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The Invisible Fence
by
Brian Hennessy
Over the years I have shared the freedom we all have in Jesus Christ
with Christians who had told me they were getting next to nothing out
of their weekly church services. Or who felt condemned because they
weren’t living up to their church’s legalistic standards. Or who were
alarmed by new age influences invading their church that the
leadership thought harmless. Or who were suffering persecution because
they held to some biblical truth that was now out of vogue with their
church’s teaching.
I would point out there is no biblical command requiring them to keep
going, so why don’t they just stay home? Or at the very least switch
churches? Although many acknowledge they knew weekly attendance was
not required, nevertheless almost all continued to submit themselves
to further abuse week after week. It was if they were being held there
by some kind of invisible fence.
Invisible fences, as you may know, are the electronic marvels dog
owners use today to keep their canines from ever leaving the yard. I
don’t have a dog, but I hear they work great. The first time Brutus
spots the neighbor’s cat out for a stroll and makes a barking,
bee-line for the property line, a small beep goes off in his collar to
warn him to pull up NOW – or else. Of course the beep means nothing to
him– until he hits the invisible electric barrier and receives the
shock of his life. The second time he is a lot smarter. Before long he
is very content to stay within the boundaries set by his master.
Based on the reluctance of most Christians to leave an unsettling
church situation, I suspected the same sort of psychological restraint
must be in play here. And looking back over church history it is easy
to see why.
Days of Obligation
In the early centuries, when the church was young and in transition, a
succession of over-zealous Gentile church leaders, later called the
“Fathers of the Church,” laid a foundation of teachings that led to a
religious system that stifles our freedom in Christ to this very day.
After dividing the body of Christ into a clergy and laity class, and
then into congregations centered around individual pastors and various
cultural traditions, these self-appointed spiritual overlords then
invented a number of religious festivals and sacred days that were
proclaimed to be “holy days of obligation.” These included Christmas,
Easter, and the Sunday Sabbath. Christians were told they must attend
religious services on these days at some locally sanctioned church
edifice or risk eternal damnation. To miss was declared a “mortal
sin.”
Later, when the Bible was finally translated from Latin into the
language of the people and made available, it was discovered that
these “holy days” weren’t even mentioned. Worse, the very concept of
having a “holy day of obligation” was anathema to the central teaching
of the New Covenant that replaced living under religious law with
living by faith.
For example, when the Galatians started to slip back into a religious
mindset thinking they had to celebrate Jewish holy days, Paul scolded
them. "How is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless
elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?
You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear I have
labored over you in vain" (Gal 4:9-11).
He gave a similar warning to the Colossians: "Therefore let no one act
as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival
or a new moon or a Sabbath day - things which are a mere shadow
of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Messiah" (Col
2:16,17).
In other words, under the New Covenant there would be no more
religious holy days of obligation whatsoever as there were under the
Old Covenant (the Mosaic Law). All those God-ordained times, such as
the 24-hour Saturday Sabbath and the feast days associated with
Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, had merely been shadows of
spiritual truths to be fulfilled by Messiah Jesus. But now that Jesus
had come there was no further need for holy days (or holy places, or
holy foods, or unholy foods, or earthly priests, or sacrifices). That
didn’t mean we couldn’t celebrate those feast days for their historic
and prophetic significance, it just meant we didn’t have to.
The Mosaic Law had been a true fence set up by God to protect His
people from the influences of the world. But it also carried stiff
penalties, including a death sentence, if its commands were broken.
Its hidden purpose was to reveal to us the existence of our sinful
heart, and our inability to control our evil impulses through sheer
will power. And the Law performed that task to perfection. Because
even though the people knew they would suffer severe “shocks” if they
broke through the “fence,” they did so anyway - even when they
tried everything in their power to obey! Testifying about his own
powerlessness to comply with the Law, Paul wrote: “For what I am
doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I want to do,
but I am doing the very thing I hate” (Rom 7:15). No wonder. For the
Law was actually making the problem worse. As Paul finally understood,
“The Law came in so that the transgression would increase” (Rom 5:20)
Why? “In order that sin might be shown to be sin by causing my death
through that which is good” (Rom 7:13).
But when Jesus arose from the grave, that godly fence with all its
rules and regulations was no longer necessary for those who believed
in him. It had completed its assignment in showing us we couldn’t keep
God’s rules, and had led us to Messiah for redemption. “Therefore the
Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be
justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer
under a tutor” (Gal. 3:24,25).
Through faith in him, Jew and Gentile alike were set free from the
ordinances of the Law. Jesus had given us a new heart and put a new
Spirit in us so we could now obey him. We were new creations! We had
been forgiven and declared righteous in him! And now God’s Spirit
would empower us to resist the world, the flesh, and the Devil in a
way the Law was never able to. It was a new day!
The Illusion of Freedom
However, by the third century those truths had been largely forgotten.
