The Time IS Come

By Fred Pruitt

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? (1 Pet 4:17)

[Friends. We are at a juncture. I have several prospective writings lined up and have been having difficulty deciding which one goes first. Finally I settled on this one, because of the passage above from 1^st Peter.

Let us also remember what the Spirit is looking for in us in this time. Just one thing – “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)]

My entire life, Christians have said we are in the “end times.” I am not refuting that. No one can, because Jesus said only the Father knows the “when.” However, it seems incumbent upon me, to point out two major things that are necessary to keep in mind.

First, there will come a great falling away. It may be here now, or down the line, I know not. When this happens, it is not the devil having his unholy way, but rather the Holy Spirit cleaning house.

Second, and this is the part I am underlining, prophetically. The Body of Christ, the “Church,” needs some major housecleaning and re-establishment of Who we are and what we are about. This is where “we” come in.

Jesus said when on trial, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it was, then would my disciples fight.”

I’m letting William Law speak for most of the rest of this. These words below, written nearly three hundred years ago, put things in their greatest clarity. I have published most of this before, but am moved more than ever to keep shouting.

The World, the Christians and the Church

By William Law

(I gave the above title to this portion below, taken from William Law’s last work, “Affectionate Address to the Clergy,” published in 1761. Just a word for the reader. Law wrote in the 18^th century and some of his wording takes a little work to comprehend with our 21^st century minds – reading it over several times helps. Note – anything between brackets [ ], are my additions and not in the original. FP)

The Words of William Law …

“Demas,” says St. Paul, “hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.” [2 Tim 4:10]. Here you see all the good and blessing that is inseparable from the Wisdom of this World, it always does the same thing, and has the same effect wherever it is; it will do to high and low, learned or unlearned, clergy or laity, that same unavoidably which it did to Demas; it will make them forsake Christ, turn their backs on every grace and virtue of his Holy Spirit, as certainly as the love of the World made Demas to forsake Paul.

[FP Notes: Paul gets to the core of things when he says Demas has forsaken him, “having loved this present world.” Paul does not say, so we do not know what form that took with Demas.

However, the greatest temptation we experience on a daily basis is our constant confrontation with the wisdom of this world, with which we have been somewhat hard-wired. It is the Mode of Operation of everyone in the whole world until we are individually taken out of it (the MO, not the world). The temptation hidden in the wisdom of this world is not to do overt evil, but to assert an alternate personal human “good.”

How so? From our perspective it is contradicting the clear words of Jesus replying to the rich young nobleman when He said, “Why do you call “Me” good? No one is good except One, God.” The young man, in his boasting that he had obeyed all the commandments from his earliest days, was unknowingly setting himself up in a false kingdom, the kingdom of the alternate good. Paul said the same things when he wrote, “concerning the law, blameless.”

In the same passage he goes on — ]

This Wisdom [of the World] has asked me, how it is possible for Christian Kingdoms in the neighbourhood of one another to preserve themselves, unless the strength and weapons of war are everyone’s defense, against such invasions, encroachments, and robberies, as would otherwise be the fate of Christian Kingdoms from one another.

[FP Note – for clarity’s sake I’ll rephrase the paragraph above: How is it possible, that we should fear that Christian Kingdoms which are near us might invade and rob us at any moment? Why is it that so-called “Christian Kingdoms” build themselves up with weapons of war in order to preserve themselves? Why is it, that any of these Christian Kingdoms which constitute “Christendom,” would encroach upon or invade their neighbor?]

Law continues on …

This Question is so far from needing to be answered by me, that it is wholly on my side; it confesses all, and proves all that I have said of the fallen state of Christendom, to be strictly true. [In other words, “If nothing else, common sense proves what I say. It is wholly ‘evidence’ that exonerates my position.”]

For if this is the governing Spirit of Christian Kingdoms, that no one of them can subsist in safety from its neighbouring Christian Kingdoms, but by its weapons of war, are not all Christian Kingdoms equally in the same unchristian state, as two neighbouring bloody knaves,* who cannot be safe from one another, but as each other’s murdering arms preserve and protect them?

