Antithesis

     I've read several articles lately on the supposed decline of Christ's influence in the world. Usually these articles come from one of two (very) different sources: 1) Those possessed by secularism and (what they call) "reason" (code word for humanism) and hold to a decidedly anti-Christian perspective to begin with; or, 2) Those who are numbered within Christianity but have adopted a myopic worldview leading to a defeatist mentality. Strange bedfellows, to be sure, but curious how both of those camps seem to be singing the same tune. At first glance, one might be tempted to allow the dark clouds of despair to begin to settle in over the church as we hear about the Kingdom of God's alleged loss of relevance within the culture, diminished church attendance, etc. But that would be a gross and altogether misinformed judgment. For instance, throughout the repressive Communist regime of China, there are some 10,000 conversions to Christ, daily. There are massive meetings in places like Pakistan (known worldwide as a breeding ground for those who have sought to make war on "The West" and all that they believe it stands for) where tens of thousands forsake an ideology of deception and destruction for the truth of Jesus Christ. South America and Africa are experiencing powerful moves that are seeing more people converted to faith in Jesus Christ than at any other time in these nations' histories.

     No, the Kingdom of God is not in decline ("There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom..." Isaiah 9.7) nor is its influence being curtailed. Since the beginning, man has tried on the ill-fitting, strangling garments of Religion and always found them lacking. Man has sought to systematize and control the longing emanating from the deepest part within himself for truth and, as the ages have discovered, this only leaves him more empty. I would venture to say that it is not Truth in decline, or Truth that is diminishing, but rather that men have tried on Religious Christianity and found themselves just as frostbitten and shivering as they were when wearing the tattered, threadbare frock of a previous religion. Religious Christianity is slyly deceptive in that it bears an outward resemblance to Truth but is completely bereft of any potency to affect true transformation in the individual and satisfy the throbbing heart cry winding up from his depths. Pews all across the world are filled with men and women with real problems that, week after week, are left untouched by bubblegum popping through speakers, sterile worship music, and nice messages that offers a warm, fuzzy swatch that anesthetizes against the gaping chest wound pounding out its insatiable demand for healing. Paul the apostle commented on this scraggly rag: "holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these" (2 Timothy 3.5, emphasis mine). And therein is the issue: Religion is impotent; totally powerless to satisfy the aching longing of the human heart...even Religion that resembles the Truth of freedom in Christ.

     Why does there seem to be such a paradoxical understanding of the reach of the Body of Christ? How can one writer seemingly pen the tombstone epitaph of the Church while another testifies of stirring, fiery revival in the Presence of God where the demonstration of God's Kingdom is in tangible power, provoking men to forsake everything to follow Jesus with their whole lives? Actually its really quite simple: the subjects are mutually exclusive. When we read of the "Rise and Fall of the Christianity," authors aren't talking at all about the glory of God's Kingdom coming on earth, about the reality of a people who have had their hearts plundered by God's Truth and Grace, about the manifestation of the real, raw power of God. They are really talking about Religious Christianity, one on par with Islam, Buddhism, Mormonism, etc. Religion declares, "'This is what you do to get to God (god, happiness, peace, enlightenment, fulfillment, etc.)!" But the ladder of religion, whether man-made or demonically inspired, is just too short to reach God. No puny human performance, no matter how devoted, mounts up to the heights needed to reach to The Truth in God. 

     Our ladders of twigs or gold were insufficient to span the gulf to God so that we could impress Him with our drivel of worthiness and our self-awarded accolades of effort. That great chasm was still implacably fixed between the Father and us. It was into this crevasse that the Son of God delved into to bridge the divide, marking the second invasion of the Godhood into the earth. The first incursion was at creation. The second was while the earth was precariously balanced over its own self-destruction. The stretch between creation and the birth of Christ was sufficient experience for the world with lackluster religion. God was again calling man back to His heart: relationship with God. It was a man's own relationship with God that was to have the metamorphosing affect on his heart. Our relationship with God was designed for the John 3.30 principle: "He must increase; I must decrease." As a man walks in closer genuine relationship with God he takes on more of Him and sheds the useless junk of his carnal nature (that part that was ever-reaching for congratulations on its attempts to touch perfection). God's desire was that man would become mirror-images of Himself on earth.

     Man is a being created for emulation. If this wasn't true, then why would God at the beginning have said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness..." (Genesis 1.26). If His intent wasn't for us to be living similitudes of Himself, then why create us as display models that maybe only look like the Original? This can't be the case. Jesus wasn't wasting His breath, literally: "So Jesus said to them again, '"Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you."' And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, '"Receive the Holy Spirit"' (John 20.21, 22, emphasis mine). The Father had sent Jesus on a Xerox Mission: "I only do what I see My Father doing" (John 5.19)...and we were commissioned into the same: imitation. This is precisely why Paul declared, "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ" (1 Corinthians 11.1). This is the essence of Christ's Great Commission: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28.19, 20). If disciples are made according to the pattern of their master, then it stands to reason that those disciples will necessarily behave and look like just their master. What are disciples if not "copies," anyways? The reality of living in the mould of Jesus Christ is still available for each and every believer today. The call to throw down the death-shroud of religion and "put on Christ" (Romans 13.14) couldn't be louder to you and me. The more desperate men and women become the less attractive the "holey" rag appears; only truth will fit. "My message and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power," (1 Corinthians 2.4) was the apostle Paul's declaration against the uselessness of religion. What did we find in Paul's ministry? We see a long line of men and women who were pulled out of a life of posing and into a life of discipleship...that what they were transformed with (a true encounter with Jesus) was then so worked into their lives that they could now reproduce that encounter in other men and women: "And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also" (2 Timothy 2.2).

     While its not science, it does create a cycle of positive repetition: a person ministers a real-live experience with truth and the raw reality of the power of God to a person in need, changing this person's life forever. This changed life is now discipled so that this experience (and many more) can be properly stewarded into a personal, vital relationship with God the Father and safeguarded against becoming religious (and thereby reducing its power to the totally ineffectual). This disciple now is able to minister a real-live experience with truth and the raw reality of the power of God to another person in need, thereby changing this person's life forever, and so on. This is what is happening as described above in China and Pakistan--and in our own lives right here in Columbus, Ohio! As men and women shun the platitudinal placebo of religion, the genuine, untainted and undiluted panacea in Jesus Christ is the only thing that'll hit the spot.

     The Move of God in the earth is alive and well and incapable of being hijacked by man. The greatest move of God in the earth is the one that takes sinners and transforms them into saints. When the saints declare, "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ," men and women find real hope for their own lives in the grace of God and Romans 8.19 comes to life again: "for the anxious longing of creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God." This is life...this is liberty...this is the antithesis of religion.