The Net

Eccl. 4:12 π Mt. 4:18 π Mt. 4:19 π Mt. 4:20 π Mt. 7:21 π Mt. 13:38 π Mt. 16:18 π Mt. 18:20 π Mt. 24:10 π Jn. 10:27 π Jn. 12:32 π Acts 5:42 π Acts 17:24 π Acts 20:30 π 1 Cor. 3:16 π Eph. 1:22 π Eph. 4:13 π Eph. 4:14 π Eph. 4:16 π Gal. 5:20 π 2 Ths. 2:3 π 2 Ths. 2:11 π 1 Tim. 2:5 π 2 Tim. 2:19 π 2 Tim. 4:3-4 π Heb. 8:10 π Heb. 10:25 π 1 Pet. 5:3 π 1 Jn. 2:16

Lot, Part – kleros – [2819]

If there is any area where the “church” paradigm – at it’s baldest, a Nicolaitan superior standing over a passive audience of inferiors routinely meeting inside a specialized building considered to be the house of God – has inflicted severe damage on the people of Christ, it would not be in the atrocities directly inflicted upon the individuals, though that is severe enough in it’s own right. As hellacious as some of these spiritual abortion clinics and baby mutilation factories are, the direct damage they have inflicted on individuals pales in comparison to what it has indirectly prevented the body of Christ from becoming.

The “secret” to understanding how the “church” paradigm deceptions work is all in whose eyes you use to see the thing in front of you. Everyone sees the “church” building, the pews, the pulpit, the “pastor,” etc. But whether one sees these as good things or as evil abominations depends on whether one looks through one’s own eyes (in which these things were already deemed “right” – this is called lawlessness in the Bible) or whether one looks through God’s eyes and learns from Him what He considers right and true or what He calls wicked and abominable. When we no longer look at the “church” through the filter of the lust of our eyes (the desire for visibly pleasing things - 1 Jn. 2:16; top ), we will begin to see that there are two streams of power and workings going on at the same time: God’s and Satan’s.

Jesus said, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” ( Mt. 4:19 ) Jesus also said, “On this rock [God’s revelation that I am the Christ, the Son of God] I will build My ekklesia, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” ( Mt. 16:18; top ) Jesus has promised to build His ekklesia (His people who have been called out of this world’s darkness to attend to the affairs of His kingdom of light) and He will make them into fishers of men.

Jesus also said, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” ( Mt. 18:20 ) And Paul wrote, “From [Christ] the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” ( Eph. 4:16; top ) When every part of Christ’s body, when there is only two or three people in the circle gathered together in Christ’s name (under His authority, according to His purpose), does whatever Christ has them doing and being, then the body is built up because Christ is presented in their midst according to His promise! This is the “microscopic” or “molecular” level on which the body of Christ is truly built. It is not done at large-scale “meetings” (which cannot be found in the New Testament pattern of ekklesia) nor at mega-“churches.” Jesus did not say, “…two or more” – He said, “…two or three….” Alter or add to that text at your own risk!

The “church” loves to throw “Forsake not the assembling together of yourselves…” ( Heb. 10:25; top ) at its passive-audience victims but it does not realize that it is those who practice passivity in the larger-scale meeting and think they’ve done their whole duty to God who are those who are actually forsaking the assembling of the body. These have failed to present Christ to one another when there was only one or two other people in the group around them. They have failed to do their part and their share and the body was not built up on the “molecular” and “microscopic” level.

To be fishers of men, we need fishing equipment – the tool of choice of Jesus’ day was a net. When Jesus told the disciples that if they would follow Him He would make them fishers of men, they had just been fishing with nets and they immediately then left their nets and followed Him. ( Mt. 4:18 , 20; top ) Nets are the direct context of Jesus’ command to follow Him and become fishers of men!

