A Devotion for 3 October 2019 Anno Domini, the Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
11 O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. 12 Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. 13 Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged. 14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. 2 Corinthians 6:11-18 (KJV)
Perhaps the greatest challenge facing the Church today is that of separation from the world. Instead of going into all the world preaching and teaching the Gospel once delivered to the saints, the Church has invited the world with its immodest dress, sensuous and irreverent music, and health-and-wealth gospel into the church. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Matthew 28:19-20 (KJV) As I have said many times, the Church is like a ship designed to navigate the ocean seas. It carries its merchandise of truth and hope from shore to shore. As long as the ship is in the sea, all is well; but if the sea gets into the ship, tragic consequences follow. Today, the world has gotten into the Church rendering it sterile to preach salvation and repentance.
Good Christian men and women may have lingered too long in the fertile plains toward Sodom. They see the great horror and sin of that city which is encroaching on their church, but they believe, with little justification, that things will improve. Please let me caution you: Once the smallest stream of water breaches the ship’s hull, the penetration can only enlarge. I beg serious Christians to please get out of those compromising churches whose glory is money and whose obedience is not to God and His Word, but to the latest fad and satanic philosophy.
What is biblical separation? There are primarily two types of biblical separation: 1) Separation of the wicked and worldly persons or churches from the righteous; 2) separation of the righteous from the wicked. God could not brood sin in His wonderful Garden at Eden. When Adam and Eve sinned, and brought suffering and death upon the whole Creation, God separated them from the Garden of Paradise and moved it to His High Heaven. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” Revelation 2:7 (KJV) The Holy Place of God is not the place for sin and disobedience. Cain, too, being a murderer, was separated from his righteous brethren to come in Seth. Churches have drifted far from taking church discipline seriously but God does not! Today, any sensuous attire is acceptable, and any violation of the marriage institute of God is tolerated – adultery, whimsical divorce, homosexual marriage, and even homosexual ministers standing in the Holy Place.
“And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.” Daniel 11:36-38 (KJV) Please read this passage in context with the warning by our Lord Jesus Christ: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:).” Matthew 24:15 (KJV)
I understand the preterist view on this subject but reject it in part due to the obvious deplorable immorality we view in our midst today.
The type of separation that is most common to us is that of separation of the righteous from the wicked. Abraham presents an excellent example of the proper, and improper, means of that separation. God had said to Abram (Abraham), “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:” Genesis 12:1 (KJV) God is always quite clear in His commands. Did Abram obey? Yes, and no. He did get out of the country, but he did not leave behind his kindred (including Lot). This mistake would prove grievous to Abram in his struggle to serve the Lord in obedience in time to come. Partial separation in churches today ALWAYS leads to grief and compromise.
Read how Abram obeyed, and disobeyed, the counsel of the Lord: “So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.” Genesis 12:4-5 (KJV) Abram’s obedience can be summed up in the first phrase, “So Abram departed.” Everything that follows is disobedience. Total obedience always is rewarded by joy and ease of conscience. Remember the wars of the cities of the plain in which Abram had to take part to save Lot and his family and fellow residents of Sodom. Remember, too, how Abram’s servants and those of Lot contested each other over the water sources for their flocks. Abram had to divide the land by giving Lot his choice of which land to occupy.
How did Lot end up as a judge in the gates of Sodom? “And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.” Genesis 13:10-13 (KJV) It was compromise with the world that placed Lot in the gates of Sodom. Churches today are doing the same. They are “pitching their tents toward Sodom.” They have placed themselves in the presence, and in union, with abject sinners.
As Eve walked to the Tree; stopped before the Tree, conversed with the Tree; and was seduced thereby; so was Lot seduced by the contemptable and immoral life of Sodom; so are churches doing the same today. They have taken a light view of the Word of God by allowing their congregants to be deceived by false Bile versions and ungodly preaching. Denying the sex-designation made by God in the DNA before birth of boys and girls, they now claim God made a mistake and some boys are actually girls, and vice versa. We are all born with proclivities to sin in many ways owing to the blood disease of sinful natures we inherited from Adam. We may be inclined to lie, cheat, steal, or commit disgusting sexual sins. The proclivities to commit these sins does not constitute sin until acted upon. But even the dwelt-upon desire to commit them is sin if we entertain the notion with a secret wish to commit them. Temptation is no sin. But succumbing to that temptation is sin.
Only fifty years ago, abortion was a serious sin in the eyes of the governments of men. So was homosexuality. The sodomite could end up with prison time. But prayer and Bible reading was removed from schools and every public forum – even in violation of the guaranteed rights of the 1st Amendment; and with what result? Promiscuity, alcoholism, homosexuality, drug abuse, and crime increased phenomenally. Public modesty has almost disappeared. Our society is in ruins with no honor or self-respect to be discovered among our youth. The murder of innocent babies is no longer limited to a given period before birth, but even up to, and after., birth of live babies.
It is high time for the Christian to separate himself, or herself, from apostate churches. Sophistication, public acclaim, and political correctness will never get you into Heaven. God is not INCLUSIVE – He is completely EXCLUSIVE. There is only One Way to the Father, and that is through the Son. He is the ONLY WAY, ONLY TRUTH, AND ONLY LIFE.
