Tea Party, Jesus People and Being Taken Over

The Jesus People movement of the 1960s and early 1970s has some similarities to the Tea Party movement today.

Both had no leaders attached to them when they got started, as they were both spontaneous movements. And both attracted those with ambition, looking for something to take over for their own ends.

Some have commented on the Jesus People movement concerning it being the first move of God initiated without human agency. I think that's accurate.

Not too long after the numbers grew, along with the influence, many men started to woo them, which ultimately resulted in the impact of the movement ending, and the drab old practice of having a pastor preaching to them every Sunday ending it all.

Of course that's not the entire story, as when the movement expanded, reaching out to more and more people, all sorts of representations and variations emerged, causing a lot of confusion, and in some cases - approved of immorality.

But for the core principles of loving Jesus Christ and sharing that love spontaneously with others, and freedom, that didn't change for those God moved on in the beginning. Quickly, who they were was overshadowed and undermined by religious leaders and media, who reported the excesses without mentioning those who had in fact remained true to their revelation of Jesus Christ, and continue to live it out to this day.

In other words, the reports were in relationship to the pretenders that were initially affected by the powerful move of God, and which the casual onlooker couldn't differentiate one from the other. Even those with some knowledge really never understood what was going on.

The Tea Party movement, as mentioned, also started spontaneously. Much quicker than the Jesus People movement, unprincipled men and women are already attempting to hijack it in order to create a base to work from, undermining the basic principles which caused the people to rise up in the first place, attempting to create the movement into their political image.

Some are still hanging on in light of the roaring battle over the budget, putting them in the crucible of conflict to see if who they say they are and what they stand for is real.

Just like the Jesus People, already there is much confusion as to what the Tea Party even stands for any more, as the equivalent of religious denominations is transforming it into their own system to attract the unknowing.

In other words, confusion is reining, and in that atmosphere the heart of the Tea Party is being fought for. There are enemies within and enemies without, and that is always going to be the way of life when something that has hope, but little foundation, spontaneously comes forth.

The point is when Jesus Christ moves among His people spontaneously (not referring to the Tea Party), people with ambition need to get out of the way and let Christ take charge as Lord of His people, and not attempt to take it over just because some people have come together in response to a revelation of Jesus Christ.

There is a lot of that in Christian history, and hopefully as we grow in Christ, the body will rise up and reject these hirelings and look to Jesus Christ to head the Church, just as it should be.

As to the Tea Party, hopefully the germination of what will eventually become permanent change will be the rule, and we'll see the country, and possibly many other nations, changed into freedom-loving people who aren't afraid to take some short-term pain for long-term gain.

If not, we'll just continue off from where we left off, and the alternative will be a disaster.

Either way, things won't be able to continue on as it has been, and either willingly or unwillingly, the necessity of shrinking the size of the government and its outrageous entitlement programs will happen. It's only the degree of pain we'll all have to go through. If we're able to do it through the Tea Party, all the better, as the pain would be shorter and somewhat manageable. A forced default from not being able to sustain the ballooning debt would make it far more painful, as most would be clueless and unbelieving right up until the day it happened.

Unfortunately, it'll almost assuredly be the latter, unless Jesus Christ Himself intervenes.

I think the best we can hope for is an embryo of people who have strong principles holding to them, and training, encouraging and helping to build out a long-term Tea Party army, committed to small government and freedom.

As for the Church of Jesus Christ, throughout history we've also experienced movements outside of the mainstream and status quo, which have dramatically affected the times they lived in. The hope there is also for an embryo to be birthed which will this time hold onto their foundations till the return of Jesus, and change the course of history forever.

I'm not talking about the so-called emergent church, which has already gone the way of some of those on the fringes of the Jesus people movement. Many excuse homosexuality, worship the earth through radical environmentalism, and are basically just another subset up political liberals under the guise of Christianity. They're socialists, without foundation, and don't consider the Bible as being authoritative or inerrant, except when they rip some verses out to justify their beliefs.

The emergent church is already dead, and it won't last the generation, other than the occasional exception, like the Jesus people in Chicago, one of the very few remnants of the Jesus people movement. They've pretty much been systematized and denominationalized; now only a weak shadow of their former selves. We need to do better than that.