Heaven to Earth: The Christian Hope in the Resurrection, Part III

Heaven to Earth: The Christian Hope in the Resurrection, Part III      by David D. Flowers, free-lance writer & blogger, The Woodlands, TX

It has grown increasingly apparent to me that pop-culture Christianity was birthed, and is being maintained, by a steady diet of sloppy hermeneutics and a distorted view of Jesus. It has opened the church up to demonic deceptions and has made her susceptible to the pagan powers seeking to undermine our hope in the finished work of Christ.

Because of this onslaught upon Christian orthodoxy and years of propagating a view of God that more closely resembles Greco-Roman mythology than the Abba of Jesus, it is necessary that we adopt the Berean spirit and be reconciled to an apostolic view of God that looks like Christ and a future that is consistent with the eternal purpose (Eph. 1-3; Col. 1:15-23).

Let’s stop and reconsider what the Scripture teaches concerning heaven, hell, and the resurrection of the dead. For what we believe about the future has a profound effect on how we live in this present evil age.

Heaven: Our Final Home?

“Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.” Isaiah 65:17

The creation of a “new heavens and a new earth” is a transformation of the former things. It is a world transfigured like unto the physical body of the Lord Jesus (Matt. 17:1-9). The resurrected body of Christ was of its own kind. There is continuity with the old body and there is discontinuity as well (Lk. 24: 13-35, 36-49; Jn. 20:1-18, 24-31; 21:1-14).

In Rev. 21-22 we do not see believers flying off to a disembodied spiritual existence on the other side of the cosmos. No, we see heaven coming to earth. We see heaven, God’s realm, breaking through and fully consummating with the physical realm we call earth. We can see this in the resurrected body of Christ: heaven intersecting with earth.

We must rid ourselves of this mantra that speaks of going to heaven when we die, as if we will have come to the end of our journey. Heaven is indeed where the Lord is presently, but it is not our final home (Ps. 14:2; 20:6; 33:13; Ecc. 5:2; Is. 66:1; Dan. 2:44; 7:27; Rev. 11:15). The finished work of Christ is not fully realized until God makes his home on this earth.

If anything, heaven is only a temporal dwelling for those awaiting the resurrection of the dead. Jesus said there are “many dwelling places” in his Father’s house (Jn 14:2). The Greek word for “dwelling places” used here, monai, has regularly been used to refer to a temporary stop on an extended journey.

Even when Christ was on the cross, he told the thief on his left that “today” he would be with him in “paradise” (Lk. 23:43). This too doesn’t speak of a final destination, but of a temporal garden of rest. All of the saints, past and present, still await the return of the King and the establishment of heaven on earth (Heb. 11:13-16; Rev. 6:10-11).

God’s desire has always been to complete his good work in the created world upon which every human being has ever lived. For the Jew, there was a firm belief that God would restore creation and fulfill his covenant with his people. The Lord of heaven and earth would finally merge the two into one unified reality.

This resurrected world is called the “New Jerusalem” and the “Holy City” (Rev. 21:2). This newly remade world is our final destination. It is the Kingdom of God fully realized. Christ says, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5)! And it is Christ that has the authority to say such things, for he was the first to be resurrected and be clothed with the imperishable.

Our hope is in a future resurrected existence in the “new heavens and earth.” It is on this earth that Jesus prayed, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). Heaven is indeed coming to earth. Jesus has called for its renewal and resurrection!

“Heaven, in the Bible, is not a future destiny but the other, hidden, dimension of our ordinary life—God’s dimension, if you like. God made heaven and earth; at the last he will remake both and join them together forever.” N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope, 19

Hell: Eternal Torture?

The more I am coming to know God in Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the less I am able to find the idea of eternal torture in “hell” as being reflective of God’s character and consistent with biblical teaching on eternal punishment.

“When we say something about heaven or hell we are also saying something specifically about God.”  Randy Klassen, What Does the Bible Really Say About Hell? p. 28

Let’s quit fooling ourselves by pretending that what we believe about heaven and hell doesn’t communicate a great deal of how we think, feel, and relate to God. A person can’t simply say, “It doesn’t matter. Who can really know? It has no bearing on me for I am saved.” I submit to you that it does matter. Your salvation is bound up in the person of Christ who is God incarnate. Who is this God you serve?

I do admit that much of the Lord is a mystery (Is. 55:8-9). However, if we are honest with ourselves, we may find that the popular view of hell does not jive with the person and work of Christ and it has greatly impacted our experience of God and the way in which we relate to the world around us. And this is interwoven with our hope in the resurrection and God’s reconciling the world to himself.

The traditional view of hell was born in the second century and it later became a concrete idea in the Middle Ages. Tertullian (c. 160-230) believed that hell was a “secret fire under the earth” where torment was everlasting.

Catholic theologian, Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), taught that believers would be able to watch the eternal damnation of souls in hell from their lofty place of comfort in heaven. And of course it was Dante’s Inferno in his Divine Comedy that gave us a vivid close-up of the torments of hell.

These ideas, along with a whole host of pagan beliefs on hell, have penetrated the church and continues to permeate the culture today. Still today books are written by folks who have “been to hell and back” and have lived to scare the hell out of you too! It is a message of fear intended to produce converts.

And like the famous Jonathan Edwards sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” we revel on with the preposterous idea that God is moody and hell-bent on having his enemies over for a barbecue. Edwards’ notorious speech is most reflective of a vivid imagination than it is a sound biblical exposition.

Anyone carefully reading the book of Acts can’t help but notice the absence of “hell” in the preaching of the apostles. There isn’t even a promise of heaven to convince others to “walk the isle” and receive Christ. The apostles did however speak about the resurrection of Jesus and the people saving themselves from “this corrupt generation” (Acts 2:40). They did proclaim a coming judgment foretold by Christ and the Old Testament prophets.

In the Old Testament there are sixty-five references to Sheol. The KJV inappropriately translates Sheol as “hell” numerous times. A balanced reading of the Scripture will prove Sheol to only be a reference to death and the grave. “If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there” (Ps. 139:8). The poet clearly wasn’t envisioning Sheol as a place of eternal torment. He was indeed expressing his certainty that he is safe and secure in the Lord.

“Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Daniel 12:2

Greek wisdom taught that the soul is immortal. Christian teaching is quite clear that only God has life immortal (1 Tim. 6:13-16). Any human being that is not receiving the life of God, eating from the Tree of Life (i.e. Jesus), is most certainly headed toward death and destruction (Matt. 7:13-14). God placed Adam in the Garden and laid before him two paths: life and death.

How can a person live forever in the fiery torments of hell if God’s life is not sustaining them for eternity? But we have often heard that hell is a place where God is not. And if God is torturing people forever and ever, for what purpose? Is this consistent with God being “all in all” and his promise to rid the world of evil (1 Cor. 15:28)?

The psalmist writes:

“For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” Psalm 30:5

What is the goal of eternal punishment? Jan Bonda says, “Nowhere in Scripture do we find a statement that tells us that God wants those who are punished to suffer without end—this is not the purpose for which God created humans” (The One Purpose of God, p. 212). What sort of God endlessly tortures unbelievers for the sake of punishment alone?

The Pharisees believed in a literal hell where folks would be tormented day and night. Yet, Jesus painted a picture of a judgment for the unbeliever that can in no way be taken literally.

The word Gehenna is translated as “hell” in the Gospels. Gehenna was the name of the Valley of Hinnom, the garbage dump outside the southwest walls of Jerusalem. This dump was continually burning. Everything from trash to dead bodies were disposed of there.

Jesus references Gehenna on numerous occasions to speak symbolically of the judgment of God (Matt. 5:22,29,30; 10:28; 18:9, 23:15,33; Mk. 9:43, 45, 47; Lk. 12:5; 16: 23). Jesus’ metaphors would have undoubtedly spoken of a horrible judgment for those who did not accept God’s salvation. But it would indeed be foolish to hear Jesus describing a literal hell where there are worms, fire, and darkness all at the same time (Mk. 9:48).

Notice that Jesus uses Gehenna when speaking to the Pharisees, but he uses “Hades” when speaking to Gentiles. The Gentiles would have been familiar with this term. Hades was known as the Greek god of the underworld. Jesus says to those that reject him, “you will be brought down to Hades” (i.e. grave, land of the dead). He even uses Hades in his parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk. 16:19-31).

The point of the parable is to show the finality of the matter, not describe for the listeners a literal description of hell (v. 26, 31). In listening to a joke, it is important that you get the punch-line of that joke and not be distracted by the details. It is the same in this parable told by Jesus. He is telling us that a person can reach a point that is beyond the life sustaining power of God. In this sense, we find that a proper understanding of “eternal” judgment does not speak of duration, but of consequence (Heb. 5:9). The judgment is final… it is done.

If we take Jesus’ parable in Luke 16:19-31 literally, should we then assume that we too shall see our loved ones roasting eternally and crying out for mercy? This even causes a problem for those who are our enemies. For our love for them will be perfected upon resurrection. If God is “all in all” in the newly remade world, how is it that there will exist a place of everlasting damnation? We can’t interpret descriptions of hell in a stanch literalism anymore than those words of John concerning the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21).

The Didache, a mid first-century text for training Christian converts, presents the entire Christian life in this manner: “There are two ways: one of life and one of death!” This early text of recitation very simply describes the way of life and the way of death. This is in keeping with Paul’s own language in his theological work to the Romans (5-6). Paul writes, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

Without the life-sustaining power of God in Christ, having not accepted Jesus as the sacrifice for sins, a person faces the judgment alone with no resurrected life to carry them through to the new heavens and earth. A person is then judged according to his deeds and experiences the “second death” (Rev. 20:12-15). James D.G. Dunn calls this “the final destruction of the corruptible” (The Theology of Paul the Apostle, p. 125.)

