Domesticating Christians
July 5, 2007
Ron and Karen Schwartz
Fruitfulness And Natural Order
Romans 1:26-27 KJV
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their
women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman,
burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which
is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error
which was meet.
In this passage, we find repeated the phrase “the natural use.” The word
“natural” comes from the Greek word phusikos, which means “produced by
nature or inborn (as in instinctive).” The words “physical” and
“physics” are derived from this word. It has to do with what and how
things occur in nature. Since the Hebrew language contained no word for
describing “natural order,” it is odd to find a Jew using a term that
had a clear connection to Greek pagan culture. The Greeks view of
natural order (physics) didn’t include a single God orchestrating the
balance of nature. To them, natural order was like a great machine that
was once set in motion and since then continued on its way. The Jews
thought of the physical universe as the world that God created,
governed, and sustained. Nature was the manifestation of God’s glory and
goodness.
When Paul wrote of “natural order,” he was referring to the creation
account. During creation, God used the phrases “after his kind” or
“after their kind” fifteen times to describe procreation. Every plant,
animal, fish, and bird reproduces “after their kind” by following “the
natural use” as it was created. This was the “natural order” of the
physical universe. It is interesting that when God made mankind, He did
not tell man to procreate “after his kind.” Instead, God referred to
creation of mankind using the words “after our likeness (Genesis 1:26).”
Though mankind would reproduce “after his kind,” his purpose was to
reproduce after God’s kind. Therefore, every plant and animal spoken
into existence during creation has value and purpose in this physical
universe only. But mankind is different. Not only does he have a
physical purpose [i.e., to “replenish the earth (Genesis 1:28)”], but
also a spiritual one [i.e., to become “the image of God (Genesis
1:27)”]. Mankind tends to be a blend of the physical and spiritual. Take
for example the act of procreation.
All the millions of different species of insects, animals, fish, and
birds, are born with an instinct for how to procreation. However, many
behaviorologists question whether or not this is true of mankind. Though
born with a strong sex drive, most (if not all) children seem to need
instruction as to how sex is actually performed. Why is this? When it
comes to procreation, God has given to mankind the instinct to reproduce
after God’s kind, NOT after his own kind. Wherever you go in this world
you will find this instinct. Every culture that has ever existed
worshipped some form of god. Even in the most remote regions of the
Amazon, in places where no civilized person has ever visited and where
the natives have not had other human contact for centuries, you will
discover that they worship a god. Mankind is born with an intrinsic
desire to serve God. It is his destiny. It is his “natural order.”
Natural order is important to God because it often reflects the
spiritual order God has established for his people.
In this first chapter of Romans, Paul begins to describe perversion. He
tells how that some men “did change the natural use into that which is
against nature (Romans 1:26).” He is, of course, describing
homosexuality. But let’s take this idea to its logical conclusion. When
men change the “natural use [order]” that God established, what happens?
Nothing, and that’s the problem. The “natural use [order],” which Paul
describes, is for the purpose of procreation. When this “use” is
perverted, there can be no procreation. Men who change this order not
only disregard God design but do so to satisfy their own twisted
pleasure.
Paul goes on to write that since creation and natural order are the
manifest goodness and glory of God (e.g., the Hebrew concept of “natural
order”), when men pervert the “natural use [order],” they “changed the
glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible
man (Romans 1:23).” He repeats himself a couple of verses later when he
writes that men “changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and
served the creature more than the Creator (Romans 1:25).” Perversion -
to change the order that God established – is mankind humiliating the
God of the universe.
The idea here is that mankind cannot go against “natural order,” even
though it feels good, without insulting the God who created it. It is
not man’s prerogative to use nature any way he so chooses. We understand
the natural implications, so let’s now consider the spiritual.
Since mankind has both a physical and a spiritual purpose, mankind has
the ability to pervert in both a physical and a spiritual manner. When
men go “against nature (Romans 1:26),” they offend God and lose the
ability to procreate. In addition, when men go against the Spirit, they
lose their ability to be spiritually fruitful.
The “natural use [order]” God established for the Church is for Christ
to be the spiritual head. This “order” allows the Church to experience
spiritual procreation. But just as they did with nature, men have sought
to change (i.e., pervert) the “natural use [order]” by placing men as
the spiritual heads of their churches. This parallels the natural
perversion of “men with men.” Men were never meant to be the spiritual
heads of men. This perversion is why the church is virtually barren of
God’s power and unprofitable (or unfruitful) to this world. Because of
its “men with men” perversion, the church no longer has the power to
spiritually procreate, and just as appalling, the church is guilty of
spiritual sodomy.
