Article 34

 

"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone - an image made by man's design and skills. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent." Acts 17:29, 30 NIV.

Because of the fall, our concept of God has been obscured, but in times past God has winked at our ignorance.

Suppose that instead of being born in the 20th century you were born around 900 BC. As a child, holding your parents hands on each side of you, you are led up a path and told, "We are God's chosen people. His anointed is our ruler. The king and his queen, Jezebel, have provided these high places for us to worship God. They have given us prophets of the grove and prophets of Baal to assist us.

When you reach maturity what are you going to believe? Far how long will you believe this?

Again, suppose you were born in Jerusalem about the same time Jesus was born. You are taught that God will soon send the Messiah who will restore the kingdom to Israel, make her enemies His footstool, rule the nations with an iron rod, and give peace to His people.

Later you hear of a new teacher who has come from Nazareth and you are determined to go and hear what he has to say. Yet you come down with an infection and in a few days die from the high fever.

Yes, there are times past when God has winked at human ignorance. Is it possible that today, in this enlightened age, He is still having to do this: overlook our misconception of Him and His plan of salvation?

THREE REASONS WHY CHRISTIANITY, AS A CORPORATE BODY, MAY FAIL

I. CHRISTIANITY, AS A CORPORATE BODY, MAY FAIL BECAUSE ISRAEL FAILED.

Christians recognize that the children of Israel were God's chosen people. Why did God, who is no respecter of persons, choose Israel?

Was it to give them special treatment because He liked them better?

Or was it to show that fallen human beings given every earthly advantage - Moses, Miriam, Miracles, Manna - are so confused by sin - they see thru a glass darkly - that they have the utmost difficulty discerning that ONLY GOD CAN SAVE THEM?

God's true church on earth, Israel, spent more time in darkness and confusion than they did in light from the Heavenly Court.

Abraham and his father's house were called out of Ur of the Chaldees, which was part of old Babylonia. In other words, he was called out of darkness, out of confusion, and out of Babylon.

Abraham was given the PROMISE, but 430 years later his descendants were in Egypt, in darkness, in confusion, in slavery.

Without lifting one finger, they were delivered from this bondage by God's mighty hand. Yet, throughout Old Testament times, they were in darkness - and king so-and-so did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord - more so than in God's light.

We Christians marvel and think those Jews sure were dumb. But, in condemning the Jews, we condemn ourselves because the history of the Jews is the history of human nature.

God's true church on earth, Israel, was in such darkness that when the Promised One appeared, He was crucified.

The last great light Israel had received came from the prophet, Malachi. This was in 397 BC, according to Ussher's chronology. Add to this the 33 years of Christ's life and you have another period of 430 years.

II. IN THE VERY LAST DAYS, GOD'S TRUE PEOPLE WILL BE IN SPIRITUAL BABYLON. THIS MAY SEEM STRANGE BUT REMEMBER, ABRAHAM WAS GOD'S MAN AND HE WAS IN BABYLON.

While there are many things in the Book of Revelation that are difficult to understand, there are some things that are perfectly clear.

In the last times, according to Chapter 18, the earth is to be lightened - it must be in darkness - with God's glory.

The message is that Babylon is fallen, is fallen and God's people are to come out of her. (vs. 1-4)

How could God's people be called out of Babylon if they were not IN BABYLON?
"...So will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered, in the cloudy and dark day" (Ezekiel 34:12). The cloudy and dark day is the day of the Lord (Ezekiel 30:3; Joel 2:2).

Babylon is the great antithesis of Biblical religion.

After the Flood, Nimrod founded Babylon. He was the son of Cush, who was the son of Ham, who was under the curse of his father Noah.

Then there was the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar, followed by spiritual Babylon of Revelation, Chapters 14, 16, 17, & 18. There are over 275 references to Babylon in the Bible. Could there be some reason for so many?

In the ancient tongue, Babylon means, "gate of God" (Heaven's Gate); while in the Bible (Babel), it means "confusion."

If literal Israel, God's true church on earth, was held captive by literal Babylon, is it possible that spiritual Israel, Christianity, could be held captive by spiritual Babylon?

Both Israel and Judah were seduced into worshipping Baal who was the son of El, father of the Phoenician gods. Baal was the god of agriculture, of seed germination, in other words, life! He died in the fall but was resurrected in the spring.

Baal was a False Christ!

