18.1 By Appearance
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
By appearance the church of Jesus Christ is a prostitute, married in full union with Jesus and selling herself to anyone and everyone for advantage.
And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities (Revelation 18:3). And you and I are as much a part of this prostitute by appearance as anyone. How else could we be coming out of her? Those who point out her sins are pointing out their own – and claiming self-righteousness; we, gladly placing our outer appearance entirely into Jesus, also do the same for all.
Calvinism
My understanding of the strength of the gospel has become sharper and clearer than ever before as a result of writing the lesson on Calvinism. I know Calvinism; I know its arguments and its verses. I know how it weaves together a most convincing presentation out from the Bible. I see how that way of thinking sits upon and rules over “the gospel” and over “God” in the minds of most of our brethren. And I know how evil it is, how contrary to Christ our life. Yet here is my problem. I also know that my heart is filled full to overflowing with the very One who laid down His life for the sake of this prostitute, forgiving the worst people on earth.
Witnesses of Christ
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8). You and I are witnesses of Christ first to those of our brethren who love Jesus and who have allowed Him to immerse them into His Holy Spirit. And we are witness of Christ second to all the mixture of Christianity, all who name Jesus in some way and all who will be our brethren. Then, we are witnesses of Christ to all creation.
I am an evangelist, but it is my brethren I seek to win to the knowledge of Christ as the only life they are.
Seeing through Father
It is in the framework of Acts 1:8, then, that we seek to understand the in-part Church in order to penetrate her opposition and fear.
You see, I CANNOT ever believe that anything is outside of God’s purpose. Such a thing makes no sense, and if it makes no sense, to me it cannot be real. God never intends evil, but He always intends each person in every moment of their lives. Nothing is lost; nothing is without meaning. Thus as I look at the in-part Church in this present age, I see her through one lens alone – Father, show me Your purpose through all of these things.
Substance and Appearance
I wrote a piece earlier regarding life in Christian community that I realized did not fit in my earlier lessons; rather, that piece works better here to show the distinction between Church by Substance working inside of church by appearance. Church by Substance, Church by Father, is the actual union with Christ planted in each one who belongs to Him. Church by appearance is the activities of those who do not know that Christ already walks in union with them, activities out from a story line of self-effort and falling short, all under the displeasure of God.
But there is an outward appearance of Church by Father that can be called “Church Life,” brethren walking together in love.
Two Different Churches
It was Gene Edwards who coined the term “church life” in his book, The Early Church. The term we used in the fellowship of communities in which I lived was “corporate life” or “body life.” As you can see, “church life” is more clear in its representation.
Now, we have a bit of a difficulty. Neither I, nor Gene Edwards, nor most anyone else for that matter, has ever lived in real Church life. As I ponder, I realize that there are two different churches taking place in every gathering together in the present age. There is the known assembly, church by appearance, and then, what’s really going on, Church by Substance, that is, Christ carrying all through all.
Knowing One Another
My problem is this. So much of the quality of “church life,” that Edwards describes and that I know, exists only in the in-part realm of church by appearance. That quality is that we knew one another. There was personal and family privacy, of course, but we gathered together daily for meals, for work, and for services. Therefore, we KNEW one another. There are many who know me very well and whom I know very well. This quality does not exist in church-once-a-week for two hours. There the smiles and the love reveal nothing. And essential to this knowing of one another was the breaking and the removal of complaining, complaining, complaining.
Farewell to Complaining
You see, if you had to live and work and eat and fellowship together with the same group of Christians daily, you would not like them at all. And in not liking them, you would not like their ways of doing, of thinking, and of expressing themselves. They would, in short, aggravate the tar out of you. And that “tar” would come out in the form of endless griping and complaining, gossiping and internal seething.
In my experience, it takes about twelve years of walking together in the stew of those false thoughts until you just don’t want to live in them anymore before they finally disappear.
