Peace or Sword?

Today is Saturday, October 18, 2008. I am sitting in my hotel room in Da Lat, Viet Nam, knowing I have to write a paper, and knowing that:

1. It will take lots of grace to do it.

2. It will be a hard-core, tough message that many will point to as proof that I’m “Anti-Church” and against the Body of Christ.

My hope and prayer is there will also be many who will be able to see, by the Spirit of the Lord, that this is not the case, and that I am presenting some vital truths here that must be faced and dealt with by believers who want to see and experience the Lord’s highest and best.

Jesus makes a number of sobering… even scary… statements in Matthew, Chapter 10. Among them are the following:

1. 14 “Whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. 15 Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”

2. 16 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. 17 But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. 18 You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. 19 But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; 20 for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.”

3.  21 “Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. 22 And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”

4.  24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household! 26 Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.”

5.  27 “Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. 28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. 32 Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.”

6.  34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. 35 For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36 and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ 37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

Most Christians believe that statements such as, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves,” and, “Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven,” and, “I did not come to bring peace but a sword.  For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household,” have a Christian-Unbeliever context.  They even use the one about confessing Him as a proof-text for “witnessing” to unbelievers.

They see sheep (Christians) in the midst of wolves (Unbelievers); they see “confessing Him before men” as a call to witness; and they see having enemies in your own household as what happens when you become a believer and your family remains “unconverted”.

While there is some truth to those ideas, I am convinced that, if we look at Matthew 10 in context, and also look at it in light of numerous other scriptures, we will see the true meaning, and realize that the greatest enemy of God’s true purposes has always been religion, the “Church System”, with its incredible variety of forms, flavors and manifestations.

We will also see that, as God’s greatest enemy, it must be left behind.

Now, please understand I’m not talking about forsaking or abandoning God’s true people within the Churches, for there are many of them within the mixed multitude, but speaking and living truth before them, at great personal risk, in order that they might be saved from destruction, and that the Lord may be truly glorified.

Yes, there are many Christians who see that Matthew 10 has application to Christians versus the religious system of Israel, but I believe we must look beyond the Israel-Church conflict and see it in its End-Time context of Disciple-Church conflict, because scripture has a tendency to have latent, or future meaning, as well as its historical application.

Does Matthew, chapter 10 have meaning and application for believers today?  I believe it does, for the following reasons:

1.  Many Bible Scholars and Commentators see the End-Time Church, or remnant at least, portrayed in Matthew chapter 10.

2.  The entire passage, which actually begins at Matthew 9:36, is within the context of Jesus seeing the (Covenant) people as sheep without a shepherd, and His command to go to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

The idea of God’s covenant-people being scattered, “lost sheep” resounds throughout scripture, and there are many Old-Covenant passages speaking of God regathering them in the last days.

We must get beyond looking at the “Church” and “Israel” as two distinct, separate entities.  Yes, God will deal with natural Jews in the End Times, but we must see that “Israel” evolved into the New-Covenant community of believing Jews, and then wild branches (Gentiles) were grafted in.  Shortly afterward, the Temple and entire system of Jewish worship and sacrifice was utterly destroyed.

I am not speaking of “Replacement” theology. The Church didn’t replace Israel, but the scriptures clearly teach what I stated above.  If we are true New-Covenant believers, we are a part of “Israel”; we are not part of a separate, distinct entity, called “the Church”, which has a separate purpose, agenda and destiny from “Israel”.  That is a false belief system which has created all sorts of problems.

If you need convincing, read Ephesians 2:11-22 and Romans 11:13-25, two among many clear passages.

3.  Jesus had His greatest conflicts, by far, with the established religious order, and He promised us the same. The religious leaders were the ones who called Him Beelzebub, not the heathen or the Romans.

Judaism has long ago ceased to be a serious problem for the Church, but the religious “Church” order has been alive and thriving for many a century, ever since good ole’ Emperor Constantine “converted” to Christianity, and brought the entire empire along with him.

We must keep in mind, also, that both Israel and the Church were founded and established by God Himself.  They were both the true “Franchise”, so to speak, and scripture clearly shows both devolving into outward forms and practices, devoid of heart, which miss the mark of God’s true calling.

4.  We see certain problems and issues being addressed to the early Churches, by Paul, Peter, James,  Jude… and Jesus (in the book of Revelation) and we can be certain these issues have not gone away with the coming of the great, modern Theologians of our day and age.  Among these issues are:

A.  Easy-Believism which basically makes the faith “accepting” certain truths and then thinking it has all been signed, sealed and delivered.  Centuries ago, certain sects within Christiandom believed that “it didn’t matter” what you did in your body; you had been “saved”, and this view of things is a major force today, in practice if not in word, although many do put it into word.

