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This is the 70. Chapter of "The Man-Made Church"

70. Degrees of apostasy

by Frank L. Preuss

The great problem of the time of the end is recognizing Antichrist.

We will only then recognize Antichrist, when we are getting used recognizing the little details, which the Bible gives us to identify such a person.

And this is also still not enough, when we then exclude a quite important person in this endeavour to recognize spiritual things, namely ourselves.

The first degree of apostasy

This first degree of apostasy is particularly difficult to recognize, since it is not taught. It is one of the many teachings, which is suppressed.

When one knows this teaching, then one will immediately recognize, why it is supressed.

Because those who are supposed to teach it, are those, about whom it is all about.

Those, who are to teach this teaching, are those, about whom it is about with this negative behaviour.

The negative behaviour is the habit to speak about other Christians in a judging way, in a way, to lift them up and to put them above others.

It is here about the discussion of known Christian personalities, and to compare them among themselves, and to arrange them in a certain order of precedence.

This now seems to be quite a harmless pastime and also a popular one and it also gives the opportunity, to let others know, which apparently important person one knows and what of their teachings one has acquired and that one has comprehended it and that others cannot really call this knowledge their own.

One could call this bad habit namedropping, dropping of prominent names to make an impression.

This bad habit is now the heart of the teaching, which must be drawn from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians. Paul goes into several details, which explain what is wrong there and why.

This wrong habit shows that a person with this vice has basically not understood, about what it is about Jesus Christ.

For such a person, Jesus Christ is not really Lord.

One can only have Jesus Christ as Lord, and no-one else.

Namedropping can also be described as boasting with famous acquaintances, or familiar mentioning of names of the famous as form of bragging.

Paul says, by him mentioning Paul and Apollos, no-one is something, but God only, 1 Corinthians 3:7.

And in 1 Corinthians 3:21 he says, Therefore let no man glory in men.

Other translations say this in 1 Cor 3:21: So then, no more boasting about men! or So there is nothing to beast about in anything human; or So let no one exult proudly concerning men [boasting of having this or that man as leader].

And in 1 Corinthians 4:6 we have this statement: that no one of you be puffed up for one against another, or, that none of you may be puffed up and inflated with pride and boast in favour of one [minister and teacher] against another.

It is important to really become aware of this human weakness, because it is that weakness, which leads to an ignoring of the growing influence of those powers, who really stand behind the growing stronger of the entire Antichrist tendency.

When someone does not recognize the Antichrist tendency, he will hardly recognize it later, and no longer be able to free himself from it.

The first degree of apostasy is therefore to become apostate then when it is simply about talking about persons, who have a perfectly positive character, but are now bragged about.

The second degree of apostasy

And with this second degree of apostasy the picture now changes a little, and the boasted about person is now simply not marked with a positive character, but does evil things.

And this case is that case, which almost always happens, when so-called Christians talk about so-called Christians.

As they are in a ghetto, it is almost impossible for them, to recognize their own situation. And those, who keep them in this ghetto, have of course a strong interest to keep this ghetto situation and to strengthen it. And the not-talking about this subject is a means to keep up this hypnosis.

The Bible calls these people carnal, not spiritual.

But also people who boast about good people are carnal.

Who brag about people who do evil, do themselves evil things – in addition to that, that they are carnal and that they are not spiritual.

The first letter of Paul to the Corinthians was successful. The Corinthians accepted it and changed and have again become spiritual Christians. And apparently they have also such people successfully rehabilitated or removed, who wanted to make them carnal people. This information, which leads to this conclusion, comes from a document, a letter, which was sent to them, the Corinthians, from Rom, and which is known as the first letter of Clement to the Corinthians. There Clement writes that the Corinthians have chucked out men out of the office. In Romans 16:17-18, in the Bible, the existence of the Catholic Church is documented, and described as something, that causes divisions and put obstacles in the way. This Antichrist movement existed therefore already before Paul came to Rom and therefore also, when Paul wrote his letter to the Corinthians and these Antichrists now tried to get the Corinthians not to throw the Catholics out of the church, but to again appoint them into their offices. The Corinthians therefore were then in a situation, where they were carnal and where they were not spiritual, and were now called upon by Paul to again become spiritual, and were urged by the starting popery in Rom to become real Antichrist.

But today such a situation is hardly to be found, because almost all so-called Christians are actually Antichrists, and as they are not aware of that, as they have been indoctrinated and hypnotized for thousands of years that orthodoxy is true Christianity, it is hard for them, or almost impossible, to get out there.

The first Catholic mentioned by name is Diotrephes, 3 John 9, and the first Catholic Church mentioned by name is the one in Laodicea, which Paul describes in detail in his letter to the Laodiceans. We had a detailed look at this in this book, The Man-Made Church, in Chapter 21. Meditation.

With the Catholic Church it is therefore directly about Antichrist and his kingdom, because Diotrephes is identical with the type of Antichrist, the subject, which runs through all three letters of John. And the Catholic Church is again identical with orthodoxy, and to it belong all so-called Christian churches and their members.

