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Genesis 12c:

History of the church  Part 3

Hi everybody,

Here we are back again for the final installment of church history as the Son of God tells it to us, from His birth to the second coming, the time of

                                       “THE Church”.

We finished last time with the temple and Jerusalem in ruins around 70AD, and the care of the scriptures passed on to what men call “The Christian Church”.  The question is asked (and answered), “What advantage then has the Jew?  Or what profit is [was] there of circumcision [the Jewish church]? Much every way: [but] chiefly, because that to them were committed the oracles of God [the Old Testament  scriptures].” Romans 3:1. [And they preserved them for us.]

Because the following story was given to the priest/prophet Ezekiel around 550BC, this section was very much into the future for him and his readers, so it was given in local terms. 

Jesus is still speaking to His “wife”.

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Ezekiel 16:

44 [Then] Behold, every one that uses proverbs shall use this proverb against you, saying, “As is the mother, so is her daughter” [because there had been a change, and a new group, the Christians, had become “THE Church.]”

45 You are your mother's daughter that loathes her husband and her children [speaking to the church about 100AD, Revelation 2:4-5]; and you are the sister of your sisters, which [also] loathed their husbands and their children [the ultimate of female selfishness]: your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

46 And your elder sister is Samaria [the false Christian one], she and her daughters that dwell at your left hand: and your younger sister, that dwells at your right hand, is Sodom [the non-Christian system] and her daughters.

47 Yet you have not [just] walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations: but, as if that were a very little thing, you were corrupted more than they in all your ways. [He is speaking to the professed Christian church!] 

48 As I live, says the Lord GOD [a very strong oath], Sodom your sister [the unbelieving world] has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters.

49 Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread [richness in this world’s goods], and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. 50 And they [the non-Christian] were haughty, and committed abomination before Me [about 538AD]: therefore I took them away as I saw good [I had to allow a false church, the king of the north, to rule them]. 

51 Neither has Samaria [the false religion] committed half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters in all your abominations which you have done [you make them look good!]

52 You also, which have judged [looked down on] your sisters, bear your own shame for your sins that you have committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than you: yes, be you confounded also, and bear your shame, in that you have justified your sisters [you make them look righteous by your behaviour]. 

53 When I shall bring again [set free] their captives, the captives of Sodom and her daughters, and the captives of Samaria and her daughters [from the prison house of Satan, Isaiah 42:7], then will I bring again the captivity of your captives in the midst of them [all this in the resurrection of the just, Acts 24:15]: 54 that you may bear your own shame, and may be confounded in all that you have done. 

In THAT you are a comfort to them. 

55 When your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, THEN you and your daughters shall return to your former estate [all together]. 56 For your sister Sodom was not mentioned by your mouth in the day of your pride,

57 before your wickedness was discovered [made public], as at the time of your reproach of [by] the daughters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which despise you round about.

58 You [will then] have borne [paid for] your lewdness and your abominations, says the LORD. 59 For thus says the Lord GOD; I will even deal with you as you have done, which have despised the oath [My promise] in breaking the covenant.

[As you have ignored Me, I will allow you your freedom

and ignore you for a time as Hosea had to when Gomer left.]

60 Nevertheless I will [eventually] remember My covenant [the one I made] with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish to you [again] an everlasting covenant [in 1844 on the same basis, the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20]. 61 Then you shall remember your ways, and be ashamed, when you shall receive your sisters, your elder and your younger: and I will give them to you for daughters [all three will become one again], BUT NOT BY YOUR COVENANT [not by your idea of union].

62 And I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall know that I am the LORD [despite all this, I still love all of you to bits!!]: 63 that you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more because of your shame, when I am pacified toward you for all that you have done, says the Lord GOD [at the second coming].

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Few realize the full meaning of the words that Christ spoke when, in the synagogue at Nazareth, He announced Himself as the Anointed One.  Luke 4:16-28.  He declared His mission to comfort, bless, and save the sorrowing and the sinful; and then, seeing that pride and unbelief controlled the hearts of His hearers, He reminded them that in time past God had turned away from His chosen people because of their unbelief and rebellion, and had manifested Himself to those in heathen lands who had not rejected the light of heaven.  The widow of Sarepta and Naaman the Syrian had lived up to all the light they had; hence they were accounted more righteous than God's chosen people who had backslidden from Him and had sacrificed principle to convenience and worldly honour. 

