NEWS The End of Christianity
In my last blog, I discussed a vision the Lord had given me. The vision was a book titled, "An Open Heaven: Living a Life of Love in the Spirit." I had hinted in my blog that future posts would likely be centered around the main ideas of the book.
One of the main ideas in the book is that there is a profound difference between Christianity and Christ. In my previous post, I noted that Christianity lacked the Spirit of the very Being that it is worshiping. How do we know this to be true? Well, when we examine the Christian landscape with its 38,000 denominations, we see little Spiritual fruit. This is a telltale sign that Christ isn't living in the hearts of those who call themselves Christians.
What does this imply about Christianity as a religion? Well, to be blunt and truthful, Christianity as we know it today has no future. It will ultimately vanish. It will be destroyed, along with all the other religions on Earth. They have to be destroyed if Christ isn't there. He is all that will be left when everything is said and done (more on this below).
Earlier this week, I discovered a talk given by T. Austin-Sparks over 40 years ago that was published in an article titled, "Under the Spirit's Government." As I was reading, I came across a passage which expressed the same prediction about the future of Christianity as articulated above. Here's what Sparks said:
"The Wind's blowing today, my word its blowing over this earth. Look at all the testing, see all the tragic crashing to the ground. Do you know dear friends, that Christianity as we now know it is going to be blown to bits, absolutely to bits and there's going to be nothing of it left. Christianity as we know it. All these things must be dissolved, says Peter. This whole cosmic order and this whole Christian system as we know it, is going. You say, "That's a terrible statement; on what authority?" Well, plenty! I have lived through two world wars, what have we seen? I know that's a very simple and small example of what I'm saying; we have seen many and many a place with a great Christian tradition, something that has stood for something, simply crushed to the ground, hardly one stone left upon another. Everywhere destruction; no preferences, no favouritisms, and God, where is God? Where's God? "Oh, if anything ought to have been preserved, that ought to have been preserved, God ought to have protected that!" No, the answer is no! Why? Because God is not interested in things. God is only interested in one matter. The Holy Spirit is only concerned about one matter, dear friends, one matter only and history bears this out. The Holy Spirit is only concerned with Christ. With Christ, with what is Christ, what is of Christ, with the measure of Christ. The Holy Spirit has only One in His vision, that's Christ, and He's always saying "How much really of the eternal essence of Christ is here?"
And so you can go to Asia Minor today and find no trace of the churches in Asia, you can go to Galatia, you can go to all these places of the New Testament and find nothing today as places. Now the first three chapters of the book of the Revelation just bear down upon that. Note to the churches, to the seven churches in Asia, what the Spirit saith, what the Spirit saith, what the Spirit saith; seven times: "What the Spirit saith." The Wind is blowing... what for? Just to discover not, not whether this has got the tradition, not this and that and something else, not whether they've got a building and a place of meeting, or a technique of worship or kind of New Testament order BUT, whether they have that or not, how much of the risen, living, exalted Christ is here? And the Holy Spirit will go as far as to say "Repent or I will remove thy lampstand out of its place because the light's gone'. What's the good of a lampstand if there is no light? Mere ornaments the Holy Spirit is not interested in. Do you see the point? The Light is Christ, the measure of Christ, it is Christ, it is Christ! What the Spirit saith is not this and that, I know thy works and thy labours and thy patience, all that is very good, BUT!"
***********************
Christianity - blown to bits! Why? Because God is not interested in things. Religion is all about things, but the Lord wants nothing to do with all the things religion has to offer. Listen to the Spirit coming through the prophet Amos:
"I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them." (Amos 5:21-22)
The Spirit said a similar thing through the prophet Isaiah:
Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations-I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. (Isaiah 1:13-15)
Note the language the Spirit is using to the religious hearts in Israel - "hate," "despise," "evil," "burden," and "hands full of blood." That is very strong language - strong language that fell on deaf ears. Israel could not hear the voice of the Lord. The Spirit continued to hammer away at the same message with the prophet John the Baptist and Jesus. Here's what the Spirit said through the prophet John:
"But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." (Matthew 3:7-10)
And then there is the Lord going on a rampage outside of temple in Jerusalem just before Passover (the time when the Israelites commemorate the Exodus, their liberation from Egyptian slavery, which God had accomplished for His purpose):
"When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!" (John 2:13-16)
And we have Jesus' impassioned cry to the people of Jerusalem in the Gospel of Matthew:
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'" (Matthew 23:37-39)
Here we have the Spirit telling Israel that they have become a people unwilling to listen - unwilling to hear the voice of the Lord and obey Him. We hear the Spirit time and time again telling His people to put an end to all the religious things and change their hearts (repent!). Listen to the Spirit through the prophet Ezekiel:
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
A new heart - that's Jesus - Son of man. The Spirit in Ezekiel 36 is the Holy Spirit. Blessed with His Spirit, we are able to follow Him. As we follow Him, our hearts are filled with His Spiritual fruit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23) . As Paul told the Galatians, there is no law against Spiritual fruit. Love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:10).