The Only True Heart
But here is the vital importance of any gathering together taking place first around the heart of Church, three or more individuals who know already how to walk together in all honor and who, in the middle of all that griping, are laying down their lives for each individual member. I suspect that in such an environment the spirit of aggravation would vanish from the hearts and mouths of new participants within two or three years. But this experience of knowing one another in Christian community was hampered by our theology. You see, we used the cross as the false weapon of Constantine, to split one another into two: Christ and Flesh.
Outward Appearance Only
Yes, we knew one another, but only by outward appearance. We did not and could not know one another by heart because our theology said that our hearts were evil; thus we learned to stay away from our hearts. But to stay away from your heart is to live only in a face of pretending.
As I think back, I know that those who were convinced they “knew me,” did not know me at all. Yes, they could tell you all about my outward appearance, but they knew very little about who I was inside. Our false theology kept us from knowing one another for real and walking together in friendship as Christ with Christ.
Glimpses of the Real
Yet inside of those years, I did taste real Church life, what it must be, once in a while. God gave us, or at least me, glimpses of the real.
You see, I know many among whom I lived who remember only the smoke and the burning, the complaining and the bitterness. They will not speak to you about any community of Christ, but only an escape back into the wonderful avenues of pretending and separation offered by church in the world. Not me. I marked every experience God gave me that pointed me towards real Church life, and those are the definitions out from which I place this hope before you.
Working Through
The actual reality of the Church of Jesus Christ down through the centuries is God all in all. But in appearance, the church has shown herself as everything but the love and grace of God. And this is what we seek to understand in this lesson, God’s purpose for a church appearing to all as a prostitute. And by God’s purpose, I do not mean God’s intention; God does not intend evil. But I mean why and how such a thing must be, and how God is working through what must be towards all things good. The church is a prostitute by appearance because God cannot force the knowledge of Himself on anyone.
The Furnace of God
Now I have studied and taught church history and world history; I know the layout over the centuries. I know the outward form of what has been called “Christianity,” as well as some of the hidden stories of those who truly walked with God.
While learning both sides of church history certainly has some value, a layout of these last 1987½ years from Pentecost until today will not profit us in the study of the Kingdom. God does not work with “groups”; He works with individuals inside of groups and He uses the outward context as His preparation for each member in particular. Church by appearance is the furnace of God, the workshop where He creates His greatest work.
The Scattering of the Elect
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. – And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us (Hebrews 11:13 & 39-40).
God chose to scatter His elect across a wide span of times and places, of cultures and beliefs, of contexts and experiences. Inside that context, God shaped Christ in the heart and life-story of that one member. Their knowing of Christ is unique and different from the knowing of Christ found in any other.
God’s Work
God never intended a full Tabernacles Church through the centuries of the church age. God intended a furnace of affliction. The great work of God among men is the shaping of the human heart to fit, to contain, and to reveal God. God is performing this work through all that is wrong with the present in-part church. The work is perfect; that is, the work is performing exactly what God intends. The instruments are perfect; that is, even though we say, “This is wrong” or “That is wrong,” yet those very instruments are, in fact, doing exactly what God wants in the hearts of those who are devoted to Him.
The Glory of Church Life
And this is the glory of the Church life as Gene Edwards describes it and as I lived inside of for eighteen years.
You live in a glass house. Everything is seen and known. Your heart is hammered over and over. You are turned inside out more than once. Spears are thrown, and you learn to dodge them without throwing spears back. You are stretched wide open; you are ripped apart; you learn to forgive when you absolutely do not want to forgive. You learn to receive all as Christ Himself, in just the same way that Jesus receives you. You learn that loving one another is more important than the universe.
The Seed of Love
But through the years, something incredible happens, something you don’t even realize is occurring. After awhile, you look inside and you discover the Seed of Love abounding for real inside your heart. And you see the dividing line, a line unknown by any except those whose hearts contain God Almighty. You see that all those who were twisted by “right versus wrong” doctrines, or by self-righteousness, or by pursuing fleshy lusts, just continue on as they have been, not knowing anything.
But to those who wait upon the Lord, He arises with healing in His wings, and these go forth with joy, revealing Father as He is to all, the core and heart of the Tabernacles Church.