[BOOK] ‘THE GREAT BUILDING
OF GOD’ a prophetic look at the Church and her ministries today.
COPYRIGHT 2004 JOHN CHIARELLO
Chapter 1 the gates
of hell shall not prevail against her.
Chapter 2 forbid them
not, if they are not against us, they are for us.
Chapter 3 the
building and its stones.
Chapter 4 the church
Jesus built.
Chapter 5 bring all
the tithes into the storehouse.
Chapter 6 the garden of God , authority in the church.
Chapter 7 the
Babylonian captivity of the church, a contemporary look.
Chapter 8 the 1’st
century church.
Chapter 9 the plural
voice of ecclesia.
Chapter 10 trying to
fit the building of God into the building of man.
Chapter 11 the
tabernacle of Moses/David.
Feel free to
copy this book in part or whole for free distribution, as long as you don’t
sell it for profit!
INTRODUCTION;
Greetings in
Jesus name. This second book is in some ways ‘part 2’ of ‘HOUSE OF PRAYER OR
DEN OF THIEVES’, our first book. In our first book we dealt with the last part
of this verse ‘DEN OF THIEVES’, in this book we will deal with the phrase
‘HOUSE OF PRAYER’. What is Gods house? The N.T. teaches us that Gods house, or
habitation, is the church
of God [the dwelling
place of God, where God resides]. The church is the Ecclesia of God. This term
not only speaks of a community of people, but also a called out assembly. The
church therefore as defined in the N.T. are all of Gods people in any given
community [city, region, country, etc.] at any specific time in history in any
given location in the earth. This community of people is what Jesus referred to
when he said ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against her’.
The church began
as a community of people free-flowing as the Spirit led them with elders and
leaders springing up in a natural atmosphere of community and family. She lost
her family mentality and power when she became heavily institutionalized during
the first 3 centuries of her existence. She then plunged into a state of
lethargy of which church historians refer to as ‘the dark ages’. Over the past
2 thousand years God has been reforming and restoring her back to the original
form of a free-flowing family of people once again. This restoration includes
the restoring of apostles/prophets, which is a subject heavily written about
and discussed over the last few years.
We will look at
how the original apostles/prophets functioned as gifted ones in the midst of
Gods prophetic community, as opposed to heavily handed authoritarian figures in
the church! If we don’t see the church through a correct lens, then we will
also misunderstand her gifted ones. If you try to place checker pieces on a
monopoly board you will get a distorted and perverted game. You might be able
to play something on this board, but it would not be the right game! So
likewise when we try to place Gods unique gifted ones [the chess pieces] into a
setting that isn’t the original design, you not only distort the game, but
actually do more harm to it! So we will look at the proper roles and
responsibilities that Gods gifted ones play in the community of God [I want to
stress that all Gods people are gifted and the mindset that looks to the 5-fold
and tries to place them as ‘pulpit’ ministers does more harm than good!].
As we examine
and look at what the church is we will be tearing down mindsets in the church
that have existed for more than 1700 years. This type of truth telling will
obviously challenge many modern churches and concepts of ministry. Our purpose
IS NOT TO COME AGAINST ANY PARICULAR CHURCH OR MINISTRY, but to pull down false
opinions [mindsets], and to build what is true. This is what the apostle Paul
spoke about when dealing with ‘spiritual warfare’, He was not talking about
casting down territorial spirits from the sky, but about casting down false
opinions and mindsets that come against the knowledge of God [Corinthians].
Lets therefore begin this study
with an open heart and mind to what the ‘SPIRIT SAITH TO THE CHURCHES’.
CHAPTER 1; THE GATES OF HELL
SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST HER.
The best way to
understand and study any subject is to understand as best as possible the
original intent and environment of its creator/founder when he first created
it. This is why you will find political leaders and judges continually
referring to past precedent and the original intent of the founding fathers
when dealing with contemporary issues of govt. in the present day. This concept
is biblical and helpful in trying to understand what the church is and how she
functions. When Jesus told Peter ‘upon this rock I will build my church and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against her’ he was responding to peters
confession concerning Christ [Mat;16:18 ].
Much has been said about this verse and it has been used by both Catholics and
Protestants to defend their mindset for what the church is.
The Catholic Church historically applies this
verse to mean that Jesus was telling Peter that God would build his future
church on the man Peter, that is on his apostolic office. This is also why you
will find various people actually debate where Peters grave is located, as they
believe if you could pinpoint the actual place where his bones remain that this
would lend legitimacy to their institution. While this is obviously a silly way
to literally interpret Jesus words, it is just as silly for Protestants to
interpret the verse in rev. [Rev;21:14 ]
to mean the actual physical city of God
has the names of the apostles written in stone. Both of these ways of looking
at church are simply a symptom that results from having a distorted view of
ecclesia. When Jesus spoke these words to Peter, what did Jesus mean? Well if
you look at Peter’s writings you will get insight into the way he understood it
[1Peter;2:5].
He saw the church as a spiritual temple
consisting of the community of believers that would exist in every generation
for all time. His confession of Jesus as the Christ qualified him as a living
stone from which Jesus would take and build with many other living stones to
erect a spiritual temple for God to dwell in. As an apostle Peter also played a
special role as a foundation layer in this spiritual building [Eph;2:20 ] apostles are foundation
layers in this building, they carry a special gifting to ground and stabilize
this building of God. They are not the foundation themselves, but simply relate
to the chief cornerstone in such a way as to have special ability to present
Christ and bring long-lasting stability to this structure. The foundation they
lay is Christ himself. The building is erected not with brick and mortar, but
with living stones. Brick and mortar symbolize the work of men’s hands, while
stones symbolize a natural building material. This signifies that while
apostles and prophets are builders, they are not creators of this supernatural
structure.
Brick and mortar
represent manmade institutions that men have built as opposed to Gods spiritual
temple. In every generation these 2 structures co-exist and co-mingle at
various times. There were even seasons where mans structure turned against and
killed the living stones which helped build her. Some have attempted to write
about this before [Augustine’s city of God
and many other writers through the ages] though some of these books are
insightful, many of them co-mingled the building of God and the building of man
and actually came against Gods building without even knowing it. But thank God
that the prophecy of Jesus has come true and the gates of hell have not been
able to prevail against her!
Paul wrote the
church at Corinth
and rebuked them for not rightly discerning the lord’s body, he told them that
because of this many were sick and some even died. What were the Corinthians
doing that caused this? How were they not rightly discerning Christ’s body?
They were coming together [ecclesia/called out assembly of people] for the
Lord’s Table and some were getting drunk while others were being gluttons. They
were disrespecting their brothers and sisters in the assembly and being
selfish. They were sinning against one another as co-equal members in the body
of Christ. There is a present day application to this when we question the
legitimacy of our fellow brethren because they do not fit into the
institutional church of our day. As I have taught on our radio show over the
years that there have always been a remnant of believers in each generation
that carried the witness of Christ who were not part of the institutional
church. Often times the man made structure persecuted unto death those brethren
who would not come under her authority. This was not only seen in the catholic
system, but in the protestant one as well. No denomination had a corner on this
market!
