“God of Grace and God of Glory”
Cure Thy children’s warring madness, Bend our pride to Thy control.
Shame our wanton selfish gladness, Rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
Lest we miss Thy Kingdom’s goal.
Author: Harry Emerson Fosdick (1930)
Pastoral-Prophetic Spiritual Message to the American Church during this time of Tribulation.
In my personal prayer and study time since the outbreak of the coronavirus, I was made aware of two major concerns that perhaps is the greatest blessing that will come out of this pandemic for the Body of Christ!
This presentation is not elaborate for obvious reasons, it is prayerfully just enough spiritual manna to cause an increase in your own appetite to seek the face of God for additional wisdom about His Kingdom during these and future perilous times.
Using as the basis for the contents in this blog post during this pandemic, the Book of Revelation has served as not only a comfort to my soul’s stability and care during most of this year, it is unquestionably, one of the best fountains to drink from for any student who is thirsty for the Word of God in an ever-growing culture of misinformation, fear, and lack of moral and spiritual prophetic communication and leadership within the Body of Christ-the Church.
Below are the two disclosed assessed spiritual messages for the Western Christian Church in America.
First, God offers His revealed concern about the insidious diseases and dysfunctions within the institutional Western Churches system in America. These disclosed conditions are both uncivil and or unholy according to His spiritual discernment, all of which, as this blog post plan to reveal, disables the Chruch to function as she was empowered by God to be in this current generation.
Second, this blog post will question and reveal how over some years, the mission statement of many of the institutional Western Churches in America has morphed into a structure that is culturally driven by men/women thus are operating quite different than the initial designed by Christ Jesus and the early Church.
These two observations will be the major talking points of this blog post.
Prayer
My prayer is that people who live in America and those worldwide will acknowledge, submit, and remain obedient to God during this most challenging time that we are facing. For only You are Lord, Savior, and Redeemer over all of Your creation.
Father, please continue to unsettle your people so much so that we will collectively see that You and Your Kingdom is the only True Sovereign One that alone is the source of all blessings, protection and true object of our worship and praise.
Please teach us all how to worship and serve You while we yet live in the earth, just as every creature in heaven saying, “to the One sitting on the throne and to the Lamb belong praise, honor, glory, and power forever and ever!” Amen.
Laodicea
To the angel of the Messianic Community in Laodicea, [America] writes:
‘Here is the message from the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the Ruler of God’s creation; “I know what you are doing: you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth! For you keep saying, ‘I am rich, I have gotten rich, I don’t need a thing! You don’t know that you are the one who is wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked!’ Revelation 3:14-17 [Translation: The Complete Jewish Bible]
The first portion of spiritual manna that I am offering to you is what God expresses as His revealed concern about the insidious diseases and dysfunctions within the institutional Western Churches system in America.
The symptoms and conditions
The danger facing the Church in America is that she is misguided by prosperity, self-sufficiency, and idolatry with her unhealthy alliance with the elite and the most powerful status quo. This condemnation to most churches in America by Christ is due to the spirit of”lukewarmness!”
The disease and illness
Lukewarmness is not an ancient metaphor for indifference. The text, therefore, does not present a spectrum with two extremes- hot [for Christ] and or cold [against Christ], nor someone being undecided [toward Christ]. Lukewarm water when tasted or consumed is disgusting to taste and not beneficial or wholesome for one’s purpose and calling in this generation.
“Lukewarm” in this reference means so prosperous and self-sufficient as to be completely out of intimate fellowship with Christ Jesus. How so? The Western Christian Church in America is not a middle-of-the-road church but her condemnation is that she is the most accommodating church, not only participating with the status quo when needed as a means of survival but fully embracing the secular-humanistic lifestyle and values of the oligarchy and plutocrats who Falsely, believe that THEY rule the nations of this world.
The treatment and cure
Further in the third chapter of Revelation that The Holy One offers the only solution for any church with the “spirit of Lukewarmness” is to Re-Invite the Lord over all His Creation into its corporate life [3:20].
In order to do this, the Church must reject all of its unfaithful allegiances that have impoverished, blinded, while stripping it of a spiritual mandate and calling in this generation.