It is in the fire that the chaff is consumed and is no more (Matt. 3:12). Is it not more consistent with the Lord’s character that those who reject the divine image would cease to bear it after having experienced God’s justice once and for all? What could be more dreadful than to experience a gradual shrinking of human life, life created in God’s image, until that soul can no longer be supported by God’s life any longer?

If we accept the “eternal life” Christ promised in John 3:16 to those who believe, should we not also accept his words that folks will “perish” (i.e. be destroyed in death) upon disbelief (Lk. 13:3-5)? God’s mercy is in allowing that person that rejects the divine image to fade from existence into death, not in sustaining their life for never-ending suffering.

After death is destroyed, then God may be “all in all.” In this way, God’s justice is served, his mercy extended, and his love triumphs over evil. The Word is true: “God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8)!

If we were to stop and rethink all that we have been told about hell, I believe we would find that God’s character does not allow for such a place (1 Ch. 21:13; 2 Ch. 20:21; Neh. 9:31; Ps. 30:5; 103:9; 145:8; Is. 54:8; Ez. 33:11; Hos. 6:6; Mic. 7:18; Matt. 5:38-48; Jn. 3:16-21; 13:34-35; 1 Cor. 13; Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 1:4-5; 1 Pet. 3:8; 1 John).

Neither Christ nor the apostles have given us the traditional view of hell. Instead, if we look to Christ, we see a God that is reconciling the world to himself and remaking the world in love. He is chosen to do this work through his church… and the gates of Hades (death) shall not overcome it (Matt. 16:18).

Resurrection Future

“I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable… For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.” Paul, 1 Cor. 15:50, 53

Some folks would have you believe that the resurrection has already taken place in the spiritual sense and there is therefore no need for a physical resurrection of our bodies. This view highlights the work of the cross but overlooks the importance and power of a physical resurrection in order to maintain its toxic eschatology.

We can’t afford to ignore the earliest Jewish meaning of the word resurrection. Resurrection always refers to a new bodily existence. Paul’s emphasis on Christ’s bodily resurrection in 1 Cor. 15:12-58 is to assure the saints that we too shall receive the same.

It should be equally accepted as his purpose for addressing those believers in Thessalonica (1 Thess. 4:13-18). The believers there were dealing with the deaths of loved ones around them. They had “fallen asleep” before the coming of Christ.

Concerning the Christian hope at death, Stanley Grenz writes:

“As Christians, however, our hope does not focus on any conception of life after death. On the contrary, our hope is directed toward the promise of resurrection. Therefore, anything we say about the status of the dead must arise out of our hope for resurrection.” Created for Community, p.271

It is by Christ’s death on the cross that we died. But it is through Christ’s resurrection that we may live. “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Paul continues, “If we have been united with him in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection” (Rom. 6:4-5).

Without the physical resurrection of our bodies, we may not enter into the fullness of the new creation. When heaven comes to earth and “the dwelling of God is with men,” we shall receive a body that is clothed imperishable and raised in immortality; a resurrected body for a resurrected world. It is in the physical resurrection of the dead and the judgment that the “last enemy” is destroyed (1 Cor. 15:26). Death shall be no more!

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” Jesus, John 11:25-26

Resurrection Now

Does the resurrection of Christ on the third day have any effect on us in the present? Paul believed we could know the power of Christ’s resurrection even now.

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Paul, Philippians 3:10-11

Paul wrote, “outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16). How is it that resurrection has already begun in an inward way? It has happened by the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. As N.T. Wright has written, it is in the resurrection of Christ that the world is already now “being born with Jesus” (SH, 73).

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life…” and receiving his indwelling Spirit is receiving resurrection life (Jn. 12:24; 14:15-31; 16:5-16; Acts 1:8). The Kingdom of God has broken through into the old order of things and has already begun the work of resurrection in the here and now. It is doing a work within the hearts of men.

“The Kingdom of God belongs to the future, and yet the blessings of the Kingdom of God have entered into the present Age to deliver men from bondage to Satan and sin. Eternal life belongs to the Kingdom of God, to The Age to Come; but it, too, has entered into the present evil Age that men may experience eternal life in the midst of death and decay. We may enter into this experience of life by the new birth, by being born again.” George Eldon Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom, p. 71

We are able to stand firm and give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord because of our hope that soon Christ’s victory over death will become a reality for all of creation (1 Cor. 15:54-58). Resurrection is now working in the spiritual order of things. The Kingdom of God is already here now and it is yet to come (Matt. 12:28; Mk. 1:15). It is working behind the scenes to destroy the sovereignty of Satan and is restoring the creation in every act of Christian love.

The Kingdom of God is breaking though into this present evil age because of Christ’s resurrection and it is testifying of the age to come when God will bring heaven to earth. The two-stage coming of the Kingdom should not be overlooked any longer (Lk. 19:11). The Lord is advancing his Kingdom even as I write this article. Heaven is invading earth in a covert operation of love.

How is the resurrection impacting our world today? What does the Kingdom look like in action? I believe Gregory Boyd very simply describes its nature and power.

He says, the Kingdom of God “always looks like Jesus—loving, serving, and sacrificing himself for all people, including his enemies. To the extent that an individual, church, or movement looks like that, it manifests the Kingdom of God. To the extent that it doesn’t look like that, it doesn’t.” The Myth of a Christian Religion, p. 14

If we are not willing to bleed like Jesus, we shall not know the power of his resurrection life. There is always a cross before there is a burst of light coming from the empty tomb. We must return to Christ and the foolishness of his cross if we wish to exhibit resurrection. For his Kingdom is not a matter of talk, but of power (1 Cor. 4:20).

This power does not come through utilizing the power-over structures of man to baptize the culture into the Christian religion. It is a spiritual authority that is earned by sharing the suffering of mankind. It happens when we see our neighbors as objects of God’s love instead of souls to conquer for our work-centered faith.

Resurrection happens in the here and now when the church is reflecting life as it will be in the new heavens and earth.

And that life always looks like Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

“For, as I have often told you before and now say again with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”   Paul, Philippians 3:18-21

 

Suggested Reading:

The Bible and the Future by Anthony Hoekema                                                     Breaking the Code: Understanding the Book of Revelation by Bruce Metzger                 Created for Community: Connecting Christian Belief with Christian Living by S. Grenz   The Eclipse of Christ in Eschatology: Toward a Christ-Centered Approach by Adrio Koenig An Evening in Ephesus: A Dramatic Commentary on Revelation by Bob Emery               The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment by Edward Fudge                                                                           Gospel of the Kingdom: Scriptural Studies in the Kingdom of God by George Eldon Ladd     IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL OR RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD? by Oscar Cullmann           The Myth of a Christian Religion: Losing Your Religion for the Beauty of a Revolution by Gregory Boyd                                                                                                     Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church by N.T. Wright                                                                     Dispensationalism: An Inquiry Into Its Leading Figures & Features by Jon Zens

From Eternity to Here (Book Review)

God’s Love Story                                                                

A Book Review of “From Eternity to Here: Rediscovering the Ageless Purpose of God” by Frank Viola                   Reviewed by David D. Flowers

Growing up I remember hearing folks call the church the “Bride of Christ.” I only believed it to be one more way to speak of “heavenly” things.

Like many things within institutional Christianity, it was nothing more than a metaphor in a line of many metaphors that were used to talk of God’s love for his children. Viola explains in his book that it is more than a fanciful, nice way to speak of the church… it is “God’s central purpose.” Paul called it “the eternal purpose” (Eph. 3:11).

From Eternity to Here is the fourth book in a five-book series on radical church restoration. (Fifth book is set to be released Sept. 09)  Out of all the books Viola has written, this volume reveals the driving passion behind his life and all of his work. He writes, “in beholding God’s central purpose, I found my own purpose. In touching His passion, I found my own passion” (p.13).

Viola effectively communicates this passion in three parts. The first part is entitled “A Forgotten Woman: The Bride of Christ.” Viola begins by pointing his readers to the “hidden romance” between the great lover (God) and his beloved (the church).

This story begins with Adam and Eve and continues throughout all of Scripture as the true lover is seen through foreshadowing. Viola beautifully describes in detail this great love story between the lover and the beloved that will one day be the wife of God. The story of Adam and Eve is a picture of a greater story. Eve came out of Adam after creation… she was a “new creation.”

Viola says, “There was a woman inside of God before time” (p.41).

Viola is a master storyteller. He has been captivated by God’s love story and is able to wonderfully reveal “the mystery” of Christ to a new generation. “The Holy Spirit must open the eyes of His people in every generation for them to grasp it” (p.25).

“Now Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ, who was yet to come” (Rom. 5:14).

Out of Christ comes his Bride! Finally, a woman for the Lord to love. Viola writes, “All love stories, whether intentional or unintentional, are patterned after this heavenly romance” (p.91).

It is not that God was lonely or that the Trinitarian community was inadequate. It is because “God is love” that he is not content to keep this love to himself. Viola states that the “superabundance of God’s love required a receptacle that was not within the Trinity” (p.40).

God always intended to share his community with his creation. The nature of God’s love is that is given, received, and returned to him. Without God’s creation, he is a “frustrated lover” (p.58). God is sovereign and in control of the future, but indeed frustrated.

Part II is entitled “An Eternal Quest: The House of God.” The chapters within this section look at the divine passion from another perspective. God is homeless and he desires a house that he and his Bride may have a family.

Viola traces God’s quest for a house throughout the Scriptures. As he traces God’s search from Adam to Jesus, he says, “The house of God is not a thing… it is the Lord Jesus Christ” (p.155).

The last half of this section gets personal and compares our own journey to being like that of Israel’s history. Like Israel, as members of the Body of Christ, we must make a choice as to which house we will dwell in. Put another way… what kind of house are we going to be for God?

Egypt: the world system that is driven by pleasures and places earthly pursuits above pursuits of our heavenly home and King.

