We know of no subject so full of Christ as that of the mystery—Christ and the Church. It is not only the last in the teachings of Scripture, but the fullest. All of God’s revealed thoughts and purposes are opened in this subject. It brings out the fullness of the Godhead, the nature of God and the ultimate purpose of His counsels in creating man for His own glory.
The subject of Christ and the Church shows the full measure of God’s character—His intrinsic righteousness, His complete separation from evil, the full extent of His goodness. Love rises to its highest height when Jesus, according to the will of His Father and through redemption, takes His bride from the race of man. Joy comes to its fullest measure at the marriage of the Lamb, where God and man, as Christ and His bride, the Church, are seen as one—the Christ.
If the millennial day begins in the year 6000, we have, at the most, but a few months or years before the rapture when Christ will claim His own. The visible testimony of the Church is in fragments, although God maintains a testimony to Christ’s name.
Today, Satan is making a supreme effort to break down and ruin every visible testimony by the Church, the body of Christ. The teachings of the doctrine of Christ and the Church have suffered at his hand. Those who profess the name of Christ are being scattered. He has succeeded in bringing in such confusion that few know the right way either for salvation or for gathering to praise and worship.
Christendom, which includes all who profess to be of the Christian faith, is a mixture of true believers and false professors. At the rapture the true will be called home and the false left for judgment.
As the truth that has been given to man in this day is full and great, so will be the judgment on those who have professed with their lips but rejected it in their hearts. “Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double” (Rev. 18:66Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. (Revelation 18:6)).
In this paper we will review the last night of Sodom with her sins and her judgment at God’s hand. We will notice how Sodom is a solemn picture of the present state of Christendom, and we will be warned by the judgment coming upon it and each one who professes the name of Christ, but whose heart, like Lot’s wife, is attached to the apostate earth.