the curative for society (part 1)

There was a time in the earliest history of mankind, when "the garden of the LORD" was a Paradise which contained a great variety of life-giving trees ~ except, for only one, whose fruit produced death instead of life.  Now, six-thousand years later, contemporary human societies resemble the inverse of that situation.  Today, practically every institution amongst men tends to destroy life; although, there remains one which is potentially life-giving: that is, the true Christian Church, the Body of Christ.

I say, that the Christian Church is potentially life giving.  For, just as an apple tree, for example, though it is at all times an apple tree from the moment when its leaves first appear aboveground; yet, an apple tree is only life-giving when so ever it puts forth fruit.  Likewise, though the Christian Church is at all times the Church, so long as it "abides" in Christ (else, it could never bear fruit ~ see, John 15:4); yet, the Bible plainly teaches that the Church is life-giving when so ever it bears fruit.

But it is no more true that the Church ~ that is to say, any collective body of faithful Christians, bears fruit continuously, than it is true that individual Christians continuously bear (spiritual) fruit; notwithstanding, it ought to be the case that both individual Christians as well as the Church should bear fruit continuously.

And just as a single fruit plucked from a branch of an apple tree is never spoken of as being a "harvest" ~ but, a "harvest" represents the mass gathering of fruit from an orchard (or the ingathering of various crops, in their season).  Similarly, there is a vast difference ~ not in kind, but in proportion ~ between the fruit-bearing of an individual Christian, compared with the fruit-bearing of the Church as a whole.  As in nature there is that is called a harvest; so, also, in the Spirit there is a harvest: which in a word is called, Revival.  Revival is the harvest, the ingathering of spiritual blessings, which occurs at such times when the Church, collectively, bears fruit.

The above phrase, "at such times when," suggests there are seasons, in the Spirit, when the Church bears fruit and Revival (harvest) is then possible.  That suggestion is supported both in Scripture as well as in experience.  The Bible refers to Christ as "the Vine," in which and through which flows the vital Principle (the living Spirit of God) to nourish the branches (individual Christians), which, in turn, bear fruit.  In the history of the Church it also appears there are seasons of Revival.  But, at this point, we must depart from using the metaphor.  For, unlike mindless fruit trees, which God evidently created them to respond to external stimuli, in connection with their respective seasons of growth and of fruit-bearing; human beings, i.e., Christian persons, at all times possess within themselves not only the Life-giving Principle (the Spirit of Christ), but they furthermore possess a mind and the power to will.

A famous missionary to Asia, Jonathan Goforth (d. 1936), in the closing pages of his book titled, By My Spirit ~ which he completed just before he died, wrote:  "We wish to state most emphatically as our conviction, that God's Revival may be had when we will, and where we will."  His life and work were a powerful testimony to the truthfulness of that claim.

The Christian Church ~ which at all times is potentially life-giving, is actually life-giving (to others besides itself) only when that its members, collectively, bear fruit in Revival.  Indeed, where there is no power of Revival, the Life within such a Church is largely dormant ~ though the Church, as it were a tree, may not (yet) be dead.

It should be obvious to every true Christian that Revival is, and ever has been, God's will for the Church.  Tragically, it appears that most professing Christians are quite content to go through the motions, so to speak, of attending meetings which are typically very programmatic but devoid of any real intention, much less of any real effort, concerning Revival.  Meanwhile, absent the spirit and power of Revival flowing in and through the Church, such Church ~ being thus in a substantially dormant state ~ is powerless to extend any curative effect to society beyond the walls of such Church.

In forthcoming essays in this series, I want to present a case for Revival as being the only, as well as the necessary, curative for human society.  The Christian Church offers the one and only hope for bringing light and life to this dark and dying world.  But it is also true that the Church ~ so long as it continues in its present (dormant) condition ~ is more of a stumbling block to human society, than the Church is a force for good in the world.  Christ himself warned that he would utterly reject ('spew out of his mouth') those, "lukewarm" professing Christians, who persist in making a show of religion bereft of divine power.  And there is no surer proof that religion lacks divine power, than the absence of Revival in the Church.