The term 'paradigm shift' may not be
familiar to most people, but I
believe that it expresses what is happening in the world today, and in
the Christian community as well.
For example, in the early 1960s The
United States of America
experienced a paradigm shift from being officially a 'Christian Nation'
as recognized by the U. S. Supreme Court to being a secular
nation. This shift had been happening gradually in the population
in general, but was officially established as the 'law of the land' by
several Supreme Court decisions which eliminated the Bible and morning
prayers from the public school curriculum, and eliminated restrictions
by the various States concerning abortion of unborn children.
Another example of a paradigm shift
has been the shift away from war
conducted by organized, state sponsored military forces in many areas
of the world to war being conducted by loosely organized individuals
and gangs of individuals who are not sponsored by recognized political
states.
A third example of a paradigm shift
happened with the invention of the
telescope. One result of this invention was that it was observed
that the earth is not 'the center of the universe' as previously
thought, but that our sun is the center of our solar system, and that
there is a vast expanse beyond our solar system of a wide variety of
visible and invisible stuff. I find it interesting that this
paradigm shift of 'underlying beliefs or theory' was gladly accepted by
some who were open to new truths, and vehemently opposed by others -
primarily the church establishment.
I believe that we are on the cusp of
another paradigm shift in the
Christian community away from what I call the 'lecture hall' concept of
Christian interaction to the communal concept of Christian
interaction. I suspect that this shift will be gladly accepted by
some and vehemently opposed by others. This suspicion is based on
previous paradigm shifts at the time of Moses, at the time of John the
Baptist and Jesus, at the time of Martin Luther, at the time of
the so-called Pentecostal Reformation, at the time of the healing
evangelists, and most recently at the time of the Toronto Revival and
the Brownsville Revival.
My suspicion is also based on a
vision I had several years ago in which
I saw a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, and a skyscraper being built
inside a 'cocoon' of scaffolding. From this vision I realized
that the butterfly's cocoon and the scaffolding are both necessary
parts of the development of the butterfly and the skyscraper, but both
are removed and discarded at the time of the paradigm shift in the life
of the butterfly and the beginning of usefulness of the skyscraper.
The 'radical change in underlying
beliefs or theory' involved in this
current Christian paradigm shift is similar to the invention of the
telescope. The telescope enabled people to perceive more
accurately the interaction of celestial bodies and the nature of those
bodies. We began to see the 'bigger picture'. That which
will enable the followers of Christ to more
accurately perceive the interaction of God and His people and everyone
else will be the revelation that there is a love of the truth available
from God to enable us to receive and to know the fullness of truth
which will dispel our mistaken notions and
delusions. Then there will be a recognition by those who receive
the love of the truth that we have been leaning on our own
understanding to a great degree while not really trusting God with our
whole hearts as we should. Eventually there will be a separation
of those who receive the love of the truth and the truth that they have
been missing from those who do not receive the love of the truth.
But this separation will not be permanent for two reasons. First, those
who receive the love of the truth will become aware of the truth about
themselves, which will be a completely humbling development. And
second, out of that humbling development God's love of everyone else
will flow in an unprecedented way to win over as many as possible to
the Truth Himself while not alienating others by prideful posturing and
control.
In short, I believe that God will
pour out His love and truth through
His Son Jesus
and His Holy Spirit to sanctify to Himself a humble, holy people who
have become broken and contrite by being previously left free by God to
go
stray from God after our own ways, have suffered the consequences of
'playing God' with our own lives and others' lives, and have come back
to God in humility to become His children through the death and
resurrection of Jesus.
We are invited to know the One True
God and His Son Jesus Christ by
abiding in Jesus, soaking in His life, and being vessels of the grace
and mercy of God to others. It's a great life, but I do not claim
to own any of this revelation as my own doing. The gifts of God
are unearned and given to the 'nobodies' of the world for distribution
to others worldwide. May we all do the part which God has
ordained for each of us in His kingdom as we follow the leading of His
Spirit through our Lord Jesus!
Luke 1:51 He
has shown strength
with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their
hearts;
Luke 1:52 He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and
exalted those of humble estate;
Luke 1:53 He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich
He has sent away empty.