CALLING FORTH THE REMNANT by way of the cross, part XVI of the Prophetic Sequence. By Stella Paterson, Intro by Doug Krieger and Dene McGriff

This is not a text filled with “spiritual elitism” driven by unrealistic aspirations for the Woman, the Bride of the Lamb. It is a prophetic call for the Bride to “make herself ready” – and that calls for illumination and commitment on behalf of that generation which aspires to the “coming of the Son of Man” in glory!

Hanna Whitehall Smith’s The Christian’s Secret Of A Happy Life was written, not by a theologian, but by the “simplicity that is in Christ” – its call to consecration, to divine commitment on the part of believers, revolutionized the message of Christian sacrifice by the “Man with the Golden Reed in His hand” Who measures those who are His because He has purchased them . . . they are His Living Sacrifice!

It is in this spiritual dynamic that Stella Paterson stands forth . . . uncompromised in the presentation of the unvarnished Word of Life to a

generation bereft of spiritual depth, yet craving to be “strengthened with might in the inner man.” Stella connects the dots whereby the Spirit speaks to the churches . . . calling forth the Overcomers, the Remnant willing to pay the price until: “I looked, and behold, a GREAT MULTITUDE which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ . . . These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9-10, 14b).

Who is sufficient for these things? Not in our own strength—for they “overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and by the Word of their testimony, and they loved not they “soul lives” unto the death” (Revelation 12:11).

Prayerfully consider her text your acquisition as part of your library—rarely, if ever, do we suggest such—but this is wholly worth it. May the Lord bless you in this foretaste of Calling Forth The Remnant—the inner strength of the Prophetic Sequence, for without his matchless grace wrought into us, there is no Testimony of Jesus, no giving up all to Him Who gave His all for His Bride!

"Calling Forth the Remnant" by Stella Paterson is a must read for us smart, wealthy Laodicean, modern type Christians! Stella calls us back to our roots to discover the mess we have gotten into. If you were to ask any Biblically literate person, what is the main characteristic of the "last days" church, the academic answer is easy: "apostasy". But when we consider the fact that we may be describing ourselves, we may reconsider. Woops? That just couldn't be.

Read this book and you will see how far we

have fallen (and apostasy means 'falling away'). I quote Stella, "No minister makes the decision to be a false teacher. But he is a false teacher if he relies on his own flesh and traditions handed down by others rather than seek the face of God." This book helps us examine our false conceptions, traditions, the role of the clergy, our "sanctuaries", and programs. God is calling forth a remnant and as Stella points out, a period of complacency and carelessness is historically followed by persecution. The tribulation of the saints will sift out that remnant which will stand as a glorious testimony in spite of (and because of) the persecution. Our choices will be limited: to be a part of the problem or the solution, the persecutors or the persecuted.

Only the Holy Spirit can give us the spirit of revelation so our prayer is that God will use this book to open your spiritual eyes.

Only two millennia have passed since the Church of Jesus Christ was born. In light of eternity this is but a very short time.

The early Church thrived amid much persecution for almost three hundred years. The power from On High sustained them as they proclaimed their faith in Jesus the Son of God, knowing that often it would mean torture and even death. Others who were not strong in faith would yield to the demands of their persecutors to make sacrifices to their gods. They denied the faith in order to escape persecution, and through persecution the Church was purified. The unwavering faith of those who were tortured and killed served only to draw others to this Christ, for Whom they were willing to die.

During the reigns of various emperors the Church experienced periods of religious freedom. But then the enemies of the Gospel would impose restrictions, and once again the Christians suffered persecution. The Church survived in its earliest days, though only a remnant due to wave after wave of persecution.

In the Western world, what has come to be known as “the Church” today is a far cry from the true Church who met in secret for fear of their lives. The Church now often meets in grand buildings with labels bearing the Name of Christ, but they are nothing like the Church of the first centuries. Much of what began as a living organism has ceased to be the living Body of Jesus Christ. Rather than the Life of God dwelling in His people, His people go to church to meet God. He has been relegated to buildings, occasionally called “temples,” when His desire is for His people to BE His temple. Now some people, believing they are a part of the Body of Christ, think all religious activity must take place within the confines of their denominational, well-structured church programs. There are organized programs for everything, so that man is kept busy “serving God” within the church.

For the better part of two centuries, there has been an acceleration of what Paul the Apostle called a “falling away.” It has not come with blazing headlines warning, “The Lord is returning! Prepare to meet Him!” Many have warned of His soon return, yet all the while an insidious thing has taken place. The deception of all deceptions has crept in, and the Church has been totally blind to it and blinded by it! The magnitude of its effect is catastrophic and the Father’s heart is broken.

