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(Matthew 18:19,20)
Section 3 - Lesson 21
Hellenism And Romanism Today:
Roman Hierarchy And Corporate America
Hellenism And Romanism Today:
Roman Hierarchy And
Corporate America
“‘They said to him... now
appoint a king to lead us, such as
all the other nations have.’
And the LORD told him: ‘Listen to
all that the people are saying to you;
it is not you they have rejected,
but they have rejected Me as their
king’” (1 Samuel 8:
5,7).
The underlying principles of government
that you find throughout the Hebrew Scriptures impact the way
that our Lord intends for His people to recognize His sovereignty in
matters of state as well as in spiritual concerns.
Until the Israelites demanded that the
prophet Samuel appoint for them a king to rule like the nations
around them, they had been a Theocracy with a republic form of
government, similar to the “republic” instituted by
the US Constitution. But few today can articulate the
difference between a republic and the current
“democracy” which has deteriorated into personality
preference and self-gratification: “What will this candidate do for
ME?”
Keep in mind a distinctive pattern: As a
republic the nation of Israel was administrated by respected
elders. Those who were excellent family leaders became leaders
of clans; qualified clan elders became leaders at the tribal
level; and the best of those led at the national level.
Leadership was collegial in nature: no elder lorded over any other. The
wisdom gained by life experience and proven character qualified
each man, and their combined leadership effort afforded them great influence. Yet, the whole system
emanated from the rule of God according to His Word.
[For more on the republic form of the
government of ancient Israel, see Pastoring
by Elders, page 33, Elder: A
Position of Honor in the Family and Faith Community.]
Imagine the pain of God’s heart that
the people He had called His “wife” were rejecting
the love He had poured out on them. They lost sight that when
they sought His face and walked according to His ways, their
lives were blessed and protected. His sovereign rule had routed
Israel’s enemies time and again. His power was awesome.
What greater Commander-in-Chief could they have wanted?
Yet the continuing temptation to stray
into the arms of other gods—commit spiritual adultery—enticed
them away from trusting that their God’s purpose to set them apart among
the nations was good. Ignoring His plan that they be a light to
the nations (see Deuteronomy 4:6, for example) as a wise and
understanding people who loved and obeyed their God, they
instead lusted for the ways of the heathen nations around them.
Forsaking their trust in the God Who made
His will clear through His prophets, the people chose instead
to depend on human strength—a man who could lead them
into battle as their deliverer.
Knowing that the stubborn and rebellious
nature of His people would not yield, God gave them that for
which they clamored. However, as the very best Parent, He also
forewarned of the consequences which would afflict generations
to come through their willful distrust:
“This is
what the king who will reign over you will do:
• He will take your sons and make them serve with
his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his
chariots.
[An enforced draft will snatch sons away
from their families and place them directly in harm’s
way.]
• ...and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest,
[To support this vast army, fields will be
appropriated by the king, and laborers forced to tend it.]
• and still others to make weapons of war and
equipment for his chariots.
[The economy will be redirected toward
military priorities, with far less consideration for the needs
of the people.]
• He will take your daughters to
be perfumers and cooks and bakers.
[The social stability will be impacted as
women are conscripted to provide service for the royal
household and court rather than devoting themselves to their
own families.]
• He will take the best of your fields
and vineyards and olive groves and give
them to his attendants. He will
take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.
[The stage is set for corruption as
government officials are given the best land for their own use,
even if it’s been part of a family’s heritage for
generations. And, a tenth of the cash crops grown on the poorer
land will also be demanded.]
• Your menservants
and maidservants and the best of
your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use.
[Impoverishment will be the rule of the
land as the best of the livestock, as well as personal
servants, will be given over to support the king. A
“class” mentality will quickly rise between the few
“haves” and the overwhelming
“have-nots”.]
• He will take a tenth of your flocks,
and you yourselves will become his
slaves.
[In their quest to become like the nations
around them, they will instead suffer oppression similar to
that of captivity. They will have forsaken the freedoms they
enjoyed under the reign of their God, and will suffer
deprivation in the process.]
