Churchianity

Christianity as such has no voice of itself or any earthly executive board that is able to make any calls for the Church at large.  They however do have a few dead and living popes. Martin Luther, John Calvin and Menno Simons being examples of a few dead ones and pope Benedict IV, Pat Robertson, Dr. James Dobson, the arch bishop of the Anglican church, being examples of some of the living ones. Between all the living and dead popes they actually do have quite a few things in common. That neither an angel of God, nor God with an audible voice set them in place as God did with Moses, Christ, or even Paul the Apostle.  None of these men have had any combinations of the signs, wonders, diverse miracles, or healings that Christ said would follow His believers. And none of these men obey the commands of Christ when Jesus said His disciples were to be servants of all.  When Jesus said His disciples were not to rule secularly or over the people of God much less the unsaved as those in the world do.  And that neither were Christ’s disciples to have any regard for wealth, or seek wealth, or seek the riches of the world. Instead Christ clearly taught that those believers that would seek such, would be rejected as his disciples. 

These men further ignore that Christ said His disciples were not to come in their own name. And yet these self-anointed ones call themselves by their own names, by their own ministry’s name, or their own denomination’s name. Further Jesus said His disciples could not give witness of themselves as He could not himself.  Christ said that His disciples could they accept the witness of each other – or even from the greatest of Prophets.  Christ said that his disciple’s witness was to come from the Holy Spirit, and the witness of the Father. Jesus said His disciples were not to be called Rabbi – Master, and that His disciples were called not to be served by personal attendants, but that they were sent to serve as other’s personal attendants.

But why should we even consider such minor biblical discrepancies -- when we can make ourselves willing offerings and serve such wonderful bunch of little horns running around the world, filled with eyes and boasting their great things against God and the His people?

And if we should turn away from such as it says we should in the word of God, then to whom would we then turn to, to teach us? And to whom would we then look to guide us in the paths of truth and righteousness? I will attempt to the best of my ability answer these questions and give those who want to go on in the :Lord enough of a foundation to do so.

First what we need to see is that there are two churches in the word of God. There is a natural physical visible church, which we all are I fear all too well acquainted with.  And then there is an invisible, spiritual church, which is not made with hands unfortunately due to the level of corruption in the natural physical church many in this day are not familiar with the notion that there could even exist an invisible spiritual church on the earth today that defies borders languages and denominations.

Since what will be speaking of what is explicitly spoken of in the word of God we need lightly address a few subjects regarding what we call the bible. While many believers know that the New Testament was originally written in Greek, most seem unaware that all English versions of the bible even the King James Version are only approximate translations. Being that I am not a Hebrew or Greek linguist, I do not have the ability to give you an accuracy rating on translations. What I can tell you is that there are an increasing number of words that I have identified that are untranslated Greek and Latin words that are in all these translations – and that many of these words carry meanings that have been altered. And it appears that some of this was done in order to shape doctrine.

A short-list of some of the untranslated words I have identified are: Angel, Apostle, Baptism, Prophet, Prophecy, Prophesy, Evangelist, Gospel, Anti-Christ, Communion, Saint, Mystery, Synagogue, and the focus of this study -- Church,

Most people are not aware that the word Church does not exist in the Greek. The word Church is an inaccurate interpretation rather than a translation. The Greek word Ekklesia is what has been rendered church in English. Ek-Klesia is actually two Greek words. Ek which means; "out from" or "away from" and klesia which means “the called.”. So the English word Church should read the "Out-called of the called."

We will now attempt to make sense of the word "Ekklesia." The call of the salvation of Christ goes out to all, and of those who hear Christ’s call and gather together these are what we would term “the klesia” or the called.  But from “the klesia” there are those who sell out for God, and become Christ’s disciples, these are called “the ek-klesia” or The out-called of the called.

In Churches people are discipled to specific denominations, and those denominations swear their followers to an oath of allegiance to them and to no other.  This is done in flat disobedience to Christ’s commands that his disciples swear not nor make oaths. Thousands of Christian’s in the first and second centuries gave their lives refusing to give oath or swear allegiance to Caesar and renounce Christ. These were beheaded, crucified, torn asunder, and burned to death. They understood something we do not. And they feared God more than men who can only hurt the body, but sadly we do not.  

