|
Heaven’s message to the final generation is to flee all organized religions and denominations. Religious leaders, however, have a vested interest in keeping people coming to church. They have used the eighth and ninth chapters of Ezekiel to make people think they have a duty to remain members even when it is clear the church is in apostasy! |
I stared at my friend in shock. Cynthia had been a life-long member of the Worldwide Church of God. She was now telling me about the devastating breakup of the denomination when theological changes came in following the death of its founder, Herbert W. Armstrong. The denomination lost up to 50% of its membership when it gave up the feasts and the seventh-day Sabbath and became more mainstream evangelical.
“It was absolutely desolating,” Cynthia recalled tearfully. “We had been told that we were the remnant and that all the other churches were fallen. We worshipped on the seventh-day Sabbath—which, at the time, we believed to be Saturday. We observed the feasts of Yahuwah. We didn’t believe in the heresy of a triune godhead. We had the truth! And then for the church leaders to cast aside all those beliefs, reject the feasts, and start worshipping on Sunday, was the most upsetting experience of my entire life. There are no words to describe it.
“We lost most of our friends when we refused to remain members of a church that would give up all its Bible-based beliefs. We were told we needed to remain with the church and try to make changes from the inside out. When we left, our friends rejected us because they still thought of themselves as the remnant. And by leaving, we had proven to them that we were now among the lost.”
It is a tenet of most churches that their denomination is the only true church and all others are lost or “fallen.” It follows, then, that if you wish to be a member of the “remnant” you must be a (tithe-paying) member of the one true church: their church. It is a fact of reality that pastors, priests and rabbis have a vested interest in retaining as many members as possible. After all, the organization to which people give their tithes and offerings is the same organization that pays the leaders’ wages.
In their efforts to keep as many people coming to church as possible, religious leaders quote from Ezekiel 8-9. However, the way they interpret these chapters is deceptive and does not agree with other passages of Scripture.
Ezekiel was a contemporary of Daniel and one of the captives taken to Babylon. Ezekiel 8 records a vision given him in which the spirit of Yahuwah showed him the abominations being committed in Jerusalem and the temple there. (At this time, the temple had not yet been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar’s third and final invasion of Judah.)
The prophet was shown four abominations, each one worse than the last and each one moving deeper into the city and temple. These include, among other things, hidden idolatry and women weeping for Tammuz—a practice known in the Roman Catholic Church as Lent and which has been promoted as a rite of spiritual devotion in many Protestant churches.
The final abomination shown Ezekiel is the worst: “And he brought me into the inner court of Yahuwah’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of Yahuwah, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of Yahuwah, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.” (Ezekiel 8:16, KJV) This is nothing less than sun worship being passed off as the worship of Yahuwah!
These are very grave offenses against Yahuwah. And yet, no matter how diabolical the sin, religious leaders to this day continue to insist that Yahuwah wants His people to remain in their pews. Those who separate themselves from the churches, they say, are in error and in danger of being lost. This argument, however, is twisting the Word of Yah and is leading many sincere souls to remain in the churches even while Yahuwah declares: “Go out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” (Revelation 18:4, 1599 Geneva Bible)
 |
|
Church leaders are very good at using the principles of persuasive speaking to convince sincere-hearted believers that Yah wants them to stay in church.
|
In university, one of the most intriguing classes required for my degree was Argumentation & Debate. One of the tools of convincing argument, the professor told us, was to state your opponent’s argument for him. If, in your own presentation, you clearly admit the arguments against your line of reasoning, you will be in a better position to demonstrate why those arguments are wrong. Simply denying the claims made against your position is not very convincing. It is much more persuasive to put into words the opposing view and then logically demonstrate why that opposing view is wrong.
This is precisely what the ministers have done in quoting from Ezekiel 8 and 9. They acknowledge that there are wrongs done in the church. There is abuse of authority; misappropriation of church funds; theology professors who teach error; pastors that use neuro-linguistic programming; and church leaders that clearly promote an agenda of reconciliation with Rome … but, they insist, the church will go through. Stay with the church.
An example of this is an article written by Carey Nieuwhof in which he states:
You hear it all the time.
I’m done with church.
I don’t really need to go to church…my relationship with God is personal.
I’ve had it with organized religion.
The church is a man-made invention, not God’s idea.
I completely understand why a growing number of people are bailing on church. Even people who used to lead in the church often stop attending…
… I get it. The church is far from perfect. Life is complex. There are growing options. And the post-modern mind distrusts most things organized or institutional. But as trendy as the idea of writing off the church may be, it’s a mistake.
