WORLD EVANGELISM
Proclaiming the Kingdom Gospel
THE DRAGNET
[Matthew 13:47-49] “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind; [48] and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away. [49] So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous."
[Matthew 21:43] "Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it."
The disciples of Jesus were also the first evangelists spearheading the messianic movement called The Way. As the church started to grow and very rapidly so; the Jewish believers could no longer be part of the newly emerged institution. In the year 90 AD the Rabbis issued a declaration: any Jew who becomes a member of the church would no longer be Jewish.
[John 16:1-4] “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. [2] They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. [3] These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me. [4] But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.
Religion put on a new garb of spirituality. Defined forms of worship were also changing; many of which were foreign.
Before the cross became the official symbol of Christianity the Jerusalem church enjoyed growth and with it also came many compromises.
The strictly forbidden to a Jew images and statutes found their way into the church.
Many Jewish believers left the now changing messianic movement.
In the year 325 AD the Roman Emperor Constantine officially legalized Christianity making it a Gentile religion. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob became three. Trinity became the holy creed of the church.
The Omniscient God knew that it will happen for before Him time does not exist. In Him we live and move and have our being.
After 325 AD evangelism turned into a widespread conversion of pagan nations. Kings were baptized and their subjects Christianized along with pagan practices. New creeds, liturgies and ceremonies replaced paganism.
Christianity also became political. Rome handed its powers over to Byzantium. Forced Christianizing, the so-called Holy Inquisition and the expulsion of Jews of Spain depicted the ugly side of political Christianity.
Martin Luther translated the Bible into the German language making it accessible to all.
After the reformation, which became Protestantism, splinter groups like the Anabaptists sought after deeper truths. Although severely opposed and even persecuted they emerged as Baptists. From Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist churches emerged the Pentecostal and charismatic movements.
Today, the evangelistic missionary movement, branded evangelical, become that dragonet of which Jesus spoke.
How long will the evangelical movement prosper we do not know. What we do know that as long as new people are born into this world they will be exposed to the saving grace of the Gospel of Salvation through Jesus Christ.
Today, God uses Jewish Evangelists signaling the closing of the final chapter, but World Evangelism must continue.
After we bring in the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel we do not indoctrinate them but give them freedom, with which also comes the final reformation. Christianity is still much a dualistic form of religion, this will also change by God's grace.