Page 62 - The Divine Unfolding of God's Plan of Redemption
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resurrection of the Son of God and of His coming again has been sent forth into all the
nations of the world in a manner unprecedented in the previous history of the
testimony. This sign of the latter times has been accompanied by another predicted
indication of the final end of the age, and that is a “falling away” in the corporate body
of the testimony people.
In the last chapter of the Bible, John the Apostle sets forth the essence of the two
great apostasies of the church age. “If any man shall add unto these things…God shall
add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.” This pictures the situation
under the papacy when the authority of popes and prelates was and is granted equal
place with the actual words of Holy Scripture, so that the divine revelation which
ceased with John is encrusted, in Catholic Bibles, with the deliverances of
innumerable churchmen, and with spurious interpretations and practices which the
laity are compelled to accept as emanating from God Himself. Again John says, “If
any man shall take away from the words of the book…God shall take away his part
out of the book of life,” etc. This is mentioned just before the final windup in which
the Risen Christ testifies, “Surely I come quickly!” The last great apostasy which has
overtaken and saturated Christendom and which immediately precedes the
manifestation of the Man of Sin (II Thess.2:3) is certainly indicated here. The
churches of Christendom are now ruled and run by men who openly deny the
authority of Holy Scripture and teach the laity that there is no ultimate truth or divine
revelation. It is this final attack of the serpent that the present day seed of the woman
are confronted with, and there is no discharge in this war. We are now beholding the
spectacle all over Protestantism (that was) that the defenders of the faith and the
believers in the inspiration of the whole Word of God are being unfrocked and thrown
out of denominational bodies once dedicated to the propagation of His testimony.
Apostasy of this kind has never been and can never be remedied. There is but one
divine principle that obtains for the people of the testimony and that is to withdraw
from it. To attempt to stay in and stop the onrush is as futile and foolish as the
command of Canute the Dane that the tide of the sea should come no farther. God has
always dealt with apostasy in judgment. He has said of this Laodicean church which
we are witnessing today, “I will spew thee out of my mouth,” and it behooves the
people of the testimony of the Living One to be out of that which God is going to
“spew out.”
In this final phase of the warfare between the seeds, those who are washed in the
blood and looking for the coming of Christ can yet be victorious in holding aloft His
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