His Church, My Church, Your Church, Their Church?
Warning!! This is not sectarian friendly reading. I will not be throwing softballs! If you’re looking for a nice homily on the loveliness of the current Christian church system you’re certainly not going to find it here. This is a serious writing for serious readers. Those who are looking for more cushions to comfy in their present understanding of the church and Christ, need read no further. We’re going beneath the surface in this writing; beyond status quo grids of so-called orthodoxy and religious theo-babble into the hallowed halls of New Testament apostolic thinking.
From a New Testament perspective the current state of the Christian church ( primarily the western section ), looks like a classic case of advanced neurosis. We claim to have the truth, yet we teach opposing and contradictory systems of theology. We claim to know and love Christ, yet we distance ourselves from some of the most important themes central to His teaching. We claim to believe in the ministry and power of the Holy Spirit, yet our trust is primarily in numbers, buildings, hi-tech and programs. And we claim to believe in unity and love to “talk the talk” but our independence, names, doctrines, creeds, systems of worship and rhetoric all spell division. With such vivid contradictions everywhere it is utterly amazing that more people don’t see through it. Clearly the devil is in the details and the proverbial fruit never falls far from the tree.
Denominationalism and unfortunately much of what is called non-denominationalism both have one thing in common: sectarianism. That nasty little twelve letter word that is rarely connected with the aforementioned “isms.” But the three are genetically joined at the hip and none of them go any where without the other. Just follow their tracks and they invariably lead to the same place: walls, names, independent agendas and a whole lot of self-justifying theology to make it all happen. We’ve had about 500 years now to fine tune all this stuff and to make it work, or so we like to think. After all 500 years is a lot of time, at least in human terms. Certainly if this whole sectarian thing wasn’t of God He would have put a stop to it a long time ago right? Well not really but we’ll get to that further on.
Clearly we have gone so long in this condition, you might say it has been grandfathered in to the church’s turf but not by any act of God. Older is not necessarily better especially in this case. Those who ascribe orthodoxy to such doctrinal dinosaurs as this, simply because it has been around so long, are sadly mistaken and way out of sync with the lessons of church history. Just think about it: Jesus’ ministry and teaching would have been very suspect according to such thinking. He ended about 1500 years of Law and ushered in a whole new system highlighting grace and faith. Likewise Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation ended about 1400 years of biblical ignorance restoring such New Testament teachings as the authority of the Word of God over the vain traditions of men, salvation by grace through faith, Jesus as the only true mediator between God and man, salvation through Christ and not the church etc. These teachings were not time sanctioned as is much of what God does in restoration and reformation times. They were missing from the churches teaching for over a millennium yet were clearly orthodox. And we like other generations like to do the posturing thing ie. Amen our so-called orthodoxy and exclude ourselves from this equation. It’s far past time that we come to the defense of scripture even at the expense of losing such time sanctioned sacred cows of traditional thinking. Send them to the slaughter-house and throw away the so-called meat. It’s simply not worth keeping.
Generations of Christians have been born into this menace without any previous experience with the fruits of biblical unity. These are generations that “knew not Joseph” so to speak and have adapted themselves to the bondage of a very cruel and relentless taskmaster. As one of those generations we too have settled for the same condition and have adjusted our expectations and theology accordingly; redefining spiritual health and fruitfulness far beneath the biblical standard just to serve this tyrant. It reminds one of the sad tale of Israel as told in the book of Judges after the death of Joshua and his generation, “and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel”(Jds.2:10). Like them we have forgotten so much of our past and have settled for something far inferior.
Ever since the New Testament the church has been playing catch-up to where we left off. Every move of the Spirit has simply been a case of restoring what we so unwittingly and foolishly gave up. The fact that it has taken about 2000 years to begin to return to the New Testament teaching of apostolic church unity highlights the amazing brilliance of that era. Yes we with all our hi-tech this and that and access to the information of the world with just a click of a mouse have hardly touched the genius of N.T. unity. By God’s grace we can only pray it won’t take too much longer. Our time is running out and the world has yet to see the redemptive power of a truly united church in Jesus Christ.
