The Dragons of Eden
Anyone who truly humbles themselves before the Holy Spirit–God Himself–risks being severely shaken to their soul, for He is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24; Hebrews 12:29). Confronting the powers that influence us from within (flesh, spirit, Spirit) and from without (world, humanity, demons) requires great courage, for we must discover and face both the good and evil that are embattled upon our very being. Mercifully, we need not face this conflict alone, for Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit are both our vanguard and rearguard (Isaiah 52:12). A neglect of both self-examination and an awareness of ever-present spiritual warfare will result in eventual emotional and spiritual crisis (2 Corinthians 13:5). However, embracing the same will result in difficult but progressively wiser and chastened maturity (Romans 5:3-5; James 1:2-5).
Since the Fall of humanity, every soul born into this world is beset with darkness that would impede spiritual freedom. The internal darkness of a sinful nature we inherit from Adam per his failure; the external darkness of a cursed world, fallen angels, and evil spirits are further aspects of God’s judgment that we must contend with in flesh and spirit (Romans 8:1-17; Ephesians 6:10-18). The dragons of Eden were released in the same moment Adam and Eve were exiled from their Edenic paradise and the Curse set upon the world (Genesis 3). Those dragons have haunted humanity from the beginning and remain with us still. Truly, they and their progenitor–the Dragon of Old, the Ancient Serpent–will eventually meet their doom (Revelation 20:7-15). Until then, warfare tracks us all via generations-long strategies engineered by the Wicked Worm and his demonic host. Most of those strategies are tactically employed through the battlefield of our minds (Psalm 139:23-24). Herein, the devil’s endgame is to steal, destroy, and kill both the reality and opportunity of the abundant relational life that God promised is possible through His Son Jesus Christ (John 10:7-30).
Defining Reality Through Truth or Anxiety and Unbelief?
Entire groups of people–families, churches, schools, businesses, or governments–can be immensely influenced by or even dominated by a charismatic leader or member who defines reality through lies, even deceiving themselves. “It is amazing how easily this can happen; it is a sign of the power of Satan, the ‘father of lies’ (John 8:44),” particularly when following the lead or wholly accepting all said by the one who, “wittingly or unwittingly, fosters or permits a poisonous atmosphere to develop.”[1] Of course, lies are only countered and undone by truth. But when one’s “truth” is in reality constructed of lies, unbelief is born. And unbelief is not simply an unwillingness to agree with certain facts or consider counterclaims, but is a willful refusal to hear even the possibility of truth and recognize its objective and experiential reality.
Played out to its worst end, unchecked unbelief will result in repudiation (i.e. forceful rejection) of individuals, reality, and even divine revelation (Luke 16:31; John 5:14-18). Therefore, due to our fallen minds, what we think and how we feel (our inner reality) can never determine the outer reality. Foundational balance is only achieved when we receive and apply to our very soul the divine reality that Jesus Christ is the way, truth, and life; He is the exclusive way to the Father (John 14:6). He provides the perfect internal and external standard of All Truth to which we measure all things, rightly dividing relative truths from absolute truth so that we might be made free (John 8:32; 15:26; 16:13; 2 Timothy 2:15). Ultimately, unbelief itself will face final judgment by the everlasting truth of eternal justice that Christ proclaimed (John 12:48).
Jesus’ declaration that He is the way, truth, and life is one of the few greatest philosophical statements of all time. He did not claim to merely know or teach the way, truth, and life. Nor did He envision a new systematic rule to follow. He declared Himself–His very Person–to be the final key to all mysteries. Jesus being the Way makes it possible for humanity (per individual choice) to be reconciled to God. Jesus being the Truth reveals the eternal reality and ethic expressed in the context of a relational Person who through love transcends the rigidity of law and doctrine (Matthew 5:17; Romans 13:10; Galatians 5:14, 18). The divine authority with which Christ spoke disintegrated all notions of abstraction, gnosticism, human relativity, and worldly propositions. The immutability, purity, and power of Jesus’ truth cannot be found or merited by any human endeavor; it can only be revealed by Christ Himself. And Jesus being the Life proves Christianity is not a common code of conduct, ritualistic, or an adaptable ideology. It is in fact an impartation of divine life (via the Holy Spirit), providing the means by which humanity might comprehend the truth standard crucial to following the Way. Throughout John’s Gospel, “life describes the principle of spiritual vitality that originates with God and that lifts men out of sin to Himself.”[2] In Him was life; and the life was the light of men (John 1:4).
