24 May 2024
Before this dream I was wondering whether to go to a seminar about church history.
The dream
I dreamed I was browsing for jobs and saw a LinkedIn post. It showed Indians doing a dance of Chinese whispers. The client was a lady performing Bharatanatyam. The dance was precise, perfectly choreographed, skillful. That went to the manager. The manager did not dance as well as the lady. Then it went to the developer. The developer danced worse than the manager. The last dance was awkward and ugly.
I said that was how the human race has managed the gospel at the moment, and we are trying to restore it. I thought it would be a cool way to describe church history to people.
In the second part of the dream I was in a monsters-killing department, a team. We were in a training routine to kill or capture animals and monsters. We opened a sort of door to enter a cage-like room to train. I had to lean on the side glass before going in, so as not to be bitten. Another trainee followed me. We ended up letting one monster out. I had to stamp the creature out. We failed miserably in the training. So did our head of department. I made a joke that we were so bad we might as well be.
Then I got a phone call from the European side asking for help to fix the email. I replied that we have local problems to deal with.
I woke to the sound of my dog barking.
I decided to go to the seminar. It is a two-hour drive to London. We are in the UK.
First part of the dream — church history
The first part of the dream is church history. The gospel was given at the start, precise, like the Bharatanatyam: exact, choreographed, skillful. Then it went from hand to hand, generation to generation. Each copy was worse than the one before. The manager was already less than the lady. The developer was worse than the manager. By the end, the dance was awkward and ugly. That is dilution. What arrived was not the faith once delivered.
“You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
(Mark 7:8 ESV)
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”
(Galatians 1:6–7 ESV)
“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you.”
(1 Corinthians 15:1–2 ESV)
“Beloved… contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”
(Jude 3 ESV)
“Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”
(2 Timothy 1:13 ESV)
“Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.”
(Hebrews 2:1 ESV)
I said in the dream that this is how the human race has managed the gospel, and that we are trying to restore it. Restoration, if it is real, is not a new dance. It is a return to the gospel as it was first given, not to the last ugly copy in the chain.
The seminar I attended outlines church history that way. It takes the New Testament church as the measure. It then traces how worship, teaching, and structure changed after the apostles; how the church came under the empire; and how later groups tried to go back to the first pattern. In that outline the Bible text is still with us. What drifted is how the church did the faith. Each generation copied the last generation’s practice. An investigation into church history can show this drift. That helps. It is not the same as holding what was first preached.
“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition… and not according to Christ.”
(Colossians 2:8 ESV)
“Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.”
(2 John 9 ESV)
“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.”
(Revelation 2:5 ESV)
History can name the hand-offs. The question remains: do we hold the gospel as it was first given, or the late, changed version?
Second part of the dream — the training room
The second part of the dream is a team in training. The room is a cage. The glass is there so you are not bitten. A trainee follows. A monster gets out. The creature has to be stamped down. The team fails. The head of department fails too. I made a joke that we were so bad we might as well be.
Things were that bad. Because of this, I had the beginning ideas to create http://findgod.help. Those pages are the local work: name how the dance was changed, and how the church left the faith once delivered.
“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.”
(James 3:1 ESV)
“Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”
(1 Timothy 4:16 ESV)
We are in the UK. The call came from the European side: help us fix the email. Email here is communication. They wanted the line repaired from the Continent. I was the one who answered. I said we have local problems to deal with. The dream did not speak that line to me. I spoke it.
I later looked into going to Europe. The call was already there. My first answer was local work. Looking toward Europe came after.
“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
(Matthew 7:5 ESV)
What I did after
I went to the seminar. Since the “Spirit” implied that things were so bad, I had to start creating studies on findgod.help to restore what was originally taught. God looks at the forest, while we look at the trees. So findgod.help is for every and any church to learn and understand scripture. Later I also began to think about mission work and am looking into going to Europe. This is probably not the end.
“Test everything; hold fast what is good.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:21 ESV)
