“You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small. You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small. A full and fair weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the LORD your God.” Deuteronomy 25:13-16
A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends. Proverbs 16:28
Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. Isaiah 59:1-4
Jesus, concluding the ‘Sermon on the Mount,’ (Matthew 7:24-25) said to put His words into practice so that when trouble comes your house will stand because it has been built upon the rock. Now we need to understand the meaning of what Jesus said. Why is it that if the words are so simple, why do we have so much disagreement about what the ‘right way’ is? The religious answer would likely be that the ‘right way’ is obvious, and those who ask such questions lack faith. Okay. Here is what is ‘obvious’ to me.
Trump is the untouchable icon of the Christian Right. Even now, as Putin’s madness and murder ravages the lives of millions, our politicians still fear crossing Trump in his praise of Putin (He just doesn’t approve of the war, and claims that if it weren’t for the stolen election this wouldn’t be happening—eyes roll…) The reason for this is simple—the power, votes, fund-raising, the culture, belongs to Trump inc. The Christians have been very supportive even the shadow of the January 6th coup attempt. (There may be a crack in the armor though…)
I’ve heard that democrats want to destroy the country in a myriad of ways; perhaps especially by bringing up past injustices that the diminishing white majority does not wish to look at. What really is the issue is one of power and authority. I recently heard a sermon on ‘Practical Teaching’ which concluded, very assuredly, that if one leaves church angry, one is just rebelling against the conviction of the Holy Spirit. What confidence in your authority pastor! But this is just a posture which has been handed down to us since humans have been humans and accelerated with the birth of mass Christian media. This mass media environment creates the hierarchal context in which all teaching takes place.
In the American view of things, bigness, success, power, in the context of ‘in-God-we-trust,’ is seen as having the blessings of God. Pat Robertson and numerous other pioneers (riding the wave of eschatological speculations) amassed money and power to evangelize—the way in which they did it is pedagogical. One uses money as the means (power) to serve the interests of God. (Remember what Jesus said about God and money?) Pyramids are erected, certain rings need to be kissed, to work your way up the ladder. The corporate world works much the same as the church. Since this ‘health-and-wealth,’ dare I say, ‘me’ centered approach, dominates as the ‘Right Way,’ preachers like Joel Osteen can deliver pretty much the same sermon, from any text in the Bible, to grow your faith big to receive God’s blessing. Littler guys must not cross the big boys too much if you’re going to put butts in the seats and money in collection plate. Our obsession with superstars, secular and sacred, is obvious to this malcontent. Celebrity endorsements are a powerful thing.
Our teachers tell us that knowledge is consigned to the pharisees who would like nothing more than to saddle the poor with heavy loads comprised of empty rules. How clever. Faith is separated from knowledge as it is held up as the virtue. As the practice of intellectual scrutiny is diminished, the dominance of the culture which feeds on the faithful thrives—leaving the faithful ill equipped to bring up the question of what Jesus meant when He talked about serving God and money. The connection in the sermon about practical teaching completely divorced the concept of authority (which as the Creator—Jesus has) and what the pharisees were doing which was just making stuff up so they could be the authority having respect and admiration of the faithful. Same thing happening today.
We are so caught up with money and power as a means of doing God’s will, we will look the other way from obvious dishonesty and fraud. This comes back to the Christian Icon, Trump, and how such a bad man could have amassed such devotion. The cognitive dissonance is astounding; most of the Republicans side with Ukraine yet still back the man who praises Putin as a brilliant leader. He lies, cheats, hides, steals without regard for the discord he sows or the people he hurts. When he praises a bloodthirsty dictator who is doing something most Republicans do not like, I can only come to conclude that people who freely empower Trump want a dictator themselves. The Bible has been and is used to endorse slavery. If one gives the dictator what he wants, he or she will not incur the wrath of God’s hand on earth—and may even be richly blessed with power and money yourself. If you question this, or point out the dissonance, you are faithless and disobedient.
We have lost our way. What is obvious to me is not at all obvious to millions. Who is right?
I’m not going to trust in ‘chariots and horses.’ I will keep believing that it is not okay, at all, to endorse a liar and an obviously morally vacuous man as ‘our’ champion. I believe no one is above the law—and that the legal system for the rich is structured in such a way that justice can be delayed for as long as one has the resources to tie things up. I remember all the Bible has to say about people who claim to speak for God making predictions that don’t come true. But despite all this, all the dirty tricks, all the lies, all the endorsement of brutality, the democrats are worse for wanting to talk about systemic injustice. We believe swimming in the cesspool our lords have engineered for us to swim in is, all the mudslinging about this and that (as I’m slinging as well,) if not a holy thing, the expedient thing to do in service to God. We cannot see the mess we are in because we cannot see for the firehose of bullshit being blasted in our faces every day. What is obvious is not obvious.
Our pharisees, our religious lords, have taught us to not think, but to do what you are told to do by those duly blessed to issue marching orders. The worldly philosophers do not see this as love, but rather it is antithetical to the Christian message—which is love. Millions are falling away from the faith, the house is crumbling, and Christians do not understand why. It’s just the ‘forces of Satan’ and the wickedness which is the faithful explanation—our failure to yield to proper guidance. Love is supposed to transcend all this, to seek to understand and be understood, for this is what create connections between people—this shows another human being their worth. Isn’t the central message of the Bible that God worked painstakingly to reveal Himself (even appealing to reason—Isaiah 1:18) to His creatures? Why then will not even consider the notion that there are many wrongs that need to be talked about.
This is related to all the cover-ups so common in the Christian world. It is unacceptable to not do everything in your power to avoid the appearance of evil. Stuff gets out; and when it does come out, often because the seculars revealed the truth, the damage is immense. Cover-ups are some of the evilest things that Christians do. This is what all the hullabaloo about social justice is about. Christians deny, but the truth is getting out—making the church appear to be evil, patriarchal, and authoritarian in the eyes of many. Christians fight back by pointing out all the libertine sex stuff in our society, name your own hated perversion, while creating a culture where in abuse cases the assumption of benefit lies with religious authority (or those who the authorities have given a mulligan—or two, or three, or as many as necessary.) Dangerous predators are protected as women and children who are actively taught that those in authority are their protectors thus denying them a voice, all to avoid the appearance of evil and to forward a vision of utopia of peace and plenty to the world as witness of our ‘truth.’ This does not add up to the worldly philosophers as equal love for all.
It is time for confession and a serious reckoning with what we’ve been taught as being obvious. All the ‘signs’ say the Christian Right’s reliance on power, it’s protection of criminals, it’s maintenance of oppressive hierarchies which leaves millions without a voice, leaves a serious impression of corruption upon the outsider. It is truth which sets us free. But if we choose to remain obstinate to not question what we’ve been taught we will cleverly invent various schemes to place the blame elsewhere turning the whole mess into a culture war.
We are told that ‘love covers a multitude of sins’ (1 Peter 4:8) yet the Church’s finger pointing about the sins of the world is biting them hard—because it is hypocritical. We’ve created a theology which supposes the evidence to salvation be adherence to certain ‘norms.’ The book ‘White Too Long’ gives an ugly look at those norms which are the very kind of things the conduits of God’s power on earth would very much like to leave submerged. Salvation is not found in following rules, it is found in loving truth and in loving period. The truth is that everyone is equal, everyone deserves a voice, and everyone should be afforded the dignity of a reasoned argument to this or that position. A primary undermining of the Christian witness to the world involves the white churches view that it is their culture which will bring salvation to the world. The ‘others’ ought to be grateful for our benevolence. This is screwed up to the core.
Offering an alternative to this view, the very act of listening is an act of love. But we don’t listen, we tell. The very act of hashing out differences, admitting to being wrong, trying to understand, is love. Covering up, saying there is little to forgive, is not. Salvation is not found in human condemnation; conviction is the Spirit’s job. It is what is in the heart that matters, mere appearances are illusory. It is not might which saves but love.
What is love? You know the list. Do we practice the list? (1 Corinthians 13.) Do we love what is noble and pure? (Philippians 4:8) I’d say if we did, we’d avoid hitching our wagons to political fortunes and to amoral liars like the Trumps. But then I’m a divider as well (Titus 3:10.) Now we circle right back around to who is right. Truth is at the very center of the conflict. Traps, false dilemmas, and other modes of fallacious reasoning, haunt us. We must be loving but are also called to be as ‘wise as serpents’ (Matthew 10:16) placing us in the very difficult position to have to reason with people, and to defend yourself and the weak. Wolves are in the middle of the flock, does the Bible teach us to leave each other to the wolves?
I’m not sorry to say that leaving things to ‘it feels right’ and ‘let go, let God’ just doesn’t cut it to discover biblical truth. Biblical literacy continues to decline as all the superstars who’ve been teaching us the practical applications of our faith. The connection here is obvious to me. It is my belief that a good leader (and teacher) should strive to work him or herself out of a job. What does the illiteracy surveys tell us about what kind of job they’ve been doing? Just have faith and obey authority—we’ll tell you what to do. We have a culture which sees the ‘right thing’ is what the culture tells you to believe and do. They are not really interested in training up other shepherds—that would cut into their action. As the edifice crumbles, as people leave the church, the sermons seem to ramp up the necessity of doing more without too much examination of what we are doing and why. The dissonance has built to the point where the people have a lot of angst about why the church is in decline but have no training or inclination to do some self-examination over the way we do church—what we are telling the world about who we are.
We are telling the world that we are pragmatists willing to overlook lies and evil to bring about a greater good through adherence to proper authority. We get our undies in a bunch about what ‘proper’ means, but in the end, the philosophy of authority remains as the wolves feed. Many of our pastors are just not bright enough to see this parroting what they’ve been taught by their higher ups. All this wrapped up in feelings, assumptions, and well-meaning piety. We think it is good and pious to back liars and criminals because we’ve been taught to do so.
“You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.” Matthew 7:16-17
Going through the latest news, I got to thinking about the above line from the prayer (see previous post) and how, since no names were called out, the prayer is ambiguous enough to leave room to suppose Zelenskiy and the Ukrainians to be the primary evil actors who warrant such a violent response. I think this for two basic reasons: (1) The Q world supposes this action may be justified so that Russia may secure U.S. bio-weapons labs located there before we have another epidemic. (2) A Representative out of Trump world, Madison Cawthorn, called Zelenskiy a ‘thug,’ and that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt, evil, and is pushing ‘woke ideologies.’
My first question is this now an acceptable tactic in the Christian Right to use one thug to tackle another? If Putin isn’t obviously a thug, I don’t who would be. I went back and reviewed the tape where Zelenskiy was humiliated by Trump. During the ‘meeting,’ Trump was being hounded by the Media over the ‘perfect phone call,’ of which Zelenskiy, the underdog being squeezed here, was doing his best to stay out of the middle. Amid this embarrassment, Trump scolded Zelenskiy like a child basically stating, in a less-than-direct way, that he favors Putin. Period. It’s in the body language, the tone of speech, the facial expressions, and the words… Trump was a bully towards a foreign leader who was elected in a landslide on an idea expressed in Zelenskiy’s TV show, ‘Servant of the People.’
