The Great Reform

- G. Mark Shafer

We recognize that there are some things that simply cannot be reformed. For
instance, the nature of sin itself cannot be changed. According to Paul in Romans
8:7 sin is not only contrary to the principles of truth, justice, love, and mercy; it is
even contrary to forgiveness. Therefore its nature is unalterable.
The frank proclamation that “whatsoever is not of faith is sin” Romans 14:23 reveals
that sin is not limited to an act, but that the act indicates a root condition. The
declaration of scripture is that it is impossible for the carnal mind be reformed to
be full of faith, because it is full of presumption. This may sound like a brash
statement. But the Apostle says “the carnal mind is enmity against God.” Romans
8:7 We must give this thought a moment to sink in. “Therefore,” he says, “it is not

subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Paul does not say the carnal
mind is at enmity with God. If it were at enmity it might be reformed. But he says
it is enmity. Therefore the carnal mind must be abandoned in order to receive
the mind of Christ. Phil. 2:5 Now, if we would follow the divine counsel to “let this
mind be in you,” (See Philippians 2:5 “Let this mind be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus…”) it must be the whole mind, otherwise we still have not received it.
This great kernel of the gospel is the greatest gift which is given to the world in
Jesus Christ, and it is full of the wisdom and knowledge of God, containing every
fraction of the whole. What a sublime thing! – to submit to the judgment of the
divine mind that spoke the worlds into orderly existence in the first place.
The result of transgressing the direct commands of God is a relationship that is
suddenly cut off. We could note that when faced with the reality of his situation,
Adam demurred to Eve, who then also demurred to the serpent. There is not one
soul ready to face the consequential penalty of death. Ever since man was barred
from the edenic garden he has been desperate to reclaim access. In fact, we are
in such a desperate state of self denial that we actually theorize access. It is a
kind of virtual reality that becomes more rampant as we veer further away from
truth, assisted by all our gadgets and critical thinking and amazing inventions and
games, and yes, our social apps. “Social media is a place where we paint the
fungus that grows on our dirty dishes to look like roses and conceal the inner man
who is wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, in order that we
might rather have a reputation of refinery and receive praise and flattery...” GM Shafer
The scripture puts this futile situation this way: “For after that in the wisdom of

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God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of
preaching to save them that believe.” I Corinthians 1:21 So, “there is a way that
seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Proverbs 16:25
Thus the word “reformation” stimulates ideas which a true disciple must leave
behind in order to take hold of what God designed to make known by the church.
The reason this is of interest to us is because the Apostle Paul tells us that God's
intent for the church is to make known to principalities and powers in heavenly
places “the manifold wisdom of God.” Would this be through our temporizing
methods, or by divine provision?
Perhaps we should ask: Is Christ's mind the mind of the church? And if so, does
this New Covenant institution in which the law of God is engraved upon the heart
need reforming! Absolutely not, the revelation of the manifold wisdom of God is
not achieved by such evolutionary processes. Improvement upon the creation is
not in God's nature. When God made man in the beginning He beheld the whole
creation, and it was according to His perfect word. Thus the revelation of the
manifold wisdom of God by the church is not accomplished through
experimentation, or by repeated failures and defeat, nor despite ignorance, but by
a constant obedience that results in continual victory. And so we touch on the key
point of the Christian faith in which “the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” is the
real focus. The scripture asserts that the church is God's new creation – it is the
apple of His eye. Why should we doubt that the Holy Ghost is able to sway every
function, so that indeed “she ...looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon,
clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?” Song of Solomon 6:10
The idea that reform is the process God uses to purify His church is one of the
fallacies that the great reformers of the 16th century grappled with. When Luther
first began to see the light of the Gospel he believed it possible to convince the
Pope and his cardinals too. If the Church of Rome could have been reformed,
certainly she would have been. But the heat of battle taught these men that the
wrong kind of reform would place humanity outside the arena of grace. And thus
the Church of Rome, with all of her reforms and adjustments, was excluded from
this arena. She had the mind of Satan... not the mind of Christ. This is the great
life-changing revelation of the gospel to any individual who has ever escaped from
a counterfeit institution. And astonishingly this reveals the deluded condition of
nominal Christianity today. Protestants have lost the vision.
The early reformers knew the reality that the character of Christ's glorious bride
could not be “re-formed” in any way without arousing the jealousy of her
Redeemer. But today men have forgotten that the controversy between good and
evil suffers spin and blur by an adversary of truth who has millenniums of