It is paganism and heathen and full of heathen customs and practices. This was expounded in the 32. Chapter, where this idolatry and its idolaters were discussed.

Men who join this paganism, and who have joined it, are idolaters and are like people who would join Simon the sorcerer, who practised idolatry. He lived in the city of Samaria and had become a Christian, Acts 8:13.

When one now is among people who boast about other men, of whom they think they are Christians, but are not, but are Antichrists, then one should immediately intervene correctively, because such people are themselves Antichrists and it must be pointed out to them that they practise divisive behaviour.

Paul gives us there a clear instruction, in Titus 3:10: A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject.

We therefore have the assignment to admonish such a divisive person.

And that happens two times at most.

After that, in case the admonition remains unsuccessful, and such a person still belongs to the man-made church, we avoid him. We have nothing to do with him.

This second degree of apostasy from God will therefore also not occur very often, since it will be rare to come across real Christians, and therefore someone who is boasting will also hardly be real Christian.

The third degree of apostasy

The third degree of apostasy is therefore a case, where a member of a denomination boasts about another, and both are therefore carnal, and both also do evil and both are also divisive.

It is a ghetto situation, where the own members talk about the own members.

It is a coming together of Pharisees.

When Christians read in the Bible about Pharisees and scribes, then they think of the time in which Christ lived, and do not link the situation to today’s time.

Above all they do not see that they themselves are these Pharisees.

The difference to today’s time may perhaps only be that then less people belonged to a religious organization and therefore were Pharisees or Sadducees or Essenes. Where on the other hand today all seem to belong to a denomination, and one therefore has to speak of that they are Pharisees, because the word Pharisees is synonymous with the word hypocrite.

They are Pharisees because they hypocritically pretend to be true Christians, but are in reality none.

The Pharisees called by name in the Bible are Gamaliel, he is mentioned in Acts 5:34, and the father of Paul, Acts 23:6 and Paul himself, Acts 23:6 and 26:5 and Philippians 3:5.

When we therefore read about Pharisees in the Bible, we should compare these events directly with events in today’s life, and see in the Pharisees precisely those people who today belong to denominations, and are worldly and materialistically, as they were also then as members of religious organizations.

We now come to a message from Bertha Dudde which describes the difference between the life of a member of a religious organization and the life of person turned towards God:

Every man must act according to his knowledge.

2. April 1964. B.D. NR. 8796.

Let this be said to you that no externals are valid before me, that I only value that what comes out of the deepest heart. When you think to honour me through formal acts, you carry out a kind of idolatry from which you are however to separate to all the more be closely merged with me – to make my presence in your hearts possible, which is completely independent from outer forms and customs and therefore can also take place there where the heart alone speaks. Again and again I tell you that you have disfigured the pure teaching of Jesus, that you entwined human work into it and you now assign greater importance to this human work than to my Gospel, which comprises only the two commandments of love. For who lives in love, he guarantees my teaching. But no matter how conscientiously you obey all human requirements, which you have added to my Gospel – when love is not in you, which I taught you, then those acts are completely worthless; they do not earn your soul the smallest advantage, only confuse you men in that way, that you think to have done your duty. But every dutiful act is already completely worthless because it excludes human will. And when also voluntarily human requirements are fulfilled they still cannot bear the blessing in them, which a single work of love carries in itself. But he who feels close love towards me, he brings all his thoughts to me; he communes closely with me, where he is alone – he will not need any surroundings for this, which rather keeps him back from his close thoughts towards me. Who is ignorant, he also acts accordingly, and he is then also to be excused through his ignorance – but he who is in possession of truth, who knows how worthless outer acts and customs are before me – especially when they serve to mislead men in their thinking – he will also make an effort to free himself of it. He will evaluate all inner experience and recognition as an effort of love, and the union with me becomes closer and closer, which however can only be established in the heart. I certainly have founded my church on earth myself, which is erected on the rock of faith, but I founded no organization, which alone already follows from that they are outwardly recognizable and assert themselves more outside, but can leave the inner man untouched when he not earnestly strives for me and truth. Only my word alone is to be the content of a community, and men are to fulfil the love commandments out of my word – to reach a living faith through love – and through this therefore closest union with me. Then they are members of my church, which I myself have founded on earth. I now try to supply all men with truth, but few accept it. But who accepts it, he also soon attains a deep knowledge, and out of this knowledge he is now to act accordingly, for – no-one can serve two masters. But when now a work has been built up, which is in opposition to this knowledge, then this work is also obviously arisen from the effect of my opponent, which every outer event proves, which is suited to give a completely wrong impression of my actual will. And then the man who has now become knowing must also separate from the works of my opponent. Who cannot accept the truth supplied to him due to his own lack of love or his small degree of maturity, he will understandably also not be willing to give away his error. But for the knowing the error is recognizable and it remains error, therefore effort of the opponent; he then only still obeys the (The knowing now obeys these) worldly requirements, but this is then no worship; this is a pure worldly matter, having consideration for men, who however also should be led to truth but not be strengthened in their unbelief. It is certainly difficult to proceed against a tradition, and it will also no longer succeed, and only few will free themselves, because their desire for truth is unusually strong. But I myself can make no compromises; I can only give you clear information about error and truth, and you have then to decide yourselves and then prove your decision. Always consider that it is an unusual gift of favour to introduce you to pure truth, that certainly every man can make use of this gift of favour, but that it is again a great act of love for my part when my spirit speaks to a man so loud that he reaches recognition, that I can also supply him with truth according his will for truth. And this gift of favour is also to be used by man now accepting truth and also representing it towards those who are still bound to traditional or organisational regulations. Only who is free of it, he is also free of my opponent, otherwise the danger still exists that the opponent seeks to win him back, that he weakens his will, although I no longer give up any man who once has surrendered to me for I no longer let my opponent have any man who once has earnestly decided in favour of me. Amen. B.D. NR. 8796.

