End Time Message – Part 5 (End-Time Apostasy)
Aside from the seven major signs that Jesus made mention in the Books of Matthew 24 and Luke 21, the Apostle Paul also warned us that the last days would bring a marked increase in false teaching. He wrote in 1 Timothy 4:1, “In the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils”. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away [their] ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” ( II Timothy 4:3-4).
In II Thessalonians 2:3-4 Paul gives a stern warning, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.”
“Falling away” in the above verses simply mean putting the Word of God aside in exchange for creed, dogmas and traditions. “Falling away” simply means having the Holy Spirit deposed for popes, bishops, presidents, and counselors, and the Saviour set aside for a works program, or church joining, or some type of conformity to a church system. This is what the word “apostasy” signifies. This kind of scenario in the end time has opened the door to the antiChrist, the man of sin, the son of perdition.
Reverend William Branham describes apostasy in the religious realms:
“The Roman Catholic Church calls herself today as the Mother church. She calls herself the first or original church. That is absolutely correct. She was the original First Church of Rome that backslid and went into sin. She was the first that organized. In her was found the deeds and then the doctrine of Nicolaitanism. No one will deny that she is a mother. She is a mother and has produced daughters. Now a daughter comes out of a woman. A woman robed in scarlet is sitting on the seven hills of Rome. She is a harlot and has borne daughters. Those daughters are the Protestant churches that came out of her and then went right back into organization and Nicolaitanism. This Mother of the daughterchurches is called a whore (Revelation 17). That is a woman who was untrue to her marriage vows. She was married to God and then went off fornicating with the devil and in her fornications she has brought forth daughters that are just like her. This mother and daughter combination is anti-Word, anti-Spirit and consequently anti-Christ. Yes, ANTICHRIST.” (200-5 PERGAMEAN CHURCH.AGE – CHURCH AGE BOOK CPT.5)
You know we are living in the end time. It is in this age that the churches are going to come together. And as they are even now controlling world politics, they will soon control the finances of the world. Then, if you don’t belong to the world organization of churches, you won’t be able to buy or to sell.” (314-1 PHILADELPHIAN CHURCH AGE – CHURCH AGE BOOK CPT.8)
And they’re going to bring a persecution on pretty soon and shut up all the churches. In the next few years, all organization religions will be forced to take a stand. And they will have a union of churches, and a great boycott will follow this union of churches. All denominations will be forced into it: all of them. If they don’t, there’ll be a horrible boycott. Nearly every one of them today has not knowingly joined that World Council of Churches, selling their birthrights: Protestant brethren with the mother Catholic of Rome. The Bible said that the tares would be bound, bundled first. They’re bundling all in one great group now. And the Bible said they’d make an image unto the beast.
The ecumenical move that has started on what seems such a beautiful and blessed principle (fulfilling Christ’s prayer that we all might be “one”) becomes so strong politically that she will bear pressure upon the government to cause all to join with her either directly or through adherence to principles enacted into law so that no people will be recognized as actual churches unless under direct or indirect domination of this council. Little groups will lose charters, privileges, etc., until they lose all property and spiritual rights with the people. For example, right now unless the local ministerial association approves in many, if not most cities, one cannot rent a building for religious services. To become chaplains in the armed services, hospitals, etc., it is now almost mandatory to be recognized as acceptable to the trinitarian ecumenical groups. As this pressure increases, and it will, it will be harder to resist, for to resist is to lose privilege. And so many will be tempted to go along, for they will feel it is better to serve God publicly in the framework of this organization than not to serve God at all publicly. But they err. To believe the devil’s lie is to serve Satan, even though you may want to call him Jehovah. But the elect will not be deceived. As this move becomes the “IMAGE ERECTED TO THE BEAST,” the saints will be gone in the rapture.
