Only the Lord can Teach: He’s the Man, and the Church takes the position of a Woman

In the eyes of God, the church is a woman and Christ is the Husband, the only One who can speak and teach the word; however, the Roman Catholic Church – the apostate church – is a self-appointed prophetess who teaches and leads the Lord’s slaves astray (see Rev. 2:20).

If you love the Lord and enjoy Him with the saints in the church life, it is not so easy to prayerfully consider and study the Lord’s epistle to the church in Thyatira, since it is so full of abominations and evil things that God can’t even be associated with her.

Thyatira is the consummation of the degradation of the church which began with the apostolic churches, continued with the church in Ephesus, the church in Smyrna, and the church in Pergamos. The church in Thyatira is a type of the Roman Catholic Church, the apostate church; such a church not only rejects Christ as her husband but is a prostitute, a harlot for gain, without even admitting she has a husband.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches many things that are not only pagan but also plain evil and idol worshipping, while at the same time mixing these teachings with truths in the word of God. They renounce the truth, mixing it with many pagan and evil things, leading the people away from God and into idol worship and fornication.

The Roman Catholic Church was fully formed as the apostate church by the establishing of the universal papal system in the latter part of the sixth century, and from then on it grew, continued, and multiplied to eventually become Babylon the Great, the mother of all harlots (see Rev. 17).

The Roman Catholic Church is typified by three women: the woman in Matt. 13 who adds leaven to the three measures of meal, the woman Jezebel in Rev. 2 who leads God’s people astray and into fornication and idol worship, and the great harlot in Rev. 17 wo mixes abominations with divine things.

Christianity has been corrupted to its core by the teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church; this “church” is filled with idol worship and fornication, evil and pagan things, and heathen teachings and people.

May the Lord have mercy on us and expose what the church in Thyatira typifies, and may we hate what He hates – and love what He loves, so that we may return to the orthodoxy of the church and be the pure and shining church of the living God, the lampstand in our locality in oneness with the Body of Christ for God’s corporate expression on earth!

The Apostate Catholic Church Presumes to be Authorized by God to Speak for Him

The Lord had something against the church in Thyatira, that she tolerated the woman Jezebel, who called herself a prophetess and taught and led the Lord’s slaves astray to commit fornication and to eat idol sacrifices (Rev. 2:20).

A prophet is one who speaks for God with His authorization; the apostate Catholic Church presumes to be authorized by God to speak for Him, and she demands that people would listen to her rather than to God. The teaching of the Catholic Church is that people should listen to what the church says.

The adherents of the Catholic church are drugged by her heretical, religious teaching, and they don’t care for Christ or the Word of God; they don’t take Christ in as their life and life supply.

There are many genuine lovers of the Lord and seekers of the truth in the Catholic Church, but sadly to say, they are all drugged by the teachings of this apostate church.

In Rev. 2:20 the Lord indicates that the apostate church is a self-appointed prophetess and teaches and leads the Lord’s slaves astray; she is so evil that not only teaches but also leads people away from the Lord, enticing them and seducing them to commit fornication and eat idol sacrifices.

God never authorized the Catholic church to “speak for Him” so that people would “listen to the church” and not listen to God. Rather, the Roman Catholic Church is an apostate church, rejecting God and considering herself to be the one speaking for God, even though God didn’t authorize or approve her to speak anything for Him.

Even more, the Roman Catholic Church maintains her position in the world and commands respect from the people; just as James said in James 4:4, she commits the greatest adultery, not being a virgin church one with Christ and loving Him but seeking the approval and respect of the world.

Today the Roman Catholic Church has a large membership, and throughout the ages she has used her influence to bargain with earthly kings, change their decisions, and say things “on behalf of God” which God never approved.

The Roman Catholic Church calls herself a “prophetess” because she wants to preach and teach – she is a woman who wants to teach all men, even though God never allows the woman to teach (see 1 Tim. 2:12).

Oh, may the Lord have mercy on many of His seeking ones who are in this apostate church and pluck them out of this present evil age, bring them into Christ as the good pasture, and solidly build them into the church as the Body of Christ!

May the Lord really shine through His living word and expose the darkness, evilness, and presumptuousness of the Roman Catholic Church in trying to “speak for God”, so that many would come back to the word of God and receive God’s living word to save them, edify them, perfect them, cause them to grow unto maturity, and bring them into the proper church life!

Lord Jesus, have mercy on Your seeking ones who are in the apostate Catholic church! Expose her teachings and her evil ways, and bring many seekers to the knowledge of the truth in Your Word! Amen, Lord, may in these last days many see the light of the truth in Your living Word and repent, return to You, come out of the great Babylon, and be part of Your pure, shining, corporate expression on earth! Lord Jesus, we give You the preeminence in everything: only You have the right to teach, for You are the very Word of God!

