"And he (God) put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy" (Ezk. 8:3).
This eighth chapter begins with an angry, jealous God grabbing Ezekiel by the hair, yanking him up, and sticking his face in the mess and sin that existed in Jerusalem among God's chosen. "See this! See this idol!" said the Lord in verse 5. "And look, look what they do! They've driven me out of my own sanctuary. But you think that's bad, look at this rancidness they're doing over here!" continued God in verse 6 as he jerked Ezekiel's head from one scene to another.
In verses 7&8 God brings Ezekiel to a hole in the wall and has him dig till he finds a secret door. In 9-11 Ezekiel sees 70 of the ancient, most respected men of Israel with censers worshiping pictures of bugs and beasts painted on the wall about God's temple. In verse 12 these ancients are heard to say: "The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth." This phrase in verse 12 is very significant because it is the first of several connecting links in this chapter between the idolatry of Ezekiel's day and today.
We must remember that these "ancients" were the elders in God's Church of that time. They were not atheists who thought God was dead. They served in God's service, in God's name, in God's temple. They were saying that Jehovah God was indeed existent, but no one had seen much of Him lately, and thus God probably wasn't seeing, or paying much attention to them, either. (This philosophy of an existent but absent god is the cornerstone of what we know today as deism.) They reasoned that in view of God's absence, they would just TAKE CONTROL and run things the way they thought best.
The thought of their heart was: "It's up to us to guide the church, set the standards, to run everything our way." This is what God warned against in Deuteronomy 4:16 ("lest you corrupt yourselves" by making idols for yourselves). An idol is always the outward manifestation of man taking control. Jeremiah 10:14 tells us that the foundation of every idol is falsehood because there is no "breath," nothing of God's Spirit, in them. All idols are religious things. Thus, any religious thing made by man outside God's Spirit is an idol.
Denominationalism is the great idol of the modern church age!
Denominations exist by man, for man, and under the total control of man. They are the pride of our religious Christian society. Denominations have not and do not glorify God. They provoke Him to jealousy just as the ancients of Ezekiel 8:12 did! Through them the Bride corrupts herself. To "make herself ready" the Bride must cleanse herself of this great spot.
Let me give some examples of how denominations fulfil the "it's up to us to set the standards now that Jesus isn't here" spirit of Ezekiel 8:12.
Back in the mid '70's I attended a Nazarene church. I taught the teen class. When the Billy Graham movie The Hiding Place came to the secular theaters, I was forbidden to take the youth to see this great film. Why? Because the Nazarene manual forbids Nazarenes from going to the "theater."
I never became a member of that denomination because I could not stand before the entire congregation and promise to uphold and adhere to all the standards, rules, and doctrines of the Church of the Nazarene as found in their manual. Why could I not do this? Because in many areas these rules and doctrines where not just "error" but went directly against the teaching of the Bible. Ironically, most of the membership of that local church didn't believe in, or personally adhere to, various points in the manual, either. In fact, they cited their own hypocrisy and compromise (in publicly stating before God and man their loyalty to uphold and practice Nazareneism when in fact they did not truly believe in and knew they would not "go by the book") as a reason why I should do the same and join up!
Later, when I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues (in a Nazarene church although contrary to Nazarene doctrine) I was not surprised when I and my family were asked to please find another church to attend.
The above is not a Nazarene problem. It is a denominational problem, a denominational SIN. It's the sin of idolatry built upon the falsehood and control of men who have altered or replaced the truth of God's scripture and control of God's Spirit. These idols, and there are several hundred of them, all have man-made names, and compete with each other for adherents to their name.
No, the problem is not local churches, nor local churches organizing on a small or large scale for joint work and fellowship. It is not because names like "First Church," "Blessed Family," "Down Home Fellowship," or "Sanctified Church of the Redeemed Apostolic Most Holy Faith" are chosen and used by local fellowships.
The idol, the culprit, is the Big Brother name that looks over and lords itself over. The idol of extra-biblical dogma demands to be adhered to under the protective all-wise governing denominational "covering." The books of doctrine, manuals, etc. are considered indispensable to the understanding of Scripture. The prayer books, and rotarian worship wherein and without which the Spirit does or does not move. The ancients alone teach divinity, and without their signature ministers can not minister.
Dear Christian, just ask your pastor what a minister in another denomination must do before he can become a minister in your denomination. His answer will be this. First, he must rescind his current denominational ordination. Why? Why can't he keep his current ordination and just get one for your denomination, too? Oh, there are several lame reasons one will get for this. But the deepest error is that man does not ordain AT ALL! God does (Ps. 75:6 7; Rom. 10:15)! And if God has ordained someone as an Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor or Teacher, no one has the authority to not recognize and submit to their ministry!
Jesus taught about modern day denominationalism preeminence-ism, in Matthew 24:48 51. "But and if that evil servant [they are His servants in His church] shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming [the Lord is absent]; and shall begin to smite [take control over rather than serve] his fellow servants, and to eat and drink [take from these sheep] with the drunken [drunk with power]; The lord of that servant shall come in a day [the second coming] when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Denominations are not about God's Church, they are about man's church (III John 9 10).
(Let's not forget that our subject is the sealing of the Bride. Who will be sealed? The Bride who has made herself ready. The Bride who has purged herself of all things which would make her Love jealous, and nothing makes God more jealous than idolatry! NOTHING!)
