The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2017 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

The King of the Church

When Yeshua began His ekklesia, Tiberius was emperor of Rome.

Quite a contrast — Caesar and Christ.

Emperors were emperors because they personally eliminated any competition. Herod was the penultimate example of that. As mentioned earlier, Herod claimed to be a Jew so he didn’t eat pork. But to eliminate any possible threat to his throne, he killed his own sons. That led Augustus to say it was better to be Herod’s hog than his son. The Roman emperors including Augustus were the same as Herod — wary of any threat to their reign and willing to go to any length to protect themselves.

Tiberius, king of the civilized world, a pernicious pervert, forcefully controlled the empire by the power of Rome, the Roman army. Ancient History Encyclopedia says, The Roman army, famed for its discipline, organistion, and innovation in both weapons and tactics, allowed Rome to build and defend a huge empire which for centuries would dominate the Mediterranean world and beyond, and concludes that it was arguably one of the longest surviving and most effective fighting forces in military history, https://www.ancient.eu/Roman_Army.

Roman society was so vile that even pagans like Augustus and Cicero were repulsed by it. The only way to keep such lawless, licentious people under control was with the heavy iron fist of Rome and its brutal armies. That’s how Rome made the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace so often praised by historians.

For example, Judah rebelled against Rome and in 70 AD, after a starvation siege of Jerusalem, the Romam army butchered hundreds of thousands of Jews and destroyed their revered temple. Then there was the Pax Romana.

However, about sixty years later the Jews rebelled again. More Jews butchered and this time the Romans totally destroyed the whole city of Jerusalem and plowed the ground under it. Again they then experienced the Pax Romana.

That’s how Rome rules. Rome is the last of the four great world empires mentioned in Daniel: Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. They all ruled the same way, controlling people by force, not free will.

That’s how Satan rules.

Quite a contrast — Caesar and Christ. Or Satan and Christ.

Yeshua, Creator of everything, sustainer of everything, who gave his life for everyone, controls his ekklesia not by a Roman army, but by His spirit. His flock of obedient sheep don’t have to be coerced, just changed. They are to change from being like Tiberius to become like Christ.

This is the change.

Col 3:1-15
1) If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.
2) Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.
3) For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4) When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory.
5) Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry;
6) for which things’ sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.
7) You also once walked in those, when you lived in them;
8) but now you also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth.
9) Don’t lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings,
10) and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator,
11) where there can’t be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all.
12) Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance;
13) bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do.
14) Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.
15) And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.

There is no overstating the contrast there. These are the two great kingdoms of the universe, Satan and Christ. Rome was and will be Satan’s kingdom in this world. How does Rome rule? By coercion and killing. Yeshua, who will set up the Kingdom of God at his return, leads his followers by his spirit. His subjects do not have to be coerced and intimidated. They willingly follow their King, because they have the same spirit as their King, the same heart — “a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance.”

No one else can lead this ekklesia by spirit. That leaves only Yeshua as King of the ekklesia, the head of the church, because He is the only one who can lead like this.

Always the question is –

How do you control the people? How can a society be prevented from destroying itself? How is human nature neutered? By the power of Rome or the spirit of God?

No human can change another person’s heart. Humans can only browbeat and kill or coddle and bribe, and that’s how political and religious rulers try to control their people. The whole history of mankind is a record of this kind of tyranny, with few exceptions. Remember your history lessons in school? Alexander, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler — the study of history is mostly a memorizing of the most powerful despots and their vainglorious exploits.

Rome’s method of ruling works in the short term, but as happened with Rome, eventually the controlled crowd either overcomes their overlords or gets cloyed with the welfare bribes and then erupts out of control. The government of Rome looks good for a while but always ultimately fails and falls in on itself.

Only God can lead by the spirit of God, not banging on heads but changing hearts. That’s why one who is God is King of the ekklesia, with no other intervening kings at all.

Col 1:16-18
16) For by him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and for him.
17) He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.
18) He is the head of the body, the assembly [ekklesia], who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

In all things He is preeminent. To see Yeshua as this king, who leads by the heart, takes enlightened eyes of the heart.

Eph 1:18-23
18) having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
19) and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might
20) which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,
21) far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.
22) He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly,
23) which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

“Head over all things for the assembly” — the pattern holds.

When Yahweh rescued Israel from the government of Egypt, He did not give them another Pharaoh. He gave them Him. Israel did not have a burdensome government bureaucracy, as Rome and human governments do. God was their government. When Israel demanded a human king, Yahweh told them what their king would take from them: their money in taxes, their children as servants, and their lives as soldiers. When Israel got a human king, though, what they lost most of all was looking directly to Yahweh as their King.