In the present age of profuse affluence, limitless information, and hyper-connectivity, much of the “civilized” world has become distracted and callous toward the idea of this age coming to an end. Though popular culture the world over celebrates superheroes, antiheroes, super villains, aliens, and apocalyptic scenarios alike, there is indeed a collective and mounting fear that “the end of all things is at hand” (1 Peter 4:7). Such fear can be deadly if not tempered with discernment and truth that is at the same time necessary and divinely provisional (Matthew 6:25-34).
Anxiety–due to endemic stressors in Western culture–now ravages every demographic regardless of social, vocational, and financial status, or age. Even Christians now suffer more than ever from anxiety (and depression), revealing a disturbing lack of discipleship-driven ministry and practice in the Western Church. Recent research [in 2017] shows anxiety to be 800 percent more prevalent than all forms of cancer![3] In response to the rampant worry, fear, and obsessive concern with the cares of this world, the idols of entertainment, comfort, and narcotics have also increased. Christians, too, are guilty of setting up the “golden calves” of our postmodern age (Mark 4:18-19). With secular culture influencing church culture in greater proportion than the reverse ideal, most churchgoers have become weakened and cowardly caricatures of Jesus’ true disciples.
I have witnessed an increasing number of souls plagued by debilitating anxiety. Some have achieved victory, while others have unintentionally fallen prey to falsely perceived realities and emotional prisons that end in identity crises, strained or broken relationships, weak discipleship, and/or discarded ministry calling. Surely, mental health challenges are not to be stigmatized and are a legitimate concern, even in the church. Not all cases can be treated with medication, but some can. Not every case involves spiritual conflict, but every case should involve prayer. Yet what is often missed is that this mental health arena is indeed strategically targeted and exploited by devilish design, blatantly or subtly. It is diabolically-driven mental persecution with intent to extinguish the collective wisdom of the West–the last best hope of civilization. Thus, at the personal and professional level, there is urgent need for acute prayerful discernment in psychological, emotional, physiological/medical, and spiritual evaluation–a psychology of the human spirit in tandem with the Holy Spirit’s power and revelation that transforms us by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2).
Forgiveness & Freedom
Like many who grow up in the church, I once viewed God as a passive-aggressive Pharisaical taskmaster who possessed impossible expectations of perfection and granted less grace the older I got. I was never actually taught this fallacy, for my formative church years were steeped in biblically sound teaching and living examples. I simply assumed this notion out of the rotten recipe of self-centered willful ignorance, indifference, youthful rebellion, and taking God and His goodness for granted. I had no trouble believing in God; it was the knowing and serving Him that vexed me. Into my college years I suppressed truth in unrighteousness, which only conflated spiritual conviction. Then, decades ago now, a spiritual/emotional crisis arose and, knowing to Whom I must appeal, Jesus mercifully, joyfully, and immediately delivered me from pervading anxiety and I was overcome by His love and forgiveness! This does not mean I am entirely immune to anxiety, even now. Far from perfect, I (and every believer) still must face sin when it crouches at my (our) feet and seeks to hinder or devour (Genesis 4:6-7; 1 Peter 5:8). My deliverance from crippling anxiety granted me the clarity that I must ever claim via discipleship to Christ, which affords me the confidence to work through any personal or spiritual battle with full dependence upon God’s Word and Spirit. Certainly, this is much easier said than done, and such battles are often of longer duration and greater difficulty than desired.
The storms of life are predominantly meant for us to be carried through toward gaining wisdom rather than being escaped from and learning nothing. I have lost my share of spiritual battles, and I have attempted to circumvent my share of life’s storms, even when aware God was leading me straight into them! But by God’s grace alone, each of our flaws and failures can be forgiven and overcome by Christ when we see any and all victories in our lives as His own (John 16:33). Human nature under conviction may resist God, but the key to victory is maintaining a prayerful and relational proximity to Jesus and His Spirit even amidst our imperfect warfare between the flesh and human spirit (Deuteronomy 31:8; Romans 7:14-25). This necessary relational proximity is where we receive Jesus’ forgiveness in full so that we can then wholly forgive ourselves, others, and even God (Mark 11:25-26).[4] When this key is neglected, we may know better but will fail to do better, and even our prayers may become bound to the flesh as we “consume the oblation” and petition God from our state of feeling (and even unbelief) instead of from His state of Being.
