“‘In that day I will raise up the fallen tabernacle of David,
And wall up its breaches;
I will also raise up its ruins,
And rebuild it as in the days of old;
That they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the Gentiles
Who are called by My name,’
Declares the Lord who does this.”

Most Christians are familiar with this prophecy from Amos 9:11-12 because it is quoted in Acts 15. The occasion was a special conference of church leaders that was called in Jerusalem to consider the momentous implications of Gentiles being added to the Church. In the midst of the debate, James, the leader of the Jerusalem church, quoted this prophecy from Amos to prove that it was God’s intention to someday include the Gentiles in His scheme of redemption.This usage of the prophecy has historically led to the conclusion that the term, “the tabernacle of David,” refers to the Church. And perhaps it does in a spiritual sense. But the context of the passage in the book of Amos makes it clear that the prophecy will find its ultimate fulfillment in something other than the establishment of the Church.

Note that the prophecy begins with the words, “In that day.” What day? A quick glance at the prophecy in its context shows that the “day” being referred to is the period of time when the Jews are regathered to the land of Israel (see Amos 9:14-15). That is this century. There were 40,000 Jews in Israel at the beginning of this century. Today, there are nearly five million. They re-established their state on May 14, 1948, and they have regathered their people from the four corners of the earth.

Has anything happened since 1948 that could constitute a literal fulfillment of the restoration of the “tabernacle of David'” To answer this question we must first seek to understand the meaning of the term, “tabernacle of David.” What did Amos have in mind when he used this term?

 The Tabernacle of Moses
To fully understand the Tabernacle of David, we must first begin with a consideration of the Tabernacle of Moses. It was a nomadic temple that moved with the Children of Israel as they crossed the Wilderness of Sinai in search of the Promised Land. Its Holy of Holies contained the Ark of the Covenant where the Shekinah Glory of God resided.When the Children of Israel entered the Promised Land, they settled the Tabernacle of Moses at Shiloh in Samaria. There the sacrificial ceremonies were conducted for 400 years during the period of the Judges. By the end of that chaotic period, the Children of Israel were engulfed in spiritual darkness, having fallen victim to idolatry and immorality.

One day, during the judgeship of Samuel, as the Israelites were preparing to fight the Philistines, they decided to take the Ark of the Covenant into battle with them, as if it were some sort of good luck charm. They evidently reasoned that God would never allow the Philistines to capture the Ark, and therefore they would win the battle. The Lord was not pleased by this action, so He allowed the Philistines to defeat the Israelites and capture the sacred Ark (1 Samuel 4:1-11). They also proceeded to destroy the Tabernacle of Moses at Shiloh (Jeremiah 7:12). Israel had become “Ichabod,” (meaning, “no glory”) for the glory of God had departed (1 Samuel 4:21).

 The Odyssey of the Ark
Plagues afflicted the Philistines, so they sent the Ark back to Israel on an ox cart. It finally came to rest eight miles west of Jerusalem in a town called Kiriathjearim (called Abu Gosh today) where it stayed for approximately 70 years (20 years under Samuel’s judgeship, 40 years under Saul’s kingship, and almost 10 years into David’s kingship). The tabernacle of Moses was moved to Nob for a while (1 Samuel 21:1) and then on to Gibeon (about ten miles northwest of Jerusalem) where it remained until the Temple of Solomon was built (2 Chronicles 1:3).Now note something very important. During this 70 year period of transition between the Judges and the Kings, there was no Shekinah Glory in the tabernacle of Moses located at Gibeon. The Holy of Holies was empty. The priests continued to minister at the tabernacle, offering daily sacrifices, but it was all dead ritual, for the glory had departed.

The astounding thing is that the Ark was located in a farmhouse situated only about five miles from Gibeon. It would have been very easy to restore the Ark to the Tabernacle of Moses, but no one cared enough to do so. The Ark was ignored, and it became a symbol of Israel’s apostasy.

 Saul vs David
Saul did not have a heart for the Lord, so he ignored the estrangement of the Ark from its proper resting place. But when David became king, he was determined to correct this situation, for he was a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). David had to wait seven and a half years until he became king of all Israel (he was king of only Judah during his first years in power — see 2 Samuel 5:5).David was determined to bring God back into the heart of his nation, and he recognized the symbolic significance of the Ark in accomplishing this purpose. He was so determined to provide a proper resting place for the Ark that it became the top priority of his kingship. In this regard, we are told in Psalm 132 that when David became king of all of Israel, he “swore to the Lord” that he would not sleep in a bed until he could provide a proper “dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob” (Psalm 132:1-5).

