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Law & Liberty Podcast ~ Lou Poumakis – Chalcedon Blog – Chalcedon
In this podcast interview, meet Lou Poumakis, a long-time student of R. J. Rushdoony and author of the new book Faith on Earth?
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The Christian and the Church
Definition
The word church in Scripture most often refers to the body of Christ, all believers. It can also refer to a subset of the full body meeting together in a specific place (e.g. the church at Corinth). It never refers to an organization such as today’s denominations, many of which call themselves churches. In the Scriptural perspective, even local churches are seen as groups of believers, not as organizations. God speaks and gives instructions to Christians, not to organizations.
Class Structure
The early church was not organized. This came later as the bishop of Rome gained ascendancy and the Roman Catholic Church came to dominate the originally independent assemblies. The Reformation that came much later did not eliminate the organizational structure that Rome had established. They reduced it to a two-level, class system with pastors, priests or bishops at one level and the membership below. Today, even the most conservative Reformed denominations still have this class system in place.
That the current system is class oriented is evident in that pastors are ordained by presbyteries comprised of other pastors and are typically not considered to be members of the churches they teach and lead. Elders, that are members of their congregations, have only a limited voice in the decisions made in the upper echelon of these organizations. The upper class is typically in complete control of all preaching in all the congregations of the denomination. This is so because the ordained pastors do virtually all the preaching; over time, this shapes the thinking of the congregation as a whole. Dissenters within the congregations are typically unable to gain enough support from enough of the congregation to have their grievances heard. When and if they do gain a hearing, their cases are judged by pastors from other congregations and the upper class retains its control. In the better denominations, this is viewed as a benevolent arrangement where the persons most knowledgeable of Scripture keep the lesser knowledgeable out of trouble and on the right path (as they see it). This is very often the case but it leads to an unhealthy freezing of doctrine to some past standard of orthodoxy (a very serious problem); above all, it is not Scriptural.
Scriptural View
In the picture Scripture gives us, there is not a hint of a segregated class system. All Christians whether apostles, presbyters, bishops or just individual believers are responsible to Christ, first and foremost. All human authority is secondary and subject to being overridden whenever the believer judges it to be in contradiction to God’s word. This is the freedom all believers have in Christ; obedience to rulers, whether church or state, is by conscience only (Rom. 13:5). In the church, the membership, collectively, is responsible to God for whatever transpires within the church. This responsibility may be exercised through a body of elders but each believer or at least each family head should feel it personally. The congregation sees the authority of pastors and elders as delegated authority and subject to criticism and discipline as needed. They are responsible to judge whether or not what they are being taught or asked to do is or is not in accord with God’s word. This, of course, requires knowledge of the word and may be exercised only to the limit of that understanding. Study of the word is assumed and the Christian must also have an appreciation of his limits therein.
The fact of congregational authority is reflected in the election of elders and pastors; the congregation votes them into office and can to vote them out as well. The congregation is mindful of its ongoing responsibility for the welfare of all of its constituents including its officers (perhaps especially its officers). Each believer sees the church as his church. In the baptism ceremony, for example, it is the pastor or an elder that presides but it is the congregation as a whole that is accepting the new member into its communion. The person presiding is performing the ceremony but it is the congregation that is baptizing the new member. Christians are not just observers, but are participants in whatever activity is in process. This sort of attitude is one that brings vitality and vigor into the church. It also is a safeguard against the introduction of false doctrine or, to the extent that doctrinal growth ceases, the locking-in of existing doctrines. Historically, Protestant denominations have fallen into one or the other of these pitfalls, the liberals typically to the former and the conservatives typically to the latter.
This is not just an academic question. Christian apathy toward the cultural degradation that is now evident in America and throughout the West is to a great extent a consequence of their seeing themselves as peripheral to the work and purposes of the churches they attend.
A Negative Gospel
“The impotence of Christendom has been due to its failure to define its Scriptural goal. It has faced an enemy, self-consciously dedicated to building the city of man, with only a negative gospel, a mystical escapism, and a vague idea of the goal of salvation” (R. J, Rushdoony, Salvation and Godly Rule, 170).
In what sense is the gospel preached in today’s churches negative? It is negative in that, while it purports to be a gospel of salvation, it really is a gospel of escape, escape from the evils of this world. A positive gospel would look toward the growth of Christianity; it would preach the building of the city of God as it displaces the city of man increasingly with time.
It is a mystical escapism in that its focus is otherworldly. One escapes from these evils by shutting them out and focussing one’s attention on the future glories of heaven. A popular hymn states it clearly: “This world is not my home; I’m just a-passing through. If heaven’s not my home, O Lord what will I do?”
The goal of salvation set before Christians in today’s gospel is vague in that it is not clearly defined. It is limited to personal holiness, something felt in the heart that cannot be measured or even described very well. It is a promise of a life to come that will make up for all the burdens that must be born in this world. The church is to suffer for Christ, which suffering is suffering for suffering’s sake. There is no clearly defined purpose for it. It is not done to gain a specific goal such as the furtherance of God’s kingdom on earth. This kingdom is not seen as something to be realized, other than in a very limited and spiritual sense, in this age; it is pushed off until after Christ’s return.
Scripture foretells of a future time when men’s swords will be made into peaceful instruments, a time when the knowledge of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Isa. 11:9; Mic. 4:1-4; Heb, 2:14). Today’s gospel denies this; it pushes it off into the far future, a future beyond the current age and not something Christians should work for or look forward to in this age. Nothing they do today can influence or is related in any way to these promises. History is outside the hands of Christians; their actions do not influence it in any way.
The biblical gospel is positive, real, tangible and optimistic. It begins with the resurrection of Christ, in which all His elect participate (Col. 3:1), and continues with their building of His kingdom on earth, a kingdom that is a great stone that crushes everything before it and grows to fill the earth (Dan. 2:44-46). In this gospel, Christ is seated at God’s right hand (before the second coming) while all His enemies are made a footstool for His feet (Psalm 110:1; Matt. 22:44; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:43; Acts 2:32-35; Heb. 1:13, 10:13). Only with much distortion of Scripture can these prophecies be spiritualized away. They stem from a neoplatonic view of Scripture, one that spiritualizes virtually everything it says. This is a consequence of the influence of the platonic idea that says spirit is good and matter (or flesh) is evil. Today’s churches, both Catholic and Protestant, have never completely shed themselves of this neoplatonic influence; it drives their otherworldly perspective of Scripture.
Bible Study
Gifts to Men
Ephesians 4:
8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men…
11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God…
The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul tells us in this passage that Christ on His ascension gave gifts to certain men to support the work of the Great Commission He had just given to His disciples and indirectly to all Christians (Matt. 29:18-20). This work includes perfecting (maturing) the saints, supporting Christian ministry to the world and for the edifying (building up) of the body of Christ in terms of numbers and influence but especially in their knowledge and understanding of Scripture.
In verse 13 we see the purpose for these gifts. It is to unify the body of Christ in their faith and in their knowledge of Scripture. We can see from the great diversity of theologies held by Christians today that we’re not there yet. In many respects we seem to be more diverse than unified. This is especially the case in the doctrines of eschatology (last things), soteriology (salvation) and pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit) but there are significant, although less obvious, differences in other doctrines as well.