Only the Lord can Teach: He’s the Man, and the Church takes the position of a Woman

According to the principle in the New Testament, the Lord never allows a woman to teach with authority (1 Tim. 2:12); this doesn’t mean that a sister cannot prophesy and share her portion of enjoyment and experience of Christ in the meetings – it means that a woman is not allowed by God to teach with authority and rule over men.

In the same way, the church itself must not teach, because in God’s eyes the church is in the position of a woman. Only the Lord Himself is the Man, the One who has the right to teach and the right to say yes or no, right or wrong.

However, this is not the case in the Catholic church, where the church has something to say and what the church says should be considered as God’s speaking.

The church has nothing to say; in other words, the church has no word. The Son of God is the Word; therefore, only He has the word. Christ is the Head of the church; therefore, only He can speak. Whenever the church speaks, that is the preaching of the woman. The Roman Catholic Church is the woman preaching. In the Roman Catholic Church, what matters is what the church says, not what the Bible says or what the Lord says. It is quite remarkable that God says that Jezebel is the prophetess and the woman who speaks. “My slaves” [Rev. 2:20] refers to individual slaves. Jezebel has the authority to direct every believer. The people in the Roman Catholic Church do not read the Bible, because they are afraid of misunderstanding what God means….Basically the Roman Catholic Church is the preaching of the woman who decides what the children of God should do. Many doctrines have been changed because she speaks for the church and people must listen to the church. She pays attention to the thought that people must listen to the church and pope, not that people must listen to the Lord. (Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 47, pp. 46-47)

May we realize that, in God’s eyes, only Christ can speak and teach with authority, and we all as members of His Body, the church, should take the position of a woman and receive His Word.

Only the Lord can say, Yes, or No, right or wrong; we as the church need to take Christ as our Head, letting Him speak, and speaking one with Him. Only the Lord Himself is the man – He has the right to teach and decide things.

However, according to the history and today’s situation, people in Catholicism say, “The church says…” Even when we tell the Catholic people what the Bible says, they reply with “the church says…” In a very real sense, the Roman Catholic Church doesn’t care for the Bible or for God: she cares only for what “the church says”; the Catholic church speaks with authority, and for some reason the Pope is infallible.

Whenever the church claims the position of teaching, that is Jezebel; when the church speaks and claims authority to direct God’s people this or that way, that is Jezebel and not the Lord. The Catholic church says that the Pope is infallible, because he possesses the authority of Peter, the “first Pope”, which gives him the right to say something and dictate to God’s people.

In the Catholic Church there’s now another source determining what is right or wrong. The Roman Catholic Church is a teaching woman; the apostate church herself teaches, causing her people to listen to her rather than to the holy Word of God, and her adherents are drugged by her heretical, religious teaching.

As seen in Rev. 17, the kings of the earth are drunk with the wine of the apostate church as the Great Babylon, the great harlot. The Roman Catholic Church is like a prostitute drugging the people and kings of the earth, and then committing fornication with them; this toxic evil wine has caused the kings of the earth – who are otherwise sober-minded and educated people – to go along with her and believe many superstitious things.

As believers in Christ who have been shown mercy to come back to the orthodoxy of the church, we love the Lord’s speaking, we take the position of a woman before Him, and we receive from Him the fresh, instant, living word of God.

What we care for is what God says, what the Lord as the Word says, and what the Spirit is speaking to the churches.

We refuse to be drugged by the evil and toxic drug of the Catholic church and religion, and we come back to the word of God, enjoy the Lord in a pure way, call on His name out of a pure heart, and seek to be built up with those who are being sanctified by faith in Him.

Lord Jesus, we love You, we take You as the Head, and we give You the preeminence in everything. Amen, Lord, only You are the Word of God, and only You can speak, decide, and choose. We take You as our life and person, and we take Your word as our food, our supply, our guidance, and the lamp for our feet. We take the position of a woman before You – You are the man, and what You say is what matters and what is true. We join ourselves to You, Lord, to speak Your word, do Your works, and seek Your glory, so that You may gain a church that is fully and absolutely one with You!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Minoru C. for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 2517-2521 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Returning to the Orthodoxy of the Church (2016 fall ITERO), msg. 5 (week 5), The Church in Thyatira.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Lord, speak Thy Word, upon us breathe, / That all Thy people may be one, / Led by the headship of the Son; / Lord, speak and breathe upon us! (Hymns #844)
  # God the Lord has spoken, God has been unveiled; / All His character and persons are expressed; / Unto Adam’s sons His mystery is revealed, / Fully illustrated and made manifest. / God the Lord has spoken, and His heart disclosed, / That His Son should have pre-eminence in all, / That in His dear Son He might be glorified / Midst all His creation, either great or small. (Hymns #800)
  # Stir me, oh, stir me, Lord, till all my heart / Is filled with strong compassion for these-souls; / Till Thy compelling word drives me to pray; / Till Thy constraining love reach to the poles / Far north and south, in burning deep desire, / Till east and west are caught in love’s great fire. (Hymns #794)