The holy church marks that are either explicit and implicated in Revelation are that the Church of the Anointed One is to be Loving [Ephesus], Suffering [Smyrna], Truth [Pergamum], Holiness [Thyatira], Authenticity [Sardis], Mission [Philadelphia], and Wholeheartedness [Laodicea] This list is gleaned from Pastor-theologian T. Scott Scott Daniels, What Christ Thinks of the Church.
The end of the “emerging/attractional church?
The second offering for you the reader is for each of us to realistically question and then acknowledge that over some years, the mission statement of many of the institutional Western Churches in America has morphed into a structure that is culturally driven as opposed to be biblically driven.
The civil and medical/scientific authorities in America, in an effort at winning the battle against the invisible enemy, Covid-19 has invoked the following directions to each of us in a collective effort to lessen the spread of the virus:
Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
Stay home when you are sick, except to get medical care.
Cover your coughs and sneezes with a tissue.
Clean frequently touched surfaces and objects daily (e.g., tables, countertops, light switches, doorknobs, and cabinet handles) using regular household detergent and water.
At this writing, most church buildings are not gathering for fellowship nor worship services in compliance with this decree. Most are attempting to use the internet to broadcast their services to the members who are at home.
Is God trying to tell the Body of Christ Something?
Perhaps like never before, the Imperial Empire of America is being challenged like never before by this invisible enemy coronavirus to determine who really is truly God and about the right and wrong connections between the Heavenly Father and the socio-economic-religious-political order of this Republic.
The post-modern/Christian church model is in quarantine!
Now the Church is separated from its normal function due to this virus, which is the very best time to reform and begin again to operate in and by the power of God’s Kingdom!
Missional
The term “Missional” is a term that in essence describes a missionary lifestyle. To be missional means embracing the “living-out-loud bold public and private posture in every area of one’s life, in an effort to be used by God to witness the Gospel to a judged and dying world.
Missional living depicts the lifestyle of the Son of Man who implemented this discipline to those who were His disciples of the Kingdom of God. Such a lifestyle is the one and only mission of the entire community of God’s people worldwide, as it exclusively defines itself, and organizes its committed lifestyle around the true purpose of being used by God as an agent to the world.
Dave DeVries, author of “Missional Transformation: Fueling Missionary Movements that Transform America,” there are five biblical distinctive that form the foundation of a missional perspective:
- The Church is sent by Jesus Christ [John 17:18; 20:21, Luke 9:2, Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8]
- The Church is sent with the Cross [1 Cor. 1:18, Ephesians 2:16, Colossians 2:14, 1 Peter 2:24, 2 Cor. 5:17-24].
- The Church is sent in Community [Acts 2:24-47; 5:42; John 13:34-35; 1 John 3:16-17]
- The Church is sent to every Culture [John 1:14; Matt. 20:28; Acts 17:22-34; Luke 5:29]
- The Church is sent for the King and His Kingdom [Matt. 10:7; 25:34; Luke 4:43; Revelation 11:15-17; Jeremiah 10:7; John 18:36
The preeminent philosophical practice by the leaders of the attractional church movement is preaching the Gospel Message in a cultural relevance means. Everything about these churches is geared to make the visitors feel comfortable. Instead of designing the worship services for believers who gather to worship God, most attractional churches focus on making unbelievers feel welcome and comfortable.
The painful fruits of the attractional church leaders are instead of creating disciples, they have just filled their sanctuaries with cultural relative Christians in name only. In our American consumeristic, capitalistic and individualistic culture, attractional leaders present Christ as just another way to better one’s life, thus the false assumption that the church is responsible for their salvation.
If and when the preaching and teaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God are compromised, nothing good will ever come about in any church. The results are there is no genuine sorrow over sin [Psalm 51:3-4], no pursuit of holiness [Hebrews 12:14], there is no denial of self or taking up one’s cross [Luke 9:23].
