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The Awakening Call to the End-time Remnant
What a sobering word Isaiah gives early in his book: Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant (Isa. 1:9). The commencement of the Book of Isaiah refers to the vision of Isaiah which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. What did this prophet see concerning his contemporary, his Judah and Jerusalem? Two entities are presented here: Judahthe people, and Jerusalemthe city of God where the people reside. In our day of the End Time (the consummation of the church ages), the spiritual Judah is the people who are to be the people of praise, and Jerusalem would appropriately be the institutional Church. After Isaiah gives a list of the sins of the people and the city collectively, there is the acknowledgment, Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Isaiah then cries for the rulers of this Sodom city (Jerusalem) and the people of Gomorrah (the people of Jerusalem). The leaders of this people had set the pace for the falling away of this people. What is this small remnant left unto us, or within Jerusalem? The remnant is that of the few godly men who still inhabit Jerusalem. It is the Lord of Hosts who had preserved this very small remnant. The institutional Church in the End Time of the last days is in deep apostasy; it has become the Sodom and Gomorrah before God. As Judah and Jerusalem went, so go the professing people of God and the Church today. We must candidly acknowledge that Isaiah is not speaking to the world or about the world; he is speaking to Gods people and to His city. We can see a spiritual parallel between Old Testament Israel and the New Testament Church. Just as the Northern ten tribes were taken into captivity, the public realm of Christianity called Christendom has been in captivity for some time now. It has basically come down to the Fundamentalist movement within the land of Christendom. This movement has been like the last city left, the last truly identifiable city for Christs sake. But now it is becoming part of the decline, the falling away. What has kept it from total captivity? It has been a remnant still within the movement that has honored God. Why has not Fundamentalism, the last of the movements before the coming of Christ, sunk fully into Neo-Christianity? Is it not because of the fact that there is the remnant of Christ (though getting smaller and smaller) still within the movement? Otherwise, Fundamentalism would have plunged a long time ago fully into the dregs of the apostasy. It is clear that the remnant belong to the Lord of Hosts; His hosts are the remnant. The remnant cannot be judged by quantity, only by quality. They are the ones that are arresting the disease that has come into the body of Fundamentalism. While Fundamentalism has gone the way of all flesh, there is still a remnant of believers who are preaching, living, singing, teaching, and keeping the movement from absolute apostasy. The movement may be dying (or even dead), but there is a remnant that has kept it from absolute apostasy up to this hour.
The Present Remnant
What is the remnant for the End Time of these last days? They are initially those who abide in Truth within a decaying Christian identity. They are the puritans who long to get back to what Judah is to be, to what Jerusalem is to be: a true biblical Christian who longs and prays for what should be a true biblical church in a given generation? The remnant are those people left still believing and living the Truth, or what remains for Truth when that, which at its beginning identified with truth, finally leaves truth. The remnant do all they can to stop the disease, the decay; they become the singular hinderer of the city of Christianity from getting further away from the Truth. However, if the movement, the city, or the church does not change and return to its Lord, then the remnant is forced out of the cityeither forced to leave by the city or by their own souls conscience. They know they must not succumb to the spiritually decaying city or allow the pervading leaven to leaven them. The remnant then becomes separated from its city identification, from its visible nativity, from its public family, and becomes in the eyes of organized Christianity, nomadic. This nomadic or refugee heart commences with an awakening call from God to Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy fathers house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing (Gen. 12:1, 2). Once this happens, it is a permanent departure from home, never to return. Like three heavy blows are the phrases about country, kindred, and house. Even more moving is the mysterious uncertainty about the destination. This has been a recurring theme of refugee wanderings through many centuries. From its inception, the Church has been called out to a larger destiny, and the remnant continues to be the true church, ever being called out. The departure is not like Cain in his act of leaving God, going eastward, farther and farther away from God, into the land of Nod, wandering with no goal or culmination of life. The honorable departure is that of Abraham moving westward, with direction and exactness of walk, journeying a way divinely appointed by God. The remnant will always be a sojourner, a true Hebrew in contrast to the organized, institutional Church. This is his lot in life especially in the days of apostasy. The remnants exodus is with purpose, and his quest of journey is Christ in His fullness. He is on a spiritual journey, not a carnal wandering. He has made his exodus from Egypt, from sin, from the world, never to return. He not only has made his exodus from Egypt but also from Babylon, the fallen religious system of this world that controls the institutional Church. The remnant will be slandered by the organized city. The institutional Church will try to hunt down the remnant, blackballing its voice from pulpits, churches, and conferences. Every day it becomes more obvious that the remnant is truly becoming a fugitive in the earth. The institutional Church of the End Time will also try to defame Gods remnant in private conversations, defaming and maligning its reputation. They will try to suppress the influence of the remnants preaching and living before others. Yes, Gods remnant will be a fugitive all its days. Demeaning titles and labels will be aggressively branded upon it: legalist, fanatical religionist, close-minded person, misguided soul, cultist, fool, man-follower, etc. The names will even rise to mark it as a disorderly brother, a troublemaker, an enemy of Gods people, and even an apostate. Yet in the sight of God individuals of the remnant are true children of God, the apple of His eye, found in His beloved Son; they are marked as part of the Lord of Hosts remnant. An individual of Gods remnant becomes in the eyes of the world a refugee. Therefore he must be wise in his flights, always looking for refuge, for sanctuary, a place of rest. Where does he find this refuge, sanctuary, and place of rest? He finds it in his Lord and in the moments of fellowship with other spiritual refugees. Sometimes his refuge is his home, a church in the home; sometimes it is a storefront church; and sometimes it is through a spiritual spring streaming from an Internet connection. The refugee is not looking for a kingdom or a temple here. Remnant ministries are not building their kingdoms here; they are tent dwellers with an altar. They are militant against the apostasy, yet they want to fight the fight of faith with a golden spirit. Their very lives within adorn their Lord; they are seeking and dwelling in His life as a land of blessing and fruitfulness. Triumphantly, God gives them power over this world and the powers of sin. They live in this world, but it is for another world that they are longing. They are awake when others are asleep; they are hungry for God when others dont care; they are pursuing holiness of heart and life while others commend carnality and worldliness; and, they discern others who are of that remnant.