•When that day comes, you will cry out for relief
from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will
not answer you in that day” (1 Samuel 8:11-18).
[Painful consequences are the price of
self-will and unfaithfulness. The outcome has to be severe
enough for the people to assume the weight of their guilt and
recognize the cost of reaping what they’ve sown through
distrust and disobedience.]
Now let’s examine the parallels
within Christian history of “establishing a
king/system” to supplant the personal responsibility
found in a republic dependent on God.
The Nicolaitan system of church government
firmly cemented itself into place as a result of Emperor
Constantine’s endorsement of Christianity in the early
4th century. The seemingly invincible Roman war machine had
subdued the known world; what better “marriage of
convenience” than for the institutional church to
consolidate its power with government might? The common people,
coerced through threat of hell or ex-communication by the
church institution in Rome, were as much slaves of the
religious establishment as Israel had been to its kings.
The theologians of the Reformation were
aware from their studies of the Older Testament that
God’s way of governing His people was the restoration of biblical elders in a collegial form of service. Yet they
obstinately continued the pattern of the Nicolaitan system of
clergy hierarchy.
The Reformers’ refusal to return to
God’s design echoes the Israelite response to Samuel: “But the people refused to listen to
Samuel. ‘No!’ they said. ‘We want a king over us. Then we
will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out
before us and fight our
battles’” (1
Samuel 8:19,20).
How costly for Israel was their rebellion
against their God as they removed themselves from dependence on
Him as Defender, Provider and Lord. Their insistence on having
leadership like that of the pagans around them would rouse
God’s jealous anger, bringing upon their heads the
consequences of spurning His rule:
I will be your King; where is any other that he may save
you in all your cities? And your judges to whom you said,
‘Give me a king and princes? I gave you a king in My anger, and
took him away in My wrath (Hosea 13:10,11).
No prophetic warning could penetrate that
hardened shell of mistrust they’d erected around their
hearts—the same mistrust of God’s perfect direction
that the Reformers fell into as well.
The Founding Fathers Sought Native Wisdom.
Why Didn’t the Church?
Delve with us back into United States
history. The Founding Fathers had warned repeatedly that the government of the republic should never become a democracy. As a republic,
state legislators selected their finest to represent them at
the federal level. Concern revolved around what benefited each
representative’s section of the country as well as what
was best for the nation as a whole.
With the advent of the popular vote—the
cornerstone of democracy—politicians who appealed to the self-interest of the individual found themselves elected. The sense of
connectedness with the rest of the nation’s needs and
greater good was diminished as each man looked instead to how
he might achieve his own special interest.
Those who were forming the foundations for
colonial government had sought the wisdom of the Native people.
The only form of government that the founders themselves had
experienced was the rule of monarchy from Europe’s
distant shores. Yet, among the Indians they saw a republic in
action.
Noting the effectiveness of the Native
governing system, Benjamin Franklin invited leaders of the
Iroquois to explain their system of leadership to a gathering
of representatives in Albany, New York. The Iroquois model
guided a special delegation in their formation of “The
Albany Plan of Union”, which would serve later as a
pattern for the Articles of Confederation and, ultimately, the
Constitution.
Even though the drafters of our
Constitution embraced the republic form of government as the
most effective, the colonial church battled over various
leadership traditions. Some promoted autocratic faith
communities in which clergy ruled. Others became democracies in
the Congregationalist tradition. Hellenistic man-centered preconceptions kept them from looking beyond man’s systems to
the biblical beauty of God ways which He had revealed among the
Native tribes.
The Reformation hadn’t occurred so
far back in history that the European colonials would have
forgotten the victory of personal
knowledge of God’s Word.
Perhaps in His mercy God brought them to Native peoples who
were already living out the Hebraic
relational framework of the early
Church. From that perspective, as the Word of Truth was brought
to the Indians, they could work
together with their
European-heritage brothers and sisters to experience more of
God’s Kingdom here on earth.
[For more on the republic form of
government, see our Hebraic Articles, Men Of Issachar, and The Unsteepled Church.]
• In what ways do you perceive that
the change from republic to democracy as this country’s
form of government has been detrimental to you as both a
citizen and a follower of Jesus?
