Reflections on the Church and Political History

I think our first priority as Christians is the salvation of souls. I believe that’s God’s first priority. It’s the reason He sent his son. My view of political and international relations flows backwards from that. Fortunately we have 2000 years of history (after Christ) to reflect on to help examine the fruit of different beliefs and approaches. I like to examine my ideas through that filter as well.

First, we know that that without Christ the world was lost. This includes everyone except believing Israel. The Greeks, Romans, and all of their “Western” cultural heirs were all lost, along with all other civilizations. All apart from him were bound for eternal hell. As the apostle Paul took the gospel throughout the Roman empire, Christianity and Christian values began to spread, and the church was severely persecuted by the pagan Romans. Then something funny happened. The church gained political power and became enmeshed with the state. Christianity was no longer persecuted but it very quickly corrupted the church.

One thousand years of “dark ages” in Europe lead me to conclude that the union of church and state is a bad idea. So I’m not arguing for that. I think that the small minority in America who want “theonomy” in the same vein with the Puritans for example, are misguided. In fact, I would say that this was part of the significance of the foundation of America — that no church would have political power, but that all would be tolerated. At the time, this was a unique concept in both Eastern and Western Europe. Because of this the Methodists, Baptists and other revivalists were able to quickly flourish here.

On the reverse end of the spectrum, the 20th century especially demonstrates what happens when an Atheistic state takes power. 100 million dead people under communism is a completely staggering number. Even while we write this note Kim Jong Il continues to starve his own people. Why doesn’t anyone talk about that? I think it is because for some the dominant political idea is unequal distribution of wealth. All other sins can be forgiven of those who oppose the capitalist system. For others, perhaps the dominant idea is protection of animals, or of the environment, or preservation of native culture. For me it’s the salvation of souls, and right after this the preservation of human life.

Neo-Pagan Nazism and the Japanese cult of emperor worship have huge body counts as well. Many many of these dead are eternally lost. Or look at Turkey, the site of some the first churches in the Bible. There are almost 0 Christians in Turkey today because the state wiped them out, especially after the end of the 1st world war in the Greek and Armenian genocides. So my observations from these kinds of things is that devil does his work of murder often through the state. In order for the church to exist then down through history there must be a political power to resist what the devil is trying to do. Loss of World War II for example, would have meant complete eradication for the church (not just the Jews) in every area where Hitler set his foot. I think this pattern is pretty well attested in the Old Testament as well. We see in the book of Esther where the devil raised up Haman to try to wipe the Jews out through the political power of Persia.

I don’t think all political powers, or all military force is created equal then. What I see is that throughout history as God’s plan to save people advances the devil tries to stop it using wicked regimes, and God uses other regimes to prevent it from happening. This is not to say that God never uses or allows evil political powers to come against his people. We see that when they get into a state of great apostasy, He allowed the Babylonians, an incredibly wicked empire, to deport the entire population. But I think it’s important to recognize them for what they are — moments of judgment and extreme setback for God’s people.

So I don’t personally feel a need to baptize the America as an entity. But I think that its removal from the world political scene would be a disaster for the worldwide church (aside from the personal safety of my wife and children). Under the shade of any political entity in history both good and bad things are done. Because God causes it to rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. The devil’s plan is no rain at all.

Using salvation as the key political idea for the Kingdom, I feel similarly about missions. Even Christians are sometimes tempted to look at the missionary enterprise and see primarily the ills of Westernization than the salvation of souls. Had there been no Jim Elliott, one thing is certain — all of the Waorani would have been eternally lost, at least until another missionary came to reach them. Perhaps things could have been done differently, or perhaps more work needs to be done now to promote revival and defend against the oil companies, but what ultimately matters is the salvation of individuals. In fact, everyone’s salvation depends historically at some point on a missionary, starting with Paul. No missionary is perfect, but I think most of them are probably more perfect than us, because they lay their lives down, leave their native cultures to go to foreign ones, away from friends, family, security and everything else so that others can hear the truth. I don’t think we should confuse the efforts of colonist puppet “missionaries” with the efforts of people who die to spread the Gospel. To the extent that the East and the Global South are now re-evangelizing the decaying West, I am completely supportive, because the dominant idea is salvation.

The ultimate destination of all of this activity is not a Christianized world, but a world where every tribe tongue and nation has been reached. I see a final showdown between one world secular state (the ultimate Rome, Persia, etc), and one world Christian church, which exists among peoples of all kinds all around the world under the headship of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Political power is only a necessary temporary provision to reach all people. I am not one then who wants to “take over” politically speaking. My political goal is to defend the church and more generally humanity, who, both believing and unbelieving, are hated by the devil.

