external linksHoly Scripture Searchable Online Bibles And Other Resources Biblios Bible Gateway Blue Letter Bible Christian Ministry Text and Audio Messages of the Prophet / Evangelist William Marrion Branham ChurchAges.com Living Word Broadcast Literary Resources Texts broadly relevant to the Christian heritage and worldview Christian Etherial Classics Library |
Tuesday, December 12. 2017The Apocalyptic Rapture
The year is 2017, and countless prophecies are heard within the Christen realm to the effect that a great spiritual revival is imminent in preparation for the expected coming of Christ in our time. One can well understand the sentiment behind such a notion. The strain of the times is being felt – the sense that something needs to happen – and it is rightly deemed that the church is in no condition to manifest Joel 2 or 1 Thessalonians 4, the latter usually referred to as the rapture.
The problem is that there is no scripture to back this assertion – namely in the sense of a worldwide spiritual awakening, of global repentance and conversion, and indeed of socio-political transformation toward godly models. Rather it is spoken of a falling away, of a spiritual famine, and of a world in thrall of the antichrist. As it was in the days of Noah ... and as it was in the days of Lot ... thus – so stated the saviour – shall it be when the Son of man is revealed. And neither of these ages experienced anything remotely like a universal spiritual revival – quite the contrary. Somewhere – somehow – there seems to be a great disjunction between the prophetic scriptures and the perceived need and expectation of our time. The churches are in a state of desperate crisis, such as yet retain a biblical model, insofar as the pastoral ministry is altogether incommensurate with the spiritual requirements of the age. It is a case of the blind leading the blind, after the scathing denunciation of Laodicea in Revelation 3. One of these days the foolish virgins of Matthew 25 will be caught unawares, and it will be asked, were not all these great things supposed to happen before the coming of the Lord? And the answer will return, it’s already happened and you did not know it. So it becomes us to ask, what kind of revival – what move of God – can we expect in our time? Is there indeed revival, and what form might it take? And what we actually observe, contrary to much zealous teaching, is that revival fires are everywhere dying down – namely in the conventional sense we have come to understand revival. Specifically we are speaking in this context of the great twentieth century pentecostal revival, which brought restoration of the spiritual gifts. While today there are greater attendance numbers, the quality of experience is not remotely what it was even a mere forty years ago, let alone that of the original outpouring after Azusa Street in 1906. And here lies the problem, in that the evangelic / charismatic churches are still pursuing a pentecostal message with undue emphasis upon the spiritual gifts, when another age is actually upon us. For this is the age of the calling of the bride, the opening of the seven seals, and the restoration of the Word of God in fullness. While pentecost, in the above sense, is certainly part of our message, we have today progressed beyond that into whole new order of ministry – of which ministry the established denominations are entirely unaware. We ask, how could this have happened, and we note that the said pentecostal revival occurred outside of the established churches, free from religious organisation and denomination. Indeed the fathers of the movement denounced religious denominationalism for the antichrist system which it is. Yet within a very few years, the pentecostal movement went the way of every revival preceding it, in that it organised and enshrined its non-biblical doctrines as binding dogma – and right there it died. Indeed the same holds for the entire history of revival and biblical restoration. Luther, Wesley or Pentecost – no spiritual revival ever originated from within the religious establishment and, once religious organisation took hold, God removed the candlestick and the life of the Spirit moved on, leaving behind the dead denominational husk. Yet every historic revival also built upon what was already in place, such that we are speaking of cumulative revelation, leading up to grand consummation in the coming of Christ. Accordingly there is a godly awakening among the elect – there is indeed revival – which, in its nature, however, goes entirely unrecognised among the religious denominations and centres of learning. What then is the message, the ministry of this present age, as characterised by the calling of the spiritual bride? A large number of scriptures may be adduced which broadly reflect the idea of consummation – which is to say, of the spiritual church conforming to the image of Christ. Below are presented three biblical passages which convey the essential idea. 1 Corinthians 13:9-10 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. We shall be like him (the Christ), for we shall see him as he is. Here, as throughout the New Testament, the emphasis is not upon human effort – it is not upon praying and fasting and zealous works – but upon the cognitive and receptive aspect of the gospel. It is upon seeing and cognising, upon knowing and understanding. Indeed we learn in Matthew 16 that revelation – divine revelation of who He is – is the spiritual rock, the foundation of the entire edifice of faith. Which brings us to our concept of the apocalyptic rapture – for the literal meaning of apocalypse is revelation. Concerning then revival in our time, it is not going to be revival as previously understood. It is not going to be a public affair, manifesting ‘out there’ with a lot of noise, with newspaper coverage and reverberations through the political and spiritual landscape. The only genuine revival we will see is that occurring within our own soul, and the world at large, including the nominal churches, will know nothing about it. Indeed we are speaking of a secret rapture and of Christ coming as a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5), which scenario is not to be confused with Revelation 19, where Christ appears openly as conqueror and king for his millennial reign. Where thus it is spoken of seeing him (the Christ) as he is, the reference is not to some historic or derivative Hollywood Christ of the religious imagination – which is to say, a man in a robe – but to Christ as the revealed Word of God. It is the Word of God which is quickened in the rapture, the Word which is the spiritual seed sown into the individual soul. Moreover it must be Word of God in its fullness – the seed in its maturity – not the dead stalks and husks of the reformed traditions. Specifically it is the opening of the biblical