The Christian Remnant Is Outside the Churches
Bernard Pyron
Belonging to and attending a Church is one thing. But finding Christ
in the
Scriptures, developing a love for his truth and coming to that truth,
and staying in his truth are very much another thing.
Hebrews 10: 7 says "Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book
it is written of me to do thy will, O God."
When the Holy Spirit inspires us as we read the Bible, we find Christ
in the
Scriptures, even in the Old Testament and outside of Isaiah 53.
But look at Matthew 24: 11-13. "And many false prophets shall rise,
and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love
of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the
same shall be saved."
This statement is in part Christ's answer to the question of the
apostles in
Matthew 24: 3 "And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples
came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be?
and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the
world?"
Christ is saying that when many false prophets appear - as is
happening now -
and they are deceiving many, and when evil increases in the world -
as it is doing - these are indicators that the appearing of Christ is
soon.
II Thessalonians 2: 10-12 is an important Scripture on the love of the
truth and the loss of this love in the end time. "And with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they
received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And
for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should
believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the
truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
"Strong delusion" is being fixated upon and boxed into a false
doctrine, that becomes a stumbling block to finding the truth. The
false
doctrine could come out of dispensationalist theology. The teaching
that
physical, unsaved or national Israel is God's chosen people who
Christians
must raise up above themselves as spiritual and saved Israel, and
that we should strive to influence
the U.S. government to expand the war in the Middle East to help
national
Israel is a strong delusion.
The "Church" is teaching a number of false doctrines - and/or Churches
are luke-warm, having lost their love for Christ's truth. Christ in
Revelation
3: 15-16 says to the Church at Laodica (which some say is the model
for the present day Church) "I know thy works, that thou art neither
cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou
art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my
mouth."
In addition to classical dispensationalism, the networking or
emerging church movement under Rick Warren and others looms as an
important false doctrine
which incorporates too much of the world, such as using marketing
techniques,
making friends with New Age people, and using what is called the
dialectic
to brain wash people in small groups, rather than use God's didactic
teaching method.
And so I Peter 4 17 comes to mind: "For the time is come that
judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us,
what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?"
Before God's judgment upon the Church hits, in Revelation 18: 4-5
calls us
out of the Church: "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying,
Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and
that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto
heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities."
We are in the world of metaphors here. Revelation 17: 1-6 describes
a woman
who is false religion. Traditionally, Protestants have said this is
Roman Catholicism, but in the end time it is also the Protestant
denominations.
The construct called "Babylon" in Revelation 18 appears to be a
composite of
the world system that includes merchants as world traders, the
financial elite,
the Beast Government of Revelation 13: 1-3 and false religion which
in Revelation 17: 3 is seen sitting on the Beast, or riding it.
False religion in the
end times joins with the world system, as John Hagee and his
organization
CUFI - Christians United For Israel - want to join with and lead the
government.
The call to come out of Babylon before she is judged by the Lord at
his appearing or perhaps a little before can be interpreted to be a
call
to come out of false Christian doctrines and out of the Churches, as
well as a call to leave the world
system as much as we can.
Christ in Revelation 3: 20, which is within his discussion of the
the Church at Laodicea, says "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:
if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him,
and will sup with him, and he with me."
He could just be saying that he stands figuratively at your door
and he knocks on your door, and if you will accept him and let him
in, he will come in and eat with you. Note that he does not say
that you must be in a Church for him to come in and fellowship with
you. The text in Hebrews 10: 25 "Not forsaking the assembling of
ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one
another: and so much more, as ye see the day approaching" is not
limited to going to a church building where a preacher does
all the talking and the congregation does not participate except in
singing. Christians can get together in small groups without
going to a Church.
And Christ could also be saying in Revelation 3:20 that is is standing
outside of the Church, since he is no longer in the Churches in the
spirit. Outside the Church, he is calling people to come to him.
People can say "Oh no, my Church is not teaching false doctrines or
is luke-warm toward Christ's truth." But be careful. You may be
fooling yourself.
Bernard
|