I was raised as a Quaker. When I attended the Nazarene Church I lost nothing by not being a Quaker any more for the Nazarenes held all the truth the Quakers held. When I left the Quaker church, all I left behind was their error of not taking communion and not baptizing with water. I thus conclude that the Quaker denomination (Friends Church) is not only unnecessary but undesirable for all its truth is found elsewhere and its error will not be missed. When in the Nazarene Church, I found that all Nazarenes I talked to agreed that the Quakers should in fact join them, too. (Let's pretend the world took this advice and now all Quakers are Nazarenes.)
Next, when I left the Nazarene Church I went to an Assembly of God Church for they held all the truth I had as a Quaker and as a Nazarene. Further, the Assemblies had the truth about the Holy Spirit which the Nazarenes taught against. Again I lost nothing.
Thus, I will say that all Nazarenes (including all those who had hypothetically just left the Society of Friends to become Nazarenes) should start attending the Assemblies of God. Nothing would be lost and truth gained. Once again, I think the Assemblies feel joining them would be the right thing for the Nazarenes (and former Quakers) to do.
Eventually, I left the Assemblies because as a post-tribber I learned that the Assemblies, in their official dogma, forbid any one from preaching post trib doctrine in their pulpits.
I've found at every turn of truth, that more often than not, the ones I had been with broke fellowship with me because I was no longer in their group. It was like in not being one of them any more I was no longer a Christian!
I've also found that when I "joined up" with a new group of Christians, they all not only felt that I was right in leaving what I left to join them, but that all others should "see the light" and join them, too. Also, if they had any doubts about me being a Christian, now that I had joined up with them they knew I really was saved not just more enlightened, but more saved.
Now, I am the pastor of a local body myself. I know from personal experience that some of us are definitely more enlightened and further along the Holy Spirit-promised road to "all truth" than others. But I also know from personal experience that all, whether Quaker or Catholic, who personally know Jesus as God and Saviour, as evidenced by their lives, are qualitatively as Christian as I.
Unfortunately, I have also learned that most, yes most, in these denominational idols are not there simply because they are good Christians who have not yet had the way more perfectly explained. Neither are they there because they are further down the road of truth and want to be a light to that truth. No, most have been well exposed to truth and had their error pointed out. They stay because they are not the Bride, they are (name a denomination) s! They don't realize it, but by following their leaders they are partakers in the "God has gone away, come, let us make this Christianity into our image" mentality. And their worship and service is but their will being done in God's name. It is as futile as if they had bugs and beasts painted on their walls.
All these, from Ezekiel 8:12 to today, have become willfully ignorant of the basic reality that God is not absent! God is present through His statutes and judgments! God is not only here in His Spirit, HE IS HERE THROUGH HIS SCRIPTURES. For all scripture is given to us for all doctrine, in all matters that require reproof and correction, to be the total source for instruction in righteousness, to the extent that it is, without any aid, able to actually perfect a man into God's child and bride, and thoroughly furnish us with every tool of intellectual degree and practical ability for any work of God be it Apostolic or janitorial (II Timothy 3:16 17)! AMEN!
I've given a lot of space to Ezekiel 8:12, but I don't think too much. Denominationalism is the idol of preeminence-ism, institutionalized Diotrephesism (III John 9). It is a suitor, a wooer, a deceiver and polluter of God's Bride. Yet, I have even heard preachers use the account of Jesus' feeding the 5,000 where he had them divide up and sit down by "companies" (Lk. 9:14) as prophetic action of future denominations being God's will!
The thought is still "The Lord sees us not" (Ezk 8:12). The Lord doesn't notice this, He doesn't mind this, He is indifferent to this. That is what the Ancients of Ezekiel's day were thinking, and it is what the Ancients think today. No wonder these feel today, as those felt back then, that it is up to them to set the standard. They see themselves, not God's statutes and judgments, as the standard.
It is very hard for the Bride to purge herself of this great spot and abomination. From the time she was young, she has been taught that to bow to the denomination was the same as bowing to her Lord. She sees the Church as the saviour rather than the savee. This is why it has been so hard over the centuries for so many to leave not only the Roman Catholic church but many other denominations in order to walk in full obedience to Christ and be truly FREE as Jesus promised. Let's not forget that the words of John 8:30 32 were spoken to Jews who believed. But to be free they had to leave that which was false in that "denomination" and completely and solely follow Christ and His word.
Are you part of God's Bride? Are you in bondage as a __________? Do you fear what your family, who have been __________s for generations, will say if you move on and go where you know God is deeper still? Are you as a minister afraid to preach the truth about some area of the faith because to do so would cause your denomination to discipline you or throw you out?
My friend, my dad was thrown out of a United Methodist church he pastored because he had altar calls and "the board" didn't want him to. How I respect my late father who often chose God over the denomination as a Quaker or a Methodist. My preacher dad was a Kingdom man, not a company man.
Yet, I know of Assembly of God pastors who are post trib but won't preach it in these last days for fear of the denomination. I know of Baptists and The Church of Christ folk who are baptized in the Holy Ghost and speak with tongues, but they won't testify of God's great gift for fear of rejection by man and the "convention."
God does see. He sees it all. And He is looking for a Bride, not a Southern Baptist though she attends a Southern Baptist church. As God told Ezekiel, God has told me, and I am telling you. SEE!