We used to go to church. We used to listen to the news anchor. We used to believe in the presidency. But now, we attend church online (if at all), we listen to our favorite podcasters, youtubers, and influencers, and we doubt if the government can fix meaningful problems at all. Society is fracturing and changing. Due to the technological advancements over the past several decades, traditional centralized power structures are becoming threatened. Each man is becoming his own god. They live in their own castles from the vehicles they drive to the houses they live in. They build up their online profiles as they refine their tastes and preferences. This reminds me of a particular passage from the Bible…
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. (2 Timothy 3:1–5)
The old systems that held it all together can no longer keep the status quo. Dare I say COVID-19 was an attempt of the Old System to contain the New? People cannot digest governmental propoganda as easily when they’re listening to independent news sources and watching independent films. However, this does not mean this is a fight against good and evil- “evil” being what was before and “good” being what the world is moving towards. I was just reading the story of when Jesus was before Pontius Pilate. In that interaction, Jesus could clearly see the Father’s sovereignty amidst all the sin. Pilate “had the lesser sin” while the Jewish religious elite had the greater. But in the middle of it all, Jesus declared that Pilate had no authority over him apart from the sovereign Father. All were sinning, but even so, God’s sovereign plan was advancing, unstoppable. This is how it will be in the last days as well, according to Paul in the passage quoted above. Sin will be everywhere, but God will use that to advance His story and His will.
But what I’m reflecting on today is the need for change. The goal is not a temporal solution where we retain as much comforts and pleasures and conveniences as possible while maintaining freedom of upward mobility in society, maybe in some sort of digital democracy. No, but the goal is an eternal solution. If Jesus has been revealed to you, and you have believed in him, having repented, and continuing in a lifestyle of obedience which springs from a place of rest and abiding in Jesus, the Vine, then you are of the Resurrection. You are of the Ultimate Reality which is the New Jerusalem which will come down out of Heaven to be on Earth where God will abide with Man without any need of a temple.
“Christianity” is associated with the “Church” which is associated with the building down the street. But the building down the street is growing increasingly more and more empty these days. Some are growing as some advocate for returning to an older way of life which seems more pure and genuine than where things seem to be moving. Surely attending a church is better than just viewing it online, right? Well, yes! But why does the solution have to be “go to a church”? What I’m getting at is, “why stop there?” Go to the root of the Church, and you’ll find the head, Jesus. You see, what we can not be about are temporal fixes. We must be about the “eternal fix,” which is Jesus himself. These temporal fixes might not even be relevant anymore. In a world where communities are moving online, where excellent teaching can be found on YouTube (as well as terrible teaching…what I mean is that you can look up any great mind and listen to his sermons), and even where ChatGPT, if you instruct it correctly, can spill out some crazy good relevant teaching based on scripture…what’s the point of going to a church if the goal is good teaching and an occasional hand shake? Additionally, community cannot be the main reason why you go to church either, otherwise it becomes a country club with inspirational messages backed by good music. If you advocate for “the older days,” even if things were relatively better, you are advocating for earthly things which are temporal. We must be able to let go of what is dying in order to keep pace with the Holy Spirit.
The book of Hebrews says that the Tabernacle was made after a pattern in Heaven, and also Solomon’s Temple that followed. In multiple places across the Old Testament, we see glimpses of a heavenly temple that is real and actually there where God is dwelling. In other words, the Tabernacle and Temple, along with their sacrificial rituals, were not some silly, merely symbolic and abstract representations of Jesus and how he’d be understood later, but they were real replicas of what was actually in Heaven. Jesus fulfilled all the law and prophets, but did not abolish them. This is because, as Paul said, the law is good, but we are evil. The reason we don’t make sacrifices anymore is not because sacrifices are a dumb, archaic way to absolve sin, but because Jesus became the perfect sacrifice and is actively ruling from heaven right now. I don’t mean to detract from Hebrews 10:4 (For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins), but merely convey that the sacrificial systems of the Temple were real heavenly realities (there is a Temple right now in Heaven!), represented symbolically on earth, ultimately fulfilled in Jesus, not abolished. This is why Jesus had to be a sacrifice, because sacrifices meant something, according to the pattern in Heaven that God had established. Jesus, in the Book of Revelation, is standing as a “slain lamb.” What? Why is John’s vision so weird? The vision means Jesus is currently, now and forever, the adequate or perfect sacrifice still being applied. He’s a sacrifice slain, but still alive. When the New Jerusalem becomes a reality, then there will be no Temple. We are of that reality as first-fruits, the Firstborn, as a foretaste of what is to come, just as Jesus is our example as the Firstborn. That is what it means to be a part of the Resurrection.
So, why the heck am I saying all this? Because we cannot hold onto old systems when something better is here already. The Church is most emphatically not an entity that is of earth. We are the firstborn, enrolled in heaven, according to Hebrews 12:23. Jesus told Pilate that His kingdom was not of this world. The Church is a part of that non-earthly kingdom. The Church, just like the Temple, is a heavenly reality, but the Church is better than the Temple and replaces it. We are the bride of Christ that will rule with him over every nation one day when He returns. So if we participate in that heavenly reality right now through Christ, and if that abiding with Him by His blood is what defines the Church, than we have to seek what King Jesus wants us to do right now, and not assume we must return to some earthly form which, although good in its day, cannot be the ultimate answer. We should not define “church” by how it has been expressed previously in history, but by how God defines it, regardless of what is happening on Earth.
This post is not aimed to propose some new church structure that will be better suited to how the world is changing- I don’t know what that will be- but I do know that, if we are to stay with Christ, we must consult Him as King before we rely on our own understandings, even our own understandings of Scripture. The question of our time is not, “what solution can I come up with that uses the scriptures of my choosing?” but, “Jesus, which scriptures do you want to highlight so that we can discover what You want to do right now because we believe You have the best thing in mind?” One is of our own understanding, and the other is of faith. One requires listening to our own will, and the other requires listening to the Holy Spirit. One sees opportunity for industry through ambition, and the other sees Jesus through revelation.
So, as the world surges onward through change and turmoil, through prosperity and judgment, we, as the Resurrection, stay steady through Christ by faith. We live by the Ultimate Reality which is in Heaven. When we participate in the Church, we are enrolled and speaking in Heaven before the Father’s throne. We don’t cling to what was before or cling to any future idea that is our own, but we forget what is left behind and forfeit our wills as we submit to the King of Kings and run after Him continually.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12–14)
P.S. — the song “Sunrise” felt like the right soundtrack for this one. You can listen to it here.