New Year Message 2013

Now that the end of the world in 2012 is out of the way we can look forward to the new year with optimism. Christians are the only ones who have the real answer to the problems the world faces in 2013. In the Great Commission Jesus commanded us to disciple the nations, i.e. to make Christian nations, not to disciple individuals from among the nations. Of course it is not possible to disciple the nations without making individual disciples. But it is possible to convert individuals to the faith without discipling the nations, and this is the problem that the Church faces today, namely, an incorrect vision of our task on earth. The reason the Church is not discipling the nations is that she is not trying to do so on the whole. For example, where I live in the UK there is simply no vision for this, and no interest among pastor and clergymen for it. They do not want the Kingdom of God because that means a loss of power and control for themselves. They want to keep Christians in bondage to their own beggarly principalities, their denominations and feeble institutions, rather than setting them free to live as citizens of the Kingdom of God. They want to control God and his work on earth. This is the essence of all pagan magic: to control God or whatever powers are above man from below. In keeping Christians in bondage to this demonic vision the clergy, pastors and denominational leaders have effectively dispossessed Christians of their citizenship in the Kingdom of God and replaced it with servitude to their own feeble agenda, namely, centralised bureaucratic control of the Church by a professional clergy that is focused on ritualised cultic activity because they believe that this is the essence of the life of faith. It is not.

In most Western countries there are enough Christians even still to turn their societies upside down. We do not lack the numbers (nor even the money, judging from the stupendously wasteful way that Churches spend their money). We lack only vision. We lack this vision because Christians are brainwashed week in week out by the clergymen and pastors who believe in control from below, who believe in the official magic they promulgate each Sunday, which, like a narcotic, numbs the minds of believers and keeps them in bondage to a false vision of the Christian faith, namely that it is an escapist mystery cult. The Lord Jesus Christ has sent us out to convert the world, to convert the nations. He will not return until this task has been fulfilled. He will not return soon. There is too much work to do. Mt. 28:18–20 gives us the Alpha of eschatology: “Go and disciple the nations.” Rev. 11:15 gives us the Omega of eschatology; “Behold the kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall rule forever.” This is the Alpha and Omega of eschatology. The Lord Christ will not return until the Great Commission is fulfilled. And when he does return, it will be said on that day: “Behold the kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his.”

The theology that Christians are fed each week in church by their pastors is a drug that dulls their minds to the word of God and the vision that it sets before us. This is why the Church in our day is so weak and beggarly and defeated before the world. The vision that the Bible gives us is one of conquering the nations and bringing them into subjection to the will of Christ. How do we achieve this? By Christians constituting themselves as a true society of faith, a Christian counter-revolutionary prophetic social order that displaces the culture of death that surrounds us (secular humanism) and grows until it replaces that culture, i.e. until the Christianity becomes public truth, the dominant world-view that determines the cultural life of the nations. The only thing we lack to achieve this is the vision, the ability to see that this is our task. You will not get this vision in your clergy-controlled churches. You are being drugged each week with a deadly perspective that neutralises the Great Commission and your role in it. You need to get off this drug and get a biblical vision. The Lord will not return and take his Church away from all her tribulations. It is through tribulation that we enter the Kingdom of God. Therefore we must embrace the tribulation along with the task, because that is the only way to victory.

We are more than conquerors through Christ. Conquerors of what? Of the world that we are commanded to disciple. If Christians will act together in pursuing the Kingdom of God (rather than the principalities foisted on them by their clergymen), they will transform the earth. But we must act together. What we can accomplish as individuals is something, but not as much as we can accomplish as a family. What one family can accomplish is something more, but not as much as what several families can accomplish. What a few families acting together can accomplish is more again, but not as much as what the Church as a whole can accomplish. We need to become real communities, real societies, with a social order that transforms the world, not one that conforms to it. The clergymen have had their day. They have led the Church to utter defeat before the world. It is time to get rid of them. We need leaders who are prepared to face the battles ahead not cowards who run away as soon as they see the enemy, or even worse, leaders who are actually in the pay of the enemy, which is often what we have in the Church.

2013 presents us with great opportunities. We have the opportunity, the power and the authority to transform the world. But we will only do this if we follow the biblical vision. We must call all men everywhere to repent, because God commands all men everywhere to repent. And we must model to the world what this means, not only in our individual personal lives, but also in the way we live as the true society of faith, the true social order, the Kingdom of God. The Christian faith is not Church-centred, much less denomination-centred or petty principality-centred—and unfortunately most Churches are petty principalities. The Christian faith is Kingdom of God-centred. A Kingdom is a true social order, not an escapist mystery cult.

In my next post I will look at some practical aspects of what this means, both for our living as a social order and for our Church gatherings. In the meantime for more on how to go about this see: http://parekbasis.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/mission-impossible.html.