The Death and Resurrection of the Church
I am pretty excited about this newest book. It is my longest one yet, coming in at 140 pages, and it contains some of the essential ideas about church which have formed my theology and practice regarding church.
The Satanic Church
I believe that in many ways, the church has adopted satanic values and goals. These goals were first offered to Jesus before He began His public ministry in Israel (read Luke 4), but Jesus saw through the temptation of the devil, and rejected the values and goals. Yet about 300 years later, the devil once again offered these values and goals to the church, and we gladly accepted them.
We believed that we could use the power, wealth, and prestige that came with the goals to help us accomplish God’s mission in the world.
We were wrong. Terribly wrong.
We cannot use the weapons of the enemy to defeat the enemy, for they answer only to him.
Yet we still try. For 1700 years we have been trying to use the gifts of Satan to accomplish the will of God on earth, but the more we try, the more enslaved we become. We cannot live like Jesus in this world when we have adopted the values and goals of Satan.
There is only one way out of this enslavement:
The Church Must Die
The fact that the church is called to die should not surprise us, for this also was the way of Jesus. Though He was not enslaved to the values of Satan as we are, He still showed us that the only way to move forward in God’s plan for the world is to go through death.
The church often wants to rise up to reveal light and life to the world, but without death there can be no resurrection. We cannot rise until we die.
So in this book I call on the church to die. To die to all the things the devil gave us 1700 years ago: power, position, and prominence.
Of course, even once we have died, resurrection does not immediately follow. Jesus was three days in the grave, and so too, the church will spend some time in death before it rises again.
There is one thing specifically the church can do while it waits for resurrection:
The Church Can Go to Hell
One of the great lies of the devil is that hell is only a place where some people go after they die. Many Christians have believed this lie, thereby allowing us to ignore the plight of millions of people all around us who are truly experiencing hell on earth. Many people experience hell every day, and we are oblivious to their pain and loneliness because we have Bible studies and prayer meetings to attend, or simply cannot be bothered.
So once the church dies to it’s own quest for power, position, and prominence in the world, and before we rise to new life and vibrancy in the Kingdom of God, we must seek out the hellish places on earth, and seek to show the love and mercy of God to people who are chained behind the gates of hell.
As we do this, a miracle will occur. As we seek to love and rescue those who are bound in prisons of sin, fear, addiction, and loneliness, one day we will look around us and realize that God has accomplished something great:
The Church Will Rise Again
The resurrection of the church takes place at the gates of hell. The resurrection of the church takes place only when we are living among the dead and dying. The resurrection of the church takes place only when we are loving and serving those whom nobody else loves or serves.
The miracle of the resurrection is that as long as it is sought, it cannot be found. But once it is given up, and we embrace the death and sickness all around us, it is then that God raises us up out of ashes, and allows His love and grace to flow through us into the darkness and gloom all around. It is then that we discover true freedom and joy. True life and light. True power and glory.
Death and Resurrection
This is a basic summary of the book. I hope I didn’t spoil the book for you…
If it sounds like a book you want to read, I will be sending out a free copy in just a few days, so make sure you have subscribed to the email newsletter!
And hey, would you Tweet and Like and +1 this post to let your friends and followers know about this free ebook offer as well? Thanks!
I am hoping it does because it’s a false/fake vision of God’s family. They are NOT church, just small little or big businesses charging dues for their services.
Interested in reading you book, how do I get one?
The true church is The Body of Christ, right?
R. Scott Paige, Free digital copies go out later this week to subscribers of my newsletter. Catherine Tomko, I am not really too negative on the institutional church in this book, but do think that those within that system could benefit from some of what is said within it. Steve Edwards, yep! That is true.