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The Harlot
Church System (part 1)
By Charles Elliott Newbold, Jr.
Zion vs. Babylon
Scripturally Zion represents the kingdom of God,
the presence and authority of God. Babylon represents the kingdom of
Satan. Babylon encompasses all of Satan's deception to deceive mankind
into following him. Satan's plan has not changed since he deceived a
third of the angles to be separated from their creator.
Both cities originally had there historical
settings and have latter become symbolic representations of these two
kingdoms in conflict to this day. Zion and Babylon.
1 Peter 2:6, "Behold, I lay in Zion a chief
corner stone, elect, precious; and he who believes on Him shall
not be confounded." This corner stone in Zion, the body of Christ, is
clearly Jesus. (Rom 9:33 also)
Eph 2:20, "having been built on the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief
cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being
joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22
in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling
place of God in the Spirit." NKJV
Revelation 14:8 is a good example of how Babylon
has been used in this figurative sense: "And there followed another
angel, saying, 'Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because
she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her
fornication.'"
Rev 17:3-6, "So he carried me away in the Spirit
into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast
which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten
horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with
gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup
full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her
forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF
HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. I saw the woman, drunk
with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of
Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement. NKJV
Rev 18:2-4, "And he cried mightily with a loud
voice, saying, "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become
a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage
for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of
the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have
committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have
become rich through the abundance of her luxury." 4 And I heard
another voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, lest
you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues." NKJV
It must be understood that Babylon represents all
that encompasses the kingdom of Satan, both religious and secular.
There is religious Babylon, of which God calls His saints to come out
of her and there is secular Babylon out of which the world conduct
there business.
Our focus is going to be on religious Babylon and
how it has infiltrated the church and has affected its doctrine and
life. Babylon represents the work of Satan to institutionalized the
body of Christ and compromise the church with the world standards and
methods.
Though the word "Church" is the wrong word
representing the Greek word ecclesia, for the time being we will use
it and then deal with the word.
However, the kind of flesh written about in this
book is in reference to that fallen nature of sin within all mankind
that came about when Adam rebelled in the garden. Paul wrote regarding
this, "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery [which is
witchcraft], hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath,
selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness,
revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I
also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will
not inherit the kingdom of God." Gal. 5:19-21. Flesh is capable of
committing the most vile evils without conscience even while having an
awareness of what is good and evil. Such occurred in the days of Noah.
Gen. 6:5-7. These practices are not the deeds of the physical body,
but of that fallen sin nature that resides in us.
Paul had already established in Galatians 5:17 that
"the flesh lusts [sets its desire] against the Spirit, and the Spirit
against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you
do not do the things that you wish." Romans 8:7 attests that "the
carnal mind is at enmity [hostile] against God; for it is not subject
to the law of God, nor indeed can be."
The carnal mind and the Spirit of God speak
languages that are foreign and unknown to each other. The carnal
(fleshly) mind cannot speak Spirit and the Spirit of God cannot speak
flesh. The carnal mind has no ability whatsoever to understand the
things of God which are Spirit. 1 Cor. 2:12-14. When inspired things
of God are reduced to rigid doctrines, systems of theology, reasoning
and logic, they are no longer Spirit but have become flesh. And if
flesh, then deception. The carnal mind is at total odds with the
Spirit of God; it is hostile to God.
THE DEATH SENTENCE
The sentence of death has been pronounced over the
flesh. The flesh nature of man is separated from God who is life;
therefore, the flesh is dead and all that comes from the carnal mind
is death.
Nevertheless, flesh has a life of its own. It is
earthly, sensual, self-centered, and at war with God. Its life is born
out of the seed of death. It has an inherent drive to preserve itself
at all cost. It fears annihilation. Yet, it cannot save itself because
it is destined to self-destruction. The flesh nature rules a person
until the life of God in Christ is planted within his spirit, at which
time the old seed of flesh and sin is understood to be what it already
is--dead. Unfortunately, even after we are redeemed by the blood of
the Lamb and while we remain in this life, we carry about both seeds:
the seed of flesh and death, and the seed of Spirit and life.
THE HARLOT OF SELF
The flesh loves Self. Self with the capital "S" is
the term I use throughout this book to refer to that the
self-centered, self-indulging, self-absorbed, self-willed,
self-serving nature of fallen flesh. The flesh nature of Self turns in
on itself. It is selfish, prideful, arrogant, haughty, vain,
narcissistic, manipulative, controlling, dominating, impatient,
stubborn, insensitive, resentful, angry, unteachable, rebellious,
fearful, anxious, complaining, disagreeable, judgmental, negative,
critical, cynical, indifferent, greedy, lustful, sensual, envious,
covetous, jealous, fault-finding, dishonest, and deceitful. It is
deceived and suffers from delusions of grandeur. It always asks,
"What's in it for me?"
The harlot, broadly defined, is anything for Self.
I refer to these Things we call church as the harlot church system
because they have been created out of our fleshly minds and desires
for Self. Churches as we experience them today have no basis in
scripture. They are icons of self-worship. Moreover, they are
idolatrous, deceptive, and dangerous.
A TROUBLING MESSAGE
I will hit hard on the idolatry of the church
system as we know it and experience it today. If you are not prepared
to hear this message by the Spirit, you will no doubt take serious
offense to it. The message of this book will be troubling to many of
you who are victims of the church system, but will be most troubling
to those of you who depend upon the church system for your livelihood
and who find your significance, identity, validation, recognition,
power, and security in it.
If you choose to continue reading this book, it
will take you where you may think you do not want to go. You will
journey beyond the facade of that Thing we call church and see how it
is an invention of flesh. You will discover the demons that empower
it. If you go the distance, you will hopefully find, with Abraham,
that "city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is the
Lord." Heb. 11:10. You will "come to Mount Zion, and to the city of
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company
of angels; to the general assembly and assembly of the firstborn, who
are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirit
of just men made perfect." Heb. 12:22-23.
ZION AND BABYLON
Before I plunge forward into exposing the idolatry
of this harlot system, I want to abbreviate some comparisons between
spiritual Zion, where Jesus is the only thing there is, and spiritual
Babylon (the harlot), where the carnal mind of Self exalts itself, in
order to provide a better point of reference for what follows. Many of
the thoughts below are developed further throughout this book.
Zion refers to the true body of Christ, the bride,
the ekklesia; Babylon refers to the false church system of men's
traditions and religions. (Ekklesia is the Greek word in the New
Testament which has been mis-translated "church" in most English
versions, but it literally means "called-out-ones".)
Zion is a people--the people of God; Babylon is a
Thing--church institutions and systems.
Zion is a living organism; Babylon is characterized
by organizations, institutions, and systems.
Zion consists of people who have been born into it;
Babylon consists of people who have joined it or been voted into it.
Zion is a people who are called by the name of
Jesus; Babylon is a people who are called by many different names that
represent divisions within this Babylonian church system: Baptist,
Catholic, Charismatic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian,
Pentecostal, and all the rest.
Zion is Jesus-centered; Babylon is self-centered.
Zion is living by the Spirit; Babylon is living
after the flesh.
Zion is heavenly; Babylon is earthly.
Zion is grace; Babylon is law.
Zion is life; Babylon is death.
Zion is being; Babylon is doing.
Zion is rest; Babylon is works.
Zion is light; Babylon is darkness.
Zion is humility; Babylon is full of pride,
arrogance, and haughtiness.
Zion is liberty in Christ; Babylon is bondage to
the flesh.
Zion is the Kingdom of God; Babylon is the kingdoms
of men.
Zion has Jesus Christ as her head; Babylon has
elected or appointed men as their heads.
Zion is a Spirit-led people; Babylon is led by
rules and regulations of man's own making.
Zion is Spirit-sensitive; Babylon is man-pleasing.
Zion is obedience to the Holy Spirit; Babylon is
busy church work.
Zion accomplishes things in Holy Spirit power
(Zech. 4:6); Babylon tries to accomplish things in self-strength.
Zion has its authority in the Word of God; Babylon
places its authority in man-made doctrines.
Zion is one body in Christ Jesus as Lord; Babylon
is sectarian and divisive, consisting of many divisions of people.
Zion worships in spirit and in truth; Babylon
programs praise.
Zion preaches Christ and Him crucified; Babylon
proclaims denominations, doctrines, heritage, traditions, creeds,
personal views and opinions.
Zion is the priesthood of all believers; Babylon is
the clergy system. The clergy are those who want to make a difference
between themselves and others.
Zion answers to God as the highest authority;
Babylon answers to men and their institutions as the authority.
Zion calls forth revelation; Babylon depends upon
imagination.
Zion conforms people into the image of Jesus;
Babylon conforms people into its own image.
Zion decreases that Christ may increase; Babylon
increases itself in power, position, riches, and domination.
Zion counts the cost; Babylon counts the money.
Zion lays down its life; Babylon preserves and
protects itself.
Zion waits upon God to raise up what God wants in
His timing; Babylon schemes, organizes, and promotes to execute its
own plan in its own way and time.
Zion seeks the Lord with a whole heart to be
possessed by Him; Babylon goes after things and people to possess
them.
