Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
But oil is not better meetings. It is not some metaphorical better assembly that manages to remain as a candlestick. Frankly, given the extreme state of some of those churches in Revelation 2 and 3 who still had theirs, I am not as easy to persuade that lampstands are so quickly removed. I know there are some who will disagree, but I am not sure that the RCC has lost theirs. Oh, they have many things among them that ought not be. But they still have not lost sight of the only thing that saves them. And despite the rhetoric of us Protestants, it would appear that they do not believe that Christ is actually re-sacrificed every time they have communion.
The problem is that we spend too much of our time worrying about what kind of oil others have rather than worrying about our own. If there is a problem, it is not with the church. It is with those who would be the church. Any church. God is not after some uniform, glorious beacon of truth. He is after people who bear his image in everything they do. He is after their obedience, not their sacrifice of praise. Out of obedience will come the praise. But praise from those who are not obedient is hollow and is not what He seeks.
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Elden1971 (and thanks for being here, by the way) starts out with the common wisdom that the Church has "failed as the candlestick." On the one hand, anyone who can point to imperfection in the Church can thereupon point to failure. On the other hand, God knows we are not going to perfect, and doesn't discount our successes because of a lack of perfection.
I think much of the perception of "failure" of the church is tied up in our concept of what success looks like. In the case of the LC, we imagined this group of heavenly people whose holiness and transformation shown out like some kind of glowing orb over the whole city they lived in. It was a very Chinese vision of humanity, with everyone looking alike and all individual distinction swallowed up in the glory of the wonderful whole. We saw the Church as the precursor to the New Jerusalem, shining with beautiful colors and light.
But we sometimes forget that the Church is also the tabernacle, covered with the uncomely hides of common animals. Nothing bright and beautiful about that. The Church is made up of common-looking folk, each very distinct and different, not to mention the different cultures and backgrounds they represent. Its beauty is inward, and it is not a beauty of some homogenized glowing orb, but of real human beings who each have the character of Christ.
In the next age, the nations will bring their tribute to the shining city. In this age, they scoff at the shining because the shining is disguised with a common-looking exterior. If you look at the rough edges you see failure. But if you look closer, for what God is really looking for, you see successes.
I see evidence of the success of the Church being a shining light to the nations all over the place, in assemblies where, as
OBW said, a critical mass of the individuals are obedient. If I were scanning for the idealized lampstand that the LC told us to be, I'd be disappointed. But I don't think that's really what God is looking for in the first place.