GOD’s Present Intentions | The Church As A Window

 

Does God have any good news for now—for the present? Yes! His good news is not only for the future. Think of how He taught His disciples to pray: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10). On earth as it is in heaven! We may have recited this prayer so often that it has become meaningless. But it is not meaningless—it is powerful!

Where is God’s will done? According to the Lord’s Prayer, it is done in heaven. But Jesus taught us to pray that God’s will would be done on earth as it is done in heaven. God has intentions that His will be done, in the present, on earth. What would happen if God’s will were done on earth as it is done in heaven? What would happen if God’s will were done in your community or in your nation as it is in heaven?  Earth would be very much like heaven! (Of course, God’s will is done perfectly in heaven; on earth, in the present, it is only done incompletely.)

Knowing God’s Intentions and His Will

What are some general aspects of God’s will for the present? 

• In John 14:13 we see that, if we love God, we obey Him. God’s will is that we do His will! 
• Matthew 28:18-20 affirms that doing His will includes discipling others to obey His will, too.

Often, people remember only one part of the charge that Jesus gave to His church in the Great Commission—to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. But that is not the whole task. It is just the beginning of the task. After people have come to Christ, we are to disciple them to do God’s will. If we have not done that, we have not finished the Great Commission’s task.  We must also disciple others to obey all that God has commanded. 

How do we know God’s intentions—His will? We do not instinctively know His will, yet we have often even made knowing His will overly complex.  We need revelation from His Word and His Spirit for what it means to do His will. 

• Psalms 119:99-100 reminds us to meditate on and obey His Word. 
• Proverbs 2:1-5 urges us to accept God’s Word to know His will. 
• John 16:13 affirms that it is the Holy Spirit who guides us into all truth.

Abraham’s chief servant provides an excellent model for us.  He made an oath with Abraham to go back to Abraham’s country to get a wife for Isaac.  He left for his journey and as he was going, the Lord led him.  He had no idea what to do and how to find a wife that would agree to return to a foreign land.   So, as he was going, he continued to seek the Lord and each step of the way, the Lord faithfully led him and the servant followed (Gen 24:48).  There are some simple truths for us to learn from in this example:  Be on a journey, seek the Lord as you are going, listen to Him and obey what He shows you to do.  It is of little use to seek to know God’s will if we are not already on the journey of obeying what you already understand of His intentions.

Do all Christians in our community find God’s will this way—searching Scripture, guided by the Spirit and obeying what they understand of what He is showing them? What would happen if all who claim to be Christians in our community would seek to know God’s will as they make decisions about how they are to live and would then obey what their Father told them to do?

God’s Intentions for the Present

What does God tell us in His Word that He wants us to do in our personal lives? Many things! 

• Acts 14:22 urges us to endure hardships. 
• Ephesians 5:17-20 exhorts us to be sober and Spirit-filled—singing and thankful. 
• 1 Thessalonians 4:3 and 11 tell us to live holy, pure, productive lives. 

Do all who call themselves Christians in our community endure hardship? Are they sober and Spirit-filled, singing and thankful? Are they living holy and pure and productive lives? 

What are God’s intentions for our families? 

• In Ephesians 5:21, we are told to be submissive and respectful of one another. 
• Ephesians 6:4 tells us to train our children in holy living. 

What are God’s intentions for our relationships with our brothers and sisters? 

• In John 13:34, we are told to love each other, and 
• John 17:20-23 instructs us to live in unity. 

What would happen if all the Christians in our community sought to know God’s will and live as He commands? What if we all lived holy, pure, productive, respectful lives in our personal lives and families? What if we were united in our relationships with other believers? There would be a revolution! 

What are God’s intentions for our present relationships to the needy of the world? 

• In Romans 13:9, we are commanded to love our neighbors. 
• In James 1:27, we learn we are to care for widows and orphans. 
• In Jeremiah 22:3, 15, and 16, we learn that God expects us to advocate for those in need. 

What are God’s intentions for our relationships to employers, servants, government, and enemies? 