Zion is the city of God; Babylon seeks to build a
city, a tower, and a name for itself. Gen. 11:4.
Zion longs to be gathered into Jesus; Babylon
passionately seeks to gather people unto itself.
DENY SELF
To be a disciple of Jesus Christ one must be
willing to deny Self, take up his cross, and follow Jesus. Luke 9:23.
Self-denial is the cross we bear. The old man of flesh and sin has to
be rendered dead. The laid-down life defines the New Testament concept
of agape (love).
When we live according to the flesh, we are living
for Self. Conversely, when we are living for Self, we are living
according to the flesh. When we live according the Spirit, we will
bear the fruit of agape. We have not been called to live unto
ourselves. We have been called to surrender our lives to Christ that
He might live His life of agape through us. We cannot be the bride of
Christ and at the same time live selfishly in this world. We are
either the bride or we are living the life of the harlot.
Self-centered living is making ourselves out to be
god; therefore, it is idolatry. I will show in a subsequent chapter
that idolatry is spiritual harlotry. I will also show how this Thing
we call church is an idolatrous extension of ourselves--thus,
spiritual harlotry.
We become spiritual prostitutes when we create
something and give our hearts to it rather than to the Lord Jesus
Christ. That is what men have done with this Thing we call church.
They have made church a substitute for Jesus. Many within these harlot
church systems are true believers who love the Lord, but are
uninformed and deceived. They have unintentionally given their hearts
to these Things we call church. God loves us all but hates our
idolatries.
Judge the words in this book for yourself and judge
yourself by these words. Open your heart to the Holy Spirit that He
might instruct you and point you to Jesus. I hope to reveal
Father-God's heart to you that your heart may be revealed to you; that
you may dare face your idolatries, cleanse His temple of whom you and
I are, and return to the God of your salvation. The idolatry revealed
in this book is not about "them" but about each of us.
Chapter 2 - Show The House To The House
With much fervor Brother Leonard, the visiting
preacher, began his message by asking the congregation to turn to the
gospel of John, chapter 15. He readily established that Jesus is the
true vine and we were the branches. Then he made a startling point of
saying that fruit-bearing was not the most important issue in this
passage; abiding was. "Bearing fruit is mentioned four times," he
pointed out, "while abiding is mentioned nine times." He hammered
repeatedly the phrase, "We must abide." "We must abide." I waited for
him to complete his sentence by saying, "We must abide in the vine who
is Jesus." He never did. Then I saw it coming. He had to say it. It
was the abundance of his heart. He was, after all, a church
man. He stepped back from the podium, pointed an accusatory finger at
his unsuspecting victims in the congregation, and said, "The problem
we have in society today, and especially in the church, is people
don't abide. They go from church to church and never make a commitment
to the church or to the pastor."
Did he actually believe that abiding in that system
we call church is what it means to abide in Jesus? Did he
believe that committing to a church or the pastor is the same
as committing to Jesus? His conclusion was an outrageous
misrepresentation of scripture, spoken for the benefit of that local
pastor whose church had a history of losing members. Rather
than liberating the saints to have a deeper relationship with their
Lord, he set a snare to enslave them even more to that Thing we call
church.
He did not set out to deliberately deceive the
people. In all truthfulness, he was deceived himself. We have all been
deceived. Lied to. Beguiled. This deception has been passed through
the generations of Christians since at least the third century A.D.
Those who perpetuate this lie are equally victims of it. This
deception is so deep and cruel that we have believed it as the truth.
We minister death with this deception, thinking we are offering life.
Worse yet, people are unknowingly missing out on
their glorious union with Christ because they have been given a false
assurance of their salvation. This beguilement has puffed us up in
self-importance. It has caused many believers to forsake their first
love, Jesus. The devil has seduced us into dancing with him while
making us think we were dancing with the Lord.
THE LIE
This is the lie: We have been made to believe that
this Thing we call church is of God and that our membership and
participation in it is essential to our Christian walk when in fact it
is an idolatrous substitute for Jesus and quite often a hindrance to
our walk with Him.
This Thing we call church, as we have come
to experience it, is an idolatrous extension of our own Selves.
Though it exists as an entity unto itself, we are in it
and it is in us. It is an icon of self-worship that has
grown out of the traditions of men and has no basis in scripture. We
proclaim that this Thing we call church is the Kingdom of God
when in fact it has nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. Rather,
it is the modern-day Babylonian captivity of the elect of God.
We have confused our relationship with Christ by
fusing it with this Thing we call church. We are led to believe
that when we are in a proper relationship with it we are in a
proper relationship with Christ; that we have to be a member of a
church to be saved or to be a good Christian; that serving it
is serving Christ; that loving it is loving Christ; that
tithing to it is tithing to Christ.
In many instances this Thing we call church
is like a tent we have made to spread over the moves and revelations
of God in order to preserve them, touch them, contain them, maintain
them, manipulate them, own and control other people in them, and use
the people and the system for our sordid, fleshly gain. We find
comfort in the restrictions these church walls set for us. We
can hide in them and feel good in them. We widen these tent pegs just
enough to let others in who want to walk, talk, and dress as we do.
We talk about this Thing we call church in
strange ways. Where do you go to church? What is the name of
your church? How was church today? Are you building an
annex onto your church? Wow, did we ever have church at
prayer meeting last night! The pastor or priest often greets the
Sunday morning crowd, saying, "Good morning, Church." These
statements make church out to be a building, an institution
with a name, a service, a meeting, the kind of time we have together,
and people.
The word "church" as it is used in English
translations of the New Testament refers to the people of God, but we
no longer limit its meaning to people. If we really meant that people
are the "church" when we use that term, these same statements would
have to be made this way: Where do you go to you? What
is the name of you? How was you today? Are you building
an annex onto you? Wow, did we ever have us at prayer
meeting last night. We know better and insist in theory that we, the
redeemed people of God, are the church. Yet, in practice, we make no
distinction between the people and this Thing we call church.
That the word church is used interchangeably this way is not the
problem though. Much more is going on here than meets the eye.
The word church, as we use it, speaks of an
illegal, unholy mystical union which embodies buildings, institutions,
denominations, and people. These have been so fused and confused with
each other that they perpetuate the dangerous lie that this Thing we
call church (buildings, institutions, denominations, and the
people associated with them) is Christ's assembly of called-out-ones.
This Thing we call church looks good in its outward appearance,
but is often inwardly controlled by men and women ambitiously, often
unknowingly, seeking something for themselves.
SUBSTITUTE FOR JESUS
When we preach church, as we craftily do, we
thereby preach another gospel, a false gospel. We perpetuate the lie.
We are often zealous to evangelize people into our churches;
yet, we are uncomfortable calling them to deny themselves and take up
their crosses to follow Jesus. Such a command by Jesus is a foreign
concept to most Christians today. If we happen to lead someone to
Christ, we immediately impose church membership upon them,
especially hoping that they will join "our" church.
I have personally longed to be in fellowship with
other believers who were willing to be the body of Christ with
me without having to sign on to the bondage and play the games that
come with being a member of one of these institutions. I find no
satisfaction in paying my dues to church just to "shake and
howdy" with a few other believers while hiding behind our phony
religious facades.
If it were true that going to church is
synonymous with coming to Jesus, then we would have to ask: Which
Jesus is it? Is it the Baptist Jesus? The Church of Christ Jesus? The
Methodist Jesus? The Presbyterian Jesus? The Roman Catholic Jesus? The
Orthodox Jesus? The Protestant Jesus? The Charismatic or Pentecostal
Jesus? The Independent Jesus? There are so many to choose from. Unchurched
people look at this mix of churches they are invited to join
and wonder why anyone would want to be a part of that.
We give our hearts to these Things we call
church rather than to the Lord Jesus Christ. They are enemies of
God because they stand in place--in substitution--to what is holy, to
what is His.
SHOW THE HOUSE TO THE HOUSE
This deception is not new. The children of Israel
in Judah and Samaria were spiritually blinded by their own harlot
hearts. They refused to hear the words of the prophets to return to
the worship of their God. So, God scattered the people of Samaria to
Assyria and later exiled Judah to Babylon.
The prophet Ezekiel had been carried away with the
captives of Judah to Babylon. He had visions from God which he was
told to tell the "stiff-faced" and "hard-hearted" elders of Judah
whether they listened to him or not. God wanted them to know that a
prophet had been in their midst. Ezek. 2-3.
Twenty-five years later, God took Ezekiel by way of
a vision to the land of Israel and showed him a man whose appearance
was like brass. This man had a line of flax and a measuring reed in
his hand. He measured all around the Temple. He measured the width and
the height of the wall, the gateways, chambers, and courts.
Afterwards, he took Ezekiel to the gate that faced the east, and the
glory of the God of Israel came from the east. "His voice was like the
sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory." Ezek. 43:2.
The Spirit lifted Ezekiel up and took him into the inner court as the
glory of the Lord filled the Temple. Ezek. 43:5.
Then Ezekiel heard the Lord speaking to him from
out of the house and told him that this house, the temple, was the
place of His throne, the place of the soles of His feet, where He
would dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. It would
be the place where His holy name would dwell. Ezek. 43:7. God told
Ezekiel that the house of Israel would not defile His house any more
by their whoredoms; neither they, nor their kings, nor by the
carcasses of their kings in their high places. Ezek. 43:6-9.