This in no way
means that our catholic and protestant brothers are not Christians, nor am I
advocating the destruction of any Christian denomination. But rather trying to
present a true picture of what the church is for the benefit of the church at
large. I am such a strong believer in the prophecy of Jesus [Mat;16:18 ] that I see the organic
body of Christ overcoming in each of these generations and mightily prevailing
to this very day! The body of Christ is so prevalent in the earth today that
she finds herself being represented in all of these various denominations. No
denomination contains all the church, nor are any void of true Christians
either. Our seeing the church as a spiritual temple built together as a
habitation of God transcends all human institutions without singularly
targeting any one of them as the only ‘building of man’, because in a sense
they all have a degree of brick and mortar in their structures [organizations].
Our purpose is not to tell believers to leave their churches and forsake
meeting on Sundays, but rather to free them from a limited mindset of church
and ministry and call them into seeing themselves as members of the church that
Jesus spoke of when he told Peter the gates of hell will not prevail against
her!
CHAPTER 2; FORBID THEM NOT, IF
THEY ARE NOT AGAINST US THEY ARE FOR US [Mark 9:40 ].
I remember how
in the early days of our ministry I enjoyed going to the local jails and
preaching to the inmates, I also enjoyed the hands on aspect of getting
together with the brothers and spending quality time with them when they were
released from jail or prison. While at the same time working as a full time
firefighter and pastoring our local church, which consisted mainly of the
families of the guys who were in prison, the give and take between the brothers
who were recently saved and the functions of ‘pastoral’ ministry meshed well
together.
During this season of our ministry I would
speak with other people who believed that I was wasting time by simply spending
time with the brothers who were ex-cons. This same mentality was later
expressed when I moved to Corpus
Christi and started an outreach to the homeless guys.
I would either speak or teach through radio or in person and those who were
blessed through some teaching would later express a concern that somehow I was
wasting time with the homeless people while instead I could be ‘honing’ my
giftings for ‘true’ professional ministry. While I understood the brothers who
expressed these types of feelings were viewing ‘ministry’ as being a non-profit
corporate entity with a donor base and mailing list, which would build a
financial support base which then could launch my speaking/pulpit ministry, I
understood that true ministry takes place in a community atmosphere, without
the prestige of professional ‘pastor’ or full time minister to interfere with
true community friendships.
This brief
example shows how viewing the building of God [the church], as opposed to the building
of man [the manmade system of ministry] can deeply affect the way we function
and see our roles in the kingdom
of God . The pressure we
put on young ministers to fit some type of expectation of what we see as
‘fulltime ministry’ versus what the N.T. actually teaches often derails Gods
true desire for his people. The example above shows us how the building of man
not only hinders true kingdom relationships, but actually fights against them
by accusing the brothers of being illegitimate if they are actually spending
their time with people, which after all is what building the church is all
about!
The language
used in the N.T. to describe Gods house is referring to the community of God in
a symbolic way. While most believers understand that the buildings we meet in
are not the church, they often overlook this aspect of it. We in the church
often try to devalue others who are doing kingdom work by questioning their
legitimacy. How often have you heard a para-church ministry [a misnomer]
challenged on the grounds that it is not a local church, or its ministers are
not under authority. If what there doing is a divinely inspired work of God
[that is Gods in it] then who are we to say its not ‘church’. Often times we
don’t realize that when we make judgments like this we are not rightly
discerning the lord’s body!
The church isn’t the place where we meet on
Sunday, most of us agree, but it also isn’t limited to the organized group to
which you personally affiliate with. In each city she consists of all believers
in your city! Some of these believers gather during the week with no Sunday
service, others associate mainly with the people they are ministering to, still
others have an apostolic call to work in an itinerant way. All of these various
expressions are part of the church, even the ones who 'belong’ to no outward
organization at all! If they are truly believers they are part of the church!
No such thing as para-church. It’s either of God or not! Now comes the tricky
part, when theologians study the nature of the church and what she is, they
often have some truth but sometimes use it to narrowly define and limit the
true church [once again the building of God versus the building of man].
The term for
church in the N.T. is ecclesia; this term has various applications in different
settings. In N.T. times it could actually refer to what we would call today a
city council or commission meeting. This term itself was not a spiritual word
during the first century, but simply a practical term used to describe Gods
called out assembly. While some theologians focus on the local aspect of this
term [local church], others focus on the universal aspect [worldwide church].
Both are true. Where we often confuse the building of God with the building of
man is in our application of this word. Because the word ecclesia means called
out ones we often condemn those believers in our area who don’t ‘go to church
on Sunday’ or ‘join the church’. While it is true that in the book of acts the
believers were recognizable, and belonged to a called out assembly, this in no
way resembles our 21st century American spin that we put on it. We
condemn Christians who often times are right in the heart of Gods will [so
called para church ministries or extra local ministries] all under the guise of
‘church’. Remember if any believer in your region is doing Gods will he is
doing church! Simple isn’t it. He should and will associate with fellow
believers as God wills, but we should not try to make everyone fit into our
limited view of ‘legitimate’ ministry.
CHAPTER 3; THE BUILDING AND
ITS STONES.
What I am
attempting to say and show in this book is a different paradigm [that is the
way we see things] concerning the church and the people who make up the church.
The scripture says that without a vision the people perish [Prvb;29:18].
This does not only speak of vision in a motivational sense, but also in a
prophetic sense. By this I mean a new way of seeing things. Prophetic vision is
not only a gift that sees future events, but it also grasps the character of
Jesus and reveals who he is [Rev;19:10 ]. As we look at the church through prophetic
eyes we behold the nature of Christ in his body. We see Christ through our
brothers and sisters. Because of this reality, when we do harm or mistreat our
brothers we are disrespecting Christ. This applies to the way we ‘do’ church as
well. When we limit ‘church’ to the 21st century American model of
ministry we wrongly discern Christ’s body. When we label other believers as
illegitimate because they do not fit the mold that we feel to be ‘true’ local
church, we disrespect the body of Christ and its diversity [1Cor;12].
The N.T. church
consists of all the believers in your city [or region, state, country, etc.]
that are called out of the world and to God and each other [ecclesia]. This
ecclesia may not meet in your church building or any church building, she might
have no ‘pastor’ over her [in the modern sense], she might have no earthly
organization at all, but this still does not make her illegitimate! We must see
this bride through a prophetic lens if we are to rightly discern her. We must
be careful that we do not classify her as illegitimate simply because she does
not fit into our limited perspective of who she is and what we think she should
look like. For when we do judge her through natural eyes we often come against
her unwittingly and are lending ourselves as stones in the building of man who
always comes against the building of God!
