In John 3:6 our Lord stated to Nicodemus, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Although the Lord was speaking of the physical flesh in this context, the statement is certainly true concerning the spiritual world where the principle of the flesh and the principle of the Spirit exist. The Apostle Paul declared, "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would" (Galatians 5:17). The Apostle also warned us, "For he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (Galatians 6:8).
The Scriptures clearly teach that the flesh can never birth anything that is of the Spirit world, and that which is of the true Spirit will not be fleshly. Anything empowered by the flesh, God will burn up (I Corinthians 3:12-15), for "no flesh should glory in his presence" (I Corinthians 1:29). This is what Paul was referring to in II Corinthians 5:16-17, when he said "old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." The way we used to live was by the power of the flesh; now we are to live by the power of the Spirit. Anything we do for God through the power of the flesh is of the "old things." It is fleshly and will only reap corruption. Romans 8:8-9 clearly state, "So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you."
Since the turn of the twentieth century there has been a radical change in theological thought that has more and more changed the view about building Christ's Church. In contrast to the Philadelphia Church Age that trumpeted an earnest plea for spirituality in its evangelistic cry, we now are being told that this is the church age of materialism—it is the church age of the flesh or "carnality." As one of the Charismatic praise hymns declares, "Our God Reigns," it is truly their god of materialism that now reigns in the institutional church. They claim a god of the "new," the god of health and wealth, the god of prosperity; the god of this age that has taken over the public gospel of the world's churches.
The Lord Himself described this Church age and its boast: "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing" (Revelation 3:17). This Church Age no longer hates the flesh, the world, and sin. To the contrary it hates spirituality, poverty, godly living, suffering, persecution, and all such things that were part of the character that marked the godly in previous generations. This is the "Hour of Power," when rock and roll has become the theme music of the Church, when the Church revels in being "in the world" as well as "of the world." It is neither seeking nor desiring a spiritual kingdom within or a spiritual heaven later. It is satisfied with a physical, materialistic kingdom on earth, purchased by the bread of the earth (money) as it rejects the Bread of Heaven. It boldly proclaims a dialectic gospel that will usher in a Millennium where the megachurch will reign and perfect the earth without the need of Christ's presence. Yea, to them, the Church itself is Christ!
The Principle of Dialecticism
One of the philosophical innovators of the Enlightenment was Georg Hegel (1770-1831). He believed that linear logic could be altered by combining a thesis and antithesis into a synthesis. This reasoning enables an individual to take that which has been designated as truth and that which has been designated as error and synthesize them so that both truth and error are co-equally believed. The result is a destruction of absolute, dogmatic truth and the pursuit of an evolutionary truth.
Dialecticism should not be confused with a biblical paradox. A biblical paradox molds together two "seemingly" opposites into one principle that balances both aspects. For example, the Bible declares, "The way to save your life is to lose it"; this is a paradox. In contrast, a dialectic principle is one that is made up of two "literal opposites." For example, to take light and darkness, righteousness and unrighteousness, or God and the devil and bring them into compatibility of thought is a dialectical synthesis that makes all truth relative rather than absolute.
Dialecticism in Mixtures
The Bible prophesies of three prominent mixtures that are to occur in the Last Days. The first is found in Daniel 2:33 concerning Daniel's interpretation of the Image: "His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay." This mixture is further described in verses 41-43:
Forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay . . . they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
This mixture of iron and clay symbolizes the fickleness, uncertainty, and lack of stability in all earthly governments; this weakness of leadership is the dearth of genuine wisdom among world leaders. This failure of humanity's clay is a growing reality among the leaders of countries today.
The second mixture is found in Revelation 3:14-16 concerning the Laodicean Church Age: "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." This church age has a form of religion and godliness, but it is void of the saving and purifying power of the Gospel.
The third mixture is found in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43:
The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. . . . Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
This parable reveals the mixed condition of the visible church or kingdom of heaven during this age. There will be many false pretenders among the true saints until Christ comes. Some of these false professing Christians outwardly resemble true saints so much that only God's judgment time will reveal the distinction.
These prominent end-time mixtures concern political governments, the world's church system, as well as the local body of professing Christians. Our present age, in all of its varied facets, continues to willfully mix truth and error. God is against this mixture!
Present-day "Christian" Dialecticism
This dialectic principle is obvious in the institutional church's belief concerning the flesh and the Spirit. These two opposing entities are being forced to reside together. The public voice for neo-Christianity practices its own preaching that the powers of the flesh can help build Christ's Church; man in the church has been elevated to an equal plane with the Spirit of God. We are now "partners" with God in this ability to build the Kingdom. Our seminars can teach so-called Christians that there is a power in the flesh that is able to manipulate people into becoming Christians. We don't need to pray anymore or seek the leading of the Spirit of God; the flesh has come to a sufficiency in its own unique power through psychology, music, and technology to influence people for God. If this be the case, what kind of converts can be birthed through the powers of the flesh?
