Assumption of Conflict
The most important note I’ve ever
shared.
By
Ron Schwartz
July
25, 2009
http://www.ronschwartz.net/Thoughts.htm
Genesis 1:28
And God blessed them, and God said unto
them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:
and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the
air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
What makes a people great is the
production, invention, creativity, and industry that emerges when they are
forced to unite against a common enemy.
Humanity was designed for conflict. Fighting and subduing are when they
are at their best. In the absences of a threat from a common enemy, humanity
will turn on itself and regress into self-destruction.
The Assumption of Conflict
Christianity was born in an
environment of conflict and danger. The
early founders went forth as God charged Adam: to “subdue” and to take
“dominion” of this world in the name of Christ. Uniting through
conflict, they were forged into the hardest steel through pain and
suffering. Their weapons were “the blood of the Lamb and…
the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the
death (Revelation 12:11).”
Christianity was birthed in suffering
and persecution, yet it flourished. It
was rejected and ridiculed by every prominent religion. The governments of the period ignored and hated
it, dismissing it as lunacy, yet it flourished.
The leaders of this movement were relatively uneducated. The doctrine they taught was based largely on
their personal revelations, which seemed to attract a cult-like following. The churches that embraced it were a ragtag
assembly of unorganized and largely underground congregations, and yet… it
flourished. In an age when every
government and religious body held it in contempt and scorn, threatening to
choke it out of existence, Christianity flourished. Almost inexplicably, against all odds,
Christianity found fertile ground in the stony parched field of the Roman
Empire. Its roots drove deep into the that field, full of rocks, thorns, and
weeds, parched by incisive heat. That
which seemed to ensure its demise was, in fact, the very element of its
success. The adversity that threatened
to swallow it up (as a tempest at sea) became the fuel that propelled it into
success. It grew without bounds or restraints
and “no weapon formed against” it ever did prosper.
The greatest challenge that
Christianity faced did not come from the edge of the sword or the sound of a
cracking whip. Persecution, torment,
suffering, and sorrow have been the friends of Christianity. They have served to weed out the uncommitted,
the compromisers, and the apathetic.
During the times of the great persecution, the uncommitted fled quickly,
leaving the ranks swelled with zealous believers ready and willing to spill
their own blood and give their own lives.
The greatest challenge for Christianity cannot be measured in terms of
pain, money, or sacrifice. That is because the greatest challenge Christianity
ever faced did not come from oppression, persecution, or rejection; it came
from its own success. As the scorching
heat of persecution chilled into a cool summer breeze, so too did the passion
and zeal of the Christian way.
As Christianity globalized throughout
the Roman Empire, it choked away both government opposition and the embedded
vestige of institutional religions. This coalition of religion and government
that formed, combined with its tolerance for paganism, profanity, sacrilege,
wickedness, and blasphemy, has become the axiom that has defined Christianity
for millennia.
As Christianity coalesced and
imbedded into the Roman Empire, its ideals merged along with that of paganism
and idolatry to shape a form of Christianity where men were worshipped instead
of idols. As this took shape, the opposition it once faced dissolved into a
compromising truce. Without an adversary to stir the water, Christianity
settled into dogma, giving way to the lifeless “Constantine-ized” Christianity
which replaced the dynamic, spontaneous, and fanatical Apostolic practice of
previous generations. Only then did
Christianity come face-to-face with its most diabolical adversary - an
adversary so dreadful and terrible that it caused Christianity to be totally
subdued, subjugated, and dominated for over 1,600 years.
Christianity is Love
The church of Ephesus was the first church
listed in Revelation. It is the type of Christianity that developed around 100
AD, following the death of the Apostles of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 2:4
Nevertheless I have somewhat against
thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Notice here that Jesus did not
criticize this church for false doctrine, not keeping the law, failure to build
churches or evangelize, or in preaching the truth. In short, He did not criticize anything about
what western Christianity values. What He criticized them for was the loss of
their passion, fiery love, and zeal.
In the scripture, Christianity is
described as a fiery love affair, an epic battle for life and death, an ardent
race where the prize is a kingdom of unimaginable wealth and riches. Without unbridled passion, fanaticism,
obsession, and fervent zeal, Christianity is nothing more than a theory and
religion.