B.  The desire for, and pursuit of money, possessions, prestige and pleasures, all in the name of God.  It is even taken so far as the belief-system which says, “When the unbelievers see how rich, prosperous and happy we believers are, they’ll be jealous and come to Christ.”  It’s incredible perversion, dressed up as sound, biblical teaching.

Remember, the Laodicean Church; the one Christ warns He will vomit out, says they are rich; increased with “stuff”; and have need of nothing.

C.  Believers listening to what they want to hear, from leaders, “Savage Wolves” who love to have the pre-eminence. The people are lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness without it’s power.

Then there are things Jesus addresses to the Churches in Revelation, like the “deeds and doctrine of the Nicolaitans“; the doctrine of Balaam; Jezebel teaching God’s people to commit fornication and eat things sacrificed to idols, and more.  What’s this all mean?  Believers in today’s Churches certainly have no idea.

I will come back to these matters shortly, but let’s remember that Jude called believers to earnestly contend for the faith.  If he had to do that way back then, why do we think it’s all basically alright now?

5.  There is major and growing evidence that the “End-Time Religion” is certainly going to be “Christian”, not “New Age” or anything else.  Surely, there will be New Age, pagan, demonic and other elements to it, but it will surely be “Church” and “Christian”, headed up by Rome and the Roman Church.

Many people think that “persecution” is coming to the Church at large.  I don’t believe this.  Satan is not worried about the “Church”, but about real disciples, those who prove the reality of the gospel and the truth that there is a King enthroned in the heavens, just like Daniel and his three friends did in Babylon.  He laughs at all the rest.

Satan’s going to roll the whole Church thing up into one great big ball and run the whole enterprise. There’s strong evidence, also, that Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and others will be deceived and “welcomed” into the “Church” too.

The ones who will be hated, despised, persecuted and killed will be those who stand for God and His truth; who confess Him before men; who speak truth from the housetops; who don’t love their (Christian) family more than they love Him.  This is what Jesus warned of so emphatically through Matthew chapter 10, and other places.

Getting back now to issues raised in point number 4C, above, let’s first look at the matter of “wolves”.  Jesus said he was sending us like sheep among wolves.

There are only seven references to “wolves” in the entire Bible.  I will paste six of them below:

Ezekiel 22: 23 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 24 “Son of man, say to her: ‘You are a land that is not cleansed or rained on in the day of indignation.’ 25 The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured people; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst. 26 Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. 27 Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, to destroy people, and to get dishonest gain. 28 Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ when the LORD had not spoken.

Zephaniah 3: 1 Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted, To the oppressing city! 2 She has not obeyed His voice, She has not received correction; She has not trusted in the LORD, She has not drawn near to her God. 3 Her princes in her midst are roaring lions; Her judges are evening wolves That leave not a bone till morning. 4 Her prophets are insolent, treacherous people; Her priests have polluted the sanctuary, They have done violence to the law.

Matthew 7: 13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. 15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

Matthew 10 (and Luke 10:3): 16 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. 17 But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues.

Acts 20: 25 “And indeed, now I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more. 26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. 27 For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. 28 Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. 29 For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. 31 Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.

I don’t think there’s much need to add anything, other than, in my view, these passages describe the Churches and leadership as we know them today quite well, as “negative” and anti-Church as that may sound.

Here are a few questions; think about them:

Are the leaders and Pastors there for the people; or are the people there for them?

Whose needs are really being met?  Who is really serving whom?

What would happen if the “Pastor” role, as we all know it, ceased?

If it ceased, would the “Church” function and carry on (or begin may be a better word) its God-given role?

Are Pastors and elders following the injunction of Ephesians 4:11-16; raising up the people to do the works of ministry, resulting in the edifying of the Body of Christ?

Do the people, for the most part, even want this?  Or are they just busy with their own lives?

Why is the role of Pastor a salaried position, when scripture and history don’t support that?

Let’s move on now to the “deeds and doctrine of the Nicolaitans”.

I will copy and paste from a source which shows some good scholarship on this subject.  I don’t know, at this point, or recommend, necessarily, any other teachings on the website.  Here is the information (I have added some bold and underline highlighting):

The doctrine of the Nicolaitans was mentioned in the Apocalypse of John to the churches of Pergamos and Ephesus of the seven churches of Asia in Revelation 2. It is a symbolic name of a party that represents the hierarchy of a ruling class over the rest of the people, developing a pecking order of fleshly leadership. Jesus hates this and warns the people to repent or else “I will come upon you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.” The same warning illustration is applied to those that abused grace, which led to licentiousness from the example of Balaam, seducing Christians to fornication and tampering with idolatry. The individual overcomer is allowed to eat of the hidden manna and given a white stone with a new name written in it.