Missional living was the very model that Christ Jesus lived and passed on to His disciples. Such a lifelong discipline would enable the people of the Kingdom of God to endure persecution [2 Timothy 2:3], pursue and live a godly lifestyle in a godly culture [2 Peter 1:3], and live among a dying and dark culture as salt and light.
Jesus Takes the Place of Everything in the Temple/and modern-day churches.
This is why the curtain in the temple tore in two as Jesus died. It was a token of destruction. The walls were coming down. Jesus himself was taking the place of everything in the temple.
- Jesus became our one and only high priest who lives forever to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25). So the temple priesthood was “destroyed.”
- Jesus offered himself and his own blood once for all to make an eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12, 25–28; 10:10–12). So all the animal sacrifices of the temple are “destroyed.”
- When Jesus made himself the mercy seat of the temple (Romans 3:25) and made his own blood the blood of the covenant (Mark 14:24), the glory of God—the old shekinah glory of the temple—came down and rested on him and raised him from the dead (Romans 6:4). Peter says, “God raised him from the dead and gave Him glory” (1 Peter 1:21). He is, as James says (2:1), “the Lord of glory.” And so the temple is no longer the place where you go to see the glory of God. Jesus is the place. Destroyed and in three days raised up—Jesus is where you go to see the glory of God.
And so the temple in Jerusalem is “destroyed.” We have a new temple, a new priest, a new sacrifice, new access to glory and fellowship with God. So when John the apostle has a vision of heaven in Revelation 21:22–23, he says,
“And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple, is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”
What Jesus meant when he said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up,” was that he himself was taking the place of the temple—by dying for sin once for all, and by rising from the dead to reign as the everlasting priest and Lord of glory.
When I die, the temple system dies. And when I rise, I am the temple. I am the sacrifice for sins. I am the priest and go-between with God. I am the presence and radiance of his glory. The temple is finished.
No priest, rabbi, nor a pastor, or any physical religious organization will ever supplant the calling and ministry of Christ Jesus as our High Priest in the lives of those whom He now has called us His priesthood.
What better time than during this most recent Tribulation period, worldwide for the true Heavenly Temple of God’s Body, to remain true and faithful to God despite disease, death, unemployment, unravel of governments and every social system, or institutions?
Please consider 1 Peter 2:9:
And ye are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people acquired, that the excellences ye may shew forth of Him who out of darkness did call you to His wondrous light.
What is the Church?…
The best way to kill a church is to squeeze it into a building.
For without contact with people in need and publicly witnessing faith and trust in Jesus,
a church will quietly die. -Bob Snyder-
Words of Encouragement
What a powerful time to Know Christ Jesus better! There is not anyone in the history of the earth who is a better example for us to follow during this tribulation period than Christ, for He alone is the faithful witness for God throughout His role as the Son of Man. He alone overcame this world with spiritual integrity.
He lives within each of us as the Present one, walking as our Shepherd amiss His communities of faithful life-long disciples, ever speaking words of comfort while challenging each of us through The Holy Spirit to take on His likeness and His mission to a world that has already been judged.
He now and forevermore reigns with God the Creator, sharing in the true devotion, praise, and worship due to God alone, while perhaps not now, Christ will come, bringing God’s complete purpose to reality which includes a new heaven and earth.
In the meantime:
The faithful disciples who are alive in this present age are to be living-out-loud a wholehearted- biblical witness while resisting all uncivil and unholy alliances with the world.
We are to remain on alert, always actively listening to His Holy Spirit, while we honor Him by worshipping, praising and living a missional lifestyle. Amen.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and earth.”
Go therefore and make disciple of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I commanded you;
and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:17-20
Brother Alonzo
Blog post research material: Complete Jewish Bible, New American Standard Bible.
Book: Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness, Following the Lamb Into the New Creation by, Michael J. Gorman.
Quotes by, Harry Emerson Fosdick (1930), Pastor-theologian T. Scott Scott Daniels, Dave DeVries, and Bob Snyder.
Articles: Got Questions.org. “What does it mean to be missional? Should Christians be missional?”, and “What is an attractional church?” Stephen’s Crime: “Jesus Will Destroy the Temple” Acts 6:8-15, Resource by, John Piper, Desiring God.