Although there are countless religions and beliefs, there is one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, and one God and Father of all who is above all. The absence of a single group of believers united under the same banner shows the enormous number of deviations from the oneness of God.

Miracles, signs, dreams, and visions throughout the Bible and in the first church in Jerusalem manifested the power of God. The followers of the Lord were united, sharing the same mind, and they diligently searched the scriptures daily to confirm everything.

The modern era’s commercialized and institutionalized religious orders, many founded on religious dogmas and adherence to traditions, have created significant divisions and confusion. Employing marketing methods, programs, and modern formulas of men’s cunning to grow and maintain their congregations, more weight is placed on doctors of divinity, seminary teachings, and traditions of high-profile figures of antiquity than on the eternal word of God available to all.

Operating too much like for-profit markets, they remove old items that no longer sell well and replace them with different products they believe the culture of today will buy. By investing heavily in marketing campaigns disguised as the gospel, they present a form of godliness that lacks authenticity. Many nonbelievers can see through their facade and find it off-putting. They are a stumbling block rather than a light to the world.

Unlike the wind Jesus used to explain the spirit to Nicodemus, they are unmoved by the Holy Spirit’s guidance. They trust in their wisdom, imitate true goodness, and act on their own devices. Therefore, the power present in the scriptures is denied them. In response, some declare a new dispensation where God has ceased his miraculous works and suspended the outpouring of the Spirit evident in previous ages. Others fabricate their own “miracles” and good works to substitute for being denied the true power of God.

Thus, the sum of the many who profess to know God cannot provide witness to the power of God evident in the Bible.

The apostles warned that the time would come when people would no longer endure sound doctrine but would heap to themselves many teachers. Even after reading these verses and acknowledging Jesus as the Christ, many remain blind to the errors in their faith; just as religious Jews are blind to their falsehoods and Muslims to their delusions, many Christians, despite rightly declaring Christ as Messiah, are partially blind to their own doctrinal fallacies. As much as all are certain of their faith, it cannot be that they are all right. It’s more logical to think that everyone is wrong to some degree. The greatest darkness occurs when the light within is actually darkness, and it is believed that you see while being blind.

Still, there is hope. The great apostasy of the world is not absolute. There are some whose faith and hope are in God alone and not vain traditions of the past or modern teachings of religion.

Joel prophesied of the coming days of dearth followed by revival. Peter announced the revelation of Joel’s prophecy at Pentecost with the words, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.”

Joel declared the gifts of the spirit and the corruptions that would follow later through the false teachings of those who would feed upon the greenness of the gospel and devour the truth to feed themselves—each one consuming those things most desirable to their taste and leaving the things they judge to be unsavory. It is written,

“That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.”

Joel, citing historical events, creates an allegory of the coming days when the Spirit is cut off from those who corrupt the word of the Lord, saying, “Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.”

The Lord, through Joel, laments the destruction by an army who pervert his words and lay waste to his harvest. The true ministers of God mourn.

“He has laid my vine waste and barked my fig tree: he has made it clean bare and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. The meat offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn. The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.”

Rebuking the pastors and husbandmen over his people and laying the responsibility on them for the souls they stumbled by their ill stewardship, the Lord said, “Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vine-dressers, for the wheat and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished.”

The Lord decries the spiritual state of humanity and his people resulting from the failure of leaders to maintain sound doctrine: “The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.” And then Joel is given a prophecy of restoration.

End Part 1