STRANGE FIRE by Nathan Bailey
T here is strange , fire on God’s altars these days. Aaron the high priest had faithfully performed his duties before the Lord for many years. In true Levitical fashion his sons grew up to follow their father in the priesthood. But Aaron made one mistake: he neglected one of the most important functions of both a priest and a father in failing to instill in his sons the ability to discern between the genuine and the spurious, between the supernatural and the natural. To them fire was fire, regardless of its source. But God’s altar demanded God’s fire, and when they offered strange fire the fire of God came out and struck them down. While God’s judgment may not be as dramatic today as it was for Nadab and Abihu, it is nevertheless just as sure. These young priests had all the outward signs of the genuine priesthood. They had been ceremonially cleansed and clothed with priestly garments. They had had the blood applied and had been anointed and sancti fied for the work of the priesthood. The faithful had accepted them as true priests, for had they not been “ ordained” ? One of thé tragedies of the church today is that so many pulpits are occupied by such false priests. They go about their business with confident self-assurance, totally unaware that they are carrying strange fire to God’s altar. Their chief concern seems to be with the form of godliness with no thought of its true power. It has always been a temptation to try to duplicate spiritual or supernatural effects with carnal and natural means. Spurious fire takes many forms. One of these is in- tellectualism. Men have not yet learned that the world by wisdom knows not God, and where there is no revela tion the people perish. Men still become vain in their imaginations, and professing themselves to be wise they become fools. Modem evangelicalism is so enamored by the desire to be respectable, to attain intellectual status, that there is a danger of pursuing the very course which early in this century led to liberalism and destroyed the faith of multitudes. One mark of present-day intellectual sophisticates is a predilection to doubt. Like the Athenians, men spend their time in telling or hearing some new thing. This is not to cast aspersions on true scholarship (which is
always humble) nor to discount the blessing that knowl edge and training applied to spiritual truth bring to the church. But some things cannot be known apart from the revelation of the Holy Spirit. God is His own interpreter and He has kept some things from the wise and prudent. The humblest believer on his knees before an open Bible can enter into spiritual truths and mys teries that even the angels have desired to look into but have not comprehended. One day all the wisdom of men will be exposed in its empty foolishness before God. Modem psychology has made us acutely aware of another form of strange fire. Simon the sorcerer “ be witched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: to whom they all gave heed, . . . saying, This man is the great power of God” (Acts 8:9, 10). He himself knew his lack, but lest others discover it he was willing to pay almost any price (but the right one) to have the power of God. Not many today would be so crass as to try to purchase spiritual power, but there are those nevertheless who try to duplicate it, and many are being bewitched. Our present-day sorcerers use the laws governing human behavior! Madison Avenue techniques and hidden persuaders are employed in the church. Syncopated rhythm is used tp bring about congregational participa tion in singing. Dimmed and colored lights set the mood. “Music to pray by” becomes a cushion upon which the Almighty God is approached with a cuddly sense of familiarity. Human emotions are played upon as one plays upon the strings of a harp. Any device that produces the effect is considered legitimate, and when the house lights come up at the close of the service the saints move out of church as emotionally spent as if they had attended a theater — and they are not any more edified. This spurious fire entertains but it does not convict! The sorcerers perform before us unhindered and un rebuked. Too much of what takes place in churches can be explained, and because men can explain us they for get us. Men do not wonder at us as they wonder at the ministry of the apostolic church. Where is the ruler (or prime minister or president) who fears the prayers of one of God’s servants more than an army? Where is the awesome sense of God’s presence that causes men to cry “What must we do?” The church is desperately in need of fire from heaven. We need to know the kind of preaching that is not with the enticing words of man’s wisdom but in demonstra tion of the Spirit and of power. The secret of spiritual power was revealed to Isaiah: “ Thou meetest . . . those that remember thee in thy ways.” •Moses and Paul also had to learn this secret. A man must become nothing before he can become something with God. The strange fire must be extinguished that God’s fire may be kindled. God will entrust His fire only to the man who insists that the excellency of the power be of God and not of himself.
Dr. Bailey is President o f Christian and M issionary A lliance, and Editor o f “ The
A llian ce W itn ess” with whose perm ission this article is used.
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