What Is The Mandate of the Apostolic Church?
Written by Elinor Montgomery – emontgomery@cogeco.ca
October 29, 2005
I recently had an interaction with a man who, by all appearances, society would label a ‘good man’. He renders a great service to the ‘Christian’ community, as well as to his family. His heart is set on challenging the culture, perhaps, you could say, on turning it around to be a more Godly one. He would tell you that his desire is to see that ‘Judeo-Christian’ moral values are returned to this nation. Why would I so strongly be in disagreement with the methods that this ’good man’ would choose to employ in order to reach his goal? After all, do I not stand for the name of Jesus over this land, and for God’s Law and His Word as the source of justice in this nation? Are we not seeking the same changes for this nation?
The answer lies in the truth of the gospel and what the mandate from Jesus is for us, or what the commission is that He gave to His church. Many questions have to be asked. Is religion the same thing as truth? Does being a Christian mean you are under the banner of Jesus’ name? Does being a Christian mean one even believes in the inerrancy of the Bible or the divinity of Jesus? Does Christianity in fact embody the true church carrying out the great commission? Did Jesus endorse Judaism or, for that matter, any other form of religion at any time? Did Jesus teach Christianity or did He teach the truth of the gospels? Did He recommend His church be housed in a temple or was the body the temple? Was His church a witnessing program, or a program for buildings and denominations? Is it possible for any denomination, as part of the system church, to stand solely for the truth while, at the same time, being part of a religious system?
The reason God sealed the understanding of prophecy to Daniel was the fact that it was intended for revelation in the latter days. Unless one has been privy to this revelation, which opens up new understanding, it is unlikely one is going to “get it right”, so to speak, at this time. The commission for the church ‘going out’ in Matthew is not exactly the same as the commission for the church ‘coming in’ in Luke. The apostles went out from Jerusalem, while the bride will purify herself, in readiness to return to Jerusalem with Jesus. Both branches of the apostolic church are caught in the same cultural bind of the Roman Empire, which is divided into two separate parts, the first Roman Empire under Caesar, and the second revived Roman Empire, which is yet to come forth. Both are part of the original Babylonian system of which the final revived Roman Empire will achieve the One World Order of ruler-ship under the Antichrist. Each of the former empires failed to reach this goal, with unfulfilled prophecy and time, themselves, being the barriers.
Between the two branches of the apostolic church, which coincide with the two branches of the fourth empire of the Babylonian system of empires, lies the religious captivity of the true church to Romanism and the Nicolaitan system. This is the glue holding the two empires together, and it is known as the period of Christianity, within the church age, which stretches from the time of Constantine until today. As was Egypt the enslavers of the nation Israel under Pharaoh, so too has Christianity, or Romanism, been the enslaver of spiritual Israel, keeping the true church under a papal system. It shall be in the final days that the false prophet of the Antichrist will rule over a united religious system, in the counterfeit role of that of the High Priest, Jesus, as he takes up his position in the Antichrist’s One World Order of Religion. The Antichrist, himself, is the counterfeit role of that of the kingship of Jesus, as Ruler over the world.
Christianity, today, is as Judaism was yesterday, with its own counterfeit of the high priest Caiaphas. The first pope, like Caiaphas, was Roman appointed, as opposed to being of the Levitical priesthood, which ceased with John the Baptist, the last of the Levitical high-priest lineage, cut off forever, with the appearing of Jesus. No one knew this better than John. Both Caiaphas and the pope sprung from pagan roots, the pope being the pagan priest of the Roman Empire before Constantine moved him into institutional churchism as its new high priest of the new religious system called Christianity. Never were either religion based solely on the truth of God’s Word, but rather they were entangled with doctrines and man-made practices that religion produces. As Judaism was founded on the religious laws of men mixed with some of the truth of God’s Word, so too was Christianity founded on just such a compromised and corrupt system.
The Lord will bring the bride out of all religious systems and into the understanding of the seven-fold book-scroll, which only He, and no priesthood of Christianity or any other religion, can open. Would she dare embrace the religion she departed from any more than Israel dared to return to Egypt after having been led out in victory under the hand of the Lord’s supernatural power? Shame would fall upon her for even thinking such thoughts. What place has the light with darkness? One must study Exodus from start to finish to see how important is the message of ‘no leaven’. The Israelites were to eat no leaven at the Passover or during the immediate period of time following it. It would behoove one to count the number of times the Lord says in chapters twelve and thirteen of Exodus that the Israelites were to eat no leaven. Spiritually that means they were to eat only the truth of the Word of God, which was not to be mixed with religion, or it would expand, like yeast in a loaf of bread, to fill the whole nation of Israel.
America is the Promised Land of spiritual Israel, every bit as much as Canaan was the Promised Land for the nation. We were founded in Canada under the supreme ruler-ship of God, under His Law governed by the Ten Commandments, and with a justice system based on the truth of His Word, the Bible. Judges swore upon the Word to carry out justice according to the Word of God, and never according to any religious belief systems of man or perceived rights of minority political agendas, which would override the good of the majority.