While writing off the church passes as sophisticated thinking, it’s actually the opposite; what if it’s a simplistic and even reductionistic line of thinking that leads nowhere constructive?1
From there, Nieuwhof goes on to weave an intricate verbal web designed to make Christians believe it is their Christian duty to remain with the church. He claims, for example, “If you’re a Christian, church is not something you go to. It’s something you are. You can’t disassociate from church as a Christian anymore than you can disassociate from humanity as a person. You don’t go to church. You are the church.”2 The problem with such reasoning is that it entwines truth with error. It is true, “You are the church,” because “church” is the ekklesia, or the “called-out ones.” However, it is not true that any denomination is or can be the ekklesia. And yet that is what Nieuwhof is asserting.
 |
|
Members are taught that, when they see problems in the church, when they see out right error being preached from the pulpits, they are to “sigh and cry” for the abominations in the church but they are not, under any circumstances, to leave. After all, leaders assert, the church of which they are members is the remnant Church. If they leave, then they are no longer part of the remnant.
|
He concludes with the entirely illogical assertion: “If you want to get rid of the church, you also need to get rid of Jesus. You can’t have one without the other.” This argument attempts to assert that the called-out ones/ekklesia are the same thing as a denomination.
This is wrong. Arguments such as this are designed to guilt people into staying in a religious organization that the Holy Spirit is telling them to leave. Members are taught that, when they see problems in the church, when they see out right error being preached from the pulpits, they are to “sigh and cry” for the abominations in the church but they are not, under any circumstances, to leave. After all, leaders assert, the church of which they are members is the remnant Church. If they leave, then they are no longer part of the remnant.
Sermons are preached, conferences held, books and articles are written on how to keep established members from leaving and, at the same time, increase church membership. The reasons given sound very good. In his forward to the book, Church Transfusion: Changing Your Church Organically—from the Inside Out, Dave Ferguson describes a three-step “Process that is helping churches make the shift toward becoming a missional movement.” He writes:
During the last twenty-four months I’ve discovered there are at least three critical moves these churches must make to make that shift:
Move toward practices that apprentice people in the ways of Jesus.
Move toward clearly understanding and articulating the mission of Jesus.
Move toward a vision of a movement to accomplish the Jesus mission.3
Fancy verbiage aside, the focus is on controlling and influencing the group, rather than the one-on-one spiritual connection of the individual to the Saviour. Salvation has always been an individual matter. As Ezekiel recorded: “Though these three men Noah, Daniel, and Job were among them, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith Yahuwah Elohim.” (Ezekiel 14:14, 1599 Geneva Bible)
Church leaders, however, focus on the numbers. Naturally! They wish to fulfill the gospel commission. But the need to maintain their economic support system influences their interpretation of this passage of Ezekiel. They seek to get disenchanted members to remain, telling them that Yahuwah expects them to make changes from the inside out.
When Ezekiel 8 and 9 are read in context, however, that is not what the Bible is saying.
Yahuwah’s response to the abominations in Jerusalem and the temple is clear: total destruction is called for.
Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.
Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them. (Ezekiel 8:17-18, KJV)
The sentence is swift.
He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand. And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar. (Ezekiel 9:1-2, KJV)
This is serious! The command of Yahuwah calls forth men holding slaughter weapons. But even here, the grace of Yahuwah is seen. “Yahuwah … is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9, KJV)
And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side; And Yahuwah said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house. (Ezekiel 9:3-6, KJV)
Not all are to be killed in the destruction that follows. Those who “sigh and cry for all the abominations done” are spared. This is the passage religious leaders use to convince church members to remain despite the Holy Spirit repeatedly urging them to leave. Ministers acknowledge that there is sin in the church, but they hasten to add that those who receive the mark of salvation are those who sigh and cry for all the abominations done in the church. The implication, therefore, is that one must remain in the church in order to sigh and cry over the abominations committed there.
This is nothing in this passage, however, that says Yah’s people must remain where such gross abomination is taking place. Scripture, in fact, teaches just the opposite.
Every week, believers are indoctrinated to "Stay with the church!" But the Holy Spirit is commanding, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith Yahuwah, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." (2 Corinthians 6:17)
Heaven is commanding the final generation: “Go out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues: For her sins are come up into heaven, and Yahuwah hath remembered her iniquities.” (Revelation 18:4-5, 1599 Geneva Bible) As covered elsewhere on WLC, this command is to all believers. None are to assume that their church, denomination or organization is exempt for all have apostatized in rejecting advancing light.
But there are other passages of Scripture that clearly teach the duty to disassociate oneself with organizations that are in apostasy. Yahuwah had the power to preserve Lot even in Sodom. But He didn’t. Instead, He sent angels to drag the reluctant Lot and his family out and then gave the urgent command: “Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.” (Genesis 19:17, KJV)
Lot was saved out of Sodom, not in it. Noah, likewise, was saved out of the wicked, antediluvian world, not in it. Peter understood this concept very well:
For if Yahuwah spared not … the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the wicked;
And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live wickedly;
And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
Yahuwah knoweth how to deliver the reverent out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. (See 2 Peter 2:4-9.)
Lot sighed and cried for the abominations done in the vile cities of the plain. According to the Book of Jasher, one of his own daughters had been killed by corrupt men when she showed kindness to a stranger. And yet, at the prayer of Abram, angels were sent to deliver the message that he was to leave immediately. This is what Heaven expects the faithful to do, not remain in the church and, by their presence, give silent support to the apostasy happening within the church.
