Finally! The Lord has laid this tasking on my heart for awhile now. But I have been clueless as to how to begin until now. You see, this is mostly an article on the positive side of the New Testament. However, I must also cry out with everything in me against these traditions of men as some of them are actually sin as there are a few of them that contradict some of the very commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. These are common practices today! This book is also about wonderful mysteries that have been for the most part hidden from our view as modern Christians today. For sure, I will allude to the traditions of men which clog the channel of God's blessings to us. But the main subject will be upon the riches of Christ! (If you'd rather see this book in the Adobe Acrobat version, click here.)

It was in my morning prayer today, while pray-reading Acts 17:23 which reads:   For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. 24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; ... As I pray-read these words, I began to weep! Ah!! Here is the romance of it all!! Now I see why this web site has had an appeal to many. I had not looked at the statistics for this site in awhile. I was surprised to see what traffic I've been getting. Believers today are hungry for "that something missing" due to the emptiness of present day Christianity and its empty forms.

This is somewhat similar to falling in love with a beautiful woman, not just because of her beauty but because of an unnamable mysteriousness which she keeps as an air about her. Finally she allows herself to be deeply known by one particular man, but always maintains the unknowable, the mysterious and further prospects of even more adventures in getting to know her. The wise woman will take this to heart and maintain this even after marriage. This is just one of the factors, of course, in keeping love alive in a marriage.

No matter how well you think you know the Lord, you have only barely scratched the surface!! He is still somewhat the UNKNOWN GOD to you!! This is why once you've gotten started on this pathway, its so easy to fall head over heels in love with Him! There are seasons of growth where He is revealed as so full of surprises!

You see, although I write about assembly life and the life of the living, breathing Body of Christ, I do realize and admit that I am unqualified and unworthy to write this book as true "church-life" or assembly life as I like to call it is extremely difficult to come by in this shallow age. Since my situation warrants that I must live so far away from those whom I would rather live right next to in daily fellowship, I am writing about things that I have only seen through a glass darkly from across a large room. So why would God pick me? Well, I guess it will have to be HIM! I do not know what to expect next!

1. The Gospel

For instance, let's talk about the subject of this introduction. Positive traditions! If you noticed the list of traditions of men on the left frame which I believe proceed from the source of the flesh, not out of the Spirit of Christ, you may come to the conclusion that I do not believe in tradition: period!! But if I did not then I would not believe in the Bible. In the Revelation of the Lost Keys I alluded to the matter of balance. If there is no outward practice as a wineskin to contain the inner treasure of His grace then we will never see much of a reservoir of the things of God, nor will the Lord have much of a testimony. He is so unbelievably rich in the riches of His grace, but upon this earth at present He is poor in the matter of His outshining testimony due to the condition of our experience of His riches.

It is in II Thessalonians 2 Paul alludes to the traditions of the envoys or sent ones. I avoid the word "apostles" as it is a Greek transliteration not a translation into the meaning of the Greek word "apostolos" in English. Here's the passage: "13 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: 14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. 16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, 17 Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work." (KJV) Whatever these traditions were that came from the Lord to these men to the new believers, its obvious, they led these believers in "belief of the truth and sanctification of the Spirit." One of Paul's traditions, obviously, is the proclamation of the gospel which he mentions over and over and over in his writings. It is THE GOSPEL that Paul had been called UNTO in his unique calling. So is this something other than the Lord Himself? No way! If you study carefully the 1st chapter of Galatians (Paul's 1st letter) it will be revealed that Paul's gospel was Christ! (+proclamation of Him through certain facts of His history: HISTORY= HIS + story)  It was not just the historical message of His death and resurrection, although that mention of His cross is an absolutely necessary mention.  (see I Cor. 15:1-3 for Paul's "dictionary" definition: AND yes, of course it is also a spoken message!) But when Paul opened his mouth, the Lord Jesus Christ proceeded forth! Would to God it were the same with every minister (or "so-called minister") of the so-called "gospel" today! Surely this (or HE!) is where the early disciples started! Where else CAN you start??

BUT .... there are still elements of what Paul taught those early Christians that I'm not sure of what it was. Just what did he teach those early saints that so imbibed them with Christ? What was it that brought them into such a vital relationship with the Lord Jesus and one another? THESE traditions are important!

Thank God that at least somewhat the true gospel is being preached today and that some are beginning in the Spirit. But the words of Paul in Galatians 3:3 are being fulfilled for the most part in the majority of God's children: "Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" Most of us were born again by the seed of the gospel in some form, but how do we continue on? I live in the wrong age which is surrounded and soaked dripping wet with the wrong practices and traditions so it's hard to guess what the traditions were in the 1st century exactly.  Well, I'm struggling to guess what the sent ones' traditions were, but I'll give it a shot.

In Frank Viola's book Rethinking the Wineskin (you have GOT to read this book if you haven't already), there is much insight on this subject as to the NT being the embodiment of the envoys' traditions and how that ALL of it - though some of it even is written down - is related to the very resurrection life of the Lord Jesus. Later in this chapter, I will relate some quotes from his book to relate this fact.

Although I do not believe in "sacerdotalism" which is mainly a Catholic doctrine, I do believe in the sacraments. Sacerdotalism is the belief that special grace is communicated through the sacraments. In other words, when some physical rite is performed, it conveys a dispensing of grace into your soul. This is false! The Bible says that grace is through Jesus Christ.

3. The Lord's Supper

Here's another physical rite or ceremony. It was the first Sent One Who enjoined this tradition upon all of His children. But still I would say "it" is not grace in itself, rather, it is the reality of breaking the true Bread of Life while breaking the physical bread and eating together that conveys to us the grace of God. The act of sharing the symbol of His body and His blood means we share HIM with one another. The aspect of TWO elements of unleavened bread and wine means that His blood was separated from His body. Add to this the fact that we eat and drink and it means that through His death, we not only have His life but it is Christ Himself Who enters us making us one with Himself and one loaf as part of a glorious offering to our Father.

I do have some experience with this reality as I was with a group of believers who met in a home and believed in the breaking of bread daily from house to house as a daily communion. So we broke bread and passed the cup of the vine around every day. At that time we had some heart searching going on. We also practiced David's words from Psalm 116:12&13: "12 What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me? 13 I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD." So we called upon His Name as we passed the cup. Surely we experienced grace and changed lives as a result!

Just recently I put an article by Kevin Paul Sherfey on my site called Feast and Famine: Concern Over the Lord's Supper and the article made me wish I had written more here on this subject. If you go to this link, you will surely learn much on the balance of this tradition for our spiritual benefit today. The blessings this can bring to your life in the remembrance of Christ's death for us and His Calvary love have been emphasized by the recent film: The Passion of Christ. Surely the Lord would have this to be brought before our view again and again. This was the last thing our Lord enjoined upon us before His death, so it must be of great spiritual value.

4. Working for a Living

OK, this may not seem very spiritual, but Paul thought it was so important, it became one of the reasons he worked for a living. As it is written in II Thess. 3:6-15: Now we enjoin you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw from every brother walking disorderly and not according to the instruction which he received from us. 7 For ye know yourselves how ye ought to imitate us, because we have not walked disorderly among you; 3:8 nor have we eaten bread from any one without cost; but in toil and hardship working night and day not to be chargeable to any one of you: 3:9 not that we have not the right, but that we might give ourselves as an example to you, in order to your imitating us. 3:10 For also when we were with you we enjoined you this, that if any man does not like to work, neither let him eat. 3:11 For we hear that [there are] some walking among you disorderly, not working at all, but busybodies. 3:12 Now such we enjoin and exhort in [the] Lord Jesus Christ, that working quietly they eat their own bread. 3:13 But *ye*, brethren, do not faint in well-doing. 3:14 But if any one obey not our word by the letter, mark that man, and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed of himself; 3:15 and do not esteem him as an enemy, but admonish [him] as a brother. If you check Philippians 2 Paul speaks of Christ as being a servant and this is the pattern for His life and we need to be conformed to this pattern. The real life of Jesus flowing within causes you to want to be productive. It is a matter of the heart.

This is where I will insert some quotes from Frank Viola's "Rethinking the Wineskin" as it seems the verses quoted above contain things that seemingly place one under a law or a certain set of rules, when in fact  the NT traditions have nothing to do with legalism, but rather, contain words of training to train the new creation DNA of the life of God within the believers. This life should be brimming over but unfortunately in today's religious situation it is not given the proper channels or environment to properly grow. As with any life ( for example, teaching and training a baby to walk, even though it is a normal life DNA development), the divine life also needs some training, feeding, resting, exercising, teaching  and structuring in order to grow in the way GOD intended for this life to grow and develop in order that Christ may have the preeminence in all things.

