In the last two articles, we looked at what it could mean to build (or rebuild) the altar and the temple in our post-Covid reality. We considered why these spiritual structures are so needed in this hour and how to strategically pray for God to raise them up. If you haven’t read those articles, I’d highly recommend you take a few minutes for that before you continue with this one.
We now shift to thinking about the final structure that was rebuilt after Israel returned from their Babylonian exile - the wall. Nehemiah saw the essential nature of this structure and was aware of how the temple and even the altar were at risk without it. The wall defined the boundaries of Jerusalem and secured the city from those with malicious intent. But there was another intriguing purpose to the wall, it was necessary to enforce the sabbath, as it enabled gates to be closed to commerce for the appointed time of rest and worship (Neh.13:15-22). So, very simply, the wall served three important functions: definition, security, and rest.
Another important observation is that the wall was the battleground where spiritual warfare happened. Israel’s enemies were adamantly opposed to the wall being erected, and so they used all kinds of strategies to discourage or delay its completion. This should catch our attention, making us aware of the strategic importance of a strong, complete wall in our day. Apparently, it’s a game-changer!
Well, these are all interesting thoughts, Sara, but what is the wall in our day?
What feature of the kingdom of God serves this same function of giving definition, security, and enabling rest?
WHAT IS THE WALL!?
Rather than, (as some might suggest) a wall of intercession or even a wall of righteousness, I would propose the wall we need is the knowledge of God and His gospel. The knowledge of God, if it were built up and strengthened, would serve as a resilient, spiritual barrier to filter out lies and their ability to wreak destruction on the Church. Not filtering out people but washing them from the lies they’ve been infested with. Remember in the garden, it was Satan’s lies that originally deceived Eve, and led her and Adam into sin. Today, lies are still one of the primary tools of spiritual warfare Satan uses to attack and poison the Church.
I’ve always been intrigued by geopolitical events, observing trends, and thinking about the ramifications as changes ripple through society, all the while seeking to discern how God may be involved. How is He creating opportunities for the gospel, or for the Church to be strengthened in one nation or another? Noticing these things can inspire strategic prayer.
In seeking to stay informed about Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine, in my spare time I’ve been listening to international experts on Russia. They uniformly agree that while the Russian army has proved to be surprisingly weak and poorly trained, the Russian government remains supremely skilled at disinformation, it’s their strong suit. Propaganda, sowing confusion, sowing doubt in Western institutions, and leaving the public unable to trust, unsure if they can believe anything they hear— these are strategies of information warfare, warfare that doesn’t require bullets or bombs to be massively destructive. (Now don’t go down a rabbit hole here— I’m well aware that many of our institutions need to be reformed, we’re not always told the truth, and that corruption has grown markedly in recent years, but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t also been bombarded by overt information warfare.)
Disinformation is a highly effective way to assault your enemy and the internet now enables an international reach for those who want to destabilize western society. But disinformation, lies, and deceptions are also fundamental strategies that the enemy of our soul utilizes.
I’ve written many times in this forum about the importance of valuing truth. But if we consider how lies about God, his nature, his heart for us, or the nature of Christ, his divinity, his resurrection, or the nature of sin— how lies like these wound us, lead us into deception, spiritual darkness, and at times even apostasy, you can understand why I’m still banging this drum.
DECONSTRUCTION- THE GOOD AND THE BAD
There’s a big trend today called deconstruction, where Christians (often young adults) begin to question the veracity of major tenants of faith. Some are earnest and genuinely want to know the truth, revisiting what they have been taught, and sifting out the chaff of cultural Christianity while clinging to the gospel. This will serve them well and make them even stronger. However, others— and sadly, perhaps the majority, are enjoying the sense of exhilaration that comes with critiquing and tearing down their faith, in order to give themselves permission to abandon it.
Of course, the areas of Christianity that are most intentionally assaulted are those which resist bowing to the prevailing secular worldview. A worldview that has as an agenda, an aggressive mission to deconvert weak believers. “Has God really said?”— the question/accusation that Satan sowed into mankind in the garden again becomes the question of the day.
Is Jesus really the only way to God? Why does it matter who you love (meaning, have sex with)? Aren’t Christians the ones behind the colonialism that harmed so many indigenous people, how then can you say foreign missions are good? I read that the Bible is full of errors, so why should we believe it? Isn’t Christianity what has empowered the patriarchy and been the justification for oppressing women for so long?
These questions, (which may be just thinly veiled accusations based on lies) are flooding the Church, and those lacking a secure foundation in the truth are defenseless and vulnerable. The enemy is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for whom he may devour (1 Pet 5:8).
Back to the wall.
I would propose to you my readers, that in this hour the wall we need to rebuild is robust, Church-wide, training in the truth of the gospel. I don’t just mean the path to salvation, but the full-orbed gospel, what we believe and why it is true, and what it looks like lived out. This involves biblical literacy and a familiarity with basic theology.
It also involves knowing Church history, in the same way, that after the Babylonian exile, in the time of rebuilding, 1 & 2 Chronicles were written so that the people of God could be reacquainted with their history and understand God’s dealings with them as a people. Their history in God defined them and gave them an understanding of how and why they needed to rebuild, it made sense of the reasons why they were called to live the way they did.
