Foremost Zoologist writes about Botany

kw: book reviews, nonfiction, botany, love of plants, exhortation

Jane Goodall is one of my favorite people. Her discoveries about chimpanzees turned primatology and anthropology on its head, not just once but several times. Even more, her tireless quest to drive world leaders and citizens to a better balance with nature continues to touch a chord in me and in many.

One might ask, what is a Zoologist doing writing about plants? For every animal you study, you must study its relationships, not only within its species but with other animal species such as prey or predators, and nearly always with the plants in its environment. Even a pure carnivore such as a big cat uses plants for concealment, for bedding and so forth. And now that biology has turned more and more to the study of trophic cascades (If you have never seen this video about Yellowstone, stop and watch it now!), every life is seen to depend on plants, and every life, particularly of keystone species, affects the life cycles of plants in its environment.

Dr. Goodall is a writer of rare skill, and for this and a few other recent books she has teamed up with Gail Hudson to produce a volume that matches the best 19^th Century writing, Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder From the World of Plants. The book is one part her historical and lyrical paean to the plants and their landscapes that she has loved in her long life, one part historical and social survey, and one part (or two!) hortatory essays that exhort us all to take better care of a biosphere the human race is rapidly driving to ruin. Her voice is lyrical without being maudlin, high and clear without being shrill.

Anyone who has lived more than 25-30 years, and has not seen substantial changes in nearly every landscape with which they are familiar, must have lived a cloistered prisoner all those years. I visited Suguaro National Park nearly 50 years ago, when it looked a lot like the image on the left in this montage:

On the right, in 1910, the difference is shocking. Look particularly in the background, where the mountain foothills are being covered with creeping suburbs near Tucson, Arizona (Photo montage from this article by Betty Mason in Wired).

Her message boils down to something simple: "Hey, World, please, please slow down and think more long-term. You billionaires don't need another billion or ten billion quite that fast, and people's needs can be taken care of without destroying everything around them until ultimately they and you will also suffer destruction."

I don't think there is anything I could add to that. Rather, I'll take a side note, and answer some who might know me well, how conservative I am, and say, "Huh?" Did you know that the root of "Conservative" is the word "Conserve"? Did you know that the national park system was begun by Conservatives? Strangely, Theodore Roosevelt is being called a Progressive in recent biographies and documentaries, but he sure wasn't thought of as a "progressive" a century ago or so! He's just being called that because today's neo-progressives can't imagine that someone with conservative values would do the things he did. A true conservative is not a short-term thinker, but a strategic thinker. Trouble is, there just are too darn few of them left to be found in national and international politics. A conservative who is not an environmentalist (a true environmentalist, not a fuzzy-headed tree-hugger), cannot honestly claim the title Conservative.

'Nuff said. Read the book.

A challenging spiritual test

kw: book reviews, spiritual reading, faith healing, divine healing, sermons, exhortation

A friend loaned me a book to read, one that has become a test of certain beliefs I hold. It is Christ the Healer by F. F. Bosworth. First published in 1924, the book originally contained five chapters. During his lifetime (he died early in 1958, aged 81) he expanded later editions of the book, and his heirs posthumously expanded it further. I read the paperback edition of 1973.

I have been for more than forty years under a ministry that teaches thus:

• The Exodus plus Wilderness period of Israel's history was characterized by miracles including numerous cases of miraculous healing.
• Certain later prophets, particularly Elijah and Elisha, performed miracles, but those were purposeful and selective.
• There were a few, scarce miracles during the period between the testaments, particularly the miracle of the oil during the Maccabean restoration of the temple in Jerusalem. This event is commemorated with Hanukkah.
• Jesus performed miracles throughout his ministry (Apocryphal stories of miracles he performed as a child are fairy tales at best). He healed all who came to him for healing and raised at least three dead persons, including Lazarus.
• The apostles performed miracles, but more selectively as time went on. Paul in particular had a gift of healing which was with him throughout his ministry.
• Not all divine healing is miraculous. Some of the healings Jesus performed were instant, and thus miraculous. Others occurred over a period of time. God strengthened the healing abilities of the natural body.
• In Paul's later writings we find that he did not always heal the sick. Trophimus had to be left behind sick at one point, and Paul counseled Timothy to settle his sensitive stomach with wine.
• The author of the book of Hebrews, whom we believe was Paul, mentions the "powers of the age to come" (6:5), which we take to mean we have only a "taste" of miraculous works and divine healing in this age.
• God is purposeful, and is not to be treated as a magician that we can invoke for just anything.
• Thus, we conclude that divine healing does occur, but is not frequent, and instant, miraculous healing is quite rare indeed, in this period called the Church Age.