The spiritual stones that make up
this temple are very diverse and special to the Father. The apostles and
prophets relate to this temple in a special way as they lay the foundations
upon which she is erected. These 2 gifted ones are NOT priests or kings in this
temple, nor does the temple exist for their financial well-being or for a
platform from which they can find success and fame in ministry. Oh no, this
temple is very special to them and these are willing to lay down their lives
[and have at certain times!] in order to see her built. The pastors, evangelists
and teachers also play a vital role in her construction, in that after the
foundations are laid they Labor to build her up in such a way so when she is
fully established she will no longer be blown about by every wind and doctrine,
but will stand strong during times of shaking and storm.
These 3 stones [evangelist, pastor, teacher]
also labor in its construction unselfishly as co-equals in the temple. No one
of them is more important than the other, and at times you will even find the
same stone placed in a different wall of the building to fit interchangeably
with each other. These stones do not see themselves as priests in this
structure, for all are priests and can function in this temple equally. These
stones are simply co-equals with all the other stones, but they bare a special
burden and gifting from God to make sure the temple is constructed properly so
its king can enter into to her and rule from her throne! Then when this
beautiful building of God is fully developed with her king reigning and ruling
from her throne all men will come and do homage at the feet of him who sits on
her throne!
CHAPTER 4; THE CHURCH JESUS
BUILT.
What pattern of
church did Jesus leaves us? Did he leave us one at all? It would seem that a
leader who told his disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature under heaven would at least lay down a rough blueprint on what
to do in order to establish some type of structure for those who would later
believe. Many books have been written on this subject and many learned
theologians have spoken on this. W hat I will attempt to do in this chapter is
simply look at what Jesus did and how the early apostles patterned church
planting after his example. Remember the church is not an institution or
organization in terms of our present mindset, but rather a community of free
flowing believers. A family in spiritual terms. She has spiritual children and
spiritual parents [we must be careful here because some have used this to lord
it over the flock in a wrong way] who flow together as one entity with various
gifts and abilities. The elders [more mature ones] in this spiritual community
are not paid [salaried] priests who the children hire to perform ritualistic
functions on their behalf [weddings, funerals, etc.], but rather mature
believers who give guidance and direction to the flock in a voluntary loving
atmosphere [1Peter 5:2].
As these communities of people have been a
reality in every generation since Jesus left us, this body has often taken
different forms and expressions as society interacted with her. Some of these
forms have severely hindered her witness in the earth while others have
sidetracked the main purpose of her existence from the beginning. Though these
different expressions of church are not the ideal, we should not label them
[that is those believers in them] as illegitimate or lost, but rather strive
together for the unity of the faith found in Christ. The many groups who
operate outside these organized structures often later fall prey to the frailty
of man and create their own structures, not realizing that this is no different
than the church systems they often criticize. Some refer to these movements as
apostolic or post denominational churches. Others feel that the
post-denominational churches are simply denominations at an early stage of
development and therefore are post nothing! All of these brothers have taken
hold of truth and I hold to the position that they are all fellow Christians,
but this shouldn’t stop us from continuing to strive for the ideal while
maintaining fellowship with all those involved.
Now what church
pattern did Jesus leave us? Did he leave us any at all? If you simply read the
3 years of Jesus earthly ministry along with the book of acts you will catch
glimpses of it. It exists in simple form beneath all the other activities going
on around it. It is simply a pattern of people coming to the reality of the
gospel and living out their lives in Christian community with each other. They
gather around the great reality of the resurrection of their leader and
joyfully witness for him through the way they live and speak. In this community
of people [ecclesia, church, body, temple, etc.] there reside believers with
various roles and responsibilities. Some are apostles; others are prophetic in
their gifting, while others have gifts of giving, charity and a whole variety
of different gifts. In this community there are no paid pastors/priests, though
provisions are made for those that labor in the word [acts]. There is no concept
of professional ministry at all. To the contrary those with apostolic gifts
find themselves working regular jobs as they travel around speaking about
Jesus.
When they do collect money it is for the
purpose of sharing it with their brothers and sisters who are in need [Acts
6:1, 1Cor;16:1,2Cor;9:1]. They viewed themselves as the followers of Jesus
in a simple way. The church at Jerusalem
had structure, but that was primarily because they were still meeting at the
temple and the leadership structure of worship and service was not totally
abandoned after the Jews became believers. The gentile church in Antioch [acts 13] did not
have a hierarchal system at all. There were apostles and prophets, but they
were simply gifted ones in a voluntary society of believers. We must not read
the N.T. through the paradigm of 21st century glasses. When they
speak of ‘church’ and apostle and pastor [a term only found once in the N.T.]
they are not speaking of them in terms that we see them today. But simply
gifted people in a community of people of whom all are priests and kings. There
is no laity versus clergy mentality! That didn’t exist! Jesus spent 3 years
with his disciples and then left. Why couldn’t it have been 5 years or 7? While
there is no magical number to it, he did say it was expedient for him to
deposit truth into them and leave [John 16:7] The concept is if he
leaves them, they by necessity will grow and mature!
This pattern is later seen with Paul in acts,
he goes to areas and preaches the gospel of grace and then leaves! Sometimes he
stays for a short time, and other times a few years. But he never stays for
good! He doesn’t set up paid pastors over these communities, though he does
tell his disciples [Timothy and Titus] to recognize elders in these communities
[that’s what ordination is]. These communities of believers continue in the
doctrines of the apostles and are left alone to grow up. None of these churches
[communities] had leaders who functioned as pastors in the modern sense. It’s
amazing how we can read the bible over and over again and never see this. There
are verses speaking of leaders and elders in the N.T., but we often translate
that to fit into our present mindset of ministry. Remember the example of
Christ, the church he built [with the disciples for 3 years] was a community of
people who lived, ate and experienced life together over a period of time and
then sent into the great commission. This simple pattern is what Paul and
others followed in order to spread Gods kingdom in the earth. The great
building of God!
CHAPTER 5; BRING ALL THE TITHES INTO THE
STOREHOUSE.
Over the years
through various avenues of teaching ministry I have dealt with the area of
giving. I have learned that the way we see ‘church’ affects how we see
everything else, especially in the area of giving! While a new believer in
Christ I soon was introduced to the concept of tithing to the storehouse on
Sunday. The people who believe this are not bad people, but rather dedicated
Christians who believe in honoring God with the firstfruits of all their
increase. While practicing giving as a new believer I had no problem with
giving 10% of my income to the Lord. Till this very day we give large amounts
of money to the kingdom
of God and I personally
believe all the verses in the bible dealing with giving and receiving. I just
believe that the New Testament storehouse/temple are the people of God [once
again you see how we view ‘church’ affects everything we do!] and giving into
the storehouse is actually giving to meet the needs of the Christian community
all around you.