Because they worshipped a false Christ, the Ten Tribes were overcome by the Assyrians, while the remaining two later went into Babylonian captivity.

Harper's Bible Dictionary says that after the Hebrews returned from Babylon they never again worshipped Baal. So coming out of Babylon may be equated with ceasing to worship a False Christ.

Christians are warned of an anti-Christ, one that will be IN PLACE of Christ, a false Christ.

Are God's people called out of Babylon (Rev. 18:4) because they have been worshipping a false Christ?

Elijah brought all Israel, God's true people, to a decision on Mount Carmel: worship the true God or Baal, the False Christ. He brought fire down from Heaven. As John the Baptist went before Christ in the spirit and power of Elijah at His first coming, so there is to be an Elijah "...before the coming of the GREAT AND DREADFUL day of the Lord" (Malachi 4:5).

Does he come because God's true people are worshipping a False Christ? Next time who will "...maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth IN THE SIGHT OF MEN...," Elijah or the False Christ? (Rev. 13:13)

The Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost came down from Heaven in the form of FIRE. Is there a false "Holy Spirit" in our future? In our present?

John the Baptist performed no miracles before the first coming of Christ. It is quite clear from Scripture that before the Second Coming, the powers of evil will perform "miracles" (Matt. 24:24; Mark 13:22; 1 Thess. 2:9-11; Rev. 13:14; 16:13, 14, How do frogs catch their prey? Rev. 19:20)

III. IN RELIGION THERE ARE TWO FACTORS TO CONSIDER: ONE IS GOD WHILE THE OTHER IS MAN.

Most will agree that God should be the center, the focal point of religion. Only those who are confused would place man at the center. That would be the religion of Babylon. But sin has confused all of us, and our spiritual vision has been dimmed.

Because of sin man became self-centered. Egocentric man is strongly inclined to have some part in his salvation, to place himself on center stage.

The religion of Babylon was to bow to the image of man. It was 60 cubits high and 6 cubits wide; 66, the number of man (Daniel 3).

It appears, according to Revelation 13, that there will be a cause to bow to an image, which is associated with 666.

The religious darkness of the Middle Ages was dispelled by the Protestant Reformation, which brought about the greatest Christian revival since Apostolic times.

The Medieval Church taught that man was justified before God by God's work of grace in man's heart. Everyone was looking within themselves for the grace that would make them acceptable to God. They sought a great religious experience. Man and his experience were on center stage. Monasteries and convents proliferated.

THE CHRISTIAN WORLD WAS AT ITS MIDNIGHT.

The Reformers taught that our redemption, our righteousness, our justification was IN Jesus (Romans 3:24-26). They did not deny man a religious experience, but rather taught that we are saved by HIS experience, an experience completely outside of ourselves.

Just as we became sinners by something that Adam did, an act completely outside of us, so we become righteous by something Jesus did, an act completely outside of us, an experience in which we did not participate. We are saved by His experience, not ours (Romans 5). Our experience is only a by-product of accepting His experience.

Pointing men away from themselves and pointing them to the finished, complete work of salvation in Jesus Christ did bring about a change in the believer's heart and led to a great revival in the time of Luther. The slogan was: We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone. It always has works.

The Reformer said that the Dark Ages were the Babylonian Captivity of the Christian Church.

Today, once again, the church is sinking in a sea of subjectivism. Man and his experience are the focus of most all of the preaching and teaching, and it is covering the land like the frogs of Egypt.

If God's true church, Israel, was in darkness at Christ's first coming, is it possible that God's true church, Christianity, will be in darkness at His second coming?

The TRUE SPIRIT within will point to the Christ WITHOUT. Jesus said, "...He shall testify of me ... for He shall not speak of himself ... He shall glorify me..." (John 15:26; 16:13, 14). The Holy Spirit will teach an objective gospel.

Only a false spirit within (the spirit of fallen man) will point or center on the "Christ" within, and that "Christ" within is a false Christ, the spirit of antiChrist because he points to himself.

Note: While Colossians 1:27 in the KJV reads "...this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ IN YOU...," according to the margin, it can be rendered also "among you." The same is true for v. 18; "in" can be "among." Since the Apostle Paul clearly states in 1 Timothy 3:16 that the mystery is the incarnation, the mystery can only be Christ AMONG US rather than IN US: "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: GOD WAS MANIFEST IN THE FLESH...." Also 1 Cor. 14:25 in the KJV reads "...God is IN You of a truth;" the NIV reads, "God is really AMONG YOU." See Ezekiel 34:24, David [Christ] AMONG THEM.