Bosworth would vociferously decry our conclusions. He is an absolutist. The only tiny concession he would make in our favor is found in a chapter titled "Why Some Fail to Receive Healing From Christ", in which he discusses 22 causes of such failure. Number 10 reads:

Sickness and affliction are permitted to remain on some as a halter, with which God leads them into the center of His will, and when this has been done, He removes the halter.

The other items are variations on three themes:

• The sick individual is at fault, either not believing rightly or not acting decisively upon the promise of healing.
• The evangelist or pastor is at fault for teaching improperly regarding divine healing (such as our teaching outlined above, if it is indeed improper).
• The "community", meaning a congregation or related group of congregations, is in a state of ignorance regarding God's will to heal all His children, thus hindering His work.

It is extremely clear from the sermons and testimonies in the book that Bosworth believed God's will is absolute, to bring to salvation every person who receives Him, and to totally heal every person who asks in faith for His healing. He bases both upon the Atonement of Jesus, making them equally inclusive promises, based on a number of Bible passages, most familiarly,

"Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed." (Isaiah 53:4-5, NIV). 

Matthew quoted the Septuagint translation of the first half of verse 4, so that the NIV has it, "He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases." Of course, Bosworth used the Authorized Version (KJV), which has "sicknesses" in Matthew, but "sorrows" in Isaiah. That last phrase, "by his wounds we are healed", is an article of faith to faith healers.

There is a contention among expositors, whether "healed" at the end of verse 5 refers to bodily healing, or healing of the soul from iniquity. I believe it refers to both, but with the proviso that God heals, or performs other miraculous actions, according to purpose.

I find it quite refreshing that Bosworth writes, on page 77, "Even Laymen May Pray for the Sick". In his era, there was no thought of any kind of church polity among Protestants and Pentecostals other than the pastoral system. Since I consider that system invalid, and as Martin Luther taught, we enjoy "priesthood of all believers", of course every child of God may pray for healing the sick. Yet we also see in 1 Corinthians that God has set some in the church with special gifts including gifts of miracles and gifts of healing. Bosworth also distinguishes healing from miracles, at least in most cases.

Bosworth's theology is also founded upon the special names of God that he calls "Redemptive Names":

• Jehovah Shammah, the Lord who is Present
• Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our Peace
• Jehovah Ra-ah, the Lord the Shepherd
• Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will Provide
• Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our Banner (or Victor)
• Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness
• Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that Heals

He argues that the standing of the last name is equal to the other six, and is thus part of the promise of the Atonement of Christ. This is a strong argument, and if this were all the Bible, it would be unassailable. Yet what do we see of the attitude of Jesus of Nazareth towards miracle-seekers? John wrote,

"Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person." John 2:23-25

If we do not allow ourselves to be distracted by the new chapter that begins immediately after, we see how Jesus withdrew from those who were enamored of his signs (John always called the miracles and healings "signs"), but that he attended to the inquiry of Nicodemus, who saw beyond the signs to the One sent by God. And what are we to make of what Paul wrote to the Corinthians in chapter 13, the "love chapter"? He begins with four examples of spiritual gifts, tongues, prophecies, faith to move mountains (miracle working), and almsgiving, and shows that they are nothing without love (the famous word agape that speaks of love that has God as its source). Then in verses 8-10 he says all things other than love will cease, using three examples, prophecies, tongues, and knowledge. His word is inclusive, that the supernatural spiritual gifts were temporary. Indeed, in all his later epistles, he does not again mention the supernatural gifts, but instead writes of gifts that develop from growth in life, until the person is the gift to the church, under the titles Apostle, Evangelist, Prophet, Shepherd and Teacher, as seen in Ephesians chapter 4.

