the BODY of Christ

The BODY of Christ

I am nauseated as I sit here writing this.
It's ironic that this is coming from me considering my recent "Return to Rome," so to speak, but I want to be clear: my decision to return to worshipping Jesus in a Roman Catholic setting is not about my displeasure in my previous church, or any other churches before. It is also not about me right now believing that the RCC is infallible and always correct. It is about me believing two things: 1. That wherever TWO OR THREE ARE GATHERED IN HIS NAME, there He is. Meaning that God is clearly at work in many different areas and structures, and I'm not condemning or calling "untrue" any other church community that believes in the Jesus Christ of the Bible and confirms the creeds. 2. The RCC's theological stance is closest to what I personally believe the Bible describes about most things. As I have really settled down to study the "doctrines of difference," I've discovered two things-- that first of all, Catholicism doesn't teach or endorse half the things protestants fear that it does, and that second of all, there is valid biblical support for every theological belief upheld by the RCC. Lastly, one cannot deny that the thing missing from any protestant/nondenominational segment is true apostolic authority, which is deeply entrenched in Orthodoxy and something which cannot be argued about.
So all this to say that for ME it makes sense, and that's why I've made this decision, in conjunction with my husband and fully knowing that there are going to be areas in life which the RCC is still learning/working towards the Godly ideal, just as anywhere else.

That being said, one major factor in our decision has been majorly influenced by increasing disgust with nondenominational movements at which we have been on the "cutting edge," so to speak. Many of us have been influenced so completely by other believers in certain areas we don't even KNOW there is a name or a movement which describes what we are working towards. I wrote often about our concern over the church in Isla Vista working towards "relational" Christianity, a term coined by Graham Cooke who runs a prophetic ministry that encourages that particular type of "church." Other "types" of churches we have been heavily involved with are the House Church movement, Latter Rain (in some ways) and the neo apostolic charismatic movement, or the new apostolic reformation.
We 've been borderline involved with emergent churches, although we really believed that emergent churches were "dancing with the devil" so to speak. We have also been involved in the Family Integrated Church movement, and the Christian Reconstructionist movement, and the Kingdom Now movement---- AL WITHOUT KNOWING WE WERE INVOLVED!!!!
The only reason I ever learned the term "new apostolic reformation," which has been something I've been fed and fed and fed until I almost threw up at Manna, was because I happened to google our pastor's name alongside some apostolic terminology-- Lo and Behold hundreds of thousands of poeple out there believe the members of Manna church are involved in a dangerous cult, and we don't even know it!

The names which have become like old friends to me: Derek Prince, Charles Simpson, C Peter Wagner, Jack Hayford, Cindy Jacobs, Michael Fletcher, Michael Cotton, Luis Bush, Doris Wagner, Graham Cooke..... these names pop up like a creepy jack in the box in nearly every conversation I have with people about "the church." They are the "forerunners" in the spirit-led world of God--- they are the "generals" in this Spiritual War. And yet in each case, I can find dozens and dozens of articles WRITTEN BY THEIR HAND which make claims so outrageous and unbiblically founded that I cannot but fear that the whole entire world has gone crazy. What ever happened to SIMPLE faith? What ever happened to 1 Thessalonians 4:

10And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more.

11Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, 12so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
In each structure, we have been taught that "God is doing" X, or Y, or Z, and it behooves us to participate in some way--- in Global Prayer mobilization, in Missional living, in Spiritual Mapping, in Missions Initiatives, in Marketplace evangelism, in Apostolic Networks, in all these extra biblical "things" which supposedly are on the front lines of this great war against Satan. We stand on the prophetic, even when it means people like Jim Lafoon (and I'm not saying this against ANY of these people, I do believe they are completely in love with God and want to serve Him) come to your church to do prophetic horoscopes for you and your family--- telling you who you are, what you have been through, and what is to come.

In other ways, we have been taught to faithfully intercede in major warfare like the 10/40 window and now the 40/70 window, both of which I find incredibly offensive and completely extra biblical. And yet it's easy to eat it up when you attend a vision casting speech by one of the leaders in America's Charismatic movements----easy to "Catch the DNA" so to speak, as Manna likes to call it.

