The Remnant Church COVER
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THE

REMNANT

CHURCH

By
Lynette Hughes




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© Lynette Hughes (2018)

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Contents




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Part 1

The Remnant Church defined
vs
the Harlot Church

A remnant is a small piece of something left over from the original. It’s identical to the original, but in a smaller proportion. When someone has carpeted their home, and have a few pieces of carpet left over, they’re known as the remnant. Some might be thrown away, and we might use some of the remnants at the doorway to clean the bottom of someone’s shoes before entering. Remnants are often viewed as being worthless scraps because no one knows what to do with them because they don’t fit anywhere.

In the Bible, the definition in both the Old and New Testament for remnant is “What remains of a group of people after most of that group has been destroyed through judgment or apostasy.”

When the Bible speaks of the Remnant Church, it’s referring to a small proportion of God’s people at the end of time who have clung to the unadulterated belief system, faith and doctrines of the early Christian Church. This Church will be comprised of people who have not have allowed the traditions and practices of idol-worshipping nations to have been introduced into their belief system. They will be a people who are in this world, but not of the world.

The Remnant church is something that many Christians don't think about, because most professing Christians trust that their belief alone in Jesus makes them part of the true church of God, whether or not they’re actually obeying the Word of God. Throughout Scripture, God has declared that He would keep a people for Himself, a true people who would obey Him and not wander from His truth.

Throughout the Bible, even though the word remnant isn’t used to describe them, only a remnant was saved. Noah and his family were the remnant saved out of the millions on the earth before the flood (Genesis 6). Only Lot and his two daughters survived the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, a very small remnant (Genesis 19). When Elijah despaired that he was the only one left in Israel who had not bowed down to idols, God assured him that He had reserved a remnant of 7,000 “whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him" (1 Kings 19).

Romans 9:27 NKJ: “Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the Remnant will be saved.”

Did you catch what Paul said in this verse? Even though the number of the children of Israel is as the sand of the sea, in other words, a HUGE number, only a Remnant will be saved. This is a pattern we find throughout Scripture; that out of the millions and millions of Jews only a small number (a remnant) were ever saved. Regardless of the nation’s disobedience to the Lord and the terrible judgments that followed, God always saved and set apart a remnant for His purposes, and He will continue to do so in the future. [Joel. 2:32]

Jesus confirms this in Matthew 7:14 NKJ ...”Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” In proper context, Jesus is referring to the remnant of Israel who would be saved before the final destruction of Jerusalem, the temple and the entire Jewish system in 70 A.D. Only a few were saved, the rest were apostates. We have no scriptural basis to believe this will not apply as well to the Christian world today. Although there are millions upon millions of self-proclaimed Christians, only a few in comparison will actually be saved.

Matthew 21:42-43 NKJ: Jesus said to them [His Jewish listeners], “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? 43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

Apostle Paul sheds more light on this verse in Romans 2:28-29 “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” God's promises to Israel were conditional upon them following and keeping His commandments and receiving Christ Jesus as their Savior. [Ex. 19:5-6] Because they disobeyed and broke the "everlasting covenant" which would only remain everlasting through obedience. Those who are Jews in the flesh rejected their Messiah, and are no longer God’s chosen people; they are not the Israel of God. The Israel of God are those who have been made a new creation in Christ Jesus, both Jew and Gentile. [Gal. 6:15-16]

Just as only a Remnant of the Jewish nation accepted Christ and became part of the true early Church, this same theme is prophesied to occur at the end of time. Even though there are a vast number of people who profess to be Christian’s, not all who call themselves Christians are really Christians. Only a Remnant – the ones who truly love God and obey His Commandments will be saved. Only those who have not been influenced by pagan beliefs and false doctrines and refuse to compromise God’s Word will be a part of the Remnant church. The harder it becomes for the church to practice biblical Christianity, the more evident it will become who the Remnant church is.

Babylon, the Mother of Harlots: Revelation 17: 5-6 NKJ mentions a mysterious woman sitting on a beast [civil government; represents uniting of church and state]: “And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS of THE EARTH. 6 I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.” The NIV and ESV calls her ‘the mother of prostitutes.”