Babylon: organized religion that is a mixture of fallen humanity and the divine; characterized best by hypocrisy and described best as the “counterfeit of the New Jerusalem.” Babylon can be compared to the institutional church of today. Many of God’s people live there and they will only find themselves building a community centered on man and not Christ and his purposes.

The Wilderness: this is the place where those who leave the world and organized religion will find themselves. It is a place of transition. “To sift us, to reduce us, and to strip us down to Christ alone” (p.191). This is a time of detox. Yet… it is not our home!

The old wineskin must be done away with so that the new can come. The home for which we were made is a land of freedom and one that flows with “milk and honey.”

Part III is entitled “A New Species: The Body of Christ & The Family of God.” This section speaks of Christians being resident aliens. The Bride of Christ is to remain pure and holy as she awaits her bridegroom.

The church is a “new species.” Viola traces this language through the New Testament. A language that many Christians have failed to recognize and apply to their lives.

Viola simplifies Body life as an act of gathering around Jesus Christ. This is our purpose. Likewise, it should be our passion. Yet, the Body of Christ has been forced into an institution and she has forgotten God’s eternal purpose. She has lost sight of the bigger picture and the great landscape of God’s love story. She has been preoccupied and polluted by a theology that leaves out the ageless purpose of God.

How does the church live out the ageless purpose of God? Viola writes, “Very simply: by loving the Lord Jesus as His bride and learning to live by His indwelling life” (p.288).

The book closes with a brief glimpse into Viola’s journey and a call to return to the Headship of Christ in the church that is reflective of the divine image and God’s eternal purpose.

Viola writes, “Recognizing that Jesus Christ is the incarnation of all spiritual things will change your prayer life. It will change your vocabulary and the way you think and talk about spiritual things. And it will ultimately change your practice of the church” (p.303).

If we seek the centrality and supremacy of Christ and know that our riches are in a Person and not in things meant to further our individual pursuits… we shall be fashioned into that beautiful Bride and usher in the Kingdom. At last… God will dwell with his people when heaven comes to earth at the marriage of the Great Lover and his Beloved.

I recommend this book, especially for those who have been lost in our narcissistic evangelical ecclesiology.

For the brave… I suggest:  Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices

For those who know there must be more to Body Life than you are experiencing… I encourage you to read:  Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity 

I also recommend reading:

Going to the Root: Nine Proposals for Radical Church Renewal 
Paul’s Idea of Community: The Early House Churches in Their Cultural Setting, Revised Edition

 

OTHER BLOGS PARTICIPATING IN THE “FROM ETERNITY TO HERE” BLOG CIRCUIT

Today (June 9th), the following blogs are discussing Frank Viola’s new bestselling book “From Eternity to Here” (David C. Cook, 2009). The book just hit the May CBA Bestseller List. Some are posting Q & A with Frank; others are posting full reviews of the book. To read more reviews and order a copy at a 33% discount, go to Amazon.com: From Eternity to Here: Rediscovering the Ageless Purpose of God

For more resources, such as downloadable audios, the free Discussion Guide, the Facebook Group page, etc. go to the official website: http://www.FromEternitytoHere.org

Enjoy the reviews and the Q and A:

Out of Ur
Shapevine (June newsletter)
Brian Eberly
DashHouse.com
Greg Boyd
Vision 2 Advance
David D. Flowers
kingdom grace
Captain’s Blog
Christine Sine
Darin Hufford – The Free Believers Network
zoecarnate
Church Planting Novice
Staying Focused
Take Your Vitamin Z
Jeff Goins
Bunny Trails
Matt Cleaver
Jason T. Berggren
Simple Church
Emerging from Montana
Parable Life
Oikos Australia
West Coast Witness
Keith Giles
Consuming Worship
Tasha Via
Andrew Courtright
ShowMeTheMooneys!
Leaving Salem, Blog of Ronnie McBrayer
Jason Coker
From Knowledge to Wisdom
Home Brewed Christianity
Dispossessed
Dandelion Seeds
David Brodsky’s Blog- “Flip the tape Deck”
Chaordic Journey
Renee Martin
Bob Kuhn
Living with Freaks
Real Worship
Fervent Worship
Julie Ferwerda
What’s With Christina?!
On Now to the Third Level
Irreligious Canuck
This day on the journey
Live and Move: Thoughts on Authentic Christianity
Spiritual Journey With God
echurch
The Jesus Feed
Book Disciple
My Journey – With Others
On Now to the Third Level
Christine Moers
Breaking Point
Hand to the Plough
Jon Reid
Weblight
D.L. Webster
Searching for the Whole-Hearted Life

Heaven to Earth: The Christian Hope in the Resurrection, Part II of III

Heaven to Earth: The Christian Hope in the Resurrection, Part II        by David D. Flowers, free-lance writer & blogger, The Woodlands, TX

“For if the dead are not raised then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.” Paul, 1 Cor. 15:16-18

It is quite clear that the resurrection of Christ is the one event upon which our entire faith rises or falls.  Paul, quoting from an early creedal statement, says, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…” (1 Cor. 15:3).  ”According to the Scriptures,” would of course be referring to the Old Testament Prophets.  

The Pharisees often debated with the Sadducees whether or not resurrection could be a reality. Many Jews confidently believed that God would renew his creation and restore what was lost.  But not even the Pharisees expected the resurrection to happen until the final Day of the Lord.

The resurrection of Christ even took his closest disciples by surprise. Jesus goes before us all by being the “firstborn among the dead” (Col. 1:18). The apostle Paul believed in this resurrection, not only in the possibility of it, but in the reality that he had indeed seen the crucified and resurrected Messiah Jesus (Acts. 9).

“It’s one thing to believe it. It’s another thing to see it.”  Benjamin Linus, LOST, “Dead is Dead” season 5, episode 12 (Ben’s response to seeing John Locke alive again.)

For a person to believe in the resurrection of Christ is to accept that they too will pass from death to a new bodily existence at the second parousia (i.e. “coming”) of Christ. Jesus himself passes from an earthly body to a real “spiritual body” and promises that those who follow him shall do the same (Jn. 11:25).

Jesus not only spoke of this new existence, but he allowed his closest followers to witness the glorious transfiguration, and later his visible presence in his resurrected body (Matt. 17; Lk. 24:36-49). According to Paul, he appeared to “more than five hundred” people in this new body. And at the time of Paul’s writing, these folks were “still living” and you could go talk to them yourself (1 Cor. 15:6).

Life After Death

Contemporary visions of the “afterlife” stand in stark contrast to the uniquely Christian hope in the resurrection of the dead. Let’s take a moment to briefly examine what others believe about the divine destiny of man.

We have already seen the Platonic or Gnostic vision of the immortality of the soul. This view seeks to emphasize the individual. In this vision, our lives culminate at death when the soul is released from the body and we are freed from the imperfections of the material world. According to this view, discarding the body is necessary to reach the world of eternal ideas and touch the divine.

Another prominent view teaches that we all are destined for a blended union with the divine. Proponents of this idea, often known as monism, believe that God is impersonal and lacks personal distinctions. To become “one” with the divine is actually to lose all of your own personality and be absorbed in with the “great spirit” in the sky. This view undermines the personhood and character of God as well as the personal nature of human beings.

Reincarnation goes a step further in this idea of union with the divine. According to this view, we do not blend with the divine immediately, but after a series of “rebirths” that continue until the soul has reached perfection.  Since this cycle of rebirths is actually never-ending, life is ultimately meaningless. It believes the real person to be only the soul that moves from body to body. Reincarnation denies the perfect God-created union of spirit, soul, and body.

Finally, we can’t leave out those who believe that a person simply ceases to exist upon death. This belief may just be the saddest of all things a person chooses to embrace. Believing that everything ceases at death rejects the created order left by God to lead us to knowledge of himself (Rom. 1:20). And it denies that internal longing for life beyond the grave. This person should stop to observe the seasons. Winter can be dreadful, but Spring is forthcoming.

Pop-Culture Christianity

“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” Paul, 1 Cor. 15:51-52

Somehow believers have failed to recognize that Scripture teaches that the culmination of our earthly life is found in the future resurrection of the dead when the Lord will break through from heaven and establish his Kingdom upon the earth. They have missed John’s revelation of the Holy City “coming down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).

Instead, many have embraced an eschatological view that propagates some of the tenants of the pagan ideas already discussed. We see this most clearly in Christian funerals and popular teachings on the eschaton (i.e. “last things”) from the pulpit and the pen of preachers everywhere.

Pop-culture Christianity teaches a distorted view of death and the last days. And I believe it is partially born from a resistance to suffering in the New Testament fashion. We say we have the Kingdom in mind through “winning the culture” by legislating sin, when in reality we don’t wish to rely on the foolishness of the cross and suffer as Christ in patient love. We, like the world, are fighting against death instead of embracing it with hope in the resurrection.

American Christianity has made it possible for us to look past Paul’s words, “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12) and “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him” (Phil. 1:29). We have built for us a faith that wants nothing but comfort in this world, only to turn and grieve in sorrow as the world grieves.

We have failed to know the true hope that comes by first confronting the ugliness and reality of death. To cope with the “sting” of death we resort to absurd beliefs that are more reflective of pagan teachings than they are of our distinctly Christian hope in the resurrection. How can we know the victory until we have felt the defeat? Death has “lost its sting” because of the finished work of Christ (Rom. 6:5; 1 Cor. 15:55). Why would we ever use language that takes away from that work?

Evangelical Christianity has largely adopted pagan ideas of the “afterlife” that allows us to continue propagating the “no suffering for me” theology. The Left Behind Series has done much to further the idea that what we all need is to escape or be “raptured” from this evil world and our lowly, decrepit bodies for a future “spiritual” existence on the other side of the cosmos.