Then the Lord charged Ezekiel to show the condition
of the house of the Lord to the house of Israel saying, "You son of
man, show the house to the house of Israel, that they may be
ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. And if
they are ashamed of all that they have done, show them the form of the
house, and the fashion thereof, and the going out thereof, and the
coming in thereof, and all the forms...ordinances...and laws
thereof...this is the law of the house: upon the top of the mountain
the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy." Ezek.
43:10-12.
Next, Ezekiel was shown a temple of stone. From the
New Testament perspective we believe this temple of stone represents
God's spiritual house of lively stones--the body of Christ which is
the temple of the Holy Spirit of whom we are. The condition of their
hearts reflected the condition of God's temple. Conversely, the
condition of God's temple reflected the condition of their hearts.
It still works this way.
Centuries later, the aging apostle John was given
the revelation of Jesus in which he was asked to measure the temple
again. He wrote, "There was given me a reed like a rod: and the angel
stood, saying, 'Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar,
and those who worship therein.'" Rev. 11:1.
Today, the Spirit of the Lord calls out for us to
show the house to the house that we might be ashamed of all
that we have done; that is, show how we have given our hearts to our
denominations, institutions, buildings, stained-glass windows,
memorialized pews, patron saints, rituals, liturgies, doctrines, rules
of order, programs, the Sunday morning service--so many, many things.
The Spirit of the Lord wants to show us how we seek after our own
agendas though they contradict the agenda of God. He calls us to keep
His pattern, not ours; His laws, not ours. For this is the law of the
house that we should be holy (separated) unto the Lord. Ezek. 43:12.
If we were asked to measure a physical house
structure, we would pull out our measuring tape and calculate numbers.
We would check the width, length, and height. Those who are in the
institutional church typically measure themselves by how many
members they have, how big their buildings are, how many buildings
they have, how tall their steeple is, how many cars can be parked in
their lot, what kind of cars are parked in their lot, how much money
they take in. They measure these Things because they give the greater
honor to those pastors and ministries who have the biggest and most.
This is a false house.
The true house of God is measured by love, faith,
mercy, grace, peace, life, light, rest, joy, hope, forgiveness,
acceptance, righteousness, praise, worship, turning the other cheek,
submitting to each other, receiving the prophet in the name of the
prophet, employing the gifts of the Spirit for the building up of the
body, having a passion for Jesus, and being excited about the things
that excite God. These are expressions that define our relationship
with Christ as His bride and with one another as the household of God.
We measure the temple of the Holy Spirit of whom we are by these
Biblical terms. If that which we are in that we call church is
characterized by such terms as dissension, backbiting, dead works,
unbelief, legalism, manipulation, and fear, then it is a harlot's
house. We have a Thing--an idolatrous extension of Self that is not of
God.
Church: The Thing
Chapter 3
We were few in number as we sat comfortably face to
face in the living room of a godly couple's house. I had something to
share that Wednesday night. It was the first and most significant
revelation that I had received from the Holy Spirit since my
conversion a couple of years before.
"That which we call the church is not the
church but is a Thing. "I began my personal journey in discovering the
idolatry of the church and the difference between it and
the true bride of Christ.
Years later, my wife and I were living in west
Tennessee and were waiting for direction from the Lord. While there,
He led me to start a meeting on Sunday mornings and invite some people
I knew to come. Some of them came. We gathered in the name of Jesus.
We sang; I shared the revelations and teachings the Lord gave me; we
prayed, dismissed, and went our way. We were fairly close to one
another and had some contact with each other during the week. We were
beginning to be the body of Christ to one another.
Then, we bought a building, renovated it, opened
the doors, and had our gatherings there. We called the building "The
Christian Teaching Center." I did what I believed the Lord said to do
and people began to come.
We were free of men's burdensome traditions,
formalities, creeds, rules and regulations, and programs. We were
committed to following the Holy Spirit wherever He chose to take us.
His presence was powerfully felt in most of our gatherings in those
early days.
I insisted that we were not a church, that
God had not called me to start a church, and that I was not to
be the pastor of a church. I tried to make a distinction
between the building, which we had given a name, and those of us who
gathered in that building, whom I refused to name. I explained that
this was a teaching center for the body of Christ in that area.
Perhaps it was a mistake, but we held Sunday morning meetings for
those who chose not to go elsewhere. That Sunday morning meeting
became the main event of the week.
The pressure was on. Some who came there wanted it
to be a church and wanted me to be their pastor. I was
pastoring individuals, but I insisted we were not a church.
A local pastor disputed my contentions, insisting
that we were a church. He contended that there was no
scriptural precedent for the para-church ministry that we had.
He said, "If you look like a duck, walk like a duck, and quack like a
duck, you must be a duck. You look like a church, walk like a
church, and talk like a church." I did not want to hear
that then, but looking back I had to admit he was right. This Thing we
call church had weaseled its way into our work. The work at the
Teaching Center was never supposed to be a church.
Once we began to "have" church, we began
seeking something for ourselves. We created a Thing that had gone
beyond what God had called me to do. We went back to the very thing
that we had come out of. We had Sunday morning and Sunday evening
services, Sunday School, and a youth program. We took up offerings and
put them in a bank account. Our group became known by the name I had
put on the building.
I lost my vision to build up a people and began,
instead, to build up a Thing. We began to go after it instead
of going after the Lord Jesus Christ. We gathered around it
instead of the presence of the Lord. People started leaving and they
did not know why. The more they left, the more I tried to hold on to
them. I felt abandoned. But it was I who had abandoned them by
allowing the work to become a Thing. Not long after that, Ichabod was
written over our door, spiritually speaking. 1 Sam. 4:21. As with
Elijah, the brook dried up and the ravens ceased to bring their
morsels. 1 Kings 17:3-7. It was time for us to move on. It took a year
for me to muster enough courage to finally shut it down.
While most of us know that the word "church" as it
is used in scripture refers to the people of God in Christ, we
nevertheless have made a Thing of it. It is an extension of
ourselves and exists as an entity unto itself.
THE EVOLUTION OF CHURCH
How did this Thing we call church evolve?
Believers in the New Testament did not have such
baggage. At first they were simply called the followers of the way.
They gathered spontaneously in the temple and in some synagogues for a
period of time. Mostly, however, they met in private homes and went
from house to house. They were drawn together by the presence of the
Lord in their midst.
Christians did not have church buildings until
Constantine the Great, Emperor of Rome from 306 to 337 A.D., embraced
Christianity. His endorsement of the faith created a free climate for
men to erect buildings "to the glory of their God."
The earliest church buildings are believed to have
been built after the pattern of the Roman basilica--architecture that
was firmly rooted in the traditions of the Roman empire and has no
basis in scripture. Church buildings became more elaborate with the
Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic influences. The layout of these
cathedrals often hid the monks and choirs from the people, advancing
the idea of the separation of clergy from laity which is unfounded in
scripture.
During the reformation, Protestants halted the
building of great edifices. The reformers were content with simple,
rectangular buildings. They were primarily interested in gathering the
people and having a place to preach. By the nineteenth century,
however, Protestant church architecture had likewise become elaborate
and consisted of elements from a variety of styles.
The enchantment with church buildings throughout
the centuries has contributed to the institutionalization of the
church system as we now know it.
THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD "CHURCH"
With the inclination toward the construction of
buildings for the worship of God, it is little wonder that the
translators of the King James Version of the Bible chose to translate
the Greek word ekklesia by using the English word "church." A
deeper look at the etymology of the word "church" is quite revealing.
Moving backwards into time, the word "church" was
derived from the Old English word cirice which is related to
the Norwegian/Scandinavian word kirkja. These were derived from
the Germanic word kirka; which was derived from the late Greek
word Kyrite; which was derived from the Greek word kurios
which means "ruler," "lord," "master." In the Greek, Kuriake
oika means "lord's house." Thus, the word church came to mean "a
building set apart or consecrated for public worship."
Though the word "church" does not have its root in
the Greek term ekklesia; it is used to translate ekklesia.
Ekklesia is the formation of two Greek words: ek which
means "out of" and kaleo which means "to call." Combined, the
word literally means "to call out of." Ekklesia was
commonly used among the Greeks in reference to a body of citizens who
"gathered" to discuss the affairs of state. A correct and quite
appropriate translation of ekklesia is "called-out-ones"
although there are times when the context demands that "assembly" or
"gathering-of-called-out-ones" be used. The word has to do with a
people who are called-out to be gathered together.
From that time to this, the word church is
used to refer to more than people. Its use has been so adulterated
that we ought never to use it when we are referring to the body of
Christ. It is appropriate to use the word "church" when we are
actually talking about a building but not when we are talking about
the body of Christ. What we call church is a Thing. The
ekklesia is a people.
THE THING
We organize this Thing. We name it,
incorporate it, elect officers to it, open bank accounts
in its name, and train and hire staff to run it. We take
up money for it. We devise campaigns to recruit more people to
join it. We track attendance to it. We love it,
get mad at it, resign from it, and leave it. If
we are particularly fond of it, we make up brochures and buy
ads to market it.
