The Manifestation of the Glory of God Expressed in the Church - by Pastor Doug Riggs

by John Mark on 06/09/24

This message was originally recorded March 8, 2015.

My notes:

As the fulness of God is revealed in His Son, we the church are currently being filled into that fulness which the entire world will see when Jesus comes to establish His throne on Earth at the end of the 7-year tribulation. At the 2nd Advent, when Jesus returns to Earth glorified in and through His body, the Church, this organic spiritual body "will be the diffusion and the mechanism of the revelation of the glory of God, Christ."

 

As we consider the metaphor of the church being the physical human body of the Christ, and Jesus in His humanity being the head of that body, we realize that as our physical heads don't function apart from our physical bodies, neither does Jesus as the head of His body function apart from His body. This should give us much to think about as to our function and purpose here on earth during this church age, how we are involved and included in the work and function of the Holy Spirit as the Restrainer (i.e.: we are salt and light in the world), and as to our function and purpose during the day of the Lord in His ruling and reigning. We, the body of Christ, will function in sync with our head, Jesus Christ. In this message, Doug is focused on the fact that not only for all eternity will we, the body of Christ, manifest the fulness of God in Christ fully formed in us, and not only at the return of Christ in the 2nd Advent where He will be manifested in and through us, but here during this church age we have the opportunity to manifest the presence of Christ as we attain to the out-resurrection from the dead. As we decrease and His life increases in us, Jesus is manifested to this dark Christ-rejecting world. This is an aspect of the morning star (Jesus) arising in our hearts during the 4th (darkest) watch of the night. "We're here to bear the Name; we're here to manifest the new man... the heavenly man... To the degree we manifest that name will be to the degree we're sharing in the sufferings of the One who bears the name."

 

Once again Doug sets the timing of the 'Disclosure Event' to be that which precipitates the apostasy and then the rapture of the church occurs. Either before or after the rapture, the explanation is the same, "When that Disclosure Event occurs and the church is removed, the explanation is, 'We've removed the problem, and now mankind can attain its final evolutionary phase.'"

 

Doug mentions a possible scenario occurring during the Disclosure when 'bad aliens' threaten the existence of mankind, and then the 'good aliens' come to our aid as our 'saviors', ultimately resulting in the emergence of the Antichrist once the principal obstacle (the church) is removed. I found it very interesting when I watched a 2021 TV series on Syfy called Resident Alien. "A crash-landed alien takes on the identity of a small-town Colorado doctor and slowly begins to wrestle with the moral dilemma of his secret mission on Earth." This 'alien' is a reptilian hybrid and seeks to undermine the 'grey aliens' plan to destroy humanity and populate Earth. The storyline includes a woman abducted by the 'greys' to an alien craft, impregnating and then birthing a hybrid. I'm not recommending anyone watch this, but it is amazing what Hollywood is doing to facilitate the so-far effective "soft Disclosure", programming the world to accept the concept of aliens, hybrids, and the evolution of the human species, etc.

 

The Revelation of Jesus Christ first addresses the church, and in particular, local assemblies (Revelation 2 and 3). "The lampstands, that is, the local churches, are to reflect this character and the light of this Person (Jesus) in our mortal bodies. That is what the local church is. To whatever degree this Christ is not seen in local churches, 'I have this against you!'"

 

"When the church begins to see Him (Jesus), it's going to go down. And when it goes down, there won't be any buildings, there will be no more denominations, they'll just be saints gathered together unto Him... There will be no church buildings remaining at the rapture. Oh, they'll be remaining; there won't be any real saints there."

 

Recommended: True Fellowship by Art Katz (https://benisrael.org/product/true-fellowship-church-as-community/)

 

Link to Audio: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/3-8-15+Sunday+Assembly.mp3

 

Maranatha!

John Mark

...hereby committing this unto the providential care of the enthroned Head of the Church; whose Name is blessed forevermore, Yeshua Mashiach - Jesus Christ!