Cawthorn’s idiocy stems from a common myth perpetuated by our various ideological state apparatuses which supposes the State is not only the answer to everything, but also it is literally the center of everything. In this mode of thinking, if one supposes the government to be corrupt then the people must also be corrupt and thus must be subject to whatever approved, and ‘corralled’ governments must do to reform and cleanse the people from their deep corruption. The Christian Right supposes this to be the role of government, as the will of God, to control the evil found in common folk. This forms the ideological base of Trumpism, which will survive regardless of whatever happens to the asshats who gave the movement (pardon the pun) its name. This gives Cawthorn the moral confidence to suppose that since there is corruption in the Ukrainian government, I’m sure there is, the people must also be corrupt as well (regardless of their landslide support of an idea which stood against corruption and oligarchy.)
This too, ought to be chilling to homegrown folks in the U.S. of A. This is what the righteous folk think of you ‘woke’ types. In the Right’s line of logic, since our government, at least the democrats, is deeply corrupt, child-raping vampires harvesting adrenochrome and what not, the people who elected these evil beings need to be punished for supporting such evil.
Hmm… Let’s examine this.
Firstly, it seems the job of ‘reporting’ various outrages has gone to amateurs, conspiratorial-types, who are very shoddy at collecting actual evidence; there is no governing process of professional peer-review, it’s a free for all. I make no claim to be a reporter, I’m a polemicist who relies upon the traditional, peer-policed, professional and integrity-based avenues which bring me the news—and I pay them for it. (Fox News is a totally shameless shill chasing a buck.) A better conspiracy in my mind involves a more obvious program of undermining confidence in the peer-reviewed news, to replace them with those who report the ‘news’ from a more ideologically ‘correct’ position. Trust is built upon factors relating more towards charisma than peer-enforced standards of integrity. I cite as one piece of evidence Tucker Carlson’s repeated barfing out of obvious bullshit with no fear of professional consequences whatsoever. Why? Because he brings in the money. Honor is dead.
What are the ‘right’ things? The intensity of hatred towards the evil of ‘woke ideologies’ puzzles me. It’s obviously both a coded and trigger phrase since the politicians, and ‘journalists’ use it to great fundraising effect. What are ‘woke ideologies’ anyway?
In the link above, our rational explainer of the ‘woke’ destroyer of the people (please read the article so you’ll know what I’m talking about for the next bunch of paragraphs) accuses the ‘social justice warrior’ of many of the same things the Christian Right says and does while clearly planting the flag of ‘truth’ in his own territory. ‘Truth’ really is at the center of things, isn’t it? Christianity is a collection of various ideologies which seek to teach us a better system of belief which leads us to a better way of life. A common thread in Christian thought is that proselytizing is good thing—we all need Jesus—but when a ‘social justice warrior’ does it, it’s bad. But we’re back to ‘truth’ aren’t we? Ralston’s list of spotting the ’Woke Ideologue’ falls on its own sword.
Point 1 involves spotting loaded phrases like ‘implicit bias’ or ‘white privilege’ as a red flag to guard yourself against potential conversion. Never mind that those above phrases have a far narrower (and academic) definitions than the catch phrases of the ‘Make America Great Again’ or ‘Woke Ideologies’ battle cries which could mean just about anything.
Point 2 is, in principle, agreeable of course, although it seems Ralston is employing ad hominem when he says things like, ‘She’s insufferable.’ It is also hard to accept the general assumption of adherence to the scientific facts when the Right, as a posture, tends to reject evidence which does not fit into its ideology. Anything from climate change to the simple statistical fact that a black man is two and a half times more like to be killed in a hostile encounter with police than a white man is rejected as obviously not true for ideological reasons. Ya’ll seem to be very fond of straw men as the ‘debate’ on ‘Critical Race Theory’ rages on—but let’s not get lost in the weeds, shall we?
Point 3. Speaking of assumption and ad hominem! Whiskey Tango Foxtrot—that is an utterly stupid assertion to make. You claim to be a professor? Your students are getting ripped off. ‘Irrational exuberance’ belongs only to the Social Justice Warriors? Oh yeah, this relates to the ‘truth’ thing, right? If you have the ‘truth’ then you’ve moved beyond ideology; I get it Obi-Wan… You so smart.
Point 4: ‘Just when I though you couldn’t get any dumber…’ (Ah, dammit now I’m guilty of ad hominem; needing to ‘totally redeem’ myself now.) This point 4 implicitly says, ‘You don’t care, I do.’ Really? Because they generally have no real concern for the truth? Who does? You? The Right? The journalists? The politicians? The rabble?
Allow me to introduce an alternative idea by asking a question: Do we, to any significant degree, concern ourselves with things we need but perceive to already have? When one already has a perceived, comfortable portion of ‘truth,’ then to what degree are you concerned with, let’s say, confirmation bias? Better be careful, poking around there could rock your world. The trap lies within our perceived investment in something, an ideology, a relationship, a physical thing of some sort, so that we see ourselves as too invested in that thing to walk away from it. The possession of the ‘truth’ is a valuable thing; indeed, it’s a hard thing from which to walk away.
The truth is something we all desperately need but it is a very hard thing to hold onto. Our adversary is called the ‘Father of Lies’ for a reason. Lies keep us from the truth which could set us free. Part of the struggle involve recognizing our own limitations. There are books out there, like ‘Being Wrong’ and ‘The Invisible Gorilla’ which can help with the sorting process and, with me, are therapeutic. Speaking of scientific reasoning and evidence, did you know that it is a statistically established fact that people who blather on confidently about how they know this or that are far less likely to give a truthful, knowledgeable answer to a specific question than someone who is not afraid to say, ‘I’m not sure, I’ll have to look into that’ when they don’t really know? (Look it up.) In other words, the confident fellow is much more likely to make something up when he doesn’t really know, so you won’t lose faith in him—loss of power is the issue. Dealing with uncertainty, however, not only takes a lot of work but also undermines confidence (in either yourself and/or your champion) which can really rip into the happiness portion of a person. It’s far easier to just have faith. (Sartre would agree in that in his mind the only truth to be had is found in human choice itself.)
This is where I’d think God would derive most of His laughs, our surety. Vast Christian teaching empires have arisen to show us the way to the right kind of faith; as faith barged its way into politics, Romans 13 and all that, do you not think that the arduous work involved in pursuit of evidence under constant threat of challenge and criticism would eventually fall to the comfort of a confident ideology? And that comfortable ideology would not fall to charisma and ambition as fact-checkers are pushed into irrelevance? I don’t understand charisma but have observed that it pays very well to have it. These teachers, blessed with the enigmatic gift, suck up our money to teach us how to be like them; we learn the greed part all right, but the charisma part not so much. It all sells because we want the comfort of surety. It frees our minds from doubt and contains within the great benefit of allowing us to be righteous.
Pulling this together, the surety of Cawthorn’s accusation, although he is (at least out loud) in the minority currently, provides comfort in our investment. Our investment, er, the Christian Right’s investment, if I may remind you, is that man who humiliated Zelenskiy in front of the whole world by bullying him and by openly airing a whole host of conspiracy theories, related and unrelated, about how corrupt the Ukrainians are, undermining and weakening (dare I say intentionally because Trump may not be smart enough to be so calculating because he is just plain wired to be an asshole—though he is smart enough to keep the bully in the box when there is a bigger, smarter dog in the room—i.e. Putin) the very idea the Ukrainians said they wanted in a landslide vote. That is a clear abuse of power, but who am I to question the prophets and the ‘wisdom beyond human wisdom’? Yeah, the Russians are intentionally killing civilians to terrorize them into submission. But the Ukrainians deserve it because our dear leader, our cause, our surety, will not back off an investment. That’s the trick we must play on our minds to not fall victim to the utter horror of it all. Lip service is paid to the horror of the war, but we will not back off that in which we’ve placed our faith.
‘…that you would thwart the dark plans and desires of evil men… bring a peace that is strong and not weak… deescalate this crisis today…’ It’s all there in the language of faith and hope which defies any ‘human’ analysis and/or wisdom. Thugs are not good men. Observing the Ukrainian response to murder of their families and leveling of their cities, their resolve is only to be hardened. Our analysts, experts in the field, say there is no ‘end-game’ for Putin; he has doubled-down and is all in—it’s about pride. Tactically, Putin has been defeated on the ground—all he has is the terror of massive firepower used against civilians. De-escalation is a fantasy. I’m forced to consider that Cawthorn is only expressing a deeply held belief in authoritarian rule which Christians have been trained to believe deep down that this is the way God wants things to be—God wants us to understand that some people are more equal than others. No amount of brutality can change that because we understand that Ukraine, all of it, is evil; and as God used pagan nations to punish His people for their sin, so too we must embrace the necessary evil of wanton carpet bombing to restore the proper order. Christians want the Ukrainians to throw up the white flag, so we do not have to witness the ongoing carnage; they care little for the murder, crimes, betrayal, lies, oppression, or for the will of a people to live in freedom and dignity—even though they talk a mean game about having this for themselves. Submit to the brutal autocrat, change your evil ways—that will make us feel better. Putin is our guy’s guy.
Is there hope in negotiating with the surety of righteous? Does the Master’s teaching on good and bad trees producing good and bad fruit, respectively, have any weight?
My prayer…
Father,
May the Russian army experience total defeat; may the Ukrainian weapon’s aim be sure and true. May the people of Russia rise against Putin and tear down his rule. May Putin stand trial before the ICC. May Zelenskiy live a full life and be rewarded for his leadership and bravery in the face of death and the very possible murder of his family. May an equal voice, respect, and dignity come to all people. May people love justice, cherish mercy, and humbly seek the truth no matter what it costs—even though that may mean admitting that we are wrong.
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
Below are excerpts from a submitted prayer which was passed along to the congregation on behalf of the Ukrainian people. I’ll be making a few observations on the language employed in the prayer as a preface to an analysis of the sermon which followed— ‘Practical Teaching.’
“…Political leaders around the globe which we are grateful for…even those on the other side of the issue… that their hearts and minds be changed…The truth of Romans 8:28 ‘bring good out of difficulties for those who love the Lord…bring us together for your good and for the kingdom…Father God, king of all the nations, you are our rock, our fortress, our deliverer. We cry out to you on behalf of the people of Ukraine. We ask you to rescue those who are vulnerable…. That they may live without fear… to live with hope and confidence…Our politicians and leaders are predicting the largest war in Europe since 1945… We cry out to you to write another story, in our time…may we see it, and may our only response be, only God could have done this. We pray that you would thwart the dark plans and desires of evil men… give wisdom beyond human wisdom to peacemakers, those in authority seeking a reasonable and far less violent way… help them exercise wisdom from above… willing to yield… save the live of many peoples in Ukraine… bring a peace that is strong and not weak… deescalate this crisis today… Amen.”
