Part05_Why

Revelation 2 and 3 contain messages addressed to the seven Churches of God. Jesus lets each of them know what He thinks of them. Some of the messages contain indictments of serious, Church-wide sins:

What compels us as we read these statements is not that there were sins among God's people, but that they were so widespread. For a Church to get to the point that only a few remained unspotted (Sardis) is shocking. Yet, there is no comment by Jesus Christ of disowning that group! By virtue of the fact that He writes the letter to them, He is saying that He still considers them His Church. He walks amidst the seven candlesticks (Rev. 1.13) and still holds the seven stars (symbolic of the seven Churches' messengers) in His hand (1.16). God's Church is not pure, sinless, and undefiled. His eventual bride will be, but in this imperfect phase of our lives, we should not excuse ourselves from an organization because we believe that widespread sin is evidence that God is not in that group.

"If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the flooding of the Jordan?" -Jeremiah 12.5

Is the Church a spiritual organism or a physical organization? Many have said that this issue is at the crux of the decision to stay in the Worldwide Church of God or to go out of it. How has God administered government? Does God work through human leaders, vesting them with authority on His behalf? What happens when those leaders sin?

Let's begin this inquiry by looking at perhaps the most egregious mistake a leader of God's is recorded to have made. When Moses went up on Mt. Sinai for about a month, it seemed to many that he was not coming back. The weak leader of the Church in the Wilderness at the time, Aaron, succumbed to pressure from others, and led the Church into apostasy. The account in Exodus 32 tells us that Aaron himself actually built the golden calf (v. 4)! It also says that Aaron proclaimed a false feast day to honor this false god (v.5).

During that period of debauchery, though, there were members of the remained faithful: when Moses returned to the camp, and said "Whoever is on the side of the Eternal, come to me," all the sons of Levi came to him (v.26). During the apostasy and ensuing immorality in Exodus 32, the sons of Levi had not left the camp of Israel, and the indication is that they kept themselves unspotted by the sins of their brothers and sisters.

They did not remove themselves from the Church when the leadership was leading people astray. They did not set up another man to lead them to the Promised Land when it was "obvious" that Moses was not coming back, and that God was leaving the successors of Moses up to their own devices. We can only speculate what was going through their minds during the trial, but we do know that they waited, and that God delivered them without their having to take matters into their own hands. Only at the point that they are delivered by God do we see God authorize them to take action to correct the problems (v. 27-29) --they had no authority to do that prior to Moses' return.

Numbers 16-l7 details a rebellion against two of God's leaders. In the rebellion of Korah and his Kronies, men of great reputation within the Church went to Moses and Aaron and demanded to be given equal responsibilities to God's chosen leaders (16.2). God answered this revolt swiftly by destroying the would-be usurpers--swallowing up their whole families, tents, and belongings (16.3l-33). [FN7 -- Simultaneous with this, God sent out fire to destroy 250 would-be elders who thought that they could be ministers on the same par with Aaron and his sons. Their well-intentioned Work was not acceptable to God (16:6-7,17-l9,35).]

Amazingly. God's devastating punishment did not end the grumbling in the congregation against Aaron's authority. So, God inspired Moses to initiate a demonstration of the person in whom God vested authority--just to show people that it wasn't Aaron who made himself God's leader in the Church. Rods were requested from each of the twelve tribes, and laid before the Ark (17.24). Overnight, God blessed only Aaron's rod, and in so doing, reaffirmed His authority in that man.

Now, this miracle is a remarkable demonstration of God's power, but it is made all the more incredible when we consider who this man was whom God confirmed as His leader in the Church. This is the same leader who had earlier led the Church into apostasy by proclaiming a false god. Yet, God powerfully endorsed Aaron's position of authority when other highly regarded men sought a share of the authority.

This vesting of authority was such an important lesson, in fact, that God commanded that the budding rod be put into the Ark for witness (Numbers 17.10). According to Hebrews 9.4, there are three objects in the Ark:

Those three issues are the fundamental pillars of God's relationship with us. They encompass how He wants us to live, how He feeds us, and how He leads us as a group.

We think often about the importance of God's Law and His Word, but how often do we consider the importance of His leading us through imperfect leaders? God works through his chosen vessels, and that person through whom He works need not be converted and need not preach the Truth. In fact, it is recorded just a few chapters prior to the Korah incident that Aaron found fault with Moses, and in his judgmental mood, began grumbling with Miriam, questioning whether Moses was really the exclusive vessel by whom God revealed His Word (12.1-2). In other words, he exhibited exactly the same rebellious spirit as his cousin, Korah!

The accounts of Aaron through the Books of Moses are rather unfavorable. He is not portrayed as a converted man! At best, we know he had big problems--he had made great mistakes that had resulted in widespread negative impact on the whole congregation. Yet he held the chief religious position in the Church. [FN8 It is ironic that the leader of the religious aspects of the nation was of such questionable repute. while the civil leader, Moses, was of such high character. That irony appears again in the discussion by Zechariah of the two witnesses' antitypes, Joshua and Zerubbabel, in Zechariah 3-4.]