As I already mentioned, men arose who built a new fence around us.
They imposed a new set of unscriptural rules and regulations to
replace the old Jewish laws. Before long we had surrendered our
freedom in Christ and allowed ourselves to be bound to a new yoke of
slavery.
But as the centuries passed, God did not forget us. He sent
reformations and revivals to deliver us from that man-made fence. And
even though we never got totally free, we have come a long way. The
true gospel of salvation has been restored and is again being
preached. Almost every nation has the Bible translated into their
language so that we can all more quickly identify any doctrinal
deviations a church leader might try to promote. The Holy Spirit is
being poured out again in many manifestations of power. And nobody is
forcing us to go to church anymore under penalty of eternal damnation.
If we go it’s because we want to. That is, we choose to go to church
each Sunday of our own free will.
Or do we?
If we are so free – why is it so difficult to stay home on Sunday? Why
do we feel so guilty about not attending or belonging to a church?
Because in truth we only have the illusion of freedom. We think
because there are no visible penalties forcing us to go to church that
we can come and go as we please. But we soon realize when we try to
quit that we can’t. There is no back door. What powerful force
surrounds the organized church system so that even when we hate being
there, we can’t just pick up and leave?
It is the invisible fence.
In spite of all our supposed freedom we still accept as truth the core
teaching of that old religion which supposedly we were set free from
centuries before. We still think we must belong to some officially
organized church and attend services each week.
I know some believers will dismiss any suggestion they are religiously
bound to their church, saying to anyone who asks, “I know I can leave
at any time.” But they never do. They stay put, even when things get
painful for them. They may pull back and not attend as often. Or
shrink back and not be so visible. But they won’t cancel their
membership. The few who do leave, do so only because they found
another church that seems to offer more freedom. But rarely will they
exit the system completely. The invisible fence is too strong.
But what’s really sad is that in reality there is no invisible
fence! It is invisible because it does not exist. So what are we
afraid of? It’s sort of like the story of a man who always carried a
stick with him, waving it all about. When asked what he was doing,
he’d say,” I’m keeping the elephants away.” When the person replied,
“I don’t see any elephants,” he’d answer, “See? It’s working.”
Like the man afraid of the imaginary elephants, we think because we
are attending church we are pleasing God and insuring His approval,
while avoiding the risk of displeasure. And because life is going
along pretty well, we feel “it’s working.” But we don’t realize there
are no heavenly consequences if we stop attending church, either.
None. Men might be upset with us, but God never will. How do I know?
Because He never told us to go to church in the first place! So why
would He be displeased when we stopped doing something He never asked
us to do? All He has ever asked us to do since we came to know Him is
to walk by faith. “For without faith it is impossible to please Him”
(Heb 11:6). And since church attendance requires no faith (unless He
led us specifically to attend somewhere), it can never please Him.
No, nothing will “shock” us if we boldly walk out the doors of our
institutional church and never return. The only ones who might be
shocked will be the pastor and our fellow church members, who knowing
our discontent, thought we would never actually leave.
Which raises this question: If this fence is so imaginary, what has
been keeping it “electrified” in the minds of so many believers for so
long, and prevented us from discovering our freedom in Christ? And
experiencing the true unity of his body?
The Force Field
In analyzing the power of the fence, I saw five major pieces of leaven
embedded in our beliefs that keep us imprisoned within the church
system. Five teachings that most Christians traditionally accept as
biblically true, but which are not.
1. The belief that God expects us to try and meet together each week
for corporate worship
and fellowship.
2. The belief that God’s presence dwells in our church sanctuaries in
a special way.
3. The belief that Sunday is the Lord’s Day that should be reverenced
in fulfillment of the
fourth commandment.
4. The belief that we need a spiritual covering, namely a pastor.
5. The belief that God considers church attendance to be a work of
righteousness, and will
reward us for it.
Now I realize many Christians love going to church and might take
umbrage at the suggestion God is not pleased by our involvement in the
institutional church. I certainly don’t mean to offend you, but if
that is where you are you have a choice. You can stop reading and go
back to life as usual inside your church and hope you are right. Or
you can proceed with an open mind to see if my arguments are
biblically sound or not. Perhaps you will see some things you
thought were true, but which are not. I hope you keep reading.
But the folks I’m most interested in talking to are those believers
who aren’t being blessed by church any more and can’t figure out why.
Those who, quite frankly, are bored, and even feeling guilty about
their lack of interest. To you I say, relax. It’s okay. No doubt the
Holy Spirit is removing the good feelings associated with church
attendance, which is a big part of the reason we keep going, in order
“to cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God”
(Heb. 9:14).
If you are like most Christians you have no doubt been attending
professional church services all your life - even before you were born
again. So getting free of this fleshly, man-made system is not going
to happen over night. But it usually starts with what I call a “holy
discontent.” And that leads to us questioning the validity of the
entire church system.
