January 15, 2004

Chapter 1 - "As It Was in the Beginning..."

face="Verdana">Chapter One

"AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING..."


There
are probably few fragments of liturgy more subject to
repetition than that from which the above first part is
taken. At the same time, it may be an example of the
ignorance and meaninglessness with which many phrases are
constantly used in Christianity.


What
is the IT that was in the beginning, is now, and
ever shall be? The only true answer would be in changing
the “it” to a “He” — “As He
was — so is He now, and ever shall be”.


For
the rest, there are few, if any, things that can carry
this declaration. It is just this change from the
beginning that is causing an immensity of concern and
consideration in Christendom, and especially in
evangelical Christianity. The beginning is the basis of a
very great amount of review, reconsideration, recall, and
effort to recover. For, as to Christianity, it is just
not true that “as it was in the beginning, it is
now”. True, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday
and today, yea and for ever”, and the foundation
truths of Christianity are the same but for the more part
Christendom is very much astray from “as it was in
the beginning”.


This
is not a new digression. The declension and departure
began before the apostles themselves had finished their
course, and their later writings are marked by
correctives, recalls and reforms.


This
had to do, not only with the character, words, and
ethical standards, but primarily with the spiritual
principles upon which Christianity AT FIRST rested
and by which it was initially constituted. It is
therefore the fact that the very spiritual constitution,
the very essence and nature of the “beginning”
has changed, or been lost, which accounts for the
deplored change, and — what is no less than tragic
— loss of impact, authority and accountability.


It is
to some of the elements of the beginning that we shall
draw attention here. When we say “elements”,
let it be understood that we are not meaning the
“elementary” in the sense of being just the
simple rudimentary rules of Christianity. Rather do we
use the word in the sense of “elemental”, which
carries with it what the dictionary calls “like the
powers of nature, great, tremendous, uncompounded,
essential”.


Not
only is it the first FEATURES, but the elemental,
inherent, concentrated essence and vital potency of
spiritual principles behind the outward expression. To
this we shall seek to give attention, for we are
convinced, after long and wide contact with Christians
and Christian affairs, that it is here that the real key
to the situation lies.


The
mistake in most efforts to recover the original impact,
dynamic, and authority of the first half-century of
Christianity is in the point at which attention is
applied. Such things as doctrine, form, procedure and
work are the points of attention or debate. While these
things MAY be seriously open to question in
various respects, to start with them is to start at the
wrong end, and to do that is either to add to the
confusion or to come to deadlock. The best that might
accrue would be compromise, and compromise is ALWAYS
failure to face and deal with root causes honestly and
courageously. We live in an age of compromise in every
realm, and we are in an age of “confusion worse
confounded”. We Christians know that the world
situation will never be right and straight until He comes
whose right it is to reign, but He will have no
compromise, no middle course. He will go to the root of
things and deal with them THERE!


For ANY
measure of recovery of lost power we have to get
behind results and effects, whether it be in doctrine,
procedure, form or work and get our finger upon causes.
There was a reason and cause for the world-upturning or
overturning impact of Christianity “in the
beginning”, and, as we have said, this lay with the
eternal, heavenly, and spiritual principles or
“laws” which lay within and behind what
happened. It did not lie with a fully-fledged doctrinal
knowledge. That was still in process of being made known.


When
God is in the way of initiating or forming, He acts first
and explains afterwards. The explanation is the
“teaching” or “doctrine”. This is the
safe way. The teaching is the explanation of experience.
It is only the reverse order when the teaching has been
given and forsaken. Then, as in the case of the prophets,
God says what He is doing or going to do, and acts
accordingly. Initially, just enough light is given for
God to act upon. This method and principle of God can be
seen in both the Old and New Testament. It is always of
value to have God giving light on what He has DONE,
so that we come into UNDERSTANDING of His
ways, rather than have a lot of teaching without
experience. We should put ourselves in the way of
God’s dealings and acts, if this was so.


The
original impact did not lie within a fixed and
established form of procedure. It certainly did not rest
upon organization and institutions. These hardly existed,
if at all. We repeat that it is folly to start toward
hoped-for recovery of power by dealing with such things
as the effects rather than the causes.


Let us
then excavate through the accretions of Christian
tradition and history, down to the bedrock principles.


The
writer, over a period of nearly forty years of personal
contact with evangelical Christianity in many parts of
the world, has been terribly impressed with one basic
weakness or defect. This defect undoubtedly is indicative
of a whole set of deflexions from what was the conception
in the beginning. While the DOCTRINE of the Holy
Spirit is well known, and a great deal of teaching on
that doctrine has been received, both from expositors
personally, and through an immense amount of literature
on the subject, there is a great deal to make real the
question as to whether or not, after all, multitudes
— even the majority — of Christians know
anything about the Holy Spirit as a positive, active,
indwelling presence. This question is supported by
conduct, conditions, and ignorance which glaringly deny
the teaching of the New Testament.