 The Tabernacle of David
The amazing thing is that David brought the Ark to Jerusalem rather than returning it to the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle of Moses at Gibeon. David pitched a tent in Jerusalem (probably on a slope of Mt. Moriah), placed the Ark inside, and instituted a whole new concept of praise worship. Instruments of worship were introduced. Special psalms of praise were written and sung. And, incredibly, special priests were appointed to minister music before the ark continually (1 Chronicles 16:6,37) — whereas only the High Priest had been allowed to minister before the Ark once a year in the Tabernacle of Moses. In fact, the Scriptures indicate that there was such great intimacy with the Lord, that David would actually lounge before the Ark (1 Chronicles 17:16). It is probably during these times of intimacy that he wrote new songs to the Lord (Psalm 40:3).

David’s revolution in worship was very radical. There was no singing or celebration at the Tabernacle of Moses. The worship there was one of solemn ritual focused on sacrifices. The only joy that had ever been evidenced in the worship of the Israelites had occurred spontaneously, as when Miriam danced with a tambourine and rejoiced over the destruction of Pharaoh and his army (Exodus 15).

The Psalms make it clear that the praise worship inaugurated by David was a worship of great joy that was characterized by hand clapping (Psalm 47:1), shouting (Psalm 47:1), singing (Psalm 47:6-7), dancing (Psalm 149:3), hand waving (Psalm 134:2), and the display of banners (Psalm 20:5). The worshipers were encouraged to praise God with every form of musical instrument, from the gentle lyre to the “loud crashing cymbals” (Psalm 150:3,5).

 The Davidic Revolution
But why? Why did David so radically change the worship of Israel? We are told in 2 Chronicles 29:25 that he did so in response to commands of God given to him through the prophets Nathan and Gad. But why didn’t the Lord simply tell David to put the Ark back in the Holy of Holies in Gibeon? Why did God tell him to revolutionize the worship of Israel?The Bible does not tell us why. We can only guess. My guess is that God wanted to give David a prophetic glimpse of the glorious Church Age to come when animal sacrifices would cease, worshipers would have direct access to God, and worshipers would come before the Lord in rejoicing with a sacrifice of praise.

I think there was also another reason. I believe the Lord wanted to give the Church a model for Spirit-filled worship.

For one generation (about 30 years under David and 12 years into Solomon’s reign), two tabernacles existed in Israel. In Gibeon there was the dead, liturgical worship that characterized the Tabernacle of Moses. In Jerusalem, there was the lively, spontaneous worship that characterized the Tabernacle of David. The worship in Gibeon was the performance of ritualistic symbolism. The worship in Zion was the experience of the presence of God. At Gibeon, the priests offered the sacrifice of animals. At Zion, the offering was the sacrifice of praise: “Come before Him with joyful singing . . . Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise” (Psalm 100:2,4).

 The Prophetic Significance
The Tabernacle of David served as a joyous bridge between the spiritual deadness that had come to characterize the Tabernacle of Moses and the Spirit-filled glory that would characterize the Temple of Solomon.In like manner, since the reestablishment of the nation of Israel in 1948, God has been raising up the Tabernacle of David again to serve as a joyous bridge of transition between the dead worship of mainline Christendom and the glorious worship that will characterize the Millennial Temple of Jesus Christ. God wants His Son to return on a cloud of praise.

 The Worldwide Spread
Appropriately, God began to focus His revival of the Tabernacle of David in Jerusalem in the early 80’s. It occurred when the International Christian Embassy decided to host a celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. Zechariah 14 says that during the millennial reign of Jesus the nations will send representatives to Jerusalem each year to celebrate this feast and that any nation that fails to do so will not receive rain. The Embassy decided it would be appropriate for Gentiles to start rehearsing for the Millennium, so they sent out a call worldwide for Christian to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast and to show their support of Israel.The Embassy also decided to give an emphasis to Davidic praise worship which was springing up all over the world at that time through a sovereign move of the Holy Spirit. They brought together Christendom’s best practitioners of celebratory worship.

The result was an explosion of Davidic worship all over the world as the thousands of Christians who came to Jerusalem took what they had experienced back home with them in their hearts and on videos. The Embassy’s celebration has continued to this day, with 4,000 to 6,000 Christians attending annually from every continent.