The Roman organizational influence on
Christendom was no less a disaster than the Israelites ordering
Samuel to appoint a king. Both nullified the rule of God
according to His Word and His ways, and led to the demise of
the republic form of leadership. The Roman hierarchy system
invaded church government to sever the personal interaction between
the leadership and the people.
A regime which controls and directs, but fails to lead
by role modeling, sounds like
the corporate systems of the world! The few at the top reap
personal benefit from their power while the multitudes below
scramble to survive.
The syncretistic influence which enabled
the Roman Empire to conquer institutional Christendom still
functions through worldly adaptation. Almost every Christian
institution and congregation in the United States today is incorporated.
Before 1950 few congregations were
incorporated. But after World War II lawyers went about the
country inspiring fear in clergy that they might be sued for
giving wrong counsel to people. By incorporating their
congregation, clergy wouldn’t be held personally responsible; the corporation would.
Fear-based incorporation within the church became widespread.
Because a corporation is an instrument of the state, the states started to tax these “church
corporations”. Congress then stepped in during the
mid-50’s to pass a law for “state-churches”
to be tax- exempt. Any separation that had previously existed between
the entities of church and state were dissolved as the church
chose to submit itself under state rule.
The implications of fear-based
incorporation and tax-exemption status have been vast, and no
less detrimental than when Constantine recognized Christi-anity
as an acceptable religion.
“Then they said, “Come,
let’s build ourselves a city with a tower that
has its top reaching up into heaven,
so that we can make a name for
ourselves” (Genesis 11:4).
One of the recent sinister influences of
incorporation is this: Denominations and congregations often
look to worldly corporations as their model for success. The “health
and wealth gospel” and “the church growth
movement” which are so popular today in religious circles
owe their goals and definitions of success to corporate America rather than to Jesus. At
all levels within Christian institutions and congregations,
management by control and directing which so dominate business structure are the
primary means of leadership.
Realize from the Scriptures that when personal responsibility is eliminated from man’s relationship with God,
the door is opened to a world of evil. Satan loves impersonal
systems, especially religious organizations in which people can
hide without personal responsibility. This method finds such demonic success because
individuals lack relational
accountability to anyone who can be
a godly role model.
Management rather than leadership by personal
example is the fertile ground for
sin to prosper in individuals as well as congregations.
Leadership protects its control by offering positions to people
who will keep the system going. Once someone becomes a member
of the elite within the system, self-interest will cause him or her to defend it.
Anchor for yourself without any doubt that
our God looks for personal responsibility from each one who
follows Jesus. He holds us all responsible for keeping His holy
commands, both individually and collectively within our
extended spiritual families. When we stumble, repentance is
His only means of restoring fellowship.
At no time is personal accountability
before our Lord eliminated. Beginning with Adam and Eve every
human being has been held personally accountable to confess their
wrongdoing and turn from it. God accepts no excuses for sin.
[For more on personal accountability, see Pastoring by Elders, Chapter 7, Author-ity: God’s Training Device For
Faith.]
Satan purposes to create organizations and
systems that people can control independent of God’s ways
and design. Individuals can feel good about their religious
activity even as they continue to violate God’s
standards. They’re able to hide within the organization
and not be held personally responsible to turn from sin.
But know this: Wherever religious systems
exist, unconfessed sin and corruption will surface as well. “Woe to you, [you religious leaders], you
hypocrites! You are like whitewashed
tombs, which look beautiful on the
outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and
everything unclean” (Matthew
23:27).
The news continues to be filled with the
corruption that drives corporate America. But corruption has
been going on in “incorporated Christendom” in
epidemic proportions since the 1950’s. Much of the
scandal stays hidden in cover-ups for the most part, but every
so often spiritual pollution is exposed.
“Christian” systems hide the truth so that the
control mechanism can continue.
I [Mike] was a follower of Jesus for two
years when the events I’ll share began to occur. As you
read this detailed account, please keep in mind that shortly
after I gave my life to follow Jesus, I was anointed with the
gift of prophecy. In light of this, the chaplains aboard my
ship gave me this particular call to fulfill:
Son of man, I have made you a watchman; so hear the word I
speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, ‘O
wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak
out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I
will hold you accountable for his blood.
