When Moses was going to make the tabernacle, God warned him, “And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.” (Exodus 25:40) He was telling Moses to be sure that he didn’t change things around, making them different than the pattern God gave him. This pattern was somewhat complicated, and God wanted Moses to make sure that no one changed it.

As we enter the second decade of this millennium, we don’t know what religious controversies lie ahead, although there do seem to be clues that the debate over Calvinism will probably intensify, and the issue of a state church may be revived before the end of the century. Throughout all the years that the church has been in existence, apologists for countless different views, both important and unimportant, have waged war, each hoping to establish his view as the truth, and no mortal man can know for sure exactly what is going to face us in the next few years.

This is the first article in a series on the Kingdom of God.

The “Lord’s Prayer” contains a beautiful expression of our desire for revival, both in our lives and in the church, when it says, “Thy kingdom come.” Revival is simply the time when we enter the kingdom of God, and revival continues as we continue to live in the kingdom. “And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” The Pharisees hoped for a physical kingdom, a visible realm with government and territory. But Jesus explained that the true kingdom would not come this way. It would not be seen, but would consist of people whose lives God had quickened, people who had found revival.

I believe that the most important issue facing us in the rest of this century, will not be tongues, Calvinism, works, war, liberalism, modernism, evolution, false religions, or ethics. It’s an issue you may have never even thought about, because it’s come in undercover. While Christians have been attacking errors all over, this one has come in so slowly, so carefully, that it’s broken in all over Christianity, even in conservative circles.

In the past years, claims about the Holy Spirit’s work have spread across the entire world. Many have professed to have had the Holy Spirit work in their lives through “tongues” and other emotional experiences, and the “gifts of the Spirit” have received a lot of publicity.

I remember listening once to part of a recorded lecture from a supposedly conservative Christian college that would have openly proclaimed a belief in the inerrancy of Scripture. It’s been years now since I heard the lecture, but I still remember it clearly, because it had such an effect on me. The teacher was speaking about a verse in I John, and he declared in front of his students that this verse did not belong in the Scriptures.

We were standing in the aisle of the store one day, looking for whatever we were wanting to purchase. Down the aisle stood a woman, to whom I offered a tract. She drew back, as if in terror, and murmured, “Oh, no, no!” and forthwith fled around the corner. It was not me that she was afraid of—she had been perfectly content to stand in the same aisle before!—but, instead, a mere reminder of God.