By Oscar Pimentel, General Overseer
When God declared His holiness, He also said, “ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Lev. 11:45). Since He is a holy God, it is only appropriate that those who are called by His name be holy as well. This is God’s requirement of His people for all ages. God said to Moses after He brought Israel out of Egypt, “And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation…” (Ex. 19:6). He didn’t leave them to wander and do as they pleased in the wilderness but led them to Sinai where they entered into a covenant to fully obey Him.
God has also called us, not to “uncleanness, but unto holiness” (1 Thess. 4:7), and we are admonished to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called. When He saved us from the bondage of our sins, He did not leave us to fend for ourselves in a spiritual wilderness but brought us to the foot of His holy mountain where we have become covenanted members of His Church, agreeing to obey all that He has said in His Word.
“But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15, 16). God will have a perfect and holy nation prior to the first part of His second coming. Some may doubt it, but it is only because they fail to understand His promises in Scripture and His immense and mighty power. The Church of God is that holy nation and she must purge herself of all that defiles to be perfect as He is perfect. Philippians 2:15, 16 tells us, “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life….”
In these last days, we will come face to face with the perfection process. The Lord through the mouth of Zechariah said, “And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God” (Zech. 13:9). The perfection of the Church not only includes that she will be perfectly united in doctrine, government, and purpose, but all her members will have acquired inward purity and holiness of life. I don’t fully understand the process, but I know that I want my heart to be where it needs to be to submit to it. God is building His glorious Church and you and I are privileged to be members of the Body of Christ.
The Church of God is to be without spot or wrinkle. Everything must be chiseled away that would mar her beauty. Murmuring, complaining, unforgiveness, backbiting, criticism—all that is unlike Christ must be chiseled away. In the final analysis, anyone who will be a part of this nation will have to be holy. What holiness, glory, or power we will possess will be because the Church has drawn closer to God, and we have allowed Christ to do His work in us. Listen to the Word of God: “And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence” (Isa. 4:3-5).
We view Zion as the city of God. For us, it prefigures The Church of God, the place God has chosen as His habitation forever. We view Jerusalem as the central seat of government that prefigures our General Headquarters, and we see the daughters of Zion as her suburbs or villages which prefigure our local churches. It seems that no place in God’s nation will be left untouched. These scriptures, and many others in the Bible, tell of a time when the Church, from top to bottom and bottom to the top, will have been washed of all rebellion, disobedience, and filth, and God’s glory and power will be upon her. Oh, yes, the day of His power in His Church is coming but it will be because of our complete obedience and total consecration to Him “in the beauties of holiness” (Psa. 110:3). Our forefathers believed that a pure Church makes for a powerful Church!
The apostle Paul wrote that “Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body… the church is subject unto Christ… Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:23-27). The spiritual status of the Church at the time of the Rapture will be spot free, wrinkle-free, blemish-free, and “any such thing” free. She will be perfect and holy and will have purged herself of all carnal influence, “arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints” (Rev. 19:8).
The time is quickly approaching, according to John’s Revelation prophecy, and we will soon transition with the help of the Holy Ghost from getting ready to ready to go. God “will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth” (Rom. 9:28).