For the church system of the Roman Catholic and the Protestant in coming together will control the whole wealth of the world system and force the whole earth into its religious trap, or will kill them, by refusing them the privilege of buying and selling whereby they would make a living. This will be accomplished simply, for the harlot’s daughters are all but gone back to her. In the meantime, Rome has acquired nearly all the supplies of gold. The Jews have the bonds and all the paper. At the right time, the harlot will destroy the present day money system by calling in all the paper, and demanding gold. With no gold, the system falls. The Jews will be trapped and come into the alliance, and the harlot church will take over the whole world. (WMB, 314-1 PHILADELPHIAN CHURCH AGE – CHURCH AGE BOOK.CPT.8)
RESTORATION OF THE BRIDE TREE
Despite all the negative scenarios we are seeing relative to the end of the world, God in this last age has a glorious plan for those who love His appearing. He will fully reveal Himself in this final age to the Bride of Jesus Christ to proclaim His glorious deliverance amongst His elected people, and to make a way of escape for them, out from the plagues that will soon engulf this earth. He will be sending His seventh angel-messenger to call out His elect out of denominationalism. His angel will be crying, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities” (Revelation 18:4-5).
There will be a “catching away” of the church before the Great Tribulation takes place upon this planet. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (I Thessalonians 4:16-17).
Joel 2:23-26 says, “Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for He hath given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, My great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the Name of the Lord your God, That hath dealt wondrously with you: and My people shall never be ashamed.”
The Book of Joel says that God is going to “restore”. Why? It’s because that the church of the last days has seemingly lost God’s power. There have been some awful cold drafts blowing on the church in this generation, and her eyes have sort of frozen shut and she is blind to what God has in store for her. She needs some hot oil of the Spirit of God to open her eyes. Unless she receives the Spirit of God she will go on substituting program for power and creed for Word. She counts numbers for success, rather than to look for fruit. The doctors of theology have shut the door to faith and forbade all to enter. They neither go in, nor let anyone else go in. Their theology comes out of a text book on psychology written by some unbeliever. There is a text book on psychology, one we all need; it is the Bible. It is written by God and contains God’s psychology. We don’t need any doctor of divinity to explain it to us. Receive ye the Holy Spirit and let Him do the explaining. The Holy Spirit wrote the Book and He can tell you what is in it and what it means. That’s the Message of restoration today, “Back to the Word; back to the Bible.” (352-4 LAODICEAN CHURCH AGE – CHURCH AGE BOOK CPT.9)
God will take the Church of the end time right back to original Pentecost, back to the original outpouring of the Holy Ghost. These insects in Joel 2 are but only one specie in four different stages: locust, cankerworm, caterpillar and palmerworm. They have eaten the life out of the original Bride Tree of Jesus Christ. These is the antiChrist spirit manifested in organization, denomination and false doctrine throughout the ages. And the poor little root and stalk of God’s original Tree which started in Pentecost is going to be restored back by God for the final harvest. God isn’t going to plant a new Church, but is going to bring His original planting back to original seed. What did these insects do? The first thing it did was, it took the fruit off, “brotherly love”, off of the church. The next worm came around and eat off the joy, the leaves, the “fellowship”. The next came along and it ate off the bark, the “protection”. Then the last stage of the worm sucked the very Life right out of it, and made a conquer of the laity. It was the Nicolaitan system and Balaamism that cankered the church of God throughout all the ages. The Nicolaitan doctrine was “the corruption of the clergy as they sought political power amongst themselves”. While “Balaamism is the subjection of the people to their system of creed and worship in order to hold them.” And that very same spirit and doctrine is right amongst all Catholics and Protestants today, and it is called DENOMINATION. Nicolaitanism is “organization, humanizing the leadership of the church, and thereby deposing the Spirit”. Balaamism is “denominationalism which takes the church manual instead of the Bible”. God’s hatred upon these systems is clearly stipulated in Revelation 2:14-16 – “But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.”
ADMONITION TO LAODICEA
God’s plan of deliverance for the lukewarm age of Laodicea is stipulated in Revelation 3:18-22,
“I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and [that] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”
God is saying to His own, “As many as I love, I REBUKE AND CHASTEN.”To rebuke is to reprove. To reprove is to `expose with a view to correction.’ Chasten does not mean to punish. It means to “discipline because the subject’s amendment is in mind.”
Many of God’s children today are still in those false churches. They need to repent. They are those of whom it speaks in Ephesians 5:14,”Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” To be asleep is not to be dead. These are sleeping amongst the dead. They are out there in the dead denominations. They are floating along with them. God cries out, “WAKE UP! Repent of your folly.”There they are lending their influence, giving their time and their money, actually their very lives to these antiChrist organizations, and all the while thinking it is all right. They need to repent. They need to have a change of mind and turn toward truth.
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