I remember in my youth hearing sermons that were dedicated to the secret sins of belonging to fraternal orders, secret orders, and secret societies.  And how in those days these things were forcibly denounced from the pulpit.  It was preached in that day that any believer who engaged in such practices was going straight to hell. Why? Because as members of these secret societies they had to swear oaths and allegiance to their orders. They had be initiated in a series of initiations in order to demonstrate their loyalty. And they had to partake of a series sacred rites as well. 

What needs to be asked is: how is what we do when we join ourselves to our local so-called churches and denominations any different? Churches have visitors and guests and they have members. The visitors and guests are the great unwashed, and as such are allowed only limited access and services within a given church or denomination.  But it is from the influx of these unwashed that the Churches and denominations derive their all-important new members. Or if we were to term things more truthfully, we would call these new members – disciples.  

Membership entails filling out an application. Membership entails followings a specified list of Church or Denomination’s rules. These consist of a combination of doctrinal, spiritual and social laws. In some cases these can be spoken or unspoken – I have typically seen them printed out and have personally had to undersign more than one of them over the years in order to apply to join a given Church. And this was in churches that did not teach the discipleship or shepherdship message.

What I am saying is that this act of verbally or non-verbally taking an oath, of swearing of allegiance, of actually having to sign a document in attestation to your joining a church fellowship, denomination, or a ministry, is no different in Christ’s eyes than your joining The Masons, the International Order of the Odd Fellows, The Shriners or whatever. There is an exception that Christ stated 4 –5 times Rendering unto Caesar what is Caesars. Military service and Governmental service those oaths and swearing are legal and just.

But to His disciples Jesus said you can not serve two masters. This may be very hard for many to understand because I am not just talking about pastors and Churches in general but I am talking about their specific Pastors, Churches and denominations. 

In being able to say these things I have had to face the same questions.  It is naïve to on the face of it blindly accept that when your church makes claims as being one of the seeming 10.000 denominations that they “have all truth.” Realize that everyone of those proverbial 10,000 denominations are all making that same claim and that 9,999 denominations are saying at this very moment that your church and denominations are deceived no matter to which one you have sworn you allegiance to.

Further all these churches and denominations also claim to be walking on the one true path of life. We need to see that there is definitely something wrong here. We have to seek God and find the grace to come to grips with where we are today. No matter what has been preached to you, we are not living in the first century with either Peter, James, John, or Paul, as our beloved Pastor.

No matter where we go to church our church is not the mirror image of anything we see in the gospels or epistles.  If we are indeed seeking the truth this should give some pause.  And further when our pastor and teacher speak, they in no way sound like Christ teaching in the Gospels or Paul teaching in the Epistles. And perhaps importantly they have a lot also in common with the living and dead popes cited at the beginning of this study.  Be not deceived even though they will categorically claim to hear from God and even though they will claim to have all scriptural and spiritual knowledge the fact remains that neither an angel, nor God with an audible voice nor with the attestation of great signs and wonders and diverse miracles have these men been set in the body.

So in fact if they teach some other Gospel (That would be the Gospel that Christ taught in the Gospels and or the Gospel that Paul and the apostles set forth in the epistles) that puts this preacher or teacher or their church or denomination as the one we need to swear allegiance to, the one we need to disciple ourselves to in the place of Christ – they are Anti-Christ.  The word Anti is one of those untranslated Greek words we listed above.  Anti in the Greek means “In place of” it does not mean the same thing as the enlish word anti which means  “against.”  So in the Greek an Anti-Christ is “One who puts themselves in place of Christ” or claims as most do in this day that they are: Jesus’ earthly representative – that is an Anti-Christ as opposed to The Anti-Christ which is prophesied of in Daniel and Revelation and other places.

1 John 2:18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists;

We have been oriented to look for the final antichrist which I will discus a later in this study but we need to see here that the Apostle John in 90 AD is telling us that upon his return from his banishment to the Isle of Patmos and return to Ephesus that he has found that there were many antichrists on the prowl.

As I indicated above our understanding of what exactly the Apostle is talking about has been somewhat obscured. The word anti in the Greek means “In Place of” but now we have to discus the word Christ in the Greek because it is also an untranslated word. We have been taught that Christ is the Greek word for Messiah and that is true but the word Messiah is also an untranslated word.

