Reformation or Revolution?

It is impossible to reform the old, as Jesus said, You cannot pour new wine into old bottles, or put new patches on old garments, (Mk.2:21,22) as every so-called "Reformer" discovered.

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO REFORM THE OLD FOR THEY WILL NOT ACCEPT IT, and in the attempt the bottle will be broken and the contents lost, which is why God has to take young "new bottles" today, strong to contain the power of His Spirit, and a totally new batch of wine for a totally New Day. The old religious and economic systems cannot be patched up for they are tattered, threadbare and rotten and must be cast upon the fires of His Judgment that He may create "a new Heaven and a new earth" (Rev 21:1) in which "old things are passed away and all things are become new". (2Cor.5:17) God has never been for Reformation of the old rotten carcass, only for its total burial and the resurrection of a completely new man, for we are "new creatures in Christ Jesus" (2Cor.5:17). We must "be born again...to see the kingdom of God," (Jn.3:3) The filth and debris of the old is only in the way of the new structure which cannot rise upon its ruins, for God has nothing to do with that which is in ruins. But God's new order must rise upon a clean, new foundation--the only Foundation which can last--the Personality, Power and Truth of Jesus Christ, upon which can only be built a brand new building of "new and living stones" (1Pet.2:5).

THE DEAD AND ROTTEN, CRUMBLING TIMBERS OF THE OLD MUST BE TOTALLY SWEPT AWAY and destroyed in the fires of His purification. Too many have tried too many years to patch up the old. The truly great Revolutionists from Noah to Christ had to totally do away with the old and start anew; for the old debris and the self-righteous hypocrisy of self-satisfaction always seeks to smother the new flame and stamp it out, lest it expose the sins of the existing system with the brilliance of the new light.

THE PHARISEES WOULD HAVE BEEN HAPPY TO SUBSIDIZE JESUS AND HIS GREAT FOLLOWING, if only He had been willing to work with them within the existing corrupt and rotten system of their hierarchy and accept their name tag so that they could have gotten the credit for Him. They would have been happy to have shared the limelight of His popularity and used His power to their own ends--even at the cost of a little reformation to appease the people, but He refused to compromise with them, but rather worked totally outside the existing system, attacked it head-on, ruthlessly exposed it and drove the money changers from the temple, and strove to lead God's little children back to the worship of the true Father; His little lambs back into the one and only true fold of the Great Shepherd and the way of simple Truth and Love and Peace--the True Kingdom of God, whose only laws are to "love God with all their heart" and "thy neighbor as thyself", and "these are all the law and the Prophets", with no place of worship but the human heart, no Guidebook but the Bible, and no authoritarianism but the dictatorship of the Holy Spirit, for "ye are the temple" (2Cor.6:16) and "they that worship Him must worship Him neither here nor there, but in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him" (Jn.4).

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family International

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