….who concerning the truth have erred, saying the resurrection is past already and overthrowing the faith of some. Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from evil. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work (2 Tim. 2:18-21).

Apologies for misquoting one of “Star Trek’s” best lines, but the real “church” God is running with today is so different to anything we usually call “church” it might as well be meeting in outer space.  Certainly, it’s not known down here on earth, being unrecognised and studiously ignored by both Christendom and the world.

This “church” doesn’t have a building on the street corner, doesn’t advertise its meetings, run a Sunday School or belong to a denomination. It doesn’t put on meals for the needy or homes for the homeless. It doesn’t have a pastor, priest, still less a self-proclaimed apostle or prophet. It has no deacons or elders and only two persons are biblically authorised by God to teach in this church - the Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul. This “church” has real love for the saints but never promotes itself and is not “puffed up” (1 Corinthians 13:4). It leaves that to others.

And here’s the real shocker. This church has yet to meet together as a body of believers. Nevertheless it can be found in the pages of the Bible, if you get as far as reading the letters to Timothy and the Ephesians, that is.

You see, 2 Timothy 2:16-21 describes the “turning away” by the churches the Apostle Paul founded in the 33-year Pentecostal dispensation of the Book of Acts. When he wrote that passage these assemblies were into “vain jangling” (1 Timothy 1:6), as many so-called churches are today. They were heeding “fables and endless genealogies” not scriptural truth, and teaching “law” not grace. (1 Timothy 1:7). Some, led by Phygellus and Hermonogenes, had rejected outright their God-appointed teacher, the Apostle Paul. Thus, “This thou knowest, all they that be in Asia be turned away from me,” Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:15.

To the young disciple Timothy it must have seemed that Paul’s ministry (and his) was now an abject failure. Hymenaeus and Philetus were “overthrowing the faith of some”, saying the resurrection was already past.  But the key issue was that the truth of God’s unshakeable word had come under heavy attack. In 1 Timothy 1:3 Paul had to tell Timothy to “abide at Ephesus… to charge some that they teach no other doctrine” - none other than Paul’s teachings in the newly introduced dispensation of grace and the mystery (Ephesians 3:1-4), that is.

Yet despite churches denying such teaching was true, Timothy was instructed to “hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me (Paul) in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1:13). Why? Because Paul, and only Paul, was (and is) “...appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles” (1 Timothy 2:7). Anyone else claiming to know better than him should “shut up already”.

Worse still, as these so-called churches nosedived into apostasy, Paul himself was locked up in prison and could not visit them in person to put matters right. It is against this background that “church but not as we know it” emerges.  

It comes into sight when Paul assures Timothy that, despite the doctrinal carnage wrecking the faith of believers, “the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal (that) “the Lord knoweth them that are his and, let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Timothy. 2:19). This reminds us of what Jesus said when pre-picturing the coming of his kingdom on earth (Matthew 13:47-48). “A net was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind. When it was full they drew to shore and sat down and gathered the good into vessels but cast the bad away”.

So was Paul also saying that in this, the dispensation of grace, some believers would be deemed “reprobate”, that is of no use to God (Titus 1:16) and unfit for the Master’s use? Yes, he was. Much as he earlier warned the Corinthians to beware becoming “reprobate” and unfit for God to use (2 Corinthians 13:5).

So, a sorting out of who’s who and what’s what was happening. And receive it or not, such an examination is going on today. Of those “called” only those” who truly “follow Paul” (1 Corinthians. 11:1) into the deeper truths of the dispensation of grace and the mystery enjoy the full acceptance and completed salvation he teaches. Only they find themselves “created unto good works” (Ephesians 2:10). Only if we show our love of the truth by walking in its light can we be deemed vessels “fit for the Master’s use”.

Fact is, in 2 Tim. 2:20, Paul likens the established “church” organisations of his day, and thus those of ours, to “a great house (in which) are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honour and some to dishonour”. Believers are “called” into this “great house” but it remains to be seen if they are to be “chosen”.

The test is whether they can be found as a “vessel fit for the Master’s use”. If not they are deemed vessels of “dishonour” used to carry out rubbish. Note that the only category likely to be approved is that of the individual believer. “Churches” do not get a look in the door. It is “If any man purge himself from these”, and the “these” he must cleanse himself from obviously are plural entities, not individuals. Therefore they must be “churches”.

Consequently, it seems that neither then, nor now, not a single “church” as we know it, is found fit to be “a vessel fit for the Master’s use”. In fact in 2 Tim. 2:16-21 there is no mention of churches at all as approved and fit vessels for the Lord to work through. The clear implication is that even in Paul’s time they had become “vessels of dishonour” believers should purge themselves from.

If a man therefore purge himself from these (the vessels of dishonour} he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work (2 Tim. 2:21).

It’s remarkable that only the individual believer is considered able to purge himself of the “dross” in the “vessels of dishonour”, which, as said earlier, are churches who have become “apostate” in that they refuse the message of grace and the mystery Christ revealed through Paul. Evidently the Lord has no confidence that any such humanly led assembly of “called ones” can qualify as a vessel of honour.

But there is one church that can. It is the “church” that is “not as we know it”. Indeed in Bible truth (properly translating the Greek) it isn’t even called a “church” but rather “the called out ones”. Not only that but this “church” is comprised only of individuals who are sovereignly called, chosen and specifically appointed and created for his service by commandment of the king. For such is the true meaning of ecclesia.

In contrast the word “church” in English comes from the Latin word for circle, from which “circus”, is derived and indeed that is a fitting description of what goes in many so-called churches. Loud and rude noises masquerade as music and men dress up like mother and want to be called father. There are pretentious parades and religious extravaganzas. I know one “evangelist” who literally erected a three ring tent circus in which children were invited to play “spacies” while he prayed for them to be converted.

Many try to be “like Christ” but in the church that is “not as we know it” believers are actually made living members of Christ; they become part of his very real body, “of his flesh and of his bones” (Ephesians 5:30). This is so because the ecclesia “which is His Body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all (Eph. 1:22-23) uniquely has Him as its Head (the others don’t, thus King Charles is head of the Anglican Church as the Pope is of the Roman Catholic Church). But in the “unknown church”, the only church He heads, we are made one with and a living part of the Lord because we are “filled with the fullness of Him that filleth all in all”.

Our “blessed hope” then (Titus 2:13) is that at his appearing when He brings in his kingdom (2 Tim. 4:1) when He is revealed in his full glory as “the great God and Saviour Jesus Christ” we will be revealed in glory with Him (Col. 3:1-4). Only then will the “church” which Jim said is “not as we know it” be convened to meet together with Him.

John Dudley Aldworth

You’re welcome to contact me at the email address below.

Email: john.aldworth@hotmail.com

Website: https://www.dayofchristmnistries.com/rss/all.xml