The Restoration of the Lord’s Headship in Church Meetings (Biblical History Explained)

Now, what does the young man learn? I write unto you, young man, because… alright, have you got it there? I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. Now then, did it say, I speak unto you, young man, or write unto you, because you are fighting him, because you are doing battle with him? It is the young men who overcome him and get him out of the way. The thing is settled, and you don’t come back to it anymore. I write to you, young men, because you have already overcome the evil one. You finally got that put away.

There is another passage below that repeats it. Can anyone read it? I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God remains in you, and you have overcome the evil one.  They’ve grown a little bit. I write unto you, young men, because the word of God abides in you. And what else? Now there’s one other. You are strong. You have the word in you, and you have overcome the evil one. But brothers and sisters, have you ever noticed what he writes to the fathers? The first time he writes to the fathers, he says, “I write unto you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning.” That’s the first time he wrote. I write to the fathers. Who are the fathers? Well, those are the ones who were young children; they have become young men, and now they have given birth to children, and they’ve seen those children grow up, and they’ve watched them go through these stages. They have not only gone through the stages, but they have now had to go through fatherhood, which in itself is great pain and many lessons.

Well, they saw God get them through their sin. They learned a little bit about the Father. They saw themselves come up against Satan, and then they learned something about…they learned the overcoming of the evil one. Then they grew further until they had children, and they saw God take their children to forgiveness, and then they saw God take their children to the overcoming of the evil one. So, first, he says to the fathers, fathers, I write to you because you know Him who is from the beginning, and the second time he writes, what does he add? What does he add? Brother David…he adds absolutely nothing. I write to you fathers because you know Him who is from the beginning. I don’t know if that means anything to you, but when you have gone through all of those experiences, first your own and then those of your children, there comes a time when you know Him who is from the beginning.

You know that he starts with the little children, and he gets them through. And you know, he goes with the young adults, and they get through this matter of Satan. Then he gives you fatherhood, and he gets you and them through all of this. Soon, you’re just like Jacob. You’re a father now. You have watched God do so much, and all you know, you just know: the Lord who is from the beginning. So, brothers and sisters, overcome the evil one. That’s where you are right now.  Just overcome him. He is overcome him; overcome him. Don’t fight him. You know, when someone said, “Oh Gene. We’re really under attack.” And I thought, brother, what are you doing under anything? Under attack? You are over attack. You are over the evil one. There has never been a time when you were under him. How do you be under attack? You are over him. Brother, well, I’m really under the pile. You’re not under anything. You are over. Now learn it. This is your position. This is what the young adults learn. They have overcome the evil one. Brothers, let him go, leave him be. And if you sense anything coming around, hold up the shield of faith. He has nothing against it. And then go on. Just say, I wrote…well, whatever you want to say; you find your own words. I find my peace when I have the slightest sense of anything like this.

A woman down in East Texas was in my home. She got to talking about this, and I said, “Drop it.” I speak very bluntly on this one subject frequently. “Drop it.” I said, “He is broken. He has no power, and he should not be exposed. He’s washed up.” She said, “You’d better not talk like that. You just better not talk that way. You’ll get in trouble, you just watch. Well, weeks passed, and I didn’t get in trouble. I didn’t have any trouble at all. But that woman really got into a mess. So, if there is any sense of this, do you give in to it? Do you talk about it? No, just refuse it. “I refuse that. That’s a trick. I refuse it; we’re on to you. Forget it. We won’t even talk about you. Get lost.” Let it be. Okay, that was off the subject.

In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ comes not only to restore, but to bring man higher up. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ is a picture of the church on this earth. The church will become a picture of what He is on this earth. He is one who has power and dominion over the world, and He is the image of God. He had in Bethany an example of being received for what He was. And for those brothers and sisters going through the experience He went through, that they might reflect Him. Then, in Acts chapters 2 through 5, you see the image and glory of God being revealed on this earth through the church. There is no question in the New Testament, brothers, that when the brethren met together, they would have no more met under a human head. Such a thought would never occur to them. There were the apostles, and then there were the workers who came to a city where there was no church, and they built up the church. What does an apostle do? Well, you should find out. Does he preach and speak and speak and speak and preach and preach? What is he here for? What does he do? He equips the saints for the ministry, that they might be built up? No. He equips the saints that they might build themselves up in love. Every joint supplying. All the apostles did was show the members how to be built into a body. Every joint supplying every other joint. Every joint equipping the other joint, until the whole body is built together for the expression of Christ. Go and read the passage. The apostle is there for the equipping of the saints. Then he leaves the saints to the Lord, just as the Lord left the saints to the Holy Spirit. So, the apostle leaves the saved brothers and sisters after he’s equipped them, to the Holy Spirit, that they might be a body given to God with Christ as Head. Or, I’ll turn that around: God gives the church to Christ to be the head.