• Colossians 4:1 tells us to be fair to those under our authority. 
• 1 Peter 2:13-15 commands us to respect those in authority over us. 
• Romans 13:1 also exhorts us to submit to those in authority. 
• Luke 6:27, 35, and 36 instruct us to love our enemies and bless them. 

Do all Christians in our community live according to God’s will in these ways? What would happen if, at 9 o’clock next Monday morning, all of those who call themselves Christians would begin to live this way? It would be more than a revolution—it would be a revival! People would be drawn to God.

The impact of our obedience goes far beyond our own relationships with the Lord. We use this drawing to illustrate the significance of our obedience to God’s intentions for the present and the future. We are being watched—not only by God, but also by the broken people of the world. As we obey God, we demonstrate His love and concern for them in the present as well as in the future. This is the way it should be! When the broken people of our community look at us, they should be able see God’s good intentions for both the present and the future.

 

They should see not only His good intentions for the future—the saving grace of God and rescue from eternal death. They should also see the great good news that God has for them NOW. They should see this, but they often cannot. Why? There is a wall that obstructs their vision. This wall is the wall of sin. We like to believe that it is the sin of the world that keeps the broken people in our communities from seeing God’s purposes. No, it is not only the sin of the world—it is our sin and disobedience. It is our unwillingness to live the way God calls us to live in the present representing God’s purposes to the broken world around us.  “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us” (II Corinthians 5:20).

If you were God, what would you do to that wall? People often say that they would knock the wall down and destroy it! Be careful about that answer, since we are also talking about ourselves! Also, we know from Scripture that, until Jesus returns, sin is not going to be completely removed from the world. Instead, God has done something else with the wall of sin that keeps the world from seeing God’s good intentions. He has put a window in the wall! That window is the Church—the Church of Jesus Christ. God intends, as the broken people of our community look through the window of His Church, that they will see His good news for the present and the future.

The Church as a Window

We use a four-paned window illustration in this lesson. Each pane represents one of the four areas in which Jesus grew—“Wisdom,” “Physical,” “Spiritual,” and “Social.” Because Jesus grew in these four ways, let’s think of them as four areas of God’s concern for human healing and growth. The church is the window through which broken people see God’s good intentions in all of these areas. What do some churches do with this window?

 

• Some churches look at the pane marked “Physical” and say, “We don’t do physical ministry! We leave that to the government and welfare agencies.” When this happens, the window pane is darkened. The broken people of our community cannot see God’s concern for physical needs through the window of the Church.

• Another pane represents God’s intentions for healing of all kinds of social brokenness. Some churches might say: “This is not our mandate. We are not engaged in social work!” The window pane becomes darkened, and broken people cannot observe God’s intentions for social healing through the Church.

• Another pane represents wisdom. Churches might say, “We are engaged in wisdom—but only for people in the Church. They must come into the Church before they can learn God’s wisdom.” When that happens, this pane is darkened. People outside the Church cannot see God’s intentions for their growth in wisdom.

• The final part of the window is the spiritual pane. Churches might say: “Yes! We are called to proclaim the spiritual good news!” When the broken people of the community look through the window of the Church, then, what is the only thing they see if the physical, social, and wisdom panes are darkened? They only see God’s spiritual intentions. The spiritual area is of enormous present and future importance, but broken people may not know this. They may be like Juan, the young man Rudy encountered in a squatter slum of Lima, Peru.  He tore up and swallowed the tract Rudy offered him—to make a point. He was saying, “I’m not interested in spiritual good news for the future. I’m hungry now! Does your God have any concern for me as a hungry, unemployed man—now?”

 

Our churches need to clean their windows! Broken people need to see through all the panes. God wants Juan, and all of his brothers and sisters who are broken, to be able to look through the window of the Church and see God’s good intentions for them in all areas of God’s concern—physical, spiritual, social, and wisdom.

There was an informal survey on a downtown street in the U.S. many people were asked, “If you were facing a major crisis in your life, where would you turn for help?” No one thought to mention the Church! People do not know the Church as the Church that Jesus intended. If your church closed up tomorrow, would your community care?   Would they even notice?