But if you do
warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but
you will have saved yourself’ (Ezekiel
33:7-9).
The events that follow were God’s
assignment for me to fulfill His purposes—to expose sin
so that the perpetrators might repent. Don’t think that
the wrongdoings exposed here are confined to just these
institutions. Just as with mice, if you see one in your house,
there are plenty more you haven’t seen!
After a year of seminary I was hired to be
the Controller of what was then “The #1 Christian college
in the country” according to Money
Magazine. After I’d been on
the job a month, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees took me
out for lunch. He’d been the CEO of one of the largest
corporations in the nearby metro area.
When he asked how I was doing, I told him
I planned to submit my resignation. I explained that the pay
scale at the college, which included 150 faculty and staff, was
unjust, and filled with favoritism and nepotism. The top 5
administrators, the only ones who knew the pay scale of
everyone else, made up 25% of the payroll budget.
Many at the bottom of the pay scale,
believing they were serving God by working at the college even
at low wages, were grossly underpaid and treated as expendable.
I told the Chairman that as I administrated the payroll, I felt
like a Nazi guard directing someone to a shower when in fact it
was a gas chamber.
That godly older gentleman had been
unaware of the pay situation and was grieved in his heart. He
pleaded with me to stay on, and forced the administration to
establish a more just payroll system. Within a few months I was
using this experience to help other Christian colleges and
seminaries establish a halakhic basis to their financial
practices.
Right before our audit by an
internationally known firm, I uncovered over $400,000 in misuse
of endowment funds. The money had been donated over the decades
and restricted to funding only those students whose goal was to
spread the Gospel. Any other use was forbidden unless changed
through legal process, which the school hadn’t done.
The college administration had been
dipping into this money to cover shortfalls in its general
budget. Naively, I brought this up to my boss, believing it was
somehow an oversight. Two days later I was fired without cause.
In God’s wonderful plan, my
successor was a close friend who’d been a financial
officer at another Christian school. He came to me privately:
“I know you, and you uncovered sin. They’re trying
to cover it up by getting rid of you.” When we finished
talking, I directed him to the drawer in which I’d placed
the incriminating evidence. He took that material straight to
the Board of Trustees, threatening to resign if they
didn’t act justly. The Board intervened immediately,
fearing the public consequences of losing two Controllers in a
row in such a short time.
My Controller friend, another seminarian
who was a Christian financial auditor and I became a close
trio. We gradually realized that our Lord had brought the three
of us together for divine purposes. The seminary had once been
part of the college I’d worked at, and had moved to its
own campus 10 years earlier. God was going to show us firsthand
how syncretism and Roman hierarchy lead to sin and cover-up.
After leaving the college job I returned
to the seminary to complete my courses. When I graduated I was
hired as a consultant in finance and personnel by the
seminary’s Vice President of Finance, who was also the
Chief Financial Officer. The seminary was set up as a
corporation; both the Chief Financial Officer and the
President, who was Chief Executive Officer, separately reported directly to
the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees. That these
two men shared equal ranking will play into my story.
Because of my time there as a seminarian,
I knew a lot of staff and faculty. (You may recall the reaction
of some of the professors from the Master of Divinity program
to my initial academic project...)
A few weeks after I began my consulting
work my boss, the Vice President for Finance, asked me into his
office. He said, “I want you to develop some
documentation so that I can fire the Payroll Clerk.”
I left his office without responding and
walked straight into the office of the Payroll Clerk, whom
I’d known for a few years. I asked, “What do you
know that would cause our boss to want to get rid of you? He
asked me to develop documentation so he can fire you!”
She burst into tears. “Please come back tomorrow and
I’ll have it for you.”
The next morning she sat with me and
passed into my hands a dossier of criminal activity. For
instance,
• In order to avoid paying taxes, the
Vice-President directed that members of the Administration
receive pay through journal entries. That way there would be no
way to track these funds for payroll taxes.
• The school would buy vehicles for
the Administrators using its non-profit tax status, then sell
the cars to them using hidden accounts.
