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CHAPTER 25

THE AGE OF JOHN - LOVE AND THUNDER

Those in the Church of Jesus Christ who apprehend the Pearl of Great Price and burst forth

out of the waters of

Pearl Harbor will be a magnificent, deeply anointed Church. As stated

earlier, this anointing will be a deep

anointing, similar to the one that David experienced,

because this Church is chosen by God and is after His own

heart. This Church, will obviously

need to have a much deeper anointing than the shallow, self-seeking, Saul

Church.

However, the depth and the magnitude of the anointing that this Church will experience is

determined

by yet another factor. Pearl Harbor will usher in the last Church Age. New and

deeper anointing, understanding,

and vision will accompany this last days overcoming

Church. In order for us to fully comprehend this new factor

we must digress for awhile and

look at some pertinent church history.

In Galatians 2:9 Paul tells us that James, Peter, and John were reported to be PILLARS of

the Early Church.

These were the three apostles that were closest to our Lord. They were

with Him both on the Mount of

Transfiguration and in the Garden of Gethsemane. James

was martyred early yet the Lord still decided to have

three pillar apostles during the

Apostolic Age. Paul, who was an apostle "untimely born", replaced him. The

three names,

Peter, Paul and John stand far above the others as the three pillar apostles of the New

Testament

Church.

Peter was the foundation apostle, the Rock apostle, upon whose confession the Church was

built. The Lord said

to him, “upon this rock I will build My church.” Peter’s name means

rock. He was the PASTOR-APOSTLE to

whom the Lord said, "Tend my lambs...shepherd

My sheep...tend My sheep" (John 21:15-17). He was the

leader of the apostles in the

Upper Room. He was their spokesman on the Day of Pentecost. So great was his

anointing

that when his shadow passed over the sick they were healed. He was the apostle of the

circumcision.

His influence eventually was felt even in the capitol city of the Roman Empire.

Paul was the second apostle to gain great influence in the Early Church. He was the apostle

to the Gentiles; the

great EVANGELIST/TEACHER-APOSTLE who spread the Gospel

throughout the known Gentile world and

formulated the life-bringing doctrines concerning the

Gospel of Jesus Christ. He taught that the just are saved

by faith alone. He was a Rabbi-

scholar with a fine, well-trained intellect. His teaching demanded more from the

mind than

did Peter's teaching. Peter recommended Paul's letters but, concerning them, cautioned that

there

were "...some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort..." (II

Peter3:16).

John the beloved son of thunder did not become preeminent until after the martyrdom of both

Peter and Paul.

During the foundation time of Peter and the expansion time of Paul, John is

virtually unheard of in Scripture.

However, this PROPHET-APOSTLE eventually emerged as

the overseer of the seven churches in Asia Minor

and his writings proved to be even deeper

than those of his pillar predecessors. Philip Schaff, the great historian

of church history in

the nineteenth century wrote of John, "He was waiting in mysterious silence, with a reserved

force, for his proper time, which did not come till Peter and Paul had finished their mission.

Then, after their

departure, he revealed the hidden depths of his genius in his marvelous

writings, which represent the last and

crowning work of the Apostolic Church. John has

never been fully fathomed, but it has been felt throughout all

the periods of church history

that he has best understood and portrayed the Master, and may yet speak the last

word in

the conflict of ages and usher in an era of harmony and peace. Paul is the heroic captain of

the Church

militant, John the mystic prophet of the Church triumphant."1

Peter was the man of action, Paul was the man of the mind, but John was the mystic seer of

the Spirit. Peter

established the Church. Paul preached the Gospel. But John prophesied,

experienced and knew the revelation

of Jesus Christ Himself. Peter did not speak to us at all

in Scripture of the third heaven and the glories of God.

Paul spoke of being lifted into the

third heaven and experiencing these glories, but he could not reveal to us what

they were.