A few years ago, Bob Moffitt was teaching church leaders on the Muslim-dominated island of Mindanoa in the Philippines. Tension between Muslims and non-Muslims was high. The last day of the conference, ten people dressed in Muslim attire came into the church where they met. A hush fell over the audience. The organizers of the conference discovered that these were new Christian converts, delayed four days at military checkpoints on their way to the conference. They told their story. For many years, Christians had come to their village, preaching and handing out tracts. The village people rejected the message. Recently, a group of people had come to the village simply to minister lovingly to needs of the people. Only later did the village people discover that these caring people were Christians. The impact of this ministry was so powerful that these villagers came to Christ. The words of the last speaker, a teenage girl, are words of wisdom to us. Christians had come to her village doing traditional evangelism for years, but only when the Gospel came wrapped in love and good works did it reap a harvest. She concluded with an unforgettable question: “What took you so long?” 

Pictures of the Church

What takes us so long? It is our sin and disobedience. God’s plan for His Church is great! There are a number of metaphors that Paul, Jesus, and Peter used to describe the Church. (A metaphor is a word picture.)

• The Church is a priest. Israel was to be a priest to the nations, and the Church today is like God intended Israel to be in the OT. We are to be a priest to the people outside the Church. As they look, they should see us obeying God’s will and thereby representing who He is.
• The Church is salt and light. We often ask groups of people: “Do you like salt?” Almost everyone does! Then we say, “I’d like to give you an experiment. When you have your next meal, take a large spoonful of salt and eat it.” Their faces immediately react! “You don’t like that? I thought you said you like salt! Oh, you like it, but you don’t like it so concentrated! You want it sprinkled around!”  Our churches are often like a spoonful of salt—too concentrated. God says, “Get out of the spoon! Go into the community. Sprinkle yourselves out there!”
• The Church is an embassy of the Kingdom of God. Jesus sent His disciples out as ambassadors, so our churches are embassies. Embassies, as we know, represent the intentions of the government they represent. We must represent the intentions of the Kingdom to which we belong.
• The Church is a letter. Paul wrote that we are like open letters, read by all. Sometimes, it is hard for people to read God’s letter when they see our lives. We need to be a legible letter that demonstrates God’s good news for the present.
• The Church is also an obedient servant, a good neighbor, and a first taste of something delicious. Bob has a grapefruit tree in his backyard. In the late fall, the grapefruit begins to ripen. He looks for that very first grapefruit that’s ripe and ready to be eaten. He finds it, picks it, and peels it. He can’t wait to take that first bite. It’s delicious! He then knows what the rest of the fruit of that tree will taste like when they become ripe. That is a first fruit. But sometimes we are unripe, immature fruit. When the world bites into us, the taste is bitter. They spit us out. But God wants us to be a delicious first fruit—a first taste of His Kingdom.

 There are other pictures of the Church that we did not cover in the lesson. The Church is the Body of Christ. As a body, the Church should carry out the intentions of its head, Jesus Christ, and each member has a unique function in this body. The Church is also the bride of Christ. God loves the Church with an infinite love. The intimate relationship between Christ and His bride provides high motivation for the Church to do His will. The Church is also the principal administrator of God’s agenda to heal the broken world. It is the communicator and facilitator of the agenda and equips its members to go into every corner of society to do God’s will.

It is important to apply what we learn! We often ask people to draw a window, label each section with one of the four areas of Jesus’ growth, list two new activities in each area that their church could do to demonstrate God’s present intentions in their communities, and commit to discuss these ideas with their church leaders.   As you read this, you too can do this.

There is a new breeze blowing among the churches today as they learn to be embassies of God’s full intentions. This breeze has the mark of the Spirit. It creates a longing to demonstrate God’s full agenda in a broken world. There are individuals and churches whose sails are catching that breeze. It is our prayer that God will use them to turn the breeze into a mighty wind. The people of the Church should be such a clear and compelling witness of Christ’s love for the spiritually, socially, and physically broken that all who see through the window of the Church will say, “What a loving and great God these people have!”[1]

Credit: Bob Moffitt, Disciple Nations Alliance  

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[1] Several remarks in this narrative have been taken directly from If Jesus Were Mayor, also written by Bob Moffitt. Used by permission. 

