DOING AWAY with the CROSS
by Vern Kuenzi

The Lord has spoken three times over the last six years about the
absence of the cross in the current vision and affairs of the church.
These are among the strongest and clearest words the Lord has
ever spoken to me. At the time of each of these speakings, the
Lord put me into a desolate place so that I would get the point and
there would be no confusion that He was speaking and about what
He was saying.

The first time was... at a major men's evangelistic meeting here
in Honolulu. At that meeting were the best of speakers, the best
of musicians, an upbeat evangelistic message, and an altar call
to accept Jesus as Savior. I tried to fit in with the flow of the
meeting and went down onto the arena floor to hopefully
distribute my quota of pledge cards, but I was ineffective and
became very grieved in spirit and walked back up to my seat and
sat slumped there until the meeting was over. I thought the
problem was with me. I didn't even want to attend the next day's
meeting, and as I lay in bed the next morning stripped of all
enthusiasm, I was very surprised when the Lord clearly spoke
through David Wilkerson's latest newsletter and said, "They have
done away with the cross." Obviously the very best that we can
come up with in terms of evangelistic efforts amounts to nothing if
we do away with cross. It might look good and sound good but
still be wood, hay, and stubble. The cross is the wisdom and
power of God, and without it the captives remain bound.

About two years ago, I attended a charismatic home meeting near
my house here in Pearl City. A known minister was invited and
signs and wonders and prophetic utterances seemed to flow.
Saints were slain in the Spirit and some claimed healings. The
next morning when I woke up it was as if the Lord had pulled a
plug and drained every bit of spiritual life from me. All I could think
of was, "I'm not gonna make it." I have never been so empty in my
life. But there was a small "Free Grace Broadcaster" pamphlet
beside me on the bed which I picked up and began to read. The
article that presented itself was titled, "The Glory of the Cross."
And as I began to read that short article, I could feel the life flowing
back into me. The Lord spoke clearly through that article by
saying, "God forbid that you should glory in anything but in the
cross of Jesus Christ." Apparently I had been glorying in many
things that night other than in the cross.

Most recently (in mid-2002, about August) I was reviewing several
books written by popular authors who embrace and oversee a
current apostolic/prophetic movement. The common vision of
those authors is that the church is called to overhaul the political,
economic, financial, and educational systems of this nation before
Jesus returns. I felt so out of step with this vision that I became
unsettled for several days and wondered again what was wrong
with me. I tried to buy one of the books at the Christian bookstore
where I was browsing it, but the cash register was malfunctioning
and I went home without the book feeling a check in my spirit. The
next day I went back to the bookstore and I picked up that book
again and began to reread portions of it. I asked the Lord to show
me where I was in error, and I also asked Him to keep me from
being deceived. Suddenly the Lord seemed to say, "Where is the
centrality of the cross in this vision?"

Three times the Lord has spoken severely about things that
seemed like "good" things, and in all three cases, the problem
that He identified was the absence of the cross. In all three cases,
the pain of the experience was very real...

As "good" as it might seem to overhaul the economic, judicial,
financial, and educational systems before Jesus returns, that is
not the finish line that the Bible describes... We see a remnant
of saints who overcome satan by the blood of the Lamb, the word
of their testimony, and by loving not their lives unto death. The
book of Daniel concludes by saying the end of the age will come
when the power of the holy people has been shattered. We see a
snapshot of this in the lives of the two witnesses of Revelation 11.

Together the books of Daniel and Revelation establish the true
vision for the church at the end of this age, and that vision is not
victory in a worldly sense, but victory through demonstration of
the wisdom and power of the cross. The true remnant church is
destined to follow Jesus and walk the path of the suffering servant.
God's eternal purpose is to involve His saints in the defeat of the
devil, and that defeat will be accomplished only as the church
walks in demonstration of the wisdom and power of the cross...

We're setting ourselves up for the same mistake that the nation of
Israel made 2000 years ago when they expected a political
messiah. Jesus did not come to overhaul Rome, and the remnant
church is not destined to overhaul Babylon, but to come out of her.
Her testimony in the midst of Babylon is what will set the captives free.

The danger of having our vision slightly off-target could cause us to
align with the wrong side. The antichrist is not going to come in a
red suit with horns. He is going to come as a deceiver and a
counterfeit. The nature of the counterfeit is to be as much like the
real thing as possible, but still not be the real thing. He's going to
come with an agenda of "good" things, but they will be things that
have done away with the cross.

The agenda of the devil is very simple. If he can get us to skew
our vision just a little bit off center by doing away with the
centrality of the cross, he will have won the victory. We will not
then be in position to demonstrate the wisdom and power of the
cross through our lives. We will be fighting against the cross
rather than embracing it.

The great dividing issue at the end of this age will be the issue of
the cross of Jesus Christ. Those who embrace it as the Holy Spirit
leads them will overcome. Those who do not, and rely on the
understanding and abilities of natural man, will fall away. If our sin
and our shortcomings do not bring us to the place of total
realization that not one good thing resides in us in the flesh, then
we have missed what it is that the Lord wants to work in us. Paul
came to the place where he realized that he was the chief of
sinners, and that no good thing was in him, and that he could
glory in nothing but in the cross of Jesus Christ. His words were
not spoken in wisdom, but in meekness, fear, and trembling, and
he recognized that only by the grace and mercy of God and by the
power of the Holy Spirit could he ever offer anything of significance
to a dying world around him.

The things that are coming upon the earth in these days are
designed to purify the church, and are likened to birth pains. It is
out of great tribulation that a great multitude emerges who have
washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
We must understand that this process is an outworking of God's
love, not His wrath. His wrath will follow great tribulation, and will
be directed only toward those who choose not to repent.

I once heard a man preaching on TV and saying, "God would never
do that to His bride." (He was referring to the question of her going
through the great tribulation) He did not understand the work of the
cross in the perfecting of the saints. His doctrine had done away
with the cross.