Our last article addressed our country’s being given over by God to its own self-destruction. This article presents God’s sobering judgment upon the institutional Church. Judgment upon the Church is different from the judgment of a country. Upon a country, God simply gives it over to what its people are; with the Church, Christ Himself judges it by spewing it out of His mouth. Note the most sobering words of Revelation 3:16: “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” Where is the institutional Church in this spewing out, and what does it involve?

The Laodicean Church Age

The seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3 are a natural sequence given by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church. We believe these churches represent an unfolding of a prophetic time which falls between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks of Daniel 9:24–27. The sixty-ninth week was resolved with the first coming and rejection of Jesus as the Christ by the Jews. The seventieth week is yet to be known to the Jews. The time between these last two weeks has been the history of the Church, an understanding not addressed in the Old Testament. We believe this particular history is unfolded (in a secondary sense) in Revelation 2 and 3. This period of the Church concludes with Laodicea, the church age that we believe began around the turn of the twentieth century. Laodicea represents the last posture of the Church before it disappears from biblical history. What happens in this last church age, and how will Christ deal with it?

The end-time church age is one void of spirituality. Today there is a great lack of heart in public Christianity; this deficit is more and more being filled with a mental and intellectual vain verbosity. Even the conservatism of Neo-Christianity is given to intellectual apologetics rather than the wooing and convictions of the Holy Spirit to the heart. Evangelism today is simply a prayer prayed and a momentary decision made. Modern evangelism has accommodated worldly living as a part of this “decision for Christ.” The lack of true heart conversions is reminiscent of the days of the Flood when only Noah and his family were saved.

One of the overwhelming problems about Christianity today is the contemporary church itself. Because the contemporary church has eliminated a biblical view of Christ, a person making a profession of faith becomes only a part of the Church and not the body of Christ. Such a church is very worldly, or if it is conservative, it is very carnal. Their message provides no hope for the people to ever live victorious in life, in heart, or in mind. In these churches holiness is only viewed as something progressively out there in the future, with no specific goal of ever attaining it. In fact, pulpits condemn such hope of holiness of heart and life. However, the Scriptures make it very clear: “For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth [holiness], despiseth not man, but God” (1 Thess. 4:7, 8).

One of the great causes of luke-warmness in the Laodicean church age today is self-deception:

Because thou sayest I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked (Rev. 3:17).

Pride is a master trait of the End-time Church. Laodicean churches believe they can change the world, the very world that crucified the Lord. They denounce as “pessimists” those who show from Scripture that “evil men and seducers are waxing worse and worse,” and that the “love of many is waxing cold.” Though they boast of being rich outwardly, Christ sees them as spiritually poor. They also believe they have “need of nothing”; there is a vacancy of any true sense of need. Oh, the millions attending churches today who are blindly going to Hell. Yes, these churches do not know that they are wretched! Of all the seven churches, Laodicea is the worst; it is even worse than the Roman Catholicism of Thyatira’s church age. The end of the church ages is drenched in lukewarmness and absent of the presence of Christ.

I Will Spew Thee out of My Mouth

The judgment of this church age is the spewing of it out of the mouth of Christ. It is peremptory; it is dictatorially declared by the Amen of history that it will happen; this prophecy is unconditional. Like the giving up of a nation or a person (Romans 1), this is declared as an irreconcilable rejection.

Just as the Jewish nation rejected Christ at His first coming, so the Church has rejected Christ on the eve of His second coming. Just as God rejected the Jewish nation at Christ’s first coming, He will reject the Church at His second coming. The Church located on earth has become repugnant to Christ, and He is about to vomit the institutional Church out of His mouth.

This spewing comes from the mouth of Christ; the mouth of Christ has always been identified with the Word of Christ. There are multitudes of publications and periodicals that flood the earth today in the guise of Christianity: the works of liberalism and modernism, the existentialism of Neo-Orthodoxy and Charismatism, and the apostasies of Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, Methodism, Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, Baptist, the cults, and others. All of these declare they have the Word of God in their possession. Simultaneously we are witnessing Christ “spewing out” of His mouth this apostate church age.

