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"THE CHURCH SYSTEM"--MO 8/74 NO.332--GP
(Compiled by Samson Warner & MO Ed Dept.)

Copyrighted April, 1975 by The Children of God
P.O. Box 31, London WC2E 7XL, England or BP 752, 75123 Paris, Cedex 03, France

WHAT'S WRONG WITH IT

1. JESUS NEVER SAID TO BUILD CHURCH BUILDINGS. He said to "love God and others and put God's Kingdom first, and forsake all, go, preach the good news." 1

2. THE WORD "CHURCH" ITSELF COMES FROM THE GREEK WORD "ECCELESIA" AND LITERALLY MEANS THE "CALLED OUT ONES", or the "separate ones" the "set apart one"--or the dropouts! 2 "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing (the System); and I will receive you." 3

3. THE TRUE CHURCH ARE THE GENUINE CHRISTIAN BELIEVERS in God who follow Jesus--the born again, saved Body of Christ--not a building or a denomination or a religion.4 God gave Jesus "to be the head over... the Church, which is His Body." 5 So anyone who believes in Jesus is part of the Church! Anyone or anything else is not the Church! 6

4. WE DO NOT HATE THOSE WHO ARE NOT PART OF THE CHURCH, but we do hate the hypocrisy, self-righteousness, lies and deceitfulness of those who claim to be the Church but are not; and we hate the spiritual system of the Devil which is behind them.7

5. JESUS EVEN COMMENDED THE EPHESIAN CHURCH for this, saying, "this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans (false apostles), which I also hate." 8

6. I WAS SITTING IN "ANAHEIM DELUSION CENTER" (a big church building in California) and the Lord spoke as clearly to me as He ever had: "This is strong delusion!" Deceiving His people! 9

7. CHURCHIANITY IS EQUATED WITH GOD and the building with His service. 10 The delusion has become so strong that today the name "church" no longer means anything but a building! The name "Christian" no longer means anything either! It usually means just some kind of hypocritical, self-righteous church person who goes to that building on Sunday! 11

8. THE CHURCH TODAY BEARS NO MORE RESEMBLANCE TO JESUS AND HIS DISCIPLES AND EARLY CHRISTIANS THAN CAPITALISM DOES TO COMMUNISM.12 Yet the church says, "If you aren't going to church and following our way, then you're wrong." 13 How can they be so deceived? Because they rejected the Truth!

9. WHY DO THEY REJECT THE TRUTH? Because they're unwilling to pay the price! 14 "Because they received not the love of the truth... for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they might believe a lie." 15

10. THE MAIN LYING DELUSION behind the church system and the way of all false religions is that they are all dependent upon self--righteousness and their own way.16 Paul said about the Jews, the church system of his day, "They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness (through grace) and going about to establish their own righteousness (through religion) have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." 17

11. ALSO, THE CHURCHES HAVE NOT SHARED MUCH WITH THE POOR, but sucked and squeezed the last drop out of the poor to build their fancy cathedrals and idols and live in luxury.18

12. THE COMMUNISTS ARE ONLY TOO RIGHT WHEN THEY SAY THAT RELIGION IS THE OPIATE OF THE PEOPLE. The kind of religion they have seen is exactly that--a horrible drug which puts them to sleep, makes them oblivious to the conditions around them, and lethargic and senseless to the needs of mankind.

13. BUT THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM LIKES IT THIS WAY, since they can control their people better in this stupor. And the government prefers it this way, since they don't know any better anyhow, and the religious system keeps them in power.

14. BUT THE PITIFUL PART ABOUT IT IS THIS: That God says, "even My people love to have it so." The vast majority of Christians prefer it that way, pampered infants, spoiled children.19

15. THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, IN A JUDGMENT UTTERED 2,500 YEARS AGO AGAINST WICKED ISRAEL, SEEMS TO PERFECTLY DESCRIBE THE CHURCH OF TODAY when God says through him: "Among My people are found wicked men... their houses (are) full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich, ... they judge not the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge...."

16. "THE PROPHETS PROPHESY FALSELY and the priests bear rule by their means: and My people love to have it so.... Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" 20

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE CHURCH SYSTEM?

17. THE CHURCHIANITY SYSTEM IS ALREADY DEAD, but their corpse lies upon the ground, neither lamented nor buried! The Communists will bury the dead, even Khrushchev said so, adding, "God is with us!" They'll bury the dead as we go on with Jesus.21 It won't be long before those buildings are going to be closed and pastors liquidated, services banned and Bibles burned! 22

18. THOSE GOD-DAMNED CHURCH BUILDINGS, AND THEY ARE GOD-DAMNED, WILL BE DESTROYED like the Temple was, and for the same reason: to get the Church's eyes off her buildings and back on the Lord! 23

19. FOR "THE MOST HIGH DWELLETH NOT IN TEMPLES MADE WITH HANDS 24...God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." 25 So "trust ye not in lying words saying the Temple of the Lord are these." 26

20. "FOR ISRAEL (THOSE WHO CLAIM TO BE GOD'S PEOPLE) HATH FORGOTTEN HIS MAKER, AND BUILDETH TEMPLES... but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof (those multi-million dollar churches)." 27

REVIVAL AND REFORMATION--WHY IT WON'T WORK

21. TOO MANY HAVE TRIED too many years to patch up the old.

22. THE TRULY GREAT REVOLUTIONARIES FROM NOAH TO CHRIST HAD TO TOTALLY DO AWAY WITH THE OLD AND START ANEW. 28

23. THE PHARISEES (THE EVANGELICALS OF JESUS' DAY) WOULD HAVE BEEN HAPPY TO SUBSIDISE JESUS and His great following if only He had been willing to work with them within the existing corrupt and rotten System of their hierarchy, and accept their name tag so that they could have gotten the credit for Him.

24. THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN HAPPY TO HAVE SHARED THE LIMELIGHT of His popularity and used His power to their own ends--even at the cost of a little reformation to appease the people.

25. BUT HE REFUSED TO COMPROMISE WITH THEM, BUT RATHER WORKED TOTALLY OUTSIDE THE EXISTING SYSTEM AND ATTACKED IT head-on and ruthlessly exposed it, 29 saying, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess... ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.30 Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you!" 31

26. EVERY MODERN REVIVAL MOVEMENT HAS EVENTUALLY FAILED because, though they thought they were breaking away from the system of the denomination, or the thing they came out of, they never actually broke with the System--the Churchianity System for one thing, or the worldly System for another. They were just a new group following the same old plan.32

27. THE DEVIL'S ANSWER (OR REACTION) TO GOD'S CHALLENGE (OR REVOLUTION) IS ALWAYS A SYSTEM-PRESERVING COMPROMISE! Today it's the church-preserving "Charismatic Addicts" and "Jesus People". The J.P.'s are giving the churches an intravenous injection of youth to try to bring the old dead corpse back to life. And they'll only die with it! 33

28. GOD HAS NEVER BEEN FOR REFORMATION OF THE OLD rotten carcass, only for its total burial and resurrection of a completely new man.34

29. FOR, "NO MAN PUTTETH A PIECE OF A NEW GARMENT UPON AN OLD; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old."

30. "AND NO MAN PUTTETH NEW WINE INTO OLD BOTTLES; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved." 35

OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CHURCH

Jesus People and Other Sheep

31. THERE ARE MANY KINDS OF CHRISTIANS AND MANY DEGREES OF THEIR SERVICE for the Lord, varying from Jesus People houses to sincere religious communities of the Catholic Church containing many true Children of God who wish to fellowship with us and learn of us, but are not yet ready to join us, or may never do so.36

32. MANY OF THESE ARE TRAPPED IN FALSE FOLDS UNDER FALSE SHEPHERDS, or caught in the brambles of this world, wandering about dazed and lost, sometimes even under other sincere shepherds trying to find the right fold.37

33. THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE OF THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE JESUS PEOPLE who still remain outside the folds of either the churches or the Children of God.38 Some have even come so far as to visit us hungrily to see what we're like, but were totally blown away by the excessive exclusivism and un-Christian intolerance and lack of love of some of our own disciples.39

34. WHEN WE SAY "LET THE DEAD BURY THE DEAD", we mean by that don't go out of your way knocking on church doors to revive them. But if they show enough life to come to your door asking for help, then do all you can, as Jesus did with Nicodemus and others.40

35. IF THEY LIKE US AND/OR WANT TO HELP US OR FELLOWSHIP WITH US, WE SHOULD ACCEPT THEM as Friends and Associates as they are and where they are.41

36. OUR MAIN REQUIREMENT FOR ASSOCIATES is that they love God and others, are saved, believe in witnessing and winning souls even though they may not spend most of their time doing it, and they want to actually fellowship with us.42

37. THE FRIENDS INCLUDE ALL OUR OUTSIDE FRIENDS, PARENTS, BUSINESSMEN, etc. who are for us, favourable, and may even help us, whether saved or unsaved, members of other churches or not.43

38. REMEMBER, JESUS SAID, "OTHER SHEEP I HAVE, WHICH ARE NOT OF THIS FOLD: them also I must bring and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." 44

THE CHURCH SYSTEM?--USE IT!

