The Christian life can be seen as that of a journey. We're constantly on the move going from glory to glory and from faith to faith while maintaining a posture of rest. Proverbs 4:18 declares, "The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day." As a Church God is moving us progressively forward in order that Christ may be fully formed in us (Gal 4:19).
While the point of this post isn't my journey let me share a little of it with you. Like many Christians in the bay area I grew up in a Christian home that was birthed out of the Jesus people movement. It wasn't until I was in High School that I decided to get serious about my faith. God put a hunger in my spirit for Him. I was all in. The Church I was in at the time was great. I was being fed daily and had made a great group of friends that encouraged me in the things of the Lord. After some time I felt that something was lacking. It wasn't until I had made some friends at the local Pentecostal church that I found out what it was. To the disappointment of many I ended up at the Pentecostal church. My life was immersed in this Church. After High School I attended Bible College there and ended up teaching in their Bible College in Kinshasa, DRC. During the time I was a part of this Church I had traveled around the world, seen miracles, signs, and wonders, and knew that God had called me to His service. After some time I felt the Lord leading me away from this Church. I praise God for all I learned there and wouldn't have traded it for anything but I to say I walked away with a certain lens in my approach to Scripture would have been a huge understatement. The past ten years have been huge for me in that I've learned so much but more importantly I've unlearned a lot.
My point in sharing my story is that we all have a lens or worldview through which we view the Scripture whether it comes from our culture, our family, our denominations, etc. Our lens isn't always a bad thing but it can blind us to what the Lord has for us. The Lord is calling us upwards and onwards and its going to require us laying aside every weight, and the sin which so easily besets us. This is going to require us to at times see things in a whole new light. To my brothers who have kept the Passover in salvation and to those who have been filled with the Spirit in Pentecost the Lord is calling us on to Tabernacles where we are filled with all the fullness of God.
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19
What we believe determines how we live. Therefore it is imperative that we search the Scriptures and listen to the voice of the Spirit to lead us on this journey. The purpose of these posts is to challenge teachings that have crept in the Church that weaken and divide the body of Christ. I have no desire to go outside the bounds of orthodoxy but I have every desire to dismantle anything not built on a proper foundation.
It was Karl Barth who said, "take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible." I agree with Barth however I think many of us have interpreted our Bible from our newspaper. When you read the paper or watch TV it looks as though the Gospel will not prevail. But when we open our Bibles it is very clear that it will. When did we let the newspaper or current events become our authority for doctrine? It's time we rethink some of what we've been taught.
In the Bible God has promised the Church that the gates of hell will not prevail against her, that all the ends of the earth will turn to the Lord and that all the families of the earth will worship Him. It's my prayer that victory and hope will replace doom and gloom in your eschatology.
If your theology brings you back to the place where you go back to outward temples made with hands, and the ashes of red heifers, and the blood of bulls and goats - somewhere you missed the point. - Lynn Hiles
We can no longer interpret the New Testament through an Old Testament lens. The Old Testament must be interpreted through the New Testament. Because of this we've taken passages like Isaiah 2 and pushed them so far into the future instead of making them a present reality today. When we believe a message of doom and gloom we are resigned to say "that is just how the world is" as opposed to taking a stand and changing the way things are. War, poverty, aids, etc are things that we as a Church must challenge not sit back and let happen. It's time we stop letting culture influence us and for us to start influencing the culture.
We pray "your kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven." The Kingdom of God comes it does not go. An escape from the created order, rather than the redemption of it is an unbiblical view of the Kingdom. This message is that the Kingdom has arrived on earth, not that we can leave earth an go to Heaven. Jesus came to save the world, not save us from the world.
Life is a dress rehearsal for Heaven" is much closer to Gnosticism than biblical Christianity. Life on earth is what Jesus came to restore. - Derek Vreeland
When we view salvation as an escape from the physical world as opposed to saving us within it we've let Gnosticism creep into our theology. While Jesus' Kingdom is not of this world it is very much for and in this world. Our message is not dying and going to heaven but rather one of new creation.
Christ's Kingdom has come. Daniel's stone was cut out without hands, struck the image and is becoming a great mountain that will fill the whole earth (Dan 2:35). The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Hab 2:14). Let this be your present hope.
Looking forward to more! :-)
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