Jesus
said of the Holy Spirit that “He shall be IN you”,
“He shall guide you (as within you) into all the
truth”, “He shall take of mine and show it unto
you”, and so on. John, by the Spirit, said (to all
true Christians, not to special ones, or leaders or
teachers): “The anointing which ye received of him
abideth in you, and ye need not that any one teach you;
but… his anointing teacheth you concerning all
things…” (1 John 2:27). While this related to a
specific matter, i.e. Antichrist, the principle,
according to Jesus, — is of wider application, and
is just that the Holy Spirit is an arbiter WITHIN making
believers aware of what is of God and what is not. It is
something that is not for an advanced point in spiritual
life, but relates to the very beginning: “The Spirit
himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are
children of God” (Rom. 8:16). The law of the Spirit
of life is of constant growing reality and application as
the very law of spiritual progress. It is no less a
matter than that great factor of spiritual understanding
and intelligence with which the New Testament is so
largely occupied.


Let us
say at once that this principle does not make the
Christian independent of instruction through anointed
teachers, neither does it by any means create an
above-the-Scriptures position. The Holy Spirit will
always work according to the Word of God, and NEVER on
any account make us superior thereto or independent
thereof. Nothing but the utmost peril of deception could
come from such an interpretation or
“enlightenment” or “leading” (?) that
makes for such independence or superiority. Nevertheless,
the INWARD government, enlightenment, and witness
of the Holy Spirit is a primary factor in that which
“was at the beginning”. Indeed, it goes to the
very root of the very nature of the New Testament
Christian life; the essential BEING of a true
child of God. This both determines and defines what we
may call the new and distinctive “species”
which Christians are intended to be.


When
the apostle Paul uses the phrase: “he that is
spiritual” (1 Cor. 2:15), he is describing
the very difference of two distinct categories of people.
Not only is he dividing them but he is describing them.
One category, he says, is deficient and defective in
certain faculties, endowments and qualifications,
relating to knowledge, discernment, judgment and
understanding. The other category is distinguished by
this very ability and qualification. But it is not an
endowment given subsequent to new birth. Rather is it
inherent in new birth, and a constituent of the new life.
It is “he that IS spiritual”; he that is
a certain kind of being. This being is said to have been
born of the Spirit as differing from born of the flesh,
begotten of God, as differing from by the will of man.
This difference is the result of an advent. It is the
advent of the Holy Spirit INTO the spirit of the
committed believer. Surely, it stands to reason that the
indwelling presence of such a one as “the Spirit of
the living God”, God the Holy Spirit, is meant to be
more than a passive, inactive, unenlightening, unendowing
power and intelligence.


It is
a very gratifying thing to see people changing and
adjusting their lives, their conduct, their manner of
speech and dress, their habits, their attitudes, etc.,
not because the law has been laid down to them by others
— be he preacher or some other person — but
because the Holy Spirit within has spoken and made His
mind known to them concerning such matters. There are
numerous matters in the Scriptures concerning which there
are most flagrant contradictions in so many Christians
that we might well ask the question, “Where is the
Holy Spirit in them?”


This
is the BASIS of everything “as it was in the
beginning”. This is what came in with the advent of
the Holy Spirit. This is what was intended and taught to
be the very nature of the new dispensation.


Not
that it was universally and perfectly lived up to, even
in those times but it was truly there, accounting for
very big and drastic changes in lives, even in the
apostles themselves. This, more than the outward
happening, was the true nature and power of “The
Acts of the Holy Spirit”; which is a truer title to
the book called “The Acts of the apostles”.


This
bedrock principle worked out in every connection and
direction, as to Christ Himself, the church, procedure,
function, work, and so on. And it is our purpose to show
this, as we are enabled by the same Spirit, for we are
convinced that this is “as it was in the
beginning”.


Sometimes
we hear people say, “Oh, don’t look back to the
past and to what has been. Look on to God’s new
thing”; and they quote Paul in saying, “Leaving
the things which are behind”. This is very
superficial talk, to say the least of it. It can be very
dangerous and misleading. Provided that there has been no
departure, no forsaking, no loss, no relinquishing of
anything that was of God, and that the foundation
“principles” still obtain WITH WHAT THEY
MEAN
, there is room for the exhortation:
“Let us go on to full growth, not laying again the
foundation…” (Heb. 6:1-6). But the New
Testament, the risen Lord, the Spirit, have strong things
to say regarding “repenting and doing the FIRST works”
(Rev. 2:5), and the Lord has to sadly remind of a
position from which His people have departed, and call
them back to their beginnings.


There WAS
that which — grievously — is NOT now.

Posted by Mike Woods at 06:36 AM