So true New
Testament giving would consist of giving cheerfully to meet the needs of people
around you as opposed to only putting money in ‘church’ on Sunday. All the
verses that we use to justify putting money into the Sunday basket are truly
speaking of meeting the needs of believers. Go check it out if you don’t
believe me. The times when Paul talks about giving in 1st and 2nd
Corinthians he is taking up a collection for the poor saints [Gods storehouse]
in Jerusalem .
The verses when he speaks on giving are not speaking about him receiving a
tithe to finance his salary, but giving to meet the needs of people. When he
speaks about giving to support those who labor in the word, once again this is
meeting the basic needs of the leaders, and not speaking about a tithe system
to support pastors [like a New Testament Levite, this concept is foreign to the
New Testament].
Even when Paul speaks about giving to support
elders in your community he speaks about not muzzling the ox that’s treading
out the corn [1Cor;9:9]. Why not use a verse referring to the Levitical
tithe? Because that would be the last verse you would use to convince a gentile
church to give, while at the same time teaching them they were not under Jewish
law and coming against the judiazers who were always trying to bring Paul’s
churches back under Jewish law! Even the silly justification we use to teach
tithing [like if its in Hebrews its New Testament] actually teaches the
opposite.
The fact that tithing
is mentioned in Hebrews in no way means we should tithe! Hebrews is simply
showing the superiority of the new covenant over the old and this reference [Hebrews
7] is not speaking about New Testament giving at all, but about the new
covenant being better than the old. When Jesus rebuked the Pharisees of his day
because they were giving to the temple and neglecting the needs of their
fathers and mothers, he was giving us a prophetic sign that we should give with
the focus on community rather than temple [Mark 7:11 ]. All the New Testament references
dealing with giving as New Testament gentile believers speak about giving
freely to meet the basic needs of the Christian community around them, even
when dealing with support for the spiritual leaders among them.
The concept of tithing on Sunday to your
church organization [American corporate entity] as telling people if they don’t
they will be under a curse is ridiculous! Where free from the law and that’s
It. Oh but some will say the tithe was before the law, which is true. The
Sabbath was before the tithe and the law [God instituted the concept of the
Sabbath in the first 7 days of creation], but yet we know that the New
Testament gentile believers are not under the Sabbath [Col ;2:16 ], but yet we use this argument to justify the
tithe. LET ME MAKE MYSELF CLEAR, I AM NOT AGAINST CHRISTIANS PUTTING IN MONEY
TO THE OFFERING ON SUNDAY, I am not even against supporting those who labor in
the word among you. But I am against telling people if they don’t put 10% of
their money in the offering plate on Sunday that they are under a curse!
The New
Testament clearly teaches the concept of giving of your finances to advance the
work of God. The New Testament also teaches giving to meet the needs of people.
In all of these cases it is always taught in a way that is voluntary and
without compulsion. I don’t have the time to reference all the various verses
dealing with these issues, but invite you to either order our cassette teaching
catalog, or if you live in the Corpus Christi area to listen to our radio
program [currently on K.C.T.A. radio, AM 1030 every Sunday at 9:45 a.m.],
either way you will find plenty of teaching on new testament giving that I’ve
done in the past. I would encourage you to simply re-read all the verses you
are familiar with on this subject and see how they always refer to meeting the
needs of people [either poor saints or laboring elders] and never deal with
actual building programs for ‘churches’. Don’t forget you will find Old
Testament examples of giving for the construction of the temple, but like I
said the New Testament temple today are the ecclesia! That’s why giving in the
New Testament is always focused on meeting the needs of people.
I would also
like to stress that no New Testament minister became rich off the ‘tithes’of
the people, but rather trusted God to meet their needs. Either through the
generosity of others or through manual labor [God forbid we teach this doctrine
in 21st century Christendom!]. Today’s mentality of going into ‘ministry’
for the sake of becoming rich off the giving of people to your ministry is way
off base of what the New Testament teaches. Young ministers going into ministry
and telling people to sow into their ministry so they can reap a reward is a
distorted use of the concept of sowing and reaping. Remember that even though
Paul did use these concepts to appeal to Christians to give, and he also spoke
about God blessing them in return, yet Paul himself was collecting money for
poor Christians in these scenarios! He was actually supporting himself by
manual labor at the time he penned these scriptures [tent making]. So for the
modern day minister to go into ministry and use these verses to rake in a
personal financial harvest is wrong! Get our first book [house of prayer or den
of thieves] for a more in depth look at this subject.
When dealing
with this issue in general there are lots of areas of manipulation that leaders
use, often unconsciously, in order to get people to give into their visions for
God. Many times the leaders are acting themselves out of a fear to compete and
live up to the expectations of modern ministry. They are motivated out of a
sincere, but misguided desire to fulfill Gods will and because of this they
believe if people would be more faithful to God then surely the finances for
their visions for God would come in. Thus the references to Achan [withholding
that which is Gods] and other verses [Malachi] dealing with being cursed if you
don’t give the required amount, actually become a means of unconscious
manipulation in the hands of the leaders. When we do not rightly discern the
Lords body [ecclesia] a whole host of wrong actions grow out of this. We bring
guilt and oppression on Gods people that goes 100% against the spirit and
intent of New Testament giving.
CHAPTER 6; THE GARDEN OF GOD , AUTHORITY IN THE CHURCH.
When God made
man he put him in a garden atmosphere with the mandate to care for it. He put
man over all of his creation and allowed him to rule it [steward it]. The only
thing that God did not put under mans rule, was man himself! God instead put
Adam as a husband, and later a father, in a family environment. Eve and the
future children that they would have were not originally designed to be ruled
by each other. The concept of submission and respect for authority were only to
be seen in this type of family relationship. As the family of man would grow
and eventually inhabit and have dominion over the earth [not each other!] they
would then be fulfilling Gods desire for man, corporately, to rule together.
Well as you know Adam blew it and basically everything got thrown out of whack,
including the original design for man to rule together as Gods creation. This
one area of perverting Gods original design is the root cause of all future
problems including false authority and slavery. This one area of sin was the
major issue of the most harmful war that America has ever fought, a war
amongst ourselves [the civil war]! This false submission that Americans called
slavery continues to exist in society in subtle, and at times not so subtle
ways.
Even as I pen this chapter I am in San Antonio for a soccer
tournament for one of my kids. We went out last night to a favorite buffet,
while going up for my plate I was served by a young black man. It seemed as if
he was in the minority of this mostly white business. Whether he has ever been
mistreated or abused as an employee I don’t know. But I do know that when he
served me my steak [I like to get my moneys worth at the buffets!] I simply
said thank-you. You could tell how much he appreciated being recognized in a
voluntary way like this. Every time I got up again to fill the plate [with
fruits and salads of course] this young brother wanted to go out of his way to
give me another steak! When people are not forced to serve, but feel
appreciated for the service they do, they will serve and submit with joy most
of the time. True servant leadership is what Jesus taught the future leaders of
His church [John 13]. Jesus rebuked false authority when he said the
Pharisees were blind leaders of the blind. He stated that they were leading all
right, but it had nothing to do with kingdom leadership. True authority in Gods
kingdom does not work like the worlds system. Jesus told us that his kingdom
operated along different lines [Luke 22:26 ].
