between two Ages (part 4)

The above image fairly well sums up the mindset of much of the Church in America: "Keep on doing what we've been doing, because that's the way it's always been done."  Even if it's going to hell, literally.  The following quote is widely attributed to Albert Einstein: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Paradigm:  "A way of perceiving or thinking about something, which determines how that one interprets and responds to circumstances."  "A typical example or a pattern of something; a model, a standard, or an ideal; a point of view: in the broadest sense, a worldview."

Paradigm Shift:  "A significant change in one's perception or way of thinking, which leads to new ways of interpreting and responding to circumstances."  "A revised or altogether different pattern, model, or ideal, which changes one's point of view."

Both of those definitions address "how that one interprets and responds to circumstances," or how that one behaves, according to how that one thinks.

Perception truly is all-important.

My "mid-life crisis" centered around the idea that I was going to become a highly qualified "culture warrior."  That desire to become a "culture warrior" led me on a six-year journey, which involved tremendous effort and sacrifice.  I'll skip that story, though, and simply say that I walked away from Law school, after a year and a half in that program.  I already knew that the legal system in America was rotten to the bone.  But what disabused me of my infatuation with the idea of becoming a culture warrior, was when I gradually learned that "America's Premier Christian Graduate School" (as they call that) was (and yet is) on the wrong side of the culture War.  That's when my eyes truly began to open.

That was almost two decades ago.  I've had a lot of time to think deeply about a lot of things since then.

America is desperately lost.  Which tells you just about all you really need to know about the condition of the Church in America.  But I am consumed with the idea of "moving forward" in God.  And that means I am constantly searching out the way forward.  The realization (revelation?) of this new-found perspective involving what I have called, the "Great Transition" (which I first discussed in part 1 of this series, "Between Two Ages"), seems to be a significant breakthrough, at least for me.  This new perspective appears to me as an important "paradigm shift."  I'm just beginning to trace out, in my thinking, many different lines of (potential) implications and applications related to the "Great Transition" concept.  Yet, I sense that the insights as well as the perspective suggested by that concept, even though presently lacking in many details, are not only meaningful in themselves, but those insights and that perspective may lead to a treasure of wisdom regarding "the way forward."

Is this concept nothing else but an exercise in mental gymnastics?  Or does it have any real meaning and merit?  Most important, is there any support for it in Scripture?  In fact, there is.  Noah lived between two Ages.  He evidently understood that his generation was soon coming to an end.  Not only so, but Noah also had a vision of the future.  And he had a plan, one that was intended to enable his house to safely make the transition from one Age to another.  (The Great Transition in Noah's day spanned about a century or more.)

The Bible says that Noah was a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5).  The fact that Noah foresaw that his generation was coming to an end within his own lifetime, doubtless moved him to speak with conviction to those of his generation; and in ways that he would not have spoken to them, if he had not believed that his was a "terminal" generation.  Besides that, notwithstanding that a massive demonstration testifying to Noah's vision of the future stood out in the open for all to see (the Ark), yet, no one else could perceive Noah's vision of the future.  All of which is to say, that there is Biblical evidence for the concept of a transitional period between two dispensations; which, transitional period, affected the lives of God's people in a number of unique ways, during that time period.

I have already written somewhat about the Great Transition between the Old and New Covenant dispensations.  John the baptist was a lot like Noah.  "And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees!" John cried.  John's message was no less convicting, and his warning was no less urgent, than was Noah's to his generation.  Like Noah, John saw that he was living at the end of a dispensation.  Thus, he turned his back upon many of the traditions of his culture and religion; but not because he was irreligious.  On the contrary, John was far more devout than was any of his generation, save for Jesus.  Again like Noah, John had a unique vision of the future.  John, too, had a plan for that transitional period between two Ages: he would do everything he could, through God, to prepare the way for the appearing of Messiah.  John's speech and manners must then have seemed strange to many if not to most of his hearers.  Even the religious leaders~the doctors of the Law~could not figure out what was the real meaning of John's ministry.

In both cases, Noah's and John's, the leaders of their respective generations were perfectly content to maintain the status quo.  Those leaders (then, as well as now) were not merely a reflection of their own cultures, but it is ever the case that societies' leaders are themselves largely responsible for influencing and shaping culture.  It is eminently important to note, that every previous dispensation ended as the result of God's judgments against the "status quo."  In this present dispensation, the "status quo" is represented by the apostate Church.  To be sure, there is now, as there always has been throughout the Church Age, a godly Remnant.  Yet, on the whole, Christendom is shot-thru with corruption.  And it's time for a change.

Ours is a terminal generation.  (No, that is not my own opinion; but it is the plain teaching of the Word of God.)  Yet I perceive there are two very different ways of thinking about what that means.  Whereas I used to see the Rapture of the Church as being the instantaneous end of the steadily ongoing Church Age.  Now, however, I see that the Church Age is rapidly coming to its end-point (the Rapture), albeit in the process of a Great Transition from one dispensation to another.  And that one difference in perspective is significantly changing my "paradigm," my worldview.

As long as I (formerly) viewed the Church Age as an essentially continuous (as in unchanging) aspect of God's ongoing plan involving humanity; and, that that aspect of God's plan (the Church Age) would abruptly end at the Rapture: in that case, even though I discerned multifarious problems amongst practically every church I attended, over the course of many years,  still, I always found it difficult to embrace the idea that a drastic systemic change was in fact needed.  I furthermore found it difficult to seek, much less to expect, new and different manifestations of God, that is to say, unlike anything that has been experienced before, during the Church Age. 

Now that I realize that we are already far into a time of Great Transition between two Ages; and, that Bible history reveals that very significant changes occurred during the closing period of earlier dispensations, which changes were instrumental in bringing in a new dispensation: that perception seems to have freed my mind from the shackles which kept me from being able (or at least from being comfortable) to accept that there needs to be systemic change, with respect to how that we Christians think about what it means to be the Church.  Also, this new perspective actually encourages me~especially, in view of the examples in Scripture (as above discussed), to seek God to do new things in this time of Great Transition.  We are, after all, God's vessels whereby He is going to bring in that new dispensation.  Besides, to do new things is the nature of God.

In light of this new paradigm (the Great Transition), I have a renewed sense of hope for the future~in particular, for the time between now and the Rapture.  And I have a new sense of freedom to believe that God does indeed want to do some new things; as opposed to doing old things, over again. 

Let me briefly interject an analogy, in conclusion.  In the course of thinking and writing about this "paradigm shift" involving what I have called, the Great Transition, I was reminded of those who suppose that the answer to America's problems may be found in returning to something like what America was in the days of the Founding Fathers.  But that can never happen.  Even though we still have more or less the same form of government, including the same institutions and even the same documents (federal and state Constitutions), yet the corpus of this nation has been eviscerated; the spirit of those institutions and documents having long since been removed from the conscience of the people.  It was not the form which gave rise to the spirit of America; but just the opposite was true.

Likewise, though most churches in America may retain the outward form of Christianity, yet the real spirit of that is long gone.  And no mere form is at all capable to give life.  Nor can dead churches resurrect themselves.  Nevertheless, the real Spirit of Christ is alive and well ~ in those individuals who desire with all their heart to follow the Lord.  And that Spirit is the only thing which is going to lead us forward in the progressive revelation of God's will and kingdom.  

So, what about the future?  I will speak more about that in the upcoming part 5 of this series.