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experience. The same elements of argument are still at the crux, the arch-
perpetrator of confusion still determined, only now with the Bible at the center, to
confuse the divine counsel of God. His deceptions are served through earth's
great institutions; by governments, churches, and schools; even by the purported
“remnant.” But there is one entity that retains a peculiar security. Christ's true
church can only thrive under His banner: “...This is the name wherewith she shall
be called, The LORD our righteousness.” Jeremiah 33:16 Was this truly her position in
those dark days? Is it today? Absolutely! Read the following and ask yourself the
question, “Is God really able?” And while you're asking, remember, “whatsoever
is not of faith is sin.”
The church is God’s appointed agency for the salvation of men. It was
organized for service, and its mission is to carry the gospel to the world. From
the beginning it has been God’s plan that through His church shall be
reflected to the world His fullness and His sufficiency. The members of the
church, those whom He has called out of darkness into His marvelous light,
are to show forth His glory. The church is the repository of the riches of the
grace of Christ; and through the church will eventually be made manifest,
even to “the principalities and powers in heavenly places,” the final and full
display of the love of God. Ephesians 3:10. Acts of the Apostles p. 9.1
This, my friends, does not represent a church lacking divine direction, or lacking
the power of the Holy Ghost. Further:
The church is God’s fortress, His city of refuge, which He holds in a revolted
world. Any betrayal of the church is treachery to Him who has bought
mankind with the blood of His only-begotten Son. From the beginning, faithful
souls have constituted the church on earth. In every age the Lord has had His
watchmen, who have borne a faithful testimony to the generation in which
they lived. These sentinels gave the message of warning; and when they
were called to lay off their armor, others took up the work. God brought these
witnesses into covenant relation with Himself, uniting the church on earth
with the church in heaven. He has sent forth His angels to minister to His
church, and the gates of hell have not been able to prevail against His
people.
Through centuries of persecution, conflict, and darkness, God has sustained
His church. Not one cloud has fallen upon it that He has not prepared for; not
one opposing force has risen to counterwork His work, that He has not
foreseen. All has taken place as He predicted. He has not left His church
forsaken, but has traced in prophetic declarations what would occur, and that
which His Spirit inspired the prophets to foretell has been brought about. All
His purposes will be fulfilled. His law is linked with His throne, and no power
of evil can destroy it. Truth is inspired and guarded by God; and it will triumph

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 over all opposition.
During ages of spiritual darkness the church of God has been as a city set on
a hill. From age to age, through successive generations, the pure doctrines of
heaven have been unfolding within its borders. Enfeebled and defective as it
may appear, the church is the one object upon which God bestows in a
special sense His supreme regard. It is the theater of His grace, in which He
delights to reveal His power to transform hearts. Acts of the Apostles 11.2 – 12.1
We do not concede that the church is actually enfeebled and defective by such a
statement. Surely this is how it may appear to be, because it is a people who are
constantly maligned and brought into severe trial by spin and blur. How sorely are
they tempted to lose the divine vision and view inconclusive appearances, to feel
they have fought, and must win, by their own persistence without an
accompaniment of friends, as Elijah when he fled the wrath of Jezebel. But,
“whatsoever is not of faith is sin,” and therefore we will exercise faith, will we not?
Indeed, the testimony is that “As He is (Christ, our perfect substitute in heaven),
so are we in this world.” Why else would Paul say, “For I am determined to know
nothing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” I Corinthians 2:2 And His
encouragement was “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye
may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Romans 12:2
We may feel weak and enfeebled. We may feel all alone. But the divine vision
will enable us to understand what even Elijah failed to see as he complained to
the Lord about his plight; and the Lord replied, “Yet I have left seven thousand in
Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which
have not kissed him.” I Kings 19:18 Though we may not seem privileged to have the
company of the faithful in this flesh, the final test is whether we will live by sight,
or by faith. For we are truly “...come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to
the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven,
and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to
Jesus the mediator of the new covenant… Wherefore we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God
acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews
12:22-29

After sin had corrupted the first creation, God set about by the use of the same
creative word to produce a “new creature.” This new miracle in the universe
exceeds the wonders of the original creation. Through restoration God
accomplishes the impossible and unthought of thing without discarding the
original creation, and reveals His glory by it. Contemporary reforms graphically
illustrate current thinking regarding the church, but unless we take the word of

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God totally, we will each be left with elements of the carnal mind – traces of the
“man of sin” that will corrupt our whole religion. Indeed, it is even corrupted if we
are Laodiceans! And it only takes a pinch of human thought to spoil the whole
Divine revelation of what it means to be grafted into the true vine. My thinking,
my reasoning, is not sufficient as a tool to arrive at truth. My thinking produces a
lukewarm condition, a process of reform that can never be completed because
it mixes truth with error. God says we have corrupted the gospel with our
thinking. And He will spew us with our thinking out of His mouth. We must have
God's thinking. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 2:5
The evolutionist professor believes that conversion is a process of time. However,
God can convert a sinner in a moment, and afterwards his life will prove the
reform to be true. Actually the scripture word for this operation is “transform,”
because it is not taking the old material and making it better. Paul is clear in
Colossians 3 that the “old man” cannot be improved upon, and the “new man”
need not be improved upon. Paul is also clear that this is neither licensing sin nor
teaching perfection in the flesh; instead it demonstrates the true operation of
grace. But if we bring unconverted members into fellowship, it is because we
have already bypassed the tests of the Holy Spirit and opened the door wide
through which Satan comes in to trouble the flock, and in he sweeps. Thus men
become confused about what the church is; for what these false workers bind on
earth cannot be bound in heaven. And so a secularly defined organization or
denomination cannot represent the true church. State churches have always
been built upon the crumbling foundation of man's approval and external
conformity. To those who must relate to a visible church and work reforms, the
“general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven” Heb.
12:23 is evasive. Luther stated the issue broadly, “What can the church decree that