The fruit that is produced by the Spirit is proof that He is living inside our heart. When people see our hearts and observe our behavior, they see His Spiritual fruit. His fruit becomes beautiful light that shines through our hearts.
Love, Light and Life. That is The Way. That is Christ.
As Sparks' said in his speech back in 1965, God is only interested in one matter. The Holy Spirit is only concerned about one matter - one matter only - and history bears this out. The Holy Spirit is only concerned with Christ. With Christ, with what is Christ, what is of Christ, with the measure of Christ. The Holy Spirit has only One in His vision, that's Christ, and He's always saying "How much really of the eternal essence of Christ is here?"
Christianity is full of things that have bear no relation to Christ - with what He is, with what is of Him, and with the measure of Him. If God doesn't see Christ, then whatever things He is seeing - including all the religious things associated with Christianity - will vanish. They have no future.
Absent Christ and His Spirit, we can confidently predict that Christianity as we know it has no future. All 38,000 denominations - Catholic, Protestant, you name it - along with all the church buildings, robes, and related-religious activities, all of it gone. Kaput! Blown to bits! In other words, the end of Christianity as we know it.
While this message may be upsetting to some people in the world - particularly those who are in bondage to all those religious things that are not of Christ and are fond of such things - it is a message that needs to be heard and understood. God is moving all things toward Christ whether we like it or not. It's the truth. And yes, sometimes the truth hurts. But the truth also sets us free.
God's plan is amazingly simple: Christ as Preeminent in the universe. He is the Alpha and Omega - the beginning and end. The future has already been written. There is no room for anything that is not of Christ. There is no room for darkness in the Kingdom. There is only His light.
Here's the bottom line:
An Open Heaven has no religious things. There is nothing standing in the way of your heart and Christ. It is just you and the Holy Spirit and the Lord - an intimate relationship. That is the way the God wants it. That is The Way.
May your heart be full of His Spiritual fruit and may He shine brightly through you.
Agape,
Steve
One of the main ideas in the book is that there is a profound difference between Christianity and Christ. In my previous post, I noted that Christianity lacked the Spirit of the very Being that it is worshiping. How do we know this to be true? Well, when we examine the Christian landscape with its 38,000 denominations, we see little Spiritual fruit. This is a telltale sign that Christ isn't living in the hearts of those who call themselves Christians.
What does this imply about Christianity as a religion? Well, to be blunt and truthful, Christianity as we know it today has no future. It will ultimately vanish. It will be destroyed, along with all the other religions on Earth. They have to be destroyed if Christ isn't there. He is all that will be left when everything is said and done (more on this below).
Earlier this week, I discovered a talk given by T. Austin-Sparks over 40 years ago that was published in an article titled, "Under the Spirit's Government." As I was reading, I came across a passage which expressed the same prediction about the future of Christianity as articulated above. Here's what Sparks said:
"The Wind's blowing today, my word its blowing over this earth. Look at all the testing, see all the tragic crashing to the ground. Do you know dear friends, that Christianity as we now know it is going to be blown to bits, absolutely to bits and there's going to be nothing of it left. Christianity as we know it. All these things must be dissolved, says Peter. This whole cosmic order and this whole Christian system as we know it, is going. You say, "That's a terrible statement; on what authority?" Well, plenty! I have lived through two world wars, what have we seen? I know that's a very simple and small example of what I'm saying; we have seen many and many a place with a great Christian tradition, something that has stood for something, simply crushed to the ground, hardly one stone left upon another. Everywhere destruction; no preferences, no favouritisms, and God, where is God? Where's God? "Oh, if anything ought to have been preserved, that ought to have been preserved, God ought to have protected that!" No, the answer is no! Why? Because God is not interested in things. God is only interested in one matter. The Holy Spirit is only concerned about one matter, dear friends, one matter only and history bears this out. The Holy Spirit is only concerned with Christ. With Christ, with what is Christ, what is of Christ, with the measure of Christ. The Holy Spirit has only One in His vision, that's Christ, and He's always saying "How much really of the eternal essence of Christ is here?"
