Prof Zebulon  No E20  

 

(F) Christian Living (Prayer in the Life of a Christian)

Does a Christian need to be told that prayer is important?  The Lord commands us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17, 18) and give thanks in everything.  Prayer is the life of the Body of Christ; it drives us closer to the Lord and therefore our misgivings are exposed and we can confess them.  We cannot entertain sin in our lives and have a life of prayer; prayer keeps us in constant awareness of our dependence on the Lord.

So what are we to pray for?  That the Lord saves someone who is dear to us? The Lord wants everyone to be saved (2 Tim 2:4)  so why should we pray for someone's salvation?  I believe the Lord gives us opportunities to speak to the unsaved and lets us partake in the joy of seeing someone come to Him in repentance. Therefore, we should pray for opportunities to witness to people; will this guarantee their salvation?     No it won't.

Once, there were these two life-long friends; one was a Christian and the other one wasn't.  The Christian prayed earnestly all his life for the salvation of his friend but he never did see him come to the Lord.  When the Christian died, his unsaved friend trusted Christ as his Saviour at his funeral. 

The Lord is in control of everything and I sincerely believe that we are to pray to be in God's will; that we are to pray according to His Word; that we are to pray as Daniel prayed.  Daniel chapter 9 from verse 1 to 19 is a true intercessory prayer and in verse 19, Daniel prays: "O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name".

Our prayers ought to be modeled after Daniel's.

 

H)  Prophesy (Amillennialism explained)

The amillenial view holds that there will be no literal millennium on the earth following the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and that Satan was bound at the First Coming of Christ.  This present age between the first and the second coming is the fulfillment of the millennium as described in Revelation; we are presently in the millennium. 

There are basically two viewpoints of amillennialism;  1) the Augustinian viewpoint in which the millennium will be completed here on earth 2) the Warfield viewpoint states that the millennium will be completed in heaven. 

When our Lord Jesus Christ returns a second time, the world will end and we will be ushered into the eternal state.  The amillennial view is similar to the post-millennial view in that Jesus Christ will return after the millennial period.  All the promises that God made to Israel in the Old Testament have been fulfilled in the Church, The Body of Christ and no future nation-wide salvation is viewed for Israel.

One word on post-millennialism; it is no longer an issue in the theological world.  World War II brought about the demise of this system mainly because its followers believed that the world would get better and better and that the Lord would return a second time into a perfect world.