This plea therefore for Christendom’s wars, proves nothing else but the want [need] of Christianity all over the Christian world, and stands upon no better a foundation of righteousness and goodness, than when one murdering knave kills another that would have killed him. *(Knave is an old word that means “an unscrupulous person.”)

But to know whether Christianity wants [needs], or admits [joins] of War, Christianity is to be considered as in its right state. Now the true state of [what the world will be when] the World turns Christian, is thus described by the great Gospel-Prophet, who showed what a change it was to make in the fallen state of the World.

“It shall come to pass,” says he, “in the last Days,” that is, in the Days of Christendom, “that the Mountain of the Lord’s House” (his Christian Kingdom) “shall be established in the Top of the Mountains, and all Nations shall flow into it; and many People shall say, Let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord’s House, and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths.” (Is 2:2).

Now what follows from this going up of the Nations to the Mountain of the Lord’s House, from His teaching them of His ways, and their walking in His Paths? The holy Prophet expressly tells you in his following words, “They shall beat their Swords into Plough-Shares, and their Spears into pruning Hooks: Nation shall not lift up its Sword against Nation, (N.B.) neither shall they learn War any more.”

This is the Prophet’s true Christendom, with one and the same essential Divine Mark set upon it, as when the Lamb of God said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another as I have loved you.”

[FP Note: Law’s contention is that nothing is “Christian” except where the Kingdom of God has risen up within with its accompanying works of love. It is when the above descriptions of human society are manifesting, not just in the inner world but now also in the outer world, that we may say, “It is a Christian nation.”]

Law continues on …

Christ’s kingdom of God is nowhere come, but where the works of the Devil are destroyed, and men are turned from the power of Satan unto God. God is only another Name for the highest and only Good; and the highest and only Good means nothing else but LOVE with all its WORKS.

Satan is only another Name for the Whole and all of Evil, and the whole of Evil is nothing else but its whole Contrariety to Love. And the Sum Total of all Contrariety to Love is contained in Pride, Wrath, Strife, Self, Envy, Hatred, Revenge, Mischief, and Murder. Look at these with all their Fruits that belong to them, and then you see all the princely power that Satan is, and has in this fallen World.

Would you [like to] see when and where the Kingdoms of this fallen World are become a Kingdom of God? The Gospel Prophet tells you, that it is then and there where all Enmity ceases.

“The Wolf,” says he, “shall dwell with the Lamb, and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid. The Calf and the young Lion and the Fatling together, and a little Child shall lead them. The Cow and the Bear shall feed, and their young ones shall lie down together, and the Lion shall eat Straw like the Ox. The suckling Child shall play on the Hole of the Asp, and the weaned Child shall put his Hand on the Cockatrice’s Den.”— For, (N.B.) “They shall not HURT or DESTROY in all my holy Mountain,” that is, through all holy Christendom. Isaiah 11:6.

See here [what] a Kingdom of God on the Earth [would be]; it is nothing else but a Kingdom of mere Love, where all HURT and DESTROYING is done away, and every Work of Enmity changed into one united Power of heavenly Love.

But observe again and again, whence [from where does] this comes to pass, that God’s Kingdom on Earth is, and can be nothing else, but the Power of reigning Love; the Prophet tells you, it is because in the Day of his Kingdom, “the Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord, as the Waters cover the Sea.”

Therefore, O Christendom, thy wars are thy certain proofs, that thou art all over as full of an ignorance of God, as the Waters cover the Sea.

As to the present fallen state of universal Christendom, working under the Spirit and Power of the great fiery Dragon, it is not my intention, in any thing I am here [speaking] upon, to show how any part of it can subsist, or preserve itself from being devoured by every other part, but by its own Dragon Weapons.

But the Christendom which I mean, that neither wants, nor allows [enters] War, is only that where Christ is King, and His Holy Spirit the only governor of the wills, affections, and designs of all that belong to it.