We are to marry Jesus before His return to the Mount of Olives. In Revelation 19.7, we are told that there is one bride. This passage says that the bride "hath made herself ready". Herself, not themselves, we are told--we do not marry Him as individuals, but as a group. Anyone not a part of that woman who marries Christ is not going to marry Him.

An example of a group being characterized as one individual (in this case, also a woman) is in Revelation 12.17. Here we see Satan being prevented from attacking "the Woman" (spiritual Israel), but being allowed to attack "the remnant of her offspring", people who keep God's Law and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (elsewhere defined as the spirit of prophecy--Rev. 19.10). The offspring can only obey God's Law by the power of God's Spirit (Romans 8.7), so what we see are converted children of God who are outside the protection of the Woman.

The indication is that a portion of the Woman's offspring does not receive divine protection in the time of Satan's wrath, even though they are obedient to God's Law. Remember how the issues of God's Law. God's Word and God's governance are represented in the Ark by three different objects? There are three different issues here, and getting one straight does not mean that the others become irrelevant. Many get the Law and the Word of God straight, but in throwing out what God has taught us about His government, they have put themselves in jeopardy.

These brethren are offspring--they are from the Woman, but they are no longer in the Woman. Outside the woman, they still have God's Spirit, God explicitly states in Rev. 12.17 that they do not have the protection that He grants to those still "umbilically" attached to the Woman. It's a scary situation to consider. As mentioned earlier, in the time of Judah's fall to Babylon, God predicted a similar physical danger for those who refused to accept the captivity of the conquering Babylonian ruler (Jeremiah 24.9-10).

According to I Corinthians 12.12,25, the Church is to be one body whose members are fused together and contributing to one another's strength. The splinter groups, by virtue of their definition, do not have that relationship across their various organizations. If they represent the Body of Christ, it is a body that has been ripped limb from limb. The various groups are separate because they cannot rally together towards common purposes, which is how Paul describes the Body in 1 Cor. 12. The separating of efforts continues to this very day.



