In Defense of Church Hopping: Prelude to a Journey, Premonitions in Magic, and Paradropping with Indiana Jones

Prelude to a Journey

To embark on a journey one must at some point decide to embrace the unknown and just get into the carriage. We are not wholly prepared for the strange encounter with myth that awaits us. That's OK. We have our little suitcase with a loose idea of where we are going, sure, but we are not ready. We will never be ready. Bilbo wasn't ready. Frodo wasn't ready. But in our case, as in theirs, it will prove to have been better for us to be on the move. The greater threat is not the threat of moving but the threat of standing still, like the threat of one who, too scared to move, entrenches himself in a bomb zone. 

Our carriage journey in defense of church hopping will first travel to a time and place long ago. We're going to Salem Massachusetts in February of 1692. We're going to learn about something we could call "magic". Our aim through this rocky journey is to expose how things work behind the curtain in order to comprehend what I'm going to call the "magic tricks". If you'll remember our hypothesis in this series is that the common orthodoxy against "church hopping" is likely being misguided and deceived.

Premonitions in Magic

We are going to need to think about magic somewhat critically here. Does that seem silly? I mean it is a little silly sounding. We have stopped believing in magic I think and that is one reason why we are susceptible to suffer from it. After all it seems from what we know that the danger or harm in stage magic is not actually real. When stage magicians get out swords it seems like they might be stabbing people through but we know from experience that this is only an illusion to entertain. We have seen the tricks of sleight of hand and illusory magic exposed on TV shows and perhaps this has given us a sort of confidence that we needn't be taking magic very seriously.



But when we talk about magic on the real stage of life, that is real magic, we are talking about something actually dangerous. We are talking about deceptions working in a way to bring about real malicious and dangerous outcomes to real people. We're talking about people getting stabbed in a real sense, I am not necessarily meaning a physical sense although it can come to that, but more so a spiritual sense. I'm talking about a magic that causes relationships to get torn asunder, where people are stabbed through the heart and wounded in their very person and soul; I'm talking about a magic that causes people to leave church fellowships discouraged; I'm talking about magic that causes ministry opportunities to become uprooted in sabotage; I'm talking about a magic so powerful that is can cause an entire community to lose hope, a magic so powerful and real that it can cause a people to begin to hide their faces in shame and fear, a magic so powerful that it can produce hate. Magic is not merely an industry anymore than playdoh hotdogs are actually a food; it is a serious and scary business that works through deception, confusion, and misunderstanding to produce monstrosities like fear and spiritual depression. When I talk about the power of the magic of the myth of church hopping I do not think I am talking about a harmless kind of magic; I believe I am talking about real dark magic like death and Hell. If there are any who want to flippantly reduce magic to a mere thing of supersititon, a thing with no material evidence or basis that died off with the advent of science and the death of ancient people, I point to the real tears of the victims of division, fear, and confusion, the victims of dangerous deceptions that have been played out. Magic has not gone away. Don't be deceived by the trickery of magic. Magic is a shapeshifter like Loki, that likes to reinvent itself with a new persona every thousand years, but magic will still work its same bag of tricks and its same curses to turn people against one another to create death, confusion, and darkness. But the truth and power of God is from everlasting to everlasting and neither has it gone away. The light always has power over darkness to expose the shifting shadows for what they are.

Since magic has never gone away and is presently in our midst we must be attentive to consider it. Attacks are always being waged on us. Bombs of deception are always being dropped. We must be quick and attentive now to make our counter attack with truth against the myths and lies that we believe. We have to disable the bomb factories that produce these dangerous misconceptions or we face the threat of being obliterated by their destructive fruit! We can't merely wish a threat away and wait. The ewoks on endor didn't wish their enemy away and wait. They, with sticks and stones, disabled the weapons control center of the infamous Death Star. David didn't wait. He killed Goliath with stones. We need that kind of courage. It is the courage of children of legend, children that gave their life in glorious charges against hell with only squirt guns in their hands, children of past ages long forgotten of real courage that we have created dishonoring myths about to our shame.