Understandably this is all very upsetting. I appreciate the heart of crying out to God over the disturbing thought of (white?) people dying as a result of an unprovoked assault upon a nation. Ever consider our arming of our proxies the Saudis to kill Iranian proxies in Yemen (which kills a lot of innocents as well?) This prayer has holes, big ones; the most obvious and central one is the failure to even ask the question of what our culpability may be to help bring about this atrocity (along with many others.) Heaven forbid! Instead, we merely ask for the God-of-the-gaps to miraculously fix it. Examining the language line by line…
Since my political bias is strongly libertarian (a word which has been co-opted by the Trumpers which forces me to consider using the word anarchist,) I bristle at the thought of being grateful for being subject to the manipulation, theft, lies, corruption, and sabotage of our political leaders. But such is the program of the Christian Right which has worked tirelessly for decades to unite political forces with ‘Christian’ goals and under religious authority. The language in the prayer assumes my dutiful subjugation to such forces and requires my appreciation of being so subject—as the prayer is being relayed by a religious authority as the way things should be.
‘That their minds be changed’ to what exactly? Do we not remember Samuel’s warning to the people of what kings do? Again, we suppose, with the ‘Seven Mountain Mandate’ program emplaced into our minds, such forces can be bent to the ‘chosen people’s will.’ We really have no collective clue what that ought to be do we?
‘For those who love the Lord.’ What? ‘Bring us together…’ A few elements of a common Christian mindset are present in the next few lines. We inherently know war is awful; what Putin is doing is evil. This is where our culpability in the whole stinking mess must be dodged, and our feelings assuaged. In the first place, people who don’t love the Lord are people too. They are being blown up and burned alive because of the desire of a madman (the prayer gets this right.) Do we imagine that our worship and undying support of our dear sociopath (who basked in the adoration of Christian Right as he shamelessly empowered and encouraged Putin in whatever he was spinning up) is now an evangelistic opportunity for God to show His miraculous power? That’s just fucking nuts….
Remember that the prayer has been placed within the context of Romans 8:28. This means the Russian-Ukrainian war is being framed as an opportunity rather than a horrific tragedy of human carnage which we helped make happen. Don’t you remember all the shit Trump did to the Ukraine to forward his own goals? Remember Trump siding with Putin over the word of people in his own administration? We cheered it. We helped empower Putin to do this.
Because of the leadership in Ukraine (i.e. ‘I need ammunition, not a ride) the Ukrainian people are generally sticking their collective middle fingers up in the air so that part of prayer is already being fulfilled. The only way they are not going to live in fear is for a Ukrainian victory. This is true for the Russian people as well. For all the brutality Putin has displayed towards his own people (remember how Trump has praised Putin as a leader,) his arrests of anyone critical of him (we have people here in the Christian Right who want the same thing,) his killing of journalists and dissidents, his ‘fake news’ laws (here we just have ‘Fox News’ to keep people thinking what they need to think,) our request ‘to write another story’ is quite frankly contrary to the story we set up to have happen. What do you think is going to happen when you empower evil men? Flowers and sunshine? We haven’t been watchful; we’ve been deceived.
I too pray that the plans of evil men (and women) be thwarted. It’s just that I include leaders in the Christian Right to be in that bunch. The Russian Church, whom Putin enthusiastically embraces, is equally complicit—to make Russia Great Again. There is no less violent way to end the evil; Putin is the kind of evil who has moved beyond reach of negotiation. If you seek evidence of God’s direct intervention, I suggest the evidence be Putin order an immediate withdrawal and physically submit himself to the Hauge for war crimes prosecution. Anything less, including total military defeat for Russia (which would be evidence for the tenacity of the Ukrainian people,) or some group of politicians stabbing the Ukrainian people in the back thus leading to their subjugation (which would be evidence for many that is what God wanted for everyone in the first place) is just evidence of human action and reaction. I’d refrain from putting God on the hook for this evil.
I pray for the total, utter destruction of Russian army, navy, and air forces at the hands of the Ukrainian forces; and fall of Putin at the hands of his own people.
‘You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.’ Ezekiel 34: 3-4
My willingness to speak out against our ‘best hope’ for a free, and ‘Christian,’ America has not been warmly met by my Christian peers. I know I am in the minority; and I mourn. Yet again, our chosen one, the one who will fill the judiciary with suitable people who will put the brakes on abortion and protect other various ‘Christian’ values, demonstrates his lawless insanity. We have embraced an unstable, corrupt liar as our representative. Our witness is gone because we side with the wicked.
When confronted with an opposing reality, my peers often freely admit Trump is not a good man. If he is not a ‘good’ man, then what is he? I can see and hear blood pressures rise as I press the issue; yet the faithful fall back to ‘faith’ in prophecies, the details of which they often don’t know the first thing about. The world of rumor on Facebook and other social media platforms ‘form up’ into some nebulous quagmire of sordid ‘facts’ to which ‘something’ must be done. Our prophets teach us that this ‘something’ is Trump. With evil shepherds come the feast.
Need we do a Bible study about what the character of what a good leader ought be? Does the Bible, a messy collection of stories about very flawed human beings, advocate an ‘ends-justify-the-means’ approach to ethics? Getting down to it then, is this, surely ‘perfect,’ phone call justified towards the ‘higher’ goal of keeping this man in office? In the old world, in a free Republic, the (arguably) most powerful man in the world calling an underling to threaten him with possible legal consequences unless he overthrow a legally certified election result would be considered an overtly corrupt, and criminal, act. But not in the new world evidently.
Those in the Christian Right advocate for authoritarianism because their prophets have (first) conjured up out of thin air, an authoritarian Jesus who is coming back to literally melt the faces off the wicked (That’s what happens at the conclusion of the ‘Left Behind’ series, which many have taken as Gospel.) We’ve cheered stories of the the Prince of Peace’s metamorphosis into a God of War in a ‘yet-to-come’ dispensation. No longer is the vision of the sword which precedes from His mouth (Revelation 1:16) a metaphor for that instrument which divides truth from falsity, ‘For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thought and intentions of the heart’ (Hebrews 4:12), but has become literally an instrument of bloodshed. This usurpation of the message of peace by evil teachers and prophets who titillate and sensationalize, telling stories involving little or loss (or risk) to ‘faithful’ Christians as they play out, in order to sell books and conferences which, getting down to it, justify our collective desire for revenge against those who (we’ve perceived) oppress us. Now that it’s been more than 70 years since the re-birth of Israel, the commonly understood clock in the various pre-millennial dispensational frameworks has run out. But don’t worry, dispensationalism itself need not be discarded as post-millennialism can be plugged into this dispensational framework as well; and successively, it is in the process of doing so.
The ‘Left Behind’ stuff is not harmless fun, or whimsical speculation. The bloodthirsty pre-millennial eschatology has prepared the ground for us to embrace a man who we’ve been told will restore the ‘fortunes’ of Israel (a cruel joke because according to a majority of dispensationalist teaching about 80% of the Jewish people get slaughtered in the deal,) strengthen families (but not by serving as an example,) and perhaps save a few babies (by making abortions much more dangerous for poor women.) We’ve committed ourselves to power, political power, to meet the conditions of our mission. Economic might is an important part of this, so the ‘faithful’ will cite Trump’s ‘flawless’ economic performance to bolster their case for the necessity of tolerating a bad man; widows, orphans, and aliens be damned since it seems clear that God likes the tallest walls, badass vehicles to deliver bombs, and the massive accumulation of wealth into the hands of the top 1% —the finest among us. I suppose then we should white out this little teaching, ‘Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice’ (Proverbs 16:8.) But we don’t believe that do we? The ‘Christianity’ I see being taught today in the vast Christian media empires is, in my understanding of what I’ve studied with my own eyes, unrecognizable from that which I see is taught in the Bible. The truth, heart, mercy, and charity has been cut out to be replaced by counterfeits; if those qualities in true form remained, there is no way we could tolerate such an openly wicked man as Donald Trump.
‘Tis the human thing to justify and make excuses. We are lazy. Far easier to wrap up our ‘worship’ into manageable entertainment packages, to show up to receive the marching orders from the proper authorities, to pay the proper tributes to Caesar (whom we’ve hired to do our work,) to blame immigrants, Muslims, and homosexuals for all of our problems, so we may then think of ourselves as good Christians properly submitted. Is this really it?
Black and white worlds are easier to manage, are they not? But such ‘black and white’ worlds are illusions, just like the shadows cast in Plato’s Cave. Our leaders feed off our ability to produce bullshit and to then use it to their advantage. As I would reframe the imagery in The Republic, the light of the fire is the conglomeration of all our speculations casting chaotic waves of light upon our prison’s walls. Those would manage us in authoritarian fashion would manipulate that light to cast recognizable patterns on those walls in the form of shadows. (The AI algorithms in social media apps make this easy.) This casting of shadows is seen to benefit everyone as order is maintained through both alleviating boredom as those shadows have entertainment value; and the stories the shadows tell can also propose a shared purpose for our existence. The world outside the cave is scary, bright, and disorienting with its many shades and colors; nothing is fixed.
The individualist idealist, the philosopher, seeks to lead people out of the cave by trying to convince them their cavernous world is a prison of illusion which we all actively maintain for the sake of comfort. Most, perhaps, would prefer the safety of the cave. We could postulate that what little light flickers within the cave is at least our light, the greatest among us cast the best shadows to tell the finest stories. Those ‘greatest people’ would have a little incentive to lead anyone out of that environment since in the ‘free’ outside world the audience is not captive to be content with your shadows alone; there is too much to see in such a world—our greatest would lose their audience and hence their power. Outside the cave is a dangerous yet wonderous world filled with the promise of pain with the hope of healing. How much easier is it to remain in the shadow world to hear the story that our faith, if embraced, is balm which heals our every wound right now—you just have to have the right faith. It’s a nice story; but is it true? These kinds of shadows enslave us all.
In the ‘real’ world, the light is blinding and uncontrollable as it is not our own. We can learn about it, but we cannot make it. Truth just is. The scary thing about that truth is what it requires from us; it requires that we relinquish the illusion of control over history, over people—as Tolkien expressed in the overriding ethic of Middle Earth, the violation of Free Will to make us all servants of the masters is the closest thing to evil. God, whose character is depicted in Tolkien’s cosmology as Eru llύvatar, the One Allfather, did not create us to be puppets of anyone, including Himself.
But we do a fine job making puppets of each other by casting our own shadows on the wall to describe who God is and what He wants from us. The process of ascension now involves evolving from being generators and reflectors of little flickers of light to become large enough to use those flickers to cast your own shadows on the wall to really grab the attention of our peers. This to us is power. Through all the struggle described in the Bible, the reoccurring theme that God says He wants from us is mercy not sacrifice. He made it clear He hates lies, bribes, corruption, and injustice. He sent many prophets and finally His own Son to free us from oppression. Yet, among our own, oppressors have repeatedly risen among us to make up stories, to cast shadows, to keep us entertained within the prison of our own making. We cheer ‘The Wall,’ cages for children, the making of orphans, the pardons of butchers, liars, obstructors of justice, conspirators to defraud, perjurers, and the list goes on and on. Trump pardons his friends; mercy, or making political statements about criminal justice reform, has nothing to do with it. This is corrupt. Now we have a recording (Fake News! Fake News!) of a phone call from Trump to Georgia’s Secretary of State to ‘find’ 11,780 Trump votes, after the results have been legally certified by the laws of that state (which means Raffensperger would have to violate the law to ‘find’ those votes,) else face possible consequences (As vague at that sounds, it is still a threat from the President of the United State made to another official soliciting that official to break the law for the President’s benefit.) How on this green earth can you, in good conscience, support this wicked man? It is corruption, criminal solicitation, period. Our prophets have taught us to put the stamp of approval on this; and we gladly do, smug in our own righteousness that, after all, we’re pro-life. We justify this abomination, by bouncing around in our echo-chambers, parroting all the little possibilities that a vast secret cabal has spirited away all the evidence of massive, millions of votes, fraud, until ‘everyone’ (who means anything anyway) believes it. We applaud breaking the law to appease the empty assertions of (when it comes down to it) one man—the figurehead of the whole stinking mess. We’ve all been hit in the face with firehose of falsity for so long, that our discernment has been destroyed. We are too weary to even try to resist. All we’ve got left is to make our commitments to those who cast the shadows for there is no ‘real’ world; we given up on it (such a world is just a figment of some weird rebel people’s imagination.) In the mind of my enemies, I’m just a vastly lesser shadow caster. Trump casts a huge shadow upon us all—that’s the power of marketing.