I could tell you that God says you are free to leave your church right
now and never return, and it would be true. But I recommend you stay
put until you know for certain you’re truly free. Otherwise
you’re just liable to go through the same thing again at the next
church...and the next...and the next.
Once you have the biblical foundation to stand on you will be able to
leave the entire system for good without having your conscience
condemn you. Because as long as you remain unsure about whether God
will be upset if you don’t attend church regularly, you are not free
to leave. And you will not be walking by faith. “Happy is he who does
not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is
condemned [in whatever he does, because then] it is not from faith;
and whatever is not from faith is sin” (Rom 14:22,23).
But when we do know the truth, and then act on that truth, it will set
us free. So if you’re not sure yet, keep reading. I will try to reveal
what each of these five corruptive pieces of leaven truly are – lies
of Satan.
1. Regular Weekly Attendance
The belief that God expects us to meet together every week for
corporate worship and fellowship is still buttressed, I believe, by
the “holy day of obligation” law. And the penalty of eternal damnation
attached to it for “missing mass.” This ancient threat, although
ignored even by most Roman Catholics today, still sends Pavlovian
shockwaves into our collective subconscious mind. The minute a
believer even thinks about heading for the church door, a beep echoes
in our “collar” that triggers enough uncertainty to cause us to put on
the brakes and quietly retake our seat.
If pushed to justify their allegiance to church attendance, most
Christians would probably rationalize it this way: “I’m only being
asked to be here for one hour on Sunday, how hard is that? Considering
how much Jesus did for me, how can I complain? Besides, virtually
every Christian I know attends church somewhere. Who am I to say that
this is not worthy of my time? Or not important enough to outweigh any
negatives I may be encountering? What’s more, we all know there is no
perfect church. And doesn’t it say in Scripture to not forsake the
assembling of ourselves together? That seems pretty clear we should
gather together somewhere. And except for a few radical friends
who meet in homes, and those “lone rangers” who don’t do anything, the
only place you can find worshipping Christians regularly gathering
together are in church buildings. So I’ll keep going until He tells me
not to. Better to be safe than sorry.”
I know something like that runs through the mind of every Christian
struggling with this issue because those were some of the mental
gyrations my wife and I went through for years before exiting the
institutional church in 1979.
So although it’s true most Christians don’t believe God will send them
to hell if they miss church, we still believe God expects us to make
an effort to attend. He’s just far more lenient and understanding
about those times we miss than the church Fathers told us. And the
Scripture most often quoted to support that belief is Hebrews 10:25,
which says: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the
habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as
you see the Day approaching.”
But look at that Scripture carefully. It does not tell us to meet
every week. Or meet in a sacred building. Or on any particular day. In
fact, it does not tell us to meet at all. It tells us not to give
up meeting with other believers. So does that mean we are to meet
24-7? Of course not, that would be ridiculous. It obviously means we
are not to cut off fellowshipping with other believers as if we didn’t
need them.
We must never forget we are all part of an interdependent body,
Christ’s body, so we need each another. We are to resist the mindset
that “it is just me and Jesus.” We may each have a unique role to play
in the body, but we are to stay connected with other believers,
especially with those parts of the body we find ourselves joined to.
Paul uses the individual physical body in 1 Corinthians 12 as a way to
explain Christ’s corporate spiritual body and our working relationship
with one another. And Paul was not using a metaphor. The body of
Christ is a real body with Jesus as the head. Paul learned that at the
moment of his conversion when the Lord told him “I am Jesus whom you
are persecuting” (Acts 9:5). That is, Paul’s persecution of the
believers was the same as touching Jesus.
Therefore, because it is a real body it is a living organism, not an
organization. And our fellowship in this body should be a living
experience. The minute it becomes part of a perfunctory thing
it becomes law. And our living Holy Spirit fellowship (Gk: koinonea)
starts to die. Law is always a killer. So the particulars of
how we meet, when we meet, where we meet, and even with who we meet is
completely up to the day-to-day leading of the Spirit of God. For He
is the life of the body.
Well, if that explains how fellowship in the body is accomplished,
what about praise and worship? How can we meet to have corporate
worship if we are not part of an organized church? Well, where does it
say in the New Testament we have to meet together to have corporate
worship? Much less every week? Nowhere that I know of. In fact, Jesus
prophesied such regular corporate gathering to worship would no longer
be necessary under the New Covenant when he told the Samaritan woman
at the well, “An hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor
in Jerusalem will you worship the Father [...] but the true
worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for such
people the Father seeks to be His worshippers. God is spirit, and
those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth” (John
4:21-24).
Under the Old Covenant, worship was a corporate event that required a
sacred place, an altar, a sacrifice, a sacrificing priest, a
prescribed ritual, and an appointed time. (Almost all the world’s
religions follow the same formula.) But under the New Covenant,
worship is no longer corporate or sacred or tied to a special
location, but is individual and secular and can happen anywhere.