We should be asking why, why is this the case, why so much diversity when God requires unity? Where has Christianity missed the boat? How do we get back on track?
Heresies Needed
In another place, Paul, speaking of the divisions in the church at Corinth, gives some direction. He mentions, almost in passing, “For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you” (1 Cor. 11:19). We see here that differences of opinion (including heresies) are necessary so that everyone may see the God-approved truths. The implication is that false teachings must be examined and their falsehoods exposed and refuted, so that the truth may be made obvious and clear to everyone.
To bypass this step for whatever reason is to allow the false teachings that some will harbor to persist. It is also to fail to obey the instruction God gave the Corinthians and gives us through Paul. This is a major factor behind Christianity’s failure to reach unity two millennia after Christ gave us His Great Commission.
Teachers and Teaching
Bible study is an important aspect of the Christian life. The knowledge of God’s word is essential for Christians to be able to do the work of ministry that Christ requires of them. The gift of teaching relates to bible study. Those having this gift have a special God-given ability to both understand and communicate their understanding to others. Christians should avail themselves of Christ’s gift of good teaching whenever they can. This can be of a personal nature or in the form of books and commentaries. In either case though it is most important to connect what is taught to God’s word. The Bereans did this with respect to the apostle Paul’s teaching and were commended for it (Act 17:10,11).
This kind of ongoing critique of teachers and teaching is essential to the purity of the church. There are many false teachers whose teaching is obviously very wrong but there are many more that harbor error that is not so easily seen. There is much error being taught in today’s seminaries, error that their graduates sincerely believe to be truth and that they faithfully distribute to their flocks. After a period of time, this false teaching becomes dogma that cannot be corrected from within the seminaries or their ordained teachers. The correction can only come from below, from Berean-like believers that study and compare the different teachings with Scripture. Just as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty so is it the price of truth and unity in truth.
Christian, God chose you, adopted you into His family, and made you the essential key to the advancement of His kingdom. Bible study and intelligent critique of teaching is an important aspect of this responsibility. He will reward your faithful diligence as you serve Him in it.
Born Again
Jesus, speaking to Nicodemus one evening, explained to him (and to us) what these words mean (John 3:1-8). The Bible tells us that way back at the beginning of history Adam and Eve died spiritually. They disobeyed God and lost the spiritual life they previously had. This lack of spiritual life was characteristic of all their offspring; every baby born since then was born dead spiritually. The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the holy Trinity, is the basis of spiritual life, which is eternal life. Without the Spirit, we are temporarily alive physically but are dead spiritually. The Spirit, though, will not indwell sinful persons and Adam’s sin, which affected the entire human race, precluded the Spirit’s presence. We are all born in sin and very early in life begin to display our sinful nature. The entire human race was doomed but God was merciful; He sent His Son to take on the human nature and to suffer and die for sinful man. All that was required of man was faith; all that believed in Christ would be saved (John 3:16). But God knew that man was too far-gone to even believe and gave to some the gift of faith (Eph. 2:8). He sent the Spirit to indwell them, their eyes were opened, they saw the truth, they believed and were saved.
So there are two kinds of people in this world, the born again that are spiritually alive, that will live forever, and the spiritually dead that will die what the Bible calls the second death (Rev. 20:14; 21:8). Some will say this isn’t fair; God chooses some people and not others. But all were given the opportunity to believe and be saved and at any point can turn to Him and receive life instead of death. No one, though, does it on their own; anyone that seeks after God does so because God, the Spirit, has indwelled him; he has already been born again.
This faith that God gives, though, is not just simple mental consent nor can it be a life insurance policy that is purchased to cover all the bases. It is a faith that comes from the heart and reflects a deep trust that God is what the Bible says He is and will do as He promises. True faith is always accompanied by obedience. The truly born-again person can slip and sin on occasion but he can not continue in sin (1 John 3:9,10). To continue in what one knows to be sin is to demonstrate false faith. Anyone that finds himself in this situation needs to go to Christ and sincerely beg for mercy. He has promised that He will not turn anyone away: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).
Replacement Theology
This terminology is often used to disparage the biblical teaching of the continuity between today’s church and ancient Israel. The opposing view is a disjoint theology where God changes how He deals with man. In this view, Israel and the church are separate and distinct from each other and God has two bodies of people that He deals with in different ways at different times.
The Scriptural view is that Ancient Israel was the center of God’s work with fallen man prior to the coming of the Son. The people of God in that time were all those—Israelite or gentile—that looked forward to the coming of the Messiah. Today the true church consists of all those—Jew or gentile—that look back and believe that Christ was that Messiah. Jesus said that Moses wrote of Him and believed in Him (John 5:45-47). So Moses and all the believing Israelites of his day were, in today’s terminology, Christians. In this view God does not change (Mal. 3:6); His people consist of one body, His elect, all that believe in Him and the Son. These are the redeemed that come from all of history, those that Christ died for and whose sins are forgiven.
God chose one man, Abraham, a man He endowed with faith, and through him established both the nation of Israel and the church (Gal. 6:16). God’s people, both before and after Christ, both Jew and gentile, were those that shared the faith of Abraham (Rom. 4:16). Unbelievers, then and now, were excluded (Deut. 13). There never was any distinction based on blood lineage; it was always a faith line and never a blood line that delineated God’s chosen people.
The physical descendants of Abraham had a significant advantage over the rest of the world. They were nation God chose to bless with His law and His presence. They had the law and the prophets and were continually called back to the faith when they strayed away. The bulk of the faithful, both prior to and immediately after the Incarnation were Israelites but with the coming of the Messiah, the sacrificial system, and with it the national boundary, was removed. The faith then spread throughout the world; but it wasn’t a new faith; it was the same faith that Moses held two thousand years earlier.
God’s distinction was always based on faith and never on nationality. The sacrificial system was always a pointer to the final sacrifice, Jesus the Messiah. God chose the time for the Incarnation and established this system as its predecessor. He never changed His plan in any way, shape or form. Our planning is necessarily contingent; we need to make changes as we see how things turn out. God does not; He sees the end from the beginning and is the same yesterday, today and forever. So also are His plans.
The detractors of this call it replacement theology. They do so because their theology begins with the idea that God deals with man in “dispensations.” This is the given, a fundamental tenet of the system. With this as a starting point, Israel and the church, because they are separated by the Incarnation, fall into separate “dispensations.” This makes them separate entities and the only possibility of some sort of continuity is that the one “replaces” the other. Hence, “replacement theology.” The idea of a continuum of God’s faithful that spans dispensational boundaries is not just rejected; it is never even given consideration.
Dominion
Dominion is a very misunderstood word. It involves legitimate ownership and legitimate authority to control. To take dominion is to exercise these prerogatives. It is to take possession of and exercise control over something one legitimately owns and has authority to control. The key questions here are what is legitimate ownership and authority?
Since God created all things, all things belong to God and are His to do with as He wills. Any legitimate human ownership or authority can only come as a dispensation from God and is subject to being rescinded by Him. Back at the beginning of history, God gave man the authority to take dominion over the whole world (Gen. 1:26, 28; Psalm 8:6). We learn later that this was not absolute authority, which belongs to God alone, but was limited by His word. Dominion was to be exercised by all men over all things in accordance with God’s law-word. After Adam sinned, he retained possession and control over much of the earth but he lost true dominion. He violated the conditions God set on his dominion over the earth and it was taken away from him. His dispossession from Eden signified his loss of dominion.
