Christ Ruling in the Midst of his Enemies
The thorny mingle of righteousness and rot
“I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
“Ain’t no hurt like “church hurt”. -Jackie Hill Perry
Trouble and infection seem to follow the kingdom like a shadow, nipping at its heels…
Fruitfulness, shalom, peace and love follow in the wake of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
But also like a parasite comes the infection, the trouble, the self-righteous canker, the haunting cadaverous odor of privilege. I guess it’s nothing new. There were in ancient days the fat cows of Bashan[1] lolling in their privilege, the thick-headed rams muddying the water so needful for the faint and wounded, and the prophets spoke against them in the name of the LORD.
As the kingdom of Jesus spread across Europe in the centuries following Christ’s ascension to the Throne, it seems like the power of pagan kingdoms, principalities, and rulers was often baptized but not quite crucified and resurrected.
There’s the ongoing disreputation of the Roman Catholic Crusades. True, the death-toll of these religious wars is slim in comparison to some of the more recent holocausts of the atheistic states in the last century, but still…The violence and barbarism had no right to march beneath the banner of the Cross, and the name of Christ is still tarnished by this collective memory.
The spiritual purity, studious focus, unworldly lifestyle of the medieval monastery and convents was too often wormed out by the homosexual abuse of acolytes, was too often sickened and nauseated by the rumors of twisted satanic rituals and deep darkness in the bowels of these institutions.
The era of Reformation brought Light out of Darkness as the Scripture was uncovered, exalted, and the person and work of Jesus Christ was hallowed once again in his rightful place. Post Tenabras Lux, gloria in excelcis! And yet the very magisterial reformers - - with their depth of Scripture knowledge, their giftedness of biblical teaching, their obvious fruitfulness in so many areas - - carried with them a blindness that was reluctant but finally willing to flex the sword and torture-stake; burning and drowning dissenters in the very name of the Prince of Peace with weapons of warfare that were, in fact, carnal.
In my own Old German Baptist Brethren heritage, we had the ‘armpits of the brotherhood’ as some self-referentially called their particular circle of congregations in the Midwest. There, it seemed that legalistic, heavy-handed elders aimed to obstinately cram every single situation through the grid of an 1880 Minute Book. Yes, there was the community of helpful brethren and sisters, the flock of children with whom to play and grow, the deep reliable rhythm of spring and fall communions where the blood of Christ dripped through and comforted souls as Isaiah 53 was read and God’s pardon washed us clean like the water in the basins, like the bread and the shared red wine. “There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins…” There were the workdays and the yearly visits, the carry-in meals and the baptisms, the Annual meetings and the funerals. Knitted together in love, bearing and forbearing, distinctly separate from the world, kind and peaceful, quiet in the land. And yet even from this (and from similar cultures, sister churches of other Anabaptist groups) there are ripples of disfunction, of idolatry, of deeply abusive relationships, of child molesting and church-led coverups, of cruelty in hidden places.
In my own experience, the Homeschool movement and the Purity Culture of the late 20th century and ongoing had its gleams of heavenly gold, its freight of eternal value. Who can deny the spiritual uplift of a massive auditorium singing “Lord give us homes, built firm upon the Savior”? The harp music playing in the tradeshow room, the conference break-out sessions where weary dads and moms found biblical teaching, brokenhearted speakers sharing the gospel, wise and friendly leaders of all denominations with a gold-hearted wish for the best for every boy or girl. Or so it seemed at least. So many ‘Ex-vangelicals’ today are reeling from the pitfalls of this culture…this culture which to me seemed so well-focused on Christ, intelligent and bent on loving God with body, soul, mind, and strength.
Time would fail me to share all the profitability, valiant Gospel advances, fruitful seasons, lives saved by the Spirit-filled efforts and sacrificial service of Christ Church, Moscow. Of the Beachy Amish, of CAM, of Bill Gothard, of Bob Jones, of the OPC, the SBC, the OGBBC, of RZIM, of World Vision, et. al.
Yet time would also fail me to track down and chronicle the instances in the lives of real people, survivors, who received from these very same groups an abuse of power, a shrill message of condemnation, a cold shoulder of carelessness while their abusers were accoladed and promoted, a crippling control in which they did not flourish or experience abundant life.
Listen to Hannah-Kate, to Paul Maxwell, to Audrey Assad, to the boys in Haiti, to the spa-workers in the hands of Ravi Zacharias. Gaze on the red and white scars on the black and brown backs of the men and women owned(!) by the Baptists and Presbyterians of the South. Hear the confusing stories leaking out from Plain People’s Podcast. You can be sure the Lord of Sabaoth hears these. He can sift through the hurt and tenderly unthread any confused lies from the savage truth of the pain which shapes these refugees from the church. There’s the #churchtoo
“Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou ME?”
Is it doctrinal impurity that leads to the rot? Yes, sometimes. A cult or human personality who builds up a human leader or council to the point of infallibility, who veers away from orthodox confessions of the Trinity, who elevate or deny human responsibility, who castigate or misrepresent the grace of God, these simply can’t sustain spiritual and moral purity toward the Lord or a genuine love toward one’s neighbor. But it’s not always at the level of doctrine. The rot, the stench, the perversions seem to come from every quarter of the kingdom. From the Roman Communion, the Orthodox, the Protestants, the Restorationists, the Anabaptists, the Charismatics, etc… from each sector you can smell it. You flee one scene of crime, and you’ll land in another.
Jump from the frying pan of Disney’s delusions, public school indoctrination, immodesty and broken homes into the skillet of legalistic burdens grievous to be carried, written and unwritten expectations of fitting in a tight-knit subculture, pride and privilege squeezing the life and compassion out of a soul.
Jump from the confines of fundamentalist Bible-thumping frying pan into the skillet of a morass of sexual permissiveness promising freedom and acceptance- - yet delivering a lifestyle of stubborn rebellion against the grain of the universe and its King.
Jumping to avoid the #metoo culture of Hollywood and landing in the #churchtoo culture of Lancaster, Nashville, Orlando, or Pensacola.
And yet. At the end of the day, why do I pretend to wonder about this phenomenon? Thou art the man, Reuben. How your gold has been tarnished! How your silver has often been blackened. How the heat of your worship, the light of your praise, the buoyancy of spirit has been sunken, twisted, cooled, distorted, and brought low by your own lack of self-control, your own spiritual laziness, by the willful walking off the way of Jesus into your own desires of body and mind.
I well know the path of backsliding, of unfaithfulness, of a cool-hearted pretense, of ‘fakebook Christianity’. I have no clean platform of judgment from which to shoot condemning arrows. Only a broken “Come on brothers, let’s go down. Down to the River to pray.” Down to the River where the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. I believe there is a Man waiting at the water’s edge, a man who once-for-all bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we might be brought back to God. This Man has inexorably prayed for our success, purity, and conformity to himself. Further, the Almighty has mysteriously identified himself in this man, the crucified and risen one whose kingdom has no end and will ultimately put down all powers and dominions.
It is time for you, O LORD to work, for vain is the help of man. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies[1]. Rule until every thought is brought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus[2], every foe brought beneath your pierced feet.
[1] Psalm 110
[2] 2 Corinthians 10:5
[1] Amos 4:1