Legalistic people will continue to read the Bible and especially certain passages in the Bible according to their own legalistic mind set no matter what anyone says. But listen to this: "All life must have form. Life without form is sick and dies; it perishes because it cannot sustain itself. That is the way it is with all life, whether human, spiritual or botanical, for God in His creation is consistent." (This is Frank's quoting from "The Community of the King") Now, I agree with this statement EXCEPT that there is a difference with the life of GOD. It contains resurrection. It is not God's life as to itself or Himself that will suffer spiritual death, but quite possibly we will suffer in  our needy humanity for our deformities in this age and for our non-conformity to the flow and direction of the life of God within us as Christians. However even through all of this , you must remember that God's life is a resurrection life which is a difference from all other lives. But wouldn't you rather take the paths that keep you IN and ACCORDING to His eternal life as much as possible? Is not life, GOD's life, the wisest choice to make?

Frank also quotes Watchman Nee from the "Normal Christian Church Life" where he says "All spiritual truths, whether pertaining to the inner or outer life, are liable to be legalized. Everything that is of God - whether outward or inward - if in the Spirit is life, if in the letter it is death. So the question is not, Is it outward or inward? but, Is it in the Spirit or in the letter? "The letter killeth,  but the Spirit giveth life...'  "  After this Frank goes on to say "Apostolic tradition incarnates apostolic teaching. It gives shape to spiritual reality." Later in the chapter he brings us to the logical conclusion of today's traditions versus their traditions by saying: "The form of the church should always follow the function of the church. Yet the church's form should not be ignored. Correct form does not ensure nor guarantee life. But if a church possesses life, it will embrace those forms that will build up the Body..." In another place he says: " The truth lies here. Normative apostolic commands are binding for the modern church. But the normative apostolic practices are as well. By normative, I mean those practices that assume the following characteristics: 1) They were established by the apostles in all the primitive churches; 2) They are life-bound rather than culture-bound; 3) They contain a spiritual subtext." He goes on to say that such practices "carry prescriptive force. this means they reflect the unchanging nature of God Himself." (Rethinking the Wineskin, pg. 160) Frank doesn't go into any of the specific practices such as I go into here, but I think he did an excellent job in delving into the the very intrinsic nature of the envoys' traditions and why our present day burying of their traditions under a mountain of man-made ones is definitely detrimental to our spiritual health!
 

5. Prayer

Paul enjoins prayer through Timothy as being the FIRST practice that believers should be engaged in for the Mediatory purposes of our holy priesthood in I Tim. 2. The main subject of their prayer was to be the prosperity of the gospel so God could move in this manner. He then spoke of how women should be in the assembly.

All I know is: it is safe to follow Paul of Tarsus who said: "follow me as I follow Christ." And he put himself and his life as a pattern for all to follow in the book of I Timothy. There may be more traditions of the envoys than these five but since I did not live back then, I am not sure what they were. I don't believe anyone can be.  If we are really walking according to the Spirit we will automatically do the things above out of the springs of our innermost being springing up like a fountain without being told!  However Paul knew that young brothers, not too well developed yet in the life of Christ needed some traditions as a yardstick to follow. The main yardstick having been the life of Paul himself as he walked and lived Christ in their midst. If you are convicted by law, it is so you can through the law be brought to the cross NOT so you can live by it or under it. The Christian life has ONE rule according to Paul who said we must begin by the Spirit and continue by the Spirit and that rule is the new creation. ( For [in Christ Jesus] neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision; but new creation. 6:16 And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace upon them and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.  see Galatians 6:7-13 )You are not under law! But neither can you make it on your own! You have BEEN crucified with Him but must be brought to an acknowledgement of the fact as Paul was in Gal. 2:19: For *I*, through law, have died to law, that I may live to God. This is a window to how he practically experienced the power of Christ's resurrection. The NT commandments are real commandments. However, they are not something we are under even as John said in I John:   For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous. Emphasis mine See  I John 2:3-8 & ch. 5: 1-5. These are not rules to live BY. We live BY the Spirit but they are yardsticks to show us where we are and expose us as to whether we walk by the Spirit or by the flesh and to bring us to the Lord that we may buy the holy Spirit oil, which anointing John says we all have. we just need to take advantage of it.

"Do you really think that our Protestant and Catholic rituals can be clearly seen in the pages of the New Testament? What in this world or any other world do such boring traditions have to do with the organic divine DNA of the building up of this dear Bride of the Lamb of God??? Our present day concepts and sameness of over and over again ritualistic practices when seen in the light of God's goal are utterly ridiculous! YES. And stupid, too!!!! And I think you are finally getting it. There's a 95% chance or better in these 00's 10s or 20s of the 21st century that I am insulting you !!! That's right! I am probably insulting you!!! WAKE UP!!! To you of my generation I say as Jesus said to His generation: full well you make the Word of God of none effect by your traditions or to use Darby's translation as a direct quote: "making void the word of God by your traditional teaching which ye have delivered; and many such like things ye do." What a way to make friends and influence people! To amplify this thought His word spoken to their ways of doing things in the previous verses are: "washings of vessels and cups, and many other such like things ye do. 9 And he said to them, Well do ye set aside the commandment of God, that ye may observe what is delivered by yourselves [to keep]."

Now: did you notice He said "many such like things ye do"? Well if you read that passage (Mark 7:5-23), the "many such like things" phrase is used more than once. He starts out calling them hypocrites and later on after He left the crowd and went inside the house with His own disciples whom He loved more than His Own life He told them: "Are ye thus also unintelligent?" Another version translates: without understanding. Another one says, "are you also so dull". This is not a compliment to his own disciples even. Nor is it meant to be a compliment, so don't get your feelings hurt and quit reading just because you're not perfect! It's OK! If the shoe fits, you don't have to wear it! Half of this stuff (at least!) is not your fault. Can we help it that we were born twice in an environment that we couldn't help: twisted and literally soaked with the traditions of smelly Babylon? No, it is not your fault. But still I insult you because I choose to follow the faithful lover of us all Who insulted those of His generation."

To this I will add: if you go near someone from a fishing village who has been eating fish day in and day out for only three months (maybe less!) they will reek and smell like fish but will have been around it so much they are desensitized and do not smell. To those of you in these traditions: I must be honest: YOU STINK!!! You really need more than to be just washed, you need to soak in a bath! Go ahead. Jump in here!! The water is not really too hot! But again, listen to me: washing is not enough for your odor: you also need a change of diet!!!!!!!!

IAW with the above passage unity is also a result. Without the system it almost easy as pie to experience  united together by the joints and bands. From where? From the increase of God. Notice that there are different functions (NOT positions!) of joints bands and other kinds of members. But in a Body its not only OK to be different and STILL be one, its even normal and necessary! There is no such thing as true unity without respecting the wonderful marvelous differences between various brothers and their various gifts given by Our Wonderful Head Christ to our dear brothers and sisters!

The Increase of God

God increasing? THAT would be something new and strange in today's Christianity!! Exciting too! But what is it? It is us partaking of Christ's very nature and very life to the point that Christ GROWS WITHIN US!! Of course the more He increases, the more self decreases. Also this is not an individual matter as this passage was not even written to an individual. It works in the organism of His Body and if you try to get it alone, chances are it won't work.

2. Ordaining Ministers

Here is an aspect of the clergy laity system that seems to lay a "spiritual aura" upon some Christians but not upon others. As you'll see later the enemy Satan built upon this. This seems to have gotten started somewhere during the 3rd or 4th century and was taken from the worldly custom of appointing men to political office. The idea of a special minister, "the holy man of God" came form Augustine, Gregory of Nazianzus and Chrysostom.

Each One Part

We simply must come back to a holy priesthood where each one knows his responsibility to the Lord, one another and the world. IAW Eph. 4:16 ( from whom the whole body, fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply, according to [the] working in [its] measure of each one part, works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love. ) the Body increases with the love of Christ "through each one part" EACH one part? Oh! Where have we been? Of course we can't force these things - it must become a matter of life, not something we try to make happen. A good start would be to drop man-made traditions and maybe some of this stuff would almost automatically start happening just as a channel connected to water would flow out water if only it were unblocked and not stuffed with a bunch of junk!

Grow UP TO Him in All Things

All things? TO Him? Do we know what this means? I really think that today in this dark age the majority of Christians are lost and clueless as to what half of the NT means simply because they have no experience of it! And it's not usually their fault. It is because we have been surrounded by Babylonian practices and don't know any better. Still, it is  crying shame!

