While we counsel people who have deconstructed or are on the verge of deconstructing, many are lamenting the exposure of sin by prominent leaders and ministries. Exposure is an affront to the honor culture in which so many Christians have been discipled. Honor is not a bad thing. It is rooted in Paul’s approach to the Great Commission in 1 Corinthians 9:22. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Unfortunately, honor is frequently perverted into a cover-up culture where narcissistic self-proclaimed leaders, teachers, and prophets misappropriate Psalm 105:15.
I think we need to frame any discussion regarding the ongoing exposure in the context of scripture, especially Matthew 7:13-14 lest our own biases and sentiments take us off course.
Leaders must abide by 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and be above reproach.
Above reproach is – Anepílēptos
• inculpable:–blameless, unrebukeable. not apprehended, that cannot be laid hold of • that cannot be reprehended, not open to censure, irreproachable.
-Strongs Concordance-
This includes, that “he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.”
James 3:1 tells us that teachers will be judged more strictly.
Conversely, 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 and 1 Timothy 5:20-22 are the opposing guardrails. Test everything. Persistently bad leaders are to be rebuked in the presence of all so others may fear.
The Mathew 18:6 millstone should not be dismissed.
We should keep 1 Peter 4:17 in mind when we consider leaders and ministries that are being exposed as exposure is an aspect of God’s judgment. Judgement should not be confused with mere wrath. God’s judgments are intended to be redemptive. See Jeremiah 29:1-11
The problem as I see it is that these exposed leaders have no fear of God. Not one that I have heard mentions that they have sinned against God. Rather they are concerned with their “movements”.
Ministry has become a contemporary golden calf especially within Charismatic streams.
Too often the victims of these men and their movements are swept under the proverbial rug seemingly as acceptable losses because “God moved.” They minimize, generalize, rationalize, and justify, the actions of those they cover, gaslighting followers who naively and exclusively cling to Philippians 4:8 apart from the rest of scripture.
If we listened to the victims we would note the recurring motif of Mathew 23:13. We don’t because too many have mistaken dopamine for the manifest presence of God. Confronting sin in pursuit of holiness disrupts dopamine like Narcan blocks an opiate. Thousands of young people have deconstructed and now reject the gospel entirely because these leaders ignored Galatians 1:8-9.
That said,
“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
God is preparing His Bride. He is burning off the dross. Gold itself does not burn. Like any good goldsmith, God is with us while we are in the fire. He will know the impurities are gone when He sees his own reflection. At that point He will have a bride without spot or wrinkle. Ephesians 5:25-27.
Now is the time more than ever to search the scriptures to see if what we hear and believe is truth or just someone’s elbow. Acts 17:11
The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman, and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand. “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.
Ezekiel 33:1-9
We just finished Acts 10 in our Bible study where God flips Peter’s paradigm upside down again. I say again because Peter thought he knew what Jesus meant when He told the disciples to buy a sword in Luke 22:36-38 only to be rebuked for using it in Luke 22:50-51.
“No more of this!” And he touched his ear and healed him.
Luke 22:51
“No more of this!” was a mark in time. It was the official enactment of the Sermon on the Mount. No longer would God’s ambassadors conquer territory by the sword.
Acts 10 begins with Peter having gone to stay in the home of Simon the Tanner. Tanners were ceremonially unclean. Hence, Peter was in violation of Jewish law by having contact with him let alone sleeping in his house.
Next, God speaks through Cornelius, a believer in God but not a disciple yet, or a Jew. This is followed by Peter’s vision and God’s command to “Kill and eat” non-kosher food. This was another mark in time and formal enactment of Jesus’s words in Mathew 15.
“…it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”
Mathew 15:11
Realize it or not, Jesus repeatedly brings us back to the original problem, namely the “knowledge of good and evil” from Genesis 3. Most people limit their understanding to the act of disobedience when Adam and Eve ate the fruit. The greater depth of their sin was that man became a god unto himself.
Paul quoted Isaiah that “no one is righteous“. Our very best, most altruistic ideas and judgments are like filthy rags. Isaiah 64 and Romans 3. Jesus flipped this paradigm when He only said and did what he heard and saw His Father do. John 5:19-20. Jesus was God incarnate on earth and yet even He did not lean on His own understanding…Proverbs 3:5-8.
I believe another mark in time is upon us.
A family member of mine has deconstructed from Christianity mainly due to spiritual abuse and extreme hypocrisy that all too often characterizes the contemporary Laodicean body of Christ. His worldview has since swung hard left. I have traditionally been just right of the middle. We often message back and forth on TikTok.
I mention this because my TikTok algorithm has changed. Instead of my being exclusively fed right-leaning content, I have been seeing almost exactly fifty percent right and fifty percent left-leaning media. In nature, there are compelling moral arguments on both sides for almost every socioeconomic or political issue. After all, we all want better, more affordable food, healthcare, and energy. No one I know wants to drink contaminated water or breathe polluted air.
One thing I have observed is that if you are on the right, you undoubtedly see the very worst representations of the left. We’ve all seen Black Block Antifa types throwing bricks through windows, starting fires, and attacking reporters. When questioned they have nothing but explicatives to share. Meanwhile, those on the left see overt white supremacists, e.g., Patriot Front members, Nick Fuentes, and KKK nut jobs. The right hears about Tim Walz drinking horse semen and partnering with Somali “Learing” Centers to rob the American taxpayers. The left hears that Donald Trump is a misogynistic Nazi pedophile and friend of Jeffrey Epstein. One thing is certain. Some, all, or none of this could be true. At the end of the day, none of us knows anything beyond what we are told by the media. Video footage might be AI. Still, we apply the logical fallacy known as “Appeal to Authority” and form a conclusion regarding the state of our nation and the world. We commiserate with like-minded peers in our respective echo chambers and discuss what should be done about and to the other side.
“Commiserate” means to falsely estimate.
Now Renee Nichole Good has been shot dead by an ICE officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minnesota is best known for the death of George Floyd. According to the left, he was killed by the knee of Derek Chauvin. The right claims he died of a methamphetamine and fentanyl overdose.
Right-wing media reported that Ms. Good had a rap sheet filled with protest-related charges. ICE was trying to apprehend her when she attempted to flee and purposefully ran into the ICE agent who then shot her dead. Given that she was the mother of a six-year-old child, JD Vance among others, wondered about her priorities. Why was she interfering with a law enforcement operation? After all illegal immigration is a crime.
Those on the left say ICE is the strong arm of the white supremacist Gestapo. They are now out to get white women, not just people of color. Ms. Good was just passing through when she got caught in the demonstration. No law enforcement officer should ever jump in front of a moving vehicle to block it.
Those on the right point out that Ms. Good was a lesbian who divorced her husband. The offending ICE agent is a Christian and married to an immigrant. False equivalencies abound ad infinitum.
The left is appalled that armed masked men have descended on their communities and are questioning everyone in a Nazi-style “papers please!” format. One mental health professional asked, “Where are the de-escalation skills?” “Just obey the law and comply!” Cries the right. “The feds are breaking the law!” the left replies.
“Nichole Good was just afraid!” says the left. “The ICE officer had been dragged by a vehicle in a previous incident. He feared for his life!” Says the right. “Nazis!” Cries the left. “Communists!” Cries the right. The right demands that Trump implement the Insurrection Act. The left declares its time to blow up police stations and begin an insurrection. Both sides claim it will be bad for the other.
I just listened to a left-leaning Marine Veteran of Fallujah explain that insurrection is upon us and a lot of people are going to die. Like gasoline on smoldering coals, each event creates more violent rhetoric. “Trump wants civil war so he can cancel the mid-term elections!” Says the left. “The Democrats want insurrection to distract from their fraud!” Says the right. Once again, some, none, or all of that could be true. Meanwhile as many as six thousand protesters have been killed in the current Iranian insurrection.
Is that what people want?
In my opinion it’s one big satanic psyop. You know a Psyop by F.A.T.E. Focus, Authority, Tribe, and Emotion.
An event happens that jerks the collective focus onto it. Authority, namely politicians and the media, defines and declares what happened or is happening. People commiserate within their respective tribal groups, e g Right or Left. Emotion is generated and sustained by rehtoric and a consensus is formed. Each subsequent event results in a positive feedback loop until both sides become increasingly escalated and begin killing each other. And the devil smiles. He smiles because he knows that he can do nothing to us. He can only convince us to do it to ourselves. This is world history in a nutshell.
I could be wrong, but as I see it all signs point to our being close to the end. If that is the case then we know that a third of mankind will be killed in the process. Rev 9:14-18
If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.
Revelation 13:10
Hence the current mark in time and enactment of Jesus’s words.
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
Mathew 7:13-14
Narrow is thlíbō to suffer tribulation, trouble, press (as in crushing grapes to make wine).
– Strongs Concordance 2346-
The time has come for all believers to walk the narrow way. The narrow way is marked by two ditches, one on the left and the other on the right. Genuine believers will not be duped into falling into either one because neither is correct let alone good. No one is good. There are no political or economic solutions to a spiritual problem. We will be pressed and despised by those in both ditches.
