THE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIAN WHOLISM

1. REVELATION:

God reveals God’s self to humanity. The major revelation of God is through Jesus Christ. In order to understand God’s revelation, one must receive it with every part of one’s being. This includes the mind, the body, and the emotions. This means that the revelation of God in Jesus Christ is mental, emotional and physical. To limit the revelation of God to just one of these aspects of the human person, is to limit the revelation of Jesus Christ, who was body, spirit (mind and will) and soul (emotions). Once God reveals God’s self, God invites us into a covenant relationship with Him. Our responsibility in this covenant is to seek God. As we seek God, new revelations of God are ours.

2. THE BIBLE:

The foundation of the revelation of God is the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God. It was written by a Spirit, is written about a Spirit, and is read by persons with spirits. The center of the Biblical message is that Jesus Christ was and is, God in the flesh, who brings Good News into the lives of human beings. The Scriptures are words of life, which nourish when consumed, give peace and power when digested, clean when memorized, and bring Good News and new life when obeyed.

3. WHOLISM:

A relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ can bring a person into the area of wholeness-- overall health, growth, balance, capability and spiritual power. Wholeness shapes and determines our inner life and our outer surroundings. When a Christian seeks God, seeks to constantly be filed with the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ unites in a healing unity, all of the broken areas of human existence. These include; the spiritual and the natural, the self and God, the self and society, the economic and the political, the individual and the collective, the personal and the systemic, the male and the female, the Church and the community. A life dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ incarnates the Good News.

The Good News is Christ has broken and can break the hold of the powers of death and provide an abundant life, in this world and the next.

4. THE TRINITY:

Christian Wholism accents the Doctrine of the Trinity: God is Father, God is Son, God is Holy Spirit and these three are one. The Father creates and sustains. The Son redeems and sanctifies. The Hoy Spirit indwells and directs. In order to be a Christian one must have a relationship with all three. One must have peace with God the Father. One must have forgiveness, restoration, and friendship from and with, God the Son. And one must be filled with God, the Holy Spirit. There is no disharmony in the Trinity, all are on one accord. This is a model for Christ’s body on earth, the Church.

5. HISTORY:

Christian Wholism accepts from the Holy Scriptures, the importance of history and God’s revelation and work in history.  The Bible teaches the Christian, by faith, can act in history and create truth. By faith, the Christian can act and change history. By faith, the Christian can act and make history. Every Christian should realize the activity of God in their own time and thus shape history. This means that a faithful Christian should understand the social, cultural, political, and economic events of their own time, in order to be a more faithful witness to the Good News. Sometimes knowing contemporary bad news can help one answer the question, “what is Good News?” more effectively. The faith-ful Saint of God gives practical and powerful witness to the Lord Jesus’ salvation and deliverance, which lies both within history, and beyond history, when the Lord ends human time.

6. CONCERN WITH INJUSTICE AND OPPRESSION:

The Bible shows that God is concerned with the suffering of the poor and the oppressed. The Bible declares that justice and righteousness are the foundations of God’s throne. In Christ we see God expressing a “preference for the poor.” This deals not just with the effects of poverty and injustice but with their causes as well. Christian Wholism refuses to worship wealth and power (as does much of American Christianity) and maintains a commitment to standing up for justice and righteousness especially against unjust economic and social systems.

7. AFRICAN AMERICANS:

 The Bible accents the importance of God’s revelation in history and of history itself, as well as God’s different dealings with different individuals and groups. God’s choice of a people to do His will, Christ’s suffering and death among that people; Paul’s aborted mission to and love for, that people, shows that love of one’s people is a legitimate spiritual impulse. This is particularly important for African American people who were taught for over three hundred years, by law, by Christianity, by custom, by the economic order, and by the political order, that they were less than human, because of the continent they came from, the culture they practiced, and the color of their skin.

So African American Christians must refuse to ignore their history and their particular understanding of the Christian faith, which comes from a history of suffering and a heritage of struggle against the mis-representation of Christianity by white supremacists using white supremacy. We refuse to believe that our understanding of the Christian faith is the same as white supremacists. We also refuse to believe that racism has died in America. We refuse to be afraid to address Black people as black people. Yet we also refuse to believe that just because we are black, we are more spiritual than others or are somehow automatically right with God. Difference does not mean superiority or inferiority, it is just difference. We refuse to hate white people, believing that, that would makes us sin and fall away from our God. Christ has the power to bring all races together, in spirit and in truth. We embrace all races, all colors, all classes, while affirming with joy and pride that we are fearfully and wonderfully made as God’s beautiful African American children.

8. MALE AND FEMALE: MEN AND WOMEN:

Christian Wholism understands the Bible to bring men and women together in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scriptures show that Christ elevated and dignified women in His day, making them a key part of His ministry and in defiance of social custom and age-old tradition. Further study of the epistles shows that the Bible recognizes the differences between the social roles of men and women and certain minor differences in their specific natures as men and women (e.g., women practicing nurturing habits more easily and men becoming enmeshed more with questions of authority and force). The Bible recognizes men and women as equal in their possession of a common human nature and equal before God. Their roles in the home and the church differ.  The role of men ideally is to be leaders in the home and the Church, while the role of women is to be a co-leading partner under the authority of the man in these domains.

What is often missed in discussions in this area, is that the Bible envisions and commands a man to be submitted to Christ and to deal with his wife (and his female family members and friends), as Christ deals with the Church, which He nourishes and cherishes. If men were to fulfill Christ’s commands for leadership, women would have less problems with the Biblical doctrines of submission and obedience. Because we live in a society, which dominates women because they are women, we must be careful not to use the Bible to support oppression of women. Before a man ever mentions submission to his wife or any other woman, he should ask himself is he submitted to Christ in his covenant relationship with the Lord. If he cannot treat his wife, and other female family members and friends, like Christ treats the Church, he has no right to use submission and obedience Scriptures.  Let him work on his own spiritual life in silence; in spirit and in truth.

