PREACHING No.12
THE CHURCH AND THE STATE
(Preached on Sunday April 27, 2003 morning in Locodjro, Abidjan - Ivory Coast )
Do you understand why the basis of the vision is the book of Daniel? In the days of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar took counsel with all his soothsayers and raised a high statue as the CNEPE-CI, of a height of 600 churches. Daniel chap.3. And the Chaldeans said to the king: " these men, O king, regard thee not; they serve not thy gods (churches) nor worship the golden image (the CNEPE-CI) that thou hast set up".
... Since this last decade, we are witnessing huge unions and federations of churches in all countries. And this is the fulfillment of Matth.13: 24 to 30. And this Message also comes for the gathering of the elect. Refusing it, it is to choose to plead "not guilty" at the judgment rather than choosing the grace. And now I want to make a significant point. I think the time has come and that it falls in the line of the mission of the midnight Cry. The Message of midnight will put the Church in her true position of the beginning.
In June 2002, before beginning this ministry, I built up a file. I made a page for the rules and another page for the internal regulation in which I clearly explained that we are not catholics, baptists, methodists, branhamists ... nor anything similar to that but Christians and therefore the Bible is our rule and internal regulation. But they had the audacity to require rules and internal regulation to me according to the model of pagan associations. I saw that as an insult to the holy things. I refused that!. Is it the State or a terrestrial jurisdiction that must give me permission to speak from God? How can Jesus ask for permission to Caesar for exercising his ministry! And how can you ask for such things and then, a pagan stinking alcohol will investigate to see if my preaching is of the taste of the political authorities. Knowing that the devil is the prince of this world, how can he authorize me on his land? How can Elijah ask for approval to Ahab and Jezebel? How can John the Baptist ask for approval to Herodias? Doing so, it is to betray God and to expel oneself from the plan of Salvation. God forbade it to me for it’s the State that must submit to the Church. Since ancient times, God never wanted Israel to submit to an empire or a king! It’s the basis of the first persecutions of the Church.
And yet when a church makes the papers, receives permission from the State, it is not only an act of submission but an alliance. It's like America and England. It's like Syria that signs a treaty with Iraq to be rescued in case of attack from Israel. You see? [And on December 18, 2005, during the preaching of the brothers before the largest branhamist temple situated in Yopougon-Kuwait, these branhamists had resorted to police, you see? I do not see William Branham calling the police to hit the preachers before the Branham Tabernacle or Jesus calling the Roman soldiers against ... but the soldiers, crowds, ushers, ... were serving the Pharisees and Sadducees. And I tell you once more: if you have to preach before temples, I wish it to be mostly those of the branhamists! Oh, I heard that they had so sung to stifle the voice of the brothers, but miraculously, the voices of the brothers, I would say united to those of angels, pierced this great noise of instruments that should be assigned to a concert by Bob Marley].
Yet, it is always the State that provokes the Church. It's like Herod who asks Jesus by what authority he preaches there! You see? And one day the Emperor Constantine asked for the blessing of the thirteenth mausoleum that he had built next to the twelve others bearing the names of the twelve apostles. And during the blessing ceremony of the mausoleum, while a preacher was preaching, the Emperor Constantine stood up and ordered the preacher to stop his chattering and to bless simply the mausoleum. You see? He just asserted clearly that the State was above the Church. He meant that the earth was above the sky and the power of Caesar was above that of God. But there, he had come in the wrong time because prophets sent by God to express to the nations the superiority of God over Caesar were on earth ... [The congregation says, "Amen!"].
In August 257, an edict of the pagan Rome was promulgated in these terms: "Believe what you want in a private capacity but as citizen, conform yourselves to official duties and do not constitute a sort of State within the State". What fell into deaf ears and which would be the fundamental basis of the persecutions which carried off millions of Christians who know Romans 13 better than you. You see? We establish our identity cards, we pay our taxes, the mayor celebrates our wedding, it is the share of Caesar. You see? But the only thing we cannot do, it is to subdue or graft our Church to the State. The churches of Satan are submitted to the State, we are also submitted to the Bible. If you love us, leave us as such! If we must submit because it is God who establishes any authority, Moses and the Jews would remain in Egypt when Pharaoh objected. And Daniel and his companions will prostrate themselves down before the golden statue of Nebuchadnezzar! You are sons of the devil, you are accustomed to prostrate yourselves down before him and I beg you not to try and bring us in on your sorcery. Outside of the Bible, I cannot give another identity, another image of the Church of Paul, Peter, Wycliff, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, ... The Church cannot be inserted in the State, she cannot be subdued. Of the Church and the State, if one had to submit to the other, it’s the State. And the early Christians knew it well. Even catholics know it well because for hundreds of years, popes have enthroned or excommunicated kings. For example, in December 1301, Pope Boniface VIII by the bull Ausculta Fili affirms the superiority of spiritual power over the civil and temporal power. The catholics had inherited this position from the early Christians before returning to their quagmire. You see? They are not blind ministers and MPs stinking adultery, alcohol and corruption that will influence me. To you to give them places of honor in your conventions! I know the value of the Bible that I hold that is why I have no consideration for these flickering constitutions which will never cease to be modified. Hosius of Cordova, the old preacher of Spain rebuked the emperor of Rome in these terms: "You have no right to interfere in religious affairs, God only gave you authority over the empire. It’s from us, as regard to faith that you have to hear lessons.
