Voice of the Kingfisher speaks out …from a different perspective
by Elinor Montgomery
A New Washer is Needed for the Church
September 25, 2011
My washing machine gave up the ghost and died a fast death this past week. A repairman told me that, though he could give it an electric shock, in order to get it started, there was no response from within the electric board. I asked myself what could have gone wrong, for it has received good care and not as much use as those which have been put to work every day of the week.
And then it came to me – God was giving me a sign of the times. The church is desperately in need of a new washer, for the old one has grown sluggish. Not only are the clothes it turns out still dirty, but it also has become incapable of producing pure, white, bright linen – the clothing of the angels who serve God (see Revelation 15:6); it no longer is capable of removing the stubborn stains.
Are they not the boards of religious men, the presbyteries, which are the controlling power within the religious institutions, who are keeping the electric connection from reaching the pulpits? Did Jesus not try to make connection with the Pharisees, only to find His electric shock rebuffed? They knew the Scriptures by heart; they were raised memorizing them. They called Abraham their father and David their king, as keepers of the Torah and the Law.
But Jesus could not make a connection with them. They rebuffed Him and plotted so that they might entangle Him in His talk. The illegitimate high priest over Israel, Caiaphas, said of Jesus, the High Priest of God, that He spoke blasphemy and so it was agreed among the Judaic religious leaders that He was deserving of death. Then they spat in His face and beat Him (see Matthew 26:65-67).
This is the same attitude found today among the religious men who call themselves Christians, yet, will call the truth, heresy, when confronted with it. Jesus said of them that their father was the devil, though they saw themselves as the righteous men of God. What was their problem? According to Jesus, they were busy keeping their hands clean, while being nothing but white-washed tombs, which indeed appeared beautiful outwardly, but inwardly were full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness (see Matthew 23:27). They were desperately in need of a new washing, which only Jesus, the perfect Son of God, can give to His armies. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses (Revelation 19:14).
It is the religion of the gentiles and of the nations, which needs to be washed away from the true church. There are dirty waters and clean waters, with the Lord God separating the dirty from the clean at Creation, leaving man free of the filth. They were the seawaters beneath, as compared to the waters from above. The filth of sin is under the covering of the spiritual waters of the sea and of the rivers, which represent the religiously-controlled empires of this world, as the harbingers of religious idols.
When King Hezekiah had his priests cleanse the temple of all its idols and religious debris, he had the Levites take them out and throw them into the Brook Kidron, the waters of impurity beneath the heavens (see 2 Chronicles 29:16). His plan to restore the nation Israel to safety in God and her former glory from the days of King David began with an internal washing of the priesthood and a thorough cleansing of the temple. What followed was the restoration of a nation, which saw victory from the enemy as a result of the housecleaning, and led to God’s protection being restored to the nation. “Hear me, Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish from the holy place (2 Chronicles 29:5).”
The restoration of this nation must begin with a new washing of the house of God within America. The priesthood, which has turned Christianity into purpose-driven institutions set on pulling down crosses, needs not only a new washer, but it also needs to be bleached thoroughly, until there is no sign of its stain remaining.
If King Hezekiah were serious about washing, Jesus could only be described as intentional and determined about it. In speaking to the scribes and Pharisees, He called them hypocrites. “Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also (Matthew 23:24-26).”
One of the last things Jesus did for His apostles was to wash their feet. When He came to the apostle, Peter, he objected, thinking it was not fitting for Jesus to do so. His response to Peter was a very serious one, indeed. He answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me (John 13:8).” And what was the washer the Lord had used? It was His Word, which we now possess as the Bible: “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you (John 15:3).”
If the apostolic church received a washing, can you imagine what Jesus would have to do with His church today, which has been held captive for centuries, within the religious institutions of Christianity? Would He not advise it immediately to get a new washer, and then plunk down the Bible right in front of the religious institutions, while His washer is still available for everyone’s use?
The church is filthy with religion and idols, and she has failed miserably because religious theology has kept the washer’s electric board from functioning. A new electric board is drastically needed before death sets in. Christ loved His church like a husband loves his wife and gave Himself for it that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word (see Ephesians 5:25-26).
How dare the unclean fools of the present-day priesthood steal His cross away to join with the other religions of the world! Do they not know that in their filthiness they will have no part with Him?
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).