Meanwhile, we are learning to care less and less about the soul of a terrorist, genocide, and the many ways we are destroying the planet. What does it matter when the Christian life can be summed up in “going to heaven when you die”… which translates: this world isn’t so important after all. We can hardly see the urgency and the importance of it because the Gospel has been mixed with worldly political agendas.

You have heard it many times at funerals before and probably have said it yourself at some point: “they are in a better place… they have gone home.” Our hymns even reflect this Platonic idea of the soul’s escape from the body. “I’ll fly away O glory… when I die hallelujah by and by… I’ll fly way!” Really? Are we flying away or are we awaiting the resurrection of the dead for a new existence when heaven comes to earth? If we are flying away, where are we going? Cause I’m not too sure I want to go there anymore.

Does this sound like a teaching that reflects our hope in the resurrection of the dead? Is it a development or a deviation from the Gospel that testifies that someday soon heaven will break through to this groaning earth and God’s reign will be known among the nations? Why do we insist on furthering a dim view of the Christian hope?

We should stop and reconsider our anticipation in the resurrection of the dead when a believer is struck by the awfulness of death. In a better place, I’m sure, but “home”… I should think not. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (a popular phrase that is nowhere in the Bible)… should only imply that we shall never be separated from his presence (Lk. 23:42-43; Rom. 8:38-39; Phil. 1:23). But who can be home when they are separated from their body? It is in the climatic event of resurrection that we shall enter our rest.

“The doctrine of the resurrection affirms that we do not enter into the fullness of eternity apart from the body, but only in the body.”  Stanley Grenz, Theology for the Community of God, pg. 588

When we reduce the Gospel to a few clichés and water it down with pagan ideas of life after death… all that is left is to convince our neighbors that hell is hot and that they better hop aboard the J-train before it shoves off headed past a few stars to the right and on till morning. Are we followers of Christ or members of the Heaven’s Gate cult?

If we believe there is life after death without the body, then we have greatly misunderstood our hope in the resurrection of the dead. All the saints past and present await the coming judgment and resurrection of the dead. It is as if all of creation is on the edge of its seat crying out for that passing from death to life (Rom. 8:22; Rev. 6:9-11). Heaven and earth cry out, “Come, Lord Jesus! Come!”

“Now, at the climax of God’s salvation in the bodily resurrection of believers, the final enemy is defeated, the final victory won.”  Michael S. Gorman, Apostle of the Crucified Lord, pg. 281

Until heaven comes to earth and God remakes the world for our new resurrected existence… we live in that hope. We live to testify of the coming Kingdom of God that is already, but not yet. Winter is here and the times are dreadful, but Spring is coming!

 

You can now read “Heaven to Earth: The Christian Hope in the Resurrection, Part III.”

Heaven to Earth: The Christian Hope in the Resurrection, Part I of III

Heaven to Earth: The Christian Hope in the Resurrection, Part I
by David D. Flowers, free-lance writer & blogger, The Woodlands, TX

“If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”
Paul, 1 Cor. 15:13-14

In Acts 17:16-34, the apostle Paul, while in Athens, was brought to the Areopagus because he was preaching “the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.” Athens was the center of Greek philosophy. The popular view of resurrection among the Greeks was… well, there wasn’t one. That is of course if you have in mind a physical resurrection from the dead. If a person actually believes that the dead can rise, then no, according to the Greeks, there can be no such thing as “resurrection.”

Greek Philosophy
The Platonic view taught that heavenly bliss was an escape from our physical bodies for a purely spiritual existence where the “shadows” become reality, but only in a disembodied state. No wonder their response to Paul was, “You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean” (Acts 17:20).

The Greeks, the wisest of the wise, did not accept a literal and physical rising of the dead. Resurrection, or anastasis (lit. to stand again), can only mean a spiritual rebirth or gnosis of the eternal things, not an actual dead body coming to life again. For the Greeks, it goes beyond the belief that a dead person could live again. Rejection of the resurrection was founded in the philosophical idea that the physical world was evil and only a shadow of that pure spiritual realm.

Greek philosophy largely embraced the idea that the soul needed to be freed from the material world of imperfections into the eternal realm of ideas. Some believed this meant there was, therefore, no moral code because material things were of no consequence.

The Corinthian church saw these ideas threatening its community. Immorality was being accepted among the saints, and they were gathering around one or two individuals like unto the way of Greek philosophical practice. This is still popular today.

“Where is the philosopher of the age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world… But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise… We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom…” Paul, 1 Cor. 1:20, 27; 2:6-7

Whether it was of the Stoic or Epicurean flavor, there was no room for Paul’s message of resurrection. According to the Greeks, dead men can’t rise, nor should we want them to. Therefore, many of the leaders rejected the idea, but others would hear Paul again and become followers of Christ (Acts 17:32-34).

Gnosticism
Plato’s teaching on life after death was the prevailing view among the Greeks. As the good news of Christ was being preached in the first century, these philosophical ideas slowly merged with Christian doctrine and sort of a Christian Gnosticism was born.

Paul was constantly combating these foreign ideas and the threat of “another” good news. It was a century later that we have the Gnostic “apocryphal” books written to promote this merging of Greek ideas with Christian teaching (e.g. Gospel of Thomas, Mary, Judas, etc.).

You can see the continued popularity of these teachings in movies today (e.g. The Matrix, V for Vendetta, The Truman Show, etc.). Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is the latest to promote the Gnostic view of Christ.

The goal is to strip Christ of his divinity and his sinless human nature. The same teachings that promote this disembodied spiritual future also accept the idea that the Creator (Yahweh) is evil and the serpent of the Garden of Eden is the agent of good come to cut man lose from his puppet strings.

According to Gnosticism, the serpent, the devil, brings knowledge of what is really going on. What man needs is to be freed or “awakened” by the “secret” knowledge or gnosis. Man needs to throw off rules and regulations of the flesh in order to embrace “spiritual” living. He needs to recognize his own divinity apart from God. Taking from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would do just that.

If man will only take the “red pill” and choose enlightenment… he shall indeed see “how far the rabbit hole goes.” We should find a sobering reminder from the movie, The Matrix.

“Zion” in Gnosticism leads us on a ship, named after the God-defying Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, to a dark city below the earth (i.e. hell). It will not be an orgy or a party portrayed in The Matrix, but an eternity separated from Christ where man ceases to bear the divine image. Hardly a future any of us would hope for.

If you can prove Jesus of Nazareth was like the ordinary man on the street, having that corruptible nature called “flesh,” and that there was no physical resurrection of the dead, that Jesus was merely revived after his crucifixion, and that he spent the rest of his days in Spain having kids with Mary Magdalene, then you can undermine the entire Christian hope. It is a distortion of the first century synoptic Gospel’s account that is satanic propaganda disguised as “knowledge.”

Gnosticism is an absurd attempt to falsify the Gospel message and its presentation of Jesus as the promised Messiah who was both God and man. I am confident that, at least for now, the idea is only embraced by a few who live with their heads in the clouds. However, these ideas have indeed wiggled their way into Christian eschatology and our teachings on heaven and the resurrection.  (I’ll address this in Part II.)

This fabricated “secret” message may be able to make money at the box office, but the Gnostic Jesus holds no weight when it comes to reliable testimony and the historicity of the New Testament. We have plenty of evidence that suggests that the account of Christ we have in the New Testament Gospels is the real deal.

“Jesus is either the flesh-and-blood individual who walked and talked, and lived and died, in first-century Palastine, or he is merely a creature of our own imagination, able to be manipulated this way and that.”
N.T. Wright, Who Was Jesus? p.18

We, therefore, must decide what we do with Jesus and his recorded resurrection from the dead. Everything hinges on the resurrection… everything. We will choose to align ourselves with orthodox Christian belief or be swept away with the rising tide of heretical doctrines of demons.

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.”   Paul, 1 Cor. 15:3-5

 

Read “Heaven to Earth: The Christian Hope in the Resurrection, Part II of III”

Corinthian Elders (Book Review)

New Testament Elders
A Book Review of: “Corinthian Elders” by Jack Fortenberry 

In his book”Corinthian Elders,” Jack Fortenberry delivers one more strong defense for the functioning of elders in the New Testament fashion. This book is a “biblical examination” of specific Pauline rhetoric on the teaching and practice of church leadership. 

Fortenberry skillfully expounds on the various events that caused divisions throughout the local churches of the New Testament. In particular, he draws our attention to the unhealthy desire and practice of leaders that was wreaking havoc on first-century churches and still plagues us today.

The author crafts a vivid account of the issues facing these churches and presents the reader with solid evidence as to how authority “over” the saints severs the branches from the Vine that is Christ. 

Are there leaders in the New Testament church? Absolutely. However, this leadership looks like Christ and allows others to know Christ as head of the church. It makes room for all the gifts to be equally shared among the saints.

Fortenberry suggests that this is one of the greatest threats to the unity in the church at Corinth: division caused by an infatuation with eloquent preachers and teachers. 

“by submitting to leaders as a substitute for our fellowship with one another, we will loosen our hold on Christ.” (p.43) 

I have read many books on church restoration and organic church life. I recommend this little book to those who are convinced that something is definitely wrong with the top-down model of leadership within the church today and rightfully need to be persuaded by the very words of Scripture that there is another way.

If you are the least bit concerned about the centrality and supremacy of Christ being known in the local church, then give this book a read with your New Testament in hand. 

I also recommend reading: 
The Untold Story of the New Testament Church: An Extraordinary Guide to Understanding the New Testament 
Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices 
Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity 
The Normal Christian Church Life 
Going to the Root: Nine Proposals for Radical Church Renewal 
Paul’s Idea of Community: The Early House Churches in Their Cultural Setting, Revised Edition

Organic Church Life: The Lord’s Supper

Organic Church Life: The Lord’s Supper

If you haven’t been following the Organic Church Life series of notes at facebook… I recommend you start with “Organic Church Life: The Beginning.” 

