2 Corinthians 6&7: "Come Out and Be Separate."

Paul interprets the prophecy to mean that we as individuals must not be bound together with unbelievers. Those not interested in becoming holy look for other interpretations and run to Revelation to make up some stories about the end times. Instead of perfecting holiness in the fear of God, they proclaim to know what Babylon is and warn everyone to flee the organized churches, or the United States or whoever has become their target. One cult, the Children of God, got passports and left the United States, which was no loss to us. They now call themselves the Family (from the Family of Love) and practice adultery and fornication to spread the "gospel." Their women lure men by posing as prostitutes for God, thus introducing them to the Family. If you visit their website, you would not know how evil they are. They just talk about Jesus and his love.

Many in the church today have fallen into this kind of mentality. It’s O.K. to divorce your wife and marry the attractive sister over there (as long as she divorces her husband, that is). Or, the way to win souls is "friendship evangelism." Within baby churches like Golgotha Chapel, the fornication and divorce rate is rampant. That’s because they love to preach on love. They hate to talk about holiness in the sense that it means "to separate." Paul says to Timothy that within a great house there are many vessels. We take this to mean the visible church. Paul warns Timothy to separate himself from the unclean vessels within that house.

That’s a pretty big house. In the last two thousand years, we have a church that is represented by everything from the abomination of desolation down to underground churches that are hated by mainstream Christianity. We have huge organizations like the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and the dozens of Protestant denominations. Each one of these sects has within its territory those who are deceivers and Jezebels, who teach their parishioners to fornicate. Sometimes, the entire sect teaches fornication. Witness the homosexual churches and those churches that are pro-homosexual, like the Episcopalian church. They pretend to be loving, tolerant and non-judgmental, but they hate Christ and the holiness of God - you can prove it to yourself if you begin to call them to account for their lifestyles.

Sometimes, in order to come out and be separate, you really must physically leave a particular church. You would have to leave the Family, for instance, in order to obey the command. This is almost true of the Catholic Church. She teaches so much against the true religion of Christ that it would be a miracle to stay on and remain a believer. You would have to be a missionary to them, or so ignorant as to be forgiven, in order to not provoke the wrath of God. Anyone who stays with the Episcopalian church had better be making a lot of noise against her fornications. All churches hate to be admonished. If you do not admonish them, however, then you become a partaker of her judgments. If you just sit there and smile, you too will be deceived and lose your faith. You will be like the blind being led by the blind. You may get so weird that a cult like the Family will snatch you up and bind you hand and foot to destruction.

You may not believe any of this. You have been taught by your church that Jesus loves you and no man can possibly snatch you out of the Father’s hand. But you should take notice of whether you are in the Father’s hand in the first place. Coming to the Father is not a matter of casual ritual like saying the sinner’s prayer. Nor is it a matter of chronic ritualism (like being in the Catholic Church). Having done something in the past, or practicing outward religious acts like lighting candles, does not make you an entrant of the kingdom of God. Salvation through Jesus Christ is a present fact, not a memento to our emotional need at sometime in our past. Nor is it something we aspire to by carrying statues of Mary. If we believe that Jesus is the right man, then we should do what Paul says and come out and be separate. If we do not come out and be separate, maybe the Holy Spirit is not working inside us like we pretend.

God knows those who are His. God sends His Holy Spirit to reassure us of who we are in Christ. However, there are many who think they have the Holy Spirit precisely because they are deaf and blind sinners and can really tell nothing at all about the Spirit. They are perhaps like the gentleman who had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit (he thought) and it was accompanied by lots of tremendous feelings of love, acceptance, speaking in tongues and other cathartic fireworks. Then, two weeks later, he decided to take some mescaline, and lo and behold! the same thing happened, or so he testified. The point here is: we cannot measure our acceptance with God by internal, subjective, manifestations. We must take these internal experiences and measure them against the external written Scriptures, or we become little gods deciding we are loved just the way we are. God resembles us and we are ripe for a fall.

That’s what Paul is trying to get across to the new church at Corinth. He sees a vector for idolatry infecting the assembly. He also sees the Corinthians becoming distant from him by their hardening of heart. He shows them how open his heart is to them, and commends them for taking action against the fornicator that was leavening their church earlier. But there is more to be done. They are admonished to cleanse themselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. Then Paul launches into the care of the churches. When we become hardened, we become denominational. The sectarian spirit does not come about by division over doctrine so much as self-interest, pride and jealousy. This is a defilement of spirit. Churches will not communicate with one another, except at pastor’s conferences, which are a joke. It is no wonder that the doctrines then become divergent.