A Charismatic View of Evangelical History

It’s very difficult for most of us to understand the church context we exist in because we live in a time where boundaries have been blurred. However, our past tells us a lot about who we are and should be, so it’s important that we understand it. This is made more difficult by the fact that, if they do understand it, few Charismatics want to talk about the history that made them who they are because of some excesses that have cropped up. So you have to go on a treasure hunt. After nearly a decade of fellowshipping between various branches of evangelicalism and reviewing our history, I feel like I understand the various pieces which weave into the fabric of the Charismatic movement.

There are many ways to tell the Charismatic story, which could include the Full Gospel Businessmen, the Jesus Movement, The Vineyard, and others, but at the 10,000 foot level what were the seminal moments and movements that make us who we are and distinct from others? Below I’ve drawn a picture.

The first thing to see here is that Pentecostalism and Fundamentalism were once part of the same large evangelical holiness movement, which around the turn of the century was fairly united under the leadership of D.L Moody and his disciple R.A. Torrey. When Azusa Street hit, all of that changed, however. The movement was broken into two parts: those who embraced the tongues and those who didn’t. Those who did not were the original “Fundamentalists.” They fought hard against the liberals for the inerrancy of Scripture and other cardinal doctrines of the faith. They were mostly dispensationalists.

By the 1940’s many within the Fundamentalist movement were dissatisfied with with the spirit of Fundamentalism. It had some very separatist, anti-intellectual, and edgy components. When Billy Graham came along after WWII, a new moment began, and under the leadership of men like H.J. Ockenga, a new brand was born: Evangelicalism. This was to become just the opposite — inclusive, intellectual, and softer. The Evangelicals became the mainstream and launched a host of ministries, seminaries, and ultimately a new moment in America.

At the same time, on the other side of the railroad tracks, the tongue speakers were launching a worldwide movement, so that 100 years later, there are hundreds of millions all over the world. Azusa street was a deep and powerful revival that shook the Earth — some say literally — the great San Francisco earthquake began just days later. Pentecostalism did not keep the fire indefinitely, however, and by the 30’s people were beginning to wonder where the original power had gone.

God answered this question in dramatic fashion through the ministry of William Branham. A man with an incredible Bible-style prophetic gift, he stirred up what ultimately became the Healing Revival of the 50’s and the Latter Rain. It was the Latter Rain which was to distinguish Charismatics from Pentecostals, however. It brought new emphases: a victorious eschatology, laying on of hands for impartation, five-fold ecclesiology, and most of all personal prophecy. The Pentecostals, especially the Assemblies of God, rejected this new move and to this day these idea separate Pentecostals and Charismatics.

Some extreme doctrines began to dominate the Latter Rain, however, and this gave the impetus for a number of cultish movements, which gave the movement such a bad name, that few dare associate with it by name. One stream of the Latter Rain went on to form a second movement known as the “Shepherding Movement.” Responding to the needs presented by the vast numbers of hippies getting saved in the Jesus Movement, 5 leading ministers began teaching on principles of authority. This eventually led to some major abuses, and more cultish groups. Although there was great error and destruction mixed into the movement, I believe God did have an original purpose in it, and it was not just a demonic scheme. What strained out formed the basis of most modern “apostolic” groups.

20th Century US Revival Movements

• 1906 – Azusa Street — Started the Pentecostal Movement.  Speads like wildfire around America and around the world for decades to come.
• 1950s – Healing Revival — Brought Divine healing to America.
• 1950s – The Latter Rain — Contemporary to the Healing Revival.  Eventually reshaped the vision of church.
• 1960s – The Charismatic Movement — The Holy Spirit invades the traditional church.
• 1970s – The Jesus Movement — Massive numbers of hippies get saved in Pentecostal revival as the hippie lifestyle implodes.  Root of Calvary Chapel and Vineyard Movements.
• 1980s – The Vineyard — John Wimber brings “signs and wonders” to the evangelical church.
• 1990s – Toronto/Brownsville Movements.
• 2000s – What now????