I’m afraid this latest evidence of Trump’s corruption will not matter one whit in the mind of the good Christian. The commitment has been made; and I fear for the safety of our nation if millions of people honestly believe the lie that the election has been stolen. Evidence no longer matters. So dear Christians, shall we once again welcome the days where ‘evidence’ seen in dreams is admissible in a court of law? We’ve been there (Salem Witch Trials), and it seems we’re returning as we believe all the stuff which comes up out of nothing for Trump to then cast his shadows to his benefit. What Trump farts out of mouth is evidence now; and you support this—everyone is liar but Trump.
Psychologically it makes sense. We’ve been elevating liars (and those who are just plain ignorant but project a good spiritual aura) in our faith for a long time now. Our faith is now a fine home for charlatans. Apostle Paula, prophet and brother Kenneth, what have you for us to learn today? Oh, that was a fine conversation you had with God! Trump is our man? Okay; we’ll form up the lines. Apostle Simmons, please tell us again about your trip to heaven’s library where you were tempted to lift John 22 off the shelf! Well, it’s a good thing you submitted to God’s Will. As a man of character with a fine testimony to that character in the face of temptation, we’ll put our trust in you, and you alone, to tell us what God’s Word really says. (And I can go on and on listing these frauds by name describing their claims…)
We no longer community, but willing slaves to the masters. We are now at that point to believe that credibility now rests in proclaimed allegiance (see 1 Corinthians 1: 12-13.) Now that the Seven Mountain Mandate (a post-millennialist framework) has flown under the radar (piggybacking on the idea of dispensations, pretty music, and a media empire) to infiltrate churches worldwide, the realms of the spiritual and political have merged to bring hopes of a glorious new kingdom. That political power in the service to God, has been placed in Trump’s hands. And now, it seems, new shadows will have to be cast by those wishing to retain power if Trump indeed faces both defeat and prosecution. We won’t hope to begin to see the immense damage until he is gone. (But don’t worry too much, if the history of human nature holds, the shadow casters will still be able to make a good living. And you’ll keep sending them money.)
The law which will soon threaten your chosen one was thankfully adopted before our tragic corruption. The law still applies in the secular world—those troublesome laws which mirror the Laws given by the Law Maker (wielder of the uncontrollable light) hold that no man, no matter how rich, blessed, or holy is above the law. Though you in the Christian Right claim to want to ‘return’ to those pure laws, the reality of your ‘laws’ lies in the both the testimony of your prophets and in Trump—the ‘law’ is merely their Will (over others), the phone call is just more evidence of this. You want mere men (specifically, your men) to be above the law. Admit it.
I understand the perennial problem of unjust laws, but what Trump is doing (making unfounded accusations) is not the fix even if a significant problem existed. The evidence strongly points out that the elections are more secure than they’ve ever been—this the courts (and many, many other people in the know) have concluded. Since Trump is parroting and amplifying nonsense conjured up by a bunch of reckless speculators, what he is doing is just arson. Things could get (much more) violent because all the lies. You approve of this? I’d be willing to bet, a lot, that if the tables were turned and someone you didn’t like, like demoncrat Biden for instance, was pulling all this horribly destructive shit Trump’s pulling now, you’d be screaming bloody murder about truth, evidence, and the law! Don’t bother asserting to me that you’re principled. You like to talk of family values, sex, life but all of this is an illusory cover for something much darker. Hobbes Leviathan has taken a Christian form—swear allegiance to your sovereign for you owe him your allegiance in exchange for your safety. All this fealty to a false superior is done under a banner of good. Those who resist this order are deemed enemies of the state and of good Christian conduct—measures must then be taken. And they may still be.
And so here we are. At war. I side with the seculars in that Trump must be ousted in shame and then prosecuted for his many crimes (including the solicitation of Raffensperger to break the law for Trump’s benefit)—this will make Trump a martyr to many inspiring a big pile of righteous indignation. Despite this it must be done, to break the spell of the shadows cast in hopes that some may listen to that still, small (uncontrollable) voice which whispers to us all wooing us to step out of the cave—to step away from illusions and lies cast by your prophets and self-appointed apostles into a life of servitude. (You are so deceived to honestly believe a coup is your best chance for freedom?) If the opposers of Trump and all he stands for (and who stands with him,) in either weariness or fear, fail to hold Trump to account, we will have given our tacit approval to all that has happened thus making us too guilty of crimes against decency and the truth. We must hold the line against intimidation. It’s going to get ugly, but it must be done.
Why was King David punished for taking a census of his military might (see 1 Chronicles 21)? David was warned to not incite the Lord’s anger by doing so, but he did it anyway. Likewise, we have been seduced to take matters into our own hands as we have made a bargain with a terrible human being who promised to bring the full military, economic, and legal might of the United States to fight for ‘Christian’ interests. Are we so confident that the demeanor of God has changed regarding our trusting in worldly power? Why was Simon the magician rebuked by Peter for trying to buy the power the Apostles exhibited (see Acts 8:9- 24)? Yet we sing songs in churches across our land and the world which are associated with ‘ministries’ which sell you training on how to gain the power of a prophet for yourself.
We are corrupt. We have been too blinded by self-serving charlatans to see it. The world marvels at our capitulation in embracing a man, as our champion, who is a cruel and a blatantly self-serving liar. A man who only cares about himself.
The fact that there are those who dispute what is obvious is a terrifying testament to our rejection of the very concept of truth. As I’ve preached for decades, our rejection of the Standard through willful ignorance and neglect has led by the nose to embrace human champions who lead us to feel certain things. The most prolific liars win in such a game. Bribes and rewards for personal fealty becomes the ruling ethic (I cite the groveling Mike Pence as evidence of this.) The man of chaos has risen as he seeds violence to his own benefit. He is our man, the ‘Christian’s man.’ We’ve become fear-mongering synchronists as we crawl into bed with Q-anon carelessly spreading their lies because it is so easy. (I do not participate in social media for reasons of protest, but I still get apprised of what is being spread on Facebook from what my wife tells me of what’s circulating; I am regularly appalled. As an example, here is a link from a site with a bit more journalistic integrity to rebut the false claims which are tearing this country to pieces.)
Christians, need I quote scripture to say that we ought to be people who ought to be slow to judge (meaning: examine the evidence) and lovers of truth? Are we too lazy to do a word search on the words ‘sober’ and ‘truth’ on our Bible App anymore? Q-anon types may quote scripture while they fool you into thinking Trump is our savior from the pedophile, bloodsucking demoncrats, but in pledging allegiance to that man we violate the principles God says should regulate our behavior and thought processes. Instead of leading by example, we’ve bent the knee to political power; we are seeing the fruit of our alliance with ugliness (which is supposed to fight something which is even more ugly. See John 13:15, Philippians 3:17-21, 1 Timothy 1: 12-17.) It is in this kind of environment that people like the McCloskey’s gain such a prominent voice in the new, collective vision for the Christian, Republican (and ‘White-values’ dominated) America.
Due to God’s continuing grace through thousands of years of thinking we can do it better, there are still Christians (?) who understand what the Biblical response to all the ugliness Trump provides us ought to be. Billy Graham, I believe, was well intentioned as he thought that politicians could be persuaded to Christian thought and action but instead the church became enticed by the power of government to achieve its perceived goals. Jerry Falwell Sr. started the Moral Majority to clean up our country using political power as the means. Decades of rhetoric and action by millions of boots on the ground has formed the new Republican Party who, in turn, erected its image of itself—Donald Trump (his meteoric and sudden rise shows this since he is an ‘outsider’ who did not rise up through its ranks.) Now the GOP functions as an institution of worship to that image (which, getting down to the brass tacks, is self-worship of those who make up ‘the Party.’) No party platform was offered at the convention; all the ‘philosophy’ and ‘policy’ of the ‘Party’ lies in the capricious whims of The Donald and in the endless parade of his lies. (Pointing this out should make it clear what I think about the Church and its ‘fixity’ in anything.) If this doesn’t make him a type of antichrist I don’t know what else would. He lives for adoration; he demands total loyalty to him—law, tradition, or decency be damned.
Am I wrong?
I am outnumbered as it seems the holiest among us see much higher values than those alluded to previously; I’ve apparently failed to recognize these values as a majority of my peers have. Have I been so blind as to benefits of power? I have friends (and former friends) and relatives who believe Trump is The Man and will not be persuaded otherwise. What do they know, which I do not? Has the long, slow death of (old ideas concerning) truth led the wise to make a commitment, (perhaps not overtly, but implicitly) that Trump himself is our source of truth? Are the ungodly out to get him because Trump wants to destroy the ‘deep state’ which is the true source of the lies which plague our existence? This makes him a savior, does it not? Just about everyone else, including me, in this new world is lying about the ‘truth’ then. My whole world has been crushed by my peers as to all what I’ve held previously to be true. How do I make the change to conform?
Thousands of years of philosophers and theologians struggling to understand the ‘will of God,’ ethics, and the myriad of epistemological traps (which, I (use to?) believe, protect our freedom) has collapsed into blind faith, the most powerful faith there is, into a human champion. Our (lack of) patience with all the evil in the world has led us to take power into our own hands. This new model brings up questions. All my libertarian proclivities are a horror to God? Mercy yields to force? Mercy if…? What drives us to understand each other? Certainly, empathy would theoretically be easier if we were more alike, wouldn’t it? Compliance could make this possible. Is this God’s Will? Persuasion using reason (1 Peter 3:15?) is no longer the method as it is too uncertain; such a posture yields too much. The messy epistemologies of belief will yield to the certainties of knowledge direct from God through those whose success makes the blessing of that connection sure. Truth is understood within the bounds of the greatest faith. God is doing a ‘new thing.’ ‘Reason’ is only the tool of those who have not heard from God firsthand. These firsthand accounts tell me I am outside the will of God; I must change else I be damned to be outcast.