John, however, was commissioned to relate to us, with the eyes of a seer, activities in the

third

heaven that Paul was not allowed to share. John is given the liberty to describe the

descending city of God, His

throne room, and even the glorified Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

John's influence in the Early Church lasted for several decades after his death. Then, from

the early post-

apostolic days to the Protestant Reformation starting in 1517, we see that one

apostle stands out above the

others. That man is Peter. He is the apostle to whom the

Early Church paid greatest homage. Even the

apostate Roman Catholic Church considered

him their first Pope. They even named their greatest cathedral in

his honor. His simple,

energetic spirit typified the best of the early period in church history. The shepherd-

apostle

Peter and his confession became the rock on which centuries of holy and unholy men built

the Church.

For several hundred years this early Church strengthened God’s people but then

for over one thousand years

the apostate Catholic Church deeply weakened men and

women who sought God.

In 1517 God poured through the heart of one man, Martin Luther, a church shattering

revelation. That revelation

was "the just shall live by FAITH.” The Church was no longer the

issue to the Reformers. The Reformation of

the sixteenth century was built not on the

Church but the Gospel of Jesus Christ. No longer was Peter the

preeminent pillar apostle of

God's people. Paul, because of pen, parchment and the Holy Spirit of God, was able

explode the Gospel of Jesus Christ in millions of minds during those Reformation times.

Paul, the

evangelist/teacher apostle would now instruct Christians for the next four hundred

years. Paul's Gospel had

been all but dead for century after century after century, but in

1517 God breathed His Word to and through a

man who would be the first of many men

through whom God would speak the message of salvation by faith in

the shed blood of Jesus

Christ alone. Many men of mighty mind and insight would be raised up by our Lord to

explain

and plumb the depths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Along with Luther, God used John

Calvin, John

Owen, John Bunyan, and others to teach us this once lost truth. God also

raised up evangelists to preach this

Gospel of freedom. George Whitfield, John Wesley,

Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, D. L. Moody, and

many others preached the Gospel

with great spirited force. Not since the days of Paul the apostle had the world

heard the

Gospel preached with such purity, power, and perseverance. Men and women were taking

this "new"

Gospel to the ends of the earth. Paul's Gospel literally transformed and reformed

the Church of Jesus Christ

into a new and dynamic spiritual force. Reformed scholars who

had been touched by this gospel-reformation

spirit began to study the Scriptures and

expound on the Bible in ways not seen since apostolic times. The

Pauline spirit had

captivated the Church, and Paul, the apostle of the Gospel, was without a doubt the apostle

who typified the Protestant Reformation. Those who were revived by this Gospel message

have been called

“Evangelicals” in honor of the Gospel or Good News of Jesus Christ. Even

as Peter typified the First Church

Age, so Paul typified the Second Church Age.

Today we are on the verge of a Reformation which will bring about the new and final Church

Age. God's people

are about to experience a new and deep anointing and sense of God’s

presence never before experienced.

Even as Paul's anointing was deeper than Peters, and

the Protestant anointing was deeper than the Early

Petrine anointing, so the anointing of the

last days Church, the Church that John typifies, will be deeper than

the preceding two. This

third and final Church Age will not be dominated by the concept of either the Church

of Jesus

Christ or the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Neither His flock

nor His

message will be preeminent, but HE, HIMSELF, will be preeminent. The Person of

Jesus Christ, the ever

expanding revelation of Jesus Christ, will be exploded in our hearts by

the Holy Spirit. Even as Paul's message

was incomprehensible to the Catholic Church for

hundreds of years until the first Reformation, so John's

message, the Revelation of Jesus

Christ, has been incomprehensible to many of us in the Age of the Gospel.

But it is the time

of the end, and God is even now beginning to unveil His Word to us. Eventually we will be

anointed to have eyes, like John, to see the kingdom of heaven in all His glory. We will be

anointed by God to

experience His love and to love Him like John, with our heads resting on

His bosom, close to His heart. The

anointing of the shepherd apostle Peter was on the

Church for a short season and then left and the Church fell

into apostasy for over one

thousand years. The anointing of the apostle Paul (the teacher & evangelist) was on

God's

people for four hundred years, and is now leaving, and the people once again are heading

towards

apostasy. The anointing of the prophet apostle John, however, will rest on God's

people until the Bridegroom

returns.

