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Collision Course

by Carman Niesley

The present day in which we live is a time of transition. We need to understand that the present is in reality transition from the past to the future. While there are numerous transitions in the course of life, never have we experienced the degree of transition we are presently going through. This is a transition of one age passing away while at the same time a new age is taking its place.

The modern age with its linear thinking, absolutes and scientific reason has given way to the postmodern age, celebrating pluralism and declaring the absence of absolute truth. Gone are the days of incremental change. Welcome to the world of exponential change.

As difficult as it may be for each of us as individuals to change, multiply that a thousand times over for the church. Here is an institution that has been entrenched in modernism for centuries. Now almost overnight, it finds itself in the midst of a culture with a new mindset requiring a new language.

Many decry the postmodern age with its agnostic tendencies. Others continue to function as they always have, in their own modernistic mentality. Neither is relevant. Both fail to recognize that God is the one who changes times and seasons (Daniel 2:21). Whether we like it or not, God has brought in the postmodern age. From God's perspective, it is an integral part of His purpose being fulfilled in the earth.

Coupled with the transition from the modern to the postmodern age is another transition of even greater consequence. This transition, however, will occur through an invasion and hostile resistance. The kingdom of God is invading the territory occupied by the world system. These two kingdoms are incompatible. Neither will tolerate the other. And at the center of this conflict is the church.

God has ordained the church to be the primary vehicle through which He will infiltrate the world with His kingdom. It is the postmodern age that is the environment in which today's church has been placed to manifest the kingdom of God. Postmodernism is an attitude that is an enigma. It is indefinable. While there is a rejection of present day Christianity, there is an insatiable thirst for spiritual things beyond anything we've known in the modern era.

This paradox of the rejection of Christianity and the embracing of spiritual things is a wakeup call to the church. It suggests that postmodern people do not see Christianity as spiritual. Why?

First, we who profess to be Christians must accept responsibility for the postmodern perception of Christianity. What have we modeled that would cause people to not see Christianity as spiritual? To help answer this question, we need to look at the meaning of the word "spiritual." The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines spiritual: "of, relating to, or consisting of spirit: incorporeal." So then, for our purpose, what is the definition of spirit? "1: a life-giving force; also: the animating principle: SOUL 2 cap: the active presence of God in human life: the third person of the Trinity." 

We can conclude from these definitions that these postmodern people who are interested in spiritual things do not see any life-giving force or any active presence of God in Christianity. Furthermore, there is no evidence of the Holy Spirit.

Western Christianity, with its scientific bent to accept only that which it can understand and explain, has emasculated the gospel by rejecting the unexplainable, supernatural elements of the faith. Thus it has become a product of the modern age, which is now a thing of the past. Even the word "Christian" is meaningless now. Everyone refers to himself or herself as Christian if they're not Muslim, Hindu, or some other religion or cult. So it means whatever the person using it wants it to mean.

God is removing modern Christianity. He will accomplish this through the postmodern age as Christianity is marginalized. It is then and only then that the people of God will become the viable force that He has created us to be. History has proven that the church is most effective in manifesting the kingdom of God when she suffers under persecution. Acceptance and political power only corrupt, causing complacency and apathy toward her first love.

The earth is the Lord's and all it contains (Psalm 24:1). He will use the injustices of a hostile world to bring the church back to her first love. We, the church, are on a collision course with God. No longer can the church trust in her own ways. Stripped of her self-sufficiency, she will trust in the Lord with all her heart, not leaning on her own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). As the church acknowledges the Lord in all her ways, He will make her paths straight (Proverbs 3:6). Then the life and the power of God will begin to be released through the church in ever-increasing measure.

The church as we have known it, will cease to exist. Oh, there will be vestiges of it strewn over the landscape, but there will be no life there. These will simply be the rotting corpses of what once was. For the One in whom there is life has moved on, leaving in His wake the dead traditions that have replaced the Word of God (Matthew 15:3-9). There will be a form of godliness, but no divine power (2 Timothy 3:5). But the church that Christ is building will pulsate with His life and power, being the personification of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

Instead of promoting herself, the church will return to proclaiming the singular message that her Lord proclaimed in the days of His flesh - the coming of the kingdom of God. Her proclamation will be with authority because it will be both in word and deed. These words and deeds will transcend the natural because they originate from a kingdom that is not of this world. Then the postmodern generation's thirst for the spiritual shall be satisfied. As they experience the kingdom of God through the manifestation of Christ in His church, they will come face to face with the One they have been unknowingly searching for.

And yet opposition will intensify. While multitudes will be joyfully coming into the kingdom, the world system will lash out with a vengeance in a vain attempt to thwart its ultimate destruction and removal. It's a revolution! The overthrow of an evil system that has enslaved billions will finally be brought down. The most radical revolutionaries the world has ever known will rise to the occasion. These are those who have counted the cost, who have denied themselves, taken up their cross, and followed their Lord into battle. These are the ones who have chosen to lay down their lives for Christ's sake, and in doing so, have discovered life in all its fullness. The revolution has already begun!

Finally, let me say that these are personal observations gleaned from my own personal experience, study and dialogue with others. I'm not a prophet. I don't pretend to have it all figured out. In fact, I won't be surprised if it doesn't unfold at all like I thought it would. We all see through a glass darkly. The Lord has disrupted, upset and changed my theology so much over the years that I know for certain that I don't have the final word, He does. I'm just seeking to walk in the truth He makes known to me.

I trust that these few thoughts may challenge each of us to press into the One who said, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Only as we draw into greater intimacy with Him will we truly know what His thoughts and ways are.

about the author   

Carman Niesley lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with his wife Joan. He was a church planter and pastor in the institutional church for nearly twenty years. He resigned from the pastorate to begin to model the relational and missional church he saw happening in the pages of the New Testament. Presently he is walking in kingdom relationships with other brothers, networking with those who are likewise seeking to model the kingdom through a simple lifestyle.