When the phrase “politically correct” was inserted into America’s jargon, I protested. But I was as a mouse squeaking from the very bottom of a large ship. The term is used to describe everything that is politically wrong. I refuse to use it. However, otherwise sensible people accepted the perversion without a second thought.
They also rail against “the government” when it’s not the government, it’s the demented liberal Democratic Party that is hell-bent on destroying America. Call it as it is and identify the problem and the culprits.
Now people are saying that ungodly professing Christians, churches, denominations, and Christian organizations that indulge in vile perversion of truth, are the Church. Again I squeak loudly from deep within the hull, “NO IT IS NOT THE CHURCH!” The Church is the Body of Christ whose members are filled with the Holy Spirit and walk in godliness. Instead, it is Christianity—once a description of the followers of Christ, now it defines a religion deathly sick with the infection of apostasy. NEVER confuse the two!
Not making that distinction is deeply wrong. It is not only accusative of the Body of Christ, but it presents to the public the Church as a massive diseased organism stricken and rotting with sin leprosy with a bit of good flesh in between the festering sores. It gives place to Satan! I have even caught myself making that error in the past! No more!
Of course, the error has been committed for so long that it will be said that I am straining at a gnat. Not true! Would anyone present Christ as anything other than the sinless Son of God? If not, then why do we slander His body by calling wicked apostate and compromised professing Christians “the Church?”
Where does that leave the true Church? It leaves it blended and obscured, not a peculiar people called out of darkness, not people who are sanctified and refuse to fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but a people mixed with wickedness. It does not mean that members of the Body of Christ are perfect and never sin, but it means that they are “pressing toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” As such, they are not indulging in and compromising with the wickedness of the world system, its corrupt political bent, entertainment, and the influence of its hedonistic and licentious culture. The true Remnant are the ones that have godliness with substance, that are fighting the good fight of faith, that have crucified the flesh and its lusts, who are walking in the Spirit and manifesting the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
I exhort all true Christians—please stop making this error! Expose the darkness! Please stop criticizing and rebuking the Church. Make the distinction between the Body of Christ and the apostasy.
“And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.” – Jude 1:22-23
Define the entry point for sinners and the exit point for apostates. The entry point into the Body of Christ for sinners is genuine repentance and belief in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior. The exit point for apostates is their willful, flagrant, and unrepentant sinfulness.
Begin right now calling out the compromised ones and their sins for what it is, the great apostasy of Christianity. Otherwise we are doing the Devil a great favor by allowing him to operate covertly in the light of day.
Please, for the sake of clarity and honor for the Body of the precious Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, use the right term to describe the entity of spiritual wickedness and apostasy. That entity is Christianity, the religion that has apostatized beyond critical mass—and not the Church, the Body of Christ. No, I will not give it a rest!
Yes, the issue of semantics is important. It all depends on what you mean by the term. Even Christianity. There is the true Christianity, in the sense of the religion that God ordained for all to follow. It is the Biblical faith that Jesus intended it to be in all its fullness. That will never be corrupted, and I will call nothing that is apostate by that name, because it can’t be any more corrupted than heaven itself could be. But people start holding to a faith that is not Biblical Christianity, yet they call it ‘Christianity.’ It is apostate Christianity, but not true Christianity. You can’t have an apostate without a true. The same goes for the church. There is the true church, the Body of Christ, born again believers filled with the Holy Spirit. Then you have those that never got saved, those who fell away, and those who are on the fringes as they are only lukewarm, ready to be spit out. Yet they all attend ‘church.’ What is meant by the term church, Christianity, the Gospel, or salvation even? One must be explicitly clear.
The same can be said for the term ‘Israel.’ I can think of almost ten definitions of that term right now, and they would all be correct.
Israel:
1. Jacob. 2. All of Jacob’s descendants. 3. All of Jacob’s descendants that entered the land. 4. Only those who entered the land that were loyal to God, the remnant. 5. All the Jewish people who came from Jacob’s loins and lived anywhere on earth at any time. 6. The Jewish people who were true to God, but also some of which lived outside of Israel in B.C. times. 7. Also Gentile converts to the Jewish faith in B.C. times, inside or outside of the land of Israel. 8. Those who re-entered after the captivities. 8. Those who live within the borders of political Israel today. 9. The Jews who will get saved during the tribulation. 10. The church. “The Israel of God,” also called the true Israel by Paul during A.D. times.
There may be yet more definitions.
But you get the idea.
Yes, we must be careful with the terminology. I always like to clarify what exactly I mean as ten people may walk away with ten different definitions of what I said, and I notice I need to clarify more all the time. I always try to make sure people do know what I am saying, and usually then discover yet more clarifications I need to make, despite how specific and exact I already was. It is just human understanding that is short sighted and limited and imposes its own meanings in that situation.
