THE DYING CHURCH

 

The original ‘Church,’ in a spiritual sense, was the two beings together as one in the Garden of Eden. They were with God and each other in Spirit and the Garden was the ‘Church’ that God built for them.

If compared to tabernacle worship during the Exodus, it was much the same.

Think of the trees of the Garden as the individual ‘tabernacles’ with a tree set aside for each person as they came into being. The Tabernacle of God would be the Tree of Life in the middle of the Garden just like tabernacle worship.

 

 

In the picture, imagine that the fenced in area is the “midst of the Garden” (Gen 2:9) and the large tent in the middle is the canopy of the Tree of Life. The tents beyond the middle of the Garden would represent the canopies of the trees of the Garden from which living souls would see their ‘godhead’ represented by the Tree of Life. In the picture above the fire by night would represent the Godhead.

So, think of tabernacle worship in tents as a sort of portable ‘Garden of Eden.’ That was what the Church was intended to be. ‘Church’ was not a building but wherever the people of God assembled. In fact, God said to the Hebrews, “I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people” and at night they would assemble to glorify God.

As for Adam and Eve, He was their God and they were His people, so ‘Church’ for them was that peaceful walk in ‘Salem’ in the middle of the Garden, noting that Melchizedek, who was without father or mother, beginning nor end, was the King of Salem.

After His Resurrection, Jesus told the remaining eleven, “Go you into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned” (Mark 16:15-16). Remembering that there is “One Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephes 4:5); that one baptism would be the Baptism of the Holy Ghost.

For now, however, let’s focus on the simple phrase, ‘Go you into all the world.” The Church was never meant to come to you, but you be the Church wherever you go. The Church is like a bride that is always beside her groom, and in this case the ‘Bride’ is the Church and the ‘Groom,’ Jesus, the ‘Head’ of the Godhead.

Adam and Eve went to ‘Church.’ Their intent was to eat of the fruit of that Tree which bare twelve manner of fruits (Rev 22:2): charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, forbearance, mildness, faith, modesty, self-restraint from sexuality, and chastity (Gal 5). Those characteristics are the one fruit that should have been eaten and none of them are organic but only the nature with which God endowed His creatures.

The ‘One Fruit’ from that Tree had to represent the Holy Spirit of God. They were not to intake anything at all, but God would imbue them with His ‘Living Waters,’ the ‘sap’ of the Tree of Life.

Between them and the Tree of Life, slightly off the Way, was another ‘tree” whose fruit was forbidden; that fruit was of the same kind as well:

 

Now, the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, raveling’s, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal 5:19:21)

 “Now,” Paul wrote, was the same fruit as in the past. He was speaking about the beginning. Those are characteristics of the Unholy Spirit of Lucifer. They are the killing spirit that opposes the “quickening Spirit” of Jesus (1 Cor 15:45).

‘Church’ is the twelve fruit of the Spirit of those assembled; whether two, eleven, or many. The ‘Antichurch’ is where the multitude of the fruit of the Lucifer is assembled.

Now look at the characteristics of your church as a whole. Don’t look at the building because God never desired to have one. The assembly of God’s people was always the Church and it always existed and always will, as Jesus explained to Peter, “Upon this Rock I will build My Church; and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it” (Mat 16:18).

The psalmist, looking forward to Jesus, wrote, “He shall cry unto Me, You are My Father, My God, and the Rock of My salvation” (Psalm 89:26). God is the ‘Rock’ of the Salvation of Jesus. His is the Foundation of the Church and the Invisible Universal Church was built on Yahweh who in that time, manifested Himself as Jesus. The use of the word, ‘Rock’ should not be taken literally, for Jesus is not just an inanimate Image of God but a moving ‘Stone.’ The “Rock’ is used to suggest that Jesus is the material Substance of God for lack of modern terminology of ‘matter.’

The Church is the Rock (Jesus) and it should have the nature of the Christ:  charity (love), joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, forbearance, mildness, faith, modesty, self-restraint from sexuality, and chastity. Those twelve kinds of fruit emanate from God, and as such, are the fruit of the Spirit, themselves not Rock but intangible substances that can only be revealed dynamically; hence they are virtues (dynamis in the Greek). They are the Dynamics of Jesus, the dynamics of the Christian, and the dynamics of the Church because the Church is the people with Jesus at its head.

How many of Christians have any part of that fruit; even one? How many are even good, or righteous? “No not one!”  (Rom 3:10), but after Jesus gets into you, you should be made righteous.

Now examine yourselves, and me as well, if that suits you. Are you righteous? To be honest, I do not see myself as righteous. I wish I was righteous but will always fall short of the Glory of God because none are righteous, or good, except God.

What keeps Christians from goodness? Our decaying flesh. Just as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil may have been a description of the transparent and luminescent Lucifer with the Unholy Spirit of the Devil within, Christians should be described by the real apparent and illuminated Spirit of God within each of them.

Based on our own nature, just how many Christians do you see in the world? Look only for those who are ready to crucify their own fleshes and follow Jesus to the death (Mat 16:24). No not one!

Some have cut off part of their flesh with circumcision but that did not go far enough; Christians must circumcise their hearts (Rom 2:29) — their innermost being… who you are in secret.

The Church is made up of ‘lively stones’ that are invisible and are to be laid according to the ‘Cornerstone,’ Jesus. In other words, Jesus is the metric from which the people of the Church are laid as they assemble to make the Church.

With that tough metric, the Church will fall. Evaluate yourselves; How are you upholding the Church? That is measured by how well you look like Jesus, not outwardly. but inwardly, even though the outward appearance reflects the innermost you.

Since the Church is made up of Christians and we fall short of the Glory of God, so does the Church. Pull so many stones out and a Church falls just like Christians fall away when tempted by the world (apostasia; Heb 6:6).