Christ, as the second Adam (1 Cor. 15:45), is the only possessor of true dominion today (Eph. 1:21; 1 Pet. 4:11, 5:11; Rev. 1:6). The members of His body, all the regenerate, may exercise dominion in His name. All others may exercise control and have possession of things but not dominion. Their possession and control are, in God’s eyes, illegitimate and temporary. They may have writs or receipts of ownership but these are all human documents that do not have God’s stamp of approval. All dominion, that is all authority and ownership of any kind, is only legitimately exercised in obedience to God’s commandments. All legitimate dominion then, belongs to Christians, those that believe and obey God. Jesus, near the end of His time on earth, very explicitly instructed Christians to do what Adam and his descendants failed to do, to take dominion over the earth (Matt. 28:18-20).
Obedience to this Great Commission means that all property and rule must be transferred from the hands of unbelievers to believers. This, of course, cannot be accomplished through ungodly means; obedience to God’s laws is always required. This transfer can take place through conversion, inheritance or other lawful activity. It cannot be through confiscation, force or any unlawful means. The Gospel is the spear point of this task but it is not the totality of it. The cultures and the laws of the nations need to be brought into conformance with God’s law. Christians need to understand that they are responsible to bring this about (Matt. 6:33). It cannot be left to pastors and missionaries; they are the keepers and teachers of the word; lay Christians are the doers and appliers.
The current world situation then, is out of kilter. Very little possession or control is now in the hands of obedient men. Christ gave us the Great Commission 2,000 years ago. Christians should have taken dominion of the earth by now but for a variety of reasons have not done so. Today the opposite is taking place; the past century or two has seen a particularly acute shift of dominion from Christians to unbelievers. This trend needs to be halted and reversed. It is time for Christians to wake up and get busy with the work the Lord gave them to do.
Because dominion must be exercised in terms of God’s law, Christians need to study to acquire a depth of knowledge of God’s laws and just how they apply to society. Only then will they be prepared to take dominion over the earth and fulfil the Lord’s Great Commission.
A Preaching Problem
One of our better TV preachers, has a problem. His audience does not have the calling and purpose for life that he has. He is constantly interjecting the word “listen” into his message to get their attention. In this he displays his concern that he may not be getting his message across, that too many might not be paying attention. In this he is probably very correct. Today’s Christians are generally not what you would call intensely interested in sermon content.
But what I don’t think this preacher appreciates is the basic reason behind their lukewarm attentiveness. The reason lies in the content of past sermons, his or any they may have heard in almost any church. Specifically, it is centered in the way the Great Commission of Christ is interpreted. It is taken as a call to evangelize the world, a task that is pertinent to pastors and missionaries, not ordinary Christians. These men are seen as having been called to “full time Christian service” and are thusly distinguished from other Christians.
This produces a dichotomy of interests between individuals in the “Lord’s work” and “lay persons.” If the Great Commission is a call to evangelize or preach the Gospel to all the nations, then it is pastors, missionaries, and evangelists that are called or commissioned to the task. They then have a calling from God to do His work in this world. It is something most of them take seriously and that fact is reflected in their attitude toward God’s word. It is something that involves their life’s work and affects them deeply.
The lay person, on the other hand, is only indirectly involved in this work. It is not the central purpose in which his life is centered. He donates or tithes and feels he has done his part. He may set an example and occasionally speak of his faith to others but, for the typical Christian, this is not the focus of his life’s work. It is not anywhere near the most important activity on his priority list.
But if we look at Matthew 28:18-20, and see that what Christ really said to His disciples—and indirectly to all Christians: “teach all nations… to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you”. All nations would mean the entire world, and they are to obey all His commandments. This is clearly much more than a call to preach; it is a call to convert. The world is to be converted to the Christian faith! Christ says here—to all Christians—make this world a Christian world. Putting aside for the moment the difficulties associated with this task, it is clearly not a task that can be accomplished merely through preaching.
It requires first of all that the nation or community the work is to spring from be itself a Christian nation or community. To attempt to evangelize the world from an apostate base is ludicrous. It can only begin at a point that can itself be called Christian. When we consider the inroads humanistic atheism has made in the last century, America today can hardly be considered such a place. America must itself be converted to Christ before it can be so presumptuous as to attempt to convert the world. As history has confirmed, preaching and evangelism has not been enough. It involves major cultural change, which requires serious effort on the part of every true Christian. They must begin to speak out against the atrocities found in the schools, the entertainment media, the government and every area of society. Jesus said when He gave us the Commission that “all power is given unto me.” He is today the King of kings and Lord of lords and we must declare this truth with all the force we can muster. As the legitimate king, His law must govern America and every nation in the world.
If Christians were taught and really believed that God has given them the responsibilities involved in the fulfilling of the Great Commission, it could be accomplished much more easily and rapidly than might appear at first glance. As many polls have shown, there are many more Christians than there are unbelievers in this country. If this task were, as God tells us it should be, the first priority in a substantial number of Christian’s lives (Matt. 6:33), we would see a powerful force unleashed in this country. It would be the beginning of the defeat of secular humanism and a return to godliness, a turning point for America.
Before such a process can begin though, the pulpits must change the message; and before that can take place, the preachers and teachers must see for themselves that they (and their teachers) have been wrong. This is the more difficult task but it is not impossible. Christians today are increasingly fed up with the current accelerating cultural decline and many are ready for this message. Pastors that begin to preach it will find a positive response and will experience real growth. It won’t be growth based on popular music or other non-biblical, secular attractions. It will be real and serious Christians that want to obey the Lord that will come to these churches. As pastors and elders become aware of this trend, they will get on-board and the movement will accelerate. The church will finally have learned its true mission and this nation will be greatly blessed.
Hallowed Be Thy Name
This is the first of the six petitions in what is known as the Lord’s Prayer but really is the saint’s prayer (Matt. 6:9). Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray. What did that mean? One prays for the things that are most needful and most important in the hope that God will see this need and will have mercy and answer the prayer. So the disciples were asking Jesus to tell them what they should be praying for on a daily basis, that is: what things they should be most concerned with. In other words, how should they prioritize their concerns? What are the things in life we should be most concerned with?
Jesus’ answer was to give them the Lord’s Prayer. The first three petitions of the prayer relate to a concern for God and God’s kingdom on earth. The last three relate to human needs, the necessities and difficulties of life. This tells us that God’s kingdom should be set at a higher priority than personal issues or problems. We find this idea confirmed in what Jesus said a little later in Matthew 6:33 where He says: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” The meaning of “these things” is clear from the preceding words: “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?” Scripture clearly tells us that the seeking of God’s kingdom and His righteousness is to take priority over the basic necessities of life.
We should take note that these three petitions: hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, all relate to the world as a whole. They are not personal in nature as are the last three petitions. God’s kingdom cannot be limited to the individual’s heart but must cover the whole earth. The requests that His will be done and His name be hallowed also must refer to the world outside the individual. In particular, for the prayer “hallowed be thy name” to be answered, would mean that a holy reverence for God’s name would be highly visible in the general population. It asks that God’s name be held by all in the highest possible esteem. For His kingdom to have come would mean that His will would be done on earth as in heaven. But just how is His will done in heaven? It is done totally, without hesitation, without question and without limitation of any sort.