Christianity was never meant to be a
faith or a creed. It was never meant to
be "taught" or "practiced."
Christianity was never meant to be defined by doctrine, read about
through scripture, performed through worship, observed through sacraments, and
attended at a service or ceremony. It cannot be learned through education. It cannot be imitated by watching others
perform. Christianity is an fixation,
infatuation, and obsession. It’s
consuming, overwhelming, uncontrollable, impulsive, unmanageable,
uncontrollable, and spontaneous. Like
the wind, it cannot be harnessed, controlled, or predicted.
John 3:8
The wind cannot be controlled or harnessed. It blows wherever it pleases. You hear it rustling through the trees, but
you have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. That’s the way
it is with everyone ’born from above’ by the wind of God, the Spirit of
God.
(paraphrased)
The form of Christianity we find
today has been saddled and tamed. It is
domesticated. It is now under the control of preachers and teachers. Christianity is no longer an unrestrained and
dynamic portend of God’s Kingdom, but the Constantine-ized brand of religion
that has lived under the flag of truce with its adversaries for over 1,600
years.
Colossians 2:8-10
Watch out for those who would make you
their followers through hollow philosophical rhetoric and intellectualism,
which depends on human ideas and education. This kind of teaching is basic to
the principles, values, and morality of this world. They can dazzle you with
their articulate speech, their scholarly wisdom, and their intellectual
double-talk, but they never really change anything about you. Their notions
follow the fundamental teachings of this world but completely dismiss and
disregard the teachings of Christ.
(paraphrased)
Consider the words: “dismiss and disregarding the teachings of Christ”; or as the KJV phrases it “and not after Christ.”
Contemporary teachers have
manufactured a different approach to New Testament teaching by making it
“user-friendly,” or “world-friendly.” It
allows Christians to live in this world under a flag of truce. How is this possible? By “dismiss[ing]
and disregard[ing] the teachings of Christ” and adopting what we find today in the Christ-less Christianity
– essentially, “X-ity.”
The Samson Effect
Samson is depictive of modern western
Christianity. Consider these following
points:
1. An angel came to Samson’s parents
and gave to them what amounts to a covenant. Samson never met the angel and,
therefore, had to try to understand the intentions of the angel from the
information given to him by his parents. Likewise, modern Christianity lives in
a time where no one who actually met Jesus or was taught by Him has existed in
1,900 years. Christianity has carved out an existence through the life story of
Jesus described in 4 relatively short gospels and a handful of epistles.
Instead of focusing on his purpose,
Samson formed his instructions into a law.
In like manner, Christians have taken the instructions handed down from
Christ (the angel) and turned it into a law and religion. There is no common
enemy they can unite around. As a result, they focus on the New Testament laws
and doctrines which provide them an enemy to battle: each other. Instead of
pursuing the purposes for which they were called, they argue and feud amongst
themselves. And so, being only a shadow of what Christianity was meant to be,
they pretend and take on a “form of
godliness but deny the power.” Because modern Christians do not have
Apostles who were taught by Jesus, they lack a supreme authority from whom to
receive direction as to what Christ meant in His teachings. Consequently, every
man “does that which is right in his own
eyes.”
Western Christians are forever
inventing and reinventing the “New Testament Church.” It is a catchy phrase
that many Christian teachers toss around and overuse. However, the New Testament Church isn’t
something that leaders need to teach, or that Christian groups need to work to
become. It is something that develops
naturally within God’s people when they unite in love and passion against God’s
enemies.
2. Samson had great power, but failed
to use it for God’s glory. Instead, he used it to satisfy his personal desires.
Judges 15:1-8
1 But it came to pass within a while
after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid;
and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not
suffer him to go in.
2 And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her;
therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than
she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her.
3 And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the
Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.
4 And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and
turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.
5 And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn
of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn,
with the vineyards and olives.
6 Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the
son in law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his
companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.
7 And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of
you, and after that I will cease.
8 And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and
dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.
Like Samson, Christianity has great
power at its disposal, but has failed to use it for God’s glory for the most
part. Christians have used God’s grace and power to construct great and rich
edifices for their own pleasure: churches and cathedrals, Christian media, etc.
