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By Pastor G. Reckart
Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved
My initial response to system theory was I did not understand it. Like others I searched and found the conspiracy pundents who dream up wild visions of global catastrophe. During the 70s and early 80s there were a lot of lies spreading around of Russian invasion of the USA and Israel. Communism was going to take over without a shot. There were already suitcase bombs and hidden missiles ready to blast off. And here came the fear-mongering best seller "The Late Great Planet Earth." I like many others was compassed with manufactured fear. Those wanting to save America put out large doses of literature and from this came the para-military right-wing groups and from these came people who bombed abortion clinics and public buildings. These were making a statement against change. They did not want a liberal America where sin and evil were glorified, homosexuals parading in the streets naked and acting like animals on drugs, while both men and women were taking more and more off as their mouths filled up with filthy language.
Book after book came out warning of the New World Order and how America was being secretly changed to fit her place in the universal temple of satan (Mystery Babylon). I cannot recall all the misinformation that was spread, the lies, the perversions, the twists, and the false doctrines generated. I know the Apostolic Church entered into a cloud of apostasy and the storms and winds of liberalism swept over the globe. Men and women accepted the changes coming from backslid ministers and pastors. Many Apostolic leaders led the charge to modernize and bring Oneness Pentecostalism into the fold of evangelicalism.
It is here I first saw the evils of system theory as Apostolic churches began a systematic restructure of the church, the members, doctrine, faith, practice, conduct, and order. Whether these pastors and denominational leaders actually sat down and applied system theory I do not know, but if they did not, they still used the concepts thereof to bring about the changes they wanted to cause phenomenal growth to their churches.
How did they apply system theory? The leaders knew some members would oppose the liberal changes that would be put in place to attract those who were not religious but never-the-less desired the social contact of going to church. These members were part of the church body serving in different capacities such as sunday school leaders, youth leaders, musicians, singers, pulpit helps, and so forth. They were part of the whole. Each one in the helps and government of the church was considered a vital part of the overall church ministry headed by the Pastor. In order to bring about the changes desired to bring in liberalism and open the doors to a herd of unrepented, unsaved, unregenerated, souls: Pastors began to weed out all those who opposed or who showed no willingness to compromise and accept the pastor's new purpose driven church program. Pastors chose their own purpose and no longer desired God's purpose. Holiness went out and liberalism came in. The sheep went out and the goats came in. The wheat was pulled up leaving only the tares. Using system theory practices, these Pastors acknowledged the parts (members) that would not function and go along with him must be replaced so the parts of the new church system would function to his purpose. The bible of those who now follow apostate system theory methods is Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven Church." It is claimed that system theory has become esoteric because only a few know about it, about its application to churches, and about how its evil purpose in changing the Churches and leading them to later become a part of the one world church. I personally do not see it as esoteric and could apply that only if it was indeed occult driven and could not be applied to the Church as Jesus founded it. All organizations have a system and the New Testament Church is no different. More about this later.
Look at this on a global scale now. America, land of the free and home of the brave, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all: joined the United Nations. The UN is known to be a global union of nations supposedly united in peace to bring world harmony. But, many see the UN as a front for the future One World Government that will work with the future antichrist. America is a member of the UN. But America as a sovereign nation resisted global unity where our country would come fully under the power and control of a UN president. But, over the years many changes have come to the UN as well as it becoming the headquarters of a one world government. We now have the international monetary fund that nearly controls all the money in the world. We have the world health organization. We have the world court. In short, we are slowly being herded into a global cult and America as we know it will cease as the New World Order is set up. Who is behind this? Many believe it is the Kabbalist operating through Freemasonry. Nearly all the national representatives are Freemasons. All of the UN Presidents are claimed to be Freemasons. It is claimed representatives are also members of the Club of Rome, the CFR, the Builderbergers, the Illumanatti. Since 1945 it appears any part of the nations that will not go along with the future purpose of the NWO of the UN will have to be converted or replaced. Now it is hard to replace a nation so a tidy revolution is effective to kill off those opposed to joining the family of nations. It was said by one writer that you can always tell when a nation comes under the NWO because a five pointed star usually appears on the national flag after a revolution. Once there are enough in the body of this world order of global control it is believed American will take its place. All of us will become citizens of the world whether we accept it or not. Somewhere in all this, the antichrist will set up and the mark of the beast will go forth. Behind all of the present shake-up of the nations and the political upheavals men of great intelligence appear to be applying system theory to bring the NWO to its power.
So we hear a lot today of system theory, church management theory, congregational theory, family system theory, and so forth. There are many different models of system theory. Not all of the models are evil. And not all of the uses are evil. And if we understand the proper application to the Apostolic Church we will see it is not evil. System theory becomes evil when it is perverted, altered, and misused to change good (godliness) to bad (worldliness), light (truth) to darkness (error), and sweet (love) to bitter (sarcasm).