Even in the Fundamental churches of today it is evident that many pastors have come to believe that the Church cannot be built without the assistance of the flesh, the mixing of the world with the Spirit, in essence, without carnality. Dr. David Cloud in "How to Avoid False Professions," spoke the following to his Baptist brethren by stating:
Any evangelist will have false converts. Even the Lord's Apostles did (Acts 8:20-21), but something is seriously wrong when only a very tiny percentage of one's 'converts' exhibit any evidence of salvation. This is exactly what we see, though, in large numbers of fundamental Baptist ministries. Hundreds, even thousands, of salvations are claimed, though an extremely large percentage of these converts, up to even 99%, demonstrate no biblical evidence that the Spirit of God has regenerated them.
Such an observation needs to be seen and understood. We are looking for the professors of Christianity and not the possessors. Truly only God knows who is saved. But we must place in our evangelism with equal emphasis the necessity of a godly, Christian life to be the evidence of the profession, or our evangelism is not of God! We will become an advocate of the Devil if we do not give the full message of the Gospel, including the evidence of a radical change in our living! We tend to count for our church reports the professors of Christianity failing to later account for their lives thereafter. We are manipulating people down to the altar and immediately into the baptismal pool for the display of our successful ministry, while exhibiting little true desire and concern for them to grow in Christ. We have entered a religious bartering system in the evangelistic outreach: "You make the profession of Christ for our statistics and we guarantee you eternal security. . . . You won't have to be concerned about how you live and even the need of attending church. . . . We guarantee you will go to heaven when you die no matter how you live after this decision."
Historically the message of eternal security rested in Christ and His power in the life persevering unto the end. This promise is for those who possess the New Birth, who give clear evidence of such a conversion from heaven. Most ministers have never truly studied the Bible in order to take their people into the deeper pastures of God's Word. The only thing they know is evangelism, and even then, it is evangelism without a life for Christ. If this be the case, it is not the biblical New Birth!
The contemporary church is preaching a false assurance to the people. How many politicians locally, statewide, and even nationally claim to be Christians yet attend liberal churches? Because they "say" they are Christians, we follow right along. We hear and read of sports celebrities who profess to be Christians, yet they play on Sundays often to the sponsorship of beer companies. Such behavior also encourages youth and even adults to miss church on Sundays. This cannot be true of a Christian! Yet how often "Christian" organizations use professional athletes in their evangelistic outreach. If such an individual truly was born again, his testimony would strongly denounce the professional sports world, denounce playing on Sunday, and denounce sponsorship of the alcoholic world. This would be true of movie stars who profess to be Christians, no matter how pure their motives. There are some professions and associations that Christians will have to leave if they become a Christian.
This mixture or dialectic view of the flesh and Spirit is ever pervading all areas of the "Christian" perspective of living and worship. Mixed bathing in the context of "Christian" camps only invites impurity of thought. One of the saddest things to witness is a minister appearing in shorts and a tank top. Why is it that we are in bondage to the styles of the world? Why is it that because the world dresses casual we must dress casual as well? Why do we have to become like them? The uninstructed mind has no sense about the principles of righteousness; it must be taught by principle and by example. The local church will never rise any higher than its pastor. If he is carnal, flirting with the world in his manner, and casual in his approach about the flesh as a Christian, he will example such a presupposition to his parishioners. This is why the pulpit needs to preach not only "ecclesiastical" separation but also "personal" separation from the powers of the flesh and the world.
Dialecticism in Music
The times in which we live is empowered by rhythm. All music must have rhythm; but we must be careful that rhythm does not dominate the song. Because the age's mood and spirit about rhythm is an aspect we almost daily inhale in our society, we must be very careful concerning the music that our children listen to and sing. We do not want them to be "hooked" on the rhythm of a piece of music; the lyrics should be the theme not the music itself. Certain kinds of music cannot be encouraged because of the passions that are stirred by listening. Did we not see it coming some thirty years ago in the Charismatic and Neo-Evangelical movements? Did we not realize that dancing would ultimately become part of the worship services? The music they promote is visceral and fleshly stirring carnal desires and feelings as well as vulgar, physical responses.
Dialecticism in Church Growth
Young ministers today are often pressured to build their churches as fast as they can, no matter what it takes to build it. Anything is now acceptable to draw a crowd. Billy Graham emphasized mega crowds in his crusades, and now we are witnessing megachurches. What is the sign of true growth in a church? Is it the numbers, or is it the spiritual and holy advancement of its people? Without the latter there is no biblical growth of a church, only the filling of the pews or theater seats. The pressure to trim the message of the Gospel is increasing in order to draw crowds. Contemporary Christian music accomplishes this by literally rewriting the Gospel to accommodate the flesh with spiritual twist.
It may be that we need to start praying for God to keep away from the meetings those that should not be there as we pray for those who should be. It may be that we need to start praying for God to keep students away from our Christian academies and Bible colleges who have no desire to be there other than for the sports and non-Christian peripherals. It may be that we need to spend much time in prayer as to the purpose of our churches and schools before we begin them.