The Reformers' Cry 5/5 | The Political Cry

The political rallying cry is founded on the understanding that all men are sinners. 

The apostle Paul stated this most clearly when he said "... for all have sinned [in the past] and [continue moment by moment in the present to] fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23, NIV).  Similarly, it is recorded in Genesis 6:5-6.  "The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time" (NIV) [emphasis mine].

The depth and comprehensiveness of man's rebellion against God was known to the Reformers as "total depravity."  Sin touches every area of every life.  This however does not imply that man is nothing or that he is worthless or insignificant.  On the contrary, man is still the "prince" of all creation, and he still bears the image of God.

Because of the understanding of the depravity of man, the Reformers saw that it was imperative to protect against the opportunity for one man to have unlimited power in the church or society.  As the English historian-philosopher Lord Acton (1834 - 1902) has so succinctly stated, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."[1]

To counter this tendency, the Reformers emphasized the "priesthood of believers" in the Church and developed a system of "checks and balances" in political life.  In the Church, every member is a minister.  Two key passages illustrate the importance of the diversity of individuals within the larger unity of the Church.  Peter speaks of the temple of which we are individually "living stones" while Paul speaks of us as distinct parts of the body of which Christ is the head.

I Peter 2:4-5, 9-10  As you come to him, the living Stone -- rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him -- you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ ... But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (NIV)

Ephesians 1:22, 4:11-13  And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church ... It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (NIV)

With emphasis on this teaching, the Reformers stressed the importance of the "laity" within the Church to be a ministering body.  There was to be plural leadership under the lordship or headship of Christ.  The pastor-teachers are "enablers" of the membership to be a congregation of ministers.

In the larger society, the Reformers wanted to protect against one man gaining too much political power so a system of checks and balances, or democratic-pluralism, was established.  Typically three branches of government (the executive, the legislative and the judicial) were formed:  Each had their own role and each was to act as an anchor against the abuses of the other.  The Swiss were so concerned about the propensity of sinful men to corruption that they placed each branch of government in a separate city so that not only would these men not work together but they also would not fraternize together.

The pattern of the Reformation stands in contrast to that of modern, optimistic humanism.  In humanism, man is good and structures are corrupt.  Man's problem is "outside" himself.  A utopia is possible as man evolves and creates more and better human structures.  This is the failed dream of the communist system. It failed because it was based upon faulty premises.  Thus, the political rallying cry of "all men are sinners" recognizes the need to protect man from himself in practical ways in church polity and national governance.

Conclusion

The world and the Church are at a crossroads. The world is in the midst of unprecedented change.  Post-communistic Eastern Europe and the dissolved Soviet Union are looking for new beginnings and, we hope, new foundations.  Post-Christian Western Europe and the United States have abandoned the Judeo-Christian heritage that made them great and are sliding into a culture of death, an abyss that the people of Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet Union know only too well.  The hungry world stands on the edge of death but with the promise of the resources and agricultural methodologies to put an end to persistent hunger. 

The Church has a vital message to bring to this hurting world.  It begins with "Christ and Him crucified."  But it does not end there.  We are to articulate a biblical world and life view to challenge both ancient, animistic ones and modern, atheistic ones. We are to proclaim vital biblical principles that will create a solid foundation upon which to build societies of unprecedented freedom and opportunity.

Will the Church challenge existing models and call for reformation of minds, hearts, and lives?  Or will we succumb to humanistic models that view the problems of our world only in material terms?  Worse yet, will the Church abandon the world, stick her head in the sand, and live in the Greek world of a spiritualized dichotomy? 

Hope springs from the transformation of the heart and mind and the corresponding revolution of life and culture. The foundation upon which the new reformer in the Americas, Europe or the third world must build is the triadic model of the Spirit of Democratic Capitalism.

Will the Church lead or follow?  The choice is ours!