Jesus warned about the leaven of Herod, the Pharisees, and Sadducees in Mathew 16 and Mark 8. That leaven is of the world and the religious/political spirit. It is the knowledge of good and evil. It is this leaven that confused Peter, such that he denied Jesus three times when he swore he would give his life. It was this leaven that drove him to attack Malchus in Gethsemane and later argue with God three times over what he could eat in Acts 10. It is the leaven that will drive brother to deliver up brother and the love of many to grow cold. This leaven is the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is self-righteous and rebellious. Therefore, be sober, be watchful. 1 Peter 5:8 Prepare to endure in love as lawlessness grows. Mathew 24:12-13
“No more of this!” means exactly that, His Kingdom is not of this world. John 18:36 We are in the world not of it. John 17:16
Cathy and I just returned from celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles with our good friends at New Wine Ministry in Decatur, Arkansas. We were assigned to share one night. Cathy told me she was hearing voices coming out of hermy people… I couldn’t get reconciliation out of my mind.
…All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation…
So I share about God’s original covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12. I mentioned the covenant through Issac and the blessing on Ishmael in Genesis 17. I talked about God’s love and continued covenant with Israel, that the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable, and that Israel will be saved. Romans 11 Then I read Isaiah 19 which concludes with,
In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”
I read all in the context of the current conflicts between Israel and its neighbors. Most of all, I read it in the context of believers who insist on mixing politics and faith. I framed my argument with 2 Corinthians 5, and Revelation 12.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
We inevitably regard our neighbor according to flesh anytime we attempt to use the gospel to fix the world for the sake of our best life now. Like it or not we are applying a Satanic framework when we sanction or support the killing of other human beings in the name of our definition of righteousness. A foundation of that framework is named in Revelation 12.
And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before our God.
Accuse is katēgoréō, the Greek word from which the English word category is derived. The world organizes people into assigned categories and judges them as good or bad. This view is the product of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from the fall in Genesis 3. The Bible says that no one is righteous apart from Christ. Hence there are only two valid categories in the world.
In Christ and Not in Christ.
We can look at almost any instance of polarization of one people group against another in the world. We are in violation of scripture the moment we choose a side that results in “us versus them”. Mind you I am not talking about disagreement on issues. I am talking about treating others in a way we would not want to be treated if the roles and power were reversed. Roles and power are cyclic. They are repeatedly reversed and reversed again.
…with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
Those cheering the decimation of Gaza or immigrants slammed in the streets by ICE will eventually see the same standards applied to Israel and Christians in the USA. We just can’t seem to comprehend that Jesus was speaking to believers not unbelievers when He warned …with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
The pattern of God dealing with His people throughout history is a pattern that Israel has never been able to recognize. Those who persecute Israel are and will indeed be punished. But as we see with Assyria in Isaiah 10, God often uses those who curse Israel to punish Israel for her sins before punishing those who cursed her in the first place. That’s not because God is double-minded. It’s because God wants to reconcile all of Abraham’s dysfunctional family. He disciplines those He loves.Heb 12 God loves the descendants of both Issac and Ishmael. Satan, the accuser, is the one who wants us to categorize and facilitate our killing each other. Many are cheering the fulfillment of Zephaniah 2 today. Make no mistake. The fulfillment of Zephaniah 3 and Ezekiel 38 will surely follow. Study these scriptures out and see if what I am saying is true.
A picture of me teaching at Ninawachi in 2018. drawn by Daeme, a Waorani missionary student
Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the Waorani and Teromanane in the context of the ministry of reconciliation in which all followers of Jesus share. I have been meditating on the culture of depravity from which He wants us to be separated.
The depravity of man is both the most empirically verifiable statement and also the most intellectually resistant.
-Malcolm Muggeridge-
In October of 2018 we were blessed with the opportunity to travel, all expenses paid, to Ecuador where among other things we got to meet and minister to Waorani (Wow-rani) people.
The movie “The End of the Spear” is the story of Jim Elliot and his missionary partners who were martyred at the hands of Waorani warriors, a previously untouched people in the Ecuadoran Amazon valley in 1956.
It is also the story of their surviving widows who forgave and ministered to the Waorani people and led many of them to Christ. It is one of the most powerful contemporary stories of faith, forgiveness, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
If you’ve seen the movie, then you know that the spearing of Jim Elliot and his friends was provoked by a lie on the part of a Waorani woman trying to avoid accountability for her actions. In a nutshell, she had an agenda that she advanced by manipulating the emotions of her own people. Were it not for the faithfulness of Elizabeth Elliot and the other wives, most, if not all, of the relatively small number of Waorani might have been killed in a retaliatory action by Western colonists.
Many Waorani became Christian after 1956. A portion rejected Jesus completely in favor of their old traditions and religions. These formed a separate clan known today as the Teromanane. Relations between the two clans have been strained ever since.
The Teromanane remained nomadic hunters and avoided the Waorani villages. Violence could be avoided provided they avoided each other.
Modernization and a shrinking of territory due to the expansion of oil companies in the region pushed the two closer together. Oil exploration and the lumber trade meant more workers needed to be fed. Game previously hunted for tribal sustenance now went to feed the growing oil company workforce. Overhunting and a resulting food shortage caused the Teromanane to begin migrating closer to Waorani villages in search of food. They began stealing Waorani bananas and Yucca.
Instead of retaliating according to previous tradition, the Waorani sought reconciliation with their Teromanane brothers and sisters.
One day some Waorani women went out as the Teromanane robbed their orchards. The women told them that they didn’t need to steal, that all they needed to do was ask and they would give them whatever they needed. This led to more social contact to include a romantic interest between a Waorani man and a Teromanane woman. In Waorani and Teromanane culture, a man and a woman who are seen alone together three times are expected to get married.
Apparently, the Waorani man changed his mind. We don’t know what the woman said to her people. We only know that the Teromanane became so enraged that they kidnapped three young Waorani children, took them by the ankles, and beat their heads against a tree until they were dead. In response, the Waorani formed a raiding party and killed 15 Teromanane men and women while they slept. Two children remained alive. The Waorani took them back to their village. That was 2013.
Fast forward to 2018. We were with some Waorani and other indigenous people in Ecuador. We even met some of the men involved in the previous raid. We had come to visit Ninawachi school for indigenous missionaries and make a “thank you video” for their donors.
The video opens with a Waorani woman worshiping in her native language.
Ninawachi disciples people from the Shuar, Kitchawa, and Waorani tribes, then sends them home as missionaries to their own tribes. Three of these, Daeme, a Huaorani native, his wife Diana, a Shuar, and Priscilla Vargas, an Ecuadoran colonial, were about to head into the jungle for their outreach practicum. Priscilla was one of the teachers and had nearly died from an Amazon-borne illness the last time she was there.
It was at that time that we learned that the Teromanane were starving and were willing to discuss peace with the Waorani again. The only condition was that the kidnapped children be returned. Everyone was hopeful, including the Ecuadoran military, who devised a plan to fly a helicopter into Teromanane territory and lower the children down by rope. The only catch was that someone else had to pay for it. That wasn’t going to happen.
The three Ecuadoran missionaries were getting ready to head upriver when we got news that the Teromanane had arrived just outside of the Waorani village where they were going. The situation was tense. Once again two or three Waorani women who were on fire for the Lord had gone out to meet them. Everything seemed to go well and a meeting to discuss peace was scheduled. Unfortunately, it was time for us to return to Honduras. All we could do was pray. A week after we returned, we learned that the Teromanane leader turned out to be Daeme’s great uncle.
Recently, I heard from our friend Pricilla. She told us that there has been periodic contact between the Waorani and Teromanane. The Teromanane have received a few solar Bibles and solar radios. However, the proverbial ground remains hard. Pricilla asked us to continue to pray. Here is a link to her blog Pricilla’s blog. She is a genuine example of the ministry of reconciliation in real time. She is currently affiliated with YWAM. Having lived on the mission field for six years, I know any support would be greatly appreciated.
One thing stands out in the conflict between the Waorani and Teromanane. No one outside these tribes is rooting for one side to dominate the other. Perhaps it is because their lifestyles and world views are so foreign to outsiders that no one can place themselves in any of their proverbial shoes. Outsiders are either ignoring the situation entirely or Christians are actively promoting reconciliation between the two tribes.
My question is, why don’t Christians apply the same approach to all people groups and conflicts, e.g. Israel and Palestine? After all, doesn’t God want all people to be reconciled to Himself? Why then, do so-called believers insist on regarding nearly everyone according to the flesh? Why do we continue to categorize everyone as good guys and bad guys? We give lip service to the cross and God’s word to the extent that it benefits us. Then we lay our lives down at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Another example is the so-called illegal immigration problem. Are there illegal immigrants who commit crimes? Yes. Is it a violation of US law to immigrate without permission? Yes. If that is the case, then it is also illegal to solicit, promote, and make money off of illegal immigrants. We were in Honduras and watched the caravans form and proceed north to the US border. We have friends who departed in the hope of making ten dollars per hour instead of ten dollars per day. We watched the promises of freedom and prosperity broadcast on CNN Central America. We know people who paid Cartel Coyotes five to twelve thousand dollars to transport family members across the border. We were dumbfounded by a bureaucratic nightmare resulting in the near impossibility of immigrating legally. Now we are watching them being hunted down and arrested while the people who invited and ushered them in remain unaccountable. The Trump administration claims only criminals are being targeted. Friends from affected cities say ICE has quotas. One thing is certain, a precedent is being set.
