Bewitched by the Flesh

BY BISHOP BERNIE WADE

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?  Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Galations 3:1-3

Alarm bells are going off in my head.  To some degree it may seem like the beginning of what some call the Apocalypse.  "Wars and rumors of wars are all around us.  Nation is rising against nation.  Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.”  Yet, I do not speak of the fulfillment of biblical prophecy as set forth in Matthew 24.  Rather, I am alarmed at the re-enactment of the Galatian church as it is playing itself out in our daily lives. 

Today, is a Monday, perhaps that is the reason.  However, there are too many ‘mondays’.   Among other things, today I have been inundated with rumors of division, wars within the body of Christ, breaking of fellowship, disaffiliation, dissemination, and the list goes on.  Here on the battle field, far from the glow of a warm camp fire, I hear the echo of the departed Apostle, "these things ought not be”.

I do not solitarily address the International Circle of Faith [ICOF], where God has placed me to minister and to lead.  In the ICOF we are experiencing an abnormal time of peace and continued growth, but it is not to the ICOF that I give my total allegiance.  For it is not the ICOF whose banner flies over my heart.  It is not the ICOF for whom if called to do so, I would die.  It is not the ICOF to whom I have pledged my life, my fortune and my sacred honor.  The ICOF is only a vehicle to bring unity.  My allegiance and trust is in Jesus Christ.  He is the Captain of my soul.  In Him do I live and move and have my very being. 

What causes my alarm is that we have become accustomed to division.  Perhaps in the ‘combat’ of our daily lives we have become so accustomed to war that we cannot even experience peace in our own camps.  Could it be like a nightmare from some forgotten war the soldiers of that war can’t forget? 

I boldly confess that some division is of God, and I concur that division sometimes brings about His will in His Kingdom.  I think that Apostle Paul and Barnabas dividing are a case in point.  Yet, the skeptic rightly wonders, ‘Was there was a bigger problem?  Was it not Apostle Paul who forced this separation?’  Does not the Scripture [even Apostle Paul’s own words 2 Ti 4:1 "Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry”] demonstrate that Apostle Paul needlessly caused this division.  In spite of men, God works His will, but can we wonder what even greater things might have happened without the division.

I wonder about a body that is in constant division.  How long can the body endure the strain of division?  It seems some love division and prefer it over unity.  A few days ago a man told me there was no need to try to see peace in the Middle East.  It is impossible.  Yet, we know the King of Peace.  Why isn’t Jesus an answer for the Middle East as well as us? 

Do we have a body that fears unity?  Are we resolved that Unity is an impossible goal.  How long must we hear those who would ignore Scripture and hear the voice of the Pharisees over the call of the Spirit of God?  How long will we boldly ‘Stand for Truth’ and then accept the conjecture of men on a variety of subjects?  Is this what Jesus Christ envisioned for His body?  A body that believes more and more division is somehow going to lead us to more truth.  That more and more division is going to bring us to unity.  That more and more division will accomplish His will in the earth.

In the recent past, we have been subjected to a diatribe from people who wish to be divided.  These think with their sexual organs rather than as whole people.  Men [and women] who wish to have special privilege and be divided from the rest rather than conform to normality.  These seek to divide into sub groups or a sub culture away from the norm but have the rights of the norm.  I was recently privileged to be briefed at the White House about this alarming subject.  Their assurance was that this was illegal and they would work toward a constitutional amendment to stop the progress of these folks.  I wonder aloud what would happen if instead we declared them sin sick and prayed until God divinely intervened.

While I am deeply alarmed by this trend toward people dividing into a subculture to ‘feel good’, I find an equally disturbing division and subculture in the body of Christ.   Here in the body, where the heartbeat of normalcy should be the loudest.  Here where the message and the motive should be clear.  Here where things should be right, just, moral, etc., I find much division.  Division over dogma’s and doctrines of men, division over electronic media and fashion, division over opinion vs. fact, division over morality and even those who would create a reason to have more division.

Could it be in my focus for global unity I have lost objectivity?  Am I misplaced in my desire to see the fulfillment of John 17:20 -22:

"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.  And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one”

Maybe I am too much of a dreamer.  Perhaps to dream of this prayer that Jesus prayed for the Church coming to fulfillment is just too much.  Maybe we don’t want to believe in oneness.  Perhaps it is easier to achieve division.  Yet, I am a dreamer.  And I dream on.

"Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer.”  Oscar Wilde