So, God help me, descending into this new world to save my soul, I must believe…
Chloroquine is a ‘miracle’ drug for Covid 19 which is being heavily suppressed by the ‘deep state’ who hates Trump the truthteller. Apparently, as the one of little faith sees it, thousands of evil doctors would rather see their patients die than hand Trump a win (or the doctors just don’t see the ‘truth’ as Trump does.) I’ll try harder… The rule of non-contradiction, a rule of fallen reason, which basically states that two conflicting claims cannot possibly be true (though they can both be false,) is not valid. For example, when Trump tells Woodward that Corona is deadly stuff and tells the public that Corona is nothing to worry about, apparently, I (we) don’t understand the wisdom of why Trump did that. (‘Panic’ was a stated reason, which apparently, we should be panicked about what will happen if Biden gets the reigns—but ah me of little faith!)
I need to find and understand the great faith of those Christian leaders whose holiness and apparent favor of the Almighty have protected their congregations from COVID as other, as it would seem, ‘lesser’ congregations who’ve been hit hard by the disease for their lack of faith and good standing with the LORD. I need to relearn that we are not here to bridge gaps, make friends with, or gain understanding of people from other cultures to win their hearts and minds. There are winners and losers, and always ‘America First!’ The foreigner must learn that American Christianity is the true Christianity; if they wish to gain the favor of the one true God, they must become like us. And always remember to give thanks to God that I’m not like those unfortunate souls living in those ‘shithole’ countries.
I must believe that Trump continues to bring to us what ought to be—that he is the path to Christian power (and the New Earth.) His success proves it. He is risen miraculously through the corrupt democratic institutions to destroy the powers of those institutions. That is what he was hired to do and he’s doing it. Conventional wisdom and the testimony of history interprets the actions of Trump as aligning with the playbook of authoritarians, but I must understand to whom Trump is really working for-God Almighty. Only the fallen worry about reasoning out the origins of ethical action (such as depicted in Socrates’ dialog with Euthyphro.) God decides (divine fiat) what is right and tells His servants (whom you who know by the testimony of their success) His Will. Those who lack firsthand knowledge must have faith in his servants who tell us that God’s omnipotence works through us and our faith. It is not finished. We must believe and act with confidence to win the race, accomplish the goals, lest God’s omnipotence (and competence) be questioned (if the plan should fail.)
Putting this into human terms I can understand, God is building His [planned community] on earth and there will be a new [Home Owners Association] to keep things tidy. This is what is best for me. Understanding the new terms leads me to conclude that my own interests and comfort dictate that I must fit in with the ruling association’s standards; I thus must wisely choose conformity to safeguard my freedom. ‘Tis God’s Will that ‘we’ should have power. It might take me a bit to figure out how who the intended ‘we’ is in this formulation so please be patient with me on my journey to true (personal?) freedom in God’s Will. Endeavoring to be a new man…
Hallelujah and Amen.
P.S. I confess that do hope I like the new color scheme… oh yeah, I’m already white. Whew! Dodged that one! Oh. Dang. Ok. Reset. Try again….
‘…if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.’
2 Chronicles 7:14
This promise, recorded as being made by God to King Solomon and the Israelite people about 3000 years ago, is now said to be a key promise made by God to the American people through our modern-day prophets. This claim has been made publicly known through a Christian nationalist propaganda movie entitled The Trump Prophecy. Outside the NAR/Christian nationalist community, most have probably never heard of this mediocre, meandering movie, but those who are concerned about the future of this country should watch it because it shows pretty clearly what the worldview of the Christian nationalists is; these people truly believe that humbling themselves means pledging loyal support to someone they are reluctant to admit is a very bad man—in fact, a solid majority believe that he is a good man (at least better than ‘fairly’ honest.) We believe this humbling meets the condition required so our nation may be healed. We are now in year four of our humbling and it is possible the chosen one is going to get four more. Two questions: ‘What is the purpose (or end goal) of healing?’ And, ‘Is our nation being healed?’ To prognosticate a probable path in the future, I’ll have to talk about where we’ve been going for decades to then understand current trends. Change does not happen instantly—trends are hard to break as the momentum of common mass action is extremely weighty. Sometimes devasting things must happen so that people will start questioning all that they’ve been taking for granted as this is, I believe, the path towards healing. Hear goes…
God’s promise to Abraham was that through him and his offspring (the Israelite people) all the nations of earth would be blessed (Genesis 18:18; 22:18; 26:4.) The history of the Jews from antiquity to modern times has been bloody and painful. Every time they fell away and the pain came as a result, there was greater purpose for that healing and restoration than the immediate comfort of the repentant— it was so that all nations would be blessed by the life, death, and resurrection of He who was both the literal Son of God (by miraculous conception within the virgin Mary,) and the blood descendant of Abraham and David. Without God’s repeated calling, protection, forgiveness and restoration this never would have happened.
Far from the common teachings of today, the purpose of healing extends beyond immediate comfort of now towards the whenever when we all die eventually. Our common desire is to reach the New World where there is no death, sickness, crying, or pain (Revelation 21:4.) Yet, now scripture calls us to suffering (2 Timothy 1: 8- 14.) Why? Do you not think that Jesus, while on Earth, could have not snapped his fingers and the Kosmos become healed in an instant? Why didn’t He? What greater testimony to His mercy and power could there have been? But what would be the costs? Would such a mass healing simply distance the previously sick from the healer? (Matthew 9: 12; Mark 2: 17; Luke 5: 31) Could it be that people would just trade that comfort in that moment to turn back to themselves and their own lives rather than have that pain inspire them to seek restoration for a much deeper and deadlier problem? I believe this is the case.
Miracles are done for purposes of displaying God’s power (John 9: 3.) Jesus made the point that the preservation of the body is secondary to the preservation of what is most important—your soul (Matthew 10: 28.) Yes, Jesus healed many people, even raised the dead, but He was specifically concerned about always pointing those He encountered towards the Father; miracles showed the people that God the Father was with Him and so they might listen and hear. Some did; many did not. Jesus’ testified that his crucifixion (as coupled with the triumphant miracle of the resurrection) would be the definitive proof of who He is (John 8: 28.) Imagine that… the final testimony to who Jesus is lies with the Creator of the universe, surrendering Himself to men who would give him a horrific, disfiguring beating, nail Him to a cross, to then suffocate in agony and exhaustion. This is Love—proven in the crucible of suffering. This might be what the Christian Nationalists are going to argue, the suffering the world is enduring will lead to its healing, just Christ’s suffering led to ours—though perhaps not in the way I am going to argue for it.
This testimony of suffering is opposite of what is being taught about the purpose of healing today so the Word-Faith (and its stepchild, the New Apostolic Reformation) community is going to have make a few ‘adjustments’ from what it has been teaching about suffering and healing. Suffering has been an anathema to testimony as the NAR apostles and prophets bellow about promising that once we get it right, whatever that means, then this means we get heaven down here (whatever that means.). They keep repeating, ‘don’t worry your little head, have faith, don’t question, and follow orders (oh, and don’t forget to keep sending money) and good things will come.’ Bill Johnson keeps on teaching the same stuff about bringing heaven to earth despite the failed stunt of waking up Olive for instance. People will keep sending Kenneth Copeland money even though Covid is not dead yet despite Kenneth’s personal, multiple rebukes made in confident FAITH—a thing he has taught for decades. American Christianity, as influenced by generations of Word-Faith teachers, sees suffering as something antithetical to God’s favor; most do not even know the deep theology of suffering Jesus taught as documented in John Chapter 9. Our witness, tragically and decreasingly, is not seen in shared suffering but rather is expressed in promises of power and victory. Bill Johnson tells us people will believe because of the miracles he and his people do. Considering the fraud, theatrics, and parlor tricks coming out of that movement (this is the age of YouTube—you’re on camera…) it is no wonder the young are moving away in droves. But don’t ask them if the approach is working—never admit defeat, just change the narrative. The sheer scope of what is going right now, I continue to hope, might force these people to adapt in the face of the crisis we are now only just beginning. Do we have healing in our future because of the suffering we are increasingly enduring today?
The new NAR teaching about ‘signs and wonders’ and miraculous healing attacks (perhaps unknowingly) what is really the most powerful testimony to the fact that Jesus Christ is the risen King—the suffering of the eyewitness Apostles (Colossians 1:24; 2 Timothy 3: 11; 1 Peter 5:1.) They were in the position to know what they were testifying about was true—I do not believe people would suffer and die for what they know is a lie. The cheap substitute for this witness in suffering lies in a sense of personal power, well-being, and control. The NAR apostles charge big bucks for classes on healing and prophesy so you too can feel powerful and in control. (People will hoard silly amounts of toilet paper for a sense of control as well.) Business is good. But there are costs which, I believe, are coming to fruit. This NAR’s doctrines might be coming under judgment as the virus, the lockdowns and isolation, and all the economic havoc is diminishing people’s confidence that they are in control. The growing evidence of the colossal clown show that is the Trump administration may be overwhelming the various shill machines for he in whom we’ve placed so much hope. The antidote to this growing evidence is to systematically dismantle with ad hominem arguments the credibility of those whose mission is to keep us informed. This is working and it seriously undermines my hope for this nation’s healing. I doubt the people in the video above have thought through the implications of pledging allegiance to one man as your source of truth—repeating your man’s mantra ‘fake news!’ is making such a pledge because it rejects the idea that many observers and multiple points of view holds everyone accountable. Hold fast and keep the faith.
It’s not that much of a stretch to suppose in a faith-filled world where it’s leaders live in mansions and jet about in luxury and there followers live in nice homes with lots of disposable energy and well-lit supermarkets that those without such things have less than a full share of God’s favor. God’s favor is equated with stuff and, of course, having lots of stuff equates to having lots of power. You don’t have to consciously make these connections in order to live them out. As part of the belief in American Exceptionalism, we believe our prosperity (and power) is due to our cooperative actions as funneled and concentrated in the institutions of government as blessed by God. This belief has bled over into the church as there is an all-too-human fascination with power and celebrity in our institutions as well. Those pastors who can garner a large following are believed to be uniquely blessed by God which in turn inspires more followers, religious power concentrates and with that power comes temptation—to trust in power and the appearance of success.
The rise of Christian Nationalism comes after decades of struggle to infiltrate the halls of government with those loyal to the Christian Nationalist movement through organizations like The Family and all that which came out of The Moral Majority. One impediment to this rise of Christian political power was the common belief in Dispensational Premillennialism which had all the Christians raptured from the world which would then be ruled by the Antichrist. It’s been better than 70 years since the rebirth of the secular state of Israel and all the predictions have been wrong, so that belief is dying allowing for the rise of a new eschatology which supposes a Christian takeover of the political systems of the world to facilitate Christ’s return to planet Earth. Those like Robert Jeffress who still cling to the rapture model suppose that Trump is good because he forestalling the arrival of Antichrist so Christians have more time to ‘save’ people hence, as stupid as Jeffress’ reasoning is, Christian Nationalism has been adapted to fit dispensationalism as well. The common ‘Third Temple’ belief, which Trump has advantaged himself, fits into both the pre and post-millennial eschatological frameworks. And so here we are today amid a crisis that is just perfect to mask an authoritarian purge; the Christians in D.C are cynically positioning themselves in this environment to profit from the elimination of the traditional checks and balances on power—all in the name of Jesus.
All this background I have provided above provides context for what we commonly believe it means to have our land healed. The Trump Prophecy made it clear that the election of Trump was imperative to this healing. What does this ‘healing, in the Christian Right’s view, require? What are the costs?