God’s desire is to purify His Son’s Bride. He has pleaded repeatedly with those who call themselves “The Body of Christ.” Revival fires have broken out in many places at various times in the last two centuries. God has raised up men and women such as Andrew Murray, Susanna Wesley, Charles Finney, Oswald Chambers, and countless others who have proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ with great passion. Why, then, is the Church in such a state of apostasy? Why is the Bride of Christ so polluted in rebellion and unfaithfulness? Why does she not hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, calling her to make herself ready? How can she believe she IS ready? And who will make up the remnant of which Paul the Apostle spoke? 1

The answers to all the above questions can be found within these pages – starting with how it all began and following the progression of one simple overlooked truth until the last chapter where we see the final triumph of the true Church of Jesus Christ.

Matthew recorded Jesus’ words, telling us that not everyone who says to Him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, except for those who do the will of His Father. He said that in that day many will call Him “Lord,” reminding Him of all the things they have done in His Name. With very sobering words, He foretells His response: “I never knew you; depart from Me!” 2

Jesus was speaking of the MANY who believe they are Christians. They believe they are right with God, and they are serving Him. They impress a lot of people, but is Jesus impressed? His answer says it all: “I never knew you.” He is looking for a Bride, not a housekeeper. He wants a relationship, not service from men’s hands. He wants Marys who will sit at His feet to learn of Him, rather than the Marthas who want only to do for Him. 3

We cannot and must not ignore the words of the Master! We cannot fool ourselves, thinking He was referring to the other guy! We must examine ourselves and bow in humble surrender, allowing His Spirit to search our hearts and purge us of every spot and every wrinkle. The Lord is patient and longsuffering, “not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9b Amplified)

There is a solemn word through which the Lord spoke to me. “But if the watchman sees the sword coming, and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any of them, he is taken away in and for his perversity and iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” (Ezekiel 33:6 Amplified).

In 1990, following surgery and work-related burnout, I was pretty much housebound for several months. During that long period of recuperation, God had my full attention. I had prayed a three-part prayer: (1) “Lord, reveal Yourself to me, (2) give me a hunger for Your Word and (3) show me the meaning of Calvary.” After hearing a riveting sermon on the crucifixion and all which Jesus suffered for us, I needed to know WHY He had to suffer and die. I wanted to know Him in a greater way, and He truly did answer my prayer. He gave me a hunger for the Word, and through it He revealed Himself to me. What a precious, beautiful, cleansing time!

During that first year, I learned the true meaning of the quickening of the mortal body by the presence of the Holy Spirit. In the natural, taking rest would have been vital to recovery from surgery and my emaciated condition. Many nights were spent in God’s presence studying, writing, and praying, with only a few hours of sleep. Rather than the lack of sleep being a detriment to my recovery, I found the quickening power of the Holy Spirit provided much better rest. Oh, what sweet rest He gives!

My experiences throughout these past sixteen years have been beyond anything I could ever have hoped. So often I have wept as the Spirit has taken me from one truth to another. There have been tears of awe at the majesty of God. There have been tears of grief as I recognized how far man has strayed from the Lord in the past one hundred and seventy some years, and how apostasy has become so rampant. There have been many, many tears as I surrendered to the cleansing of the washing of water by the Word.

As an eight-year-old child, I had prayed a prayer with my parents asking Jesus to come into my life. He met me then, and I have always remembered how clean and light I felt. Throughout my whole life He has been there, even though I have not always acknowledged Him. In the churches I attended over the years I was always busy trying to do all the right things to be a good Christian. But I never truly understood what it meant to be born anew until the Lord opened my eyes in 1990.

At that time, my merciful God began to purge me of all the old, dead doctrines with which I had grown up. He gave me a fresh new relationship with Him, and satisfied my hunger for Him with an even greater hunger for more. Only in Him can hunger satisfy hunger! There is no place I would rather be than in His presence, engrossed in deep study of His Word. The more I learn, the more I desire to learn – I am only beginning to know God in a way I never dreamed possible!

In asking the Lord to show me the meaning of Calvary, I was completely unprepared for the answer as He led me through years of learning at His feet. He took me from the Garden of Eden in Genesis, all the way to the end of Revelation.

One of the first truths the Lord revealed was that tradition is widespread in the Church, so I began to study all I could find in the Bible about tradition. There were times when He awakened me in the night with clear understanding of Scripture passages, which were then confirmed by the word meanings from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance with Hebrew and Greek dictionaries.

Following the study of tradition, the Lord led me to research how the Law had prophesied of Christ. This launched me into a study involving thousands of hours, reams of paper, and boxes of stick pens. It was in this research that He gave me a complete understanding of the need for the Cross of Jesus Christ. The Hebrew and Greek languages brought so much greater understanding, and with the Word and the Holy Spirit I was moved from joy to grief as I learned the reason Jesus REALLY had to die.

