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Greetings! Shalom aleichem = Peace be upon you = As-salamu alaykum. Zekeriya Harrıs here writing to you today from İzmir Province in Türkiye, site of ancient Ephesus — prototypical city of lost lampstands. To friends and to prospective friends.
The title of this page sums up the scale of the Big Vision I am promoting. What remains is to explain the content of it in some greater detail. Namely, we need to discuss:
1. How the epochal nature of both Church history in general and Protestant missions in particular points to recurring patterns which lead us to reasonably expect more paradigm shifting breakthroughs are still needed before The End will come.
2. That the most needed development (arguably) is for restoration of a Spirit-empowered, apostolic ministry which lays the foundation for the establishment of King Jesus’ Church in Muslim (and other “closed”) countries through bold, public, sacrificial proclamation accompanied by genuine confirming signs, miracles, and healings which even hostile parties cannot ignore.
3. That as long as this effectual apostolic ministry is lacking, we ourselves as Christians need revival and restoration of our lampstands which have been removed from the holy place. Prayer, repentance, and earnestly seeking the Lord are Biblically endorsed means toward that end. Particularly needed is repentance from the politicized Christendom that took root in the fourth century AD in radical deviation from the imminently eschatological hope of the early disciples of Rabbi Yeshua.
4. That one source of fuel for the above revival is tapping into the ongoing reformation of deeper (“midrashic”) understanding of the Bible which has been underway just in the past 40 years. A large component of that is getting back in touch with the Jewish/Hebraic roots of the faith.
5. We need to address the question of why you should give special attention, if even any attention, to my voice out of the many clamoring for attention regarding what Christians should most concern themselves with these days. I do set forth a claim to unique, Biblically-endorsed credentials. Your choices include ignoring that claim or proceeding to discern for yourself to what extent you accept it or not. If the credentials do indeed verify, though, then my message, while far from inerrant, does seem to warrant special attention from wise, God-fearing, Scripture-loving Kingdom-seekers.
6. Finally, we need to discuss what is being asked of you. If someone does buy into the vision to any degree, even partially and/or with qualifications, there are a great variety of things they can do to partner, associate, help, or otherwise “join in,” anywhere from an arms-length promise to pray for us, through increasing levels of in-depth involvement in getting the reformation underway.
Feel free to skip ahead to whichever section interests or concerns you most.

1. Ever-Evolving Christian Epochs
   Imagine you time-travel to eleventh century Europe or Anatolia. The “Holy Roman” and Byzantine Empires are both officially “Christian” territory, but the form of the faith you are dropped into is quite different from what your twenty-first century self is used to. The notion of Wednesday night cell group in which folks from church get together, open up their personal copies of the Bible, and discuss a given passage isn’t something on the radar screen for most people. Rather, in your triage of things to address with your Christian neighbors, top of the list might be trying to convince them that killing Muslims, Jews, and different types of Christians in a misguided aim to retake the Holy Land under the banner of the cross isn’t actually what Jesus is looking for from His faithful ones.
   Now let’s flip the time-travel analogy and instead say that a Jesus-lover comes to us from the future. They come from a time yet-to-come in which our Lord has completed His new-covenant, blood-bought commitment to present to Himself a sanctified Bride in splendor, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, holy and without blemish. This person has seen the Body of Christ built up to perfection, in which all members have attained to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, no longer children … . I suspect that person would be as befuddled by the first-world Evangelicalism of 2025 as you would be by the Cathlo-Orthdoxy of Pope Urban II and emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Our brother from the future might easily look at us and think, “Um, ya, OK, … so I’m not exactly sure where to even start here.”
