TOOTHLESS HAG THEOLOGY

Sometime back I had taught that there are three levels of being a Christian. I maintained that any leader at any level could only bring people to his or her level. That people in a church only rise as high as the leadership of that church.

John Paul Jackson has spoken and written on this recently. I can't link to it because I can't find it but I heard him say it and know he is on the money. AND, he agrees with me.

So that settles it. ;-))

The Three Levels of Christianity:

Level One - Saved and Heavenbound.
We have confidence in heaven. Many Christians live at this level and are very happy. They fight with sin. They find themselves in a battle with the enemy and feeling defeated. When there's an altar call they respond. It's OK but they are kept somewhat inert because they can't get past the level of their own personal salvation. I work as a minister with some of these people. I want them to get out of and get over the whole idea of just being saved. Not that it's a bad thing, but churches that focus almost exclusively on salivations build churches of very saved people. Happy to be saved but sometimes insecure. Traditions and sacraments are used to help people feel forgiven and secure spiritually. It is a brief palliative effort but in the end people keep coming back after struggling spiritually.

Level Two - Saved and In Christ.
This is the level we try to get people to once we have them convinced of their salvation so their spirit man no longer is ill at ease. They need to be confident that they are going to Heaven and confident that they are living in Christ. We see all kinds of Biblical New Testament referral to being in Christ. Churches built on the in Christ alone leadership will have a lot of ministries. Hands of Christ. The WWJD bracelet is worn. Moral codes are external to who they really are. They look to Jesus and his Word for information about how they should live or operate in their lives. This is all accurate just as being saved is accurate but it becomes 7 principles for living a better life rather than the upward call of God. Most good reformed conservative churches live in this realm. Much of Christian Programming on TV or Radio have to do with living a better life in Christ. It's all very good but it's flowing out of Soul and Spirit connections. They all live as imitators of each other and not from the Spirit of God who wants to move in them. It's not where God intends his church to be. He wants us alive and new every morning. Not parroting what others are doing and saying. Level two is good but far below the upward call of God.

Level Three
Saved , In Christ, and He's alive overflowing out of you.
At level one the moment you or I were saved Jesus came and lived in you. When you are in Christ he is also in you. All that's true. But at level Three a Christian exudes the very presence of God. When you are around this person you know there is something different about them. When they encounter other people there never has to be an explanation about who they are. In fact people say, there's something different about you. They lean toward the anointing of God the Level Three Christian carries. On a plane, in a restaurant, in the airport, in a meeting, anyplace people encounter a level three Christian they are anxious to engage with them. They are hungry for what is in them. This is the level of Jesus in a man or woman that is so big it's unable to be hidden. His Spirit is alive flowing exuding almost glowing or shining out of one's very being. This is not about externals - No fish on the bumper, no cross around the neck, no sweat shirts with clever Jesus stuff on them, no big boomer Bible under the arm to announce it all. Just the very presence of God contained in a man is enough to announce who this person is. Jesus had it. When his fullness lives in you in full overflow, you will have it too. My goal in ministry is to help people reach this level. It won't happen because they take a course, read a book, hear a sermon or even are prayed for. It can only happen if a person submits themselves to everything Jesus has for them and becomes the man or woman of God he created them to be by having HIM so big in them that they become invisible except for the glory of God shining out from them. It's not them in Christ any more, it's Christ in them, The hope of Glory!

I know many men and women of God like this. But fewer than I should. I am saddened by the reality that most Christians I know live at level two. I don't believe it's possible to live at level three without the fullness of the Holy Ghost and all the giftedness in overflow. I know and love a few people without the fullness of the Holy Ghost who are wonderful people, love God, theologically sound, good ministers but stuck at level two. The attitude they have is, "If God wants me to have the Holy Spirit and Speak in Tongues, Prophesy, Give Supernatural Words of Wisdom and Knowledge, Lay hands on the sick and they DO recover, exact Miracles from Creation and all the other 1 Corinthians 12 gifts then he will have to cause me to do it." I have really bad news for them. They will NEVER EVER speak with tongues, have supernatural wisdom, knowledge, prophesy, heal or anything else at the level God intended without the fullness of the Spirit. They are Level Two pretending they are level Three and like the Seven Sons of Sceva are kicked and knocked down. I'm not even certain that there isn't a God imposed Spiritual penalty for knowing the truth and not responding. In reading the first Chapter of Romans, if you know to do what you should do and you don't you are resisting the Holy Spirit. Not a good thing. It may be sin.

