The doctrine of integration becomes critically important in a day when we talking about crafting a Global Kingdom Civilisation because church must be brought to a place of collective existence. The doctrine of integration is clearly outlined generally in the Bible and particularly in Ephesians chapter 2:
He has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household…(Eph 2:14-19).
- Whilst it is recognized that this scripture applies primarily to the integration of Jews and Gentiles in Christ, we also will note that there is progressive application of this scripture in a world that is full of all kinds of human intolerance, e.g. racism, tribalism, sexism etc.
- Our redemption through Christ must bring about an abolishing of all forms of human intolerance and must remove the recognition of cosmetic difference (the dividing wall of hostility) that manifests itself through racism, sexism, tribalism etc. for there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female – Gal 3:28.
- The objective of Christ is to create one new man (out of the two), so therefore the principle of integration demands that believers are not only taught how to grow in Christ (as individuals) but that they are also taught how to come to a place of collective existence, for this too, is an important element of our growth and our perfection in Christ. Eph 4:13 says, ‘we (plurality) must come to a perfect man (singularity)’. This implies that integrated consolidated life is one of the key traits of a perfected church. We need to come to a place where we live (and not only hold meetings) as one consolidated unit.
- This further means that any redemption experience or any agent of redemption (I mean church organisations) that fails to do away with such things as racism or race consciousness, sexism, tribalism etc. inside the church, is not walking in the fullness of the power of Christ’s redemption for humanity.
- Christ wants to make peace in the earth (Eph 2:15): the church as a civilisation of God has got to be an example, a pattern of how humanity in her diversity can still live peacefully. Not only is Christ reconciling us back to God (as seen in vs.16) but He also wants to reconcile us with one another (vs.15). So therefore the very idea of salvation is not vertical spiritual reconciliation (with God) but is also horizontal spiritual reconciliation with fellow men. This further means that the fall was not just about man’s conflict with God but was also about man’s conflict with another man (as seen in Cain, see Gen 4). This conflict is founded on cosmetic consciousness (Gen 3:7). The salvation that church has so far advocated is one that reconciles man with God, church has so far failed to reconcile man with other man (I'm not referring to conflict resolution through counselling, I am referring to the ability to create an ideological-philosophical platform (through teaching) that makes it possible for man to relate). People get saved but still walk in broken relationships. People are in churches but there is still a dividing wall of hostility. This is clearly seen in how local assemblies are built upon a foundation of (not necessarily racism) but certainly race consciousness, sometimes even tribal consciousness, socio-economic consciousness etc. Paul says such schisms compromise our spirituality (1 Cor 3:1-4).
- Christ came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to you who were near (Eph 2:17): The doctrine of integration therefore goes hand in hand with the doctrine of equality, for Christ is the principle of equality. This is seen in the story of Manna (see Ex 16). Christ is the Manna that came down from heaven (John 6:51). Manna was dispensed through this principle of equality, as it is written: he who gathered much did not have too much and he who gathered little did not have little (see 2 Cor 8:13-15) – i.e. those with strength and resource added value to those without strength and resource, see also Luke 3:10&11.
- The doctrine of equality also captures the issue of equal access (Eph 2:18) into spiritual-material resources of God. This is why God speaks of judging the ‘fat sheep that shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with their horns until the weak sheep are driven away’ (Ezek 34:20-22) – Ezek 34 is identifying unjust human economic interaction, where those in favorable economic conditions are progressively pushing away those in weak socio-economic positions. This is what makes Capitalism an ungodly economic ideology.
- The principle of equal access means that God is bringing or establishing within His house, His civilisation, an economic system by bringing in the wealth of the nations (Isa 60:11), He says herds of camels will cover our land (Isa 60:6) ‘…and I will adorn my glorious temple’ (Isa 60:7). He says in Haggai, ‘silver is mine, gold is mine’ (Hag 2:8) implying that the economic system really belongs to God and not to the Devil (however, this does not justify spiritual-material greed that came out of the Prosperity gospel). The reason why God is establishing an economic system right inside His civilisation is to demonstrate to nations a properly constructed economic system; one that is founded on such principles as equality and equal access. Such an economic system is founded on the principle or ideology of koinonia (fellowship, see Acts 2:42) – (koinonia) primarily meaning: that which is shared by all – and should not be confused with communism. And so the word fellowship here speaks of equal access. The very thing that is causing chaos and anarchy in the world today is this issue of inequality and economic marginalization of the masses of people as the elite (the fat sheep) continues to enlarge themselves. So therefore as we craft this Global Kingdom Civilisation, there must be economic minds or philosophers of Christ who rise up and formulate a kingdom economic system, using the very principles that we are expounding on. Apostles of the early church do give us a glimpse in terms of how to craft a just economic system. The money was put at apostles feet (Acts 4:35) and the apostles dispensed the money accordingly and so what started as an offering became an economic system - a circulation of economic resource amongst believers (see Acts 4:32-37, Acts 2:42-47). Paul was very strong on creating systems of wealth redistributions within the church, founded on the principle of 'fellowship' (koinonia), where churches that were financially rich would give to those that were poor (Rom 15:26, see also Acts 11:27-30). That early church was quickly growing into a civilisation until Roman Catholicism hijacked it. Here we are, starting all over again.
Consequently…you are fellow citizens (Eph 2:19): the doctrine of integration should then lead to shared identity, just as we see before the throne of God a great multitude from every nation, tribe, people and language standing before the throne…wearing white robes (Rev 7:9). The ‘white robes’ are not only indicating purity but also shared identity. In this state of church, life is not founded on cosmetic difference but on the spiritual principles of Christ.
The doctrines of integration and equality therefore need to find expression in the church. These are not doctrines that can be expressed in the ceremony of the saints but rather through the human existence of the saints – this means that we can not express these doctrines until we become a civilisation. These are what I call teleios doctrines or doctrines that produce a perfect or complete church (Heb 6:1, Eph 4:13). Paul says ‘we speak wisdom (sophia) among the mature (teleios)’ – 1 Cor 2:6. And so this church of the 21st century needs to come to terms with the teleios speaking of God. Once these doctrines are embraced fully inside the church, they then must be exported to the nations of the world, for they (the nations) will come saying, ‘teach us your ways’ (Isa 2:2-3) and Christ has commissioned us to go and teach the nations (Matt 28:18-20). Countries like South Africa desperately need these same foundational principles for nation-building. As I have stated elsewhere, doctrine is not a ceremonial property (i.e. it’s not just for church organisations) but it is an outline of God’s architecture for human existence, and can therefore be applied whenever there are humans who willingly embrace it.
