I've received more than a few questions along these lines. To
some it almost seems like an obsession or to others a waste of time.
I can give some quick answers. It interests me. I don't
believe most people know very much about it. I believe very few are able to
take in the larger picture of events. Understanding the issues and events help
to 'flesh out' a more comprehensive understanding of what's going on in the
world and why and hopefully this will help Christians understand the place of
the Church within the wider world.
But even this is insufficient because there are other forces
at work in world events that elude empirical observation. A certain level of
discernment is required which I'm sure some would say that I most certainly
lack. And even with such discernment I would also argue that we are necessarily
limited... limited in our ability to grasp Providence and in our ability to
elaborate upon the spiritual nature of the conflicts and concerns at work.
In Zechariah there is what Kline refers to as the 'State of
the World Report' given by the angelic riders (the Four Horsemen no less) who
standing in the bottom (or deep) are sent to and fro throughout the earth.
While the people of God are in state of turmoil and exile, the world is at
rest.
A strange thing this, for certainly the world was (at least
in some sense) in a state of tumult. But the clashes of empires are par for the
course and normative for This Present Evil Age. And yet while they clash and
compete they nevertheless serve the same master and his goals. All is well in
Satan's realm as it were. And yet caught in this seeming maelstrom is the
Church, the suffering exiled Church which cries out 'How long?' as it awaits
deliverance and the consummation of Zion.
The nations are at ease. They gather wealth, steal, kill and
in every way flaunt the authority of God as they seek to make a name for
themselves and build their sundry Babel-realms.
Like the prophets who speak of the nations surrounding
Israel, it is right and proper that these actions and doings are identified and
called out even in our day. While we have no inspired 'prophets' who can access
the Divine Council and report its holy words to us, and thus we cannot vocalise
the specific revelatory issues as seen in the Old Testament prophecies
concerning the nations, we do have the holy writings of the apostles which are
certainly sufficient in giving us the necessary tools of discernment. The key
word here is necessary. We don't need to know the inner spiritual workings of
the thrones, dominions and powers that shape, manipulate and influence men's
hearts and govern the nations (as it were)... an authority which has already
been taken away from them by the resurrection of the Second Adam... and even
now they are on borrowed time.
And yet the knowledge we can have and the discernment we can
exercise is verily able to benefit the Church. This is an important point. Our
purpose in speaking about these things is to expose them. Our goals are not
political. Once again, our goals are not political. We submit to Providence
acknowledging the powers that be are ordained by God. God willing, I will
address more on this point in another posting. I believe there is great peril
involved when the Church becomes a political player... the danger is not just
physical in terms of war and punishment but it has a spiritual ramification and
we're actually warned against it in the New Testament.
We would need to say far less if it were not for the great
Kingdom heresy of Constantinianism that has plagued the Church for centuries
and in a slightly different form plagues it today. This heresy has gone through
various recastings and permutations. It is the idolatrous Babel-driven sacralism
of the world wed to New Testament Kingdom theology. It produces a Pseudo-Zion
quest and recasts the Church's doctrine and ethics, effectively creating a
counterfeit Christianity.
Because of this teaching the 'Church' is (contrary to
apostolic directive) involved and entangled in the affairs of this life. It is
caught up in the quest for mammon and power. I have dealt with some of the
multi-faceted aspects of how we can understand the 'larger' Church elsewhere. By
larger, I mean in the broadest sense – which incorporates both the heretical
and even to some degree the apostate. For to have this conversation and to
discern the state of the Church, we are forced to reckon with these categories.
The Old Testament itself provides the (as expected) excellent analogies of
Apostate Ephraim, a Judah that ebbs and flows in its obedience and viability
and of course the concept of the remnant. The lines are not always clear and
there are occasions of overlap and some very blurry boundaries at best. Great
discernment is required and all the more as sometimes otherwise good men are
deceived and caught up in these fool's quests.
At the same time there are dangerous wolves at work among the
faithful sheep and it's not just the obvious cases to which I refer. Their numbers
are sometimes great but the obvious cases are all too often but a 'flash in the
pan', a sensationalist fad. To be honest I'm far more concerned about those who
are in fact sincere, deeply entrenched and are engaged in sowing corrupt seeds
that will reap bad harvests for generations to come. Or in other cases they are
but the spiritual descendants of those that laid evil and flawed foundations
generations and even centuries ago.
God be praised there are Christians in all nations. Indeed
Satan may be god-ruler of this world but he cannot (in terms of the Gospel) deceive
the peoples of the nations any longer and as a sign to the world and the
celestial powers, Zion establishes colonies or outposts in all lands and calls
all people to repent and believe. The signs and tokens of heaven are there in
the form of the Divine Word preached and in the Word-signs of water, bread and
wine that are sanctified and bind (or seal) the people of God to their heavenly
home and mark them out as part of Christ. Our very presence, our camp (as it
were) among the nations is a sign to them (and their princes both earthly and
spiritual) that this age has been weighed and is found wanting. It's marked for
doom and destruction and the hour is nigh, even at the door.