When a woman is used symbolically in Scripture, she represents a church, but this woman is not the church established by Jesus Christ, rather she is a church that has persecuted the true believers of Christ, and has been responsible for their martyrdom. The Bible also identifies this woman as a city in verse 18 “And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth” [The true Church of Christ is also described as a woman, a bride, and the city of New Jerusalem.]

At the time John wrote this verse, and in the centuries, that followed, the city that reigned over the kings of the earth was Rome. During the reign of the Papal Church of Rome, tens of millions of Christians were persecuted and killed because they refused to bow to the "authority" of the Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic church continues to claim to be the true bride of Christ, and His representative on earth. She fits perfectly the description of the Whore of Babylon who will at some time in the future have control over the kings of the earth who will eventually turn on her and destroy her.

Presently the Roman Catholic Church is headquartered in Vatican City. Vatican City is a sovereign state, separate and distinct from the nation of Italy; there’s no other city in history like it. They even send ambassadors to other countries. But the Whore of Babylon is greater than just Rome, she’s an evil spiritual system who will sit over peoples, multitudes, nations and languages according to Rev. 17:15.

Babylon the Great is called the "mother of harlots,” meaning she has daughters who are spiritual harlots with her characteristics. Since the Mother of Harlots is a church, then her daughters are also churches. These daughters are the Protestant churches that came out of the Roman Catholic Church during the reformation, and retained their mother’s paganized Christianity.

Babylon is not just the Roman Catholic church but includes protestant denominations and all false religions throughout the world with any degree of error, delusion and deceit. This is not to say that there are not some bible-believing, born-again Christians in protestant denominations, but the characteristics of the denominations themselves is that of harlots, because they kept many of the false doctrines and pagan traditions, and practices of the mother church. As a result, they teach a mixture of truth and error. It’s time for all professed believers in God to go back and PROVE whether our religious beliefs and practices actually came out of the Bible—or out of "Babylon."




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Part 2

Come out of her, My people

The daughters of the Roman Catholic Church are all organized religions and denominations who are joining with her in an unholy ecumenical movement. Ecumenism is Satan’s master-plan of deception. It’s a counterfeit unity taking shape as ‘interfaith’ that will deceive millions of people, and send the Remnant Church underground identifying it as a heretical cult.

Biblical Christianity and Roman Catholicism are two different religions that practice and believe different things about how one is saved, the authority of the Bible, the priesthood of believers, the nature of man, the work of Christ on the cross. These are irreconcilable differences making unity impossible. Those who deny this are not being true to what they say they believe, no matter which side they are on. Any Catholic who is serious about his faith will reject what a serious evangelical Christian believes, and vice-versa.

Through the charismatic movement and the efforts of the Vatican, Protestant denominations are putting aside their doctrinal differences and promoting unity among all religions in defiance of Jesus command not to be ‘yoked together with unbelievers.’ [2 Corinthians 6:14] Thousands of Protestant ministers have become convinced the Roman Catholic Church is the church established by Jesus Christ and have converted and resigned from their ministries.

Prominent American ‘pastors’ Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, and Kenneth Copeland are among those making the transition to Catholicism. They are acknowledging the Pope’s infallibility and partaking of the sacrament of Communion. They are also paving the way for the Antichrist and the new world religion.

The End Time is not simply a defection from the truth, but a global defection: We are going to see an endless parade of deceived people join the wedding procession to Rome. The only ones who will escape this delusion will be those who hear the voice of their Savior and respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and immediately obey.

Revelation 17:1-2 NKJ: “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” The phrase “She sits upon many waters” means that she is a world-wide, powerful church. Verse 2 says that the people of the earth are drunk on the wine of her fornication, that is, drunk with her false doctrine. Many fail to realize the significance of this verse. This church’s doctrine has intoxicated Christianity so thoroughly that the truth of the Bible seems totally wrong. These people are stone drunk; they are completely unconscious of the truth in the Word of God. They’re so drunk that most of them are unable to understand Biblical truth even when it’s explained very carefully and in great detail to them.