The garden of God was a natural environment that God
placed man into in which man and God would commune together, man would love and
honor God willfully while submitting to each other in love. The fall affected
all of this and plunged man into a sinful state that would cause him to rule
over other people instead of creation only. This tragic sequence of events has
affected man since the beginning and still exists in man today. Through the
great redemptive work of Christ it is being removed, but often at a slow pace.
Man doesn’t see all the ways that false authority affects him, especially in
the ‘church’ world. Because he yet doesn’t fully see how even our modern
mindsets of leadership in the church are at times a product of this false
authority, he therefore cannot repent of a sin that he feels is actually a
service to God! When church leaders rule with the mindset that the people are
simply tools who need to be motivated in order to fulfill the great vision of
the leader, and when the people don’t respond properly that they are all rebels
who if they were right with God would submit and help bring the vision to pass,
this mindset is often a product of false authority.
There are times when leaders will inspire
people to act and do great things for the kingdom, but it must be free from
manipulation and hypocrisy. The Pharisees saw themselves as a ruling class in
the religious community of their day. Jesus said they were hypocrites because
they used guilt and manipulation to accomplish religious goals. They laid
burdens on people instead of freeing them [an act of slavery]. True kingdom
leadership is not the mindset or vocabulary of submission and authority. Though
these concepts are taught in the New Testament they were intended to function
in a family/garden environment. When we put them into the building of man they
will have devastating results!
CHAPTER 7; THE BABYLONIAN
CAPTIVITY OF THE CHURCH, A CONTEMPORAY LOOK.
Historians have
referred to the Babylonian captivity of the church in regards to the Roman
catholic influence over the church in past centuries. John referred to Babylon in the book of
revelation as a force that would come against the church and ultimately be
judged by God himself because of her persecution of the church. While there are
many ways you could apply the verses speaking about Babylon and how she is an enemy of the
church, I would like to deal with one area relevant to ecclesia. When the
children of Israel were captives in the land of Babylon they came up with the
idea of starting synagogues as a way that they could encapsulate their culture
and heritage in a ‘local place’ during their captivity so as to not forget
their history with God. On the surface this would seem to be a noble goal,
after all there intentions were well meaning. Well this ‘place’ that they set
up later became a good way to administrate their duties as good Jews
[Christians] and they eventually built their whole religious society around
this well-meaning institution.
They set up their religious
leaders [Pharisees] and began to use this well-meaning system to judge any one
in their community according to the standards that surrounded this ‘place’
[sounds familiar doesn’t it]. They lost sight of Gods original purpose for them
to be a kingdom of priests who would influence all society around them with the
reality of Jehovah. They forgot their true calling as a holy nation and
digressed into this small-minded society of religious people who were so hung
up on the dotting of I’s and crossing of T’s that they didn’t even recognize
their own messiah when he showed up in their midst! Well as you can see the
culture of worship that they set up while captives in Babylon eventually became their plumb line
that not only judged everyone else around them, but also was used to condemn
the very messiah whom they were waiting for. Often times we establish systems
of religion and worship that might have served a noble purpose in its beginning
stages, but later it grows into a system that has a mind and voice of its own.
This system [the building of man] can take on a life of its own and even get to
a stage were it can persecute unto death the very one[s] that it was intended
to benefit.
When we don’t
see the true picture of what God originally intended [without a vision the
people perish] we unconsciously persecute the very ones whom God sends to bring
his original purpose to pass [Christ and those whom he sends]. When we view
‘church’ as only that which takes place in our buildings on Sunday [synagogue
mentality] or even if we extend our view to that which is being accomplished
through the society of people who we associate with in our group, this is still
only a small limited view of what ‘church’ is. We often times cannot see that
those who are part of the body of Christ in our communities are vital parts of
‘church’. Even those who have not technically ‘joined’ a church. Even when we
use the term ‘joining’ church, we usually mean the group who meets on our
block, or area of our city. While these groups of believers who meet in our
cities on any given Sunday across this nation and the world are for the most
part true Christians, this in no way is the only aspect of New Testament
ecclesia. The gathering of believers is a scriptural element of New Testament
Christianity to be sure, be we often perceive this to be the primary purpose of
Christianity.
We have all
heard of people being spoken of as in sin because they do not associate with
any particular building in their city. We say that they don’t go to ‘church’.
We don’t even realize what were saying when we judge people after the standard
of our concepts of ‘church’. I believe it is o.k. for believers to meet on
Sunday and worship and associate with other believers for a common cause [like
sending missionaries to the world], but we must be willing to see the bigger
picture and stop judging others according to a plumb line that at times is no
different than the one the first century Pharisees used to condemn Christ!
CHAPTER 8; THE 1ST CENUTURY CHURCH .
When the
ecclesia gathered in the 1st century, they did not have church
buildings. They had no paid pastoral office. They did not take up offerings
every time a minister was done speaking. They had no one individual who was
considered the main leader of the congregation, who the people saw as their
hired minister. There were no traveling evangelists or speakers who made a
living by setting up a regular schedule of ‘churches’ in which he would hold
meetings to finance his ‘full’ time ministry. There were certainly no big name
teachers who would travel around to various cities and receive large 10,ooo
dollar offerings from average Christians in order to finance their 200,ooo
dollar and upward salaries, especially while appealing to poor saints and
widows on a mass scale [through Christian TV.].
While all these practices [traveling, TV,
meeting in buildings, etc.] are not in and of themselves bad, but if we use
them to measure the faithfulness of other Christians [like always appealing for
funds every time we meet or speak, and then insinuating that those who don’t
give in this environment are backslidden or even lost!], then what we have done
is elevated present day Christianity to a standard of how ‘faithful’ we are to
tithe to a ‘church’ on Sunday and whether or not we give money to the speakers
who visit our ‘churches’ on a rotating basis throughout the life of our
‘church’. Those who don’t operate in this limited perspective of ‘church’ are
deemed in sin and rebellious, even the ones who are faithfully serving Christ
in all other areas of life. I personally have given time, money and material
goods on a regular basis to meet the real needs of people around me [like
feeding homeless guys], I have given money into offerings on Sundays and have
financed out of pocket our radio programs and book writing ministry. I have
never received a salary from our ministry and don’t appeal for funds. I have
supported myself as a fulltime firefighter for over 20 years, and have given
many thousands of dollars into ministry.
