The Theory Of The Thief

Then Jesus teaches us that the world will be ’as the days of Noah...the days that were before the flood’ when the Lord’s Coming is near for just as in that day we the believing remnant, the church of Jesus Christ, will be rescued by rapture in the same way that Noah and his family as a matter of Biblical fact as attested by the parallel passage in Luke 17 explicitly teaches, ’the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all’ (Luke 17:27) In this same Luke 17 passage the Lord explains that ’the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all’ (Luke 17:29) and so it will be when the Lord rescues His own by rapture from the vicious persecution of the Antichrist!

Therefore, Jesus, after His thorough teaching on these momentous end time events, through the specific, chronological unfolding of history, He continues using the word ’thief’ [kleptes] in a metaphoric fashion in the parable of the ’Goodman’. His specific purpose is to give admonition to those who believe. He commands us to ’Watch’ which He gives a present imperative, a military order from the King of kings to his subjects, keep on watching, continue to be on guard, watching for the events of the close and climax of history as we know it!

Yes, as the centuries unfold and a new millennium begins the Lord orders us to be students of history as it impacts the present day of our ministering to others and the future opportunities we will have as we await His Second Coming! The 19th century witnessed the flood of false doctrines and cults pouring out on the stage of history. The majority of the dominant cults that exist today were born during the 1800’s. Dreams and visions and doctrines of devils abounded bringing with them false prophets and false teachers.

These deceivers through their distorted un-Biblical doctrines continue to condemn men and women to the eternal torment of hell created for the devil and his angels. This onslaught of deceivers, the devil’s counterpunch to the effects of the Reformation, took a few centuries to manifest itself, but, just as he brought his ’counterpunches’ in the great authority struggle that God waged with Pharaoh of Egypt when He manifested His glory ultimately redeeming a nation in a day, so too the devils ’counterpunching’ plans and patterns never change. He is just a weak counterpuncher at best when compared to the power of the King of kings!

Then came the 20th century with its barrage of false ’spiritual gifts’. The tongues movement was born at the Azuza Street Mission in the first decade, involving the un-Biblical babbling of a gathering in the name of God. But all that names the holy Name of the Lord Jesus Christ is not of the Lord as He so effectively taught in Matthew 7:21-23.

Then, as this movement grew other so called ’apostolic’ gifts became evident and ’healers’ and their Simon-izing stunts similar to Simon the sorcerer of Acts 8, who was not the author of Existentialism, but he sure knew how to take advantage of it’s teaching as he controlled the minds of the Samaritans through his satanic power to ’bewitch’ those who followed him. Simony, the selling of so called spiritual gifts, Simon-izing those who are deceived by the glitz and glitter of ’ministries’ and they continue deceiving and in many cases being deceived.