The Coat Of Religion
Written by Elinor Montgomery – em*********@****co.ca
June 23, 2003
Christianity is covered in a coat of religion. There is the story of an evangelist who met a young man who was deeply interested in the Word of God and was diligently seeking understanding from his Bible. The evangelist invited him to attend his church services, but the young man protested saying it would not be possible. “You see,” he said, “I don’t have a coat to wear to your church.” Along with dress codes, hairstyles, and all the other social boundaries set before congregations, ritualistic practices and religious activities keep the flock chained to their ‘own kind’ in their separate religious denominations. Many of these churchgoers have on nothing but a coat of religion, and would be unable to find any common ground upon which they could meet with this young man who was interested only in truth. What would he care for the religious practices of the church? Yet, if he were to proclaim himself a believer, the first question he might be asked by churchgoers could well be, “And to what church do you belong?” Only he could have the perfect answer, an answer the religious churchgoer would never understand. Though he might not fully understand it himself, he could reply, “I do not go to church, but rather, I am the church.”
For this young man, in seeking the truth of the Word, was seeking a relationship with Jesus. He did not worship in institutional buildings, nor did he perform rituals and recite stylized prayers, but rather he worshiped in spirit and in truth. The Lord is now calling His bride to take off her coat of religion and to come out of the institutional system. It is a call to His people to worship, like this man, in spirit and in truth. For approximately seventeen centuries, the church has been in captivity to the institutions of Christianity, incorrectly called the ‘Church’, in the same way that Israel was in captivity to Egypt, before her. Unfortunately, there is very little resemblance between the denominational churches of today and the apostolic church of yesterday. Though it did not die, it was taken captive to religion in its own Babylonian experience. There are few who are willing to make the break from it, and come out into the light and into truth, for the necessary sacrifices could be too great for a real commitment to Jesus, as a wife might commit to a husband.
When Cyrus issued the decree to rebuild the temple, he did so in obedience to the Lord God’s command to build Him a house at Jerusalem, which was in Judah. The question was asked as to who there were among them, of all the people of the God of Israel, who would be willing to take on the task? Of the two or three million Jews living under Babylonian captivity, only about 50,000 were willing to leave the comforts of Babylon to endure the hardship of returning to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. They were only the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, along with mostly priests and a few other Levites, who were willing to take upon themselves the task.
Such is the case today with the bride, the church. It has always been represented by Judah in the natural, the Benjamite, and the Davidic priestly line, the chosen bride of Christ, as opposed to the other tribes of Israel, who represented the nations of believers who are saved but are not overcomers of the systems of Satan. The call of the bride ‘to come’ will go forth with the Spirit. Yet, how many will hear or even understand her call to leave Romanism behind and to come out of its temple practices, out from the synagogues of Satan, to worship in a lasting temple with the Lord? It was the Pontifex Maximus, the pagan priest of Rome, who became the first of the line of Popes in Constantine’s newly formed Roman Catholic Church, which was his lasting gift to a failing empire. The move began a new religion, which became known as Christianity, taking the label of Church, but, in fact, it was as far from Jesus’ Apostolic Church as were the Pharisees from Jesus, Himself.
All the institutional churches have their denominational roots in the Roman Empire. The institutions put on their robes and coats of religion, and Christianity became the glue joining the first Roman Empire to the Revived Roman Empire, yet to come. It is just waiting to burst forth into the Antichrist’s One World Order as part of the coming One World Religion in a stew-like multicultural religious form that has no room for Jesus in its newly found liberalism and social gospel. Does it not take us back to Esau, reminding us of his desire for the stew more than his desire for his inheritance from the father? Make no mistake! The bride of Christ will distance herself from all religion, in separation to only the truth of the written Word, to become, at the same time, the final target of Satan, earmarked for persecution when she refuses to worship the beast.