Those who made up the church of Jesus Christ, like the nation of Israel, were given free will to follow the Lord’s commandments or to rebel. In America, the vote put God’s people in judgment over and in control of the direction of the nation, just as the early judges, raised up by God, adjudicated over Israel. Our vote had the power to control parliament, the appointment of judges, and to teach our children to study the Bible, to pray, and to guard this glorious land of liberty under God. There was a time, within the lifetime of most of us, when all political parties offered no alternative to this heritage. Unfortunately, we were lulled to sleep in the pews of the religious church system, and did not wake up until it was too late. What the waking giant discovered was that in our present condition, there is no political party left, which offers us our true heritage in God. All of them fall victim to the lie that we are a nation founded in mulitculturalism and religious rights, which is a very different thing from religious freedom.
God gave to His people the job of preserving the nation’s heritage in Him by being obedient to Him in carrying out His Laws and worshiping only Him in the Word. Jesus gave His church the commission to go out to all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things, which He commanded them. To even suggest America is tied to Judaism in any way is a lie. To join forces with a religion that denies Jesus is to tread on very dangerous grounds indeed. To be part of a religion means submission to the systems of man, and Jesus requires that we be submitted only to Him, the Cornerstone of the church, and never to any other man who falsely claims his position to be that which finds its authority on the stone of Peter. Such is an apostate religion, which is at the very root of all of Christianity. Jesus never taught Christianity or any other religion. As He declared clearly to Pilate that He came into this world to testify to the truth, which Satan has always tried to obscure with religion from that first moment in the Garden of Creation when he deceived the woman.
So, what is the commission today for the true church? Look to Luke for the answer. All things must be fulfilled, which were written in the Law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms. The message is this, that we had better be able to understand the prophecy, or we will get tangled up in the leaven, not understanding that the spiritual nation, Israel, must follow the pattern of the nation, Israel. Either we break free completely, with no leaven in our household, or we will not become part of the household of God; for no lie shall enter through the gates to the kingdom. The key message of Luke is that Jesus will open the understanding of prophecy to the bride, in the same manner that He opened the understanding of prophecy to the two men in their walk with Him on the road to Emmaus. Only Jesus was found worthy to open the scrolls with understanding of the prophecy of the Scriptures for the latter days, just as He opened the understanding of the prophecy of the Scriptures to those two men, who were part of the group around the apostles.
“In all your getting, get understanding” (Proverbs 4:7). This is the number one mandate for the bride of the apostolic church; repentance and remission of sin should be preached to all nations in the name of Jesus. This runs in direct opposition to joining in unity with Judaism, or any other religious system, for that matter, for the sake of achieving a desirable code of morality, apart from the name of Jesus. In Luke, we are called to be nothing but the voice for truth, witnessing only in the name of Jesus. We are called to reach the hearts of men and rulers alike, with the gospel of truth.
Christianity is a combination of many groups and denominations, which do not necessarily accept the truth of Jesus. Included in these groups is the United Church of Canada along with a large portion of most every other denomination, including that of the Evangelical groups, the majority of which rejects the inerrancy of the Bible. Under the pressure of a government committed to multiculturalism, army chaplains very quickly agreed to not speak the name of Jesus, lest it might offend soldiers of different religions, of whom not one objected to the name of Jesus being mentioned. Governments have ruled His name out of the public square as the rest of religious Christianity, like the army chaplains, capitulated to the enemy without even a ripple or wave felt within the religious pews. Judaism revels in the nation’s greater recognition of its religious ‘Holy Days’, as, likewise, Islam demands we recognize their so-called holy days, all demanding the removal of the name of Jesus to make room for such pagan religions.
Now the issue I raised with this ‘good man’, with whom I had the interaction, is this: “What place do you, as the true church, called to carry out the great commission to witness to the truth of Jesus, have in unity with Judaism, Islam, and, yes, even Christianity?” He called it love of the brethren for each other. For starters, they are not a part of the brethren of believers, such as were found in the early church. I am afraid such a concept of love does not fit that of Jesus, a Man Who called the Pharisees a den of vipers and sons of their father, the devil. Jesus died for all men that they might believe, and have salvation. He said that there was no greater love than to die for one’s friend that he might live. For us, it means to die to oneself, in order that the deceived might live, even at the risk of persecution from the brethren and from the very ones we want to see saved. Speaking the truth in real love is not found by fellowshipping with darkness. If we are simply congregating in darkness for the common cause of changing the moral condition of a nation, we have missed the point of our commission to witness to the nations of the salvation of Jesus Christ.
Our job, as the true church, is to stand only on truth under the single banner of Jesus, as His voice, in the manner that Aaron was for Moses. Aaron got himself into major trouble when he joined in the religious idolatry that permeated the nation of Israel. He had to be removed for his own sake as the one representing the high priest and the voice for the Lord, while the judgment of God fell upon the religious rebellious house of Israel. It had just been delivered from its captivity to Egypt, in order to be a light to the other nations in separation, not by joining them in their religious idolatry.
Loving one’s friend and brother means tough love that endorses no sin, but rather only the sinner, by speaking in truth, whether or not it offends the wrongdoer. Unity of religions is exactly what the ecumenical spirit of this ‘good man’ is all about, believing it to be his specific calling, as opposed to the commission, which Jesus gave to His church. Unfortunately, such a concept fits into the plans of Satan, into whose hands these congregating religious groups are unwittingly playing, as they come together to carry out their own agendas, apart from the plan of the Lord for this hour.
Only Jesus will lead His army of the Davidic line in this time, and no religious ecumenical movement of man will get in His way. No greater love has any man for his brother than that of one whose voice is given over to the truth, spoken before the same men who may well persecute the one whose only desire is to serve them.