I only know this. A long time ago the Churches just worked at getting people saved and forgiven thru traditions and sacraments. Eventually they became inert and toothless. Level One Churches.

Level Two Churches after the Reformation were vital and helped people enter into more of God. But now they became old and haggard trying to do things as they always had been done. Now they have little or no life left in them. Most are dead or dying with dead and dying people in them. Chronologically and spiritually. They try to help people get saved and live in Christ but leave people wandering around hungry for more. Saved people come and go from their churches feeling there just has to be more.

If you went to the local Morgue and found an old haggard street person, female, toothless and took her out to renew her you have a big job on your hands. You can put lipstick on that corpse. Get her hair done up. New clothes. Excellent Makeup. Sit her up and spend big money making her look good with the best special effects people from Hollywood can provide. She will look alive to a casual observer but she's still a cold dead toothless hag. That's what much of Christian Religion has become in North America and Europe today.

Morticians do this all the time. I won't give examples but you know it. Some poor soul is in the hospital or nursing home for a long time and dies looking terrible. When the mortuary gets done with her she looks pretty good in the casket.

But, that old no matter how much you spend on her, she is inert, toothless, dead and cold. It's over except for the ceremony to bury her. Spiritually that's what has happened to Christianity in the west. Old, Dead, Toothless, Cold, Inert. No life left in her.

One of the oldest Churches (150 years) in the Chicagoland area of the Dutch Reformed Faith is about to close. They have held on to their traditions carefully. They are faithful to the truth and true to the faith they grew up with. They are as a Church, IN CHRIST. Dutch Reformed and in Christ. All good but, inert, toothless.

Christ doesn't flow out of them. I feel bad for them. I wish I could help them. They will die and go to heaven never knowing the great plans God had for them and their fellowship if they would have shuffled off the old wineskins and moved ahead in God.

You can't fake this. Either you have it or you don't. And the key question any believer must ask themselves before they say they are or are not a Level Three Christian is the one the Apostle Paul asked in Acts 19. When they responded they received the fullness of the Holy Spirit and spoke with other tongues. If you think I am being hard read this article.

The survival of the Church in North America and Europe depends on this Third Level empowering. Today if your child reaches the age of 20 without becoming a Christian there is an even chance that they will become a Muslim within 20 years. That's how strong the influence of that false religion is. And there are many others including atheism and new age. People are going to believe in something. The bad taste in their mouths from the taste of the cold dead meat of religion keeps them away from our doors. The church in America fights by pushing some phony baloney religious tradition that is toothless and inert dressed in Robes, titles and degrees.
Jesus had a Robe, he is the Christ and he is God which is the highest degree you can achieve. If he is in YOU, you need nothing else.

Let's get people to level Three and impact the world for Jesus. Everything else we think we are going to do is useless.

Let's bury the old hag of cold dead toothless inert religion and raise up a living breathing Body of Christ alive on the earth in power and might. I'm angry at the devil for deceiving so many well meaning men who long ago were called into the ministry but now are spinning their wheels as neither fish nor fowl. Too timid to go hard after all God has for them, too scared of the financial difficulties and professional risk that might follow an all out plunge into everything God into everything God is calling them into.

They stand on the edge of the pool, shaking in their spiritual boots, wanting to go in but fearful of the consequence.

Push them in Lord. Get them into deep water. There is no retreat. Do what you have to do Lord. If you have to kill off some human roadblocks - do it. They will go to heaven anyway. If you have to bankrupt some denominations and close many churches do it. It's false security thinking you are being a faithful witness in the earth if you are just treading water without impact. Game playing is over. Let's get serious about this thing. God is going to hold you, me and every minister of the Gospel accountable for the souls we allowed to slip away because of our lack of passion, commitment or willingness to take real risks for. This isn't about better techniques. You can't take what works at some other Church and import it. It must come from who you are at the core. If it's not who you are you will never be able to make this work. You can't teach a pig to sing. You annoy the pig and waste your time.

I'm done being a Pastor to the Porcine. Jesus warned against this.
"Give not that which is holy to the dogs, nor throw your pearls to the swine; otherwise they will trample them under their feet and then turn and attack you". Matthew 7:6

I didn't listen. Sorry Lord. No more pearls will be wasted.