The Bride Of Christ Must Be United

If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

Mark 3:25

Jesus said that after accusations that He was in league with the Dark One were made after casting out demons. Yet the lesson in this today is far more powerful and close to home than it was when He first said it. Yesterday, He said it in regards to Satan’s legions. Today, He says it about His Bride, the Church. We are divided, my brothers and sisters.

We have one denomination saying another is going to Hell for their belief in Christ, while that group is saying yet another is going to Hell, etc. We are focused on our denomination, our church, and defending it, when we should be focused on Him and the Church, the Bride of Christ.

As I was growing up, my dad would occasionally take me to church on Sundays. That took place all the way up until I was about 13 or 14, when I rejected God outright. Yet in all those sermons I went to, only one do I remember.

The pastor stood on the pulpit and was telling us a story of a golf game he was having with a pastor of another denomination. He told us of their conversation. He turned to the pastor of the other denomination, and said, “you know, one of us is going to go to Hell for our beliefs.” HE TOLD THE CONGREGATION THIS! The most unbelievable thing: people were nodding. It was at about that time I was done with Christ. I thank God he brought be back despite that awful experience.

I still see that today. I have been guilty of it, not remembering that experience so many years ago in my condemnation of a denomination. Thankfully, the Lord has opened my eyes to His Truth.

Correction is one thing; we’re seeing churches today going directly against God’s word, and that needs to be corrected. However, condemnation is unacceptable. For those of you who are married or engaged, could you imagine what you would feel if someone told your husband or wife they were going to die a miserable death for following you to the chapel? That is exactly what we’re doing to Christ when we condemn a denomination! The Church is His bride.

Satan’s legions know this well. They work to divide us through pride. They also do not remain divided. To give you a real world example, take a look at some of the political forums here on ATS. Members will be bitterly fighting against one another over things, sometimes even hating one another. However, those same people lock arms and become united when they go after a Christian. The Enemy fights with its self, but only when it doesn’t have the Bride to target. That is the only reason the Church hasn’t been wiped out in our blindness.

Yet in those same forums, Christians are attacking other Christians in anger, hatred and pride. We don’t see it as such when we’re saying those things, and I have been guilty of this as much, if not more, than other members. We think we’re being righteous by condemning our brothers and sisters when all we’re doing is playing right into the Enemy’s hands.

1 Corinthians 3:3

3You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?

Brothers and sisters, I beg you, we must come together. Satan still has a boast over God: “Sure, you can forgive them, but you can’t change them.” Let’s prove him wrong. Let’s walk with the Lord as Enoch walked with the Lord! Let His will be your will! When you pray, do not pray when you want something; start each day asking God what He wants from you! We are here as servants of Him, He is not ours. When we all start to do that, we will be in line with His will, and we will come together.

You know 1 can put 1,000 to flight, and 2 can put 10,000 to flight. Envision the legions of the Enemy that would be running and cowering if we all, all Christians across this great globe He created came together. Imagine!

JJ,
It looks like the church itself is one of the major driving forces behind the schism.
Take a look at a couple of the ATSSN reports that I have put up in regards to the investigation of the US seminaries hunting for Homosexuals. Then look at the one on the soon to be released documents from the Vatican that is strengthening the 1962 "Instruction on the Careful Selection and Training of Candidates for the States of Perfection and Sacred Orders," which calls homosexual tendencies as "evil".
This by of itself would be ok if they were to impose the celebracy rules on all and not just target the "gays" that maybe in the priesthood.
You also now have a report where a girl who was a student in a catholic school has been expelled not because of anything she had done but that her parents are lesbians.
www.abovetopsecret.com...'

www.atsnn.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

The church has been stating that they are doing everything that it can to mend the fences and bring the various forms of christianity back together and yet, it is doing everything (seemingly) to drive them apart.
This swaying back and forth by the church will of course cause dissention in christians as it is doing to the various churchs that believe in christ.