One phrase I get so, so, soooooooo tired of is when reading news posts about persecution, the phrase; “forced to convert to…”. I always jump in and correct them and say; “NO! NO! NO!!!! They were NOT ‘forced’ to convert… to anything! Because you literally CAN’T force anyone to convert to anything without their consent, no matter what is going on, torture rack included!”
This mis-phrase distorts the God given reality that the choice is ours and no one, I repeat NO ONE can ‘force’ anyone to convert to anything without their consent. If that were the case, the Bible would have been proven wrong. The Bible makes it crystal clear that the choice is ours, we are responsible for our choice, and no one can force anything on us in that way. They can pressure us, but not force us as the will to consent or not still lies with us. God does give us grace to endure these things, anyone still in the dark on that needs to get off their easy chair and read ‘Foxe’s Book of martyrs’! Jesus promised us that we would suffer, and we are expected to bear up for His sake, and yes He does give us the ability to do so. Jesus said that if we deny Him, He will deny us, and if we confess Him, He will confess us. Matthew 10; 32-33. It really is that plain and simple. Millions of martyrs have gone on into the glories of heaven because they did not deny their faith in Christ, and no one could force them to!!! The same is true today, tomorrow, until kingdom come! I feel that the phrase leads people down the subtle path of deception by satan that it is somehow excused due to the circumstances, but NO, it is NOT! The consequences are the same and it is a dangerous lie of the devil if you believe it, thus I always stop and warn against that lie. No one can force anyone, or you, to deny the Lord.
And I won’t give that one a rest either!
Oh, gratefully yours. The clarification is to be eaten and digested in full for all professing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We are the Body of Christ…and the apostasy which is called by many other names is entirely separate, unholy, and lost. Thank You. The Lord gave you powerful words to use when speaking the Truth to these lost people. I do believe that the ‘churches’, so to speak, have become nothing but social media coordinators for Satan. Let us come out of that, and stand in the purity of the Light of God, in His never-ending Grace. Amen and blessings to you.
Agreed!
I am so tired of trying to find half way decent churches. They are all country clubs.
People filter in (often late), listen to another sermon that does not warn of any dangers and keeps the feel good vibe flowing (as well as the cash). They bow their heads on cue for another rote prayer. I never hear even so much as an amen. No one prays for Leah Sharibu or those like her. No one mentioned the name Kim Davis either. If anything, they only blow a little dust off of the surface of the impending doom that lies under the surface. Announcements are full of upcoming social festivities such as ladies’ teas, and if you are lucky, no one is trying to sneak some apostasy on the women at a ladies’ retreat or some other stealthy venue under the radar. People blow off worship like it’s just background music for checking their ipads and poking their neighbor playfully. At best, one person has one hand half heartedly lifted. Fellowship? Spiritual gifts? The moving of the Holy Spirit? Conviction and a sense of revival? Discernment and warnings of the apostasy? Speaking about the things of God when the service is over? Love for the brethren? Unheard of. Why bother going then? I used to try to shine a light into this mess, but to no avail. I have just totally stopped going a few months ago because that was the best ‘church’ had to offer. I am sick and tired of these country club pew warmers. And spiritually I feel as good and healthy as I ever have! The love of God and the Holy Spirit courses through my being as much now as ever. And I don’t feel like a saint in the midst of a movie theater any more.
When it comes to church…. give me….
lovely worship music that praises God at its focus…
saints gathered for fellowship who know each other by name…
the glow of light and holiness around the brethren…
brethren who have a passion for the things of God and living in holiness and obedience and striving to please Him…
saints where the things of the Lord are on their lips long after the sermon has ended…
convicting sermons that pull out all the stops and hold not one warning back…
the gifts of the Spirit in operation as in the early church…
love and fellowship with one another…
communion that is more than grape juice in a thimble and one hundredth of a saltine cracker… taken by those who have repented of sin…
prayer where each person gets to pray for a few minutes as others come in agreement…
a service that is lead by the Holy Spirit and not man’s agenda…
and that does not have any trappings of the world (the reproach of Egypt) to lure in the numbers…
that sends out missionaries and prays for them…
that prays for and reports on Christians under persecution…
that calls out the sin of the land and the times for what it is without fear…
where ladies dress like saints and are not trying to copy the trends of the world…
and where they know that most denominations have fallen into the great apostasy and that term actually is in their vocabulary…
people actually keep informed about discernment issues and current events and know that we are living in the end times and world events are lining up with end times Bible prophecy…
Give me a real church, or I will go to none at all.
I don’t need to go to church anyway, because we ARE the church.
