers and pastors stray from the gospel of truth to preach policy and political agendas from the pulpit, and to invite and endorse politicians. They have extorted the government of money through tax-exempt statuses and government contracts.

Celebrities are invited to speak and influence the congregation under the guise of salvation and Christian conversion while all the time they are polluting the believers with vanity, arrogance, lavish lifestyles and covetousness.

Church leaders are entangled with the affairs of this life by attempting to influence the laws of the nation with Bible doctrine, only to learn that forcing religion on society is a turn off to many. The scriptures says, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” John 12:32.

Meaning, the church must praise the Lord and life up His name and He will draw others to Him and add to the church all that should be saved. It is God only who can make change and that change is for the individual, not for society. The world has already been judged; “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.”  John 12:31.

The mission of the church is to live separately and independent of the world. A good example is how to Amish live. Not to the extreme as they who live without electricity, but to the point that the church can be self-sustained without government intervention and God will keep them from the evil of the world.

Jesus said: “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.  I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” John 17:14-15.

The church coexisting in the world does not mean they should become as the world to gain the world, or to force the word and laws of God on the world, but that they should draw closer to God through sanctification of the word which would keep them from the evils of the world.

Until the church can learn to withdraw from the world, they are not ready for the return of the Lord. The church needs leaders that understand what the church should be doing right now. Teaching the gospel of salvation (and teaching it correctly) is the mission of the church.