Christians focus on their own pleasure instead of using their power against the
enemies of God, just like Samson.
Western Christianity does not
recognize the true enemy, so they battle among themselves over doctrine and the
control of God’s people. They use their power to build shrines for their
ministries, churches to support them, and glow in the celebrity like attention
they receive. Essentially, Christians
use God’s power to build their own religious empires.
The backslidden Christianity of the 6th
and 7th century focused their attention on transforming the pagan,
wicked, and blasphemous kingdom of Rome into their own personal religious
empire. That is also what we find
today. Rather than subduing this world
to the lordship of Christ, contemporary Christians are trying to transform it
into a utopia fit for them and their god(s).
3. Samson’s life was, for the most
part, an uneasy truce between him and his enemies.
Judges 15:7
And Samson said unto them, Though ye
have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
Christianity has made a truce with
God’s enemies, choosing to coexist with them instead of destroying them. Like
Samson and the Hebrews who first entered the land of Canaan, western
Christianity has learned that it is easier to coexist with God’s enemies than
to fight them in battle. So they live in friendship with this world always
careful not to rock the boat.
Postmodernistic (once known as
existentialism) cultural thinking has replaced the conscience of the Holy
Spirit among Christians. Like Samson,
Christians attempt to rationalize their guilty feelings about their apathetic
spiritual state.
4. God brought tribulation,
suffering, and misfortune into Samson’s life to get him to use his power
against the enemies of God. God did this
by making His enemies the enemies of Samson.
Judges 14:4
But his father and his mother knew not
that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines:
for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.
God brought about persecution and the
dark ages and destroyed the home nations of Christians to shake them free of
their addiction to pleasure and turn their attention to the battle that He has
called them to fight.
Today, Christians everywhere are
suffering tragic loss, pain, and heart-break. They don’t understand why God is
allowing such suffering. However, as
previously stated in this note, pain, suffering, and persecution have always
been the friends of Christianity. As the constraints of this world are shaken
away, true saints rise into heavenly places to the true work for which they
were called.
Like Samson, once their world is
shaken enough, most Saints will either perform the work to which they were
called, or be buried in its collapse.
5. Samson became arrogant in his
“own” strength. He believed he could
retain God’s power while bonding with the harlots of this world. He believed he could have the best of both
worlds.
Judges 16:1,4
Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there
an harlot, and went in unto her… And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a
woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
Samson believed his power was an
entitlement. Because he experienced success in destroying his enemies, he
believed that he was in God’s favor.
However, Samson failed keep God’s covenant, breaking virtually every
commandment handed down through Moses.
He did the very minimum required of him to retain his power and
disregarded the rest.
In this respect, western Christianity
clings tightly to Paul’s teaching on grace and faith, but totally ignores the
teaching on discipleship handed down by Jesus.
Like Samson, western Christianity finds it easy to observe faith and
grace and then dismisses the intrusive teaching of Jesus.
Western Christians are very
experiential. Since their nations are so blessed, they take this as God
condoning their spiritual apathy (this is closely related to existentialism).
Like Samson, they are free to pick and choose which scripture they follow and
obey because God is with them regardless of what they do.
6. Samson was eventually blinded and
shackled, and forced to walk in circles pushing a grind stone.
Judges 16:21
But the Philistines took him, and put
out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of
brass; and he did grind in the prison house.
Western Christianity has become
enslaved by the world they were supposed to subdue. Instead conquering the world to the lordship
of Christ, it is most assuredly bound, blind, and subjugated to the to the world’s
control. Contemporary Christians are shackled by this world and, like Samson,
they are blind to their own peril. Like Samson at the grind stone, contemporary
Christians go around and around the same old path, working hard, but making no
new ground for the glory of Christ’s kingdom.
7. In the end, Samson went down, but
he took many of God’s enemies with him in doing so.
And Samson took hold of the two middle
pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one
with his right hand, and of the other with his left. And Samson said, Let me die with the
Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon
the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew
at his death were more than they which he slew in his life (Judges 16:29-30).