Calling Forth The Remnant is the full account of the meaning of Calvary – because of one simple, heartfelt prayer.

As the Lord took me deeper into the meaning of Calvary, He shared with me the anguish of His heart over the condition of the Church who believes she is the Bride of Christ. The depths of grief in the Father’s heart cannot be uttered. The only way to describe the picture of the Church He etched on my heart is “masses (literally millions) of people, sitting in pews with hands folded awaiting Jesus’ return, but not truly ready to meet Him.” Whenever my thoughts turn to that picture I experience afresh the heartbreak our Lord must feel at the complacency of His would-be Bride. Paul’s words in Romans 11:5 reveal a tragic truth: “Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” (NKJV) Only a remnant will be saved, while millions who do not know Jesus will be lost.

In 1845, Charles Finney (1792-1875) said the church was “in a state of decline.” And Andrew Murray (1828-1917) said, “No words can tell the sad state of the Church of Christ on earth. I wish I had words to speak what I sometimes feel about it.” I believe Finney and Murray were speaking of the same falling away which Paul the Apostle said would take place before the Second Coming of Jesus.1

Paul was not speaking of “just a little bit of backsliding.” The Church is literally entrenched in apostasy! The Greek word for “apostasy” means “defection from truth.” 2 The Church has strayed from Truth and the Bible has been perverted. Her condition can be traced to basically one error. No person alive today can be accused of causing this defection from truth. We have all been exposed to “another gospel” of which Paul warned. 3 The apostasy is massive, taking root in every aspect of what we know as Jesus Christ’s “Church.” In spite of this far-reaching apostasy, there has always been a remnant of true believers who have remained faithful to Him.

We have been taught to respect and revere the reverends and the doctors who attended Bible colleges and seminaries. We have been led to believe that what they preach is always from God’s Word so we must accept it without question. It would seem unthinkable to question anything they say. But they are simply passing on what they have been taught, with the same mindset, that they too would be wrong to question those in spiritual authority. In this twenty-first century, many of our Christian beliefs are based on man-made tradition, accepted without question because of trust in man rather than trust in God.

The prophet Jeremiah tells us we are “cursed” if we trust in a man of flesh, turning away from the LORD. We will be like a shrub in the desert, dwelling in parched places in the wilderness. 4 There is a wilderness of parched places, called “churches,” where the habitation of God is non-existent – and all because of trust in man. The hearts of many teachers, preachers, and hearers have departed from the Lord through trust in the man of flesh.

There was a time when the Gospel was preached with Power, and God’s Spirit gripped the hearts of hearers. As time passed, the idea of preaching was carried forward, but the power of the Gospel was missing. At some point, God’s Word has ceased to be GOD’S Word in purity and has become man’s word. Yes, preachers quote portions of God’s Word, but all too often the message has become the “letter that kills.” 5 Rather than preach the Word, they preach from the Word, creating ear-tickling masterpieces of oratory. We Christians can so easily be misled by something that sounds good because of our trust in man. Where are those who will be as the Bereans, searching the Word and beseeching the Spirit for wisdom to know the Truth?

You may be thinking I have no knowledge of the many churches and ministries where God is moving and lives are being impacted by the power of the Holy Spirit, but I am aware. There are places where God’s Spirit is very welcome, and He is touching lives and drawing men and women to Himself. But it is a work of the Holy Spirit, not man’s doctrine and fine speech. The Holy Spirit must penetrate man’s presentation of the Gospel in search of hungry hearts. At the very core of belief in all of these places, there is a fatal error. This fatal error, the root of all errors, is UNCRUCIFIED FLESH.

Most people believe the problem in the world is sin. I am not denying there is a lot of sin, but the greater problem is this: the Church has a flesh problem. This is not a conclusion I have reached on my own; the understanding has come with much heartbreak as the Spirit of Truth opened to me a very graphic word picture, as found throughout the pages of God’s Word. Flesh is an age-old problem, but its manifestation has accelerated in the last two centuries.

The Word of God has become fragmented through the traditions of flesh-and-blood man. We have chosen the words of God we understand to create doctrines pleasing to our flesh. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth. But we would not allow ourselves to be led. The Church is ignorant of the simplicity of the Gospel. She has access to the Old and New Testaments, as well as the Spirit of Truth, so there is no excuse for ignorance.

A death has come to the Church as she has plunged head-long into error, deception, and apostasy. She needs to be revived with Life from God. But in order to be revived, the Church must die to self. The purpose of this book is to expose the cause of apostasy in the Church, and how she can be cleansed of her spots and wrinkles, becoming a part of the remnant prepared to meet the Lord.