The Early church father Iranaeus, identified the Nicolaitans in his treatise “Against Heresies” in the second century as they who are an “offshoot of the knowledge which is falsely so-called,” mentioning that they “lead lives of unrestrained indulgence.” There is no absolute proof that the heretic Nicolas was the Deacon of the same name from Antioch of the seven deacons in the book of Acts, but Iranaeus supposed him to be so. Ignatius mentions the Nicolaitans also, so there was in fact a heretical group existing at that time. Nicolas the deacon was perhaps confused with another Nicolas, the bishop Nicolas of Samaria who was a heretic in the company of Simon Magus.

The root of the word Nicolaitans comes from Greek nikao, “to conquer or overcome”, and laos, which means “people” and which the word laity comes from. The two words together especially means the destruction of the people and refers to the earliest form of what we call a priestly order or clergy which later on in church history divided people and allowed for leadership other than those led by the spirit of the risen Lord. A good translation of Nicolaitan would be “those who prevail over the people.” This clerical system later developed into the papal hierarchy of priests and clergy lording over the flock. The Council of Trent stated, “If anyone shall say that there is not in the Catholic Church a hierarchy established by the divine ordination, consisting of bishops, presbyters and ministers, let him be anathema.” It is not the question of the ministries but rather in the separation of them into a hierarchy over the people. This very idea was taken over by the Protestants with their own corruption of leadership roles and coverings. The Church of Ephesus was commended for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans. The wrong separation of the clergy from the laity is a great evil in God’s sight and He hates the lust for religious power over others. There is an ungodly spiritual authority in the Church today, which is nothing more than the prideful spirit of control, manipulation, domination and intimidation and a rebellion of the rightful authority of God.

Faithful believers who have put on Christ Jesus, are all God’s laity. Peter exhorted us to

Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind. Neither as being lords over God’s heritage but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fades not away.

Shepherds serve the sheep but the wolves that clothe themselves with so-called leadership and spiritual authority serve themselves, thinking that they serve God, in essence, this makes them false christs. Early church leaders were established as overseers, not a ruling hierarchy.

There is not much to add to this, other than this is precisely what we have today in the Churches, regardless of how open or participatory a church may seem to be.

It’s basically all about two classes; the ruling class; which does all or almost all the “ministry” and spends its time, for the most part, with each other or isolated and alone; and the laity-audience-tither class, which barely knows one another and has little or no idea about God’s true calling.

What about Balaam and Jezebel?  It’s fairly simple:

You can’t curse a people who are blessed by the Lord, but you can get them to corrupt and defile themselves; if you can make them biblically illiterate and get them to believe and “accept” certain things, like:

It’s OK to partake of the things the world partakes of.

It’s alright to have idols of all kinds as long as they’re not “literal” idols of wood and stone.

It’s fine to make the Church a user-friendly mixed multitude where we won’t preach truth because it may “offend” people.

That God is a God of “love”, not one of vengeance or awesome holiness.

If I invite one or two people to “Revival Week”, I’ve done my “job”.

God hasn’t provided a way for sinners to be saints; only a way for wretched sinners to get to heaven.

If we preach and “know” sound doctrine, the Lord is well-pleased.

On and on and on.

Finally, why am I doing this?  Why spend much time, energy and, in the near future, money, on writing these things; putting them out there; creating awareness and/or interest; and basically making myself a major nuisance, when I could be enjoying the beach or fishing or taking long walks in my old age?

Why?

Truthfully, I’m not sure, but here’s what I believe the Lord has planted in my heart:

Believers who have a desire to know, serve and follow the Lord are heading into major perilous times.  We’re going to need one another.  We will need each others love, encouragement, exhortation, fellowship, teachings and more.  We’ll need to start communicating and networking.

We must truly begin living out genuine biblical discipleship, in relatively small pockets throughout the world, demonstrating the realities of the gospel.  If this doesn’t happen, it’s all a bad joke.

We must pray and interceed as if the eternal destinies of multitudes are at stake, because they truly are.

We must be willing to stick our necks out and say very risky things to lots of people, believer and unbeliever, as well as risk looking like fools as we seek to do the works of Christ.  I can say from personal experience that I have seen the hand of God move through me and others, as we were willing to lay it out there and take risks, and that moving of His hand did not come right away.

I will close by reminding my readers of the words of Jesus in Matthew, chapter 10:

27 “Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. 28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. 32 Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.”

34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. 35 For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36 and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ 37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

Please leave comments; send emails; anything to help get us out of our isolation.