Christian Cowards & Empty Orthodoxy
Western church culture is in a sorry state of affluence and decline, much like secular culture. Moreover, the condemnation that Jesus leveled against the Laodicean church is as prescient and prevalent today as the present pandemic! Indeed, the covid pandemic has exposed the church as being more full of itself than of the Holy Spirit. Revelation 3:14-22 records the Creator-King-Warrior Jesus Christ proclaiming this very fact; the Laodicean church is full of itself, sickeningly lukewarm in its spirituality, and about to be vomited out of His mouth as He cannot stand to speak of them! More pitiful still, this congregation is playing at church as Jesus stands outside knocking on the door in an appeal to the individual who may discern the futile facade and seek genuine salvation and divine fellowship. Jesus had warned the Ephesian church that He would remove their lampstand–His and the Spirit’s presence–if they did not repent of their sin, rekindle their “first love,” and restore Him as Head of the church (Revelation 2:4-5). Laodicea has indeed lost its lampstand, and is a church without Christ populated by souls without salvation.
Christian cowards will replace the spiritual discipline of Scripture reading with social media flow; contemplative and conversational prayer is replaced with idle socializing; personal worship of Jesus Christ is replaced with worship of sports teams, pop-culture icons, and self; mutually edifying spiritual fellowship is replaced with polemic politics and gossip; and personal ministry is replaced with a constant stream of media information and entertainment. Christian cowards will do anything to avoid the conviction of sin and the constructive challenging of the intellect, imagination, and spirit toward Christlikeness. Full of soundbites but no substance, such souls crave spiritual maturity and reward yet despise the time and effort required to achieve it, and so adopt the fig leaves of pretense. They defiantly define their own discipleship by assenting to the Gospel, faithfully attending the church house, and promoting their favored church brand, rather than abiding in the Word, faithfully following Christ, and promoting His kingdom first.
Cowardly church leaders only read Scripture and research extra-biblical resources for the sake of wowing their audiences and maintaining their charade of spiritual celebrity. Their days of actually walking and talking with Jesus, if they ever had them, are over or severely strained and rare. Any prior confidence in their personal spiritual gifting has deteriorated and turned to self-pride due to grieving the Holy Spirit in their own lives and quenching Him in others’ lives. This then produces a presumption of ministry calling and gifting based on expectation and covetousness that displaces divine revelation, cultivation, and appropriate Spirit-led fruition. Self-preservation, especially if ministry is one’s vocation, takes precedence in the schmaltzy church culture of the twenty-first century. Not much has changed since Simon the Sorcerer assumed God could be bought or fooled (Acts 8:18-23).
Cowardly church leaders cling tighter to doctrine than to Christ, living for the debate and loving to have preeminence over others (3 John 1:9). Such are particular about breaking bread yet careless about breaking hearts. They fail to understand that it is our relationship with Christ and others that defines biblical doctrine (Romans 8:1-4; 1 Peter 3:8-11). Doctrine does not define the relationship in that Jesus is greater than doctrine–He is the Way. Genuine spiritual shepherds understand that their place in the Church is not one of position but of function. The difference being that positional authority is of the flesh; only God grants functional authority through His uniquely and impartially distributed spiritual gifting (Romans 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians 12-14). I am grateful and ever prayerful for those true fellow-shepherds I have known and served with throughout my life. Godspeed us all in these darkening times!
Conversely, I personally know and have known several church leaders who have admitted to not reading Scripture regularly if at all! Many more admit to a trite prayer life. Such disconnect from the God one claims to serve has devastating consequences. Sadly, a friend in the ministry who pastors a “culturally relevant” (i.e. theologically liberal) church has in fact apostatized and has edified himself as the de facto authority in a cult of personality, politics, and posh. Viewing the Bible as somewhat flawed and outdated, he touts the many deviant alternative lifestyles on parade as entirely compatible with biblical Christianity. Moreover, in a social media response to challenges to his heretical hermeneutic he deferred to his doctorate in Old Testament studies, essentially implying at best that he is smarter than everyone else, and at worst that his degree grants him infallibility. I pray my friend owns the error of his way and repents before it is too late (Mark 9:42).
