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Destiny

When a plane is commandeered and forced to a different destination, we call it a hijacking.  Passengers believe they are proceeding to a certain destination when suddenly they find themselves at a different one, and the only person who benefits is the hijacker.  That’s why we consider hijackers criminals.  Their behavior is inexcusable.  But hijacking can apply to more than just planes, trains, and automobiles.  Hijackings can take place spiritually as well.

How so?

In a hijacking, someone forces the “destination” of others to change for their own benefit.  To apply this to the Body of Christ, we must ask, “Has the destination of the Body of Christ been changed by others seeking their own benefit?”  If we insert the definition of destination into the question, we then have, “Has the ultimate purpose for which the Church was created been changed by others who are seeking their own advantage?”

To answer this question, we must consider: what is our destiny?  Not just the destiny of every believer but that of the Church, the body of Christ?  Has it been changed?  Has it been hijacked?

A quick tour through Ephesians tells us a lot about the destiny of the Church:

Ephesians 1:5, 12, 3:10, 4:15, 5:27 KJV

1:5 [God] Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

3:10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

4:15 But speaking the truth in love, [we] may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ

5:27 That he might present it [the Church] to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

How can we reconcile this scripture, which defines the destiny of the Church, with the idea many Christian leaders have of God’s people as “dumb sheep?”   Many Christian leaders try to explain away scriptures like this by saying they refer to a “future state.”  This has been a convenient excuse echoed by Christian leaders for over a thousand years, and this “future state” is just as elusive now as it ever was.  So by claiming that the Church will reach its destiny in the uncertain and distant future, they are off the hook.  It is no longer their responsibility to see that the Church grows in spiritual maturity as the scriptures describe.  To follow their logic, God doesn’t want a spiritually mature Church today, suggesting that it is God’s will for the Church to exist in carnality and failure weighed down by sin and apathy.  Their rationale suggests that in some distant age, the Church will suddenly experience a spiritual revival, just in time for the Lord to return at the end.

Ask yourself, “Does this sound reasonable?” 

Knowing what we do of God, the words of Jesus, and the writing of His apostles, does this sound like God’s way of doing things?  The truth is that there is no suggestion in either the gospels or the epistles that being a dumb sheep is all God has for His people, ever!

In fact, Jesus described His Church this way:

Matthew 16:18 KJV

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

This sounds remarkably different from the Church that many Christian leaders are content to control.  The destiny of the modern church is no longer the destiny of the Christ’s Church.  It is extraordinarily dissimilar.  It has been hijacked.

Why would men change the destination?

The modern church exalts men as the head, not Christ.  The modern church places men in control, not the spirit of God.  The modern church is a kingdom for men to exploit, not the bride preparing herself for Christ.  Why would men NOT want to change the destination?

These Christian leaders who hold the Church hostage are not spiritual men like most people assume.  They are arrogant, selfish men who are educated and articulate.  But this in NOT a measure of spirituality.

Dumbing Down

Matthew 21:13 KJV

And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Wikipedia says this about dumbing down: “The concept ‘dumbing down’ can point to a variety of different things but the concept always involves a claim about the simplification of culture, education, and thought, a decline in creativity and innovation, a degradation of artistic, cultural, and intellectual standards, or the undermining of the very idea of a standard, and the trivialization of cultural, artistic, and academic creations.”

Secular authors point to mainstream media and public schools as examples of “dumbing down.”  All one needs to do is read through the poetic grammar of documents such as the Declaration of Independence or any number of documents written by our forefathers to realize how far our standards have fallen.  For the simplistic cynic, “dumbing down” is the result of changing how tests are scored.  Rather than reflect the true condition, the problem is simply masked by an easier grading system.  Scores tend to go up but the problem remains the same.

“Dumbing down” is rooted in social phenomena like “Moral Subjectivism (i.e., no moral principles of any significant kind)” and “Cultural Relativism (i.e., right and wrong is determined by the particular set of principles or rules [the culture]… hold at the time).”  Therefore, as both moral and educational standards erode, right and wrong become defined by the current culture and academic grading becomes subjective.  If dumbing down is so prevalent in our society, it should come as no surprise to learn what this social culture is doing to our churches.  Like mainstream media and public schools, many of our churches have fallen victim to the social pressure of dumbing down.

I correspond with dozens of pastors every week.  With few exceptions, most of them spend their time trying to justify their failure.  To listen to them, the condition of the Church is God’s fault, the people’s fault, or no one’s fault.  Other than on a few occasions, it’s never their (our) fault.  What we have is (many) Christian leaders who quote scripture every Sunday to support their sermons but reject any scripture that points to their failure: the Church coming into its destiny.  They simply change the grading system.  Rather than teach that the Church is a reflection of what the scriptures describe, they simply hold that people are not meant to be anything other than what they are.  They have successfully dumbed down the scripture as it pertains to the spiritual maturity of the Church.

By taking no responsibility for the spiritual immaturity of the Church, Christian leaders are essentially blaming God for its spiritual condition.  The twist is that, at the same time, they suggest that their leadership is necessary for the Church.   However, if spiritual immaturity and sin are not their fault or their responsibility, then what is the purpose of their leadership?  What role do Christian leaders play?  Why are they necessary at all?  What we have is (many) Christian leaders who have adopted an attitude of convenience.  If the church is a failure, it’s because God wants it that way, and if it overcomes, it is because of their great ministries. Anything is possible when you are the one’s writing the rules and creating the grading system.