• The seminary purchased expensive
gifts for those who made substantial donations to the seminary.
I remember one person from Florida was given a Rolls Royce in
return for a large sum.
The manager of the seminary bookstore was
a close friend. His son had been in Sue’s kindergarten
class at a nearby Christian school. He revealed with painful
concern that the accounting records he kept for his department
and the financial reports put out by the VP for Finance never
matched.
The bookstore records showed him making
hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the VP reported at
the end of the year. I followed the trail—and found more embezzlement
and misappropriation of funds!
As I investigated the Office of the Dean
of Students, I discovered that students who lived in campus
housing were being over-charged for rent so that the funds
could be used to cover short-falls in other areas. The woman
who administrated the dorms didn’t even realize the way
the VP for Finance was ripping off the students. I remember her
bitter tears when she found out.
I also unearthed evidence of the same
favoritism and nepotism in payroll and hiring as I had
uncovered at the college. The top administrators, the only ones
who knew the pay scale of everyone else, comprised an
exorbitant proportion of the payroll budget.
I was baffled how the Board of Trustees
and the internationally known audit firm had never detected
these blatant crimes. When I asked the audit firm about this,
they replied that having this account with a prestigious
seminary opened the door for accounts with other
Christian institutions. Talk about lack of integrity!
Not knowing what reputable organization I
could turn to, I anonymously contacted four government agencies
to ask for guidance as I explained all these discrepancies and
falsification. They told me that if they knew the institution I
was calling about, they’d remove its non-profit tax
status and pursue a criminal investigation. Since I had
initiated the contact, however, they were willing to do nothing
if I could get the seminary to reform.
I shared my findings with the VP. He
responded disdainfully, “There’s nobody big enough
to stop me in what I want to do!” For some reason,
though, he was afraid of firing me. But he did send a memo to
all the staff at the seminary: No
one was to have anything to do
with me, or even talk to me.
That afternoon, Sue walked into my small
office to meet me for lunch. Fifteen staff members were crowded
in there to express their reaction to the memo! I’d
mentioned nothing of my work problems to her, so she asked
everyone why they were there. They showed her the memo and
answered, “We know Mike is working here for
righteousness’ sake. We’re going to the cafeteria
with him for lunch, even though the cafeteria manager
won’t even sell him coffee. But we want the rest of the
staff to know we’re with him.”
I cried for joy. You can see how ludicrous
this was becoming. Here I was, a graduate of an institution in
which I couldn’t even buy a cup of coffee! Yet, I
couldn’t reveal to anyone anything about my
investigation.
Yet, our Lord was faithful to carry out
His plan. It was purely miraculous how so much that had been
well-hidden was exposed. In some ways I felt I was along for
the ride as the Holy Spirit orchestrated my life. My internal
battle, though, was to not give way to resentment or
bitterness. I spent a lot of time on my knees lining up my
attitude with our Lord’s.
After the memo was sent I went to the
President of the seminary with what I’d uncovered. He
couldn’t believe the extent of corruption occurring right
under his nose through his VP counterpart. He knew he
couldn’t stop the VP because both of them reported
independently to the Executive Committee of the Board of
Trustees. So he hired me to work for
him so I could complete my
investigation before the VP could fire me.
He placed one condition on my work: that I
share everything I found with the VP of Finance. The President
wanted to give him a chance to repent before the President went
to the Board.
I approached the VP, but he only bragged
again about how untouchable he was. In a way our relationship
evolved into a sort of Saul and David scenario. He was doing
all he could to destroy my reputation and keep things hidden,
while with the Spirit’s help I was doing more than that
of which I was humanly capable.
I continued to be haunted by how this type
of criminal activity could have gone on for so long—and
in a “Christian” institution. Surely someone on the
Board of Trustees must know. A considerable amount of what I
was uncovering was similar to what I’d found at the
college. Then I discovered an interesting connection. The VP of
Finance at the seminary had once held the same position at the
college. When the seminary separated from the college, this man
went with the seminary in the same capacity.