Fitted Together - connected

This is hard when you think there are special folks for "ministry" and its not ALL Christians who are priests. What is fitted together and connected mean? Would we really rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with those who weep? Would we really love one another AS ourselves? I'm getting convicted just writing about this! How we need this to be reality!

Speaking the Word of God

It's so easy to feel like you cannot speak in today's poor poor Christianity! The majority of Christians have been muzzled! The problem is when new babes in Christ get saved and receive grace, it is thwarted because sometimes there are things within them such as revelations and exhortations imparted to them by the Lord but because they have not "been ordained" the gift is frustrated and it not only stunts their function and growth but damages and neglects the other believers who should have received the feeding through their word. In I Cor 14 Paul encourages ALL to prophesy.

The Development of Certain Types of Gifts

How about Paul's mention of " them who exhort?" Hmmm, where is this guy today? If a gift of the Spirit is not used it grows dormant and this is why so many are dying on the vine. Too many feel that they cannot do anything unless they get "ordained into the ministry." And the definition of what that means is not even agreed upon and is made mysterious and out of reach to the "common brother" or laity as if being ordained gives you some kind of special grace.

3. The Priesthood

A Holy Priesthood

What is a priest? He was someone who would offer sacrifices to God on behalf of men and then return from God back to man with any feedback he received from the Lord. In other words, he was an intercessor or a go between. In the old covenant this relationship broke down but in the new covenant all Christians are priests automatically. So why does the Catholic church call only some believers priests? And other Christians? Do they offer sacrifices or do you have to be ordained first? It is interesting that priest is a far more acceptable NT term and mentioned more often in the NT than the term pastor and yet you can ask any Protestant believer if they think that the practice of the Catholic priest as far as his words, deeds and traditions is scriptural or non-scriptural and the answer will of course be no! But what about "pastor" ??? The KJV mentions the word once and the concept is hardly spoken of. But did you know that the original Protestant pastors were not called pastors at first? They were men who came to join Martin Luther and they were first called "Protestant priests!!!!!"

The origin of this practice? Some of it's origin of course points to Judaism and the fact that God ordained a special class of priests. But not only is this OT but if you study Exodus you will see that originally He ordained ALL the Jews to be priests but later ordained one tribe due to Israel's failure. The pagan origin stems to money and popularity due to Constantine and his edict of making the Christian clergy (called priests) tax exempt. Also well paid ..... also prestigious. This points to popularity. as a result it became a coveted position that many wished to obtain and of course the standards to obtain the position due to its prestige got higher and harder eventually through difficulty finally making one think twice as to whether it was desirable or not. Of course THAT was centuries later.

The actual first time that a special class called "priests" (applied to "bishops") amongst Christians was due to the influence of Cyprian of Carthage (200-258), who was before conversion another one of those pagan orators and philosophers. This group of people have done much damage to God's economy and ways during this age of grace since the coming of Christ.

However, if you look at I Peter 2:4-9 it is obvious that Christians have been designated by the Lord as a universal holy priesthood including all believers. There are no special classes denoted in this passage. This "go between" capability is not just each one of us but also all of us and is a corporate privilege which works better corporately! Wonderful!

Living Stones Built Together

Obviously the corporate priesthood is the way to build together us as living stones. who even knows today what the riches of being built into the house of God together entails. For one thing, when the building of the tabernacle was finished IAW (in accordance with) the blueprint given by God to Moses on the mount, there was quite a heavenly reaction to this obedience!!! God descended and filled that building with the cloud of His glory and no flesh could even stand up!! Uncrucified flesh could not enter! This is glorious!! Oh! For some of that blessedness today! How purifying and electrifyingly life giving that would be!!! This would be beyond revival because the actual NT covenant building is according to a different kind of glory than Moses had and does not fade away! I have experienced a little bit of this and I tell you this is something eternal and if you experience it you will never forget it and you will never be the same again. It will make a permanent change in your being.

To Whom Coming

This priesthood is a living of coming to Him. ONLY in this situation where believers are much together and praying according to Paul's tradition as handed down to Timothy etc. etc. does it come easy to come to the Original Precious Living Stone. The habit is formed much easier in this situation and becomes just like breathing.

Setting Forth Excellencies

This is the glory: God being expressed through His children. It is much more seen by believers than unbelievers but God will sometimes even shine into darkness. Wonderful light is mentioned here also. When you see in this light what you see becomes yours! You can not only enjoy it but be filled with it to overflowing and spill over like a cup running over as His testimony! "The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy."

4. Organization

Organization (a word not found in the New Testament) is an offshoot of the clergy-laity trunk. It seems as if almost all of these things are! This developed amongst God's people as a result of the influence of the political friendship of Rome through the Emperor Constantine. This hierarchical leadership style seemed to have developed through the centuries coming down to humanity through the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and the Romans.  Organization means to systematize things according to a set of rules like a machine making the Kingdom of God like a robot instead of an organism or a living breathing Body. After all, isn't that what Satan is really after? In the first century he attacked the Body of Christ (which is the only force that can actually defeat him) by distracting the members from the Head (this was done by law, philosophy, materialism, even good doctrines, gifts of the Spirit, and even our good works! In fact this was what took the believers hearts away from their first love for the Lord Jesus as He pointed out in His message to the Ephesians through John in Revelation ch. 2). So Satan successfully distracted the believers from Christ causing them to leave their first love and thus cut the Head off from the Body. Then he used the clergy-laity system to dysfunction the majority of the Body's members. After this, down through the ages he divided this dysfunctional Body into pieces through division. Christians today do not want to hear this! But we need to admit its true and we are in a mess before we can see what to do next! The cancer IS there, it goes deep and it needs to be cut out! Forget it! I have tried it! Do not try to change the organized church! It is beyond repair. I do not say that the people of God who are there are beyond repair but there needs to be a starting all over again and this is not clearly seen today. God's way of actual repair is to have a fresh beginning in accordance with His ways.

An organization needs a system and a system needs fuel and it is a high cost machine. When men left their first love as the Lord spoke to the 1st ecclesia in Revelation, there was the need for more labor in order to get the same outward "results." So the hired help began. this added to the need for "ministry professionals to do the job." It's flourishing development began with Constantine so the system was a Roman system as upon which most of the governments and organizations of the whole world are also based. Actually, this chain of command system with its hierarchical authority structure in the church today is not such a big hidden secret. Is not the Catholic Church called the Roman Catholic Church? And she is now a nation, a real nation on real territory! Of course this was the antitype of the tower of Babel in the OT. And what did God do to stop this building up? Division! He confused their tongues. So the denominational  divisions were not totally of Satan. (did you notice that word "national" in there?) God had His hand in it through the various developments (though He is obviously not the Author of many of the thoughts and doctrines exactly as taught). Even as He did in the OT, many developments serve their purpose to stop the big tower that was getting too big. And boy is the theology language confused today!

Men Given as Gifts

Eph. 4:8-13says: 4:8 Wherefore he says, Having ascended up on high, he has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men.  4:9 But that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 4:10 He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things;  4:11 and *he* has given some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers, 4:12 for the perfecting of the saints; with a view to [the] work of [the] ministry, with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ; 4:13 until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at [the] full-grown man, at [the] measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ;
This is one of things lost, not totally, but for the most part. Why? Because HE  the HEAD of the Body gave gifts to men. These gifts were not to rule OVER His people but to serve them and equipping them to "do the work of the ministry." WHO does the work of the ministry ??? Not the gifted gifts? NO! ALL of us Christians are to do it and those guys equip us to do it. WOW!!!!! Is that why "IT" is not getting done? (by the way "what" is the work of the ministry? Building up the Body!) Why am I getting on this point? BECAUSE THE ORGANISM AND LIVING IN THE ORGANISM (NOT THE ORGANIZATION) DEVELOPS THESE GIFTED GIFTS!! That is the Lord's way.

Ascension and Descension

I believe that the riches of Christ's Ascension and Descension can only be known in the true BODY relationship of His Organism. 1st He descended through incarnation bringing God into man and taking on flesh to be God's tabernacle. Then He descended through the death of the cross into hades cleansing all things and terminating the whole old creation including ALL of Adam and everything from Adam. Then He ascended in His resurrection and a man was born as God's Son bringing a man actually into God. He ascended further putting a man on God's throne! Then He descended as the Life Giving Spirit with the old man terminating - new man germinating and -one new man enthroning life of the God-Man as both inner Breath for our daily walk and life and outer Wind for our empowerment and service!! These are just some of the riches that are "to the ecclesia" according to Eph 1:19-21!!!! It is the experience of THIS Christ in His Body which develops the men who are the gifts for perfecting and equipping who are the various joints and bands of supply.

