Last week, I discussed Israel and whether it should be considered permanent or temporary in light of the new covenant that came with Jesus’ death and resurrection. I want to take another look at the concept of things being permanent or temporary in the Christian faith.

      All false doctrine is rooted in taking things in Scripture that were only meant to be temporary and making them permanent, or taking things that are meant to be permanent and making them temporary. So, it is vital that we learn the difference, or we will find ourselves focusing on the wrong things.

       One example of this is when the people of Israel began worshiping something they shouldn’t. When Hezekiah was bringing reform to Israel, 2 Kings 18:4 says he “broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it.” Several hundred years before Hezekiah, God had told Moses to make a bronze serpent in response to unique situation. People were being bitten by "fiery serpents," and God made it so they could look at the statue and be healed (see Numbers 21:4-9).

       God had used the bronze serpent in a specific time as a vessel for His miraculous healing. However, that which was only meant to be a temporary solution for a temporary problem became a permanent object of worship. So, Hezekiah destroyed it, because it was detracting from the worship of the one true God of Israel.

      There was no reason to think that the children of Israel should have kept giving offerings to the bronze serpent. In fact, Jesus mentioned it when He discussed how He came to be the permanent solution for us. He said in John 3:14, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” Just as anyone bitten by a serpent could look to that bronze serpent for healing, we can look to Jesus and what He did at Calvary.

      Another example of the temporary is Mary, the mother of Jesus. She was blessed and highly favored among women, but she was never meant to be the permanent focus of our faith. God temporarily used her to birth something great into the world, but it is false religion to make Mary out to be on the same level as God. We should remember and honor her, but the Bible does not teach us we should pray to her.        

      Another temporary situation had to do with the first century church. Acts 2:44-45 says, “Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.” Some people use this verse to try to prove that the Bible supports communism or socialism. The reality is the church was under severe persecution. They couldn't obtain employment and were banned from the synagogue and the marketplace. So, they had to put their resources together so they didn't starve. It was a temporary solution for a temporary problem.

      The Bible is full of temporary and permanent principles. We cannot automatically look at a message or a person God worked through in a particular generation or movement and think we need to keep doing things the same way forever. A lot of false doctrines, cults, and bizarre belief systems have come out of following someone whom God once used greatly. The problem came when others started to believe that person was equal to God. We can sometimes learn from the people and movements God used to do great things in previous generations, but when what God used becomes the object of worship, it's time for a reformation.

      There are a lot of old belief systems, ideologies, and religious constraints that we put on God because we have been taught about temporary, cultural things as if they were permanent. A practice might have been a temporary solution for a specific era but not meant to be a permanent part of doctrine or worship.                      

      I believe that in this hour God is purging the church of tradition and religion that He never sanctioned to be permanent. We want to honor those whom God has used before. We want to honor those whom God has greatly used to heal the sick, to prophesy, and to change the world. We want to honor those movements, but we don't want to get stuck worshiping an old thing.                               

      Good things and good people can become idols. Our praise, worship, and adoration are to be directed to the Lord alone and in any true reformation that takes part in the hearts of men and women in each generation. It will require us to eliminate all things that distract us from putting God as the object of our full affection and adoration. Nothing else, regardless of its amazing history, is worthy of our adoration.

      The only solution for mankind's problems is to preach Christ and Him crucified. If we lift up Jesus and His finished work at the cross, it will draw more and more people to Him. The problem is we oftentimes get stuck on how things used to be done. God is saying He wants us to break the bronze serpent, because what He’s doing today is not going to be like what He did before.

      You're in a Hezekiah generation; you're not in a Moses generation. So, let's not make something of the past an object of worship. Let us let God free our minds of the limitations of how things should be done. Regardless of which times we are living in, if we put our faith in Christ Jesus and what He did at Calvary, we can be healed and delivered and saved.