Come out of her, My people

Revelation 18:4 “And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.” The ‘voice’ is the voice of God, heard only by God’s messengers on earth, urgently warning His people to leave this spiritually, morally and doctrinally corrupt religious system, that has chosen to reject God and impersonate Christ, before they are punished with her and destroyed.

Remember, this call to God’s people to come out of spiritual Babylon are to those who are not willfully in error, but ignorantly in error. Leaving Babylon requires a willingness to follow truth no matter what the cost. They’re going to have to give up their comfortable pagan traditions and unbiblical doctrines.

Satan will undoubtedly tempt all those who hear the call to flee [the apostate church] to rationalize it away as not applying to them individually. Those who reject the message and think it doesn’t apply to them will suffer eternal consequences.

Today, in more and more churches, we see an abundance of unchecked fleshly emotionalism, but little, if any, Biblical truth and spiritual power. In view of the appalling conditions now existing in almost all of the churches, we should pay close attention to God’s warning for us to get out of worldly, compromising churches, if we don’t want to share with her in her sins. Scripture does not encourage us to stay and try to make a difference in a church that is biblically unfaithful, rather it warns us in no uncertain terms to leave.

I believe in church membership in a sound local church, but it’s becoming nearly impossible to find one where Christ is magnified, and the Word is ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit. For those who have found a local church where the Spirit of God is free to minister, the love of Christ flows through the membership and the Word of God is taught truthfully and without compromise, count your blessings and give thanks to God. However, the sad truth for many Christians is that the institution known as the church is no longer a place of safety and refuge. We would be far better to remain at home and spend time on our knees, feeding directly from God’s Word than attending a church that has abandoned biblical truth. (2 Tim.3:1-5) God does not revive apostasy; He judges it!

Over the past 40 years or so, multitudes of believers have left the church because they have grown weary of the counterfeit Jesus of the harlot Church system. God is opening people’s eyes to see the awful depravity of Babylon, and they do not want to be partakers of her sins. But at the present time there are many of God’s true people staying in apostate churches, due to ignorance.

The majority of those who have left the building are presently unchurched, and although many have become discouraged and bitter, and given up the fight, there remains a Remnant who are wanting to be conformed to the image of Christ; they grieve over their failings, they want to live according to their convictions; they want to see integrity restored to the Church. They are desperate for truth, for authority and for the supernatural power of God to be manifested. They are no longer nourished by preaching that gives nothing more than forgiveness of sins and allows people to continue in their sin with the false hope of eternal life. They are separating themselves from Babylon’s false religious doctrines and traditions recognizing it as spiritual fornication. Even now they are calling for repentance and righteous living as we’re not heard in our lifetime.

Those who remain in the harlot churches have been taken captive by their own sinful hearts and by corrupt teachers who present doctrines of demons as truth. They are deceived, and therefore currently lost or at the very least, dangerously back-slidden. Those who refuse to obey and come out of these apostate churches with their lies and worldly attractions will forfeit their eternal life.

God, through His true church is telling His people who are still in the fallen churches to "COME OUT OF HER", and to be separate, and yet the majority of the Christian world is saying "LET's JOIN TOGETHER" which is in clear disobedience to God's Word. There is only one Church that is going to give the warning to ‘come out of her,’ and that will be the Remnant Church; the Church who is giving the warning.

As the persecution of the Bible-believing Church becomes more intense, the true children of God will either be forced to leave or will leave for the sake of their conscience and obedience to God’s command to ‘come out of her.” People who love the truth will separate from those who love lies.

Those who come out of Babylon’s churches are going to be labeled heretics. They’ll be misfits in a prevailing immoral society and considered spiritually inferior by those who have dismissed the commands of God as culturally irrelevant. To come out of Babylon means to make an entire break from the world and its lies. It means having the courage to challenge and refute those who promote unbiblical doctrines, to rebuke and expose false teachers, and renounce those who call themselves Christians who brazenly persist in sin. It means having to unlearn many of the things we’ve been taught. It means forsaking pagan traditions and holidays that we consider more important to us than the commands of God.

