"The Old Church and the New Church"

A Prophecy of God, part 1

By David Brandt Berg, Aug. 26, 1969

"Thou dost provoke her to jealousy by thy good works."

IT IS HER PRIDE THAT DOTH RESIST THEE and thou dost provoke her to jealousy by thy good works. Thou dost embarrass her for her failures and she fears the opinions of men. Therefore she doth reject thee. In rejecting thee she doth also reject Me. Her house is left unto her utterly desolate. Therefore she doth attack thee in fury and attempt to cast thee forth.

BUT IN SO DOING SHE SHALL ALSO CAST ME FORTH. And she shall be left alone and desolate as those things that she honoured most, her buildings and her ceremonies, and her doctrines and the opinions of men and her pride and jealousy which do eat as a canker to destroy. Therefore shall that which she loved most destroy her and leave her desolate.

ALTHOUGH I HAVE LOVED HER WITH AN EVERLASTING LOVE, and in My mercy I yearn over her, My heart grieves for her and I say unto her, "Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered thee into My bosom, but ye would not. Therefore is thy house now left unto thee desolate."

THE MEN WHOSE OPINIONS THOU LOVEST SHALL DESTROY THEE and the Beast whose honour thou favourest shall devour thee. For why dost thou not return unto Me, O thou backsliding daughter? Why dost thou not repent of thy spiritual whoredoms?

FOR THOU HAST HAD MANY LOVERS, including thy own self-righteousness, and thy own way, and thy own will, and thy own pride, and the fear of man, and respect of persons and their revelry, their songs, their dances, and their feast days and their own gods, but they were not unto Me. For they do even worship their own selves and their own beauty and their own palaces and their own luxury and she saith, "Am I not a queen? I shall see no sorrow." But they shall strip her of her ornaments.

THEY SHALL REND FROM HER HER ATTIRE and make her naked and bare. She shall run through the streets screaming and bruised and bleeding, for they shall wound her. They shall ravish her and they shall slay her, and they shall burn her palaces with fire.

THEY SHALL DESTROY HER POWER and her wealth. They shall revoke her solemn feast days and the things which she cherisheth instead of Me. Nevertheless, I am married to thee, O thou backsliding daughter and I wouldst that thou shouldst return to Me, but thou wilt not. Therefore shalt thou perish in thine iniquity, for I, the Lord, have spoken it.

BUT THIS LITTLE ONE, MY INFANT CHURCH, My little one, My beloved, shall be raised upon My knees with fondling care and tender love and My protection and shall be delivered from all these things which shall befall her. For they have no part in her and they have come out from her and they are separate and they touch not the unclean thing of self-righteousness and false holiness, but they are a peculiar people reserved unto Me against this day.

THEREFORE SHALL THEY NOT BE LIKE UNTO HER, neither shall they be likened unto her by others. They shall say, "These are our friends and her enemies are like unto ours. Therefore, harm them not for they do bless us, for they fed us when we were hungry, and clothed us when we were naked and in jail they visited us and gave us to drink when we were athirst--the Living Water.

"THEREFORE, LOOSE THEM, LET THEM GO, for they do us no harm, but rather they do us good, even though they be not of us. For they do know her iniquity and do hate her whoredoms and do know that she is an abomination, so let them be, that they may minister unto us in their love and in their mercy and to the poor of the land. We shall give them vineyards and fields, and houses and lands, that they may serve us, for they are not against us, but for us."

FOR I, THE LORD, HAVE DONE IT that I may glorify My name and preserve her whom I love--My Infant Church, My Little Ones, My Ragged Ones, My Hungry Ones who love Me and not My Wealth, who cherish My Person, not My Palaces, who ravisheth Myself, and not My Power only, and who dwelleth by My side in nakedness and humility and adoration obeying My slightest bidding, attending to My least will and caring diligently for these little ones that come of her--My Revolutionary Children--as them born out of due season.

A GENERATION THAT SHALL YET COME SHALL PRAISE ME and a people that is not yet born shall sing My Name, even in the midst of adversity, for I will make them a people which were no people and I will be their God and they shall do exploits, for they do truly know Me and they are truly strong.

THEREFORE, SHALL THE OLD VESTURE BE REMOVED and she shall be clothed in a new garment and a new look and all things shall become new and old things shall pass away and I will have a new bride who will love Me and obey Me and do My will and bear Me children, no longer barren as she was, for this is My Will for this last generation, and I will take the weak things to confound the mighty, the foolish things to bring to naught the wisdom of the wise and raise up her that was not as though she were.

THE THINGS WHICH ARE DESPISED AND REJECTED OF MEN SHALL BE BELOVED and honoured of Me and she which was least among all the daughters of men shall become My Beloved and My Darling One, My Loved One, My Honoured One, the Cared For and Protected of Me, for she is profitable unto Me. And that which was the lowliest of all shall become the most exalted.

FOR THESE ARE THEY WHICH SHALL COME OUT OF GREAT TRIBULATION who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and the Word of their testimony, and I shall say, "Come thou blessed of My Father--thou faithful One, Enter thou into the joy of Thy Lord, for thy works do follow thee, for blessed are they which die in the Lord, for no greater love hath any man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friend, and she hath laid down her life for Me."

SHE IT IS THAT LOVETH ME, not this one that would save her life and her reputation by compromise with the Beast and would save her glory and ornaments and houses by pleasing man, but rather this little one that hath forsaken all--houses and lands and family and friends and have made themselves of no reputation and have worn the tattered sackcloth dipped in blood and carried the simple staff of power and been enyoked in the bondage of My love and obedient to My slightest command. (Continued in part 2)

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