   Other than the size of the gap needing to be covered for the body of Christ to “attain to the unity of the faith … to mature manhood,” one reason I suspect more paradigm shifting breakthroughs are still sorely needed before The End is because of the pattern thus far. If you are a Protestant, or at least sympathetic to the cause, you probably believe that vast troves of Biblical truth, including the core essence of the gospel itself(!) was heavily obscured, if not even nearly “lost,” for a good solid millennium or more. Yet even then, a modern conservative Lutheran would be scandalized by the un-Reformedness of many of the 95 Theses. A rough gloss over the next half-millennium following 1517 gradually brought restoration of:
   • 16th century — Sola Scriptura and Pauline soteriology
   • 17th century — Personal pietism, not just religious liturgy
   • 18th century — Corporate pietism/revival (and initial seeds of missions)
   • 19th century — The Great Century of Missions!
   • 20th century — Life in the Holy Spirit and manifestation of His gifts
   Likewise, the conception of “missions” in the mind of today’s Christian would be foreign to most Christians throughout history. To get to where we are today, you needed a series of epochal breakthroughs including:
   • Ignatius of Loyola launches the first long-term sustained, well-staffed modern missionary society in 1541, thereby providing a foundation even for the most basic (Latin-based) vocabulary we use for “missions” today.
   • Beginning with their Spirit-love-baptism in 1727, Count Zinzendorf and the Moravians (Society of the Brethren) corporately catch the vision for earnest prayer and sending of lay messengers throughout the world so that the Lamb may receive the reward of His sufferings!
   • In 1747 Jonathan Edwards presents both sides of the Atlantic with An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God’s People in Extraordinary Prayer For the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ’s Kingdom on Earth, pursuant to Scripture-promises and Prophecies concerning the Last Time.
   • Inspired by the Moravians’ actions and Edwards’ plea, in 1792 William Carey gets his fellow Baptists to start considering that we are actually supposed to do stuff in order to fulfill The Great Commission.
   • As is well covered in the Perspectives missions course, over the next two centuries people such as Taylor, Townsend, and Winter further refined Carey’s movement by emphasizing that the gospel needs to go beyond colonial ports, deeply into all geographic locations, all languages, and all ethnic tribes.
   • In the current generation, contextualization, church-planting movements (CPM), and disciple-making movements (DMM) have sought to uncover the missing “golden key” to getting traction for completion of the remaining elements of the Great Commission.
   I have belabored the historical sketch to emphasize the fact that what you consider “normal Christianity” or “normal Christian missionary work” probably did not exist in the Christianity of 1000 years ago, or 500 years ago, or 200 years ago, or 50 years ago. Instead, particularly since the Reformation, there has been a gradual restoration of elements of Biblical Christianity.
   Based on that pattern, I claim it is highly unlikely that we have arrived. It is far more likely that further elements remain yet to be restored. So then, what elements?
2. Apostles who Actually do Apostolic Stuff
   It seems that the good Lord does not desire to allow His people to cheat our way into fulfillment of the Great Commission. We have gotten as far into fulfillment as we have through a combination of the inherent power in the gospel message itself, the loving grace and mercy of God, and the hard and beautiful work of many sacrificial, honorable, gifted, laborers in the harvest field. But also, just to be honest, we’ve gotten this far via some “cheating.” Please allow me to explain.
   In the New Testament, as the church of Jesus Christ expanded into new territory, the men responsible for laying its effectual foundation were the apostles (e.g. Romans 15:20, 1 Cor 9:2, 2 Cor 10:13-16). Although history tells us that Apostolic authority was necessary for Scripture texts to be included in the canon, the Bible itself does not emphasize that aspect of apostleship. Instead, the true essence of an “apostle” is found in the meaning of the word, they are a “sent one.” Translate the Greek word “apostolos” into Latin and you get the term “missionary” which the 16th century Jesuits popularized for us.
   Does that mean that apostles are missionaries and missionaries are apostles? Well, yes and no. Which is where the “cheating” comes in. A modern “Paul-like frontier church-planting missionary” is engaged in the work which maps most closely to that of an apostle, as per New Testament categories of thought. But laboring in apostolic ministry does not necessarily mean that you have the Ephesians 4 / 1 Corinthians 12 spiritual gift of apostleship.
