Exodus, Migration, and Individuation

There are three main trends affecting Church and religion: Exodus, Migration, and Individuation. Evangelical Churches especially mega-churches are seeing large numbers of people leaving to go elsewhere. Already some mega-churches have shut their doors. Younger adults, converts, and those seeking historical continuity, are most likely to abandon evangelical churches in North America.

Evangelicals emphasize personal interpretation of scripture. This has led to thousands of independent Bible believing churches. The question arises “Who can you believe?” This may be one of the reasons some seek stricter orthodoxy, as people look for historical stability. Highly structured religions assume authority for biblical interpretation. In the USA evangelical identity has become intertwined with politics. Obviously, there are many other reasons why people change their loyalties; churches may become fragmented, culturally focused, theologically diffuse, disenchanted with leadership, and contextually shallow.

Migration occurring as a result of dissatisfaction with something will lead a person toward its opposite. If doctrinal weakness is an issue, Orthodoxy provides doctrinal stability, which may not be any more correct than that left behind, but having a long historical tradition appears sound.

Many exiting churches are tired of institutional religion; they no longer attend church or claim to be religious in the traditional sense. God looks at our heart not what pew we sit in. Getting every doctrine right isn’t necessary, doing all the right things doesn’t matter. We do not earn God’s approval; we don’t need rituals, programs, or traditions; they have nothing to do with being a child of God. We must put our trust in Jesus of Nazareth the man who walked in the dust of the Middle East, associated with fishermen, whose friends were mostly outcasts and commoners.

Jesus accused the scribes and Pharisees of putting their traditions ahead of God’s word, saying they taught human precepts as doctrines. That same error has led millions of people away from a new covenant relationship with God. Constantine used Christianity for a political purpose. The Christian bishops in Rome willingly adopted imperialism. Roman Christianity became tied to the basilica, imperial support, and institutionalism. Roman bishops leaned on imperial power to subordinate Christian groups, removing their autonomy and expression. Schisms appeared and opposition rose against Rome’s power grab but were suppressed by persecution.

Leaving a church because of discontent, ambivalence, or insecurity can be disastrous if it leads to false security of institutional structure and authoritative tradition. A quote that suggests caution – “If a man does away with his traditional way of living and throws away his good customs, he had better first make certain that he has something of value to replace them.” (Robert Ruark, Something of Value) One church is no better than another, but some are worse than others. “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t,” substitute church in place of devil if you need. When a person migrates to a church only because its structure and doctrines provide security that could be considered the same as Jewish Christians leaving the grace of God and returning to the traditions and legal structures of Judaism.

“Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh…” Beware of the dogs, not pets but unclean, scavenging, contemptible outsiders. Beware of the evil workers, those who appears religious but are harmful and corrupt. Beware of those who mutilate the flesh advocating circumcision as a prerequisite of salvation. For we are the circumcision – those who worship by the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and do not place confidence in flesh. The new covenant promised by God is not accessed by law but given through grace. Believers do not go to the temple; we are the temple of God’s Spirit. A personal relationship with God is not without direction the essential commandments of time apply to all of us, love God and love your neighbour. Our lives whether we go to church or not must be based on the life and teaching of Jesus. If we believe in Jesus of Nazareth, we are in God’s family, we are in the kingdom of God, we have a home with God in eternity.

The kingdom of God or heaven in Matthew: The kingdom of God is not something observable it is inside us. The word ἐντός in the LXX overwhelmingly means “inside,” not “among.” Paul taught that “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,” and “For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, 'I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” James wrote “the scripture says, ‘God yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us.’” Similar to Jesus’ discussion with the Samaritan woman, who believed that worship was geographical; Jesus told her that very soon worship of God would not be connected to the Samaritan mountain or Jerusalem – he said “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

I recall conversations in which Hebrews 10:25 was used as a bludgeon telling people they must attend church. “…not neglecting to meet together” is not a stand alone statement, it part of a context which includes purpose, failure and urgency:  “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope, let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, as you see the Day approaching.” The Day was not Sunday! It was “the Day of the Lord” prophesied by Joel.

Jesus expressed sadness for Jerusalem: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” and, when speaking to his disciples about the destruction of Jerusalem he said, “For at that time there will be great suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. Truly I tell you, all this will come upon this generation.” That was “the day” the author had in mind. That day was important because with the destruction of the temple, the Sinai covenant and law of Moses ended, ushering in the new covenant unfettered by the law of Moses which had remained in place for Jewish believers until the end of the age.

I have always believed that when we read scriptures we are reading someone else’s mail. All religious requirements and regulations were written before the destruction of the temple, between 1500 BCE  and 70 CE, in different places, different circumstances, primarily to Israel; they tell God’s story of reconciling humanity to himself. Moses spoke to the assembly of Israel before they entered the Promised Land, “The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. Not with our ancestors did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today.” That was an exclusive group.

In the period of transition from the crucifixion of Jesus to the destruction of the temple Jewish Christians were obliged to keep the Law of Moses. Gentile believers were instructed to “abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood”. Exodus states “…the same law shall apply to the native as to the stranger who sojourns among you.” James forbade practices of idolatry that would prevent Jew and Gentile being together by imposing Levitical prohibitions on Gentiles, thereby creating a similar situation to foreigners in Israel. Gentile believers were not converted to Judaism but to the fellowship of believers of two distinct nations under one moral code.

The new covenant is universal and individual with no ceremonial laws or rituals. Paul wrote that what happened to Israel served “as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come.“ In the same way all that is written in scripture serves as examples for all believers after the destruction of the temple.