Keep in mind that my background for all
this was extremely limited. I had only a minor in accounting,
and I was into areas of law and finance that were way over my
head. Due to the complexities of what I was uncovering, God
enabled me to use my successor at the college and the Christian
auditor I mentioned earlier for counsel and confirmation.
My auditor friend was doing consulting
work at the college, having been hired by my successor to make
sure everything was squeaky clean. As I shared what I was
finding at the seminary, they would take a closer look in the
same areas at the college. They came across a lot more criminal
activity that I hadn’t uncovered during my stint as
Controller!
My auditor friend happened to be in the
metro area one day standing at the train station. He had a
Christian emblem on his briefcase. A stranger walked up to him
and asked if he was a “Christian”. When my friend
nodded, the man asked what he did for a living. He responded
that he was working for the Controller of the college.
To his amazement the man responded,
“Oh, I remember that account. I used to work for
such-and-such audit firm 15 years ago. We threw that account
out because they wouldn’t heed our warnings about the
misuse of funds and embezzlement!” What a divine
appointment for confirmation!
As my auditor friend shared this with me,
the Holy Spirit impressed on us to compare the members of the
Executive Committee of the combined college/ seminary 15 years
ago with the current membership of the seminary’s
Executive Committee. Three men were on both lists. By digging a
little further we discovered these men were being paid off
through journal entries; they had supported and covered up the
illegal activities for both institutions. Vested interest kept
them from repenting.
You need to know one more point concerning
how difficult this whole situation was for me. I shared an
office right next to the President Emeritus who had founded the
seminary. We talked a lot together, but I never let this godly
old man know the sin and cover-up had been going on around him.
I do remember his one great emphasis: “The duty of this
seminary is to develop great
preaching. Preaching is all that counts!”
If fact, his protege, one of the most
famous preachers at that time, was Chairman of the Board of
Trustees. I’d never encountered such a difficult system
to deal with. Cover-ups, lies and character assassinations
followed anyone they perceived to be a “whistle
blower”. I camped out in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel,
identifying with their pain over the anger and resistance these
prophets faced as they tried to expose sin and restore
righteousness.
Because all of the seminary’s
various Vice Presidents were in one way or another involved in
the illegal activity, I asked to meet with them as a group to
give them a chance to repent and pay back what they’d
misappropriated. As I went over the different documentation
against them, a fear fell over them—but not a fear of
God. Fearful of exposure, they turned violently against me.
“How can you do this? If this gets
out you’ll bring down the Name of Jesus!”
“What will happen to the seminary?”
“Don’t you realize who the Chairman of our
Board is? What will this do to his ministry if this gets
out?” Not one repented, nor did anyone offer to pay back
what they’d stolen.
“Then the glory of the
LORD departed...” (Ezekiel 10:18).
After that meeting I was so distraught
that I walked out on the campus grounds to be alone. As I
approached a hill that had a beautiful flower garden, I saw a
young woman I knew well walking toward me in tears. Her
devotion to Jesus was an inspiration to both Sue and me. She’d
just returned a few weeks earlier from working with Mother
Teresa in Calcutta.
When I asked why she was crying she
lamented, “I’ve just watched the shekinah glory of God
leave this seminary. God is no longer with this place!” I
walked into the garden and cried myself.
A few days later on a Saturday I was in
prayer. The Holy Spirit directed me to go to the President on
Monday and resign my position. I was to go to my ailing
father’s home and care for him. The Spirit told me
he’d die soon and I was to be with him when it happened.
I met with the President and went over all
the documentation. He agreed that there was nothing more I
could do. I was released by him and went to care for my Dad,
who died with me holding his hand in prayer a few weeks later.
You’d probably like to know the
steps the President took. I can tell you that the three
longstanding culprits on the Execu-tive Committee were forced
to resign. Two of their successors spent time with me several
months later, and one became my friend.
The VP for Finance was removed, but the
President kept him on staff for several months to give him
opportunity to repent. As far as I can ascertain from
witnesses, he didn’t. I later visited many staff members
who held bitterness toward the VP to encourage them to forgive,
and most did. Those who didn’t suffered chastisement by
God, which some later reported to me.