It is because so many followers of Christ have missed an incredibly important lesson: hate the sin, but not the sinner. We must fight evil with good, yet with your examples, we're fighting evil with evil. As I said in the original post, that pastor's lesson that only one denomination was going to make it through the gates of Heaven turned me off entirely. He was preaching hate and condemnation. You cannot fight sin with sin.

I thank God that His judgement when He seporates the wheat from the chaff will start with His Bride in His mercy. It will be a glorious time to live and participate in when His Bride is what she was made to be; walking in step with Him, and not herself.

JJ,
If I had anymore WATS I would give you one for your last post.
You have said in very few words what i have been saying in a number of posts.
I am in total agreement with you.
Unfortunately, the pastor may have been just giving a forewarning of what is to come with the hardline that is being expoused by the Vatican.
I hope that someone in Vatican City gets a visitation and an awakining soon before the schisms become to great to be surmounted

The Vatican is as much at fault as evangelicals are. We are too busy pointing our fingers at one another to see that the hordes of the enemy are at the gates with battering rams. We need to stop squabbling while our walls are being breached, turn around, open the gates, and offer our enemies living water.

[edit on 9-23-2005 by junglejake]

Just as Eve was to Adam, so is the human soul in relation to God.

The ‘bride’ is the soul—each of us has a soul and each soul is destined to be made one with the soul of the Son of Man/Son of God—the Holy Spirit.
That is the nature of the mystery Paul spoke of:

[color=#663366]For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.
He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
--Ephesians 5:23-32

Genesis 2:23-24
Matthew 19:5
Romans 7:4

The ‘church’ of today is not the ‘bride’—marriage is a in individual thing, not something done as a group. The word ‘ekklesia’ which truly means ‘called out assembly’ and the word ‘psuche’ which means ‘soul’ are both feminine in their conjugation—which is demonstrated by the Greek in which the second form (the feminine form) of the definite article always precedes both words.

Our goal is not to unite with each other, but rather to unite with Christ—and then, only in Him will be truly be united. Trying to unite amongst ourselves is futile, and it doesn’t represent surrendering to Him—it shows that we are still trying to accomplish things of ourselves.

Which is impossible in every way.

Excellent post, Junglejake. We all need to respect other religions than our own. The majority of all religions, if the adherents practice them as they were intended, help people to become better and closer to God.

I am reminded of my relationship with my maternal grandmother. She is a Catholic and I am a Mormon. We get along just great, and even though we belong to different religions, we are both trying to do what we think God wants us to, and trying to lead good lives. It would be absolutely ridiculous if we were to criticize each other over the differences in our religions. Quarreling with other religions is not what God wants us to do, of that I am certain.

The reference to the "Bride" of Christ comes out of Revelation, where it comes up several times between chapters 18 and 22. It is not a physical reference, but rather a means by which to metaphorically express the Church's importance to Christ. "You are important to me," expresses it, but not as well as saying, "you are as my bride."

I agree, though, the goal is to unite with Christ, not with one another as a church. My contention, though, is that if we unite with Christ, we will be unified because we will all be listening attentively to the Holy Spirit, and He will keep us walking in His ways. There is only one interpretation of the Bible that is correct, though we, as fallible humans, have several ideas of what that interpretation is. This is what has caused so many schisms in the church. If we are walking with God, though, really walking side by side as Adam did before the fall and Enoch did after the fall, that interpretation will be clear to us. So by giving ourselves to God completely and asking Him, "what can I do for you today," instead of, "could you do this for me," we will come in line with God's will.

DragonsDemesne, while I agree with you that we can't hold animosity towards someone because of their religion, this doesn't mean we have to respect the other religion. Christ said that He was the way, the truth and the light, and only through Him could we get to the Father. That's pretty exclusive. You can respect someone's faith in something without respecting what they believe in. I can respect you and your faith while still not having any respect for your religion.

Quarreling over religion, though, I agree with you 100% on. We are called by Christ to witness and to fight the evil in the world. However, the weapon He equipped us with is good, not evil, and causing others to fall into sin is evil. Quarreling causes people to become angry, which is exactly the opposite of the message He left for us to love.