It is my complaint against, and charge upon all the nations of Christendom, that this necessity of murdering arms is the Dragon’s Monster, that is equally brought forth by all and every part of fallen Christendom; and that therefore all and every part, as well popish as protestant, are at one and the same distance from the Spirit of their Lord and Saviour the Lamb of God, and therefore all want [need] one and the same entire Reformation.

In these last ages of fallen Christendom, many Reformations have taken Place; but alas! Truth must be forced to say, that they have been in all their variety, little better than so many run-away births of one and the same Mother, so many lesser Babels come out of Babylon the great.

For among all the Reformers, the one only true Reformation has never yet been thought of. A change of place, of governors, of opinions, together with new formed outward models, is all the Reformation that has yet been attempted.

[FP Notes: A change of place – moving the center of the faith from Jerusalem to Rome, and so on. A change of governors – from the original twelve and Paul, to the church fathers, to the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, and so on. A change of opinions – when Peter preached to Cornelius and the Holy Spirit fell upon them as He had the 120 on the Day of Pentecost which paved the way for non-Jews to be part of the Church, to Paul and justification by faith thus excusing any non-Jews from the requirement of circumcision, from the scholastic theology of Aquinas to the earth-shattering revelation of Martin Luther, and so on. Each of those things had their necessary day and time. None of them as “movements,” except the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, have remained, though various structures from those long-ago days survive.

The Wisdom of this World, with its worldly spirit, was the only thing that had overcome the Church, and had carried it into Captivity. For in Captivity it certainly is, as soon as it is turned into a Kingdom of this World; and a Kingdom of this World it certainly is, as soon as worldly Wisdom has its Power in it. Not a false doctrine, not a bad discipline, not an usurped power, or corrupt practice ever has prevailed, or does prevail in the Church, but has had its whole birth and growth from worldly Wisdom.

This Wisdom was the great evil Root, at which the reforming Axe should have been laid, and must be laid, before the Church can be again that Virgin Spouse of Christ, which it was at the Beginning.

“If any Man,” says St. Paul, “will be wise, let him become a Fool in this World.” This admits of no exception, it is a maxim as universal and unalterable, as that which says, “If any Man will follow Christ, let him deny himself.”

For no Man has any more to deny than that, which the Wisdom and Spirit of this World are, and do in him. For all that is in this World, the Lusts of the Flesh, the Lust of the Eye, and the Pride of Life, are the very Things in which alone the Wisdom of this World lives, and moves, and has its being. It can be no other, can rise no higher, nor be any better, than they are and do. For as heavenly Wisdom is the Whole of all heavenly Goodness, so earthly Wisdom has the whole Evil of all the earthly Nature.

St. Paul speaks of a natural Man, that cannot know the Things of God, but to whom they are mere Foolishness. This natural Man is only another Name for the Wisdom of this World; but though he cannot know the Things that be of God, yet he can know their Names, and learn to speak that which the Saints of God have spoken about them. He can make profession of them, be eloquent in their praise, and set them forth in such a desirable view, as shall make them quite agreeable to the children of worldly Wisdom.

This is the natural Man, who having got into the Church, and Church Power, has turned the Things of God into Things of this World. Had this Man been kept out of the Church, the Church had kept its first Purity to this Day; for its fallen State is nothing else but its Fall into the Hands of the natural Man of this World.

And when this is the State of the Church, the Wisdom of this World (which always loves its own) will be in Love with it, will spare no cost to maintain it, will make laws, fight battles in defense of it, and condemn every man as heretical, who dares speak a Word against this Glorious Image of a Church, which the Wisdom of this World has set up.

This is the great Antichrist, which is neither better nor worse, nor any thing else, but the Spirit of Satan working against Christ, in the strength and subtlety of earthly Wisdom.

