We have been at pains to
show that Christianity has become very largely another
Judaism, an outward system and a historic tradition. But
it has become more than this. In its principles, methods,
and means, it has largely become conformed to this world
or age. Were we wanting to deal with the negative or
defective aspect of things, it would not be difficult to
write whole chapters on the weaknesses of present-time
organized Christianity; but we would rather use our time
and space on the positive line.
Let us, however, appeal
to our brethren in responsibility to think again and
seriously before the Lord as to the true nature and
origin of much that goes to make up the means of
propaganda and publicity of work for God. Let us take
account of such things as the prominence given to human
honors, glories, titles, reputations, distinctions. That
men have gained these or been given them in various
spheres of life - politics, philanthropy, industry,
adventure, war, sport, entertainment, science, art, or
education - may be quite all right in itself, but that
those things should be so largely used as the ground of
appeal may just imply that Christ is not sufficient as
standing on His own merits, but must be surrounded by
these natural embellishments. Must Christ be recommended
or His servants accepted because of some human
association of the word ''great'' in some earthly
connection?
Again, let us be very
careful, for the same purpose, of the encroachment of the
entertainment feature of sacred service. ''Lovers of
pleasure'' is an endtime characteristic, and the age is
running headlong thither. Is it necessary to go with the
age in order to attract? Is the gospel dependent upon
this ''make up'' for its effectiveness and appeal?
Once more: let us watch
that we are not carried away by the illusion of bigness.
Many a once powerful instrument of God, personal or
collective, has lost its spiritual value and impact when
it has become big or popular. There is a Satanic snare in
bigness, and we may by this illusion lose our very
faculty for seeing just where God is doing His deepest
work, and how. Often God's truest work is hidden. It is
becoming difficult, if not impossible, for many servants
of God to believe or understand that anything of real
account can be done unless it is well known and in the
public eye.
When David put the Ark
upon a new cart and things went just so far and then came
to an ignominious and tragic impasse, it was not due to a
lack of sincerity, devotion, zeal, energy, or
wholeheartedness, but because he had all unwittingly
drawn up from his subconsciousness an idea and method
which had originated with the Philistine diviners. Those
diviners had once put the Ark upon a new cart to send it
back into Israel. David had fled in an hour of weakness
to dwell in the land of the Philistines and had been
infected with the methods and means of that world. When
God made the breach upon Uzzah that he dies before the
Lord, it would have been too hard and severe, in the
light of the zeal for the Lord, if there had not been
some extra factor. That factor was the hand of another
spiritual system back of ''this present evil world'' of
which the diviners were the representatives and servants
and whom God had already plagued and cursed. There was no
reason why Uzzah should be spared and the Philistines
destroyed if the same factor obtained in both cases.
No amount of zeal can
save us in the end if the principles are false. But note
how subtle it all was. There was not the remotest idea
that things were basically wrong. The idea of bringing up
the Ark (the Testimony) to its right and full place was
right and according to God's mind. The earnestness and
utterness left nothing to be desired. The motive and its
passion were wholly commendable. But somewhere, somehow,
Antichrist (in principle) was hidden in the constitution
of things, the energy of the flesh, the soul-life
actuated or taken charge of by that which was not the
Spirit of God.
If the soul, which is
the natural side of man's being, is predominant on any or
all of its sides, intellectual, emotional, or volitional,
then the door is wide open to deception; and deception,
being what it is, does not mean that there is no zeal for
God, but rather that it is zeal but not according to
knowledge. It is only as the child of God lives in and is
governed by the Holy Spirit through his renewed spirit,
not firstly his soul, that he will be made aware of ''the
things that differ", even in his service for God.
David was eventually
shown what the Holy Spirit had indicated in the
Scriptures as to God's principles of service, and he
found by tragic experience that spiritual principles are
more important than zeal and energy, although these
latter were no less when the true basis was established.
Satan is very subtle and will espouse our zeal for God if
by so doing he can eventually bring shame and dishonor
into God's testimony.
God sees through it and
would warn us of it. The trouble so largely is that, as
in David's case, the drive and abandon associated with a
great idea for God just ride rough-shod over quiet
waiting upon God and inquiry of Him as to His mind
concerning the means and methods to be employed. The
point at which disaster will befall very much that is
engaged in for God in all sincerity is that which leaves
no time for quiet detachment, for unhurried waiting upon
God. There may be prayer, but it is prayer with a drive
of work behind it, instead of the other way round. The
question is, Did you get that method, that means, that
program in the secret place with God, direct from Him?
Have you put everything back until all heat and hurry
have been subjected to the judgment of the Holy Spirit?
Or are you just getting on with it because it is for the
Lord?
Why must judgment begin
at the house of God? It cannot be because of a greater or
lesser degree of Christian goodness or zeal. There must
be something more in it than that!
An extract from "God Hath Spoken" Chapter 7. First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Mar-Apr 1948, Vol 26-2.