We evaluate the Thing to determine its
success or failure. "The praise service was good," we might say. "The
sermon was okay." "The offering was poor." "The attendance was down."
Ask a pastor how his church is coming along
and he may answer with such comments as: "Oh, our building program is
great." "We're getting in members left and right." "We've doubled our
membership in the last year." "We are losing people out of the back
door as fast as they come in the front." See where his heart is? He is
evaluating the thing over which he is likely the head. The
growth of his church reflects upon his success or failure as
its leader. If, on the other hand, he answers regarding the spiritual
well-being of the people, he understands more of what it means to be
the body of Christ. "Well, you know, many of them have endured some
affliction, but it has made them stronger in the Lord."
If he talks about his people in a possessive
sense, he is snared by his own conceit. They are not his
people. On the other hand, if he talks about the sheep who belong to
the good shepherd who is Jesus Christ, he may be free and more likely
to set God's people free.
FOR THE SAKE OF IT
Soon after a church is started, it
nearly always takes on an existence of its own and begins to
exist for its own sake. The people in it exist to serve
it rather than it existing to serve the people. Those
dedicated to keeping the church going expect their members to
attend it, support it, and serve it. They plan
various programs that fit the model of what they think a full service
church ought to look like.
The Conners family had been supported by their
church for eight years of difficult but faithful duty on the
mission field. After their return, they attended their church
for awhile before dropping out. The first pastoral or administrative
inquiry about them was by the church accountant. "Are the
Conners attending church?" "No," a friend of theirs answered. "Why?"
"For no particular reason." He was indignant. "After all the money
we've given them, now when they could help they're not around."
Perhaps that would have been a genuine concern under other
circumstances, but his interest in them came one and a half years
after their return. As Mrs. Conners regretfully said, "I was
frustrated by the obvious fact that no one on staff seemed to notice
we were no longer going there and when they did notice, the first
comment was about money." Had the money been spent on the Conners? No.
They were in another land to be spent by the Lord for the sake of
serving the saints there. It seems the Conners were expected to serve
the institution, but were themselves abandoned by the so-called
leadership within that institution.
Brother Billy became the pastor of West Side Church
after his father died. His father founded the church. Brother
Billy announced one Sunday that he was fulfilling his vision to have a
jail and bus ministry. "We lack these things to be a complete
church," he explained. "We need volunteers for the jail ministry
and for the bus ministry. Sign-up sheets are on the back table." Many
dear hearts who felt no calling for such service signed on to make
Brother Billy feel okay about himself and his church. They had
to serve him so he could fulfill his vision for a Thing.
People often grow weary of these works of men and
drop out. Leadership is hard to find. If the services or programs were
really meeting people's needs, people would be more likely to support
them. A lack of support may be a clear indication that the event no
longer meets a need worth supporting.
PROVOKING GUILT
If we do not provide the expected support for the
Thing and its programs, whether we want to or not, whether we are
called to serve in a certain capacity or not, we are made to feel
guilty. Have you ever felt guilty for missing a function of the
church? Those little shame-based voices in your head whisper
"naughty, naughty." "It was my fault the program failed. I didn't give
enough of my time and money to it." You can know by those
feelings of guilt that you are serving a Thing and not the Master.
When we are asked by leadership in the church
to make a commitment to the church, we are actually being asked
to make a commitment to the Thing. Our loyalty is measured by how well
we serve this Thing. We are thought to be slothful Christians if we do
not support it; and if we do not even attend a local church,
we are assumed to be backsliders.
On the other hand, when we "do" church, we
have expectations that it ought to be a certain way. It
has to work according to our expectations, or we will feel like it
has failed.
If the Thing has to work a certain way before it
is successful, then those who support it will be pressured into
performing in such a way as to make it a success. If it
is not a success, someone is to blame. It is either the people's
fault, the pastor's fault, the choir director's fault, or the
church board's fault.
What if you and I have different expectations about
how a church should work? We will have conflict. There will
always be conflict in the church because there will always be
expectations in conflict. These are man's expectations, not God's.
ADDICTED TO THE THING
Some people are clinically classified as religious
addicts. I am a recovering church-addict. Soon after my
conversion in 1978, I saw how this church Thing was an
idolatrous system of men's traditions. I despised it (not the
people in it); yet, I felt a seductive pull back into it.
I needed it. I had previously found my
identity in it. I had presence, power, and position in it.
As the pastor of it, I thought I owned at least a part of it.
My heart would secretly boast, "This is mine!" It was my source
of financial support. It was the only thing I was trained to
do. I was joined to it and it was joined to me.
We bond with that Thing we call church and
thereby get in bondage to it. We join it and it
somehow takes possession of us. We do, in fact, get addicted to it.
As Dennis Loewen wrote, "It is addictive. How do we know? One way is
that we all go through withdrawal when we leave it."
Some discerning believers who attend spiritually
stagnant churches realize they no longer need to be there. The
Holy Spirit is absent. The services are dead. The preacher is boring.
People argue over petty, irrelevant issues. They feel their tithes are
wasted on worthless salaries, programs, and mortgages. Their huge
buildings stand empty more often than not. They feel obligated to
serve on committees that serve the institution more than they serve
the people. They see the leadership trying one gimmick after another
to make the Thing relevant in order to get more people to join it
and be active in it.
These precious believers want to leave but find
that they cannot. Mother wouldn't understand. "Why, that stained glass
window was dedicated in grandpa's name. How can you even think about
leaving?" They rationalize that they have life-long friends there.
"How can I leave them?" They are made to feel like traitors,
deserters, troublemakers, or mavericks. Some people disown their own
family members who leave their "faith." Some traditions believe that a
person will go to hell if they leave their particular brand of
church.
So, they feel stuck in the system. They put on
their Sunday morning smiles and hide their secret resentments for
feeling stuck. They shake and howdy down the aisle, pretending, "Isn't
it good to be in the house of the Lord?" They settle into their
familiar pews and begin again to fellowship with the backs of people's
heads.
Many who dare to leave one church go down
the street hoping for a better "spiritual climate" only to find the
same old whore in a brand new dress. Only the rules are slightly
different. They go from church to church looking for
that which is genuine only to find more phony religious facades; they
go looking for Spirit and truth only to find more flesh and hypocrisy.
Yet, they continue their search, because they are addicted to it.
They bob up and down on their wooden horses unable to dismount because
of the velocity of that carousel--the church system that
perpetually spins round and round, going nowhere.
A few discerning persons are able to break away
from the bondage of church, but often leave damaged and
resentful. Some of these attend anonymous groups, seeking recovery
from the religious abuses inflicted upon them by these religious
systems of men's traditions.
Church, as we have come to experience it,
permeates every aspect of our society. It is the only thing we
have seen and known that supposedly represents Christ. In going after
it, just as did Israel of old, we have played the harlot and
provoked the Lord to jealousy.
I hope you are praying for the Holy Spirit to lift
the veil from over your eyes to see how church is a counterfeit
system, to see how we have made a Thing out of who we are in Christ
and gone after it instead of Jesus.
Chapter 4 - Jealousy: Playing The Harlot
Most everyone in the small, rural church I
was serving accepted the fact that I believed that speaking in
tongues, divine healing, casting out demons, and all the gifts of the
Holy Spirit were for today, even though the officialdom of that
denomination disagreed. Nevertheless, I tried to make Jesus the only
issue that mattered. Everyone was happy with that arrangement until
the Holy Spirit spoke to my spirit requiring that I abolish the Sunday
School.
"You're messing with my mind, Lord," I argued. "One
doesn't abolish Sunday School, especially as a pastor in this
denomination. The Sunday School belongs to the elders. You should know
that, Lord." I dismissed the thought as reckless. I had plans to build
up the Sunday School. Studies have shown that the existence of small
groups such as the Sunday School class contribute to church
growth, and at that stage in my understanding, I wanted to build up
the church.
However, after being sternly directed to abolish
the Sunday School for the third time, I knew I had to do something. I
called the men of the church together and presented my dilemma
to them. Most of them were willing to test it out to see what God
might do. "After all," many of them reasoned with me, "if it doesn't
prove profitable, we can always go back to having Sunday School."
Not every one was willing to test it out, however.
I did not know why God wanted me to take such action until I tried to
negotiate the deal with the main person of influence in the church.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she spoke with a broken, yet, certain
voice, "You're not going to take MY Sunday School away from me." Then
I knew what this was about. Sunday School was a golden calf to some of
them and I had dared to touch it.
IDOLATRY: THE EXTENSION OF SELF
Judson Cornwall aptly says, "Idolatry is
principally the response of personal adoration toward something less
than Jehovah God, whether that something is Self, an object made by
ourselves, or a concept we may have embraced. An idol is anything or
anyone, including ourselves, that is given the credit for the
abilities that only God possesses." Monty Stratton adds, "Any image we
have of ourselves that is not God's image of us is an idol, a false
God."
We, as created human beings, make things and
accomplish things that we come to adore. We set these things before us
and pay homage to them whether they are the songs or novels we write,
the athletes we create, the gardens we plant, the businesses we build,
the trophies we win, the children we sire, the rockets we orbit, the
cures we invent, the sermons we preach, or the churches we
institute. We live vicariously through the idols we have made of movie
stars, music stars, and sports stars. We want the power that we
imagine fame and fortune would bestow upon us. We want to be god,
especially over our own lives.