Credit: Scott Allen and Darrow Miller | Disciple Nations Alliance 

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[1]     Quoted in "Push, Pull and the Body Politic" by Page Smith, L.A. Times Opinion, December 24, 1989.

The Reformers' Cry 4/5 | The Economic Cry

The economic rallying cry, "work as hard as you can, save as much as you can, give as much as you can," was articulated by Charles Wesley during the reformation of the Church of England.

Work as Hard as You Can   One of the characteristics of God is that He is a creative God.  The Bible begins with the words, "In the beginning God created...."  This pattern was passed on to man when He made us in His image.  In Genesis 1:28 we find these words: "God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.  Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground'" (NIV) [emphasis mine].

Work is a calling, it gives man dignity.  It is a critical part of our mimicking and worshipping our Creator. The Reformers understood that each person had a "calling."  The farmer was to milk his cows and plant his field "as unto the Lord."  This stands opposed to the thought that it is only the clergy or the missionary that has a sacred calling. Aside from the professional religious calling, all other work is secular and mundane.  As pointed out earlier, this division between secular and saved is more Greek than Hebraic in thinking.[1]  This also stands in contrast to the mindset that is part of "the curse" or that we work to survive, a mere hand-to-mouth existence. In western materialistic society, the motto is work as little as you can to gain as much as you can. This is hedonism or consumerism at its best.

Save as Much as You Can   Working hard produces a profit from our labors.  But what should one do with this “surplus”?  The Reformers said, “Save it.” This mindset is as old as ancient Israel.  God revealed to Joseph and then to Pharaoh the meaning of Pharaoh's dream in Genesis 41.  There would be seven good years and seven lean years.  The way to prepare for the seven lean years was to save during the good years. This famine-relief plan was centuries before its time.  In fact, it was not until the 19^th century that starvation-plagued India had such a famine-relief plan in place.

The Bible also espoused a non-materialistic philosophy, neither idolizing nor disdaining wealth. This is articulated in Proverbs 30:8-9 "Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.  Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?'  Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God" (NIV) [emphasis mine].

The Reformers understood, articulated and lived an "external asceticism," a simple lifestyle. This stands in contrast to the extravagance of modern materialism and the motto of hedonism: "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die."  The modern counterpart is expressed by the saying, "In the end, he who has the most toys wins."  It is hard work and living a simple lifestyle that leads to the generation of capital.  But, what is one to do with this capital?

Give as Much as You Can   The creation of wealth combined with a non-acquisitive, non-consumptive and simple lifestyle provides capital for others.  The biblical mindset of charity and edification (read "development") makes this accumulated capital available to meet the needs of others.

The apostle John wrote: "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with action and in truth" (1 John 3:16-18 NIV). 

The resources, that are bounty or excess, are to be stewarded to meet the needs of others.  This occurs in two primary ways.  The first is through charity for the deserving poor or the "widow in deed."  God's people have a responsibility to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves.  However, charity is not for the undeserving poor, those who have the ability to work but who refuse to take responsibility for themselves or their families.  To give to these people is to further strip them of their dignity and create paternalism and dependency.  The second use of the capital is to provide seed money for the creation of new businesses or for investment in such things as education, health care, the arts, scientific research which will benefit the larger society and in ministry activities.  In other words, capital is used for the purposes of development, the building up of people, institutions and the community at large.

Even being financially poor does not lead to an exemption as we witness in the Macedonian spirit.  The apostle Paul wrote: "And now brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.  Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity" (II Corinthians 8:1-2, NIV).

Saving as much as you can stands in contrast to the miser's hoarding and the hedonist's increased consumption. This obviously applies to material resources, but it may also include the capital of knowledge, time, talents, spiritual gifts, insights and friends.

These three virtues (working, saving and giving) create the moral foundations of free markets. It takes all three to provide the dynamic economic factors that generate wealth and drive market economies.  If any one of these factors is removed, the equation will change and the dynamic will be lost.  We must be careful not to confuse free markets with the mercantilism of oligarchical and feudal societies or with the consumer-capitalism of the West today.

