THE BRIDE AND THE
MONSTER
Anything can happen in a dream.
Animals morph into people. A familiar door in your childhood home leads
to an unfamiliar city. A lifelong friend turns into a frightening
stranger. It all seems perfectly natural in a dream.
Some dreams visit when we are in a deep
sleep. Others invade our souls when we're wide awake. A vision can overwhelm us while we’re simply
staring out the window at the rain.
A dream is visiting me now, as I sit
here wondering how you and I fit into it.
I see a young woman leaning on a
balustrade, looking out over the ocean. No words could do justice to her
beauty. Yet impatience is written on her face, for in my dream I know
that she is soon to be married. She opens a letter, reads it, folds it,
and looks away. Tears fill her eyes. "How much longer?"
she sighs.
The chief village of the small island
where she lives is built around a ponderous stone temple. I see the young
woman approaching the temple. Three men in long black robes stand at the
entrance with their arms akimbo. As she tries to enter, they bar her
way.
The young woman turns back, passing
through the crooked lanes of the village. Now she stoops to lift a crippled
child in her arms, and carries him to a fountain at the end of the lane.
Quietly she dips the child’s withered leg in the water, and places him gently
on the flagstone path. "Walk, Child," she commands, and
suddenly the boy is leaping and dancing and shouting for joy. A crowd
gathers in amazement.
"I want you all to come to my
wedding," says the young woman to the awed gathering. "There
will be a place for each of you at the feast."
But where is the Bridegroom? The wedding cannot begin until he arrives.
In my dream I see the centuries flow by
like a river. Still there is no sign of
the Bridegroom. From a distance the Bride looks as young as ever.
But as she comes closer, I gasp, "This cannot be the Bride!” Deep lines
frame her mouth. The softness is gone from her eyes, which are now empty
and colorless.
Once again she
approaches the temple. This time the three black robed men step aside and bow
deeply. The woman enters the
"Are you the Bride who once invited
us to your wedding?" I ask. She turns toward me with a face that
would frighten Satan. Her eyes are two stagnant pools; her mouth curls
into a sneer.
"What do you think?"
she replies, and proceeds to sort the jewelry piled on the stone altar.
"Where is the Bride? What
happened to the Bride?" I demand.
In my dream the woman turns toward me
again, totally transformed. The jewelry is gone. Her face is young
and beautiful.
"Have you been looking for
me?" she asks in a cheerful voice, clear as a mountain spring.
It appears that two women inhabit the
same body. One is young, pure, and clothed in kindness. The other
is hard, treacherous, cold as ice. Is the young Bride captive in the body
of this Monster?
The village clock strikes twelve
noon. The temple begins to fill with people. Now they wait for the
jeweled priestess to begin her rituals as the three men in black move slowly up
the aisle and kneel before her. Suddenly
the priestess begins to writhe in agony. With great effort she lifts her
hands in “blessing” as the congregation falls to its knees.
"What happened to the Bride?"
I cry. "Where has she gone? You are not Bride!"
The three men robed in black rise from
their knees, and approach me with fire in their eyes, when suddenly the
priestess begins to tremble violently. She grasps the stone altar,
clinging to it with all her strength, breathing heavily, while she surveys the
congregation with those vacant eyes. Beads of perspiration drop from her
forehead. Is she about to give birth? Something within seems to be
tearing her apart. "No!" she cries. "No! No! No!"
Now I see something that can only happen
in a dream. While the priestess clutches the stone altar, another form
emerges from the outline of her body. A young woman exactly her size
steps from the shadow of the priestess and descends the stairs. Without a
word the young woman walks down the aisle and moves into the sunlight.
A final shudder passes through the body
of the priestess. She stands, erect and calm before the astonished
congregation. "Now, at last, I am free to grow!" she
shouts. Before our eyes the priestess grows larger and larger until her head
is ten feet above the tallest person in the temple. "My hour has
come. We shall now take possession of this island," she
announces. The three men in black robes fall on faces and the
congregation follows their example.