The common battle cry of the Christian Right is abortion. (I hate abortion as well and see it as unjustified homicide unless it is to save the life of the mother.) If you look at the graphs above, the rates of abortion were falling even during the reign of Obama (whom Robert Jeffress claimed was ushering in the antichrist.) What do we make of this facet of healing considering the prophecy? Do we attribute this to the Christian Right’s efforts to obstruct assess to abortion services? Or is this just a reduction in the number of unwanted pregnancies? I believe it is clearly the latter. Studies have shown the rates of abortion in countries where it is legal and in those where it is not are roughly the same. In countries where the women are too poor to seek a safe abortion seek anything they can get; abortion bans kill many of these women who see themselves as having no other choice.
The Christian Right is clear about how it sees healing this nation of its sin of abortion—for now it will suck up to Trump who promises pro-life judges (and look the other way as he hammers the justice system, and other departments as well, unto his own will) who will keep making it more difficult to obtain an abortion until the ultimate goal of illegality is achieved. If it is true that rates of sought abortion remain roughly the same (as obviously affected by other factors such as education, poverty, freedom, etc.) despite its legality or illegality, simple economics dictates that in an illegal environment the practitioners offering the service would be those who have nothing to lose—in other words, they’d be hacks. Babies still would get aborted and more women, especially poor women, would die at the hand of these hacks. That is a cold, hard fact. Facing this, our well-meaning Christian Right authoritarians must be clinging on to the fantasy that they will amass enough surveillance and enforcement power to monitor and control every woman in their jurisdiction, and, perhaps more disturbingly, believe that their mission on earth is to amass enough power to be God’s enforcement arm on earth and this is what will make them righteous in God’s sight. Either way, the hope is placed in power—government power.
It saddens me greatly that those who so brazenly and loudly identify as Christians openly embrace, and place their hope in, the use of power, government power, to further what they’ve been taught are God’s goals, by those who proclaim to be God’s mouthpieces. They do not see how dangerous this is despite all the, give them the benefit of the doubt, good intentions. How much government power is enough to achieve God’s goals on earth? Is it really God’s goal to make everyone behave? You are all missing the point and gravely so.
God endures so much evil. Every day He witnesses murder after murder, rape after rape, beating after beating, oppressions, thefts, mayhem, bribes, miscarriages of justice, and abuses of power… the whole earth is full of corruption and He endures it all. Dare we suppose we can correct this with power? Do you not realize that He has the power to end all this right now? But in His mercy, He does not. Why? Because of love and true love requires freedom of choice. For this reason, God affords us time so we may have the dignity of choice. “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3: 9) The amount of pain He must endure to accomplish this is unfathomable, which should show a glimpse of the love He has for us. And yet, we suppose that allowing a sin to happen is the same as endorsing that sin. If this is true, then God is guilty because He has the power to stop it all. By holding this belief in power to make people behave, Christian authoritarians are judging God and are telling Him they can do better. We ignore the fact that He has called us to suffer together—as He suffers.
How much power, Christian authoritarian, is required to bring your heaven to earth? Have you read, or watched The Handmaid’s Tale? Do you not realize that by embracing centralized power in principle to bring heaven to earth inspires the seculars to write horror stories like the above to tell of that possible world? The Handmaid’s world is one of terrifying anxiety, fear, suspicion, distrust, rape, and almost unimaginable brutality; and the funny thing is, as we find out, despite all the religious talk, no one actually believes in God—it’s just the game they all must play. The God authoritarians suppose, a God who is said to desire a brutal theocracy to make a holy world, does not actually exist. In such a theocracy, the ‘God’ would be merely us—and in such an environment, all our proclivities toward exploitation and cruelty would be amplified and sanctified—scapegoat established so we may ‘righteously’ exercise various cruelties and usurpations in the name of God. It’s happened before and there is no reason to believe in couldn’t happen again. Those in the Christian Right, being confronted with the horrific vision depicted in The Handmaid’s Tale, may shrink back and say, “We don’t want that much power; and we would do that even if we did!” Of course, you would be horrified because of a common moral value placed in all mankind (Romans 2: 14-15) that we haven’t been fully corrupted yet with the notion that we know and carry the force of God’s will as an enforcer on earth.
There are theocracies on earth right now which seek to force people to behave and people suffer greatly because of them. The women in those little utopias have rights ranging down below the animals—believing things such as they have no right to experience sexual pleasure as their husband’s property or that they may be killed for shaming the family. These poor women are taught that it is righteous to mutilate themselves to ruin their natural sexual functions as proof of ownership and fealty. This is the kind of thing that happens when men see themselves as God’s enforcer—it is all to the degree you take it. As it has been repeatedly said, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Do not expect us to believe you, as proclaimed Christians, would not abuse or be corrupted by power. Your claim to be above the temptations of power is already disproven as you herald a sociopathic con man and liar, who is repopulating ‘the swamp’ with his own sycophants and thieves to devastating effect, as our savior. Congress claims to be 90% Christian and yet a significant portion of our citizens view D.C as a moral cesspool. And it is. So much for trusting in ‘chariots and horses’ (Psalms 20:7) Christians…
This moral cesspool we accept, we support, as our government is exactly why Christians should run away from the idea of uniting Church and State. Do you know nothing of history? If you do, why would you think it would turn out any different this time? Do you still believe our chosen one is the only one telling the truth as he ruminates out loud about various ‘game changers’ amongst all the whining about how he is being mistreated as if he is the center of life? The damage being done to freedom, accountability, the economy, and countless people’s lives is almost incalculable. Millions are unemployed, thousands of business are facing financial ruin, and tens of thousands are dying as this man, our hope, spouts off one idiotic thing after another in his tireless efforts to self-promotion. Yet our man maintains the drivel about the ‘deep state’ and his promises to defeat it, and that he is the only one telling you the truth. The agent of change is in the house; the question is if this change is for better or worse. How deep does your delusion go Christian? Must you continue to delude yourselves, in good part by listening to the lies of your leaders, that Trump is an honest man?
The path of lies and liars does not lead to healing (Revelation 21:8.) I challenge you to provide one passage of scripture which shows the opposite. Do you have a passage which nullifies this?
“No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes” (Psalm 101: 7.)
It is simply amazing how the evil of so much obvious falsehood can remain unseen by the ‘faithful;’ and even if forced to look at the myriad of exaggerations, misrepresentations, and outright deceptions which are so blatant, the ‘faithful’ will either make excuses for the one God has allegedly chosen—that the lies are justified—or, or as crazy as it is, claim Trump, and his supporters, are the only ones telling the truth. If his lies are recognized and justified, it seems we’ve bought into the notion that it takes a liar, whose utter shamelessness in lying about just about everything acts as armor, to bring down a system of lies. A house of liars divided against itself (Matthew 12:26; Mark 3: 23-26; Luke 11: 18) will usher in the kingdom (and healing)?
The belief that Trump is the only one telling the truth is even more disturbing. If this is true, then there is no way to ‘fact check.’ All truth is partisan. Our champion continues to test our faith with bold, confident claims—each one standing on their own authority thus bludgeoning our discernment capabilities into oblivion so that we all give in to seek the protection of our champion and his tribe. The object of that allegiance is the standard of truth; there is no recognizable, independent ‘truth’ to bring us together otherwise. This should be terrifying if you know anything about human nature and history. Trump himself talks about the ‘real’ America and, by implication, everyone else. Watch this video documenting the disdain and aggression the faithful have towards someone they really know nothing about—all these people know is that the reporter represents ‘fake news.’ Our President, God’s choice, speaks approvingly of those ‘great’ Americans abusing that reporter. How, Christians, is this unitive? How is this peace-making? Is this how God wants us to represent Him? How does this behavior heal anything?
Please type ‘truth’ into your Bible search app and do a little reading—truth matters a great deal to God. Those who are disobedient to the truth, like those who follow teachers like Kenneth Copeland, Todd White, or Bill Johnson who teach obvious falsehoods that most anyone with a little ‘unfiltered’ study and knowledge of the scriptures could see through, are actually actively blinded for their disobedience (Deuteronomy 28: 28; 2 Thessalonians 2: 1- 12.) This is not unfair; and God is not interfering with your will, He is just handing you over to what you want. Truth is indifferent to what you want, it just is. Delusions however are greatly influenced by our desires. These teachers tell you to have great faith to move mountains—you want to be powerful, important, and in control. The same mechanisms and the temptations the Word-Faith conmen use to lure people are the same one’s political conmen use. The MAGA people come to be convinced that its ‘fake news’ and the ‘deep state’ which is keeping America from even greater greatness (never mind all the contradictions picking that line of reasoning apart.) The FAITH people blame the devil and his minions for our failures to become healthy and prosperous. We want the easy fix; we want it to be somebody else’s fault—we will listen to those who tell us what we want to hear and what we hear will become the authoritative truth. That is the delusion and it does not heal.
Some may say ‘healing’ requires pain. Often it does, I agree. We may say that separating the sheep from the goats requires a test of faith in we must maintain that faith against all reason. (Well, don’t we have a fine example of that here and now!) To this I answer: Perhaps if our leader was not proven liar of epic proportions but rather was an honest man of good character who was leading us down a painful road of hardship and suffering to which we didn’t fully understand how and why this path of action was going to right some wrong (but we still understood our leader had all of our interests in mind and was willing to suffer with us to prove it,) then yes. This indeed is Trump’s argument—we must struggle with him against ‘fake news’ and the ‘deep state.’ However, being led without full understanding requires trust; Trump is anything but trustworthy as he clearly demonstrates daily as measured against what is obvious and thoroughly documented.
Therefore, Trump is not worthy of being followed in any way, shape, or form; that is, if you are still rational. I do not have that kind of faith. But yet, as bad as this man is, I hold hope that this agent of change could provide us with the discipline we all need to lead us to repentance to turn from the world of lies into which we’ve immersed ourselves.
Yet, you the faithful may say that it is not in Trump we trust but in today’s prophets who have heralded the man as God’s choice to heal America. Faith, as we’ve been often taught, is most virtuous the further it departs from reason. This belief in the righteousness of blind faith comes from the doctrines of men and has brought nothing but sin, horrifying abuse, and senseless suffering. (Here is a great essay on the many evils of blind faith, “the most dangerous thing in the world.”) Never mind all the parts of The Trump Prophecy which did not come to pass; our commitment to celebrity demands we overlook obvious errors which might, in previous times, have got that ‘prophet’ killed. Never mind that as Christians stake their respective grounds, as I clearly have, two very violently conflicting views as to what God’s will for Christian action have arisen among those who once could abide each other’s differences—this is due to the increasing and shameless politization of our faith. You may say Trump is a tool towards holiness precisely because he is a divider. If this is true, then there are possible implied soteriological consequences if one sides against supporting Trump. I know full, good, and well that I am in the minority—about 75% of white evangelicals support Trump. I am part of the 7% of American Evangelicals who believe Trump has harmed our interests. I’ve been told, by a self-proclaimed prophet, that I am rebelling against the will of God by failing to submit to Trump and the Republicans. How crazy is this? Does this mean my salvation is at stake even though I affirm that which historically has been considered the essentials of the faith? I agree that somebody here is terribly wrong and is greatly misrepresenting the will of God to a lost world. Who’s wrong? Does reason decide based upon examining both special and general revelation or do we just rely upon the claims and charisma of those who claim to hear directly from God? I’m going to argue for reason and show that unless we get back to some commonly examinable standard, the Bible, along with a grave concern, care, and respect for truth, as notdefined by our common agreement, there is no way this nation will be truly healed. This nation is being ripped to pieces by the endless onslaught of lies and mass media manipulation specifically designed to undermine our confidence in anything being true. In such an environment, the pursuit of truth devolves into making commitments and offering loyalty to those who appear successful for a sense of stability and belonging; our ‘blind faith’ environment provides opportunity for con men to thrive.