In the wilderness, Israel followed their King in the cloud and the fire. Moses was the prophet and Aaron was the high priest, but Israel did not follow Moses or Aaron. They followed the cloud and the fire, and Moses and Aaron followed the cloud and fire, too. No one, including Moses and Aaron, knew ahead of time when they would move. They moved only when the cloud moved.

In the Holy Land at the time of the Judges, Israel did not have the cloud and the fire because they weren’t moving anymore, but they still had the same leader to guide them in their everyday lives. Judges taught them and were used to rescue them from their oppressions, but their leader was still the one who had led them through the wilderness. Yahweh El Shaddai was their king and there was no human bureaucracy under him to get in the way.

In the very same way, in the New Covenant ekklesia, God did not give his people a Christian version of Tiberius, Augustus or Julius Caesar. He did not give them a pope, archbishop, or chief apostle; none of the apostles was between the people and Christ. God gave them Yeshua, Yahweh’s Salvation, head over all things for the ekklesia. He is still the cloud and the fire, leading by his spirit, showing his people where to go.

You will recall how John and James, along with their mother, asked to sit by Christ’s side when he ruled. Yeshua was given that position at the right hand of the Father, as David had prophesied.

Ps 110:1-3
1) A Psalm by David. Yahweh says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.”
2) Yahweh will send forth the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies.
3) Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your power, in holy array. Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth.

At his trial, Yeshua told his accusers who he was and where he was going.

Luke 22:67-69
67) “If you are the Christ, tell us.” But he said to them, “If I tell you, you won’t believe,
68) and if I ask, you will in no way answer me or let me go.
69) From now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.”

At his ascension, the Anointed One, the Messiah, took his appointed place.

Mark 16:19
19) So then the Lord, after he had spoken to them, was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.

Peter pointed out to the Jews the position of the one they had condemned to death.

Acts 2:32-33
32) This Yeshua God raised up, to which we all are witnesses.
33) Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this, which you now see and hear.

Acts 5:31 ISV
31) God has exalted to his right hand this very man as our Leader and Savior in order to extend repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.

1 Pet 3:22
22) who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him.

Repeatedly the New Testament points to Christ at the right hand of God the Father. Paul wrote —

Rom 8:34
34) Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

Col 3:1
1) If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.

When Stephen was being murdered by the Jewish religious rulers, he did not fight against the powers of the world by force of arms, but only by the force of the spirit. And just as Israel saw the cloud and the fire, so Stephen saw Yeshua, at the right hand of God.

Acts 7:54-60
54) Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.
55) But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Yeshua standing on the right hand of God,
56) and said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
57) But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed at him with one accord.
58) They threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59) They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying, “Lord Yeshua, receive my spirit!”
60) He kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them!” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

So the New Testament emphasizes that the King of the ekklesia is at the right hand of the Father, the greatest position of honor in existence.

The disciples asked the King if the kingdom would be set up immediately.

Acts 1:6-8
6) Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
7) He said to them, “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority.
8) But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

Christ did not tell his disciples that He was restoring the physical kingdom of Israel at that time. Tiberius and Herod still remained on their thrones. But Yeshua had now been anointed to sit on that throne of David. When He rode into Jerusalem on a virgin donkey, he was hailed as king. When He was crowned with a crown of thorns, He was hailed as king. When he was hung on the stake, his royal title was written over his head — King of the Jews. When He returns, then He will sit on His throne.

Matt 25:31-34
31) “But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
32) Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
33) He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34) Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;

Tiberius was king of the world and Yeshua is King of the ekklesia. These two systems of government are based on opposite principles. Notice the difference between the ruler of this world and the ruler of the world to come.

Mat 4:1-10
(1) Then Yeshua was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
(2) When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward.
(3) The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
(4) But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”
(5) Then the devil took him into the holy city. He set him on the pinnacle of the temple,
(6) and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you.’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you don’t dash your foot against a stone.’”
(7) Yeshua said to him, “Again, it is written, ‘You shall not test the Lord, your God.’”
(8) Again, the devil took him to an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory.
(9) He said to him, “I will give you all of these things, if you will fall down and worship me.”
(10) Then Yeshua said to him, “Get behind me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.’”

Did you see the difference?

1. Are you hungry after fasting for forty days? Stop fasting to battle me and turn these rocks into bread.
2. Prove you have great power. I dare you to show off and throw yourself down from the temple.
3. I will give you everything in the world if you will just bow down to me.

Everything Satan offered was based on selfishness. Get instead of give.

