|
Providence and Decision-Making
It may be possible to say that God did not want
Mr. Smith to marry Miss Jones. But now that he has, it is God's
will for Mr. Smith to remain with Mrs. Smith. It may be
possible to say you should not have joined First Behemoth
Church, but if you took vows to remain a member of First
Behemoth until the Session discharged you to another location,
then God's will for your life is quite clear.
In general, it may be the case that you
violated God's Commandments in order to get where you are
today. But God's will for you is not for you to break ties in a
way which further violate God's Law, but for you to extirpate
yourself from your current situation in
a Theonomic way, a way that honors God's Law.
This process -- a potentially life-long
process -- is how God brings Micah's Vine
& Fig Tree vision into existence. Even
though we feel we should take direct action to make it happen,
God's providence is usually more indirect and seemingly
circuitous. God works from the inside out.
Membership Vows
Either you took membership vows or you did not.
The man who is blessed by God and dwells with Him is the man
who
sweareth to
his own hurt, and changeth not.
Psalm 15:4
That is, when he takes a vow, he fulfills it, even if he
later regrets having ever taken that vow.
The only thing that can release a man from an oath is if he
finds he has sworn to sin. Making an oath in the Mafia to kill
a rival is an oath which cannot be lawfully fulfilled. We know
of no situation in which it is a sin to remain in a church. We
know of no situation where the authorities of the church will
hold someone to his vows and force him to sin. Tell
us if you think your situation requires you to sin. Be
prepared to tell us the specific statute in God's Law which the
church is forcing you to violate, and will not release you from
your membership vows and let you leave.
Yes but . . .
Some will say,
But I became a member of this church when I was in high
school. I didn't know anything about Vine
& Fig Tree back then. My beliefs have
completely changed. I only joined that church because my
parents were members.
All the more reason to stay. Especially if your parents
still attend that church, and would like you to remain. Recall
the situation Naaman found himself in. His "father"
(a term used to refer
to all in positions of authority) attended a completely
idolatrous church, and forced Naaman to go to church with him
to assist him (perhaps he used a wheelchair). The prophet
Elisha told Naaman to "go in peace," that is,
continue to attend idolatrous worship services, in obedience to
the 5th Commandment. (Read the story in 2
Kings 5:18-19)
Besides, if you're a member of a Christian church, your
beliefs really haven't changed all that much. And thinking so
may be evidence of pride.
Understanding Why
Even if you have never taken any membership vows, but have
been attending a church for some time, consider the following:
- There are many advantages to remaining there, even if you
are not required to do so by church authorities.
- An abrupt departure, with unreconciled conflicts, will
not be a good advertisement for the Vine
& Fig Tree vision.
- What is your definition of "success?" Will you
really be a success if you leave your church and form some
flashy ministry, or will you be more of a success in God's
eyes by working with the people in your local church,
cultivating the Vine & Fig
Tree vision in their lives and yours, even
if no one seems to be noticing your efforts?
Here's what you may be leaving behind.
Community
The task of becoming a
Patriarch like Abraham is a formidable one. Only the most
unfathomably extraordinary circumstances would find a man
taking his small, American-sized "nuclear family"
away from a church community and starting a new life in
isolation. Many of those who have left the city to homestead an
isolated rural area have failed miserably. The ones who
succeeded never really did so in isolation, but either left
with community or moved into community. Even Abraham had an
extended family community as large as most churches.
You need the prayerful support and encouragement of other
Christians, even if they don't buy the radical Vine
& Fig Tree vision hook line and sinker. To
presume that someone who does not buy into the Vine
& Fig Tree vision is therefore not a true
Christian is almost never justified.
Sharpening Iron
No matter how intellectually advanced you may think you are
(and you certainly deserve points if you have been captivated
by Micah's Vine & Fig Tree vision)
you still need even the lowliest, least well-read,
votes-in-every-election-along-party-lines Christian. Such a
Christian will show you your faults, and you can also minister
to such a Christian. If you are a member of a church, then God
has called you to experience this very thing.
As iron sharpens iron, So a
man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
Proverbs 27:17
Paul exhorts Christians to resolve their disputes among
themselves, rather than secular courts.
He says even the lowliest member of the church is better than a
pagan:
If then ye have judgments of
things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are
least esteemed in the church.
1 Corinthians 6:4
This verse can be translated another way, but the Geneva
Bible comments:
The conclusion, in which he prescribes a remedy for this
wrong: that is, if they end their private affairs between
themselves by chosen arbiters out of the Church: for which
matter and purpose, the least of you,
he says, is sufficient.
You will be surprised how fast you can become like the
Patriarch Abraham, and mature "unto
a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness
of Christ" by maintaining relationships
with the feeblest and lowliest Christians in the least
sophisticated church in the city.
Your Pastor's Wisdom
No matter how bogus your Pastor's theology, and no matter
how much he attacks your theology, if he wants you to stay in
his church, then either
He has a shepherd's heart . . .
And he doesn't think you're ready to make it on your
own. He thinks you could benefit by becoming a servant
to the other members of the church.
The majority of church pastors (in Bible-believing
churches) see themselves described in some sense
described by Hebrews 13:17
Obey those who rule
over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for
your souls, as those who must give account. Let them
do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be
unprofitable for you.
