Chapter Nine: The Laodicean Church Age
The Consummation Of The Gentile Ages
361-2 This age is the last of the seven church
ages. What began in the first or Ephesian Age must and will come to full fruition
and harvest in the last or Laodicean Age. The two vines will yield their final fruit.
The two spirits will terminate their manifestation in each of their final destinations.
The sowing, the watering, the growing is all over. Summer is ended. The sickle is
now thrust into the harvest.
361-3 In verses 15 to 18 which we have just studied lies the true picture of the ripened false vine, false spirit, false church people. "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth. 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: I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear: and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." No words ever spelled out a more bitter denunciation, and no proud and arrogant religious people ever deserved it more.
Yet in verse 21,
"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne,"
we find the true vine, true Spirit, true Church people exalted to the very throne
of God with the highest compliment ever paid to a humble, steadfast Spiritual group.
362-1 The words of John the Baptist who so accurately set forth the Christ in relationship to the true and false church now comes to pass.
"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He That cometh after me is mightier than I, Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:
Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
Christ, the Great Harvester, is now reaping the fruit of the earth. He gathers
the wheat into the garner by coming for His own and receiving them forever unto
Himself. Then He returns to destroy the wicked with fire unquenchable.
362-2 The mystery of the tares and wheat of Matthew 13:24-30, is now also fulfilled.
"Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares?
He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say
to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to
burn them; but gather the wheat into My barn."
362-3 The wheat and the tares, which from
the first age until now have grown side by side, are harvested. What Nicaea set
out to accomplish has finally come to pass. With all the might of organization the
false church turns from any vestige of truth and with political might reinforces
herself with state backing and sets out to eradicate forever the true believer.
But just when she is about to accomplish her cowardly plot the wheat is gathered
into the garner. No longer will the wheat and tares grow side by side. No longer
will the tares receive of the blessing of God because of the presence of the wheat,
for the wheat will be gone and the wrath of God will be poured out in the sixth
seal which will end in the utter destruction of the wicked.
363-1 Now I said a moment ago that the false
vine came into full fruition in this age. Her fruit would mature and ripen. That
is correct. This evil-spirited church, full of iniquity, will be revealed as the
mustard seed that grew into a tree wherein lodged the fowls of the air. At her head
will be the antichrist, the mystery of iniquity. All this is true. And if this is
true, then it must also be true that the Bride Church will mature, and her ripeness
shall be an identification with her Lord by means of the Word, and her Head Who
will come to her is the Mystery of Godliness, Which indeed is Christ. And as the
false church with all cunning and diabolical power made up of political force, physical
force and demons of darkness come against this true vine, the true vine with the
fullness of the Spirit and the Word will do the very acts of power that Jesus did.
Then as she nears her Headstone, becoming like Him through the Word, Jesus will
come that the bride and Groom may be forever united as one.
363-2 Already the visible manifestations of
what I have been telling you are seen all around us. The ecumenical move of the
tares is factual. But also it is a fact that the prophet for the last age must be
bringing forth a message from God that will forerun the second coming of the Lord,
for by his message will the hearts of the children be turned back to the Pentecostal
fathers, and with the restoration of the Word will come the restoration of the power.
363-3 What crucial times are these in which we live. How careful we must be that we remain true to this Word and not take from it or add to it, for he who would speak where God has not spoken makes Him a liar. What I have particularly in mind is this: About the turn of the century the hunger for God that was generated in the Philadelphian Age brought a cry for the Spirit of God. And when the cry was answered by God sending forth manifestation in tongues, interpretation and prophecy, a group immediately, and most contrary to the Word, drew up a doctrine that tongues was the evidence of being baptized with the Holy Ghost. Tongues were far from evidence. They were manifestation, but not evidence. The falsity of the doctrine can not only be seen by a lack of Scripture to substantiate it, but those who subscribed to the doctrine immediately organized on the basis of the doctrine, proving that they were not in the truth as they would have people believe. Oh, it looked good. It looked like the return of Pentecost. But it proved it wasn't. It could not be, for it organized. That is death, not life. It looked so close to the real that multitudes were deceived.
Now if it wasn't the genuine, what was it? It was the husk, the chaff. In the green,
soft sheath-form it looked like it was the real thing. But as one can go into the
field and see what looks exactly like wheat and yet is only the husk, (for the wheat
seed has not yet formed) so this was but the soft shell that looked like the real
grain yet to come. The original wheat seed of Pentecost was to come back in the
last age. It had been buried at Nicaea. It sent up a shoot at Sardis. It grew a
tassel at Philadelphia, and it was to mature at Laodicea. But it could not be back
to the original until the Word was restored. The prophet had not yet come upon the
scene. But now according to the time wherein we stand in the Laodicean Age, the
'Prophet-messenger' of Revelation 10:7 must already be in the land. Once more "Thus
saith the Lord" must be here, ready to be manifested with infallible vindication.
Thus is the True Seed already maturing, and THEN THE HARVEST.
364-1 Harvest time. Yes, harvest time. The
two vines that grew together and intertwined their branches are now to be separated.
The fruits of those vines which were at such variance will be gathered into separate
garners. The two spirits will go to their separate destinations. Now it is time
to heed the final call that comes only to the Wheat Bride, 'Come out of her My people
that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye (wheat) receive not her (tares)
plagues (the great tribulation of the sixth seal and Matthew 24).