Washington, DC International Christian Church

“To those who sold doves [Jesus] said, ‘Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!’ His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’” John 2:16-17

“It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I am with you. My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!” Galatians 4:18-20

In the Greek the word “zeal” is transliterated as “zelos.”  Its meaning includes “the ardor (passion) of embracing, pursuing, or defending something (good); a fierceness of indignation.”  Recently, I felt a burning zeal that inspired me to action.  Last Friday I was planning to meet a friend for bible study at the corner of one of the busiest streets in Washington, DC – 7th St & H St NW – the Gallery Place/ Chinatown Metro Station.   As I made my way up the Metro escalator to the street, I could hear the sound of an angry man on a microphone.  I arrived on the street corner and saw a black man on a soapbox, dressed in black leather and surrounded by other black men in black & white army fatigues – the infamous Black Hebrew Israelites.  Black Hebrews believe the descendants of American slaves and the indigenous peoples of the Americas make up the 12 tribes of Israel.  They also believe that “the white man is the devil” and that they are the only “people of God!”  After listening to his argument for a while, I was burning with anger.   Paul’s charge to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:3 was running through my head – “command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer.” This man was being extremely defamatory and humiliating to the multi-racial crowd that had gathered around them.  He even called other black men around him who disagreed with him, the “n” word!  I saw another brother arrive for the study and asked him to call our friend.   When he received no answer, I decided to make this Black Hebrew my bible study!

I had seen the mistake of other challengers by becoming too emotionally charged and angry, so I calmly walked up to them, raised my hand to the man to initiate a discussion, and he called on me.   I challenged him to read Acts 10:34-35, which he had another Black Hebrew with a Bible next to him read on the microphone.  In the passage the apostle Peter stated, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” It totally destroyed his argument that God shows favoritism to anyone, including Black Hebrews.  The leader who was speaking seemed to appreciate this new challenge, and we started to go at it!   He tried to argue that the “Gentiles” in Acts 10 where actually other black people, “Judah”, who had not reunited with “Israel!”   After laying out the truth, a whole crowd of people started to gather around us – who also took out their Bibles as well!  People were coming up to me and encouraging me to keep going!   It was an incredible opportunity to share our faith, especially because where we met for church was right up the street!   After about an hour of challenging him in his lack of love, vulgarity, racism, and the like, they finally packed up and went home.  Pray for us as we plan to debate them again next Friday, but more importantly, pray that other zealous people who want to defend God’s honor will join us and learn to become true disciples of Jesus!

When I think about a man of zeal – besides Jesus – I think of Phinehas, a man who was eager to defend the honor of God because he had a fierce indignation about sin, especially amongst those who called themselves “the people of God.”  In Exodus 6:25 we see the first reference to this man called Phinehas.   We learn that he is the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the High Priest of Israel, and one of the heads of the Levite families.  It is clear that he is no commoner of Israel, but a man who was raised in the deep truths of the faith.  In Numbers 25:1-15 we have our first exposure to the character of this man.   Sexual immorality with ungodly people (the Midianites) had become a major problem for all of the people of Israel, not only because of the sin itself, but because these ungodly people were turning the hearts of the people away from the Lord and inviting them to worship their own man-made gods.  This incited the Lord to anger, and he stated in Numbers 25:4, “Take all the leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the Lord, so that the Lord’s fierce anger may turn away from Israel.”

This is interesting.  The Lord blames the leaders of the people for the peoples’ wrong-doing.   If the leaders were unable to restrain their people like Eli and his sons (1 Samuel 3:13) then they were to be removed.  It saddens my heart to see how little accountability there is in churches today that claim to preach the correct life and doctrine (1 Timothy 4:16).  While it may be preached from the pulpit, there is no enforcement of obedience for the goal of being made perfect in Christ (Colossians 1:28; 1 Corinthians 5:1-2, 11-13), and as a result, the people do not put what has been taught into practice. (Ezekiel 33:31-32)

True to God’s will, Moses calls for discipline for those who have committed such grave sin.   As the whole house of Israel is weeping about their sin before God, an Israelite family leader has the audacity to walk right in front of everyone with a foreign woman to be his concubine!  Phinehas, seeing this, decides to take decisive action and executes God’s judgment upon the man and the woman by driving a spear through both of them, thus ending a plague that had begun by God because of Israel’s sin! (Numbers 25:6-9)

What does the Lord have to say about Phinehas’ actions?  In Numbers 25:11, the Lord states to Moses, “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites; for he was as zealous as I am for my honor among them, so that in my zeal I did not put an end to them.” Why is it that no one else stood up to deal with this issue?  What was Moses doing as this was happening before his eyes?  These are some of the questions I thought of as I read this text.  Phinehas was honored with covenant of peace and a lasting priesthood before God because he was as zealous as God is for His honor (Numbers 25:12-13)!  If you are a leader in the church of God, are you zealous for God’s honor?   Does it fill you with righteous indignation when you see God’s standard in jeopardy?  Are you as zealous for God’s honor as God is?

