Teen Tree of Life. The Doctrine of the Pivot. Part 3.

TEEN TREE OF LIFE

The Doctrine of the Pivot Part 3

August 14, 2016

BEFORE we begin, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, take a moment to name your sins to God the Father. This will allow you to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit as you read this booklet (EPH 5:18 & 1JO 1:9). IF YOU HAVE never believed in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have that opportunity right now. Simply tell God the Father that you are believing on His Son Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. If you make that decision, you are now a believer and will always be a child of God! When you die, you will spend eternity with Him forever in heaven! (JOH 3:16 & ACT 16:31).

As we continue to learn about The Pivot, we are going to look at a word you may never have seen before – geopolitics.  Wordsmyth.net defines geopolitics as the study of the political and economic relationships among nations. This history of the political and economic relationships among nations is important to our study, so that’s where we’ll begin.

The first Client Nation to God was Israel. The dispensation of Israel was built around four different Client Nations. Between B.C. 1440 and A.D. 70, God called out a new racial species in order to form the first in a series of Jewish Client Nations. Blessing was related to those nations. Many Old Testament books reveal Israel's impact on history.  The four different Jewish nations were:  The United Kingdom; The Northern Kingdom; The Southern Kingdom; and Judah.

As we learned last week, if the Pivot declines the Client Nation declines and it is eventually destroyed through the administration of the five cycles of discipline.  God administers discipline to His client nation when the Pivot of mature believers begins to dramatically shrink through negative volition toward doctrine. The administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to each of the four Jewish Client Nations was as follows. Assyria administered the fifth cycle of discipline to the Northern Kingdom in B.C. 721. The Chaldeans administered the fifth cycle of discipline to the Southern Kingdom in B.C. 586. The Romans destroyed Jerusalem and took over Palestine in 70 A.D. That was the end of all Jewish Client Nations, and the beginning of the times of the Gentiles.

Next came the times of the Gentiles. During these times of the Gentiles, no Jewish nation can be a Client Nation to God, not until the Second Advent of Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of the four unconditional covenants to Israel. (1. The Abrahamic Covenant defines the race for client nation Israel. Abraham became a Jew at age 99; circumcision was the sign; 2. The Palestinian Covenant defines the land for client nation Israel; 3. The Davidic Covenant defines the dynasty for client nation Israel; 4. The New Covenant defines the restoration of client nation Israel at the Second Advent.)

Now, the first Gentile Client Nation to God was S.P.Q.R. – the Senate and the People of Rome, which we call the Roman Empire. This was the first, and in many ways, the greatest Gentile Client Nation to God. When the Roman Empire reached its peak with a large Pivot, there was the golden age of the Antonine Caesars, 96 - 192 A.D. The historian Gibbon called this period the "golden age of humanity."  The period of the Antonine Caesars was a time of dictatorship, and yet a time of the most fantastic blessing. This proves that the issue is not the type of government, but the Pivot of believers. Other great Gentile Client Nations of the past include the Goths, the Franks, the Swiss under Calvin and Zwingli, Scotland under Patrick, Sweden under Gustavus Adolphus, parts of Germany under Luther, France under the Huguenots, Great Britain, Brandenberg Prussia under Frederick the Great. It’s interesting to look at history knowing about Client Nations and the Pivot, isn’t it?

Now let’s look at the Pivot principle.  In essence, a small Pivot means a declining Gentile Client Nation. An enlarged Pivot means a wonderful, prosperous, and blessed Client Nation.  The Pivot is a remnant of mature believers who live in a Client Nation. They have advanced through the three stages of spiritual adulthood.  The spinoff is made up of believers who have entered reversionism and are living in Satan's cosmic system. Negative volition to doctrine and resultant reversionism produces the spinoff.

When the Pivot is too small in any generation, there are great disasters; some are economic, some military, some policy. When the spinoff of cosmic involvement becomes too great, that generation is destroyed. If there is no response to the four cycles of discipline, God eventually removes that Client Nation from history. REV 17-18 teaches this under the principle of evil one destroying evil two. (Take a moment to read these two chapters.)

When Divine Judgment falls on a nation, the Pivot is secure. The Pivot is always preserved, even though it also shares in the difficulties of the disaster. However, unbelievers and reversionists are wiped out. While the Pivot is secure, the spinoff is always destroyed by historical catastrophe. This is how God administers the sin unto death to reversionists. Historical disaster separates the Pivot from the spinoff. If the Pivot is too small and the spinoff is too large, then the nation is destroyed. But if the nation is destroyed, the Pivot is preserved through the disaster. By destroying the great spinoff of reversionists, the Lord protects future generations of history from evil, reversionism, apostasy, and tyranny. The spinoff is destroyed so that the nation will have breathing room for future generations.

Historical crisis and disaster is the means of cleansing a nation from the spinoff of evil. A great spinoff will destroy a nation unless God intervenes with historical disaster to eliminate that cancer. Either the spinoff must go or the nation must go. The Divine Destruction of the spinoff is therefore comparable to a national rebound. With the infection of reversionism destroyed, the nation takes on new life and continues!

If large enough, the Pivot is the means of delivering a nation under discipline, either from or through the historical disaster. The example is Judah in 701 B.C. during the Sennacherib invasion. The consistent ministry of Isaiah turned the tide in Judah. When all of the establishment’s means of deliverance fail, response to Bible teaching is the last hope.

If the Pivot is large enough, not only is the Client Nation delivered from historical disaster, but a large Pivot of mature believers means great blessing by association to the Client Nation and to all nations around it. Why is a Client Nation destroyed?  HOSEA 4:1-6 tells us:  Listen to the word of the Lord, O sons of Israel, For the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land, Because there is no faithfulness or kindness Or knowledge of God in the land. There is swearing, deception, murder, stealing and adultery.  They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, And everyone who lives in it languishes Along with the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky, And also the fish of the sea disappear. Yet let no one find fault, and let none offer reproof; For your people are like those who contend with the priest.  So you will stumble by day, And the prophet also will stumble with you by night; And I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. This is perhaps the most articulate of all the passages on the fifth cycle of discipline (to the Northern Kingdom) and how a Client Nation is destroyed.

{to be continued}