That's not to say they are written well. I'm not sure if they are, but I am sure the message of The Cogs of the Kingdom is a message for today. The whole idea starts with the idea of Jesus being the chief 'Cog' in God's Kingdom. Ideally when He moves, so do the other cogs of the Kingdom. We see this through the Old and New Testaments, characters made to be dependant of the Lord and so to outwork His will and purpose on Earth. The basic formula is to do what He says to do and nothing / no-one else.
It all sounds pretty simple and ideal. But we have a problem. Soon after the Apostles died, the believers began defining things differently. It meant that the chief cog would move but it no longer moved the little cogs. What had happened? By changing the way believers met and assigning leaders over other believers, the cogs became connected to the leader cog. When the lead cog moved, they moved. The chief cog was no longer making the cogs move. As time passed more and more people just accepted the leader cog practices. Gradually a time came when Jesus was no longer in charge of the church.
As we saw through church history, this led to the body of believers becoming a political and economic entity that marched across nations. Power, money and the suppression of the people gave us 1000 years of Dark Ages where the religious leaders lived like rock stars. While this occurred, some opted out of the system that moves with the leading cog and got back to moving with the chief cog again. They were summarily butchered.
In the 16th Century a few believers recognised the problems with the leader cog. They had people detach from the leader cog and directed them to rally around those who didn't move when the leader cog moved. Instead of leading the cogs to the Chief cog, they created millions of leader cogs, all wanting to get other cogs to move when they move. This is Protestantism. They didn't change they way they led or the way they met. The myth that you can only access the chief cog through the leader cog still remained. Some detached from the leader cogs to pursue the chief cog. They were also killed.
What my books are about is asking why all these leader cogs, knowing full well that there is a chief cog, still want to have other cogs move then they move. I start in 'Taken for a Bride' by demonstrating the Biblical characters as cogs. Then in book 2, 'The Shape of Kings to Come' I ask why, even in Paul's writings, do we find Men trying to take the lead over Christ. Thirdly, in 'How to die... and live to tell the tale' I highlight some things in our lives that we need to render up to the Lord to be more dead and thus to be predisposed to move when He moves.
Throughout the Cogs of the Kingdom the case for returning to the way the Apostles did church is stated. The way to meet isn't important to many believers yet Jesus commanded a way to meet together so that the likelihood of becoming detached from the chief cog is reduced. Those who lead in this way are facilitating other believers to move when the chief cog moves, not when the leader cog moves.
Let's all be sure we are moving when the chief cog moves and not in a system where leader cogs are making the whole machine just repeat the mistakes of history and watch believers go round and round in circles merely doing what Man does. The time has come to think clearly about this and hopefully my books will underline the issues and have believers reassess the cogs of the Kingdom.
You can become a 'Cog-native' - acquiring the relevant understanding for our times.
Gary Ward
It all sounds pretty simple and ideal. But we have a problem. Soon after the Apostles died, the believers began defining things differently. It meant that the chief cog would move but it no longer moved the little cogs. What had happened? By changing the way believers met and assigning leaders over other believers, the cogs became connected to the leader cog. When the lead cog moved, they moved. The chief cog was no longer making the cogs move. As time passed more and more people just accepted the leader cog practices. Gradually a time came when Jesus was no longer in charge of the church.
As we saw through church history, this led to the body of believers becoming a political and economic entity that marched across nations. Power, money and the suppression of the people gave us 1000 years of Dark Ages where the religious leaders lived like rock stars. While this occurred, some opted out of the system that moves with the leading cog and got back to moving with the chief cog again. They were summarily butchered.
In the 16th Century a few believers recognised the problems with the leader cog. They had people detach from the leader cog and directed them to rally around those who didn't move when the leader cog moved. Instead of leading the cogs to the Chief cog, they created millions of leader cogs, all wanting to get other cogs to move when they move. This is Protestantism. They didn't change they way they led or the way they met. The myth that you can only access the chief cog through the leader cog still remained. Some detached from the leader cogs to pursue the chief cog. They were also killed.
What my books are about is asking why all these leader cogs, knowing full well that there is a chief cog, still want to have other cogs move then they move. I start in 'Taken for a Bride' by demonstrating the Biblical characters as cogs. Then in book 2, 'The Shape of Kings to Come' I ask why, even in Paul's writings, do we find Men trying to take the lead over Christ. Thirdly, in 'How to die... and live to tell the tale' I highlight some things in our lives that we need to render up to the Lord to be more dead and thus to be predisposed to move when He moves.
Throughout the Cogs of the Kingdom the case for returning to the way the Apostles did church is stated. The way to meet isn't important to many believers yet Jesus commanded a way to meet together so that the likelihood of becoming detached from the chief cog is reduced. Those who lead in this way are facilitating other believers to move when the chief cog moves, not when the leader cog moves.
Let's all be sure we are moving when the chief cog moves and not in a system where leader cogs are making the whole machine just repeat the mistakes of history and watch believers go round and round in circles merely doing what Man does. The time has come to think clearly about this and hopefully my books will underline the issues and have believers reassess the cogs of the Kingdom.
You can become a 'Cog-native' - acquiring the relevant understanding for our times.
Gary Ward
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