Pearl Harbor will be more than a revival. It will be a Revival/Reformation. It will be the last

Revival/Reformation.

Those in this Revival/Reformation who endure to the end will have the

anointing of David and the anointing of

John. They will have the anointing of the prophet/king,

the anointing of the prophet/apostle. They will have the

anointing of the SEER who SEES

the spiritual realm as David partly and passionately saw. They will have the

anointing of John

who saw even more than David as he stood with the glorified Jesus Christ both on the Island

of Patmos and in the heavenly throne room.

The anointing that is on this last days, last age Church will certainly be the anointing of John.

But this anointing

of John is two fold. Most certainly John was the apostle of love. Of the

three pillar apostles, John was the one

who was closest to the heart of our Lord. He was

the disciple whom Jesus loved. He was the disciple to whom

Jesus entrusted His mother.

Two images of love that come immediately to our mind are first, John laying his

head on the

bosom of our Lord, and second, John speaking these words, "Little children, love one

another." But

there is another aspect of John's anointing that is summed up in the surname

given to him by our Lord, in the

Gospel of Mark. Jesus calls him and names him: "Son of

Thunder.” Undoubtedly this was, as Philip Schaff says,

"...an epithet of honor and

foreshadowed his future mission, like the name Peter given to Simon. Thunder to the

Hebrews was the voice of God. It conveys the idea of ardent temper, great strength and

vehemence of

character...The same thunder which terrifies does also purify the air and

fructify the earth with its accompanying

showers of rain. Fiery temper under the control of

reason and in the service of truth is as great a power of

construction as the same temper,

uncontrolled and misdirected, is a power of destruction."2

John was both the apostle of love and the thundering prophet. No other apostle or disciple

carried the mantel of

prophet so graciously and so dynamically as John. As a Seer his vision

spanned from before the beginning of

time to after the end of time. He saw back to before

the creation when he tells us that, "In the beginning was the

Word, and the Word was with

God, and the Word was God." He also saw beyond the end of time to the

beginning of

eternity as he describes "a new heaven and a new earth... (Where) the Lord God, the

Almighty,

and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon

to shine upon it, for the glory

of God has illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb."

As a prophet John rebukes, exhorts, warns, and comforts throughout his writings but

especially in The

Revelation. We too, the Church of the last age, will carry the mantel of

prophet and have the heart of love. We

too will have this two fold anointing.

As we look back on the differences between the Catholic Church of the sixteenth century and

the Reformation

Church of the seventeenth through twentieth centuries, we see that the light

of the Reformation Church was

almost unbelievably brighter than that of its predecessor,

even at the high point of the Early Church. We can

expect that the light of the Church of the

new Reformation, the last reformation, the David-John Reformation, will

be even greater in

difference than that of the Protestant Reformation's light. Unfortunately, to the unadapted or

unadaptable eye great light produces great blindness. Even as the Catholics of the sixteenth

through the

twentieth centuries were blinded by the light of the Reformation and even now

still remain blind, so the majority

of the first Reformation Church will be blinded by the great

light of the New Revival/Reformation that God will

bring to His Body except they desire with

all their hearts to fully apprehend God. With the compassion and

severity of John we must

understand that this blindness will occur. We must have compassion and not be

condemnatory, but we must also severely and uncompromisingly cling to the Word as He is

being revealed to

our hearts. Even as John was uncompromising and severe in his gospel,

his letters, and the Revelation of

Jesus Christ, so we too must steadfastly practice, preach,

and prophesy what the Lord reveals to us. Philip

Schaff discusses this temperament of John

with wisdom,"(John) had no doubt a sweet and lovely disposition,

but at the same times a

delicate sensibility, ardent feelings, and strong convictions. These traits are by no

means

incompatible. He knew no compromise, no division of loyalty. A holy fire burned within him,

though he

was moved in the deep rather than on the surface. In the Apocalypse, the thunder

rolls loud and mighty against

the enemies of Christ and His kingdom, while on the other hand

there are in the same book episodes of rest and

anthems of peace and joy and a description

of the heavenly Jerusalem, which could have proceeded only from

the beloved disciple. In

the Gospel and the Epistles of John, we feel the same power, only subdued and

restrained.