It is true, as Bosworth wrote, that healing is unlikely if we merely believe in God's ability to heal, or even if we merely hope in His healing. If we have, particularly with others, prayed a prayer of faith, and have an inner sense of God's affirmative answer, we must believe that we do have the healing already, even though symptoms may linger for a short time (days, not months). Bosworth uses the example of the fig tree that Jesus cursed. Nothing happened immediately, but the next morning the disciples saw that it had withered. It continued to appear the same at first. In the same way, after we sense that a prayer is answered, the symptoms may not disappear all at once. Testimonies in the last part of the book confirm such experiences. Some people experienced immediate and total healing. Others experienced a gradual release from symptoms.

Now, I have had a few experiences that make me wonder. Here are a few brief stories, three of them my own:

• The year after I received Christ, that is, 1967, a girl, a young sister, was healed at a youth camp I attended. She had a dental deformity, and her teeth stuck out forward at an angle. This was even somewhat evident when she kept her lips tightly shut, and it caused her great embarrassment. The second evening, a few others our age took her for a walk after dinner, and asked her to pray with them for definite and immediate healing by the Lord. As she told us the following day, "After we had been praying a while my mouth began to feel very warm. At first I could not move my hand. When I could move it, it also could feel the warmth, and then, that my teeth now fit properly in my mouth!" I saw her teeth both before and after, and this was indeed a remarkable case of instant, miraculous healing.
• Around 1970, a sister that we got to know a few years later contracted cancer. She was told she was terminal. Some sisters came to pray with her, and after a time they all felt that the Lord had given His promise to heal. Her symptoms abated over several days' time, and she is still alive and serving in a church in England.
• In 1973 I got pneumonia. Brothers I lived with prayed with me, but we felt nothing particular from the Lord. The evening came for the church's prayer meeting (I lived next door). I had just been lying there feeling sorry for myself for a few days, but I was very sorry to miss that meeting. After my housemates went to the meeting, I sat up in bed and began to read the book of Matthew. I read the whole Gospel in less than an hour's time. Then I got out of bed and went to the meeting, fully whole. I told them there I'd been healed by taking in the Word of God.
• One thing we disparaged quite a lot was a practice that became rather faddish before 1980 of "leg-lengthening". An elder with whom I was close had back pains, and was told by a Christian friend that these might be because he had legs of different lengths (I do, and we'll go there, momentarily). He was persuaded to go to a healing meeting. There, a healing evangelist had him stand and looked at him. Then, he had him sit, and the man just took the heel of his shorter leg and pulled gently while all prayed. This elder felt nothing, but when he stood again, his stance was different because his hips were now level. His back pain never returned.
• That even made me wonder about my experience a decade or more earlier. I had polio at age 18 months, and one leg was twisted. I was made to wear leg braces in an attempt to straighten it for two years, with only partial success. I learned to compensate so that few knew how hard it was for me to walk with a mostly normal appearance. At age 14 I attended a youth camp and our last evening a child evangelist preached to us. I was very touched. I recall walking alone in the woods trying to talk to God. It may be that I received Christ then, rather than 5 years later. But as I look back, I see that that I had a determination arise over the next few months to straighten my leg as much as possible. I had to think about every step. Over about a year, the bones were reshaped, and although the leg is still half an inch shorter than the other, and the foot on that side is nearly two inches shorter, the leg is straight and I walk normally and without pain. It may be that my actual experience of salvation occupied a 5-year span!
• Finally, in 2000, I had colon cancer. It was a rather late stage, but not metastasized beyond the perineum yet. A wizard of a surgeon replumbed me in a 5-hour operation. I also had an ordinary course of chemotherapy. I believe the biggest factor was that the whole church where we met (and still meet) prayed urgently for me. A few years later, the gastroenterologist who had made the initial diagnosis told me, "You are a trophy!" He had initially given me a 15% chance to live beyond one year, after the operation and chemo. Was divine healing involved? This particular case is unclear, but I give Glory to God nonetheless, for the love of fellow believers at the very, very least, and I take these past 14+ years as a sign that He is just not done with me yet!

Bosworth's book has led me to rethink everything I believe about divine healing. God may indeed strongly will for all His children to be kept in good health until He is ready to call them home. It is equally clear that, at least the "halter" mentioned by Bosworth is active in some cases. But there is a big gap between the level of healing advocated in the book, and the experience of most of God's children today. I am prayerfully considering these things, and it would be worth everyone's time to do so.

