My Vision

There is a great difference of opinion in Christianity as to what, exactly, it is to be. There are those who see it as an evolving thing, adapting itself in each generation and in each culture to the felt needs of the times, organizing and re-organizing itself in response to those ‘needs.’ Then, there are those who see it as a static thing whose mission is to reproduce an acceptable (to God and good reason) duplicate of First Century Christianity in each century and in each culture.

To those who see it as an evolving organism, the Christianity of our day is doing perfectly fine, even thriving and growing. After all, we have some of the largest church buildings that have ever been built, some of the largest congregations that have ever been assembled, preachers who speak to more people via mass communications each week than some of the most prolific Christian speakers of history addressed in a lifetime. Money is flowing into religion at an amazing clip and is being spent just as amazingly. Church and para-church organizations have presences in almost every country on the planet and are organizing congregations of ‘Christians’ everywhere. Yes, if the modern view is the correct view Christianity is prospering and doing quite well.

If, however, the ‘static’ view is correct, if Christianity is to reproduce an acceptable replica of First Century Christianity in every place and every time in which it finds itself, there is a problem. The organism (or should I say ‘organization’?) that we see calling itself ‘Christianity’ today is far different than the model we find in the New Testament. In fact, the two are so dissimilar that some find it strange that they even are called by the same name.

Those early congregations busied themselves concerning the truths of God, the reformation of their lives according to His Word, and the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ to their culture: ‘repent or perish.’ Their budgets were tiny. Their preachers were not seminary graduates. There was no television nor internet. The cultures in which they existed so hated their message that they were often persecuted or put to death because of it. And, still, they not only radically reformed their own lives but changed the world with their godly example and their message. God’s Spirit attended what they did and made their impact infinitely more powerful than it could ever have been apart from Him. They believed the Word of God, surrendered themselves without reservation to obedience to it, adored the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and the Lord drew thousands to them to be discipled into the Kingdom of God.

Now here is the thing that history teaches us. As the church ‘matured’ it changed. Men began to change and re-organize it according to their ‘felt needs.’ As they did, the Spirit of God backed away from blessing in the way He had at the beginning. Oh, the churches still grew but it was now more because of the methodologies and organizational skills of men than the moving of the Holy Spirit. Continuing down this path, the church began to grow corrupt, more centered upon men than upon God. Power struggles, infighting, and the consolidation of power produced an ever more centralized organization which grew steadily more perverse and moved radically away from the early model.

Some people recognized the error that had befallen the church and worked to reform it to a more biblical model but they were seen as enemies, as ‘heretics,’ and as dangerous criminals. To the degree that it influenced civil power the ‘Church’ persecuted, hounded, and at times even executed those dangerous souls. But where such small congregations could be founded and to the degree that they reformed themselves to the model of the First Century, the Holy Ghost came and blessed in power those faithful people, giving them many blessings, converting many in their communities, and conforming them to the teachings of Christ.

As we look back across history, regardless of what century into which we drop ourselves, we find this same struggle going on. Some are working at ‘evolving’ the church into a better organizational scheme and fighting to maintain what they have, continuing on a march toward an ever-larger everything. Others are working at building on the New Testament model and finding the assistance of the Power of God to do so. At times, the Holy Spirit would seem to move on an entire region, awakening and calling to repentance (and to the biblical model) hosts of people at nearly the same time. ‘Revivals’ (as we have now learned to call them) would break out and thousands would be converted. But the ‘Church Proper’ would frequently move to suppress, co-opt, or otherwise put to an end such things. Nevertheless, the old ‘static’ model of the New Testament church continued to live and, at times (under the blessing of God) prosper.

Each ‘Revival’ or ‘Awakening’ had something in common. Some individual or group of dear souls became burdened concerning the state of religion in their time. They began to pray that God would move and help them... and God would visit. The lives of common people would fall powerfully under the influence of God’s word, often connected with the powerful preaching of a man or group of men raised up by God. The people became convinced that life contrary to the Revealed Will of God was wicked and doomed to be rewarded with horrible and eternal punishment. They heeded the admonition of Jesus Christ to ‘repent’ and cast off their wicked behaviors, attitudes and dispositions. They grouped together in congregations to hear the Word of God taught in simplicity and in truth. And they lived their lives according to what they were being taught. It was obvious that something was happening to them that only the Power of God could do.

