We infiltrate; we refuse to assimilate.
The call to a covenant community of faith is a calling to come out of the fallen world. We leave it behind and embrace something from another realm of existence, something eternal. It’s a radical rejection of the entire mental orientation of the world around us. We refuse to value what they value. We call their moral system sinful.
We reject the lies about the mainstream being “Christian” in any real sense of the word. It’s not that those folks have no genuine faith, but that they aren’t living biblical faith. They have embraced something alien to the Bible, and read their lies back into Scripture. They are wrong on most things. But we have no interest in destroying their institutions; we will leave that in God’s hands. Instead, we simply leave them behind.
We come out to a different approach entirely. We form a covenant community of faith as our new identity. We don’t lose touch with the world’s way of thinking and doing, but we never lose sight of a far higher calling.
And once we embrace this higher calling, there is no going back. We become it. There is no compromise; it is unthinkable. We know that it belongs to the things Christ will destroy when He Returns. We have no agenda to destroy anything except the lies in our own souls. The Flaming Sword works only when you turn it on yourself. We abandon the things that cannot follow us into eternity. We see all of Creation as just tools for our Lord’s glory, disposable things that have no intrinsic value.
Having tasted this high and glorious estate of the soul, how could we go back? Our spirits rise from death and animate us on a totally different plane of existence. If we truly connect with Christ, turning away from Him is far worse than death.
There is no going back.
That would be the sword of Truth, right? It does seem useless to speak harsh truths to those whom we think need to hear it.
I often encounter “bad” Christians who apparently believe it’s OK to use the grace of God for achieving their own desires, and I have to wonder why God allows it. Does it glorify Him somehow, or is God bound to an obligation of some kind? Maybe the person just does it because experiencing that same grace is what makes them feel loved by God?
This also brings up the foundational question: Is abusing God’s grace the same thing as “turning back” to the world? In view of those “bad” Christians, I tend to believe it is not.
For once, I believe I need to sound a not of caution here: God tolerates a lot of things that we believe He needs to act on. The Flaming Sword at the Gate of Eden demands that you die to self and restore the harmony of faith over intellect. You have to stop eating the Forbidden Fruit (judging for yourself good and evil) in order to taste the Tree of Life. But the whole point is that you look to your own failures and not try to change the world. People who appear to be abusing God’s grace are a problem, but it requires sage handling. You have to react according to what your faith says God requires of you, and not what you think you can accomplish.
Maybe you can help them. Call attention to where they are missing the mark as you see it. Maybe it’s just a lesson to you as you watch them keep poking their Father in the eye until He finally slaps them down. Maybe it’s a chance to discern they are fake. But people who genuinely discern the truth of God tend not to turn back. Those who turn back should be viewed as slipping from what they know best because of fierce trials, or someone who never really caught the vision of Eternity. And you may never really know just which it is. What you can know is what is required of you.