“For this reason God sends them a
powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that
all will
be condemned who have
not believed the truth
but have delighted in wickedness”
(2 Thessalonians 2:11,12).
When sin is tolerated and protected
through cover-up in any religious system, God-given delusion is
poured out on it. Sue and I were privileged to take a missions
class taught by a woman at the seminary whose husband had been
martyred 25 years earlier. After her husband’s death she
had lived with the very people who had killed her husband,
earnest to bring life in Jesus to them.
This woman took you down a path of utter
humility if you had any perceived sense of self-importance.
Some of the students were offended by her reminders that we
were only “clay pots”. It was the Spirit of Christ in us as we represented Him to others that was
important, not we ourselves—“You are nothing more
than clay pots!”
Her department head had been my advisor
when I was first a student. While I was still doing consulting
work for the President, he came to me to ask advice. A major
denomination had written the seminary to demand this
woman’s dismissal because of her conservative views on
God’s Word and on marriage in particular. If the seminary
didn’t remove her, they wouldn’t send any further
students.
I told him emphatically,
“Don’t give in to this! That woman has touched the
face of God. You’ll bring His judgment on this
place!” The administration terminated her. The Lord to
Whom she’d been faithful made her ministry even greater
afterward!
You may be wondering about the seminary
today. I feel confident in saying
the shekinah never came back. The
Board and administration acted a lot like the theologians of
the Reformation. If you remember in our previous lesson, the
Reformers fell short of restoring everything that had been lost
through Greco/Roman intrusion. Vested
interests kept full
restoration from occurring, the same vested interests I
encountered at the seminary and college.
In the interim since I left the seminary
in 1982, I’ve been in contact with other Christian
institutions in which the same illegalities are going on with
the same cover-ups. A few years ago Sue and I met with the
leadership of a number of mission agencies. Even in our brief
meetings it was obvious that vested interests were keeping sin
covered up. Can you see how far-reaching the effect of Roman
hierarchy and organization continues to be in western
Christianity?
Following the death of my Dad, God guided
us to take over a small farm/ retreat center in eastern
Connecticut. This would be our deeper training ground in the
impact of Hellenism and Romanism at the denominational and
congregational levels.
“Besides everything else,
I face daily the pressure of my concern
for all the [called out ones]”
(2 Corinthians 11:28).
A few months after we arrived at the
retreat center I was asked to be a counselor to clergy and
church leaders in our region. Over time this expanded to much
of New England as well as New York and New Jersey.
The vast majority of situations I found
myself dealing with among clergy and denominational leaders
were cover-ups for sin. These activities ranged from adultery
in the clergy or their spouse, to embezzlement, to intentional
manipulation for personal gain. One clergyman even offered his
daughters to men in his congregation for immoral purposes.
You’re probably reeling at this
point, finding it difficult to believe the dark and sinister
cover-ups that lurk behind the closed doors of religious
leaders and organizations. Just know that wherever syncretism
and religious hierarchy exist, sin is perpetuated because
personal accoun-tability is spurned. Vested interests spur many
to do whatever it takes to avoid exposure and maintain their
sin.
As I counseled church leaders I was
emotionally overwhelmed by the extent of tolerated sin in their
own lives as well as in their congregations. My fence post in
the pasture where I would often go to cry became my close
friend. I lasted 10 years counseling church leadership and aged
100. I can still hear the words of one Superintendent of a
denomination telling me after he retired, “I realize that
after 30 years of ministry, I’ve never known Jesus
Christ. You don’t get to the top of my denomination by
waiting on Jesus to act. You need to control and direct people.”
Perhaps you feel that the grievous
experiences I’ve shared here are isolated instances.
Tragically, they aren’t. Let me offer a little overview
of much of westernized Christendom today. The murky influence
of Hellenism and Romanism can’t be missed.
If the leadership of religious systems
tolerate sin, what effect do you think this has on the
so-called “lay” people? Tolerated sin permeates
so many who call themselves “Christian”. Sunday
morning messages are focused more on entertaining rather than
bringing conviction.