"And then the man who has now become knowing must also separate from the works of my opponent."

The denominations, religious organizations, are works of the opponent of God. That is the first thing. And the second is that man must separate from them.

The fourth degree of apostasy

The denominations, religious organizations, are works of the opponent of God.

Their origin is based on establishments, which were directly the work of the opponent of God.

The first example mentioned in the Bible is the city of Rome. The 16th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans explains this quite clearly.

Paul writes his letter to the believers in Rome and warns them of the wrong church, which therefore already existed at that time. And that so about the year 56 after Christ, therefore at a quite early time; at a time which was still before Paul’s arrival there. Only about five years later Paul arrives in Rome and then the Roman Catholic Church was already firmly in the saddle.

Paul writes, in Romans 16:17-18: Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

Also here immediately the command to avoid them.

The key word is divisions. The body of the Lord is again been divided. It is about the killing of God. It is about making the Gospel ineffective. It is about, already at the beginning of the Christian age, to add wrong teaching into this new movement and to make it therefore ineffective.

It is about guiding those people, who have found Christ, again back to the ways of the world, to make them again worldly, engender them again into matter.

We have said that Paul wrote his letter to the Romans about the year 56 after Christ, and that, when he himself came to Rome about 5 years later, this division and obstacle causing Roman Catholic Church existed already at least 5 years. There existed therefore already hostility to death between him and this imitation church and one can easily imagine, how Paul’s death really occurred and how then this sect has declared Paul as theirs and has spread the rumour that nothing is known about the death of Paul.

It is about the prevention of the spreading of the word of God and therefore about suppressing messages of prophets and to prevent them from spreading and this is best done by eliminating the prophet. And the word of God, which comes from a prophet, is often a word, which is supposed to correct a wrong taken direction. And that means, that the prophet speaks out and rebukes what goes wrong. And that are most of the time things that come from the side of the clerics, who do not want to be ruled by God, but who want to have the government in their hands.

I now bring an example; it comes from a letter to this website:

Hello'

I just finish to read your article on line "Organism - Not Organization " and I read part of " watch out " .
I just want to say thank you . for by reading it , I got very encouraged and cleared up in my mind .
I have been once again rejected , rebuked and more .. from the leaders of the church where I was going , just because I said to the pastor what the Holy Spirit wanted me to say.
Having experienced many times in various churches rejection from the leaders , I was little down and feeling very alone ...
May God continue to bless you with His Love .

Joy

The Holy Spirit is the worst enemy of the cleric – the deadly enemy.

He could cause that live comes into an assembly, and the members of the community could wake up and get let by him and forget the cleric.

The theology of the cleric is short and simple: God is dead.

Only when God is dead, the cleric can rule – in his cleric castle.

Now what about the fact that these clerics preach the Gospel? Now what about the fact that these Antichrists preach, at least in parts, Jesus Christ?

We get some more insight into the relationship between the true church and the Catholic Church in Rome from a time after which Paul arrived in that city and that information comes from a letter Paul wrote to one of the churches he had helped to build up, the letter to the Philippians, which he wrote from Rome.

Here what Paul writes in Philippians 1:15-18:

It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of good will. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached.

So here we have some more qualities of the Catholic Church: envy and rivalry, preaching out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for Paul.

So these things will rub off on people who go to such a man-made church and the longer people stay with such denominations, the more they become like them.

Jesus has this to say, Matthew 23:2-3:

The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

In Romans 16:17-18 and Philippians 1:15-18 we have the history of the Roman Catholic Church, in Rome itself, very nicely documented, documented in the Bible itself.

That is the beginning. And the end is also very nicely documented, in Revelation 17-19: The great whore Babylon.

Now a very interesting part of Paul’s statement is this one in Philippians 1: The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.

This is an indication that the Catholics stirred up trouble for the real Christians.

This is an indication that the Catholics, already at that early stage, persecuted real believers.

And they probably did it the way these clerics always do it, that they get civil authorities to do the actual persecution and killing for them, as they did when they killed Jesus.

So all this persecution of Christians at the early time of Christianity most probably originated from and was instigated by the Catholic Church.

When one wants to study church history, particularly the history of the very early church, then there is one excellent source, and that is the Bible itself.

This is the end of "Degrees of apostasy"
Go to the German version of this chapter: Grade der Abtrünnigkeit

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