There is only one solution. Churches must unseat their pastors as their
spiritual heads. Church bodies must learn to function the way God
intended: with the Holy Spirit in charge and in control. Most pastors
claim that the Holy Spirit is in control but funnels this control
through them. This is spiritual perversion. God does not want or need
anyone filtering His authority and leadership with His people.
Knowledge And Natural Order
Hosea 4:6 KJV
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast
rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no
priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also
forget thy children.
It’s difficult to image a time when God’s people were without knowledge.
In fact, since the day God first called Abram out of the land of Ur, the
knowledge of who God is and what He wants has continued to accumulate.
At the time of Hosea, over 1,500 years had elapsed, the majority of the
Old Testament had been written, and volumes of commentary on the law
were produced. Some of the greatest men of the Old Testament, like
Moses, David, and Elijah, had lived and died. They provided valuable
insight into the mind of God. One thing that God’s people were not
lacking was knowledge.
Not all knowledge is good. Take, for example, the domestication of
animals. When the “natural use [order]” of an animal’s environment is
changed, it can have a devastating effect on the animal’s ability to
thrive in its native environment. When an animal is domesticated, it
often loses the capacity to survive in its own native habitat. Animals
that are raised in a domestic environment can actually become a victim
if reintroduced to its natural setting. Some will actually struggle with
its captors to prevent being released. They often experience terrible
fear of being integrated into the environment for which they are
designed to live because they no longer see their natural environment as
their native environment.
The word “domesticate” means: “To tame (usually creating a dependency so
that the animal loses its ability to live in the wild), especially by
generations of breeding. To adapt (a plant) so as to be cultivated by
and beneficial to human beings. To take (something foreign, unfamiliar,
etc.) for one's own use or purposes. To make more ordinary, familiar,
and acceptable.”
The goal of all institutional churches is to domesticate Christians. As
a result, most Christians now lack the ability to survive and thrive in
the environment that God created for them. Most Christians read the
accounts of the New Testament and wonder why the Christianity as once
practiced is so vastly different from the Christianity presented by the
institutional church. They have come to accept that things are just
different now, and the current church system is the natural evolution of
the church. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Christians now view their native environment (i.e., the Christianity
described in the scripture) as a foreign environment, and they mistake
the institutional environment in which they now live as their native
environment. Once again, this is a twisting of the “natural use” God
purposed for His church. Like domesticated animals, Christians today
need their pastor-farmers to provide for them. They cannot survive on
their own. Farmers are only too happy to accommodate because the number
of Christians they feed amounts to the number of cattle they own.
Christians are beneficial to them (i.e., definition of “domesticate”)
and good for their own use or purposes (i.e., definition of
“domesticate”). Christians have become the livestock of churches. The
scripture describes it as follows:
2 Peter 2:1-3 KJV
1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there
shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon
themselves swift destruction.
2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way
of truth shall be evil spoken of.
3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make
merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and
their damnation slumbereth not.
Revelation 18:11-13KJV
11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no
man buyeth their merchandise any more:
12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of
pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all
thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of
most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,
13 And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine,
and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses,
and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.
Many people are offended to read a note that compares their pastor to a
farmer and the congregation of which they’re a part to cattle. To them
their pastor is a benevolent person who would never deliberately cause
harm to anyone. They believe that their pastor simply loves everyone.
Let’s get real. Most men who are involved with ministry have chosen this
career path because they felt compelled to serve God. Their decision to
become a minister was not because they love people or want to serve
people. The problem is found in the institutional church culture in
which we live. In this culture the only way to serve God is to become
involved with ministry. As a result there are vast multitudes of people
“entering ministry” who have little respect for people and their needs,
for family units, and for the needs of the community. They are often
arrogant and look down on people. They simply enter “the ministry”
because they want to serve God. Their motives may be noble, but their
actions can be devastating to people. When men “enter the ministry” to
serve God the goal becomes that of “ministering for the Lord,” and not
to serve people. People are merely a means to their end. Their goal is
very much self-serving – it is for their spiritual development and
fulfillment. This is why in most churches people tend to spin
spiritually in the same place for years while the pastor grows and often
jumps from church to church following his ministry. It’s his welfare
he’s thinking about. People are no more than cattle on their ministry
farms. That is why the goal of most every pastor is to get a bigger
farm. If their goal was really to help people then the size of their
church would not be important, but only the spiritual welfare of the
people.
