No doubt it would be hard to convince today’s church goers that what they are attending and what has been in place for some 1800 years is not what was intended. After all you cannot deny the presence of God in it. And it has spanned the centuries through various hardships, continual splinterings, and many other metamorphic alterations since the days when Constantine made it official. Church buildings now run the gamut from the looming, medieval, monolithic structures of Europe to the small store-front gatherings that occupy a deserted space where some now-defunct retail business used to sell its wares.

Over the centuries, for what ever the reason, many anointed men and women have devoted their entire lives to these churches or some form of church organization. In almost every town you might see dedicated young men walking the neighborhoods or men and women standing on street corners attempting to sell what they have been led to believe are the true principles of what God intended.

Many church-going individuals have experienced the glory of the Lord in the services that transpire in many of these places of meeting. They have seen what they believe to be the hand of God in the life of the church they attend.. How could one say that this was not what God intended? Every member of any church would make very heartfelt rebuttals to even the hint that what they are experiencing is not of God, and rightfully so, because what they are experiencing is of God. However, as in the time of Abraham, the womb of man and the womb of the Spirit.

Abramic Promises

In the days of Abram (later to be called Abraham), God came to him with the message that (Genesis 12:1-9) he should leave his country, his people, and his father’s household and go to a land that He would show him. In addition, God made this promise to Abram: 2)“I will make you a great nation and will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3) I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”(NIV) And so Abram took his wife Sarai (later to be called Sarah) and his possessions and proceeded to a land called Canaan. It was at this time that God made another promise to Abram: 7)…“To your offspring I will give this land”.

Abram, by way of Egypt and a division of land with his nephew Lot, would return to Canaan at which time God would again make a promise to him: “Life up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go walk through the length and breath of the land, for I a giving it to you”. (Genesis 13:14-17, NIV)

In chapter 15 of Genesis we find a conversation between God and Abram. It appears that God again came to Abram in thee form of a vision stating “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward”. However, Abram, not necessarily in unbelief but perhaps a little confused by the promises regarding his seed, makes this statement: “O sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus”. “You have given me no children…” Then the Lord assures Abram that Eliezer will not be his heir “but a son coming from your own body will be your heir” and again restates His promises to Abram concerning his descendents. The Lord also restates His promise to Abram regarding the land.

In subsequent verses the exchange continues with the Lord and Abram culminating in a covenant between God and Abram. The promises now were established in a binding contract sealed by the blood of sacrifice. In this case it was the blood of “a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon”. A future a covenant would be sealed with the blood of a lamb.

The Surrogate

You might ask at this time what has all this to do with the church. It is this. As you read on in Genesis you will find where Sarai (the mother of the promise) grew distraught over her inability to provide a fertile womb by which Abram could manifest the promises of God. In her distress concerning the situation, Sarai convinced Abram that he should have this offspring of promise by a surrogate mother; Sarai’s maid servant Hagar. Perhaps this plan would, in Sarai’s mind, relieve the guilt for being baron and not being able to give her husband the child of God’s promises. Keep in mind, at this time neither she nor Abram had been told by the Lord that she would be the one to bare the son of promise. All they knew was that Abram was carrying the seed of God’s promises with no fertile ground in which to plant them.

Also keep in mind that what appears to be the noble intent of Sarai to expedite the promises of God was now going to place this seed of covenant in the wrong womb… a womb of a man-contrived relationship. All the promises made to Abram are in his seed. Thus all the promises of God to Abram will be passed to a surrogate child… not the child of promise that was destined to be of Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 17:16 & 18:10).

It is important that one understands that virtually the same conception may have occurred (again with good intention) when man took the church and made it his. The promises of God would be in the seed of the church and would manifest through that conception but like Ishmael it was a surrogate. The mother of that child was man.

The Angel and Hagar

In chapter 16 verse 10 an angel even reaffirms the Abramic promises to Hagar concerning the child she carried. However in verse 12 the angel makes an interesting statement about Ishmael: “… his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all brothers” (NIV).

I received an email some time back in which the writer was commenting on all the so-called spiritual phenomena occurring in various religious communities (e.g., bleeding statues, idols crying, strange impressions on walls, etc.). However it was a portion of that article that caught my attention. He made reference to a sequence of events that occurred during one of these famed phenomena at a church in Canada. He writes; “Our former pastor decided many of us were conspiring against him and asked many to leave. Our associate pastor was fired publicly. A spiritual insanity was released that continues to cause damage to this very day”. Could this resemble the angel’s message to Hagar?

This writer makes another interesting statement later on in his narrative: “The same idolatry and hucksterism that has plagued the Roman church is now running rampant in the Protestant church. Why? Babylon is as Babylon does... Just because something is spiritual looking does not make it a God thing”.

Nevertheless, the Ishmael church, like the promises made regarding the seed of Abram, has prospered greatly; members number as the sands of the sea; many great men and women have been born of this church; and even nations were birthed as a result of this surrogate conception. Great and mighty deeds have been performed and many miraculous signs and wonders have been made manifest through this child. After all this church carries the seed of its father, God, as Ishmael carried the seed of Abram. But like Ishmael it is a surrogate child… born out of wedlock. Not because of the father, but because of the mother.