My primary focus on giving has been patterned
after Jesus teaching [give to him that asks of you, meet the needs of you
brothers all around you mentality]. But my critics over the years have tried to
look at a tithing statement from a ‘church’ to judge whether or not we give. I
have even refused to deduct our giving from the income tax we pay [this is out
of personal preference, its much easier for me to directly meet the needs of
the people I work with, without having to justify and save receipts every time
I take a homeless guy out to eat!]. Because of this people could read a
‘church’ record of our giving and judge us on a criterion that does not measure
up to their understanding of giving. Remember Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for
using their giving to a building [the temple] as an excuse to not meet the real
needs of their family [the true temple made up of people].
I have found that those who give under law
truly don’t take the words of Jesus concerning giving as serious as the words
of Malachi. They feel if they don’t put 10% in the basket on Sunday they might
be cursed, but whether or not they give to him that asks of them is sort of a
little moral teaching from Jesus that we view with a take it or leave it
mentality. The law always robs us of the true joy and intent of grace living.
This very area [giving of money] is the area that Jesus was speaking about when
he said ‘your traditions make void the commands of God’ [Mark 7:13 ]. Their dedicating of the
tithe to the temple was a tradition that they used to by-pass true grace
giving.
I understand that tithers will read these
verses and say that Jesus never told them not to tithe, but that they should
have done both [giving to their parents and tithe]. While this is true, you
must recognize that Jesus also never told the 1st century Jew not to
keep Sabbath, but we know now that Sabbath keeping is not for gentile
Christians either . The mindset of Jesus was not to tell the 1st
century Jewish community to stop all their religious traditions [tithing, Sabbath
keeping, etc.], but to show them a better way through grace. Eventually the
gentile church would grow into its own unique organism, not mimicking Jewish
tradition [tithing, Sabbath, temple worship, etc.]. This was the tension you
saw in the churches of Paul as opposed to the church at Jerusalem [acts 13,15]. The church at
Jerusalem continued to meet at the temple and followed tithing and many other
Jewish teachings [circumcision], while the gentile churches had none of this
baggage at all [read acts 13 and 15].
The gentile churches established by Paul
didn’t tithe, keep Sabbath or circumcise themselves. The church at Jerusalem did! We need to
understand that the words of Jesus concerning Christian living have the highest
priority for us today. While the whole bible is the inspired word of God, even
the passages that speak about circumcision, Jewish dietary law, Sabbath keeping
and tithing. Yet we don’t observe every ordinance we find spoken about. Just
because you can find a subject spoken about in the law, before the law, and in
the New Testament it doesn’t mean it applies to us today! The Sabbath was in
the law, before the law, and in the New Testament as well. Yet Jesus never told
the Jews of his day not to keep Sabbath, but we know that the Sabbath is not
for us today.
The Sabbath even has more authority than the
tithe because it is in the 10 commandments and is found in the 2nd
chapter of genesis, long before the tithe and the law! But yet we know we are
not under this law! So to be clear and consistent we must understand that it is
o.k. to meet on Saturday or Sunday or any other day of the week. Its o.k. to
give 10% on Sunday or any other day, but its also o.k. to meet on Tuesday and
give 6 or 12 % of your money. Its o.k. to meet on no special day and to simply
give as God leads and to commune with other believers from house to house on a
weekly basis and never take an offering at all [you simply don’t find Jesus or
Paul taking offerings every-time they preach!]. So while my purpose is not to
condemn any one for their service to God, we certainly don’t want to condemn
others because of what we judge to be their lack of obedience to ‘new testament
Christianity’!
CHAPTER 9;THE PLURAL VOICE OF ECCLESIA.
The modern
pattern of ‘American’ church not only silences the corporate voice of true
ecclesia, but also gives a distorted platform/forum for individuals to have too
much of a singular voice and influence in the local church. Because the church
originally was to function in a community atmosphere, when she digressed into a
‘place’ where Christians meet on Sunday this silenced the corporate voice and
exalted the individual voice. This is also why you see so many seminars and
counseling courses on ‘pastor’ burnout. We are trying to fit pastors into a role
of ‘C.E.O’ which was never intended from the start. This is also why you have
so much immature teaching in the church [the prosperity gospel and other
distorted stuff!] because this false way of seeing church allows for one man to
have way too much influence and voice that the Lord never intended any one
person to have.
While I’m not against teachers having a lot of
influence [look at Paul’s influence on us today], I am against the concept that
anyone who feels called into ministry begins a lifelong pursuit to raise money
from people every Sunday with the intent on creating a bigger voice with bigger
influence no matter who he is. God simply hasn’t called ministers to function
as C.E.O's who are in this type of rat race to see who could become more famous
than the next guy! This false way of seeing church also stifles the true
corporate voice of the believers in the congregational setting [when they
meet!]. The only N.T. book that actually deals with ‘church’ attendance is
Corinthians. The book is written by Paul to all the believers corporately. You
will notice that he never addressed his letters to the ‘pastors’ of these
churches, because there were none according to our present understanding of the
word ‘pastor’. If there were such an office in the N.T. churches, it would be
unthinkable for Paul not to directly address and rebuke the ‘pastors’ for what
they’re ‘allowing’ to happen in ‘their churches’.
The N.T. simply doesn’t have the role of
‘pastor’ as we’ve come to define it today! When Paul does address the churches
he writes directly to the brothers in Christ. In Corinthians he rebukes them
for having disorderly meetings and tells them that when they get together they
should all take turns speaking, one by one in order. What! You mean he doesn’t
tell them to be quiet and submit to their pastor! Paul you must be in
rebellion! Who do you think you are? Writing the brothers in the first place,
and then you tell them they can all speak and prophesy and have a collective
voice! Poor Paul just didn’t understand church etiquette! As you can see when
we don’t ‘see’ the church as a community of people we distort everything else
that we call ‘church’ in today’s modern setting!
The pressures of
modern day ‘pastors/CEO’s’ are absent from New Testament thought. Paul and
other New Testament ministers were under pressure to be sure, but the types of
pressure were of a different sort. Paul was under pressure over his concerns
for the spiritual development of the communities [churches] he was planting. He
did not know the pressures of big budgets and great physical building programs.
Absent from Paul’s vocabulary were fears of not raising enough money to
complete the buildings, or the brothers showing up on Saturday to paint the
‘church’ and things of this nature. Paul’s pressures and burdens consisted
mainly over the spiritual character and well being of the communities he
planted. Never do you find him collecting money for his big project for God, or
using scriptures on sowing to raise funds for his own financial empire!