Only those who love the Lord more than anything or anyone else will separate themselves from Babylon. To be separate is to be different. Most people do not like being different. It can be very uncomfortable, even embarrassing. It is not pleasant to be misunderstood, gossiped about, laughed at. Many will lose eternal life through fear of a sneer . . . or because their husbands or their children reject the call to leave Babylon . . . or because their pastors insist the call is not for them because they are not in Babylon.

We can expect that the harder it becomes for the Church to practice biblical Christianity, the more evident it will be who the Remnant church is. God’s remnant people will be unashamed of the name of Jesus and of course this will only increase not only the hatred of the world, but the hatred of apostate pastors and churches who have subverted the Gospel of Christ and worship a different Jesus. These false prophets and teachers will do their best to distance themselves from those who hold to the teachings of Christ making a clearer distinction between themselves and true believers. (This is what happened in Nazi Germany when the nationalistic churches separated from the confessing churches to avoid persecution and death.)




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Part 3

Characteristics of the Remnant Church

Revelation 12:17 MEV: “Then the dragon [Satan] was angry with the woman, and he went to wage war with the Remnant of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Throughout the Bible a pure “woman” is a symbol of God’s true church composed of both Messianic Jews and Gentiles while a harlot woman represents a corrupt church. Satan is unable to destroy the woman [the true church of Christ] and turns his anger against the ‘Remnant of her offspring’ who are individual believers of the church wherever they are found.

John gives us two unmistakable characteristics of the visible Remnant church:
1. They keep the commandments of God.
2. They have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

This rules out Natural Israel as the Remnant. Spiritual Israel is the Remnant who is the target of the dragon’s wrath. Church is not something we go to, it’s something we are. No denomination can claim that they are the Remnant, because it’s individuals, not organizations, who “keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”.

Satan rages against commandment keeping saints who actually follow the teachings of Christ and have the testimony of Jesus. But what is the testimony of Jesus? ... Revelation 19:10 MEV: “I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you not do that. I am your fellow servant, and of your brothers who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” There is a testimony of Jesus still to be given before the return of Christ and the end of this age. The reason Satan will make war with and persecute the remnant church is because she will be keeping the commandments of God and testifying of Jesus Christ.

This scripture says “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” To qualify as the Remnant Church it must possess authentic prophetic ministers who have the Spirit of Prophecy. This doesn’t mean that its members are all prophets. It simply means that the prophetic gift will be restored and manifested with power and authority among God’s servants, both men and women. The restoration of this prophetic gift is one of the issues that Satan wars against, as he tries to cast doubt on and counterfeit the truths of God’s Word.

Since these men and women will be speaking for God in the final days, they will be given the spiritual gift of prophecy to testify of Jesus, and to warn God’s enemies, as well as His own people who have fallen prey to deceivers, of what will happen in the future – if they don’t repent.

They will uphold the testimony of Jesus by testifying that God sent His Son to reveal His true nature and character. They will be testifying that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God and that He was crucified for the sins of the world. They will be testifying, to the terrible judgments of God to come upon the ungodly, to the deliverance of God’s people, to the Second Coming of Christ, and His supreme rulership over all the earth.

The devil will be sure that everyone who decides to follow God will be pressed to their human limits in an effort to force them to give up their faith. During the Tribulation everyone will be severely tested, and many will be martyred. To encourage His suffering saints, Jesus will speak to His children through the gift of prophecy.

1 Corinthians 14:3 NIV tells us the purpose of prophecy in the church: “But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort.” So the “remnant” church, will be keeping all of the commandments of God, and the gift, or spirit, of prophecy will be with them to “strengthen, encourage and comfort” them while they are waiting for the return of their Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus.

The Church in the Wilderness: Song of Solomon 8:5 NASB: “Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved?” The one coming up from the wilderness is the Bride of Christ, the Church, the individual believer.