So this is what we that pray the Lord’s prayer, pray for. Prior to our personal needs, whatever they may be, we pray for nothing less than the total extension and complete establishment of God’s kingdom on earth. God’s name is to be hallowed and His will done (i.e. His law obeyed) throughout the earth. This is a picture of nothing less than a Christian world. We pray for a Christian world and this is just exactly what Jesus commanded His disciples (and all Christians) to do in the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20). He said there that we were to disciple the nations of the world so that they would come to obey all His commandments, at which point they would of necessity be Christian nations and the world would be a Christian world.
An interesting coincidence! We are told to pray for something we are also commanded to do. Is this a contradiction? Is there something wrong with this concept? No indeed! To pray for anything and to do nothing, to take no action whatever toward bringing about the thing prayed for is hypocrisy. Action must accompany sincere prayer.
Today, though, very little action accompanies the first part of Lord’s prayer. This tells us that, for most, it is not the prayer the Lord gave His disciples. It has been altered; the first three petitions are no longer time coincident with the last three. It looks for answers to the second group in this life but delays the first group into the far future. The words are recited as a wish for the future rather than something that is in process today. But where in Scripture do we find this change in the meaning of the prayer and of the Great Commission? The answer is nowhere! It is only in the convoluted rationalizations of two millennia of compounded theological manipulation that it can be found.
Notice that respect for God’s name comes first; the kingdom and obedience to His law follows. Faith precedes submission and obedience. God’s kingdom is not imposed through the use of force. His subjects obey because they recognize Him as their Creator and Lawgiver. How can they not obey the almighty Creator of the universe! Even more, they obey with gratitude knowing that He gave His Son as a substitute for their sin, sins that required the penalty of death.
This kingdom then, comprised of willing subjects that obey God’s law from their hearts, is what Christians that wish to obey their Lord should be praying for, looking toward and working to establish; it should be the first priority in their lives. God has given His people, those that believe in Him and in His Son, a great purpose in life, the building of His kingdom. He has promised them eternal life with riches beyond description to follow in the next life; but He has also given them this great blessing for this life, a purpose that transcends everything else, one that fills their lives with meaning and has eternal significance. We saw a historical example of this kind of purpose in the men that built the great cathedrals of the middle ages. These took generations to complete and many men spent their entire lives working on one such edifice. Their entire life-purpose was to contribute to the building of the great cathedral as a tribute to God’s glory. It was where God placed them as His faithful servants.
All Christians today should have such a purpose, a life-long calling to serve their Lord. Unfortunately most do not; the churches have not communicated the Lord’s intent but instead have reserved this gift for their ordained ministers and missionaries, those in “full time Christian service.” Contrary to the teaching of Scripture, they have created a hierarchy consisting of two or more classes of membership within Christianity. This upper class, consisting of Christians, pastors, missionaries and theologians, have a purpose but it is a distorted purpose. It is not the purpose God has established for them but rather, one of their own making. Instead of teaching Christians that the Lord expects them to fulfill His commission, they reserve that task to themselves. But it is a task they are not equipped to carry out on their own. The cultures and laws of the nations cannot be made to conform to God’s law-word merely through the preaching of the word. Preaching is very necessary but it must be followed up with action. God’s people, all of them, must speak out against any and all transgressions of His law. Only then can we expect to see the nations begin to conform to Jesus’ commandments.
This self-formed upper class of Christians, seeing their inability to do all that Jesus commanded, then proceeded to narrow the playing field. Instead of retaining the original goal of a Christian world and bringing every Christian into the effort, they reduced the requirement to preaching the Gospel to all the nations and doing the best they could to convert as many as possible. This, of course, is a common tactic employed by many to cover up or excuse failure without admitting it. It is a despicable and ugly tactic that should never be employed by anyone that calls himself a Christian. But this is what was done; the alternative—to admit their error and go back to God’s word—was not acceptable; it would have meant the loss of their upper class status. This is most evident in the Roman Catholic and other hierarchically structured churches but it is visible to some degree in almost every Christian assembly today.
As a consequence of this sad state of affairs, God’s name is not hallowed today. Worse than that, it is reduced to a swear word, one employed by the lowest scum of the earth and dragged through the mud in common and vulgar speech while Christians say nothing and do nothing. They are powerless because their leaders have not instructed them properly in accordance with God’s word. Scripture assures us that this situation will be corrected, for one day “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11:9). Christians will learn their duty and will rise to the challenge Jesus presented and this world will become a Christian world. We are not told when this will come about or how much turmoil will be involved in the transition. It would be best if the younger pastors would begin to see their God-given responsibilities and begin to take corrective action. But Christians cannot wait for this; they must insist that their pastors conform to God’s word and remove those that refuse to do so.
The Two Seeds
IN THE BEGINNING
Creation
The Triune God, that we know as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that had no beginning but existed for all eternity decided for His own unfathomable purposes to create the universe and all things in it. The high point of His creative work was man whom He created in His own image. He created this world, a world perfectly suited for man. Man obviously had a significant place in God’s purposes. He was given the earth, in which he could live and prosper.
God gave man a great deal of freedom but with the freedom came responsibility. He was told to multiply and take dominion over the earth. This dominion, as we see from what followed, was to be exercised as God’s vice gerent, His appointed ruler. God was to be recognized as the ultimate ruler; His word was to be man’s law, the law that governed man’s life. The world that man was to populate and rule over was to be filled with God-fearing, God-obeying people, what we would call today, a Christian world!
The Fall
As we know, our first parents failed to do what God required of them. They believed the tempter’s lies and, foolishly thinking they could be their own gods, decided to go their own way. In the aftermath of their tragic fall, God spoke these words:
Genesis 3:
14 And the LORD God said unto the Serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
The entire human race had just denied God. They rejected their Creator and became, not gods, but Satan’s servants. It was a sad occasion; instead of freedom under God, they received slavery under the evil one. This was Satan’s great victory. He (supposedly) undermined God’s plan for a Christian world and brought the entire human race under his exclusive control.
The Seed of the Woman, his great opponent to be, had not yet come into existence; the world was his oyster to do with as he wished. All mankind were now his seed, the Seed of the Serpent; they were his seed in the sense that they belonged to him as children to their father; he dominated them spiritually and kept the truth from them (1 Cor. 2:14; 2 Cor. 4:4).
At this time in history then, there was no visible hope for the human race; all were destined to an eternity in hell, a place where there was no beauty, no goodness, only misery without end. Why is there such a place? Why did a loving God create it? We are not told why but we need to consider that man, as a creature, was created to live in dependence on his Creator. When he rejects that Creator, he rejects everything good in life and this is all that is left. He is given freedom to choose and he makes his choice.