The word Christ in the Greek means anointed one not THE ANNOINTED ONE – The word Christ is somewhat of a neutral word in the sense that Aaron and his sons were anointed, and certain of the prophets went and anointed some of the kings and all of these in the real sense were anointed ones. And further some of these came in at specific junctures and were saviors. And the bible tells us that these were figures of the coming one that was Christ the Lord. With this in mind we will move to the next verse where John is going to talk a little more about this appearance of all these antichrists in the Church at Ephesus and other churches. 

1 John 2:19 They (The antichrists) went out from us, (the apostles) but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

John the Apostle admits knowing some of these antichrists. These are not pretenders that came wandering in from the desert suffering from heat stroke and a messianic complex.  These specific antichrists were men and women that had been hand taught at the feet of the Apostles. They had been saved, they had been baptized in water, and they had the Apostles lay hands on them and received the Holy Spirit, they then for a period of time

Served God and excelled in God’s grace and then the Apostles laid hands on them and sent them forth. John says they went out from us that is that they were sent forth  -- this is different than what Paul the Apostle says of Demos: Demos hath forsaken me, loving this present world.  The point is that only after they had been sent forth to preach did they begin to manifest something other than the foundation of Jesus Christ that had been laid.

Matthew 24:5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

We have been taught to view these verses that they read many shall come and say I am Jesus Christ or I am the second coming of Jesus Christ and these shall deceive many.

In the 1900 years between 100 AD and the year 2000 there have not been many people who have came wandering in from the desert suffering from heat stroke and a messianic complex. And we can say with fair certainty that there has not been any notable false Christ’s in Church history that have put all of Christendom to the wall with their deception or lying signs and wonders. 

So how is it that John said there were many antichrists in his day operating in and around the church and yet we have no records of even one of them? It is because we have been are looking for these antichrist’s through the jaded lens of man-made theology based on it would seem the intentional misinterpretation of the words anti and Christ

See when instead we look for people who say I am Christ’s representative on earth. I am God’s anointed representative on the earth. This church or denomination is the way to God. You can’t get saved unless you belong to my church or my denomination. Or even the church at large is God’s representative on the earth suddenly the field is full and we see in Church history that in fact many have come and have deceived many and that all of Christendom has been put to the wall by there man made churches and denominations who all claim the authority of Christ.

Mark 13:5-7 And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you: For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

 

Matthew 24:22-24 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
When the Church fell from Grace between 200 –230 AD contrary to popular belief the devil did not say” “Well they’ve fallen and they can’t get up. So I’m going to be a nice guy and I’m going to wait for them to rise and then fight them in a fair fight.” The reality is that during the interim period of 1800 odd years the devil has been hard at work with theologians, and influential church leaders he has literally left no stone unturned. So that in these last days we would be so adrift in corrupt doctrines and traditions that we would never be able to return to the glory of the former house.     

Let me tell you that things are so bad that the devil no longer has to lift a finger he just sits on his throne twiddling his fingers waiting for the rise of the man of sin because every church every denomination and every preacher and ministry are out there carrying his water for him.

And what did Jesus say: You can not serve two masters. It doesn’t matter who or what your second master is, when you chose a second you automatically lose the first. It doesn’t matter that you may have 4-5 masters amassing to yourself the greatest teachers and ministries you can find.  Christ and Kenneth Copeland and Smith Wigglesworth, and Walter Beuttler and Bob Mumford. 

Jesus like the Father is a jealous God and He will not have any other God, and most certainly no other master no other teacher no other person or organization that you disciple yourself to before him. I, you and everyone that you see around you in the 10,000 visible earthly man-made church denominations have all been greatly deceived. We have been greatly lied to about a great many things in the word of God and sadly this has been accomplished by men mostly dead men that redefined words and terms in the bible to suit their personal unbelief. And their words were then been passed down through time to us by their disciples.  If things remain the same without a major intervention of God we too shall perpetuate the sins of our fathers and pass these same corrupt doctrines and traditions on again to another generation to vex them as they has vexed us.     

