John Wimber use to say, ‘All that is in the Bible is truth but not all truth is found in the Bible’, or something like that.
We tend to find security in the rules and regulations that we surround ourselves with. God knows about this weakness and gave the law to Israel to help them to find the security they needed. With the law He gave them the sacrificial system and in doing that He said to them that He expects them not to keep the law. It is like preaching both abstinence and condom usage to prevent the spread of AIDS. Abstinence is what is right, but….we know that you will not be able to do it, so put a condom in your pocket.
HE had to something better than the law. Although it did not deny the law or weaken it, He had to give us a power that is greater than the law and is available to all of us so that we can keep the law. He killed the ‘old man’ and gave us knowledge of the indwelling presence of Jesus by the Holy Spirit, grace and faith to accomplish that. It is only by the law written on our hearts that we should be living, not by any law written in any other place. This is what made every new move of God authentic. From the first church to the reformation and on to the Pentecostal movement and the now the Emerging church, each new revelation was about the immediacy of the indwelling Jesus and the power available to us to allow Him to live through us.
After a while men organised the new revelation into a new set of doctrines and laws to create for their followers a new paradigm and new found security contained in their understanding of the new revelation. Men again turned away from the immediacy and love of Jesus and turned towards the security of a human paradigm and new New Testament laws were created. Like the speaking in tongues that became the badge of the Pentecostal movement and the meeting in houses that became the trade mark of the House Church Movement. We can find these trade marks all over history. The amazing thing is that men want to name things. We can just not be satisfied with what Jesus is doing. We have to name is a ‘youth ministry’ or a ‘bible study’ or a ‘small group’ or a ‘Charismatic Movement’ or for that matter an ‘Emerging Church’.
Leaders arise from these new revelations and leaders lead people. People need kings so the stage is set for a new ‘de-nom-ination’. Men make money from their followers and get to be dependant on them. People want to have substitute gods so they allow men to grow in stature and take the place of Jesus and we are often so willing to take that place. The stage is perpetually set for this drama to unfold again.
I see every move towards the closeness with Jesus and every thing that will bring us closer to the end time scenario where all things will be in Him and He will be all in all as a move in the right direction but none of these moves are the ultimate or the correct move. None of us are right and if we could just keep that in mind we will escape the horrors of the Inquisition and the Crusades. We should avoid using the Bible as a law book or a text book and find in it the life of Christ – His words to His beloved, calling us to Him and not to the Scriptures, however important they are and however much I love them. He did write the law on our hearts!
Now, I must have some coffee.
Cheers