Here is my immediate response to those who think system theory is totally evil. Does the New Testament Church use a Biblical system operating within its midst and can this be identified and related to a system theory? I believe the answer is yes.
Systems theory focuses on the arrangement of and relationship between
the parts which connect them into a whole. The Church has parts and is also
a whole of the parts. The Church is a collective body of individuals.
So the Church is not an individualistic society where there is no unity,
no body, and no organization or government. A system theory properly described
can apply to the New Testament Church.
A system can be said to consist of four
things:
The first is objects – the parts, elements, or variables within the
system. These may be physical or abstract or both, depending on the nature
of the system.
Second, a system consists of attributes – the qualities or properties
of the system and its objects.
Third, a system had internal relationships among its objects.
Fourth, systems exist in an environment. A system, then, is a set of things
that affect one another within an environment and form a larger pattern that
is different from any of the parts.
The focus is collectivism and not individualism.
In other words the part (individual component) has its purpose in the collective
unity of all parts and has no value alone. The collective unity of a system
is different from any of the parts.
Applying system theory to a church or the church
body.
God has set into the church Apostles, Prophets, Teachers, miracles, gifts
of healing, helps, governments, diversity of tongues (1Cor 12:28).
Within the body God has set nine gifts of the Spirit. The body is made
up of many members who are fitly framed together to form a temple unto the
Lord (Eph 2:19-22; Eph 4:11).
Here are the parts:
A = Apostles
P = Prophets
E = Evangelist
P = Pastor
T = Teachers
Miracles
Gifts of healing
Helps
Governments
Divers Tongues
These when collectively joined together form a holy temple unto the Lord. It takes the collective parts as a whole to form the temple Paul is describing, in which Jesus is the chief cornerstone.
Our enemies will be as depicted: Worldliness, Liberalism, Ecumenicalism, Global Unity, New World Order, and the Antichrist System. No one can defeat these powers of darkness except the Ministry God has placed within the Church. It is the anointing of these Men of God that will brake all yokes. The perfection of the saints and the protection of the saints will always lay upon the shoulders of those Men of God in God's government. We can and will face the conflicts. We cannot escape. We will be confronted and challenged. We do need members in the congregation who know these things but they must not create disorder and chaos and work in harmony with our enemies. Those who can see the warfare we face will not run from the Church but rather stay, bring power to the services, and become saints who will not be separated from the love of God (Romans 8:35-39).
In system theory the main idea is focused on decision and policy making to adapt the whole to different changes that may go on externally that may effect achieving its purpose. In the image above we see these external challenges. A true Apostolic Man of God will not allow these to come into his Church and change it into another system model. Any system model except that founded upon the Apostles and Prophets is false, a perversion, a twist, and unacceptable to the real Apostolic people.
Within most Apostolic churches the doctrinal decisions and policy making falls into the department of the Pastor. When church boards, pulpit committees, and the like take control of doctrine and policy making the Pastor is usually reduced to a hireling who has limited authority if any at all. Where Apostolic Churches have hireling Pastors, he is just a preacher and teacher taking a salary. He can become a motivator of the Church for the board or committe that hired him and put him to a vote of the members. This system is Laodicaea (laity rule), and not New Testament. Applying the methods of Apostolic system theory of this model of church government would be unbiblical. This then means that any system that is not orthodox and the original is false. Herein we solve the mystery of Babylon as backslid Nimrod developed it. His system was a reprobation and perversion of the system of God. He made a man-made religious system. The system of God begins in heaven and descends upon earth first in the form of family and husband as priest and then to the tabernacle with a collective order of priest, and then the Church with a collective group within the five-fold ministry. The Church is a micrcosism of the Kingdom of heaven in heaven. The Pastor as God's interim Shepherd is a representative of Jesus the Chief Shepherd (1Peter 5:4) of all congregations, the head of all principalities and powers (Eph 3:9-11).
Apostolic systems theory allows individuals to focus on the parts and the relationship to the whole of the other parts. In this manner each individual part can be valued but at the same time if backsliding or a rebellious spirit is manifested can be modified to what ever extent necessary for the Pastor to insure and guarantee all the parts continue their purpose. Since we are talking about the Divine Order here in the government and helps of the New Testament Church, and I am maintaining for the Apostolic model, there will be no dialectic shifts. A dialectic shift occurs only when there is an intended or planned Hegelian perversion in the direction of a profane synthesis. I am of course opposed to all such Hegelian alterations of the Apostolic Church into something it was not founded as.