 A Move of the Spirit
The Church at large is the symbolic Tabernacle of David. But the more literal Tabernacle of David today consists of those churches that have rediscovered the true meaning of worship and have given their people the freedom in Christ to worship God with all their energy, resources, gifts and talents.That is the reason that renewal in worship is sweeping Christendom worldwide. It is a move of the Spirit. It is a fulfillment of prophecy. It is a mark of the end times. It is a sign of the soon return of Jesus. And it is preparation for that day very soon when:
The ransomed of the Lord will return,
And come with joyful shouting to Zion,
With everlasting joy upon their heads,
They will find gladness and joy,
And sorrow and sighing will flee away. Isaiah  35:10
That is the day when the Tabernacle of David will be restored completely.

Maranatha!

The most popular apostasy in Christendom today is the teaching that God has revealed Himself in many different ways to different cultures and that, therefore, all religions worship the same god, but just use different names. From this viewpoint, the Allah of Islam is the same as the Yahweh of Judaism and both are the same as the Krishna of Hinduism. The natural conclusion that is drawn from this apostate idea is that there are many different paths to God, Jesus being only one of them. This has led liberal leaders of groups like The National Council of Churches in the United States and the World Council to condemn missionary activity as “arrogant” and “anti-cultural.”1

The Bible teaches that these apostate Christian leaders are eventually going to succeed, at least temporarily. Their triumph will occur when the Antichrist forms his one world religion (Revelation 13:12).

The Stanford Conference

Major steps have already been taken to establish a unified world religion. In June of 1997 over 200 delegates from religious groups all over the world gathered at Stanford University to begin drafting a charter for an international interfaith institution to be called The Organization of United Religions.2

The meeting was convened and presided over by Reverend William Swing, the Episcopal Bishop of San Francisco. Since 1993 he has been traveling worldwide to set up a network of religious leaders interested in a one world religious organization. The Bishop told the San Francisco Chronicle:3

I’ve spent a lot of time praying with Brahmins, meditating with Hindus, and chanting with Buddhists. I feel I’ve been enormously enriched inwardly by exposure to these folks. I’ve gone back and read our own scriptures, and it’s amazing how they begin to read differently when you’re exposed to more truth from more people in other parts of the world.
This statement is the epitome of the new tolerance that is being evidenced by Christendom’s apostate leaders. (Incidentally, I wonder what “new truth” he found outside the Bible!)

The group has been moving full speed ahead with their organizational efforts. Their charter was presented for ratification by sponsoring groups in June of 2000. Their goal is to have the new organization fully operable by 2005. They intend for the headquarters to be located at the Presidio, the former military base in San Francisco. As one conference leader put it, “The UR is meant to be for religions what the UN is for nations.”4

Continuing Apostasy in Melbourne

In July 1997 many of the same people gathered in Melbourne, Australia for a conference on religion and cultural diversity. The Archbishop of Canterbury (the leader of the Church of England) was present, and the Pope sent one of his highest ranking cardinals, Francis Arinze.5

At the opening banquet, the lights were dimmed and people were told to focus on the candle on their table while the following prayer was offered:6

Let us focus on the candle, the small quivering fire, the light in the darkness, the call to evening prayer, the call to thanksgiving . . . for our togetherness, for our unity as sons and daughters of the earth in this vast and ancient land, this sacred soil of the Dreamtime.

In the presence of the Ineffable Other, the Holy Being of Infinity, the Numinous Beyond, the One and the Ultimate, the Alpha and the Omega, the Unknown and the Unknowable, Lord of the Cosmos, Center of Creation . . . we pray to you . . .
Can you imagine any Christian leader praying such claptrap? Since when, from a Christian viewpoint, has our Creator God become “unknown and unknowable”? Only a professing Christian captivated and deceived by the new tolerance could pray such a blasphemous prayer.

Understandably, the conference concluded that the one cardinal sin is absolutism. Belief that one’s religion contains absolute truth was decried as pride.7

The conference’s most popular workshop was on “Religious Fundamentalism.” The featured speaker was an ordained Christian minister who, until recently, was the full-time chaplain at the University of Melbourne. He denounced Christians who believe in the Bible and embrace creationism as “mean-spirited.” He also called them “authoritarian and dictatorial,” “violent,” “aggressive,” “pathological,” and “dangerous.” He characterized them as people who are incapable of independent thinking and who “brandish their floppy Bibles like weapons.”8

Talk about paving the way for the Antichrist! I can hear him speaking now:8

It makes no difference what you call your god. He can be Yahweh or Baal or Allah or Krishna or Mother Earth or Self. Just give me your allegiance as your god’s Messiah, and I will guarantee your freedom to worship as you please.
The New Charter

