The Last Days of the Church
Frederick George Patterson
Table of Contents
The Church: a Habitation of God Through the Spirit
I turn now to examine another side of the truth of the Church of God as unfolded in the doctrine taught by the Apostle Paul: not that of the Body of Christ, united to her Head in heaven and maintained by the Holy Ghost in unity; but that of the " House of God." the " Habitation of God through the Spirit."
On the day of Pentecost the aggregate number of disciples who were baptized by the Holy Ghost and thus formed into the Body united to Christ in heaven, were also on earth a " Habitation of God through the Spirit." Each was conterminous with the other. Both forms embraced the same people. Those who composed the Body composed the House, and none else.
During the early part of the Acts of the Apostles there was a sort of tentative dealing with Israel once more, an opportunity being given to them that if they would repent and be converted, they might receive Jesus Christ who would be sent to them. At the same time He who knows the end from the beginning, knew what would be the result of this fresh offer. Nevertheless it was needful in His purposes to bring out fully the responsibility. of that guilty people in their final rejection of Christ in the glory. This took place when they murdered Stephen, who not only bore witness to their rejection of the Messiah but also to their rejection of the Holy Ghost. But the divine flood-gates of grace once opened in righteousness through the cross, could not now be stayed, and the stream which had flowed into " the city of the great King " up to this moment, was diverted in its course and flowed onward to Samaria.
The Lord of the harvest had said at this place a few short years before, " Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest." Samaria is now conquered by the gospel and the old enmity between " this mountain " (Samaria) and " Jerusalem " is blotted out by its peaceful waters, at least in the souls of those who accepted the living water thus freely flowing to them, But Philip must leave his prosperous labor and follow the stream, if needful, to the " ends of the earth." The sandy desert near Gaza becomes the channel of the grace of the Lord Jesus. A child of the race of Ham, an Ethiopian,
Chamberlain of Queen Candace, is sitting in his chariot, reading the Prophet Isaiah. He had come from distant Africa to worship at Jerusalem, and with an unsatisfied heart was returning to his own country. The day of Jerusalem's visitation was past. The words of the Lord Jesus, when he wept over Jerusalem, might have been heard again: " If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace 1 but now they are hid from thine eyes." {Luke 19:42.) But He who is " a rewarder of them that diligently seek him," follows this " dry tree," who after hearing a few words from Philip, God's messenger, evangelizing Jesus to him, receives the message and goes on his way rejoicing.
The whole Assembly at Jerusalem is broken up and " all were scattered abroad except the apostles." Saul, the percecutor of the Church, is converted at the height of his mad career by the words of the Lord Jesus in glory: " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? " and then and there becomes " a chosen vessel unto the Lord, to bear. His Name before the Gentiles and Icings and the children of Israel."
Saul, the persecutor of the Church, becomes Paul the Apostle and is made a Minister of the Church (Col. 1:24, 25) to unfold the wondrous mystery, " even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."
Then in 1 Corinthians we find Paul " as a wise master builder " laying the foundation " which is Jesus Christ," and others " building thereupon." So the work goes on. On the one side the divine work of God in forming the Body of Christ by the baptism of the Holy Ghost; and on the other we have the administration of the House put into man's hands. At the first, as we have seen, God constituted it by taking up His abode in the disciples at Pentecost as His House or Habitation. Then all who accepted the testimony were received by baptism into the place where the Spirit dwelt. The Apostles and those who constituted the House at the first, were never baptized: they were not thus received into the place where they were already. But all who came after were thus received, professing by being " baptized unto Christ Jesus that they were baptized unto His death," and were " buried with Him by baptism unto death," (Rom. 6:3, 4). Soon after many more were added to this House of God (Acts 4:4) but all were Jews: God took this mode of saving the remnant of Israel.
Samaria falls under the sound of the Gospel, and the enemy who first began " within" through Ananias and Sapphira, now seeks to introduce evil persons from " without ": " while men slept, the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." " Wood, hay, stubble " were introduced into the House of God, and Simon, the sorcerer, is received in the flush of joy which filled many hearts in Samaria. Thus the House, conterminous at first with the Body, began to enlarge itself disproportionately to the Body, which was maintained of God intact within it. But the Spirit of God did not leave the House, nor has He left it even to this day, though it has enlarged itself into what we see around us, which is likened by Paul to " a great house " (2 Tim. 2. 20) containing " not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor and some to dishonor."
We will now turn to Scripture to examine more fully the unfoldings of this truth of the House of God, an intelligent grasp of which is so needful for our path and service to the Lord.
