Voice of the Kingfisher speaks out …from a different perspective
by Elinor Montgomery
October 02, 2012
“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18).” What is it that even the best of our religious priesthood do not get about this statement? Where is the word ‘Christian’ found here? It is not found at all, but rather Jesus does go on to say this; Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ (Matthew 16:20).
The way He described Himself was with this statement, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6).”And who is this Man who says He is the only way to the Father? Is He an ordinary man, like you and me?
Well, He also asked this question of His disciples – “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am (Matthew16:13)?” The disciples answered Him saying that men see Him as the reincarnation of the prophets and nothing more. But then Jesus asked the disciples what they had to say about who He was, and Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16).” Jesus immediately declared Peter’s response could only come by divine revelation from His Father in heaven.
This statement is the rock-solid foundation of the one and only church of Jesus, the Son of God, and the only church established by Him. It has no such foundation as that of Christianity, emanating out of the Romanism of the Babylonian system of empires, resting on the religious system of shifting sands, all of which are being shaken by the storms of religion coming from out of the East, today. Each and every religion is going to end up in the seawaters of destruction; for the gates of hell are prevailing and will continue to prevail against all religious structures, having no connection whatsoever to the apostolic church, washed clean of religion by the truth of the Word.
It was for this reason that the religious priesthood of Judaism, the Pharisees, wanted to put an end to the apostolic church by first, killing Jesus, and then, killing His apostles. There is no common ground between religion and the church of Jesus Christ. His true church would never, in a million years, advocate tolerance and respect for any religious system. It would not bow before the altars of religion any more than Daniel would have bowed before that golden statue of the religion of King Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian Empire, or Joseph, before Pharaoh in Egypt.
They are nothing other than fools without understanding who remain in the temples of religion and believe they are in the church of our Lord and Savior. The buildings of Christianity, erroneously called churches, and the true church established by Jesus on the rock foundation of the apostles and not on religion, are like night and day, even as oil is to water. They are not now, and never will be, one and the same. The minute you hear the message being preached from either the pulpit or the political arena that you should have respect for religion, run for your life!
Jesus called the religious Pharisees of Judaism, sons of their father, the devil. How is it that Christianity today is in a Judeo-Christian alliance? Does that not put Christians in the same camp with the sons of Satan? Why is it some of our finest preachers are bemoaning the state of the pulpits of Christianity?
Is it not time to put two and two together and realize that Christianity is traveling the broad road of its father, the devil, and the gates of hell are merely prevailing against that which already belongs to him? Our finest and most educated theological minds have not been able to figure this one out yet; but then, understanding only comes from divine revelation; flesh and blood do not reveal the hidden mysteries (see Matthew 16:17).
The keys to the kingdom of heaven belong only to the coming revived apostolic church, just as they belonged to the early apostolic church. This means there must be an exodus of the true church from the religious system of Christianity as a result of new revelation from the final opening of the scrolls of Scripture by Him who is the only One found worthy to do so; He is Jesus, the Son of God, and Teacher to the apostles.
Never in a million years would He leave the teaching of Scripture to any other man than Himself, or His apostles, who were called to teach and witness to His truth of the gospels in order to grow His apostolic church. They were never commanded to give birth to a new religious system.
Ephesians scripturally establishes the habitation of God in the Spirit, and there is no other established household of God, other than that made up of His Son’s church. And so, she shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, and never in religion; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him (see John 4:23).
Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh – who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands – that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been made near by the blood of Christ.
For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of division between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit (Ephesians 2:11-22).
Paul goes on to say that, by revelation, God made known to him the mystery. He also says that He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens that He might fill all things (see Ephesians 4:10). He was the ladder of Jacob’s dream, which Jacob saw in a vision long before either he or the nation were ever called Israel.
Awake, you who sleep in the tomb of religion called Christianity; arise from the dead and Christ will give you light! See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as the wise (see Ephesians 5:14-15).