In my
estimation, the writing of Frank Viola has to be some of the best available to
the body of Christ today. The work we do
here in Australia begins with an understanding of the truth that Viola so
beautifully opens to us in From Eternity to Here. We then follow that with The Untold Story of the New Testament Church
then Pagan Christianity then Reimagining Church and then Organic Church. I find that there is no better material for
its understanding and articulation of an accurate and soundly biblical paradigm
for the new covenant people of God today.
There are other
writers who contribute very well to parts of the story that Viola tells. I use David Orton’s Snakes in the Temple, Paul Vieira’s Jesus Has Left the Building, Neil Cole’s Organic Church, Gene Edwards’ Howto Meet, Greg Boyd’s The Myth of a
Christian Religion, and my own material written over a period of around twenty
years.
And then I often add to that the work of some
of the twentieth century writers, some of whom are now passed on to their reward: A W Tozer;
Leonard Ravenhill; T Austin-Sparks; George Warnock; Watchman Nee and the
likes. The Refiner’s Fire Journals provide a good selection of the works
of such writers. The subtitle of the
Journals is “A Journal for those who seek a fuller revelation of the Lord Jesus
Christ”.
But let me come
back to Frank Viola. Chapter 16 of From Eternity to Here is about What
Viola calls “the habitat of the christian”.
His point is that that the christian has a native habitat: it is the ecclesia. He makes a good point that ecclesiai is not a building, not a
denomination, not a ‘church service’; it is not native to this planet since its
origins are from “another realm”.
In addition Viola
sees in the Old Testament record “a portrait of three habitats in which God’s
people are never to live”. He says, “the
first counterfeit habitat is Egypt” – representing the world system:
“Consumerism, materialism, greed, commercialism, and turning pleasure into a
god…”
His second
counterfeit habitat is Babylon – representing “the human attempt to reach God
by human strength, human wisdom, and human ingenuity” and “trying to make a
name for oneself in the process.”
His third
counterfeit habitat is “wilderness” – representing “a Divine requirement…a
detour; it’s not home” and “The wilderness is temporary, unless you decide to
build a home there.”
He has three
chapters that correspond to these three counterfeit habitats: Fleeing the City
of bondage – Egypt (16); Leaving the City of Religion – Babylon (17); Exiting
the Desert of Waste – wilderness (18).
It is not at
all difficult to see in all of this a potent truth: what we call the ‘church’
is not the ecclesia of God.
I believe Viola
actually makes this point well a few pages earlier in chapter 15 when he says:
“What the Father was to Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is to His church
(John 6:57; 20:21, etc.). The church is the habitation of God in the
Spirit. This lifts the church out of
“the mutual admiration society” up to the level of being the very body of
Christ. The church never has been nor
will it ever be a human institution.”
“The church is the only place where God can deposit His committed
presence. As men and women eat of the
Tree of Life (Christ) and drink of the River of Life (Christ), and as they join
themselves together with other living stones, something remarkable
happens. Gold, pearl, and precious stone
begin to be deposited within them. And
God’s house gets established on the earth.” (p. 163)
He says in chapter 16, “What men call “church” today is very often not our native
habitat.” ( p. 175)
Here is the confusion: if we take what
arguably is some of the best writing and teaching available today, it says that
the ‘church’ is both “the habitation of God in the Spirit…the very body of
Christ” and, at the same time, an “artificial habitat” pictured as Egypt,
Babylon and wilderness – all places to flee or escape; the ‘church’ is both “an
unnatural habitat…that doesn’t match the species” and, at the same time, our
“native habitat”.I believe that the confusion exists because we don’t quite have the courage to stand as William Tyndale did centuries ago (and got murdered for it) and say clearly that there is no connection between what we call “the church” and God’s ecclesia. There is the ‘church’ that man is building (more correctly called kuriakos) and there is the ‘church’ that God is building (more correctly called ecclesia). These two things are two entirely different species.
And further, we would do well to stop using the word ‘church’ totally and for ever. It is nothing but confusion. It means the structures, institutions and programs of man; and it means the physical buildings put together by human hands. Yet, at the same time, we insist on using the same word to describe and talk about the bride of Christ, the ecclesia of God, and the fellowship of the saints – which we then go on to describe, as Viola does, “the Christian faith today is in a great mess”.
What are we talking about? The christian faith, the church, the ecclesia, the organisation, the institution, the buildings, the programs, the clergy – all get bundled into one murky mass of mediocrity.
And given what Viola says in From Eternity to Here, I find it particularly confusing when he has elsewhere on his website an article titled “Why I love the Church”. Is this a sop to the institutions, organisations and “pastors” that are all part of Egypt, Bablyon and wilderness?
If I read Viola right, he doesn’t love the thing we call “church” but the ecclesia of God. After all, Jesus said that if we love the world system, we do not love God – which means we are not part of ecclesia.
Let me reinforce yet again: I think Viola’s work is among the best available to the body of Christ today and I recommend it highly. We just need to be courageously clear that what we generally call “church” is not the ecclesia of God, neither is it a part of the ecclesia of God. It is the tares growing among the wheat and we need to be wise caretakers and know how to distinguish the two. One is suitable for food and reproduction; the other is a weed fit only to be pulled up and burned by God. Why then are we spending so much of our time and resources on the weeds and neglecting the wheat?
Using a house analogy instead of plants, the Old Testament prophets spoke clearly for God on this matter. Haggai for instance, says:
“Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: consider how you have fared. You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes.
“You have looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while you busy yourselves each with his own house. Therefore the heavens above have withheld the dew and the earth has withheld its produce.” (Haggai 1:4-10)
There are three things I want to suggest we need to do.
- First, (metaphorically) take a pair of tweezers and pluck ecclesia out of the mess we (not God) have created in our thinking and set it to one side so we see clearly what is of God and what is of man.
- Second, without any guilt whatsoever, walk away from all that is not ecclesia. Stop spending time and resources on it. God has little interest in it (except perhaps as ‘wood hay and stubble’ to be burned), nor does He have an interest in our being stuck in that mess. He actually calls us out of it (the meaning of ecclesia) to be separated unto Him and for our gatherings to be likewise. An old song says, “We are gathering together unto Him; unto Him shall the gathering of the people be”.
- Third, stop using the word ‘church’ totally. If we want to refer to what man is building, call it what it is – religious institution. If we want to refer to what God is building, call it what it is – the bride of Christ, the family of God, the ecclesia. And its local expression – from “two or three” to hundreds – is not a ‘church’ but a gathering or an assembly or a congregation (which is the word Tyndale used).
Let’s say what we mean and mean what we say and thereby end the confusion for all of humanity’s sake.
Cheers,
Kevin.
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