Here is another example that hits close to home. One of the two greatest commandments, love your neighbor as yourself is derived in part, from Leviticus 19.
“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
People generally align with whichever side of an argument or conflict their respective side or team supports. They reinforce their argument with media narratives organized by internet algorithms designed to corral opinions and people. Our queries inform the algorithm of our biases. “Does Hamas kill Israelis?” will yield atrocities committed by Hamas. “Does the IDF kill Palestinian children?” will yield IDF testimonials of their own atrocities. People argue for and against sides in conflict as if war itself were not an atrocity. We think we are thinking and analyzing right and wrong, good and evil. In truth, we are being divided and corralled into opposing categories in an ongoing spiritual battle by the enemy who seeks to kill, steal, and destroy.
Shockingly few humans can think at all. Most of them are just bio-LLMs (Large Language Models) who regurgitate whatever garbage they ingested through their eyes or ears. They hardly have an original thought cross their minds. Shockingly few humans have a conceptual internal reality that maps anywhere close to the reality outside their heads. They live inside delusional constructs, distorting sensory input to match their internal maps rather than updating their maps to match the terrain in the world around them. As a result, most humans aren’t THINKING at all. They are PROJECTING…
Mike Adams
Apart from Christ, all people and all human conflicts are the same. Apart from being in Christ we are all Teromanane and Waorani. The antidote is to come out of her my people. Come out of the world of artificial categories.
Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins,
Jim Elliot and his friends gave their lives in the ministry of reconciliation that was carried on by their widows who forgave the Waorani who murdered their husbands. Why can’t we have the same heart for Israel and the Palestinians? Why can’t we have the same heart for the right and the left, Democrats and Republicans? People thank me for my service as a trained killer in the USMC instead of the missionary I became after I repented. Why are we so hypocritical? Why can’t we honor and obey Jesus’s commandments in Mathew Chapter 5 without reservations? The list goes on ad infinitum. It seems that we just can’t or we refuse. We praise Jesus with songs in church then live according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We idolize that same tree every time we turn on the evening news. Many, if not most, ultimately reject the final sacrifice of Jesus in favor of a scapegoat that we are programmed to despise for self-righteousness’ sake. Otherwise, we’d look in the mirror and recognize Mystery Babylon in our own eyes. Then maybe, just maybe we’d repent and come out of her.
So often I hear people speaking about the Old Testament versus the New Testament as if the two tell a story about two different Gods. The implication is that the Old Testament was hard. The New Testament is easier because of grace. Nothing could be further from the truth as evidenced by Acts 5, which begins in the context of the conclusion of Acts 4.
Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
“Now the full number” means everyone obeyed the Holy Spirit. There was no confusion. No prophet needed to declare “thus saith the Lord!” because everyone was in perfect submission to Jesus through Holy Spirit. That obedience can be likened to my right and left hands obeying my head. My left hand does not need to hear from my right hand to know the will of my head. It simply does what my head says.
Enter Ananias and Saphira a proverbial right hand with a will of its own. They altered God’s (the head’s) word that the rest of the body obeyed without question.
“So what if they saved a bit of the money for themselves?” cries the voice of contemporary society.
That rationalization is the first mistake. The issue was not the amount or value of what they held back. The issue was their rebellion against God! Rebellion is not measured according to stuff. Rebellion is determined by disobedience.
Biblicaly there is no such thing as partial obedience.
The rebellion of Anaias and Saphira was the same rebellion when Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to the rock as God commanded in Numbers 20. The carnal mind might justify the action because the people got the flesh-saving water they needed. But water was not God’s primary purpose. His purpose was to show Himself Holy (Set apart). And God said to Moses,
And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”
It was the same rebellion that exposed the true heart of Saul and ended his reign over Israel in 1 Samuel 15. Saul disobeyed God and kept some of the spoils of the Amalekites then rationalized and justified his disobedience by claiming he was doing it for the Lord. Saul was not concerned with pleasing the Lord or he would have obeyed.
Saul was concerned with promoting Saul.
And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”
God cut Ananias and Saphira off for disobeying His word and so that others would fear (phóbos – terror) lest the rest of His body be infected with their witchcraft and idolatry.
And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Eve was beguiled by Satan and ate the fruit. Then Adam relinquished his position as the head of his wife and was led into sin by Eve.
In his book Spiritual Authority, Watchman Nee points out that Eve’s rebellion began with her reply.
And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Eve added the words, “neither shall you touch it…”
Once again, contemporary reason declares,
“Oh my gosh, Brian. That’s so religious! Why are you splitting hairs? Get a grip, you Pharisee!”
Watchman Nee says reason is the problem. Reason is the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil whereby people do what is right in their own eyes in Jesus’s name.
We are not commanded to justify, rationalize, minimize, and generalize, a.k.a. reason our thoughts and actions, then sprinkle Jesus on it all. We are commanded to obey. Saying that God said something He didn’t or changing the words He said is rebellion of the first degree. This is why Paul so strongly emphasizes this warning in Galatians.
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
This is why I shudder when I hear the nonchalant propagation of false prophetic words and or eisigeis in place of exegesis. “Oh, they are just learning to hear,” we minimize, never once considering the wreckage that is left in the wake. It’s as if the God of all creation has become some namby-pamby daddy who doesn’t take himself seriously, so why should we?
Exegesis means “to lead out of.” That means that the interpreter is led to his conclusions by following the text.
Eisegesis means “to lead into,” which means the interpreter injects his own ideas into the text, making it mean whatever he wants.
Correct doctrine is correct teaching concerning the word of God apart from which obedience is impossible. Correct teaching is always exegetical not eisegetical.
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
We must divide what is there, not what we imagine is there. We divide Truth from untruth. Paul gives an example.
But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
Hymenaeus and Philetus engaged in profane and vain babblings via their eschatological claim that the future bodily resurrection promised in Mathew 24:29-30 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 had already taken place. The Sadducees taught that there is no bodily resurrection at all. Keep in mind, the context of this chapter is false teaching. Paul’s point was not to enter into a debate about eschatology. Rather he was illustrating the seriousness of false teachings that produce ungodliness to the point of falling away from the faith. Godliness is eusébeia (Greek) – holiness. False teachings make one unholy regardless of how sweet they sound.
But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus…
Paul concludes 2 Timothy 3 with a foundational presupposition in our Acts 17:11 Bereans Bible study.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
There are many important things in our walk with God. Yet nothing is more important than the ability to rightly divide the word of truth. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth who leads us into all truth. He brings scriptural truth to remembrance. John 14:17 If the spirit within us speaks contrary to the word of God, then that Spirit is not Holy Spirit. At best, it is our soul, namely our mind, will, emotions, and the stories we create to make sense of our experiences. At worst, it is a spirit of antichrist masquerading as an angel of light. One thing is certain. God’s voice will never contradict His word.
Period!
Except for the Book of Philemon, there are warnings against false teachers and false teachings in every book of the New Testament. That should tell us something. No wonder James warns that,
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
If I say or write something wrong and you love me then you will correct me. If you can show me I am wrong I will thank you and I will repent. 1 John 1:9 I don’t much care about the tone you use, provided the correction is true, and rooted in scripture. I learn by being corrected by Holy Spirit and by my Holy Spirit-filled brothers and sisters.
Why then do so many minimize and even sanction the falsification of God’s word?
preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. But as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
So often I hear people defend their preferred teacher or preacher based on their kindness, compassion, and caring approach toward their flock. Some well-meaning followers become enamored with a personality or a person’s charisma and mistake it for anointing. Anointed is Christ – Christos, in Greek, and means one with the authority to speak on God’s behalf. Jesus warned of many false Christos in the end times. Many times sincere and honest seekers can’t fathom that someone so influential in the body of Christ could be so wrong or worse, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Others succumb to confirmation bias. They hear what they want to hear because it makes sense according to their experience and or what they have been taught. Or it suits their own passions and they simply disregard anything that opposes their point of view. Passion does not always imply blatant sins of the flesh. Passion could simply be
“My reasoning, my altruistic will in Jesus’ name”.
What we often end up with today is that people embrace the heresy and rebuke anyone who calls out the heresy. No one considers the seriousness of Anaias and Saphira in the context of
The God who does not change.
At the end of the day and the current age, it doesn’t make a lick of difference in how sweet, joyful, gentle, kind, gifted, intelligent, loving, etc. someone appears if they are twisting God’s words or proclaiming what God never said. Hence, in 1 Corinthians 4 Paul exhorts us to
Not go beyond what is written.
The KJV says, not to think of men above that which is written.
This was a huge problem in the church of Corinth. It is a huge problem in the church today.
