There are, as John predicted, many false worshipers of God in today’s “outer court”; that is, in today’s conventional, traditional and denominational churches. Their numbers are ever-increasing, while the number of true worshipers in the “inner court”—the true church of Jesus Christ—is ever-diminishing.

In His parable of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30), as well as His parable of the net (Matthew 13:47-50), our Lord taught the church’s continual inundation with spurious saints throughout the Church Age. In addition, He taught the impossibility of the church weeding itself of its spiritual tares, insisting instead that this task must be left to the angels to accomplish during the harvest of the earth at the end of time (Matthew  13:36-40). As our Lord taught in the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-13), there are many holders of oilless (spiritless) lamps in the church today whose unchaste spiritual condition will not be revealed until the Bridegroom (Christ) returns for His bride (the church).

One of the marks of the biblically predicted “perilous times” of “the last days” is the church’s infiltration by those who “have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:1-5). According to the Bible, it is “the gospel of Christ,” of which the Apostle Paul was “not ashamed,” that “is the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16). The fact that today’s church is being infiltrated by, as well as becoming permeated with, a spiritual fifth column clad in “a form of godliness” that is not only ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but also apostatizing from it, is proof positive that we are now entering into the “perilous times” of the “last days.”

From its pulpits to its pews, the contemporary church is being overrun by those who profess other ways to God besides faith in Christ alone. While they commit such apostasy at the applause of today’s politically correct world, they endanger others’ hope of salvation by failing to preserve and protect for posterity the purity of the Gospel. Still, their love affair with the world trumps their loyalty to Christ, which proves them guilty of spiritual adultery (James 4:4).

According to John, “the holy city,” which he clearly identifies elsewhere in the book of Revelation as the church—the “new” and “holy Jerusalem,” as well as “the bride” and “the Lamb’s wife”—will ultimately be “tread under foot” by “Gentiles”—spurious saints in bed with the world. The resulting consequences will be an end-time apostate church, which is symbolized by “the great whore” of the book of Revelation, and a great “falling away,” which is plainly predicted by the Apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:2-3.

How do you and your church measure up scripturally? Make no mistake about it; if you measure up to the Scripture’s specifications as a Christian and a church you will open yourself up to persecution in these perilous times. Committing such a clear act of nonconformity to the world will inevitably solicit the world’s castigation. If you and your church remain faithful to Christ, by refusing to compromise the Gospel, and resist being squeezed into the world’s mode, by refusing to conform to political correctness, you will undoubtedly suffer persecution in ever-increasing degrees of severity as these continuously darkening last days unfold.

Are you and your church prepared to suffer the consequences of an uncompromising stand for Christ? If you’re not sure, you’ll soon have ample opportunities to find out.

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