Article on the Latter Rain movements:

This is the false teaching spread by the various Latter Rain movements. This teaching is highly deceptive and has been contrived against the Lord who is the "man child" of Revelation 12. All that are tempted to follow these movements need to investigate the satanic motivations lurking in the details.


The Man-Child

We may learn about the "man-child" of Revelation from chapter 12, starting with verse 1:
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.

Now who is the woman? The nation of Jewish Israel, with twelve tribes? No, because present day Israel is not made up of the Israel of twelve tribes but rather the one tribe of Judah and possibly 2 other tribes, the rest are called "the ten lost tribes of Israel" and generally dispersed among the Gentiles. That means if the twelve stars represent Israel then ten of them are assimilated and if they are the people of God they can be included in the Christian church, the same goes for the 144,000. Again, now who is the woman? We know that it is in the future or at least happening now, what will happen next? As for us, we know that Jesus is calling His Bride right now but the woman cannot be the Bride or the man-child would be out of wedlock, therefore the woman could be the church and the Bride is the remnant called out to be holy.

And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his heads.
We also know that the dragon is the beast and the Anti-Christ with the false church, the whore Babylon but now we are seeing how much damage the dragon will be doing in the churches.

And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

The dragon drew the third part of the stars of heaven? Think about that. Many are called but few are chosen, if the dragon shall pull even stars from heaven, how much more the sons and daughters of men. We have learned that the seven churches of Asia are also considered stars so it follows that these are three of the seven candlesticks and satan will be drawing much of the church down to him. Drawing them to earth denotes a church more interested in the things of this world than heavenly things. Better times coming though for: she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up unto God and to His throne.

Now, who is the man child? Hermeneutical methods of Biblical exegesis would naturally look for the most obvious and literal of interpretations before we would go to spiritual or figurative ones. So to start with, we may have to accept that this is one child, one person instead of children or group of people, but not necessarily. It has been suggested that the second coming of Christ would be a "corporate Jesus" or all of us as His body being the second coming. It has also been suggested that the man child is Elijah or the prophet to come but we will see that this is not the case. The man-child is set to rule. Remember that Jesus came as a ruler but humbled Himself and became as our servant, that rule will come in the last days.

Think on this part of the verse: "who was to rule all nations" The word "was" is past tense, yet we are speaking of the future. The only way that is to be is if "was" to rule means that this is a fulfillment of prophecy. Let's look. Many of the Psalms of David are prophetic. The second chapter of Psalms beginning with verse 7:

I will declare the decree: the Lord has said unto me, You are my son, this day have I begotten you. Ask of me and I shall give you the heathen for your inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, you shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore, O you kings, be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.

This is the last days that David is referring to but we find in Acts 13 that this prophecy was partially fulfilled in the birth and resurrection of Jesus. It is the last day beast that will try to devour the child and John received this vision years after Jesus' death and resurrection, therefore complete fulfillment is reserved for the last days. It is then Jesus that we are referring to, but in what form? Jesus cannot impregnate the woman and give birth to Himself unless He Himself is propagated in a different form.

If we are to identify ourselves as the man-child, we must look to the second Psalms as being only partially fulfilled and still toward the future, or at the least what may be happening now. Many prophecies look to the first coming, the death and resurrection, etc. and still toward the Second Coming. For example, the early church fulfilled the prophecies in Joel, yet we still wait for the latter rain outpouring in the last days. Elijah was fulfilled in John the Baptist but in that he is still coming to restore all things is another example.

David's fulfillment may even be more clearer in the second chapter of Revelation. The seven candlesticks as the seven churches of Asia are literal fulfillments of actual church ages throughout history. They are successively revealed but do not end with each and then start with another church age. They appear successively but each continues unto the second coming. Many Christian teachers teach that they end as another begins but if you look closely you will see that He is to "come unto you quickly" they are to "hold fast until I come." The church at Thyatira seems to fulfill the age when the Church at Rome was in the dark ages unto the present time when their last works were more than the first. Understand that the Nicolaitan idea of fleshly leadership started with them and continued with the Protestants. What Jesus had against them was that: (verses 20 - 23)

You suffer that woman Jezebel, which calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. (verses 26 - 28) He that overcomes and keeps my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star.

This is direct fulfillment of David's prophecy. Now who is "he that overcomes?" Who is given power over the nations? Is it just one person that keeps His works unto the end or it is anyone that keeps His works? If it is not just one person, it is many and then we must see it as a fulfillment of the Manifest Sons and a many-membered man-child.
If we also look at Psalms 110, this same idea of the rod and rule is mentioned but with an added twist and that of plurality:

The Lord said unto my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord shall send out the rod of your strength out of Zion, rule thou in the midst of your enemies. Your people shall be willing in the day of your power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth. The Lord has sworn, and will not repent, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at your right hand shall strike through kings in the day of His wrath.