I do not believe that God gives the leaders of His Church a choice.  Anyone who accepts the responsibility of being a Christian leader is responsible for seeing that the people of God reach their destination.  If leaders do not believe Christians have a destiny beyond “sheephood,” or if they reduce the destiny of the Church to that of spiritual failure and immaturity, they should step down.  They are not Christian leaders at all.  There are far too many Christian leaders who are leaders in name only.  They have dismissed the destiny God has for His Church and have replaced it with their own objective of immaturity and failure.  By changing the grading system, they no longer appear as failures.  These people are not leaders of God’s people at all.  They are hijackers!

Status Quo: The New Standard for the Church

Many Christian leaders have concluded that the Church cannot be what the scriptures describe because it has not been so in the past and there is no reason to believe that it will be so in the near future.  Many of these leaders have tried things like preaching, holding more meetings, revivals, and special classes, or adding structure changes like cell groups.  In the end, they saw no noticeable improvement, and thus they have resigned themselves to the notion that going beyond the current state (status quo) is impossible.

So what’s the answer?

John 3:1-9 KJV

1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?

5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?

Matthew 19:26 KJV

But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

Nicodemus was a teacher and a leader, yet he could not believe that spiritual birth and life was possible.  It was not possible for men, but it was for God.  Like Nicodemus, many Christian leaders do not believe the Church can be what the scripture describes.  This is because they, like Nicodemus, do not understand the nature of God’s spirit.  Like Nicodemus, they lack experience.

Jesus did not talk to Nicodemus about a theory.  He talked to him about something He had experienced and with which he was intimately familiar.  A leader can only lead others to a place with which they are familiar.  That is why leaders who are legalistic lead people into bondage.  Leaders who are carnal lead people into secularism.  Leaders who know only education and training lead people into an intellectual understanding of God.  Leaders who have known only the doctrine and teaching of a certain denomination tend to create more of the same.   There are few Christian leaders who have experienced the nature and leading of the Holy Spirit.  Why do I say this?  I can say this with authority because few Christian leaders can get past their denominational barriers.  Those who do usually find themselves at odds with other Christian leaders (their brethren) in the community.   They cannot compete and fighting over who is to have control of the largest percentage of the believers of their community and say that they understand the nature of God.  This is NOT the nature of God.  It is their own spiritual immaturity that leads their church into immaturity.  And it is their failure to walk in the spirit that leads people into spiritual failure.  Leaders like this are incapable of leading God’s people beyond the status quo.  Consequently, most of the Christians remain exactly as these pastors predict: dumb sheep.

Was the first generation of believers as emasculated as today’s church?  Were they nothing more than dumb sheep living lives of spiritual failure and immaturity, existing merely to follow their leader?  Quite the contrary.

Mark 16:20 KJV

And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.

Acts 17:6 KJV

And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also

There is little similarity between today’s church and the first generation Christians.  Why?  It seems that many Christian leaders have not experienced the true nature of God.  Nor do they have the ability follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit.  Generally, all that is necessary to be a Christian leader in most churches is to have a good understanding of the scripture (education) and an ability to articulate it clearly.  But these qualities are not spiritual requirements, and they do not qualify a person to be a true Christian leader.

Most Christian leaders spend far too much time trying to understand the scriptures and not enough time experiencing the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Like Nicodemus, they are knowledgeable and educated but they cannot understand the Spirit. They speak from education and logical rationale but they rarely cross the status quo.  God is a spirit.  The destiny God has for His Church is spiritual maturity.  And any destiny we set that is less than that simply makes us hijackers.

Conclusion

It is easy to conform to the status quo.  It is easy to be like all the other churches.  It is easy to dumb down the standards of God and turn failure into success.  But since when has the status quo become acceptable to God?  Like secular schools that pass out diplomas to young people who cannot read, have we changed the standards so that now spiritual immaturity is on par with our destiny?

The contemporary Church has been hijacked.  A small cadre of people interested only in their own destiny has changed the destiny of the church.   Many of our churches have fallen victim to the lust, greed, and selfishness of men who have dumbed down the church to where there are practically no expectations beyond attendance and tithing.  Status quo justified centuries of Dark Ages in Christian history, and today it is the reason for a new dark age of the Church.  There were hijackers then, and there are hijackers now.  The contemporary Church has little resemblance to that of the first generation of Christians, and through dumbing down, the Church has come to believe that God wants it this way.

For evil to prevail, we need do nothing more than allow the status quo to continue.  As long as the current elite of hijackers has control, nothing will change.

If our churches are spiritually immature and failing, it is because men are exercising headship and rule rather than allowing the Holy Spirit to lead.  Only the Spirit can produce spiritual results, and only people who understand and have experienced the nature of God can function as proper leaders.   It’s time that Christian leaders be held accountable.  It’s time that they be made to answer for their abuse and neglect.  It’s time that the hijacked church be made free to continue on into the destiny God set for His Church!