Unfortunately for fallen man, that choice is always the wrong choice. Man was never created to be absolutely independent. His rejection of God placed him under Satan’s dominion. Scripture tells us that “the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” He can have a great deal of independence but it is always subservient to the spirit that indwells him. Prior to the fall, it was God’s Spirit that established the limits and directed Adam and Eve’s steps. God said that in the day they took of the fruit of the forbidden tree, they would surely die and die they did, not physically but spiritually. But this did not result in what Satan said, he lied; they could not and did not become gods unto themselves. That is something that is beyond the capabilities God placed in man; he cannot live without spiritual guidance of some sort. When they sinned, God distanced Himself from Adam and Eve and Satan stepped in to fill the gap. From that point in time, with a very few exceptions, every child born in this world was born under Satan’s dominion and remained therein until released by the Holy Spirit (Col. 1:13; Acts 26:18). This is not to say that we are merely robots; man always has much freedom of action but after the Fall Satan, instead of the Holy Spirit, established the limits of that freedom.
God though, at that dark hour of human history, held out a glimmer of hope for mankind. He told of a future event in which the world would be divided. At this point in time there was no division; there was only one class of people, Adam, Eve and all their offspring constituted the Seed of the Serpent (Satan). They were his seed, his spiritual descendents; they believed him, took his advice, decided to be their own gods and were now under his dominion. This is exactly where everyone is that doesn’t believe and obey God. They think that they are in control of their lives but they are blinded to the reality that there are only two choices; they can obey God or disobey Him, which is to follow the path that Satan took in his rebellion against the Creator. They are the “Seed of the Serpent” and, thinking they’re doing their own thing, actually are moving in accordance with his purpose and plan.
But our merciful God said that there would be a future time when a new class of humanity would come into existence. There would be the “Seed of the Woman” that would crush the Serpent’s head and conquer the “Seed of the Serpent.”
Enmity
God also said here that He would put enmity between the two Seeds. He placed them in opposition to one another. Why enmity and opposition? Why not friendship and brotherhood? Isn’t God a God of love? Yes, He is a God of love and that is precisely why He put these two forces in opposition. One represents what is good and righteous; the other what is evil and wicked. God says here that good and evil cannot be friends; they cannot have fellowship together but must remain separate and distinct from each other. To allow any commerce between them is to permit compromise and to compromise with evil is to introduce evil into one’s own being. Christians are told here that they must not compromise with unbelievers. They are to guard their purity and, by contrast, the wickedness of unbelief is to be seen for what it is.
THE RESTORATION
Life for Satan was relatively easy for the next few thousand years; there was some opposition from Abraham’s children but nothing that couldn’t be dealt with relatively easily. Then came the Incarnation and suddenly, just when he thought he had won the battle against the Son, he saw that Christ’s atoning death on the cross actually spelled his final doom.
The New Creation
Its Origin
This new class of humanity is referred to in Scripture as the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10). This new creation was brought into being by Christ when He humbled Himself, became a man, and died on the cross to pay the sin-debt of all that would believe in Him. It consists of all those that are in Christ, all true Christians. Their sins are forgiven; they have been born of the Spirit and are no longer in bondage to Satan (Col. 1:13). They are no longer the Seed of the Serpent but are now the Seed of the Woman.
Two Kinds of life
What took place at the Fall is the reverse of what Jesus told Nicodemus about the new birth (John 3:1-6). He said we must be born again, that is born of the Spirit. This is spiritual birth; at the Fall, we saw spiritual death. So, there are two kinds of births and two kinds of deaths, the physical and the spiritual. Today, when someone is born again, he is born spiritually; he is made anew, is now spiritually as well a physically alive. The Holy Spirit displaces Satan; the blinders are removed; his eyes are opened and he can see the spiritual reality that was invisible to him before. He is now a new creature in Christ. He is truly reborn, made over, made new, resurrected from death unto life (Rev 20:4,5).
The New Nature
Christ crushed Satan’s head by bringing into being the Seed of the Woman, the body that God had said would bruise (or crush) his head. The Seed of the Woman is often taken to be synonymous with the person of Christ but because of the close affinity between Christ and His body (all believers), it also refers to His body. Genesis 3:15 refers to Christ’s body, rather than His person. It contrasts the Woman’s Seed with the Serpent’s Seed; the word “seed” usually refers to offspring but it can also designate followers as it does here.
The new creation is just that; it consists of a class of human beings that are very much like Adam before the Fall but fundamentally different from Adam’s descendants. The Holy Spirit that indwells each one changes that person; he is the same physically but at the most basic level of his being he is radically different. He, as his faith matures and he becomes consistent with that faith, develops an outlook on life that includes the spiritual reality that is now visible to him. This shapes his thinking at the root level; he no longer sees life as ending at death but has a view of life that extends through eternity. What happens in this world and this life shrinks in comparison to what lies ahead. What might have been very important to him before may now seem trivial while other things, things that relate to eternity but may have little effect in this life, may take on great significance. He may be ready to die for his faith because his faith is more important than life to him. This was demonstrated in the response to the persecutions of the early church and in many places in the world today.
There are exceptions but typically, a new member of this new creation has much to learn, and much to unlearn, before his true nature becomes visible. The mature Christian understands that he is not his own master but is God’s creature and as such must obey God. God’s law becomes his rule of life; it governs all his actions. This maturation process is similar to what a child goes through as he learns to become an adult. The new believer adjusts his view of the world around him only gradually and by degrees as he learns to think and act in accordance with God’s law-word. The Spirit within leads him to God’s word but it is the believer himself that must change his own outlook, that must go through whatever turmoil or anguish is involved in the transition. It is a life-long process; there are no perfect Christians in this world. Christians can and should help each other; the mature can assist the new members of the Body but each one is responsible for himself. “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12).
This developmental process is strongly influenced by the church one attends and the teaching he is exposed to week by week. Proper exposition and application of God’s word to the life of the believer can accelerate his growth, while wrong teaching and misapplication can retard growth and lead to stunted, misshapen Christians that often, in many respects, cannot be distinguished from unbelievers. This kind of wrong teaching is characteristic of many of today’s churches and is a major contributor to the sad and highly debilitated condition which characterizes the Seed of the Woman today.
The Commission
Authority
Jesus, just prior to His ascension gave directions to His disciples:
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matt. 28:18-20).
He spoke directly to the eleven men that, with the apostle Paul who was to come later, would spearhead the formation of the Christian religion. But He also spoke indirectly, as He often did, to all Christians, to all that would come to believe in Him and follow Him (John 17:20-23). He began by declaring His authority; “all power is given unto me.” Jesus, the God-man, was now in charge of all things in heaven and on earth. The nations of the world were now His nations and subject to His will and His law, which law as He said earlier was God’s Law, the law that would not pass away until heaven and earth would pass away (Matt. 5:17-19). He told the disciples and all Christians that their responsibility was to teach the nations to obey all His commandments. The word teach in verse 19 can also be translated disciple. It carries the idea of one that follows very strictly the teaching of his master or leader.
Our Lord’s instruction to all Christians then, was to make the nations of the world disciples of Christ. This directive is nothing less than a decree to make all the nations of the world Christian nations. Or, in other words, they were to make the entire world a Christian world. The eleven disciples obviously could not do this in their lifetimes. It would take centuries and the work of all Christians to complete.
Dear reader, are you a Christian? If you are a true believer, these words of our Lord are directed to you. You have been translated from Satan’s dominion to the kingdom of God’s dear Son (Col. 1:13) and are now a member of this great body, the Seed of the Woman. Christ is the head and you are a part of His body (1 Cor. 12).