Read 2 Corinthians 7, 8 and 9 in light of one church caring for another. The only care that exists in this country is along denominational lines, and it is pride running the show. If any work is done, the pastor has to have his name on it. If evangelism, then it is for each church or denomination. Even para-church ministries, like World Vision, toot their own horn and spend millions on fund-raising (they are actually one of the more responsible practitioners of the social gospel). You certainly don’t hear these ministries putting in a good word for the "other guys." The local churches, the ones that claim that "they’ll know us by our love," have "outreaches" which consist of stealing from one another’s churches. They are the great believers in attracting people to church by sales appeal (or sex appeal, whatever). This merely attracts them away from the church in which they were brought up.

Once in a great while, the churches may come against abortion together, or some other social issue, but their gospels differ widely and they don’t care about that. To them it doesn’t matter whether their cohorts teach a false gospel that lead most men to destruction of their souls. To them, the real issue is that all life is holy, which cannot be taught from the Scriptures. Witness the unholy union of Mormons, Catholics and evangelicals on this very issue. The reason things are the way they are is because the leaven has practically leavened the whole lump. But we are admonished to purge out the leaven and become a new unleavened bread in Christ. We can’t leave the world or the USA or the body of Christ in order to do it.

Instead, we must perfect holiness in the fear of God individually, then corporately. This is done by obeying the doctrines of the apostles. Paul is especially suited for Gentiles, but Dispensationalism has ruined most of his teaching. If you go to a church that pays no mind to the need for holiness and church discipline along the line of Paul’s teaching, then you will not go very far in Christ. You will probably become cold and listless. But if you find some believers that are like-minded, then you will find strength and comfort in your mutual faith. We cannot recommend a church or a denomination, but it is important to find one that is not loaded with sectarianism. Shouts of "We Baptists!" or "My Church!" or "Our Pastor!" drown out fellowship of the Spirit. In order to serve Christ, you may have to separate yourself from the hard party liners. But in order to find fellowship of the Spirit, you may have to go to their well-funded churches. You may find some that need fellowship or even the gospel (not that we ourselves don’t!). There are many young people who do not know Christ precisely because of the churches’ hypocrisy. The hypocrites whine about tolerance and love, but they practice evil. They begin to attack the true ministers of God’s love by demeaning their gospel, fearful that church attendance may go down, or that if the Spirit gets hold of the congregation, they may lose their stipend, or there may be persecution from the wicked.

Yes, we can come out from among them. Babylon the great will certainly fall, and we will be comforted at her destruction. But we cannot physically leave and go somewhere. We must separate ourselves, as have all courageous men and women throughout church history, by preaching the gospel. If you are really the Father’s, you know what the gospel is. You read your Bible and don’t go for wishy-washy new age interpretations of God’s love. You know that God is to be feared, not patronized. You know that the grace of God in your life is directly proportional to the realization of His wrath upon sinners. You have confidence that no matter how much wrath God has against sin and against sinners, you have come out from among them and you are coming out from among them. You know that all is by faith in Christ and not in a church, a movement, or a pastor/priest.

There is a seal. This is the seal: God knows those who are His, and let everyone who names the Name of Christ depart from iniquity (2 Timothy 2:19). If you are of the modern opinion that you are sealed in Christ just because your pastor said so, then this verse means absolutely nothing to you. But if you have examined your faith over and over again to make sure that you believe in the Jesus whom Paul preached and found no cause to correct him (Paul), then you can begin to find assurance from the Holy Spirit. If you have found assurance from the Holy Spirit, then certainly, you must find evidence of the Holy Spirit in your life. Are you "assured" and yet remain an adulterer? You will not inherit the kingdom if you are an adulterer. Period. Do you find "evidence" in your life but you are a homosexual? Don’t kid yourself any more. It would be better to drop Christianity and know you are going to hell as a result, than to keep on in your false way.

There are many evil things that men do to themselves and to others. But we must come out of that realm. The time is short; our salvation is nearer than when we first believed (Romans 13:11). Paul says to the believer, "You are the temple of the living God." But this does not mean we are the temple of God and that’s it. No, Paul continues by quoting the prophet: "As God has said, ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people’ ‘Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord; do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty’" (2 Cor. 6:16-18).

- Chris Simonson

We encourage you to email the author to prove or disprove, from the Scriptures, the intent, meaning, purpose or doctrine of this piece. email Chris