The Spirit Like a Dove

“Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him: and there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. ”

How do we get to know God? He is an invisible, infinite, distant spiritual being so far above us in order that our own puny nature and small minds cannot possibly simply look out into space and behold Him, search Him, understand what we see, and make any reasonable conclusions . God is beyond our knowing, if we were the only measure of the encounter.

Mankind's great religions are mostly the result of our endless search for meaning, origins and truth. These are our inventions and the product of mystics, philosophers, scientists, charlatans, and madmen. We theorize, pose arguments, create a god in our likeness or that of familiar creatures, carve our statues and bow down to worship ourselves and the work of our hands. But how do we get to know God, the God who is God? When He is good and ready, God comes down to our level and reveals Himself. Then we know the difference.

Anyone knows that the many divisions in Christianity are evidence of our faulty apprehension of the faith, inability to forgive others, and lack of love for our fellow Christians. The cracks and fissures that have formed over 2,000 years, and the enmity, distrust, virulent attacks and prejudices between the various denominations are evidence of the sins of Christians. The evidence of the indwelling s pirit of unity, of truth and grace becomes harder to sell to a cynical world when each little group claims to have a corner on Christ while it dogmatically hates all other Christians.

A bright moment of hope followed the tumultuous Vatican II conference that brought the Roman Mass out of Latin and opened the doors to communication and acknowledgement of other Christian churches for this largest world denomination. It gave birth to an age of ecumenicism , of the gathering together of the disparate branches of the faith into a closer relationship and possible future unity. Or so it seemed to mystics, philosophers, scientists, charlatans, and madmen. The brief possibility of church union opened doors to those who never loved the faith and saw unity itself as the only good. Ecumenicism became a way to drop your denominational baggage and seek the lowest common denominator between all the churches for unity on a grander basis. God did not show Himself in these pursuits, but mankind made quite a show of his own godliness and superiority over the arcane fundamentalists and orthodox. Unity was love. Unity was therefore God.

A great example of the damage caused by the ecumenical movement was the reunification of the Methodist Church. This church, divided by the American Civil War into northern and southern bodies, and into other groups over other issues, reunified in 1968 and included the United Brethren . The United Brethren did not accept the Virgin Birth of Jesus as a doctrine. In order, therefore, to bring unity among the greatest number of souls, the doctrine of the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ had to become an optional pious belief for all Methodists . A moment of generosity for unity's sake became quicksand to Christian faith as the optional became the novel , and Mary's virginity a subject of doubt , the question of Jesus' father gave rise to doubts of His divinity , and therefore every doctrine based in His incarnate nature . If you can think of a quicker way of making a Church non-Christian than removing the Virgin Birth, I'd love to hear it. God did not reveal Himself in this union of the Methodists. Rather, He was further pushed back into the dark.

The Episcopal Church at the time was busy trying not to become a rallying point for Catholics and Protestants, the role God created it for. Like the girl at the party whose beauty might enlist the envy of others, she acted the fool and tried to seem ordinary. Satan himself, I am sure, saw the threat in the Anglican communion as being the great communicators of reunion of the Church, so he smashed the unity of Episcopalians with an onrush of new theologies, trial liturgies, spirit-baptism and Bishop James T. Pike. Episcopalians would be seen by the rest of Christendom as both intelligent and faithless. Failing to be real Evangelicals through embracing anti-biblical teachings, they failed also to be real Catholics through the ordination of women to priesthood. And the spirit-filled Episcopalians failed to the led by the Holy Spirit to bring any light on the matter at all.

That is the church I found in the year when my wife became a Christian and I re-entered the Church following my 12-year apostasy in the New Age. Fragmented and faithless, my old church was dying. A new Church was being born out of her, Christ the King, and strange bedfellows of Bible-believers and Sacramental Catholics found one another in worship and doctrine alike. Yet, we too were fraught with division and organizational troubles. This movement would not shine in the area of unity. I longed to see a Church rising out of the chaos: strong, universal, sacred and godly. We were not all that. We might be right about many things, but few saw our point or wanted to leave their stained glass sanctuaries to join us in storefronts and mortuaries on folding altars and churches packed in cardboard boxes.