When we study and endeavor to rightly divide the word of Truth, we need to be certain we are reading what was actually said at the time it was written. We need to understand the cultural and literary context. We need to know something about the audience to whom the message was given. We need to be sure our Bible translation accurately reflects the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek lest we produce a doctrine out of our own eisegesis. That’s how all cults begin. We need to follow the tradition of the Acts 17:11 Bereans and search the scriptures to see if what a given teacher or Bible translation says is true. Those who insist on an eisegetical, “God told me” even though scripture contradicts it approach may find themselves in the same proverbial boat with Eve, Saul, Ananias, and Saphira.
The following example is going to ruffle some feathers.
There is a popular Bible translation within the charismatic stream that is really an eisegetical interpretation. The author makes all sorts of radical prophetic claims about himself all of which glorify himself. One of these is that God took him to heaven and revealed an added chapter 22 to the book of John. Galatians 1:8-9 aside, the ubiquitous, undeniable spiritual proposition, “God told me,” shuts down most naysayers. After all, who am I, a mere man, to argue with God? Hence, Paul’s admonition to the Church in Corinth,“Let every word be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.” Those witnesses are scriptures, not your friend’s opinion masquerading as Holy Spirit. We also have Paul’s instruction to the church in Thessaloniki “Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”
While I felt a check in my spirit, my initial response when I heard of the Passion Translation at Harvest School in 2016 mirrored that of Jeremiah to Hananiah in Jeremiah 28.
“Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord make the words that you have prophesied come true…”
In the end, the Lord rebuked Hananiah through Jeremiah.
“Listen, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the Lord.’”
God killed Hananiah for speaking what He did not say.
The fact that God hasn’t killed all the fake prophets today does not mean that God has changed or His word has changed. It means there is mercy and time to repent. After all, accursed means
“Going to Hell.”
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment
The Passion author Brian Simmons also claims the God ordained authority to correct all other translations. I guess that makes the Passion the only correct translation. Many in our stream subscribe to the Passion. I suspect this is because it is more poetic, gentle, and loving according to contemporary definitions of “loving”, and therefore more palatable.
“I just feel like the Lord is pleased with it.“
I’ll admit, the poetic license Simmons uses frequently sounds a lot sweeter than other versions. We purchased the Passion Psalms and Proverbs after Harvest School and loved them at first.
Here is one example that sparked my concern.
Ephesians 5:22-33 is foundational to all of the counseling we do with couples. We would go so far as to say that all marriage problems would be solved if couples would simply obey these verses as they are written. If you want to know more about our counseling approach, you can read Husbands Love Your Wives.
“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.” KJV
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ESV
Simmons claims that Ephesians 5:22 should actually read, “Wives be tenderly devoted to your husband as the church is tenderly devoted to Christ.”
Tender – showing gentleness and concern or sympathy.
-Oxford English Dictionary-
That seems nice.
Should a wife be tenderly devoted to her husband? Sure. There’s nothing wrong with tenderness. A mother should also be tenderly devoted to her children. Tender devotion is not the operative question at hand. The English word Devotion occurs twice in the New Testament ESV. For example,
But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
Simplicity– haplótēs Singleness, sincerity, mental honesty, the virtue of one who is free from pretence and hypocrisy, not self-seeking.
-Strongs Concordance-
That’s not what Paul is commanding in Ephesians 5:22.
Simmons further claims that Ephesians should be translated from Aramaic because Jesus spoke Aramaic. But Ephesians was written Greek to people who spoke Greek. Therefore the correct meaning of this God breathed passage is only found in Greek.
The God breathed word in Ephesians 5 says, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.“
Submit in Greek is hypotássō “a Greek military term meaning “to arrange troops militarily under the command of a leader”. In non-military use, it was “a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden”.
– Strongs Concordance-
As Cathy says, tender devotion works great when things are going great. The true test of submission is when things are not going great or the wife vehemently disagrees with her husband’s decision. There have been times when Cathy disagreed with me and I was wrong. But she submitted to my final decision anyway out of obedience to the Lord. Tenderness and devotion toward me may are may not have been there in the moment. That put me in a position to be corrected by God which He eventually did. Having sailed from Hawaii to Thailand on a thirty-six-foot sailboat through a hurricane, Cathy will be the first to tell you there can be only one captain when the storm hits.
Paul isn’t giving his opinion or preferences regarding how he would like to be treated. He is declaring the God breathed word. He uses the picture of husband and wife, rightly related to one another, such that two become one flesh, to depict Christ’s relationship to His church. Marriage is unique and distinctive from all other relationships on earth. It is “a mystery” that can only be apprehended through obedience. Hence, submitt means submit. Meanwhile, the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He gives himself up for her. He is fully prepared to die for her if necessary. When both parties are obedient to the word they submit to God before each other to form a triangle with God at the apex. The closer they grow together. The closer they grow to God and vice versa. At the root of every marriage in crisis is the failure of one or more parties to obey the Word of God in Ephesians 5. Obedience to the word by both parties brings healing to the marriage one hundred percent of the time. By rewording this one verse Brian Simmons effectively altered God’s blueprint for marriage and God’s depiction of the mystery of two becoming one in marriage and the church.
That should strike Phobos in our hearts.
For the record, Brian Simmons seems quite likable. He seems gentle and kind, and well-meaning. He seems like the sort of person with whom most believers wouldn’t mind fellowshiping. Like so many charismatic celebrities, his gifting and charisma led many believers to dismiss the warning in Galatians 1:8-9 entirely.
“Oh, it can’t be that bad.” We say. “I mean look at him. He’s so gentle and kind and loving…”
You might disagree. But here is the problem as I see it. Sometimes we are too willing to compromise in the name of love. We compromise because we have been indoctrinated, albeit subconsciously, to believe that tolerance is love. This is largely due to our collective worldview being tainted by an educational system rooted in Postmodernism and Critical Theory instead of Biblical truth that says obedience is love.
And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.
We tolerate blatant error and even heresy rather than confront it because love has been framed as tolerance. The Bible says we cannot love until we have purified our hearts through obedience to the truth.
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
Tolerance prioritizes people’s feelings. We don’t want to risk hurting people’s feelings so we don’t tell them the truth. We claim to care about others. In reality, we are terrified of being disliked. We say we love God. But how can we love God if we are willing to compromise His word for the sake of being liked by people?
Shielding ourselves from Truth does not protect love. It suffocates it.
-Author Unknown-
Other times we won’t confront an error because we don’t want to be confronted ourselves. We tell people they are “amazing” because we want to hear that we are amazing. The Bible says we should fear the pursuit of personal affirmation and accolades.
“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”
Do not dismiss the potential depths of disobedience.
Again, I realize that some people are not going to like, let alone agree with what I have written here. That’s fine. If I am anything, I am a watchman. Believe and do as you will. My obedience to God on this matter is complete.
But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge… Hosea 4:6
Sunday, May 19, 2024, will be Pentecost. Pente is 50. Pentecost occurs 50 days after The Feast of First Fruits, the last Feast in the season of Passover that Jesus fulfilled when He resurrected. Pentecost comes at the end of The Feast of Weeks. Moses received the law on Pentecost. Pentecost was fulfilled when Holy Spirit was given in Acts 2.
“FULFILLED” means to give the “CORRECT INTERPRETATION”.
If you are watching mainstream and social media, then you have probably heard myriad attempts at separating Zionism from Judaism. The idea is that Zionism is a political force divorced from true Judaism. The overarching theme is that Zionists are not true Jews. Yet, Zion is mentioned 163 times in the Old and New Testament, beginning with
Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David.2 Sam 5:7
Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ houses of the people of Israel, in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion.2 Chron 5:2
A Zionist is a person who supports Israel’s spiritual heritage and right to the land. PERIOD! That said, the Bible promises a blessing or a curse, according to one’s stance on this issue. Num 24:9 Recent attempts to divorce Zionism from Judaism are just more of the same marginalization of Jews as has been done in the past with things like Kazarian conspiracy theories and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion published in 1903 by “Author Unknown”. These inspired Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and the philosophical. justification for the Jewish Holocaust, 1933-45. Attempts have also been made to associate the star of David on the Israeli flag with the above conspiracy theories and others to include those associating contemporary Israel with Freemasonry and even Moloch worship.
Thid Nonsense!
I’m writing about this now because Pomegranates are traditionally eaten during the Feast of Pentecost. Pomegranates are first mentioned in Exodus 28 regarding the construction of the priestly robe.
On its hem you shall make pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, around its hem, with bells of gold between them, a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, around the hem of the robe. And it shall be on Aaron when he ministers, and its sound shall be heard when he goes into the Holy Place before the Lord, and when he comes out, so that he does not die.Exodus 28:33-35
Pomegranates are one of the seven blessings of the land resulting from obedience. Deut 8:6-10
The Star of David represents the top of Pomegranate.
Also when it is cut.