The URI Charter was ratified on June 26, 2000 at a meeting held at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The preamble states: “The URI is a growing global community dedicated to promoting enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, ending religiously motivated violence and creating cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings.”9

It sounds so good! It is all so touchy-feely and warm and fuzzy. The Charter is full of New Age type statements like the following: “We unite to celebrate the joy of blessings and the light of wisdom in both movement and stillness.”10

One of the key principles expressed in the Charter is worded as follows: “Members of the URI shall not be coerced to participate in any ritual or be proselytized.” In other words, no member of the URI will engage in missionary activity since that would constitute an act of spiritual imperialism. It all makes sense from their viewpoint, since they believe all religions are equally valid.

The amazing thing is the degree of inclusiveness that the URI represents. In addition to the world’s major faiths, the organization has embraced “neo-pagan” religions like Druids and Celtic Revivalists, Wicca and Witchcraft, and Norse Paganism.

Deceptive Tolerance

All of this is being done in the name of “tolerance.” But it is a perverted tolerance. It is a subtle ploy of Satan to corrupt the Church from within. The deception sounds so appealing: “Why draw lines of fellowship over doctrinal differences? The only thing that’s important is sincerity. Reach out and embrace all those who profess to believe in God, regardless of who their god may be. Ignore doctrinal differences. Do it in the name of Christian love. Do it for the sake of religious unity.”

This type of thinking has led Earl Paulk of Atlanta to call for the Evangelical Christian world to embrace even the Mormons! It has motivated mainline liberal spokesmen to advocate that Christians show tolerance toward Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and other pagan faiths by restraining ourselves from sharing the Gospel with them. Consider, for example, the following words of Episcopal Bishop John Spong of New Jersey:11

In the fall of 1988, I worshipped God in a Buddhist temple. As the smell of incense filled the air, I knelt before three images of Buddha, feeling that the smoke could carry my prayers heavenward. It was for me a holy moment for I was certain that I was kneeling on holy ground …

I will not make any further attempt to convert the Buddhist, the Jew, the Hindu or the Moslem. I am content to learn from them and to walk with them side by side toward the God who lives, I believe, beyond the images that bind and blind us.
Again, it all sounds so wonderful, so soothing, so tolerant! Tragically, it makes a liar of the very person they profess as Lord, for Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me” (John 14:6). Those are not tolerant words.

The Coming World Religion

The Christian leaders who are advocating tolerance to the point of embracing apostasy are going to triumph in the near future, at least temporarily. The Bible makes that clear. Just as “one world” thought is dominating the political and economic scenes today, it has captivated the thinking of both Catholic and Protestant leaders regarding religion.

In that regard, I think it is significant that in 1989 the Archbishop of the Anglican Church, Robert Runcie, called for all Christians to accept the Pope as “a common leader presiding in love.” Runcie made his appeal at an evening prayer service midway through his first official visit to the Vatican. “For the universal church, I renew the plea,” he said. “Could not all Christians come to reconsider the kind of primacy the bishop of Rome exercised with the early church, ‘a presiding in love’ for the sake of the unity of the churches in the diversity of their mission?”12

That kind of thinking is paving the way for the establishment of the one world government of the Antichrist (Revelation 13:1-10) which will be supported by the one world religious system of the False Prophet (Revelation 13:11-18).

I believe the harlot church of Revelation 17 will most likely be an amalgamation of the world’s pagan religions, including apostate Protestants, under the leadership of the Catholic Church.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Notes:

1. A good summary of the apostasy of the World Council of Churches can be found on the Internet at http://cnview.com/on_line_resources/world_council_of_churches.htm. The article, written by M. H. Reynolds, is entitled “The Truth about the WCC.”

2. William Norman Gregg, “Pagans of the Word, Unite!” PropheZine, issue #46, August 15, 1997,

http://www.best.com/~ray673/search/database/is46.2.htm.

3. Ibid., p. 2.

4. W. B. Howard, “The First Religion and Cultural Diversity Conference, Melbourne, July 1997,” PropheZine, issue #46, August 15, 1997, http://www.prophezine.com/ search/database/is46.3.htm, p. 15.

5. Ibid., p.1.

6. Ibid., p. 3.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid., pp. 4-7.

9. For detailed information about the URI, see their website at http://www.united-religious.org.

10. Ibid.

11. The Voice, Diocese of Newark, January 1989.

12. Sunday Advocate, Baton Rouge, LA, October 1, 1989, page 3A.