“MAD CHURCH DISEASE”

Overview

A few years ago, a new malady surfaced among cattle that was labeled by medical professionals as “Mad Cow Disease.” The disease subverts the brain and nervous system and throws the afflicted animal into a quivering plight, from which there is no known recovery. I have chosen “Mad Church Disease” as the caption of this feature because it depicts the disease that has attached itself to the body of believers—a spiritual disease that has caused untold division and turmoil within the Christian community.

It is therefore obvious that I have no intention of promoting religion or church—or to place either in a favorable light. They will not, nor cannot, land us on heaven’s shores. The Good News concerning Jesus was solving problems long before man contracted “mad church disease” and long before institutional religion and the contemporary church were introduced by men who envisioned their answers to life’s problems as being more profound than God’s. The stream flowing from the river of life was pure and tranquil before religion and church contaminated it. God has been replaced with religion, and Jesus has been substituted with church.

When the Christian community made its debut about 2,000 years ago, there were no churches for believers to join. They identified themselves with other believers of a common cause, thus forming Christian congregations or communities. None of the early believers were afflicted with “mad church disease.” “Church” is a misnomer and a distortion of the Greek ekklesia. The term was never used by the early believers. Yet we seem to be bent on fostering King James’ blunders. Instead of trying to recapture the vocabulary of the Holy Spirit, we insist on promoting the mistakes of a bungling king.

In the beginning there existed only one body of believers, as opposed to hundreds of churches today, and it was composed of all of those who had accepted Messiah Jesus as their Savior and Redeemer. There was nothing to join. The King of kings (Jesus) added them to the new arrangement the moment they were born anew (Acts 2:47).

If your church is plagued with any of the symptoms below, you may be exposing yourself to “Mad Church Disease.”

·         The only Bible allowed is the King James Version.

·         Everybody is expected to sign a pledge card to underwrite the church idol (edifice). Since this “ministry” is “of the earth,” it is called “materialistic evangelism” or “inreach,” as opposed to “outreach.”

·         The pulpit pastor wears his shirt backwards, dresses like mother and wants to be called Father.

·         The choir wears apparel that corresponds with the Pastor’s feminine garb.

·         Only those aligned with this church may partake of the Lord’s Supper.

·         They claim to be the “church of our Lord” and believe all others are counterfeit.

·         They profess to have the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

·         They believe salvation and afterlife are found only inside their camp or religious party.

·         They deny God has other children scattered over the hills and valleys of sectarianism.

·         They require a new convert to be rebaptized (re-immersed), even though he was sincerely baptized previously.

·         Honest dissidents are disciplined, avoided, and excommunicated.

·         They insist on strict conformity to the group’s doctrinal standards.

·         The church staff consists of Senior Pastor, Associate Pastor, Semi-Associate Pastor, and Part-Time Janitor.

·         There’s an ATM in the lobby!

Facing The Real Issue

We have taken a mistranslated word—“church”—and erected sectarian walls around it in the likes of the Baptist Church, Methodist Church, Catholic Church, Church of God Church, Christian Church, non-instrumental music Church of Christ, Assembly of God Church, Evangelical Free Church, and a host of others.

Here is where the fundamental and inexcusable sin has been committed. We have built our own brand of wall around “church” and excluded all other sincere believers who do not “belly up” to our brand of religion. We call that wall “the Lord’s church” and dare anyone to breach it.

Yes, unquestionably, there is only one body of believers, as per Ephesians 4:4. But we have misused and misapplied that divine passage by applying it to the wall we have erected in the form of “church.” It is shameful and disgraceful—all the way to the bone and beyond. If Ephesians 4:4 can be desecrated by creating many bodies, it may also be violated by inventing many Gods, Spirits, hopes, Lords, and faiths.

The bottom line is that we have sinned by dividing that one body of believers into a profusion of sects and factions. We ought to get down upon our knees—now, not later—and petition the Lord to forgive us.

Jesus Did Not Die To Keep Our Sectarian Walls Erected

I have stated numerous times—and produced documentation—that Jesus did not die for a church, any church. Churches were founded by men. Furthermore, Jesus did not say in Matthew 16:18, the verse often quoted to justify our sects, “I will build my church.” Churches, such as we have today, did not have their genesis until hundreds of years after Jesus founded His new order or community. “I will build my church” is not—I repeat—is not in the oldest Greek manuscripts. But here is what we do find in the oldest Greek manuscripts, “I will found my community”—or congregation.

That community or congregation is in exile on the hills and in the valleys of sectarianism. This is why Thomas and Alexander Campbell and other reformers sought to “unite the Christians in all the sects.” Their movement was indeed a noble movement, but down the road it divided and subdivided and divided again until today we have a dozen or more factions that make up the movement they launched, with each splinter group claiming to be the “one body” of believers spoken of in Ephesians 4.

Our Churches Are Counterfeit Copies Of The Original

Our assorted churches do not represent what Jesus founded. They are part of the problem, not part of the solution. Jesus founded a new people, a new Israel, a new household, a new kingdom or reign, a new congregation or community, a new assembly. The new people He founded are dispersed among most all of our modern-day sects.

Then where is the bride of Jesus today? Jesus’ bride is not a sect or faction or denomination. Jesus’ bride is composed of those who have accepted Him as Lord and King and are striving, as best they can, to respond to His grace, wherever they are scattered. This is the bride of Christ! Then where is she? What is her location? She is spread throughout most sects and churches and denominations. She’s in exile, just as old Israel was! The message I’m sharing with you today is the same message our reformer forefathers announced to divided Christendom—those we claim to imitate but don’t.

For What Did Jesus Die?

Jesus did not die for churches and sects, denominations, factions, and religious parties. John tells us for what He died. “...that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one” (John 11:51-52).

Who is scattered among sects and parties and factions? God’s children! Now we know why our reformer forefathers sought to “unite the Christians in all the sects.” Let us no longer proclaim the Church of Christ sect, the Baptist sect, the Methodist sect, or any of the others. Let us, instead, proclaim Jesus and Him crucified in an effort “to bring them [God’s children] together and make them one.”

This is my story and this is my song. I shall, with the Lord’s strength, continue to tell my story and sing my song, with the prayer that someone will listen to my story and sing the song of unity and reformation. I cannot tell a different story or sing a foreign song and live with my conscience. I have written what I have written. Let it be recorded.