We are to be separate from apostasy, not united with it, as I always remind those who like to quote that verse about forsaking the fellowship…
: )
Let me add to that list:
People who are truly and passionately ‘lost in worship’ from their hearts overflowing with the Holy Spirit… in one accord… where you feel the presence of the Holy Spirit moving among those gathered…
Saints who exhibit the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, patience, peace, etc.)…
Brethren who help one another when one falls into a trial, financial or otherwise…
I remember the ‘good old days’ when this was the norm.
I don’t think we will see it again this side of heaven.
Disclaimer:
I like to think about the church in (little c- big C) terms. You are technically right, of course, in the statement about making a distinction about the Church, the blood-bought body of Jesus Christ. I agree it can never be apostate. BUT, people in the Church can forsake Jesus and His ways and leave the Church. That is why I sometimes say- Church(?). I use the word Christendom some, also. Christianity is a term that was relevant in the early Church but was hijacked by Rome. As Linda says we need to ‘always clarify’ and spoon feed (?) those we are trying to reach. A case in point just happened this morning in Life Group (Sunday School) at the assembly we are still trying to attend. The class is on the book of Joel. The teacher was teaching about the sheep and goats judgment at the start of the millenium. I pointed out something I believe the Bibles teaches about that judgment and it went ‘south’ from there, somewhat. I was not trying to usurp the teachers role, just making what I thought was an important distinction about Jesus’s Word. I guess I was misunderstood or something. Maybe I just went up against the grain of their pre-trib chartset. I do not usually use kid’s gloves.
That was a rabbit trail. I say that apostacy is a falling away from or forsaking the truth of the Scriptures. I will go a little father and say that I believe that true Christians can apostasy and fall away from the Faith. The Faith to me is the Gospel truth that no one can come to God but through the narrow way; Jesus the Way, the Truth, and the Life. That is what happens when we are saved, born again. “16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” [Jhn 3:16 KJV]. The word believ(eth) is present, continuous verb tense. I like to say it like this; that whosoever believes (and continues believing) has eternal life. In my opinion, all bets are off when you do not study the Word and read the warnings about false teachers (and dogmas) that are antithetical to the revealed Word of God. To me Scripture is very clear in it’s strong language and warnings to real believers. I believe we can start denying Jesus when we give any credence to the many false ideologies that are in the Christian (?) world today, He says that if we deny Him , He will deny us. Universalism (the Shack and such) Mormonism, Buddhism, islam, etc. Those are satanic systems that are competing for the hearts of all kinds of people, Christians included.
Strong warnings are not hypothetical ‘fluff’ from the Bible as many of the apostate (or headed that way) want to believe. I saying they are there for a reason- to warn, and for us to to heed and stay away from !!
I presume that many call me a legalist. Those are the ones who do not know what real legalism is. I believe that I am a realist and a literalist concerning the Word of God. None of us can obey perfectly, but we should try. We should hold God’s truth in highest regard, and the doctrines of men as holding something just jerked out of the fire. Both will burn you in very different ways. “29 [Is] not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer [that] breaketh the rock in pieces?” [Jer 23:29 KJV]. “23 And others save with fear, pulling [them] out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” [Jde 1:23 KJV]. The fires of apostacy and the fires of false teaching !
Amen brother Ken!
Great stuff there!
Those warnings are there for a reason. What I see more and more of also is what I will term ‘light and fluffy’ Christianity. For instance, the ladies who have all those latest light and fluffy books about how much God loves them… it’s all about them, and blessings for them, and the t-shirts that say ‘All I need is Jesus and coffee!’ and the stickers for the car that read “I’m His favorite” referring to Jesus, and no, I’m no kidding, I saw one of those some time ago… and the various paraphernalia one buys at the ‘Christian’ bookstore, mugs, key chains, fluffy Bible covers with lace, t-shirts with self centered Jesus messages like “I’m so blessed!” These people are so groomed for destruction it is a crime. Where is the old rugged cross? Where is the t-shirt that reads “carry your cross daily”? Where are the books about discipleship and following Jesus to the bittersweet end? True Christianity is nowhere to be found, only this light and fluffy version marketed to the ladies (along with the ladies’ retreats with some trendy ‘gal’ leading them further down the road to destruction with tempting pagan practices), and this ‘har, har’ men’s breakfast for the men where no one is ever ‘too holy.’ Yes, I’ve seen too much. And I did have some rants to share lately, I admit. But it’s just so frustrating!!!
I thank God that there are some people who have not ‘bowed the knee to baal’ on this site!
God bless you brother Ken!
Thanks for the amen, Linda. When I write a comment to the reply section at Truthkeepers.com I feel that somebody is reading and hopefully getting encouraged. I know that I myself get encouraged by reading these replies and especially C. H.’s articles. Keep standing for Jesus. “16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” [Mat 10:16 KJV]
I tend to use the term “a so-called church” as opposed to “the true church”, do you think that makes the point?