by Brett Jacobsen

This brief article is an excerpt from the author's book Heaven's Underground Blueprint which is available here - http://www.christisall.org/hub-book.

 
It was a shady church that nose-dived headlong into the Dark Ages and it is a shady church that has existed ever since. We would be kidding ourselves to say or think that it has been anything more than a shadow of the complete “fullness of Christ” church that God is searching out and preparing.

When we talk about worldliness we usually have in mind things like fornication, drunkenness and other personal vices. Although this is true, they are not the biggest problem in the church; they are merely the fruit of our greater, albeit more subtle, worldliness. Just like in Samuel’s time we have a majority that still desires to be like the world.  This is largely due to ignorance and man’s traditions, calling for a Saul-like leadership structure to “judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles”, while we passively warm the plush pews (1 Sam 8:20).

There is a different appearance and emotion in modern “churches” than in those of the Dark Ages. However the reality is that we have slipped back into the same wineskin as them, which is also that of the Pharisees in Jesus’ time on earth.

History had its Pharisees and Popes and we have our Senior Ministers who sit as head honchos of their hierarchies. Like worldly CEOs, they build the biggest and best companies (“churches”) that they can, with as much human ingenuity and as many resources as possible. They say “I build God’s church by growing my church”, as if they had a church in the first place.

Many of the saints know that this isn’t right and many leaders feel God drawing them to their knees for real change. However, things go on with a ‘business as usual’ attitude that arrogantly stands in opposition to God and says, “We’ve got it all under control thanks.” The gap between clergy and laity has become nearly as wide as in the very depths of the Dark Ages, only with a more inspirational and contemporary appearance. This swindles the saints into believing the lie that they need to follow and serve a superior Christian’s vision.

We have taken world appeal to all new levels in our attempt to attract people to God. It seems that it is not exciting enough these days to know the Eternal Creator and spend time getting to know Him while serving Him wholeheartedly. We need the flashing lights, the coolest music, the funniest most motivating communicator and a corporate success driven vision, among other cheap counterfeits of real passionate biblical spirituality. Many of our modern “churches” have become Hollywood whores, prostituting themselves to the world, using worldly marketing strategies to produce instant gratifying results; and oh how the saints thrive on it.

Professor John Dominic Crossan of De Paul University says that the Roman authorities made two accusations against Christianity during the persecutions of the early church. The first was “you’re atheists” because they did not worship the gods that the majority of society did. The second was “you hate the human race” because they wouldn’t take part in many of the things that the rest of society did. (12)

I doubt that our modern “churches” would be accused very often after this manner, as many of the saints are encouraged, even from the pulpit, to bow to the gods of lust, greed, success, selfish gain, fame and the like. They are encouraged not only to participate in worldly events of society, but to emulate them in the church for the sake of growth.

It is interesting that much of the foundation that the modern church is built on, especially in the West, comes from the Roman Empire. This empire is prophetically represented by the ten toes in Daniel’s vision and Revelation’s beast system which is fuelled by the spirit of antichrist (Dan 2:40-43, Rev 13:1-6).

When is someone, or rather a whole new generation, going to stand up and say enough is enough? Are there any John the Baptist hearted people who are willing to stand for and live in truth despite stern resistance from the Pharisaical fraternity? Does God need a new wineskin to pour out a larger measure of New Testament new wine into, than that of the early church?

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 4:49 pm and is filed under Biblical Leadership, Brett Jacobsen's teachings, Church Structure, Reformation/ Revival. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.