is not decreed in scripture?”

When we become members of Christ's body, we are also members of His church.
There is no difference. Paul says that this body is fitly joined together, and that
Christ presents unto himself His bride without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
When grace affects our eyesight we see the church as it is in Christ, who also
presents its members before God without sin. However, if we look for Christ's
body with the carnal eye we are bound to see a distorted picture, for there is no
fellowship in Christ in the flesh. Like Saul of old we would also find ourselves
kicking against the pricks and persecuting the Giver of Life. “Wherefore
henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ
after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Paul carries this
thought further and says, “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot

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inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.”
“The church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains,
while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out – the chaff separated from the
precious wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but nevertheless it must take place.
None but those who have been overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the
word of their testimony will be found with the loyal and true, without spot or
stain of sin, without guile in their mouths. We must be divested of our self-
righteousness and arrayed in the righteousness of Christ.” [Manuscript Releases Vol. 12 p.
324-5]

The true church of Christ is represented as in the confines and safety of the
Sanctuary where Christ Himself is. Jesus spoke directly to the point when He told
Peter, “...upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it.” Why cannot the gates of hell prevail against it? Because the
church has already assaulted those gates, which cannot withstand the assault.
There stands Christ, the great leader of the assault by those who follow Him. You
say, “Wait! Are you talking about hell, or heaven?” Well, hear out the divine word
in this matter because it is precious. Let us place several texts together that
explain one another without question and dispel our misconceptions of hell and
heaven.
1. For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. Deuteronomy 4:24
2. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have
grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly
fear: For our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:28,29
3. Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and, ye that are near,
acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath
surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?
who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that Walketh
righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of
oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his
ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; He shall
dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread
shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the king in
his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far of. Isaiah 33:14 - 17
Because God is jealous over His people, He places His church where no human
hand nor policy can corrupt it. Now to know the nature of the church is also to
understand the nature of man and to crucify it, and to partake of the nature of
Christ. These things Peter did not fully understand until his conversion. When he
fled back to the garden of Gethsemane from the scene before Pilate, he found the

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fellowship of Christ's sufferings, and this is what we must know today. Saul (Paul),
too, finally understood this blessed fellowship. What kind of suffering are we
talking about?
And Jesus opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of
evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they
the prophets which were before you. Matthew 5:2-12

These doctrines, so basic to a true experience in the Gospel, are impossible to

engage among false professors. False professors require peace and safety, health
and wealth, the perfection of the flesh, recognition and approbation of men, to
prove God's blessing.
And so Elijah spoke against the church. Even he was briefly confused by human
vision, and the Lord rebuked him directly for his fundamental error. Too often in
man's zeal for reform, he foolishly accommodates a weed in place of the “vine.”
Ah, this is a hoary old error; and the result is always the same:
I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an
Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the
scripture saith of Elias? How he maketh intercession to God against Israel
saying,
Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am
left alone, and they seek my life.
But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven
thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the
election of grace.
And if by grace, then is it no more of works. Otherwise grace is no more

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 grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no
more work.
What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the
election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes
that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
Romans 11:1 – 4

“The church was organized for service...” AA p. 12 and today represents the work of
redemption. But it always existed, for it is contained in Christ who is the same
yesterday, and today, and forever. He who said, “I AM,” directs all its operations.
His body, “fitly joined together,” are those who submit to His direction and are
covered by His blood. He places them in Himself, covers them with His
righteousness, and prompts them to His works. Thus they receive the power of
the Holy Spirit. There is no “hocus-pocus” (hoc est corpus) in this operation, for
“flesh... cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit
incorruption.” But, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there
am I in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20 “God has a church. It is not the great
cathedral, neither is it the national establishment, neither is it the various
denominations; it is the people who love God and keep His commandments.
Where Christ is even among the humble few, this is Christ's church, for the
presence of the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity can alone constitute a
church.” Manuscript Releases Vol. 17 p. 82 “The church is established not on theories of men,
on long-drawn-out plans and forms. It depends upon Christ their righteousness. It
is built on the faith of Christ, 'and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.'” MS
15,1897