seven seals in our age, whereby the spiritual bride is quickened to the ministry of the age. As we read in the Revelation, the book of life was sealed with seven seals, such that no mortal was able to look thereon. In other words, through seven ages we were accustomed to seeing through a glass darkly – through religious tradition and theological guesswork – but now face to face, as the lamb of God releases these seals to his faithful. This is vitally important, insofar as it constitutes the true baptism of the Holy Spirit – not manifesting in signs or sensations, but in the revelation of Jesus Christ. It constitutes the oil of the wise virgins, as per Matthew 25, and marks the essential difference between doctrinal abstraction and spiritual experience. As states Job 42, I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye beholds you. And again, Matthew 5, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Coming then to the rapture as a generic spiritual experience, we find that it is not a singular event but occurs in scripture a full seven times – the personages involved being: – Enoch (Genesis 5:24, Hebrews 11:5) – Moses (Deuteronomy 34, Jude 1:9) – Elijah (2 Kings 2:11) – Jesus, the Christ (Mark 16:9, Luke 24:51, Acts 1:9) – the Old Testament saints rising with Christ (Mathew 27:52-53) – the gentile bride (Thessalonians 4:16-17) – and the two witnesses to Israel (Revelation 11:11-12) What can we glean from these events? While the narratives are tantalisingly sparse, we observe, notably in the case of Elijah, an intersection of domains or experiential realms, of heaven and earth, with the suggestion of congruence or interpenetration. We find the same in 2 Kings 6, where the angelic host is seen encamped around his disciple, the prophet Elisha. The suggestion is that, in going to heaven, we do not fly off into space; we remain right here, translated into another dimension, existing at a higher rate of vibration. Such indeed we may assert, notwithstanding the biblical metaphor of ascending and descending to and from heaven. As remarked Jesus, speaking with Nicodemus (John 3:13), no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. We may speak in this connection of a parting of the spiritual veil, where the temple or tabernacle of Moses furnishes the essential type. The holy of holies, where dwelt the living presence of God, was separated from the sanctuary and outer courts by a veil. As a metaphor of the true or spiritual temple, its three partitions correspond to body, soul and spirit – the three principles comprising the human nature – where the veil of body and soul clothes the spirit. We find the idea expressed in John 12:21-24, where certain Greeks asked to see Jesus. Came the saviour’s answer: Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it die, it brings forth much fruit. Why could not the Greeks see him? As gentiles, unlike the Jews, they knew nothing of a prophet messiah, and would have merely seen a man in a robe – a man like any other man. Their time would only come when the veil of the flesh was rent, and Christ could be known as the Holy Spirit within. As Paul states in Hebrews 9:24, For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself ... Thus from the earthly tabernacle, where dwelt the shekinah light upon the mercy seat between the cherubim of beaten gold, we come to Revelation 4 and the ark of God in heaven. Surrounding the heavenly throne, as recounts the evangelist, John, were ‘living creatures’ – which creatures were full of eyes within, suggestive insight or spiritual vision. We understand concerning these creatures, the said cherubim, that they function as guardians against anything profane that would usurp the powers of the heavenly sanctuary. Only the high priest of Israel entered once a year, bearing the blood sacrifice in prefigure of the atoning death of Christ. Here we may compare Genesis 3, And the Lord God said, behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever ... he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. We learned moreover, concerning the tabernacle of Moses, that it meant certain death for anyone to enter unbidden into the Most Holy. The way of the tree of life was barred – in symbol, the way of the sanctuary – until the cherubic sword pierced through the saviour’s heart, and the temple veil was torn from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). It is moreover the cherubim of Revelation 4, described as being full of eyes, which bid the prophet, come and see ... as the lamb of God opens the seven seals, revealing the mysteries hidden from the foundation of the world. These entities – having the form of a Lion, a Bull, a Man and a flying Eagle – are not merely guardians, they also facilitate entry for those who are bidden to enter. Specifically they represent the fire of God which conveys the sacrifice into his presence, purging us from sin, as it is written in Psalms 104, he makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flaming fire. Yet, even as there is set in the material heavens a light too bright for mortal eyes, in symbol of the spiritual sun, so these holy cherubim likewise cover their eyes and avert their gaze from the divine radiance. And they rest not day and night, crying, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. Where previously it was thus death to enter, we are now bidden to come and partake of the hidden manna. In a profound reversal of perspective, where previously the tree of life was kept by a flaming sword, that sword is now turned outward, as our vision aligns with that of the saviour to behold the mysteries of God revealed. Demons scatter, and the veil of the physical world dissolves before his gaze whose eyes are like flames of fire, the sword of the Spirit issuing from his mouth. It is the cherubic fire streaming from the eyes whereby we behold the open door and see into the heavenly realm. Our God is a devouring fire, as state the scriptures, which fire issues from the sanctuary to dissolve the material veil, vanquishing doubt and all that would obscure our passage, bringing us face to face with the eternal God. Thursday, November 9. 2017
Jerusalem Or Babylon - Of The Two ... Posted by Harald Kleemann
in Commentary, Holy Scripture at
13:38
Jerusalem Or Babylon - Of The Two Spiritual Seeds And Branches
When one considers, as from the standpoint of modern critical theory, the historic edifice of the Christian church – its monuments, institutions, ways and doctrines – one could be excused for thinking that this indeed represents the legacy of the biblical apostles, that this is the church spoken of by Jesus. Without spiritual understanding or knowledge of the relevant history, and within the modern context, this is the nigh conclusion. Indeed it is the default position, alike of Christians, as of critics of the Christian faith.