Fast forward now to the early nineteenth century. The previous century had seen a powerful move of the Spirit of God like those described above. Some undertook to reproduce that movement and, indeed, some powerful things happened and, undoubtedly, many were converted. But new and bizarre things began to occur as well which led to the upstart of several unorthodox denominations and the introduction of corruptions into some of the mainstream denominations. This movement is generally called The Second Great Awakening. "New Methods" of preaching, evangelizing, even conducting church services themselves were powerfully and permanently introduced to what we now know as Evangelical Christianity. Along with these "New Methods" was also introduced the concept that men might freely innovate on biblical models in order to discover what "worked" in gaining ever greater numbers of converts. The process of ‘evolution’ had now been adopted by those who had previously worked for ‘restoration.’ And a process was begun that has given us this wonderful New Christianity that we see all around us today. The biblical and ‘static’ model had been replaced in almost all corners of Christianity with the ‘evolutionary’ model.

I will not launch into a tirade here against what I am seeing as the modern results of this influence. If you have enough interest in the things of God to have studied the matter of Revival at all, you know what we are facing.

If you believe in and seek for Awakening and Revival in our time, then you must understand that we must ‘turn back the clock’ in our minds, seeking a much older model than the one that has been held up to us as the ideal. We must divest ourselves of the corruptions that we absorbed by having been brought into Christianity downstream of Charles G. Finney, those like him, and those who have taken him as their model.

We must seek the restoration of the church to the ‘static’ model that has always been blessed by God and forsake completely the idea that Christianity ‘evolves.’

We must seek the restoration of Biblical Christianity in our souls, learning to believe, pray, worship and preach according to the examples and instructions of scriptures, forgetting and rejecting the ‘new methods’ that have been devised by men and taught to us as the ideal. We must lock ourselves to the Word of God and take up in our souls the admonition of Isaiah, "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." 8:20, KJV

We must, as the writer of Hebrews admonishes us, "lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us," 12:1, KJV

We must seek and find the Face of God for ourselves through prayer, the study of His Word, and the complete giving of ourselves over to Him. The Face of God is revealed to us in the Person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, "who loved us and gave Himself for us." We must completely surrender ourselves to Him as servants "bought with a price," seeking in every way to live out His instructions and the examples His apostles left behind.

2 Thess 3:6
Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. KJV (‘disorderly’ means ‘out of step’ or ‘out of rank’)

We have every reason to expect and believe that the Spirit of God might enable us to do such a thing, that He might visit and bless our efforts, and that He might use us in yet another Awakening.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Nehemiah and Restoration

Neh 1:1-2:1
1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,
2 That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.
3 And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
4 And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,
5 And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:
6 Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned.
7 We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.
8 Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:
9 But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.
10 Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.
11 O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cupbearer. KJV

Much can be understood about a man by observing his reactions to various things.

Here, Nehemiah is seen reacting to the news that the conditions in Jerusalem were far worse than he had thought. The people are in great trouble. The walls are broken down. And, the gates have been burned.

To this news Nehemiah sat down and wept. Moreover, he fasted and prayed, confessing and repenting of his own sins, the sins of his family, and the sins of the nation. He set himself to pray day and night for the restoration of his people.

In this I see a comparison and a contrast between Nehemiah and modern preachers. I also see a comparison and contrast between Israel in Nehemiah’s day and the church in our day.

The walls of Jerusalem were those barriers to invading enemies that kept them out. With the walls broken down there was no ability to keep enemies away or to keep the city safe.

The gates of the city were the means by which the rulers of the city controlled access to the city of visitors to it. Ezra used them to keep merchants out of the city on the Sabbath, an activity which violated the Law of God and which tempted the people of the city to do evil.

Because there was no way to defend the city or control access to it, the people were suffering under oppression of their enemies.

In the same manner, the ‘walls’ of the church are now broken down. Historical Biblical Doctrine, which for years defended the church from her enemies has been forsaken. Church Discipline, which turned the wicked out of church membership is no longer practiced. So, the wicked remain in the church and pollute it with their wickedness. Prayer, that blessed tool by which the church cried out to God for blessing and for protection, has been relegated to merely public oration. There are no organized prayer meetings where people fast and pray for help and defense from God.

The ‘gates’ of the church, which once only admitted those who had a genuine testimony of grace, are now thrown open for any and all who will fill out a card to join. As a result, the churches are filled with the unregenerate and those who are truly saints (if there are any left) are oppressed and grieved by the enemies of the gospel who seek to use the church only for their own ends.

And what of the preachers? Rather than fasting and weeping for the church they amplify the harm by going further and further down the road which had led the church to its present ruin. Rather than seeking how they may restore the church to its’ former glory, they decorate the broken walls so that it seems that the breeches in the wall are a good thing. And, they remove all vestiges of the burned gates so that it seems that there was never intended to be any gates.

O men, when will the ruin of the church fasten upon our souls like the ruin of Jerusalem clung to Nehemiah’s mind? When will it drive us to weeping and prayer and fasting, to confession of our sins and the sins of our fathers, to the remembrance of the glory that once was and a desperate longing for it to be restored? When????
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