Similarly, we need to know the story of Christ— but also the way that story continues through the Church, not stopping at the end of Acts but continuing on until today. I’m not saying we all need seminary degrees, but, we do need to know our story or in that vacuum, the world will tell us its highly distorted version, riddled with disinformation, demonically designed to wound us.
HOW THE EARLY CHURCH DID IT
The early Church, as they expanded into gentile territories, collided with the rampant paganism of the day and so it was normal for a new convert to spend the first few years in instruction. Their thinking and beliefs were being reoriented, paganism was being washed out and truth was built into their lives. The Church called this process catechism and would not have survived without it, they would have been absorbed by the pervasive paganism. The power of the signs and wonders wasn’t enough, it was the knowledge of God and His gospel that gave them definition. The truth they knew and believed separated them from the toxic soup of paganism.
Let’s unpack a bit more what I mean by the knowledge of God and His gospel. I’ve just proposed that we need to know theology, church history, and be literate in the scriptures. I’ve also said that it is this knowledge that protects us from many of the lies of the enemy, his warfare of misinformation, and the paganism of our day. But I am well aware that for many, this idea seems completely contrary to the way we have been discipled. I too have been told many times that “head knowledge” has little profit, but experiential knowledge, (meaning, growing in intimacy and relationship with God) is all that’s really important. Often the two types of knowledge are contrasted as head knowledge vs. heart knowledge, and of course, if we had to make that choice, everyone would choose heart knowledge.
Yet, who said we can’t have both?
And who said that learning about God, His ways of redemption, His beauty and majesty, His wisdom displayed as He structures and raises up the Church, His mercy and justice… who says these are not absolutely glorious, worthy pursuits?!
Should we opt rather, to be in darkened ignorance of the wonders of our God that are beyond our personal experience? Is ignorance somehow more spiritual?
Thomas Aquinas, the 13th-century theologian said: “Theology proceeds from God, teaches us about God, and leads us to God.”
J. I. Packer famously declared: “Theology leads to doxology” (Meaning, the study of God awakens and inspires worship.)
Experiential knowledge is what Paul was referring to when he cried: “…that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Phil 3:10).
However, it’s “head-knowledge” that involves study, learning about Him, and becoming well-trained so that we can teach, disciple others, and refute error— it’s this type of knowledge that Peter refers to when he says: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.” (2 Pet 3:18).
Paul is concerned that the knowledge of God and His gospel continue to spread and displace the strongholds of demonic lies. He said: “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ," (2 Cor 10:4,5)
Repeatedly through the New Testament, the people of God are urged to grow in their faith, by learning and understanding as well as experiencing— so that they can teach others (Mt 18:20). This is one of the main ways we love God with our minds, we fill them with the knowledge of Him.
In no way am I dismissing the importance of experiential knowledge. Intimacy with Christ, communion and union with Him is of unspeakable worth. But surely we can have both kinds of knowledge without one diminishing the other!
THE WALL
Definition, security, and rest are the functions of the wall that we need to build up around the church, a wall that doesn’t keep people out, but graciously filters out the error and lies they have believed, washing them with the word, drawing them ever closer to the pure, glorious, truth of the gospel.
A wall that is the knowledge of God and His gospel gives us identity and definition by providing us with a very clear understanding of what is a Christian. It also defines the Church and the mission of God. We end up knowing who we are, whose we are, and how we are to live. All the striving and thrashing around to find how to think about these things, and all the ways we are tossed to and fro by new ideas, are replaced by deep peace and rest. We can relax when we are rooted in the truth that the Church has stewarded since Her beginning.
This is a wall that also gives us security. We are able to identify lies or distortions quickly and easily without being troubled or their influence finding a place to root in our lives.
Finally, it’s a wall that gives us rest. The more we grow in our knowledge of God and His gospel, the more we see Jesus as the all-sufficient one, the more we are in awe of the cross, overwhelmed by his love, the more we trust him. Deep trust is where we truly experience rest. The knowledge of the gospel adds to our heart-level trust in Jesus that has come from our experiences, and roots us in truth so we can not be shaken when our emotions are buffeted.
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”( Isa 26:3).
HARMONY
The wall, the temple, and the altar all work in harmony. The definition, security, and rest that the wall brings enable the temple (the Church) to flourish and build itself up in love without having to battle over deceptions or divide over false teaching. All our passionate opinions about vaccines or politics take back-seat to loving one another as the gospel stays preeminent. The wall feeds our passion for Christ and stokes our commitment to following Him as He is more and more revealed to us. The knowledge of God and His gospel - both head and heart, leads us continually to awe-struck worship, to commune with Him in prayer, and then to corporately encounter Him at the Table.
In this post-covid time of rebuilding, let’s notice what God is doing. Let’s join Him by pressing in with both service and prayer for the establishment (or re-establishment) of these three structures in our local churches:
The Altar: the expression of worship, presence, and prayer- centered in the Table.
The Temple: the structure of the local church that is built up by sacrificial, loving koinonia.
And the Wall: the robust equipping of the Church in the knowledge of God and His gospel that defends us from the onslaught of lies and secures us in the place of identity and rest.
Great article Sara, love this line, "The truth they knew and believed separated them from the toxic soup of paganism." As you have stated, we need to know and believe, we need to see heart and head knowledge as mutually integrative not mutually exclusive. We need to know both the scriptures and the power of God!