Though we are greater than the images we make, we
still bow down and pay obeisance to them. We take such pride in our
works. We allow them to control our lives, our emotions, and our
relationships. We love them. We look at them, and our hearts swell
with pride. They are idolatrous extensions of ourselves.
IDOLATRY: THE WORSHIP OF SELF
All idolatry is the worship of Self. It is an
extension of ourselves: our adored opinions, speculations, plans,
programs, and projects; it is the self-exalted work of our hands and
the imaginations of our minds--all the things we do in our old man
nature of flesh and sin that causes us to esteem ourselves more highly
than we ought to. It is the attitude of the wicked stepmother in the
story of Snow White who asks, "Magic mirror on the wall, who's the
fairest one of all?" fully expecting for the mirror to answer, "You
are the fairest one of all."
Idolatrous, fallen man is self-centered by nature.
To be any different, we have to be transformed into a new creature. We
need a new nature that gives us the desire to surrender Self for a
higher good, namely, the life of Christ in us. Only Christ through His
Spirit can implant that new nature within us.
Whatever appeals to Self is not of God. Self is in
love with Self. It seeks its own. It is vain, prideful, arrogant,
self-exalting, self-indulging, self-absorbed, power-hungry, and
lustful. It strives for independence, self-reliance, and
self-management. It uses and abuses others, if necessary, to achieve
its own ambitions. It lies, steals, cheats, murders, covets, blames,
justifies, and does whatever seems necessary to save itself. It goes
to any end to protect itself. It is addicted to more. It can never be
satisfied.
The flesh nature of Self generally looks to its own
inventions--science, government, military, religion, education,
sports, and other human institutions and inventions--to save us, feed
us, protect us, make us happy, give us our identity, and provide us
with a better lifestyle. We create institutions to serve us, and we
get angry when they fail us.
Because Self is centered upon itself, it is a black
hole upon the space where it stands, forever suctioning itself inward
as a vacuum. Self consumes itself, is self-destructive, and has death
as its final reward. Self lives and dies for Self.
IDOLATRY: SELF-STRENGTH
The idolatry of Self is seen in our drivenness to
accomplish things in our own strength. We see things to do, and we
must do them. We are constantly distracted by the busyness we create
for ourselves. Busyness is a distraction from intimacy with God. We
would rather be doing something for God than spending time with
Him. Yet, He did not create us to do for Him, but to be
as He is that we might have fellowship with Him and with one another
in Him.
We enslave ourselves to the works we require of
ourselves. Moreover, we enslave others to our works when others allow
us to do so. We adore our accomplishments. Consequently, we have even
made idols out of our quiet time, Bible study, intercessory prayer,
street witnessing, and other works that seem "good" to us. These are
not wrong. They are wonderful when they are inspired by the Holy
Spirit. They become idolatrous to us when we use them to make
ourselves feel like we have done something for God.
IDOLATRY: THINGS THAT POSSESS US
Our idols have to do with those things that possess
our hearts. Whatever we own, owns a part of us. In the Old Testament,
Jacob served his father-in-law, Laban, for twenty years to earn his
wives, Leah and Rachel, and to earn his flock so he could return to
the land of his father. Because Laban restrained him from going, Jacob
left Laban by stealth with his wives and animals. As she went out,
Rachel stole her father's household idols to take with her. Gen. 31.
These idols may have been valuable heirlooms and that could have
played a part in her motives to carry them away, but more likely it
was because her heart had already been carried away by them.
The things we go after usually overtake us. I lived
in Nashville, Tennessee, the country music capital of the world, where
there is a saying about many of those musical hopefuls who live there
that they are "chasing the beast." This beast is an imaginary quest
for significance through the fame many of them hope "making it in
music" will bring them. It appears to me, though, that the beast is
chasing them. The beast can be any of those things we seek for Self to
possess. These things we seek often possess us. We can be possessed by
quest.
A JEALOUS GOD
God created us for Himself. He wants intimate
relationship with us. He wants us to know Him, love Him, trust Him,
depend upon Him, and obey Him. He is a loving and faithful Father to
us who believe and requires of us that we return love and faithfulness
to Him. He is profoundly jealous of anything we put between Him and
us. Allow yourself to feel God's passionate disdain for our idolatry
as you carefully read the text below. You who truly love the Lord
should be impacted forever by the quotes from scripture.
God spoke through Moses to the children of Israel,
saying: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods
before Me. You shall not make unto you any graven image, or any
likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." You shall not bow
down yourself to them, nor serve them." Exod. 20:1-5; Deut. 5:1-10.
Jesus answered the Pharisee saying, "You shall love
the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and
with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment." Matt.
22:37. This kind of love is agape, which has to do with surrendering
your life for the well-being of others. In this case, it has to do
with wanting only what God wants, wanting nothing for Self.
Idolatry breaks the heart of God who jealously
wants our undivided love, worship, and faithfulness. God is jealous of
our idols. He is jealous when we glory in ourselves and our
achievements rather than recognizing that "every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights."
James 1:17. God said, "You shall not bow down yourself to them [other
gods], nor serve them: for I the LORD your God am a jealous God." Exod.
20:1-5. His name is Jealous. Exod. 34:14.
Moses charged the people to keep God's ordinances
and warned them not to commit idolatry saying, "The LORD your God is a
consuming fire, even a jealous God." Deut. 4:24. Joshua reaffirmed to
the people that God "is a holy God. He is a jealous God." Josh. 24:19.
Elijah expressed jealousy on God's behalf: "I have
been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of
Israel have forsaken Your covenant, thrown down Your altars, and slain
Your prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they
seek my life, to take it away." 1 Kings 19:14. [Also read: Ezek. 8:3;
16:38-42; 23:25; 36:5-6; 38:19; 39:25.]
Asaph lamented: "How long, LORD? Will You be angry
forever? Shall Your jealousy burn like fire?" Ps. 79:5.
The prophet, Nahum, feeling the pulse of God,
declared that "God is jealous, and the LORD revenges and is furious;
the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and He reserves wrath
for his enemies." Nah. 1:2.
Joel, looking to a day of renewal, prophesied,
"Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity His people."
Joel 2:18.
Zephaniah spoke, "Neither their silver nor their
gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but
the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy: for He
shall make even a speedy riddance of all them who dwell in the land."
Zeph. 1:18. He continued to speak for God saying, "Therefore wait upon
Me, says the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for My
determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the
kingdoms, to pour upon them My indignation, even all My fierce anger:
for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy."
Zeph. 3:8.
Zechariah wrote, "The angel that communed with me
said unto me, You cry, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts; I am
jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy." Zech. 1:14.
And again, he wrote, "Thus says the LORD of hosts; I was jealous for
Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury."
Zech. 8:2.
The apostle Paul asked the Corinthians, "Do we
provoke the Lord to jealousy?" 1 Cor. 10:22. As did Elijah, Paul felt
the fire of God's jealousy in his belly and wrote again later, "For I
am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to
one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." 2
Cor. 11:2.
ISRAEL: CHOSEN FOR A PURPOSE
Israel was chosen by God that He might have a
people who were called by His name. Deut. 28:10; 2 Chron. 7:14; Dan.
9:19; Acts 15:14. They were to be a people through whom God would make
a name for Himself. 2 Sam. 7:23; 1 Chron. 17:21. They would be to Him
a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. Jer. 13:11.
Israel was to be a holy (separated) nation of
people unto the Lord. It was three months after they left Egypt and
were encamped in the Wilderness of Sinai that Moses went up on the
mountain to talk to God. God told Moses to tell the people "You have
seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings,
and brought you unto Myself. Now, therefore, if you will obey My voice
indeed, and keep My covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure
unto Me above all peoples: for all the earth is Mine: And you shall be
unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation." Exod. 19:4-6.
The followers of Christ, whether Jew or Gentile,
are the fulfillment of divine expectation. Peter wrote regarding those
who believe in Jesus Christ, "But you are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show
forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His
marvelous light." 1 Pet. 2:9.
The Lord was to be their God and they were to be
His people. They were not to have other gods before them. They were
not to call upon the name of any other god and give that god the glory
for the things that God had done for them. That would have been a
great insult to God, to His name, and to those who were called by His
name. God is zealously jealous of those things in which we put more
confidence, comfort, and pleasure than in Him.
THE BAN
God knew that the only way to ensure that the
Israelites would remain faithful to Him was to ban them from mingling
with the heathens of the land. He made a covenant with them while they
were in the wilderness. He told them that He would do marvels among
them by driving out the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the
Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite from before them when they
entered Canaan.
God warned them, however, to be careful not to make
a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where they were going.
Failure to destroy the idolatrous altars of the heathens, to break
their images, and cut down their groves (places of idol worship) would
be a snare in the midst of them. The Israelites would "take their
daughters unto their sons, and their daughters [would] go a whoring
after their gods, and make their sons go a whoring after their gods."
Exod. 34:10-17.
