Chapter 5 from “The fall of Christendom.” Is God calling His remnant out of the established church?
Posted by appolus on October 6, 2019
Is God is calling His Remnant out of the established church?
“Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your
God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end then you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.” (Deut 8:11-17)
For students of the Bible, the concept of the wilderness should be most familiar. Abraham left his homeland and family to venture forth into an unknown land of promise. Moses left the palatial comforts of Egypt to dwell among the rocks and wild beasts. The tribes of Israel wandered 40 years in the wilderness prior to occupying the land of Canaan. Job lost everything that He might glimpse the Eternal One at the edge of the valley of death. David fled from Saul and spent years eluding him in the pathless wilderness. Most, if not all of the Lord’s holy and faithful prophets abandoned all they knew and loved to live alone with the Lord in His company and care. John the Baptist conducted his prophetic ministry as one “crying in the wilderness.”
Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness forty days and forty nights, tempted of the devil and ministered to by angels. The Apostle Paul spent much of His life and ministry imprisoned, isolated, imperiled and alone. And the woman of Revelations 12 is sheltered and nourished in the wilderness immediately prior to our Lord’s return to this earth. My friends, this wilderness theme runs all through the Scriptures, and through the varied lives and experience of God’s children. It has always been an essential concept to be grasped, yet I believe this may be more true today. It is vital that we understand what it teaches us about how our Heavenly Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit bring us to true faithfulness and blessing.
Now the concept of the wilderness as it affects others is one thing – yet the actual experience of the wilderness as it impacts our own life and faith is quite another. It is a very intimate matter you see, challenging everything we think we know about God and the Christian life, the church and community, the actual and the superficial. It is wrought with difficult questions and seemingly few answers. It is typically invested with profound emotion, loneliness and even confusion. And it is more of a valley than a mountain-top, with again, seemingly little evidence that heaven is still there, and that Our Lord is still caring for His sheep.
To understand the wilderness we must go deeper and further into the very heart and mind of our Heavenly Father, as He loves and nurtures His children. We must look beyond our teachers and books, for they, by and large, don’t really understand it. We must divest ourselves of any fluffy religious notions that really don’t get to the heart of a man or what really happened in that garden. We must also resist the theological urge to generalize and systematize, as God’s wilderness is as varied as His people, and as unlimited as His vast, creative mind.
We are addressing this topic generally, in order that we might understand it better. We are also more specifically hoping to edify and encourage those who like ourselves, find themselves outside and apart from the traditional church organization, having left it behind in order to more perfectly hear and follow the Lord.
The Exodus from the Organized Church
Today we are witnessing an interesting phenomenon where many – God knows the numbers – are leaving the relative structure and security of organized churches, denominations and memberships, to follow hard after their God, to a wilderness of sorts, a strange and unfamiliar place little understood by establishment Christianity. Perhaps the Lord is calling His remnant to Himself in simplicity and purity at the end of this age? Perhaps the prophetic ministry from outside the walls has begun, or at the very least is being perpetuated at this time?
Perhaps a time of final testing for the church and Israel is poised to begin? Whatever the ultimate reason, many are coming out, and almost immediately they will need to adapt to this new and strange environment where the Lord alone is all that they have. It is quite common to hear the following sentiments today from God’s people “The glory of God has left my church.” “Jesus is no longer at the center of our fellowship!” “My church has aligned itself with the ways of man and the world.”
“My church functions more like a club, than an expression of the life of Jesus Christ!” “The Holy Spirit has gone out of the church.” “The church is of the world and the world is in the church.” Indeed, the world has infiltrated the church to such a degree, and corruption has become so rampant and pervasive that it is practically impossible to keep abreast of all of the apostasy and defilement within. By much spiritual evidence and observation, the ‘church on the corner’ is either dying or already dead. This is obvious and apparent to any with eyes to see, to those with true spiritual insight.
Only those with a vested and carnal interest in perpetuating the corpse, and holding it up with strings will deny this. True spiritual discernment speaks otherwise however. A.W. Tozer and Leonard Ravenhill, for example, 20-40 years back can still be heard on creaky recordings woefully proclaiming the life of God pouring out of contemporary Christianity. Theirs were the prophetic forewarnings from within, all decrying the forces marshaled against the historic church – materialism, humanism, pragmatism, psychology, modern marketing, etc.