I have a few words here for those who are in a Hegelian dialectic Apostolic or Oneness Pentecostal Church: you are in a church that is not seeking the full restoration of the original Apostolic Divine order of faith, conduct and doctrine. You are in fact a part of the Hegelian dialectic profane shift if you attend any Apostolic or Oneness Church that has not returned to the original Divine Order. You have a duty to be a member of a Church that is nearest to the Divine Order or is striving for that purpose. As we move on toward perfection we will come out of and apart from Mystery Babylon until the complete Divine Order is obtained. Any person who is an individualist and refuses to be a part of a Divine Order Church, is in fact involved in a Hegelian dialectic shift even if they cannot so identify it. Individualism is not and never will be the Divine Order. When we are baptized into one Body by one Spirit we are to function accordingly and not amputate ourselves and say we are not of the Body and we can live alone. Such is stupidity and dangerous. It shows a very bad spirit. Those amputees who think they alone are the Body of Christ are in fact a synthesis of their own making via the Hegelian dialectic. These are not the Church and not in the Church. Jesus can say to the amputee parts: "depart from me I never knew you."
Examples of dialectic shifts where the new thesis is opposite the original.
| Dialectic shift
#1 Dialectic shift #2 Dialectic shift #3 Dialectic shift #4 Dialectic shift #5 Dialectic shift #6 Dialectic shift #7 Dialectic shift #9 |
Example of NO Dialectical Shift |
As far as the Apostolic Church is concerned, the evil that can come from the wrong model of system theory is that who ever sets the purpose of the whole of the parts can determine that a single part or group of parts may need modified or changed. Herein is the problem: Say a pastor who has a Church wants to expand its membership and to attract new members intends to liberalize and no longer follow the doctrine of the Apostles. To accomplish this, the pastor who sets the purpose of the church would then modify all that the Apostles set in order for faith, doctrine, practice, and conduct. This is a Hegelian dialectic shift. The Apostle's Doctrine is not subject to change and is not on the table for debate (this is maintaining the Divine Order). So, dedicated Apostolics who are opposed to liberalism will oppose the changes being made by a Pastor via a dialectic shift. For the Pastor to install his dialectic model of system theory he must now remove all dissenters from the Church. He will set up his dialectic model system to fit his new purpose driven program. In the case of Rick Warren, he instructs his followers that should a person stand in the way of expansionism or to the new "dialectic purpose" driven church, the person must be removed from the church and the Pastor is not to mourn such losses. Such losses are said to be the price of obtaining the dialectic giga church. So, a dialectic purpose driven church not following the Divine Order will not be the Church Jesus founded or coming back for. God's purpose interlocked within the purpose of the New Testament Church doctrine
should be our purpose of heart and soul. We should not set our own purpose or goals contrary to the purpose of the church. Such is dialectic individualism acting outside of the collective church order and is unscriptural. Basically, God's way not our way!
If we allow God's system to function and each part of the whole is in proper relationship to each other there is a holy temple. No person can be a dialectic individualist and do their own thing. No one can Pastor their self. You cannot put yourself in the body where you want. You cannot ordain yourself. You cannot call yourself to preach. You cannot take a ministerial title it must be ordained upon you. You cannot just start a Church you must be sent. All of these are dialectic shifts. Several of these kinds of people will destroy a church. One such person if they are a part of the body can hurt it. But, if they are not part of the body, then what they do and say has no effect at all on the Church. An adversary to the Church is a person who comes in and never becomes a part but yet causes trouble over doctrine, faith, conduct, and order. These are in bondage to a dialectic shift spirit. Such are indeed rebellious to authority. Jude describes those who feast with us who are not part of us in Jude 1:12. Those twice plucked up because of dialectic conduct are in danger. It is usually these who desire to upset the Church system and eventually go their own way into perdition and destruction. It is these who can bring in damnable heresies.
It is the duty of all God's people to find their place in the body. Stay in their place. Function in their place. Relate properly to others in the body who are in their place. So that through this unity, love can bind us to the purpose of God. If indeed the true purpose of God is active and working in us, we can be driven by it and obtain a glorious reward before the throne of his grace.
Some are opposed to system theory because it is used by those perverting and altering God's purpose. They see it in application to how satan is setting up the nations and the people for the antichrist system. In opposing all of this they then turn and oppose the Church and the system God has put in order there and refuse to be part of the temple, the Ministry is trying to establish or grow. These individuals may have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge. Zeal can be good or bad. It must be harnessed in the same manner we do horses or donkeys. Until the power of zeal is harnessed, the person cannot be productive in the Church for his/her own spiritual life.
No person has an importance to God apart from the whole of a local church and its Pastor.
A person who does not find their place in a local congregation and fulfil their purpose with the whole, will run in vain and in the end be rejected by God.
Pastor G. Reckart
Tampa, Florida