   Verifying true apostleship is actually a significant recurring motif in the New Testament because, in addition to genuine apostles, there were also numerous false apostles (e.g. Rev 2:2). Apparently, the tests for distinguishing true versus false apostles involved more discernment than just checking against a static list of a dozen or so names. The seal of apostleship is churches they have established (1 Cor 9:2, 2 Cor 3:2). The signs of an apostle are validated with evidence of supernatural, miraculous power (Rom 15:19, 2 Cor 12:12). The burden of an apostle is preaching the gospel (1 Cor 9:16), indeed publicly (Acts 2, 18:28, 20:20, Gal 3:1), both far and wide (Rom 15:21).
   Perhaps some successful church planting missionaries throughout history had the spiritual gift of apostleship. I expect that most instead were evangelists, pastors, and teachers who nevertheless prayed and persevered their way into seeing churches established. When I say we have “cheated” I mean no denigration to the admirable work of such lovely people. Frontier church-planting missionaries tend to be some of my most incredibly favorite people in the world, because they are earnest for doing the job King Jesus told us to get done.
   But then there’s Islam, and if I may cut to the chase, I don’t think mere apostolic labor, without powerful apostolic anointing, will suffice to truly establish the body of Christ, as Jesus really wants to see it, among all the Muslim people groups of the world. You need actual apostles doing actual apostolic work in the actual power of the Holy Spirit. The most wise almighty God has left the missionary task with one final “test” which cannot be passed via shortcuts. It cannot be passed by “cheating.” We need the real thing.
   Only a genuine work of the Holy Spirit can raise up the type of men who will boldly proclaim the Kingdom of God’s Son openly in the town squares of Kabul, Pyongyang, Mecca, Tripoli, Damascus, etc., with accompanying signs, healings, and wonders. Only a genuine work of the Holy Spirit can prepare God’s people to process churches being founded in a matter of days rather than decades (e.g. Acts). And only a genuine work of the Holy Spirit can prepare God’s people to process the commensurate backlash of spiritual warfare, in martyrdoms, imprisonments, deportations, confiscations, etc., with the gracious savor of other-worldly joy that Jesus’ early disciples modeled for us (Acts 5:41, Heb 10:32-34).
3. An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for a Latter Day Revival of the Spirit to Empower our Witness for the Conversion of the Heathens
   “It sounds great, if perhaps a bit idealistic,” says the Biblically-literate and theologically-informed friend. “And I’ll grant to you that this vision may very well be what God intends to take place before The End. Whenever the Sovereign Lord so ordains, He will pour forth His Spirit to empower New Testament caliber apostles to the unreached Muslim people groups, and these men will preach the good news of the Son of God publicly with confirming signs and wonders. If that is what God wants, let it be so!”
   Well yes, amen and hallelujah, let it be so! But also there is more to the story. When God has given a job to do, and the resources necessary to do it, and when they have fumbled and lost those resources, He has appointed means which we must pursue to recover those resources. Prayer is one such means, to be sure, but so is repentance.
   When Israel abused the ark of the covenant as if it was a magic charm, they lost it (1 Sam 4). When Judah and Jerusalem persisted in spiritual fornication with other gods, the Manifest Presence of YHWH departed from the Temple (Ezek 10). When the Ephesian Christians forsook their first love (Rev 2), their lampstand of Holy-Spirit-empowerment was likewise carted off to “Babylon.” Among other symptoms of modern Christianity’s ailments, we have lost genuine apostles with sufficient Spirit-fullness to do the genuine apostolic work of Heaven-validated, public, church foundation establishment at the frontiers of the (often hostile) unreached world.
   In all such cases, when God’s people have offended Him and grieved His Spirit and been sent into (physical or spiritual) exile, you don’t simply “pray” your way back to Zion. Rather, you prayerfully repent your way back. My book, “Come, Lord Jesus,” studies the Biblical issues surrounding “repentance for revival” in much greater detail. For now, suffice it to point out one key practical application point.