In the false gospel, man is saved by something that takes place in man, rather than something that HAS taken place IN CHRIST. The false gospel is a subtle , sophisticated sham, cleverly conceived by the great Deceiver. It causes man to focus his attention on his own spiritual navel, rather than on the great gift of salvation which we have IN JESUS CHRIST.

We are accepted because of what God did IN HIM instead of what the Holy Spirit does in us. Where a man's treasure is (in Heaven), there will his heart be also.

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." (Colossians 3:1-3)

There are two aspects to salvation:

#1 IN HIM

We are saved by God's work of grace IN CHRIST.

IN HIM, we have redemption, righteousness, justification, and life.

He is the cause, means, or root of our salvation.

IN CHRIST, humanity - our humanity - HAS BEEN accepted before the throne.
When we accept our acceptance, the Holy Spirit performs a work of grace:

#2 IN US

The new birth, the fruits and gifts of the Spirit are the effect, the results, the fruition of what God has done FOR us (#1) in the Person of His Son. The Bible refers to the spirit's work IN us (#2) as the earnest money or down payment. A little taste of Heaven to go to Heaven in (Ephesians 1:13, 14; 2 Corinthians 1:22; 5:5; Romans 8:23; John 3:34).

#2 is a good work, but only a by-product of #1, which is the best work. Don't put a good work in place of the best work.

#1 is in Christ, in Heaven.
#2 is in us, on earth.

Jesus clearly distinguishes between the two. When it was evident that Nicodemus did not understand the new birth, He said, "if I have told you EARTHLY things (#2), and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of HEAVENLY things (#1)?" John 3:12; v. 16 is a Heavenly thing. The new birth is an earthly thing.

Jesus continues to differentiate, "... as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up," v. 14. Poisonous snakes had bitten the Children of Israel. From a human standpoint they needed to swallow or be injected with an antidote to neutralize the toxin within their bodies (#2). However the heavenly cure for the venom of sin was to look up, away from themselves (#2), to the brazen serpent on the pole, to the cross, to Jesus Christ (#1) who is God's true remedy for sin and not to some work in their own hearts. God's way is not man's way.

Again, when the seventy He sent out returned, marveling over what the Spirit had done through them, He said, "Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you (#2); but rather rejoice, because your names are written in Heaven (#1)." (Luke 10:20)

The Christian's focus will be where his treasure is ... in Heaven, in Christ. He can be confident that in Him the work of salvation has been finished. The work of the Holy Spirit in his heart will never be finished in this life.

The Deceiver directs man to the unfinished work in his own heart. The little horn power of Daniel 8 "...cast down the truth to the GROUND..." (v. 12).

The name Adam comes from the root word, Adamah, which means ground, earth. Adam was made from dust. Earth is synonymous with man. The truth is in Christ, who is in Heaven, but the anti-Christ puts the truth in man who is of the earth, the ground, and on the earth.

To take what God has given us IN CHRIST - redemption, righteousness, justification, life - which we have only by faith, and put it in man to have in reality, is a deception that, if it were possible, would deceive the very elect.

In theory, we may acknowledge that our salvation is IN CHRIST but in practice, in church, in sermons, in Bible study, in every day living, the object of our concern is OUR experience; what a great work God is doing IN US.

King Nebuchadnezzar said, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built..." (Daniel 4:30).

"I," me, my, mine - first person - built Babylon. It was the best, the finest, the most luxurious that egocentric man could build. A monument to self, "I."

Babylon is a confused gate of Heaven. It will fall when God's people recognize they have been worshipping a false Christ. "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25).

Christ is the Savior. No human can share in this work. He is the way - the true Gate.

Innately, man wants to save himself ... with God's help, of course. In doing so, man becomes a false savior, a substitute savior.

Much of the growth of the church today is in the areas where the emphasis is on man's experience - what is taking place in our hearts - rather than emphasizing His experience.

God has winked at our ignorance but is now calling for every one of us to repent, turn away from our self-centered religion, and behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world by His doing and dying on the cross.

Unless we do, Christianity, as a corporate body, will fail:

1 Because Israel failed.

2. Because we are in Babylon.

3. Because our own experience is our focus, which is the spirit of the anti-Christ, Christian Narcissism.

To paraphrase Oliver Perry, American Naval hero of 1812, "We have met the enemy and they are ourselves."