The following is an outline of how our churches start off pure and holy and then over the years have cast off restraint. (Proverbs 29:18) Look up the corresponding scriptures and learn this horrible progression so that you can help God's kingdom and church learn from the mistakes of history.
The church starts off pure with pure motives based on the Jesus that says, "Not my will but thine be done." Then Jude vs. 4 comes true and then false preachers secretly infiltrate the church and the people do not know the will of God or the Word of God enough to know how to recognize them or what to do with them. False leaders make sure that the first teaching is that "everyone sins"(1 John 3:6-10) and "do not judge anyone" while ignoring the Apostle Paul's warning to "judge those inside the church" (1 Corinthians 5:12). Once in place, here is the progression:
- FALSE LEADERS = NO KEY: When you have false leaders, they automatically take away the key. The key is the fear of God (Isaiah 33:6b)
"Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering." (Luke 11:52)
- NO FEAR=NO REPENTANCE: When there is no fear then there is no repentance. Proverbs 29:18 says, "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law."
- NO REPENTANCE=VEIL: When there is no repentance, the veil drops over the eyes and the delusion starts to set in. Read 2 Corinthians 3:14-18 and 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12.
- VEIL=HIGH WALL OF SIN: As the people continue in sin the blindness grows so that sin increases and becomes a High Wall. Isaiah 30:12,13 says, "Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant."
- HIGH WALL = DRUNK OR INTOXICATED; INCREASING SIN=DELUSION: Even though the sin crashes in on them-they cannot feel the pain because they are drunk with the false grace message that uses Jesus as a drug. These people don't care because they truly believe they get to do what they want and go to heaven-so who cares about a few consequences? These people believe, like the Jews, that they have a covenant with death…. "Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem. You boast, "We have entered into a covenant with death, with the grave we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place. So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: …Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the grave will not stand…The understanding of this message will bring sheer terror." (Isaiah 28:14-16a,18a,19b) The drunk people cannot understand or hear this message.
- DELUSION=ABOMINATION: A thick blanket covers the people so that they are ever hearing but never perceiving and they feel safe in spite of a wicked heart. What has happened is that the people become drunk with the false grace message. This results in increased sin in the church so that there is an abomination. The abomination is that God is no longer crowned and man exalts himself over God. Man sets himself up as a god inside the temple! (2 Thessalonians 2:4)
- ABOMINATION LEADS TO DESOLATION: That Abomination leads to Desolation! God leaves the sanctuary. Without God we are lost and doomed since He is the resource and source of all life and energy and finances and health and love and light and everything that is good. We are cut off! (Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15,16)
- DESOLATION LEADS TO THE GREAT PROSTITUTE: The church then turns into the counterfeit church and it is the Great Prostitute and a haunt for demons and every rebellious spirit. (Revelation 17) The only hope is to flee. (Revelation 18 and Jeremiah 51:6-9)
The counterfeit church is now a gathering of people that think they are saved or "safe" and yet is unknowingly rebelling against God. There are distinct differences in the counterfeit and true church:
- The true church gets all energy, money, and love from God and therefore wants no sinners in the church because of fear that God would leave them. The true church does not have to cater to man-they love man-but do not cater to him. They only fear losing God and not pleasing Him because He is their everything. The true church will, when necessary confront sin and occasionally "expel the wicked man from among" them. (1 Corinthians 5:13) The true church understands clearly that they are not to be unequally yoked and are to touch no unclean thing so that God will dwell among them. (2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1) The true church is a house of prayer because God is THE RESOURCE.
- On the other hand, the counterfeit church has to flatter and appease people because people are their resource for money and energy. The great prostitute does not have answered prayers because "We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will." (John 9:31) The church with sin is not plugged into THE GOD, the resource of all things, so it gets its money (tithe) and energy from man-the closest thing to God since man is made in His image. This machine has to keep members signed up for ministry fairs and give them official positions so that they stay busy. But down deep they are falling apart and the families are falling apart and the counterfeit church is using them as a battery pack and is therefore sucking the life out of them.
In summary, the true church is plugged into God like the branch to the vine. The counterfeit church is plugged into man and uses flattery to keep people there. It does not turn them from their sin and will even tell them that God does not care about repentance. Jesus said that there would be many false prophets. I see it that way. I see so much sin in the church and therefore I know that there are many false preachers. I look through the "Christian " books and even see some popular authors say, "As I am writing this I am sinning." I want to say-"Then stop!"
If you are deliberately sinning, there is no sacrifice for sins left but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire. (Hebrews 10:26) Some churches say that they teach repentance and laying down sin-but they pick and choose what sins that they tolerate. For instance, if the preacher is heavy, he harps on sexual sins. That is totally missing what Jesus is teaching. Sin is rebellion to God. God does not dwell among the horned, rebellious people that pick and choose what they think is appropriate to obey. God has asked for a separated, holy hill of surrendered people that are forgiven and washed clean of their past rebellion and have repented of bossing God around. The result is that God's Spirit can indwell them-thus the term "full of the Holy Spirit"(Acts 6:1-4). Early Christians came to Christ on His terms and were born again as new creations to walk in a new life (Romans 6, Ephesians 4:24). Can you have tolerable levels of rebellion (sin) to God? How much rebellion is okay with God before He turns and becomes your enemy (like He did to Saul-1 Samuel 28:16)? What happened to Ananias and Sapphira when they sinned against the leading of the Holy Spirit? When they dropped dead, a fear seized the whole church. (See Acts 5:1-11) It is clear that Jesus, the Apostles and the Prophets all taught us to turn from rebellion to God. Remember that someone caught in sin was taken outside the camp and stoned in Moses' day; the rebellious sinner was expelled in Paul's day (1 Corinthians 5:1-12, Hebrews 10:26,27).
The bride is to be set apart to be a virgin, pure for the groom. (2 Corinthians 11:2-4) To be a true church with pure leaders, you are to remove all rebellion and deliberate sin. Partial removal of sin leaves the leaven in and the whole batch will be sinning before long, for a little leaven leavens the whole lump. God says that He will remove the rebellious. (See Ezekiel 20:35,38) The pure and the rebellious are uncomfortable with each other for they have nothing in common-one loves God and the other hates God and loves the world. "You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God." (James 4:4) (Also see 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:2)