I wrote this book quite some time ago and have decided to finish it. I thought I would share the first chapter with you all. Time permitting I would like to publish it. Please feel free to tell me what you think of chapter 1.
CHAPTER ONE
What is that?
Would Paul recognize the church today?
Matthew 21:11-13 “ And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”
The date is December 25, 2005 (never mind that ironically many churches will cancel Sunday services because Christmas is on a Sunday). Somehow, someway, the apostle Paul has been able to do the unthinkable. He has traveled through time and has been taken to a typical American Church. He appears in the parking lot and is immediately confused as he sees people coming and going in these strange shaped objects made of metal with round rubber wheels.
He is amazed that the carts run without horses and are totally enclosed. He wonders why no one is walking to this strange looking building, but all are coming by means of those strange carts. Everyone leaves their strange cart in a field that has hard black soil with white colored stripes.
Paul looks intently at a sign that reads St. Paul’s Independent Baptist Church2 and wonders who this St. Paul is and that this certainly doesn’t look like any church he has ever seen or been part of.
He observes the manicured landscaping, the ornate windows, and the brick façade. Webster’s defines the word façade quite adequately:
“the face or front of anything: especially, an artificial or false appearance or aspect”3
Is it possible that even Webster’s had the modern day church in mind? Paul proceeds into this strange building and observes as the family ahead of him are met at the door by two smiling men with metal badges who kindly greet them and proceed to ask them the ages of the children and their family status and thus assigns each family member to a different room in that building. He wonders why the family came together only to be separated by these men. Paul is suddenly startled as he hears a loud ringing sound coming from this building. When the men at the door meet Paul they observe his clothing and ask if he wants to be in the Sunday School class for the homeless. He says to them that he is not homeless as he has a home in heaven.
Bewildered, the men point him to the main auditorium for the adult Sunday school class. During his walk toward the auditorium he sees people dressed in very strange ways. Women with the attire of a harlot and young people dressed for stable cleaning. He wonders if he indeed is in a building meant for believers to honor God.
He reads the bulletin board and sees sign up sheets for Ladies Tea Parties, Youth Activities, Summer Camps, Early Softball Signups, etc. But what catches his attention most is that there is not a sign up sheet for soul-winning or for ministering to the widows and orphans. Paul assumes that because it is missing it must be a given that they go soul-winning and care for the widows and orphans. He continues to walk toward the main auditorium and cannot help compare this church building to one of Herod’s palaces.
He finds a place to sit on some very strange chairs. These chairs are nothing like the ones he has known. These are very soft and comfortable and he can’t imagine how someone can stay awake in something that is more comfortable than his own bed. It is very warm in this room and he cannot understand how it can be so cold outside and so very warm inside. He looks around and can’t see a fire anywhere. He thinks to himself that this room must get very hot in the summer if it is this hot in the winter. Finally everyone sits down and seems to be avoiding him yet greeting others who they already know. He wonders where the pastor is as he has not been greeted by him. At last a man stands before the people and Paul is sure this man must be the pastor. This man suddenly starts waving his arms and music begins to play. All the people walk towards the chairs. It seems that all the people have their favorite chairs as someone seems upset that Paul has sat in his chair. He gets up and surrenders his chair out of love and finds that there are many empty chairs towards the front of the room. He wonders why no one is sitting in those chairs, but everyone seems to be sitting toward the back of the room. The music continues and the man calls out a number and everyone begins to sing about God yet no one apparently seems to be singing to God.
The sound is quite beautiful yet the feelings are not there. The man then begins to speak and mentions something about the pastor and Paul realizes that this wasn’t the pastor after all. After two songs they say some words and then several men come to the front of the church for what they call a Sunday School offering. Paul is confused as he’s never heard of a Sunday School let alone a Sunday School offering.
The people pass around a gold colored dish and place money in it. Paul thinks that this must be an offering to give to those taking the Gospel to others in their city and in other lands or to house and feed the widows and orphans.
After the offering and another song, a lady stands before the congregation and Paul is about ready to start asking questions when she begins to sing. He thought for a moment that perhaps the church had deteriorated and a woman was in leadership. After all this would have never occurred in the first century church. After she sings a man comes before the people. Paul thinks to himself that this must be the pastor. This man also makes reference to the pastor and Paul begins to wonder if they even have a pastor. The nice man talks for about 30 minutes about various topics. He says things about sports and everyone laughs, he says things about his job and everyone laughs, it seems that he spends quite a bit of his time making everyone laugh. He speaks a few words about something called Christmas although Paul doesn’t quite know what that is supposed to mean. He spends a few minutes reading words that sound quite familiar to Paul. It seems that he might be referring to the Pentateuch.
All the while the man is speaking the people are looking at their wrists. It seems that many people there have wrist problems as they all have something shiny on their wrists and they spend most of their time looking at it. The man speaking looks at a round object with numbers on the rear wall and says that he is finished until next week. The people get up and start to walk around. Paul notices that there were only adults in the class and wonders what happened to the children he saw out in the black field with the white stripes.
Paul is disappointed as he begins to leave while wondering if this was a church why wasn’t there any preaching and genuine worship, and why they didn’t have a pastor. He wonders why they didn’t have communion and why they won’t be back the next day and are going to wait until next week to meet again.
He is met at the back door by the men with the shiny badges who ask him if he is going to stay for the Worship Service. Paul is suddenly relieved to know that this wasn’t the service at all. This must have been fellowship time for the kids and the adults and that soon all would be reunited to worship God together as was done in the first century church.