A man committed to the Vine
& Fig Tree vision is committed to
obeying this command. |
He is a scoundrel . . .
And he obviously doesn't know much about you. A
scoundrel doesn't want Godly people in his church, who
could potentially upset his apple-cart.
You say he's an anti-Christ who opposes the truth.
What will he say about you? Will he say, "Yes, he
was a living example of the fruit of the Spirit, and
showed the maturity of the stature of Christ, but I'm
just in business to fleece the sheep; I don't care
about the truth." We've never known this to
happen. A truly evil "pastor" wants easily-manipulatable
people who are laden with sins (2
Timothy 3:6). A truly Godly Patriarch like Abraham
would make the "pastor" look bad in the eyes
of any other potentially Godly people in the
congregation, and such a man would be driven out by the
"pastor." |
Let us talk to your pastor.
Let us hear his side. What will he say about you? How will he
react when we tell him what you've told us about him?
|
1 Peter 3:1-6 Wives, likewise,
be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some
do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won
by the conduct of their wives, {2} when they observe
your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. {3} Do not let
your adornment be merely outward; arranging the hair,
wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel; {4} rather
let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the
incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit,
which is very precious in the sight of God. {5} For in
this manner, in former times, the holy women who
trusted in God also adorned themselves, being
submissive to their own husbands, {6} as Sarah obeyed
Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters you are if
you do good and are not afraid with any terror.
|
Usually what happens is the pastor does not see the one
leaving the church as a fully-matured Christian with a call
from God, but rather as a proud man, with defects of character
which are obvious to all others. If a man has matured and
clearly has a call from God to terminate his membership in the
local church in order to pursue a fruitful ministry, most
pastors would be only too happy to bless his efforts.
The example of Sarah is not just an example of a Godly wife,
but a Godly example to all who are under one in authority.
There are
Four Required Attitudes
that must be mastered before God will call someone to leave
a church and become a patriarch.
A REVERENT SPIRIT
Your pastor ought to be a man of
God who is empowering other men to become Godly Patriarchs. A
man who has 100 or more people listening to him every Sunday
and heeding his counsel the rest of the week is a man who has
power or authority. He could be
accomplishing a great deal for the Kingdom. It may be that God
has called you to help him become such a man, by demonstrating
a reverent spirit. By impressing upon him the possibilities of
his position, you may encourage him to rise to that level. If
you think YOU should be in the pulpit, or that YOU should be
listened to by the doctors of the church, you do not have the
spirit of Christ, who learned obedience by forsaking the
spotlight and showing deference to his parents (Luke
2:49-51). By doing so, "And
Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God
and man." (Luke
2:52) That's the kind of person God can use to further the Vine
& Fig Tree vision, not a renegade with a big
head.
If we talked to your pastor, would he say you had a reverent
spirit?
A GRATEFUL SPIRIT
No Pastor is 100% wrong. Nobody teaches error 100% of the
time. Nobody.
Have you expressed gratitude for the good things your pastor
has said and done? Have you encouraged him to do more good
things like these? Every good thing, if followed consistently,
leads straight to Micah's Vine &
Fig Tree society. If your pastor would only be
perfectly consistent with the truth
he speaks, he'd be on your side. Right? The problem comes when
evil people encourage evil, and good people say nothing. Look
for good things and reward them.
If we talked to your pastor, would he say you had a grateful
spirit?
A SERVANT'S SPIRIT
As we have
tried to show, Jesus prohibited His followers from becoming
"archists,"
and commanded them to become servants. Being a servant is God's
way to greatness. Being willing to lose your life is the way to
find life. Before you leave your church, you should habitually
become excited to make others successful in their undertakings.
Joseph became head of Egypt because for years he was willing to
make others successful. Which is more beneficial to God's
Kingdom: one man who takes himself out of a community to embody
Micah's Vine & Fig Tree
vision on his own, or a man who sacrifices his own reputation
and achievements in order to help a dozen families come closer
to their own Vine & Fig Tree?
If we talked to your pastor, would he say you had a
servant's spirit?
A QUIET SPIRIT
Some people become anxious to make Micah's Vine
& Fig Tree vision a reality because they are
agitated about evil in the modern world. They are dominated by
fear and worry. They are paranoid, and see conspiracies
everywhere. If we don't get this or that done, they warn, evil
will take over and everything will be lost. In response, first,
God hasn't given us responsibility for reforming the world.
Each of us has more than enough to take care of without
worrying about the whole world. Second, there is value in
failure. Some people must learn "the hard way." But
if you have shared the truth with them, they will see it on the
other side of their failure. A true son of Abraham must have an
inward confidence that God is going to work it out.
If we talked to your pastor, would he say you had a quiet
spirit?
Micah's Vine & Fig Tree
society is a long way away. We're still laying the foundations.
If you are part of a local church which is reluctant to let you
leave, consider the likelihood that God wants you to remain in
that church and lay the foundations for future generations. To
explore the possibilities, consider once again our outlines
of Patriarchal government, and ask yourself how a Godly
Christian, convinced of the Vine
& Fig Tree vision, can benefit and be
benefited by his local church. Please
write us and tell us why you believe God wants you to
withhold the ideas and practices of Godly government from your
local church.
Next | | Tell
me I'm Wrong | | Index | | V&FT |