Like farmers, pastors have come to realize that the more Christian
livestock they possess, the more mindless cattle they have to increase
the size of their farm. Christianity in institutional churches is NOT
about evangelizing the world but about farm business. Farms have needs.
So Christian cattle must give of themselves sacrificially to keep the
farm running. God said this concerning pastor (shepherds)/farmers:
Ezekiel 34:1-3 KJV
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and
say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the
shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds
feed the flocks?
3 Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are
fed: but ye feed not the flock.
These were farmers who were in the business of farming, not shepherding.
They only had the title of “shepherd.”
The word “domesticate” also means “to make more ordinary.” Only ordinary
people who lack the spiritual power of the Holy Spirit are content to
remain penned up on a church farm and eating the farmer’s rations,
rather than thriving in the freedom of God’s Spirit. It becomes the goal
of every pastor-farmer to convince Christians that they cannot survive
in the wild. They must come into their church/barn, find a place in one
of the mindless stalls, and survive on the rations the pastor-farmer
gives. They are just ordinary people with extraordinary pastor-farmers.
Contemporary preachers and institutional churches do not want the
extraordinary Christians. Extraordinary Christians refuse to stay penned
up and under the pastor-farmer’s control. They break through the fences
and often take other Christians with them. This is why so many mature
Christians are unable find a church or are unwelcome in the ones they
attend.
When you domesticate animals, they generally lose the ability to survive
on their own. They become victims. Many Christians who attend a church
meeting as they were originally held don’t know what to do. Like
domesticated animals, they lack the ability to find their own food. So
they sit and wait to be fed. They are used to men telling them what God
wants, encouraging them, and giving them instruction. They cannot
imagine going to God on their own, the way it was meant to be. So they
fight against any attempt to reintroduce them into their native
environment. They have grown dependent upon the safety of the
church-farm and the provisions of the pastor-farmer. We see this often.
We see Christians visit who don’t want to do any preparation before a
meeting. They don’t understand what it means to “wait” upon the Lord.
They are used to the fast food/fast paced meeting that is completely
orchestrated by men. That has become their new habitat and anything else
must be wrong.
Of the untold hundreds of millions of professing Christians in the
Western nations, the overwhelming majority has become domesticated
through centuries of breeding. Churches have bred a type of Christian
who is dependant on the church-farm and who is slowly choking out the
original breed of Christians that were established by Christ and His
apostles. This new breed is not the victorious church that challenges
the gates of hell, and it never will be. The institutional church cannot
use Christians who refuse to be this breed of livestock. So the true
Christians are methodically weeded out until only the Tares remain. Just
as Tares have many similarities to Wheat, most church-farm livestock
have many of the characteristics of Christians. For them to take the
name “Christian” is an embarrassment to God.
If you are a pastor-farmer who considers yourself a Christian leader,
you have nothing to brag about. You are responsible for the apostate
condition of your churches. You have transformed the training ground for
God’s army into a domestic cattle farm for your own benefit.
You cannot change the native environment of Christians without changing
their behavior. The word “domesticate” means “to tame,” and that is what
you have done to the people of God. People who are called to be
overcomers you have set as spectators in your churches. You have
transformed an army into an audience. You have tamed the warriors. You
have tamed their desire to conquer. You have tamed their desire to live
the victorious lives God wants for them. You have turned God’s chosen
warriors into your cattle. Enjoy it now. You will have explaining to do
when you face God.
Subdue Or Subdued
Genesis 1:28 KJV
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish
of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing
that moveth upon the earth.
The word translated “subdue” is the word “kabash,” which means “to tread
down, to conquer, subjugate, violate,” and is translated as “bring into
bondage, force, keep under, subdue, and bring into subjection” in the
King James Version. Mankind as both a physical and spiritual being was
ordained to subdue (conquer) his natural environment as well as his
spiritual universe. But, once again, we find that the men have changed
the “natural use” of what God destined for His people. They cannot be
“subduers” (i.e., conquerors) and live peacefully in the farming
community of the institutional church. God’s people are forced to
choose: do they want their native environment of conquering and
overcoming, or do they want “taming” down – dumbing down - into mindless
church-farm livestock?
