Part 1 can be found HERE.
Know this, THE Church will be victorious and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Since 70 AD (CE) many have attempted to erase the church from existence… many have attempted to rid the world of The Bible… and all have failed, and will continue to fail. Until Jesus returns there will always be genuine believers throughout this world.
PEOPLE may leave the church in droves, but genuine believers will never leave… and in fact cannot leave! At one time it was popular and beneficial to identify with Christ and The Church (The 80s Moral Majority). But in 2015 it has become less beneficial, if not detrimental, to identify with Christ. Eventually it will once again be a slur to call a person a Christian. When that happens, only those who genuinely love Christ and look forward to His appearing will continue in the faith.
Here is what is going on in America today… and is seen in cultural Christianity as found in Jeremiah 2:12-13,
Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Broken Cisterns: Political parties, the Government, Retirement Accounts, Houses, Lands, Reputation, Church membership, Denominational identity, and/or “Right” doctrine. None of those things (Including “church” things) can save. God does NOT desire sacrifices or “doing good things” even in His name as found in Isaiah 1:11-15 (This is a passage worth meditating on as we apply it to ourselves, not others):
What to Me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. When you come to appear before Me, who has required of you this trampling of My courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.
Is it possible that God is in the process of judgment beginning with His institution (The Church) and His people?