You are the possessor of great blessings but also of responsibilities. The task Jesus assigned to you is to exercise whatever authority or influence you have to further the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ. This includes actions and words that would demonstrate and explain the truth of Christ’s rightful reign over all things in this world. Because the churches don’t teach this yet and we represent only a small beginning, it is important that Christians as well as unbelievers hear it.
This is the way to take dominion (Gen. 1:26-28; Rev. 1:6), to reduce the power and control that unbelief now holds. It’s the combined effort of each member of the body that will eventually topple the power unbelief now has throughout the world. You are a part of this great and glorious purpose, the purpose God put in place at the beginning of history. Jesus said this should be the highest priority in your life, before food, clothing or shelter (Matt. 6:28-33). Do not conclude that because you’re efforts seem to be trivial or ineffective, they’re not worth doing. God’s promise is that the Seed of the Woman will crush the Serpent’s head. You don’t have to do it all, just your part and you will receive your reward; you will hear Jesus say, well done good and faithful servant enter thou into the joy of your Lord (Matt. 25:21,23).
Methodology
Jesus was careful to explain to His disciples (and to us) how this directive was to be accomplished. It was through baptism, which implies the preaching of the Gospel, regeneration and conversion. It was not to be done through physical conquest and the use of force. The people of the nations were to be won over to the side of truth; they were to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit and converted into followers of Jesus. As this process progressed, the nations would gradually become more and more Christian and at some point, would come to be Christian nations.
The beautiful thing about this effort is that among the enemy there are many that don’t belong there. They are God’s elect that haven’t yet figured out which side they belong on. So, while we engage in the struggle, we can see the enemy as a fertile ground that can be planted and harvested. This task falls primarily to pastors, teachers and evangelists, those that have the necessary skills. But the greater task falls to ordinary believers; it is they that must shape the cultures and laws of their nations to bring them into conformity with God’s law. Only when this is accomplished will they truly be Christian nations. As James tells us, it is works that demonstrate true faith; likewise it is the culture and the laws of a nation that demonstrate its faith. Missionaries and evangelists alone cannot do this. The work of every believer is critical to the fulfillment of this Great Commission of Christ.
The Law Aspect
We see in Jesus’ words the requirement to teach and baptize but we also see the result to be realized, full obedience to all His commandments. The Gospel must come first for we are saved by grace and not by the works of the law (Eph. 2:8). The tendency of church leaders throughout the Christian era has been to focus on the Gospel aspect of the Commission and to restrict the application of the law to individuals and families. But it was the nations, not just some of the peoples of the nations, that Jesus instructed us to teach to obey Him (which is to obey God). God’s law is the entire Bible but it is the law that God gave through Moses that is the heart of God’s law. The prophets that came later did not add to or take away any of Moses’ words, neither did the Apostles. Jesus explained the deeper meaning of many of the laws but the only law for Jesus was the law God gave through Moses. He affirmed the continuity of this law saying it would not pass away until heaven and earth pass away and that it applies to Christians today (Matt. 5:17-19).
God’s law is more than a Christian’s personal guide for life, it includes civil as well as personal statutes that operate to maximize justice and to define proper punishment for evil doers; they are directed to all the civil governments of the world. The meaning of the Commission is quite clear, these nations that were placed under Jesus’ authority are required to obey this law, the law God gave through Moses. The laws of a people reflect the faith of that people; as the laws of the nations show conformity to God’s laws, the fact of their having been discipled to obey Christ’s commandments becomes visible. Until they do in fact fully obey, there is work for Christians to do.
Its Need
This law, in particular its civil statutes, is vital to Christians and to Christian society. Without it the faith cannot be maintained. Regeneration does not immediately produce a mature Christian; the damage that was inflicted within him through Satan’s prior dominion over him does not disappear overnight; much time and often much pain must follow before the principle of the new life within him is visible in his actions. This process of gradual sanctification, growth in grace, is the work of the law operating within the individual as his understanding of it grows. It is a life-long process that is never complete in this world.
Individuals differ, some will make progress in the most debilitating environments but most Christians, especially new Christians, need support from those around them. This cannot be limited to family and church but must include the larger environment. Today’s humanistic school system, pornographic entertainment media and the general godlessness in today’s environment all work together to undermine the faith, especially the faith of the young and of new believers. God, who knows us far better than we know ourselves, recognized this need and provided for it in the law He gave us. Severe penalties were invoked against anyone that promoted injustice or any that attempted to undermine the faith. It is vital to the maintenance of the faith that Christians, especially the young and new believers, be nurtured in a Christian environment. The pull of the old nature within coupled with that of godless surroundings is too often too much for immature Christians to overcome. It’s too easy to slide back an imperceptible bit at a time into old habits.
Church leaders generally recognize this and many, in an effort to compensate for the godlessness of the outside world, attempt to bring their congregations together more frequently, e.g. twice on Sunday and again mid-week. But this is insufficient and is typically augmented with preaching that emphasizes the danger of falling into sin and the need to guard against it. This is coupled with preaching that focuses on the beauty of heaven and the promise of a glorious future in the next life. All in an effort to strengthen the faithful so that they can bear the difficulties and trials of this life and not lose their faith.
But the urgent need for Christians and especially new Christians is a central goal and purpose in life. Jesus gives us that purpose in the Commission and when He says, “seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matt. 6:33). Christians are to make the establishment of God’s kingdom and law (His righteousness) the first priority in their lives. This purpose is to be set above the need for food, clothing and shelter. When this is properly expounded and Christians really believe and understand who they are and the great purpose to which God has called them, their outlook changes. The pull of the godless environment fades and is replaced by a vigorous sense of duty and purpose. There is then little need for constant reminders of the dangers of sin or for an overemphasis on the glories of heaven.
The work to establish God’s law as the law of their nations becomes the overriding purpose and meaning for those that see and sense it first. But then it will grow and spread as more and more believers begin to see that this is what Christianity is all about and what it means to be a Christian. Furthermore, as unbelievers begin to see a real-world interest in what were in their eyes strictly pie-in-the-sky people, they will be curious to see what it’s all about and evangelism and conversions will increase. It could and is likely to lead to a real revival with lasting effect, something we haven’t seen since the Reformation.
Its Scope
To restrict the law to its personal aspect is to leave the believers of the nations adrift. They are given the promise that their sins are forgiven and that they will surely go to heaven when they die but other than to watch out for and guard themselves against Satan’s wiles, there is nothing for them to do until that great day arrives. This reverses the intent of the Great Commission; instead of God’s people tearing down the gates of hell, they sit in their churches listening to sermons that teach them to fear and guard against the wiles of the Devil. Life’s struggle then is fought within themselves instead of against the Seed of the Serpent that God said should be the enemy (Gen. 3:15). The Evil One is most pleased to hear such preaching and to see his great opponent, the Seed of the Woman, so emasculated and ineffective. This is not what God commanded and many preachers of such sermons are in for a great letdown when they see whom they’ve really been working for.
We Christians, the Seed of the Woman, the body of Christ, have been given a great responsibility and must work with all the effort we can muster to make this world a Christian world. This is how we will win the war, the struggle, against the Serpent’s Seed. A day will come when the Serpent’s Seed will no longer exist, when they will all have either been converted or have died out.