Worship will occur every day as we obediently lay down our life to
follow God’s will rather than our own. “Therefore, I urge you
brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and
holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of
worship” (Rom 12:1).
Of course that doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t gather together from
time to time with other believers for prayer, to hear sound biblical
teachings, to share in the body and blood of Christ, or to just sing
songs of praise and adoration to our God. Not at all.
There are certainly times that we will be led to gather together and
to give heart-felt spontaneous praise and worship and thanksgiving and
glory to Him who is so awesome and faithful, and so worthy of our
praise. It just means we aren’t required to do it regularly. Or
in a particular place. If it were required it would no longer be a
free-will offering. It would no longer be a response of love and
adoration from the heart, but an act of lawful compliance. Then we
have fallen under the letter of the law, and our worship becomes
perfunctory. And that kind of worship is not the kind of worshipping
God is looking for. For “the letter of the law kills, but [only] the
Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6).
Which brings me to the next piece of leaven that keeps the invisible
fence alive and crackling - the church building.
2. Earthly Temples
If you grew up in a Christian home, you understood early on that the
church building was the “house of God.” Even if you never heard it
stated as such, you knew it was true just by watching how differently
everyone acted upon entering the church sanctuary. Voices were
suddenly lowered, hats were removed, heads were bowed - everyone
became more reverent and pious. The message was loud and clear: God
was here. The whole steepled structure declared it so. The vaulted
ceiling with its heavenly acoustics. The configuration of the pews
that focused your attention on the altar or raised platform where
God’s minister stood, often dressed in ceremonial robes. The stained
glass windows, vestments, crosses, religious trappings - all these
things defined this as the place where God could be found.
Yet we know this is not the gospel truth. For the Scriptures declare
that under the New Covenant the believer is the sanctuary of God. That
we alone are His holy temple. “Don’t you know that you are God’s
temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (I Cor. 3:16). And the
writer of Hebrews states that “Christ was faithful as a Son over His
house – whose house we are” (Heb 3:6).
Clearly we are the only house of God, the only temple of God, the only
place on the planet where God dwells. His house today is not
constructed of mortared brick, or gold or silver, but of flesh and
blood.
In fact, even when God allowed His people to build Him that
magnificent temple under the Old Covenant, He never really dwelt in
that building. The disciple Steven, when on trial for supposedly
blaspheming that revered temple, reminded his accusers that “The Most
High does not dwell in houses made with human hands.” How could He? As
Isaiah said, “Heaven is My throne, and earth is the footstool of My
feet; what kind of house will you build for Me? says the Lord” (Acts
7:48,49).
So if that holy temple that had housed the Ark of the Covenant was not
truly the dwelling of God - but a mere shadow of the truth that would
be fulfilled when Jesus inaugurated the New Covenant - how much less
our churches today? That’s why it can be said with certainty that any
physical building that promotes itself as God’s tabernacle today is
but a pagan temple. Even if it is called a Christian church.
Look at it this way. If a father spent every nickel he had to build a
magnificent mansion for his son, but his son chose to reject this
expression of the father’s love that cost him everything, and moved
into an old dilapidated house instead, how do you think the father
would feel? Well, remember what Jesus told us? “In my Father’s house
are many dwelling places” (John 14:2). We are the mansion with the
many dwelling places the Father built for His son. But by choosing to
dwell in all these shabby houses built by human hands, are we not
rejecting the ultimate sacrifice the Father made to build His
tabernacle? And how do you think it makes Him feel when He not only
sees us living in these places, but also presenting them to the
unbelieving world as His house?
I know many will say that their pastor or denomination clearly
teaches that our church buildings are not the house of God.
That He is only present in us. But as I already pointed out, even if
the truth is taught, church architecture and hundreds of years of
tradition simply overwhelm the truth and proclaim another gospel. Both
to us and to the world at large. So why do we continue to build such
edifices that perpetuate this false understanding if we know it isn’t
true? Especially since no such buildings existed for the first three
hundred years of the life of the church. And if we didn’t need them
then, why do we think they are so indispensable now? Why are
Christians so reluctant to leave their church sanctuary and cross
through the invisible fence? I believe it is because it feels like
we’re leaving God. That we’re walking away from the one place we think
He can be found on a regular basis. And that means we will no longer
be able to come into His “house” to meet with Him, as we have done
since childhood. And that is a powerful tradition of warm feelings not
easily dismissed.
Plus, we will also be leaving behind all those friends and family
members we have gone to church with for years. Not to mention our
pastor, who will probably not be happy with our decision to leave, and
urge us to stay within the security of a church body. His (or her)
approval – or disapproval – is a powerful influence with most folks.
Nevertheless, “Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through
his own blood, suffered outside the gate. So let us go out to him
outside the camp, bearing his reproach” (Heb 13:12,13).