Then, such corruptive forces were pressing at the edges; today they are rooted into the very fiber of institutional Christianity, across all lines, divisions and denominations. Those who would weep the tears of our Lord are indeed weeping, with great heaviness of spirit and heart.
“Come out of her my people!” is the message of the hour! Come out of her, lest you share in her sins! But to where and to what – this is the question of the hour? Quite often when the Lord draws us out of something and back to Himself, we are led by way of the wilderness. It is this wilderness that concerns us here, and by His grace we will endeavor to more completely comprehend it.
A Call To The Remnant 
Prayergate said
Well, Brother, you NAILED that one! 🙂
appolus said
I wish I did 🙂 It was another brother who wrote chapters 5,6 and 7 of my book. ……………………bro Frank
ps, I will publish the next two chapters in the next couple of days.
indywatchman said
Sometimes it is easy to think you are all alone but when I hear of the travels of others, like myself, I know there is a fellowship of spirits and it is refreshing.
David Bolton said
Dear Bro. Frank, thank you for these timely, confirming thoughts. My wife and I have been in that company for the past 25 years and a good portion of that time has been in the “wilderness”. It is my deep conviction that surviving and even prospering in that new environment is dependent on the true motivations of our hearts for leaving the familiar and convenient environs of the institutional church. If we are running “from” something as “refugees”, we will most likely not last long in the wilderness and soon seek a new alternative to return to. If, however, we are running “towards” something as a “returning remnant”, we will have a vision that will sustain us and which God will honor and fulfill in His time. Our motivation must be on the positive ground of pursuing God’s full heart, intention, and thought for His people rather than the negative motivation of reacting to the deadness, compromise, and error of what we are presently involved in. It is important that we search our hearts for “why” if we are in that place of wondering, “Should I stay or should I go?” 🙂 Just some thoughts, if they are helpful to the conversation.
Blessings, David
appolus said
These are such excellent thoughts brother, with your permission I will copy and paste them and share them on my facebook page…………………bro Frank
David Bolton said
Permission granted. All blessings, brother!
David Bolton said
Bro. Frank, I’ve been reading the comments/discussion on FB and it seems to be some healthy dialogue there. If it’s helpful to you and your followers here or on FB, I wrote a series on my blog that digs in deeper on this subject. It’s called, “Rebels, Refugees, and a Returning Remnant”. The link is here if you’re interested or think it’s worth passing on to the FB crowd http://christcenteredchristianity.com/2016/12/06/rebels-refugees-and-a-returning-remnant-by-david-bolton/
Blessings, David
appolus said
Thank you brother I will check it out………………..bro Frank
indywatchman said
David,
There is a growing number of Christians coming out of Christendom to Christ; my wife and I came out about ten years ago. When I first started having questions about whether to leave or not I asked a friend, who had come out and was having house-Church meetings, if I should leave. His answer was very good but alarming. He told me that if I was being faithful to Jesus and sharing the Light I had discovered that it would not be long before I would be asked to leave and shown the door. His advice was prophetic and it wasn’t long before I was asked to leave because I was viewed as being “divisive”. Just as the Anabaptists were considered “radical,” along with every Christ-follower since the first Radical, “Jesus,” so Christians today will be considered radical when they get their message right. The word “radical” is not being used here in the rebellious sense of the word but rather in the sense of getting back to the foundational or core values of Jesus’ teaching.
David Bolton said
Dear brother, I agree with what you’ve shared and can relate to it oh so well. Often my counsel to people who are in the system but see it for what it is and are struggling with what to do is to stay if they can…until they can’t, for either internal or external reasons. Paul is a fairly good example in this as it was his pattern to preach the gospel in the synagogues first until he was forced out, and then to preach and meet outside the walls of the established system with those Jews who were converted, the Gentile “God-fearers”, and other Gentile converts. Our position, whether we stay or go, must always be in obedience to God though and for the sake of His Kingdom.
I fully understand your use of the word “radical” as well, and agree! “Radical” literally means that which goes to the “root” (Latin “radix” = “root”. i.e where “radish” comes from.) The Anabaptists went much deeper to the root of what needed reforming in the prevailing Roman Catholic and even emerging Protestant systems and so were hunted down and severely persecuted by both camps. And so the same principle continues to this day as that which is rooted in the ways, wisdom, and works of man according to the flesh comes in conflict which that which is rooted in the ways, wisdom, and works of God according to the Spirit.
Lastly, I hope to check out your blog and glean from the riches there!
All blessings in Christ!
David