THIS IS WHY GOD WILL NOT SHUT DOWN FAKE CHURCHES AND FALSE TEACHERS….
A massive, UNPRECEDENTED awakening is taking place in the church in Nigeria today. For the first time on this huge scale, many believers are beginning to see the monumental difference between the Christianity in the Bible, and the Christianity in the Nigerian church.
Expectedly, many have been alarmed. Some have found their voices in protesting against the hypocrisy on our pulpits. Some have recoiled in heart at the hypocrisy, though they continue to physically attend the false churches.
With this extensive awakening, many believers are now expressing the hope that the days of unbridled deception in the church in Nigeria are over. Some have even dared to predict or ‘prophesy’ a massive decline in the attendance, influence, and revenue of the plethora of false churches (especially, the Pentecostal variant) that dot the nation’s landscape.
But this will NOT happen. It will DEFINITELY NOT HAPPEN!
Whatever reverses those churches are experiencing now will be short-lived. They will recover. And they will even flourish! They’ll flourish, not because God is happy with them (for He is definitely not), but because such ‘churches’ are needed for Scriptures to be fulfilled, particularly in this end-time.
First, Bible prophecies make it clear that many FALSE PROPHETS will arise in the Last Days (Matthew 24:11,24). In addition to this, there will be a HUGE APPETITE and DEMAND for falsehood from the pews, this is according to 2 Timothy 4:4. Believers will be ACTIVELY SEEKING for ‘men of God’ that will deceive them, telling them what THEY want to hear. Huge financial rewards (in the form of tithes, offering, prophet’s offering, daddy’s offering, etc) await smooth-talking preachers that can nurture and facilitate the carnality in the hearts of such believers in this end-time.
Preachers that can focus on how God can meet all the needs of man, rather than focus on how man will meet God’s command that all men should seek His Kingdom and His righteousness. Preachers that promise ‘reigning with Christ’, without paying due attention to ‘suffering with Christ’. These are the preachers that MOST believers NEED and SEEK at this end-time.
All the manifestations described above are hinged on one single fact – mankind is now living in the AGE OF SELF. Just as prophesied in 2 Timothy 3:1-5: “This know also, that in the LAST DAYS perilous times shall come. For men shall be LOVERS OF THEIR OWN SELVES….”
In this SELF-love mode, the greatest desire of man today is to please SELF. To stroke the ego of SELF. To give SELF what it wants. And to let SELF have its way – even in the House of God! Even in the things of the Spirit of God! Yes, in very subtle ways, SELF wants God to bow to its needs. To its desire. To its opinion. And to its value system. This is how audacious SELF has become in the perilous days we live in.
And this is a conflict that will continue unabated until the return of the Lord. Unscrupulous preachers that understand this spiritual climate will benefit tremendously from ministering to men ON THE ALTAR OF SELF. There will be no shortage of patronage. If anything, this will be an ever-expanding, ever-lucrative market till the end of the age. And NOTHING, including our prayers, will stop the trend. As a matter of fact, this is one of the reasons that Jesus asked this rhetorical question in Luke 18:8b, “… Nevertheless, when the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on the earth?”
If you have ever wondered why the message of the cross of Christ has almost disappeared from our pulpits today - THIS IS IT! It is a manifestation of the days we live in. For SELF loathes (and fears) the cross of Christ more than anything else. The reason for this is straightforward. The cross of Christ spells death to SELF. The cross of Christ brings man to the end of himself – so that Christ can reign supreme in man. Without the cross, there’s no Christ in the life of ANY MAN. Jesus made this clear in Luke 14:27, “And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE.”
It is this non-negotiable imperative of the cross that has caused the true Gospel of Christ to almost disappear from most pulpits today. For in the AGE OF SELF, there’s no place for the cross – the cross that spells death for SELF. SELF-preservation is the first law in the kingdom of SELF.
This is where the church is today. And man is faced with the option of pitching his tent with Christ/cross or with SELF (and all that Satan offers with it). In this end-time, God will give mankind more and more latitude to make this stark choice, and then face the eternal result of the choice they make. This is how Revelation 22:11-12 puts it: “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”
It is also for this reason that God will NOT close the fake churches and stop the false prophets. Both options must be FULLY OPEN to man in this end-time. Believers that genuinely yearn for Christ, believers that are tired of the falsehood and deception in the church system of today would simply have to LEAVE that system. Leave that system to re-kindle their fellowship with Christ, and through that process connect themselves in fellowship with like-minded believers that are committed to the way of the cross. It is a clear choice – STAY in that system, or LEAVE that system.
To sit in the church system of today, praying and hoping to convert it to godliness is like fasting and praying for Satan’s conversion. IT WILL NOT HAPPEN! Satan will not change. And the church system of today that he has carefully nurtured for several centuries will NOT change as well. It will be a powerful tool in the hands of Satan in his end-time onslaught against mankind, and against the growing Kingdom of God on earth.
So, what is the way forward for the genuine believer that wants Jesus Christ above everything else? The answer is in Revelation 3:20. From the apostate Laodicean church, Jesus CALLED OUT the believers that could still hear His knock on the door of their hearts. It is in EXACTLY the same way that He is today CALLING OUT believers that can still hear Him in this AGE OF SELF. He is calling them to a renewed, intimate one-on-one fellowship with Himself. He is calling them away from the Laodicean lukewarmness and blindness that we see in Revelation 3:14-22 (a spiritual representation of the church system of today that is in tango with the spirit of mammon).
Not all believers will hear this call. Not all believers will heed this call. For many treasure church membership ABOVE the call of Christ for deep intimacy with Himself in the way of the cross. Not all believers understand that you cannot walk in the way Satan constructs, and hope to, somehow, arrive at God's destination!
But as for you, friend, if the Spirit of the Lord has been ministering to you along this line, please do not harden your heart. Do not continue to pitch your tent within the church system of today that no longer has Jesus Christ at its centre. When you leave that system and connect truly with Jesus, He Himself will connect you to His true body for genuine fellowship. Fellowship with the chaste Bride that He will soon come to take away. The chaste Bride that understands, as wise virgins, that we are now in the days that we MUST ACTIVELY PREPARE for the imminent return of the Bridegroom. For, one day, it will be too late for foolish virgins to start preparing for His return. It is a matter of choice. Starting from TODAY.
"Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates... He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. (Revelation 22:14,20-21)
Thank you for reading, God bless you.
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