While I know this type of language is strong,
yet I believe if I don’t use it you guys might not truly see the depth of our
wrong understanding of what the church truly is! The language of ‘church’ today
is so far removed from that of the 1st century ecclesia. Today we
are ‘building-centric’ instead of ‘Christ-centric’. That which flows from our
lips and hearts is centered around modern day professional ministry. We speak
of raising huge amounts of money to fulfill our leaders God given dreams. It’s
all about high powered egos competing with each other to prove who is the most
gifted or most anointed among us. The same spirit of the disciples when they
were fighting over who would be the greatest in Gods kingdom. Much of modern
day church is simply a means by which men with great egos manipulate the saints
into doing things that God never intended, and much of it is simply fueled by a
competitive spirit that is no different than climbing up the ladder in the
corporate world!
CHAPTER 10; TRYING TO FIT THE BUILDING OF GOD
INTO THE BUILDING
OF MAN.
I recently
picked up a copy of a Christian magazine, while briefly looking through it to
see if anything would catch my interest, I saw that they were dedicating an
entire year to the subject of apostles/prophets and the 5-fold ministry today.
They explained how they were going to devote an entire year to the subject
because of the various questions arising out of this teaching. Some of the
areas they would cover included things like ‘how the 5-fold operates in the
congregational setting’ and ‘should every church have the 5- fold operating in
it’ and ‘how do they fit into the Sunday church service’. The ‘5-fold’ were
NEVER INTENDED TO FIT INTO THE BUILDING OF MAN! Trying to restore gifts into a
limited setting only creates more problems than it solves. All Gods gifted ones
were meant to function in the community of believers [ecclesia] and not in a
limited Sunday morning setting. If you don’t ‘see’ church in the true sense you
will not ‘see’ the 5-fold in a true functioning way. All of Gods people were
created to flow in community, the 5-fold are simply gifted people in your city
who have a calling to relate to your community in effective ways. They are not
to compete with each other on Sunday morning to see if we can have all the
5-fold operating in our ‘churches’. Our ‘churches’ are communities of believers
in our cities! Not the Sunday morning service!
I have read
articles on churches who saw the truths of ‘city wide church’ and have
attempted once again to fit the building of man into the building of God. While
most of these efforts are well meaning, the perspective is still flawed. Many
modern movements have ‘started churches’ in more than one location and refer to
themselves as one church in 2 or 3 locations. While there’s nothing really bad
about this, it in no way is what the N.T. speaks about when referring to the
church in your city! The church in your city are all the believers who reside
in your city. The 5-fold operating in the ‘church’ are simply all the 5-fold
carrying out fathers plan for the kingdom in your city. Trying to see the
5-fold restored or the ‘city church’ through the lens of the building of man
only does more harm than good!
CHAPTER 11; THE TABERNACLE OF
MOSES/DAVID.
One of the most
interesting studies I have ever done was on the tabernacle of David. When I
first heard of ‘the tabernacle of David’ I thought it was referring to Moses
tabernacle. I never knew that there were 2 tabernacles, and that both existed
at the same time! What a contrast between law and grace contained right in the
O.T. and we look right past it and don’t ‘see’ the significance of the pattern!
I am not going to give you all the references to where these tabernacles are
mentioned in scripture, because it would take too much time to look them up
right now, and being I don’t make a profit personally from our ministry [NO
SALARIES FOR ME BROTHER!] I’ll have you guys look the verses up for yourselves.
It will take an in depth study to ‘see’ everything I am about to show you.
During Moses time as a leader of Gods people,
God instituted the tabernacle system [the tabernacle of Moses]. This system of
worship and service was simply a way to show a type of Christ’s future ministry
and sacrifice on our behalf. The high priest and sacrificial system surrounding
this tabernacle showed how hard it was for sinful man to approach a holy God
without atonement and a priest to serve as a ‘stand in’ for man. Those of you
who know the bible are familiar with this. The 2 tablets of the 10 commandments
were contained in the ark [box] in the back room of this 2-room movable tent
structure. The reason the tabernacle was moveable as a tent that would be set
up and taken down as God led, was for a type of Gods progressive revelation for
the ages to come. God was showing whenever the cloud by day or fire by night
would move so like wise the people of God [a fluent group of followers as
opposed to a stagnant place/ ecclesia verses temple!] would be able to move and
follow the Spirits direction. The reason God wanted a MOBILE STRUCTURE AS
OPPOSED TO A TEMPLE WAS TO SHOW THE ORGANIC NATURE OF ECCLESIA AS OPPOSED TO A
STAGNANT TEMPLE CONCEPT!
Well later on in
Jewish history the people blew it over and over again [a type of the laws
inability to change mans nature] and eventually the ark of the covenant [the
box with the 10 commandments in it] was taken captive by Israel’s enemy and
what you had left was an empty tent, with structure and priest [pastor] and all
the ritual of ministry without God! The ark also represented Gods presence
because the law is simply a little glimpse of Gods character enclosed in an
earthly vessel [which is a type of the incarnation of Jesus too!]. Well as you
can imagine the system of ‘church’ continued to go on without a hitch. The fact
that God left their tent a long time ago didn’t stop these ministry focused
Jews one bit! They kept going strong for God even though He wasn’t in their
tent [church] anymore. They had too much riding on the tent system of church in
order to shut things down and seek God! After all the Levitical priests would
loose their salaries and the tithers would have no were to put their tithes on
Sabbath day!
Well as Israel managed to keep the tent
system alive [absent God] The Lord would eventually raise up a new king after
Gods own heart whose name was David. This king was different than all the
others. He would be a type of Christ for all future generations. This king rose
to power and wanted to know why the people were so willing to carry on church
[tent] without that ark! After all God was in that thing [or so they thought].
Well king David would have none of this and quickly devises a scheme to return
the ark back to Gods people. In his zeal he goes after the ark to recapture it
again, and well you know the story, the poor brother who was picked to go on
this ministry assignment accidentally touches the ark when it is about to fall
and the brother is slightly rebuked by the Lord [he gets killed!]. Well much to
David’s dismay the ark gets sidetracked at some brothers house for a while, and
low and behold the brother whose house the ark is at is so blessed that all his
neighbors think he hit the Texas lotto [its all right to joke a little, after
all 99% of Christendom is still stuck with the tent and no ark and yet God
hasn’t killed us yet].
So after David
sees this he goes back to the scripture and realizes that God only killed poor
brother so and so because he didn’t follow the right tent carrying procedure
that is supposed to be used when retrieving a captive ark from hostile
territory [wow, who would have known that there was a manual on that one!]. So
David calls the ministry team together again and explains to them that the
reason old brother so and so died was because he messed up on some little technicality
and David’s willing to give it another try! Well as you can imagine the
brothers weren’t fighting over this ministry opportunity. Hey send me to the
nursing home or something. Well lo and behold they get a team together and go
get that ark and no one gets slain in the Spirit.
