Dualism has its roots in the philosophy of the Greek philosopher Plato who split reality into two realms, the eternal spiritual realm and the physical realm. Plato believed that the eternal spiritual realm is superior to the lowly physical realm, so all physical matter including the human body is inferior.

So we have to escape the physical body because the soul is superior in the spiritual realm. This is a very basic description of Plato's dualism. This Greek Platonic Dualism is also known with Traditional Institutional Church as the 'Sacred-Secular' divide. This means that everything INSIDE the church is considered to be sacred and everything OUTSIDE church is secular.

This is based a false Platonic assumption that therefore God is not interested in the physical world or our life in the world at all, He is only interested in what happens inside the four walls of the church, like preaching, singing, evangelism, praying, intercession, having devotions, missionary work, full time ministry etc.

The Biblical Worldview dominated Western culture up until a period called 'The Enlightenment' or the 'Age of Reason', in the 17th and 18th centuries. During this period the Revelation of God in creation, Scripture and Christ was replaced by human Reason.

Deism still believed in 'God' but He became the 'Great Clockmaker' who created the universe and left it to run on its own natural laws. It resulted in a deeply mechanistic view of the world and of life.

Imagine a diagonal line from top to bottom. At the top you have the Bibilcal worldview, next in the 17th-18th century you have Deism which meant that God is not involved at all the physical world. Finally it results in Secularism which does away with any need for God at all.

God is both Transcendent and Immanent which means nearness and means that God is involved directly in the physical world. He is Immanent in sustaining the laws of nature, in history, in His Incarnation, and in the Body of Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The physical world is not inferior at all, especially because of the Incarnation.

The traditional institutional church with its Platonic Sacred-Secular divide means that it does not have a truly Biblical Worldview of Creation, Fall, Redemption and Restoration. It only tells HALF the Story of Fall and Redemption.

This means tragically that the Traditional Institutional Church, which is top down, hierarchal, where 'ministry' is done by the few 'professionals' up front like the worship team and the pastor, that the people are not properly equipped at all to engage their community and the 'Church' is relegated to a marginalised position in a secular culture that does not allow 'faith' to impact the public arena. The Gospel is effectively kept within the four walls of church and has such minimal impact that it is seen as irrelevant by the culture.

It results in Christians living in Compartmentalised lives with split personalities. For example, this is my church life, this is my home life, my work life, my social life etc. The Sacred-Secular divide means there is not only no Biblical Worldview, but there is no true equipping of people do the 'works of ministry' in all creation.

Has the last 2 years since March 2020 forced the issue that the Traditional Institutional Church that was only too pleased to close its doors and yield to State tyranny shown that this man made system with roots in Constantine is woefully inadequate to truly be salt and light and spread the leaven of the Gospel in all of life. This is why I have done this short series on 'Looking Back To Move Forward The Call of the Ekklesia'.