History

 

                                HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

The history of the church after the death of the Apostle John is sketchy.  We do know that even in Johns day there were people who from within the church were causing problems. 3 John 1:9-10. From the writings of Paul and Jude there is very clear evidence that this infiltration continued and grew. Acts 20:29-31  Jude 1:3-4

When Paul went to Rome there had to be certain people who no doubt heard Paul preach but it should be obvious that they did not understand the message based upon the doctrines and teachings that came later.  Romans 16:17-18. The primitive Catholic Church mixed their misconceptions of Pauls preaching with paganism which is what they were before Paul arrived.  This false church became dominate eventually gaining the majority and over time became the official religion of the Roman Empire.  In 380 AD Roman emperor Theodosius issued the edict of Thessalonica, that made “Christianity “ the official religion of the Roman Empire. Rome was never the outgrowth of the church of Pentecost that began in Jerusalem.  If it is then why are we not all faithful Catholics ?  The Pentecost church went into obscurity and became very small in number as it is today.  If you examine the doctrine of todays churches , on how many points would they be in error of the truth that you know ?  They do not know God , Christ , the gospel, what salvation is , or even what humans are.  There are over 30,000 of them , do you think they are all Christians, if so then billions, (estimate of 2.6 billion)  of them will be accepted by Jesus at his return.   Did Jesus say, many are called and many are chosen, few go in the broad but many the narrow and many will find that way.  Wow with this many true Christians there will be no one to worship the antichrist.  We could call off the great tribulation and go straight into the kingdom of God.  No where in scripture supports these ideas.  It is just the opposite.  The true faith  has truth as part of its foundation. The Apostle Paul placed great value on the true doctrines.  Jude said to earnestly contend for the faith entrusted to all the saints and warns of ungodly people who had crept into the church.  Satan has not been idle since Pentecost and into our time now, he has been active and his activities have increased.  What men highly esteem God considers an abomination.  Many did come in Jesus’s name saying that Jesus was indeed the messiah but will deceive many. If you come in someone’s name you do not claim to be that person, Jesus came in his Fathers name, lawyers come in the name of their client and Jesus did not claim to be the Father nor do lawyers claim to be their clients.  This is describing what has happened in the worlds churches, they come in his name but deceive many.  Should these be called Christian, or should they be called what Jesus said , the synagogue of Satan?   The first resurrection at the return of Jesus is likened to the barley harvest which was in the early spring and was a small harvest, the barley harvest,  whereas the fall harvest was much larger and used to symbolize the second resurrection.  Jesus prayed for laborers to work in the fall harvest who would themselves be of the barley harvest. This is the saints , the church who will be the laborers of the fall harvest.  This large fall harvest is the second resurrection and by that time the saints will have been in the kingdom a thousand years.  At this time, the present, we live in the great deception near the end of this age that will grow worse and produce the events described in the book of Revelation.  Today there exists the Sardis and Philadelphia churches. The Sardis church is a dead church with only a few that will walk in white but the Philadelphia church is a faithful church with an opened door and Gods protection. Soon the Laodicean church will come in the great tribulation and by martyred.

The Catholic church ruled over the western Roman empire for over a thousand years before being challenged  by the Protestant reformation.  There was a division that occurred earlier over the keeping of Passover or Easter called the "quartodeciman (Latin for 14th) controversy"   The western church opted for Easter and the eastern went with the Passover.  The history of the Roman Catholic church is full of violence and death as the church used the power of the government to silence any opposition and also the crusades that warred against the Muslims to control the holy land causing an estimated death toll of 5 million.  Catholic control of government continued even after the fall of Rome with the Papal title of Holy Roman Emperor conferred by the Pope upon the most powerful and richest catholic head of state. This title lasted into the early 20th century when it finally disappeared.  England never held the title due to Henry VIII rebelling against the Pope because he would not grant Henry a divorce and Henry formed the Church of England or Anglican Church.  In the book of Revelation chapter 17 verse 10-11 mentions seven kings, 5 have fallen, one is and the other has not yet come.  the "one is" is Rome including the title of Holy Roman Emperor that ended in about 1920.  The seventh king is to continue a short space.  This seventh king had to be the most powerful nation on Earth as were the proceeding six  in their day.  This seventh king is the United States.  When the U.S. falls the eighth king will rise who was previously one of the seven and will be the beast nation.  This beast nation will change times and laws , rebuild the temple in Jerusalem,  institute animal sacrifices and revive the Law of Moses. The deception Jesus spoke of during this time is to be so great that IF IT WERE POSSIBLE it would deceive even the very elect.  This deception is the revival of the old covenant under which is no salvation. It will be  biblically based and will be very appealing to the carnal mind.  This basically describes the Worldwide Church of God, an intense law keeping church, but the antichrist will truly have a worldwide following as the WCG was only a shadow of what Satan will do.  To be a law keeper is to deny Christ, what a clever way to deceive people using scripture to keep them from the truth.  I experienced this on a very small scale in the WCG and this gives me a perspective, insight into the manner of deception Satan will use in the near future.  The history of the church seen in the world today is not the history of the church of Pentecost, it is part of the great deception.  This is what God calls people out of , not into, a religious Babylon, a smorgasbord belief system where anything you want to believe is OK.  That church of Pentecost is still here on Earth but is invisible to the eyes of the masses.  They truly are not of the ways of this world and obey the gospel message, love God and neighbor and keep themselves unspotted from the world.  What they see in the world makes them sad and they sigh and cry from all the abominations in the world.  Ezekiel 9:4   Ezekiel 13:22  Revelation 7:3 is the same mark as in Ezekiel 9:4   The true church today is basically being hidden by God from the eyes of the carnal world.  Being scattered to the four winds having no idea of each other’s locations or even the number of their remnant, makes it impossible for them to engage in any spiritual work because this spiritual work is being done by God and Jesus alone.   Their focus is their own spiritual growth and obeying the message of the gospel.  Todays fake Christians would not even know one of these elect if they ever met one.  The elect today would be treated by the world as Christ was treated if they were not “invisible “.  The world would falsely accuse the elect and would not understand what they say.

This is part of the great deception, the many believing in lies while only a few know the truth.