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Conversation #042
Truth answered -
the real church
Dear Truth Seeker,
You wrote:
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I thought that this was the religion that has the truth unabated, yet i see hypocrisy, division, and a religious deadness that makes me sick (i would spew them out! ! ! ! ! )
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Welcome to the real church!! I don’t know why you expected "truth unabated" for that was never promised. Have you read Ezekiel 16 yet?
What Jesus did tell us was that in the last days the church would be made up of "wheat" and "tares". The "wheat" are the true people of God and the "tares" are the result of sowings by the "enemy". Matthew 13:24-30.
So we should naturally expect a mixture of truth and error, genuineness and hypocrisy, and a religious deadness (lukewarmness) over all, just like that portion of the church that the Son of God was born into. Not all Christians are pure and none of the tares are, so the balance will stay that way until just before the end of time.
This matter is so important that I will spend some time on it. Here is the Son of God’s personal message to the Seventh-day Adventist church.
Revelation 3:14-22
And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot: I would you were cold or hot."
"So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue you out of My mouth. Because you say,
‘I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;'
"and KNOW NOT that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel you to BUY of Me gold tried in the fire [faith], that you may be rich; and white raiment [righteousness], that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness do not appear; and anoint your eyes with eyesalve [the guidance of the Spirit], that you may see."
"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent [change]. 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."
"To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne. He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
Let’s look at it carefully and prayerfully and recognise what He knows.
First, and most important. He DOES NOT SAY THAT HE WILL LEAVE HIS "WIFE"!! In fact, He says the opposite. He says that He will stay on and look for repentance and overcomers. He offers three things, faith, righteousness and guidance. Sure, we have to buy them with the total commitment of our "old life", but that is only fair and just.
He "loves" those in the church (clean and sinful saints) and wants to live with them ("tares" are not "in the church", they just assemble with it). The great fault of the church is that it "knows not" its condition. What kind of a Christian would leave someone in ignorance and wipe his hands of them? That’s our job – to tell sinners of their fate and persuade them to change, and it’s His too.
When He says He will "spue us out of His mouth" He is not saying He will leave us, but that we make Him feel sick. However, "agape" love grits its teeth and soldiers on. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.
His promise in another place is:-
Hebrews 13:5
Let your conversation [conduct] be without covetousness; and be content with such things as you have: for He has said, "I will NEVER leave you, nor forsake you."
He also makes the emphatic statement:-
Isaiah 50:1
Thus says the LORD, "Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities HAVE YOU SOLD YOURSELVES, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
So He NEVER divorces His "wife", but He will give her the divorce papers IF SHE ASKS FOR THEM. And the church has not done that, and will not because there is no earthly church after Laodicea. All that has happened so far is that many individuals have left her because of her sins and therefore left God in the process. The "children" have left the "mother" while the "husband" remains!!
And that’s what will continue to happen. Many will leave as time goes by because they cannot stay "hot" while others grow "cold". Their love does not endure, which shows that it is not "agape". Why not stay on and help those Christians who are struggling in the church?
Matthew 24:1213
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved.
Why doesn’t He leave His "wife"? In the first place He doesn’t believe in "divorce", and in the second place, because she is still doing what He asked of her. Which was to hold the "oracles" in trust for the faithful.
Romans 3:1-4
What advantage then has the Jew [Christian]? Or what profit is there of circumcision [a visible church]?
MUCH every way: [but] CHIEFLY, because that to them were committed the oracles [the word] of God.
FOR WHAT IF SOME DID NOT BELIEVE? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yes, let God be true, but every man [in the SDA church be] a liar; as it is written, "That You might be justified in Your sayings, and might overcome [be justified] when You are judged."
When Jesus purged His church one day by putting a hard test on its members, many left Him in disgust. Even the disciples were tempted to give up so Jesus turned to them and said….
John 6:66-69
From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him. Then said Jesus to the twelve, "Will you also go away?"
Then Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that You are that Christ, the Son of the living God."
Peter’s question is still valid. Where can we go if we leave Him? There are other "religions" but they are led by Satan (Baal, the god of force). There are non-religious systems (Sodom) but what Christian would want to fellowship there? Jesus spent about three months in Jerusalem at the beginning of His ministry then concentrated on Galillee, going back for special occasions. After all, most of our work should be for those who want to hear.
One last point. We are told to leave the "tares" in the church even if we think we can see them. Their roots intertwine with the roots of some of the "wheat" and pulling them up will disturb and might even kill the "wheat"!
Matthew 13:27-30
So the servants of the householder came and said to him, "Sir, did not you sow good seed in your field? from where then has it tares?"
He said to them, "An enemy has done this." The servants said to him, "Will you then that we go and gather them up?"
But he said, "No; lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say TO THE REAPERS [the angels],
‘Gather you together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but [then] gather the wheat into my barn’."
So you are stuck with us! Hope this is not too hard for you!
Regards,
Ron
On to Conversation #43 .................. Back to #41
To the reader,
If there is anything not clear to you as you read my answer, please feel free to mail me and ask about it. I promise not to send you anything but a direct answer to your question. I won't argue about it, just share with you what I have seen.
I won't ask you to join a new church or offshoot either!
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