In that sense we defy the Dragon and his beastly servants and
yet we do not try and wrest away control of their domains, their thrones and
principalities which they oversee and rule. Why would we? They're marked for
destruction. The true Domain of which we are already citizens is about to
appear and its epiphany will destroy the existing order and replace it. Again,
it is the greatest folly to turn away from the Heavenly Zion and to try and
forge some cheap counterfeit here on Earth. And it is to intrude into the
affairs of the powers that be... the angelic-celestial entities (or elohim),
the ruler-gods of Psalm 82, which we will judge to be sure and actually replace
in the New Heavens and New Earth. They who were erstwhile possessors of
immortality stand condemned and now will die like men, replaced by redeemed
children of dust who have been raised up and partake of the divine nature.
But we're not called to do that quite yet. They stand
condemned but Christ must first come as Judge and complete His work as the
Second Adam. Only then will we the redeemed sons and daughters of the First
Adam who are now in union with the Second, be called to Judge and receive
crowns. This is the time for witness and cross bearing. This is the time in
which God is longsuffering and merciful. We are here to warn, to glorify by
cross bearing and to hopefully save the lost from the fires of perdition.
But the apostate Church has not been obedient and heresy all
but reigns. This has been the story for most of Church history and we shouldn't
be surprised by it. And so I believe it is both requisite and prudent to
consider the world in which we live so that the claims, narratives and myths of
the false teachers can be challenged – that the people of God might be able to
see and discern what is actually happening in the wider world and how the
Church and its false shepherds have corrupted it, its mission and how they
themselves are in fact corrupt, compromised and even treacherous. The Church is
confronted with false teachers who mislead, who pursue money and political
power. Even many ministries, media outlets and missionary bodies are corrupt,
in bed with Wall Street and the political powers and are willing to lie about
international events and realities in order to garner political and financial
support.
We have to all but wrest people away from the body of false
doctrines and if we can, as tools of the Spirit, help them to see the 'big
picture' of what the world really is, what's going on and how they've been lied
to and deceived by the false teachers. It is our hope that this comprehensive
approach will provoke an awakening and if anything accelerate the process of
understanding, that the world is given to vanity and lies, that (contrary to
the orthodoxy of our day) we cannot serve God and mammon and that the Church
has been taken off course, even in many cases by men that are revered as
Biblically faithful.
Perhaps I'm overly affected by own experience. Having grown
up in a Dispensational Right-wing background, I went through a period of
rebellion and finally in brokenness I turned to the Scriptures and read them
anew, indeed as one born from above. I was startled to discover that so much of
what I had been taught was just plain wrong. At the same time I found myself
(to my shame and yet in God's Providence) a member of the legions, a
stormtrooper for the bestial American Empire. My knowledge of history was
enlightened by my re-reading of the Scriptures and living overseas and being
part of the heart and soul of the American system (the Wall Street dominated military
industrial complex), I was faced with intellectual and ethical dilemmas on a
daily basis. I saw things with new eyes, things which challenged my previous
perceptions of what America and the West were all about. I was in crisis and
forced (thank God) to work my way through very difficult questions. In addition
to digging deep into the Scriptures I also had an insatiable desire to
understand how the world system worked and how I had been misled and brought to
the place I was... and why I had been taught the things that I had been taught.
This is why I'm especially motivated to pursue these
questions.
The role of the watchman lives on and is desperately needed
in our time. There has always been propaganda and lies, mythmaking and
distortion but in this age, the scale is grander and in some instances the
consequences are more severe. This is true not just in a material sense of
people's lives and the horrors of war but it's also true in terms of the
Kingdom. The witness of Christ is harmed by the actions of the False Church and
its cozy even symbiotic relationship with the Beast that some have erroneously
(and even tragically) labelled the Judeo-Christian West.
Also, Christ's followers are being seduced to serve mammon,
to champion war and to equate piety with policies and practices that harm
others. These are crimes but crimes that are wed to and often rooted in heresy...
at least when viewed through the lens of the Christian Church.
By exposing these realities, professing Christians are held
to account and some might even be called to repentance and forced to reconsider
their ways, their choices and who they listen to. It is a call to vigilance and
open eyes, a refusal to be taken in by the propaganda flowing from all
directions.
Consequently an awareness, a theological and historical
discernment will help and guide us in terms of our aspirations, allegiances,
alliances and certainly how we think about and utilise money.
Hopefully it will foster an awareness of our brethren abroad
and help us to think in international terms. Not internationalist in the sense
of a political movement, or globalist in terms of the superiority and supremacy
of markets. Rather, as Christians we can and should think in ways that
transcend borders and apply eschatology to our thinking and our ethics. As we
are citizens of an aeon in which 'nations' will be meaningless entities of
memory, that ought to shape how we think and live even now.
Continue Reading Part 2
Continue Reading Part 2