Bored of the Cross
Most believers today live spiritually mediocre and unfulfilled lives because they are not walking in the Spirit or in their calling, often due to the dynamic duo of ignorance and laziness–serving God on their terms and not His. These souls are brought up on church tradition and fleeting messages about being a good Christian. They recall a few Sunday school lessons, they love short devotionals, and they know who their favorite pastor is; but they do not possess an applicable biblical or relational theology. They may read about Jesus and the Holy Spirit, but they do not know them. These souls are bored of the cross and remain spiritually unchanged. They refuse to gather the Manna for themselves and seek to subsist on the crumbs of others (John 6:31-66; Revelation 2:17).
Therefore, as truth is neglected or suppressed, presumptive believers will suffer regret, frustration, anxiety, depression, bitterness, and eventually indifference toward God. All of this is then justified by endless excuses that are inexcusably the result of willful ignorance, passivity, spiritual inexperience, and spiritual immaturity regardless of how well-read they may be. Personal contentment becomes a golden calf on the altar of sloth, fear, and unbelief (1 Corinthians 10:20-21; James 4:17). These souls emulate the failed Jewish remnant who grew weary of the LORD’s commands and thus questioned and despised what was sacred; not only their offerings, but even their hearts were unsuitably wretched, and God cursed them (Malachi 1:12-14).
The spiritually bored and unsatisfied will often seek to remedy their lack by indulging the industry of quick-fix spirituality trends, self-centered mystical phenomena, and/or pop-culture presentations of the end of the world. Indeed, there is a genuine Christian alternative to each of these; however, they are not quick fixes, self-centered, or widely popular in the culture at large. For example, the book of Revelation is possibly the most renowned yet most feared, misunderstood, misinterpreted, and unread book of prophecy in history. Sure, the spiritually bored may take up and begin to read it, but do they finish? And if they do finish, have they found their spiritual want remedied? Do they determine to read Revelation again to sincerely and prayerfully study it at length with disciplined expectation of joyful worship? Or is their fascination dashed by their spiritual blindness and lack of zeal?
Truth be told, a working knowledge of the entire Bible (specifically Old Testament prophetic literature) and a working relationship with the Holy Spirit is necessary to gain the most from the mysteries and arcane language of the book of Revelation. Notably, there are simple and grand truths and blessings one may readily grasp upon an initial reading. Likewise upon repeat ventures. But Scripture interprets Scripture, and the challenge of interpretation due to biblical illiteracy, spiritual immaturity, intellectual laziness, and an untested imagination too often ends in convenient abandonment of the personal discipline required to persevere. When we become more fascinated with prophecy than with the God of prophecy, then we are no better than the Pharisees who worshiped the Law (and themselves) in place of the Law-Giver (Matthew 23:1-33; John 5:39-40).
And so, in a final attempt at fast-track spirituality, biblical commentaries are consulted. But here also one frequently finds daunting synopses of difficult texts and contexts accompanied by grammatical, historical, cultural, and spiritual exegesis of the Bible’s literal and metaphorical language. Add to this a fluid and contradictory collection of humanity’s traditional views of interpretation that habitually discount the biblical view. This is expressly the case with Bible prophecy in general and the book of Revelation in particular. G.K. Chesterton agreed with this sentiment when he wrote that “though St. John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators.”[5]
Indeed, I and countless others strive not to be wild or monstrous in our endeavors to interpret, exhort, and encourage fellow believers and seekers of God’s truth! Yet there remain assorted individuals who are foolish, self-assertive, and–intentionally or not–impious in their aims to have their own voice heard over the Holy Spirit’s. Commentaries and other Bible study resources are great for learning the many nuances of Scripture and acquiring a richer appreciation of the Word of God. But they are tools to be utilized in tandem with studying the Bible directly and prayerfully, taking care not to advance only academically. We must not separate the written Word from the Living Word, for God and theology are not subjects merely to be studied, but are a Person and divinely revealed philosophy (or Way) to be experienced simultaneously.
Therefore, when we open Scripture and various God-honoring resources, let us also humbly open our hearts and minds to the Holy Spirit. In so doing, we learn that a mere systematic theology is incomplete in that it is solely a method toward working out a fully formed and eloquently persuasive relational theology.
Killing Cowardice With Revelation
In order to remove cowardice from the church and indeed from our lives, we must appeal to the Holy Spirit and allow Him full reign in ourselves and in all fellowship contexts. In this late prophetic hour very near the end of the age, those who proclaim to follow Jesus Christ must do so wholeheartedly as “sons of Issachar” and “living sacrifices” who shrewdly discern the severity and glory of the latter years (1 Chronicles 12:32; Romans 12:1). The book of Revelation was written explicitly for such a time as now. And to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches, we must not only believe what He is speaking or know what He is saying through His Word. We must also listen for His voice and imagine how He is speaking to us individually, asking God to use our imagination toward His purpose. Are His words those of personal revelation, counsel, or rebuke? Consider the apostle John imprisoned on the island of Patmos. What might his perception have been? He was there on account of the Word of God and testimony of Jesus. Yet that same Word and testimony made John who he was.
