This is where so many blind believers are missing the true picture it’s not so much about us and them, i.e. believers verses non-believers, no the true struggled which is coming is going to be between the true church and the true followers of Christ (the Wheat) and the nominal or professing church (tares), and since the tares greatly outnumber the wheat it is self-evident who is going to win this battle, at least upon the surface it will appear to be so.
"Error, always more popular than truth, when exalted to influence and power, hunted down, proscribed and made disreputable the truth, and all who held it during the dark ages. This was the time when, as pictured in Revelation, the true Church (woman) fled into the wilderness—into solitude (Rev. 12:6)—an outcast because of her fidelity to the truth, and to the true Lord and Head of the Church. In this time, when apostates (the false church) was being exalted as princes, the true, humble saints were experiencing what the Lord had warned them, and all who will live godly (in this present time), to expect, viz., persecution.
The mother- in- law was against the daughter- in- law, father against son, and brother against brother; and a man’s foes were often indeed they of his own household. Could anything be conceived of more likely to wear out or crush the saints of the Most High than such a course, persisted in for centuries?"
"Since errors of doctrine lie at the very foundation of all these errors of conduct, it cannot be doubted that if circumstances were again favorable, the doctrines being unchanged, their bad spirit and bad fruits would shortly again appear, in similar acts of injustice, oppression, superstition, ignorance and persecution; and any and all means conceivable would be resorted to, for restoring, upholding and extending the counterfeit Kingdom of God (the false or professing church)."
Should we expect such conditions in the House of God with one acting against another? Brother against Brother? Even now a chill can be felt among the Brethren, a division into groups, differing viewpoints leading to misunderstandings; anger, arguments, jealousy, etc. which move the Lord’s people, the brethren of our Lord. Should such things be found among the household of faith?
The Word of God informs us that this is indeed what we should expect in the present time. We read this in Matt 10:21 “And brother (professed believer) shall deliver up brother (professed believer) to death,” And then again Matt 24:10 “And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.”
These words are often applied by the brethren to times past, when our Lord Jesus was present on earth for the first time in the flesh, or to the dark ages. But rarely do these thoughts come to our mind as being possible during our lifetime, and yet this is exactly what the scriptures intimate is going to take place.
As we stated you need to get past us and them (the believer-non-believer) issue that is not where the true battle will be waged. Nevertheless as it was in the past when Jezebel got Ahab to her bidding, when Papacy got the Dragon to do its bidding so too we can expect that the nominal or professing church will attempt to get governments (non-believers) to do their bidding in ridding themselves of the true followers of Christ who denounce their errors and proclaim them to be what they truly are “tares”, apostates.
When the Lord admonished us to come out from them, and be separate from them he was not referring specifically to non-believers he was referring to professed believers, apostates, idolaters, the false church as a whole, Babylon the Great. (Rev 18:4)