THE ENSUING STRUGGLE
Satan knew he would lose but continued in his rebellion against God. His attempts, though, to discredit the newborn faith through the Pharisees and through various false teachings were insufficient to stop the growth of this opposing seed that the Son had planted. It grew and grew in nation after nation until it dominated the entire western world. Europe became Christendom and, from Satan’s point of view, things began to take on a dire appearance.
Christ’s Kingdom Redefined
But Satan didn’t give up; he had his people mixed in with the opposition and was able to get enough of them into positions of authority to be able to influence biblical interpretation and church policy. Most notably, he through his minions managed to put in place doctrines that limited the scope of Christ’s authority to the church and it’s circle of influence. Previously, Christ’s kingdom was generally recognized as being the entire world. The cry of the early church was Christ is Lord and that Caesar ruled only with His permission.
This was another great victory for Satan; it left most of the world under his control. The power of the Woman’s Seed (Christians) was now limited to evangelism. Their attempts to obey Christ’s commandment to establish godly order and godly rule outside the boundaries of the church were made impossible; the church itself frustrated any attempt to fulfill the Great Commission. Man’s law (under Satan’s control) continued to govern the nations and the results of evangelistic activity were easily undermined by the immoral, godless society in which the new converts were immersed.
The Antithesis Compromised
God said that there was to be conflict between the two Seeds. Today, because there has been much compromise, we don’t see much conflict. Christians, in disobedience to God’s commandments, have been bending over backward to compromise with evil for several generations. The consequence has been the degradation and degeneracy that is becoming more and more obvious in our society. Legalized killing of the unborn, pornography in our entertainment, the open anti-Christianity in our schools, cohabitation without marriage, the common use of God’s name as a swearword, all witness to the degree to which Christians, in disobedience to God, have offered little resistance to atheistic humanism.
Primarily because the radical difference between believers and unbelievers is not taught in the churches and so many church-goers are not true believers, Christian standards have been seriously compromised. In consequence, this essential difference between believers and unbelievers, while present, is not very visible today. Even those that are true believers tend to see the differences as being a matter of opinion, one that a sufficiently in-depth discussion could bridge. Watered-down, often heretical, unbiblical preaching that is designed to maximize attendance and collections rather than the faithful exposition of God’s word cannot produce mature Christians. Rather it accommodates the unregenerate, giving them a place where they can feel comfortable, instead of showing them where they truly stand before God. It hurts both the believer in that his growth is stunted, and the unbeliever in that he is given false assurance of salvation.
So what we see today in the church and in the world outside is not the new creation, the Seed of the Woman in conflict with the Seed of the Serpent, that the Bible gives us. It cannot crush Satan’s head because it is kept so in the dark and is so intertwined with Satan’s Seed it cannot act as a separately distinguishable body. The new creation is present within this polyglot but it is like a retarded child that can never reach true manhood. Its case is not hopeless but major surgery would seem to be needed.
It is time for God’s people to recognize who they are and the great responsibility God has placed on their shoulders. There is too much today of the attitude that any responsibility is on the pastor and the elders, and all that Christians need to do is go to church once or twice a week, contribute a little, pray, avoid worldliness and look forward to an eternity in heaven. Sadly, this is unlikely to change until enough Christians wake up and see the need for action.
The Churches
Early Structure
The body of Christ gets its direction from God’s law-word, the writings of Moses, the prophets and the apostles. The early churches were comprised largely of Jewish converts and were structured after the pattern of the synagogue, where ten family heads could establish a new assembly. They were ruled by elders elected from within their membership. There was outside support in the form of itinerant bishops that succeeded the apostles. But typically, the only authority the bishop had was based on his knowledge and faithful application of God’s word; it was the elders of each congregation that judged and decided whether or not they would follow where their bishop was leading them. The Seed of the Woman consisted of diverse, self-governed congregations united in a common faith.
The early bishops were generally faithful to the word and their decisions were usually accepted and respected by the congregations. Bishops that were not deemed faithful met resistance from the congregations and were either corrected or removed. In the early church, there was no significant central order or hierarchy among the bishops; their peers, that constituted a presbytery, ordained and loosely overlooked the bishops.
The church of the first century or two was relatively free from central controls; Christ, working through the Holy Spirit governed the local congregations. This did not lead to anarchy, as many of today’s church leaders say would happen were this kind of freedom to exist today. The churches of that day were purer; they were under attack and the chaff was burned off, leaving primarily the faithful.
Institutions Take Over
As time passed, two things began to change. First, when the church gained respectability and persecution ceased or diminished, the congregations became lax and increasingly dependent on their bishops. Second, power within the circle of bishops began to gravitate toward the bishop of Rome and a hierarchy developed. The combination of these two factors led to a political focus at the higher levels and increasing corruption that the local congregations could not effectively combat. The word church, originally recognized as a reference to the body of Christ, was to a great extent replaced by an institution. Believers were taught and began to feel that being church members was all there was to being members of Christ. The institutional church, contrary to the role God established for it, began to see itself an end instead of a means; and began to interpose itself between Christians and Christ. Without doubt, Satan was most pleased with the resultant weakening of his rival, the Seed of the Woman.
The Church of Rome took Jesus’ words that He would build his church on a rock (Matt. 16:14-19) to mean that it would be built on the person of the apostle Peter. This led to the hierarchical structure we still see in this institution. The Reformers later rejected this and took it to mean that the faith that Peter expressed was the foundation of the church. But this also does not fully express His words. The Rock in Scripture is most often a reference to deity (Deut. 22:4, 32:15,18,30,31,37; 1 Sam. 2:2, 22:2,3,32,47; 2 Sam. 2,3,34,37,23:3; Ps. 18:2,31,46, 28:1; etc.) and Christ, Himself is the Rock He was referring to. Peter was of the Rock; he was not the Rock. The church is not an institution; it is the person of Christ, and all true Christians are the members of His body. This is primary; membership in the institutional church is secondary and strictly utilitarian in nature. Churches that teach God’s truth can be of great value; those that fail to can cause much damage.
Corruption within the church increased to the point that the Reformation was an inevitable consequence. Another setback for the evil one but no matter, the Reformers, almost as a body, did nothing to alter the established order outside the church. It was still man’s law and not God’s law that ruled the nations.
This is still the case today; because Christians have been taught and generally believe that Christ’s authority does not extend beyond the circle of the church. They don’t believe they can assert His authority over the nations, the authority He, Himself declared was His! Christians—the body of Christ, the Seed of the Woman—are neutralized by such teaching and are kept from working to bring the cultures and laws of the nations into conformity with God’s laws. This is a severe limitation, one that cannot crush Satan’s head and he is still ahead in the struggle for men’s souls.
The Role of the Laity
Christians need to take a more active role in their churches. They should see themselves as under Christ and, while being respectful toward the church leaders, should see them as the servants that God put in place to serve a specific purpose. They are the teachers of the word and not masters that must be obeyed no matter what. Christians should feel a responsibility to question, and renounce if necessary, what they consider to be wrong teaching.
Christians see the church bodies as the place they go to congregate and communicate with their fellow believers, to refresh themselves after a week of interaction with the world. This is legitimate but too many see the church as an organization they joined as if a club of some sort. It belongs to the pastor or perhaps a board of trustees but it is not their church, one that they feel responsibility toward.
