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Sounds incredible--yes, I know! But it's true!
LISTEN! When Jesus Christ, at age 30, began proclaiming
the very Message Almighty GOD had sent, through Him, to mankind,
did He solicit financial support from the world to which He
preached? It almost sounds ridiculous to ask that question,
doesn't it?
Yet Jesus Christ had no apparent, visible, means of
support!
Now listen further! Jesus Christ, in his personal
individual human body, was starting the WORK OF GOD on earth! God
always starts things, through humans, the smallest--and then they
GROW GREAT! This WORK OF GOD was started by the one individual,
Jesus Christ! He called, chose, then taught and trained TWELVE to
become His Apostles!
After Christ's resurrection, and ascension to God's throne
in heaven, He sent the SAME SPIRIT OF POWER that had started GOD'S
WORK in His individual body, into the COLLECTIVE BODY of His
disciples! That same day 3,000 others were added. They became the
COLLECTIVE BODY in and through which the power of God's Spirit
carried on THE WORK OF GOD. That is WHY the true Church is called
"THE BODY OF CHRIST"!
You cannot find any record of THAT BODY soliciting funds
from the world to which it proclaimed Christ's Gospel--HIS GOOD
NEWS!
For two 19-year time-cycles that BODY proclaimed the GOOD
NEWS of the coming Kingdom of God to rule the world and bring us
PEACE--in the happy WORLD TOMORROW! The first 19 years in
Palestine and Asia Minor, then, exactly 19 years after it started,
Christ "opened a door" for the Apostle Paul to take the Gospel to
Europe. But, 69 A.D., when the Roman armies approached Jerusalem,
the disciples, remembering Jesus' warning (Matthew 24:15-16; Luke
21:20-21) fled north--and then ended, for the time, the organized
proclaiming of Christ's Message to the world.
Do you realize what happened? It is recorded in Matthew
25. Those early disciples had expected Christ to return again to
earth in supernatural power, as the KING of kings, in their time.
But, "while the Bridegroom (Christ) tarried, they all slumbered and
slept." (Matthew 25:5). That is, in the WORK OF GOD, the WHOLE
BODY figuratively went to sleep on the job of proclaiming the Good
NEWS of the coming world-ruling KINGDOM OF GOD--for more than 18
1/2 centuries! The united power for the mass-proclaiming of that
Gospel ceased for the duration of that 18 1/2 centuries.
But the MIDNIGHT HOUR actually struck IN OUR TIME! The CRY
was made: "Behold the Bridegroom cometh!" (Verse 6).
The WORKERS OF GOD were aroused from slumber. Again, the
WORK OF GOD started small--but it grew and grew in power and scope.
This time, the living Christ OPENED A DOOR (Revelation 3:8)--the
massive door of radio and the printing press--MASS media for