Within a few minutes many more people begin to enter from the black field with the white stripes. Paul wonders why they didn’t come for the pre-service fellowship time. These people do not seem to have any children as none accompany them into the big room. Once again the man who waves his arms leads everyone in singing then a different man comes forward. Paul decides that at last the pastor has arrived. Yet this man mentions the pastor as well and speaks of various activities.
Paul finds it odd that as with the bulletin board there was no mention of widows and orphans. He is encouraged to hear the man mention soul-winning yet is discouraged when he says that they do it 2 hours a week and that last week they had only a handful of people participate.
He also notices that all those who intently listened to the announcements about Ladies Tea Parties and softball now seem to be ignoring the part about soul-winning. He finds that odd as they listened to everything else with great interest. Once again several men come forward with the gold colored plates. Paul thinks that this church is quite generous to take up another offering for people taking the Gospel to others or for the widows and orphans.
Paul’s excitement is shattered as a man states that they need more money to finish something called a softball field and to replace the carpet whatever that is. He is also surprised to hear that they will take a missions offering later and wonders what all the money already taken will be used for. What strikes Paul odd is that although many people are giving no one seems to be giving joyously. He also wonders how many Ananiases and Sapphiras are out there as some make a point to be seen giving their money.
Again another lady sings although he is stunned to see a woman immodestly dressed standing before the people. He feels that she must be a newly converted woman restored from an immoral lifestyle and has not yet been taught God’s truth about modesty and defrauding. After she sings a strange man comes before the people. He is adorned with gold jewelry and very fine clothes.
He greets the people and Paul overhears someone quietly criticizing the man and referring to him as pastor. Paul thinks that they must be visitors as no Christian in his day would speak so poorly of their pastor. Paul continues to await the pastor’s arrival.
The large man at the front welcomes visitors and indeed introduces himself as the pastor. He asks Paul to stand and tell everyone his name. After he does one of the men with the shiny badges give Paul a piece of paper and pen and Paul is asked to sit down.
Paul finds it odd that the pastor didn’t ask if he was a believer nor did he ask any of the other visitors if they were. After all wouldn’t it be odd to see an unbeliever in the called out assembly? And wouldn’t it even be more odd to not offer Christ to them immediately? Paul resigns himself to the fact that this is going to be a very different experience.
The pastor begins speaking again and he also says things to make people laugh. He begins to wonder when they will recite the Word of God. At one point the pastor gets an angry look on his face as he speaks of the love of Christ.
A bit later he gets a look of worry as he discusses something called a building project and needing a loan to pay for it. Paul thinks that loan must be the modern day word for prayer. But Paul still can’t understand the look of worry if they are expecting God to supply it according to His perfect will. Paul’s ears perk up as he hears something quite familiar. The pastor makes reference to Paul’s writings in his letter to the Phillipians:
Philippians 4:19 “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
The pastor proceeds to talk of the needs of the building and other projects. The pastor speaks of something called air-conditioning and how little time they have to get a better one before it gets warm outside. He speaks of the need of something called new computers that can play something called DVDs. He speaks of the need for projectors which contain the latest technologies. He speaks of trips and activities, yet he doesn’t speak of one of the primary purposes of the church which is to win the lost to Christ. Paul now begins to understand that the word loan didn’t mean prayer, but lack of faith as well as lack of understanding. Paul wonders how in the world they could use a sentence out of his letter to the Philippians to justify their wants as these things were definitely not needs.
This never happened in the first century church. This modern day church which he was visiting had no needs. These people were well dressed. Many looked very well fed. And all of them had very nice metal carts with wheels of rubber. They were warm in winter and had a very comfortable building to worship God and edify believers in, although it didn’t seem to Paul that it was used for that reason.
The pastor continued to use Paul’s writings contrary to what he wrote. At long last Paul could stand no more. He stood before the people and asked where was the Word of God in context, where was the worship, where was the self sacrifice, where was the caring and love for one another? Paul asked where were the soul-winners? Where were the pastors? Where were the evangelists? Where were the missionaries? The pastor then asked Paul to keep quiet or leave. The men with the shiny badges were no longer smiling and began to walk toward Paul. After all who was Paul to think that he knew anything about the church? What did he know about sacrifice, hunger, sickness, faith, etc.?
2 Cor. 11:23 – 30 “Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.”
Perhaps they never read or truly understood these verses. Paul then realized that he was not welcomed in the modern day church. He realized that it had changed dramatically. It had become materialistic. It had become preoccupied with the things of man and not the things of God. It would not accept rebuke or correction. Their focus was on comfort, ease, and honoring self. They wanted the acknowledgement of men rather than of God. Or perhaps they had replaced God with self.
Paul then realized it was time for him to go. As Paul walked out of the building that day he thought to himself that what the church needed was someone to write something about the condition of the church and the dangers of it.
Paul felt that John the beloved could probably be best used of God for that.
Revelation 2:4 “ Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Has the church indeed left its first love? The thought is quite interesting of just what the Apostle Paul or better yet the Lord Jesus Christ would actually say and think if he were to walk into any of our churches today.
While times do change, and with it architectural and technological changes, should not the characteristics of the church be the same? We all know that the church itself is not a building, but as the Greek word for church Eccelsia states as translated “a called out assembly”. Would Paul recognize the church or individual Christians? That would be a question that each of us must answer. Would we ask Paul to leave our church and take his comments with him? Would we ask Christ to do the same? Or have we already done so? The last things Paul saw that December 25th were the words “Merry Christmas” on the church sign. He walked away wondering if those words as well as the modern day church had anything to do with Christ.
Matthew 7:16 – 23 “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”