I think one of the greatest modern examples of this is the woman who was taken hostage by that guy who shot up a courtroom several months ago. She could have been angry, she could have been bitter, she could have been miserable. Instead, she was forgiving and she loved her abductor enough to want his soul to be saved despite his actions against her. She witnessed to him, and he was saved.

We are to fight evil with good. That was the concept behind the turn the other cheek message Christ gave us. It speaks a lot louder if you care for your enemies than if you are ruthless with them.

I just read a book by Cal Pierce called Preparing The Way. It's an incredible biography describing the steps that were taken in reestablishing John G Lake's healing rooms in Spokane, WA, after 80 years of being closed. Rather, reopening God's healing rooms he used John G Lake to open around 1916. Here's an article about the healing in the Spokesman-Review if you'd like more information on what they're doing as told by a secular newspaper in 2000:

www.spokesmanreview.com...

The reason I bring this up here, though, is because the people praying and working in these rooms are not all one denomination! There's even a section talking about how two fellows who went to St. Anne's church just outside of Spokane. St. Anne's was having healing services twice a month, and these two guys figured, hey, what other group of people needs the anointing of the Holy Spirit than the Catholics? When they got there, God severely humbled and rebuked them as they saw the power of the Spirit being wrought in what they had believed to be a dead denomination.

Now, miraculous healings are taking place by people ranging from Presbyterian to Catholic to Evangelical, all working closely together. The Holy Spirit does not choose a denomination to anoint, He chooses the followers of Christ. The Church is being united, and I have to say, this is really encouraging!

[edit on 9-29-2005 by junglejake]

Originally posted by junglejake
The reference to the "Bride" of Christ comes out of Revelation, where it comes up several times between chapters 18 and 22. It is not a physical reference, but rather a means by which to metaphorically express the Church's importance to Christ. "You are important to me," expresses it, but not as well as saying, "you are as my bride."

I'm a hair splitter today.

The 'bride' reference goes back even to Isaiah:

Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.
--Isaiah 62:3-5 KJV

It is the predominant theme of the whole journey--unification and restoration that no man can ever damage.

We are to fight evil with good. That was the concept behind the turn the other cheek message Christ gave us. It speaks a lot louder if you care for your enemies than if you are ruthless with them.

Indeed. And love is the only cure for the ills caused by the lack thereof. A person who suffers because of hurt and pain cannot see their way to creating a positive balance of love in their life that outweighs the negative. The only thing that can tip the scales is for another to give of their heart unselfishly and for no motive other than just love.

Just because that's all we've got.

Well, here we are, 2 years down the line, and this has been taking place! It has been so exciting to see Christ's prayer in John 17:23-24 being answered!

I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

It has been so encouraging to see churches of many different denominations getting together, realizing that, though they do the religion thing differently than one another, the cross that binds us is stronger than any tradition of man and is a greater bond than even family.

Many are troubled by the Pope's recent comments regarding this, stating that the Catholic church is the only true church, but I find this to be extremely exciting and encouraging! Let me explain.

When God is moving, Satan moves to corrupt God's movement. This is demonstrated on several occasions. Ephesus is a great example of this. The Bible talks about Paul preaching for two years in the city of Ephesus and the message spread throughout all of Asia. We find there to be spiritual strongholds or flashpoints throughout history geographically. Jerusalem, for example, seems to be a permanent spiritual stronghold. Ephesus, on the other hand, was during the Roman Empire.

Recall that Ephesus is where Paul was preaching when the silversmiths recognized his message was going to cause them to go broke because their chief source of income was idols of the goddess Diana. There was a huge temple to Diana, and a lot of worship of her when God sent His apostle Paul to conquer Ephesus and thereby all of Asia.