The worship of other gods is idolatry, and idolatry
is playing the harlot so far as God is concerned. God also calls it
fornication and adultery. The King James version of the Bible
translates it "a whoring." This radical language portrays the heart of
God in the matter of idolatry. It should cause us to fall on our
faces, quickly repent of our idolatries, and turn to Him with a pure,
unadulterated heart.
THE VIOLATION OF GOD'S BAN
God told Israel not to mingle with the inhabitants
of the land and go after their gods, but they did it anyway. God knew
that they would do it. He told Moses that after he died "this people
will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the
land where they are going and will forsake Me, and break My covenant
which I had made with them.
Then My anger shall be kindled against them in that
day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and
they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them;
so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us,
because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide My face in
that day for all the evils which they shall have brought, in that they
are turned unto other gods." Deut. 31:16-18.
Israel's failure in the wilderness
The Israelites violated God's ban while they were
still in the wilderness. They were in a place called Shittim when they
committed whoredom with the daughters of Moab. The Moabites seduced
the Israelites to make sacrifices and bow down to their gods. Israel
joined itself to Baal-peor, the idol god of Moab, and the anger of the
LORD was kindled against Israel.
The LORD instructed Moses to take all the heads of
those who had broken the ban, "and hang them up before the LORD
against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away
from Israel." Moses, in turn, commanded the judges of Israel to kill
their men who were bowing down to Baal-peor.
One of the Israelites shamelessly brought a
Midianite woman to his brothers in full view of Moses and the people.
Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it,
rose up from among the people, and took a javelin in his hand.
He went after the man of Israel into the tent and
thrust both of them through. This brought an end to the plague upon
the children of Israel that day. His jealousy for God turned away
God's wrath. Twenty-four thousand people died in that plague. Num.
25:1-11.
Deuteronomy 32:16-17, and 21 tells us that the
Israelites provoked God to jealousy with strange gods, and that these
were abominations to Him. "They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to
gods whom they knew not"...to new gods whom their fathers had not even
feared. "They have moved Me to jealousy," God said, "with that which
is not God; they have provoked Me to anger with their vanities: and I
will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people; I will
provoke them to anger with a foolish nation."
Israel's failure during the judges
God brought Israel out of Egypt with attesting
signs and wonders. They miraculously crossed through the Red Sea on
dry ground. They were given the manna, water, and quail. They heard
God on the mountain and saw His glory on Moses' face. They wandered
for forty years, and their sandals did not wear out. They experienced
the jealousy of God at Shittim. They entered the land of God's promise
under the leadership of Joshua, miraculously crossing the Jordan river
and taking Jericho with marching, the blowing of horns, and shouting.
They were supposed to drive out all of the
inhabitants of the land lest they mingle with them and bow down to
their gods. Many of the tribes of Israel did not do that. They did not
utterly drive out the inhabitants of the land and were, thereby,
disobedient to God.
An angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim,
and told the people of Israel, "I made you to go up out of Egypt, and
have brought you unto the land which I swore unto your fathers; and I
said, I will never break My covenant with you. And you shall make no
league with the inhabitants of this land; you shall throw down their
altars, but you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this?
Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you, but
they shall be as thorns in your sides and their gods shall be a snare
unto you." The people lifted up their voice and wept at the words of
the angel. Judg. 2:1-4.
Nevertheless, a new generation grew up after
Joshua, and they also did the very thing that was evil in the sight of
the Lord: they abandoned the Lord and served the idolatrous god and
goddess, Baal and Ashtoreth. Judg. 2:13.
And so it happened, over and over again. God raised
up individuals like Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Samson, and other judges in
Israel. The Israelites would not listen to their judges but went "a
whoring" after other gods. After they fell under the oppressive hand
of their enemies in the land, they repented and cried out to God, and
He changed His mind and delivered them. (Read Judges 2:17-20.)
The period of the judges ended with this tragic
commentary: "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did
that which was right in his own eyes." Judg. 21:25. Anarchy is the
ultimate idolatry of Self.
Israel's failure during the kings
The Israelites wanted their own king like all of
the other nations, thus rejecting God from reigning over them. So, God
told Samuel to give them what they were asking for. 1 Sam. 8:5-7. How
frightening that God might really give us what we think we need and
want!
Nothing changed. They had harlot hearts. 1
Chronicles 5:25 reports that "they transgressed against the God of
their fathers, and went a whoring after the gods of the people of the
land, whom God destroyed before them."
The Psalmist laments: "They did not destroy the
nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them: But were mingled
among the heathen, and learned their works. And they served their
idols: which were a snare unto them. Yes, they sacrificed their sons
and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the
blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto
the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood. Thus, they
were defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own
inventions." Ps. 106:34-39. This entire Psalm is a powerful
recantation of Israel's forgetfulness.
GODS OF THE FLESH
The Israelites set up their own high places and
made altars to Baal. They carved out Ashtoreths and bowed down to
them. They sacrificed their children to Molech by making them walk
through fire.
The chronicler of 1 Kings 14:22-23 wrote, "And
Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked Him to
jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that
their fathers had done. For they also built them high places, and
images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree."
Asaph, the Psalmist, lamented the sins of the
people against a jealous God singing, "For they provoked him to anger
with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven
images." Ps. 78:58.
Baal means "master" or "lord" and has also been
translated "husband." Baal was the farm god believed to be responsible
for the increase of flocks, crops, and families.
"The worship of Baal, as it existed when Israel
began to filter into Canaan, was conducted by priests in fields and on
mountain 'high places' where communities brought 'taxes' to their
favorite deity, in the form of wine, oil, first fruits, and firstlings
of flocks. The cult included joyous, licentious dances and ritualistic
meals."
The Ashtoreth was the name given to the
goddess of the moon, sexuality, sensual love, and fertility. It was
also the name for the wooden female figures or poles that were set up
to represent her. Her temples were centers
of sacred prostitution. Ashtoreth is mentioned some forty times
in the Old Testament.
Molech means "king." His worship was
characterized by parents who sacrificed their children, compelling
them to walk through or into a furnace of fire. Hebrew law strictly
forbade this practice. The Lord had spoken to Moses saying, "Again,
you shall say to the children of Israel, Whosoever of the children of
Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, who gives any of
his seed [children] unto Molech shall surely be put to death. The
people of the land shall stone him with stones. And I will set My face
against that man and will cut him off from among his people because he
has given of his seed unto Molech to defile My sanctuary and to
profane My holy name." Lev. 20:1-3. Ezekiel spoke for God: "For when
you offer your gifts, when you make your sons to pass through the
fire, you pollute yourselves with all your idols." Ezek. 20:31.
Jeremiah 3:9 laments that they committed adultery
with stones and trees. James 4:4 teaches us that friendship with the
world is adultery.
God demanded their undivided, unadulterated worship
and obedience to Him. The true worship of God requires that we lay
down the wants of our old man nature of flesh and sin--that we deny
Self in total abandonment to God.
GOD DIVORCED ISRAEL
Israel was regarded by God as His betrothed. Jer.
3:14. God was faithful to her, but she was repeatedly unfaithful to
Him. She attempted fidelity, occasionally, and there were times of
repentance and restoration. The good kings purged the temple of
idolatry, but even they did not always complete the job. They
consistently kept their high places.
Of Solomon it is written, "Solomon loved the LORD,
walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and
burnt incense in high places." 1 Kings 3:3. Asa did what was right in
the eyes of the Lord. He banished the sodomites from the land and
removed the idols of his father; he removed his mother, Maachah, from
being queen because she had made an idol in a grove; but "the high
places were not removed." 1 Kings 15:11-14. "Jehoshaphat walked in all
the ways of Asa his father, doing that which was right in the eyes of
the LORD," but did not take away the high places. 1 Kings 22:43.
Jehoash (2 Kings 12:1-3), Amaziah (2 Kings 14:1-4), Jeroboam (2 Kings
15:1-4), Uzziah and Jotham (2 Kings 15:32-34) likewise did what was
right in the sight of the Lord except they did not take away the high
places.
The scriptures tell us that Hezekiah and Josiah
were the only Kings who removed even the high places. Hezekiah "did
what was right in the sight of the LORD; according to all that David
his father did. He removed the high places, and broke the images, and
cut down the groves." 2 Kings 18:3-4a. The record says Josiah removed
the high places "and like unto him was there no king before him, that
turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with
all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him
arose there any like him." 2 Kings 23:25. But for these two, king
after king had this one thing in common: they did not remove the high
places.
During the days that Josiah was king, the Lord
asked Jeremiah if he had seen what backsliding Israel had done. He
said that she had gone up on every high mountain and under every green
tree and played the harlot; and for all the causes for which
backsliding Israel had committed adultery, God had her put away and
given her a certificate of divorce. Jer. 3:6, 8.
TAKEN CAPTIVE
Earlier in Israel's history, after Solomon's reign
as king, the Kingdom of Israel divided. The kingdom of Israel (later
called Samaria) consisted of the ten tribes to the north which split
from the kingdom after the death of Solomon during the reign of his
son Rehoboam. It was ruled by Jeroboam. The Kingdom of Judah consisted
of the two remaining tribes in the south, Judah and Benjamin.