In 1 Corinthians we find two greater divisions: 1st, ch. 1 to ch. 10, 14; and 2nd, ch. 10, 15 to ch. 16. In the first division the Apostle has the House before. him; in the second, the Body. Chapter 12 connects both. And here it may be of use to say that the word " Church " or " Assembly " applies to both, though having a distinct application to each. If we look on high at Christ in Glory, the Assembly is His Body (Eph. 2. 22, 23); and if we look below where the Spirit dwells, the Assembly is His House (Eph. 2. 22: see 1 Tim. 3:13 where both are put together).
In the Apostle's address to the saints at Corinth we find a most comprehensive line of thought. " Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called [to be] saints [that is, saints by calling], with all that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." In this address we find him writing to the whole professing Church. He assumes of course that all are true and real, unless proved to be otherwise. But all who profess Christ's Name are addressed: the expression, " calling on the Name of the Lord," having this meaning in Scripture. The simply calling on His Name does not prove their reality: this has to be proved in those who do so call. Now the whole professing church at that day, being assumed as real, another thing arises when ruin has set in. The professing Church has now enlarged itself to what we term Christendom, but it is nevertheless bound by what was revealed to the Apostle Paul and contained in his inspired writings.
The wisdom of the Spirit of God foresaw what would happen; for if we turn to 2 Tim. 3, we find what was prophetically provided for the " last days," which at once began when apostolic gift was removed from the Church. The Epistle is divided into three parts. First (ch. 1:1-14) a preface; second (ch. 1:15-ch. 2) takes up what had already supervened in the lifetime of the Apostle, in the words, " This thou knowest "; and third (ch. 3 and 4) commencing with, " This know also "; in which division he foresees what was about to be. Let us hear his words: " This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." This then is the description of the profession of Christianity: this is the sphere in which the faithful would find themselves: this the platform where the servants of Christ would now have to work. And in such a sphere, with such materials before him, was the servant Timothy to " do the work of an evangelist," (2 Tim. 4:5).
How deeply solemn is this prophetic truth I To find that instead of the habitation of God on earth being the answer to the glory of Christ in heaven, as the Spirit of God meant it to be, it had so dishonored that blessed Name as to be described with words almost similar to those used to describe the heathen, out of which the Church had (with the Jew) been called. The only striking difference is this, that when the heathen are described (Rom. 1:28-32). the words, " having a form of godliness," are not used: they are added to similar words in 2 Tim. ch. 3 to describe a worse state, because existing under the Name of Christ.
There is no need for one to examine more. We might recall the words of the Apostle in Phil. 2. 21, " All seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's " and (ch. 3. 18, 19) " many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind `set their minds upon' earthly things." Colossians, too, and Galatians, and even Ephesians, refer to those evils which had entered in and against which the faithful are warned. There is, too, a tendency in the saints to sink down into an abnormal state of soul below the level of that which prevailed at the first. The varied states around us now are the speaking witness that in the House of God there are numbers of those who are really Christ's but who are not in the consciousness of the Christian standing-union with Christ in glory.
Yet the Spirit of God abides. He still inhabits God's House on earth He remains there till all those who are Christ's are called by His grace. till the Lord Himself comes again. And still is that name—the House of God-applicable in responsibility to that which is His habitation here below, though it is the abode of evil too just as the Lord Jesus spoke of the Temple at Jerusalem as " My Father's House,- though the people had made it a " house of merchandise " and a " den of thieves." So the House of God remains such, as long as the Spirit of God abides there. When He departs from it, it becomes, as we read in Rev. 18:2, " the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird."
The Last Days of the Church
" The Church of the Living God " 2 Tim. 3:15)
The testimony in which the faithful are called to walk in the last days, has a two-fold character: first, a witness to the unity of the body of Christ, formed by the Holy Ghost sent down at Pentecost; secondly, the whole church having failed, the character of a remnant in maintaining this testimony, and this too in the midst of a great Baptized House, the responsible body here on earth, commonly called "Christendom." This testimony can never aim to be more than one to the failure of the Church of God as set up by Him. The more true to Christ the remnant of His people are, the more will they be a witness to the present state of the Church of God and not to its state as first displayed.
Now there is found in the Word of God, for example and comfort, a faith which counts upon Him and His divine intervention in the face of man's failure: a faith that finds itself sustained by God according to the power and blessings of the dispensation, and according to the first thoughts of His heart when He set up all in primary power. He connects that power and the Lord's own presence with the faith of the few who act on the truth provided for the present moment, even though the administration of the whole is not in operation according to the order which God set up at the beginning.