I began leading my first church services in October of 1981 in Woodland. It was an extension of my seminary instruction, a laboratory for a 32-year old contractor with a call to the priesthood. By that time, I had been corrected in my thinking about the subject of abortion. Like so many others, I had accepted that this unfortunate method of birth control was necessary to help girls in difficult cases. My wife, in her native wisdom, showed me the unborn child . Human, living, individual and sacred: this young life was as worthy of protecting as I was. From conception to birth, the life of a human being—called by whatever name you please—demands us to defend him or her. I felt a call to act upon this realization and looked for a part of the pro-life cause to which I should lend my support.

I have been political. I have supported California Initiatives. I have supported political candidates. I have rallied for and against politicians. I have sought legislation. I have written letters. I have also joined in impassioned events attempting to close down abortion clinics, and I helped to organize such events. I have litigated, and been sued. I have stood and simply prayed. I have met most of the major players in the movement and attended many major events. And one thing impresses me more than the rhetoric and often even the immediate cause. I see Roman Catholics, Baptists, Charismatics and Pentecostals, Christians of every stripe and banner, with even some Episcopalians: the Body of Christ united over a real cause . No ecumenical council. No doctrinal merging. No devaluing of scripture. No jettisoned beliefs. Just union, loving union in the passionate hope of saving lives. In the prolife movement I have seen a glimpse of God uniting His Church—not with official proclamations of unity, but with a common cause. God showed Himself to me there, as we gave our lives to each other in Christ.

It is Sanctity of Life Sunday today, a day to acknowledge the truth of the humanity of the unborn child always near the 31 st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion the law in all states. America today still has the greatest number of abortions for any modern and industrial country per capita, and our laws are the most liberal. Some hopeful news , however, comes in this long battle: the partial birth abortion ban has been signed in to law at last, ending this barbaric procedure—with hopes that it withstands the battles in court. Also, statistically the public opinion on abortion keeps coming our way: more Americans today disfavor abortion than ever, and most women in America believe it should never be legal unless in very dire circumstances. Men are not very far behind. But this was always a problem with men. Abortion was never a woman's solution, it's a man's way to escape an obligation and commitment.

God showed Himself to me also in the prayer movement for this city and its churches. Pastors of many churches have gathered for 12 years and more to pray for each other, with Christ as the cause, and no other reason but Him. We have held summit prayer meetings where no other agenda is presented for days but to worship Him together. At one such gathering , after much of the day had been spent in prayer and singing with about 70 pastors in a lodge, a young Southern Baptist pastor came to me at the break and excitedly asked me: “Peter: quick! Tell me about the Communion of Saints.” I made a fast summary of the creedal doctrine, regarding the union in the Spirit between the Church on earth with the saints in glory because they are alive and we all have Jesus Christ. He said, “Thanks!” and ran off. Later I asked him what that was all about. He said, “Oh. I had a vision while we were all in there praising the Lord together and I saw the ceiling fold back into a huge coliseum filled with the saints in heaven. They were singing and praising God about what they were seeing in us down below.” I said: “You got it.” I have never heard a better definition of the Communion of Saints than his vision.

God shows Himself. We can't find Him by our own methods. But if we are being obedient, He shows Himself to us. Jesus was being obedient to His Father's will, and John the Baptist obeyed the call to baptize Jesus in the Jordan. As Jesus emerged from the waters, John saw heaven open and as the light of the Holy Spirit fluttered down upon the shoulders of Jesus, he heard the Father's voice from heaven saying; “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Jesus began His time of public ministry with this ritual cleansing and it might have only been symbolic. But God showed up and revealed to mankind His triune nature: the Father speaking from heaven, the Son coming up out of the water, and the Holy Ghost descending to Christ.

How do you come to know God? John didn't create this scene, but he had been told the One upon whom the Holy Spirit descended would be Messiah. He heard, he saw, he witnessed, and Jesus' ministry began in the power of the Holy Trinity. God revealed Himself and we know Him better. Isn't it wonderful how our ways don't amount to much, but His ways lead us to Him and back to our own true selves? God shows Himself and then we can know our God.

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