I believe the Pope, in making his divisive statements, was being used by Satan. Now, I want to point out that no one, not one person besides Christ, is perfect, and all have fallen short of the glory of God. Even Peter, recognized as the original Pope, fell several times, both before and after he took up leadership of the church (his denial, and his condemnation of Paul for bringing the Truth to the gentiles, to name a couple). I don't mean to pick on the Pope, and I ask you not to take it that way, but I do see his comments going flat out against what I see God doing with His bride as she prepares herself for the groom.

As I said two years ago in the original post, Satan knows that a house divided cannot stand, and works hard, hard, hard to make sure we, as Christians, cannot see eye to eye because we believe our denomination is the proper one.

To give a visual metaphor, imagine a 5 lane highway, one way, traveling off into the distance, with the cross at the end. All around this road are ramps getting off on both the right and left sides of the road. Each of these exits are clearly labeled, with a denomination name in big white letters, and underneath a brief statement stating what else, in addition to Christ's sacrifice and our belief in Him, is required to gain access into heaven. Be it baptism, communion, etc. People stop taking the highway to the cross, and get off at the various denominations. This isn't to say they lose their salvation. Instead, it's keeping them from experiencing the full love of Christ. No greater love is there than when someone lays down his life for his friends. Until we see and recognize that, we cannot experience Christ's full love because we keep tacking things on that we need to do. We get off the highway of His love and start taking side roads that, while they may get us closer to the King, they are far slower than the highway.

We follow these because our pride makes it so difficult to accept Christ's sacrifice as the end all be all -- we want to participate in our salvation. We want to be able to say, "I did this, and so my salvation is assured". This can also involve entire denominations. Sometimes we love our church so much, or we love our doctrine so much that we start to become old wine skins, incapable of taking in the new wine without breaking, and so therefore rejecting new works God is doing, instead staying attached to our traditions and sometimes even condemning those who try to jump on board of whatever Christ is doing here on earth.

The bride of Christ will be united. She will make herself without spot or wrinkle, readying herself for her husband, the King, before He returns.

Why can't she start today, with you?

I am the bride. I have the seed. I have planted the seed. The rapture will be God removing the weeds from the wheat field. Those whom are left (the poor in spirit) will inherit the Kingdom Of God.

To get to the Kingdom of God, we have to get by Jesus first, since He will be the final Judge, and the book of life will be witness.

Jesus, has revealed Himself in the clouds, but very few have seen. There will be no excuses. Christians, Catholics and all religious who are self-righteous have already been judged unworthy, and will take part in the rapture....Woe to them!

Why the rapture? Because only those who believe they are self-righteous, believe they are going to be raptured, and therefore will be cast into the fire, with the rest of the weeds (see the parable of Jesus)

That will leave the few "believers" who have not exalted themselves, and the "non-believers"

Believers and non-believers will be caught up by Jesus, and judged according to their walk.

Believe it, or not. This is your seed. Plant it with care, for it is the only one you get.

stompk, just to be sure I understand you correctly, are you saying you've discovered the exact meaning of the unforgivable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit?

If you can back up your statement, I'd be very interested in seeing such, because what you're saying is directly contrary to what I'm saying and, if I'm wrong in this (scripturally) I'd really like to know!

[edit on 7/17/07/17 by junglejake]

JungleJake, your faith is strong.

Blaspheme is to purposefully go against God. Even those who claim to not believe in God, are forgiven, unless they go directly against God. To go against God, or one of his believers, is to admit He exists, because if they didn't truly believe God exists, there would be nothing to go against. This doesn't count when they were blasphemed against by a believer, and defend themselves.

Believers blaspheme when the tell other believers or non-believers who have had revelations, that these are not from God. This is going against the Holy Spirit, even if there is scripture to back up their reason for "debunking" a fellow believer. No believer should ever doubt anyones relationship with God. To make a judgement, is blaspheming.