However, there are actually two very different kinds of church which may be traced through the historic record, and which are referred to in scripture as two spiritual seeds, branches or lineages. Indeed, of the thousands of Christian confessions, ultimately all reduce to either of these two spiritual types. And although, historically, the two are intermingled, they have nothing in common that is either significant or profound. In every essential respect they are spiritual opposites. Concerning these spiritual seeds our saviour stated (Matthew 13): He that sows the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As a prophetic statement this indeed holds for the historic Christian church entire. Of the authentic and biblical church, and the good seed of our parable, we may briefly state that it was born in a transformative spiritual experience, called the baptism of the Holy Spirit, around AD 33 in the city of Jerusalem – and that this, along with its spiritual descendants, is indeed the church which Jesus acknowledges as his own. For simplicity we may call it the church of Jerusalem – by etymology, the peaceful reign of God – and we may reflect on the divine promise of Acts 2:38 that such indeed would be the nature of the Christian church throughout the ages. It is born and nurtured of the Spirit of God, with all the blessings and empowerments this entails. However, as history and biblical prophecy attest, there also exists another and very different kind of church, whose spiritual lineage may be similarly traced throughout the ages of Christendom. This latter – an imposture and the tares of our parable – had its inception some three hundred years later under the Roman emperor Constantine at the ill-fated Council of Nicea of 325 AD. Whereas the true and original church thus came by divine creation in a spiritual birth, the latter and counterfeit arose by organisational birth – essentially in an act of political contrivance to secure the religious unity of the Roman empire. It was the beginning of the fourth century and Christianity had spread like wildfire throughout the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean. This despite significant persecution, and Constantine reasoned with typical Roman pragmatism, if you can’t beat them, join them. The evil spirit, as predator and opportunist, aligns itself with perceived positions of power, and so also in this example, that it might subvert Christianity from within. Thus it was – amidst fistfights, political scheming and intimidation – that the religious orthodoxy for the Christian world of nigh a thousand years was hammered out. If we reflect that the apostle Paul had already warned of a contrary spirit within the Christian fold, this same spirit had now come to a visible head. Clearly then, these two seeds or churches are entirely at variance in nature or character, as also born out by their respective fruit. Whereas the spiritual church gives birth to the Christ-child or son of God, the artificial system of organised religion brings forth an organisational child. These two are again at mutual odds, and it is the latter which persecutes the former – always. The first, being born of the Word, produces the Word (the divine logos), in keeping with the primal directive of Genesis that every seed should propagate according to its type. The second, being born of perdition, produces a reductive creed and, along with sundry absurdities and atrocities, the theological guesswork that informs the historic church. Yet for the greater part of seven church ages the two systems coexisted and intermingled, such that it was humanly impossible to distinguish between them. Indeed Jesus, in declaring his parable, warned against premature separation of the types – lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. In other words, he emphatically opposed the kind of denominational sifting by which our modern churches try to filter them, each according to their doctrinal template. You’re oneness, two-ness, three-ness – or whatever it is – you have no part in our group – that kind of thing. On the contrary, they are intended to grow together in the same field until they are separated, in the end of the ages, by the angels of God. Confounding the situation, through the ages, was the fact that sound biblical doctrine had largely become obscured, such that even the sincere and godly where confused therein – individuals such as Martin Luther, who was hugely instrumental in restoring biblical verity, yet mistakenly believed that the Jews represent the biblical antichrist. Indeed this is unsurprising if we consider that the entire gospel of grace had been turned on its head and transformed into something entirely other – by the functionaries of the organised church. As a rule we may unequivocally state: God’s Word comes to his prophets; the theologians invariably mess it up. Indeed, it is precisely because the latter are without spiritual understanding – theology taking the place of revelation – that the original apostolic doctrine was lost, and something other, as plucked from a hat, put in its place. While biblical restoration is necessarily ongoing, it has bypassed the great denominations – denominations which, while superficially reformed, are in essence still oriented toward Babylon. For it was typically centuries ago that they underwent reformation, and with the understanding of that bygone era. As to the new manna which falls afresh in every age, this they cannot receive, given their organisational inertia and constraint. This is especially so in our age. For the glacial pace of institutional transformation can in nowise cope with the quantum leaps of revelation as obtain within the spiritual church – the church of the freeborn, which is after the revealed Word of God. Thus we need not wonder at the ‘protestants’ who loudly decry the Roman apostasy of bygone centuries, while enthusiastically conjoining with the very same system today. What they fail to see is that religious organisation as such constitutes the biblical antichrist – an hierarchical structure with a global headquarters and universal directives issuing from mere man – in scripture (2 Thessalonians 2), the man of sin. Evidently they never did ‘come out of Babylon’ (as per Revelation 18:4), for they are eager to return to her – these Christian organisations – effectively, to join in a worldwide ecumenical mega-organisation, inclusive of all persuasions – the which, in biblical language, constitutes but the binding of the tares, prior to the burning of Sodom. That this ‘binding’ can only occur at the cost of language, of dialogue and discourse, this is evidently considered a small price for ostensible unity. Yet is this unity but the contrivance of Babel, which is the original seed of chaos and disorder, for, as we note in Genesis 11, language, as such, became abrogate. Thus the churches are demonstrating who or what, in truth, they recognise as their spiritual Mother and Father. It is not Jerusalem, the peaceful reign of God, but Mystery Babylon, the mother of harlots and abominations. It is not the transcendent Spirit of God, but an intellectual system of speculative theology. While these two spiritual seeds grow in the same field, their trajectory and ultimate destiny are quite at variance. In the adumbration of the end-times, as both are coming to their respective head, both revert to their original type. The church of Jerusalem conforms to the Word of God by the Spirit of God – by which indeed it came to spiritual birth. Meanwhile the church of Babylon conforms to the organisational head, by which it came to birth, in ecumenical global union. The spiritual bride, in other words, is becoming one with her spiritual groom, the Lord Jesus Christ, while the false worldly church has her union with Satan and the spirit of antichrist. A separation is occurring as the spiritual life is concentrating in the grain – in the actual seed – while the husk and stalk are spiritually dying. We see this latter in that the churches are fast repudiating the authentic gospel in favour of a speculative mystical humanism. Effectively, they have substituted the biblical rock of divine revelation for the morass of opinion. While thus the godly spiritual temple of the ‘New Jerusalem’ is all but complete, Christ being the head and chief cornerstone, the theological builders of this present world are increasingly saying, um ... it was all a mistake. Let us try again. Both, in the end, have their respective revival, and around the same time – the spiritual bride in a resurrection and rapture, wherein she meets her Lord in the air; the Church so-called in the aforesaid grand ecumenical union, the supposed precondition of universal peace. But what says the scripture (1 Thessalonians 5:3)? When they shall say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them ... and they shall not escape. Or, in the words of John the baptist, in speaking of the Christ, he will gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Thursday, November 9. 2017Dumb - Dumber - Modern Church
It is not enlightenment, intellectual emancipation and breadth of worldview, which is promoted by the churches, but informational thraldom, dependency and a narrow sectarianism. What we have seen in the course of the twentieth century is the concerted and relentless dumbing down of the Christian church.