If therefore you take any thing to be Church-Reformation, but a full departure from the Wisdom of this World, or any Thing to be your entrance into a Salvation-Church, but the Nature, Spirit, and Works of Christ, become living in you, then, whether Papist or Protestant, Reformation or no Reformation, all will be just as much Good to you, as when a Sadducee turns Publican, or from a Publican becomes a Pharisee.—For the Church of Christ, as it is the Door of Salvation, is nothing else but Christ himself.

Christ in us, or we in his Church, is the same Thing. When that is alive, wills, and works in you, which was alive in Christ, then you are in his Church; for that which He was, that must they be, who are His.

Without this, it matters not what Pale you are in. To every thing but the new Creature, Christ says, “I know you not”; and to every virtue that worldly Wisdom puts on, “Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savourest not the things that be of God.”

And the reason why it must be thus, why Worldly Wisdom, though under a religious form, is and can be nothing else, but that which is called Satan, or Antichrist, is because all that we are, and have from this World, is that very enmity against God, that whole Evil which separates us from Him, and constitutes all that Death and Damnation that belongs to our fallen State. And so sure as the Life of this World is our Separation from God, so sure is it, that a total Departure from every subtlety and prosperity of worldly Wisdom, is absolutely necessary to change an evil Son of Adam into a holy Son of God.

And here it is well to be observed, that the Church of Christ is solely for this end, to make us Holy as he is Holy. But nothing can do this, but that which has full Power to change a Sinner into a Saint. And he who has not found that Power in the Church, may be assured that he is not yet a true Son of that Church. For the Church brings forth no other Births, but holy Children of God; it has no other End, no other Nature or Work, but that of changing a Sinner into a Saint.

But this can only be done, just as the change of Night into Day is done, or as the Darkness is quite lost in the Light. Something as contrary to the whole Nature of Sin, as Light is to Darkness, and as powerful over it, as the Light is powerful over Darkness, can alone do this.

Creeds, Canons, Articles of Religion, stately Churches, learned priests, singing, preaching, and praying in the best contrived form of words, can no more raise a dead Sinner into a living Saint, than a fine System of Light and Colours can change the Night into Day. For, (N.B.)

That which cannot help you to all Goodness, cannot help you to any Goodness, nor can that take away any Sin, but that which can take away all Sin.

…..

Many are the marks, which the learned have given us of the true Church; but be that as it will, no Man, whether learned or unlearned, can have any mark or proof of his own true Church-Membership, but his being dead unto all Sin, and alive unto all Righteousness.

This cannot be more plainly told us, than in these Words of our Lord, “He that committeth Sin, is the Servant of Sin”; but surely that Servant of Sin, cannot at the same Time be a living Member of Christ’s body, or that new Creature, who dwells in Christ, and Christ in him. To suppose a Man born again from above, yet under a necessity of continuing to sin, is as absurd as to suppose, that the true Christian is only to have so much of the Nature of Christ born in him, as is consistent with as real a Power of Satan still dwelling in him.

“If the Son,” says Christ, “shall make you free, then ye shall be free indeed.” What is this, but saying, if Christ be come to Life in you, then a true Freedom from all necessity of sinning is given to you. Now if this is hindered, and cannot come to pass in the faithful follower of Christ, it must be, because both the willing and working of Christ in Man is too weak to overcome that, which the devil wills and works in him.

All this absurdity, and even blasphemy, is necessarily implied in that common doctrine of books and pulpits, which teaches, that the Christian can never have done [with] sinning as long as he lives.

Well therefore may Christendom sleep as securely as it does, under the power of Sin, without any thought, hope, or desire of doing God’s Will on Earth, as it is done in Heaven; without any concern at their not being Pure, as he who has called them is Pure, or Walking as he Walked.

[Still] the scripture knows no Christians but Saints, who in all things act as becometh Saints.

……

I love William Law. Once you catch his use of language, he’s another example of trying to drink from a fire hose. Regarding the above, to boil it down to basics, he says the Gospel is summed up in recognizing the living, moving, immediate “life of Christ” in us as the prerequisite to being identified with Him. To sum up, William Law says there is nothing else to be done or known, and I am in 100% agreement with him.