"So they poured out for the men to eat.

And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, 0 thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof." 2 Kings 4:40

"Death in the Pot"

When Elijah came on the scene the concept of separation from the world, and holiness unto God, were lost on the mind and conscious of Israel. His message was directed exclusively to this tragedy. Jezebel had succeeded in bringing into Israel's worship the idolatrous worship of Baal. The nation was mixed both nationally and religiously. It was against this mixture that God reacted. "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." (Malachi 4:5-6-6) Elijah's message and mission was to restore God's people to a national and religious purity. The ecumenical council on religion immediately branded him as narrow. His mortal enemy the wicked queen Jezebel had forced the religion of Baal upon the people. It wasn't that Israel no longer practiced the true, the problem was, she had mixed the false with the true. It would have been better for Israel to divorce themselves from God completely than to have mixed the true and the false. "Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols." (Revelation 2:20) Most Protestant schools interpret the time of Thyatira (Rev. 2:18-26), a period of about one thousand years, to be the time when the church had power over the nations. This religious mixture identified as Jezebel, continued through out the centuries and surfaced again in Thyatira. She, this system, is destined to become the harlot church of the tribulation. Jezebel has become the synonym for the tragic mixture that is the mark of the apostate church wherever it is found. The overriding characteristic of this harlot, she is totally void of conviction. Jesus is added to whatever else she is, or believes. The false prophet as head of this evil system will demand that all, worship the beast, and receive his mark. This pressure will come out of accepted Christianity. The apostasy of the end time will come out of what men will believe to be the church. To willfully tolerate untruth in our believing is to become a part of the harlot. Everyone who accepts this mixture will be cast into tribulation. "Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds." (Revelation 2:22) Israel was God's people; she was His testimony and witness in the earth. That testimony under no circumstance was to be mixed. Other people and nations could become proselytes to Israel, but never was there allowed mixture of the religions. This was the message of Elijah and it was not acceptable with the ecumenical. When the message of God is proclaimed in power and truth it is branded as unloving, narrow and bigoted. When the man of God preaches that only Jesus saves, and there is no room for Buddha, Mohammed, Mary or any other, he is branded as an extremist. Because of this pressure from the unity at any price people, the pulpit for the most part is silent on this issue of the mixture that has rendered the church impotent in these troubled times. There are some very interesting developments taking place in the neo-pentecostal world. The lines are being drawn; the battle is being set between the Jekyll system and the true church. On the one side we have the mixture of the world and Christ, totally void of conviction. On the other side a voice is being raised in this religious wilderness, calling for a separation from the world. Elijah came the first time with the message, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." When he returns in the tribulation his message will be, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." In between the first and Second

Coming of Elijah the spirit of Elijah came in the man we know as John the Baptist. John's message was, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." John came in the spirit of Elijah. What is the spirit of Elijah? It is the call to God's people to separate themselves, to prepare for the coming of the Lord. The mixture of the false and the true, found in the church today, demands the return of that spirit. The neo-pentecostals have accepted the false; she is filled with the spirit of Jezebel. Many who were caught up in this system that misrepresents God, are having a second took, there is a desire for reality. The climate is ripe for a John the Baptist to call the church to separation from all that is not Christ. God's message to His church is, "repent for the kingdom of God is at hand." She must repent of her prayerlessness, her indifference, this unholy mixture she has allowed, and her unholy interest in things. The pulpit must sound this message, "without holiness no man shall see the Lord," loud and clear. The church must be made to know that the world in not a misunderstood friend, it is the enemy of God. Her (the church's) eyes must be opened to the fact, that the world, not only has the ability to detract from God, but also possesses the ability to be very religious. Elijah's message was a call for national and religious purity. What was true of Israel in Elijah's time is now true of the church. The Apostle Peter wrote, "ye are a holy nation." Again God said, "Ye are in the world but not of the world." For the world to be saved it must come God's way. A church that looks and acts like the world cannot win the world; the ecumenicals have proved this. The results of such foolishness is obvious, the world has won the church. We must have compassion for those blinded by religion, but our compassion must never be allowed to override our convictions. We cannot, we must not, tolerate that which God does not tolerate. When we willfully violate the principles of holiness we become a misrepresentation of God, and are no longer worthy to be His voice in the earth. The problem in the twentieth century church is the same problem of Elijah's day; it is the same as the problem in the church of Thyatira. It is the Jezebel spirit, a mixture of truth and error, of flesh and Spirit. For the church to be renewed, and prepared for the coming of the Lord, this evil thing must be confronted. We cannot allow what God does not allow. Since God hates every false way, the church must be purged of every belief that is not Bible. Paul warned the Galatians that God would not permit the slightest mixture. The Galatians were attempting to mix law and grace. Paul's answer was, "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace." (Galatians 5:4). God has not come to share His life with our life; He has come to live His life through us. When we willfully allow the church to become mixed in her beliefs, when we ignore the worldliness that has invaded our ranks, the Spirit of life is suspended. In such a time the dead system can continue to function religiously, it can feign the gifts, teach people how to speak in tongues, to dance, but with all the imitation there is nothing of a true spiritual nature taking place. It is out of this mixture the gross immorality found in the church today, is coming. Prior to the first coming of Jesus the religion of the Jews had become a total misrepresentation of God. To confront this, the Father sent John the Baptist with the message of repentance. People came from every where to hear this strange man from the wilderness proclaim, "repent for the Kingdom of heaven was at hand." (Matt. 3:2). What was the kingdom of Heaven John was proclaiming? "The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29). The kingdom came in with that proclamation. John's message of repentance demanded that men turn from what they were to Christ. There was no compromise or latitude in his message. To the religious he said, "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." (Matthew 3:7-10-10).

To the publicans John said, "And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you." (Luke 3:13). To the Roman soldier he demanded, "And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages." (Luke 3:14). To king Herod, "For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herod's sake, his brother Philip's wife. For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her." (Matthew 14:3-4). Once more as we the approach the end of the age, and the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God in some Elijah, must call the church to repentance. She must be warned that God will not accept her unholy flirtation with the world, He will not accept the mixture found in her at this juncture in history. The message must be clear, it must not allow any room for compromise, and there can be no misunderstanding. If we will allow God to heal the church, then He (God) will heal the nations through the church. "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14)