“Pomegranates, unlike the Menorah, were visible to the non-priestly Israelites and were therefore associated with the glory of God’s Temple far more than the Menorah, which they were never able to look at. Nowadays, that imagery is stylistically represented in the Star of David, the Magen David, the symbol of Israel, by a people fervently hoping for the Messiah to return – it is also a symbol of faith that one day the pomegranate would again be seen by all Israelites, once more adorning a Temple upon Mt Moriah, on the Temple Mount.”The Ancient Bridge
The Pomegranate as represented on the Israeli flag symbolizes the hope of Zion which is the Nation of Israel.
Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless. Rev 14:1-5
And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.Rev 12:10
Once again, accuse katēgoréō the Greek word from which the English word category is derived. The enemy would like to recategorize a Zionist as an evil political entity that is separate from Judaism.
Don’t Be Duped by the Enemy’s Narrative.
So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!Rom 11:11-12
We will continue to bless Israel this Pentecost as we await Jesus’s future fulfillment of The Feasts of Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles the day and hour of which no one knows.
While secularism exists on a continuum from hardcore Marxist Ideology on the extreme left to hardcore Fascist Ideology on the extreme right, all secular worldviews are Godless. Here in the West, they despise Christianity more than anything because it opposes secular idols like abortion and the ever-growing alphabet of gender. Secularism on all sides is ripe with conspiracy theories and propaganda. See Those Dern Zionists for a few examples. At the end of the day, the only point upon which radical secularists agree is that God does not exist – at least not the Judeo-Christian God. Quite often they are more than happy to leverage any offense that might advance their worldview. We see this quite clearly in the ongoing controversy in Israel versus Palestine.
US Police brutally attack peaceful protesters at UCLA. Several arrests reported. الشرطة الأمريكية تعتدي بوحشية على الطلاب المعتصمين في جامعة كاليفورنيا للمطالبة بوقف حرب الإبادة الجماعية في قطاع غزة
I wonder if the world would be protesting as strongly if the roles were reversed. What if Israel killed over a thousand Palestinians and kidnapped hundreds more? Would students protest Palestine bombing Israel to dust?
I think not…
Make no mistake. The extreme left and the right have always hated the Jews.
Incidentally, that includes the current synagogue of Satan.
Jews, and are not, but do lie
Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.Rev 3:9
While the number of dead Israelis on Oct 7th is beginning to pale in comparison with the number of dead Palestinians, I have yet to hear a single anti-Zionist explain what Israel should do differently. When pressed they only say what they would not do.
Others assume that because I am for Israel that I am by default for the genocide of Palestinians. When someone asks me if my preferred solution to the war between Israel and Hamas is to bomb innocents in Gaza my answer is this.
Just Stop!
As a Christian, my personal preference would be that no one be harmed anywhere- ever. PERIOD! I would prefer that the spirit of Haman, (see the book of Esther) the same spirit that is operative in Israel’s enemies today never arose in 760 BC.
I would have preferred that Hamas never launched rockets from hospitals and schoolyards into Israel for years. I would have preferred not to have slept in a bomb shelter when we visited the Negev because of the constant threat of missile attacks.
I would prefer that the genocide of six million Jews during the Nazi Holocaust did not simply represent the 20th-century peak in 2700 years of extermination.
For the record; the population of Jews compared with those murdered during the Holocaust:
Lithuania 150,000 murdered: 135,000
Estonia 5,000 murdered: 4,500
Latvia 95,000 murdered: 85,000
Poland 3,500,000 murdered: 3,000,000
Czechoslovakia 355,000 murdered: 300,000
Germany 210,000 murdered: 170,000
Greece 75,000 murdered: 60,000
Holland 150,000 murdered: 105,000
Yugoslavia 80,000 murdered: 55,000
Soviet Union 2,100,000 murdered: 1,400,000 (in territories occupied by the Nazis)
Austria 60,000 murdered: 40,000
Romania 850,000 murdered :425,000
Hungary 404,000 murdered: 204,000
Belgium 90,000 murdered: 40,000
France 210,000 murdered: 90,000
Italy 57,000 murdered: 15,000
Bulgaria 50,000 murdered: 7,000
*Pre-war total about 8,546,000 Jews of which about 6,140,500 were murdered*
I would prefer that no one in Palestine, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Algeria, Libya Qatar, etc. ever called for the genocide of contemporary Jews today. I would prefer that generational trauma from the Holocaust wasn’t real and that Jews everywhere had no reason to take today’s calls for their extermination seriously.
I would prefer that there was no history of collaboration between Palestinians and Hitler in WWII.
The Fuhrer would carry on the battle to the total destruction of the Judeo-Communist empire in Europe. The German armies would eventually reach the southern exit from Caucasia. At that point, the Fuhrer would give the Arab world the assurance that its hour of liberation had arrived. Germany’s sole objective would then be the destruction of the Jewish element residing in the Arab sphere under the protection of British power. In that hour, the Mufti would be the most authoritative spokesman for the Arab world. It would be his responsibility to set off the Arab operations, which he had secretly prepared.
I would prefer that modern-day Palestinians never aligned with that same Nazi Ideology today.
I would prefer that American university student ingrates weren’t so easily hacked and made pawns by a radical and antisemitic left.
I would prefer that Hamas, several of whom worked for Main Stream Media and UNRWA never tortured, raped, and murdered Jewish innocents on Oct 7.
I would prefer that Palestinians didn’t radicalize elementary school children to aspire to grow up to kill Jews.
Palestinian children are being encouraged to kill Jews.
I would prefer that Hamas did not use Palestinian people as human shields and embellished casualty counts as a weapon.
Sadly now there is war. Total war. While Israel is taking unprecedented measures to prevent the deaths of innocents, the unfortunate truth is that innocents die in every war.
Israeli victims on Oct 7
Gaza victims today.
In the words of Sun Tzu,
“Better never begin. Once begin, better finish”.
Once begun, the only solution in any war is to win. Those who think differently are naive, dumb, or both. What I find ironic is that the US nuked Japan and killed over 200,000 people in minutes. No one in America protested or accused the US government of genocide. But then this is not really about genocide. This is about Hackable Animals being used as pawns to advance the extermination of Jews.
As the saying goes,
“No Jews, No news!”
We have friends in both Israel and Palestine and pray for all sides of Abraham’s dysfunctional feuding family. Still, I know that Israel, a piece of land the size of New Jersey belongs to the Jews for as long as the stars and planets exist. Jer 31:35-36 God loves His chosen albeit rebellious people. I pray for the peace of Jerusalem because the Bible upon which my worldview is based, tells me to do so. I bless Israel. Yet I do so filled with a hope of reconciliation, the ministry that Jesus assigned all believers. 2 Cor 5:16-25 Not because I align with one side over the other and pray that one side triumphs in war. I do so out of love for, and obedience to God. While I will not be engaging in violence toward anyone, and instead pray for everyone I will never accept an alternative presupposition that is contrary to God’s word. I am for Israel because God’s word requires it. I know this age-old battle between Israel and her enemies will continue till the end of time when Jesus has His great reset. His plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven, and things on earthEph 1:1-10 At the end of the day, the Apostle Paul summed up the reality of God and His plan,
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.2 Cor 5:14-15
As for those who continue to ask “How could a loving God____?” My answer is found in the conclusion of one of the most beautiful, hope-inspiring, albeit confusing chapters in the entire bible.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.Rom 11:33-36
What do I prefer? I Prefer Jesus. I prefer peace. I prefer that every knee bow and tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. I prefer the lion and lamb to lie down together. I prefer on earth as it is in heaven.
How ironic that the segment of people who embraced one radical ideology and labeled anyone who disagreed with them as an opposing ideology in 2020 are now aligning with the very ideology they previously opposed. These ignore one massacre to oppose another. They remain blind to the fact that the very group they support now will be obliged to kill them if they come to power.
Meanwhile, the people labeled as “not human” and “animals” who were saved from genocide 78 years ago are now celebrated for their necessary eradication of “evil animals” who are “not human” today. These justify one massacre in opposition to another. Elsewhere in the world, those who fought to free the first group being opposed by the very group they liberated.
Meanwhile, back in the land of prosperity, and entitlement, those who oppose the alleged systematic oppression of one minority people group, demand the right to murder their children in the name of the human rights and health of another allegedly oppressed minority group. This is further justified by the claim that people in the womb are not human.
Perhaps you have noticed the absurdity is clarified by the absence of labels and names.
How did we get here?
Many people do not have a point of reference beyond themselves. Hence truth is defined as whatever they experience or perceive. Furthermore, we have sacrificed the ability and right to think critically on the altar of consensus rooted in, and driven by emotion. Our hackers easily direct our individual and collective discontent toward whatever fragment of imperfect humanity they deem most likely to inflame our emotions. Once in this state, we confuse “awfulizing” a problem and choosing a side, with contributing to its solution never realizing that “we”, not “they” are our real problem. All are dead men walking – appointed to the very wrath we would assign to others. Our condition is further confirmed and reinforced by our self-righteous hatred for whichever side our hackers have assigned us to oppose.
We are double-minded.
The root of our confusion and hypocrisy is twofold.
On one hand, we have the attempted negation of absolute truth and with it the denial of a source. Truth becomes a personal affair. Within this paradigm, consensus is love and disagreement hate. All hate must be killed so that love can thrive.