What price Jesus?

kw: book reviews, nonfiction, devotional, exhortation, christian faith

Having reviewed nearly 600 books in this web log, it is rare that I encounter a new genre. A family friend has given me a book she wrote and self-published, which is a combination of devotional and exhortation, with the emphasis on exhortation. Is Jesus Your Pearl? by Karen Knoettner is published by Xulon Press, which helps new Christian authors print their first books. We know Karen because she taught piano to both our son and myself, beginning seven or eight years ago. She is a dear Christian woman about midway in age between numba-one-son and me.

First, let's get a doctrinal quibble out of the way. Matthew 13:44-46 reads (NIV), "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it."

Strictly speaking, in the context of this chapter on the Kingdom of Heaven, the treasure, composed primarily of gemstones, refers to the transformation of the people of God, even though they are living in the world (the field); the pearl refers to the church as the composition of redeemed persons. For the church, represented by these two valuable things, Christ gave his life (everything he had) and poured out His Spirit (on Pentecost).

There is, however, a significant interpretive principle, that those who follow Jesus walk in His footsteps and experience what He experienced. In particular, Paul wrote (Colossians 1:24, NIV), "Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church." Does this sound like heresy? What could be lacking of the afflictions of Christ? He was afflicted for our redemption, and we cannot share in that, but he was also afflicted for the sake of building the Body, and we do share in that. This is a strong aspect of our purchasing the Pearl of great price. That Pearl is not just Christ singly, but Christ corporately, Christ in His Body the church.

In her book, Mrs. Knoettner relates her own experiences of learning to hold Jesus as that most precious Pearl, her "first love." Near the end of the book, she recalls the second epistle to Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-7), in which the Lord complains that the church as lost her first love (for Him). This is very relevant for us today, as the author makes plain throughout the book.

I confess that the level of devotion she expresses made me uncomfortable. It reminded me of what I have gradually lost as I have "mellowed" with age. Oh, we are not supposed to age in our love for the Lord! My early Christian experience was among people who delighted to be "crazy lovers of Jesus". I am a quieter person now, and sometimes that's simply not good.

Though the book is not large, the author packs a lot in. Chapter 8, "Lessons from the Oyster ... A Pearl is Born!!", is particularly precious. A pearl grows because of an injury or irritant to the oyster (The irritant is often a small parasite, a point she doesn't mention, but it is telling!). The oyster uses nacre to overlay the irritant, layer after layer, very slowly. This represents, first, God's longsuffering, culminating in the cross to redeem His people; then, it represents our longsuffering as we "take up the cross", bearing all things for the sake of loving God and His people. Paradoxically, this brings us closer and closer to Jesus.

Yet, obtaining this Pearl is not all about suffering, by no means. Pearls are beautiful. We gain much grace from continual contact with God, and grace is enjoyable. Simply put, we enjoy God. I like to call grace, "God's anesthetic." When we enjoy God, day after day, many things that may once have seemed great sufferings pass almost unnoticed. Further, relations among fellow church members improve in measure, which pleases our Lord, who paid so much to obtain that church.

I do hope many of my Christian friends will enjoy this book as much as I did. Simply search for "knoettner pearl" to locate a source.

Mix political power with faith, and lose both (or, "my god's better than your god...")

kw: book reviews, nonfiction, faith, politics, exhortation

I don't know what it is, but this is the third book by someone who describes himself as an evangelical Christian, that I've encountered in recent weeks. Perhaps the people of God are wising up, that society is changing in ways that will severely restrict the freedom of faith that we have enjoyed in the U.S. for 23 decades. Now that Russian totalitarianism has been greatly curtailed (not eliminated), and even Chinese totalitarianism is slowly waning, new kinds of totalitarianism are rapid gaining strength.

Regardless of the ideology behind them, those strains of religion called "fundamentalist" and those political movements at both far right and far left, all are totalitarian in nature. They cannot tolerate dissent, nor argue the merits of key ideas or issues, so their primary methods are coercive; ad hominem character assassination is the just the beginning.

If you get nothing else from this little essay, please remember this: totalistic ideologies are all based on paranoid insecurity. The "Iron Curtain" and the Berlin Wall expressed the insecurity of the USSR; they were terrified of their people voting with their feet and emigrating, or even visiting places where different ideas were to be found. Even more so, every kind of "fundamentalist" religion in history has been insecure at its root; hedging its people 'round because the leaders were terrified their charges' minds would be corrupted.

