MAY 12 2018
ACCULTURATION (2)
Last week I ended with,” The ‘cultus’ of today is MONEY. Let’s not kid ourselves: Mammon is God, the Dollar is King in the world and its possession a holy grail. We now put a price tag on everything. First on Jesus – 30 pieces of silver – and now also on the rest of creation: the woods are paved, the mountains mined, the seas eaten, species eliminated: all because of money. More than half of all wild animals have disappeared in the last 40 years because of money. We all participate in that criminal act. Jesus was sold for the price of a slave. Today we are selling God’s creation to serve us as slaves, 24/7.”
This week I continue this topic, and for this I turn to the book of Revelation, where Jesus sent a letter to a city called Thyatira as recorded in Revelation 2: 18-29. There, 2000 years ago, ACCULTURATION came to a head: the cultus of Christ versus the cultus of pagan gods. A very similar scenario is happening today.
Of the seven letters sent, this was the longest, the reason being that the situation there was quite complicated, resembling very much the economic scene today where a Christian institution – the church – exists and operates in a pagan world, a world bent on destroying God’s creation. Is the church up to it?
A few words on Thyatira itself.
Thyatira was a city of commerce and industry, a place well-known for her guilds or labor unions or business associations. Everyone who did business there or operated a company was automatically part of one of these social organizations. It even was compulsory to belong to one of these outfits on peril of being boycotted by all others: everywhere and constantly all were dependent on these powerful social organizations dominating the totality of social life.
For instance, it was simply impossible for an honorable Christian carpenter to ply his trade on his own, no matter how hard he worked. If he were not a member of the trade union then he simply was regarded as unqualified and ran the risk that nobody would call on him for work.
In other words in Thyatira persecution was not the result of political tensions generated by the way the church functioned, but in this city the entire structure of society imperiled the existence of the church there. Hmm…Sounds familiar.
It so happened that the church of Thyatira consisted primarily of small businessmen, people who for their daily bread depended on the cooperation of their clients. That meant that they had no option but to seek contact with the existing social network if they were not to perish financially. That was exactly the great question the church there was wrestling with.
Of course we can argue that the church there had to face reality, accept the consequences and simply venture out into the business world. This implied that the Christians were to become part of these labor associations and join these existing social structures.
But there was more to it than that. These bodies were outspokenly pagan. They had special high days involving solemn ceremonies, all of a non-Christian nature. These days were connected to the name of some patron deity and involved sacrifices to his idol. Fully integrated with this were elaborate banquets, always accompanied by a variety of pagan rituals. As a rule these festive meals degenerated into debaucheries, with strong drink and disorderly conduct creating additional havoc.
So to join all this was by no means an innocent affair. If these people would really get themselves involved in all this then they had to go whole hog, and that meant that they could not possibly shun these ceremonies and festivities.
The problem also was that there simply was no alternative. If they did not join then they could not make a living, and thus were doomed to begging for bread. And if they did join, then, in essence, their entire Christian life was imperiled. Between these two perils they had to choose.
In other words Christians were forced to adopt a pagan culture.
So what about today? Is it any different?
What was fundamental for the Church in Thyatira is today of equal relevance for the church of Century 21.
This time also the church exists in a world which breathes a different spirit. This time also the church cannot withdraw, cannot isolate herself and cannot retreat to an island: it has to remain right in the center of the world.
But to stay there means that it constantly encounters conflicts. The congregation of Thyatira was too small to exist on its own and so be self-supporting, could not be independent from society at large: it was simply too tiny and too insignificant.
The real question was: on what basis should she build her modus operandi, her total life`s goal? This was a conscious choice: either participate in the public domain, or fundamentally refrain from any of these civic activities.
Yes, this 2000 year old dilemma is very current today!!
Apparently there were those in Thyatira who emphatically proclaimed that they could join these pagan organizations, because the alternative would be destitution. Common sense must prevail. If these people were motivated by declaring that it was their irrefutable duty to renew these pagan labor unions from within, then and only then they could have some ground for discussion. But then their intention to join these pagan bodies had to immediately be followed by the cautionary cry that under no circumstances would they do anything that would go against the Lord’s commands and the holy will of Jesus Christ. They would vouch to always remain true to your Savior!
It is clear that in pagan surroundings, a young church is always involved in all sorts of social problems, because it often is simply impossible to sever all community ties. But it would be imperative to emphatically state that they would never allow to be seduced by pagan practices. That, however, did the preachers in Thyatira fail to do.
On the contrary, they concocted a new sort of theology, a set of religious rules that seemed to justify cooperation with paganism. This theology was based on the premise that these heathen gods really did not exist at all, and that throwing a bit of incense on their altars posed no real problem at all. They would argue that this would constitute a harmless act because the recipients, those idols, didn’t even exist.