On the other hand, we have consensus-based affirmation that absolute truth does exist. Yet there is little to no understanding of what that TRUTH is. In its place, we have emotionally contrived, stump speeches and celebrity pulpits labeled as absolute truth as the preferred influencers imagine it.
It would seem that one man surmised correctly in 1871. People in both groups will kill one another and themselves until only a controllable few are left. Those that remain will be so demoralized that they will gladly accept the chief hacker as king.
Still, there remains one way to be unhackable. One truth, that leads to our origin, true freedom, true life, and the reconciliation of the family to which we all belong. It is a narrow way.
Only a remnant will find it.
As in the story Pinnochio, the wider, easier way is filled with comfort and pleasure. This broad beautiful road will remain more attractive, more interesting for a season as those who traverse it are conformed to the image of proverbial donkeys. Thinking themselves wise they inevitably become fools and all that they have permitted themselves to hate.
Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because “All flesh is as grass And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers And its flower falls away, But the word of the LORD endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. 1 Pet 1:22-25
Peter is quoting from the deeply prophetic Isaiah chapter 40 which among other things contrasts the greatness of God with the apparent weakness and yes- the relative insignificance of man’s life on earth. Hence the featured image for this post is titled “The Pale Blue Dot”. It is a photo of Earth taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1 space probe from 6 billion kilometers or 3,728,227,153 miles away. Carl Sagan noted that every human being who has been born has lived and died on this “mote of dust”.
I wasin Rocheter NY in 1990. I can’t find myself anywhere. Job 38
Obviously, the God whose love power, and sovereignty are beyond our comprehension loved us enough to save us from HiswrathEph 2:1-3 or we wouldn’t be here. Those in Christ Jesus are saved and afforded the right to BECOME sons of God. Our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Rev 3:5, 1 John 5:11-14 We are new creations in an ongoing process of transformation Rom 12:1-2 for the purpose of being conformed to the image of His Son Jesus. Rom 8:29
That means I’m not done yet. Neither was Paul.
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Phil 3:13-16
We must keep in mind that not only did He redeem us from the wages of sin which is death, Rom 6:23 God is in the process of redeeming all of His creation. The Gospel of Salvation is fulfilled. The Gospel of the Kingdom is not. We miss the big picture entirely if we make the Gospel just about ourselves. That’s not snark directed at the self absorbed but an exhortation to stop selling ourselves short. We must be mindful of the fact that God’s endgame is a wedding and a return to our original state in the Garden of Eden with the added benefit of receiving the right to eat from the Tree of Life. Rev 22:14.
Still, would it surprise you to learn that most cultures, especially the middle eastern ones in which the Bible was written are not based on the individual? So consumed with ourselves, our rights and well being are we in the West that we read the Bible as if it were written about us as individuals rather than for us as His bride, the church. There’s a world of difference. In any case, your true identity is not about you being you. It’s about you being a part of His body that in turn is becoming a spotless bride in preparation for the wedding. Rev 19:6-9
This is where and when the fullness of our identity will be found.
That being said, any real understanding of our identity requires that we examine Adam and Eve’s original state of identity before the Fall. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.Gen 2:25 Sin was born when the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked…Gen 3 Immediatelythey sought to cover themselves with fig leaves. Suffice it to say that the door to sin was opened with the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The first fruit of sin that is the seed of all other sin was
the birth of self-centeredness.
Self-centredness is the root of guilt, shame, and condemnation.
Before the fall from grace, Adam and Eve were so completely focused on God and His plans that guilt, shame, and condemnation did not exist. They didn’t even know that “nakedness” was a thing. Where they previously walked in perfect intimacy and union with Him, their newly gained knowledge of good and evil created a distinction and separation between themselves and God. That separation has continued to widen over time.
The world in which we live today is the exact oppositeof the prefall Garden.
It’s not that we weren’t already narcissistic. But the advent of the smartphone took our inherent narcissism to new levels. Where we previously recognized narcissism as a character defect, it has become so imbedded in the collective psyche that today it’s a character strength and a cultural norm.
Narcissus from Greek Mythology fell in love with his own reflection.
Still, we may not recognize it as narcissim because the failure to fall fully in love with one’s own reflection is often labeled as low self-esteem resulting from not feeling “seen and heard”. We wonder why anxiety and depression are so far off the charts and try harder to affirm ourselves, each other and especially our children. “If only they knew who THEY are!” we say. Yet denying self – not affirming self is the first step in God’s plan for our freedom after we are saved. “Do as thou wilt” and self affirmation are Satan’s. How ironic that one’s birthday is regarded as the highest day of celebration on the Satanic calendar.
Here’s a quick reminder before I proceed. God is Good. God loves you. He desires the best for you. His plan “A” is that one day you will rule and reign with Him. Rev 20:4-6
Moving on…
Still, so many believers struggle to comprehend how an obsession with one’s identity in Christ could become narcissistic. Those who begin to grasp it often make the mistake of plumbing the depths of guilt, shame, and condemnation never realizing that this is just another form of self-obsession. If only we could grasp that narcissism and self-loathing are just opposite sides of the same coin.
If only we’d realize that Jesus’ command to deny self, Mat 16:24 (to affirm that one has no acquaintance or connection with, to forget one’s self, lose sight of one’s self and one’s interests) is the first step after salvation on the path to freedom. That Jesus loves me is not expressed in His affirmation of me. But rather in His desire that
I be free from the bondage of me.
If that seems paradoxical or confusing, then consider that Jesus who was perfect and blameless conquered Satan, sin, and death by becoming the biggest loser in the eyes of the world. He was beaten more severely than any human being before, since, or ever will be, and still remain alive. Then He died a criminal’s death on the cross. His was the most brutal and shameful form of public humiliation. It was completely counterintuitive to everyone’s worldview both then and now including that of His disciples. After all, how could losing a fight make one a winner?
And yet it is exactly what gave Him all authority. 1 Pet 3:18-22
The Kingdom of Heaven is upside down to the worldwhere the least is the greatestMat 23:11, Luke 9:48 and losing is gaining.Mat 16:25 Biblically speaking success looks more like people maligning us than praising us. Luke 6:26 We should be honored to be found worthy of being called the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things 1 Cor 4:13and a bit terrified to be placed on a pedestal and celebrated as distinguished and wise.
One of our biggest challenges as Westerners is that we don’t do well with the tension of paradox. We want a clear delineation of boundaries. Am I this or am I that? The idea that we exist as both the offscouring of all things and Abraham’s seed, – heirs according to the promise.Gal 3:29 boggles our mind, will and emotions otherwise known as our soul and our flesh. On the the other hand, if we are able to embrace the paradox we soon realize that our newfound identity in Christ is but spiritual milk which is foundational. The foundation is important but it’s not the finished work. 1 Cor 3. The context of our new identity is that he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.2 Cor 5:14-21
Yes you are a new creation.
Justkeep it in context.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is yourlife appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.Col 3:3-4
Once again, just as a pickle can not return to a cucumber, if you have truly given your life to Jesus and have been baptized, the old man is dead and you are a new creation. “New creation” looks like a sperm penetrateing an egg or a seedling penetrating the soil. A lot of seedings today are desperately trying to affirm themselves as giant red woods. The DNA blueprint is there. But there’s a lot of maturing to do. Hence there is a reason why Jesus framed the fulfilment of the Gospel of the Kingdom in the context of childbirth. Mat 24:3-31 The point here is that none of us are finished works. If indeed you have believed, and given your life to Jesus you are a newly formed creation. Take your last big gulp of milk believe what the word says. “God loves you!” Now pursue solid food that leads to maturity. Maturity is the the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,Eph 4:11-16
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.Phil 2:12
Again our purpose here is not to lambast the self-obsessed. This is the default state of all as a result of the fall. If guilt shame and condemnation remain it is not an identity problem. It’s a flesh problem. We are still carnal. Either we aren‘t born again, we have unconfessed sin, or we are simply walking in the flesh.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.Rom 8:5-6
How do we do that?
Start by not listening to teachers apart from the whole counsel of God and the Berean approach to verifying the truth. Acts 17:11 Our hope is not in this world 1 John 1:15-17 but in the final revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Titus 2:13 Holy Spirit with whom we are sealed is just a down payment on our future inheritance, Eph 1:14. Our true and full identity will only be realized inour appearing with Him in glory. It will be made manifest when we are fully conformed to the image of His Son. Rom 8:29 That said, it will only be realized in the context of a unified bride, Eph 4:13without spot or wrinkle. Eph 5:27 We will be assured that we have arrived when we cease our painful and fleshly Rom 7:13-25 struggle because we see Him face to face and know Him even as we are known. 1 Cor 13:12 In the meantime we are growing. We know in part, we prophesy in part, we see as in a glass darkly.
The dark image we see in the mirror is our identity.