Very few will be able to make the break from the comforts of the modern-day Babylon, preferring to rest in their comfortable pews, while adhering to the lies of religious systems, which have indoctrinated people from childhood. Unlike resting within the systems, there was no such resting place for the apostolic church that Jesus founded. The voice of the apostle was a far cry from that of the Catholic priesthood today, which, under the leadership of the Pope, recently sought advice from a secular atheistic psychologist from Queen’s University on how to handle sin within her ranks. “Keep the sinning priesthood within the body of the church,” was the answer given, and for this reply the spin-doctor of psychology was awarded a Vatican medal from the Chief Priest himself, the Pope, who seemingly had no idea how the church should deal with the rampant sin existing within the priesthood. Perhaps if he had looked to the Word for his answers, and not to secular humanism, he might have found the appropriate line of action to take. Could it be his religious practices failed him and his nakedness was revealed as the skirts of a harlot church were lifted? As a so-called representative of the Lord, did he bear even the slightest resemblance to the apostles? It would take the greatest stretch of the imagination to equate the Pope and his Catholic priesthood to the apostolic church, or to the bride, as she begins to dress in her white linen robes. This is a system worthy only of black robes to symbolize the darkness that permeates it through to its Roman core.
But, can it be said that the protesting institutional church is any better? Is it worthy of wearing white linen robes, or are its structures not also set in Babylon? Has this body of Christians been willing to lobby the governments of the nations, as did the prophets of old before them, in order to keep the Law of God in the land and the truth taught to the children? Has it protected the children from the bombardment of witchcraft and from the homosexual onslaught on the schoolrooms and the laws of the nation? Or could it be said that it remained silent in the same manner that the nation Israel did before it? The prophet Elijah called Israel to decide between God and the 850 false prophets of Jezebel, the controlling, rebellious queen of witchcraft, whose influence had become enormous in Israel.
It is also true today that the controlling spirit of Jezebel rides the fans of most every institutional church in this nation. The flock is being called either into submission to the practices, or into submission to a man-made priesthood, rather than being called into a relationship in truth with Jesus Christ and the Word. The priesthood has failed miserably in its teaching of the truth and its understanding of the prophecy of the Bible. It has no idea who God’s chosen portion, Israel, represents, for it has not sought understanding in the same way that it seeks large congregations and the fame of the stage and the TV cameras. It often seeks to promote self and not Jesus, by calling on His name in an attempt to manipulate the Spirit into serving its own desires and needs for recognition and control. It is highly unlikely that the numbers of the bride, who will separate as the true Jerusalem builders from the systems church, will even come close to equaling the ratio of those Jews who left Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem. For the bride is the true Jew and the pillar of the New Jerusalem. The unbelieving nation, Israel, and the institutions of religion have become as the Gentiles, while only the bride and the believers are the building stones of Israel, God’s portion of the people. Jesus is the chief cornerstone, and the apostolic church is made up of the little stones, which will form the New Jerusalem.
One must understand the difference between the two companies of Jacob, which crossed over the Jordan and entered into the land. One must also understand the difference between the East and the West, and that the liberalism of the first can never share space with the liberty of the second. The sins of the religions of liberalism will always fill the whole nation, like leaven fills the loaf, and will completely and utterly take liberty away under the controls of witchcraft. This is what the church and nation are facing today. It is the cloak of silence and the coat of religion called Christianity that surely keeps the true church, the bride, in captivity. But her voice shall burst forth, like a woman birthing the fruit that God always wanted from His creation, as she and the harlot are separated as wheat from the tares, taking their different paths. The one is on the narrow way to salvation, and the other is on the broad road to destruction, as the harlot she always wanted to be.
“Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues (Revelation 18:4).” Of such is the cry of the Spirit and the bride, for her voice must be heard in these final days as the Voice for the Kingfisher of men, Who is fishing His own out of the sea of religion, which holds His people captive. The Beloved is calling to His Shulamite; “You who dwell in the gardens, the companions listen for your voice. Let Me hear it (Song of Solomon 8:13)!” The Lord is seeking a bride who will be a voice to the religious who are in darkness and in need of hearing the truth. Will you be a part of that voice, calling in the spirit of Elijah and Moses, under the leadership of Jesus, a voice, which could change a nation and return it to God?