I am seized with terror. Whoever
this Monster-Priestess may be, I know I need to flee. I run down the
aisle and out into the sunlight. And there, surrounded by a cluster of joyful
people, is the Bride. "My days of captivity are over," she
says. "I am free from the Monster at last. Follow me beyond
the village wall. It's time to prepare for the arrival of the
Bridegroom."
Where
is the Bride?
The instant you were joined to Jesus you
became part of his Body. You became a member of a fellowship created by the
living God. You were united with men and
women whose lives are nailed to Christ's cross---spoiled for the world --- and
whose hearts are ignited with the resurrection power of God's Spirit.
This fellowship differs so vastly from what is commonly thought of as “church”
that we hesitate to use the word. Yet that's what Jesus calls it.
He calls it "my Church."
"...On
this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail
against it."
Matthew
16:18
At present the Bride of Christ is concealed
from human eyes, held captive in the body of the Monster. But soon her captivity will end. By the time the Bridegroom arrives, the Bride
will be magnificent and free.
The Lord Jesus gave himself up to death
for her. He sanctified her by the power of his Spirit. He cleansed her
"by the washing of water with the word." And he will present
her to himself "in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
holy and without blemish." (Ephesians 5:25-26)
At the Wedding Feast the Bridegroom and
the Bride rejoice together.
Then
I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of
many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals, crying,
"Hallelujah! For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult and give him
the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
It was granted her to be clothed with
fine linen, bright and pure"---
for
the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
Revelation 19:6-8
The Bride has been on the earth since
the day of Pentecost. There hasn't been a day in all the passing
centuries when this miraculous fellowship has forgotten to give glory to its
Master. Tens of thousands have laid down their lives for him.
Numberless martyrs have suffered for his name, joyfully giving testimony to the
crucified and risen Lamb. Yet all through the centuries this Church has
existed as wheat growing among tares. It has lived inside a monster, a
religious system which proclaims Jesus with its mouth, while demeaning him in
its heart.
The Bride is the creation of Christ
alone. He called her into existence by the power of his Word. He
sustains and guides her by the light of his Spirit. She lives under the
shadow of his cross. She has been crucified to the world and the world to
her. Her life is hid with Christ in God, so that when Christ, the
Bridegroom, appears, she will appear with him in glory.
The Monster, on the other hand, is the
creation of man. She is the product of human vanity, always usurping the
authority of the One who alone builds his Church. Too often the Monster
is mistaken for the Bride. The monster
claims to be the Bride and strives to appear as the Bride. But watch how
she behaves. Though she is a skilled actress, she cannot help being what
she is. You will know her by her fruits.
Since the earliest days of the Church
the Bride and the Monster have shared the same body. In our Lord's
warnings to five of the seven churches in Revelation, Chapters 2 and 3 we see
the Monster at work, distracting the believers.
"But
I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at
first."
Revelation 2:4
"But
I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of
Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block
before the sons of Israel, that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and
practice immorality."
Revelation 2:4
"But
I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself
a prophetess and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practice immorality
and to eat food sacrificed to idols."
Revelation 2:20
"I
know your works: you have the name of being alive, and you are dead. Awake,
and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found
your works perfect in the sight of my God. Remember then what you have
received and heard; keep that, and repent."
Revelation 3: 1b-3a
"I
know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold
or hot! So because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will
spew you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I
need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and
naked."
Revelation 3:15-17
In these assemblies the Bride and the
Monster were both present. The Bride was preparing herself for the return
of her Master. The Monster was busy distracting believers from their
calling, flattering, seducing, causing division.
All through the centuries the struggle
has continued. Humble broken hearts draw their strength from the Lord who
never fails those who gather in his name. At the same time, religious
flesh has been busy building a "church" which bears no resemblance to
the One who is meek and lowly of heart.
All human attempts to reform the Church
have ended in defeat. Each divine cleansing in the church has been
followed by a rip tide of compromise. The Monster and the Bride are
destined to inhabit the same body until God separates them. We humans
have neither the wisdom nor the power to extricate the Bride from the Monster.
But the Monster is now beginning to
tremble. She has taken hold of the stone altar with a fierce grip.