Christian Epistemology and Church History

One’s epistemology, or method of ascertaining the truth, is the foundation stone of all understanding. Not only is our epistemology the foundation of our own personal understanding, it is the foundation of culture. Culture, in turn, is decisive force in human history. It is through culture that the Christ is either corporately resisted or corporately welcomed, and it is therefore culture to which God’s hand of divine government ultimately responds. If history turns on our corporate method of obtaining truth, then the crux of any engagement must strike at the root of this tree.

There are several basic methods of discerning the truth, and many systems which can be built upon those methods. Much thought has been given to the various epistemological systems of the secular world, however, comparatively little attention has been given to the variety which exists, and has existed, within Christianity itself throughout the course of history. The key components of Christian epistemology have been tradition, authority, Spirit, and Scripture. The weight given to one of these factors has been largely decisive not just in events, but in the very context in which the events occur. The following are some brief reflections on the evolution of church epistemology. 

The Beginning
The Early Church for obvious reason placed a high value on tradition. Christ’s advent had been recent and the canon of Scripture had not yet occurred. Moreover, there was no unified church government, or even a method for communicating and enforcing one. With the coming of Constantine, the nature of the church fundamentally changed. Central authority was now both possible and enforceable. Moreover, it was politically desirable. As this unholy union of church and state solidified, the church became increasingly reliant on authority. The stage was set for the medieval church which defined truth not based on Scripture, but on the expediencies of an increasingly corrupt church leadership

The Reformation.
What Martin Luther challenged which fundamentally threatened the Catholic church was it’s epistemology. Faced with the choice between Church authority and Scripture, Luther, through an epic personal struggle, chose Scripture, and in so doing opened the flood gates of truth. Church authority now must be subject to Scripture, not vice versa. The ensuing centuries saw the outworking of this view. The gospel tide swept the northern European nations and the gospel truth sank deep into their cultures.  

Human Agency
John Wesley sowed the seeds of a new transformation by emphasizing the agency of man in determining what is true. The Puritan understanding, which was the great citadel of Reformation thought, had tended to emphasize the Providential or Sovereign hand of God. The unintended side effect of this stress was to unduly embrace the negative circumstances in life as God, rather than Satan. Wesley’s stress on the responsibility of man ultimately led to the natural conclusion that man has more control over his circumstances and experience of God that it might appear. A fervent pursuit of God would create a fervent response by God. 

A New Pentecost
Wesley’s idea ultimately culminated in the Pentecostal movement, which, when viewed in the context of all preceding history must be understood as a dramatic shift. The holiness movement had hungered for a “deeper life”, but Pentecostalism brought in a deeper experience. The reality of God demonstrated by the supernatural working of God in Pentecostalism ushered in an understanding of reality in which the person of the Holy Spirit was to become essential in determining the truth. Within this new Pentecostal context several movements would arise which would each bring into focus key elements which had been lacking in reformation epistemology. While each of these movements suffered from fatal flaws, they also each brought in missing elements in God’s truth.

The Latter Rain movement in the 1950’s extended upon this idea and released a new hermeneutical system to the church which would unlock the rationalistic foundation which had undergirded the Reformation church for over four hundred years. It revived the typological interpretation of Scripture, as well as emphasizing the reality of modern day Spirit inspired prophetic revelation of Scripture truth. 

The Word of Faith movement in the 1970’s extended upon both Wesley’s idea of man’s agency, as well as the Fundamentalist idea of The Word of God, and brought into focus the dominion which God intended for his Children. In a totally separate context, God used Francis Schaeffer to reinspire a new generation of Christians to reconsider the totality of God’s truth, thus provide a target for this newly appreciated dominion. Not only would the force of the believer’s authority be on the spiritual, but it would be on the natural, on the society.  

At the exact same time, God used the Shepherding Movement to address an imbalanced emphasis on the individual which had been latent in the Reformation understanding of truth. The Reformation had emphasized Scripture almost to the exclusion of all other sources of truth, thereby effectively atomizing the entire Protestant civilization. People existed in isolated spheres because the foundation of their society was the value that truth must be obtained personally and only personally. Church doctrine was always at risk, because it was never intentionally passed onward.
 

Where We Stand
Every arm chair church historian has a different view of the position of the Church as we enter the 21^st century, but I believe history clearly shows a dramatic acceleration in the work of God. More happened in the first 400 years after the reformation as happened in the preceding 1500 years, and perhaps more happened in the 20^th century as in both of these. From an epistemological point of view the 20^th century could be seen as having lain the foundations of a new era of victory and triumph for the 21^st century church because the church at large had a more total foundation-addressing each of these essential methods of obtaining truth.