So it is not just Jesus in the singular that is brought out here but of a multiple membered Christ in the order of a new Melchizedek priesthood and is described as holy from birth.

It is also in this dialectic that we can also go to the order of Melchizedek in Hebrews chapter 5 for more answers. Jesus is not simply a priest after the order, He is our High Priest, we are the priests. These things all point to the interpretation that the man-child is a many membered priesthood and will come out of the church in holiness to rule.

Now we know that the order of Melchizedek is Jesus as our high priest and that He is our sacrifice, that is now and has been since the beginning of the church and will be forever. We are priests after the order and have been since the church began. Since we are talking about the man child here, we must come to the conclusion that he is a corporate Jesus in that the manifest sons as His body will be part of the second coming. Others involved in the restoration process are already teaching this. Now we are not the high priest but all priests after the order. Hebrews 8: 4, if the high priest were on earth, he should not be a priest. So Jesus is in heaven as high priest. We are on the earth as priests after the order of Melchizedek. So if Jesus is high priest and cannot be such on earth because it is forever, if the man child is Jesus, the child cannot be Jesus the high priest and cannot be another Jesus, therefore must be the corporate Jesus of us being priests unto Him and representative of His body.

Many with a prophetic calling have had visions and dreams of child-birth. Most interpretations that I have heard have seen this as God letting us all know about the birth of the man-child. I believe it as do many others that the man-child has been birthed and still in its infancy, the nature of the five-fold ministry is in bring the remnant church to maturity. The dreams suggests the naturalness of it, that there will be all the provisions need for nurturing, that we are in preparation to receive it. And don't worry about the pain, God will see us through it.

We are the man-child, we are the fulfillment of the prophecy that have just been birthed. Who are we? The true prophets of the last days bear witness to the truth that the five-fold ministry of apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers and evangelists will march in rank bringing the last days message to the world and that we are clothed with the sun and Jesus has placed the crown of apostolic order upon the woman's head with us as her jewels. This many membered man-child in the beauty of holiness with the fullness of the spirit will rule the nations according to His promise and joined with Jesus as our Lord. The proclamation of this truth will bring forth the restoration of all things and the latter rain outpouring unto all the earth, reconciling man and God in preparation of the harvest before the great and terrible Day of the Lord. This royal priesthood will come forth with the anointing and power to bring the church into the holy of holies and fulfill the prayer of Jesus that we should all be one. The enemy seeks to devour the child, take courage.

Thanks for exposing these terrible false doctrines. Great job!!!

Amen...there is a spirit of criticism that exudes from this man. He makes open discussion very difficult on this forum. It's one thing to scripturally disagree with what you THINK is incorrect, but to call names and throw false prophet around while actually opposing the truth is hard to tolerate.

This quote is not from this thread. What are you talking about? I don't even understand the first post in this thread. Is the writing supposed to be the "False doctrine" ? Or is it supposed to be the correction?

The writing is false that is for sure.

HI GL, they are talking about Stephen in general. If he does not understand something, he attacks it (he is a fighter pilot) and in all his threads his taken to thinking up labels for those who disagree with him. Like : If you do not agree with him in his pre-trib rapture doctrine, he calls you a "Tribulation Seeker" and then warns everybody of the danger of the wrath of God , if you do not believe what he (Stephen) teaches.

C

PS I just re-read the topic title and realised it will clarify my point: Its again labeling all who believe in the tribulation by calling them "Latter Rain Movements"

Hi C,

Interesting topic which has me asking myself this question? Why do so many well intentioned Christians misinterprete Scriptures? Perhaps it's because at times we Christians try to read the Bible alone without inviting the Holy Spirit to join us in the reading? Which brings up one other point, perhaps that's why well intentioned Christians screw up in their walk with Christ regularly? We try to do things alone without inviting the Holy Spirit to join us. I guess sometimes we believe (Myself included) that we know best when in fact we don't know anything. Only with the Holy Spirit in us can our eyes be opened.

Gods Blessings,

Al

Hi Al, of course you are right I agree with you. If you read some of my other post, you will see that I believe that we have to not only take the letter of the Word, but that the Holy Spirit must open it to us as well.
The Lord is very clear Himself that we need this, because He calls many things a "mystery" or " Hidden" yet we think that we can just do a letter study and understand the God Who created all this and we are so full of it, that we think we can understand His ways, WITHOUT Him. But even this (this seeing in the spirit) HE must open eyes for, because humans do not understand this out of their own.

Here are a few hidden things:


Rev 2:17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it.

NOw we all know that manna is a type for the Word. So God is saying that He has hidden WORD from us and only those who overcome , will get this word.

Mat 13:35 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.

So again, hidden in His words are the REAL message. The "spirit" of the words .

and here is a long quote, but worth reading:




there are many more scriptures about the mystery and how we must seek it out through the Holy Spirit

in Christ
C