   Briefly stated in bumper sticker form, “Christians need to repent of Nicaea.” The fourth century AD fundamentally altered the majority face of Christianity for the subsequent 1700 years, at least in the West (whereas the “Nestorian” Church of the East followed a very different path of their own). Jesus’ disciples were not only eagerly awaiting His return, but also zealous to do their part to hasten that day (2 Pet 3:12) because they felt the reality of being “aliens and strangers” in this world (1 Pet 2:11). Yet even by the time John received his apocalyptic vision on Patmos, some of those embers had already started to wane in the churches. But the nail in the coffin of vigorous energy for the Kingdom of Heaven came when Constantine and Theodosius offered Christians a homeland in this world, and the complicit bishops gladly sat at banquet to enjoy the feast.
   Not only did the invention of Christendom quench the missional zeal of the Roman church, it also severely complicated matters henceforth for folks like the neighboring Persian Christians who were now looked upon as potential traitors, loyal to a foreign power. Still today, questions of whether the Christian missionary is advancing the cause of Christ or, e.g., American cultural-economic-political-military hegemony is a messier issue than it ever should have been.
   A return to New Testament caliber Spirit-empowered churches requires a return to pre-Nicaean Christianity. Repentance, in such case, involves a series of fundamental changes of mindset, changes of values and priorities, changes of affections, and (most likely) numerous changes in way of life. There is a “cost” to be counted, for sure, but it is negligible compared with the reward: God with us (2 Chron 15:2, Ezek 48:35, Mt 28:20, etc.).
4. High-Octane Biblical Fuel for such a Reformation
   The claims I’m making are big, such as the need to overturn 1700 years of precedent in following Constantine’s guidance for the direction of Christianity. Big claims should have big exegetical support. Furthermore, even presuming the claims are true, and swimming against the strong current of status quoism is wearing to the heart. I personally believe that plentiful Biblical support exists, e.g. as found in my “Come, Lord Jesus,” using a standard set of theologically conservative hermeneutical tools.
   Conveniently, though, there is also additional fuel for such a Reformation embedded within largely untapped Biblical strata. As yet unbeknownst to most believers outside the academy, since roughly the 1980s we are presently living on the cusp of arguably the second greatest hermeneutical reformation since the first century! Ancient rabbinic and patristic literary tools (e.g. intertextuality, symbolism, chiasms, paronomasia, gematria) are being independently rediscovered among diverse interpretive communities including Orthodox Jewish (e.g. alephbeta.org), Cathlo-Orthodox (e.g. Jonathan Pageau), and conservative Evangelical (e.g. Theopolis Institute, Beale & Kline), allowing the midrashic layer of Scripture to once again be seen with new eyes. Properly employed(!!!), these tools do not lead to novel or strange doctrines, but rather add color, texture, nuance, richness, flavor, insight, and deeper heart-impacting dimensionality to the same truth readily available on the surface (pshat) layer of the text.
   Indeed, one fruit of the contemporary Midrashic Hermeneutical Reformation which is “in the air” (to quote Rabbi David Fohrman) is the unraveling of a 1900 year old Biblical mystery, which brings us to the unique claim I make as to why you would do well to give heed to my exhortations for a Last Days Apostolic Restored-Lampstand Revival.
5. My Manifestation of the Spirit in Word of Wisdom
   The false apostles put Paul’s relationship with the Corinthians in an awkward spot. Paul knew that he was personally commissioned by Jesus as an ambassador of the true gospel (Gal 1:11). He knew that false apostles were distorting the purity of that messages (2 Cor 11). Therefore he knew that the Corinthians needed to listen to him. But how do you say, “You guys need to listen to me, not for the sake of my ego, but for the sake of your own good!”? Tooting one’s own horn is generally not becoming behavior of an unworthy servant of the Son of Man.
   If you’ve read 2 Corinthians, you know the answer. Paul defended his own apostolic credentials and authority (2 Cor 11:5-13:10), but did so only under duress and discomfort. He made clear that he wanted the Corinthians to correctly discern true apostles from false, not so that the true ones could receive special honors (1 Cor 4:9ff), but because true apostles taught and defended the true gospel of the true Lord.