Everything Christ lived was based on selflessness. Everything He did in His life was giving. Not only did He refuse Satan’s offers of bread when He was hungry, of vanity to show off and of self-glorification to be ruler of this world — He gave all that up — but He also gave up even His own life. Satan offered Yeshua everything, which would have cost Yeshua his life. Yeshua gave up everything, including His physical life, and that gave Him eternal life.

We all have the same choice.

These are the two systems of government and of personal beliefs. Satan controls his people by appealing to their self-love. His society offers wealth, self glorification, and self indulgence. And if none of those hooks works, then Satan appeals to the most basic element of self-love — self preservation. If you don’t follow him, he will kill you.

Just as he did with the Messiah.

Satan shows how he thinks when he spoke of Job.

Job 1:8-11
8) Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.”
9) Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing?
10) Haven’t you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
11) But put forth your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face.”

Satan believed that Job would turn against God if God allowed Job to lose his property and position. After all, Satan did.

When that didn’t work, Satan was sure Job would turn against God if Job lost his health and well being.

Job 2:3-5
3) Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause.”
4) Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.
5) But put forth your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to your face.”

Satan thought Job had the same heart as himself — normal selfish human nature. He was wrong about Job. He is right about most people, though. In order to follow Christ, you need a changed heart. But Satan doesn’t need to change your heart to get you to follow him.

All he has to do is just get you to be yourself.

Satan’s attack on Job shows his modus operandi. If you don’t follow Satan, first he will take your wealth. If that doesn’t work, then he will try to take your health or your life. As he did with Christ, Satan tries everything to get you to bow down to him. Satan doesn’t really care if you love him in your heart, as long as you obey him in your life. When you put yourself first, you are putting Satan first.

Satan counts on you putting yourself first, just as he does. He knows you have normal human nature —

Which is the same as his nature!

Rom 8:7 KJV
7) Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Rom 8:7 WEB
7) because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.

Satan, which means adversary, is God’s enemy. He naturally breaks God’s commandments. You are the same as Satan, naturally breaking God’s commandments, naturally God’s enemy.

Satan rules by appealing to your human nature, to love yourself more than anyone. Christ rules by changing human nature, so that you love God and others more than yourself.

Satan and Rome say, ‘Bow to me or I will kill you.’ Now notice the opposite way.

Isa 55:1-3
1) “Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
2) Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? listen diligently to me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
3) Turn your ear, and come to me; hear, and your soul shall live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

That’s an invitation, not an attack. As is this.

Matt 11:28
28) “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.

When Peter spoke to the very first converts in the ekklesia, what did he do?

Acts 2:38-41
38) Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Yeshua Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39) For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.”
40) With many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”
41) Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls.

Peter did not use a sword as he had with Machus’ ear. Instead he used the people’s ears to speak to their hearts. He did not threaten their lives; he offered them life.

Why did those three thousand people then commit to turn their lives around?

Because they were cut to the heart.

Acts 2
37) Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

People do not become followers of Christ to keep their heads from being cut off. They follow Christ because they are cut to the heart.

Christ’s followers have to follow His example. They have to be willing to give up everything, even their own lives, to follow their Master. To do that, they have to be cut to the heart, which leads to a changed heart.

What is that change?

Not to put self first, even to the point of willingly giving up life itself.

You see the two extremes. Satan says ‘Obey me or I will kill you.’ Christ says ‘Obey me even if it kills you.’

Those Christianos who Peter first preached to made that change. Very soon they were scattered by Jewish persecution, but that just fanned their fervor. A few decades later under nutty Nero, the Christianos were also persecuted by Rome, in the most cruel fashion Satan could contrive. The Christianos endured that and still carried on. Some of those first three thousand who were cut to the heart almost certainly went through both of those times of persecution — and they deliberately chose to do it.

“And so, to get rid of this rumor [that Nero had set fire to Rome,] Nero set up as the culprits and punished with the utmost refinement of cruelty a class hated for their abominations, who are commonly called Christians. Christus, from whom their name is derived, was executed at the hands of the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius. Checked for a moment, this pernicious superstition again broke out, not only in Judea, the source of the evil, but even in Rome…. Accordingly, arrest was first made of those who confessed [to being Christians]; then, on their evidence, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much on the charge of arson as because of [their] hatred for the human race. Besides being put to death they were made to serve as objects of amusement; they were clothed in the hides of beasts and torn to death by dogs; others were crucified, others set on fire to serve to illuminate the night when daylight failed, Tacitus, Annals (XV.44).

Isn’t that amazing?

Satan had Nero cover the Christianos with waxed garments and burn them alive like torches but they endured his terror because they had a fire in their hearts that was greater than Nero’s fires. That’s why it’s so important that no other kings, popes or potentates get between Yeshua and his people. Only He can heal the human heart of its self love.

Christ is the King, head over all things for the ekklesia.