The Time Is Come (Blow the Church to Atoms)

“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” -I Peter 4:17

     Through the last two years, the writer has become increasingly burdened concerning the conditions existing throughout the Church of God-landscape. It seems as if many hold an accurate idea of what God’s church is to be in theory, but precious few know to be reality what they perceive in theory. Essentially much, if not all, that calls itself the Church of God resembles more of the Protestant powers of the 16th,17th, and 18th centuries and in like manner has resurrected their own image to the beast, than the church in the book of Acts. The aforementioned statements are not made lightly. The writer has diligently searched for the people who are producing the results of the apostolic brethren and he has not located it. The writer has diligently searched for those contending for the apostolic standard and has found few. The writer has diligently searched for the seventh-seal ministry and is not confident his eyes have beheld them. Ultimately, the time is come to take a detailed look in the mirror. Not the look of death that is to only behold one’s own condition and ignore the compromising and apostate conditions that have sullied the religious environment, but to see that God’s people are in a condition of nakedness, misery, blindness, wretchedness and poverty-stricken. The Church of God may not expect the glory of the apostolic brethren until she acknowledges her condition and ceases to make claim to riches and a condition that leaves her void of needs. The counsel may be to just look at yourself, but the counsel to do so is not of God. Dear reader, make a careful study of the man with the inkhorn in Ezekiel 9 and you will see that he was to mark those with a burden, not for themselves, but for Jerusalem. God is looking for men and women with a burden for Jerusalem and the time has come for judgment to begin at God’s house.
     The word judgment implies that a decision or determination is being made. Peter, in his epistle, informs the church that the time comes for judgment to be made in the house of God. Accordingly, there is no other place on earth where spiritual decisions are made except in God’s house, and before God rains down his judgment, he starts at his own house. Adam Clarke comments on I Peter 4:17 using an old Jewish maxim that states, “When God was about to pour down some general judgment, he began with afflicting his own people in order to correct and amend them, that they might be prepared for the overflowing scourge.” Before God can ever begin to judge the world he must judge his own house. Hence, the reason in the ninth chapter of Ezekiel God informs the man with inkhorn to “begin at my sanctuary.” The supporters who stand in the majority are those who clearly see the wickedness of the world and condemn it, but where are those who stand in condemnation of the wickedness in the sanctuary? Time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God and to cry against the abominations being committed therein.
     The judgment does not simply begin at the sanctuary, but it also begins with a specific class. There is a class of people the inkhorn writer was to begin judging. Ezekiel 9:6 says, “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.” Evidently, the prophet was to begin with the ancient men. He was to begin judging those who were around the longest, had the greatest experience, and were responsible for the most. Judgment is hardest on those who are responsible for the most. Sadly, there will be many with great experience and responsibility who will fall short when judgment is laid to the sanctuary. God’s judgment does not spare and there will be no exceptions to the standard of God. Essentially, all will stand judged, “old and young, both maids, and little children, and women.” According to the scripture, there was a class that would be judged and found worthy to escape the blow of God’s great judgment - those with the mark. What was the determining factor as to whether they were given a mark? The one with the inkhorn was to “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.” For all the abominations done in pagan Assyria or Babylon? Nay. For the abominations done in the sanctuary. Oh, that God would cleanse his sanctuary again as he did under the sixth-seal era! There are great abominations being done within the sanctuary, but the inkhorn is marking those with a burden - and only those with a burden.
      Some of the great abominations will be addressed in the general context now, but future posts will expound with more clarity. First, there is a great lack of Holy Ghost leadership. Men are controlling where the Holy Ghost should be. Ministers stand in the way of inspiration, anointing, and progress, and the sanctuary has become political, programmed, and predictable. Unfortunately, history tells us what happens when a church substitutes Holy Ghost leadership with the bland leadership of men - an apostasy. Second, the signs are not following the believers. There is no one people that can claim to have such signs exclusively. One camp says they have souls who are getting saved, and the other camp claims the same. One camp points to evidence that God is with them because of healing manifested among them and another claims the same. One camp says they have unmatched inspiration among them, yet the other camp would call it unbridled emotionalism. Consequently, the justification for no one is an instance of sporadic healing or salvation among a body of people, but whether or not power, inspiration, miraculous manifestations, and apostolic occurrences can be sustained in the long-term. God’s people do not necessarily follow signs, but signs and wonders must accompany the believers. Finally, the Church of God is not a witness in the earth. If we are to be honest, most do not even know our name. Without a doubt, the message of the Church of God is not going forth as it did in the morning-time or sixth seal dispensations. Furthermore, it is more likely that one informed of an association with the Church of God would attempt to ask if the headquarters are in Tennessee or some other Pentecostal association. The time has come for judgment to begin. It is the prayer of the writer that God will utterly bankrupt every “fellowship” (sect) and that God’s people will take their stand against all earthly denominations (False Church of God) and follow the Word and the Spirit alone.
     For too long the game of politics and diplomacy has silenced the church and dulled her effectiveness, and for this God is livid. The result of an angry God is that there will be no group exempt from the great judgments of God for these great abominations. The time has come to cry against the shepherds. The time has come for judgment to be pronounced in the sanctuary. The time has come to spare no one from the awful responsibility of their own decisions. God will have his church even if he must shake to the core the institutions that for so long brethren have depended upon. In conclusion, Brother Warner once said this - and in the fear of God may the reader consider it soberly - "His 'fan is in his hand,' and he would rather blow the church to atoms and secure a little clean wheat by itself than see it prosper in peace and multitudes and under mortgage to Satan, and bearing his brand, i.e., spots of sin." If the so-called Church of God must be blown to atoms… then so be it. Amen.

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