Credit: Scott Allen and Darrow Miller | Disciple Nations Alliance 

⏭️5/5-The Political Cry

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[1] For more on this see Darrow Miller’s book Why Work? A Biblical Theology for What You Do Every Day (YWAM Publishing, Washington, 2008). 

The Reformers' Cry 3/5 | The Theological Cry

The Theological Rallying Cry

Solo Christo = Christ Alone   What is the cornerstone of our salvation, the source of our reconciliation with God?  It is Christ alone.  In John 14:6, Jesus states clearly and absolutely, "I'm the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me" New International Version (NIV) [emphasis mine].

This is an absolute claim that cuts against all other religious claims and against all forms of relativism.  Jesus is not one of many ways to God.   He is God's means of saving man as opposed to the religious attempts of other philosophies, such as those expounded in Hinduism, animism or Buddhism.

This also contrasts with any admixture with Christ (i.e., "Christ plus anything:" Christ and Caesar, Christ and the state, Christ and Mammon).  Caesar did not burn Christians at the stake because they worshipped Christ, but because they refused to worship Caesar.  To choose Christ is to reject all else.  The Reformers understood — Christ alone.  Today, the temptation (and often the reality) in the western church is to worship Christ and material prosperity.  We want to be Christians just so long as it enhances and does not challenge our materialistic lifestyle.

Sola Fide = Faith Alone   The Reformers understood the message of Ephesians 2:8-9:  "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast" (NIV) [emphasis mine].

When we approach the throne of grace, we come with "empty hands."  There is nothing we can bring.  Our salvation is in Christ and His finished work and not in our works.  This stands in contrast with belief systems that say that the sacraments save, penances save, good intentions save, good works save or even that "theological correctness" will save.  Likewise, faith alone stands in contrast to the modern humanistic notion that "man is good."  The optimistic faith of humanism is that human wit, will and technology will insure the evolution of a new man and a perfect society.

Sola Scriptura = Scripture Alone   The Scripture, God's written word, is the final authority for all matters of faith and practice.  God's revelation provides the foundation for knowledge and human reason.  Without a transcendent revelation, knowledge, history and morals would have no meaning.

The apostle Paul understood this when he said: "All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." (II Timothy 3:16 NIV).  Likewise the Bereans "examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true" Acts 17:11 (NIV) [emphasis mine].  When we have questions of faith and life, the scriptures are given to us for an authoritative answer.

This stands in contrast to modern man's relativism: "man is the measure of all things."  In communist societies, the state is the measure of all things.  In the West, "experts" are the final authority for all practices, including the raising of families.

The theological rallying cry lays a strong moral, metaphysical and spiritual foundation for life and the human disciplines of politics and economics.

 Credit: Scott Allen and Darrow Miller | Disciple Nations Alliance 

⏭️4/5-The Economic Cry

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The Reformers' Cry 2/5 | Triadic Model for Reform

Past Protestant reformations made an impact in three areas: theology, economics and politics.  These three spheres form a triadic model that is dynamic in its interaction.

The theological sphere provides a solid foundation for the economic and the political.  Each sphere interacts with the others and provides a synergistic effect that is greater than the sum of the parts.  The arrows in the diagram below indicate the interaction that takes place between the spheres.      

In contrast, the dynamic is removed if the three elements are separated in either a purely materialistic or spiritualistic way.

The modern world is atheistic and materialistic in its assumptions, robbing the political and economic spheres of their theological and moral grounding.  The result is a tendency to define problems in solely physical terms and solutions in mere material terms.

Likewise, the dynamic is lost if things are viewed in primarily spiritual terms.  The Greeks separated the world into physical and spiritual elements in which the physical is profane and the spiritual is sacred.  Many evangelical and fundamentalist churches in the West today think like the Greeks and separate the spiritual from the physical.  Concentrating solely on "spiritual things" and neglecting the physical reality in which we live renders the Church utterly irrelevant in the world today.

East and West are in a crisis. The global South is emerging.   The current metaphysics is not sufficient to support democratic institutions, economic development or even life itself.  Eastern Europe and the post- Soviet Union should not look to the Atheistic West but to Christ.  Likewise a hungry world should not gaze too long at the West's opulence and materialism but to the freedom and opportunity provided by "the spirit of democratic capitalism." The Muslim world should not look at the decadence and opulence of the West and think that this is “Christian.”

