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).