He reports the severest as well as the sweetest discourses of the Savior, according as he

speaks

to the enemies of the truth, or in the circle of the disciples. No other evangelist gives

us such a profound inside-

view of the antagonism between Christ and the Jewish hierarchy,

and of the growing intensity of that hatred

which culminated in the bloody counsel; no apostle

draws a sharper line of demarcation between light and

darkness, truth and falsehood, Christ

and Anti-Christ, than John. His Gospel and Epistles move in these

irreconcilable

antagonisms. He knows no compromise between God and Baal. With what holy horror

does he

speak of the traitor, and the rising rage of the Pharisees against their Messiah!

How severely does he in the

words of the Lord attack the unbelieving Jews with their

murderous designs, as children of the devil! And, in his

Epistles, he terms everyone who

dishonors his Christian profession a liar; everyone who willfully sins a child of

the devil; and

he earnestly warns against teachers who deny the mystery of the incarnation, as Anti-

Christs, and

he forbids even to salute them. The measure of his love of Christ was the

measure of his hatred of Anti-Christ.

For hatred is inverted love. Love and hatred are one

and the same passion, only revealed in opposite

directions. The same sun gives light and

heat to the living, and hastens the decay of the dead."3

Even John's ministry as the Apostle of Love is different than the Church of today

understands. Again I quote

Philip Schaff, “John's Christianity centers in the idea of love and

life, which in their last root are identical. His

dogmatics are summed up in the word: God

first loved us; his ethics in the exhortation: therefore let us love Him

and the brethren. He is

justly called the Apostle of Love. Only we must not understand this word in a

sentimental,

but in the highest and purest moral sense. God's love is His self-communication to man;

man's love

is a holy self-consecration to God. We may recognize, in rising stages of

transformation, the same fiery spirit in

the Son of Thunder who called vengeance from

heaven; in the apocalyptic seer who poured out the viles of

wrath against the enemies of

Christ; and the beloved disciple who knew no middle ground, but demanded

undivided loyalty

and whole-souled devotion to his Master. In him the highest knowledge and the highest love

coincide: knowledge is the eye of love, love the heart of knowledge; both constitute eternal

life, and eternal life is

the fullness of happiness. The central truth of John and the central fact

in Christianity itself is the incarnation of

the eternal Logos as the highest manifestation of

God's love to the world. The denial of this truth is the criterion

of Anti-Christ."4

John's message of love is summed up in yet another way in John14:23, "...if anyone loves

Me, he will keep My

word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make

Our abode with him. He who does not

love Me does not keep My words; and the word

which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me." The

love that John speaks of, as

manifested by believers and by God, Himself, is absolutely manifested in terms of

obedience. As was written in an earlier chapter, the great division will be made clear by one

fact: those who

believe in the Lord Jesus Christ enough to obey Him from their heart,

because of their love for Him, will be on

one side, His side. Those who do not believe in Him

enough to obey Him will be on the other side, the side of

Anti-Christ.

Another division will take place between those who will not let go of this world. John spoke

of the relationship

of the believer and this world more than any other Biblical writer. John

was aware that we are not of this world.

And those who would EXPERIENCE to the utmost

the other realm, the spiritual realm, the unveiled kingdom of

God, will have to force their

attention away from the attractions of the world. The realm of the kingdom of God

will

become more and more clear, more and more real, to those who will let go of the worldly

realm and focus

their attention, their energies, their devotion and love on the unveiled

heavenly realm. Even as John was the

most familiar of all the apostles with the heavenly

realm, so the Pearl Harbor Church of the last days will be the

most familiar with the heavenly

realm. But it is imperative that we tear ourselves away from this disintegrating

mist of a

world. John dwelt in the mystic realm of the kingdom of God and related those experiences

and that

knowledge more compellingly than any other man. As we tear ourselves away and

as we let God show us just

how shallow and deadly this world is, we will SEE as John SAW.

