Real Christianity!

Part 3.  Fixed or Replaced

October 5, 2008

Ron Schwartz

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Where are the real Christians?  In the wake of the Lakeland movement, it is apparent that Christians obviously do not understand what real Christianity is - especially given the fact that many were so easily drawn into such a perversion.

Everyone has friends who are part of institutional churches.  Everyone can point to at least one Catholic, protestant denominational, or independent church friend who loves God.  In fact, there seems to be no difference between many of those in institutional churches and those who are not.  There are Christians in institutional and non-institutional churches who have strong faith, know their scriptures, raise godly children, live godly and productive lives, give time and money to charitable causes, and above all, love God.  Consequently, at times it can be quite confusing to discern why the institutional church system is wrong.  Perhaps we are simply making much ado about nothing…

If you have contemplated this question, then you are not alone.  It may surprise you to learn that over three thousand years ago, the people of God once wrestled with this very same paradox.  We are experiencing history repeating itself.  Let’s take a journey down memory lane and watch this very story unfold.  It is a story of two men: one who loved God but was caught up in a system that God never intended or wanted, and another whom God destined to replace that system.

Institution was never God-ordained

1 Samuel 8:4-22

So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.  They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have."

But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord.  And the Lord told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.  As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.  Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do."

Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king.  He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses….  Some he will assign to… plow his ground and reap his harvest…  He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.  He will take the best of your fields and vineyards...  He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage…  He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.  When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day."

But the people refused to listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We want a king over us.  Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles."

When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the Lord.  The Lord answered, "Listen to them and give them a king."

First of all, God’s people did not view their desire for a king as an act of rebellion.  Their idea was simply to organize “such as all the other nations.”   They still intended to keep the feasts.  They still wanted to worship at the tabernacle/temple.  They were still resolved to honor God’s law.  How could the call for a king possibly be an act of insurrection?

The people saw their request as something that would legitimize their nation and therefore help and aid the work of God.  They did not believe it would take away from God; on the contrary, they thought it would authenticate Him.  They thought it would place Him at the same level as the gods of all the other nations.  It was an attempt to give God the credibility He deserved.  What they failed to understand was that God had no desire to be measured by the scales of other nations.  They did not realize that their efforts to organize and institutionalize their nation would create a nation of which God would no longer be a part.  Nevertheless, many godly people were part of that movement.

The people did not understand that, by choosing a leader, they would replace God as their king.  They simply wanted a leader who was among them.  They would still serve the Lord.  But the people were asking for a man to insulate their relationship with God, thereby giving His rightful place to a man.   They were proposing that He would still receive their obedience, praise, and honor, but through the direction of a man.  God would become nothing more than their idol, their icon, their religion.

In a similar manner, God’s people today have done the same thing.  They claim to be serving God, keeping His feasts, obeying His law, but they do so through the instructions of men (i.e., clergy, pastors, priests, etc.) whom they have appointed over them.

God made clear that they chose the king, not Him.  When God said, “…you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen,” He made clear that this was a system that He never endorsed.

One of the most difficult things for most Christians to accept is that the institution they call “church” is something that God never intended.  They see their institutional church as the natural evolution of Christianity just as the Hebrews saw their desire for a king as being necessary for their success as a nation.  To them, it was no more rejecting God than the institutional church is a replacement for God.  However, just as Saul became a replacement for God and put the people in bondage to him, the institutional church, with its clergy system, has replaced Christ as the head of the body.

Christians rationalize their need for a ministry class just as the Hebrews did with their cries for a king.  However, any class of men that assumes a role between God and His people is an institution created by man.  God’s desire in the New Testament is to do away with a human high priest to speak for Him, a human king to lead them, a temple created by men, and a veil of separation.  God’s will is for everyone to be able to approach Him as a priest and for everyone to be led by Him as a king.  God’s will is to eliminate the tradition, structure, and temples made by man, and anything else that would separate Him from His people – that He alone would be their king.

Leaving, or cleaving?

Out of Saul’s institution arose two giants among men.   Both of them loved God, both were known for their exploits in battle, both were loved by the people, and both considered the other as a brother.  Of course, we are referring to Jonathan and David.  To say that Jonathan and David were good friends does not begin to describe their relationship.  They loved one another.  David loved Jonathan with a love that transcended the love he had for his own natural brothers.

1 Samuel 18:1-4

After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself.  From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return to his father's house.  And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.  Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.

Both of these men were loved by their fellow men because of their heroics and their fearlessness in battle.  When you read the stories of these men, it is obvious that God was with each of them.

Especially troublesome is the fact that both these men were nearly identical in their love and zeal for the Lord, their brotherly compassion, their exploits in battle, and their purity in spirit.  This is especially relevant today because sometimes there appears to be no difference between Christians who are in institutions and those who are not.

However, though seeming the same, these great men of faith had two different loyalties that would try their friendship and destine them down diverging and conflicting paths.  Jonathan, though possessing a passionate love for both God and David, would not let go of the institution God rejected – his loyalties were split -and he would eventually die in that institution.  David, on the other hand, came out of that institution and found that his destiny was to replace it.

It is important to understand that, at one time, both Jonathan and David served the institution that replaced God as king (i.e., “…David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul liked him very much, and David became one of his armor-bearers…  Whenever the spirit from God came upon Saul, David would take his harp and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him (I Samuel 16:15-23).”  It is important to understand that you do not possess the wit and wisdom to discern between the Davids and the Jonathans – but God does.  He will allow them to grow together for a time, but He will eventually weed them apart.

1 Samuel 19:10

And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin; but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall: and David fled, and escaped that night.