Right knowledge brings emancipation. This has always been understood by repressive and controlling institutions, whether political or religious. Thus also it is with the institutions of organised Christendom, all of which serve one principal function, namely to securely keep their flock within their respective fold. It is not the boundless liberty in Christ, but the thraldom of religious bondage, which constitutes the experience of most confessed Christians. A religion, as we understand, denotes a binding or covering of the soul – as in response to human spiritual nakedness occasioned in the primordial fall. What the established churches offer, however, is not the grace garment of divine revelation, but the man-made covering of creedal theology. It is not to the invisible Christ that the church is yoked – meaning, its people – but rather to organisational structures and hierarchies. As a most striking example of this, and surely one of the most emphatic manifestations of the biblical antichrist in modern times, pope Francis recently declared a spiritual relationship with Christ, outside of the mediation of the Church, a dangerous thing. The attitude is endemic within organised religion, and we are unsurprised to learn that his institutional predecessors, employed despotic means of keeping the Bible from the common people. As decreed by the Council of Toulouse, 1229: ‘We prohibit also that the laity should be permitted to have the books of the Old or New Testament; but we most strictly forbid their having any translation of these books.’ William Tyndale, who in 1536 was burned at the stake for translating the Bible into English, well understood the applicable rationale, stating: ‘The Church disallows owning or reading of the Bible in order to control the teachings and to enhance its own power and importance.’ This occurred in an age wherein discourse or information actually made a difference – to individuals, as to the course of nations – and indeed the newly invented printing press and resultant Gutenberg Bible contributed in significant measure to the overthrow of a tyrannical world order. While the strategies of control are perhaps more subtle today, given the wealth of information in the public domain, they are no less effective. For even today, upon centuries of religious retardation, congregations everywhere display the tight leash of informationally closed systems – and this not only within the Roman ‘mother organisation’, but all religious organisation. Within this context of institutional control, however, it is impossible for the authentic faith to flourish. On the contrary, religious culture and tradition has done more than any other force in history to dissuade the wider public from the Christian Bible as the revealed Word of God. And although the people are exiting these systems in droves, intuitively recognising their spiritual bankruptcy, the exodus is rarely for the biblical green pastures of transcendent revelation. Indeed it is ranking clergy, typically among the first to recognise the absurdity of their position, which are leading the exodus from biblical verity into universalism, liberalism and religious eclecticism. Thus, by curious irony of historic reversal, it is the very dogmatists who formerly burned their fellows at the stake – their institutional successors, to be precise – who are now proclaiming, oh, it was all a mistake. Let us seek a more nuanced reading! In short, it is not spiritual or intellectual maturity which is encouraged within the churches; it is not independence of thought or critical engagement across paradigm lines. The pervasive culture, rather, is one of intellectual infantilism, the spoon-feeding of a mealy-mouthed creedalism, in many cases reducible to the fundamentalism of mere semantic formulations – which is to say, to the idolatrous worship of empty words. Indeed the phenomenon may be observed throughout the wider culture. Within this new fundamentalism, this regression to magical modes of thought, it is words as such – not meaning or intent – which are deemed decisive. Within our postmodern conversational wasteland then, it is not so much the formal creed, but rather the constraint of political correctness which constitutes the intellectual straightjacket. The result is a new semantic tribalism, of mutually exclusive in-groups employing the ‘correct’ terminology. Within the Christian context it bespeaks a faith of cultural, rather than spiritual, determinants – and a spiritual body divided along cultural lines. Indeed, resulting from this spiritual and intellectual infantilism is a Christian faith which is hardly worthy of that name. As in the case of overprotective childrearing, the modern Christian is typically insecure and unable to make his way in the world of ideas. Far from being established, confident and secure, upon the rock of revelation, we find such Christians vulnerable to even the flimsiest of critiques. Did we not hear of actual deconversions from the faith, occasioned by outings of the so-called new atheism – intellectually vacuous diatribes as Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion (2006), and Christopher Hitchens’ God Is Not Great (2007). And although a number of Christian apologists rose to respond, it was perceptive agnostics who, in no small measure, helped to redress the intellectual balance. As observed Princeton philosopher, David Berlinski, concerning atheism as the intellectual default within the modern secular West, it is an unthinking position ... atheists are typically flabbergasted to learn that their beliefs are paper-thin and their arguments generally puerile. Or, as the literary theorist, Terry Eagleton, in his 2010 Gifford Lectures, irreverently quipped concerning the phenomenon – they (the etiolated modern church) got the Ditchkins they deserve. Yet most churchgoers do not even come anywhere near reading Hitchens or Dawkins. The culture, as stated, is of finality and intellectually closure. While there are exceptions, popular Christianity is replete with warnings of the dire consequences – nay, the terrible dangers – of exposure to the ‘wrong’ kind of literature. Here it is not so much secularism which is deemed the great threat, but rather religious eclecticism. A standing army of inquisitors has within its crosshairs not only the spiritually heterodox New Age, but nigh any religious position which might undermine an assumed spiritual orthodoxy. This also includes any Christian position which deviates from the purity of doctrine as held – only and exclusively, of course (!) – within the creed of one’s choice. Here it is surely a poignant irony that apologists for the respective doctrinal camps mutually undermine and negate each other’s position, fully rendering denominational Christianity the absurd spectacle which it is – which indeed it must be – in the eyes of a perceptive observer. If one wonders why the Christian world must plummet into ever increasing sectarianism, the answer appears abundantly clear. It is that the principle of transcendent verity has been replaced by theological revisionism, each school effectively claiming that they – and only they – have a correct understanding. Intellectual hubris is the norm, instead of godly humility in the face of the incommensurate. A unifying principle is lacking in the church because divine providence and revelation have been abandoned for human endeavour and understanding. And indeed, as regards sectarian splintering, we have seen nothing yet – namely as the information content in the public domain is increasing exponentially, individual minds becoming ever more diversified, individuated and mutually estranged. The