His church, your church, their church, my church etc. is very common rhetoric today, but it is extremely conventional and completely unbiblical. How such rhetoric ever found its way into the church of Jesus Christ is a very sad tale to tell, but tell it we will. It’s a charm that has drawn the darkest of spirits into the hallowed halls of the church and has given them sanctuary. The apostle James wrote, “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing” (Ja.3:14-16). We’ll have much more to say about that scripture later but suffice it to say here that James, and as we shall see the rest of the writers of the New Testament also, had a very different take on the partisan politics that dominate so much of the church today. Twice in the above scripture James uses the words “selfish ambition”, an intriguing little phrase that offers a quick glimpse into the unseemly side of this subject we are beginning to explore. “Selfish ambition” is not a friend in the church of our Lord. It is a foe. It’s an enemy that has flown under the church’s radar for so many centuries now that it’s hardly recognized as such any more. It is a saboteur, a turncoat, a renegade that thrives on the pseudo-freedom of being able to “plant a church” where the church already exists; which is a very strange oxymoron that wallows in contradiction to the New Testament. We set up walls, coin a name and self define another segment of the church; sanctioning such insanity as orthodox only to find ourselves with increasingly more divisions of the “one” church in the same town or area all vying against one another for their “market share of loyal patrons.” And while pretending that such madness doesn’t undermine our unity the world at large and heaven above sees right through the hypocrisy to the monstrous contradiction we are promoting. A contradiction made all the more preposterous by a plethora of differing theologies all claiming to represent the truth. “We just believe the Bible” is the oft repeated claim to legitimacy. But how can that be? Does anyone stop to ask? Apparently not. While one faction of the church sectarian believes one thing, another faction believes something completely different and so on throughout all the various divisions. And yet all maintain with sanctimonious certitude, “We just believe the Bible.” Ah but again we are forced to ask, how can that be? Does the Bible contradict itself? Is God a schizophrenic? Has he lost his marbles? Is it really possible for the scriptures to present contradictory points of view and still be maintained as representing “The Truth?” Well apparently, or so we are supposed to believe. But Biblical truth and truth in general can’t stand in opposition to itself. If one thing is true then its opposite is not. This is not rocket science. It is very basic common sense. But the fact that it is not understood as such underscores the seriousness of the situation we find ourselves in. Sooner or later, hopefully sooner, we have got to come clean on this issue and let the truth storm our castles of clay and take us captive. Until that great event comes our sectarian nemesis will rest safely behind all our beloved walls hiding out amongst the very people it is destroying. We have got to challenge its legitimacy. We have got to begin to face the very obvious contradiction between all our divisions and beliefs. A contradiction that has been begging to be addressed for centuries but still sits silently in rags and squander waiting patiently for a caring generation.
The deception in all this is staggering. Nothing less than another major outpouring of the Holy Spirit attended by deep substantive repentance and reformation will change this deplorable situation. While we can clearly and carefully lay the framework for a restoration of biblical unity in the church, it will take the power of the Holy Spirit to bring it about. Those who want to brain it out or throw loads of evangelistic dollars at some kind of purchased solution, are sadly disillusioned. It’s not about brains or big bucks and it never has been. It’s about the Lordship of Jesus Christ and simple obedience to His plan. Our “programs get your programs here” mentality needs to take its seat in the bleachers and watch the game as the Holy Spirit takes control. And the issue of corporate church unity isn’t about tinkering with the color of the church’s floor covering or walls, or about hosting a corporate church event or two. It’s not about general Christian or ministerial gatherings that pride our walls and promote our independent agendas. It’s about a major system overhaul; wiping the hard-drive clean and starting fresh. It’s not an add-on issue. It is a major structural and procedural one that effects every area of how we do church and how we define successful church ministry. It is a very, very invasive message only because we have evaded its truth for so long. None of this is to say that there are not good things being done, there are, but far too much of it still contains a very bold sectarian signature that undermines our message. Those most vested in this current system stand to pay a very high price to step into the changes that are coming. Like the pharisees of old their empire is going to be challenged and many are going to be hard pressed to let go of the reins of control. COUNT THE COST PEOPLE because the changes are even now upon us!! More next article.
Luther Canon
Sola Scriptura 