   I’m not an apostle, so I don’t have apostolic credentials. (May the Lord raise up those who are and do!) However, I do say that I have a manifestation of the Spirit of God in “the utterance of wisdom” (1 Cor 12:8), and that to a particularly noteworthy degree.
   One primary piece of evidence is the solution I provided (standing on the shoulders of exegetical giants before me) to the famous “666” riddle of Revelation 13:18. Now, I of course realize that a million internet bloggers also think they have discovered a uniquely brilliant solution to that problem. However, what is far less common is for a proposed solution to pass the peer-review process for publication in a professional theological journal. Indeed, within academia itself, one of the most favored paths to publication is to examine a topic that is not well-studied. When a problem is extremely well-known, having been explored by millions of people from millions of different angles, that makes it extraordinarily difficult to find anything new to say which the gatekeepers of intelligentsia would consider to a valuable contribution to the already extant literature.
   “I am talking like a madman” (2 Cor 11:23). Such boasting is embarrassing. But two billions Muslims in this world are living and dying without a Spirit-empowered witness for Christ in their midst. And we need a genuine apostolic renewal from God to fix that. And I believe the Lord has granted me a measure of the Spirit to see the blueprints for what we need to get there. So yes, I do wish to persuade you to listen seriously to what I have to say on such matters; things which are not new revelation (that would be the gift of prophecy, which I do not have) but rather provide clear insight into what the Bible has been saying to us all along (comparable to Luther’s rediscovery of justification by faith).
   So, judge for yourself. Take a look at my “Forward and Reverse Gematria” article. Have I correctly “calculated the number of the beast” in a manner which seems to have evaded commentators for two millenia? If so, then it would seem the Spirit has granted me a special dose of wisdom (Gr. sophia) and understanding (Gr. nous), as per Rev 13:18. In the Septuagint, those two words occur repeatedly together in the context of the building of the tabernacle (Ex 28-36, e.g. 36:1). It requires wisdom and understanding to build the house of God and so, I believe, He has granted me a measure commensurate for the restoration of lost lampstands, for such a time as this.
   But again, judge for yourself. I do not anticipate that most will accept the claim, but am seeking out the few who will.
6. So Much to be Done and Such a Diversity of Other Giftings are Required
   Now say that you are someone does accept some aspect of this vision. What can you do? The short answer is that there are many things you can do, some generic and some particular to what you are good and gifted at and your particular station in life. Along with the filling of the Spirit God gave Bezalel and Oholiab for ability to construct the Tabernacle (Ex 31:1ff, 35:30ff), He also filled “every skilled craftsman” (28:3; 31:6; 35:10) and craftswoman (35:25) with particular abilities to suitably construct the tent pegs, weave the curtains, mold the utensils, cut the boards, etc.
   Of course Jesus is the builder of His own church (Mt 16:18) of which He Himself is the cornerstone. But He generally doesn’t intend to build alone with His people standing by. Instead, as the ultimate general contractor, He appoints a taxonomy of various complementary roles (1 Cor 3:10).
   We all can and should:
   • Plead with the Lord of the harvest to raise up genuinely Spirit-filled apostles who are empowered to proclaim the gospel boldly and effectually where the true Jesus Christ is not known.
   • Humbly “seek the Lord with all our heart,” asking Him to expose anything in us — individually and corporately — which quenches and grieves His Spirit.
   For those in a position to do so, other needs include:
   • Acts 13 style prayer, fasting, and worship gatherings in which like-minded folks gather together to earnest seek the Lord for the types of things mentioned above.
   • Even for the majority of us who are not called with the ability to preach publicly, nevertheless there are many things we can do to give the gospel of Jesus a “public face” (both via media and in person) in places where that does not yet exist. I am happy to discuss various ideas.
   • There is both popular-level (e.g. website) work and scholarly collaboration needing to be done to consolidate and facilitate the already existing Midrashic Hermeneutical Reformation reaching a wider audience.

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