Nevertheless, the problems with this self-serving interpretation of the way in which the God of the Bible has "always" dealt with humans will become readily apparent when we take a closer look at a few of the folks in Scripture whom they identify as God's former "agents." Beginning in the Old Testament, two of the most popular examples in this regard are Moses and David. According to their narrative, God gave Moses the Law to impart to the people of Israel. Lost in this narrative, of course, is the fact that God himself is portrayed in Scripture as actively carrying out his own plans! And, according to the biblical narrative, God was personally laying out the terms of his covenant with ALL of the people of Israel. Moses fulfilled the role of a mediator between God and the people because the people were afraid of having direct contact with God! Likewise, in the case of King David, the biblical narrative relates that the people didn't want to live under a theocracy with God at the helm! They wanted to be like all of the other nations of the earth. They asked for a king!
Now, it is true that God sent a number of prophets to the people of Israel to warn them about the potential consequences of their behavior. Nevertheless, once again, this move was necessitated by the people's abandonment of the tenets of God's covenant with them! And why was God working with the Israelites to begin with? Didn't he intend for them to provide an example to the rest of humanity of what a right relationship with God could look like? In other words, God was portrayed as actively representing himself and carrying into effect his own plans. Scripture portrayed the Israelites as pawns on a much bigger strategic chessboard. Hence, while God did use various men to carry a message of repentance to the people of Israel, those messages are portrayed as being given directly by God. Thus, even in this instance where God is portrayed as working through human agents (these prophets) to deliver his message to the people, we see that God is portrayed as representing himself in these interactions!
Moreover, under the terms of the New Covenant, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews is very explicit that God would be working through ONE individual going forward: Jesus Christ! We read there: "Long ago, God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son." (Hebrews 1:1-2) In the current dispensation, God's message is communicated to us through Jesus Christ - NOT a bunch of self-proclaimed prophets and apostles! This is consistent with Paul's message to the Romans that they had eternal life through Jesus Christ (Romans 6:11, 23). It is also consistent with Christ's explicit instructions to his disciples to spread HIS message to the entire world (Matthew 28:20). In short, once again, God is currently working through Jesus Christ - PERIOD! According to the New Testament, Jesus is God, and Jesus currently speaks for God - NO ONE ELSE! As for the rest of us, God continues to work in and with us (if we are willing).
Back when I was a Rupertist-Armstrongist, last century, I was superstitious about my religion. I believed that if I entreated God and could discern no answer I could go to a Rupertist-Armstrongist minister and pose the same issue and receive the word of God through the vocal apparatus of the minister. I did not do this a lot; in fact, I seldom ever followed this model.
ReplyDeleteThis idea was present in other forms among people I knew of the Rupertist-Armstrongism persuasion. In the Big Sandy Spokesman Club (which met in Gladewater), there was an off-line discussion about the words from the ministry. I remember a friend stated that a certain minister said that Christ was going to return in, let us say, 1982. I don't remember the actual date but it was fairly near in the future then and now long past. He believed this implicitly because he asserted confidently that "God backs up his ministers." A minister said it and invoked this principle from the pulpit so it was going to happen. This is also an idea that I heard from the pulpit at other times.
The principle of "God backs up his ministers" is now appalling to me.
It says that God relinquishes his power to trifling mortals just so they can be right in their judgments and misjudgments. At the time I heard it on that evening in Gladewater so long ago, this principle sounded pretty good. I wanted to believe that the ministry reliably understood the prophetic countdown. This is ironic considering how many prophetic failures various Millerites had. But nobody mentioned these failures in denominational literature or from the pulpit. And even the pews were silent. I didn't know about the past failures until I started reading historical material on the internet.
True ministers are called to spread the word of Jesus not their own ad hoc pronouncements. We are all, Christian ministers and lay members, under the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The author of Ephesians wrote:
"With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ..."
This sounds like to me that what God intended for us he told us in the life and words of Christ. The principle that "God backs up his ministers," and the clause that is silent but intended is "in whatever they say," is a misunderstanding of the principle of loosing and binding. In actual practice, even in the Rupertist-Armstrongist denomination, all significant decisions had to pass through The Apostle, the Biblical principle notwithstanding.
We had that mindset because Herbie and company claimed to have cracked the code - put the "jigsaw puzzle" together. They had the answers that had been hidden from everyone else. Hence, if we couldn't figure something out, all we had to do was ask! Bottom line, we were VERY naive, and they were VERY arrogant!
DeleteAt the time I was attracted to religion, I was seventeen and a walking case of naïveté. I had always dealt with organizational structures that were hierarchical - government, school, a little church experience, family, retail businesses, law enforcement - everything was run by various authorities. So I was able to transition smoothly into a strongly authoritarian denomination without a ripple in my worldview. And, later, it became natural, though very sophomoric, to imagine that ministers had oracular powers.
ReplyDeleteBut there is a kind of spiritual disintermediation that is required of Christians. What is disintermediated is anything that stands between the Christian and Jesus. There is denominational coherence and some form of governance but these organizational features do not block the way to Christ. We are admonished to come boldly before the throne of grace because we have Christ as our High Priest. We do not have to make our approach to God through some earthly sacerdotal or ministerial bureacracy.
"Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ" can seem like an effective counter to the idea that Christians have direct access to God. But that is an authoritarian interpretation asserted without regard to NT context. The verse may equally support the idea that the Christian must evaluate the denominational leadership to determine if they are actually following Christ. Some would like to quit thinking and totally capitulate to their ministry. And this non-thinking approach is characterized in authoritarian organizations, those who seek to eclipse Christ, as a virtue. But nowhere does the NT suggest that we are to discontinue growing in personal knowledge and wisdom and let others do our thinking. The author of Ephesians wrote that he was praying for the Christians of Ephesus "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him..." This is a direct, personal imparting to the Christian not to the ministry only.