It should be important to church members to keep their church pure. They need to feel that it is their church, the church that they not only support but in which they play an active role. The pastor(s) and the elders should be seen as their elected leaders. They should see baptism, for example, as something they do. The pastor may perform the ceremony but it is the congregation that authorizes him to do so and he does it on their behalf. It is the congregation, not just the pastor, that accepts the new member into their communion. The pastor should not be seen as a member of an elite class of individuals whose word is to be taken verbatim and without testing against the truths of Scripture.
This attitude, coupled with a desire to study and learn more of the word, is important to both growth and doctrinal purity. Church pastors typically have been educated in seminaries and Bible colleges where they have been influenced by a variety of doctrines many of which have deviated considerably from what Scripture really teaches. The teaching in many of these schools is driven from an ivory tower mentality that is not properly balanced with common sense. These men need help from Scripturally knowledgeable Christians in their congregations to keep them (or put them) in proper balance.
Now, pastors and teachers are needed; they are essential to the growth and continued health of the body. But we must recognize that they too are fallible men. Their greater knowledge and the leadership positions they hold can result in ungodly pride and the temptation to think of themselves as the rulers of the congregations. There is a great need for more Biblical understanding by all Christians. It is the only safeguard that can be effective in preventing heresy and corruption within church bodies.
Christians have been disobedient; instead of studying God’s word for ourselves, we have relied on teachers, pastors and theologians to do it for us. We were not like the Bereans that searched the Scriptures to see if what the Apostle Paul told them was true (Acts 17:10,11). Instead of relying solely on God’s word, we relied on fallible men that have often led us astray. This needs to change.
Doctrinal Issues
Salvation
What does it mean to be saved? What are we saved from? What are we saved to? These questions are have typically been answered in a platonic sense. The Platonists taught that spirit or ideas were good and the physical was evil. Church leaders have been influenced by this concept and it has affected their view of Scripture. Their focus has been focussed on the spiritual to the almost complete neglect of the physical aspect of salvation. Salvation was seen as being from sin to forgiveness and eternal life. The material aspect of salvation, from weakness and bondage to strength and victory over the evil in this world, has received almost no attention. As a consequence, the Christian faith has had only limited success in the world outside the church walls. Scripture gives us both spiritual and physical salvation. We are saved to both eternal life and to triumph over the evil of this world.
Sovereignty
God is the only true sovereign. Men or man’s institutions are not and can never be truly sovereign. They are always subject to God’s permission or rejection. He is the Creator, the Predestinator and the ultimate judge of all things, everything that takes place in the world.
When preachers preach a doctrine that says man must choose Christ, that is that each person makes the final decision as to whether he is saved or not, they are telling their congregations that they are sovereign. They are placing God at man’s mercy; He sits in heaven desiring that all men would be saved but cannot lift a finger to save a single soul. He must wait for the little sovereigns, the little gods, to make their choices. This is not the God of Scripture who does all things according to His will (Eph. 1:5,11). This concession is attractive to the unregenerate that want to feel that they’re Christians while holding on to their independence from God. It strengthens the Serpent’s Seed that believe Satan’s lie, the lie that says we can be our own gods. It tends to increase attendance and collections but it dilutes and weakens the Seed of the Woman.
In fact man is given a choice; without a doubt, whosoever believes has eternal life (John 3:16). The only problem is that without the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart, there are no takers; no one believes. Only those that are born again, born of the Spirit, whose eyes have been opened, are able to discern spiritual reality. These see, believe and are saved. All others are under Satan’s dominion, are spiritually blind and cannot see to believe. God is sovereign in all things; even our faith is His gift to us (Eph. 2:8).
Responsibility
Adam was commanded to take dominion over the earth. He failed but the task was taken over by Christ. Christ did the groundwork and, as God designed from the beginning, delegated the task of dominion to His people, the Seed of the Woman. This body of believers was created for a specific purpose. They were to crush Satan’s head, to eliminate his rule over mankind. The Seed of the Serpent was, through conversion and attrition, to be reduced until it no longer existed.
The reduction of the Great Commission to Gospel preaching and evangelism has robbed Christians of what should have been their life’s purpose. Instead of working to bring the surrounding culture into conformity with God’s law, their efforts were limited to their personal lives. This has left a huge gap in the lives of Christians, a gap that had to be filled with something. Most Christians have shifted to secular interests in which their purpose is not very different from that of unbelievers. The Christian aspect of life is thereby reduced to family and church; it diminishes in importance and the churches take on a worldly pallor. In some churches it becomes an unhealthy focus on personal sanctification. Instead of godly dominion, there is a constant reminder of sin and the need to keep the influences of the world at bay.
What else is there for Christians to do? They can look forward to an eternity in glory but as far as this world is concerned, that ends up to be little more than a death wish. It does not provide a life purpose without which there isn’t an essential difference between believers and unbelievers. Pastors that fail to tell their congregations that they are responsible to Christ for the carrying out of the Great Commission are robbing them of real purpose in life, something they keep to themselves. Only they, they say have this responsibility. A great life purpose is a precious treasure, one that Jesus wanted every Christian to have, not just a select few.
Eschatology
Throughout most of the Christian era the predominant eschatology in Protestantism was postmillennialism, the belief that the Christian faith would continue to grow in breadth and in depth until one day it displaced all other religions. The 19th century saw the introduction of many new ideas as well as new religions: Mormonism, Seventh Day Adventism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science and others. In this environment, we saw the rise of a) premillennial dispensationalism and b) amillennialism, both of which project pessimistic views of the future of the church. They see the world as the Devil’s territory and getting worse and worse until Christ’s return.
These were comfortable teachings; they excused the failure of the church to take dominion and put the blame on God, Himself. They held that, according to Scripture, either: a) Jesus will fix everything when He returns and sets up His kingdom on earth or b) there will never be a millennium (a Christian world) in time and in history. Several popular Bible preachers enthusiastically took up the first of these pessimistic views of the future and today it is the almost universal view in the evangelical churches. The second was adopted by most of the Reformed churches.
These defeatist ideas need to be rejected by true Christians before any real progress toward the crushing of Satan’s head can be realized. The Seed of the Woman needs to get its act in order and return to the program God established for it at the beginning of history.
A LIFE OR DEATH STRUGGLE
Christians desire compromise; they express a live and let live attitude but the Seed of the Serpent doesn’t bend so easily. They seem to be more faithful to their nature as Satan’s followers; many of them (the more consistent) will not rest until the Christian religion is wiped off the face of the earth. This is where this ages-long struggle between the two Seeds must end up; one will survive and the other will be totally eliminated.
So you see Christian, like it or not, you are involved in a life or death struggle. The only question is whether you will engage in the contest or lie down and surrender. The latter choice may seem to be the easy way out but it’s the coward’s way and Jesus didn’t save us to be cowards. Consider what the early Christians went through to win for us the freedom and prosperity we enjoy today. It may (or may not) be the easy way out for us but what about our children, their children and all the other Christians that will come after us? Our negligence could lead to real persecution for them; and what will Jesus say to us when we see Him? How will you answer Him when He asks, what did you do with the talents I gave you? Why didn’t you obey my instructions? Rather, wouldn’t you prefer to hear Him say “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matt. 25:21,23).