SHERLOCK'S TENT

While having addressed the following some four years ago, its relevance nontheless continues.

Scripture stresses the importance of perceptiveness. When, speaking for the Twelve, Peter once asked concerning his dismissal of the Pharisee's shallow legalism, Jesus responded with something akin to exasperation: "Are you, too, yet incapable of understanding?" (Matt. 15:15 NAB).

Perhaps few examples of Scripture better illustrate the point than John 12:27-29. Following his Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, Jesus foretold his impending death: "But for this purpose I came to this hour," he stated - an assertion to which he then added the exclamation: "Father, glorify your name!"

At this point, "a voice came out of heaven: 'I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.'" Of the possibly more perceptive present, some conjectured that "an angel spoke to him." To others, it merely "thundered."

We are reminded of a story that Marvin Olasky, onetime Marxist and present editor-in-chief of the conservative publication WORLD tells of a camping trip taken by the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and his associate, Dr. Watson. Awaking early in the morning, Holmes rouses the doctor and asks, "Tell me, Watson, what do you see?" To which Watson replies, "I see the sun rising in the east; the trees and hills to the west; the dawning of a beautiful day."

"Idiot," fumes Holmes, "while we were sleeping, someone stole our tent."

While offered primarily within a context of political interests, Mr. Olasky's story is applicable on many fronts. To the spiritually perceptive there is, of course, an impelling sense of identification - indeed, urgency - in relation to the ongoing efforts of liberal elements within the Church to "steal the tent" while more than a few, unfortunatly, have been asleep.

As believers, it is time, not only to act where possible but, as per the apostle, to earnestly "pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints" (i.e., Christ's true Body at large," Eph. 6:18).

Burl Ratzsch

"UNTIL WE ALL COME..."

The apostle Paul discerned a divine agenda in relation to the Church. Reflecting Christ's concluding prayer for a replication of the divine oneness within the believing community (John 17:21-23), the apostle's outline began with "unity of the faith" (Eph. 4:13). That we have fallen considerably short is, of course, an understatement.

Answer does not lie in a further splintering of the Body by the creation of additional organizations and/or self focused identities. We recall a pastor who, having formerly served in a well known denomination, now led a congregation that had experienced "deliverance from sectarian bondage." In fact, he enthused, their fellowship now consisted of five such congregations - seemingly oblivious to having exchanged a large multi-church denomination for a five church denomination. As any student of Church history can attest, endeavors of this nature are far from new.

We would propose three catalysts that will almost certainly prove conducive to the fulfilling of Paul's vision of a matured Bride "without spot or wrinkle...holy and blameless" (Eph. 5:27).

1. A coming move of the Spirit in which Christ's "High Priestly" prayer of John 17 attains fulfillment among the truly committed.

2. An intensifying time of difficulty wherein believers become necessarily dependent upon one another (Matt. 24:9)

3. A call to separation from end time apostasy at a time in which, to the discerning, the choice becomes clear and the decision unavoidably mandated (Rev. 18:4).

Paul perceived the Church, not in terms of sectarian identity but rather, "all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours" (I Cor. 1:2); "all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity" (Eph. 6:24); and "all who have loved his appearing" (II Tim. 4:8). To the degree that this becomes the determinant factor in faith and fellowship, the rest will increasingly come into place.

Burl Ratzsch