	Why Stay -- Part Five "Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle." -- II Thess. 2:15 More Advice from Jesus Christ Revelation 2 and 3 contain messages addressed to the seven Churches of God. Jesus lets each of them know what He thinks of them. Some of the messages contain indictments of serious, Church-wide sins: ° Pergamos allowed members to hold the false doctrines of Balaam (idolatry mingled with sexual immorality) and the Nicolaitans ° Thyatira allowed a Jezebel-type false prophet to sway members to sin ° There were only a few families in the whole Sardis Church whose garments remained undefiled What compels us as we read these statements is not that there were sins among God's people, but that they were so widespread. For a Church to get to the point that only a few remained unspotted (Sardis) is shocking. Yet, there is no comment by Jesus Christ of disowning that group! By virtue of the fact that He writes the letter to them, He is saying that He still considers them His Church. He walks amidst the seven candlesticks (Rev. 1.13) and still holds the seven stars (symbolic of the seven Churches' messengers) in His hand (1.16). God's Church is not pure, sinless, and undefiled. His eventual bride will be, but in this imperfect phase of our lives, we should not excuse ourselves from an organization because we believe that widespread sin is evidence that God is not in that group. "If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the flooding of the Jordan?" -Jeremiah 12.5 II. AH, YES-GOVERNMENT AGAIN Is the Church a spiritual organism or a physical organization? Many have said that this issue is at the crux of the decision to stay in the Worldwide Church of God or to go out of it. How has God administered government? Does God work through human leaders, vesting them with authority on His behalf? What happens when those leaders sin? The Golden Calf Apostasy Let's begin this inquiry by looking at perhaps the most egregious mistake a leader of God's is recorded to have made. When Moses went up on Mt. Sinai for about a month, it seemed to many that he was not coming back. The weak leader of the Church in the Wilderness at the time, Aaron, succumbed to pressure from others, and led the Church into apostasy. The account in Exodus 32 tells us that Aaron himself actually built the golden calf (v. 4)! It also says that Aaron proclaimed a false feast day to honor this false god (v.5). During that period of debauchery, though, there were members of the remained faithful: when Moses returned to the camp, and said "Whoever is on the side of the Eternal, come to me," all the sons of Levi came to him (v.26). During the apostasy and ensuing immorality in Exodus 32, the sons of Levi had not left the camp of Israel, and the indication is that they kept themselves unspotted by the sins of their brothers and sisters. They did not remove themselves from the Church when the leadership was leading people astray. They did not set up another man to lead them to the Promised Land when it was "obvious" that Moses was not coming back, and that God was leaving the successors of Moses up to their own devices. We can only speculate what was going through their minds during the trial, but we do know that they waited, and that God delivered them without their having to take matters into their own hands. Only at the point that they are delivered by God do we see God authorize them to take action to correct the problems (v. 27-29) --they had no authority to do that prior to Moses' return. The Korah Incident Numbers 16-l7 details a rebellion against two of God's leaders. In the rebellion of Korah and his Kronies, men of great reputation within the Church went to Moses and Aaron and demanded to be given equal responsibilities to God's chosen leaders (16.2). God answered this revolt swiftly by destroying the would-be usurpers--swallowing up their whole families, tents, and belongings (16.3l-33). [FN7 -- Simultaneous with this, God sent out fire to destroy 250 would-be elders who thought that they could be ministers on the same par with Aaron and his sons. Their well-intentioned Work was not acceptable to God (16:6-7,17-l9,35).] Amazingly. God's devastating punishment did not end the grumbling in the congregation against Aaron's authority. So, God inspired Moses to initiate a demonstration of the person in whom God vested authority--just to show people that it wasn't Aaron who made himself God's leader in the Church. Rods were requested from each of the twelve tribes, and laid before the Ark (17.24). Overnight, God blessed only Aaron's rod, and in so doing, reaffirmed His authority in that man. Now, this miracle is a remarkable demonstration of God's power, but it is made all the more incredible when we consider who this man was whom God confirmed as His leader in the Church. This is the same leader who had earlier led the Church into apostasy by proclaiming a false god. Yet, God powerfully endorsed Aaron's position of authority when other highly regarded men sought a share of the authority. This vesting of authority was such an important lesson, in fact, that God commanded that the budding rod be put into the Ark for witness (Numbers 17.10). According to Hebrews 9.4, there are three objects in the Ark: 1. the tablets of the Testimony, which represent the eternal Law of God, 2. the manna, which represent God's written Word and the living Word, Jesus Christ (Matthew 4.4; John 6.49-58), and 3. Aaron's rod, which represents God's authority vested in (fallible) humans. Those three issues are the fundamental pillars of God's relationship with us. They encompass how He wants us to live, how He feeds us, and how He leads us as a group. We think often about the importance of God's Law and His Word, but how often do we consider the importance of His leading us through imperfect leaders? God works through his chosen vessels, and that person through whom He works need not be converted and need not preach the Truth. In fact, it is recorded just a few chapters prior to the Korah incident that Aaron found fault with Moses, and in his judgmental mood, began grumbling with Miriam, questioning whether Moses was really the exclusive vessel by whom God revealed His Word (12.1-2). In other words, he exhibited exactly the same rebellious spirit as his cousin, Korah! The accounts of Aaron through the Books of Moses are rather unfavorable. He is not portrayed as a converted man! At best, we know he had big problems--he had made great mistakes that had resulted in widespread negative impact on the whole congregation. Yet he held the chief religious position in the Church. [FN8 It is ironic that the leader of the religious aspects of the nation was of such questionable repute. while the civil leader, Moses, was of such high character. That irony appears again in the discussion by Zechariah of the two witnesses' antitypes, Joshua and Zerubbabel, in Zechariah 3-4.] One Body, One Bride, One Woman, One Mother We are to marry Jesus before His return to the Mount of Olives. In Revelation 19.7, we are told that there is one bride. This passage says that the bride "hath made herself ready". Herself, not themselves, we are told--we do not marry Him as individuals, but as a group. Anyone not a part of that woman who marries Christ is not going to marry Him. An example of a group being characterized as one individual (in this case, also a woman) is in Revelation 12.17. Here we see Satan being prevented from attacking "the Woman" (spiritual Israel), but being allowed to attack "the remnant of her offspring", people who keep God's Law and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (elsewhere defined as the spirit of prophecy--Rev. 19.10). The offspring can only obey God's Law by the power of God's Spirit (Romans 8.7), so what we see are converted children of God who are outside the protection of the Woman. The indication is that a portion of the Woman's offspring does not receive divine protection in the time of Satan's wrath, even though they are obedient to God's Law. Remember how the issues of God's Law. God's Word and God's governance are represented in the Ark by three different objects? There are three different issues here, and getting one straight does not mean that the others become irrelevant. Many get the Law and the Word of God straight, but in throwing out what God has taught us about His government, they have put themselves in jeopardy. These brethren are offspring--they are from the Woman, but they are no longer in the Woman. Outside the woman, they still have God's Spirit, God explicitly states in Rev. 12.17 that they do not have the protection that He grants to those still "umbilically" attached to the Woman. It's a scary situation to consider. As mentioned earlier, in the time of Judah's fall to Babylon, God predicted a similar physical danger for those who refused to accept the captivity of the conquering Babylonian ruler (Jeremiah 24.9-10). According to I Corinthians 12.12,25, the Church is to be one body whose members are fused together and contributing to one another's strength. The splinter groups, by virtue of their definition, do not have that relationship across their various organizations. If they represent the Body of Christ, it is a body that has been ripped limb from limb. The various groups are separate because they cannot rally together towards common purposes, which is how Paul describes the Body in 1 Cor. 12. The separating of efforts continues to this very day. <end of part 5> Click Here to Continue to Part 6