institutional answer to this embarrassing situation, with the grand idea of unity at all costs, is to abandon meaningful discourse altogether. This is the position at which the European church has arrived, and indeed it is the inevitable outcome whenever a rationalised humanism takes the place of the transcendent faith. As observed in my Apocalypse (see adjacent book offer), once the notion of the transcendent is discarded, the inevitable historic and cultural momentum conforms to the sequence – humanism (or romanticism), existentialism, nihilism. The spiritual and cultural nihilism of the European church is thus the final phase of a centuries-long process, and a harbinger of what is to come globally. The end of discourse – the dumbing down quite literally to the level of brute beasts – is thus, paradoxically, a long-term result of precisely that rational inquisition which was thought to bring intellectual emancipation (in the so-called Enlightenment) from what was deemed to be religious superstition. Today we understand that the precise opposite holds true. It was the cultural context of a profound Christian transcendentalism wherein – in Europe, and nowhere else – the scientific revolution took hold. Indeed we now understand that it is only in a context of a philosophical transcendentalism that rational intellect is able to flourish. In one of the most astonishing results of the twentieth century, this was demonstrated mathematically by the Princeton logician Kurt Gödel with his so-called incompleteness theorem. Briefly, this theorem states that in any formally consistent system there are axioms – or truths – which cannot be derived from within that system. One needs to transcend – to jump out of the system – in order to apprehend these truths. Conversely, it is a rationally ‘closed system’ which makes for intellectual entropy (or dumbing down), and ultimately leads to the nihilism which marks our cultural endgame. And thus we are able to conclude these less than illustrious remarks with an insight that is actually profound. Concurrently we have been able to unify our two seemingly disparate notions of creedal denominationalism and a religious dumbing down, showing how the former actually determines the latter. Thursday, November 9. 2017The End Of The Christian Gospel
Behold, the days come, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. Amos 8:11
So wrote the prophet Amos concerning Israel during the reign of Uzziah, king of Judah around 700 BC. By analogy – the Old Testament foreshadowing the New – we may observe the same prophecy applicable in our day at the close of our gentile dispensation. The time would come, so the prophet, wherein the words of God could no longer be heard – wherein the Christian Gospel would no longer be proclaimed. Effectively, that time is now. It is not merely that traditional churches are closing throughout the Western world, but that the church itself, conceived as a single entity, has ceased to defend and champion the Christian Gospel – where by church is meant the visible institutional edifice of Christendom. Here, for instance, items from the program of the German Evangelical Summit, Berlin 2017 – 1. Gay, Lesbian, Trans ... The Multiplicity Of Sexual Orientation 2. Coming-Out Workshop For Lesbian Girls And Women 3. The Return Of Racial Thinking – Aryan Esotericism And The New Right 4. Focus Rainbow – For A Soft Revolution Of Language 5. Et Asks: Can You See Me? – On The Deliverance Of Martians Within its 576 pages, according to a commentator, a reference to Jesus Christ could not be found. And these, note well, are the evangelicals. As for the Roman church in Germany, the ethos of its educational and moral agenda describes an historic full circle with a return to the cultural values of ancient Rome in its decadent phase. The problem, however, is not merely the humanist subversion of Christendom, whereby it is spoken, concerning Europe, of a post-Christian society. There is an underlying reason why such wholesale subversion could at all take hold, effectively replacing the Christian gospel – and it is the spirit of organisation and religious denominationalism, whereby the faith becomes something static and ossified, dogmatically fixated and incapable of further growth. Historically, the applicable dynamic is well understood. Spiritual revival, such as periodically transforms the Christian experience, typically lasts three and a half years. Within that time a new organisational structure arises to reflect the newfound understanding. With organisation, however, the movement goes to seed, in a manner of speaking, and stagnation supervenes. The organisational corpse may linger though the centuries, but it is spiritually dead – incapable of renewal, as of bringing souls to spiritual birth. The human response upon revival is to become fixated and proprietary – we have it now, so let us form an organisation, with ourselves as the head, and we will rule the kingdom – something of that order. Human administration takes the place of the Holy Spirit, and the spiritual body, now incapable of receiving new information (further revival), ceases to grow, to mature and develop, and so – necessarily, inexorably – inclines unto death. When Martin Luther, for instance, overthrew the hold of the medieval papacy with the truth of justification by faith, many in that age were justified by the faith of God. But when John Wesley taught the further truth of sanctification, many Lutherans could not receive it. Similarly, and it turn, when modern Pentecost arose with the restoration of the spiritual gifts, the Wesleyans could not receive it. Which brings us to our present age and – significantly – as the Word of God is being restored in fullness, institutional Pentecost is unable to receive it, leaving it – the denomination – the empty husk it is today. The tension within organised Christendom today is thus between a secular, liberal humanism on the one hand, and an archaic doctrinal formalism on the other – and neither holds a prospect of salvation for the enquiring soul. However it is not merely the traditional mega-organisations, but also many of the so-called independents, which cling to their non-biblical doctrines with the tenacity of an octopus holding its prey. Like their organisational counterpart, they reserve their pulpit for teachers with a liberal-arts understanding of the Christian gospel – gentle Jesus meek and mild, born in a manger, and ah ... Mama, how does the rest of it go? – in other words, two years of Bible school and not a clue concerning the faith as once delivered to the saints. Yet the depth of historic subversion within the Christian tradition seems a matter nigh inconceivable to the greater confessional body within the churches. The Christian experience – or rather, the lack thereof – is quietly taken for granted – along with the Nicene creed, the Westminster confession, or whatever the preferred theological figleaf. While mere doctrinal confession might have availed in the dim twilight of the reformed traditions, now that the apocalyptic seven seals have been opened, the insufficiency is everywhere apparent. Here, moreover, we see the fulfilment of Matthew 13, from him that has not shall be taken that which he has ... or what he thought he had. Popes, bishops and ministers of whatever persuasion, seeing that the emperor indeed is naked, are of themselves relinquishing the hybrid contrivance of reformation theology – typically to reinvent the faith in the context of post-modern relativism. Their congregations, the while, seeing that the larder indeed is bare, are staging a mass exodus, usually for the greener pastures