Jesus said, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and
broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which
go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it (Matthew 7:13-14).” He
wasn’t referring to the path of this world as being the “broad… way,
that leadeth to destruction.” He was referring to the religious system
that is put in place by pastor-farmers. How do we know this? Read the
next verse. “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves (Matthew 7:13-14).” The
broad… way is NOT the path this world takes, but the safe domestic path
that is provided by institutional church. All it will cost you is your
life. By taking that path, you will never again be able to survive in
the spiritual domain that God destined for you. You will be like, or
stay like, all the other useless Christian cattle that fill Western
church-farms. You will exist, not for God, but for meeting the pastor’s
needs.
Institutional churches and their pastor-farmers have created the “broad
way,” and in doing so, they have made Christianity irrelevant.
Individual Christians are irrelevant. They are everywhere but cannot do
or change anything. They are helpless to change our government or
schools, and just why is that? It’s because they are no longer warriors.
They are as irrelevant as cattle. Christians go to church only to be
fed, and they provide no other useful purpose. Would this world really
be any different without them? How much of a difference do cows make to
our society? They are just being fattened up for when the farmer wants
to slaughter them.
Christians not only act irrelevant, but they have become fully convinced
that they actually are irrelevant. They have become conditioned into
believing that the only useful tool in the church is the pastor-farmer.
And that their only function is to provide physical and financial
support for the pastor-farmer’s business. Its all a lie perpetrated by
the pastor-farmers to keep Christians domesticated.
Conclusion
Many Christians are frustrated by their powerless lives and feeling like
dry cisterns. Their problem is that they truly believe that their
institutional church-farms are their answer. They do not realize that it
is in these very church-farms in which they place their hope and trust
where the problem lies. They will never become what their heart tells
them they are destined to be as long as they remain locked away as
cattle in the church-barn. The real church is now so foreign to them
that they don’t know how to survive in it. They actually fight to resist
any change to the church-farm that might bring it closer to being a real
church. It’s a vicious circle. They want to change but resist change
when they see it. Their knowledge is corrupt.
God said that His “people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” This has
led many Christians to assume that knowledge is the answer. They talk
themselves into believing that their church-farms do not need to change
and neither do their pastor-farmers. What they need is just more and
better information. They have come to believe that their spiritual
health is measured by the amount of knowledge they possess. It’s not the
amount of knowledge but the type of knowledge that is important.
When animals are taken from their native habitat and placed in a
domestic setting, their native knowledge becomes replaced with a new
knowledge of their domestic setting. Animals learn to adapt to their new
domestic environment. The original knowledge of how they were meant to
live is lost. It is no longer necessary. In fact, retaining knowledge of
how they lived in the wild can often cause them problems in
domestication. Farmers need to beat/discipline their old knowledge out
of them. The new knowledge of how to feed and conform in domestication
is all they need.
True Christians who desire to be the subduer/conqueror that God destined
them to be are incompatible with institutional churches. They are
incompatible with the church setting that casts them as spectators, like
cattle in stalls. Christians like this have sacrificed their knowledge
of how to move and operate in the Spirit for the safety of their
church-farm and the mindless duty of being fed by their pastor-farmer.
They believe that only their pastor-farmer is blessed with the gift of
feeding. So they have laid down their swords and armor and quietly
conformed to becoming livestock. They no longer know how to survive and
thrive in the environment God designed them to conquer. They are no
longer God’s warriors against the land of spiritual darkness. They live
now in the safety of their stall, and think that this is what God
destined for them. God’s people have quite literally been “destroyed for
lack of knowledge.”
Yet deep within the hearts of many of God’s people is a burning desire
to conquer. They sense their untamed hearts saying, “This isn’t right!
This isn’t how it was meant to be!” Many don’t know what to do, so they
pursue a career in the ministry, just to become themselves a
pastor-farmer. They simply follow all the other abusers down the broad
path of destruction.
There is a better way! Let’s begin to reintroduce God’s people to the
lives they were meant to live. Let’s help them to discover their feral
hearts. Let’s end the pastoral control of the local church and turn it
back over to the Spirit of God. Let’s tear down the stalls and help the
people of God find their armor. Let’s repent of the sin of destroying
God’s people and army. Let’s stop playing church and become one!
Amen.
kmsrjs@triton.net |
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