The true motive behind such insecurity is shown in John 11:48, where the religious leaders, deciding they now had to kill not only Jesus but Lazarus, said, "Of we let Him do so [raise the dead], all will believe into Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." They were afraid of losing their jobs and perquisites! Those most paranoid about protecting "their people" are those whose living depends on, or who have some vested interest in, the number of "their people."

Just so you know, I've been there, even done that. Maybe my conscience is extra-sharp, or maybe God just had mercy. I concluded long ago that people are more valuable than doctrines, and that caring for one another ("love God...love your neighbor") really is what pleases God (see Mark 12:31-34).

I have observed the "moral majority" (which was neither moral nor a majority) and now the "religious right" (another oxymoron, however you pun "right") all my adult life. I don't like what I see. Among all the preachers with "high visibility," the only one I halfway trust is Billy Graham, and he's been 'way too cozy with corrupt politicians to suit me. Where is there a prophet like Nathan who will speak to the king, and say, "You are the [sinful] man!"

I do not have the energy, opportunity, nor the scholarship to chronicle the ills of American religious totalitarianism. Fortunately, someone does: Randall Balmer has written Thy Kingdom Come, an Evangelical's Lament (how the Religious Right distorts the faith and threatens America). Although Dr. Balmer's social orientation is quite liberal (in my view; to him, I suppose I'm much too conservative!), his spiritual compass is right on target.

His long exhortation is in five parts, five chapters.

He first shows how American evangelicalism began as a counterculture movement, but by 1980 some leaders and groups had gained the ear of prominent folk, and thus became a force within American culture. The key tool is "selective literalism," in which some Bible passages are insisted on, but many others ignored. Some folks make no bones about picking "hot button" issues to make hay and keep their constituents stirred up. The most profitable hot issues have been abortion and homosexuality. Balmer, quoting a few other clear thinkers, declares, "I have no interest in making abortion illegal, I would like to make it unthinkable." Later in the book, he frequently points out that those who can't bear the suffering of an aborted fetus think nothing of the suffering of the "post-born" poor and oppressed.

Then he shows more clearly how evangelical groups such as the Baptists once functioned as a corporate prophet, decrying the corruption and idolatry all around them. Now, those who bear the title "Baptist" have polar opposites, taking a comfortable seat amidst the powerful, seeking to establish their narrow faith for all. In the process, we note the spectacle of people praying before "Roy's Rock" in Montgomery, AL; idolatry, plain and simple. Real Baptists would never make the graven image in the first place. Remember the brass serpent that God commanded Moses to make and display for the healing of the snake-bit Israelites? Several generations later, it was being idolized, and Gideon had it destroyed. Thank God for Gideon!

It is strange that America is still the nation with the largest proportion of Christian believers. Every other Western nation, ostensibly Christian in origin, has a state-supported religion, such as the Lutheran church in Germany. All those nations have huge proportions of atheists, compared to a relatively small number in America. What do we have that they don't have? The Bill of Rights, specifically Amendment 1, part of which forbids Congress from establishing any religion. The phrase we hear, "separation of church and state," comes from a letter by Jefferson. Do you want the First Amendment abrogated? After a rather short, seemingly salutary period, there would soon follow an oppressive theocracy that would make the religious wars of the Reformation period look puny.

The third item is the assault on education. I've known many people who home-schooled their children. Some, who had only the control of their children's beliefs in view, were not successful. Those who taught to a higher academic standard than the public schools offered, and perhaps included spiritual education as well, produced superior scholars. Their goal was not to produce hothouse flowers, alwas to be "protected" from the world, but secure young people who could stand their own in spite of the anti-faith orientation of the world.

It's a fact: I have made sure my son, who is in public school, knows more about evolution than his fellows. More generally, I want him to know science equally as well as he knows faith, so he can tell the difference, and not confuse them. I see "intelligent design" as a most unintelligent scheme to corrupt science education. So does Balmer...and he explains it exceptionally well.

The fourth chapter goes into Creationism more deeply. The removal of the word "creation" and its kin from the title of this set of beliefs is deceptive. "Intelligent design" is simply one way to define creation. I see very few on either side of the debate who can explain their point clearly. Allow me...

