Simple Church Minute 99--Karl Marx

99-Karl Marx

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            History tells us that the parents of Karl Marx were Jewish and converted to Christianity at a time when many German Jews did the same.  Whether it was real or something merely socio-political is God’s business.  Be that as it may, Karl himself rejected faith in Jesus, but was still highly influenced by it, as his utopian ideal society was built on the Christian idea of heaven, with the difference being that he was imagining a way of creating such a society as heaven will be on earth.  Incorrectly, he didn’t have a grasp of the reality of sin, much less how imbedded that aspect of the fall of man is in our souls.  Therefore, he came up with the idea that, when his principles were installed in a society, that government would fade away.

            We, having 20/20 hindsight, can see that the opposite of his dream occurred.  His social idea was not attractive to union workers, but instead took hold where backward nations with weak rulers could be overthrown, and the dictatorship that followed grew in power over time, and instead of all people having equality, there was a small leadership class and a large amount of people who had no hope of getting ahead, removing incentive to doing better for themselves.

            Albeit accidentally, Marx got one aspect of Christian life correct that much of the true church is missing.  The head of the church is Jesus, the Holy Spirit speaks into each believer who desires to serve Jesus.  God is a sufficient leader of his people, that, within the church, when properly operating, the idea of the human leader could naturally fade away, in favor of what would appear to a sociologist to be a headless community.  This is an ideal that takes an exceptional amount of commitment from those with gifting for leadership.  Personally, I haven’t seen it, but, then, I live in a land of freedom, for now.

            If you have a comment, and I know this blip should stir up some brothers and sisters, you can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  For more info on organic church*, visit http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally, (local website).

On the recording, at this time, it says, “house churches.”  While that phrasing is OK, to say “organic church” is better.  I comment on that in blip 94.

Simple Church Minute 88--Simson's Thesis #14

88-WS#14

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            We have been reviewing Wolfgang Simson’s 15 Theses towards a Re-Incarnation of Church.  Today Thesis #14—Developing a persecution-proof spirit.  On this Simson wrote, “They crucified Jesus, the leader of all the Christians.  Today, His followers are often more into titles, medals, and social respectability, or, worst of all, they remain silent and are not worth being noticed at all.  Blessed are you when you are persecuted, says Jesus.  Biblical Christianity is a healthy threat to pagan godlessness and sinfulness, a world overcome by greed, materialism, jealousy and any amount of demonic standards of ethics, sex, money, and power. Contemporary Christianity in many countries is simply too harmless and polite to be worth persecuting. But as Christians again live out New Testament standards of life and, for example, call sin as sin, the natural reaction of the world will be, as it always has been, conversion or persecution.  Instead of nesting comfortably in temporary zones of religious liberty, Christians will have to prepare to be again discovered as the main culprits standing in the way of global humanism, the modern slavery of having fun and the outright worship of Self, the wrong centre of the universe.  That is why Christians will and must feel the repressive tolerance of a world which has lost its absolutes and therefore refuses to recognize and obey its creator God with His absolute standards.  Coupled with the growing ideologization, privatization and spiritualization of politics and economics, Christians will—sooner than most think—have their chance to stand happily accused in the company of Jesus.  They need to prepare now for the future by developing a persecution proof spirit and an even more persecution proof structure.  Unquote.

            Under the right political conditions, institutional churches could be potentially closed with one phone call or fax, and the structure isn’t prepared.  Only a church by the Spirit is prepared.  You can read more about Simson,s 15 Theses at www.simsonwolfgang.de. You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  For more info on house churches, visit http://www.simplechurch.com/ or (local website).