The Morning Time Apostasy

The Apostasy

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5And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. 6And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

Black represents spiritual darkness, apostasy. Now in order to understand the spirit of the black horse rider, we must understand that A.D. 270 marked the beginning of popery. During the time of the Apostles, the pastors were all on the same level, no big “I’s” or little “you’s”, but as time progressed things changed. Instead of the church following the Word, Keeping Christ as head, bishops ascended to a higher degree of power and authority than they previous had. They oversaw several congregations, usurping princely authority. Those of whom had the greatest number of churches under inspection and presided over the most wealthy congregations.

They assumed authority of a temporal magistrate and dazzled the eyes of the multitudes by wearing sumptuous clothing. The example of the bishops was neglecting the sacred duties of spiritual phase of the work, to feed the flock spiritually and boldly usurped their rights and privileges and the effects of this corruptness spread through every rank in the church. Paul, OF Samosata, acting as bishop at Antioch prepared himself an exclusive seat or place where he decided cases as a magistrate. He attained to excessive wealth by means of the money for his services, depressing the injured and the poor, promising them aide in their trouble. Other began to carry out the same type of business and this corrupt work spread and historically marking the beginning of Popery at this time, which was A.D. 270. Papal Rome was not fully developed however until A.D. 530, and as time progressed the Roman government had ordered it and out of this eventually developed the Pope. Church and State were combined, thus political and spiritual forces were working together.

The black horse rider had a pair of balances in his hand. This shows Holy Ghost divine church government was ceasing. Men got out of God’s order and took over the church themselves, changing the message, bringing in their own standards. When there is compromise, a continual letting down, there is no end to it until apostasy has overtaken and led souls into darkness.

Now we know a pair of balances is used to weigh something. God has a pair of balances, a means of judging or deciding. God has some standards, some truths He desire that we weight out to. As the standard is taught by the word going forth and we measure to them we will be God’s church. But here we see man had the balances in his hand, denoting the scarcity of God’s word because of substituting man’s opinions for the word. We need to leave the book in God’s hand as well as the balances.

The Morning Church ceased to permit three things:

Christ to be head of the Church

Let God measure out the word as needed, and

Allow God to keep the balances (standard) in his hand.

Man decided to leave off a few things and add a few things. They were up to building a headquarter system. Holy Spirit leadership was being left out. The church was being fed cheap doctrine. Whereas the red horse compromise with sin and the doctrine of Christ, this black horse rider also yet professed Christ, without any inner experience of Christ in the heart. This system that rose come not preach deliverance from sin, but it was a matter of creeds, false ideas, and traditions.

The voice in the midst of the four beast is the voice of the apostasy in the midst of the church controlling the pulpit, and advocating a cheaper brand of religion.

A measure of wheat, and three measures of barley for a penny depicts the cheapness of this doctrine. “a penny then was a day’s wages”, Matt 20:2. Here in Rev. 6:6 were four measures of meal. One measure of barley, which represent the creeds, opinions and traditions of men set forth as doctrine. So this was not a complete doctrine or spiritual diet being set before the people. The word was being rationed out. You see barley is fed to horses and poor people, it is said to be tasteless.

They were saying hurt not the oil and the wine. They were saying hurt not the two functions of the Spirit, the oil or the anointing of the word; and the wine, the joy brought by the word. This apostate ministry changed the doctrine and altered the standard, yet they still wanted the power of God and his favor. Now tell me how can you reduce God’s Word to man-made creeds and traditions without hurting the oil and the wine? Impossible!

So over a period of years this spirit of apostasy slowly did great damage. Catholicism resurrected (a ancient Babylon priesthood). When Christ was crucified the priesthood had been nailed to the cross.

As souls began leaving their first love and started to rely on forms, ceremonies, and man’s wisdom (looking at the large congregations bishops), the balances were in man’s hands. They still maintained they were the one church and weren’t hurting a thing, or weren’t offending or damaging the oil or the wine.

In 2 Thess. 2:1-7, Paul spoke about a falling away and said even then the mystery of iniquity was already working. As long as Paul lived he kept the spirit of apostasy down. It was working under cover in his day. When he and enough of the other true ministry passed off the scene, it came out into the open and did its work. The mountain of fire, which was the church, slipped into the sea (Rev. 8:8)., the hands of wicked men. They produced the beast that rose up out of the sea. Rev 13:1-11.

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