As I remember our former but dearly loved fellowship of churches, I am appalled yet not surprised to see what has happened in some churches that claim to be united with the International Churches of Christ, especially when there is no accountability amongst the leadership to deal with the sin in their churches – leadership or otherwise – in favor of autonomy.  Instead of having a central leadership (Acts 15) that enforces the same standard of life and doctrine amongst all the churches (1 Corinthians 4:17, 1 Timothy 4:16), autonomy promotes an independence that causes people and their leaders to drift from the standards of total commitment, marrying & dating only true disciples, and deep discipling relationships that teach and admonish us for the name of Jesus (Colossians 3:16).  The fact that there are some churches that claim to be united with the ICOC – and are on ICOC list of churches on Disciples Today – that allow blatant sin to be tolerated and the life and doctrine of discipleship to be adulterated!  This shows me that autonomous leadership will never effectively deal with sin.   Only with a centralized leadership can a movement of churches be held to the standard of Jesus.

All the tribes of Israel – similar to a movement of churches – were involved when disciplinary action was needed in Old Testament as a way to protect their purity before God.   The tribes acted as one.   In Joshua 22, we see Phinehas once again, but this time, being sent to deal with a situation that had occurred amongst the tribes.  Two tribes, the Reubenites and the Gadites, as well as the half-tribe of Manasseh were sent back across the Transjordan after fulfilling their role of protecting the other ten tribes as they found their places in land of Canaan.  The two and a half tribes set up an altar to remind those in the future of their relationship with the other 10 tribes, but the other 10 tribes were misinformed and sent a delegation and a army to either turn the two and a half tribes from their supposed act of rebellion against the Lord or destroy them!  The accusation was very grave – apostasy and rebellion – and would not be tolerated.  Who lead the leadership delegation to meet with the other two and a half tribes?   None other than a man known to defend the honor of God – Phinehas (Joshua 22:13-14).

This passage strikes me in many different ways.  First, it is clear how sensitive the Israelite tribes were to sin (Joshua 22:15-20, Ephesians 4:17-19).  The leadership met first in order to resolve the issues, and the crisis was abated (Joshua 22:30-34).   As I think about the history of the former Washington, DC International Church of Christ that no longer exists, I wonder if such an investigative and deliberative process to work out any misinformation and build unity had ever occurred.  Now that this former church has been split into at least four autonomous churches, I wonder why I constantly hear reports of people who are confused at the lack of discipleship that now exists in some of these churches.  As we came to plant the Washington, DC International Christian Church this summer, I met with an evangelist from the surrounding area who informed me that he was not in a position to exert authority over church affairs in regards to other evangelists in his fellowship.  This was surprising to me, because the need for overseeing evangelists to enforce the correct life and doctrine in churches is evident from 1 Corinthians 4:14-17.  The apostle Paul specifically sent Timothy (an evangelist) into the church in Corinth to remind them of the proper way of life in Christ Jesus, a standard which was taught by Paul to every other church in the first century!  One evangelist that he had met with in the DC area stated that he wanted to build a “community church,” and because college campuses were not part of his “community,” he would not focus on them.   As a disciple who was baptized in the campus ministry at Cornell University and served as a campus minister for years, I was appalled.   My question was, “Who is going to help him turn his church around?”  I received no response.

If you are in a church where the life of discipleship has gone awry, what are you to do?   Should we just let people lead others astray or do something about it?  In Deuteronomy 13:12-18, Moses gives us the answer.  If we hear it said in one of the towns (churches) that God has given us that wicked men have arisen to lead people astray by not holding on the truth, then we must do three things: “inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly” (Deuteronomy 13:14).  If it is shown to be true, then something so detestable should be considered a ruin.  Something new must come.   In a movement of churches with a central leadership, you wouldn’t have this problem.  The central leadership would have the leader who has gone astray replaced.   However in a fellowship of autonomous churches, there is no accountability in the top leadership, and members are kept in their guidance, slowly drifting away from the truth.

If you are in a hurting or lukewarm church, I must also ask you some questions: Are you discerning what is best for your spiritual health? (Philippians 1:9-11)  Are you working out your salvation with fear and trembling? (Philippians 2:12-13)  If you see the lack of obedience to God’s standard of discipleship, have you inquired about the truth?  Have you probed?   Have you investigated the situation thoroughly, or have you become satisfied in the comfort of lukewarmness?

I challenge you to look at the character of Phinehas.  In Psalm 106:28-31, the psalmist describes the actions of the Israelites in Numbers 25 and gives us a commendation of Phinehas’ character.  It states:

“They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods; they provoked the Lord to anger by their wicked deeds, and a plague broke out among them. But Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was checked. This was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.” Psalm 106:28-31

Phinehas stood up and intervened, and it was credited to him as righteousness before God for endless generations to come.  Our generation must take heed to Phinehas’ courage and zeal for God’s honor.  Satan has won a couple battles to damage our unity, but I believe that our best days are yet to come!  We must decide to stand up and take a good look at ourselves and the churches to which we give our loyalty.  We must intervene in dealing with sin and false standards of discipleship.   Our generation needs more Phinehases.  I pray that God will use you to defend His honor.

Andrew Smellie
Evangelist