See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:25–29).

We are at an unprecedented time of the sifting and shaking of churches, ministries, and individuals. This is far from the great workings of God during the Philadelphia church age, the age of revivals and awakenings. Though God commends and keeps His true Church, He is now destroying the institutional Church. The church of today has attacked the Word of God, the mouth of God, with her false hermeneutical tactics; the multiplicity of Bible versions has brought massive confusion to the laity. This church age has rejected the mouth of Christ; therefore, Christ rejects them by spewing them out.

The Ministries of Our Times

How often we have heard founders of godly ministries declare before they die, “If this institution ever leaves the principles of God, may He burn every building down to the ground; may He shut the school or church down.” This was a noble prayer and certainly an evidence of a founder’s heart that it would be better for his school to come to naught rather than to compromise, but it does not seem that God is fulfilling these desires in the manner past founders prayed. Nevertheless, God is answering these prayers in another way, though its present generation may not realize it.

Some months ago Doug Phillips, the founder and president of Vision Forum, resigned due to his confession of being “inappropriately romantic and affectionate” with another woman. Although Vision Forum has had many traits that are respectable, so does the Devil at times in his deception. Vision Forum has been endeavoring to combat problems in the American family; however, it has approached it through biblical heresy rather than truth. Doug Phillips is a strong adherent to Christian Reconstructionism, which he believes needs to be brought into the context of the family. He has built his theology upon the old postmillennialism of R. J. Rushdoony. His views have been against the local church, the local Christian school, and the pastor’s authority in the Christian life and home. Mr. Phillips strongly believed in home-schooling families to what he called “exercise dominion” through a 200-year plan, believing it would bring about a so-called multi-generational faithfulness and what he calls a “biblical patriarchy.” Application of this view has been exampled in recent years through the Duggar family’s television reality show

19 Kids and Countingas well as movies presented by Kirk Cameron, the so-called Christian activist who was closely associated with Mr. Phillips.

Mr. Phillips believed, as many before him, that a Reconstructionist philosophy could bring America back to Christian culture. However, it must be said that a strictly Christian culture has never existed in our country and therefore cannot be “rebuilt.” Christians have always lived in pagan cultures, and this includes the United States. God has not called us to build some type of Christian culture out of our society. We are simply called upon to preach the gospel and live a consistent Christian life before the world. As Christians and members of a local, Bible-believing church, we are not commanded to make this world “a better place to live” for our posterity, or to “bring in the Kingdom,” or to establish some concept of a Christian-utopian society for succeeding generations. This is not our purpose for being on the earth at this time in history. No man, apart from Christ, can make the world a better place to live. Yet, a true Christian by his influence should make it harder to sin.

It should also be noted that attempting to place unregenerate people, political leaders, and society under the requirement of God’s Law is not biblical. God did not give the Commandments to anyone but Israel. It was His covenant to them alone. He did not want us to create a culture for God’s glory to pervade the inhabitants of the earth. Although Roman Catholics and Protestants have tried to do so, it has been the product of a false Christianity. Vision Forum has equally been caught up in this false Christianity.

Similar to Bill Gothard’s work, Vision Forum has never taken a stand against the contemporary views of Christianity; it takes no stand against the Charismatic movement or any other part of apostasy. To any true Christian, this should be of great concern. We must ever remember that a delusion is not the absence of truth; it is the addition of error. We must ever be careful of the theology that becomes the fuel to drive such ministries as Vision Forum.

In Vision Forum there has been great emphasis upon the father-daughter relationships. We must remember that the “other woman” with whom Doug Phillips was involved over several years was someone’s daughter. It is interesting to note that in the Patriarchal Community, there is greater sympathy towards the cheating husband than the cheating wife. The sympathy to the husband’s temptation is often tolerated; yet, when the wife sins it is believed she “let herself go” or she was inadequately submissive to her husband. Vision Forum’s warped views have driven it into biblical heresy. While recently viewing some of the videos of Mr. and Mrs. Phillips’ speaking excitedly of their home and marriage, it was sad to realize that his improprieties were secretly continuing at that time. The product demonstrated in the videos was not the product of truth in the home.

