Thepfulhouvi Solo
The Church appears to grow senile, its Spiritual Eyes dim and out of focus when it attains the age of 100 years or more. Paul in his Missionary Journeys established Groups of Jews, increasingly of Gentiles also in what the Roman Government initially called ‘the WAY People’ who believed Paul and Barnabas preach one Jesus of Nazareth as the CHRIST mentioned in the Scriptures of the Jews. In the Cities of Perga, Antiok of Psidia, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe, “Paul and Barnabas appointed Elders for them in each Church” wrote Luke, the Physician become Gospel Writer, in the Acts 14:23.
Paul established other Churches also in what was then called Asia Minor, now Turkey, sometime in 54-55 CE, but in 90 years after, the Church, at 7 Cities: Ephesus, Smyrna, Perganum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea lost their initial luster and attracted severe reprimand from no other than the LORD JESUS CHRIST. Today 2000 years later, none of the Churches Paul established, is heard much. Turkey, the only Secular Muslim State today, does not encourage the preaching of Christianity and hardly 2 % of the population is Christian.
Of the 12 Apostles of Jesus, all 11 were martyred one by one for their Faith and the longest lived; he lived about a hundred years, was John, attributed to be the Author of the Gospel of John, the Epistles of John and the Revelation. On a Sunday, when he was about 100 years and in prison in the Island of Patmos, (14Km by 8Km) with barren, rugged Coastline, in the Aegean Sea off the West Coast of Turkey, to where he was exiled for his faith, John heard a loud voice on his backside. He turned around and saw among other wonderful things: “someone like the son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance” (Revelation 2 & 3).
In about 100 years, the Church’s initial loud voice grows faint, its white Garment gets soiled and its blazing Eyes lose its original fire –all for One reason and that reason is Worldliness. Worldliness consists of many forces and in about 100 years, they wore out the Church’s initial spiritual earnestness in that distant century. The same world’s corrosive force play, in the same manner the river current cuts hard rock into hollow channel over centuries, on the Church today. The worldly currents imperceptibly but constantly wear away earnestness in the Church. An air of commonality and superficiality creeps into the Church, spirituality managing the Church affair is replaced increasingly with Tradition and Programs.
Ananias, Safiras, Demases and Alexanders enter the Church influencing the Church towards worldly beauty and honor but more and more spiritually distant. Increasingly Programs run the Church: less and less by spirituality. The successful conclusion of Programs, Feasts and Jubilees are counted as hallmarks of the Church’s success. Slowly, unknowingly, the Church looses its deep discernment power for spiritual values, lukewarm water of Laodecea washes into the shores of the Church. Ethics and Morality take a back Seat; pretentiousness and colorful surface is taken as Beauty. The Church grows senile; its spiritual eyes grow dim and weeds begin to grow in the hallowed grounds of the Church.
In Nagaland, the Churches give great enthusiasm for birthdays, Jubilees and Centenaries; Revelation 2 and 3 should speak to us very deeply: ‘does the church become senile in 100 years?’