For example, the blessing of Asher in Deut. 33:24-25, ends with these lovely words: " As thy days, so shall thy strength be "; and all went to ruin, as the history of Israel unfolds. Yet, at the first coming of Christ, when the godly pious remnant of the people were " waiting for the consolation of Israel," we find one of that same tribe, " Anna a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser [Asher], a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day," in the enjoyment and power of that blessing of Moses; " so shall thy strength be." And the Lord Christ Himself became identified with that obscure remnant, of which she was one, a remnant who were ready to receive Him when first He came.
The returned remnant of Judah, too, in all the weakness of those who could pretend to nothing but the occupation of the divine platform of God's earthly people; to them we find these comforting words addressed, " I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts: according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my Spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not." Their faith is recalled to that mighty day of power, when Jehovah " bore them on eagles' wings and brought them to Himself " and removed their shoulders from the burdens of Egyptian bondage. Undimmed in power, He was with them, just the same, for faith to claim and use. No outward displays were theirs; but His Word and Spirit, which proved His presence to faith, wrought in that feeble few: to them is revealed the shaking of all things (Heb. 12. 27) and the coming of Him who would make the " latter glory " of His house greater than the " former." They are thus the link between the Temple of the palmy days of Solomon and that of the day of coming glory, when He shall sit " a Priest upon His throne," and the counsel of peace shall be between Jehovah and Him, and He shall bear the glory. (Zech. 6:12, 13; Hag. 2:7-9).
He will shake the heavens and the earth and overthrow the throne of kingdoms (Hag. 2:21-23), thus identifying all His power with the small remnant of His people who walk in company with His mind. He will make all to come and worship before their feet and know that He has loved them.
Thus, too, those who answer to the calling which suits His mind, as seen in Philadelphia (Rev. 3); who are true to that which, though not a perfect state of things, is suited to the state of failure which 116 contemplates; He makes them the link, the silver cord, between the Church of the past as set up at Pentecost (Acts 2) and the Church of the glory (Rev. 21:9). The over-comer will be made " a pillar in the temple of His God," in the " new Jerusalem " on high.
Let me here remark that there never was, and never can be, a moment when that which answers to this calling, will cease till the Lord comes. In the moral picture presented in these two chapters (Rev. 2 and 3), we find all the seven features together at any moment, as they were when He sent the messages, and remaining so. In the dark ages and those of more light in later days, and now at the end before He comes, all everywhere who answer with perfect heart to the measure of truth which He has given them; such are morally Philadelphia. Others may have more light, but the true heart that walks with Christ in what it knows, is known of Him and is what is contemplated in Philadelphia. Historically there is an unfolding in the state of each of the seven Churches, each larger feature coming into prominence and presenting the salient characteristics of the professing Church, till the Church becomes a remnant in the message to Thyatira and develops into those which follow. But morally Philadelphia represents those who answer to Christ's heart at all times and in all circumstances since the Lord gave those messages, till His threat-" I will spew thee out of my mouth "-is finally executed. In the historical view, Philadelphia comes in after Sardis and is exhorted to " hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown "; but as long as His voice is heard by faithful souls, such, wherever found, form the link between the Church at Pentecost and the Bride, the Lamb's wife in the day of the glory. Every moral state in all the seven messages remains from the beginning to the very end. There are at this moment, as at the beginning, those who have left their first love; and those who suffer for Christ: and those who are faithful where Satan's seat is, and so on to the conclusion of the whole.
Besides all this, we should never forget that John is watching over the decay of that which Paul unfolded, and telling us what Christ will do with that which bears His Name. For our own path we get no directions but to listen, and " hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches" for we do not find church ground unfolded here. It is not John's province to treat of this. John never gives us corporate things, but individual, and never instructs us as to the Church of God, although fully recognizing its existence. When we are therefore grounded and settled in that which never fails-the one Body of Christ, formed and maintained by the Spirit of God on earth, as taught by Paul, we may turn with deep profit to John and these messages, and learn what Christ will do with all that bears His Name. But from Paul alone can I learn what I am to do in the midst of such a scene, and how I am to be an " overcomer " according to the mind of the Lord, which never can be by abandoning that which His Spirit maintains on earth.
How important therefore to be thoroughly grounded in the truths of the Church of God, which remains as long as God's Spirit remains and His Word abides: " till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." (Eph. 4:13)
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