Three (3) Divisions of Believers

Three (3) Divisions of Believers

A congregation is made up of a group or a collection of individuals who come together for religious or welfare purposes. In order words, it refers to a gathering of people with ethical commonness for a reason know or yet to be known to them. A Christian congregation is therefore a gathering of members of the same or different congregation who purposefully converge for spiritual purpose specifically and other reasons. Two or more people who come together, to pray may form a congregation. Likewise a number of people who converge at a particular place to listen to the gospel of God also form a congregation. A branch of a particular church is therefore a stationed congregation while an evangelism teams forms a mobile congregation.

Every religious congregation is made up of people who hold common and sometimes varied views about the very image of their worship. Christians are not exceptions although every standing Christians calls and has to call “Lord, Lord”. As far as Christianity is concerned, it is not all who come together  in commemoration of the Sabbath rules or for other purposes are the perfect people God is looking for. This is because, “many are called but few will be chosen”. The fact that few will be chosen among the many that were called, brings into light the thought that not all poses the qualities of those wanted. Simply put, not all have exhibited the qualities and have shown with sincerity the requirements of the perfect God. It is obvious the congregation spiritually, is made up of different divisions of people. William Marion Branham saw three different make-ups of the Christian congregation and stressed that these strata are found in every congregation (Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, etc) in the world including Christian congregations. The three categories of human worshippers according to Marion Branham include;

Ø  True believers

Ø  Unbelievers

Ø  Make-believers

TRUE BELIEVERS

These people are also called hot people and form a section of the congregation of God that is circumspect and concurrently updated with spiritual values. They value the divine attributes of the living God and progressively persist to imitate the nature of Christ. These people though earnestly seek after anything else of godly approval, their primary foci are on the righteousness of the kingdom of God (Matt 6:33). No wonder Bible calls then “pure in heart” and promised them of the Kingdom of God since they “shall see God” Matt 5:8. True believers are the pivots around which God turns the loads of the church. They defend spiritual affairs and fight unseen battles confronting the church. They are the people who sacrifice what they have for what they will receive and are completely engulfed with celestials mind set even when they crawl on this mortal soil. They exhibit worthy capacitance to reach out to others by giving, extending their hands to the needy and the poor, the paupers and the widows, the physically challenged and the deprived. This is a true worship of God indeed. (James 1:8). They have also avoided things of the flesh such as fornication, hatred, greediness, lust, uncleanliness, anger, strife, envy, murder, drunkenness, etc (Gal 5:19). They never allow for sin to take dominion, control, lordship or master over their living souls (Rom 6:14). Having been born-again (John 3:5), they exhibit the fruits of the spirit and supernatural signs of faithful believers such as joy, love, peace, kindness, faith, etc (Gal 5:22-23). In all things, they please God by their thoughts and actions and in deed show that their “yes” is yes and “no”, no. (Matt 5:37). True believers are named so because they are not only hearers of they word of God, but practically, the word is manifested in their actions and thoughts (James 1:22).

UNBELIEVERS

These people are also called cold people and form the fraction of the congregation which is apparently not even aware of the consequences of their spiritual worship. They also call out “Lord, Lord”, yet though in the predicament of disbelief, they never seek to search for the understanding of God’s messages. They go to church anyway, but for carnal reasons; perhaps other are also going and they fear being ridiculed should they not form part of the congregation. Some of these unbelievers go to church perhaps because the church will be able to offer a welfare support when they are in need. Some pitifully attend church since they want to rest assured that they will be blessed by a posthumously befitting burial when they die. Many Christian unbelievers have funny reasons for attending the church. Some of them are even demon possessed and just trample the gates of the church in order to toss the devoted human lives and make them satanic agents. Except by divine intervention, these people cannot move things positively in the church with their faith if they have some at all. Despite the state of these Christian unbelievers, their spiritual dormancy does not make them physically idle. You may see them together with other Christians helping in cleaning the temple, sweeping the compound, donating funds for supportive works, singing to make merry, etc. Though they perform these activities, they are what they are spiritually. This is rightly true since they have not made any valid choice in their hearts about God, the father and his perishing opposition, Satan. They still violate God’s laws; some of them break the statuses unawares since they are not even fully conversant with what annoys God. Above all, some of them are not born-again though they have undergone baptism.

