Church and Christianity
To virtually all the world the words "Church" and "Christianity" are synonymous with the people that profess to believe in and follow Christ. Amazingly, the word "church" does not occur in the Greek of the New Testament but is a mistranslation.
At the end of this age, in the book of Revelation, we find God calling to His people to come out of a place he calls Babylon and the Great Whore to avoid the plagues she will receive for her sins. Where is this place that God's people find themselves that is a "habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit" (Rev. 18:2).
The apostle Paul told us that "such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works." (2Cor 11:13-15). Where are these false, deceitful ministers who claim to be sent by Christ? Where is Satan's influence to be found posing to be a source of light to those seeking God?
They can only be in places that claim to be of Christ! Christian denominations! As you read these articles prepare to be surprised and shocked. Satan deceives the whole world. He is hiding in a place that seems to be above suspicion but Paul also wrote that the one who "as God sitteth in the temple of God" will "be revealed in his time" (1Thess 2:4,6). As we draw nearer to the events that will herald the return of Christ the truth about the antichrist spirit and where it is hiding will be revealed.
New Birth Teaching Series
"You must be born again"
Three hours of audio teaching (transcript available) from Pastor John Clark, Sr. on the subject of the "New Birth".
When is a person born again and how do you know? The Bible contains clear revelation from God about when a person is born again. Learn what had to occur before the new birth was available to man. Listen as Pastor John covers these topics and more:This is perhaps the most important issue for a person to understand.
Have you been born again?
Thought for the Evening
4-15
REFUSING GOD'S ANOINTED
Isaiah 8:6-7a
The "waters of Shiloah" refers to a source of water that was at Jerusalem, the city that, according to David, God had chosen as the capital of the ancient nation of Israel. But ten of the twelve tribes of Israel had rejected both David and his proclamation that God had chosen Jerusalem and had formed their own nation apart from David's line of kings and apart from Jerusalem. They chose from among themselves a king, and chose another city in the land of promise to be their capital. From among the sons and daughters of Israel, they raised their own army, but without God's approval, it could not withstand the onslaught of the world and its ways.
God responded to His people's forming their own nation and rejecting the men He had anointed to rule over them. His response was a threat, contained in the verse above from Isaiah, to send foreigners to be their rulers, foreigners who would oppress and enslave them. Still, they would not listen. Isaiah was connected with Jerusalem, and they had long ago rejected the prophets of that place. Nothing would persuade them to submit to the men God had chosen and anointed to be their guides and rulers, and so, nothing could save them from becoming the subjects of an evil empire governed by men who never knew God at all.
FOR OUR ADMONITION
Paul said that whatever was written by men and women of God during that ancient time was written for our learning and our warning. What then are we to learn from Israel's rejection of God's true servants and forming their own kingdom apart from David's sons? If your eyes have been opened by the Spirit to see Christianity for what it really is, you already know the answer to that question.
In the beginning of this age, when Jesus had accomplished his sacrificial work, God gave to those who believed in His Son prophets, and apostles, and evangelists, and pastors, and teachers so that His chosen people could have peace and grow in grace and in the knowledge of God (Eph. 4:11-12). But God's people soon rejected the men and women whom God had chosen and anointed for their good, choosing their own leaders and forming their own congregations after their own will. The true servants of God lamented that God's children were being lured away from them.
"Who has bewitched you?" cried Paul to the saints of Galatia, who had been turned from him and had begun to follow false teachers. Speaking of such false teachers, John wrote to the saints he was teaching, "They went out from us, but they were not of us." And Peter foretold of the victorious effect that these men would have upon the unsuspecting children of God. He wrote, "Many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the truth shall be evil spoken of." In the end, the aged apostle Paul grieved that throughout the Roman province of Asia, all of the many congregations of saints that he had long ago established in Christ had rejected him as their teacher and guide (2Tim. 1:15). His own "children in the Lord" had forsaken him! They had, in effect, "refused the waters of Shiloah that flow softly" and had made themselves a kingdom of their own liking. But their kingdom was made of straw, and it could not withstand the onslaught of the world and its ways. Like ancient Israel, this new nation of believers, without God's anointed leaders to guide it, would soon be overwhelmed by men who were foreigners to God and His Spirit.
These foreign rulers, by whom the children of God are still held in bondage, are called "Christian ministers", and the name of the spiritual Babylon in which the children of God have lived for so long is "Christianity". Christianity is the name of the curse with which God cursed His rebellious people, but (thanks be to God!) there is a way out.
God is calling to His precious children, "Come out of her, My people!" Do you grasp the significance of this call, my brother? The fact that God is calling us at all means that He is giving us a way out of both our rebellion and the captivity that it led to; it means that His permission is being granted for us to "forsake the foolish and live!" It means that God is offering us the golden opportunity to submit ourselves to the shepherds who are true shepherds, teachers who are true teachers, and pastors who are after His own heart. It means that He is opening a door for us that no man can shut. He is offering us peace. The call for us to come out of Christianity is a most precious opportunity to escape the spiritual darkness of men who have never known our God! Our Father is giving us another chance to obey Him and to have our hearts cleansed from the ways of the heathen, and to be forgiven for the stubbornness that led to our becoming slaves and officers in the kingdom of Christianity in the first place!
The lesson we learn from Isaiah is sobering. The example of ancient Israel that God has preserved for us in the Scriptures is so clear! That lesson is this: If God's children want to make their own kingdom among themselves, they cannot have it. The only choice that God gives to His children is either submit to His anointed servants or become the servants of men who do not know God at all.