The Real Condition and End of the Catholic Church, Protestant Church, and Recovered Church

In our study of how it all ends with regards to the church – the eschatology of the church – we see the Catholic Church, the Protestant church, and the original and recovered church. First, from the very beginning, there was only ONE church: the original church, but because of the heresies, false teachings, and degradation, the original church has been degraded and even deformed, and so the Lord is doing in every age a work of recovery to obtain the recovered church according to His original intention.

The degradation of the church, however, keeps going on; first we have the “Catholic Church” with the Pope as its head and “God’s representative on earth”, and in this “church” there are many evil, corrupt, immoral, idolatrous, and pagan things being both practiced and taught, together with some of the truths found in the Bible.

Besides the Catholic Church there is the Protestant church containing many genuine believer in Christ who seek Him and love His word; in the Protestant church, however, we see a lot of traditions, organizations, performances, and falsehoods, together with many “tares”, false believers. The Lord can never build up His Body or accomplish His purpose in the Catholic Church (which in Revelation is called, The Great Babylon) or in the Protestant church.

Besides these two churches, the Lord has His church, the original and recovered church composed of His saints who are not outwardly affiliated with any denomination but stand on the ground of oneness of the Body and pursue the Lord out of a pure heart, keeping the word of the Lord faithfully and seeking to build up the church as the Body of Christ so that the Lord would obtain His Bride and return to end this age!

May the Lord have mercy on us that we may be in His recovered and original church so that He may accomplish His purpose with us and through us in this age!

The Real Condition and End of the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church

According to the divine revelation in the Bible, the real condition and end of the Catholic Church are revealed in Revelation 17, where the first six verses tell us the condition, and the last three verses tell us the end. The Catholic Church is illustrated in a figure of speech by a golden cup – which signifies something presented to someone to drink and meet his need; the golden cup signifies the outward appearance of the apostate church, which is to do something for God, but this cup is full of abominations and unclean things of her fornication.

If you visit Rome and the Vatican, or if you read about and look into what the Catholic Church has, is, does, and teaches, you realize that the Lord hates this great Babylon and He will one day destroy it: there are many evil, immoral, unclean, and idolatrous things mixed with things from the Bible, and there’s a “gilding” with gold (some things from the Bible) but inside it is unclean and evil.

All the leaders in the world welcome the Pope and commit spiritual fornication with the Catholic Church, but toward the end of the great tribulation Antichrist and his ten kings will persecute the Great Babylon and burn her; this will be the end of the Catholic Church. May we be those who watch the end of the Catholic Church not from down on earth but from up as we descend one with the Lord as His army!

In the Protestant church there are many “tares”, many false believers. The Lord Jesus in Matt. 13:37-42 said that the kingdom of the heavens is like a man who sowed good seed of wheat in his field, but his enemy came and sowed tares in the midst of the wheat, and when the plants grew, there were both wheat and tares.

Today in Protestantism there are both genuine believers and false believers; sometimes even the pastor or the leading ones are not saved – they may graduate from a theological seminary and know all the doctrines, but they are not saved!

The Lord, however, does not pluck out these false ones; the nominal Christians – the false ones in the church, the tares – will be collected at the consummation of this age, and they will be cast into the lake of fire (Matt. 13:40-42); their end will be the same as Antichrist and the false prophet – without any judgment, they will be thrown into the lake of fire.

But the rest, the Lord will judge and, according to their work, they will be rewarded: if they built with gold, silver, or precious stones, their work will remain, but if they didn’t, they will be saved, but so as through fire (see 2 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 14:10; 1 Cor. 4:5; 3:15).

There will definitely be some overcomers in the Protestant churches, but the vast majority of the genuine believers in the Protestant church will be saved so as through fire, that is, their work will be consumed and they will have to be perfected and transformed in the millennium kingdom, and then they will be consummated in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. It is good to pray for one another,

Lord Jesus, cause us to be sober concerning the real condition and the end of the Catholic Church and the Protestant church. Lord, gain Your overcomers and call many OUT of any fold of religion and into Your flock, Your pasture, Your recovered church. Oh Lord, may many believers see Your economy, cooperate with You to grow in life unto maturity, and give themselves to You for the building up of Your Body so that You may return! Lord Jesus, may we be those who build the church with gold, silver, and precious stones!