Evangelical Christians tend to be Evidentialists rather than Biblicists. Rather than searching out the doctrinal heart of a ministry or movement, they tend to be drawn only to its outward or superficial product. Even God told the prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel 16 that man does look on the outward appearance. Vision Forum has invested much time and money on the outward appearance endeavoring to perfect it to the neglect of a transformed heart. It has given us a quick commercialized product of the outward man, but it has not invested in the spiritual heart of a family. Though such sins could come upon any of us, some theologies tend to promote practices that contribute to deeds of unfaithfulness. If truth was ever in this ministry, we now have witnessed its spewing out from the mouth of God.

There has also been the recent tragedy of Bill Gothard’s ministry (Institute in Basic Life Principles) and its deep-seated immoralities being made public. These sins of infidelity in its hierarchy go all the way back to 1980. Though the Board of that ministry tried to deal with this overwhelming fornication even back then, the craftiness of Mr. Gothard made it uncomfortable for the Board to deal with it. His ministry, like Vision Forum’s, was one based on the flesh and sowed to the flesh professing biblical solutions for America’s problems. In the absence of true “heart” theology, he left people with simply outward principles working through the power of the flesh to bring about a plastered Christian product. Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6). And now, the personal improprieties of Bill Gothard (at 79 years of age) have finally surfaced.

It is estimated that over 20,000 pastors have been influenced by this man over the years. We are now witnessing the corruption after years of sowing to the flesh. Though many respected Mr. Gothard for not marrying, the immoral problems he has had over these years prove it would have been better for him to have married rather than to have “burned” (1 Cor. 7:9). His ministry was also built upon ecumenicity and toleration of the Neo-Christianity, even with its contemporary music.

Like Vision Forum, Gothard’s ministry, too, had a number of good things that mesmerized families toward its delusion. Can what seems to be a good thing actually be good when in the context of heresy? Does not the evil affect the good? (Hag. 2:11–14). A true new birth only can come from a true seed: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Pet. 1:23). We are also told in Deuteronomy 22:9, “Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled.” This is what has happened in these professing conservative ministries. Professing the Word of God, the mouth of God, they have been spewed out before all.

More and more we see the dismantling of the apostate ministries with their open sins. World Vision recently announced their acceptance of same-sex married staff members among its 1,100 employees. Within just a day or two, it had lost over $800,000 in contributions. Therefore, the $1 billion-professing Christian organization quickly reversed its ruling, stating it had made a mistake. Apart from its obvious lack of any biblical and moral compass, this incident further indicates the powers pressing upon the institutional Church to give in to the aggressive political correctness of fornication and that which is against the moral righteousness of historic Christianity.

Homosexuality has become a part of the fabric of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy; a minimum of forty percent of its priests are estimated to be sodomites. Pope Benedict XVI’s involvement in these immoral powers is becoming more and more evident. It is interesting to note that the oldest lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transsexual (LGBT) magazine (

The Advocate) has selected Pope Francis as its person of the year. They have found him to be their strongest supporter for their cause. Perhaps they hope he will influence the Roman Catholic judges on the U. S. Supreme Court to legalize such marriages. Truly, the gates of Hell have prevailed against the institutional Church! Only the true Elect-remnant Church will be spared from such a death. These revelations of immorality are equally prevalent in other Charismatic and Evangelical associations. It seems the Church world cares very little about the appearance of these sins in its characterless leadership.

God has also permitted the open collapse of Crystal Cathedral birthed by the apostasy of Robert Schuller. This ministry’s signature properties were purchased by the Roman Catholic Church for $57 million dollars. The upheaval of this ministry was a public sham; now the Catholic Church openly flaunts its takeover with Romanist symbolism, investing about $100 million for renovations.