Evangelism should not be the reason for starting or keeping a Christian school. A Christian school presupposes that the child has come from a Christian home that desires Christian principles to be instilled within the child's life. The influx of the worldly into a school will automatically destroy the good children by the subtle, aggressive influence of worldly living, filthy conversations, and fleshly desires and music. In the Christian school context the principle of I Corinthians 15:33 is still true and more imperative than ever before—"Be not deceived: evil companions will corrupt good character."
Ministers are being pressured into keeping the message of the Gospel on a "positive" level. By doing so, they corrupt the Gospel, lower the standards of God, and give a false view of what the Bible says. Our beloved Lord warned us of this danger in Revelation 3:17: because of the positive approach alone in the message, the people do not know that they are "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." They do not know because they have not been told. The preaching of the Gospel must include the negatives as well as the positives! Otherwise, it is another gospel and not the Gospel of Christ!
A Spiritual Church and School
A spiritual church or school is fast becoming an extinct entity in the earth. More and more among spiritual ministries of the past, their pastors today are slowly capitulating to the neo-presupposition, permitting carnality in the lives of their parishioners.
Another reason for this shift away from spirituality may be the acceptance of theological systems that tend to provide a false security to those who profess to believe, that in turn permits worldly lifestyles. When one begins to believe that the only thing that matters is his standing and state in Christ before the Father, that it no longer matters how he lives in the standards of dress, music, and places he visits, and that there is not the need of the entire principle of biblical separation, then he has destroyed the biblical view of grace and warped it into a license of licentiousness. Truly grace teaches us the necessity of godly living (Titus 2:12-15). When a school or local church begins to make a distinction between principle and policy, then basically it is becoming a corporation rather than a spiritual entity in Christ.
Carnality is the norm within the institutional church, and the congregation loves to have it so. The necessity of holiness of heart and life has been castigated as being puritanical and legalistic. While admiring it in the saints of the past, we believe times have changed requiring a new Christianity that no longer demands detailed principles of the Word of God. Christian schools have been slowly affected by CCM; the art classes have been permeated by impressionism and abstract art that exalts subjective experience and quietly mocks a realist perspective of life, yea even the Christian life. Dress standards once honorable in the Christian schools have now become discarded and even despised by the very schools that embraced them at one time. The "casual" look has become the "standard" for school and church attire. The dress of dignity and reverence is even mocked now by many Fundamentalists.
Our church facilities are becoming more modernized with less of an atmosphere that promotes reverence to God. Pulpits of wood are being discarded for the acrylic look, displaying more a stage appearance where the so-called Word of God is given from every psychological slant. We have become so enamored with the need of "self-esteem" that we have no desire for the esteeming of Christ greater than ourselves. The pressing for us to have a "love for souls" is taking the place of the cry of former days of a "love for God" that transcended all other loves. The burden for evangelism has taken the place of the burden of earnestly contending for the faith once delivered unto the saints. The churches are now being taught that the former burden is greater than the Word of God itself. The "how to" training has become the need of the hour instead of prayer and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. When churches spiritually die, the smooth-running, oiled machinery of the programs and the CCM convince the people that the modern-synthetic religious experience is better than no experience at all.
Conclusion
Churches and schools have left what spirituality they once had, often because their doctrinal beliefs did not include a life for God. They only included a conversion concept, an entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven rather than a life to be lived after the entrance. When the teaching of such a life is absent in a theological belief, there will be nothing to either drive or draw a person on with God. Yea, such a life may even be despised and intimidated from the pulpit.
We as preachers of the Gospel are the responsible ones to keep our local church pure. There may be carnality present, but we must be preaching against it with regularity and striving for a spiritual church. As the preacher is responsible for the purity of the church in its doctrine and living, he is leaving the building of the church to Christ, Who is the Head of the Church (Matthew 16:18). As one Fundamentalist declared some years ago, "Every local church is one pastor away from becoming an apostate church." We must see the gravity of this statement. Apostasy does not only come through change of doctrine but also through a change in the practice of that doctrine. This is what happened to Billy Graham and others.
My dear earthly father would often preach against the "wild fire" within Pentecostalism. Yet there were those who would respond, "I'd rather have a little wild fire than no fire at all." But wild fire is strange fire, which God hates (Leviticus 10)! Others may state that it would be better for a corrupted Gospel to be preached than no Gospel at all. However, we must be reminded there is no spiritual power in a corrupted Gospel to save anyone. Such a corrupted Gospel may have some semblance to the Passover Lamb of Exodus 12, but we must remember that the Lord gave "the ordinance" of the Passover as well in Exodus 12:43-49 to guard and protect this feast. We must be careful not to sodden the Passover Lamb with water (12:9, weaken it). It is only the Truth that can set men free.
In these days when churches are found on almost every street corner in America, it must be said that a church without the power of the Holy Spirit and Bible principles dominating it is a curse rather than a blessing to a people and their community.
As the days of Noah have returned with a mixing of the godly and the ungodly seeds, may God keep us from the dialecticism of the flesh and Spirit.