David now builds a brand new tent to put this
ark in. I never saw this before. This tent [Davids tabernacle] is set up by
David and is a complete violation of the entire system regulating
tent-etiquette! You would think they would have learned not to stray from that
rule anymore! But bless God this new tent system is greater than the old mosaic
one by 1000 %! David sets up his worshippers and praisers who even start their
own worship ministry, writing famous music and all [where did you think psalms
came from!]. This tent [church] is way better than old Moses tent [church]. All
the people in town cant wait to go to David’s tent, and he even picks up some
members from Moses tent and as you can imagine there is a little tension
between David’s ministry and the tent Moses started way before this David ever
came on the seen [who does David think he is starting this new tent in town,
doesn’t he know that the Moses tent people were here long before him!].
Well David goes ahead anyway and has the most
successful tent ministry in the region. He has the coveted ark, no formal
worship service, just free flowing access to the ark! No 2-room system anymore
brother, and the praise and worship service, well you cant beat it with a stick
[or should we be scriptural and say rod]. Well this new tent is so daring that
David even thinks he’s a priest. He has the nerve to put on an ephod! This is
something only priests can do! [That’s if your under law, but in this new tent
all are priests, and after all David is a type of Jesus and if I remember I
think he has something to do with being a priest and king, doesn’t He?]. Well
this new tent is so good people started calling it a mega-tent. It’s definitely
the tent to be at. If they had Christian TV back then you would be able to pick
this tent service up 7 days a week. Things are going so good David’s not about
to change things now. WRONG! David is so excited about the great success he’s
finding in ministry that he comes up with this great idea. Lets build a temple
for God. Surely God would like this permanent structure, after all I’m doing it
to glorify Him. Well just to be sure let me call old brother Nathan [he has a
great prophetic ministry you know! Very accurate]. Well old Nathan finds time in
his very active ministry schedule to meet with David. David floats his plan,
and lo and behold Nathan prophesies some great sounding words and the deal is
done! Surely a prophet as accurate as Nathan cant go wrong?
Well Nathan goes
back to his international ministry headquarters and God tells him he was wrong!
What, I’m a national level prophet! I can’t go back on what I said, it will
ruin my ministry! Old David already went and told everyone about my great
sounding prophetic word and this will utterly ruin my income! I must prosper so
I can finance my prophetic ministry or else I wont be able to keep up with the
big boys! Nevertheless Nathan does God this one favor and tells David he was
wrong. The Lord actually tells David that He never wanted a temple in the first
place! Could it be that the tent David was ruling over was a better picture of
the NEW TESTAMENT community of believers who were yet to come [I think so!].
Could it be that David’s rule as a king and priest over Gods prophetic
community would have been fulfilled better if they stuck with the moveable
[organic] tent system than a permanent building? Well the rest is history. Let
me get a little serious here. I am not saying your church building is wrong. I
am saying God is more concerned with the organic nature and growth of ecclesia than
he is with your church building program!
CONCLUSION.
The church
continually is in a state of reform and restoration until we all come into the
unity of the faith and maturity in Christ. During each generation of church
history God had people and groups of believers who were flowing in greater
truth than those around them. This is not to say they were a special or elite
class, but simply a remnant who were moving ahead of the status quoi! God will
only allow the church to recover so much truth and experience as much change as
she can handle in any one generation. This principle is found in the story of
the children of Israel
only being able to take so much land at a time as they were entering their
inheritance [Deut;7:22 ].
God told them if they took too much at one time the wild animals would overtake
the land faster than the children of Israel could settle in it.
So likewise the Lord allows certain amounts of
truth and restoration to take hold in each generation of church history. The
reformation of the 15th/16th century restored the lost
truth of justification, but Luther didn’t deal with the truth of ecclesia being
a community as opposed to a place of meeting. The Lord allowed Luther to go so
far and then stop. You can see this pattern in all areas of Gods restoration of
truth in every generation of believers. The Protestants moved into truth
concerning justification by faith, but they simply replaced the concept of the
catholic priest with the role of pastor. They never dealt with the ‘way’ we do
church, but only with certain doctrines concerning church. The old tradition of
a priest/pastor mentality never changed. This mentality is not found in the
book of acts or the gospels, but was introduced sometime around the 4th
century when the emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. The
well-meaning emperor wanted stability for his realm and slowly introduced the
‘church’ building concept with the role of the ‘priest/pastor’ as the person in
charge who is ‘hired’ to perform certain functions for the people whom he works
for. The pagan concept of funerals and weddings and so forth were now the
responsibility of this new office instituted by Constantine .
This is not to
say that weddings and funerals are wrong, the bible contains stories dealing
with weddings and funerals, but to simply show how the church began to loose
the community mentality and digressed into a professional clergy/laity mindset.
Over the generations the Lord has been in the process of restoring us back to a
family mentality as opposed to an institutional mindset. All the things I’ve
dealt with in this book are open and free for anyone to see while reading
through the New Testament, but we overlooked them because of the grid that we
all view scripture through. We all approach scripture with certain preconceived
mindsets that cause us to read the word in order to justify our own
preconceived prejudices!
We have a tendency to read past the story and
find the ‘jots and tittles’ of truth to fit into our mindsets of church and
ministry. We unconsciously read verses on ‘how to behave ourselves in the house
of God’ and apply that to how we act in the ‘church building’ on Sunday! We
look right past the family mindset. We don’t realize it really means ‘how to
behave ourselves in Gods family’. We see church as a place we go on Sunday and
this mindset unconsciously interprets everything we read in scripture! We cant
‘see’ church as a family of people who live in our city. We see church as the
‘church’ we attend on Sunday. Then those around us who don’t fit into our
mindset are looked upon as in rebellion. We see church as a place where our
‘pastor’ preaches to us every Sunday forever, world without end. We don’t
realize what a co-dependency we developed in the church.
No New Testament
minister was ever supposed to be the ‘life-long’ minister of a ‘congregation’.
They were all to speak and share and love in an atmosphere of community. No
paid ministers, no hired pastors, no church buildings, no co-dependant Christians
who vote on who they will hire to perform religious functions on their behalf!
Radical isn’t it! Can you handle truth! We often think we can until it
challenges us to our core. There is always a cost involved in true reformation.
To some you will have to go back to your bibles and do some real
soul-searching, it will cost you prestige, a salary, respect amongst fellow
clergy and many other unforeseen 'costs’ involved with going on with new truth.
To others you are now released into the reality of being and doing all that
father has called you to.
The apostles and prophets can go and function
in their callings today! Go and be witnesses, if father has called you your
free to do his will! To the evangelists, pastors and teachers you are now
released to bless and build the body around you. You mean John that we don’t
have to raise a lot of money and rent a building and go to college and get
ordained and marry and bury and visit the nursing home and everything else
associated with professional ministry? You got it brother, that’s EXACTLY what
I mean! You are all free to fulfill father’s call where you are at right now.
Don’t live up to the expectations of men. Simply please father and find
contentment in his will. You will know the truth and it will set you free! God
bless you guys and may I meet you one day in the simple setting of ecclesia!
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