On October 31, 1517, the priest and scholar Martin Luther approached the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nailed a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary beliefs that would begin the protestant reformation.

In his thesis Luther condemned the excesses and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, especially the papal practice of asking payments called indulgences for the forgiveness of sins.

This resulted in a movement that changed the church forever. He forever changed Christianity beginning the Protestant Reformation in 16th-century Europe.

Five centuries ago, Martin Luther, John Calvin and other leaders of what became known as the Reformation, opened a giant rift in Christian Europe.

The Protestant Reformation in the 16th-century birthed a political, intellectual and cultural upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that would define Europe in the modern era.

In northern and central Europe, reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin and Henry VIII along with others challenged papal authority and questioned the Catholic Church’s ability to define Christian practice.

They argued for a religious and political redistribution of power into the hands of Bible. This birthed a major new beginning that would revolutionize the church.

It is interesting that just before the reformation the printing press was invented in Europe. This would prove to be a major factor in the propagation of the reformation.

This along with the invention of paper, allowed the bible which was prohibited to be read by the common people, to be printed in a language other than Latin, giving the ordinary people access to the bible in a common language.

It is said that Jesus came to this earth in the fullness of time.

“But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,” Galatians 4:4.

The word fullness here is the Greek word πλήρωμα, (plērōma, play’-ro-mah) which means full or reaching the finish or fullness.

Just before Jesus came on the scene the Romans had built roads all over Europe and the Middle East and had also established many shipping routes in the region.

This made it possible for the gospel to be taken across the whole of the Roman Empire. Just before that great move of God in the late sixties and early seventies broke out called the Charismatic Move, the cassette tape was invented.

From my church alone in those days, we sent teaching on cassette tapes in the thousands all over the world. It was the same in the reformation 500 years ago a fullness of time had come.

Along with the religious consequences of the Reformation, deep and lasting political changes occurred.

Northern Europe’s new religious and political freedoms came at a great cost, with decades of rebellions, wars and bloody persecutions.

The Thirty Years War, alone may have cost Germany 40% of its population. The Reformation also birthed a period which was defined as a Renaissance which literally means a New Birth or Re Awakening.

This period in European civilization immediately triggered and birthed a surge of interest in classical learning and values.

The Renaissance also witnessed the discovery and exploration of new continents, and the invention or application of such potentially powerful innovations as paper, printing, the mariner’s compass, and gunpowder.

To the scholars and thinkers of the day, however, it was primarily a time of the revival of classical learning and wisdom after a long period of cultural decline of a dark age which had lasted one thousand years.

I find it interesting that the new Protestant Church also underwent a change in church music which changed predominantly from the minor key to the major key.

The arts and sciences flourished with this new birth. A thousand years of dark ages was over.

What is the prophetic significance of this to us today?

What is the significance of the 500th anniversary of the reformation?

What is the biblical meaning of the number 500?

The Hebrew Alphabet contained special meanings for each letter, perhaps from the very beginning.

For example, the word for “EL” combines two letters Aleph and Lamed. Aleph originally was a pictograph of an “Ox”, and Lamed of a “shepherd’s staff.”

Together the ancient Hebrew word, EL, means, “Powerful Leader who keeps us together and on the right path.”

Final CAPH (PALM of the hand): {gh} The final attainment of Individuals existence as conceived at the beginning.

Like the ARMS above that grasped at the time of conception, the PALM of the Hand now holds what was dreamed about, and waited in the womb, and is now manifested in Reality.

October 31st 1517. That reformation transformed the religious landscape in ways that continue to resonate 500 years later.

The number 500 also has the meaning from the Hebrew: God ascends or rises up.

“To the chief Musician, A Psalm or Song of David. Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him.
As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God,” Psalms 68:1-2.

Also in the 500th chapter in the Bible Psalm 22:30-31,

“A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the LORD for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this,” Psalms 22:30-31.

This was a prophetic declaration speaking of a generation, a people, a seed that was to come that would end the age ushering in the coming of the LORD.

The feast of tabernacles this year along with the year of the 50 a jubilee year, 500 years after the reformation, marks an extremely significant change.

A new reformation begins this year, which will birth the most important season the church has ever known, which will usher in the coming of the LORD.

Just as Luther’s reformation birthed a renaissance or rebirth of the arts, Science and knowledge, even so we will see an incredible advancements in technology, medical advancements, and the arts.

Some of this will be sinister and on the other hand will be a great blessing. However the greatest and most life changing advancements will be in the true church.

I use the term True Church in the sense and meaning of the church that is moving on into this next spiritual reformation.

It is sad that a great portion of the church today is not even aware of this new and final season we are now entering into.

A large portion of the church has lost its way and continues on its merry way without any real awareness of the season we are in.

Some Time Ago my Wife Jo Had a Dream

In the dream I was standing in a large park. There were people some whom I knew in the park. Suddenly the sun began to quickly go down and a shadow was quickly advancing across the park. The shadow was moving towards me very quickly.

I shouted to the people that they must move quickly. Some moved away, but many others just stood there and were reluctant to move on.