As for my authority.
Look up the Comforter, in the bible. Jesus said he would send the Comforter, ahead of Him. The Comforter carried the seed, and had the spirit of the lamb (spirit of prophecy)

Jesus said, there will be many who see him, yet will pass by. Only the ones who takes him in to dwell with them, will be part of the supper of the marriage of the lamb. The marriage, is the passing of the seed. I was passed the seed, from the Comforter, whom I took in to dwell with me about two years ago.

Before you doubt me, carefully study what Jesus said about the Comforter. The Comforter, is the spirit of the lamb, in human form. The Comforter, is the key to the truth.

Jake, very, very, very few will take this seriously. I hope that you are one that will look at this with an open heart. I was given the seed Dec 21st, 2005. Dec 21st, 2012, 7 yrs later, will be judgement day (rapture). Then the dead will be released from the sea, and the remnant will be "caught up" with them.

I am an Agnostic Atheist and as such I do not believe in the Christian God of the Bible or any other God.

However, the funny thing is, even if I knew for certain that the Christian God of the Bible existed I would still not worship him. Simply because I think is not worthy of worship, this vengeful and jealous God deserves nothing in my eyes. I would therefore do what I could to oppose him. This does not, however, mean I would side with Satan, either. I refuse to choose between these two evils.

I really enjoy fantasizing about what it would be like if the Christian God of the Bible existed, it’s fun!

LurkerBeast

[edit on 17-7-2007 by LurkerBeast]

Originally posted by junglejake
Correction is one thing; we’re seeing churches today going directly against God’s word, and that needs to be corrected. However, condemnation is unacceptable.

So I need you to expand a little bit. There is a certain denomination that probably doesn't consider themselves a denomination. They consider that it is the truth. But it has perverted the truth. satan also knows that if he can pervert the truth enough so that salvation is lost then people aren't saved, which is his goal.

If someone was going on a trip to a certain place and there were 2 roads that led to their destination, but one had a bridge washed out over a 200 foot canyon, and you knew this, but failed to tell them, you would be withholding some vital info from them. Both roads do lead to the same town(but one has a deadly flaw in it) it ends in your death before you get there so you never arrive at the destination, you end up somewhere else(someplace you didn't intend and someplace horrible and you are in a bad condition).

So a distinction has to be made between right and wrong. The truth will offend some, I would just like to know a little more what you are saying?



[edit on 17-7-2007 by dbrandt]

[edit on 17-7-2007 by dbrandt]

Originally posted by LurkerBeast
This does not, however, mean I would side with Satan, either.

You probably don't realize that by purposely choosing to reject God you have made a choice, for satan.

Your choice would be possible if there existed a middle ground in which to be between God and satan. This middle ground does not exist. So if you are not on God's side you are on satan's.

I don't expect you to believe this right now, just remember it for any future moment of truth, in which this choice will again be presented to you.

Originally posted by dbrandt

Originally posted by LurkerBeast
This does not, however, mean I would side with Satan, either.

You probably don't realize that by purposely choosing to reject God you have made a choice, for satan.

Your choice would be possible if there existed a middle ground in which to be between God and satan. This middle ground does not exist. So if you are not on God's side you are on satan's.

I don't expect you to believe this right now, just remember it for any future moment of truth, in which this choice will again be presented to you.

How is there no middle ground? I'm on my side, which is my middle ground. I would seek to destroy both Satan and God, they would certainly both fall to my fury.

LurkerB,
Humor me. Next time you take a hot shower, and it feels good, just say the words "Thanks God" in your mind. If you feel nothing from this, I will never try to change your mind again. I promise.

But if you do feel something different, will you come back and talk to me about the possibility of the existance of God. I won't ask you to admit anything.

I believe you will be honest with me, because your conviction is strong, and you are truly seeking answers.

Peace

ok I get a bit lost with all the info... all the opinions.

JJ - are you suggesting the bride is 'the church'?

Queenannie - hello? Just what are you saying? Bride is the soul?

I always feel annoyed when I read weed and seed...like there is a difference between seeds. It just separates people, divides them.

Who is a weed? Who is not? How do we entertain the difference?

It is a judgement, one I am not willing to make.