Part Three: The Modern Church (Built on Quicksand): Synagogue of Satan

Modernism (Enlightenment thinking) has met its doom. People tired of racism, sexism, heterosexism, anthropocentrism, and other "isms" have rebelled against modernist thinking because they believe it (Modernism) is the source of these isms. They believe reason-based dualistic thinking is the cause of all the evils of the world. Subsequently, they reject all forms of thought that lead one to have to choose on an "either or" basis. They prefer a "both and" form of reasoning. The reason is because "either or" seems to account for one's biases. Thus, this kind of thinking never gets to the truth even though it claims to do so. If the quest of the Enlightenment was for truth, the quest of the postmodernist movement is to prove that there is no truth. Postmodernism resists the notion that any human being can assume to know what is absolutely true in the world. In essence, we, like the story of the "Blind men and the Elephant" popularized by John Godfrey Saxe, are all holding pieces of the truth. Postmodernists reject Christian doctrine from this perspective claiming that the reason most of the terrible things were done by the church was because of its "presumptuous" claim to know the truth about the world. Pluralism and diversity is the answer not the assumption that there is one way to God. There have been two major reactions to this from the Protestant and Roman Churches. Liberal Protestants and Liberal Catholics have conceded the claims of the postmodernist postulations believing that a more inclusive doctrine for the church is necessary. They believe that the church should update its politics to fit these ideas so as to best serve the people. The Conservatives, Protestants and Catholics, have vigorously rejected these ideas arguing that holding to the standard of scripture is fundamental. Our focus is the Protestant reactions.

MODERN CHRISTIANITY: SEEKING AFTER A SIGN

Several movements have arisen as a result of the Protestant reactions, many of them resulting from Protestant Church movements dividing in themselves. Church denominations have split on the basis of this decision to accept the new postmodernist politic. But doctrinal fallout on both sides has not led to any significant shift in God showing himself in the world. Liberal Protestants, for the most part, simply do not believe the Bible and so it is impossible for them to have a real relationship with God—they have no faith. Conservatives, even though they exemplify more faith, still miss the mark because behind their professions of faith is doubt and unbelief. Modernist thought did its job; it instilled in the minds of Christians an inherent resistance to faith so that no matter the amount of belief one says he or she has, there is still this nagging feeling one has that God is not who he says he is. This is best reflected in our seminaries both Conservative and Liberal where the majority opinion is that the scripture is a human document bereft of any real power. This doubt has an origin. As we go a bit beyond the Enlightenment, we find a major theologian who stands between Conservative and Liberal desires to know God. Both camps recognize this man as powerful and influential. Both see him as a Church father. He is John Wesley. The reason we see him as prominent in this respect is because we believe he embodies the spirit that has driven the church to where it is now, awaiting a personal experience with God. This desire unites both Conservatives and Liberals. Liberals believe in a personal god for they believe it is wrong to assume that there is a universal God that invalidates other people's religions. Conservatives argue that one has to have a personal experience of salvation, which validates one's Christianity. We want to explore where we believe we can best see this personal focus—as it affects the church today—how it has rendered the church powerless. The best example of this is the Pentecostal Church, which mixes both Liberal and Conservative ideas: Liberal in the sense that they foresaw inclusion, especially of all the races, as a goal of the church; Conservative in that they argue for the infallibility of the scriptures and other fundamentalist ideas.

John Wesley is a towering figure in American Theology. The modern United Methodist Church, one of the largest churches in America, claims him as a founder. The modern Methodist church, however, is quite distinct in that it does not continue many of the practices and doctrines that Wesley emphasized. Today's Methodist Church does not focus on the first or second blessings as Wesley did. These two tenets of Wesleyan doctrine, however, provide the foundation for the modern Pentecostal Church as we shall discover later. Vinson Synan argues that Wesley firmly believed in the doctrine of these blessings: "By 1740, Wesley's ideas on theology were fairly well cased in the permanent mold that would shape the Methodist movement ... they involved the two separate phases of experience of the believer: the first, conversion or justification and the second, Christian perfection, or sanctification"³⁵. Wesley's theology characterizes other movements of the late 18th and 19th centuries. The Mormons also believed they were validated by an experience with God through speaking in other tongues³⁶. As a reaction to the Enlightenment, people were attempting to discover the Christian God through experience. The doctrine of blessings was simply a way to determine of one had actually had an experience with God. These experiences had to happen in some sort of physical manifestation. Wesley himself had experienced this physical manifestation of sanctification when at a meeting with friends³⁷. He and the others fell to the ground believing that the power of God had fallen on them mightily. This trend continued into where people were experiencing God with trembling sensations, jerks, shakes, shouting with ecstasy and the like. All of these actions came to characterize the Holiness, Sanctified, and Pentecostal Churches where people were hearing messages and seeking to have similar experiences with God. They were all pursuing some form of evidence of God's existence in them.

