In the previous post we looked at the nature of God and why he created man. Then we falsify the ideology that man was created to worship (appease) God. I put the word "appease" in brackets in order to specify that I am referring to worship as a means of appeasing God. Among religious folks, worship is mostly seen as a means of appeasing God. We come to church regularly and we try to live a holy life in order to appease God. We call this worship, and then we conclude that we were created for this worship, thinking that Christianity is all about this worship. We've missed it.
The tree worship God by being a tree, the fish worship God by being true to what it is. God created all things, and by being true to what they are they are worshipping God. This worship is not for the sake of appeasing God (in the previous post I explained what I mean by "appease"). However, it honours the Creator. Yes, you honour the Creator by staying true to the purpose he created you. As Christians, to worship God we must remain true to what Christianity is. We didn't create Christianity, it is God that gave it to us and we must honour (worship) God by staying true to the Christianity he intended. So what is this Christianity that God intended? This is what we try to search out in this series.
In the previous post we also arrived at the conclusion that God created man so that he could have an intimate relationship with man, and he designed man to govern, reign, rule and have dominion. Christianity is God's way of restoring man to the original purpose he was created. That purpose is not to sing and dance every Sunday in Church. And it is certainly not to appease God, soothe his anger or pamper his ego. Immediately he created man, the first thing he told man was, "multiple, reign, rule, govern and have dominion". It is therefore safe to conclude that this is the purpose he created man.
Man fell and became slave to the very things he was designed to have dominion over. Christianity is God's way of restoring man back to power. But this time man will govern from the throne in heaven. Hence, Christianity is about returning back to power and exercising the government of God. No, Christianity is not about worshipping God. Surely as His bride we are supposed to adore, love and honour our Lord. But no one marries a wife so that she could follow him about, singing and dancing his praises. It would be irresponsible of us to just focus on that alone.
For too long we have hold on to the ideology that Christianity is about worshipping God. And this is why every of our Christian practices is structured towards this goal. Our meetings are called worship services. We feel that as long as we come to church every Sunday and worship God then we have fulfill our Christian obligation. But the moment we begin to see that Christianity really is about a Kingdom and a government then our Christian practices will begin to take up a new shape. Rather than holding worship services we would be holding governmental assemblies.
The word church is translated from the Greek word "ecclesia", and ecclesia is a Greek governmental assembly — an assembly that began in Athens where the adult male will gather and meet in order to make governmental decisions concerning the community. Ecclesia is never a religious gathering nor a worship service. We stray from the path that God has set us, the path that the early Christians walk. We keep telling ourselves that we are following the Bible. But if you should truly understand what happened in the first century as recorded in our New Testament Bible, then you will realize we are completely off.
We keep looking at the New Testament from the lenses of the culture and traditions of our modern time. But to truly understand what you see in your New Testament bible you must dive into the world of the first century — their culture and way of thinking. Until you do this you cannot rightly interpret the events you see in your New Testament Bible. It is not possible to accurately interpret an event of a culture that is alien to you. You will end up jumping into all kinds of false conclusions.
For example, you will never understand why they met in their houses. You will think it's because they didn't have money to build church. Here is a quote from a second century Christian leader, "The Word, prohibiting all sacrifices and the building of temples, indicates that the Almighty is not contained in anything." (Clement of Alexandria 195). Here is another quote from Origen, a 3rd century Christian leader,"We refuse to build lifeless temples* to the Giver of all life.... Our bodies are the temple of God." (Origen 248).
These people intentionally decided not to build any church. They were not doing religion. They understood that they were not called to do religion, so why build a church? You might think they didn't have choirs because they just started and they were not organized enough. But this also was intentional. Many have assumed that there were no denominations and big churches because Christianity then was still primitive and they haven't grown and became more organized. But all of these assumptions are products of ignorance.
We do not know this people, we don't know how they think and how they perceive Christianity. So we project our Christianity into the Bible and use our traditions to interpret theirs. But we cannot fulfill God's will by reading the Bible through the lenses of the traditions of men — traditions developed by pagan hearts and passed down to us. May God help us to see Christianity according to his eternal plan.
What Is Christianity (Part 1): From The First
What Is Christianity (Part 2): Kingdom, City and a Bride
What Is Christianity (Part 3): Man's Perception Of Religion
What Is Christianity (Part 4): The People Of Israel
What Is Christianity (Part 5): The Origin Of Worship Service
What Is Christianity (Part 7): Ecclesia In Each Locality
What Is Christianity (Part 8): The Christian Life
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