The Three Rallying Cries of the Reformation

The principles of the Reformation have been articulated in three very simple "mottoes" or rallying cries.

THEOLOGICAL RALLYING CRY

Solo Christo Sola Fide Sola Scriptura

= = =

Christ Alone Faith Alone Scripture Alone

 

ECONOMIC RALLYING CRY

"Work as hard as you can."

"Save as much as you can."

"Give as much as you can."

POLITICAL RALLYING CRY 

"All men are sinners."

We will examine each of these in turn.

Credit: Scott Allen and Darrow Miller | Disciple Nations Alliance 

⏭️3/5-The Theological Cry

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The Reformers' Cry 1/5 | Reviving The Reformation

We live at an exciting and challenging time in history. The post-Christian West is engaged in a civil war of ideas between the proponents of the old heritage (Judeo-Christian values) and the new, humanistic values of materialism.  Jihadism in the East has declared war against the West and her decadence. Communism is crumbling worldwide, its foundations cracked, and the structures built upon it crumbling. 

Will Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet Union emulate the modern hedonism of the West, or will the Church provide a non-materialistic, Judeo-Christian alternative?  Will the West return to the foundations laid by Judeo-Christian values and resist the slide into a culture of death?  Will God’s people respond to the crying need among Muslims with love, service and a set of ideas that will real hope? Will the Church respond to the crying need of physically and spiritually hungry people?

The Roman Catholic scholar and author Michael Novak has written extensively on the influence of ideas and values on economic development, including the following:

Not long ago, the United States was a colony of Europe's greatest power.  Not long ago, it was trapped in the same immemorial poverty and underdevelopment as other nations.  At its founding, it was at least as poor as the colonies of Spain in Latin America.  These two Americas, North and South, equally colonies and equally underdeveloped, were founded upon two radically different ideas of political economy.  The one attempted to recreate the political-economic structure of feudal and mercantilist Spain.  The other attempted to establish a novus ordo seclorum, a new order, around ideas never before realized in human history.[1]

The outcome of the two sets of ideals was radically different.  North America ended up far wealthier and with more freedom than South America! Why?  Novak's answer is that the principles of the Protestant Reformation, as manifested in the political-economic life of Northern Europe and North America, produced a very different result than the values and ideals of the Roman Catholic Church, as manifested in Southern Europe and South America.  Similarly, the 19th century German sociologist and political scientist Max Weber calls this unique principle "The Protestant Ethic."

The form of government resulting from the Reformers' understanding was contrasted with the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church in which the Pope or the Patriarch sits atop a pyramidal church structure and exercises authority from the top.  The civil government in these societies mimicked the church in that a small group controlled the government.  Often the church and civil governments contributed to an oppressive economic structure in which the people were little more than slaves.

The Reformation of the 16th century responded to the humanistic Renaissance of the 14^th and 15^th  centuries.  This and later reform movements launched Northern Europe and later North America into an unparalleled era in history.  A culture was established and values articulated and embodied that ultimately ended hunger and poverty for the average citizen of these reformation countries.  The era was marked by freedom and opportunity, the rise of science, the unparalleled generation of wealth and the corresponding impact in health, literacy, education, agricultural production and general development.

What are these values and ideals?  What are the principles of the Reformation?  Can they not be applied in our generation?  May they not be adapted to the current needs in Eastern Europe, the post-Soviet empire, the Middle East, North America and the hungry world?

We would argue that they can and should be revived.  A revolution to change structure is not sufficient to bring freedom and prosperity.  To simply change the guard or the structures that they manipulate will not solve the problem.  The problem lies deeper, in the minds and hearts of the people that build and control the structures.  A new reformation is needed.  The transformation of people's hearts and minds is foundational for any lasting change in the practical areas of politics and economics.

Credit: Scott Allen and Darrow Miller | Disciple Nations Alliance 

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[1]     Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1982), p. 22.