DISCLAIMER: This paper contains only my opinions and understandings of  this doctrine. 

1) the Feast of Passover -- the salvation experience
2) the Feast of Pentecost -- the infilling of the Holy Spirit in the church,
the third is yet to come and is in fact, very near at hand.  It is the Feast of Tabernacles.  This feast is made up of three smaller feasts;

1)the Feast of Trumpets
2)the Feast of Atonement
3)the Feast of Booths.

Many at the Chapel have seen these as first the indication or announcement that atonement is coming.  The feast of Atonement typifies the completed unity of man and God resulting in the Feast of Booths which represents the people of God living in temporary dwelling places; the picture of the church finally, experientially divorcing this world as their home in all ways.  This entire feast requires heart surgery by God.  It is beyond carnal man's ability to become this sanctified people experientially.  It is a work that God must do.

We were not ready for what we have experienced at the Chapel.  We even knew that, but God could wait only so long.  Much destruction occurred which was reported by media of all kinds.  However, much good has come from what God was doing.  This is apart from what Satan was doing.  This was not only ignored by the media, it was not evident to them.  The things of God are foolishness to the natural man, which makes me wonder why so many ambassadors of heaven have been so willing to believe a newspaper journalist is going to be able to sort out a spiritual battle with carnal eyes.

Most believers have made a serious mistake.  You cannot dwell on what Satan is doing to judge something God is doing.  No one at the Chapel in its fractured state would deny that Satan has been alive and well and working in the church.  We have always known this to the amazement of many people who feel it their duty to inform us of the fact.  Satan always shows up when the Spirit of God moves.  Where do you think those stories originated about early Pentecostals going crazy and becoming demon possessed?  Many stories were exaggerated stories of true events.  There have always been casualties in these things.  But that does not mean God was not present and was not moving.  Speaking from firsthand experience, I can tell you that the thing that separates the sheep from the goats in these battles is the heart of  the believer.  When all is stripped away, you will either stand with Jesus or yield to the demonic temptations and go over the bluff.  Not one person out of 3000 has escaped that fork in the road here.

Most believers  spared the casualties of this kind of spiritual warfare were spared because they were not willing to take the risk and trust God.  They were not willing to pay the price.  I have presently become one of these.  Those who rejected the Baptism in the Holy Spirit in years past never went over the bluff into destruction.  But they were never imbued with power to be witnesses either.  There is a false security in remaining with the safe things.  Though I have been very embarrassed by the actions of some of my own brethren, I understand why things happened.

Each of us is presented options in life by God.  He knocks politely at our heart.  He will not force His way in.  Therefore, it is easy to deny Him.  All of us have had to decide at times whether we were willing to pay the price, put our hands to the plow and go for God and not look back.  My wife and I did not move 900 miles just to pursue a career.  We moved 900 miles to follow God.  This is often one of those places where many are weeded out.  There is no pretense when God begins to move like He has.  Your heart will be exposed, at least for you to see.  And the one who doesn't really want God's plan will rebel and fight it.  The one who wants what God wants will accept the exposure and the judgment if it will further God's will in his or her own life and in the world.

 It is at this period of time that the church has a calling set before her to come and meet the bridegroom.  We have the hope of the out translation of the saints before us that is our hope in this day.  Jesus speaks to the church of Philadelphia, the church age just before the very last tribulation church of Laodicea and says:

Because you have kept the word of My patience, I will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world...

 The out translation of the saints or rapture is not something that can happen imminently, nor will it be realized automatically by every saint.  There are many things that must occur in preparation for the rapture.  One of these things is the unity of the body of Christ which is the main emphasis of this paper.  Ephesians 4 speaks of a church with a unity of the faith that has come to a full knowledge of the Son.  According to scripture, the church will experience the following things as this is accomplished in us:

1. Speaking the truth in love.
2. Growing up in all aspects into Him.
3. The whole body being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies.
4. Because of this union, the body is fed from the head (Christ) causing growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
5. According to Colossians 2:19, this supply from the head is actually made possible by these bonds or joints which hold the body together.

 

they may all be one; even as Thou Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us... I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity... that the love wherewith Thou didst love Me may be in them, and I in them.

 As we are perfected in unity, the body of Christ comes together and can operate properly.

There are two scriptures in the New Testament that show the functioning of the body of Christ and use the Greek word haphe to describe this bonding.  According to Thayer, this word means bond or connection.  Since the human body is "connected" by that which is called a joint, the KJV and the NASB have translated this word as joint in the context of picturing the body of Christ as a human body.  In Ephesians 4, the Bible says

... the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint (haphe; connection) supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

... the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints (haphe; connections) and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.

 It is abundantly clear these joints represent the bonding of saints together into a cohesive body.  It is abundantly clear that this is done in love.  It is also interesting that our term connection is the actual meaning of this word haphe.  We also call this phenomenon a spiritual union, reflecting the same truth of two or more saints united in the spirit.  The revelation is that this love is something that flows from God and is more powerful than any human love.  It is true agape love that causes the saints to truly lay their lives down for one another.

The fact that this bonding includes an intense unconditional love only shows a further fulfillment of very clear scriptures concerning love between the brethren.

Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently.

... and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.

If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us.

... that the love wherewith Thou didst love Me may be in them, and I in them.

... the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints... which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

 I submit the church of Jesus Christ still does not really understand love very well.  I submit the church has proven to be yet carnal by accusing a pure move of the Spirit as a sexual free-for-all.  Even the world knows that filth is in the mind of the beholder.  Community Chapel is and has always been a church with a vision of purity and holiness.  I will submit that Community Chapel has also found itself to be "yet carnal" by not being able to handle this love properly at all times.  But I am convinced this is a deliberate journey of self discovery that God has allowed this assembly to go through.  The bride of Christ must not be deceived concerning who she really is and who she will be.  The old standards of holiness in the church can no longer apply because they are a legalistic approach that only provided for whitewashing the outer shell of a man instead of remaking the inside.  The Bible says the heart of a man is deceitfully wicked and it also says the devil will attempt to deceive even the very elect.  We cannot think we are something we are not.  If we want to be washed and remade by Jesus, we need to be willing to admit we are dirty within.

Why have I said all this?  Because I firmly believe that every believer that has spoken out against the events at CCBTC would be surprised to find they are in the same boat and would make the same mistakes if faced with the same pressures and spiritual warfare.  Jesus is not trying to make us into sinners who aren't allowed to sin.  He is trying the make us overcomers of sin.  In the end, the believers overcome the enemy.  Jesus wants us to become victors.

It is important in a battle like this to extend grace to your brothers and sisters.  Every Christian should know better than to ever become an accuser of the brethren.  Do not receive an evil report concerning your brethren.