If they, with this empty gesture could guarantee an economic place in society, then, well, go ahead. They even went a step further: even these orgies and the subsequent sinful conduct were glossed over. It’s not so bad, during these nocturnal guild celebrations, to give in to one’s ‘primeval nature’. It does no harm to give full rein to the desires of the flesh because only then do you learn to know the depths of Satan.
That even sounded pious! You forget yourself in the filth of sensuous passions, and the next morning you wake up with a terrible hangover, but that is especially what you need because then you can, with full force, glorify in the grace of Christ.
Isn’t that a marvelous theology! Isn’t that a true miracle because it’s also very profitable! It allows you to be a carpenter, your pagan fellow citizens regard you as a congenial fellow, somebody who can join into the fun, and they order new chairs and table from you. Your business flourishes, and all is fine and dandy. And your Christian conscience is at rest.
That sort of theology is thoroughly practical and enables us to have the cake and eat it too. You become a successful businessman, you are in no time rich, you have the occasional fun-filled evening and happy-go-lucky night, and to top it off you can discover ‘the depths of the Satan”. It’s a perfect set-up.
In Thyatira the instigator of this new theology appears to have been a woman who is only identified with the less flattering name of Jezebel.
This woman presents herself as a ‘prophetess’. So, supposedly, she has her theology straight from the Holy Spirit. That’s a smart move because it wouldn’t be easy to base her ideas on the Scriptures. It’s, of course, much easier to appeal to prophetic inspiration. At the same time that part of the church that has not bought into the new theology is labeled as unspiritual. They are the literalists, those who adhere to the text of the Bible and are afraid to be swayed by power of the Spirit.
But she, Jezebel, has no such compunction, and she openly proclaims her theology. She does have adherents. She also has children and they side with their mother. Together they constitute a dangerous group in the midst of the church in Thyatira.
Are there Jezebels today?
Are there such people in the church today? Most definitely. There are many who deny that the earth is holy, who believe that nature is evil, and teach that Jesus never became human.
Today GNOSTICISM reigns. Trump is seen as the savior of Christianity. Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell are the modern day Jezebels. They claim that oil is not polluting, and that prosperity – Joel Osteen – is a gospel-given. They see the earth is evil, so thrashing it poses no harm.
Punishment.
In Thyatira Jezebel and her followers receive a harsh but justified sentence. She will become seriously ill, her children will die, her adherents, the proclaimers of the ‘new theology’ will suffer severe suppression. They had embraced this new theology precisely to escape economic hardship and live a life of luxury, and now exactly the opposite is happening.
It is striking that Jesus calls himself one who searches the hearts and the minds. He exposes the ‘new theology’ as being essentially nothing else but cowardice, greed and a despicable compromise.
I believe that almost all of religion is affected by this teaching. Paul gave a warning to Timothy (1 Tim. 6: 10) “For the love of money is a root of all evil: and some whose hearts were fixed on it have been turned away from the faith.”
To bring that into a contemporary context, “For the abundant supply of fossil fuels is the root of all evil”. Carbon-based components supply all of us with the 24/7 service of 100 mechanical slaves.
But we are on the earth to serve creation and not to be served in such a way that creation dies.
“Hold on to what you have until I come”, are Jesus’ very words. That may involve some temporary hardship, but eternity is long.
That is the great requirement extended to all churches, also today.
Hold on: embrace what we have received from Christ: those are not matters we can bargain with. Live creation-friendly lives!
How the church in Thyatira dealt with the entire pagan situation, how she found her place within that pagan structure the Bible does not tell us. But one thing is clear: nothing that truly belongs to the gifts Christ blest us with, may ever be abandoned: the earth is holy, because it is a divine gift. We must treat it as such.
The last few verses of the letter to Thyatira forcefully speak of what is to come. “To those who overcome and do my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations”.
Acculturation today.
The ‘cultus’ of today is MONEY in the form of black gold. Let’s not kid ourselves: Mammon is God, the Dollar is King in the world and its possession a holy grail. We all participate in that criminal act. Jesus was sold for the price of a slave. Today we are selling God’s creation to serve us as slaves, 24/7.”
How do we deal with the problem of our energy slaves which spell the end of creation?
That is the burning question today.
Thyatira withstood the temptation and got its reward: it got THE MORNINGSTAR, the Risen Christ and his new creation. Thyatira shunned the immediate reward to earn the eternal reward.
Our problem is much more difficult than what is related in the letter to Thyatira. We ARE fully compromised, we ARE totally integrated with the secular, earth-destroying, planet-polluting economy.
How we live today determines how we will LIVE tomorrow in the New Creation.
A note:
Some of the above has been translated from “En voort wentelen de eeuwen” (On and on the Ages Roll), by Dr. J. H. Bavinck.