Like Samson, in the end when Babylon
the Great (the contemporary church) falls, it will bring down with it the
nations of the world, with which it has lived under a flag of truce (“And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication
and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they
shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her
torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in
one hour is thy judgment come. And the merchants of the earth shall weep
and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more… The merchants of these things, which were
made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment,
weeping and wailing… For in one hour so
great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in
ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off… And they cast dust on their heads, and
cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein
were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for
in one hour is she made desolate”,
Revelation 18:9-19. “And the ten
horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and
shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with
fire”, Revelation 17:16).
When Samson fell, he took with him
the enemies of God. This is because God’s enemies finally became his enemies.
His fragile truce with them was broken. It’s sad that he didn’t understand who
his enemies were until his demise.
In like manner, God will use the
final fall of the western Christianity to destroy the nations of this world who
mock Him. In the end, when the fragile
truce between this world and western Christianity is broken, Christians will
learn only too late who their enemies are.
Summation
John 21:17
The third time he said to him,
"Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt because
Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said,
"Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."
Notice what it is that Jesus wants
from Peter. “Do you love me?” Peter failed, Peter sinned, and Peter denied
Him, and what did Jesus want? Jesus
wanted from Peter the same thing that He wanted from the church of Ephesus in
Revelation. Jesus wants our love. The defining characteristic of a Christian is
their love. Contrary to most Bible
thumpers and fundamentalists, it’s not the “truth.” Jesus is looking for our unbridled love, our
unquenchable passion, and our fervent zeal. Without this, we are NOT Christian,
but simply religious.
Most living things are sexual: they
cannot reproduce on their own; they require a partner. Asexual beings, however,
can reproduce without the need of a partner. Contemporary Christians believe
that they are asexual. They believe that if they build enough churches, preach
enough sermons, hold enough classes and rallies, they can reproduce. Contemporary Christians do not believe they need
the spontaneous Holy Spirit. To them,
the Holy Spirit follows their leading and obeys their command. What the church needs more than ever is to be
obsessed in its love for God. This will
draw the Holy Spirit, and through this union, the Church, will reproduce.
Contemporary Christians have known
such blessings in their lives and nations that they do not believe they need
God, as witnessed by the fact that they disregard Him and His words. They don’t need to love Him. They don’t need to obey Him. They can do whatever they want and will still
be blessed. So why need God at all? That is how they think.
The institutionalized form of
Christianity that is everywhere in the west is not Christianity at all. Why do I write this? Because Christianity cannot
be institutionalized. It is far too spontaneous and dynamic to be broken
down into a process, a recipe… dogma.
Contemporary Christians are
embarrassed at the teachings of Christ. That’s why most Christians don’t even allow
their co-workers to know of their faith.
They feel a sense of shame and annoyance to witness to others. They know
the world hates the teaching of Christ, so they avoid the association of it in
their efforts of evangelism.
Christians are apologetic concerning
their faith. They feel that if they
acted on the teaching of Christ, they would be considered arrogant. They feel that to live as Christ taught would
make them weird – social rejects. They
see that contemporary churches are accepted and respected by their communities
mostly because they do not rock the boat.
The Christianity that Christ taught
is considered obsolete. It worked for
unsophisticated and uneducated generations of the past, but it doesn’t work
today. Gone is the passion and zeal that
once define the people of God. It has
been replaced by marketing campaigns, stylish and refined socialites, and a
collective enterprise of self-help intellectualism.
The teaching of Christ mortifies
modern Christians who measure their success by the values of this world. Christian leaders are nothing without masses
who follow them, books on the “Best Seller list,” revenue pouring in from
around the world, and lucrative speaking engagements.
The reason why Christianity - as
recorded and practiced by first century Christians - does not work in our
western culture is because the premise of Christianity assumes a conflict. Modern teachers are quick to point out the
conflict that contemporary Christians face is culture and spiritual
warfare. However, the relative threat
that most western Christians feel is little more than an annoyance of an
irritating pest. It would be comparable
to the threat that a heavily-armed Special Forces squad feel from a group of
stick-tossing goat herders.
As we finish, consider this: the
greatest unanswered question today is not who the Antichrist will be or when
the end will come. The greatest
unanswered question is whether or not Christianity will survive at all in this
utopia of affluence, this land of plenty, and this age of social tolerance
where our swords have been pounded into plowshares and there is no challenge
for God’s army to battle.
Take care and be blessed my friends!
Ron
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