I wanted to post this specific note here because of the Easter season and because of the great need there is for others to have a window into the Lord’s meal experienced in simple community.  I pray you are encouraged.  As learners… we welcome your questions, comments, and a testimony of your own journey with Christ.

The Gathering 4/8/09 

Tonight (Wednesday) we met at the Price’s house to share the Lord’s meal together for the first time.

We started off talking in the living room and then made our way into the kitchen after everyone had arrived. We feasted on roast, mashed potatoes, cantaloupe, and mixed veggies. Yum! We spread out at the table and the bar. We were eating and laughing with each other. 

Earlier I had stopped by the grocery store to pick up some bread for the Lord’s meal. I mentioned that every time I go through the self-checkout line… I have problems. Kerry couldn’t understand how anyone could have problems with it. She said, “you people” are the ones taking so long in the line. Everyone was having a good time laughing at us. I told her if they didn’t throw up Mission Control at you on the little screen… it would help!

After everyone had finished eating and were just talking… we began to move toward the bread and wine (juice). A few of us men had already discussed the “Lord’s Supper” a day or two before. We recognized that the practice was intended to be a meal, at least part of the meal. What should this look like? We concluded that it is a meal and that we shouldn’t lock ourselves into any certain way of practicing it. The important thing is that we do indeed share the meal together as an extension of what we are already doing as a family.

Joel grabbed another chair and we made room at the table for everyone to sit down. Grant placed the loaf of bread on the table with the juice and I reached for the cups. I began by mentioning how the Lord told his disciples that he “eagerly desired” to have this meal with them (Lk. 22:15). 

Normally this upper room conversation is completely reflected on with emphasis on Judas’ betrayal and Jesus’ talk of his upcoming suffering. He did speak of these things. However, Jesus was also joyful over his sharing of the meal with those he was closest to in this world. He longed for the intimate fellowship. And he wanted to tell them the real meaning behind the Passover meal. 

Jesus did not let anything keep him from this communion with his followers. Not only would the disciples have this event etched in their memories for the rest of their days… they would continue sharing the meal “until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God” (Lk. 22:18)… until they shared it together at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Grant spoke on the betrothal and marriage ceremony of Jews. He talked about how the cup of wine was given to the bride for her to accept the groom’s proposal. This cup of destiny is also offered to us, the Bride of Christ. Jesus offered this cup and still offers this cup to us who belong to him. Our acceptance of this cup is the embrace of a new covenant with God’s people. This covenant gives us reason to celebrate our hope that we will be joined with Christ in the coming of his Kingdom.

We made mention of the meal’s first purpose and how radical it was for the Lord to reveal its fuller meaning. Can you imagine what these guys must have been thinking to hear Jesus seeming to change/add the symbolism of the Passover meal? They must have recognized that they were witnessing something of great significance, but still a little unsure of its meaning for the future. What an intimate time of expectation that must have been!

Everyone poured their juice and began to drink as we continued speaking about the blood of Christ and the new covenant in the partaking of the wine.

The conversation naturally shifted to the bread, which the Lord said, “This is my body given for you.” Everyone pinched off a piece of bread from the round loaf in the middle of the table. We continued eating and drinking as we remembered the Lord. 

Several of us spoke on how in the past the meal was no meal at all, but a solemn ceremony where believers turn inward only to think about their sin and the death of Jesus instead of moving on to the forgiveness of sin and the resurrection of Christ. 

James and Joel both shared about how they once dreaded the practice of communion. It was a burdensome ceremony that left no room for life. We all agreed with one another that the meal was to be a celebratory meal in remembrance of our Lord and the foreshadowing of the Kingdom to come. Gone are the days of taking the shot glass of grape juice and the Jesus chick-let from the cracker plate while sitting in condemnation being isolated in our pews. 

We have been forgiven, the Lord is risen, and now is the time to celebrate!

I mentioned how the Gospels tell us that after the meal they sang a hymn before leaving for the garden where Jesus was arrested. Someone said, “Let’s sing a hymn then.” So we did. We sang several with our voices only. How sweet it is to hear all the voices and to know we are one in the Spirit of Christ. 

What a blessing it is to share the Lord’s meal as a family of saints learning about the depths and riches of Christ in simple community.

A few departed when we got up from the table. The rest of us talked for a little while longer in the living room. What a wonderful time we had this evening. Thank you Lord for your blood of the new covenant, your body that was broken for our sins, and your resurrection that has given us your very own LIFE!

Peace,
David D. Flowers

NOTE:  We will not be meeting this Sunday. Several of us will be out of town. Those who are not will be spending time with family here at home. You can expect another note next week. Thank you to all who are following. I pray that these notes are a great encouragement to you. May the Lord bless you in your pursuit of him!

Confessions of an Ex-Clergy Member

Confessions of an Ex-Clergy Member
By David D. Flowers, free-lance writer & blogger
The Woodlands, TX

Confessions of an Ex-Clergy Member first began in response to many things that were being said by “house church” promoters against the institutional church through various forms of media. I felt compelled to respond from the perspective of one who spent seven years in vocational ministry. The posts evolved into an account of my own journey out of the institutional church. I have formed them into one solid testimony and challenge to all those who seek change in the church and those who are presently gathering in homes.

Introduction
The first twenty-five years of my life, which is almost my entire life, was spent participating in this religious system. My formal education was intended preparation for a career in vocational ministry. After leaving this system, I have had many difficulties. Not only have I experienced the difficulty in finding work, I have had to rethink everything I have ever believed and taught. I am young, but I do feel that my experience qualifies me to speak a few words concerning those who speak harshly against the institutional church and its leaders.

My readers must understand that I no longer participate in this oppressive system and I am in no way defending its practices. I simply wish to speak from an insider’s perspective to those who believe the clergy to be entirely egocentric and self-consumed.

It is easy for those who have not worked alongside other clergy members to say things that they don’t know from personal experience. I have little respect for the opinions of others when they speak for or against things they have no point of reference with; when they are angry and looking for someone to place all blame and frustration. To all those who believe institutional pastors are knowingly leading people astray and convey this by their cruel speech… this encouraging word is for you. 


I would like to first begin by addressing those who would have you believe the idea that all (or most) clergy members are self-centered, power-hungry, egotistical, tyrants only interested in seeing to it that the people stay in bondage so that the elite class of the clergy may rule supreme. Following these challenging thoughts, I want to share my own personal story as to how I came out of the institutional church into a renewed Christology that is presently birthing a hopeful journey apart from religious Christianity.

In Perspective
Are all clergy members truth seeking lovers of God? Absolutely not. The accusations must have been based on some level of truth… of course. There are militant, power seeking pastors within the clergy of the religious system. I have seen them and you have too. I could name them and you could as well.

These men are only concerned about status. They see their present ministry as one more step up the ladder to the “What’s Happening Now Church!” Their agenda is no secret. They care not for the feelings of the people under them and they will do anything to see to it that their kingdom come in the name of Jesus.

These men will stop at nothing to see their will be done. They are the ones who have the “pulpit” voice. Get them away from the pulpit and they are rude and care only for those in their inner circle. These men do not care for the voice of the people. They use the Scripture to teach restraint, bondage, and law… not speaking messages of truth that sets men free. They boast in the work of their hands and use the outward signs of religion as God’s approval. These clergy members always feel that they are underpaid and unappreciated. They make sure their image is clean, but they manipulate and deceive in the secret place. These men only fool the naïve. Among those who truly walk with the Lord… the truth is plain.

I could go on with my description of these men. I believe you get the picture. At this point, I would like to bring a different thought to mind. Could it be that these men have been encouraged to act this way in the religious system? Yes, they are responsible for their actions, but the system makes it very easy for them to continue this course of action. In fact, the system is a breeding ground for “power-over” leadership. If we want to point fingers, can all the blame really be placed on the clergy? What about the people who support the system that places unbiblical responsibility on one man? The laity by far outnumbers the clergy. Are we now jumping off cliffs because Pastor Jones would never lead us astray?

My bet is you supported that system at some point in your life. You continued to pay the man who you now believe to be “out of God’s will.” You too were deceived into thinking it was your duty… that this is how it is supposed to be done. Had you known any different, you would not have been in the institutional structure of the church. Praise the Lord that you were given light! Shouldn’t we consider that if the Lord gave the clergy the same light that they would leave it too?

Those that see the light and still continue in their sin truly prove themselves to be lovers of themselves and oppressors of men.

What may be worse than cruel speech by those who once participated in this system… is cruel speech by those who never participated in it and know nothing personally of its power and influence.

Are you going to point fingers and speak so correctively to an alcoholic having never been one? Who are you to do so? Yes, you can speak of the power that you see from the outside. You can observe and draw conclusions. But, you have no authority to so boldly condemn the man who is trapped in his disease.

I have a friend who turned to homosexuality many years ago. Another close brother in the Lord said, “We don’t know what he is going through, nor do we want to know. But one thing that is for certain… it is real.” We all have been given the authority to proclaim the Word in power, but none of us have been given the authority to condemn men. When we do this, we are no different than the ones we accuse. Man reveals his pathetic state in this. He reflects his old life and his old thinking. The answer is in remembering who we were and what we now are becoming. Only then will our actions be edifying to the Body… even the Body that is held captive by religion.



You may be thinking, “What is this guy’s problem?” My concern should be obvious. I was one of these men that some of you describe as “lovers of themselves.” I was a part of those you accuse and I know that I desperately longed for Christ to be manifested in his Body. Most of the ministers I encountered truly loved the Lord and believed they were following his leading. I prayed with these men, cried with these men, and struggled to discover, “How can we see the Holy Spirit fall on his church?”

Shouldn’t our hearts break instead of being ignited with anger? We looked everywhere, tried everything… nothing worked. We were brought up in a system that our fathers did not question. When the walls in your house our concrete and labeled “biblical”… you do not think to tear them down and adopt a new floor plan!

