Yakov Krotov
Jim Montgomery. DAWN.
Several Christians from USA said to me that Montgomery's book is "primitive".
But I had a feeling that they have neither wish nor possibility to critisize the
basic principles of DAWN. The most triste feature of the book is that the author
hasn't the slightest idea about the dubiosity of his fundamentals. His blindness
can be compared only with his self-confidence and energy. Self-confidence of such
size can't be the product of a personal pride. It must be the result of his belonging
to some huge confessional tradition. Montgomery himself mentions some of his predecessors
and indicates his denomination as Conservative Baptists. In USA this tradition
seems to be a sacred cow. But today the DAWN-mentality came to Russia. Here it
is opposed to the Russian Orthodox mentality of which I am one of the bearers.
Moreover, in this very case Russian Orthodox tradition is a part of a broader
Western European mentality.
One of the best stories of Artur Clarce (Nine Billions Names of God) is about
buddhist monks from Tibet. They are persuaded that the End of the World will come
after all presupposed 9 bln. names of God are written. So they use some computer
to turn over all possible combinations of letters among which all these names
also are present. In three months the world is finished and the stars begin to
disappear. This is the end of the story of the World.
The fundamental presuppositions of the project DAWN resemble this fantastic
eschatology.Its main principle is that in Christianity there is some condition
which must be fulfilled by Christians and only after this Christ will come - but
after the fulfillment of this condition He will come at once. This is the idea
of a Clear Aim which give you a strength (P.137). This is the meaning of a slogan:
let us organize new churches in order to draw nearer the meeting with God of all
people (P.93). This is the hope of the author formulated on the last pages:
"The powerful flowering of God's Church will lead to the triumphal enty of God"
(P.195).
Both Clarce's Tibetian monks and Montgomery are thinking about God mechanically:
throw a coin in an automat - the result will be at hand. Collect nine billions
of God's name or 4 billions of people - and the Second Coming will begin.
Such position is based on the mechanical understanding of Revelation as a kind
of instruction: How to Use God. We are supposed to have in Gospel enough to predict
Christ's movements and even to rule them by our activity.
This conception is not totally alien to Western Mentality. Quite a lot of theologians
and mistics thought the same both in Western and Eastern Christianity from the
first centuries through Middle Ages and to our times. Even now it is not very
hard to find Russian Orthodox who thinks he knows the conditions of the Second
Coming and even the precise date of it. But this position in ancient times often
was condemned to be heretical and now it is very marginal.
Usually the desire "to know about dates or times" (Acts 1.7) is counterbalanced
by the strict negation of Christ, by the inner ambiguity of the eschatological
places of Gospel and - last not least - by the alive religious experience telling
us that God And His Beloved Son are not completely opened to us in Revelation.
Christ came as a Servant but that doesn't mean that we can rule Him in this or
that way. Even His own words and promises are not a passwords according to which
He is obliged to do something. Christ's commandments are His prayer to us according
to which we are obliged to act without any concrete obligations of Christ himself.
So the concrete dates of Second Coming, the number of square miles in Heaven Jerusalem,
the font of Alpha and Omega are closed to beleivers - for us to keep Faith not
Knoledge.
To see a broad programme as DAWN based on the marginal to Russian Orthodoxy
spirit of mechanical understanding of Gospel is not very pleasant. But most Russian
people wan't mind about the fundamental principles. They will be shocked by the
concrete details. For example, there is a lot of figures in the book. Author is
in a great joy to see difference in 0.7% in the growths of amount of beleivers
in several years. He is proud to see in Philippines 8454 beleivers in 1981 amd
compares this with 1252 in 1974 (P.150). But he mentiones also that there are
34 millions in this country. Doesn't he see the gap? He is sure that the growth
can't be limited and that the percent of growth is the main thing? But he himself
mentions that he began in the group with such a speed of growth that - be the
speed stable - all the population of the world should go nowadays in the church
of this group. So he knows that there is some barrier, that the growths is not
infinitely exponential. But he says nothing about this. His aim is clear but wrongly
put - but his methods don't fit even this badly choosed aim. The best which can
be said about him is that he is not very clever. The worse - that he collects
money knowing that those who give (and himself) will be on the Heaven by the date
of report.
***
The mechanical view on God is combined with the mechanical view on Man. DAWN
ideology (and not only DAWN's) is confident that "everybody can do free and conscious
choice for or against Christ" (P.13). To the Rusian Orthodox (and Catholic) ear
it sounds a little bit Pelagian. Certainly during Baptism we are asked whether
we want to be Christians. But yet God-Man relations are more alive than Answer-Question.
God is not an inerviewer nor man is not a simple answering machine. Our will is
not prior to God's grace - and God's grace is not prior to our will. Moreover,
I am very sceptical of a possibility for a man to make "free and conscious choice".
We are too sinful and even at our best moments we can say to Christ "yes" only
with the help of His Spirit. So the religious choice resembles most of all the
"choice" of a bride - the clue word is Love, not Will, and the First Glance is
thrown simultaniously. So all efforts aimed to proclaim the Gospel to man's free
will are always limited by definition. Man's substanse is more like a cocktail
where will is something like a piece of ice: pretty important but not essential.
The proclaiming of Gospel to mainkind is not like a cheking of tuns: which is
emty, which is not. Beat and listen to the sound. Say: "Jesus is God" and listen...
No, Salvation is more alive, contradictorial and complicated process - corresponding
to a man himself.
***
Mechanical wirld-view is not limited to God and Man. It means a peculiar understanding
of the Church. Montgomery states that "DAWN" is not just evangelizing but creating
a world-wide church arrangment" (P.89). That's correct: he is thinking of DAWN
groupes as only true churches. To him Guatemala or Filipppines are a pagan countries.
Catholic Church is not a Church at all and his statistics don't count Catholic
communities. Russian Orthodox Church, I guess, is in the same position? Russia
to him is tabula rasa with several baptist letters. Such position is possible
only because to him Church is a combination of clearly determined features, dogmas,
rites - like a car is a combination of several deatils. So if there is no conception
or Revival in Russian Ortodox Church - it is not a Church at all, like a car without
engine is not a car at all. That is why DAWN is very agressive and intolerable
to other Christian monination. Agression begins from the unwillingness to see
you. DAWN doesn't want to see Catholic or Russian Orthodox Christians as co-workers
in Christ.
In every Christian confession (Russian Orthodox and Catholic included) there
are people with the same feelings. To them all who don't posses several features
are not Christians. Such position is usually called sectant although it isn't
always combined with dogmatic or organisational deviations from orthodoxy. But
Orthodoxy begins where people have the feeling of the Church inner nature and
only after that feeling goes the seeing of the Church outer features. Certainly
inner nature of the Church can't be formulated by words with the same clarity
as visible signs. But nature is stable - signs are changing. We beleive in Church
as in other invisible things.
***
I know Russian Orthodox Christians with the same mechanical world-view as Montgomery's.
Logically (and practically) such human type is a bad missionary. It can only attract
the same type - to himself. But a good missionary attracts different types of
man - to God. Certainly every man has his limits - but DAWN is putting one and
the same limits on different people. With the help of our prayer and lent God
will manage to help Baptism overcome DAWN's primitiveness and meet the true light
of invisible Christ Kingdom's day.
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