So when we are taking an oath, and swearing allegiance to be faithful to Christ in a given denomination or church we are in fact really taking an oath and swearing ourselves to that man-made church or denominations’ rules and bylaws and we are also thereby swearing allegiance to obey the “sacred” order these people have set in place. That is blindly obey a pastor, the church council, the elders, and or the Church board.

These ruling powers of this church body then reviews the candidates applications and I have seen them accept and reject people for membership into their “sacred order,” their “fraternal brotherhood,” their “church society.” 

It is high time for us to arise from our slumber and ask questions like: Where in the New Testament is any of this stuff? The answer to this question is a bad one.  This stuff is spoken of by the Apostles as schisms and divisions, and Paul and the other Apostles had some very hard things to say about those who engaged in that practice which I will let you look up on your own. 

In the New Testament when one comes to salvation – we are required to confess it before God and men this is not optional as many suppose in this day.   In the bible after we believe we are then to be baptized in water. And according to the word we are then supposed to have hands laid upon them to be filled with the Holy Spirit. A practice that seems to have fallen out of favor in some denominations for 100, 200, 300, 500 and 1800 years depending where you go.

From that point these new believers are supposed to learn of Christ, and from that learning of Christ we are supposed to come to a place that we are able to personally walk with Christ. A practice has also seemed to have fallen out of favor in virtually all churches since the time of the Apostolic Fathers, or since the year 200 A.D.

What I have to say is that there has been a complete and utter breakdown for all  members of any church, ministry or denomination.   Instead of being taken to the feet of Christ and learning that he is the door and the way the truth and the life that he is our one and only high priest and that no one comes to the father but by Christ everyone is taught instead to swear allegiance to their earthly savior -- and to swear off membership or allegiance to any other church, denomination pastor, or secret order is not peculiar to us, to the generation before us, or the generation before them. Some of these teachings that we consider rock solid go back as far as the Year 200 A.D. But most are more recent, far more recent but when no one reads church history, and everyone believes their preacher is in fact the mouth piece of God on earth when the man can hardly utter a sentence without modifying or teaching his disciples to ignore a scripture – you get what you deserve. It doesn’t matter how many people say its so. Their word does not make it so. Because we want to believe it does not make it so either. Belief of faith does not make a lie truth. Belief and faith do not bribe God. There are many things written in the bible the words of prophets Christ and apostles the words of men, Pharisees, lawyers, scribes, angels and devils.  Since the time of the Pharisees men have claimed that by their natural mind and understanding they can inerrantly align scriptures and create perfect doctrine. We see the results of this in our 100,000 pharisaical denominations. None are flawless. All are equally deceived. All are equally taken in their own conceits. All are equally taken in their own snares.  

But the deceit does not stop when we swear allegiance to this pastor and this church, there is another layer to this – one of outward servitude, one that you need to be seen of men to prove to them with your actions that you are indeed worthy of the great gift of “life” that this Church or denomination, ministry or pastor has bestowed upon you. You have to demonstrate to their satisfaction your ownership and your subservience to them and their message because if you don’t you will not receive their earthly tokens and rewards. 

And so you become discipled or submitted to the pastor(s), the teacher(s) the elder(s) that ministry or that denomination and possibly to the occasional pope along the way. And you prove your worthiness to this pastor or ministry by adhering to his words, reverencing them and making yourself available to be the pastor’s ministries or denomination’s hands and feet. And you prove your worthiness to this pastor or ministry by reverencing their words, by visibly giving tithes and offerings, offering spiritual sounding prayers, by worshipping with gusto, by formulating questions in bible studies that make your preachers and teachers look good, by greeting the preachers and elders publicly, and by publicly taking up for your preacher the ministry you belong to, the Church you hold membership in, or the denomination you belong to you will receive their tokens and rewards..