No man has the right to label all clergy members as evil men bent on oppressing the people. Brothers and sisters in Christ, how can we behave this way? We have all embraced contradictions and inconsistencies.  You will not find an open heart by pointing fingers and accusing other brothers of loving themselves and not the Lord.

The only way we will see a revolution to the heart of God and his will for the church… is to focus on the person and the work of Christ. It will not be found in debating the system. We must go to the heart of our faith: Christ Jesus our Lord!

Anyone who points a gun at your flesh and says, “Guilty!” is bound to see a reaction from the flesh. It’s no wonder why we see explosions from the flesh of the clergy when they are presented so carelessly with this hard truth. They hear more of the system than they do of Jesus.

Let’s not contribute to the building up of more walls. If the truth is going to be heard… it will be in presenting Christ and him crucified. We must pray that “clergy-laity” alike will stand up and boldly proclaim their newfound vision of Christ! We are all learners. May we continue to remember that it is only by the grace of God that we have been given this glorious and wonderful light.

Jesus and the Religious Leader
Before I go any further with my insider’s perspective to the clergy of the religious system, I would like to make myself very clear. I am not denying the fact that the system is all wrong and that it should be done away with. When I speak of “clergy,” I refer to the men who participate in this unbiblical chain of authority, not the system. I am trying to help my readers see the distinction between the men and the system. It is for these men that we should be willing to patiently pray and ask ourselves, “What is the most effective way to reach these religious leaders?”

We must be able to hate the religious system and love the men who need to hear the truth. Many may cling to their job security when confronted with this truth. Naturally, this is to be expected when someone is presented with the truth about Christ and his Bride set free. Will their come a time to rebuke some of these men who call themselves “the clergy?” Yes, but we should not rush in like fools at the sight of a clergy member. Jesus left us with several examples when dealing with a religious leader (e.g. Matt. 12:22-28; 15:1-20; 22:23-33; Mk. 10:1-12; 11:27-33). I believe if you will pay careful attention to these examples, you will find that Jesus chose his moments wisely and purposely.

There were always people around when Jesus gave a strong rebuke. The rebuke may be viewed as being more productive for the people listening than it ever was for the religious leader. When Jesus was meeting in private with these men he was firm, but his presentation was much different (Lk. 14:1-14; Jn. 3:1-21). He loved them and took time to have real conversations when they invited him in their homes and were willing to listen.

So, why would Jesus strongly rebuke them in public but change his tone in private? The religious leaders were public figures. The Lord zealously proclaimed the truth when the people were around. Also, these men were always trying to trap Jesus, and like the devil, use the Scripture against him. They were attempting to prove to the people that Jesus was a fraud. We have to believe that his motherly instincts came out of him at this point. He longed to gather these people all together as a mother hen does her chicks (Matt. 23:37).

The strong rebuke served the purpose of bringing the people into the light. A strong rebuke in private would only appear to be a fleshly display of arrogance and pride to these religious men and serve little to no purpose. 

Rebukes are always for the edification of the one being rebuked, of course, but even more so for those who witness the rebuke. I believe you will find this explanation biblically sound (e.g. Matt. 18:15-20; 1 Cor. 5:1-5; Tit. 1:13). Jesus even rebuked his own disciples publicly (Matt. 16:21-24; Rev. 3:19).

Some folks like to point out passages of Jesus scolding the religious leaders as if this was something unique to them. I believe a closer reading of the Gospel according to Mark will show that Jesus did not speak much differently to his own disciples. His words were just as “harsh” to his own. The only difference is that his disciples did not have a reputation and a wall of religious pride to cross in order to hear the truth and respond to it. 

The walls are much thicker with those who have been put in authority by their congregations. You should not expect such a quick surrender of the will. It would be wishful thinking to believe these religious leaders would quickly say with Peter, “Go away from me Lord, I am a sinful man!” (Lk. 5:8) Wishful thinking indeed.

My Story
I remember when I read my first book on church restoration several years ago. I can still recall slamming down the book, “Rethinking the Wineskin” by Frank Viola, on the coffee table. I was exposed to truth I had never heard before and I was losing the battle to defend my previous understandings of Christ and the church. But I didn’t mind so much because the Lord had brought me to a place of complete and total dissatisfaction with the church I was seeing. I had surrendered everything in my mind and heart. I was willing for the Lord to speak whatever he wanted to speak. As long as I could be convinced by the Scripture… I told the Lord, “I will go where you send me.”



The most difficult thing for me was probably the money. That sounds bad… but it wasn’t because I was getting rich. It was simply because I had spent 6-7 years investing and preparing for something that I was now considering laying aside for something I knew very little about. I had a degree in Religion that didn’t do me a lot of good outside the institutional church. I had no other trade really and I had no idea what I was going to do. I had school debt to remind me of this harsh reality. Once the Lord revealed to me the truth about himself and his Bride, my question then was, “Now what Lord?” I had to trust the Lord and believe that he would truly work it all out for his good. I’m still believing that this very hour. He is not left me yet.

I must say that my illumination did not begin with Viola’s book. It began 8 years ago when I entered into “vocational” ministry. The Lord slowly was growing me and opening my eyes up to the truth of himself. This is where it begins… with Christ! It does not begin in the critiquing of the church. I didn’t understand what the Lord was doing until now. He was showing me a greater vision of his Son. It was with Christ that he began the revolution in my heart.



Things took a drastic turn in 2005 when I graduated and was able to give even more time to preparation of my teachings. This is when I began seeing a major difference in the Christ I was conditioned to see growing up and the Christ that lived in first-century Palestine.

I was moved by a new reading of the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord began showing me that he is more radical in his person and work than I had ever been told. I was connecting my faith to the radical faith of those whom I read about in the book of Acts. I was fascinated with the martyrs… especially the Anabaptists.

In the past, I had not truly seen the radical message of Jesus as opposing every social, political, economic, and religious idea of his day. There was always sort of a disconnect between theology and living until the Lord began bringing the two together.
 But who wants to admit that every time you pick up the New Testament you can’t see its application to pop-culture Christianity? What was I supposed to do? I just thought it was boring and foreign because I was just a pitiful scum sinner.

Well, as you can imagine, the Gospel took on a whole new meaning with a fresh new reading of Jesus in context. I began teaching this radical new understanding of Jesus and his Gospel of the Kingdom in the context of our modern-day Empire. Long story short… I then began to feel the effects brought on by the real faith of Jesus of Nazareth. If there was a cliff nearby and it had been legal… I would have been thrown off of it!

After I resigned from my last clerical position in September 06, the first book I read before reading any of the books on church renewal… was “The Normal Christian Life” by Watchman Nee. This book deals with our identity in Christ. It addresses the Person and work of Christ. It ended up being for me the end of my search for seeing Jesus rightly, and a new beginning in knowing “the power of his resurrection.” I began to discover the “indwelling” Christ and understand my identity in the finished work of Jesus.

Before, like a good Protestant, I had learned the reformed view of Christology and Soteriology. I like the way an Anabaptist historian puts it, “The Anabaptists walked in the resurrection, while the Reformers rested in grace.” My readings of radical discipleship and the Kingdom of God culminated into a major breakthrough for me: The realization of the centrality and supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ!



I was finally able to begin breaking free from guilt and condemnation. I learned that Jesus has done and will continue doing all the things written in the Scripture. I found that Christianity was more than empty clichés to warm the heart when I felt like a poor wretch. By the power of the indwelling Christ… I could experience the life shared among those early believers who displayed the marks of Jesus on their bodies.

Give Them Christ!
Until a clergy member catches this new vision of Christ… he will not see the Bride as she was created to be. You can just forget talking to them about the religious system. Not only do I think your efforts will be futile, I don’t believe God will honor it. You do not want people coming to a new “emerging” understanding of the church… you want them first to see Christ in all his glory and splendor.

If men claim to know Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, then speak to them about Christ. Christ is the key to understanding, wisdom, and light! The Holy Spirit directs people to Christ. It is through Christ that the people will see what the church is to be. If you miss this important step… you will only be herding people into homes to follow a method instead of the Man. I do not believe this is the way it must be done because it is the way I came. The answer is not a relative one. The answer is biblically universal. Christ is the open door! Besides, you can’t expect anyone to find answers when they don’t see the problems. As Spock would say, “It is just not logical Captain.”



Again, the starting point is with Christ. Is the religious system wrong? Absolutely! Yet, this fact should be secondary to Christ. Another words, if anyone leaves the institutional church, it first ought to be because the Christ presented there is not the complete Christ of the Word. It is a Christ colored by denomination, culture, and man-power.

The true Christ will never be fully seen within the religious systems of man. Why? Because… Christ opposes the system! Once we recognize this, we don’t have to try so hard. He will accomplish much more than we ever could. He told us this, “I will draw all men unto myself.” (Jn. 12:32) Interesting, he did not say, “You will draw all men unto me.”



A clear vision of Christ will condemn the system. The reason that Christ is not fully seen within the institutional church is because his Person and work would show the system for what it is. The system must revise their version of Christ to coincide with their beliefs and actions. Without this revision… the institution could not stand.

Can’t you see my friends? What is greater than the fallacy of this manipulative man-centered religious system is the fact that the real Christ is not welcome there. Christ must be our primary reason in speaking against this horrible oppressive system of man that grips the Body within it. If Christ is not our reason… then we will find ourselves going down a path of self-righteousness and elitism focused on the secondary issue claiming it is all for the first priority. It would be leaving one kind of bondage only to enter into another. 



I don’t know if many clergy members will come to the place I did. Only the Lord knows the condition of each man’s heart and if he really seeks Truth in order to conform his life to it. That is the Lord’s business, not mine. My business is proclaiming the truth in love by word and deed to all those the Lord brings into my influence. The Lord said that his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

I have had to come to a place where this becomes a reality. This required me to give up my family and friends in the “ministry.” I had to come to a place where I realized there is nothing I can do. I kept thinking, “I must do something.” The Lord said, “You can do nothing.”