Both men and women however, share a natural sinful nature. Let not the woman think that because she is an oppressed woman that she is therefore righteous in God’s eyes. If some men sometimes misuse Scriptures to dominate women, then some women often ignore Scriptures in their dealing with men. Some women also resort to power play tactics, such as; nagging, sexual blackmail, sexual bribery, covert gossip warfare, recruitment of children to choose a side, and public humiliation. All of these tactics are not of God and are to be rejected. The Bible teaches that a woman can be so close to God that God can take her through problems with the men in her life God’s way.

At The Church of The Open Door we are pursuing the PATH OF PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT. We are developing men and women to attain their full potential in Christ. Together, not making difference mean superior or inferior, and keeping a concern for justice and righteousness in mind. Men and women need each other. One gender cannot be all that they can be, without the other, in the Lord.

9. STEWARDSHIP:

Christian Wholism maintains that God has God’s own economic system. It further maintains that the first priority of our time, talent and resources is to honor God by giving the tithe. The tithe is the first tenth of what you receive. What a person receives is their net income. Tithing is the first step to financial healing. Many people need to be healed financially because; a) they were never taught how to plan, budget, save, and invest; b) many people spend their money according to impulse or appetite; c) we live in a society where financial institutions like banks, credit bureaus and “payday loan stores,” take advantage of people who are ensnared with problems a) and b) above. Christian Wholism sees in the Biblical teaching about stewardship, a realistic acceptance of the harsh realities of the economic system. But through faith, it balances problems with opportunity. We live in the richest city, in the richest nation in the world, and although Black people often face economic hardships, even here, opportunities abound. If the Lord allows us to have individual or collective economic strength we should use it to fight for economic justice and to end suffering in the world. Such financial and economic strength should be sought after, but not at the price of ignoring or being silent about injustice.

10. TIME:     

Christian Wholism highlights the Scriptures, which teach that “for everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under the heavens…” (Eccl:3) So Christians should accept the time bound nature of life. This means that we should teach our children (and ourselves) about the different stages of life and how to develop and grow in each stage, so that God’s “fullness of blessings” can be accomplished in our journey upon the earth.  

This also means that Christians, especially those to whom God has given a brief command which will take years to execute, should accept the ebb and flow of events in time. The triumphant and the tragic, the holy and the horrible, the grandeur and the gutter, every servant of God who would do a work for God must understand that as God’s servant we must spent time in these mountain top and valley experiences. The Christian must also understand that God works in time, and what seems like it cannot and will not happen, can happen in God’s time, if we remain faithful.

This point also means that every Christian must accept the reality of sickness and death. Sickness shows us our fundamental humanity. Death is the Christian’s release from this world into the next. Christians should not fear it, for death has a different taste for the Christian. For the one who has walked with the Ressurector, the Lord Jesus Christ, death tastes like coming home. 

11. THE STREET:

Wholeness from the Lord Jesus Christ, delivers men and women from the lifestyles of  “The Street.” “The Street” refers not only to the actual streets of our community, but also to a set of sinful ways of thinking, speaking and acting, which include; the drug trade, gang activity, robbery and burglary, the hustling and con man culture, prostitution, violence, and the addicted life. Movies, music and TV encourage people to admire and even to act out, street life.

The Street” is itself a permanent part of American society, based on three things. First, it is based on the rejection of God. Second, it is based on the historical oppression of African Americans, which features poor education, irresponsibility, instability and chaos in African American families, and a wall which blocks full and easy access to jobs and business formation capital. Third, “the Street” is based on life patterns that grip its victims with demonic power.       

Deliverance from “the Street” includes; a) a complete and total repentance and return to God, through the changing power of the Lord Jesus Christ b) a new life pattern focused on membership in the church, where one can receive healing from life issues, and c) a constant seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit, manifested in new thought patterns, new decision patterns and new actions.  

12. EVERY DAY LIFE:

How much of God one knows and feels is a matter of how much one seeks God every day of their life. This is the meaning of the term, “…you reap what you sow,” which comes from Galatians 6:7, 8. This has become a common phrase in our culture, but the Word of God uses these words to let us know that if we move in the Spirit, towards the Spirit, we shall gain spiritual results, from the Spirit. If in the Spirit you want to grow, then to the Spirit you must sow! Many Christians are weak because they spend most of their time and energy sowing to the flesh (the unspiritual nature). The 7 Spiritual Disciplines describe different ways of sowing to the Spirit. 

If we want to grow strong in the Lord Jesus Christ, then we must take back control of: our bodies, our time, our thoughts, and our surroundings, and use them to seek and serve God. This includes:

A)    Times of prayer in the morning, noon and evening, at work and at home.

B)     A period of Bible reading and studying for at least an hour a day, at home.

C)    Eliminating and limiting the time we spend in front of unchristian TV, radio and the computer.

Church services and church work must be aided by a home that is made holy for God and job space that is sanctified by our speaking the Word of God and prayer. Gospel music, Christian radio, gospel video’s and DVDs, are excellent ways of pursuing God in our everyday lives. When we move towards God every day, then Sundays are always a celebration of the Good News of God during the past week. The Wholism of the Lord Jesus Christ can be experienced every day, at home, at work, at school, or wherever we are. But we must train our selves to sow to the Spirit. We must train ourselves to move in our thoughts and our will, towards the Spirit of God within, as our regular practice, every day of our lives.