The answer to the question posed in the series title is plainly presented in two passages of Scripture: John 4:34 and 2 John 7,8.  Before we get into the focal passages, let us be reminded that “All Scripture (Old and New Testaments) is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim. 3:14-16).  The process of God getting His Word/will/Truth/Gospel to man is as follows:  God spoke to the Word (Who became Jesus Christ–Jn. 1:1-4,14), Who then spoke it to His prophets and apostles by way of His Holy Spirit–power (Lk. 1:35).  Because the prophets and apostles “heard” Christ’s “voice” through the Spirit, it is said that “the Spirit spoke” the Words.  In reality, the Spirit, serving as a conduit, carried the Lord’s Words to the prophets and apostles.  Read The Trinity.  Key word–Trinity.  Be reminded that the New Testament Church was/is founded on the teachings of both the PROPHETS AND THE APOSTLES (Eph. 2:20), and that the prophets spoke spoke as they were moved upon by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21).  They or their scribes then wrote what they had spoken.  Their writings serve as the instruction manual for God’s end-time saints–the New Testament Church ( 1 Cor. 10:11).  The Lord continues to “speak” to His prophets and apostles in the same way today.  He is the Lord, He changes not.  He declared that He does nothing that He doesn’t first tell His servants, the prophets (Amos 3:7).  He continues to do things and tells His prophets/servants beforehand.  This is called prophesy.  He has told me on three occasions that He would kill three specific individuals if they did not believe what I told them.  They did not believe and all three died with two months (one within days) for no medical reason.

Those Truths being established, let us return to the subject at hand–HOW TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE REAL AND THE FAKE CHURCH.  This can be done only by examining the “walk” (life–thoughts, words and deeds) of those within the two churches.  Two passages of Scripture tell us how to make the distinction between the true church and the counterfeit church.  Like the FBI’s counterfeit currency agents, we will study the real in order to identify the false.

In the physical realm, food (Biblically called “meat”) is what sustains us and enables us to live and do what needs to do what one sets out to do.  Without food we die physically.  Bad food allows us to live, but unable to do what we are designed to do.  Jesus makes this distinction in the fourth chapter of John’s gospel where we find that the disciples, having left Jesus at a well, have gone into a nearby village to buy food (“meat”) for the group.  While they were gone Jesus had been talking with a Samaritan woman who had come to the well to draw water (vss 3-31).  Upon returning with the food the disciples encouraged Him to eat.  His reply serves as a command to anyone who wishes to spend eternity with Him in the Kingdom of God.  He told the disciples that there was something more important than physical food: “I have (spiritual) meat to eat (work to do) that you (disciples) do not know of (understand).  My meat (life’s goal) is to do the will of My Father and to finish His work” (vs 34).

In 1 John 2:6 the apostle puts a fine point on Christ’s statement: “He that claims to abide in Him must himself WALK AS HE WALKED”–live as He lived while on earth as a human being by “consuming” the same “meat”–having the same desires, words, thoughts and deeds.  This statement is central to understanding how we who claim to be His must conduct our “walk” (lives).  But first we must determine how He conducted His life as a man Who was like all other men.  God’s Holy Scriptures tell us.  The answer can only be found through diligent study of those Scriptures.  This requirement eliminates the vast majority of church people who never get past God’s “headlines”–His promise of eternal life proclaimed by their hirelings.  The next requirement is to believe what is written in the Scriptures.  This eliminates more salvation seekers.  The third requirement eliminates the vast majority of those who believe the Bible.  For this reason, 99.99% of church people do not receive what God has promised for this life.  As Jesus said, only a few will walk this walk.  And though many are called to do so, few answer the call.

The reason so few “walk His walk” and “answer His call” is because Satan has blinded those in the Institutional Church to the Lord’s “fine print.”  Having blinded the church, Satan then lures them off God’s Truth track that leads to eternal life and onto his (Satan’s) false track which leads to death.  Because he keeps the church ignorant of God’s “fine print” she does not realize that she is headed in the wrong direction.  An example involving aviation shows us the importance of staying on God’s track.  A pilot is flying an airplane from Houston, Texas to Los Angeles, California.  Before leaving he plots a straight line relative to his flight pattern.  Upon leaving he keeps the airplane on that line until he reaches his destination.  However, if the pilot deviates even one degree from the plotted line he will land many miles from Los Angeles.  Satan’s ploy is to draw salvation seekers off of God’s plotted Scriptural line (narrow way–Mat. 7:13,14) without them realizing what is happening.  Being ignorant of spiritual “flight patterns” (God’s “fine print”), the “pilots” are easily led off in another direction.  Read Bait and Switch.  Key word–Bait.  Jesus spoke about the devil’s deadly ploy in Matthew 24:4,5, warning that men (Satan’s false prophets) would draw God seekers away from His path and deceive them into believing that they are still on His path.  As the saying goes, “Ignorance is bliss” because it allows one to take the “path of least resistance.”  Like Adam and Eve, their religious descendants embrace ignorance and take the easy path which means doing what they want to do.  Their “meat” is to satisfy their religious desires with impunity.  As Adam and Eve learned, deviation from God’s path is a huge mistake.  As a man, Christ’s “meat” was/is to warn people about Satan’s way, tell them about God’s way and  “finish His work.”

Church people are familiar with the ministry of the Messiah–what He did while walking the earth as a man called Jesus of Nazareth.  But only a tiny number of people know what He meant by “finishing His (God’s) work.”  In the next posting I will show that 99.99% of professing Christendom not only does not know what Christ meant by the statement, when they are shown the Truth behind it, they reject it.  Only those who embrace that Truth and walk it will spend eternity with Christ in universe headquarters which will be located in the Middle Eastern area now known as the Promised Land.  Read The Kingdom of God.  Key word–Kingdom.  Also  Read God’s Very Elect: Future Caretakers of the Universe.  Key Word–Caretakers.  L.J.