The Bible calls us to reason many times…
“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. Leviticus 19: 17-18
Even though this is ‘Old Testament,’ the principles still apply. I’m still reaching out and trying to honestly reason with those still willing to listen. As to the second principle, God clearly said, ‘Vengeance is mine’ Deuteronomy 32: 35. We are not God’s enforcers; that is the role of the state (Romans 13: 1-7) which means logically if you seek to merge Church and State then you are appointing yourselves as the enforcers for God. It is not to say Christians cannot function in government as public servants, but they ought to avoid seeing specifically themselves as either enforcers of God’s Law or as evangelists in that function else risk serious corruption because of the power involved. We should rather seek to change hearts (which would certainly influence laws in a democratic society) by reasoning with our fellow human beings (1 Peter 3: 13- 17) rather than banding together to impose force upon those who are not part of our tribe.
Our political ambitions through decades of toil have brought some of the most serious divisions our society has had since the Civil Rights movement. I call this movement of ours selfish because it seeks power for itself ‘to do good’ including using power to create the conditions we commonly believe will bring the return of Christ to earth. The policies and actions throughout the decades heavily influenced (and even based) upon the prognostications of our seers have brought serious domestic strife and foreign war; con men like Trump take advantage of these (false) beliefs to empower themselves by garnering an unquestioning loyal following (by appearing to be fighting for the interests inspired by those (false) beliefs.) I fail to see how our movement, which is militant in method and very tolerant of the abuse of the ‘means’ (rule of law,) really seeks peace (at least my understanding of the word. See Genesis 26: 27- 31 for an example of how the Bible describes the process of making peace.) Peace, in our movement, is seen as achievable by employing force by means of a system which rewards selfishness and ruthless ambition and requires that we pledge loyalty to one man who is going to fix it all. We see peace as achieved by crushing the opposition against our champion. Is this what Jesus meant we He said, ‘the meek will inherit the earth’ and ‘blessed are the peacemakers’ (Matthew 5: 3- 12)? We’ve flipped everything on its head; peace is not found by acting as an example to good behavior, love, and reason to persuade but through the ‘selfless’ application of force in God’s name to do ‘His’ will. And so, Lord willing, this means of ‘peace’ will be sown to reap the harvest of righteousness (James 3: 13-18.) How Orwellian…
I have a different definition of what peace is and how it should be sought. As parents we ought model the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5: 22-23) so that our children will learn by example (John 13: 15; Philippians 3:17; 1 Thessalonians 1: 17; 2 Thessalonians 3:9; 1 Timothy 1: 16; 4: 12; James 5: 10; 1 Peter 2: 21; 1 Peter 5: 3.) If you are an overseer over anything (parent, pastor, politician, General, officer, manager,) scripture teaches we should not be ‘domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock’ (1 Peter 5:3.) Harshness stirs up rebellion and wrath, but gentleness brings healing (Proverbs 15: 1.) This obviously brings up the question on the legitimacy of using violent force to impose discipline on a societal level. Just how far do we take Solomon’s advice?
I know some may bring up ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’ (Proverbs 23: 13-14) as a principle in favor of bringing Godly discipline to society, but the relationship Solomon prescribed his use of violent force (parent-child) to correct is not the same as between people in a democratic society. If you still insist upon applying this principle to society then you elevate yourselves above your fellow citizens, your fellow image-bearers, to suppose you are the parent—all adults (and children) who are not of your tribe none-the-less are your children subject to your rod. Tell me how that wouldn’t be abused? It’s both arrogant and selfish; and such elevation is not in the list of what is loving action (1 Corinthians 13: 4-7.) Tell me how those image-bearers who do not see you as their legitimate parents would perceive your instruments of discipline? Just as an abused child struck without seeing the legitimacy of his crime nor the love of his parents would come to hate his abuser so also those who experience your ‘instruction’ would either rebel in anger against you as soon as they get the chance or cower in fear to ‘play the game’ and tell you what you want to hear so they won’t be punished. No hearts and minds won, just rebellion and fear. This is what terrible parenting begets. That is what the Christian Right seeks to do by uniting the wisdom of the Church with the hammer of the State. The State is violent just as some parents are violent (well-meaning or not)—is it absolutely true that ‘if you strike (the child) with a rod, you will save his soul from Sheol’ (Proverbs 23: 14) ?
‘Love’ by force is rape. That which inspires fear is anything but love (1 John 4:18.) A wise parent should be careful to not provoke children to anger (Ephesians 6: 4; Colossians 3: 21) but prove the motive for discipline is love. I think the ‘spare the rod’ maxim is terribly abused and often acts as a lazy way out for the parents; kids see this lack of concern to translate that into a sense of low self-worth (one is just a ‘disobedient’ irritant) and resentment. It certainly was the case for me. The science is clear that corporal punishment increases disobedience and aggression.
I was a terrible kid and still not a particularly good man. Why would Solomon make such a claim then? Did the belt save me from Sheol? I can say that my experiences led me away from using how I felt as a guide for what is true; if I would have, I’d be in a far different place—so, in that way, it may have. Yet, not all who have been struck (with a belt) will be saved nor all will be saved by that greatest act of selfless love made by Jesus Christ. There is simply no rational way to take Solomon’s advice as an absolute; striking your kid may be better than letting him run amok but might also be worse. The difference may be in motivation for the discipline in the first place. If your motivation for having well-behaved kids is to make you look good, then perhaps you need to rethink things. The kids are likely going to see through that—the ‘discipline’ in that case is more about you than about them. This is selfish. Likewise, when self-appointed ‘parents’ in a theocratically bent government see the bad behavior in society, like abortion or pornography for instance, they may think how this reflects upon their status and respectability as the leaders of the ‘Christian Nation’ to take out the belt and let the kids have it. Who are you really concerned for? The State doesn’t do ‘love’ well even as it carries out the vital mission of keeping order—this is why church, and state should remain separate. We also might want to consider the fact that, overall, things are getting better in terms of violent behavior—contrary to what the doomsayers claim to keep you afraid and them in power. I agree with Professor Pinker that this general decline in violence is due to treating children better.
There is a deep lesson here which contradicts Solomon’s advice inspiring bleeding-heart liberals like me to rebel against the systems of force and violence both at the familial and societal levels—what is acceptable at one level will be acceptable on another. As agents of mercy we do the harder work of enduring evil (2 Timothy 2: 24- 26) having faith that, ‘(M)ercy triumphs over judgement’ (James 2:13.) We march on believing that love conquers all and Jesus did not call us to be enforcers (Matthew 5: 38- 48.) Instead of condemnation, we give soft answers which turn away wrath (Psalm 15: 1.) This does not mean we give up discernment (Matthew 10: 16) or integrity (Titus 2:17.) It means that we exercise these qualities as examples (1 Peter 5:3) without being polluted by the world’s methods of keeping order (1 Timothy 5: 22.) You cannot get fresh water from a salt spring (James 3: 11.) Likewise, you cannot combine the fresh water of the Gospel with the corrupt mechanisms of the State to still be able to offer fresh water. (It is a wonder to note that with all our history [read about John Calvin’s little theocracy for example] we still seem to believe this is possible.)
I feel compassion for those so misled by false teachers, so I try to persuade people away from them (2 Corinthians 5: 11.) I realize that the false teachers are ravenous wolves who seek to feed (Matthew 7: 15; Acts 20: 29.) They’ve always been here and always will be. Our central desire should be for truth (1 John 3: 18) and wisdom (James 3: 13- 18,) not power (Zechariah 4:6,) so that we can act wisely and lovingly with both strength and kindness as appropriate. Love rejoices with the truth, always hopes, always endures (1 Corinthians 13: 4- 7.) Love protects the cause of the weak (Exodus 23: 2, 6; Deuteronomy 24: 17- 18; 27:19) and upholds justice (Deuteronomy 16: 19- 20; Matthew 23: 23; Luke 11: 42.) This is the much harder road which requires that you abandon ‘ends justifies the means’ thinking Christian authoritarian. The current commitments to all that which is associated with the Trump Prophecies and the cynical power grabs of the Christian Right is severely sullying the message of peace. Your champion is the epitome of heartless corruption; your champion lacks compassion, perverts justice and bludgeons the truth daily. Turn back to the harder road and be a proper example to justice, mercy, and good conduct. Please consider another path.
We should witness by our commonly recognizable (Romans 2: 14-15) good behavior and by our love (John 13: 34- 35) not by displays of power, success, or prosperity. If there is love and the trust it naturally fosters there is no need for force. It is so sad that so many have bought into today’s nonsense which contradicts the clear teaching of scripture, yet we persist in denying both scripture and reason.
“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” Isaiah 1: 18
I interpret this to mean God expects us to do this since, following this appeal, God lays out a legal argument against Israel and makes the case that only He can redeem. Nobody, not even you Christian Nationalists, can follow the law, and make other people follow the law, well enough to save anybody. St. Paul makes the argument that the law cannot save anybody in the book of Romans. Read it for yourself.
Jesus employed reason numerous times as the Pharisees of the time tried to entrap him. Remember when the Sadducees (who did not believe in the resurrection) tried to trap him with the widow who kept killing off all her husbands? (bad joke: cause of death not established in the text.) Jesus went ‘out of the box’ and replied,
Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.” Mark 12: 25-27
Jesus used reason to solve the conundrum concerning who would be (or more accurately, not) married to who, but also used the witness of scripture to make a specific grammatical argument to show the Bible itself (which they claimed to care about) disproves their position on the resurrection. Should we not do the same? But today, our preachers, prophets, and apostles claim to have new, ‘fresh’ words from God. Because we believe ‘new is better’ our general (let alone are equipped to grapple with the deeper theological debates within historical Christianity) biblical knowledge has precipitously and shamelessly declined with the rise of the media driven celebrity preachers—the very kind of prophets and apostles who claim to be close to Trump. These ‘prophets’ are trying to replace the historic creedal understanding of Christianity with something else. Yet the cognitive dissonance is both palpable and confusing since although ~70% of Evangelicals believe Trump is forwarding their interests just 5% believe God chose Trump because of Trump’s policies.