The word wilderness means "a solitary, lonely, desolate place." Those of us who have been called to be the Bride of Christ have found ourselves driven by the Spirit out into the wilderness because the love of Christ compels us. Wilderness dwelling can be extremely lonely. The programs, activities, and traditions of organized religion which formerly provided for our social needs are no longer available to us. Life no longer revolves around the local church timetable. In the wilderness we must learn what it really is to live and walk in the Spirit, or we won’t last long.

Most of us are alone, away from our friends and family, away from spiritual fellowship, away from our support structures, away from all the distractions and noise that may be preventing us from seeing and hearing God. The wilderness is a place that strips away all our dependencies. where our Lord can ask us bluntly – “Am I enough for you? Do you love Me more than these?”

A wilderness is a desert. It’s a place of thirst and hunger, a place of death. But there’s another kind of desert. It’s the desert the Lord calls us into. Before Jesus began His public ministry, Luke 4:1 says that the Holy Spirit compelled Jesus to leave His life and go into the wilderness. It’s in this place He learned to fully depend on His Father. He suffered from hunger and thirst, and was tested time and time again as preparation for the ministry the Father had sent Him to accomplish. In the wilderness He was prepared for the battle to come. Is it so strange that His followers would share this same experience?

Today many who belong to the remnant are finding themselves being led into this same desolate wilderness where God is teaching them to depend on Him and Him alone. The wilderness is where we learn what we’re actually made of – that we’re much more carnal and worldly than we want to admit, that our faith is largely theoretical, not tried and tested in the fiery furnace of experience.

It’s in the wilderness where we learn what’s really important. Did you know many desert hikers have been found dead from dehydration, even though they had canteens of water with them. They didn’t realize the importance between conserving the water they had and drinking enough to stay alive. This is similar to what happens to many Christians.

The wilderness is where water is scarce. It’s a place where we quickly learn we must have life-giving, thirst quenching water to survive. But if we don’t actually drink of the water that’s available to us, we’ll die of spiritual dehydration. It’s only those who drink the inexhaustible supply of water that flows from the Rock, who will be equipped to follow in the footsteps of the prophet who walked out of his own desert and pronounced “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” [1 Cor. 10:4]

The wilderness seems an unnatural place to find God. It’s full of dangers and trials. But it’s also a place of preparation for the darkness which is approaching. The greatest storm of evil ever known is already gathering strength and it’s taking direct aim at the Body of Christ. The Bride of Christ is being prepared to come out of the wilderness leaning on the strength of Jesus, her Beloved, and crying ” Behold the Lion of Judah comes.”

Babylon appeals to our flesh so that we don’t want to leave it, but those who refuse to come out of her will share with her in her sins and her judgment. Only the true sons and daughters of God who have the right to call Him Abba, Father, will come out of the midst of this apostate church system. Those who fail to obey to get out of her, those who are dominated by unbelief and disobedience will be destroyed along with her.

Getting out of Babylon is sometimes easier than getting Babylon out of you.

There’s a price for leaving Babylon; it takes you to the wilderness. God’s people had to pass through the wilderness to get from Egypt (Babylon) to Canaan ( the Promised Land). The wilderness, then, is a divine requirement. But it’s a detour; it’s not home. How long you spend there is mostly your decision. The path that leads out of the wilderness is holiness.

You won’t get out of the wilderness, if you’ve left the path of holiness and crossed back into your old life. You won’t get out trusting in yourself. You won’t get out with a selfish or a lukewarm spirit. You won’t get out with that spirit of indifference. You won’t get out if you’re not completely dependent on Jesus for your spiritual water and bread. You won’t get out if you are leaning on anything or anyone other than your Beloved. Will you be left in the wilderness or are you coming out leaning on Jesus?

[This end-time Remnant Church coming out of the wilderness on the arm of their Lord and Savior are coming out to serve Him in the midst of desperate surroundings. They are the elect in Matthew chapter 24:30-31 who are gathered by the angels after the tribulation when Christ returns. They are the end-time Bride of Christ [Col. 3:12]. They are part of the tribulation saints who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Faithful to the end, if not all, then nearly all of them will die for their faith. [Rev. 6:9-10; 7:14; 13:7 ].]




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The End