K. END TIMES

Biblical Dispensations

We believe that the dispensations are stewardships, or rules of life, by which God administers His purpose on the Earth through man under varying responsibilities. Each dispensation begins with man being divinely placed in a new position of privilege and responsibility, and each closes with a failure of man resulting in righteous judgment from God. Three of these dispensations, or rules of life, are the subject of extended revelation in Scripture. They are the dispensation of the Mosaic Law, the present dispensation of Grace, and the future dispensation of the Millennial Kingdom. They are distinct and are not to be intermingled or confused as they are chronologically successive. Covenant Theology as found in Reformed Theology is unscriptural.

We believe that the dispensations are not ways of salvation, and that according to the “eternal purpose” of God, salvation is always “by grace through faith”, and that it rests upon the basis of the shed blood of Christ. We believe that “without faith it is impossible to please God.”

Israel

We believe that Israel is distinct from the Church, the Body of Christ, just as God’s purpose for each is distinct. We believe in the sovereign selection of Israel as God’s eternal covenant people, that they are now dispersed because of their disobedience and rejection of Christ, and that they will be re-gathered in the Holy Land, and after the completion of the Church, will be saved as a nation at the second advent of Christ.

Rapture

We believe in the pre-tribulation and pre-millennial return of Jesus Christ. By this we mean that Christ’s return for His Bride, the Church, (the rapture) is imminent and can occur at any moment in which all believers shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air before the seven years of tribulation.

Tribulation

We believe that the translation, or rapture, of the Church will be followed by the tribulation of seven years, which is the fulfillment of Daniel’s seventieth week for Israel, that the latter half of this period will be the time of Jacob’s trouble, which our Lord called the Great Tribulation.

Second Coming of Christ

We believe the tribulation period will come to a close when Christ returns to the Earth in person, with power and great glory, to stop the rebellion led by the Antichrist. Satan and the armies of the earth will be defeated by Christ in the battle of Armageddon. Immediately following this, Christ will establish His Millennial Kingdom.

Millennial Reign of Christ

We believe that during this thousand years Christ will reign as King upon the Earth from the Throne of David; Satan will be bound in the abyss; the curse will be lifted from the whole creation; Israel will be restored to their own land according to God’s covenant promises; and the whole world shall be full of the knowledge of God. At the end of his thousand-year imprisonment, Satan will be released for a short time and will immediately deceive the nations of the Earth into following him in one final attempt to overthrow the rule of Christ. Satan will be defeated and thrown into the lake of fire to join the beast and the false prophet for eternity.

Eternal Destiny

The Righteous: We believe that only those who are justified by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and sanctified by the Spirit of God are truly righteous. At death their spirits and souls pass immediately into His presence in heaven and they remain in conscious bliss until they are reunited with their resurrected bodies. They shall spend eternity with the Lord.

The Wicked: We believe that those who continue in unbelief are in His sight wicked and under the curse both in this life and after death. Their spirits and souls remain in misery and condemnation until the final Great White Throne Judgment at the end of the Millennium. Then, they will be cast into the lake of fire. They will not be annihilated, but punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. (Genesis 13:14-17; Deuteronomy 30:1-9; Isaiah 9:6-7, 11:9; Jeremiah 30:7, 31:31-34; Ezekiel 37; Daniel 2:44, 9:24-27; Matthew 24:15-21, 29-31; Luke 16: 19-26; John 1:7; Romans 11:1-32; 1 Corinthians 15:42-44,51-57; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Ephesians 1:7, 2:8-9; Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Hebrews 11:6; Jude 6-7; Revelation 3:10, 16:6, 6:1-19:21, 20:1-15)