This dissonance gives me hope even though it doesn’t help that biblical ignorance has become so commonplace which has allowed the false teachers a voice and significant influence as some may still fear that these people speak for God. There is hope in this fight to point our faith back to reason just as in our history as Athanasius was repeated banished as Arius had the upper hand. Athanasius contra mundum–trinitarian theology survived the popularist assault to be upheld by church council to be accordance with reason (being a mystery, not a contradiction— i.e. law of identity: Being ≠ Person) and scripture. Today’s popularist assault capitalizes upon the anxiety of declining Christian influence, well-earned, to propose a solution of banding together politically to reclaim this nation for Christ. Since, as I’ve shown above, that it is rationally impossible to make a biblical case for building a Christian theocracy because such a system (contrary to the denials) would act to make internal spiritual transformations by the use of worldly external power, antithetical to all Jesus taught, a foundation must be laid for a new generation of prophets to arise—giving us ‘fresh’ words relevant to today’s world.
I’ve read ‘biblical’ arguments for Christian Nationalism—to borrow a phrase, ‘scripture twisting that would make a Jehovah’s Witness blush’ is appropriate. General biblical ignorance with a heavy reliance on the authority of today’s prophets and apostles is a better plan for this push. Just as the Catholic Church set itself up as the intermediary between God and man in the Middle Ages to grab its share of political power, so to the Christian Nationalists are feathering their nests as well. Making this system acceptable to the masses requires the appearance of piety. Does the appearance of ‘piety’ heal? (What is ‘piety’ anyway?)
The pious may quote (twist) scripture, “Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is you are not of God” (John 8: 47) to encourage people to hear the ‘new’ words of God. The image of the ‘frog in the pot’ applies here. Decades of charismatic influence has wormed its way into Christian culture, from seemingly harmless things—personal prophetic utterances and words of encouragement—to eventually get to today’s very bold claims which seek ways to get Jesus to establish an earthly kingdom. Of course, correlation does not equal causation, but it is curious that biblical knowledge continues to decline amongst those who claim to respect the Bible as the Word of God.
There are many factors and distractions involved, but I do think that many see their religious ‘fix’ as occurring once or twice a week in a experiential format which is more ‘real’ (and less boring) than careful study, discussion, and reflection. This has been the trend as people talk about how a service made them feel. Of course, feeling things is not necessarily bad but it is again curious that experientialism is demonstrably not leading to greater biblical knowledge among the adherents. Churches keep getting bigger as denominational oversight diminishes—celebrity pastors are all the rage. We’re here to experience God with exciting music, a light show, and an uplifting message—apparently, it’s all we need to know. People do not realize how much power and control they are handing their leaders by remaining biblically ignorant. Power seeking people will fill this vacuum as fewer are equipped to challenge a common mantra, ‘touch not the Lord’s Anointed.’
It seems clear to me from the decline in biblical literacy among those influenced by the Word-Faith/New Apostolic Reformation folks that reliance upon the ‘new, fresh’ words is supplanting the authority of the established canon of scripture. Today’s sheep are thus ill-equipped to test the words of their leaders; they just trust blindly that they are not being lied to—and are being taught that this ‘faith’ is far more virtuous than mine which demands to be shown the words and history (Acts 17: 11.) For those still stuck in the authority of the (written) Word, the NAR folks are ‘flooding the zone’ with their own ‘translation’ (The Passion Translation) of the Bible which fraudulently upholds NAR doctrines which insist upon ‘fresh’ words for today. Their strategy is working to concentrate the remaining faithful into their ranks as the overall numbers of those who identify as Christians continues to shrink. This is not a new phenomenon; the Bible speaks of those who through their ‘dreams’ usurp authority to elevate themselves. Let’s compare the ESV and the TPT to examine their differences in a passage warning of false teachers to show you that I’m not just making this up.
“Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.” Jude 1: 8-13 English Standard Version
Now the Passion Translation’s interpretation…
“In the same way, these sensual “dreamers” corrupt and pollute the natural realm, while on the other hand they reject the spiritual realms of governmental power and repeatedly scoff at heavenly glories. Even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil over the body of Moses, dared not insult or slander him, but simply said, “The Lord Yahweh rebuke you!” These people insult anything they don’t understand. They behave like irrational beasts by doing whatever they feel like doing. Because they live by their animal instincts, they corrupt themselves and bring about their own destruction. How terrible it is for them! For they have followed in the steps of Cain. They have abandoned themselves to Balaam’s error because of their greedy pursuit of financial gain. And since they have rebelled like Korah rebelled, they will experience the same fate of Korah and likewise perish. These false teachers are like dangerous hidden reefs at your love feasts, lying in wait to shipwreck the immature. They feast among you without reverence, having no shepherd but themselves. They are clouds with no rain, swept along by the winds. Like fruitless late-autumn trees—twice dead, barren, and plucked up by the roots! They are wild waves of the sea, flinging out the foam of their shame and disgrace. They are misleading like wandering stars, for whom the complete darkness of eternal gloom has been reserved.” Jude 1: 8-13 The Passion Translation
Notice first that the TPT is much wordier. Most Bible translations use committees of trained language scholars who keep each other accountable to the best vetted source material. The TPT has a translation ‘committee’ of one untrained apostle Brian Simmons who claims to have personally visited heaven a few times and to have seen heaven’s library. Simmons even admitted that he was tempted to lift John 22 from said library but he was told by an angelic being that we all weren’t ready for it yet (just wait….) Next notice that ‘these people’ (ESV) is ‘translated’ to “sensual ‘Dreamers’” in the TPT. This is a big deal. In the ESV translation, the false teachers rely on (trust in) dreams (or visions) to usurp authority (which I interpret to mean authoritative scripture—which the Bereans demanded Acts 17 :11) in order to blaspheme the messengers (angels, eyewitness apostles, and even Jesus Himself) and thus teach fabrications of their own making. The TPT ‘translation,’ puts the words into a blender, hits the button, and then adds a bunch of his own to the mix (Proverbs 30: 6) thus drastically changing the meaning. The TPT uses the words ‘sensual dreamers’ (thus grammatically altering the subject) to imply that the people being referred to in this passage are focused on being sexually immoral while rejecting the ‘spiritual realms of governmental power’ (whatever that means) to scoff at that which may seek to restrain their sensual desires. The TPT removes ‘dreams’ as a source of false teaching—important to pave the road for those who claim to personally to hear from God (or even visit heaven) thus giving ‘authority’ to their teaching. An NAR teacher, using the TPT as an ‘authority,’ could very well instruct the faithful that these ‘dreamers’ are those who have bought into the dream (or fantasy) that sensual pleasure is a type of salvific path to happiness and fulfillment. Having established a context for who the dreamers are, the following passage, “These people insult anything they don’t understand. They behave like irrational beasts by doing whatever they feel like doing” can then be easily taught simply that being given over to sensuality means losing your rationality. The ESV simply teaches that false teachers do not know the scriptures (Mark 12: 24) thus are blaspheming (insulting, speaking evil of) against the heavenly beings who brought the Word (and all those who worked so diligently to preserve the Word) when they speak of things about which they have no understanding. The false teachers are just making things up out their gut—reason leaves, and destruction remains as a result. The TPT, having linked false teachers with those who teach sexual immorality, ensures NAR teachers are safe from what the rest of the passage warns us about if they don’t go around teaching sexual immorality. Funny enough, loosening restraints upon sexual morality is what a majority of Christians believe is a big reason people are leaving the faith (along with misconduct by Christian leaders.) 29% believe the decline is due to ‘Christian’ involvement in conservative politics. Since sexuality outweighs ‘Christian’ involvement in politics as a cause of our decline, these numbers imply the growing influence of these NAR teachings infiltrating the culture at large.
An additional benefit to NAR teachers is the TPT’s injection of nebulous concepts like the “spiritual realms of governmental power” and “heavenly glories” into the ‘holy’ script. Those who question what these terms could possibly mean could very well be those who “insult anything they don’t understand…” and do thus “whatever they feel like doing” despite God’s (alleged) desire. It’s not that big of a stretch to suppose that one does not necessarily have be actively teaching sexual immorality to be part of the accursed group “lying in wait to shipwreck the immature.” Since NAR apostles regularly teach about bring heaven to earth, those “spiritual realms of governmental power” could be interpreted as being today’s apostolic networks which actively seek to incorporate with current political power structures—which they have been doing for decades. The ‘heavenly glories’ may be interpreted as the ‘signs and wonders’ evangelism that teachers like Bill Johnson talk about as that which will reach the lost of today; those, like me, who scoff at these parlor tricks, er… ‘heavenly glories,’ may be those ‘irrational beasts’ who supposed to set themselves against God’s movement of today. Thus, the obfuscation of the TPT’s ‘translation’ provides double cover for these ‘super apostles’ to do their work—all the lip service to reverence these people express towards the written Word is nullified by their widespread endorsement of the TPT abomination. Those who call into question these new super-apostles (who by dreams and visions claim ‘authority’) by referring to yesterday’s ‘good news’ may be easily seen as being God’s enemies. There can be no healing of reconciliation or compromise; there can be only submission—either to the truth (no mere human is the ‘source’ of it) as we hold each other accountable through reason, confession, and scholarship (Luke 17:3; Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12; 1 John 4:1; Hebrews 3: 12- 13; Genesis 2: 18;Proverbs 27:17; James 5:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:11) or we submit to some group of charismatic fellows in charge of the “spiritual realms of governmental power.” Of all those scriptures listed above, apostle Bill Johnson (one of the more recognizable name in that crowd) refuses to accept any rebuke, critique, or criticism of what he teaches—he really thinks he is that special and, as such, is beyond reproach—and yes, he loves The Passion Translation.
There is a common intersect between the growing reliance on charismatic figureheads in both the political and religious realms. The Seven Mountain Mandate actively seeks the merger of church and state. As we see it, the laws and traditions in the political realm are fundamentally corrupt as they are ‘secular’ hence they ought to be redeemed by being Christianized. Can this be done? Machiavelli was right to point out that Christian values are incompatible with the values of the State—yet the myth has been built, we are a ‘Christian’ nation whose best days are yet to come. We don’t even consider the possibility of corruption, for both sides, in both purpose and method, in the merger—we are too arrogant for that. People honestly believe Trump, although ‘vain, insensitive, and raw,’ is the best hope we have because he ‘loves America.’
Those who complain of Christianity’s ‘declining influence’ do not see that we have won—our culture now dominates in the halls of State. Better than 90% of our lawmakers identify as ‘Christian’ as does our President, Vice President, Secretary of State, and numerous others throughout the administration who surround themselves with the Apostles and Prophets of the New Reformation to guide them. Homage and proper respects must be paid; just as the newly minted Apostles are untouchable as the ‘Lord’s Anointed’ so as well Trump ought to be free to rule as he sees fit.
Our New Apostolic Leadership, our prophets and pastors, promise miracles and divine protection staking our witness upon the efficacy of those claims; we’re getting sick anyway as we keep repeating the mantra that we will do ‘even greater things’ (John 14: 12) )as one ‘Psalm 91’ declaration after another fails to bring (the Word-Faith’s version of the) ‘even greater things’ than the miracle of Christ’s resurrection and the testimony of suffering the eyewitness Apostles endured to tell the story. (Could it be that the ‘greater things’ are people believing having not seen as the eyewitnesses had (John 20: 29; Hebrews 11: 1; 1 Peter 1:8)?) It could be that simple.) But we now hold to ‘signs and wonders,’ like the ