Hi kenod,
Throughout history, organised religion has always been antagonistic to the working of the Holy Spirit in the Church....In the early 20th century, the established churches opposed the Pentecostal movement, although nearly 100 years later, the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement has influenced most denominations....If God has a new direction for the Body of Christ, we can be sure that the organised churches will oppose it.
The seal of God is the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 1:22; Eph 4:30). All those who do not have this seal will have the mark of the beast. The Catholic church is the original and mother of all denominations. This organisational structure is described as a ***** and her daughters, the protestant denominations, are called harlots (Rev 17:5 KJV). There are approximately 2 billion Christians in the world, with half being Catholic and half being Protestant. I believe the ‘beast’ represents the catholic system headed by the Pope – the ‘image to the beast’ is the system of organised protestant religion.
I noticed in this pruning of the churches, I did not see any mention of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; just the result of the Gospel. Although I am not catholic nor a member of the presbytery any more, having my fill of the different denomenations that focussed on the Holy Spirit, I feel I should share this with you.
#1. Those without the seal of the Holy Spirit can still receive Him by coming to and believing in Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1:12-15 & Galatians 3:14 & Hebrews 11:1,6
#2. Those that have the mark of the beast, can never be redeemed so it is an apparent mark, not the absence of the seal of the Holy Spirit.
#3. As much as you oppose organized religion, the root of the Pentecostal churches started in the root beginnings of the Roman Catholic Church where "tongues" were "evidence of the keeping of the doctrines within the Catholic Church". It was a practise within the order of the Church as in priests and the like, but when these "happenings" began outside the Roman Church later on in history, the Church now endorsed it as you must know, since there are Catholic Charismatic Churches about.
#4. We are to test the spirits, and just going with the flow and along with the crowd as in any movement of the Spirit occurs is not testing the spirits. Many would take your stance of opposing organized religion that would speak against the practise of having time for prayer language to the extreme of calling for the Spirit of God to come and fall on them with manifestations not listed in 1 Corinthians 12. All that is being glorified is the movement of the Spirit, and not the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus, because even with the Gospel preached, people walk away testifying of the "Spirit", and yet the Promise of the Spirit is always the result of the Gospel. Nowhere in Acts or anyplace in the Bible will the Gospel be vain to the point that preaching Jesus Christ is not enough, that salvation comes by baptism of the Holy Spirit with tongues.
So God sent the precedent for organized religion because there is only one Way to approach God and that is through the Son... not just for salvation, but in following Him also as Jesus is the Good Shepherd and not just the Saviour.
The body of believers is the church. It is also known as the Bride. Since Jesus is the Bridegroom, then the relationship with God has to be through the Son. That is Whom the indwelling Holy Spirit is pointing to and seeks to tesify thereby glorify Jesus Christ and if we are led by the Spirit of God, we would be doing that which the Holy Spirit is doing because John 5:22-23 says we cannot honour God the Father by honouring the Holy Spirit nor can we glorify God the Father by glorifying the Holy Spirit (John 13:31-32 & John 17:1-5) We can only honour and glorify the Father through the Son. The relationship of trust with God is to come to the Son and follow Him. To break away from that relationship to go chasing after what wayward believers are claiming to be the Holy Spirit is to become a worker of iniquity.
So consider that in the pruning of the churches in according to our faith in Jesus. God provided One Way to approach Him John 14:6 as there is only One Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. These "workings" of the Holy Spirit that is being exalted is happening across all the denomenations, fulfilling the fruit of the false prophet in its gathering of grapes of thorns and figs of thistles; the "holy laughter" movement of 1994, to which I am sure if anyone opposed that, would be considered as organized religion.... and yet it is happening all across the denomenations that has been condemned as organized religion.
All that has changed is people's testimony of the Gospel by implying that coming to and believing in Jesus does not guarantee the promise of the Spirit so that there is no rest in Jesus as one must seek the Holy Spirit... which is apostasy. They believe it because of what has happened to them long after they had believed in Jesus and since they do not understand it, they look to the Book of Acts to declare what that experience was, without testing the spirits in how they were taking their eyes off of Jesus to stealing the spotlight in the worship service.... which the indwelling Holy Spirit would never do nor exalt the name of the Spirit in "its" movement over Jesus' name. But because of creeds and unscriptural hymnals, they left the door open for the other spirits and suffer their houses to be broken through when they honour the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost or whenever... as in the privacy of the believers' home to get hit with the Spirit and with speaking in tongues, causing confusion since it was not in accordance to hearing the Gospel just prior. One lady went to the pastor to explain the event, and he went to the Book of Acts, saying that is what happened. She testified of other believers doing other things when they got hit with it.
All these other spirits do is change their testimony of the Gospel without them even realizing it. They just voided all the promises in coming to Jesus to rest in Him as hearers will believe they must experience that to know they are saved.
And yet, all those that call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.... not all those that call upon the name of the "Spirit" shall be saved.
Jesus told me that no one will listen and so judgment must come. God will do the pruning to restore the faith of those left behind at the rapture event for He will not lose one, but because there will be a loss of the inheritance, God "will have to wipe" the tears from their eyes to get them past the weeping and gnashing of teeth.
He shall prune away the commitment to follow Christ, Promise Keepers, any religious yoke that they cannot finish by the flesh. but Jesus will finish it, and those that sow to the flesh.. and any works that deny Him that bought them... as in catholicism and/or chasing after the Holy Spirit when He is in them as promised.
Jesus is the Gospel. The manifestations of the Spirit is sent to glorify Jesus, not the Spirit. God the Father did not mention the Holy Spirit at all when He descended from Heaven and alighted like a dove on the Son. God the Father just mentioned the Son as the Holy Spirit glorified the Son. So let us narrow the way back to the Bridegroom: Jesus Christ... because climbing up by any other way is a work of iniquity. John 10:1 & Luke 13:24-30 Decide this day Whom you will serve; the Lord Jesus Christ, or something else in His name... and even then, I needed His help to do even that... as I need His help to let go of those that hear Him not.
