Where is the Church at Now?

The history of the Church is very subjective and influenced by our own religious experiences and prejudices.  However, it is a means for us to see where we have come from. Where we are going is a different matter because church history demonstrates that God Himself has intervened in the affairs of mankind from time to time in sovereign ways. (Consider Genesis 11:4-7 the tower of Babel) These interruptions have added great

‘colour’ to our story and demonstrated that the Lord does have a ‘master plan’.

Our recent 24 hour bible school focussed on translating the Wilderness experiences of the nation of Israel into modern realities. All of the experiences of that nation before Jesus came, have served as a model of principles and events that affect us now. The question forms: Can we anticipate what will happen for the Church by looking into such bible models and events?

There is a very human tendency of mankind to organise and structure experiences of God so that we can understand them logically, and possibly replicate them. This has provided a background of institutions that at least remind us of various movements of the Lord during 20 centuries. Not that these institutions (we now call denominations), actually began those movements but the same institutions gained traction often in opposition or reaction to movements of the Holy Spirit. Negative motivations actually spurred them on.

All of the progress and developments within the Church began with the discontented few who wanted more of the Lord. These same individuals inevitably formed independent movements and churches that would provoke the established institutions to sometimes savage persecution; until they actually became institutions themselves. Not that all new movements were scripturally sound, but they did initially exhibit a sincere motivation.

The Human psyche is extremely reactive toward new or inexplicable events; while we do not imagine that we personally would oppose some new movement of the Holy Spirit, history proves that notion wrong.  The Pharisee’s were the ‘current’ move of the God when Jesus happened on the scene.

In the Old Testament, God dwelt among men in 5 different ways:

·         The altars of stone

·         The tent of Moses

·         The Tabernacle of Moses

·         The Tabernacle of David

·         The Temple of Solomon

Each dwelling incorporated the truths and principles of previous dwellings so that there was a cumulative truth that represented a progressive and complete picture of Jesus Christ. We can then say that the Church’s progress is definitely subject to the same principles of progressive growth. So, how do these dwellings of God translate into the ‘Church age’? 1 Chronicles 17:5:  “ for I have not dwelt in a house since the day that I brought up Israel to this day, but I have gone from tent to tent and from one dwelling place to another.”

The altars of stone typify the early Church age when communities of believers carried the good news in simplicity. For OT Believers these short duration and spontaneous events, established the principle of the sacrifice of a sinless substitute for their sins. With the crucifixion fresh in their minds, essentially, churches were like the altars, set up where the need presented. Exodus 17:15: “Moses built an altar and named it The Lord is My Banner.” (Jehovah Nissi)

As the Church became more established, Gentiles changed the culture and it became a practice to set up larger facilities to house the faithful and allow for expressions of the holy Spirit’s manifestations such as we read of in 1&2 Corinthians. Acts 13:44: “On the following Sabbath, nearly the whole city assembled to hear the ‘word of the Lord’. It would seem they hired halls! Moses’ tent served a similar purpose and was a place of great power without any real God-ordained structure. Exodus 33:7: “Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp.” For the Church, the Apostles were called upon to bring some order into the environment but they were careful not limit the Glory of the Lord. Hebrews 13:13: “So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.”

By 200 AD, It became logically obvious to many that some kind of structure was needed to control the many growing Christian groups; possibly because many saw the opportunity of power and money. Bishops, (originally a term for a Pastor) rose up and churches were organised in diocese’s (a Roman term for a region). This trend continued till the 400’s when a ‘Central Bishop’ known as the Katholikos became acceptable to many. Soon after the Armenian Government declared Christianity their official religion followed by Rome and so the noose tightened.

Where was God in all this? It seemed as if the ‘Devil got in the details’ first, anticipating some kind of order based on the Tabernacle to be instituted by the Lord. Creeds and Councils followed as the institutional church coalesced. Despite horrible persecution of non-conformists, the glory displayed by the divinely instituted order in the Tabernacle of Moses, seemed to be ignored by the larger organised church. Instead it must be noted that secular faithlessness was creeping in. The Gifts of the Holy Spirit were still in evidence (in pockets), along with divine healing, but idolatry was also growing rapidly.   

The divine order that releases the glory of the Lord upon the Earth was almost never found in the human based church organisations which became expert at counterfeiting the glory with ornate display. Where the glory was consistently found for many centuries was in the smaller mostly independent groups. These groups avoided and resisted control by the institutional church and suffered extreme persecution. But the Glory of the Lord was always the main attraction.

As a conclusion, we can expect the institutional church to repeat history soon and attempt to impose sociological change upon us as it compromises with the pressures of a secular world.  Jude 1:17-25:  But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.”  These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,  keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.