The people of Christ were supposed to be the net that would catch men’s souls and turn them from their impending destination in the lake of fire. A net, especially a hand-made one as in Jesus’ day, would be laboriously and meticulously tied and knotted together, one square at a time. It is these knots of two and three strands that cannot be easily broken ( Eccl. 4:12 ) – the two or three gathered together in Christ’s name, according to His purpose, who do their part and their share to build up the body in love – that is the “molecular” or “microscopic” level of the building up of the body of Christ! This is why we see the apostles going, probably in pairs, to every house when the ekklesia had just experienced an explosion of new additions to the family. ( Acts 5:42; top )

The devil has gone to great lengths to keep these “knots” from being formed or tied. His schemes – which include deceiving men into going to “church” buildings to meet God rather than simply being the temple of God ( Acts 17:24 , 1 Cor. 3:16 ), luring men to receive the bishop “in the place of God” (Ignatius of Antioch – see 1 Tim. 2:5 ), to exalt lords over the flock from among the elders (who are not to be “lords over God’s heritage” - the word “heritage” here, Greek kleros [ 2819 ], is the very word by which the “church fathers,” within two centuries after Christ and Peter, derived the word “clergy.” 1 Pet. 5:3 , Acts 20:30 ), to practice dissensions and heresies that virtually eliminate any possibility of the unity of the body of Christ ( Gal. 5:20; top ) – span millennia and have gone on almost virtually undetected and certainly unrecognized and nearly universally ignored in almost all “church” circles. The “church” knows nothing of raising up people to be these knots nor does it recognize that by having its large-scale lecture houses it has replaced these knots with loose strings and tangles. Then they half-heartedly wonder why they have to defend their 3 to 5 percent success rate (which is, in reality, a 95 to 97 percent spiritual abortion and death rate!)

Wherever the body is being built up on the “molecular” or “microscopic” level (unseen by the eyes of the flesh but visible and longed for in the eyes of God), the deceptive schemes of the devil in the “church” paradigm are held in check. Where the molecular level building is completely replaced by “church”-style “meetings,” Nicolaitan authoritarianism and passivity in the people, apostasy and abomination are not far off.

What has not been recognized – as God has been allowing there to be a place for the sons of the devil, the tares among the wheat ( Mt. 13:38 ) – is that when the “microscopic” or “molecular” level replaces all “church” style “meetings,” there will be in place in that area a net that will catch and hold the souls of men. Men will no longer be tossed about by the cunning craftiness of men who use teachings to deceive and draw followers after themselves. ( Eph. 4:14 ) Men will hear the voice of the Shepherd for themselves ( Jn. 10:27 ) and they will obey the laws He has written in their heart. ( Heb. 8:10 ) We will come to the unity of the faith and the perfect measure of Christ. ( Eph. 4:13; top )

The body of Christ never was and never will be about having more “meetings.” It always has been about every person who names the name of Christ departing from all iniquity ( 2 Tim. 2:19 ), especially the sin of sitting passively to have one’s ears soothed, stimulated and scratched ( 2 Tim. 4:3-4; top ) at the expense of the souls of men who slip past them unobserved and uncontested on their way to an eternal lake of fire.

Jesus said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all peoples to Myself.” ( Jn. 12:32 ) One of the chief complaints against the “church” system is that Christ is never allowed to be the true Head of all matters but He is always expected to be reverently silent while the real power wielders and movers and shakers get the “church” business done. In the ekklesia, He is the Head over all things ( Eph. 1:22 , etc.; top) and if we would simply be whatever He has made us to be and present Him to everyone around us any time we find ourselves in a group of two or three, we will see His body built up in spiritual maturity and love.

But if we continue to exalt the “pastor” and our pet doctrines because of how well they scratch our ears, or if we insist on keeping our unrighteous preferences for various religious rituals, etc., we can only expect to be part of the great falling away from the faith that happens just before Christ’s return. ( Mt. 24:10 , 2 Ths. 2:3 ) God has promised to send strong delusion on those who prefer the will of the flesh more than the will of the Father ( 2 Ths. 2:11 ) and He has promised that only those who actually do the will of the Father will be permitted to remain in His kingdom after He has judged all men according to what they have done in His name. ( Mt. 7:21; top )

Let he who has ears hear.

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