Unity of the Faith

I have seen children fighting with each other. Usually, it is when they are fussy because they have not been well fed! Not always, but do you see? When there is a supply in the Body causing happiness, fruit and growth there shall be less strife and division in the Body and the unity of the faith will be based on seeking the living Christ --- not pet doctrines!

Arriving at the Knowledge of the Son of God

This does not seem to be THE aim of Christians today but Paul said "that I might know Him!" When the true envoys and other gifts develop they will express Christ and perfect others to grow up into Christ and to gain His increase till He just overflows in expression out through His Body and exposingly puts His enemy to shame!! Of course this is not just mental knowledge but a personal intimate heart to heart knowledge that is not just personal and individual but corporate. Does anyone even know what I am talking about? Do I???

At a Full Grown Man

What is this? Or Who is this? Well since the Body according to Paul in I Cor 12:12 IS Christ and the Head of the Body is Christ, then the One new man consisting of Christ the Head and Christ (joined with us) as the Body is the One New Man. The "full grown man" is of course the absolute maturity of the development of His Life through all His members for His complete expression (until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at [the] full-grown man, at [the] measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ;). Then shall that which was spoken by Paul come to pass: "He that hath begun a good work in you shall perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." I believe he is talking about far more than we realize.

Increase of the Body

Do you begin to see what riches organization has hidden from our eyes? I am barely scratching the surface!!!! Paul says from whom the whole body, fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply, according to [the] working in [its] measure of each one part, works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love.  (Eph. 4:16) This means that the expression of Christ's life is expressed by love and a corporate living of love for one another will be the result. THIS would be the evangelization of the world!! Is this not what Jesus said? That the world would know the Father had sent Him because we had love for one another? This would not only result in the increase of the Body by doing all things from growing up into Christ in all things together but in the increase by adding more members to His Body. Christ expressing Himself through His Body is THE GREATEST EVANGELIST EARTH COULD EVER SEE!!!

One Anothering

Instead of clergy doing the ministering and Christians being distracted and separated by organizations the NT speaks much concerning "one another" .... take a minute here to consider the riches of the constant Body-life flowing of one anothering as presented in the rich pages of our wonderful new covenant and you will see that you have hardly experienced even 1% of the provisions God has provided for you in His plan for His people through His assembly. Take a look: I John 1:7: fellowship with one another , I John 3:11: love one another:, I Peter 4:10: as he has received a gift, ministering it to one another,   I Peter 5:5: bind on humility towards one another, I Thess. 5:11 Wherefore encourage one another, and build up each one the other, Col. 3:13 forbearing one another, and forgiving one another,  Eph. 5:21 submitting yourselves to one another in [the] fear of Christ. Heb. 10:24 and let us consider one another for provoking to love and good works; 10:25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the custom [is] with some; but encouraging [one another], and by so much the more as ye see the day drawing near. Rom. 12:10 as to brotherly love, kindly affectioned towards one another: as to honour, each taking the lead in paying it to the other: ; Rom. 15:7 Wherefore receive ye one another, according as the Christ also has received you to [the] glory of God. Rom. 14:13 Let us no longer therefore judge one another; but judge ye this rather, not to put a stumbling-block or a fall-trap before his brother. Rom. 15:14 But I am persuaded, my brethren, I myself also, concerning you, that yourselves also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.  These are just some of the texts concerning "one another."

5. Monasticism

The founding of Western Monasticism is attributed to St. Benedict of Nursia (c.480-c.547). It seems to have been influenced by the early Desert Fathers, as they were called who were famous for being hermits who would hang out with nobody but God. Now, there is a time to get alone with God and away from people. Jesus did this, but these "fathers" (bad term for hermits! It's kind of hard to be any kind of dad that way!) took this alone thing way too far. So you see: Monasticism is the result desire of some to feel special and came about as the result of the clergy-laity paradigm that there are "classes" in the sight of God and there are certain things you can "do" to "get" more grace from God.

Deep Things of God

There was something positive about monasticism in that it kept the community life of believers living in close proximity to each other for all that "one anothering" to take place. This is why some of these Catholics who lived in convents and monasteries found very deep intimacy with the Lord. This was one of the factors of the 1st century believers experiencing such depths of Christ. The problem was they kept too much isolation in their own cells. Also there were other negative factors making a big difference between them and the 1st century believers such as a set of rules to live by which had too much of the element of asceticism. Also, the theory that one had to "get away from it all and escape the world and live isolated from it" was a far cry from the 1st century reality of being the salt of the earth. There was another subtle problem as well: you were made to feel that you had to join this special class of believers and do their "celibacy thing", etc. ion order to "earn the privilege" of experiencing the deep things of God. By inference, to get into union with God or this deep experience was made harder and harder and something that could only happen to a few chosen ones after years of a set of mystical stages. The feeling was of course that the "depths" weren't for everybody. and that just isn't true.

There sure are tons of web sites on the vestal virgins these days! But its really nothing to get excited about. It may be hard to see how this ritual which was from a completely different non-Christian religion had anything to do with Christianity. But it became a factor of the convent/monastery thing later on in that the religious feeling and deception prevailed that if you tortured yourself with celibacy (not to mention whipping oneself, crawling on broken glass on your knees and other various self-tortures) you would somehow merit more love from God. What a bunch of nonsense! The origins of this celibacy thing in Catholicism had nothing to do in reality with sex, purity or holiness. It was money. Beginning in the 11th century with pope Gregory VII,  he started to push the idea because too many clergy were getting too rich and passing their heritage to the next generation, but the real issue was not marriage, it was the concubine related money and the scandals. The 5 or six popes before this guy had already been noting these things but this pope overreacted by not letting married priests say the Mass, etc. Of course the celibacy thing was not well embraced at first but tradition has a way of getting ingrained over time, does it not? In the same century they also tried to give out the idea that celibacy was of apostolic origin! Oh! By the way, the same pope also declared the pope to be the supreme power over all souls! In the 19th century this supreme power thing advanced to voting that the pope was infallible!! (Although there were two votes contrary and some of the Europeans did not agree.

The Freedom of Grace

In Galatians we learn that if we trust in any other gospel than Paul of Tarsus gospel we are accursed. Paul's gospel was that we are totally 100% FREE FROM LAW period!!!! PERIOD!!!!!!! How does that stack up with earning brownie buttons by burning instead of marrying? In Eph. 1:4   What? Too good to be true? But that's the nature of the good news of Christ! It really IS good news! When you believe in Jesus you are FREE! FREE INDEED! This does not mean God will not deal with you as sons and chasten you, train you etc. but the matter of forgiveness and salvation is settled FOREVER. To say that the blood of Jesus has not done this through faith is to put it back on your poor little weak works to "earn your own way to heaven." Well if that's your belief you might as well jump into hell if you're going to stubbornly persist on any righteousness in yourself as a foundation of acceptance with God.

7. Ranks

Was it not Christ Who said "it shall not be so among you??" I think we have forgotten this. Actually to be honest about what I REALLY think: I don't think many Christians have even realized our Lord's words on this subject. We are dull of hearing today. Wow! This is a strange thing when most of Christianity today is built on the practice of the lecture hall type paradigm of Christian meeting with a guy preaching endless boring sermons at you Sunday after Sunday. What? You weren't listening? Or was the preacher not willing to preach on this subject due to the nature of it? Hmmmm ... maybe he was afraid he'd lose his job.

It seems almost impossible today to get away from this chain of command system paradigm. It is in all governments, most business corporations, all military systems and for well over sixteen centuries it has been in nearly all expressions of the Christian faith. Jesus said "those who are esteemed to rule over the nations exercise lordship over them; and their great men exercise authority over them; 10:43 but it is not thus among you; but whosoever would be great among you, shall be your minister; ... Did you notice the word lordship? Or did you notice the word authority?  Wow! It is not supposed to be amongst us as Christians according to Jesus Christ!! But IT IS amongst almost all Christians today! 

Where did we get this? Again, if you'll check Ephesians ch. 1 and Colossians ch. 1, you will see a chain of command system of principalities, powers etc. amongst the angelic hosts of the spiritual realm. The origination of this chain of command system was God Himself. He invented this system for the benefit of the angels as it fits them well. However, this system was not made for man. According to Jesus Christ there is only one Lord and we are brothers. Human beings, as they were originally created, are family oriented. In a family there is only supposed to be one father and the children, although not totally equal in all things, are still on the same level. They are brothers and sisters. It was the fallen angels who imposed THEIR system on fallen mankind and because of the fall there is actually a Satanic element and seed implanted in humankind (excuse me but I have to tell you the truth) that actually goes along with this hierarchical chain of command system and some folks even like it (especially if they are in a higher ruling class!). But JESUS said "it shall not be so among you." But we are to call one another brethren.

Let me talk to you pastors for a minute. (Hek! You priests and rabbi's can get in on this too if you want to!) The Lord said in another passage to call no man Rabbi. Matthew 23:5-12 is this parallel passage speaking of these very things: (And all their works they do to be seen of men: for they make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders [of their garments], 23:6 and love the chief place in feasts and the first seats in the synagogues, 23:7 and salutations in the market-places, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. 23:8 But *ye*, be not ye called Rabbi; for one is your instructor, and all *ye* are brethren. 23:9 And call not [any one] your father upon the earth; for one is your Father, he who is in the heavens. 23:10 Neither be called instructors, for one is your instructor, the Christ. 23:11 But the greatest of you shall be your servant. 23:12 And whoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled, and whoever shall humble himself shall be exalted. ) OK, so why do you expect your fellow believers to call you "pastor"?? Some of you pastors even take pride in your congregation calling you pastor and SOME of you even get offended (!!!!) if a brother dares call you something else or forgets to pay you the proper (choke!!!! cough! cough!) "respect" due your highness's position! SHAME ON YOU!!!!!!!!!!! DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT WHEN YOU ARE THUSLY ADDRESSED, YOU ARE BEING PUT DOWN???!!!!!!!!! Of course, what I'm about to say only applies to you if you are born again and truly a Christian brother in the Lord Jesus Christ. When brothers who call each other "brother" and "sister" call you "pastor," they are calling you by a term not even half as wonderful as the term brother. And some of them are even intimidated by your presence and even feel they should ask the Lord to forgive them (!!!!) if they forget to call you "pastor" because you're to them the "holy grandiose pastor reverend" and they actually fear you! (again: shame, shame shame on you! You ought to be ashamed of yourselves: ALL OF YOU!!!!) I'm calling on all of you pharisaical hypocrites to repent!!! DON'T YOU KNOW YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD!!!!! YOU ARE HIS OFFSPRING!!!! CAN YOU GET ANY HEAVIER THAN THAT???? You have the very DNA and life of God Himself in you. You have his very life and nature and you could not be any higher or more loved by God than you are right now!!! Neither can you do a single thing to make yourself more accepted in the Beloved than you already are in Christ forever! And yet you would rather your fellow believers call you a "pastor" than a brother??? Let me ask you a serious question? Have you lost your marbles???

It seems to me that not even the "holy pastors" know who they really are in Jesus Christ! Much less the congregations who hear them preach. The content of most sermons is just too poor. Too lame. Obviously the system does not work. What have we been losing as a result?

Intimacy with the Lord

When Christians are made to feel they are secondhand citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven instead of who they really are it tends to distance them from the Lord. Even those of us (me too! yeah! I'm still affected by these things!) who are outside of the organized church are STILL being affected by condemnation from the past, feeling unworthy instead of boldly approaching the throne of grace, etc. etc. etc. ad infinitum. Paul wrote the following to the Christians of his day: Eph 1:3-6: God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ; 1:4 according as he has chosen us in him before [the] world's foundation, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love; 1:5 having marked us out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 1:6 to [the] praise of [the] glory of his grace, wherein he has taken us into favour in the Beloved:   ... but we don't think it true because we were told there are a better class of Christians than we are and we're not good enough! I really don't think there are very many people who know the extent of what I'm talking about or understand just how serious this is and how much damage has really been done!!!

Initiative to Go and Get It!! (with repentance!)

When Paul wrote the Corinthians back after they had taken action as an assembly against the man living in fornication, he was addressing a state that they lived in due to having realized they had power with God as His children and could even command evil spirits and use their authority in the Name of Christ to make things happen for righteousness sake. They found out they had the same authority as Paul!! (not OVER Paul and NOT UNDER Paul or even OVER the brother in fornication but it was authority concerning spiritual forces under the Headship of Christ which has been given the assemblies of God in Christ in heavenly places under His Lordship and movement of course, which they discovered) They had Christ in them as authority to do something about the situation in Corinth!

The state the Corinthians were in when Paul addressed them in II Corinthians was no longer a lethargically lazy state of mind! They were suddenly on fire!!!! They suddenly had NO lack of initiative. It was the rebuke of the Holy Spirit through Paul that produced this condition:   The Corinthians were surely ready for anything and were, thank God (thank Paul too for being obedient) more in love with the Lord Jesus than ever! Well, why not! They had just dealt with the serious leaven in their midst and had been cleansed from a debilitating leprous disease in their midst, which had been making them  like a dysfunctional family! This is exactly what most believers are like in their so called "church-life" today and of course it spills over into their family life. The strong antidote for dysfunctional families amongst the children of God today would be to destroy the ranking system amongst believers and bringing in this godly sorrow of true and healthy repentance!! Would to God that my poor brothers knew this!!!!! Here's the passage from II Cor. 7: 7:4 Great [is] my boldness towards you, great my exulting in respect of you; I am filled with encouragement; I overabound in joy under all our affliction.   ......   .......  7:9 Now I rejoice, not that ye have been grieved, but that ye have been grieved to repentance; for ye have been grieved according to God, that in nothing ye might be injured by us. 7:10 For grief according to God works repentance to salvation, never to be regretted; but the grief of the world works death. 7:11 For, behold, this same thing, your being grieved according to God, how much diligence it wrought in *you*, but [what] excusing [of yourselves], but [what] indignation, but [what] fear, but [what] ardent desire, but [what] zeal, but [what] vengeance: in every way ye have proved yourselves to be pure in the matter. 7:12 So then, if also I wrote to you, [it was] not for the sake of him that injured, nor for the sake of him that was injured, but for the sake of our diligent zeal for you being manifested to you before God.  The emphasis is mine. What riches of Christ are here, I'm afraid, most believers will never find in this generation. My brothers, be honest with me. Have the so-called revivals of the last two decades been of this "grieving repentance" type? No? How sad indeed. Some will never even have a clue. This is not exciting folks. Our very neighbors and even friends are perishing and dying right in front of our eyes and we are too blind, lazy and asleep to even care BECAUSE WE DO NOT THINK WE CAN DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT BECAUSE OF "RANKS". Do you see this? YOU CAN do something about it!!! Get up off your duff and get down upon your knees! You are the very offspring of God!! Have you been born again indeed? Yes? Then NO ONE except Jesus Christ has any higher rank than you do at this moment!!!!!

The Body's Members Functioning

I believe that this is not something we should try to make happen. The way so many are trying to get folks to exercise the gifts of the Spirit today have sometimes given it a bad name. However, it is in the Bible and it is real and I believe if the ranking among believers were done away with and agape love of I Cor 13 were restored due to a return to our first love, then we would automatically see the "manifestation of spirit" which God has already given "to each" start to operate normally and the Body build up itself in love. Paul said in I Cor. 12:4-7: there are distinctions of gifts, but the same Spirit; 12:5 and there are distinctions of services, and the same Lord; 12:6 and there are distinctions of operations, but the same God who operates all things in all. 12:7  But to each the manifestation of the Spirit is given for profit. This is said to be a reality given "to each." So why do just some folks stand up there in the pulpit while the rest sit there silently staring at the back of someone's head (or the ceiling maybe? ...or the back of their eyelids?)?

Would this be part of explaining the lack of love among believers today also? The love chapter I Cor. 13 is sandwiched between two chapters dealing with the operations, gifts and services of the manifestation of the Spirit. Can we be matured in His love without the reality of the Body of Christ as written about in I Cor. chs 12-14? I do not think so. The life of any person alive grows, is housed and is expressed through his or her body and Christ's Body is not some individualistic individual but consists of many members who are members one of another. Even our function is not real and just CANNOT BE without the other members.

The Operational Functionality of Christ's Headship

I will again point to the incident above. Paul said in I Cor. 5: 1 & 2: It is universally reported [that there is] fornication among you, and such fornication as [is] not even among the nations, so that one should have his father's wife. 5:2 And *ye* are puffed up, and ye have not rather mourned, in order that he that has done this deed might be taken away out of the midst of you.  Did you notice the term "puffed up?" How could they be puffed up instead of grieving? There is a parallel incident in the OT in Joshua that gives us much light on the subject. In Joshua 7 Israel was defeated sorely, and this was right after a marvelous triumph over the city of Jericho. When Joshua fell on His face he discovered that the Lord was VERY upset against the whole nation seemingly just because of one man's sin!! But you have to dig deeper into the reality of their relationship to Him during that time period to see into His heart at what He was really upset about.

There was no mention of ANY fellowship with Him about battling Ai!! Did Joshua even pray before the battle? I think that because they had had such a victory they also got "puffed up" and automatically thought they would win. So they did not even know what had been going on they were so far away from Jehovah's Headship. It seemed Joshua's "headship" didn't work very well, huh?!? AS a result they were totally unaware of the leprosy and sin in their midst. The result is always the dysfunctionality of defeat and death.

What a difference with the battle of Jericho! Joshua was in heavy fellowship with the Captain of the Host. This fellowship got extended to the elders, the army and even the whole nation of Israel so that all the people marched around Jericho as one man, as one body. The plan and direction came from the Captain Who was their Head of course. In chapter 7, the fellowship and the heads of households "coming forward" before Jehovah was not such a pleasant thing, however! BUT it wrought cleansing, restoration and victory following the judgment. The point is "Christ is the Head over every man" - so even in our individual life as well as corporate we must check with Him before we do ANYTHING to remain under the operation of His Headship. This sweet fellowship has a way of spreading to all the members but please remember that judgment is one of the rudimentary roots of fellowship with God. WE must approach the Lord through the blood of Jesus with an openness to His cleansing word and operation.

You see another incident later on in Joshua where they did not check with Jehovah. It was in Chapter 9 when the Gibeonites dressed up and pretended to be from a far country in order to make a pact with Israel and preserve their life. If they had consulted with the Lord before this pact, the Gibeonites should have been wiped out.

8. Dress Code
 

I believe that the tradition of "dressing up to go to church" began with Constantine who borrowed it from the pagan priesthood of his day. However, at that time the "Christian clergy" wore the "Roman Officials" garments to differentiate themselves from the laity. It was not till the 12th century clergy wore the "street clothes dressing up style." In Constantine's day the first beginnings of this may have started at the Council of Nicea which is also the place and time I believe Theology got started. No, theology is not a good thing either, which is a subject I will comment on later. Constantine favored the "church" so much so and became so friendly with it that he became a churchman himself - even a "officer in chief" in the church. So not only did he take off from the "uniform" thing of the priests of the idol temples but he "married the "church" with the state. From this the clergy uniform started to look like the political uniform because that's what it was. At the Nicea Council he arrived all decked out with gold, silver and etc. ... nice clothes man! Too nice. As a result the Christian priests followed suit (get my pun) and eventually there was more and more pressure even for common folks to conform to the dress standard in order to fit in. The origins of this kind of fad affecting church goers began in the late 18th century on the crest of the Industrial Revolution with the rise of the middle class in the mid 19th century. There are some churches where the bums, poor and downtrodden would never feel at home to even walk in the door. 

Family Oneness

Anything that can come in to take away from the family oneness is surely of the devil. The tendency of the influence of this trend is to go along with and promote classes amongst the children of God. Surely THIS is what worldliness is! Not lipstick and things like that. A clergyman in a coat and a tie is an intimidating thing, making some folks even afraid to talk to him because surely he is holier that they are and if they do talk to him they sure aren't going to tell him who they really are or what their problems are. Not unless it's reached a point of desperation. As a result this guy doesn't really know what's happening width "his" so-called people half the time. As a result of that he probably is not aware of the realities of life on planet earth head on. Not totally anyway. If he is acquainted with it he knows people aren't telling him very much. But does he know why????!!!???

In Colossians 3:10-11 it says and having put on the new, renewed into full knowledge according to [the] image of him that has created him; 3:11 wherein there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ [is] everything, and in all.   This is a wonderful example of family ties. I have seen this with those who live in a neighborhood and are in constant fellowship with one another. It is so sweet. Sweeter than any other family I have ever seen on this earth! NOT problem free mind you! Far from it. But the reality of the family of God is worth more than anything else. The main point of the verse above is that there are no classes, cultures, races, religiousness, non-religiousness or ranks after you become a new creation. But why is the reality of that not well evident? There may be many reasons but this is surely one of them. Surely this is why Paul said there is peace for those who live according to the rule of the new creation. This is not a written law/code type of rule, it is surely a rule or law likened unto the law of gravity. It is something out of the nature of the life form that you are. How we need to feed and exercise that which came out of our second birth! One of the biggest ear marks (birth marks? whatever you want to call it!) of the second birth is family togetherness and love for one another. Of course, if it were not necessary to take care of the new creation, nurture and encourage the believers in their new life, then books on loving one another like I John, etc. would not have to have been written. There IS the need for some kind of tradition and outward practice to develop and grow the inner life. But it had better be the traditions of the envoys, not that which proceeds from the minds and hearts of mere men.

Now, what does the formality of dressing up have to do with familial familiarity? Don't you see? That's just it. It squelches it. Even if there is any togetherness among those who dress up, the poor guy who can't dress up is going to feel left out.

9. Secret Vocabulary

I believe this started with Pagan idolatrous worship in the time of tower of Babel, but I may be wrong as to the time frame. This is why I will allow those like Frank Viola to study out these origins and go on to something else. Suffice it to say, since I have perused his book: this tradition seems to have many of it's roots through those who were before converting to Christ, pagan philosophers and orators, who were already used to the prestige, pay and honor of being set apart and above the others and as a result they brought their pagan philosophies and practices to mix with the things of God. One of the big names I will mention in this category is Justin Martyr, a Christian of notable spiritual weight in the second century. And THAT is just the problem. When the actual reality of the things of God get mixed with other elements, it starts to give not only creditability to whatever their practices and theories are but when you add the anointing of the Holy Spirit things that used to be addicting as entertainment for the world become even more addicting and distracting. However, of one thing I am certain: that these things began with pagan idolatrous worship and Constantine allowed it to spill over into the "Christendom" which he had created as a series of syncretisms. A syncretism is something that takes its elements form one thing and another thing and makes a totally new thing with it. Priests developed their special "incantations" within Catholicism and spoke them in Latin. Hundreds of years after there was no nation that spoke Latin as their regular language, the Catholic priests still used it in their church services. Why? Was it to intimidate us less than worthy "regular" Christians? Of course, from the council of Nicea, Constantine directed that there would be developed a Creed which was supposed to keep the unity between the various groups of Christians at that time. The actual result was a systemization of doctrines, taking verses from various parts of the Bible on certain subjects and grouping them together according to subject matter, adding a pinch of man's tradition and man's various philosophies and opinions: stir it up and WALA! There you have it! Theology! And boy! Was there ever divisions after that! Of course another development was various theological languages which again only intimidated (and oftentimes deceived) the common man. (which was easily done because for most of the centuries of time the majority were illiterate anyway.)

This, of course, gave more "power" and seeming authority to the clergy and put an even greater distancing between them and their parishioners because now they had the ability to speak way above the heads of their listeners so their listeners must be stupid and unworthy. But since when was closeness to God and pleasing God based on doctrine and how intellectual you are instead of matters of the heart? GOD looks upon the heart, not ANY kind of outward appearance. (of course let me qualify that: some folks appearances are such that sometimes it reveals a rotten, desperate and most sinful heart imaginable)

When the Catholic church could no longer keep the Bible from the common people, they still kept Latin for their " hocus pocus" chanting for what purpose? Who REALLY knows!?!!! May this be the reason many of these kinds of clergymen have fallen into gross sins in order to expose them as being nobody extraordinary at all? In recent years these kinds of things have come more and more out into the light of the media and the law.

Flowing Life of the Body

In Acts 20:20 Paul says "I held back nothing of what is profitable, so as not to announce [it] to you, and to teach you publicly and in every house," .... Hmmm! does this sound like someone who has a secret to keep or some secret language? It may be true that Paul could not reveal some of the things revealed to him when he was in the third heaven but that was because it was unlawful to reveal it. Also, it was not a thing he taught to ANYONE! There was not a select group to whom certain teachings were made to but not to certain other people. No such thing. Paul held back nothing unless it was not good for building up. As I spoke in my book The Revelation of the Lost Keys in chapter 26 concerning the life flow of the Body in that every member needed both inflow and outflow for the Body to be healthy. If there was a joint or part that did not give then the flow of blood would be cut off and there would be gangrene and death as a result. It would also be true if there was a member that did not receive the life flow. Where does this put God's people today? What about the first Envoy sent directly form the Father? Did He have secrets to keep that He only taught His chosen twelve? Not at all! Just before His death, our Lord solemnly testified to the High Priest in John 18:20 as follows: Jesus answered him, I spoke openly to the world; I taught always in [the] synagogue and in the temple, where all the Jews come together, and in secret I have spoken nothing.  He also did not hold anything back that was profitable. Jesus obviously did not believe in secrets or the hidden things of darkness that go with secrets! The same teaching is for everyone and should be spoken to everyone by everyone.

The Discourse

What a wonderful refreshing splash of cold water it would be if we got back to the discourse! There is not much discourse today because Christians are told to sit and be quiet and are made to feel intimidated by the clergy and not worthy to stand behind "the sacred desk."

Luke writes in Acts 20:7, And the first day of the week, we being assembled to break bread, Paul discoursed to them, about to depart on the morrow. And he prolonged the discourse till midnight.   This is not the same thing as a sermon. It is true that Paul may have been doing most of the speaking that night due to the fact of their need of the revelation of Jesus Christ resident in this brother, but there was a feed back, questions and answers and other insights shared that night. If it was just a lecture from one man, how can you imagine it lasting all night long?? Only true Christian back and forth fellowship of the unsearchable riches of Christ can go that kind of a distance! It will go for eternity!

10. The Modern Pastor

This tradition began with Martin Luther almost about 500 years ago. It has not been on this earth quite as long as some of the other traditions, but boy, has it become deep rooted in the hearts of men! It is an offshoot of the priesthood in Catholicism. Again, for the details please get a copy of Frank Viola's book: Pagan Christianity, but I'll summarize the short  version here. Martin Luther was protected by Frederick the Wise from being killed by the Catholics of his day as long as he received asylum in the section of Germany he was in. While there, many former Catholic priests who began to see the Christian faith Martin's way joined him there and being that they were used to "serving the Lord" in their clergy position and making a living at it, they wanted to continue to do so for their newly found Protestant faith. So began the new phenomenon of what was called, at first, the "Protestant Priests." Martin Luther, of course, changed some things about his new churches. He took down the Catholic altar and set up a pulpit instead and replaced the mass with a sermon, making the preaching of the word the center. He also changed the "seven pastoral duties" as originally laid out by Gregory the Great to another seven duties. Based on what scripture or incident in the book of Acts he did it on, I don't know, but it sure put too much emphasis on the ten talented member of Christ, giving no recognition to the one talented member of the Body of Christ. And it is precisely on this point that I wish to dwell. The deep root of this concept coming into the Kingdom of God stemmed from Ignatius in the first century who brought forward the idea of one "bishop" or overseer in a particular assembly having the "rule" over an assembly and even in some special way over the other "bishops." Of course, through history the term was not used much (the term "pastor" was used concerning the head bishop a very few times by Clement and on from the 2nd century, but not much, however, whatever term was used, this one man show was usually awarded the term because he was multitalented and outspokenly over functioning individual.) Until we restore the function of the one talented member of Christ once again, we will never see the reality of the living moving Body of our Lord Jesus Christ restored in this earth as a reality that will defeat Satan and put him to shame. THIS one new man is the ONLY weapon that makes Satan tremble in his boots.

Distinctions of Gifts, Services and Operations

Oftentimes, in the setting of the Protestant Church, the people sometimes follow their pastor, depending on how persuasive he is or how much influence he really exerts upon them. Sometimes they even take on his characteristics. When I was growing up there was a church near me called the Apostolic Church of prophesy. Now I never visited it and cannot vouch for this personally but I heard that the people there were into prophecy and practiced it quite much. Now if there is any gift that the majority of Christians should desire, it should be the gift of prophecy, but many Christian groups think that prophecy means somebody stands up and God speaks through them and they speak and say: "thus saith the Lord ..." etc. Many groups also think that prophecy must be about prophesying concerning future events. But if you'll read I Cor. 14 carefully, you will see that there is more of the element of comforting and building others up than to foretell future events.

My point, however, has nothing to with any of those things. My point is  that too many times,  because of the influence of the pastoral tradition, you have "church" of eyes on one corner (many associate the gift of prophecy with being a "seer" and associate that gift with the "eyes" of the Body, so I use this term first). Then there is the Pentecostal church of the tongues on another corner. Then there might be those who believe in silence and listening to the Lord and so you have a bunch of ears meeting together in another church building somewhere else. And folks oftentimes do what they do, speak and practice what they practice because of who it is that leads them from the pulpit. So you have a bunch of tongues in one place, a bunch of eyes in another and a bunch of smelly dead feet in another place (this place obviously is led by an evangelistic type pastor who is trying to fulfill "how beautiful are the feet of them that spread good tidings" and so leads his people into constant evangelism and may even take them out in the street to do street preaching, etc.).

The question is: is this what the Body of Jesus Christ is supposed to look like? Is this really the life of God actually being expressed through the members of His very Own Body? Do you, my reader, even have any kind of revelation at all as to what (really Who!) the Body of Christ is????? Much less experiencing the reality of His Body on this earth. One thing is VERY important to be said here. So I must doubly stress it: THE UNITY AND ONENESS OF THE BODY MUST BE OF MANY DIFFERENT MEMBERS WITH MANY VERY DIFFERENT AND DISTINCT GIFTS, SERVICES AND OPERATIONS IN ORDER TO EXPERIENCE THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST IN THE ONE SPIRIT. THERE IS ONLY ONE SPIRIT, ONLY ONE LORD, ONLY ONE GOD AND WITHOUT DISTINCTION THERE CANNOT BE TRUE ONENESS!!! All I have just done was to repeat Paul's words in I Cor. 12:4-7: But there are distinctions of gifts, but the same Spirit; 12:5 and there are distinctions of services, and the same Lord; 12:6 and there are distinctions of operations, but the same God who operates all things in all.12:7 But to each the manifestation of the Spirit is given for profit.  How can all these things possibly co-exist in a situation where people sit silently in their pews and the only folks who operate their gifts is the pastor or the pastoral staff???? Just HOW MUCH grace, service and operating of the Triune God have we been missing out on as a result??? Even if you meet the right way in a "home assembly" and not like this, you are still missing the function of so many members of Christ who are dormantly dysfunctional these days. It HURTS you whether you know it or not. How much more does it hurt the Head of the Body. In Himself in the heavens He is fine but upon earth He is an invalid (Lord forgive me this term!) Who can do very little because He has chosen to limit Himself to work in and through His people, His Body. In Himself as the Trinity He is unsearchably rich in glory and grace, but as to His people and the outshining of His testimony, He is very poor. IT IS NOT HIS FAULT, IT IS OURS!! Why? Because we hold on to the traditions of men.

If you are a "pastor" and you are reading this book, you can no longer be one and be guiltless. You are sinning if you continue to usurp God's Kingship over His people and you must repent and QUIT BEING A PASTOR!!!! There is no longer any excuse for this. There is too much light pouring in upon the Body of Christ at this time for any excuses to remain. Yes, it's true, books like this one and Pagan Christianity are not as well known as they ought to be and yes, if there are pastors out there in the dark who have never heard of these things, they will surely not be held as accountable as you. Yes, I admit, there is still too much darkness at this present time. But YOU????!????? After reading this? I think not! You will stand before God and give an account of what you have done in accordance with what you know to do. I am not trying to discourage you from reading further and getting more light, rather, I would admonish you, dear brother, in the name of God's true mercy (which is married to repentance!!) to read on and get as enlightened as possible as to the truth and become as obedient as possible to the truth. (according to His grace and freedom of course) Now, although I do not believe you are going to hell if you continue to be a pastor, if you don't change your course now, you will experience a shadow between you and your Lord. Not to mention, you will have to answer Him for your decision in the day of judgment.  

Because on the one hand, the pastor loves to get the attention of all eyes on stage, and many of the lazy parishioners like to sit, be lazy and not have much function, responsibility or service (thank God, not all Christians feel this way), we are in a situation where there is a lack of grace flowing due to the fact that many of the distinct services of the One Lord are rejected and/or discouraged putting a damper and smokescreen on the inner workings of the Lordship and Headship of Christ, out from Whom "the whole body, fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply, according to [the] working in [its] measure of each one part, works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love." (Eph. 4:16) AS a result of this lacking of true God given services there are too many unmet needs (more than there ought to be) in the family of God today. This causes many churches to multiply various artificial "programs" to meet the unmet needs. Also, because the giftings of the one-talented members are brushed aside as being not important, the channel of the Holy Spirit's work through various members of the Body is clogged up and so there is a lack of the flowing of the One Spirit through the "distinction of gifts" and in many (most cases, don't kid yourself) cases this not only brings sickness to the Body but actual death so that for the majority of Christians in this dark age today there is no reality of the Body of Christ at all (much less a revelation of that which they have never seen, thought or even heard of). This causes at the very least a very dysfunctional situation where there are needs and cries surrounding us almost screaming at us but going unnoticed because of the apathy and deadly insensitivity that exists in the church today. 

Is it any wonder that there is so much division and lack of love? We need to see THAT THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS THE CORPORATE LIFE OF HIS BODY AND NOT INDIVIDUAL AND THAT THE INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN LIFE DOES NOT WORK !!  There cannot be growth, feeding and watering to you as a mere individual when you are a member!  You are a MEMBER!  Paul also said there there are distinct operations but only One God. God would love to operate on this sickness but if His children reject His operating because there are different operations with which they are not familiar our sickness will remain. Paul did not say in I Cor. 14 that we should reject these things. Rather he said to TEST them AFTER we listen. We need to judge all things. But how can Christians judge what various brothers (or sometimes even false brothers) have to say if the so -called "pastor" does all the judging for you and nobody gets to stand up and say anything anyways because the ushers will boot him out? I know of some cases where the pastor told his congregation they should not even listen to the radio to other preachers because they were not qualified to judge what the preachers were saying and they might get deceived and led astray.  Hmmmm ... do you think this pastor was walking according to fear or what? Are only the clergy smart enough to discern between truth and error or are there those who have words of wisdom and discernment of spirits, etc., who are sitting dormant and silent in the pews? And because that is a fact, both congregations and their pastors are afraid of the " outside world" (which they are already a part of, I'm reluctant to say) and walk in fear of the wolves of heresy. This is a far cry from what Paul told his fellow believers in Corinth, who were such blockheads it seems there has never been a worse bunch! (boy do we have a lot to learn!) Paul wrote to these young believers and said: Dare any one of you, having a matter against another, prosecute his suit before the unjust, and not before the saints? 6:2 Do ye not then know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world is judged by you, are ye unworthy of [the] smallest judgments? 6:3 Do ye not know that we shall judge angels? and not then matters of this life? 6:4 If then ye have judgments as to things of this life, set those [to judge] who are little esteemed in the assembly. 6:5 I speak to you [to put you] to shame. Thus there is not a wise person among you, not even one, who shall be able to decide between his brethren! 6:6 But brother prosecutes his suit with brother, and that before unbelievers. 6:7 Already indeed then it is altogether a fault in you that ye have suits between yourselves. Why do ye not rather suffer wrong? why are ye not rather defrauded? 6:8 But *ye* do wrong, and defraud, and this [your] brethren. (I Cor. 6:1-8)
 ..... next, I will try to unveil such unsearchable riches of grace which already have been given to us, but have been hidden from our eyes, hearts and lives because of the awful fact of the mere existence of the traditional practice of the so-called "pastor."

The Eye, the Light of the Body

I will use the illustration of "the eye" to speak of the prophetic giftings in Christ's Body. I do this because the OT mentions the word "seer" as being the prophet in that era and although the age and function of the prophet has changed in NT times, the word "eye" is understood by many to refer to those who have this gift.

No wonder there is so much fear of deception today! Prophecy was supposed to have judges! It cannot work without the body for it is the light of the body. What is the eye without being connected to a body? Something terrifying! I too, reject any prophetic element or person who is not in the proper situation and relationship of true Body Life. But not without listening to them first and intelligently tearing their words apart in accordance with the scriptures. Anyone out there who agrees with the traditions of men is already deceived to begin with and is going to have to say many things in their prophetic utterance that are mixed and muddy wood , hay and stubble underneath the veil of their religious biased and false paradigm. God can only use what vessels He has available to speak, but there needs to be what Paul said there needed to be: "let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. 14:30 But if there be a revelation to another sitting [there], let the first be silent. 14:31 For ye can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all be encouraged. " (I Cor. 14:29-31) In this same passage in verse 3 Paul said: Now I desire that ye should all speak with tongues, but rather that ye should prophesy. But greater is he that prophesies than he that speaks with tongues, unless he interpret, that the assembly may receive edification. Here he wanted all the believers to speak with tongues, but even more wished all of them to function in prophecy. So there were to be many prophets in any one assembly. But it seems the majority were to be not so much the speakers as the judges! In the same Body there were those who had the discernment of spirits just in case someone spoke from the source of the "other guy" instead of the Holy Spirit. So, it was not just the content that was to be judged, it was the source by which a brother spoke.

Let me add a personal word here. There is probably no such thing as a "pure" prophecy. The judgment of others does not necessarily mean there must be people in the assembly that are waiting to jump all over you and tear you from limb to limb just as soon as you dare to open your mouth! Far from it! In fact there may be times when you speak wrongly but there will still in some cases be no need for anyone to say anything. You see, I have been in true Body life. And the REAL Headship of the Lord Jesus operates in that situation (sorry pastor! you are fired!!! There is NO need for YOU: its' better and higher for you to be a brother!!). Many times I have stood up to prophecy and in some of the most astoundingly edifying and anointed prophesying I have ever spoken, there was STILL the element of the flesh. And as the Spirit went through me, He was sure to let me know that He did not get out through my mouth and being in such a way that He would have desired to! It may not have even been that there was anything false in what I said. But in the NT age God works together with, in and through man. This is healthy! If you will let Him work through you, you will find the operation of His Spirit upon you negating your natural, self-centered, fleshly man and building up, nourishing, watering and strengthening the new man. In the Life-giving Spirit today in this NT age there is added the humanity of Jesus. There is the killing element of His death to kill the germs of our natural man. There is also the life-giving element of His resurrection to revive and renew our inner man according to His likeness. In this operating Spirit you will also find sanctification, transformation and even the conforming work to conform us to the exact same image of God's Firstborn Son!

I remember one incident in particular (how could I ever forget it!). After the meeting I was even commended by some brothers in that they were built up quite much and nourished by the Spirit through my speaking that morning. But, OH! Was I ever judged that morning! It seemed as if the brass feet of the Son of Man were stomping upon my chest in judgment. It seemed as if He would step on one part of what I said and say: "that was just your flesh!" ... "and that was your pride!" "this part was wood" and "that part was just stubble." Of course it left me wondering whether even 20% was of the Spirit! Of course, this was one of the most healthiest things that has ever happened to me. But I do not think (I hope) that any of it was false doctrine. Anyway, this was all going on without any brother saying even one word to me about it! In the Body situation, the Headship of Christ really works! There have been other times of course when I was electrifyingly enlivened and blessed for the most part during and after speaking in the assembly. Do not forget: death proceeds resurrection and resurrection must follow death. This will change you, no doubt about it.

The eye, of course, is a member, adjacent to the head. some would feel it to be an important member in authority over others. This is not so! It needs to be the most judged member of the body! Jesus said if your eye be single, the whole body would be full of light. He also said " if your eye offends you, gouge it out and throw it away!" It can be VERY OFFENSIVE! Usually these persons are not only hard on others, they are even harder on themselves, being that they are so close to the Head.

The Ears
 

What is this member? I don't really know. Maybe this is like Mary was, who sat at the feet of Jesus hearing His word. If so, we ought to be attuned to this member of the Body especially as it was Jesus Who said of her "only one thing is needful; she has chosen the better part." So loving Him, hearing Christ and following Him is  THE NEED of the Body. This is the one thing and we do well to pay ALL our attention to this.

Is there the need also for this member to be judged? You had better believe it! It was the Father Who spoke to ears of the disciples after Peter expressed the desire to  tabernacle with the Old Testament ancients on the mount of transfiguration and said: "THIS is My Beloved Son. Hear ye HIM." Then when Jesus laid His right hand upon them they looked up and saw no man: Jesus only. You can see that after the ears of the disciple were hearing the Father directing them to Christ, that then their eyes only beheld Him. It was Jesus only. The law (Moses) and the prophets (Elijah) were no longer in view. Christ has replaced these old things. He is the prophetic element in the one new man. He is the regulating element according to the inner law of life according to the divine nature within us also.

It is true that Paul said And if the ear say, Because I am not an eye I am not of the body, is it on account of this not indeed of the body? 12:17 If the whole body [were] an eye, where the hearing? if all hearing, where the smelling? 12:18 But now God has set the members, each one of them in the body, according as it has pleased [him]. 12:19 But if all were one member, where the body? (I Cor. 12:16-19)