20221114

The Move is dead (almost)

In my last post I pondered what makes a Christian church part of the true Church. And in a previous post I have referred to the Move with which our church has been loosely connected. There are a number of preachers who get invited to visit Move groups and one of these "travelling ministry" has recently spoken in our church here. Chatting with him, it appears that Move groups the world over are in a state of flux: that it is not just in our own group that foundations we thought had been laid good and solid are now being questioned and often torn down. And so I suppose that the end-time Move of God (to give it a fuller title) is near its end.

Am I bothered? In one sense no, and neither am I surprised, because the true Church is built on a better foundation. But I grieve for its effect on folk who have grown up under its teachings and have invested all their life, energies and funds in an edifice which is now crumbling. Personally, I do have unanswered questions but I have few regrets: I think the experience has left me stronger, wiser.

Here's one of the early Move songs. Ironically the founder of the movement was killed in a plane crash.

People of God, it is time to arise
And proclaim to creation we're not going to die.
Let it ring from the valleys and the mountains so high,
God's people proclaiming we're not going to die;
All heaven's rejoicing, now hear them all sing,
Grave, where's thy victory? O death, where's thy sting?

The saints down the centuries have all come to pass,
Each one fulfilling his God-given task;
To His sons God has spoken, and witness His cry,
And proclaim to creation we're not going to die.

The prophets of the Lord had a line that they laid,
Though they were steadfast they all died in faith,
But they spoke of a people that would one day arise,
And proclaim to creation we're not going to die.

So take courage now, brethren, and close in your ranks,
Stand on the promises, giving God thanks;
For Satan will fight us, or surely he'll try,
But he can't beat a people that aren't going to die.


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1 comment:

  1. J. H. Austin14 November 2022 at 18:25

    "And so I suppose that the end-time Move of God (to give it a fuller title) is near its end."

    When we are conceived,
    we appear in our mother's womb
    like a little, tiny light,
    suspended in immense space.
    And there's no sound,
    it's completely dark,
    and time doesn't seem to exist.
    It's like an ocean of darkness.
    And then we're growing
    and we keep growing and growing
    and as we grow, slowly we begin
    to feel things, touch things
    and touch the walls
    of our world that we're in.
    And then we begin to hear sounds
    and feel shocks that come to us
    from the outside
    And as we get bigger and bigger,
    the distance between ourselves
    and that other outside world
    becomes smaller and smaller.
    And this world
    that we are inside,
    which seemed so huge
    in the beginning
    and so infinitely welcoming,
    has become very uncomfortable.

    And we are obliged to be born.

    And my father says that birth
    is so chaotic and violent
    that he's sure
    that at the moment of birth,
    we're all thinking:
    "This is it. This is death.
    This is the end of my life."
    And then we're born
    and it's such a surprise
    'cause it's just the beginning.
    -- When We Are Born/Olafur Arnold's (narration)

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