CHRISTENDOM – THE GREAT DECEPTION
Christendom, a potpourri of Christian profession representing disparate sects and denominations, is recognised by the world as Christianity. That fact by itself is sure testimony that Christendom is a pseudo-Christianity that is not of God. In reality it is a cunning deception calculated to lull mankind into a false sense of eternal security.
How did it come about; who is behind it if it is not of God? Satan is the great deceiver of men and opposer of God, dedicated to the overthrow of divine purpose in the world. “The whole world lieth in the wicked one”. It is his domain and he is opposed to anything that challenges his sphere of influence.
God planted a garden eastward in Eden in Satan’s domain and there He placed man, a creation in His own image. Satan succeeded in converting Adam to his cause, paving the way for universal opposition to the work of God in the world and the co-existence of good and evil.
God responded to the loss of Adam with the call of Abraham on the basis of faith, and the establishing of a new kind of garden, the nation of Israel (Isa.58:11). With corrupt human nature as his ally, Satan infiltrated this second divinely-inspired garden so that in due time the faith of Abraham was superseded by the corruption of the Pharisees and Saducees. Judaism ceased to function as God’s garden, sharing the fate of Eden and answering to the fig tree that bore no fruit (Matt.21:19), speaking of empty profession.
In grace, God responded yet again by creating a new man, a spiritual creation in the image of His Son, and collectively a new (spiritual) garden (1 Cor.3:9). This new garden of God was a latter- day (spiritual) Eden, the perfect spiritual environment for the new man. Recognising that the first order of mankind he had converted in Eden was now being reconverted spiritually, Satan moved to counter this new threat to his sphere of influence. Thousands were being saved and ‘gardens of God’ were springing up wherever the gospel was preached, a real threat to his hold over mankind. The strategy of infiltration and corruption had worked in Eden and Israel so why not in this new divine initiative!
Accordingly, the close of apostolic ministry in the early days of the church was soon followed by a progressive turning away from divine precept and principle and the adoption of human expedients. Human nature superseded the divine nature in God’s spiritual garden and in due time apostolic Christianity was transformed into a ‘Christianity’ suited to natural man, rather than born-again man. This new system, in which divine revelation was interpreted in a naturalistic way and added to as thought necessary, the hallmark of Christendom, had an obvious appeal to unregenerate man. Human organisation took the Holy Spirit’s place and the gifts of natural man replaced the spiritual gifts of the new man. The transformation was now complete, the divine, spiritual system of Christianity naturalised to suit unregenerate man’s religious needs, a system of empty profession. Christendom, a pseudo-Christianity professing belief in God yet denying the power thereof and using His Word, was born – a religious philosphy that could be recognised and understood by natural man – a ‘Christianity’ of secular life, a religion of morals and social values. Satan’s counterfeit of the divine system, a religious ethic, became an accomplished and accepted fact, a ‘Christianity’ accepted as the real thing for over a thousand years. Little wonder that it’s ‘Christianity of every day life’, so firmly lodged in the mind, continued to be taught alongside spritual truth by believers who came out of the system. Christianity proper, believers gathered to the name of the Lord, came to be regarded bt the populas at large as just a quirky sect of Christendom.
Natural man cannot understand spiritual things (1 Cor.2:14) but he can readily embrace a naturalistic form of religion designed to appeal to human nature. It is important to recognise that this is the defining characteristic of Chrisendom viz a worldly corruption of Christianity, the naturalising of a divine system that is spritual. Today, Christendom is the dominating religious institution of the western world, testimony to Satan’s’strategy of infiltrating and corrupting the divine to deceive mankind. Unregenerate man cannot discern between the true and the counterfeit but the believer can and should. Saints should not be involved in a satanic religious system that is ripening for judgment (Rev.17). Nor should they adopt it’s naturalistic creed in their gatherings, nor adopt a sectarian name such as ‘The Brethren’, ‘Christian Brethren’, ‘Plymouth Brethren’, etc. To do so is to invite inclusion in man’s religious institution, Chrisindom. That many believers are unwittingly caught up in Christendom is no excuse for enlightened saints to have fellowship with it. When the Lord returns Christians who are in it will be taken out of it and the great counterfeit left for judgment. Meantime, “Be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing” (2 Cor.6:17).