He did not identify Himself by his circumstances as a prisoner but by his vocation as a theologian. He did not analyze Roman politics in order to account for his predicament, but exercised his intelligence on the word and testimony of God and Jesus… The word and witness that shaped his life were then written down by command and under inspiration–in the Spirit.[6]
This would not have been possible had John been playing at being a Christian. John was physically, emotionally, imaginatively, and spiritually available to God (Luke 10:27; Roman 12:1). His identity was thoroughly that of a Christ-follower whose faithfulness and humility precipitated the sublimely luminous and infinitely captivating divine Revelation. John received and recorded Jesus’ Revelation as an ardently devout disciple, theologian, prophet, poet, and pastor fully immersed in the world but wholly owned by his Savior and King.
Soon after his visionary reverie, John was released from Patmos and returned to shepherding the diverse churches he served. Imagine how newly afire his spirit must have been! In all likelihood John was repeatedly transformed by such proximity to the Author of the Revelation and His inestimable story of Love and Life. John’s own verbal testimony of what Jesus had him write also must have persuaded innumerable souls into heaven via his alluring allegiance to the Warrior-King and God of All Creation. Truly, any cowardice in John’s nature had long prior been slain by his iron faith in Jesus Christ. It can be so with us!
Christ Among the Dragons
The book of Revelation–and indeed all of prophetic Scripture–is an invitation into the very heart of God by way of both our imagination and our spirit so that we may experience what is written. Revelation is rooted in all of Scripture and “its intent is to put us on our knees before God in worship and to set the salvation-shaping words of God in motion in our lives.”[7] It will bring no comfort or answers to the commonly curious or the skeptic full of questions and hubris. Thus, rather than just reading Scripture, we must allow it to read us. So let us not miss out on the life Jesus has for us because we are too busy trying to figure it out for ourselves. Let us recover the lost art of discipleship.
All of us are on a quest for meaning, for true wisdom. We often dream of a world or universe where we have poignant purpose and perfect peace. Perhaps we even imagine glimpsing the face of God. But then our oft wretched reality beckons and we reluctantly dismiss the pining of our souls only to face the dragons of our imagined Eden–doubt and distress, anxiety and unbelief, indifference, sadness, unchecked sin. Yet let us not despair or let go of any true Edenic hope, for our heavenly yearnings are evidence of a far greater circumstance that Jesus Himself has already prepared for us (John 14:2-3). In the meantime, have faith that Christ is there among the dragons that beset us–dragons He has conquered! (Romans 16:20; Revelation 20:2) We need only appeal to Him in our brokenness so that we may indeed be made free by His truth and love (John 8:31-32).
Notes:
1. Fleming Rutledge, The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien’s Divine Design in the Lord of the Rings, Eerdmans, 2004, p165.
2. Merrill C. Tenney, John: The Gospel of Belief, Eerdmans, 1976, p215.
3. Joseph Mercola, “Anxiety Overtakes Depression as No. 1 Mental Health Problem,” articles.mercola.com, 6.29.17. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in America, affecting one of every thirteen people [Edmund Bourne, The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook, 5th Ed., New Harbinger, 2010, pp1-4].
4. God in no way needs our forgiveness in that He has done nothing wrong. Yet we may indeed (even unintentionally) hold God in contempt and wallow in bitterness toward Him for supposedly allowing the suffering and withholding the blessings we desire and/or feel we deserve. We do this out of our sinfulness and ignorance or blindness to God’s true loving nature, thus inhibiting divine intimacy and healing. “Forgiving” God frees us to truly forgive ourselves (and others) and receive His love and forgiveness in full measure (Luke 6:37; Ephesians 1:7-10).
5. G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, John Lane Co., 1908, p29.
6. Eugene H. Peterson, Reversed Thunder: The Revelation of John & the Praying Imagination, HarperOne, 1988, p2.
7. Peterson, Reversed Thunder, p24.
*Portions of this article are adapted from my book The Revelation of Jesus Christ: A Disciple’s Commentary.
[Art by Walldevil media]