And so you can go to Asia Minor today and find no trace of the churches in Asia, you can go to Galatia, you can go to all these places of the New Testament and find nothing today as places. Now the first three chapters of the book of the Revelation just bear down upon that. Note to the churches, to the seven churches in Asia, what the Spirit saith, what the Spirit saith, what the Spirit saith; seven times: "What the Spirit saith." The Wind is blowing... what for? Just to discover not, not whether this has got the tradition, not this and that and something else, not whether they've got a building and a place of meeting, or a technique of worship or kind of New Testament order BUT, whether they have that or not, how much of the risen, living, exalted Christ is here? And the Holy Spirit will go as far as to say "Repent or I will remove thy lampstand out of its place because the light's gone'. What's the good of a lampstand if there is no light? Mere ornaments the Holy Spirit is not interested in. Do you see the point? The Light is Christ, the measure of Christ, it is Christ, it is Christ! What the Spirit saith is not this and that, I know thy works and thy labours and thy patience, all that is very good, BUT!"
***********************
Christianity - blown to bits! Why? Because God is not interested in things. Religion is all about things, but the Lord wants nothing to do with all the things religion has to offer. Listen to the Spirit coming through the prophet Amos:
"I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them." (Amos 5:21-22)
The Spirit said a similar thing through the prophet Isaiah:
Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations-I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. (Isaiah 1:13-15)
Note the language the Spirit is using to the religious hearts in Israel - "hate," "despise," "evil," "burden," and "hands full of blood." That is very strong language - strong language that fell on deaf ears. Israel could not hear the voice of the Lord. The Spirit continued to hammer away at the same message with the prophet John the Baptist and Jesus. Here's what the Spirit said through the prophet John:
"But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." (Matthew 3:7-10)
And then there is the Lord going on a rampage outside of temple in Jerusalem just before Passover (the time when the Israelites commemorate the Exodus, their liberation from Egyptian slavery, which God had accomplished for His purpose):
"When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!" (John 2:13-16)
And we have Jesus' impassioned cry to the people of Jerusalem in the Gospel of Matthew:
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'" (Matthew 23:37-39)
Here we have the Spirit telling Israel that they have become a people unwilling to listen - unwilling to hear the voice of the Lord and obey Him. We hear the Spirit time and time again telling His people to put an end to all the religious things and change their hearts (repent!). Listen to the Spirit through the prophet Ezekiel:
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
A new heart - that's Jesus - Son of man. The Spirit in Ezekiel 36 is the Holy Spirit. Blessed with His Spirit, we are able to follow Him. As we follow Him, our hearts are filled with His Spiritual fruit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23) . As Paul told the Galatians, there is no law against Spiritual fruit. Love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:10).
The fruit that is produced by the Spirit is proof that He is living inside our heart. When people see our hearts and observe our behavior, they see His Spiritual fruit. His fruit becomes beautiful light that shines through our hearts.
Love, Light and Life. That is The Way. That is Christ.
As Sparks' said in his speech back in 1965, God is only interested in one matter. The Holy Spirit is only concerned about one matter - one matter only - and history bears this out. The Holy Spirit is only concerned with Christ. With Christ, with what is Christ, what is of Christ, with the measure of Christ. The Holy Spirit has only One in His vision, that's Christ, and He's always saying "How much really of the eternal essence of Christ is here?"
Christianity is full of things that have bear no relation to Christ - with what He is, with what is of Him, and with the measure of Him. If God doesn't see Christ, then whatever things He is seeing - including all the religious things associated with Christianity - will vanish. They have no future.
Absent Christ and His Spirit, we can confidently predict that Christianity as we know it has no future. All 38,000 denominations - Catholic, Protestant, you name it - along with all the church buildings, robes, and related-religious activities, all of it gone. Kaput! Blown to bits! In other words, the end of Christianity as we know it.
While this message may be upsetting to some people in the world - particularly those who are in bondage to all those religious things that are not of Christ and are fond of such things - it is a message that needs to be heard and understood. God is moving all things toward Christ whether we like it or not. It's the truth. And yes, sometimes the truth hurts. But the truth also sets us free.
God's plan is amazingly simple: Christ as Preeminent in the universe. He is the Alpha and Omega - the beginning and end. The future has already been written. There is no room for anything that is not of Christ. There is no room for darkness in the Kingdom. There is only His light.
Here's the bottom line:
An Open Heaven has no religious things. There is nothing standing in the way of your heart and Christ. It is just you and the Holy Spirit and the Lord - an intimate relationship. That is the way the God wants it. That is The Way.
May your heart be full of His Spiritual fruit and may He shine brightly through you.
Agape,
Steve
posted by Steve at
6:40 PM
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