We are also witnessing men becoming bolder and bolder against the standards of God’s Word. With seared consciences they claim that “the Bible does not condemn these things.” As a result, God is giving them over to open sins of smoking, drinking, and R-rated movies in their churches. As God has given our world over to the uncleanness through the lust of their hearts, then given the world over to vile affections, and finally given the world over to a reprobate mind, Christ is also spewing out the professing Church, making it a public shame and disgrace. Contemporary Christianity has become a joke, an institution impotent against sin and the invading powers of the world. Yes, we are witnessing the spewing out of His mouth the very religion that was named after Christ.

The Spewing Out of Fundamentalism

So many changes are now taking place among ministries that believe conservative Christianity must acclimate to the contemporary. Note our observations in

The Rise and Fall of Historic Christian Fundamentalismin its chapter “The Fundamental Schools: The Final Collapse”:

Even to maintain a student body, the schools are pressured to believe that the standards must now change. Instead of cutting back on the student population, there is a broadening acceptance of poorer quality of students. The economic philosophy is the more students, the more revenue. Schools console themselves believing that the liberal arts Christian school must provide a diversity of culture, including the world’s culture. This leads to an increasing plethora of worldly, neo-Christianity music styles that should truly vex a conscientious Christian. Spiritual dorm supervisors and monitors are rare to find: thus, prayer meetings are often conducted from a “neo” perspective amidst a hypocritical façade trying to keep up the Christian imagery (p. 217).

Once citadels of Fundamentalism with militant and magnificent leadership, these ministries have now sheathed their swords and become the models for crossing over into Neo-Evangelicalism. Rather than the Holy Spirit, intercollegiate sports has now become the exciting “spirit” of their campuses. As schools change from year to year, their administrators try to inject a little Christian rhetoric to promote these programs hoping to somehow Christianize their growing secularism.

Every year these schools continue silent attacks against the Word of God and its principles. They craftily reason away their changes; they become more serpentine in their hermeneutics of Scripture seeking to justify their changes. Even to accommodate the world more, the names of schools are being changed. Such schools know that their former name is a blight and a stigma for the Christian in an emerging-church generation. Now the graduate can speak of his alma mater without any implication that it was a Christian school.

Conclusion

As God the Creator is giving this world up and over to themselves and to a reprobate mind, Christ is also now giving the institutional Church up and over to itself. The Church has rejected the Word of God to this generation, and Christ is now rejecting it by leaving the Church, spewing it out of His mouth. This Church generation while professing a “form of godliness” is denying, resisting, and rejecting the power of it. As there is no hope for this country, there is no hope for the institutional Church. The only hope is for the Remnant and the workings of God among His Elect. All others will fall away unto the powers of this End-time apostasy.

As we see the growing number of Charismatic and Evangelical national media ministers with compromised marriages and ministries, the words of Christ rise in declaring their willful ignorance: “And knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” On a large scale the institutional Churches have rejected Christ, they have rejected the Chief Cornerstone, and they have rejected the very Word of God. They have consulted with and built upon self-interpretations of Scripture. We are now witnessing Christ spewing them out of His mouth. Although this Church attempts to define their lukewarmness as “Christian love,” “meekness,” “moderation,” or “kindheartedness,” whatever false term is used, it still has nauseated Christ. And once the vomiting begins there is no return from His judgment!

Judgment has commenced at the House of God. Christ is giving men over to their hearts’ desires. We have witnessed this judgment in the birth of Liberalism and Modernism, then Neo-Orthodoxy and Situationalism, and then Neo-Evangelicalism and Neo-Pentecostalism (producing the Charismatic movement). Furthermore, in the last twenty years, we have witnessed the public erosion and falling away of Fundamentalism, including the surrogate ministries presenting themselves as conservative Christianity. Immorality has become more and more prominent in ministries given to visceral, professing “Christian” music. In the light of Christ’s abhorrence of the condition of the Church, we are witnessing the vomiting of the institutional Church out of Christ’s mouth.

While Christ’s nausea with the institutional Church will continue to reveal the great abomination of public Christianity, the true Christian must ever be vigilant in his communion with Christ. It is most imperative to ever live for Christ with biblical passion, living by the standards of His Word in separation from this world, and loving and desiring the principles of His Word to govern our lives. Within the Word of Christ—the mouth of Christ—is where we want to reside in this End-time Church age.