Finally, the wrong emphasis always produces wrong foundations. Milk-fed flesh eventually results in jealousy and striferooted in a culture of celebrity. Today, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos” looks like “I follow Bill, or Todd or Justin or… We divide because we are building on different foundations never considering that the teachings of our favorite preachers might be destined for flames. 1 Cor 3:9-15…If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire...We glorify man and vicariously glorify ourselves by proclaiming and defending our tescgers teachings as if they were our own. 1 Cor 4:7 We do it because it’s easier to let others think for us. We read books about the Bible by our preferred celebrity teachers and quote them as if we are quoting scripture itself. Is it any wonder why the body of Christ continues to be blown about by every wind of doctrine? Is it any wonder that we remain so anxious and confused all the while striving to deny the vapourous nature of our lives James 4:14 and the truth that
“All flesh is as grass And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers And its flower falls away, But the word of the LORD endures forever.”
Only the word of the LORD endures forever.
That is why He has magnified His word above all His name.Psalm 138:2
March 1st marked a year since we moved to Greeneville TN and since I last wrote about my best childhood friend Craig Hammerly. Craig was the unauthorized friend with whom I used to play in the woods between our houses when we were 6 or 7 years old. I say “unauthorized” because Craig was that “bad kid”. My mother forbade our friendship. So I’d grab my Tonka dump truck, excavator, and matchbox cars and meet Craig secretly to play. Craig didn’t have any toys so it was up to me. Craig lived alone with his grandfather. Rumor had it that he “did… things to Craig” – the kind of things that people didn’t talk about let alone do anything about in those days. Craig got held back in the third grade and we eventually grew apart. He grew grew more angry and became the school bully that everyone was afraid to fight. Craig couldn’t read but he was good at fighting. Man could he punch hard. Elementary school mythology had it that “he’d knocked out a high school kid when he was in the sixth grade. Even the teachers were afraid of him.” He moved away before we got to Jr. High. Ironically after 50 years I felt prompted to look him up on the internet. He was all over the internet. Craig, who called himself Damien Knight had been on drugs and in and out of jail for most of his life. He’d been arrested again just a week before.
Craig beat his roommate to death with his fists.
Craig is by definition,dead in his trespasses. Eph 2:1
The Acts 17:11 Bereans Bible study just finished Ephesians chapter 3. We ended last session with all of us pondering the breadth and length and height and depth and the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, Eph 3:18-19 We all agreed that His love is best understood in contrast with who we were; dead people appointed to wrath Eph 2:1-3 versus who we are today
It’s not that our actions here on earth equal those of Dahlmer. Rather it is that all dead people are equally dead. Jesus clearly illustrates this principle in Luke 13:1-5…No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish...
At the end of the day the only thing that any of us brings to our salvation is our sin.
That should be really good news to all but the unholy trinity of
Me, Myself and I.
Thankfully Jesus prescribed the antidote. Mat 16:24-26
“My Identity”
“My Identity” is a favorite theme in the church these days. If there is anything good in me now it is Jesus. My identity is in him Col 3:3 “But what about 2 Cor 5:17?” “I thought all things are made new.” Yes, they are and yes you are. But only in Christ Jesus. Narcissism hates that. Narcissism can not survive in Christ Jesus. Thankfully, the Father is conforming us to the image of His SonRom 8:29 in an ongoing process of transformation and renewal Rom 12:1-2.
Once again we don’t worship a God of this or that. Our God is a God of this and that. So often believers skip Oh wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?… Rom 7:24-25 to the so much sweeter Rom 8:1-2 where There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus… Yet, we must embrace and internalize both if we are to do more than just scratch the surface of His love that surpasses knowledge.
Oh wretched man…
I raised a few eyebrows when I wrote about my Holston experience in For the Love of Sid. It was inspired by the Toy Story character that everyone loves to hate. Some were disturbed that I would still identify with the evil Sid. “I refuse to see you as Sid,” said one friend. “But you have a new identity now!” assured another. Well…
Yes and No
I ended up living on my own at 14 and subsequently took Craigs place in the community. Suddenly I was that bad kid with whom mothers forbade their children to associate. I walked a lonely angry path that eventually landed me in jail. I could have easily been where Craig is today. But I came face to face with thelove that surpasses knowledgeamidst a point blank shotgun blast. I wasn’t looking for God. I was looking to die. Little did I know I was already dead. Jesus showed up and saved me. And not just from the shotgun. He saved me from me. Why me and not Craig? If you say it is because there was something different about me then you’ve missed the point entirely.
I’m no longer dead in my trespasses. Nor am I consumed by guilt, shame, and condemnation. Still, I am very much Sid. I am Craig. I am Jeffery Dahlmer. The only difference is that I am in Christ Jesus.
God loved me and still loves me in spite of me not because of me.
God loves me because of who He is.
This is such a deep core truth and just the beginning of His love that surpasses knowledge.
The best I can do today is to be grateful and love the people like me that He sends my way.Luke 7:47
I shared the story of Craig and me with some of the boys with whom I work. You know you’ve hit a nerve in boys when they just look you long and hard in the eye and don’t say word. Only one boy asked a question. “How does that make you feel Mr. Brian?” “Sad” I began
“And Grateful.”
We ended the Bible study session with my favorite allegory about a righteous African King whom everyone loved and respected. His word was unshakable. He said what he meant and meant what he said.
One day his administrators reported that someone was stealing chickens in the village. If you’ve been to places like Mozambique then you know that “chicken thieves die!” So the King made a decree. When the thief was caught he would receive one hundred stripes, enough to potentially kill a grown man.
The next day the thief was caught and brought before the king. It was the kings mother. The king was distraught. Still he commanded that she be stripped and tied to the whipping post. “One hundred lashes!” cried the king, “and not one less.” “If I even think you are holding back I will have you executed.” The men assigned to the task moved solemnly toward the kings mother. “Wait!” cried the King. “There’s one more thing.” The King stood and removed his shirt. Then covering his mother with his own body the King exclaimed,
Proceed!
Even this does not begin to describe the love that surpasses knowledge.
Even so, Passover has officially started as I publish this.
Enantiodromia is a Greek word that means “running in opposite ways”. Its contemporary use began when Carl Jung coined it to describe the tendency of one extreme to give birth to its polar opposite. Enantiodromia is most easily depicted in a pendulum where the extent of one swing is largely determined by the extent of the previous one. We see it in history where uber-conservative societies become licentious and vice versa. Perhaps it is most evident in Christianity and politics, especially when the two are combined.
“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” ECC 1:9
As I’ve said before, the mission field taught us a lot about the goodness and faithfulness of God amdist life-threatening situations and everything in the natural going wrong, amidst all of our earthly expectations being unfulfilled. We have come to understand that suffering is and always has been the norm for most of the world. Now we are in Greeneville Tennessee ministering to equally broken people and the as of yet unbroken one percent
whom God loves as much as the other ninety-nine.
We have found the tribulation of Rom 5:1-5 and the patience of James 1:1-4 to be vital in our understanding of the word of God and God’s ultimate plan. We have purposed to walk all of this out in the context of Prov 3:5-8. God always provided exactly what we needed to survive despite our not having a paycheck for 6 years. He guided us to whom we should serve and provided for them too. He will continue to provide because
He is the provider.
The proverbial midnight hour is His favorite time to come through.
We have learned the “name it and claim it” prosperity theme that undergirds so much of contemporary theology often results in confusion and frustration because people askamiss that they may spend it on their pleasuresJames 4:2-4. That might be a hard word for those who have never experienced the conditions in which the majority of His bride currently resides. We have seen a similar error in gluttony for signs, wonders, and demonstrations of power. I sometimes wonder; is it unbelief or are people just bored with T.V.? Jesus did not come to entertain us. He came to destroy the works of the enemy. Interestingly He was rebuking the Pharisees when he declared “a wicked and perverse generation seeks after a sign.” Later in the same chapter, He warned about the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees who in addition to being the religious leaders of the day were also opposing, political factions. It was amidst this political and religious division that the Sons of Zaddock set themselves apart from the leavenous religious and political turmoil to preserve the genuine Jewish calendar and scriptures at Qumran.
Qumran
We have learned that the purpose of prayer is for us to align with God’s will – not to align His will with ours. We have learned that His will is best even when it seems to fail in our eyes and external circumstances appear tragic. We have learned that His will has little if anything to do with our comfort in this life, that earthly comfort and prosperity are incidental to His purpose.
Tribulation is not.
We have learned that the Christian walk is NOT about OUR blessing. It is a stripping away of our self-centered desire to be blessed. It is a 1 Corinthians 3:15 burning up our cravings and fluff. A Heb 12:27 shaking of our silly significance, self-image, performances, facades, and narcissism to reveal the Romans 7:24 body of death that hangs around all of our necks for which God gave His only begotten Son so that all who believe would be saved and walk in Romans 8:1-4 freedom.
We have come to understand that our life is not about OUR identity.