A young man began to sing and play his guitar. He was singing an old hymn “I am coming LORD coming now to you,” but I knew he was indifferent to the fact that time was running out and he needed to move on.

Again I urged them to move on as the shadow was advancing quickly.

One of them said to me, “I will be all right and I will stay.” The shadow was very close to me now and I turned to run into the sunset which I knew was a safe place.

The dream then ended……

I felt that this dream was a warning that the end times were upon us and the people i.e. much of the church, were blindly going about their church business not aware of the season that was coming upon them.

They were totally unprepared for what was coming.

They were waiting for the LORD to save them or rapture them. And they continued on just singing and relaxing.

I knew that they would be overcome with the coming darkness. The sun was going down indicating the end of a day and the beginning of a new day.

There have been a number of doctrines over the past few years that were spawned in hell and many in the church have been deceived by these doctrines.

Any doctrine that does not lead to taking up one’s cross, dying to oneself, and following the LORD is not truth.

Jesus said in the world you will have tribulation. Many are deceived into believing that Jesus could come tomorrow or the next week or very soon as in this year.

This is not going to happen!

Jesus said this:

“The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world,” Matthew 13:38-40.

If Jesus returned next week it would be a great tragedy as the harvest has not yet been gathered in.

This new and last reformation is just beginning and will result in the greatest harvest the church has ever seen.

A new breed of Christians will arise who will astonish the world with their love, miracles of healing and deliverance. Even creation will join with them assisting and protecting them.

“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,” Romans 8:18-20.

Notice: Suffering and glory go together, and creation will be redeemed and retake its God intended role which was lost when Adam fell in the Garden of Eden.

Truly the churches finest hour is upon us. This new Re-Formation of the Church will bring great changes as to how we do church.

We need to be open to change and not miss the day of our visitation. Purity of heart and true holiness will be the hallmark of this next and final move of God.

This is what we have waited for and it is time to take hold of God like never before, joining our hearts with His heart for this world.

Yes Jesus is coming again soon, but first God is still looking down to see the misery and Satanic grip that Satan has on the masses of this world and He has a plan to bring about the greatest harvest we have ever seen.

We must join with His heart and purpose to finish the task.

However we see that the harvest of tares were first gathered in before the true harvest begins. There will be a falling away of many in the days now ahead of us as difficult times sweep over the world.

“For the kingdom is the LORD’S: and he is the governor among the nations.
All they that be feast upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the LORD for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this,” Psalms 22:28-31.

There is a generation who have not fallen asleep in this age who will rise up and finish the task.

“Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.
For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.
So the heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.
When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.
He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.
This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD.
For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth; to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death; To declare the name of the LORD in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem; when the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD,” Psalms 102:13-22.

We are entering the greatest conflict that the church has ever known, light and darkness are about to clash in a way that will literally shake this world.

Jesus did not say that it would be easy but we will be victorious.

Martyrdom will greatly increase in this new season. This is God’s plan and outworking of the principle of sowing and reaping. For every person that is martyred thousands will be raised up to take their place.

If you are not going through testing and trials something is wrong!

“How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality,” 2 Corinthians 8:2.

“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be,” 1 Peter 1:7.

“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you,” 1 Peter 4:12.

“But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy,” 1 Peter 4:13.

Suffering is part of the course God has ordained for us while we are on this earth.

Suffering has a way of making us bitter or better. It’s part of the course, the journey which we are on to qualify us to rule and reign with Jesus.

Bitter or better the choice is always ours. Don’t waste your sorrows they can be life changing. It’s all about attitudes, taking up the cross and following Jesus.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our LORD. Romans 8:35-39.

We are qualifying for the greatest adventure which encompasses the ages to come. This is not the end it’s just the beginning.

Winning the battle on this one planet earth, restoring what Adam lost is just the beginning.

“And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus,” Ephesians 2:6-7.

The rewards far outreaches the cost…..

“Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation,” 2 Corinthians 1:4-6.

The easy gospel message is coming to an end.

The gospel message is about to change to the gospel of the Kingdom.

Come to Jesus and lay down your life take up your cross and follow Him.

The coming battle will be the most fierce and the most glorious. And you were born for this hour.

Remember, all of the darkness in the world cannot extinguish one candle.

This reformation involves a transformation. A new Re-Formation of true Christianity is beginning, which will change everything as we know it now.

This reformation involves a transformation and full redemption of our physical bodies as in transfiguration.

This Truly Is Our Finest Hour!

“Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him,” Psalms 68:1.

“But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts,” Malachi 4:2-3.

 

~ Neville Johnson ^©

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The late Neville Johnson of The Academy of Light. Neville was in full time ministry for over 40 years. During that time he founded two Bible schools training ministers and missionaries who are now serving the LORD in fifteen nations. He was Director of Living Word Academy of Light in Australia. With great effect Neville preached the Gospel and taught the Word of God in over thirty nations and ministered in countless ministers seminars around the world. He was burdened for the lost with an apostolic calling to the nations.
Neville returned to be with The LORD on September 1, 2019.

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