I remember a particular men’s
retreat from an evangelical congregation. Over 25% of the men
confessed they were actively involved in adultery—and not one thought he
was sinning! Surely the searing of
conscience that blocks out the
imperative to repent before a holy God is the barren fruit of a
system which has lost sight of the God of the Bible:
“There is no one righteous,
not even one! No one understands, no one
seeks God ...There is no fear of God before their eyes”
(Romans 3:10,11,18).
Protestant clergy, including evangelicals, have been among the foremost
occupations for divorce in the United States for some time now.
Tragically, for several years they were at the top.
One of the top three evangelical
denominations has a documented adultery rate among its clergy
of over 50%. And, don't think this situation is confined to
just one denomination!
I remember a leader of one the three
largest Protestant denominations telling me, “If our
people knew about the rampant clergy adultery, they’d
leave us in droves.”
Ponder this thought with sorrow. Why has
the divorce rate among clergy skyrocketed? Perhaps because the
wives of these men can no longer abide that which the religious
hierarchy has covered up. A
Nicolaitan individual is a “god” unto himself,
isolated and incapable of loving his wife to the depth Jesus
calls for. He has been set up on a
pedestal of expectation on which no person was intended to be
placed, and our Lord shares His glory with no one.
As go the leaders, so follow the sheep.
It’s no surprise that the divorce rate among churchgoers
in general is far higher than among those who don’t
attend services. The divorce rate in the Bible Belt, the stronghold of
evangelicalism, is 50% higher than among the unchurched in this
nation.
Why is divorce so hateful to our Lord (see
Malachi 2:13-16)? Because He intended from the beginning that
the marriage covenant would represent the loving intimacy He
wants with His people through His Spirit. Having lost sight of
the seriousness of breaking covenants, contemporary Christians
have rationalized that God’s grace excuses their pursuit
of “happiness”, even if that means shattering
marriages and families.
 I experienced the Vietnam conflict through
three shipboard deployments as a helicopter pilot. As my walk
with Jesus has deepened, I’ve recognized the reality of
the unseen world in the spiritual
warfare that surrounds each
follower of Jesus. And, I’ve recognized how important humility of heart is
in order to lead others to be victorious in Jesus. From watching numerous war movies I
developed a little scenario to test the heart motive of people.
Were they humble and dead to themselves? Or, were they
self-preservationalist at any cost?
With different groups who came to our
retreat center during our almost-11 years there, I’d
simulate dropping a hand grenade in their midst.
I’d tell the gathering that they had
3 seconds to respond, and I’d count off:
“1...2...3...BOOM!!!”
• Over half of the teenagers and
women would jump on the hand grenade to save others.
• About 1 out of 10 men would jump on
the hand grenade.
• NOT ONE clergyman ever jumped on
the hand grenade. Every one of them fled, leaping over sofas
and tables!
I was sickened by what I saw. I really
questioned if these men were able to apply Jesus’s words
to themselves: “Greater love
has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his
friends” (John 15:13). What
sinister, self-seeking motivation controls a man’s heart
when he sees himself as indispensible?
Do Hellenist seminaries mold pros-pective
clergy to fit into the Nicolaitan system? Yes, they do!
For over 10 years we worked with church
leaders trying to help not only them but the individuals and
families in their congregations who came to our retreat center.
Looking back at it now, we can see that our Father wanted to
make sure that we had no doubt about the tragic and insidious effects of syncretism, Hellenism, Romanism, or Nicolaitan-ism before He showed us the Hebraic truths He is
restoring. As you can infer from our writing, we have no
doubts...
When you press on into Section 4,
you’ll recognize that our Father’s relational
priorities begin with individuals, marriages and families, and
extended spiritual families in home fellowships—each of
which is personal at all levels. Organization and hierarchy are
non-existent in these three crucial relational priorities.
But first, you need to scrutinize your own
faith practices, and that’s what we’ll be helping
you to do in the next lesson.
Describe what went through your mind as
you read Mike’s experiences within two Christian
institutions, both of which had been established to produce
Christian leaders.
How do you think Roman organizational
hierarchy and influence have contributed to the disintegration
of marriages and the proliferation of tolerated sin within
westernized Christianity?
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