I will not waste the time to cite articles that show that membership and being baptized into that denomination is a core belief of all denominations but here a quote.
The Principal Defense Chaplain Julian Wagg (Anglican) admits that the Unknown Warrior may not have gone to heaven. In a telephone interview on Feb. 8, the principal defense chaplain Julian Wagg reluctantly admitted that the Unknown Soldier may not have gone to heaven at all if he had not been baptized and affiliated with a church. (The Unknown Warrior May Be In Hell [http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0502/S00078.htm [New Zealand’s news service])

Once again we need to ask where in the New Testament is any of this stuff? The answer to this is also a bad one. First off Jesus taught that we couldn’t be His disciple and sit under another.  Neither can we be His disciples and bear the teachings of another even if he of she is the greatest of teachers or the greatest of prophets. In the Gospels we find that it is the Pharisees that fast, pray, teach, greet, and tithe to be seen of men NOT the disciples of Christ. In the Gospels we find that it is the Pharisees that teach their disciples to fast, pray, teach, greet, and tithe to be seen of men. And that it is the Pharisees that teach their disciples that they are to receive their rewards from them, and from men for their fasting, praying, teaching, greeting, and tithing, and that my friend can only happen when these things are properly done to be seen of men.

The corruption of the church in this hour is so great, the prayers that are given, the worship that is given, the tithes the offerings that are given are utterly contemptible to God because it is all done for show and to be seen of men.

It is a terrible thing in our day when in Churches men and women are taught to give to get., to pray to get, to worship to get, and to do to get.  None do any of these things out of a pure heart, or just for the love of God.  Instead of Faith and Love Churches instead are filled with works, the works of programs, the works of teaching and preaching, the works of prayer, the works of worship, the works of tithes and offerings and the works of the faith of men. All of this is regarded in our day as spiritual but it is manufactured by the flesh and the will of men and therefore it is corrupt and completely unacceptable to God.

Isaiah 1:13-15 Bring no more vain oblations (offerings.) (Your) incense is an abomination unto me. The new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot (bear them) away with (them); it is iniquity, even (your) the solemn meeting(s) (of fasting and prayer). Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me. I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, (lift up your hands) I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: (For) your hands are full of blood.

So how is it that that God says that every ones’ hands are full of blood? Is God saying that Jerusalem was filled with murderers? It would not seem likely that all the men women and children are murders. Others have suggested that this is in reference to their animal sacrifices – and that what they have sacrificed has somehow come now upon their heads. Interestingly this phenomenon is not cited concerning the people of Israel in the Old Testament, but it is found concerning believers in the New Testament.

1 Corinthians 11:29  For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

In our eating and drinking the body and the blood of the Lord, Paul warns us that in doing so unworthily the blood of Christ’s sacrifice is upon him in condemnation instead upon him as an atonement. 

 

The derivation of this is from the Old Testament where the high priest makes atonement during the process he partakes of the offering (Communion eating of its flesh and drinking of the drink offering) and then goes into the Holy of Holies and would go and minister before God on the Day of Atonement. If the priest was found unworthy then he was struck dead and he would be dragged out by a rope around his ankles and there would be no atonement for the Children of Israel that year.  

Jeremiah 2:33-35 Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways. ³⁴Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these. ³⁵Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned.

Isaiah 59:2-3  But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.

Ezekiel 23:37 That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery,

Ezekiel 23:45-46 And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands. For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will bring up a company upon them, and will give them to be removed and spoiled.

God is saying that the judgment of his people have been corrupted by their adulteries. He is saying that their adulteries with idolatry have put blood on their hands.  And God is saying that by this corrupt judgment that they not only those who persist in sin with them but they judge the righteous as well according to their adulteries and the blood on their hand. This is talking about that the priests the prophets and the teachers in Israel were all corrupt and they were teaching the righteous to partake with them in their adulteries.  In a picture we can see Eve coming to Adam, her spirit is now filled with darkness, inside she has become a ravening wolf. It is not enough that Eve has partaken of sin and iniquity. It is not enough that in her selfish act she has cursed all her seed. In her sin enflamed mind she has to go for Adam the beloved of the Lord. She has to corrupt him and get him to sacrifice his innocence. She has to get him to partake with her in and of her sin. And to do so she has to muster all manner of deceit, she bribed, she lied, she threatened and little by little she won Adam’s heart over until he relented.

