Our goal is to see the apostolic faith restored to the church. However, as discussed, we must realize that we are not seeking to build another first century church, but the twenty-first century church. The church, as it is called to be, will be the most relevant entity on the earth to its times. It is only as the church has become out of step with the Lord that it has lagged behind in its relevance. Before continuing, we want to briefly look at one more prophecy that will help us to understand the times in which we live. Revelation 7:1-3 says:
As we discussed before, the way we will be preserved from taking the mark of the beast is to take the mark of God upon us, which He gives to his “bond-servants.” This is important for us to understand, but we must also understand these “four winds of the earth.” Though I do not have the time in such a short study to establish this as it deserves, these “four winds of the earth” are the four great powers that have swept over the whole earth which have brought sweeping and profound changes on a civilization-wide basis. These are 1) military power, 2) religious power, 3) political power, and 4) economic power. I have listed them in the sequence in which they have blown upon the earth.
Looking at an overview of world history we can see that the first great historical epoch was dominated by military power. This was the age of the conquerors and great military empires. This period ran from the dawn of civilization until about 300 A.D. The Roman Emperor Constantine was one of the first to perceive this change and seize the opportunity that it presented to consolidate his power. His reign began the transition, at least in the West, to religious leaders being the real power base that military leaders served.
The next great civilizational epoch was dominated by religious power. By this we are not referring to true faith, but these are “winds of the earth,” and not the winds of heaven. This refers to religions created by man, coming up from the earth rather than the true faith which comes down from above. This was the period when the great institutional religions arose and began to dominate civilization, and the military powers became subservient to the religious powers such as Islam in the Middle East, Hinduism in the Far East, and Catholicism and Protestantism in the West. This period reached its peak during the Crusades and the great Ottoman Empire from about 1050 to 1500. During this period most wars were religious conflicts.
The next great civilizational epoch was dominated by political power. This period began around the time of the signing of the Magna Carta during the 1600s and continued through the mid-twentieth century. This was the time of great political changes, when new forms of government were born through great social upheavals such as the French, American. and Bolshevik revolutions. During this time both the religious and military powers became subservient to political powers of that age. There were still some religious and military wars, but the great sweeping social changes of this time were almost all Political in nature.
We should also note here that the transitional times between these great epochs were general and would sometimes take hundreds of years. About the beginning of the twentieth century we began to shift into a whole new great civilizational epoch—the one that will be dominated by economic power.
The Bolshevik Revolution was both a political and an economic revolution, marking the beginning of this great shift of power centers. World War II was both a political and an economic war. The "Cold War" was a very real war, but it was mostly an economic war. In the Middle Ages almost all wars were religious. From the 1700s through the middle of the twentieth century most wars were political. Now most wars are truly economic wars. The military, religious, and political forces are for the most part subservient to the economic powers.
The most powerful people on earth today are not the military, religious, or political leaders, but economic leaders. This may not always seem to be the case, but it is. The President of the United States is called the most powerful man on earth, but for over half a century the economy has been the primary factor dictating who becomes President.
During the Middle Ages wars were fought to impose religious will on the enemy. During the last great epoch, wars were fought to impose political will on others. Wars are now mostly fought to impose one nation’s economic will on others. We still have military, religious, and political powers and weapons, but the most powerful weapons in most conflicts now are banks, currencies, and trade. Why is this important to us? Because the "mark of the beast" is an economic mark as we read again in Revelation 13:16-17:
As we read above, the angels hold back the "four winds of the earth" "... until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads" (Revelation 7:3). By this we can expect there to be a time that the "four great winds of the earth" will be in relative abeyance, or that there will be relative peace until the Lord has sealed His bond-servants. This has been the case for decades now and is the reason why we have not had another all-out world war for over sixty years—a time when a primary work of God has been sealing His bond-servants for what is to come.
As we are now in the first stages of the next world war, we can expect all of these “winds of the earth” to begin blowing. At the end of this age, the world powers which have emerged from the earth will be in conflict with the coming of the kingdom of God. The economic powers may still be the predominant ones, but they will all be blowing as hard as they can when these angels release them.
As we read last week in Isaiah 60, at the time when darkness covers the earth and deep darkness the peoples, the Lord’s glory will be appearing upon His people, and the result of this is that the nations will begin bringing the wealth of the nations to them. At the end, the winds of heaven will prevail against the winds of the earth as the kingdom of God comes to the earth. The entire church age has been “training for reigning.” Therefore, learning to deal with the world’s wealth in obedience to the will of the Lord is very crucial for these times.
Those of you who have read my Word for the Week for very long know that it is my style to lay a biblical foundation and build upon it with both a historical and prophetic perspective, while from time to time strengthening the biblical foundation. We are also sowing into the fabric of our study the character issues that will help us to be the light that we are called to be in our times. How we handle money reveals a lot about the degree to which we live by the fruit of the Spirit, as we will see in this study. If we have the goal of having a clear understanding of how we should live in these times, we must understand kingdom economics. Now is the time to gain this understanding, as we read in Psalm 32:6:
Now is the time for us to get this understanding and to get our economic houses in order. The gospel is relevant to any period, and the church is called to be the light of the world in its time. We are in an economic age, and equipping our people economically is a basic part of what the church should be doing for its people today. Again, I would be opposed to giving anyone a position of authority in the church because of their wealth. We must understand that many Christian businessmen and women are truly called as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers who are to equip the church for its calling in these times. These need to be recognized and utilized. We will cover this in more depth in future weeks.