The Cuckoo (PDF)

The Cuckoo
Just like the cuckoo laying its eggs in the
tepid warmth of an unguarded nest, so Satan
planted the seeds of a self-exalting religious
hierarchy among the growing apathy of the
early church. The passive laity gladly welcomed
this special ruling class who would fill up the
awkward silences in their assemblies.

T he
ChurCh haS gone CuCkoo,” a friend of mine said
recently. Probably a lot of Christians would agree with that
statement. Some Christians would mention famous preachers who have
turned out to be adulterers, like Jimmy Swaggart, or embezzlers like Jim
Bakker, or bamboozlers like countless others. Some would start talking
about the episcopalians who chose a homosexual as their bishop. But then
someone else would bring up recent surveys that showed 60% of Christians
approved of cohabitation, 40% had engaged in premarital sex, and 14%
had committed adultery. and then everybody would get very quiet, and the
question of why homosexuals aren’t expelled wouldn’t come up again.

OF COURSE, WHEN MY
FRIEND SAID the Church
had “gone cuckoo” he wasn’t talking
about the modern moral corruption
that saturates Christianity. He wasn’t
referring to the more than 37,000
denominations worldwide. He
wasn’t even thinking of the nineteen
centuries of doctrinal squabbles,
inquisitions, persecutions, crusades,
and religious wars, or even all
the national wars with Christians
fighting on both sides. He was
thinking about birds…

THE CUCKOO IS ONE OF THE
most detestable birds on earth.
Those who study nature know why. It
sneaks into the nest of a smaller bird, such
as a sparrow, when the mother is absent
and lays one of its own eggs among the
others. When the egg hatches, the young
cuckoo pushes all the other eggs out of the
nest, plus any chicks already hatched, and
starts gobbling up all the food brought by
its doting foster parents.
And what, you may ask, do these
horrible birds have to do with the Church?

IN THE BEGINNING, THE CHURCH WAS
a devoted band of disciples. They had left
everything to follow the Messiah, and He made
it quite clear that anyone who did not forsake all
(including house, brothers, sisters, mother, father,
wives, children, farms, and even his own life) could
not be His disciple. They were dedicated to His
commandments, especially the command that they
would love each other just as He had loved them. This
new commandment produced a visible expression
of love and unity which made it clear that they were
actually followers of the Son of God Himself. It even
persuaded the people of the world that God loved
them so much that He had sent His very own Son to
save them.

THE RESULT WAS A LIFE OF sharing in which there were no rich
or poor. They assembled frequently for teachings, ate all their meals
together, and turned their gatherings into vibrant celebrations. The apostle
Paul described a typical gathering this way: each member contributed a song,
a teaching, a revelation, etc., and everything was done with a view toward
building each other up.

NOT LONG AFTER THE APOSTLES
BEGAN spreading this new life of
the Spirit throughout the world, Satan himself
mounted an offensive against the Church. His
tactic was not the mere outward persecution
you’ve probably heard about — throwing the
Christians to the lions, and all that. Instead,
like the cuckoo bird, it was a plan of covert
infiltration. The New Testament contains many
references to this tactic: men who crept in
unnoticed, false brethren, even servants of
Satan disguised as servants of righteousness.

OUR MASTER WARNED ABOUT
THIS INFILTRATION. He said
that such men would claim to be under His
authority, agreeing that He is the Messiah,
looking for all the world like sheep, but
being in reality savage wolves. The apostle
Paul added that they would rise up, even
from among the elders of the Church.
Then in 2 Corinthians 11 Paul said they
had arrived, servants of Satan bringing a
different gospel, a different Jesus, and a
different spirit.

OH, RIGHT, WE KNOW ALL
ABOUT that,” someone
might say. “Those false apostles in
2 Corinthians were the Judaizers.
They tried to make the Gentiles
get circumcised and keep the law.”
But nothing in either letter to the
Corinthians warns against receiving
circumcision or being put under
the law. Instead, Paul simply speaks
of these men as “super-apostles,”
full of fleshly boasting and self-
exaltation while wearing a mask of
righteousness.

PAUL INSTANTLY RECOGNIZED THE
IMPOSTORS. WHY? Because they were
so far away from the servant leadership that our
Master established among his true apostles. They
were like the great men of the world, lording
it over those they ruled, and completely unlike
the carpenter from Nazareth who put a towel
around his waist and washed his disciples’ feet.
“Let him who is greatest among you become as
the youngest,” He had said, “and the leader as
the servant.” But instead of obeying the Master’s
command and walking like He walked, these men
eagerly received the glory of men. They even
urged it and insisted upon it.

THEY WERE A “NEW BREED” OF
leader “arising” from among
the true shepherds of the flock, and
drawing a following to themselves.
The warnings to the Churches in
the Book of Revelation called them
Nicolaitans, a term which literally
means “dominating the people (the
laity).” Satan’s servants put on a mask
of righteousness that was so good
that it even hid Satan’s sin of self-
exaltation. They prophesied falsely
and ruled on their own authority,
and the people loved it so. It wasn’t
long before these Nicolaitans were
doing all the hypocritical, self-exalting
things that Messiah had condemned
in the scribes and Pharisees: taking
elevated seats in the front of the
assembly, dressing in long robes, even
being called by special titles like
“Father” or “Doctor” (which means
Teacher).

THIS INFILTRATION WAS TAKING PLACE TOWARD
the end of the first century, at the very time the Holy
Spirit was warning the Churches that they had lost their first
love, had become lukewarm, and were going to be plunged into
darkness if they didn’t repent and do the deeds they had done
in the beginning. Just like the cuckoo laying its eggs in the tepid
warmth of an unguarded nest, so Satan planted the seeds of a
self-exalting religious hierarchy among the growing apathy of
the early church. The passive laity gladly welcomed this special
ruling class who would fill up the awkward silences in their
assemblies. A few alert disciples (those who had not stained the
garment of their conscience with indifference) tried to be loyal
to the apostolic brothers, but were quickly excommunicated, as
John wrote in his third epistle:
I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to
be first among them, does not accept what we say…. neither
does he himself receive the brethren, and he forbids those
who desire to do so, and puts them out of the church.

BY THE BEGINNING OF THE SECOND
century, the original servant leadership
of elders and overseers that Messiah established
had been replaced by the exalted offices of the
clergy. Ignatius of Antioch wrote several epistles
typical of the era, urging loyalty to this prestigious
ecclesiastical system:
Take care to do all things in harmony with
God, with the bishop presiding in the place
of God and with the presbyters in the
place of the council of the apostles…

THE REPLACEMENT HAD
BECOME COMPLETE.
THE Church had gone cuckoo.
What once had been the pure
dwelling place for the Spirit of love
and humility was on its way to
becoming instead a dwelling place
of demons, a prison for every foul
spirit, and a cage for every unclean
and hated bird.

WHAT BEGAN AS THE NICOLAITAN
UPRISING of the second century has
now become established Christian tradition
and practice. This cuckoo-bird system of clergy
and laity has adapted itself to every culture
and insinuated itself into every nation. Indeed,
it is one of the few things that every faction
of Christianity embraces. It is a testimony to
its power that none of the religious squabbles
and denominational splits of the last two
thousand years have resulted in a single church
that is free from the clergy-laity system.