Voice of the Kingfisher speaks out …from a different perspective
By Elinor Montgomery
Does Christianity Provide the Religious Ground for Another Talmud?
June 20, 2008
With the statement, And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch (Acts 11:26), the Word was preparing us to be ready for the coming of a religious Talmud, a kind of add-on to the truth of the gospels for spiritual Israel. God allowed us to see the crack, which would open the door for religion to take the newly formed church of Jesus Christ into religious captivity, just as Judaism had taken Israel captive to religion.
In Scripture, Jesus makes the towering statement that would change the world forever. He addressed all apostate religions by saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6).” His all-sufficiency makes all religions, including that of Christianity, a form of fraud, exposing religion to be the tool of Satan, which he uses for his antichrist, spiritual attack.
The word, Christian, crept into the Roman-Greek world as a mocking term by those gentiles who mocked the early believers. At the same time, the apostles, the fathers of the fledgling apostolic church, were beginning to carry out their great commission for Jesus of witnessing to the truth.
That which was known as ‘the Way’ was about to be transformed into a religion by a ruler of the last empire of the Babylonian system, called the Roman Empire. It was Satan’s desire to see the witness to the truth of the early apostolic church become muddied and compromised by religion.
And so it was that Christianity was birthed, and the failing empire under Constantine carried out Satan’s tactical move to keep Romanism alive until it was time for the Roman Empire to be revived in the latter days.
Christianity became the religious glue, which perpetuated Romanism by means of a political, economic and religious system called Roman Catholicism. There was no secret about it; Rome took authority over the young church of Jesus Christ, taking her into captivity as surely as the nation before her had gone into captivity to Egypt. It would be the church’s turn to become a slave to the building programs of the newly established religious/state system of the Vatican, the latest form of Babylonianism.
For centuries this system would dominate the church, involving it in religious wars, which would keep it from its great commission of going out to preach the gospel of truth to the world. It was Satan’s plan to hinder the true purpose of the church, by growing religion instead of spreading the message of salvation. It was a move in the name of the church, which would ultimately come to the point of repudiation of the fundamentalism of Jesus’ message in the book of John about Who He really is in His divine nature. This period of time was what is commonly known as the church age.
It would take one Martin Luther to recognize just how corrupt the original church had become, as he set in motion the process, which would culminate in the exodus of the true church from the religious system. He wanted to see the institution called church, with all its religious practices, returned to the Biblical principles upon which Jesus originally founded it. This process would finally force a division within the institutional church, but the time for her full exodus from religion was yet to come.
The Lord, today, is looking for a bride to come forth out of spiritual Israel, against whom the gates of Hades cannot prevail. In the same way that they could not prevail against the apostles, she will be committed to the truth while being set free from religious controls. The Lord is preparing to come for a pure and spotless bride without wrinkle, who, like the apostles before her, will stand only on the testimony of truth, without any religious connections or controls. She will not take the name of either Protestant or Catholic, only the name of Jesus, which is the Way.
She will grasp on to the fundamentalism of truth with a vengeance, for she, alone, will have been given the full understanding, needed for this time. It is a very narrow way back to life in the kingdom, and few are they who will find it.
They were his three friends who ate the right food with the prophet Daniel, but it was only Daniel to whom the revelation and understanding were given. Others were on the road to Damascus with Paul, but it was only Paul who saw the blinding light, and received the message, which the others did not hear.
The revelation for the end of the Babylonian system would be opened to the bride, just as the revelation of its beginning was opened to Daniel. The Lord opened wide his understanding of this satanic system, with its three empires to come, the last of which would be divided into two parts, separated by a church age, about which he knew nothing. As we move into the time of the fullness of the religious gentiles, the revelation, regarding the understanding of Babylon’s shut-down by the Lord Jesus Christ, will be opened to complete that which Daniel was told would be closed and sealed in his time.
We are still living in the Babylonian system of world empires. Of course, it is to the bride that the understanding of it all will be given, for she stands on the other side of the dividing river of the church age. The scrolls will have their final opening, having been sealed to Daniel, when the heavenly messenger said to him, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end (Daniel 12:9).”
Daniel had spent himself in prayer and intercession for the wickedness of the nation, Israel. She had rebelled against God and had not obeyed the voice of the Lord. Nor had the people walked in His Laws, which He had set before them by His servants and prophets. He prayed for both those near and far-off, as he interceded for a nation he had never seen, which is known today as that of spiritual Israel. He knew the nation had not turned from her iniquities to understand the truth of God, and she had refused to obey His voice.
Under the whole heaven such had never been done as had been done to Jerusalem. The city and God’s people had become a reproach to all the other nations. Daniel begged God to see the people’s desolation, especially that of the city, which was called by His name. Is there any place in the world today more threatened than Israel, with Jerusalem now being little more than a religious stronghold, which can only be described in terms of Sodom and Egypt?
While Daniel was praying, the man, Gabriel, came forth to give him skill to understand. It was after this that he had a vision of the heavenly messenger, a man with the appearance of the pre-incarnate Jesus. He came to Daniel to make him understand what would happen to his people in the latter days, for the vision referred to many days yet to come.
In that day, the Antichrist would arise as a vile person to whom they will not give the honor of royalty, so he will seize his kingdom by intrigue. He shall be moved against the holy covenant and show regard for those who will come against it with him. He will do wickedly against the covenant, but, in spite of this, those who know God shall be made strong in order to carry out great exploits.
The ones, who understand, from among the people of God, shall instruct many. Some of them shall fall into the religious captivity of the institutional church, as prophesied in the book of Daniel. However, the purpose of the religious church age is to refine and purge God’s people, in order to bring forth a pure and spotless bride at the time of the end. This is the time appointed for the exodus of the church from religion of all sorts, for the new-covenanting people of God shall be delivered, just as Israel was delivered from Egypt.
Daniel was told to shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end, when many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. Does that describe the world today? Yet, many shall be purified and made white and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.
If you call yourself a Christian, you are likely to be without understanding, for religion is the opiate of the people; it chains them in darkness. You must come out of that which belongs to Rome and Babylon, and come into the truth, which is the testimony of Jesus in the spirit of prophecy. Only by prophecy shall the truth be known, for each Word of the Bible has diamonds of prophecy embedded within it.
Pick up your Bibles, read the book of Daniel and pray, my friends, for understanding that you might escape the coming night.