39. THE THINGS WE HAVE SAID ABOUT THE CHURCHES ARE TRUE, and nobody knows it better than the church leaders themselves!

40. BUT THE CATHOLICS AND THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES ARE GETTING TO THE POINT WHERE THEY ARE WILLING TO ADMIT IT. Only the pharisaical, narrow-minded church people are rejecting us--the evangelicals, the damnable scribes and Pharisees who are lying about us and fighting us! 45 The fundamentalists are hearers of the Word only, and talkers about it!

41. THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES ARE DOERS of the Word and are trying to put God's Love into practice: they work with the Communists, protest against the war, help the poor, fight racial discrimination, and oppose Fascist governments. We agree to a tee with them along nearly all these lines, basically even theologically. Even the Catholics are trying to work with the WCC.

42. SO WORKING WITH THE CATHOLICS AND WCC GOES HAND IN HAND.46 But don't think we'll be working with them forever and that we'll be a new order of the Catholic Church!

43. WE ARE A NEW ORDER, CHURCH OR NO CHURCH, and we plan to be around after the Church is gone--after the System or Antichrist has destroyed it! We're just using it now, and some of them think they're using us.47

44. NEVERTHELESS, WHILE THEY'RE STILL WITH YOU, still listening, still observing your miracles, and sharing your popularity, let them help you all you can! Use them!

45. AND YOU MAY EVEN HAVE TO LET THEM USE YOU A LITTLE, AS JESUS DID WHEN HE FED THEM AND HEALED THEM AND HELPED THEM; because He came to minister, not to be ministered unto. Nevertheless, a few of them did minister unto Him, provided Him with their protection, their provisions, their legal defense, their homes, their food, and even their grave. Some of them even helped provide His final cross, as they will yours! 48

46. IN THE MEANTIME, HOWEVER, ACCEPT THEIR ASSISTANCE AND BLESS THEM for it. Don't knock their damnable System too much--just hate it and use it. But don't let it use you, unless it's part of His plan.

47. BUT WHATEVER YOU DO REMAIN GOD'S DROPOUTS. Don't go back to the System--even if you have to work in it or with it--don't become part of it in spirit or otherwise! Stay revolutionary! Don't compromise with the Enemy!

48. TRY TO LIVE AS PEACEFULLY WITH THEM AS YOU CAN, BUT DON'T JOIN THEM. Don't pull your punches; don't compromise your convictions or water down your Message!

49. STAY DROPPED OUT! 49
ARE YOU A DROPOUT?

References:
1. W.T.16; Mt.22:37-39; 6:33; Lk.14:33; Mk.16:15
2. 172:174
3. 2Cor.6:17
4. 142:32
5. Eph.1:22,23
6. 142:32
7. 142:32
8. Rev. 2:6 (see Ps. 97:10; 139:21,22)
9. 153:3
10. 153:17
11. 143:118
12. 172:167
13. G:5
14. 23:6
15. 2Th.2:10,11
16. 45:2
17. Ro.10:2,3
18. 211:48
19. 61:51
20. Jer.5:26,31
21. 153:15,17
22. C:39
23. 96:23
24. Ac.7:38
25. Jn.4:24
26. Jer.7:4
27. Ho.8:14
28. I:4
29. I:5
30. Mt.23:25,27
31. Mt.21:31
32. C:42
33. 153:3,6
34. I:3
35. Lk.5:36-38
36. 167:44
37. 167:42
38. 167:25
39. 167:27
40. 154:46; Lk.9:60 (see Letter 153)
41. 167:48
42. 167:60
43. 167:61
44. 167:41; Jn.10:16
45. 180:50
46. 183:28,23,27
47. 251:41
48. 61:52
49. 23:31


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