The Gospel (part 3)

by

BERT BAUMAN

RELIGIOUS AUTHORITARISM

The children of God need to learn how to hear and receive from their Heavenly Father. All truth must come from Him. Instead, Christians are trained to hear truth from their leaders only. They are actually taught that only those in authority can be trusted to hear accurately from God. Each convert is pressed into the standard mold. As Jesus said to the religious leaders of His day, “Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell (Gehenna) than yourselves.” (Matt. 23:15). Leaders of religious systems have changed little since Jesus’s day. They still tend to feel all truth must come trough them. Rather than trust the Holy Spirit to keep doctrine pure, they seem to feel a God-given commission to restrict and control what is taught and believed among people. Indeed, elders or shepherds of the local church are given responsibility to teach and keep the way of truth, but this is strictly a local charge, that is, to the flock given to their care, and with this charge are given checks and balances to protect the flock from authoritarian abuse. It does not extend to other flocks or churches, as in the structure or religious systems, and it emphatically does not include authority to use force or intimidation. Church history is a sad witness to the heinous extremes religious systems will resort to when combating new teaching – true or false. The only weapon allowed by the Holy Spirit in this charge is teaching the word of truth. Certainly, error is a persistent presence in the church, but so long as freedom of spirit is nourished, God will quickly raise up corrective teaching when necessary.

Every God-sent revival has eventually fallen under human control. Heaven-sent seasons of refreshing have always come through and to the grass roots, never through the stablished religious system. In these divine moves, God always set people free from religious authoritarianism. Unfortunately, it invariably follows that the new-found freedom is abused. This seems to be an inevitable stage in learning to walk under grace in liberty- as in the making of new wine, the new work of God appears frothy and full of ferment and those who were used as leaders in the new move become concerned with the abuses. Failing in understanding and faith that God will correct aberrations and bring discipline, these leaders often invoke the false doctrine of delegated authority, as did those before them. Taking authority, they name themselves the vicars of Christ and exercise lordship over God’s inheritance. Thus, a priesthood is established which draws a firm line between leaders (elders) and people.

In God’s order, leaders are commissioned to help people into direct persona contact with their God – not become a chain of command! The elder who does his job best is the one who works himself out of a job by teaching the younger Christians to become intimately acquainted with their Heavenly Father. Thus, in the eyes of the younger he becomes what he really is – an elder brother in the family of God. However, the human heart somehow prefers to be indispensable and so tens to rise to a place between God and man. The result is that truth is encapsulated in authoritarianism and frozen into the framework of creeds and traditions. The Holy Spirit as the active revelator of truth is quenched and ironically, the very heresy which the leaders sought to prevent is established by themselves. Living truth is replaced by tradition. Schism is inevitable as the leaders who appointed themselves overlords disagree, each drawing disciples after himself (just s Paul warned the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:30). Each fragment then establishes its own seminary and bible school in order to perpetuate its own particular dogma. All other views are rigorously guarded against and only those who are duly indoctrinated are authorized to teach the accepted truths. Every proselyte is trained to reject any new thought as satanic, and if he should embrace new truth, he is anathematized and cast out as a heretic. So goes the historic metamorphosis of changing living truth into dead orthodoxy.

Extract from the book “The Gospel” by Bert Bauman