This movement went into the late 19th and early 20th centuries causing many people in the Holiness movement to ask whether there was a third blessing. Charles F. Parham concluded that there was, and believed it was baptism in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance³⁸. Influenced by Wesleyan theology, he sparked movements that ultimately culminated in what we know as the modern Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions. One of his premier students was William J. Seymour who started the Azusa Street revival that basically cleared the way for the modern global Pentecostal movement. The foundation of these doctrines was the belief that one needed some physical experience of God as validation of God's presence in his or her life, which itself was in response to Enlightenment dogma. This runs counter to Jesus' admonishment: "Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe" (John 4:48). Walking by sight—believing only in what can be seen—falls under the principality of the spirit of pornography (see "The Principality of Tradition" and "Church Practices"). Another interesting feature of these movements was the wide spread acceptance of women's ordination. Before this point, some denominations were accepting like the Quakers but Wesley was firm in his stance about a woman's right and ability to preach. Pentecostals and others like them were also advocates of this doctrine. They believed that it was the experience with God that afforded one the power of Christian witness—this experience overrode doctrinal hegemony. As personal experience provided the grounding for one's authority as a Christian, other authorities became less powerful, particularly scripture. Christians began buying into more of the secular conclusions regarding scripture. They began to believe that it was the Holy Ghost that counted more than Jesus. That life was all about the Spirit. If one had the Spirit, then one was justified. The desire for spiritual contact defines the modern church doctrines; both Liberals and Conservatives agree that it is one's personal experience with God that counts, which leads to failures when attempting to form Christian community. How can community come when people are focused on personal and individual experiences (see "Personal Savior")? As a whole, there may not be emphasis on the gifts of the Spirit but there is emphasis on individual experience that originates from a focus on the Spirit.

Postmodernism almost does not have to make any arguments to hurt the church. We have basically given them the ammunition to prove our ineffectiveness. Liberals claim community and diversity but say individual beliefs reign against communal beliefs. Conservatives argue that the scripture matters and we need community but support economically individualistic policies, and they do not believe in real spiritual contact with God in the present, most Christians do not believe we can hear God's voice the way the Apostles once did. Pentecostals show the personalities of both camps. They believe in the real experience with God by way of his Spirit. They believe that one should believe in scripture whole-heartedly. They believe that one must deal with social ills and obliterate oppression in areas like race and sex. But, in the end, it all still comes down to individualism because they rely on personal physical experience with God to confirm the legitimacy of their work instead of grounding their faith in the scriptures.

THE CHURCH OF SATAN

We are thus taken back to the Roman Church. The protestant effort to gain some distance from them led them to advocate another source of authority besides scripture, man. The 2nd century church focused on bishops as the leaders. They functionally began to exalt them above God. The Roman Church following suit with these doctrines began to exalt the things that men could do as the means of God's acceptance of them, Eucharist and Baptism. They also exalted the man who administered them above others and discouraged Bible reading. They taught that it was the Pope who only could provide infallible interpretation of the scriptures. All others had to bow to his interpretation. The Protestant Movement rebelled against much of this while still holding on the doctrines that maintained the leader's foothold over the people, Eucharist and Baptism, as the means of salvation. While they rejected the authority of the priest and papacy, they still embraced the notion of distance between the believer and the church leader. This all concluded with the creation of a church where the individual began to separate from one another on the basis of individual experience with God. The people began to believe that it was their own personal experience that legitimized their doctrine. Validation from the 2nd century church until now has been found in things that do not actually require the intervention of God but things that can be replicated or re-performed under one's own power. Anyone can claim that God has chosen them to be the leader and that one needs to eat something that he or she offers in order to obtain salvation. Anyone can claim that the language one speaks is powerful even though no one else understands it. Anyone can argue that God is on them because they roll on the floor and bark like a dog. All of these things may have started with some divine legitimacy but over time they lost connection with God and became intrinsically powerful. People were convinced that wherever they saw a priest that he was holy and sent by God; wherever they saw a person dancing in church and speaking in tongues that he was sanctified; and whenever they ate communion they were in communion with God. What we have discovered is that this is a lie. None of these things have power in themselves. This represents the move the church took away from God in the New Testament back to the Old. Paul explained this in Galatians. He was showing us how the church could develop. Either we will accept faith rejecting all rituals that say that the ritual in itself is more powerful, more influential than the God who speaks through the scriptures, or we can accept the rituals which rely on our unbelief and our necessity to see God manifested one more time different from Jesus.

Our desire for a personal experience with God has led us to powerlessness because we began to hold human things above God. Along with the relics of early Pentecostal, Methodist, Roman Catholic, and other traditions, now comes another standard of divine validations, money. The modern church now believes that having a house, a car, and immense amounts of wealth, shows God's work in the life of a believer (see "Prosperity"). Again this represents the same spirit of tradition working in the church. The reason that these physical things abounded in the various churches is because they were all seeking to prove themselves in this world. They wanted to know that, beyond a shadow of doubt, God was with them in this world. Satan, however, has easy access to us when we believe such things. He enters through unbelief and then begins to convince us that what we want is godly instead of us believing God for what he wants. As our demands are on the table, we become gods to ourselves because we are trying to fulfill our own needs. Consequently, our self-worship fails to come to ourselves; we begin to worship Satan because his job is to cause us to focus on ourselves over against God. Once we focus on ourselves we give him glory. This is why we believe we are dealing with a church that can be easily identified with the devil. He has us so confused, so focused on ourselves that it is impossible for us to pay attention to the fact that he is killing us. We must wake up and recognize the traditions in our churches so that we may come to righteousness, holiness, and belief in God. But all of this starts with trusting the God of the Bible and the Bible he gave us; this is the beginning of establishing God's (not man's) kingdom here on earth.

DRAFT V2010-06-28T4:47:26 PM