The seven churches of Asia are the fruit of the One True Church, and the Book of Revelation recounts how each of those members fall short of the Glory of God. Taken as a whole, the Church was already on its last ‘leg’ before it was even built. I have seen that several times with startup churches; they mean well but fail when the world creeps in.

I have gone to several churches that have fallen. They died slowly but much faster than the ‘Church of Adam and Eve.” Theirs died in 930 years, but ours much quicker.

I saw several as they fell, but the leadership was blind to them falling away. Several of those churches no longer exist, but Jesus said that His Church would prevail, not for a short time, but forever. Something went wrong in each of those churches that they just could not prevail, and indubitably, the Devil somehow got into the churches that failed. They were all sanctuaries of God that the world got into.

The Devil does not get in physically, but spiritually, or rather thoughtfully. Rather than the things of God — the ‘Rock’ — they each thought as individuals, and to be truthful, modern churches are often as sacrilegious and pantheistic as the college of the Roman pontiffs.

Each person has essentially created their own god or even gods. Many say, “God and Jesus” when they speak, not even knowing that God and Jesus are One and the same God in different substances! It is not because they are deceived but because they are not in the Word of God.

How many of you read the Word of God and how often? If you are not in the Word, you are out of the Word — Jesus. You are not in Christ, but out of Christ and fail to even notice it!

Not to be argumentative, but many of you are in a virtual jail. I like to think that because I went forward in church, many years ago, that my struggle has ended; that regardless of how much I look and act like the Devil; that I belong to Jesus. That blasphemes the Holy Ghost of Jesus.

Some even fail to even understand that the Holy Spirit is the Ghost of Jesus that should be in them. The Spirit is not another ‘god’ but the Dynamics, or Goodness (Virtue), of God. The Holy Ghost is how the Spirit of Jesus still works wonders in the world, yet so many never thank Jesus with prayer.

The Church, in my opinion, has devolved to a college of high priests with their court and underlings. It is not Jesus who is at the head of the Godhead, but the godhead is the minister or priest, the deacons and court jesters (the performers), and the dead stones — those who are either vegetables or are treated as such by the elite of the church.

If that offends, so be it; I am speaking about all churches, not just mine or yours, and each of us are a part of the problem!

Christianity requires no work, but the characteristic of a Christian is to serve others, not for their own glory or to make a name for themselves, but for the Glory of God.

Most of us drive to church intending to do what is right, but like Adam and his woman long before, getting there is not the biggest problem, but staying under the canopy of the Tree of Life whose ‘sap’ we can freely drink.

Like the original Church in the beginning, the modern Church has the same obstacle in the way. The so-called ‘Serpent’ offered the desires of the flesh, and so does that invisible being that still disrupts the Will of God.

The churches will fall because many Christians fall away. Right now, you are thinking that you would never fall away!

Just let the ‘lions’ loose and see what you do: “(You Christian) Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet 5:8). Who is the Devil after? Certainly not his people, but Christians.

Just like the apostles, the Devil stalks you. The apostles were safe because they were in the Word. If you are not, then you are not even safe, let alone saved, and you thought there was nothing more to salvation than walking forward to the alter.

That you are already saved is a ‘panacea’ — a cure all — something that fulfills all the prescriptions of God at one time in one dose. Why repent as we sin if that sin has already been paid for? That is deception; the Divine Prescription was indeed paid for but for it to be effective, it must be taken regularly for it to remain in your system.

Just as the Glory in Adam waned, so can the Glory in you. Each day that you come short of the Glory of God, requires a renewal of the ‘Prescription,’ and if the Word stays in the cabinet, then it can lose its effectiveness, not because of God because He seals it adequately, but because you fail to take it regularly. With that left undone, the virus of sin slips back in again in much the same way as the pox virus returns as shingles.

The Invisible Church will prevail, but its real members are the faithful few that are as Christ. The Church is not your organization or assembly but the slim pickings from each that God gathers on the Day of the Lord to be together when the Church is rebuilt to the intended design in the beginning. Church should be in the manner of Paradise, and of course, that means it is not in buildings, but beneath God. It is all who bless, or take a knee to God, not in mockery but obedience.

My hope of salvation is that, indeed, I will be one of them that God elects by judgment, and says “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Mat 25;21), not well sung, nor well said, but “well done!”

Yes, the church is indeed dying and seven of them soon show their maladies, and today rather than each of the seven having one malady, the modern church has them all. The original healthy Church has become depraved and so many who attend them cannot even see the depravity in their churches. Not that I am a member of the Church of Christ (a Campbellite) because I am not, but the Church will be restored, not by men, but by Jesus Christ in the end, and that was revealed to John.

You are part of the dying church whether you are independent, Catholic, Orthodox, Reformed, Restored, Methodist, Pentecostal, Baptist, or any other assembly of Christians who see themselves as right. However, by grace, many of each of those will remain members of the Body of Christ given that they go to the ‘Synagogue of Satan’ (Rev 2:9).

If this sounds as if I am not proud of my church that is a true observation. However, I remain faithful to the true Invisible Church built on God — the Rock of our Salvation.

Too many Christians cherish their church to the point of obedience to it regardless of the doctrine, and others remain with their church as fidelity to God even though God was removed from their presence long ago. You may go to the ‘Church of Apostasy’ and fail to even understand whatever its doctrine might be. Many of the ‘gods’ of our modern church remain  ‘Unknown Gods’ as Paul perceived the Athenian ‘god.’

Many of you do not even know God! Think this instant about the supernaturality of God. Do you know Him or not? To obtain the reward in Paradise, you must know God inside and out and how He works! Knowing that is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is not a fluid or water that engulfs, but the knowledge of God imbued within your mind.