In many ways our churches are like the gated communities you see
sprinkled about the wealthy resort areas in Florida. They are very
exclusive. They offer protection against worldly intrusion. They
provide many attractive amenities, including a nice clubhouse. They
come with their own management team to oversee the running of things.
And they have the same downside. They require a monthly fee and have
many rules and regulations that must be obeyed. And although they
offer a certain protection from the outside world, they also isolate
and imprison and curtail our individual freedom. That’s why
penitentiaries could also be described as “gated communities.”
At some point in our walk we must make the decision to truly follow
Jesus. And not the traditions of men. Even if those traditions go back
hundreds of years. “Thus you nullify the word of God by your
traditions which you have handed down” (Mark 7:13). And if we think it
too hard to walk away from our religious heritage, imagine how hard it
was for Paul to leave his. And his religion was truly God-given, where
ours is completely man-made. But he did leave. “For whatever things
were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of
Christ” (Phil 3:7).
So the church building is the second obstacle that keeps the invisible
fence alive in our imagination. Let us now examine the third power
source – the Sabbath commandment.
3. Keep Holy the Sabbath
The reason churches have services on Sunday is not because the day
occurs on the weekend when it is convenient to attend. It’s because
Sunday was officially declared to be the biblical Sabbath by the same
folks who made up all the other religious rules. In Church history the
Jewish Saturday Sabbath was replaced by “the Sun’s day” in the second
or third century as the Christian day of rest as prescribed by the
fourth commandment. And since most Christians treat the Ten
Commandments as if they still mattered in their walk with Christ, that
understanding carries a lot of weight.
But the fact is the Ten Commandments don’t apply to us anymore. We
forget that all those commands were basically the cliff notes for the
Old Covenant. The only ones now who need the Ten Commandments are
unbelievers, as Paul told Timothy. “But we know that the Law is
good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made
for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious,
for the ungodly and sinners” (1 Tim 1 8,9).
Since we are righteous through our faith in Jesus, the Law no longer
applies to us. The whole Law is summed up in the commands to love God
and our neighbor as ourselves. For if we love God we won’t be loving
false idols. And if we love our neighbor we won’t be stealing or
lusting after his wife. “Therefore love is the fulfillment of the
whole Law” (Rom 14:10). And since we are new creations in Christ, and
have the Spirit to help us overcome the flesh without condemnation, we
no longer need the Law fence with its harsh penalties for failure.
Some will argue of course that because all Christians agree we
shouldn’t steal, kill or worship idols that this proves the
commandments are still in effect and therefore we are still subject to
them. But they overlook that it’s one thing to agree that these things
are wrong, and quite another to say we promise we will never break
those commands again in the slightest way, under penalty of death.
Which is what we are agreeing to when we sign on to the Law.
Which brings us to the fourth commandment. How are we to understand
the command to rest on the Sabbath, which is not about love, or
morality, or idolatry? But about the simple observance of a day. It
reads: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall
labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the
Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work [...] For in six days
the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in
them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the
Sabbath day and made it holy” (Ex 20:8-10).
The command was to honor every seventh day by resting from our labors.
Because that 24-hour day was declared “holy” by the Lord to symbolize
the day when God rested after six days of work creating everything
that exists.
Shouldn’t we honor that day still? If we want to obey the command as
it is written then we have to honor Saturday, not Sunday. Sunday is
not the seventh day of the week, but the first day. But if we want to
obey the command as one under grace, and not under Law, then we are no
longer required to keep a 24-hour day at all. Under the Old Covenant
the Sabbath was a specific day, but under the New Covenant it is a
person. Namely, Jesus. “For the son of man is the Lord of the Sabbath”
(Matt. 12:8). When we come into Jesus we enter God’s rest. In him, all
the work that needs doing is finished. “For the one who has entered
His rest, has himself rested from his works, as God did from His”
(Heb. 4:10).
Therefore, God is our Sabbath rest now – one we are to keep 24-7. But
in order to enter His wonderful rest we have to be willing to cease
from all our labor of the flesh – that is all our religious and carnal
attempts to please Him and secure ourselves. We can’t walk in the
spirit and still work in the flesh at the same time. We can’t live in
faith and under Law at the same time. They are like oil and water.
They do not mix.
Once we have been set free from Law, including the Ten Commandments,
we are free from any obligations to keep one day holy each week. Of
course, if we want to keep “one day above another” (Rom 14:5), we can.
But we don’t have to.
And once we are free of obeying the Sunday Sabbath (and the Saturday
Sabbath) – we have knocked down one more misconception that keeps the
invisible fence electrified.
The fourth power line feeding into the fence is the belief we must be
under a spiritual covering for guidance and protection. Which means if
we leave the church system we think we won’t have a “pastor.” Not to
mention having someone to marry our children and perform our funerals.
4. Who is My Shepherd?
When Christianity transitioned from being a one-on-one relationship
with God through faith in Jesus to a full-blown religion, it descended
into hell. It started when some men were raised above the rest of the
body to become a full-time professional priesthood known as the
clergy. And the rest of us became known as the laity (from the Greek
laos, meaning the people). The clergy were now the only ones
permitted to teach, to administer the sacraments, and to be
responsible for the general spiritual welfare of the “flock” in a
local area. But this was a violation of the Gospel in several ways.
First, it destroyed the unity of the body by creating a two-caste
system. Scripture declares that all believers are now part of “a royal
priesthood” (1 Pet 2:9). Therefore under the New Covenant we are all
Christ’s clergy, not just a select few. What’s more, this new
priesthood was vastly different from the kind that existed under the
Old Covenant that positioned the priest as an intermediary between God
and sinful man. Jesus had taken care of the sin problem once and for
all. So the old kind of sacerdotal priesthood was no longer necessary.
This new priesthood was to go forth to minister the blessings that
Jesus had attained for us. And we each have been given a unique
ministry to perform.
Second, this false religion created a hierarchy that placed some
members above others. This too was not the gospel. Jesus had washed
the feet of the apostles to remind them to be servants to the people,
not masters. Once, when he noticed the disciples vying for positions
in his kingdom, he pulled them aside and warned them: “You know the
rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise
authority over them. It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes
to become great among you shall be your servant” (Matt. 20:25,26).
Like in the human body, as Paul explained, all parts had an important
role to play. None would be above another. Only Jesus was the head.
Hierarchy is the mark of Satan’s kingdom, not God’s.
Third, it further divided the body by creating little groups who
belonged to one man, called the “pastor.” Each group, after being
ensconced in their own building, would then keep to themselves and
rarely fellowship with the rest of the body. But this is the very
thing Paul chastised the Corinthian body for doing when he said, “Now
I mean this, that each one of you is saying, ‘I am of Paul,” and ‘I of
Apollos,’ and I of Cephas,’ and ‘I of Christ.’ Has Christ been
divided?” (1 Cor. 1:12,13). Today we have those who follow Cephas
(Peter) and call themselves Roman Catholics. Others follow Luther, and
are called Lutherans. Others follow Menno Simons, and are called
Mennonites. Etc. While others with less history follow the latest
charismatic leader or gifted speaker. We have become a body blown to
bits, as surely as if we had stepped on a landmine.
And finally, by allowing ourselves to be placed under a spiritual
mentor we diminish the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The
Spirit alone was given to lead us and guide us and comfort us and
enlighten us and empower us. We are not supposed to be following after
a man, no matter how godly or wise he may be. Besides no man was
called to that role in the first place. It is a position modeled more
on the CEO of the corporate business world than anything Scripture
outlines. Which is why so many of these dedicated servants are burning
out at such an incredible rate.
But doesn’t Scripture teach that God appointed “some as apostles, some
as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors, and some as
teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, and
for the building up of the body of Christ?” (Eph. 4:11,12). Indeed,
but these men or women were to act like playing coaches on the team.
Although anointed and called by God to perform some unique service in
the body, they were still to see themselves as just another part of
that body. They themselves were laos, who were to lead by their
gift, not by a titled position. If their gift and calling was from
God, the body would soon discern it and pay attention.
But what about the terms translated in the Bible as “elders,”
“bishops,” “deacons,” “overseers,” shepherds,” or “pastors?” Aren’t
they church titles or offices? Only in our mind, because for centuries
that’s how they’ve been considered in the church. But in the first
century those terms were just different ways to describe how the local
leadership performed ministry to the local body. All were actually
“elders” or “overseers,” which again was based on their maturity in
the Lord and the recognition of their gifting. They were never treated
as a hierarchy of authority. That came later, when one church leader
in particular, Ignatius of Antioch, began to appoint “bishops” to head
different congregations. He patterned it all on the political
structure of Rome, believing that, “Single-bishop rule would rescue
the church from heresy and internal strife” (“Pagan Christianity,”
Viola/Barnes, pg. 11).
Furthermore, any position of leadership, whether pastor, teacher
prophet, etc., was to be available to the whole body if needed. Not
just the handful that belonged to one particular denomination or
individual church building. “But to each one is given the
manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor. 12:7).
Yet today the sheep refer to the pastor as “our pastor,” as if
he belonged to their little group exclusively. And the same with
deacons and elders. And that’s the way most pastors prefer it. It is
very hard for today’s seminary-trained pastor to build up his sheep
for service and then release them to the leading of the Spirit, lest
they be led away from his church. Of course, if he is a true shepherd
called of God, one who has a heart for the well-being of the sheep, he
will recognize the leading of the Lord in a member’s life and bless
him “in his going out and coming in.” But if he is just a church
appointee, don’t expect anything but grief from him. Jesus likens him
to “a hired hand [...] who sees the wolf coming and flees [...]
because he is not concerned for the sheep” (John 10:12,13).
The bottom line is - Jesus is our only true pastor. For as the 23rd
Psalm reminds us, “the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want” (Ps
23:1). Although God may lead us to lie down in the green pasture of
one of his servant pastors for a time of nurturing, we still belong
only to Jesus. We are his sheep. We belong to no other.
That is why when we leave the church system we are not leaving our
pastor behind. For Jesus goes out with us.
But now I want to move on to the biggest lie that empowers the fence.
One that we cannot blame on the false teaching of the Church Fathers,
but on ourselves.
5. The Wrong Righteousness
Everything I have mentioned so far that is keeping the invisible fence
empowered sprang from the church’s unbelief in the early centuries. It
was their wholesale rejection of the gospel of faith righteousness
that led them to invent a Christian religion of works righteousness
that deludes us still. But if we are honest, we will see the
underlying reason we have allowed their lies to deceive us for so long
is because of our own unbelief. Deep in our hearts we are afraid to
trust our salvation to faith alone. It’s too scary. So we quickly
begin to add our own religious works to His finished work until
salvation becomes Jesus plus going to church. In this way we shore up
our assurance of salvation because we can lend our hand to the wheel,
so to speak. But it is actually our lack of trust in the work of the
Holy Spirit to bring us home that is driving it. We really want to
walk by sight and not by faith.
Our unbelief is further supported by the fact almost all the
Christians we know are involved in the church. And virtually all the
spiritual leaders, both great and small, continually urge to us “to
get plugged into a church,” also. So what are we to think? How can our
regular participation in a church be so misguided then?
Well, let’s see.
I’m sure most professing Christians will readily agree that salvation
is attained by faith, and faith alone. This has been the message
preached by the protestant wing of the church ever since the sixteenth
century when that generation broke from the established church of its
day and freed the gospel from centuries of religious ignorance and
superstition. For when Martin Luther read the words of Paul in the
first chapter of Romans about justification by faith the light pierced
his soul and showed him the error of his thinking. He had read:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for
salvation to every one who believes, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to
faith; as it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live
by faith’” (Rom 1:16,17).
In a flash he understood that all his church attendance, all his rote
prayers, all his fasting and flagellations, and all his masses and
sacramental activities were worthless. He only needed to exercise
faith in the finished work of Jesus and he would be saved. And soon
the biggest prison break in history took place when millions came into
the kingdom through the liberated gospel of “faith righteousness.”
So how then did Satan trick the church into exchanging our reborn
understanding of righteousness through faith to accept again a
religion of works? I believe it was by conceding to us that faith in
Jesus was necessary to get saved. But then deceiving us into thinking
that once we were saved that our work of faith was finished. That it
had done its job and we didn’t need it anymore. Now all we needed to
do was keep our noses clean and follow the religious rules of church
tradition so we could remain saved. Before long, the “faith” we
had used to get saved apart from works became “a religious faith” that
provided the works needed to stay saved. And our carnal self quickly
signed on to that plan of salvation.
But is that what the Bible teaches? No, a thousand times no. It says
“the righteous man shall live by faith, meaning “to keep on
living by faith.” We are not to just use faith to get into the kingdom
and then abandon it while we turn back to a gospel of works. Faith is
a lifestyle, not a religion.
Paul had told the Romans that “the righteousness of God is
revealed from faith to faith. “ It was to be an ongoing walk of
faith. To then rely on works for our sanctification would eventually
negate our original faith commitment. When the Galatians were being
deceived into cementing their salvation with works, Paul warned them:
“Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being
perfected by the flesh?” (Gal 3:3).
To make absolutely certain we understand that faith is not just a
once-and-done kind of thing, the Holy Spirit had Paul contrast life in
the spirit to life under religious law in his letter to the Galatians:
“Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for
‘the righteous man shall live by faith.’ However, the Law is
not of faith; on the contrary, ‘He who practices them shall live by
them” (Gal. 3:11,12).
So we see here two different life styles being presented. We must
choose either to live all the time by faith, or to live all the time
by law (which is another word for religion, whether it is Christianity
or the Mosaic Law). There is no other choice. We are not given the
option of living sometimes by faith and sometimes by law, because as I
have already shown, the two are incompatible. It’s like telling
someone to “stop” and “go” at the same time. It’s simply impossible.
Once we make up our mind to follow Jesus by faith, we have to stick
with it. Or we cancel out our original commitment.
So the question arises, how does one live a faith lifestyle? What are
we supposed to do after we bow our heads and accept God’s forgiveness
through Jesus? For surely we have to do something! Most certainly, but
it is a far cry from what most Christians have had drilled into their
heads.
The most important step is to trust completely that “He made him who
knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the
righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). For the moment the Holy
Spirit came into us we became as righteous in God’s sight as we will
ever be. We cannot improve on that “right-standing” with God. We are
accepted, loved, and chosen by God, and “have been delivered from the
domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of His beloved son”
(Col. 1:13). We are now family, sons and daughters, and He will never
abandon us. We must then rest completely in those biblical assurances.