Christ told the Jews at Nazareth a fearful truth when He declared that with backsliding Israel there was no safety for the faithful messenger of God.  They would not know his worth or appreciate his labours.  While the Jewish leaders professed to have great zeal for the honour of God and the good of Israel, they were enemies of both.  By precept and example they were leading the people farther and farther from obedience to God – leading them where He could not be their defense in the day of trouble. 

The Saviour's words of reproof to the men of Nazareth applied, in the case of Paul, not only to the unbelieving Jews, but to his own brethren in the faith, the apostles and elders who were still in Jerusalem. 

This is how they acted:

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Acts 21:

18 And the day following Paul went in with us to James [the elder]; and all the elders were present. 19 And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.

20 And when they heard it, they glorified the LORD, and said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all [still] zealous of the law [of ceremonies]: 21 and they are informed of you, that you teach all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs [that was his supposed crime].

22 “What is it therefore?  The multitude [of Christian Jews] must needs come together: for they will hear that you are come. 23 Do therefore this that we say to you: We have four men which have a vow on them; 24 them take, and purify yourself with them, and be at charges with them [in the temple], that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning you, are nothing; but that you yourself also walk orderly, and keep the law. [The leaders in Jerusalem were saying that all Jewish Christians should still be keeping the ceremonies thirty years after the crucifixion!]

25 “As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.” [They wanted a split church rather than give up the old ways.]

26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them. 

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The end result of this action was that Paul was attacked by the Jews in the temple, accused of treason, and finished up in Rome as a prisoner awaiting trial.

His lifework was cut short by those who had rejected the gospel of salvation, because there is no hatred like that of an apostate.  Without realising it, the Christian hangers-on to the old ways were indulging, to a small degree, the same spirit.

Had the leaders in the church fully surrendered their feeling of bitterness toward the apostle, and accepted him as one specially called of God to bear the gospel to the Gentiles, the LORD would have spared him to them.  God had not ordained that Paul's labours should so soon end, but He did not work a miracle to counteract the train of circumstances to which the course of the leaders in the church at Jerusalem had given rise.

The same spirit is still leading to the same results. 

A neglect to appreciate and improve the provisions of divine grace has deprived the church of many a blessing.  How often would the LORD have prolonged the work of some faithful minister, had his labours been appreciated! But if the church permits the enemy of souls to pervert the understanding, so that they misrepresent and misinterpret the words and acts of the servant of Christ; if they allow themselves to stand in his way and hinder his usefulness, the LORD sometimes removes from them the blessing which He gave.

Hopefully, we can now see why the New Testament writers spoke about God as they did, even though the church behaves as it does.

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1 John 4:  

19 We love him, because He first loved us.

Romans 5:

8 But God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

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Do you believe the words of the LORD God?

The church of God on earth is supposed to be a Christian society for the people composing it, that each member may enjoy the assistance of all the graces and talents of the other members, and the working of God upon them, according to their several gifts and abilities. (Like a computer club.)  Church members should be united in the holy bonds of fellowship in order that each may be benefited by the influence of the other.  All the members are to draw together, that the church may become a “spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men".  1 Corinthians 4:9.

The covenant of agreement (the book of rules) in church membership is that each member will walk in the footsteps of Christ, that all will take His yoke upon them, and learn of Him who is meek and lowly in heart. If we do this, “You shall” says the dear Saviour, “find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:29-30.

Why are believers formed into a church today?

Because by this means Christ can increase their usefulness in the world and strengthen their personal influence for good, because the sum of the group is greater than the individual parts.  Those who are in it for any other reason have missed the point.

Back to Genesis next week. 

Ron

Some of the comments in these readings are adapted from books in my library.  No recognition is given because they are not intended as authorities, but are used because they express my understanding clearly. All the ideas expressed in these readings, right or wrong, are my own.

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Revelation 2:

4  [Jesus said to them] “Nevertheless I have somewhat against you, because you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you are fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come to you quickly, and will remove your candlestick out of his place, except you repent.”  Back

6 I the LORD have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and give you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; 7 to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. 

19 Your dead men shall live, together with My dead body shall they arise.  Awake and sing, you that dwell in dust: for your dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.  Back

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15 For this we say to you by the word of the LORD, that we which are alive and remain to the coming of the LORD shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep [dead]. 16 For the LORD Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the LORD in the air: and so shall we ever be with the LORD. 18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.  Back

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Revelation 20: