Shortly before the 2013 General Conference sessions, I posed this rhetorical question in reference to the credentials proposal that was about to be considered. Alluding to the proposal, with my emphasis, I asked:
Where in the New Testament plan are "provisional" "ministerial licenses" which are "renewable annually" "granted by apostolic teams of leaders who operate translocally"?The answer to the question, as far as the rhetorical question is concerned, is obvious. There is no place in the New Testament that this happens.
At the time I posed the question, I received one private, very cordial, open, well-composed, positive and constructive response from a member of the committee which produced the credentials proposal.
S/he wrote:
"...the denomination is not ready to grant anyone other than a regional vocations committee the authority to confer ordination.
...you and I both know that groups which have become very comfortable with institutional control will not make (a dramatic change) in one fell swoop.
...here we are, with a denomination we would like to see recover a more New Testament ethos and practice. I cannot speak for the rest of the credentialing team, but for me the current proposal is simply an attempt to take a step away from institution and toward New Testament.
I am okay with getting back to some New Testament things in "steps" because in my mind this equates to giving my more institutional brethren a little time to process the difference and open up to it (or as you might say, repent of the way they have done it in the past). However, sometimes the desire to only take small steps betrays an intent to never go all the way. We can have long discussions about what it means to "be New Testament", but the CGGC is either going to become a Body of leaders who desire that, or not, and only time will tell."And, I believe that this attitude to move toward obedience only at the rate the institutionalists will allow is--according to the teaching of Jesus--a gross sin.
It is the sin Jesus described when He said,
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sister, yes, even his own life cannot be my disciple." (emphasis mine)The taking of small steps toward obedience to the Lord is continued disobedience. It is unrighteousness. It is fruit of the lukewarmness the Laodicans practiced, which Jesus promised to punish--unless they'd repent.
As some know, for a time, I was a member of the committee that produced the credentials proposal. I withdrew from participation so that my last meeting with the committee was the last meeting prior to the Symposium held in March 2012.
My decision to leave the group came suddenly in the last few minutes of the last meeting I attended when I believe the Lord told me that the message he had for me to speak to the group had been spoken, that the committee would not accept the message and that His work for me on the committee, as a prophet, was finished.
I want to say that my friend, whose note I have quoted in part in this post, was the most receptive, of all the people on the committee, to the message I spoke--and that we are in very substantial agreement in our theologies of what the CGGC today calls "leadership."
Where my friend and I profoundly disagree is with his willingness to take baby steps according to what the institutionalists in the CGGC are willing to permit. I am afraid that he is making the CGGC institution, not Jesus, his lord.
There is no such thing in the Word as baby-stepping with the unrighteous toward repentance!
Read the stories of the lives of the OT prophets and the books that record their writings.
Read the stories of John the Baptist and of Jesus and of the Apostles.
The prophets, Jesus and the Apostles told God's people that
repentance must be instantaneous and complete.
In fact, the response of the unrighteous
who rejected the prophets, Jesus and the Apostles often was,
"Okay. But let us do it slowly. "
In the word, God NEVER accepted baby-stepped, partial righteousness.
who rejected the prophets, Jesus and the Apostles often was,
"Okay. But let us do it slowly. "
In the word, God NEVER accepted baby-stepped, partial righteousness.
His greatest command is that His people must love Him with ALL
their hearts, soul and strength.
Anything less than that is sin against the greatest of God's laws.
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According to the message of the Word, the righteous are to contrast themselves to, to stand against, to resist and to fight the unrighteous, particularly the unrighteous among the religious. As Matthew tells the gospel story, he has Jesus saying early on:
"...unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Mt. 5:20, ESV)It is spiritually perilous for a person attempting to be a follower of Jesus to define his/her own righteousness according to what the scribes and Pharisees of one's own day are, as my friend says, "ready" to do. See:
"...the denomination is not ready to grant anyone other than a regional vocations committee the authority to confer ordination,"with what religious institutionalists, such as scribes and Pharisees are comfortable with"
"...you and I both know that groups which have become very comfortable with institutional control will not make (a dramatic change) in one fell swoop."or with taking steps which institutionalists will be willing to take:
"I am okay with getting back to some New Testament things in "steps" because in my mind this equates to giving my more institutional brethren a little time to process the difference..."The biblical truth is a hard truth but it is vividly clear and undeniable. The behavior of the righteous must exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees. This is the biblical truth in the very words of Jesus.
This value that the church can repent and obey on to the extent that the institutional church will permit may be the most dangerous value that defines the CGGC today.
Jesus came to violently separate the righteous from the unrighteous such as institutionalists:
"His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (John the Baptist, Matthew 3:12)
"Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed." (Lk. 2:34-35)
34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn
“‘a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—'" (Jesus in Mt. 10)
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—'" (Jesus in Mt. 10)
27 Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’” 28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. 29 Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.” (Ex. 32)The story of the call of Isaiah in Isaiah 6, much in the CGGC conversation since General Conference, is the story of a prophet called, not to move forward at the pace the religious mainstream sanctioned, but to taunt it because of its unrighteousness until God's judgment against it was fulfilled.
Here's how Jeremiah described his call to be a prophet:
9 Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” (Jer. 1)The first word that I recall receiving from the Lord when I accepted His call to function as a prophet told me that I would have to behave in a way that defies the values of the shepherd dominated leadership culture, that I would have to act as the men and the women of the Bible acted and that, the way I behave will be more offensive that the hard messages I speak.
It is uncomfortable for me to say the things that I say to the people of the CGGC. But, I know this: How I do what I do is consistent with the attitude and actions of Moses and Isaiah and Jeremiah and John and the apostles and even, and especially, Jesus.
The universal testimony of the New Testament is that all of God's Law hangs on and is fulfilled in the commands to love the Lord with ALL one's heart, soul and strength and to love one's neighbor as one's self.
That is a 'highest common denominator' form of righteousness. The lowest common denominator form of righteousness so much in vogue in the CGGC today is sin! It is death!
Unless it is repented of, all who practice that form of righteousness will be judged.
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