within some form of spiritually heterodox universalism. What is the reason for this universal failure to appropriate the genuine biblical faith? It is not the Word of God which has failed – God’s eternal provision, divinely destined to accomplish its purpose. It is rather that, almost from the beginning, the revealed Word has been ill esteemed by those who, in the words of Paul, received not the love for the truth – rulers and ecclesiasts who, historically, valued their own ideas, their creeds and traditions, above the revealed Word of God. Without revelation of the spiritual logos, however, spiritual understanding cannot arise, and thus also no authentic biblical faith. The universal erosion in our age of the ostensible or apparent faith – that species of make-belief which passes for faith – shows that it was but a pale simulation of the authentic biblical faith. As stated, a creedal or confessional faith was viable in the spiritual outer courts of bygone ages. Now that we are bidden, however – through restorative biblical revelation – to enter the Most Holy, the faith of the reformation fathers must inevitably fail. Of course there are those – in scripture, the spiritual bride of Christ – who, by divine foreknowledge, are predestined to apprehend the revelation of this age, and thus the full redemptive efficacy of the Word of God. For these blessed souls the revealed Word of God – which the modern churches all but deny – will produce a resurrection and a rapture. May we, therefore, who earnestly contemplate these truths, be part of that small universal body. Sunday, June 25. 2017Falling Away
... that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed ... 2 Thessalonians 2:3
There is a pervasive idea within Christendom of universal religious revival as prior to, and ushering in, of the kingdom of God. This, however, is contrary to the testimony of prophetic scripture. Before the end of all temporal things, so the apostle Paul, there shall be a falling away from the faith, and a revealing of that man of sin ... and so of the grand apostasy which, historically, lies at the root of organised religion. Today there is no longer any question about this – the facts are readily apparent to even the most casual observer. It is not merely that the churches have progressively emptied, such that it is spoken – concerning nations which formerly were Christian – of a post-Christian society. But the churches themselves, in their organisational hierarchies, have turned their back on the Christ of the Bible, and embraced another. Naturally, this is most evident among the less reformed institutions of the so-called high church, which never went very far with spiritual / biblical restoration in the first place. These were the first to ‘go to seed’ – or revert to type – in manifesting their antichrist agenda. However, the rest of them – the institutional denominations of greater Christendom – are not far behind. Having missed the revival of the bride of Christ, there is nothing else for them but to return to Mother – in scripture, the whore of Babylon. We recall from the Revelation of John that this entity was deemed a mother of harlots. To the spiritual mind all this is self-evident. The church, or churches, in question have abandoned their transcendent biblical charter for an agenda which is social, cultural and even political in nature. Not the perfecting of the saints, but gender politics, minority rights, social justice, inclusiveness and universal ecumenism – such, today, are the programs about which our befrocked clergy wax passionate. While these latter said programs stand or fall on their own miniscule merits, they are at best marginal to the divine revelation, namely insofar as this present world is concerned. Christ, indeed, excoriated the said pharisees (the type is perennial) for majoring in trifles, while omitting the weighty matters of eternal judgement, mercy and faith. The modern church, accordingly, has become a traitor to Christ. It is imbued with the Judas-spirit, and Christ is crucified again in our age upon the cross of universal ecumenism. As for revival, the church of this world must, and will, of course, have its revival – namely such revival as to be lauded in news headlines and celebrated with universal fanfare, as the diversity of religious persuasions eventually join together in worldwide ecumenical unity. In this way, so the broader globalist agenda, peace will be brought to a troubled planet. Such, indeed, is the belief – for, as we read in 2 Thessalonians, because they received not the love of the truth, God (God no less!) shall send them strong delusion that they might believe a lie. And (1 Thessalonians 5:3) when they shall proclaim peace and safety, then sudden destruction shall come upon them ... and they shall not escape. A further key is found in 1 John, where it is said of the antichrist (and antichrists – plural) that they went out from us (Christian believers) because they were not of us ... that they might be made manifest, that they were not of us. In other words, and with specific regard to the denominations of organised Christendom, they became what they are today – namely antichrist to the core – because they were not Christian (which is to say, biblical) in the first place. This did not matter greatly in ages past – through the seven church ages – wherein spiritual truth was obscured, and God could require no more from the untutored masses than a general confession in some ecclesiastical creed. Now, that the mysteries of God are revealed in the opening of the seven seals, the spiritual requirement is for truth. Christians, in this age, are such as know their God. This, however, the churches of this world cannot receive, showing that, as per our scripture, they never possessed what they had originally claimed. Another way of stating these spiritual principles involves the symbolism of the biblical seed. We say that the spiritual life is increasingly concentrating in the spiritual seed – in the seed proper, as distinct from the chaff. We behold, in other words, the spiritual investiture and the invisible, mystical union of the bride of Christ – even as the religious denominations are relinquishing their spiritual birthright for the chaos and confusion that is Babel. Ancient Babel, we recall, constitutes the biblical archetype of a contrived and forcible unity in the face of conflicting religious and ideological currents. We see this in the ancient world under Nimrod; we see it in the classical world under Roman emperor Constantine; and we see it again under the aegis of the end-time antichrist. Scripture, of course, counters with the simple rhetorical question (Amos 3:3) – Can two walk together, except they be agreed? I therefore say to the priests in robes, to those who reject the Word of God for ideals however grand and lofty – your spiritual authority is at an end. Your divine investiture is taken from you – and the more so as it was never yours in the first place. Your spiritual bankruptcy is evident to those with eyes to see, even as your agenda strains for apotheosis over the shambles of a broken world. Wednesday, March 15. 2017On The Unity Of The Faith
Of one mind and one heart, of one accord – thus is described the unity of the faith as enjoyed by the early Christian church. Such, indeed, is the ideal set forth in the scriptures for the body of believers. If, according to scripture, that body is subject to one head (which is Christ), it follows that it would quite naturally be of one mind. Moreover, as it was in the beginning of the church, according to the apostle Paul, so also will it be in the end, at the coming of Christ.