Paradropping with Indiana Jones

Let us not forget thsoe that went before us because we also must now go. We are leaving home turf to a foreign land where we will paradrop straight into the heart of the enemy. We must to get to the stronghold of the power of this myth of church hopping and disable it. That's why in our mind our carriage must begin to feel something more like a chariot.

"We are leaving home turf to a foreign land where we will paradrop straight into the heart of the enemy."

This is bound to be a journey like the journeys of Indiana Jones. It is felt that something fishy is going on but we're not entirely sure what it is. Our carriage must paradrop in to the danger and search it out. We must decipher what is really going on surrounding this myth. It is written that a wise man can go up against the city of the mighty and pull down the stronghold in which they trust (Proverbs 21:22). A history professor like Dr. Jones will prove a good symbol to help on this journey. Dr. Jones is not a push over character. He employs various tools to figure out the problems that he faces. He uses maps, artifacts, past encounters, experiences with people, intuition, a little bravado, luck, wit, and his trusty whip. A whip might be useful if only to disarm the axe from the executioner's hand until the case concerning the real guilt or absence of guilt of church hoppers can be heard and established most fairly.

“As a matter of honor, one man owes it to another to manifest the truth.” ~ Thomas Aquinas

As is often the case in the adventures of Indiana Jones there is a phantom menace working behind the scenes here, a powerful voodoo magic encouraging confusion and a sort of crazy cannibalism where Christians will devour each other. There is some mystery still regarding the myth but the power of the myth at least is realized somewhat now as a concern and threat. The plain no non-sense spirit of Indiana Jones, his caution and skepticism that he has attained through experience with things like this over many years will be a helpful symbol for us and hopefully his historicity can help cure our bewitched state.

Our defense, which actually turns out to look something more like an offense, is not against persons. We face the danger of misconceptions and the dangerous outworking of ideas. We face the danger of lies spoken in heavenly places, the danger of a darkness that lies hidden from us in shadows. Our enemies are spiritual Screwtapes and Wormwoods that divide us, working a subtle dark magic against us like a poison imperceivable through the senses. We must take up our own sort of magic, the magic that Indiana Jones wields, the magic of history and conscience, the magic of an unrelenting curiosity that is unwilling to settle for easy answers or justifications. Indiana Jones always keeps it in the back of his mind that things are not always as they appear. Some things that look safe often turn out to be dangerous traps and some things that look dangerous or appear to be dead ends are often paradoxically safe. That is why we are approaching the danger of the misconception of the myth of church hopping here with what will seem like at times a random approach. We are deliberately not being text book here, because, as Indiana Jones knows all too well, the real world, as some unfortunately have to painfully discover, isn't textbook either.

A true story from history that happened in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, might prove useful to help us identify what our myth is about and how it works. Our goal is not to merely understand some information here. Our real goal is to gain information that can help us in the real world to work peace and justice and the love of God. We're not ready and we never will quite be. We are too small for the journey that awaits us, but such is the beginning of all good stories that call for courage. Embracing this reality now we sit at the hatch door waiting to paradrop into the belly of the beast of this myth against church hopping. It is our hope and belief that light will beat darkness, that understanding will confound confusion, and that love will drown fear. I admonish you, do not be afraid of what you cannot or do not yet understand. Love will persevere. What you do not think you can do now is possible to do with God. Have humility and faith in God and in His goodness and power.

Be met now with the foolish charge to take up sticks and stones like ewoks who destroy Death Stars or the Christian youth of legend who quench the fires of 'hell' with only squirt guns. Face down the misconceptions that face you and bring you down and beat them! Embrace this journey in defense of church hopping as it takes you on a chariot charge cutting through murky forests of myth where misconceptions lie waiting in the wood like goblins. They want to take us captive and prevent us from living life to the full. Don't let them ruin you. Fight against them. The next installment of this defense should be coming along soon to help you.

"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority." (Colossians 2:8-10)
"And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances." (Matt 22:16)
"Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth." (1 John 3:18)

Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”
“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. (John 18:33-38)