Through the prophet Ezekiel, God portrayed these
two kingdoms as daughters of one mother. He gave these daughters the
names Aholah and Aholibah. Aholah means "her own tent" and Aholibah
means "women of the tent" or "the tent is in her." Aholah was the
older daughter, Samaria, and Aholibah was the younger daughter, Judah
(or Jerusalem). Ezekiel says, "...they committed whoredoms in Egypt;
they committed whoredoms in their youth: their breasts were pressed
there, and the teats of their virginity were bruised." Ezek. 23:3.
Though Aholah belonged to the Lord, she played the
harlot and doted on her Assyrian lovers. She committed her whoredoms
with them and defiled herself. So, God banished her into the hands of
her lovers, the Assyrians.
Her sister, Aholibah, saw all that her older sister
had done and how she had been taken away into captivity by her
Assyrian lovers; yet, she multiplied her whoredoms more than her
sister.
God sent the Babylonians to take Judah away into
captivity as a judgment against her. God said, "I will set My jealousy
against you, and they shall deal furiously with you." Ezek. 23.
Therefore, because of their idolatries and harlotries, Samaria was
scattered to the nations by the Assyrians. Judah (Jerusalem) was taken
into Babylonian captivity by the Babylonians.
The scriptures make it clear that these adulterous
acts of idolatry were abominations to God. Ezekiel 16:51-52 reveals
that Judah had committed twice the sins of her sister Samaria. She had
multiplied her abominations.
Of all the sins Israel and Judah committed,
idolatry was the most abominable to God. Their idolatry was the one
thing that led to their downfall. They forsook God for their high
places. We are no different today. We, too, have our high places and
our high places are just as much a snare to us.
Chapter 5 - Our High Places
I rarely saw Benny without hearing some piece of
profound wisdom suitable to a sage. This day was no exception. With
that typical twinkle in his eye and that wry west Tennessee grin on
his face, he asked me, "Do you know how you can tell when something is
an idol in your life?"
"No." I waited for his reply. I knew it would be
good.
His grin widened. His words were slow but short.
"By how big a fight you put up when it's taken from you."
Many of the things we fight over are likely idols
in our lives. We get angry when something we adore is taken from us or
when we fear that it might be taken from us.
OUR HIGH PLACES
We, as with Israel of old, have our idols. Our
idols are our high places. Our high places are those things we cherish
above our consecration to God. We, too, have gone "a whoring" after
the gods of our own making. We "burn incense" to the work of our hands
and the imaginations of our minds when we take self-exalted pride in
our accomplishments. Such things as science, government, the stock
market, religion, the arts, diets, entertainment, and sports can work
for our good, but they become idolatrous when we put our trust in them
rather than in God. We make ourselves out to be God.
This was the lie in the garden of Eden: if we could
know as God knows, we would become as God. So we, in Adam, became
knowledgeable, and that knowledge became a curse to us. We play God
when we glory in our own intellectual abilities to figure things out,
reason things, understand things, invent things, and imagine even
greater achievements. We exalt that which we think we know above the
knowledge of God. It keeps us at arms-length from God and prevents us
from entering into intimacy with Father-God, our Creator. Puffed-up
knowledge is the arrogance of Self, and Self is that high mountain
upon which we build our altars.
EXTENSIONS OF SELF
Our high places are extensions of ourselves. We
stand back like a master painter and survey the canvas of our works
and sigh, "Ah! This is what I did!" Our identities are wrapped
up in our achievements. We want to be somebody, to make our mark, to
leave our fingerprint on something important. Our old man of flesh
natures are driven by the need for power, position, recognition,
possessions, and domination.
We bow the knee to those who are rich and famous,
and snub, or at best patronize, those who are poor and uncelebrated.
We, as Nimrod, have journeyed to our land of Shinar, looking to build
a tower, a city, and a name for ourselves. Gen. 11. Those who have
"Ministries" do this as well.
CHURCH AS AN EXTENSION OF SELF
This Thing we call church can be one such
extension of ourselves. It is one of those things we go after in our
hearts because we love it so. That is to say, we love the works
of our hands and the imaginations of our hearts that are expressed in
that Thing we call church. We are in church because
church is in us. It is an extension of us. Therefore, we
are serving ourselves when we serve it.
"Ah, come on," you say. "You can't be serious.
Aren't you being too hard and critical of the church? I love my
church. I have life-long relationships in my church. We
have a great choir, good preaching, souls are saved, the Holy Spirit
often moves in our services. The ritual and symbols make me feel close
to God. How do you account for the fact that God shows up in church?
How can you call church evil?"
Good Christian people go to church. In fact,
the stronger they are in their faith, the more likely they are to go
to church. They identify "going to church" with their
faith. Their faithfulness to church is often the yardstick for
measuring their faithfulness to Christ. After all, the churches
even belong to Christians, at least in name and perception. God's
presence is manifested in some of these churches on occasions,
but none of this means that these Things we call church have
been born of the Spirit. They are still idolatrous extensions of Self.
God often blessed and prospered His people in
captivity. God blessed Israel on numerous occasions even though she
was engaged in idolatry. Even when He banished Judah to Babylon, He
commanded that they build houses, plant gardens, eat the fruit of
them, and increase in families. Jer. 29:4-6. God even pronounced
severe judgment against those idolatrous Jews who tried to stay behind
in Judah. Jer. 29:16-18. "After seventy years are accomplished in
Babylon," the Lord promised Judah, "I will visit you, and perform My
good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place." Jer.
29:10. God had to visit His people in Babylon in order to deliver them
from Babylon.
The Holy Spirit has often moved upon His people to
save, heal, and deliver them throughout the history of the
institutionalized church system. The Protestant reformation,
the great awakening of the 1800's, and the Pentecostal revival of the
1900's are major historical examples of how God sought to deliver His
people out of an old order to bring them into a new order.
A few churches have experienced what they
call renewal. God is filling the lamps of those willing to be prepared
with enough oil to go the distance when that last trumpet sounds. It
would be a tragic mistake, however, to take God's anointing upon His
people as an endorsement of their idols. If the Holy Spirit is moving
in your church, He is not present to bless your idolatries, but
to prepare a people unto Himself. God cares for His people who happen
to be in captivity to church. He is preparing His bride. He has
to go into these illegitimate places we call the church to
prepare her so He can take her out.
THE BRIDE IN HARLOTRY
Bill Shipman saw it this way. "It was almost like a
vision," he explained.
I was there in the chambers and on the streets with
them. I saw Jesus waiting in a groom's chamber. The bride was in
another chamber. He was preparing to go in to see her. While He
delayed, she was drawn to the window and became interested in the
activities in the street. The appeal of the street tugged at her
harlot heart until she wandered out there herself.
Soon after she walked out onto the streets she was
raped. Her shame deceived her into believing that she had no other
life but to become a prostitute, which she did. She was in a house of
prostitution, locked behind huge, solid-oak, medieval doors. They
looked formidable. They were bolted through with a braided kind of
thing with copper on it and different kinds of ironwork.
Jesus went looking for her. He knew where she was.
As He approached the doors, demons howled and hissed at Him and tried
to rush Him, yet were cowardly toward Him. He opened the doors and
went in. She was really a mess, and He pleaded with her to come with
Him. In her guilt and shame, she refused, and so He left.
He waited a time and visited her again. Still, she
wouldn't look Him in the face. Once again, He left her. As He was
waiting in His chamber, fires of passion and anger suddenly flashed in
His eyes. He stormed out of His chamber and strode down the street,
approaching the house where His bride in harlotry abided.
Everyone saw Him coming. They fled to get out of
His way. The demons took one look at Him and ran ahead of Him to lock
the doors, hoping to prevent Him from entering. Without hesitation or
pause in his stride, He hit those doors with the palms of His hands.
POW! They exploded. Splinters went everywhere.
He walked in and found her withered in shame. Her
face was hidden in her hands. This time was different though. This
time He didn't ask her to come with Him. This time He grasped her
hand, led her out, and took her back to the bride's chamber while she
was still in her filthy, semen-stained dress.
I could see the passion and love He had for her in
His eyes. Jesus saw her only one way. He saw her as a virgin. Yet, she
wouldn't even look at Him. He reached out, touched her gently, and
lifted her face toward His. Hesitantly, she slowly lifted her eyes to
look into His. He saw her beyond her shame and forced her beyond her
shame. The moment her eyes connected with His, they were filled with
the same passion for Him that He had for her.
I was right in there with them. I could almost see
into their faces. I backed off and saw that she had changed. She was
beautiful. She had the same radiance as did Jesus. They were one.
There was no longing or attraction for anyone or anything other than
for one another. She had eyes only for Him. She looked like Him, and
He looked like her. They were standing in one light. He was not
diminished at all, but she was increased in Him. Even though she
looked like Him and had the same fire in her eyes as He had in His,
she was still under His feet, still under His authority. That's what
made it as beautiful as it was.
I believe Bill's vision is from the Lord and
reveals perfectly how He sees His bride in harlotry and how He intends
to come for us. Indeed, even as His bride, we have played the harlot
with our substitutes for Jesus. Perhaps even now we feel the shock
waves of His footsteps coming near to rid us of our shame and dress us
in robes of righteousness.
THE HIGH PLACE OF CHURCH
To substitute church for Jesus is idolatry
in enormous proportions. We are not to lift up church and make
it the way of salvation. Jesus alone is our salvation.