(Hebrew) Job 31:33 If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding in my bosom my iniquity : then let me fear a great multitude, and the contempt of the families frighten that I kept silent and go not out of the door?
Job starts talking her about Adam that Adam covered his iniquities in his bosom. One might say that that is he hid in the garden. But “hiding his iniquities in his bosom” is not the same. The words imply that Adam secreted his iniquities in his heart. I believe that this is speaking of that which sprang forth from Adam’s bosom -- Eve.  I believe that Job is still talking about Adam and Eve in verses 32 and 33.  I see that Job is suggesting that Adam was frightened by the contempt of his family -- Eve. I see that the Family --Eve demanded Adam submit in silence and not go out from her. I have a sense that Job greatly laments that Adam did not walk away from Eve that day. But in the way Job words this we see that he does not bring an accusation against Adam for his current troubles   Further by implication Job is saying that If Adam had but walked away from Eve that day that Job would not be in current the trouble he is in. For by one man sin entered into the world sin entered the world not by Eve herself, Adam had to have been corrupted.

For those who may say that Job is not talking here about Adam and Eve, remember that Job’s family was killed, and the only one of them that remained was his wife that said “Curse God and die.” Jobs servants and shepherds were all slain or were taken captive and so there is only Job’s wife and Job’s three friends. So in this passage the contempt of the families does not seem to apply to Job –because he has no family and as to relatives the scripture does not tell us that they came or that they treated him with contempt. Neither does the fear of the multitudes apply Job either.  In the book he is sitting alone in ashes in an open field or the ruins of his house. So the words of Job’s keeping silent and going out of the door does not apply to him either, because his house was destroyed. So these verses would then seem to fall back to the last person identified in them – Adam and that which issued from his bosom --Eve.   

 Ezekiel 3:19-21 Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.

Hosea 2:10-12  And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand. I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.

This is the destruction of the tares. This is the destruction of the false Christs. This is the destruction of the false Apostles. This is the destruction of the false teachers.  Paul warned in the sternest words that if any foundation shall be built on the Ek-klessia other than Jesus Christ it would be burned with fire.  Jesus spoke of the same thing when he said the tares would be destroyed (burned) with unquenchable fire.

1 Corinthians 3:11  But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

I Corinthians 3:15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

Concerning “the foundations other than Jesus Christ” – men have pontificated for centuries that these are only errors or minor mistakes in doctrine and that is what Paul was speaking of that would be burned up. And they use as the proof text that it is no big deal  -- that Paul says there that their works shall be burned up, he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved.

In Bible school we were taught in regards to this passage that people in the ministry try over and over again with failed work after failed work until they finally get it right and their Church flourishes. What I would suggest to you is that this supposition is utterly false from the context above, from the words of Christ in the Gospel and neither does Paul advise Timothy to try and try again to do the work of the ministry until you get it right. So what is really happening is that a young Bible School preacher goes out and experiments on congregations and after failing he moves on to another group and another group – the root of this is not his inexperience or poor speaking skills as men would suppose. What is really happening is that this preacher compromising and building over and over again a better mousetrap until he finds a “winning” combination of flesh enticing teachings, music, and church atmosphere that entertain and tickle the ears of his hearers and make their natural experience something that is greater than the time and money they are required to put in belonging to that Church.

What they have really learned from the God of this world is how to conduct a successful business in the entertainment field. – The best are Christian entertainment professionals.  The best style themselves Christian comedians. The best are Christian celebrities with a gaggle of star struck groupies that follow their every engagement and hang on their every word.. These are Christian pop idols they are promotional machines that build up and boast their own names and their ministry’s name. Since image is everything (Bible thumpers read that as: They are beholden by the lust of the eyes) these ministries spare no expense to create the right atmosphere of the church, the finest seating, the finest altar and podium, super sound systems with real time technicians running the sound boards, Hollywood stage lighting, Hollywood chorography in the choir and other staged events.

An example of this is the Robert Schuler’s Crystal Cathedral – he unabashedly admits that he preaches the Power of Positive Thinking – Another Pastor that spoke that message with great success was Norman Vincent Peale. This message was not unique to these two preachers, it was penned by several unsaved businessmen in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s,  I am speaking of Dale Carnegie, and Napoleon Hill.