Her knuckles are white, her face glistens with a fearful sweat. She is in
agony. Has the hour of separation come at last? Only God
knows. But when it happens, it will
happen without our help. It will happen suddenly.
Meanwhile, many of us are having trouble
finding our place in his Body of Christ. Jesus we know and love. But his Church is so often a
disappointment. We know that the Church is made up of ordinary people
like we are, redeemed sinners still being sanctified. But something isn’t right! Where is the integrity? Where is the sense of the HOLY? Where is the love?
If we seriously seek his Kingdom, the
Lord will guide us to believers whose lives are nailed to the cross, who are
seeking to follow the Master through all the confusion. Jesus is able to sustain us, wherever he
chooses to place us in his Body.
Yes, the Professing Church is in
crisis. Judgment has begun at the household of God. The light which
will soon uncover every secret has begun to penetrate the Church. The
Monster is finding it ever more difficult to pose as the Bride. And the
Bride is finding it ever more difficult to function within the Monster.
Stand in awe, and let God do it!
New ministries are forever trying to
revive the Church. Time and again the
Monster simply reaches out enfolding these ministries in her arms of
vanity. Only God can revive the Church. The Lord alone will set his Bride free.
"Except
the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it."
Psalm
127
While the Monster trembles and writhes
in agony, we stand back and let God do what only he can do. God does not need our help to separate the
Bride from the Monster.
Signs
of Separation
Long before the Church became “official”
in the Roman Empire, the Monster was at work building its own kingdom in, through, and around the Church. Side by side with
deeply committed servants of the Master
were people who came into the Body with another agenda. Listen to Paul,
writing to the Church at Rome:
I
appeal to you, brethren, to take note of those who create dissensions and
difficulties, in opposition to the doctrine which you have been taught; avoid
them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own
appetites, and by fair and flattering words they deceive the hearts of the
simple-minded.
Romans 16:17-18
The spirit of the Antichrist was already
at work enticing believers to put their trust in form, ceremony, observing
certain days, avoiding certain foods, pursuing ecstasy for its own sake.
But always in the mercy of God, the
Monster was allowed to go only so far before it was restrained. As the
power of the Emperors declined, the political power of the Church
increased. By the Eleventh Century the spiritual power of the Church was
vastly diminished, but its political power was immense. The Monster
seemed to be unstoppable.
Then in 1054 the Church in the East and
the Church in the West broke fellowship and became two separate entities.
Five centuries later the Reformation brought more divisions, until today the
number of church structures is almost beyond counting. The Bride has been
kept humble, and the Monster has become weak, as the outward visible Church
remains splintered into denominations, sects, movements, associations,
hierarchies.
But now, after inhabiting the same body
for centuries, the Bride and the Monster are beginning to disengage. Believers
are finding unity with each other across all barriers. Baptists, Roman
Catholics, Pentecostals, Lutherans, etc. are discovering that they have a unity
with each other around Jesus that is far more important than loyalty to their
official brand. These people are not trying to form a new "church.”
They are already "one body in Christ and individually members one of
another." (Romans 12:5) They are satisfied to keep serving the
Master wherever he has put them until he is ready to raise up his Bride.
At the same time the Monster is engaged
in its own “unity movement” which also crosses denominational
barriers. One could say that the Monster is following the agenda of the
Antichrist. The Monster installs its own
authority in place of the authority of Jesus’ simple commands.
Ancient church bodies with traditions
rooted in the Lordship of Jesus are subtly shifting their theology to
accommodate anybody who will help them survive. Once the Monster is free
of the Bride's restraining power it will begin to market its “gospel” with such
effectiveness that Apple and Google will marvel. Then the Monster will
begin to grow.
You and I did not choose to be born into
this hour of history. But here we are; and there is no way we can avoid
the choice we have to make.
Which Church will we be part of?
Will we follow Jesus "outside the
camp" where he is preparing his Bride for the Wedding Feast?
Or will we yield to the Monster, who,
behind a mask of unearthly beauty, clothed in a shining robe, will welcome the
waning world to her embrace?