Many people have made an idol out of church
just as the Israelites made an idol out of the serpent in the
wilderness. When the people accused God and Moses of bringing them up
out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, the Lord sent fiery serpents
among them, and the serpents bit the people because of their
grumbling. Many of the Israelites died. The people repented, and God
relented. God told Moses to make a fiery serpent and set it upon a
pole. All who had been bitten could look upon it and live. Num.
21:4-9.
That should have been the end of the story. But
notice 2 Kings 18:4! Hezekiah had become King of Judah, and the Bible
says that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord. "He removed
the high places, broke the images, cut down the groves, and broke
in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for until those days
the children of Israel burned incense to it." They took an act of
God and made an idol out of it. In this same idolatrous spirit, people
have turned the moves of God into the denominations they later adored.
That which we call church today is an
idolatrous system of men's traditions which is spiritual harlotry.
Church is what we do in addition to being who Christ has made us
to be in Him. If what we call church can be incorporated,
joined, named, referred to as it, and can be taken from us,
then it is not the real thing. The true ekklesia is a corporate
body of people who are born into it. They have taken only the name of
Jesus because they are in a relationship with Him. That relationship
cannot be taken from them.
If church is not the real thing, then it
is a counterfeit. The problem with counterfeits is that they look
deceptively like the real thing. Church, as a counterfeit, is
presented and perceived as the real thing. Strangely enough, though,
it does not even remotely look like the real thing.
Nevertheless, we have been beguiled into believing that it is.
Many people burn the incense of self-adoration to
all that is associated with this Thing we call church. They
have made idols out of their doctrines, forms of government,
heritages, programs, rituals, liturgies, buildings, Sunday morning
services, going to church, budgets, personalities, the Sunday
School, youth meetings, missionary guilds, men's meetings, annual
bazaars and events--everything associated with church. They
frolic around their corporate achievements: their cemeteries,
denominations, Bible schools, nursing homes, children's homes,
hospitals, missions, jail ministries, and prison ministries. These can
be God-appointed ministries and worthy causes, but they become
idolatrous when we operate them to make ourselves look good and feel
godly. Busyness is not godliness. These institutions are often more
about those who operate them than about the ones they seek to serve.
Many of these church Things were originally
started to meet the needs of people but soon became ends within
themselves. Many of the institutions have become profit-driven instead
of service-driven. Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not
man for the Sabbath." Mark 2:27. We have reversed that saying. Now, it
is as though we exist for the sake of church and not church
for us.
Moreover, we may have the attitude about our
church that it has the right stuff. If possible, we competitively
build a bigger and better steeple house than the folks down the
street. We plan our services and harbor the hope that we will have the
best show in town. Some of us hype our praise and worship, our
prayers, our preaching, and even our offerings to convince even
ourselves, perhaps, that the Holy Spirit is upon us.
We may devise programs in the name of evangelism
and market ourselves in such a way so as to corral more folks--to
rope, throw, and brand them with our special mark, to clone them like
us. Yet, we want to stand out from the other churches in town.
We craft our creeds to distinguish ourselves from them. The names we
give ourselves reflect our separateness from them. We sometimes even
brag about our differences. A young man at a gathering of men sported
a T-shirt which was likely intended to communicate an innocent but
catchy phrase; nonetheless, it revealed this separatist notion. It
read, "Vineyard Church: Experience the difference."
For many deceived hearts, their church is
their plan of salvation, and we have about as many salvation plans as
we have churches. We stress the necessity of church
membership and regular attendance to church and thereby
communicate the subtle message that we are saved by these Things. We
are considered unscriptural if we do not go to church.
Many churches associate water baptism with
membership in their church. Some denominations (cults) preach
that you are lost unless you are a member their church. For
some, acceptance into their fold involves strict adherence to their
rigid code of behavior. For others, acceptance involves strict
adherence to their rigid doctrine. "We have the right doctrine. Agree
with us and be baptized into our church, and you will be
saved." How absolutely ludicrous. Is not Jesus our Savior?
We have raised up shrines for ourselves, and we
have become our own corpses within them. We have enshrined ourselves
with a grandeur we seek for ourselves. There is no life in these
shrines nor can there ever be. There is no hope of resurrection life
within them for they exist to provide something for Self. Resurrection
life comes through the denial of oneself and not to those who seek to
save themselves.
OUR IDOLATRY IS SPIRITUAL HARLOTRY
When the bride plays the harlot, she becomes one
with the harlot, and distinguishing between the bride and her
harlotries becomes difficult. If you play the harlot, you become the
harlot. The apostle Paul wrote, "Know you not that your bodies are the
members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make
them the members of a harlot? God forbid. What? Know you not that he
who is joined to a harlot is one body? For two, says He, shall be one
flesh. But he who is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." 1 Cor.
6:15-17.
Paul was writing to Corinthian believers who were,
with all saints in all places and in all times, the bride of Christ. A
bride is feminine in gender. A harlot is feminine in gender. I mean no
disparagement against anyone who is sexually broken, but when the
bride of Christ joins herself to the harlotry of Self, she is
operating in the perverse spirit of spiritual lesbianism and
practicing spiritual self-sex. We are more "in lust" with ourselves
than we are in sacrificial relationship with our Bridegroom, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is jealous of that.
STRONGHOLDS OF THE MIND
These idolatries of Self are strongholds of the
mind. A spiritual stronghold is the preoccupation with an object, a
person, or an institution; with anger or fear; with a fetish, an
addiction, or a sin. A spiritual stronghold is anything that
fascinates us, dominates our minds, and causes us to behave
obsessively and compulsively. These are things that rule over us. We
seem powerless to do anything about them. Yet, we cannot deny that
these things are harmful to us or others.
A spiritual stronghold can also be the grid through
which we see things. Church is one such stronghold of the mind.
We have been brainwashed into believing that church as we know
and practice it is what we ought to do. We have never known anything
other than church as we practice it. So, when I say
church is an idol and a stronghold in your mind, you may have a
difficult time believing it. You cannot see it. Even if you see it,
you have a hard time accepting it because of your programmed mind-set.
Once you see the deception, however, receive the truth, and begin to
walk in that light, you find your mind changing. The stronghold is
being torn down.
Taking the bride of Christ out of church is
not an easy matter, because church is a stronghold in her mind.
God has to take church out of us, as well as take us out of
it. Strange language is it not? For while God is trying to take us
out of church, we are trying to get people into it. If
we try to leave the stronghold of church before it has been
taken out of us, we will simply return to it.
Christmas. Christmas is one of those
strongholds of the mind. It had not been celebrated in any form before
the third century. Alexander Hislop explains, "Long before the fourth
century, and long before the Christian era itself, a festival was
celebrated among the heathen, at that precise time of the year,
in honor of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven;
and it may fairly be presumed that, in order to conciliate the
heathen, and to swell the number of the nominal adherents of
Christianity, the same festival was adopted by the Roman Church,
giving it only the name of Christ." They took this strictly
pagan celebration and put Jesus in the center of it.
Rome instituted a mass which was called
Christ-mass--shortened to Christmas. Christmas has always been, is
now, and ever shall be a pagan festival. It has grown over the
centuries to become the enchanting, magical, merchant-driven insult to
God that it now is. We are mesmerized by it. Hooked on it. Enslaved by
it. In debt to it. Dennis Loewen adds, "Christmas is another example
of how powerful the false living spirit of harlotry is. There
is a spirit of Christmas. It is warm; it is wonderful; it is
good...and it is not from God."
The world loves Christmas as much as Christians do.
What does that tell us? One "Christian" celebrity said on national TV
that Christmas is three things: "decorating, gift-giving, and eating."
We must know that what the world loves cannot be of God. The apostle
John exhorts us, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in
the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not
in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is
of the world." 1 John 2:15-16.
The fact that most of what people do at Christmas
has its roots in this pagan mid-winter festival should be reason
enough for Christians not to do it--the tree and lights, the candles,
the mistletoe, the exchange of gifts, the yule log in the fireplace,
the cakes, the goose, the drunkenness, and even the date of December
the 25th. The fact that this season is so merchant-driven today should
add to our disdain for it. However, the real slap-in-the-face to God
is that we love these soulish things more than obedience to Him. They
are emotional strongholds in our minds. We would lack sound judgment
to believe that we can relentlessly celebrate these days and seasons
and stay free of their captivation.
The idea of not celebrating Christmas carries such
an affront to others that most people could not give it up even if
they were convinced that it was an abomination to God. We are thought
leprous for not going along with it. We are pleasers of men rather
than of God.
I have heard the cliché once my childhood to "put
Christ back into Christmas." It is often inscribed this way: "Put
Christ back into X-mas." Even though the X probably stands for the
Greek letter chi in Christ, we tend to think of it as X-ing
out Jesus. Well, for years I have been thinking it and now I dare to
say it: Instead of putting Jesus back into a pagan festival where He
never belonged in the first place, let us take Him out of it
altogether and give it back to the world to whom it belongs. After
all, the Bible never called for this celebration, and Jesus would
never impose such crazy-making bondage upon us. Paul wrote, "It was
for freedom that Christ set us free; theref |