Jun 17 2007
It’s an easy way to get audio teachings and other updates from our ministries, and it’s as common as the cold: it’s Podcasting. Have you tried it yet? You can get your questions answered at the Columbus Xenos Web site, where they offer Podcasts for Dennis, Gary and Jim.
Our Central Teachings Podcast:
Jun 01 2007
Tribalism begins with such promise and a strong foundation, but it always ends in ruin apart from His design. It is worthwhile to consider God’s design for this concept of a “Tribe,” and where it should lead, before addressing the problems in today’s Tribe.
God is the one who first created the concept of the loving, supportive Tribe when He created us in His image:
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it…” - Genesis 1:26–28
The Tribe is anchored in a secure, loving relationship called marriage. God created male and female and marriage when He said, “Let us make man in our image,” and together these reflect God’s capacity for intimacy. It means God anointed the human experience with the most amazing, transforming power called love, and its impact spread across the globe: “Fill the earth, and subdue it!”
The core strength of the human race is not merely its ability to multiply—animals do that—but to form intimate relationships which multiply and form the social networks which gives humanity its dominating power over all creation on earth. This is a Tribe, in essence, and its design is in our genes. It’s not limited to the nuclear family, as it’s called, because the ability to “be fruitful and multiply” means larger, widening circles of influence which grow and grow, like ripples from a splash, reaching far beyond the nuclear family into the outside world. That’s God’s intention.
God designed us with three awesome privileges, then: the capacity to love, the authority to create new life, and the power to subdue the world. All of these demonstrate the primacy of love, and it’s built into our basic design and purpose as humans. Through the love in marriage, humans multiply. From the love in the family, humans build social networks, and as a society of relationships, mankind rules creation. When God’s love prevails in relationships, when relationships work as designed, the sovereignty of mankind produces a benevolent and powerful race of rulers.
Dynasty is a more appropriate term for God’s design. “Tribe” is so trite, yet it describes the cheap imitation we build today in our primitive, fallen state. Simply put, Tribes are depraved. The Tribe we grew up in is stripped of the glory and dignity that only comes when people unite under God’s love.
God has not abandoned us to our depraved, tribal experience, however. When He died on the cross for us, He made it possible again for humans to enter the joy and strength of His love through the forgiveness of sins, and through His love we can rediscover His design for humans: to form Dynasties. Thus:
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. - Romans 8:16–17
What a tragedy it is for Christians to continue living in a tiny little tribal world, when God is at work raising Dynasties!
This is not a change in behavior. It’s a whole change of life, and it’s quite within reach! A Christian has the spiritual power and godly authority to get out from under the gloom and weight of the Tribe, and the insight to become God’s agent for changing the Tribe into the Dynasty He created us to inherit. It should be tremendously liberating for any Christian to enter the old Tribe with this godly view leading the way.
It’s a marvelous design, because in our Tribal experience we form Permanent Love Values which deeply affect our lives and provide a solid platform for launching great endeavors. These Permanent Love Values provide safety for infants, then training and discipline for kids, and finally a reference-point for young adults to marry and launch new families.
This process to “be fruitful and multiply” is inherently relational, not a system or method or institution as humans are so skilled at building. Powerful cultures will collapse despite spectacular technologies and wealth, but always, always humans have survived despite the most harsh circumstances if their Tribe is strong. That’s the power of love: “fill the earth, and subdue it!”
We intuitively know how vital it is to build a stable home, and yet the bulk of our time, energy and focus is fixed on busy careers and personal achievements in the American lifestyle. The Work Subs will spend far more time fixing up the crazy house than investing in those living inside the house! It’s a crazy thing, but I bought a house in excellent condition from a young, industrious couple who owned it for only six months and got divorced. As I inspected the house it was evident they poured tremendous resource into fixing it up, and they took a bath in financial loss. What’s the use? A beautiful house can’t repress the hatred inside!
People desperately need Permanent Love Values to live victoriously and sustain the pressures of life:
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” — which is the first commandment with a promise—”that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” - Ephesians 6:1–3
Even in adulthood the experience of going home for the holidays and spending time with the Tribe should be deeply refreshing, far different from the experience of going to an office party or bar, because no matter how exciting or fun it is, those places do not have Permanent Love Values. As humans we need Permanent Love Values in order to function and face the pressures from subduing the earth. Interestingly, we don’t need an office party in order to function.
Living in rebellion against God has greatly deteriorated the glory of human relationships. Selfishness, lust, anger, quarrels and many other fruits of rebellion have replaced the love of God at the center of our family experience, so the relationships break down. Dynasties have splintered into primitive Tribes. And everywhere social contact is marked by war. Tribes conquer tribes, and people fight inside tribes. Love as we know it today is a series of heartbreaks as relationships splinter.
But splintering of relationships is more hideous than simple heartbreak: we still retain all the purpose in the original design. God did not grant us those privileges and authority so tentatively. Continue Reading »