The Real Condition and the End of the Recovered Church

The original and recovered church is the genuine church (see 1 Cor. 1:2; 3:9, 16-17); this church may not be the perfect or ideal church, but it is the genuine church according to the central line of the divine revelation. The real condition of the recovered church bears many characteristics, some of which are:

• In the recovered church, we always take the narrow way (Matt. 7:14). The deformed and degraded Christianity takes the broad way that leads to judgment, but in the church life, we take the narrow way, the way that the Lord Jesus and the apostles took, for God to fulfill His purpose. The more we go on, the narrower this way gets, and the more life we experience: we become living and active, vital on the narrow way!
• In the recovered church we seek to know Christ; just like Paul in Phil. 3:10, we desire to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, in order that we may attain to the out-resurrection from the dead. We do not consider that we have attained, but we press on to know Christ! May the Lord put in our spirit the deep longing to know this precious all-inclusive Christ!
• In the recovered church we know the flesh and the self (Rom. 7:18; Matt. 16:24), and we realize that they cause much damage in the church life and in the Body of Christ. The self makes the building up of the Body impossible, and the flesh is the living out of the old man, always hindering our growth in life. We realize that, even though we want to enjoy Christ and know Him, we need the Lord’s mercy that we may know the self, our disposition, and our flesh.
• In the recovered church we learn how to be crucified to live the God-man life (Gal. 2:20). We realize that in the church life we can experience the cross, and we allow the Lord to terminate us from all angles and directions. We desire to be blended by doing all things by the cross through the Spirit to minister Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ, and for the sake of the church we are willing to live a crucified life so that Christ may live in us.
• In the recovered church we realize that we are God-men, men born of God who learn to live by the divine life in their spirit so that God’s economy may be accomplished. We realize that God became a man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead for the producing of and building up of the Body of Christ, and we live a life for God’s economy.

May we be those who live such a life on the narrow way, seeking to know Christ, know the flesh and the self, live a crucified life to live the God-man life, and realizing that we are God-men with Christ living in us.

May we be those who experience the Triune God daily so that we may build up the church as the Body of Christ with gold (the experience of God the Father with His divine nature), silver (the experience of Christ with His redemptive work), and precious stones (the experience of the Spirit and His transforming work).

If we are faithful to the Lord according to His word to both enjoy Christ, deal with our self and our flesh, live a crucified life by the Spirit, and live the life of a God-man today for the building up of the Body of Christ, we will be produced as overcomers, and we will be rewarded by the Lord at His judgment seat.

When the Lord returns, He will judge the Catholic Church and the Protestant church and the original and recovered church at His judgment seat; those who built with wood, grass, and stubble will be saved so as through fire (1 Cor. 3:15), and they will spend 1000 years to be perfected, transformed, and ripened to be qualified to be part of the eternal New Jerusalem.

The overcomers, however, are those who built the church with gold, silver, and precious stones, and they will be rewarded with the wedding feast, the full enjoyment of the New Jerusalem in the millennium kingdom, and at the end of this time, they will also join and participate in the New Jerusalem in its consummation. Religion will be terminated, but the bride of Christ will be prepared (Rev. 19:1-4, 7-9).

Eventually, all of God’s people will be fully transformed, perfected, and matured to be part of the ultimate consummation of God’s purpose, the New Jerusalem (see Rev. 21:1-11).

May the Lord have mercy on us that from now on until we finish our course or when we meet the Lord in rapture, we would take the narrow way knowing Christ, experiencing the cross, and being used by the Lord to shepherd many to be rescued out of the present evil age and into the reality of the Body of Christ, so that the Lord may return and bring in His kingdom!

Lord Jesus, have mercy on us and grant us that we may be those who take the narrow way knowing Christ, experiencing the cross, dealing with our flesh, living the God-man life, and shepherding many out of the present evil age and into the reality of the Body of Christ so that this age may be consummated and the kingdom age would come in! Lord, make us the overcomers in the recovered church, those who give You their best cooperation for the accomplishing of Your economy and the building up of the church as the Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, brother Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and The Eschatology of the Church according to the Divine Revelation of the Scriptures, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Crucial Points of the Major Items of the Lord’s Recovery Today (ITERO 2015 fall), week 9 / msg 9, The Lord’s Recovery versus the Present Evil Age and the Eschatology of the Church.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # Lord Jesus, take me, break me; I’d hold nothing back from Thee; / Fill me till it is no more I that live; / That by Your resurrection life, we would Your testimony be. / We would be the church You long for, testimony of Jesus on the earth. (Song on Experiencing Christ)
  # Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace! / The Christ who’s all within me lives. / With Him I have been crucified; / This glorious fact to me He gives. / Now it’s no longer I that live, / But Christ the Lord within me lives. (Hymns #499)
  # Lord, shine Your light on us today / That we may fully go Your way; / Anoint our eyes and let us see / So You can have recovery. (Hymns #1274)