And the way we demonstrate that rest is to abandon all other
attempts to earn God’s favor by our own efforts. As long as we
think we have to maintain regular attendance at some church, or keep
religious holy days, or do this and not do that to please Him, then we
show we do not believe we have God’s favor by faith. And we have
fallen for another gospel.
So we see that resting in Him is the key. ”For the one who has entered
His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from is”
(Heb 4:10). It means we have believed the word of the gospel that He
has indeed saved us by our faith and He will get us home if we just
let Him. “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a
good work in us will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil
1: 6).
This resting from our own work ironically becomes the very “work” that
demonstrates our faith. Remember the apostle James told us “that
faith, if it has no works, is dead [...] show me your faith without
the works, and I’ll show you my faith by my works” (James 2: 17,18).
By ceasing from all our religious efforts and from all our striving to
get saved or stay saved, we are testifying to the truth of His word.
We are risking it all on His promise “that if we believe on the Lord
Jesus we shall be saved.” And this pleases the Father no end. “For
without faith, it is impossible to please God.”
Therefore, contrary to what we have thought all these years, attending
church gains us no favor with God. It is no more righteous than a trip
to the supermarket. We may benefit from the teaching if the pastor
teaches from the Bible. We might even get saved when the gospel is
preached. We may have many uplifting feelings about God and His
promises as we raise our voices in song and praise. But our attendance
there gains us no points with God. And we risk losing everything if we
think it does.
Like Paul who walked away from His rote religion, may we too “be found
in Him, not having a righteousness of our own derived from law, but
that which is through faith in Messiah, the righteousness which comes
from God on the basis of faith” (Phil. 3:9).
Unplug the Fence and Be Free
I believe those five powerful misconceptions are the main reasons the
invisible fence stays alive and cause us to live out our lives within
the church system. Hopefully you can now see they are nothing but lies
placed in our collective mindset.
In writing this article I have come to see even more clearly how
deceived we all have been in accepting this religious lifestyle as a
legitimate expression of “living for Christ.” Much less thinking it
was the gospel of Jesus Christ as preached by the apostles. It is not.
It is a false gospel that has imprisoned and enslaved us for
centuries, robbing us of our time, wealth and true service to God.
How many Sundays have we dutifully headed off to church with our
families when time at home with them would have been more beneficial?
How many opportunities have we missed to give money to a neighbor or
relative or stranger in need, or to a ministry that is truly changing
lives, because we had already “tithed” at our church. How many
revelations from the Scripture have we stifled because they didn’t
comply with our church’s doctrine? How many Christians have we avoided
fellowshipping with because they didn’t belong to our denomination? In
short, how many promptings by the Holy Spirit have we ignored because
we were listening more to what men were telling us, than what God was
saying?
I recently read that the Great Wall of China, which was designed to
protect China from northern invaders, stretches for over 4,000 miles.
The designers made it high enough that it could not be scaled, thick
enough that it could not be penetrated, and long enough that no one
could go around it. Yet, during the first hundred years of the wall's
existence China was successfully invaded three times without the wall
having been climbed or breached or circumvented. How did the invaders
do it? In each of the invasions the barbarians simply bribed the
gatekeepers who opened the gates, and the enemies waltzed right
through.
Even though the invisible fence has surrounded the entire church body
like the Great Wall of China for centuries, in reality it is only as
strong as each individual person. Because anytime a follower of Christ
chooses to believe the word of God, and disbelieve in the fence, the
fence disappears. We ourselves hold the keys. We are the gatekeepers.
And we don’t have to be bribed to open the gate, either. All we do
have to do is be convinced that our allegiance to this gated spiritual
community is no longer worth the time and money it takes to defend it.
And open the gate. For in dwelling behind the theological protections
of our denominations or independent churches, we have in fact isolated
ourselves from the world, and cut ourselves off from the rest of the
body of Christ.
I have no doubt once you walk free you will quickly discover your
place in the true body of Messiah, the Israel of God. And the work of
ministry to which you were called will come more sharply into focus.
Greater understanding always comes after we take a step of faith, not
before. You will also no doubt rediscover the joy of your salvation,
if that has been missing for awhile. There’s nothing like a dose of
freedom to rekindle our lost joy.
You will also find that you are not alone out here. That many others
have been gathering together outside the walls of institutional
religion for some time now. For the Spirit has been calling His people
out with greater and greater urgency as we approach the end of this
world system, and the coming of God’s kingdom.
But most of all you will find a beaming Jesus ready to embrace you
with open arms. He never was in our church system. He has been out
here all along waiting for the day when His people would realize that,
and come to Him “outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Heb.13:13).
May God give you the grace to hear this message of freedom, and the
courage to walk in it.
www.reunionministries.net
January, 2010
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