And the powerful preacher Ambrose forced the emperor Theodosius to the public confession like everybody, saying to him that: "The emperor is in the Church, he is not above. Do not make use of Christ but serve Him!. John Chrysostom said: "The power of the Church is, in value, as more than the civil power as the sky is larger than earth". When one day the Emperor Constantine said: "You are apostles of inside but I am an apostle of outside" The reply was not long to wait before him: "It is not possible to be Caesar and Christian all together". But today, they would have applauded him. We preach the old gospel, we are the old Church. And we are on God's earth. We do not have share with Caesar. Like Israel, the true Church has always taken a radical stance against any temporal power. " What is Caesar's to Caesar, what is God’s to God ". It is a divine decree and I pronounce it in the name of Jesus Christ under the virtue of this ministry. Transgressing that it’s a sin.
I am not at work because I see the lukewarmness in the Church or I discovered a truth that the others do not have, but I do it in accordance with the call of April 24, 1993 and the commission which are now familiar to you. On the basis of Matth.25:6 and I do not pass myself off as what I am not. And from now I can say that this Cry is emitted. If you are prophets, apostles, pastors, evangelists, doctors, you must humbly line up behind that. If your goal is the heaven, this is what you must do.
Note that there are external signs and internal signs. Earthquakes, wars, return of Israel to her homeland, ... are external signs for the world but the trumpets, the seven stars, the opening of the seals (Rev.6), the seven thunders (Rev. 10:4), the Cry of midnight ... are the secret signs of the Bridegroom to his Bride. The world that is to say the catholics, baptists, methodists, assemblies of gods, pentecostals, revivals, ... are not concerned and do not know it. The Bible says that on the eve of the rapture, there will be a cry that will awake the sleeping virgins and that will lead to the rapture and that is what we are witnessing.
I heard people talking of Matth.25:6 and it's now history. It is the past tense: the midnight Cry sounded. You see? Every child of God understands what God is doing and the true Church walks according to the biblical promises and prophecies. For if today in the year 2003, an awakening broke out in a church, it would be nice but it cannot be the awakening of the Church because the Bible does not say that it will be a virgin who will wake up and awake the others but it is a cry that will do it, it’s what the Spirit of prophecy says. Our prayer is that God arouses the needed people and also the necessary means because this Message must be translated into English, German, Swahili, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, ... In the same way that we see in the Bible: Letter to the Corinthians, Romans, Philippians, Timothy, ... and that it applies itself, today, to the whole world, thus, it will be the same for this Message I am preaching here to you. The only thing to do, it is to translate it into other languages. Do you understand? But as for their preaching, the Holy Spirit will adapt it to each country because the false prophets of Zimbabwe are not those of Central Africa! The federation of churches of Portugal is not called CNEPE-CI! The archbishop of Paris is not called Bernard Agré! You see? We will no longer mention the preacher Kacou Philip but the midnight Cry or the Message of the hour! These sermons will be at the same time distributed everywhere!
And I said that, inspired by the Spirit, people having a stay in other countries will return to their countries for the expansion of this Truth! Stars prepared for the time and circumstance will be aroused throughout the world. The consciousness of the elect will be awake and they will take a radical stance against every terrestrial jurisdiction as in the beginning of the Church. We're already there, everything now depends on the Spirit of God that is coordinating that throughout the world. There will be therefore a manhunt and an extermination of such a "sect" which will be considered too rebellious. This is the last prophetic action of the Church of nations. That will lead to the awakening and rapture. It’s only by humility and discernment of a son of God that such a ministry will deserve attention because the Bible says that the Kingdom of God does not catches the eye. Therefore who has ears to hear let him hear ...
To end, I would like to say that every time God gave peace to the Church, this one showed herself soft. And speaking of marriage, for example ... First in the 4th century Rome and the Church recognized the dowry as a symbol of the marriage. Thus, marriage was distinctive from the fact of living together by the dowry. There was no civil or religious ceremony. Then the State began to have the upper hand with a so-called civil ceremony to, it is said, get the marriage out of secrecy; ceremony which was embellished by the council of Rome in the year 721 with godfathers, godmothers and witnesses with a pagan atmosphere followed by procession across the streets. All this in a spirit of competition with the Church. The Church, before this flattery, also instituted a ceremony said of blessing which was opposed by most eminent preachers, for, they said, any marriage being a granted wish of God and if it is better not to marry as Paul says it, the ceremony of the marriage must not come up to the Church. And from the following day after the council of Trent, the States claim a matrimonial power going from the fact that the marriage is a secular contract before being a mere religious sacrament.
Thus, after the dowry, the pagans had a civil ceremony but Christians had none. You see? The Church and the State have never fraternized. On the rules of the marriage, the rights of spouses or the conditions for divorce, the Church and the State never agreed. Another fact; the State says that if a slave proposes to a free girl, that slave must be put to death. The Church says that a slave can marry the daughter of his master if the latter accepts. You see? This recent civil ceremonies preceding a religious ceremony that we see are from the XVIIIth century starting in France by the law of "18 Germinal" and are not but a trap of Satan, his civil power and his churches against the true Church. The Church, throughout history, has never recognized the civil marriage based on a jurisdiction other than the Bible. Which jurisdiction is in contradiction with the Bible and does not cease to be modified and that from any time the Church has never recognized. I am not speaking of churches but the Church.
It's different! You see? Going to the town hall and then from there coming to the Church, it’s a trap of Satan and all the earth is in admiration behind that. It’s a submission of the Church to the State. And by signing this other jurisdiction of the marriage it’s as if they sacrificed to the Roman gods and that we placed the Church under the State. You see? As the State has no consideration for the Church, I have no consideration for the State and its pagan marriage either. The Church, it’s me and I will make her be respected. [The congregation says, Amen!]. May the Church be back to her first state!
[The congregation sings: The Old Gospel ...].
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