Each person is on his or her own journey with the Lord. Who knows if the Lord will decide to cut across a pasture tomorrow and save 10 years of their life from running in the wrong direction? He can help them learn the truth today and cease their own pursuits of success within religion tomorrow. He can do it. We must believe that. He did it for us. He can do it for them. We must give them Christ. And we can’t give something we ourselves have yet to apprehend in spirit.

Finally, I confess that I have made many mistakes on this journey. But I do believe I have learned a great deal over the last few years. Church life is not born out of following a method or unnaturally talking about what to “do” when the church gathers. It only comes through an intimate relationship with the Christ of the Word. Church life gathered around Christ will naturally produce the community for which we were created. Our faith is not Churchianity, but Christianity. Let’s fix our eyes on Christ!



“The church is measured by Christ: more Christ, more church; less Christ, less church.” 

T. Austin Sparks

Conclusion-The Centrality and Supremacy of Jesus Christ
It has been almost three years now that my wife and I have ventured off into uncharted territory with the Lord. I must say… Christ has been faithful. He has provided our every need and so much more. We are blessed with great jobs, wonderful friends, and a Christ-centered church fellowship.

The last two years have been a tremendous time of rest from the many trials we endured over the previous few years. For the first time in our lives… there is little to no burden of religion upon our lives. It is in this time now… that Christ is purging me of my old pursuits. The Lord has been setting me free from religion’s chains. He has been working in me the natural faith of Christ.

What is the natural faith of Christ? It is life born out of being instead of doing. Christ’s life is burden free! He said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:30) Be careful that this verse has not fallen on deaf ears or become cliché to you. If your faith is causing you anger, frustration, disappointment, depression, burnout, or suicidal thoughts even… this is not Christ’s life. You are not being Christ. You are not drawing life from his Spirit within you. Instead, you are doing things, which you intend for Christ, out of the mortal “fleshly” life you have apart from the eternal Christ. I call these works born of the flesh… religion!

Religion is nothing more than outward works of the flesh that temporarily satisfy the soul, but ultimately lead to an empty riverbed of hopelessness. We need to see that there is no way our Lord is pleased in this selfish life. This life eventually is depleted along with physiological strength. Obviously, life that is born of flesh will end in a fleshly grave. However, life that is born of the Spirit leads to real Christ-fruit and treasures stored up in heaven. It is this kind of life that is able to endure the cross.

Christ lived so that you can live. Paul said, “I no longer live, but it is Christ living in me.” (Gal. 2:20) We must draw from this life. This comes in time and through trial and tribulation. We learn “to live is Christ”, as Paul said… so that we may experience the gain of dying.

In this case, we are to recognize that the flesh (i.e. old unregenerate man) has been crucified with Christ! Yes… temptation, and fleshly desires, and pursuits are still very much real. However, Christ’s life has defeated this power so that we may now choose his life that brings freedom. The Christian life is Christ’s life. Until we commit to learning this… we have not truly chosen the road of discipleship.

My present struggles are tied to this. I personally need the Lord to show me his true nature after I have walked in the flesh for a spell. It is almost as if I didn’t even realize I was doing so… but looking back… I know that I simply was not being mindful of Christ. This is why Paul said,

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” Paul, (Col. 3:1-3)

I gratify the flesh because I am not walking in step with the Spirit. (Gal. 5:16) I make matters worse by supposing that the Lord wants me to feel condemnation for my failure. Yet, I know this comes from the evil one. The Lord is on my side. He is for me indeed! He desires that I might walk in his life more and more. And instead of him feeling disappointed in me… his thoughts are fully set on me knowing the power of his resurrection! Christ and all of heaven cheers for me. For the Lord knows that his life is within me and that it is produced in every season that I face. This is the reason we are told to rejoice in all things. For in all things… Christ is there.

We must learn from Christ. All questions and concerns regarding our lives (i.e. family, work, play, etc.) and his church… are resolved in knowing him. There is nothing… and I mean nothing… that you should be pursuing besides Christ. Do you have a problem? Are you filled with many questions and very few answers? Are you trying to jump start your faith with 12 steps and “purpose-driven” products that are void of the centrality and supremacy of Christ? Maybe you are wondering what it’s going to take to see revolution blow through the church. Maybe you’re just trying to figure out what the Lord wants with you. Whatever the problem… Christ is the answer. Whatever the disease… Christ is the cure.

OK, you may be thinking, “I don’t even know what that means.” If any of you are left longing to understand how Christ can be the answer to all of our problems… then set your sights to learning from him. Learn of Christ through the Scriptures… learn of him through experience… learn of him through song… learn of him through trials… learn of him through study… learn of him through sorrow… learn of him through prayer… learn of him through community… learn of him through marriage… learn of him through work… learn of him through learning… learn of him in it all! Place all other pursuits aside. Let him be your one and only passion. Learn of the school of Christ. And this will equip you for every good work.

I pursued other passions in the past (e.g. teaching, writing, education, ministry, etc.) and I found that my heart was in the wrong place. I pursued these things instead of Christ.

“God shows us that our power is not a thing; it is simply Christ. Our power is not the strength to do things; rather, it is a Person. It is Christ who manifests himself in us, instead of our using Christ to display our good works.”
Watchman Nee

It was a hard thing to admit. Do I desire to replace Christ with a thing? By no means! Yet, this very thing became obvious to me. I found myself wanting and longing for everything but Christ and him alone. My life was a mixture of Christ’s life and works done in the flesh. My heart desired notoriety and a piece of fame. I had my way mapped out. I knew what I wanted and I knew how to get there. And the Lord interrupted my “passions” and held a mirror up to all the things I was pursuing outside of him. I was confronted with a question.

“Is it to some thing that I am devoted, or is it to secure for the Lord Jesus Christ His absolute centrality and supremacy?”
T. Austin Sparks

How long will we try to convince ourselves that it is Christ that we seek in all these things of men? When will we realize that Christ’s life is not found in things? The Spirit within us is reaching out for all things Christ! Yet, we attempt again and again to fill it with programs, passions, ministries, and movements. Will our purpose be something else besides knowing the power of the resurrection in Christ Jesus our Lord? Will we use up all of our mortal days attempting to fill our lives with dead things? Only Christ is living!

Therefore, those things, which are not born from the natural living faith of Christ, are born from the flesh and will only produce dead cold religion. Other religious people may admire you for these religious works done in the flesh, but the Holy Spirit is grieved. For he knows that you will only be satisfied in Christ.

The Apostle Paul’s purpose was not tent-making! It also wasn’t being a good itinerant worker and church planter. He writes of his purpose and leaves us with an example to follow.

“My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Paul, Colossians 2:2,3

May our Christ not be “ill-defined”… but may he come to full expression in our lives. Let your Christianity be more than mere acceptance of forgiveness of sin and works of men. Let us walk in the power of the resurrected Christ! Let us take serious his example given to us in the Gospels. Too many have stopped short of this life.

I am convinced… if we are ever going to experience the life of Christ and enjoy the Spirit he has placed within us… if we are ever going to see his Bride fully prepared for the wedding banquet of the ages… we must press on to everything Christ!

When we are beginning to learn of the person and work of Christ through being Christ in all things and in every situation… his works will then naturally flow from our lives. Works born of his Spirit will spring forth from the well that never runs dry. May we allow the Lord to break our will for the release of his mighty Spirit of life through our earthly tabernacles. May we find the way of the cross a most satisfying death to embrace. For out of this death will come Christ’s life.

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2

 

* This article was first posted 11/8/08 at http://www.housechurchresource.org under the Ex-Pastors Section.  It has been recently updated and revised here for your reading.

Surprised by Hope (Book Review)

Getting It Wright!

A Book Review of “Surprised By Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church” by N.T. Wright Reviewed by David D. Flowers

N.T. Wright undoubtedly stands at the summit of New Testament scholarship.  I sincerely believe he is the most important of Christian thinkers alive today. His writings are a refreshing challenge and a beacon of hope in a world where much of Christianity has lost its way.  Wright’s work is unsurpassed as it reminds us all that our faith is not founded on shady history and loose myths about Jesus.

In his book “Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church,” Wright challenges this notion of “going to heaven when you die” and spending an eternity in some bodiless future.  For if this was the case, Wright’s concern is “then what’s the fuss about putting things right in the present world?”

Is our present language of our future existence reflective of sound New Testament orthodoxy?  Do we have a consistent biblical message on “life after death?”  Wright doesn’t believe so… and he claims we have instead embraced a Gnostic idea of the future that fouls up our presentation of the Gospel in the present. 

Our future home is not “heaven”… for this is where God is presently; another dimension altogether.  Our hope is in this spiritual heaven coming down to earth.  The climax of all human history is the consummation of God’s spiritual realm (heaven) breaking through to our earthly existence.  Therefore, in Wright’s view, it is “life after life after death” that ought to be on our minds.  Only this sort of thinking will lead us to a proper practice of the church.  If our beliefs about heaven and the resurrection are wrong, then we are not about the Lord’s business in ushering in the Kingdom of God in ways keeping with the example of Christ.

Wright’s greatest emphasis is on “resurrection” and “new creation” that has already begun in this world.  It is time to realize the great significance with that which is at the heart of our faith in Christ (1 Cor. 15:12-28).  He writes, “it is (resurrection), principally, the defining event of the new creation, the world that is being born with Jesus.”  It is in the resurrection of Christ that happened in this old creation that gives us hope for a new creation taking place right now in the twenty-first century.  “Hope is what you get when you suddenly realize that a different worldview is possible…” (pg.75).

