Leaving Behind The Fortress Of Darkness

Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins”.
Revelation 18:4

There is a time to take a stand, and a time to take your leave. And woe to the believer who fails to discern which time is which.

Paul’s question is timely: “What do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14).

Even the prophet Isaiah—certainly no stranger to the evils of his day—urged his readers, “Come out … and be pure” (Isaiah 52:11).

F. B. Meyer uses Old Testament examples to show when and how to separate from the fortresses of darkness.

WALK WITH F. B. MEYER
“It is often argued that we should stay in the midst of churches and bodies whose sins and follies we deplore, in the hope of saving them for God and mankind. Such reasoning has a good deal of force in the first stages of decline. A strong protest may arrest error and stop the gangrene.

“But as time advances, and the whole body becomes diseased; when the protests have been disregarded, and the arguments trampled underfoot; when the majority have clearly taken up their position against the truth—we have no alternative but to come out and be pure.

“The place from which we can exert the strongest influence for good is not from within, but from without.

“Lot lost all influence in his life in Sodom; but Abraham, from the heights of Mamre, was able to exert a mighty influence on its history.”

WALK CLOSER TO GOD
You may find yourself resembling a “speck of saintliness” in a “sea of sin.” If so, the question to ask may not be “What sort of impact can I make?” but “How long can I maintain an effective witness here?”

Answer carefully; your spiritual health may well be at stake.