MAKE-BELIEVERS

These people are also called lukewarm people since they are neither cold nor hot. A make-believer simply is a carnal man, a person not sparked by good conscience. Unlike the unbelievers, the make-believers are aware of all spiritual implications of sinfulness, but they do not try to pursue the path of righteousness as done by the true believers. Some of them pursue these paths but does so hypocritically, thus for others to see. They are just like intermediaries (hearers but not doers) between the true believers and the unbelievers in thought and in actions, yet their insufficient worship of God can not shovel them into the midst of the chosen ones. It is pitiful that some of them “think they worship Jehovah, believing he is God, yet they are only deceiving themselves” (Gal 6:3) because, “they profess they know God; but in works, they deny him...” Titus 1:16. Some of them preach the pure word of God, yet they don’t practice it themselves (Matt 23:3), just being like the ancient Pharisees. Some of these people are hungry of higher positions and thirst for religious promotions. If denied because of their incompatibility, they try to either grab it by hook or withdraw.  Members of this section of the congregation do not give peace to the true believers and this springs up division when necessary. Make-believing leaders try to love some categories of people than others (James 2:1-4). Make-believing members also do put their trust in man, following humans in everything and deriding the provisional capabilities of the living Creator. Cardinally, they promote religious instabilities in the church “thinking they are something when they are nothing” but are not aware of this chronic state of theirs (Gal 6:13). It will be honourable if these make-believers will change their minds to become the hot people or fair better for them to descend to be the cold ones. Their behavioural pattern has an affinity with that of the Laodicean church in the book of Revelation. To the church in Laodicea the spirit of God said; “I know your works; I know you are neither cold nor hot...” Rev 3:14-15. Every secret is known unto the Lord who can measure the believer’s temperature and predict if this believer is hot or cold. Perhaps if the make-believers were hot, they may be used for bathing; or even if cold, they may be used for drinking; but they are lukewarm and this is what the spirit of God got to tell them; “because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth” Rev 3:16. Beloved it is more dangerous for you to be a Christian, yet still loving things of the flesh.

THE TRUE WORSHIP OF GOD

The true worship of God is not in merely baptism and attendance of church every Sunday; neither is it in just the organisation of heavy crusades, feasts and revivals; it is not in the adornment of the  church premises with the most colourful ornaments and golden flowers that sparkle even at midnight; neither is it in the attainment of higher religious ranking such as Apostle, Bishop, Archbishop, Cardinal, Most Reverend, etc , or in political statuses for example President, King, Ambassador etc. The bible said the true worshippers of God shall worship Him in truth and in spirit (John 4:24). In spirit, they will show reverence unto God by salvation through sincere repentance and sanctification through steadfastness in the vineyard of the Lord. In the same spirit, their spiritual fruits become evident as in Gal 5:22-23. In truth, they will exhibit sincerity by holding fast to what is right and abhorring what is evil (Rom 12:9). They also will hold their tongues from being defiled (James 1:26) and they make the whole world truly informed that their “yes” is yes and their “no” is no (Matt 5:37). The purest and the undefiled worship that is “undefiled before God the father is this; to visit the fatherless and the widows in their afflictions and to keep oneself unspotted from the world” James 1:27.

In the course of showing charity, the true believer does this and does not let the trumpet sound over it (Matt 6:4). On the side of the make-believer, he may or may not do this. Even if he does it, the whole world tends to hear of it. Mostly the make-believer would love to do charitable work unto people of his close relation, tribe or ethnicity or more profoundly, to people that he believes are wealthy enough to pay him back in his time of need.

True worship, in spirit and in sincerity is the basis for freedom. It is the determinant of liberation from the power of sin as the redeemed of the lord are required to be unspotted with carnality. Once you know the truth, the truth will prepare itselt to weaken every chain of bondage around you (John 8:32). And “if the son (the way, the truth, and the life) has made you free, you shall be free indeed” John 8:36.

With the little knowledge obtained from the truthful worship of God, it is easy to conclude that true believers are those set aside by God to form his solemn congregation sooner or later. But for the make-believers and the unbelievers, unless they repent, there is no difference between them and the tables, chairs and floor carpets in the chapel.

A church with average percentage distribution of the three types of believers would be classified as an ordinary or standard church. A church with true believers exceeding the other would be termed as a supernatural or extraordinary or super standard church. However, where the cold and lukewarm people dominate the true believers, this dying and sub-standard church needs spiritual relocation.

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Israelmore Eli Ayivor
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