The Other World Series
The
Lesson V
Matthew 16:18
(18) And I say
also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this
rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it.
“Churchianity”,
not the true Church, is rapidly moving to form one Church for one-world. The true Church is spiritual, not
material, and is therefore, invisible to an unbelieving world. In Matthew
16:18 Jesus said, “I will build my Church....” He has been doing so for
2000 years. He is the Architect and
Builder. He claims this Church to be His
personal possession, “my Church.”
Acts 2:47
(47)
Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And
the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
Acts 5:14
(14) And
believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.)
Acts 5:11
(11) And great
fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.
Acts 5:21,25-26
(21) And when
they heard [that], they entered into the temple early in the morning, and
taught. But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called the
council together, and all the senate of the children of
(25) Then came
one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing
in the temple, and teaching the people.
(26) Then went
the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they
feared the people, lest they should have been stoned.
Every believer in the death,
burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is part of His Church.
Acts 2:47 states that “The Lord added
to the Church”. Then Acts
Ephesians 1:22-23
(22) And hath put
all [things] under his feet, and gave him [to be] the head over all [things] to
the church,
(23) Which is his
body, the fulness of him that filleth
all in all.
1 Corinthians
12:13
(13) For by one
Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether [we be] Jews or Gentiles,
whether [we be] bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
Galatians 3:27
(27) For as many
of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Mark 16:16
(16) He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be
damned.
In Ephesians 1:22-23 we are told that the Church and the Body of
Christ are one and the same, “And hath put all things under his feet, and gave
him to be head over all things to the church which is
his
body....”
1
Corinthians 12:13 tells us how
this Church-Body is formed. “For by One Spirit are we all baptized into one
body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond of free, and have been
all made to drink into one Spirit.”
And Galatians 3:27 adds; “For as many of you as have been baptized
into
Christ have put on Christ. There
is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male
nor female; for ye are all one in Christ.”
Mark
16:16 says, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved....” It is most difficult to persuade some that
this is not water baptism. Water baptism
saves no one. It is the baptism into the
body of Christ that saves.
Ephesians 4:4
(4) [There is]
one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
John 17:21
(21) That they
all may be one; as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may
be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me
Ephesians
4:4
“There is (not shall be) one body, and one Spirit even as ye are
called in one hope of your calling.”
Therefore, the prayer of John
We acknowledge that in the
realm of the seen, there are local churches
(plural). But there is no Scriptural
suggestion that these should all be one visible Church. In 315 A.D.
In 590 A.D., Gregory 1st,
Bishop of Rome, became the first Pope of the Church of Rome with a view of
creating one visible Church. But the
Reformers brought segregation and separation.
The Reformers said it is not what the Pope says, it is not what the
Church says, but rather, what does the Bible say? For what is the Church without the Bible?
From this sprang the Protestant Denominations.
Each Denomination emphasized some neglected truth, and it seemed to be
God’s way of keeping the whole council of God before the ears of the people.
Today, denominations are
despised. And at the expense of sound
doctrine, there is a great cry for all to be one. But as one great contender for the faith (I
think it was Gresham Machen) said: “It is better to
be divided by truth than to be united by error.” We must never forget this idea of one-Church
for one-world originated at
The religious world is now
rapidly preparing for one world-Church.
Is it not significant that the year 1948 was not only the year of the
rebirth of the Nation of Israel but was also the year the World Council of
Churches was formed? Four years later in
1952 the Revised Standard Version of the Bible was introduced. Then in 1962 the Ecumenical Council of
Vatican Two was held. The Ecumenical
Leaders were looking for a basis of religious union. It was evident that it could not be a
doctrinal or spiritual union. Thus the
trend was towards a social union against social evils, something that could
only be built on what was called a social gospel. Some even called it the “social aspects of
the gospel.” Believing as so many religious people do that this life is all, then a social gospel was good enough!
Revelation
17:1-18
(1) And there
came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me,
saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee
the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon
many waters:
(2) With whom the
kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth
have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
(3) So he carried
me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet
coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having
seven heads and ten horns.
(4) And the woman
was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked
with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full
of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
(5) And upon her
forehead [was] a name written, MYSTERY,
(6) And I saw the
woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs
of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
(7) And the angel
said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell
thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth
her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
(8) The beast
that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend
out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the
earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the
foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and
yet is.
(9) And here [is]
the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the
woman sitteth.
(10) And there
are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, [and] the other is not yet come;
and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
(11) And the
beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
(12) And the ten
horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have
received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
(13) These have
one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
(14) These shall
make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of
lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him [are] called, and chosen,
and faithful.
(15) And he saith unto me, The waters which
thou sawest, where the whore sitteth,
are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
(16) And the ten
horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall
hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh,
and burn her with fire.
(17) For God hath
put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree,
and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be
fulfilled.
(18) And the
woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
Ephesians 5:11
(11) And have no
fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove [them].
Revelation 18:4
(4) And I heard
another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not
partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
The final outcome of the
present action for union will be the Religious Babylon described in Revelation 17:1-18. In that passage of
Scripture the false Church is likened to a “great whore” in contrast to the true Church
which is likened, in other Scriptures, to a spotless Bride. God’s will for true believers is clearly
stated.
Ephesians
5:11 says “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,
but rather reprove them.”
And Revelation 18:4 “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, Come out
of her my people....”
This whole idea of a
world-Church is of the world, the flesh and the Devil.
It has been observed by many
that in recent years there has been no need to take a Bible to most of the
Evangelical Churches. For in many
services the Bible is never opened. We
have learned so little from history.
When the Roman Catholic Church emerged out of history, and in later
years, the Anglican Church, their church buildings were constructed to center
in worship, the communion table was placed as the center, the pulpit set off to
the side. But when the strong Protestant
Churches emerged, they built their buildings with the pulpit as the center. Their Churches were set up for the preaching
of the Word. That was the emphasis from
the beginning of the so-called “separated brethren.”
In 1984 when I was with a
pastor from Glasgow in conversation he said, “The Welshmen sang away their
revival.” He taught me something! Today in many churches the theme is “praise
and worship”. If there is any time
remaining there may be some preaching of the Word. The pulpits have been removed and replaced by
what would be better called a lectern.
The implication being that preaching is no longer to be given first
place. This will produce what it has
produced in the past. It will show up in
time in weak, under- nourished, troubled Christians. No longer knowing what they believe and why they
believe it. And
therefore, no longer aware of the evils of uniting, first all Protestants, then
with Roman Catholics, then with Islam, Hinduism and eventually, with all
religions.
In the mid-seventies, Martyn Lloyd Jones told a “congregation of 1,500 at the
closing rally of the British Evangelical Council in Westminster Chapel that
they were involved in a battle for a “… true conception of the Christian
Church. We are back - and this is the
most amazing thing - we are back exactly where our fore-fathers were 100 years
ago. This same fight had to be fought
when the higher criticism came into the country from Germany in the 1860’s and
there about. It is the same as the
down-grade movement that was opposed by the immortal Charles Haddon Spurgeon.”
.
What Martyn Lloyd Jones said twenty-five years ago is more evident today.
Christians, beware of the ecumenical spirit that is everywhere! This movement is set on establishing a World-Church that eventually will exist without the Spirit of God or any true believers in it.