Now, in the second century, this was lost. If you think it was ever easy to be found, you’re mistaken. It’s very easy to be lost. I think Corinth is a beautiful picture of how difficult it is to be found. When brothers and sisters, who are new in Christ, come together, they begin to function as a body in the soul. They do soulish things, and sometimes even fleshly things. But praise God for Corinth making its mistakes, because it shows us what the Spirit is and how to be in the Spirit.

In the second and third centuries, apostasy became so widespread under Constantine that, when he went… he was the Roman emperor. You know this. You know this story. Constantine supposedly was converted to Christ. There was a schism in the churches, and the churches decided to meet at Lake Constance. (I used to go over to Lake Constance every weekend to go into Germany to preach the gospel.) They met there with Constantine for what? The third or fourth church council. What was that thing? Maybe I’m mistaken. Maybe the Council of Constance came next. Maybe it was the Council of Nicaea. Thank you, sister. They came there, and they all argued, and they all debated, and they all talked, and Constantine sat there. And listened. Then when it was over… This newly pagan man made the decisions. What would be done?

He elevated certain people and told them they would no longer believe this, and that they would drop that. Then he had all of the soldiers, you’ve heard this story many times, baptized by the thousands, and he put Christianity up as the official religion. All the idols were torn down, and at this time, the idolatry was thrown out, but you don’t throw it out of the man’s bloodstream any more than you throw denominationalism out of your bloodstream. And it came back. Two things were adopted. There was adopted the blending of paganism and Judaism. Primarily, the Christian faith expressed itself after that as a blend of Judaism’s ritualism and flavors of paganism. Paganism came in the patron saints. Paganism came in the belief in purgatory and the fear, the awesome fear of God, and it expressed itself in the gigantic and beautiful churches that later came. The music…is it the Baroque music? Baroque music of the chants of that day were brought into the church, and the secular Baroque…okay, thank you very much. Gregorian… Later, they adopted Baroque chants as well, which were secular. This was something pagan; they adopted it and sang to it. Then they began the growing concept…and all of this was happening at the same time…that there were certain people who had something that the others did not have. And this was reflected in the fact that there were certain things that people did not touch, and others touched. Then the whole idea of Christianity began to center around a cup and a piece of bread, and the people could not touch it.

These people, bedecked with certain robes, would come in, and they would say, Hocus Corpus Meo, and that which was bread would become body, and you know, you’ve heard the term hocus pocus. That comes from there. That’s a bunch of hocus pocus. Hocus Corpus Meo would turn the bread and wine into the literal body of Jesus Christ. Now then, when the people came and bowed down at the altar, that’s all they could do. They could listen to the chant. They could chant a language they did not know, and very carefully, the bread would be slipped into their mouths so that not so much as a single flake of flour would fall to earth. Then they would hold the cup up, or, if there was some danger, the cup would be drunk only by the priest, in fear that one drop of the blood of Jesus Christ might fall to the earth. You know, I saw this stuff and never really understood what we had been brought out of by the Reformation until I went to St. Peter’s Cathedral in 1951, during the Christmas holidays, and I saw the people gathered there.

Oh, I saw the ultimate end of 2,000 years in there, and here was the mass being held. Some of the priests, and literally the cardinals, had fallen asleep. They had been through this so many times. There were, oh, I don’t know, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 cardinals. I have forgotten how many of them there were, and the people sitting there with glassy eyes, repeating, in Latin chants they had been saying all their lives, over and over and over.

Then there were the great cathedrals built to awe the soul, that the soul would have a sense of the sublime, that would touch something within them, the awe, and then they could be entranced by the Hocus Carpus Meo, the change. All of this has its roots in paganism, distortion of the scripture, and Jewish pageantry. So much of that is Judaism. The priestly robes are even designed after the Old Testament priests. They have certain things about them that are very much after the cardinal’s robe. And all of the headship of Christ, and all of the worship in Spirit was lost.