There is no "Theory of Evolution." Evolution is a fact, a process we see going on all the time. We see that all species vary over time, and we can easily discern that some species are more closely related to one another than are others. In historical times, humans have, by selective breeding, produced many dog breeds from the ancestral wolf, many cat breeds from an ancestral wildcat, and so forth for many species people found useful. But what is the mechanism, the machinery that we can tinker with to breed wolves into both dachshunds and mastiffs? What operation(s) in nature might be able to allow some members of a species to prosper in certain circumstances, and eventually produce a species best adapted to those circumstances? Darwin's title for his theory was "The origin of species by natural selection."

This is the theory, natural selection. It is based on two hypotheses: first, that members of a species vary from one another; and second, that those bearing certain characteristics are better able to survive and reproduce. Repeat over time, and a species will get more and more adapted to its environment. In Darwin's day, nothing was known about the mechanism by which variation arose. The theory had great explanatory power, but lacked details. Now we know some of those details. Genes were discovered decades after Darwin wrote. Minor variations arise in all genes; each of us bears about a hundred such minor differences that neither of our parents bore; we've mutated, all of us. Some variations are not so "minor," and decrease viability, while some increase it.

Over time, the more deleterious mutations vanish, and the more beneficial accumulate. Artificial selection, such as dog breeding, is the "intelligent design" of a dog breed, according to the whims or needs of humans doing the breeding. It is faster than natural selection, because we can choose to destroy every offspring that isn't on the track we desire; natural selection is slower, because it more subtly tilts the balance in favor of one over another. So natural selection needs a lot of time to operate.

The "young earth" doctrine seeks to remove the time necessary for natural selection to operate. Proclaim that the earth is but six or eight thousand years old, and there isn't time enough. Of course, there isn't time enough to domesticate dogs, cats, pigeons, or cattle either; even artificial selection requires twenty to thirty thousand years to produce a greyhound from a wolf. But the Bible does not support a young earth, in spite of much preaching to the contrary. But I'll get into that another time. Sufficient to say that the earth shows every sign of being several billion years old, and the universe three or four times as old. I know what I'm talking about, folks!

Ok, what is left? The fifth item is environmentalism, or rather, Rightist anti-environmentalism. Here, I'll start with a few verses:

1 Cor 3:17, "If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him; for the temple of God is holy, and such are you."

1 Cor 6:19, "... your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit ..."

Rev 11:18, "... Your wrath came, and the time ... to destroy those who destroy the earth."

Author Balmer, and I, find very distressing the "dominion theology" being bruited about these days. The fact is, the only place that God gave man dominion is in Genesis 1:26-28. That was before the fall. After that, the word is not used in that way, rather to Noah (Gen 9:2-3), God declared that all creatures would fear us. They have plenty to fear! This is no license to make them fear. The verses above are clear enough. Because of sin, we are by nature destroyers, and those who do not rein in their destructive impulses will eventually be destroyed by God.

The book ends with a call to "[take] the country back". I don't see that we shall. As I've said before, I only reluctantly accept the label "evangelical Christian," and only to make a distinction when one is needed. I much prefer Christian, nothing more. Particularly now that "evangelical," which refers to gospel preaching, refers nearly exclusively to preaching the gospel of initial salvation and forgiveness of sins. If you look at all the uses of the words "gospel" and "preach" in the New Testament, you'll find that the gospel includes exhortation to repent and receive Christ's life and forgiveness, no doubt, but also sanctification, transformation, renewing of the mind, conformation to Christ, eventually glorification, and to receive all these in the context of fellowship; the Bible knows nothing of "individual Christians."

Also, the effort to stamp out variations in religious expression are bound to fail; God is against them. His letters to the seven churches, found in Rev 2-3, are prophetic of the entire course of church history. Again, I'll leave out details for now. We see three movements that have passed away (The primitive, or "Ephesian" type; the officially persecuted "Smyrna" type; and the Imperially sanctioned "Pergamos" type), and four that will be in existence until Christ returns. These four types, termed Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, are Catholic (Roman and Orthodox), Protestant denominational (including major pentecostal organizations), recovered local churches that "have but little power", and free groups, frequently charismatic or pentecostal in outlook. In all these four, Jesus speaks primarily to some who "overcome."

Regardless of their "tradition," in all Christian expressions there are some who love Him only. He does not do away with these groups or call his "overcomers" out, but shows that their fellowship is precious to Him because they love, they have been restored to the "first love" that the Ephesian expression lost.