Today we look at ourselves in the mirror and see that much dross remains, much that needs to be stripped, much in us that still needs to die. This dying is a vital step in our continued healing. James wrote “let patience have her perfect work so you may be complete desiring nothing”,‘Nothing’ismēdeís – desiring nobody, nothing. Not one man or woman or anything. We understand that this makes zero sense to those who presume to teach and promise prosperity, justice, and Heaven on earth now. It’s a genuine paradox until we take that first step in obedient faith. We have friends whom we deeply love and who insist on preaching these very things that we have already obediently rejected – the things that Jesus rejected. Luke 14:26. As scary, enigmatic, and lonely as this sounds it is not because He doesn’t want us to have anyone or anything. Rather He wants His desires to become our desires. Psalm 37:4 He wants to give us everything – to have what He has. He can’t do that if our hearts, and minds, are full of our own cravings, and ideas about how things ought to be.
His will won’t be done in our lives if we are fighting Jesus in Jesus’s name.
The Pendulum
People often cite Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses in 1571 as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Yet the English Reformation preceded it by 40 years when Mary Queen of Scots, a devout Catholic, began ordering the deaths of hundreds of protestant heretics in Jesus’s name.
Mary Queen of Scots
John Hooper the Bishop of Gloucester was among the first. The queen somewhat graciously offered Hooper a pardon provided he would publicly recant his anti-Catholic views. He refused and was sentenced to be burned at the stake. As the story goes, high winds on the day of his execution made it hard to get a suitable fire started and only Hooper’s legs and groin were burned. One might think he’d have been tempted to change his mind and recant. Instead, he cried out,
“For the love of God, good people, let me have more fire!”
Hooper defiantly beat his chest until his arm fell off. He did the same with the other until it also fell off.
Eventually, these stubborn Hooper-inspired reformers prevailed and became the dominant political force under Queen Elizabeth, a devout Protestant, and the Church of England was born. Ironically, this new and allegedly doctrinally sound church held onto some Catholic traditions like “vestments” (Priestly garb) along with some other liturgical traditions. Some believers became incensed. They saw it as clear evidence that the spirit of the antichrist was in their midst. So, they split from the apostate Church of England, and the Puritan or the “Precisionist” movement was born. The Church of England’s clergy were quite offended of course. And it didn’t take long for the very people who had survived Mary’s reign of terror to begin arresting, jailing, torturing, hanging, drawing, quartering, castrating, and disemboweling their Puritan brethren
in Jesus’s name.
Some fled to Amsterdam in 1608 where the Lutheran Reformation was in full swing and the myriad core protestant denominations were formed. Among these were my own ancestors, John Alden and Priscilla Mullins who eventually left for the New World on the Mayflower. John Alden was among the men who signed the Mayflower Compact. He served as assistant governor of the Plymouth colony from 1631 until his death in 1687.
He persecuted Quakers and Baptists in Jesus’s name.
Two years ago Amos 3:7 was foundational for those wanting to believe in a God-ordained, prophetically declared election outcome.
“For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.”
Agreed!
Ironically the book of Amos tells the story of Israel falling into idolatry and hypocrisy during a time of political stability and prosperity. While there is no doubt that Donald Trump was elected according to God’s will in 2016, the same biblical principle applies to the election of Joe Biden in 2020 because
Milo Yiannopoulos Bathes in Pig’s Blood at First Conservative Pro-Trump Art Show
The inane politicization of the Christian faith has always resulted in absurd, blasphemous and sometimes dangerous theology. It always has and always will divide the body of Christ from Him and each other. Each swing of the pendulum produces more Mary Queens of Scots and John Hoopers. At best we will remain divided until we realize that we are one body, one bride united in the same mind and same judgment that He intends to make spotless and that His Kingdom is as Jesus clearly stated,
If it were His disciples would have fought and killed for it as when 1000 Sicarii Jewish Patriots tried and failed to make Israel great again at Masada in 73 AD. Most of them ended up killing their wives and children and then themselves rather than surrender.
Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth, I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. Acts 10:34-35
WWII German soldier returning to find his family and home is gone forever. Vietnam warVietnam warAfghan war victim
It occurred to me as I traveled to so many places on the mission field that at any time my government could label the people I served as enemies and my children could be sent to kill them. My grandmother was a missionary in China and left just before the Japanese invaded.
Today we have Christian Nationalists prepping to fight China or Russia. Meanwhile, I live in a Tennessee county that was divided during the Civil War. Today Christian Nationalists and Marxian Leftists are discussing the likleyhood of yet another one to be fought in Jesus’s name. At some point, the body of Christ needs to own the hypocrisy of singing “God Bless America” while cheering the bombing of His people to hell in Jesus’s name. Like it or not we were not given the ministry of political transformation. We are given 2 Corinthians 5 ministry of reconciliation.
In Jesus’s name
Today the Church has so many false gospel flavors that align with what entitled itching ears want to hear. We have the left-wing WOKE gospel with its neo-Marxist roots. We have the right-wing replacement theology that makes the church into God’s chosen over the rejected Jews and the USA into Jerusalem. We have Christian nationalism and progressive Christianity that mix the aspects above in varying degrees. There are Christian witches and New-Age Christians. We have Interfaith, Chrislam, and the Perennialism of Oprah and Richard Rohr. We have a prosperity gospel, grave sucking and canceling racism by the authority of Gandalf. We have the Vatican siding with globalists, validating the New Age and denying the existence of Hell. We even have emerging AI Christians ready to evangelize those worshiping an AI God in the metaverse. Instead of screening our views in accordance with Paul’s warning in Galatians 1:8-9, we divide ourselves based on our subjective opinions of how the world ought to be and the resulting constructs of God’s and our identities.
Today a few of the previously fervent “Trump prophets” are saying that Trump lost in 2020 because America and especially God’s people did not turn from their 2 Chron 7:14 wicked ways. Maybe it’s just me but I really didn’t need a prophet to tell me that. God has always given a nation its leaders based on the righteousness of the people.
2 Chron 7:14 has always applied to God’s people first even though we often apply it to everyone but ourselves.
He will heal our land if we repent.
Repentance for the body of Christ begins with asking ourselves, “Is Jesus being lifted up, or is someone else being glorified in His name?”“Am I really praying “Thy will be done”? or do I want my will done in Jesus’s name? Are we being led by Holy Spirit as we mediate on God’s word? Or are we being led by books written and promoted by celebrity pulpits? Do we believe what God has already said?
Or do we believe God changes in accordance with what we want to hear?
We have justified our blood-thirsty patriotism with our opposition to abortion. We pointed the finger and demanded repentance from those who don’t even know Jesus. Now we cheer over the repeal of Roe V Wade. But Roe V Wade never was a law. Neither is its repeal. It has only clarified the division between those who would never choose abortion and those who always will. Meanwhile, we remain one nation under God, subject to His discipline in Jesus’s name.
As a nation, we are perverting the Imago Dei by sexualizing children, normalizing paraphilias, and following the exact path of reprobates whom Paul described in Rom 1:18-32 and Jeremiah rebuked for 40 years. We shake our heads and roll our eyes in disgust when we learn that some schools in the so-called Bible belt provide litter boxes for kids who identify as “Furries” and send our kids back to school the next day.
Our silence about the hard things guards our comfort. Our willingness to cheer others who contend with evil preserves our vicarious self-righteousness.
We sing and pray and cry out for revival but we won’t sweep the leaven from His temple and our own lives. We are far too concerned with preserving our grandiose illusions about our identities. We won’t allow, let alone invite God to search and try us so we can truly heal. If we are biblically literate and even a little honest we see that the USA fits the type and shadow of Ninevah in the Book of Nahum or maybe Babylon in Revelation 18.
We’d rather imagine ourselves as a repentant Israel under Cyrus in Isaiah 45.
While I wish him no harm, and might even vote for him if he runs again, I often wonder if God won’t take Donald Trump out completely for the sake of His biblically confounded bride. That so many continue to proclaim any political party or candidate as a fulfillment of the gospel of the Kingdom is absurd. What frustrates me most is that political leaven is just one of many reasons why our witness is so powerless and that only 6% of Americans today have a biblical word view. It is why the left correlates Christians with Nazis, atheists call us crazy,
And young believers deconstruct in droves.
Listen, I have no issue with those who want to improve our country and way of life. After all, God calls both politicians and plumbers. I happen to think plumbers are more valuable and honorable. But if politics is your call then go for it. I do have a problem with those who believe the Bible and God’s plan are about MAGA, Social Justice, or any other false gospel. Those who would question or mock my political atheism should consider Galatians 1:8-9 and maybe do a word study on “accursed” – “Anathema“
Our experience on the mission field and countless others like us is proof that God is true to His word, that the true Gospel is the only answer for humanity and He preserves us in accordance with His will despite external circumstances. The abundant life is found in deliverance from all that holds us captive, Luke 4:18, the wounds that cause us to devour one another in Jesus’s name. Psalm 147:3 That abundance often comes with repentance amidst tremendous suffering and loss. Those who insist on fighting an earthy battle in the flesh, against the flesh for their best life now may soon find themselves fighting against God Himself in Jesus’s name. These will almost certainly be caught in a snare. Luke 21:35 What do you think? Will we learn from the past and repent before it’s too late? Will they know us by our endurance and love? Or will there be more John Hoopers before we are done? Mathew 10:16-18