Yet how unlike this biblical ideal is our contemporary experience, seeing that the Christian community is broken up into thousands of organisations, each with its own doctrinal edifice. Let us be clear about this. It is because they do not agree among themselves, that they are thus divided. And it is not merely the broad confessional streams, which are at mutual odds. When we do a little probing, we find – even within the same pew – as many ideas, opinions, persuasions and doctrines, as there are individual souls. A unity of the faith ... the notion is preposterous. Confusion reigns among the churches – and, in truth, we have seen nothing yet. Given our information age – the phenomenal increase of information within the public domain – inevitably, the situation will only intensify, as the global mind of humanity is becoming ever more diversified, partisan and mutually estranged. Far from anything like transcendent oneness, the outlook today is towards hitherto unprecedented – indeed unimagined – fragmentation of worldview and belief. Essentially, the process is one of analysis, as groups and individuals are becoming increasingly exclusionary in their respective self-definition – factions splintering into yet further factions, in a relentless spiral into chaos. As W. B. Yeats, in his Second Coming, was prescient to observe: ‘things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world’. For the organisational entities of this world – religious and political – this is a problem. For how does one control the thinking of a populace let loose upon the internet? Or, for that matter, of a congregation let loose upon the Christian Bible – that strangest of books, diverse in viewpoint, subtly nuanced and profoundly mystical? The task, in a word, is impossible. Which is why information control – the limiting and manipulating of information – has ever been the preferred strategy – by the church, as by the state. Ecclesiastical examples indeed abound – from self-imposed monasticism, from tribunals and inquisitions, to modern fundamentalism and so-called discernment ministries. While, in the secular realm, there looms the ever-present threat of censorship and a state-controlled media. However, the principal weapon of control – religious as well as political – is the creed, the prescribed code of speech. We may not all think alike, it is conceded, but we may all be coerced into some form of collective creedal lip service. Hail the emperor or loose your head! Adhere to the creed or be counted a heretic! Yet, emphatically, this coercive model is contrary to the spirit of Christ, even as it is repugnant to the human or humane sensibility. The matter, indeed, is of profoundest spiritual significance. For our Bible cannot be reduced to a creed without severely compromising its transcendent charter – even as our universe cannot be reduced to a rational scientific model. For both – nature as well as scripture – bear the imprint of transcendence, such that violence is inevitably done to the sacred canon of life when subjected to a reductionist inquisition. When divorced, moreover, from authentic experience, language turns to gibberish, as human beings become progressively estranged – from one another as indeed from themselves. And whether we speak of secular ideology or the religious creed, once given the destruction of affective language, the historic outcome is is inevitable. It is the destruction alike of value and meaning, of nature as of wholesome culture. In scripture the applicable model is the legendary tower of Babel, its associated narratives combining all the essential elements. There is the spectre of forcible unity in the guise of the Babylonian empire, a Promethean project to assault the heavens, and the resultant confusion of language, which led to cultural and ethnic dispersion. Further biblical types include the Babylon described in the book of Daniel and, in the Revelation, the so-called beast, the image to the beast, and again the spectre of Mystery Babylon. The city of Babylon is thus recurrent throughout scripture as the archetypal incarnation of religious and political oppression. As such it is further identified with the biblical antichrist, which, in its prophetic end-time elaboration, becomes a global phenomenon. There does exist, of course, a true and godly unity of the faith, as acknowledged by biblical writers, and it flows from the spirit of unity, which is to say, from the Holy Spirit of God. It is occasioned – this godly unity – not by forcible constraint, but by interior regeneration of a spiritual birth. Jesus, in conversation with Hebrew scholar Nicodemus, stated (John 3:7-8), Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. In other words, the wind blows where it wills – you hear its sound, but you cannot determine its course – and so is everyone born of the spirit. And here we encounter paradox, in that the spiritual birth and Holy Spirit agency is altogether beyond human understanding and control. From an organisational standpoint this sounds like a recipe for chaos. Yet it is God’s way; it is the Bible way – and, indeed, it is the only way of achieving true and lasting unity. Concerning organised religion and the institutional church, therefore, we see that these represent not merely something other, but something entirely opposed, to the ways and works of the Spirit of God. Wherefore also the Spirit and Word of God was banished from the historic church (at the original council of Nicea, to be precise) – namely as Christian communities succumbed to organisational politics, and creedal lip service became the token of inclusion, replacing the divine seal or token of the spiritual birth. And to this day we are witness to the spiritual confusion, to say nothing of the material misery, which this agenda has caused through schisms, wars, inquisitions and pogroms. Denominational apologists, the while, assert that without ‘organisation’ there would be chaos and the 'mere anarchy' lamented of Yeats, and, historically, there is some truth to this. Religious organisation, in the typology of the spiritual seed, represents the stalk, tassel and husk. Its function is to protect and nourish the seed until it (the seed) comes to maturity. Accordingly, through most of Christian history the two systems here contrasted were inextricably conjoined. Eventually, however, the seed pulls away from its organisational matrix; the life of the Spirit becomes concentrated in the seed, leaving the stalk, etc, to wither and die. Here we may recall the cry of the baptist (Mathew 3:12), that he (the Christ of God) will gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. As it was in the beginning, therefore, when the original church set out under the investiture of the Holy Spirit, so will it be in the consummation, when the seed attains to maturity and breaks free of organisational constraint – which, indeed, it must in order to accede to the biblical high calling in Christ. Organisational churchmen, who warn of mayhem and pandemonium if the Holy Spirit had free reign, are thus fixated on the religious past, and, in large measure, on the mess for which they themselves – or their forebears – are responsible. The type (broadly those of the cessation doctrine in some form) is referred to in scripture (Timothy 3:5) as having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. The apostle (Paul) thus foresaw the day, wherein the Holy Spirit would be set aside for committees, councils and conclaves – for state presbyters, archbishops and popes. Christ, as states Revelation 3:20, is outside of his church, knocking to gain entrance – and, indeed, the entire address to Laodicea is here of relevance. Self-assured and full of hubris, the modern church has need of Christ – not the other way around. The universal creator, as nature herself attests, surely has no need of human cunning. For, as molecular biology teaches us, there is more order and intelligence in a blade of grass than in the whole of human achievement. As the scriptures further state, a body hast thou prepared me – a body, an organism, possessing life – such is the divine investiture set forth in biblical scripture. Organisation, as I employ the term, is but its carnal imitation. It is devoid of life and, typically, the incarnation of disorder. An incommensurate gulf moreover portends between these respective systems – the human and the divine. Friday, July 1. 2016On Religious Universalism - Or, Why The World Is Catholic
Although the term ‘catholic’ is generally applied to the Church Of Rome, its literal meaning is universal, all-embracing, and including a wide variety of things. Immediately then we observe that the label Roman Catholic presents a contradiction, designating that which is both Roman and universal. But it is not my intent to make very much of this seeming oxymoron, other than to reflect that the designation (as of anything) which ‘sticks’ usually does so because it is appropriate.