The Pearl Harbor Church will have to be patient, even as John was patient. Philip Schaff

says, "(John) had to

wait til the church was ripe for his sublime teaching. This is intimated by

the mysterious word of our Lord to

Peter with reference to John: If I will that he tarry til I

come what is that to thee? John out lived it personally

and his type of doctrine and character

will outlive the earlier stages of church history (anticipated and typified

by Peter and Paul) til

the final coming of the Lord. In that wider sense, he tarries even til now and his writings

with

their unexplored depths and heights still wait for the proper interpreter. THE BEST COMES

LAST!"5

Without a doubt the progressive unveiling of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be the

BEST. It must have

been wonderful to be a part of the Church during the early days. It

surely was even more magnificent to

comprehend the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the first

Reformers. But to be a part of the generation to whom

The

Revelation of Jesus Christ in all

His majestic, holy and awesome glory comes, is surely the crowning and

appropriate

consummation. Even as Peter separated her from the world and Paul clothed her with the

righteousness of Christ, so John sets the crown upon the bride's head by opening her eyes

to SEE the Lord in

all His glory, and opening her heart to KNOW Him and LOVE Him

completely.

But for now, we must wait. John waited until his time, which was after the departure of

Peter and Paul. David

waited in the Cave of Adullam, figuratively, until the departure of

Saul. So too must we wait until God brings our

second storm and until God simultaneously

finishes the Age of Paul and the Church of Saul with Pearl Harbor.

We must be patient. But

we must also understand that as we wait for the refining fires that God will bring upon

the

people who are called by His name, EVEN NOW, God is beginning to plunge His true Body

deep into the

waters of His Word. Even, as in some distant day, when the Church sinks and

dives deeply into the waters of

great tribulation to apprehend the Pearl of Great Price, so

now we are being called to plunge into the Word of

God to apprehend the full Revelation of

Jesus Christ, the Pearl of Great Price. As we unconditionally plunge

into those, as of yet,

unfathomed depths, the Lord will begin and even now is beginning to open our John-eyes

and

our John-hearts, and even thunder through our John-mouths to see, and love, and speak as

the thundering

prophet/apostle of love.

When we individually and collectively apprehend with our dying breaths the Pearl of Great

Price, fully seeing

and knowing The Revelation of Jesus Christ, THEN this great Body will

explode from the waters of her Pearl

Harbor baptism with the anointing of John. THIS will be

the Church that fully abides in The Revelation and the

Body of Jesus Christ. THIS will be the

Church to whom the Scripture in the Gospel of John truly APPLIES,

"Truly, truly I say to you,

he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and GREATER works than

these shall he do; because I go to the Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that will I

do, that the Father

may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do

it. If you abide in Me and My words

abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it shall be

done for you. TRULY, TRULY, I SAY TO YOU HE WHO

BELIEVES IN ME, THE WORKS

THAT I DO SHALL HE DO ALSO; AND GREATER WORKS THAN THESE

SHALL HE DO."

This faith-filled, abiding, resurrected/reformed Body of Christ will go forth in the mighty

manifested power of Peter, the understanding of Paul, and the eyes and heart of John,

ultimately ushering in

the kingdom of David that will reign forever, the kingdom of our Lord

Jesus Christ.

It is important to note that each Church Age had a different emphasis on the Person of Jesus

Christ. The first

Church Age that was dominated by the Roman Catholics and Eastern

Orthodoxy often depicted Jesus Christ as

an infant. The second Church Age dominated by

the Reformers, Evangelicals and Pentecostals emphasized

the earthly ministry of Jesus

Christ, particularly His death on the cross and the tremendous benefits His death

and

resurrection made available to God’s people. The coming Church Age, the Age of John, will

emphasize the

glorified Jesus Christ that stands among the seven churches, is at the right

hand of God and will come as a

Conqueror. This is not the meek and mild babe that lays in

a manger fresh from Eternity, nor is it the gentle

Shepherd who lays down His life in love to

please the Father and redeem a people for Himself. This glorified

Jesus Christ is a Being

that engenders both FEAR and great LOVE, embodies power and is a terror to His

enemies. We have much to learn regarding this Jesus Christ, the Word of God and we will

learn about Him

before the culmination of this last age for God’s people on this earth.