In the late 1980’s I was a hardcore salesman for a national marketing corporation and attended marketing training seminars. We were required to read books, listen to tapes, and watch motivational videos. The materials recounted hundreds of testimonies of the unsaved and how by following these principles they came into great wealth.  The testimonies were breathtaking as the people whose stories were told were the names of stars and captains of industry that everyone would know.  Many of these were rags to riches stories that directly hinged on these motivational teachings, acts of confession, and shall we say faith in that they would succeed. Among their most successful were ungodly men, atheists, and humanists. An example of one of them would be Ted Turner.

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale of the Marble Collegiate Church a Dutch Reformed Church located in New York City wrote in 1952 “The Power of Positive Thinking” which sold 20 million copies. On a 1984 Phil Donahue Show, Peale revealed he was a 33rd degree Mason, and said, "It's not necessary for salvation to be born again.”  He later said “You have your way to God, I have mine. I found eternal peace in a Shinto shrine".  This non-gospel worldly message of Peale’s became a force to be reckoned with when he transformed a dying Dutch Reformed Church built in New York City back in the 1600’s into a 5000-member church. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale predated the tele-evangelists by decades with a national television following, and a magazine with 750,000 subscribers.

In like manner Dr. Robert Schuler is another example of Preacher of a dying breed old line denominational church that with an apparent strong influence of Dale Carnegie’s teachings becoming a highly successful national ministry. In 1954 Dr. Schuler had a church built in the liberal haven of Orange County California.  Later on the same grounds Robert Schuler built the Crystal Cathedral a monument to his success and influence. In my youth I used to listen to both men preach with some regularity so. 

These men demonstrated that working within dying evangelical denominations that they could build super-churches with memberships of thousands in some of the hardest most liberal grounds in the U.S.  And likewise the disciples of Norman Peale and Robert Schuler have prospered by preaching this same humanist wealth building message, consisting of stories of human hope, stories of worldly success, and stories of the triumph of the human spirit.

With that said it should be clear that this is not preaching Christ nor is this at all the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is a Gospel of humanism. It is the Gospel of faith in the faith of man’s soul It is the Gospel of earthly prosperity. Whether there is a direct connection between these evangelical preachers and Oral Roberts in the late 1960’s to early 1970’s or that Roberts got his ideas of what eventually became the prosperity Gospel from Dale Carnegie and Napoleon Hill it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that somewhere someone saw the success and power of the God of this world and the lust of the eyes and the love for the things of this world caused a melding of the power of positive thinking, think and grow rich and the Gospel of Christ a blasphemous mixture that is like crack to believers and non-believers alike.   

Since the 1970’s Fundamentalists, Pentecostals, and Charismatics, have made a concerted effort to remove the Hollywood stigma that Christians were wimps, squares, and no fun.

In the 1980’s a cultural revolution of sorts occurred with the rise of the dot-coms and the rise of the Internet – for the first time Geeks suddenly became cool as they became multi-millionaires overnight and they were the guys with all the cool stuff that everyone else wanted to have.

In an odd way Geeks were sort of brothers in arms with Christians because both were treated with equal disdain. And another reason is that a high number of Christians at least in the US are PC users and comprise at least peripherally computer geeks. Anyway with the coming of the 1980’s and the rise of Geeks as a cultural Icon there has been a concerted effort from Young Fundamentalists, Young Pentecostals and Charismatics in general to remove the Hollywood Stigma that Christians are wimps, squares, and no fun. So on the wimp front this has given way to Christian activists with a feisty in your face attitude both in politics and in the local community.  And on the square and no fun front this same generation has increasingly are tried to show the world that it is “Hip to Be Saved.” So like the children of Israel that railed and cried for Egypt in the wilderness these have created their own Idols. Christian Rock Idols, Christian Sports Idols, Christian TV Idols, Christian Movie Idols, Christian Business Idols, and Christian Ministry Idols.

In America our national idolatry is the “Goddess of Success.”  And nothing breeds the lust for success more than seeing or hearing of success in others.. – Enter the leaven of the Power of Positive Thinking, enter the leaven of Think and Grow Rich enter the leaven of the Prosperity Gospel.  So out went the old morality, and in came the old immorality and surprise, surprise; in the American Church for only a taste of the pottage of success, and for only a taste of the forbidden fruit of the love of the things of this world the Fundamentalists Pentecostals and Charismatics have stripped down naked and are dancing before the golden calf.  