Here my aim is to show that the Roman Catholic Church does indeed deserve the appellation ‘universal’ – namely in the sense of Revelation 13:8 – And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The reference is to the apocalyptic ‘beast’, a religious and political entity which constitutes the biblical antichrist. In an universal apostatising, a falling-away from the original faith, so our Holy Bible, the entire world shall worship the beast. Let us start with the designation Roman. Rome, the ancient Roman empire of the Bible, denotes paganism, a universal and syncretic polytheism. It is cosmopolitan, pluralistic and culturally diverse in its charter. The Romans were the materialist of the ancient world – after Democritus and the Greek atomists – with a consummate cynicism regarding their derivative deities. So, likewise, the gospel of Mark, the simplest and most prosaic of the gospel narratives, is appropriately deemed the gospel to the Romans – that is, to the essentially carnal mind of philosophical naturalism. This is not to imply that ‘Romans’ (or modern-day Romanists) cannot respond to the gospel and thus be saved in the biblical sense; the indication, merely, is of a secular paradigm which constitutes the far opposite of the mystical transcendentalism which characterises holy scripture. In other words, the Roman in Roman Catholicism correlates with the said philosophy of materialism, with its essential focus upon worldly power and influence. Rome, in biblical symbolism, thus represents the carnal or intellectual understanding of the gospel, which symbolism fittingly describes the pertinent niche of man-made theology and cobbled creeds – the food sacrificed to idols, as referenced in scripture. It is the spiritual veil of worldly understanding, whereby humanity is shut out from the light of divine salvation. As Jesus addressed this mindset in Mathew 23, But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither enter in yourselves, nor suffer those who are entering therein. Instead of sanctifying grace as revealed in the blood atonement, the emphasis is on ‘works’ and thus on human failing in the face of that insurmountable chasm between the actual and the vaunted ideal. The Nicene creed, the mystical asceticism of the Desert Fathers and Christian monastics became the foundation for a hybrid faith devoid of spiritual efficacy. Roman Catholicism, for this reason, cannot cope with the Christian Bible, forbidding its use, or subjecting it to carnal recensions, to interpretive creedal redactions, in accord with an eclectic universalism and with the fanciful ideas, as plucked from a papal tiara, of its sovereigns. The result is a contrived religious mythology which accords with the religious folklore and superstitions of the world at large. And it is in this sense, furthermore, that the Roman Church is catholic – which is to say, universal. The biblical scriptures, in keeping with a universal religious legalism, are reduced to an ethical and moral prescription, wherein salvation is contingent upon human merit. This, of course, corresponds with the popular idea of ‘church’ or ‘religion’ whereby the world is kept in the outer courts of religious ambivalence and equivocation – of mystical glamour, spiritual confusion and outright deception. Ethics and morality constitute the obsession of the religious outer courts. Religionists and secularists, atheists and agnostics – all are religious in the essential sense of a moral binding or covering of the soul (Adam’s fig leaf as the biblical archetype of contrived religion). We’re as good as anyone else and we don’t need ... we all have heard this kind of thing. All, in other words, hold to a creed of some kind. We have already noted how the creeds of Christendom reduce the Word of God to a formula, and the religious life to obsequious lip service. Yet nowhere is this more evident than in the greater public sphere with its emphasis on political correctness. A linguistic inquisition (in sum: avoid the seven words taboo) has become the hallmark of moral ascendancy. Meaning is abrogate – it is form that matters, such that language is reduced to gibberish, and discourse come to an end, in keeping with the symbolic type of the biblical tower of Babel. We observe, in effect, the continuity between the perfunctory lip-service of false religion and the similarly perfunctory linguistic formulations of political correctness. And thus apparent is the essential congruity between universal religious sensibility and the mindset of that entity designated Mystery Babylon, the Mother of Whores and Abominations of the Earth. |
QuicksearchArchivesCategoriesCalendar
Syndicate This BlogArkangelArkangel is the weblog of writer Harald Kleemann, specifically regarding his work on biblical Christianity. Readers’ comments are naturally their own and their appearing on this site should not be taken to signify approbation by Arkangel, which is to say, its author. The same applies to linked material offsite, which should be taken on its own merits.
Readers may note that comments and trackbacks are not presently enabled. |