In recent developments, Manna is doing it's annual Global Impact Celebration, at which we learn the developments in missions going on in the world. We were so upset when we saw their bulletin about the financing--- 25 000 dollars to China to build a pastoring school of sorts--- a seminary where Chinese church leaders will be indoctrinated to "catch the DNA," but only 8000 dollars to send BIbles, which, of course, the people of China are crying out for every day. I'm not saying Manna doesn't care about getting bibles there-- they do! But they've evaluated the situation and decided that it's better to train believers HOW TO BELIEVE than to allow them to figure it out for themselves--- woah.

It seems the more time goes by in our involvement with the nondenominational aspect of evangelicalism, the more we see movements in which people think
: "This is it! This is the definitive move of God towards what Church should look like."
I've been watching it happen on the bookshelves at Borders year after year. When I first got saved, the book titles all screamed: "Third Wave of the Spirit," and then "Relational," and then "Emergent," and now "Warfare and deliverance!"
It's as if we are fascinated with discovering how to act like the "One True Church."

Entire cults have been founded on this basis (ahem, Latter Day Saints, I'm looking in your direction.) and all of these things have stemmed from Orthodoxy, which, in the very beginning, before all of this nonsense, claimed to be "The One True Church." It wasn't the Roman Catholic CHurch that ran off to create new structures--- it was us who, ironically, searched for perfection and split, and broke, and repented, and tried again... only to try to build an entire empire based on this stuff we think we "now" know "better."

These days, prophetically speaking, I've been eating up the concept of the upcoming "transfer of wealth." I recently posted the prophetic roundtable's word about it in this blog.
And the very same people who bring you the extra biblical this-is-the-real-thing transfer of wealth are the people who at this moment in literal war rooms complete with prayer radar screens in the Colorado mountains are planning to destroy the faith of millions in the "40/70 window" by interceding against the Roman Catholic Church's influence along these equator lines... in places like Europe and along the Silk Road. The warfare goals for this upcoming movement, spearheaded by C Peter Wagner's "Apostolic" teams, especially include battling the "Queen of heaven," the marian apparitions which seek to Unite the entire Body of believers through belief in her Son, the only one under heaven by whom salvation can come. The Marian apparitions have often united Muslim believers to Catholics, and so they cannot be from God, the presupposition claims, but I would challenge anyone to really meditate on the meaning of "loving your neighbor AS yourself," and wonder how one can see the unification of Muslims and Christians under a banner of love can be a negative or unscriptural thing? Ultimately, there is only one way to be saved, but that doesn't NEGATE our direct command to love others in the manner of Jesus: correcting false doctrine sternly at times and gently at others, always with love as our primary motive.

I am increasingly sickened by the nondenominational-cum-denominations affirmation that there is not "One True Church," and yet in the same breath doing everything they can to create a church that looks JUST LIKE THEM....

When Wayne and I were praying about missions to the UK, we came across the only two churches really active in the country: Destiny Churches (a word of faith movement so not for us) and City Churches, which seemed to have the same DNA as our beloved Manna. A little more research showed what I feared: "the goal of City Church is to be THE only church in ...... (name that European city.)
Why? Why this incessant need to make everyone around you a clone?? Why can we not accept that God does different things with different people, and that we need to be vigilant to both accept the cultural and "religious" differences that make this place as interesting and varied as God intended, of course within the realm of what scripture dictates CLEARLY as acceptable worship?

It seems to me that people have completely forgotten to test the Spirits according to the number one Litmus test provided for us in Scripture in 1 Cor 12:3: Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is accursed"; and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

I used to say that I yearned to see a united church, but now my soul is crying OUT for it--- I just cannot tell you how sad it makes me to see these things, and how much it must grieve the heart of Jesus. At the core of that is why I believe in Medjugorje---- it's a call to Unity, Conversion, and prayer--- for the days are near when we will wish we had.