With the Holy Spirit’s patient counsel, I was shown through the Word just how the devastating error has crept in. I had believed my theology was correct, but God undid ALL of my old theology and began to replace it with truth from His Word. At times, I would weep in agony as I came to recognize the error in which I, along with so many others, have been held in bondage. I was shown how tradition has kept people from knowing the Jesus of the Bible. Paul the Apostle urged watchfulness so that no one spoils us “through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” (Colossians 2:8) Jesus also spoke strong words regarding the dangers of following tradition.

If only the Church could fathom what is in the Father’s heart and the price He paid in giving His Son to die! And yet man goes his own way, with his churchianity and his own attempts at righteousness. We all must give an account for what we have done with Jesus. We who name the Name of Christ, believing we are born-again, have a responsibility to read God’s Word and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the Truth. If we do not, we will never know the true reason Jesus came.

The corporate Body of Christ cannot come to repentance and receive the Life she so desperately needs, for each individual must come to the Truth and be born anew [Greek: from above] 6. Christ’s true Church is a large integrated body, consisting of individuals – denominational tags are irrelevant. All true born-again believers make up the Body of Christ. The true Church is the living Body of the Living Savior Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God. It is not about buildings and programs.

Our English language fails miserably in translating the Word of God from the old languages. Single words had specific meaning, which take whole English phrases to articulate. To give one example, the Hebrew word for blood means “that which when shed causes death.” 7 In order to understand how the error came about, we must know the significance of flesh and blood according to God’s eternal design. And without the understanding of flesh and blood, and life and death, we cannot begin to know the meaning of Calvary. Throughout the chapters I have included word meanings in the hope that this message will be clearer.

The message in the entire Bible might be summed up in one sentence: Flesh is the reason Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh to destroy flesh because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

Much of the Western Church, particularly in North America, offers the lost little more than condemnation and a plethora of rules to follow. People believe they are actually pleasing and obeying God, as they listen to grand sermons based on pretexts which are Bible texts taken out of context. These man-made masterpieces of oratory appeal to the flesh and promise God’s “blessing” if the people will do all the right things. This leaves the impression that if they fail to do the right thing, they will miss God.

Insidiously masked behind eloquence and happy faces, these “twins” – condemnation and rules – have become the “gospel” message. If sinners respond to such a message, they may go from the bondage of flesh to the bondage of MORE flesh, in the form of religiosity and churchianity with its inherent demands to measure up. In their own strength, they may try to live up to standards set by man, believing that these are God’s standards.

Why has the Church strayed so far from pure devotion to Jesus? Are seminaries producing ministers who never question the traditions and doctrines? Only by God’s Grace will some church attendees find a real relationship with Jesus. But after that, if no one disciples them in the truth, they too may be swept into the mainstream of religion and forsake their first love.

Paul told the Thessalonians that they should not let any man deceive them, for Jesus will not return until after the falling away [Greek: defection from truth, apostasy] and the man of sin is revealed. Paul tells how this “son of perdition” “opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:4 NKJV) There is a direct link between the earthly, apostate man and the man of sin – the son of perdition – who is full of that anti-Christ spirit.

The word “antichrist” means “opponent of Messiah.” Because Messiah came to free man from the flesh, it should be obvious that antichrist would promote bondage to flesh. I believe this spirit of antichrist has set himself up in man’s spirit – the temple intended for the Spirit of God – and has caused men and women, young and old, to oppose Messiah through the efforts of flesh and self (some call it “serving God”). How many are there today who have antichrist’s spirit but, because they are yet flesh, “feel” they have Christ’s Spirit?

The day of which Paul spoke is coming soon when the “lawless one” will be revealed for what he is. He will be powerless in the presence of Jesus, the One whose very breath will consume His opponent and destroy him with the brightness of His coming. 2 Thessalonians 2:9 tells us the beast is coming “according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.” The lawless one has received his power from Satan to manifest deceitful signs and wonders that will mislead those who did not love the truth. “And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure [approved of] in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 NKJV)

How many “anointed” signs in the apostate church are “the working of Satan?” How many Christians “approve of the way of unrighteousness” out of ignorance? Has God already sent the “strong delusion,” causing them to believe the lie so that they would be condemned? We are living in extremely dangerous times, when counterfeit anointing is rampant. Unless we daily deny self in complete and humble surrender to the Holy Spirit, we most surely will be deceived.

The danger we face is not some man, but a deceiving anti-Christ spirit that will stupefy us into submission to the “beast” of Revelation. This great leader of all flesh will continue in his worldwide campaign of deception, until Jesus comes with the flaming fire of His jealousy to destroy FLESH forever!

Will we take up our cross [Greek: exposure to death, self-denial] and follow the true Christ? Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24 NKJV)