Doth Not Nature Teach You

Part 3 - The Retro Virus

July 31, 2010

Ron, Michael, and David Schwartz

Throughout the history of mankind, it has always been believed that the greatest threat to our existence would come in the form of “2012-like” global disasters: tectonic movements, solar flares, asteroids, super volcanoes, or ice ages. In reality, the greatest threat to humanity is an invading army so small that only through modern science has it been proven to exist. Down through history its attacks have swept across nations like giant tidal waves leaving millions dead in their wakes, yet without disturbing a single blade of grass. We’ve less to fear from heavenly bodies and nature’s violent rage than the true killers that are so small and unnoticed that we’d never see them coming.

A Fundamental Truth

A living cell is a miracle of nature—the pinnacle achievement of all of creation. It can continue to reproduce exact copies of itself for what seems like eternity. Each cell lacks nothing: it contains the information of every characteristic of the entire body. Like the human body, the body of Christ is comprised of “cells”: believers (or groups of believers). Peter described such when he wrote, “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5).” As individual cells, we each bring into the body of Christ our spiritual condition.

Contrary to the beliefs of most Christians, the Church is not spiritually healthy. When it comes to the spirituality of the church, most believers live in a fantasy world where knights slay dragons, good overcomes evil, and true love never fails. They quote the scripture where Jesus says, “upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18).” But if the true Church is made up of only those who are “breaking down the gates of hell,” then most contemporary Christians are not part of the Church at all, and therefore are not a part of the body of Christ. By this standard a person is either a spiritual giant or not saved at all. The body of Christ, then, is not a mighty army of overcomers, but a sickly ward of spiritually bedridden believers trying just to survive. They are ill, and many are on the verge of spiritual death.

The Retrovirus

Of all viruses, none is more frightening then the retrovirus. Whereas most viruses attack openly by killing a cell directly after invading it, the retrovirus is more subtle: it invades a cell, but poses little to no damage to it at first. Thus, its presence goes undetected to the rest of the body and is passed down through the cell’s lineage as a permanent part of its genetic makeup. By this process, the whole body can unknowingly become infected.

Because of the constant invasions of viruses like these into our human bodies over thousands of years, whether or not humanity is even still human at all is debatable. Scientists believe that possibly as much as 2 to 5% of our entire genetic makeup is from viruses. Considering that there is only about a 3% genetic distinction between modern humanity and modern chimpanzees, retroviruses gave caused modern humanity to be about as genetically different from original humanity as it is from modern chimpanzees.

In the same way, God’s people are infected with the same retrovirus that has plundered the rest of the world into sin and depravity. Addiction to self-indulgence has now become a part of the spiritual DNA of the church and is unknowingly passed down from generation to generation. God no longer moves among His people today like He did with believers of the first century not because He has changed, but because contemporary Christians have changed. They are no longer reproducing cells with heavenly genetic material, and therefore are no longer what they once were. Contemporary Christian churches have become less about God and more about the “user experience.”

The User Experience

Luke 21:34-35 (paraphrased)

And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged [infected and become sick] with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life [viruses of self-indulgence which cause you to become consumed with the pursuit of pleasure], and so that day come upon you unawares [you forget your purpose and remain unaware of the days in which you live]. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.

Like a virus that uses a living cell to duplicate more of the virus, addiction to self-indulgence seeks to replace the good spiritual DNA in the body of Christ with the nature of men.

Contemporary Christian leaders have tried to treat their members and churches with a wide variety of elixirs and potions, but they are nothing more than one sick infected cell trying to heal another. They finally conclude that there is no cure. So in the absence of a cure, they try to make their members “comfortable” as they slowly die.

This is very apparent in the way contemporary churches cater to physical and emotional stimuli with a “user experience” or “customer satisfaction” mentality. The focus is not on God, but instead on the performance that takes place on stage. The hunger in the hearts of spiritually sick and dying believers is desensitized by the narcotics of a worship team, and the guilt and shame of a life consumed by the carnal pursuit of self-indulgence is drugged into inebriation by the wine of a “feel good” message from a skilled and articulate speaker. In the end, people file from the building just as infected as before, but numb to the disease from which they suffer.

Huge auditoriums, upbeat services, feel-good messages, terrific multimedia and sound systems, skilled worship teams and performers, and a wide variety of weekly events are all designed to numb a church’s members to the fact that they are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked (Revelation 3:17).” This is in line with what the scripture says of the Great Whore in Revelation: “…the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication (Revelation 17:2).” Modern Christians are numb – they’re too drunk with the intoxicating comforts of church entertainment to realize the extent of their suffering.

If the genome of modern humanity has been altered by generation after generation of retroviruses, then we should recognize this as the pattern of which God is speaking about our generation. The Bride of Christ, in general, has been altered into the Great Whore.

Summary

Science has long known that, somehow, certain forms of cancer were passed down to ensuing generations. It wasn’t until the discovery of the retrovirus that this pattern could be explained. Foreign DNA, only appearing native, is intrinsic in every cell. In this same manner, Christianity has changed – not by a sovereign act of God, but by foreign invaders that have become an integrated part of our very system of beliefs. Christians are no longer expected to be endowed with power and authority from above, and thus are little different from unsaved counterparts who indulge in every form of pleasure and enjoyment this world has to offer. Christians exist to be served by their church and pastoral communities rather than to serve. Christianity has been reduced to little more than a religion practiced in meeting a few times a week, and the Bride of Christ reduced to little more than a whore committing adultery with the world.

Most Christian cannot or will not admit to the degree of their backslidden state. We must recognize that we have all become miserable, poor, and blind by the infections from which we suffer. But there is still hope because Christ is still the answer. Only He, and not your church, has the ability to bring healing.

Saints of God: it’s time to wake up. Do a self-assessment of your life. If you feel backslid, it’s because you are. If you feel dry, cold, and spiritual lifeless, it’s because you are. If you feel like you’re a spiritual whore with this world, it’s because you are. Stop allowing retrovirus-infected preachers to convince you otherwise. Stop listening to the intoxicating effects of feel-good sermons. It’s time to shake yourself free of this world and become the man or woman of God you were called to be.

God bless you friends!

Ron, David, and Michael Schwartz