Today, there is a scattered army of people who, like David, have been forced for one reason or another to leave their institutional churches.  Many, like David, are confused as to why they can no longer survive there.  And, like David, they feel like fugitives.  They simply know that remaining in their institutional churches puts their spiritual lives in peril.  There is also another group of people who love God and, like Jonathan, have experienced the power of God in their lives.  And, like Jonathan and David, there appears to be no difference between the two.  They both love God, they love each other, and they both have experienced the power of God.  Even so, before the end comes, one group will die with their institution, and the other will replace it.  Only God knows who is of which group.

There are many people, like David and Jonathan, who are part of the old institution of men – the institution called “church.”  And it is their own presence that brings the presence of God to these institutions.  When people see God’s presence manifested, it is not because He endorses these institutions but because He responds to His people who love Him.  David understood this and wrote of it in his psalms (i.e., “If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me (Psalm 139:8-10).”  Those who love God can feel His presence even in an Islamic mosque, but that does not make it God-ordained.  Christians can experience the love and move of God in a sinful world.  But that does not mean that this world is what God ordained.

It is also important to remember that there were many men who left the institution of Saul and joined with David, but that did not make them a David.  In the same sense, joining a house church group or becoming an “out-of-churcher” does not make you a mightly man of God.  There are many groups who have left the organized church just to build their own institutions.   Many house churches, charismatic groups, and apostolic/prophetic associations are nothing more than institutions of their own making.  Many of these claim to have left institution – and they have – but they have simply left one for another.

You cannot fix what God never ordained

Keep in mind that the institutional church system is not your enemy.  It is filled with many Jonathan-like believers who honestly love God.  Do talk with them.  Do try and help them see the idolatry in which they are involved, but do not reject them because of their geography.  Remember that once you, like David, were part of that system, and you eventually came out.  You cannot know just who is a David and who is a Jonathan because they appear to be identical.

God did not ordain David to help Saul or fix his kingdom.  David was ordained to replace Saul.  In the same respect, God has called you, not to try and fix the system or make it better, but to replace the institution of man.  You do not have to bring it down any more than David needed to bring down the kingdom of Saul.  It will fall at the will of God.

Summary

For those of you who are tired of the pretense, you will not find real Christianity in the institutions of man.  You can join the choir or the worship team, but you will inevitably find yourself “acting” how people expect you to act with your pasted on smile.  You can go to seminary, become a minister and act spiritual, but down inside, you will know it is just an act.  Institutional Christianity is just that: an institution.  It is man-made.  It is not something that God creates.

Furthermore, God has not called you to go back into your old church to speak the truth and stir up trouble.  Like David, He has called you to abandon and replace it.  What about all the good people who are still there?  Some are like David and will eventually leave.  Some are like Jonathan and will die there.  We are not telling you to abandon your relationships but to abandon the hope that your voice will change anything.  You can no more fix your institutional church than David could change Saul.

This brings us to the wide array of coalitions and associations we see today.  For those of you who will receive this: the “Five Fold Ministry” movement is nothing short of an attempt by men to “fix” the clergy system, and many house churches as well as the emergent church movement are for the most part an attempt to “fix” the organized church.

We must (like David) finally resolve ourselves to the understanding that God has not called us out of man-made institutions to fix something that God never ordained.  You cannot fix it by meeting in a home, and you cannot fix it by creating the pretense of a “Five Fold Ministry.”  We must stop rationalizing our need to place kings over us and our desire to organize.  Yes, we can feel the presence of God in any of our institutions but that does not make them God-ordained.

It has been said that “those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.”  From history we can learn that the institutions of men (like Saul) will eventually come to an end, and when they do, they will die and take with them all who embrace them.  You can stay in your institutions and slowly wither away, or you can flee them to become the person of God that He has destined you to be.   Let’s learn a lesson from the pages of history and flee from the temptation to create institution or to try to redeem it.  Institutional Christianity is like embracing the “old man” of sin.  It must be killed and buried.  There is no redemption for it.

We have tried every form of structure to fix what is wrong with the institutional church.  We have come to understand that this man-made institution cannot be fixed by having “institutionalized” a five-fold ministry, church planters, or even house churches.  We must stop trying to fix what is wrong with the institutional church and replace it.  How?  By going to a church less and being the Church more.  Stop looking forward to your meeting this weekend and start being the Church this week.  When you do go to church, let it be unplanned, unorganized, and thus un-institutional.  Your gifts are wasted if they are manifested and used in your church alone.

Several weeks ago, we started this series by telling about what we learned this summer and about all the people who made a decision to serve the Lord when we stopped spending our time going to church and started being the Church.  The following is something that God spoke to us soon after we began our outreaches:

“One night as we gathered at a park to pray for an outreach, I had a vision.  As we prayed, I saw the doors of the churches that surrounded the park (e.g., there were five churches that surround that park) swing open and the people inside came pouring into the park.  As they diffused into the park, they were excited and in wonder.  Then God spoke to me and said: ‘Help my people believe.’  I realized that as long as Christians hid in the safety of their churches, they would never experience the wonder of becoming what Church was meant to become.  Instead of providing life and substance, churches have become nothing more than prisons keeping believers from experiencing life in the Spirit.  What we experienced was the reality of being the Church, and now God wants us to share with everyone that there is life outside the walls of church buildings.  In fact, you will never really experience this life until you leave it, wander out into the world, and become the Church.” – Ron

Stop trying to figure out how to have “church.”  Stop trying to reinvent or improve it.  It’s an institution that God never intended.  So stop trying to find the right way to have a meeting.  Start being what in your heart you know God has called you to be.  “Go to church less.  Be the Church more!”

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