This “new creation” should not be confused with baptizing the culture into Christianity and attempting to enact a utopian dream… as so many in evangelicalism have embraced.  This misplaced trust in the myth of progress does not work because it does not account for evil, Wright says.  This myth may sometimes run parallel to our Christian hope, but it “veers off toward a very different destination” that ignores the need for the cross of Christ upon the natural fallen creation.  It doesn’t see the need for change within, only uniform capitulation to a set order of ideas.

Wright declares, “What matters is eschatological duality (the present age and the age to come), not ontological dualism (an evil “earth” and a good “heaven”)” (pg. 95). We all have seen how this belief in a Platonic escapism has pervaded our theology and demanded that we adopt a popular dispensationalist view of the future; a future where we “fly away” to “Beulah Land” and spend eternity in a glorified retirement home in the sky. 

It is time we abandon this empty belief for one that appreciates the hope given to us in the New Testament; a hope where God restores his good creation and finishes the work he began in the universe.  Wright states, “What creation needs is neither abandonment nor evolution but rather redemption and renewal; and this is both promised and guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead” (pg. 107). 

Wright draws our attention to Christ’s ascension as well as his resurrection.  Because of the ascension of Christ, we not only have a savior who is indwelling us and present with his people, but a Lord who is at the same time “gone on ahead of us” by being the first to enter in to our promised resurrected existence.  In other words, the work of Christ is finished and yet to be realized.  It is reflective of the “already, but not yet” tension of the Kingdom of God. 

We await a savior to complete the work he began in us.  This completion shall come by way of the parousia or his “coming.”  Wright very simply writes, “he will in fact be “appearing” right where he presently is—not a long way away within our own space-time world but in his own world, God’s world, the world we call heaven” (pg. 135). 

Wright challenges our traditional picture of our journey being completed upon death.  He argues that there is indeed a temporary “paradise” for believers awaiting the resurrection of the dead and the completion of all things.  Likewise, there would appear to be the same for those who have rejected Christ in this life.  When Jesus spoke of “many dwelling places” in his Father’s house… he is speaking of a temporary stop on the journey.  To ignore the finished work of Christ through the final resurrection of the dead… is to miss the entire Christian hope.

God’s judgment is a good thing, something that believers ought to celebrate… for evil will be dealt with once and for all and heaven will make its home on earth.  On the other hand, the non-believer has much to worry about.  Wright calls into question our modern interpretations of hell that reflects a theology from the church of the Dark Ages.  Yet, he doesn’t go as far as some “emerging” leaders who, I have reason to believe, may never emerge. 

Wright finds it impossible not to believe in some sort of “ultimate condemnation” and loss to human beings that have rejected God’s good grace.  He simply says that these folks cease to bear the divine image and by their own choice become “beings that once were human but now are not.”   Whatever “hell” is… none of us would ever desire such a place.  The important thing Wright wants to note is that heaven and hell ought not be the focal point of the Christian message.

In the last part of the book, Wright does a wonderful job with making this challenge practical for us all.  The resurrection and ascension is not designed to take us away from this earth but instead to make us agents of transformation, anticipating the day when, “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”  Wright looks at the themes of justice, beauty, and evangelism.  What do these things look like in light of this radical message of hope?  What does this look like in retrospect to the resurrection of Christ and the promise that we will inherit the same?  Wright believes it is “to live consciously between the resurrection of Jesus in the past and the making of God’s new world in the future” (pg. 213).

My only point of disagreement with this book is in the last chapter.  Although I do believe there are nuggets of truth founded in Wright’s attempt to manifest our hope in church practices… his commitment to not only his Anglican heritage but to high church in general… is reason enough to move beyond his conclusions and on to a narrative ecclesiology that mirrors the earliest disciples.  It seems to me that this is his only break from a legitimate concern for a Pauline hermeneutic.  His hope in a revival within the church practices that came years after Paul, as evident in church history… is wishful thinking indeed.  It is here that we begin to replace hope with doom and despair.

“Surprised by Hope” is an excellent book that breathes out an overdue challenge to believers in every corner of the earth.  I do hope and pray that its message will start a move of the church to return to the Gospel that looks like Jesus and offers the world more than an escape from a devil’s hell. 

N.T. Wright is presently one voice among many that is being heard and has earned the right to be heard in a post-Christian world of conflicting voices.  How will we respond?  Shall we cling to those chains presently dubbed as “tradition”… or will we allow the resurrection of Christ to give us wisdom and understanding into that beautiful hope known as the age to come? 

I am pleasantly surprised by the hope we have in Christ… for whose sake I am able to reimagine a world without evil.

 

*Please take the time to vote on this review at amazon through “My Reviews” here at the blog.

Organic Church Life: The Beginning

Organic Church Life: The Beginning

My wife and I left the traditional church in September 06 and began a search for authentic church life around Jesus Christ. In November 06 we began meeting with a group of folks who all left the same institutional church in East Texas. We call this our “experimental house church” when telling our story. Why? Well, we didn’t know what we were doing.

We were all reading books on house churches and studying the Scripture in new ways. It was simply a time of discovery and of detoxing from religion. This is when I first began a long-distance relationship with Frank Viola. The Lord is still using his influence in our discovery of Christ in the church.

We were largely concerned about “what to do” than simply letting Jesus give us that familial community that is in Christ. Yet, this was the season the Lord had us in and it was an essential part of the journey. In January 07 we went to the North Texas House Church Conference in Dallas. It was there that we learned not everyone was gathering in homes for the same reasons we were learning about through Viola and a few other authors.

We learned a huge lesson at this conference. Some folks had just switched venues (from the building to the house) but had no new revelation of Christ. It was really sad to watch. But we are thankful that the Lord allowed us to see the difference and draw close to him.

We were in this experimental stage for about 7 months. In the Summer of 07 we moved to Houston to seek new jobs and a new life. Our move was primarily made as a result of connecting with a group of believers who had been meeting in homes for 7 years in West Houston. I can still remember that first visit. Wow! That was when everything clicked.

The brothers and sisters there were radiating Christ in their gatherings. It was the first time I saw Jesus lead a gathering where there was no man leading. There was leadership, but not in any way I had ever seen. It was also the first time I had ever met an 80 year old man who knew the Lord as a Person. He is now in heaven awaiting the resurrection of our bodies and the fullness of the Kingdom of God on earth.

The Lord moved us to The Woodlands in July 07 just north of Houston. It was clearly where the Lord wanted us… even though it was 45 minutes from the believers in West Houston. To keep this note short(er), I will just tell you we met with the saints there for a year. In that year, the simplicity of church life gathered around Christ had become natural for us.

We quickly began sensing the Lord calling us to meet where we lived. Not only were we convinced that this is how churches ought to be established (locally), we felt a deep desire for greater community with believers in our area. We knew the Lord wanted us to be an expression of his Person where we lived. So… my wife and I, along with our friend Grant (27) who lived down the road from us, decided together that it was time to begin meeting in our city.

I wish I could tell you that the people started knocking on our door, but I would be dishonest with you if I did. We waited patiently for the Lord to naturally cause us to cross paths with folks who longed for more of Christ. The three of us met in our home (with an occasional visitor) for about 6 months before Jesus began moving around us. We were just about to the point of discouragement (OK, maybe we were already there) when the Lord brought Michael (39) to us. He had been on a similar journey as the three of us. Toward the end of the year, we had another solid addition. Rita (50) committed herself to the fellowship.

Joel (39) e-mailed me after having read my Confessions of an Ex-Clergy Member. He and his family had been detoxing from the religious “mega-church” life for about a year. They lived right down the road from us! I met Joel at Starbucks for coffee and a bit of convo and we hit it off! His family of four (with one on the way) has been meeting with us since the first of the year.

Presently, we gather on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights regularly. These times are etched out in our schedules and are the easiest for sure times to meet. Every other week it seems we have a visitor. The Lord is really busy around us. I have met with two brothers this month who just wanted to talk about Christ and our journey. I am meeting another brother this week who lives in Houston. I constantly have folks writing and inquiring about the gathering of the saints in our city.

Three weeks ago we had a gathering of house churches from all over the city. It was the first of its kind that we know of in Houston. There were about 60 there from all over Houston. One older brother there said he had been meeting in homes for 25 years and never knew we all existed. This tells me that we are on the front lines of what Jesus is doing in the greater Houston area. We feel blessed to be included in the Lord’s work. In August, we will be having an Organic Church Life Conference in The Woodlands with Frank Viola and Milt Rodriguez. We are excited about what the Lord is going to do between now and then.

Finally, I just want to add what a joy it is to know Christ in community. As a local expression of Jesus in our city, we feel like we have known each other forever. We are beginning to see Jesus build his Body through real relationships that have him at the center. Thank you Lord!

Your Brother,
David D. Flowers

 

I have written about my journey out of institutional Christianity in several articles. You can read “Confessions of an Ex-Clergy Member” in the Ex-Pastors section at www.housechurchresource.org and gain further insight through my post “Christ the Center.”  You can follow my posts on our gatherings in The Woodlands, TX through my notes on facebook.

Sanctorum Communio

Sanctorum Communio
by David D. Flowers

Thank you Lord for letting me see
A vision of your Bride — unchained and free!
Shackled for so long and caged up by men
Her beauty was veiled and the world was her friend.
Betrothed to a God who prepares her a home
Though she doesn’t see Him, she is never alone.
Empowered by the Spirit to keep herself pure
By the hope of His coming and by faith she’ll endure.
The devil and demons with the power of hell
Try to destroy her, but will not prevail!
The Bridegroom is coming in the clouds to see
The wife of God, the church, she will be.
So let us now pray for community, dear saints
The day is almost over, let not your hearts be faint.
The Son is victorious and the marriage is near
Stand firm dear saints, there is nothing to fear.
Thank you Lord for letting me see
A vision of your Bride — unchained and free!

 
Note: This little poem “Sanctorum Communio” (Community of the Saints) was written in my personal journal of prayers and meditations on February 4, 2007. It represents for me a song of victory in my own personal exodus from institutional Christianity.