It kills me to hear that the music and television of the 1960’s that led to the breakdown of society and immorality and rebellion of the 1970’s was declared as wholesome entertainment by none other than Pope Pat Robertson. – Long before Bill Clinton had his infamous tryst with a white house intern and his even more infamous declaration that Oral sex was not sex, Fundamentalists Pentecostals and Charismatics had been sold out to the devil by their carnal leadership in their quest for the Goddess of success.  Oh to have a church f thousands, oh to have a grandiose building program. Oh to have a televised national ministry. Oh to have a Christian television or radio network.   

You might laugh but here at the edge of the world in North Pole, Alaska a “City” of less than 5,000 where I attend a Church with 12-18 people in the last 6 months I have heard all the “Ohs” listed above by the pastor the assistant pastor and a guest Evangelist that was formerly a member of that Church.  

Because of this God has given these groups up and over their personal vanity and lusts.  Just as God gave up and over the tent evangelists in the 1950’s to their own personal vanity and their own lusts. Today 40 years after that revival there is not a trace of those people. And of a truth within 20 years of the end of that revival God destroyed almost everyone of them that had sinned against him and his people and used the power of the holy ghost to make themselves multi-millionaires.

So is this the end of the Church. No. Is this the end of the world? No. Is this the end of Western Civilization?  Maybe, the Lord only knows.

I Corinthians 3:15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

It means that when the Church can no longer police itself, God shall send in other policemen to cleanse it and purge her of her sins. And after that purging and cleaning comes – then shall the end come.

How is it that Paul says over and over again that he had great fear for himself and his hearers – by current though Paul was just being Paul he was only exaggerating, Paul was only pretending that by lying he could gain a deeper effect upon his hearers. These are evil things that blaspheme the way of truth and I have heard these inferred again and again regardless of Church or denomination. 

Acts 9:31 Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the (Manifold) comfort of the Holy Ghost..

How can this be that someone could be edified walking in the fear of the Lord and the manifold comfort of the Holy Spirit at the same time?

Romans 11:19-21  Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

If we stand by faith are we then saved by that faith? Is faith the key that opens all doors and God must bow to it? Look at this verse; Paul tells us that God will reject those that stand by faith, and are high-minded. If God speared not the natural branches he will not spare even those who confess that they have been justification by faith if it is not mixed with fear. Scripture said God hateth the proud and God hateth the forward look and neither faith, or the word of their confession shall save either of them.

2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

2 Corinthians 12:20 For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:

1 Corinthians 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

Philippians 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Hebrews 4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

Hebrews 11:7  By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear,  -- and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

There is a true call in the Spirit for discipleship and submission – but it is a call of submission unto Jesus Christ and Him alone. You cannot be the disciple of two masters and most in the church today are the disciples of 5-10 masters.

John 12:26  If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.  The truth is carnal Christians do not want to follow Christ because and follow him where He is because they don’t want to live like Christ and they don’t want to die like Christ. And because of this they are not His disciples, they do not serve Christ but instead they serve men and denominations and that is not enough they shop for the ones that are most pleasing to them that allow then all the carnal privileges and options that they desire. And therefore the Father honours none of them. But to keep up the from they honour themselves and honour one another.

So also all that do those things listed above cannot be accepted as Ek-kelsia.

And for your servitude and devotion you will be rewarded with tokens of authority that of course are only good within that church ministry or denomination. It could be a coveted Sunday school teacher position. It could be the coveted song leader position. It could be the coveted youth pastor position. It could be a coveted bus driver position. It could be a coveted offering taker position.  It could be an usher or greeter, it could be to speak from the podium for a few minutes, it could be a sanctioned home prayer meeting, or a sanctioned home bible study.       

But Jesus said you can't be my disciple and sit under another or bear their teachings so all who do so are not accepted as ekkelsia.

Now the Earthly church is spoken of and prophesied of in the Old Testament as for my "names sake" and “those who are called by my name.” -- that is the earthly church and the Lord can not allow his earthly witness to perish because man is so orientated to the tangible. and secondly if their was not clessia there could be no ecclessia chosen from it.

WITHOUT A CLESSIA – The Called THERE CAN NOT BE AN ECCLESSIA – The Out-call of the Called.