Out and About 13 Vituperate Voices in Vestments

[HKHaugan]

Out and About 13  Vituperate Voices in Vestments

 

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. “  Mt.7:15

 

In the ‘out and about’ world in which we live our daily experience there are many voices speaking.  They are both heard with our ears and sensed in our spirit.  Discerning their source is extremely important for us in these times of world unrest.  The fact that we are first spiritual beings has to take precedence from the moment we wake up until we go to bed at night.  Thinking, seeing, hearing and responding spiritually is the way the Lord has chosen to change the world right where we are.  This is the way of faith.  This is the truth of faith and this is the life of faith.  Faith does not just believe.  Faith is about living spiritually in the power and presence of the Spirit of God wherever we are.  

 

We have been led out from institutions that have begun to follow voices that do not speak in the language of spiritual authority from the Word of God.  They speak in spiritually foreign languages that are not of the Holy Spirit.  Like all evil spirits in our time they operate with subtlety.

 

Here is an example of a denominational leader reinterpreting the biblical faith,

 

“The overarching connection in all of these crises [natural disasters, specifically Hurricane Katrina] has to do with the great Western heresy - that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God. It's caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus. That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground of all being. That heresy is one reason for the theme of this Convention (Mrs. Katherine Schori, Presiding Bishop, opening address, Episcopal Church General Convention 2009).”

 

What language is this?  It certainly isn’t biblical language.  It certainly isn’t from the Spirit of God.  It certainly isn’t the truth.  It has all about it the stench of institutionalism, of clerical superiority and self-assumed interpretive authority above Scripture very much like that of the Pharisees and Sadducees.  It is a clear attempt to exert and maintain personal control through ecclesial language and position. 

 

First, it denies Jesus as a personal Savior.  What does the Word of God say?  “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved (Romans 10:9-10).”

 

Second, it returns God to an impersonal distant deity hidden behind the curtain of institutionalism, its clergy and their presumptive authority.  In the following Scripture note how the curtain was torn, “At that moment, the Temple curtain was ripped in two, top to bottom. There was an earthquake, and rocks were split in pieces (Mt.27:51).”   

 

Third, take warning; it establishes clergy office as the only interpreter of God’s place and ours.  “The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way…(Jer.5:31).”

 

To hijack authority from the Word and the Holy Spirit in such a way is to place our sin nature above the divine, man above God and reassume what was overcome on the Cross, that sinful man can take the place of God and His Word.  And done with such dignity in the Convention setting of liturgy, vestments (sheep’s clothing) and assembled ‘nobility’ it would seem nothing could be questioned since the ‘true attitudinal church’ was at work.  How spiritually blind and spiritually inattentive were the so-called line of the Apostles (bishops) and their delegations, that not one voice was raised in objection during that blasphemous diatribe.  The institution has so anesthetized its leadership with the spirit of pride that the grieved Spirit of God had no place in the hearts of attendees to feel that grief and weep for the trusting souls of those who sent them there.

 

Is it any wonder that Jesus spoke so conclusively when He said, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.  ’The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit (John 3:5-8).”

 

Contrary to what Mrs. Schori said it seems the Lord God wants us at the center of existence with Him.  Jesus said clearly, “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am (John14:2-3).”  Then when Jesus was praying the night before He was crucified we would be on His mind.  He not only prayed for Himself and the disciples but also for those of us who would come to believe in Him later and this is what He prayed;  “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me (John 17:20-21).”  

 

So two last questions for Mrs. Schori.  If we weren’t meant to be that close to Him why did He create us in His image to be individual relational persons, His personal children (Jn.1:12), with a mind, heart and spirit like Father, Son and Holy Spirit?  And also why, when we chose to go our own way and sin, did Jesus go to the Cross and die in our place to restore us by grace through faith (Eph.2:8) to the Father?  Sounds mighty personal, individual and relational to me.  Just ‘out and about’ questions to which the Scripture gives ‘out and about’ answers.