Ezekiel’s vision showed people in the city sighing and crying. Religious leaders interpret this to mean that people are to stay in the church. They teach that the very act of sighing and crying proves they are the remnant and must therefore stay with the “remnant church.” Any change, they say, can only be brought about from members within the church.
This is wrong! Sighing and crying by itself proves nothing. The Pharisees of Yahushua’s day were great believers in “sighing and crying,” fasting, and doing any number of outward demonstrations to prove their holiness. They would even hire people to sigh and cry at funerals. Sighing and crying that is merely an external show to demonstrate one’s devotion holds no merit with Yahuwah. As Yahushua said: “When you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.” (Matthew 6:7, NKJV)
Laodiceans, like the Pharisees, are also great sighers and criers. By sighing and crying over the sins of others, they prove to themselves that they are not Laodicean. After all, they have the spiritual discernment to recognize that there is something to sigh and cry about! They aren’t blind!
 |
|
Those who receive the mark are those who are sighing and crying from true anguish of soul. Heaven, today, is calling on each one of us to separate from the fallen churches! What are you waiting for?
|
However, these sighers and criers are not the ones who will receive the mark by the man with the writer’s inkhorn. People who make a show of bemoaning the apostasy in the church, but who would rather die than actually leave the church, will not be sealed. Satan uses these pretenders to discourage others from pressing forward with their convictions. They silence the voice of the Holy Spirit urging the sincere-hearted to flee.
Those who receive the mark are those who are sighing and crying from true anguish of soul. It is not any pharisaical show or Laodicean charade to prove to themselves and others how devout they are. Those who receive the mark are open to leaving the church—and would!—if they had more time and more clarity to understand that Yahuwah does not require them to remain.
Yahuwah “is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9, KJV) He will not reject anyone whose heart is willing to follow truth regardless of the cost, even if they have not yet had the time or the opportunity to learn all present truth. Their sincere sorrow reveals that their hearts are sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s guidance because recognizing the apostasy in the church is the first step to eventually leaving the church. They just have not arrived at the point of understanding that they can and should leave. Yahuwah reads their hearts and has a mark placed upon them anyway.
The mark itself is further evidence that they would eventually leave if they had time to develop a more mature understanding. The mark itself is the Spirit of Yahuwah which leads into truth. Yahushua explained that the work of the Holy Spirit is to convict of sin and to lead into more truth! “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” (John 16:7-8, NKJV)
This is the key to understanding how some—even at this late date—can be in the church, sighing and crying, and still receive the mark of salvation. The sincere-hearted that are crying over the abominations done in the church do so from a true understanding of the sinfulness of sin. This can only be learned from the Holy Spirit.
Scripture always equates being sealed with being filled with the Holy Spirit: “Grieve not the holy Spirit of Yahuwah, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30, KJV)
“Now he which stablisheth us with you in Yahushua, and hath anointed us, is Yahuwah; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” (2 Corinthians 1:21-22, KJV)
|
“That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Yahushua. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:12-14, KJV) |
Heaven is calling on each one of us to get out. We are not being called upon to judge those who remain. Yahuwah intimately knows each heart; we don’t. Yahuwah has the wisdom to lead each one individually; we don’t. Each one of us must respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit in our own hearts. We can trust He will also lead everyone else who responds in the way and at the time that is best for them.
Get yourself out. Pray for those who remain. But trust a loving Heavenly Father to know which hearts have not yet been hardened against His drawing Spirit. All those who will respond to the Holy Spirit will receive the mark that sets them apart. While we do everything in our power to walk the path that is laid before us, we can safely leave to the Father those who are at a different point in their understanding.
However, the fact that some may not yet have reached the point where they can comprehend the light leading them out of the churches does not excuse those of us who have that light from remaining in the fallen churches. It is our duty to get out. Now.
All churches and religious organizations today are fallen because all, without a single exception, have rejected some point of advancing light. While some may accept one area or another, they reject other truths that, if accepted, would impact them too negatively.
Like the angels sent to hurry Lot out of Sodom, Heaven’s message is sounding forth, warning all to flee these organizations and denominations. There are no exceptions. All have “become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” (Revelation 18:2, KJV) Do not hesitate or delay.
Yes! Sigh and cry for the abominations done in the church. But do it from outside the church. By your example of obedience, show others that it is safe to follow the Lamb out of organized religions. Salvation is obtained through faith in Yahushua, not through the portals of the church.
Yahuwah will have a remnant, small though it may be, that are uncorrupted by the world. These called-out ones are the true church of Yahuwah and the apple of His eye.
1 http://careynieuwhof.com/a-response-to-christians-who-are-done-with-church/
2 Ibid.
3 Dave Ferguson, in the foreword to Church Transfusion, by Neil Cole & Phil Helfer.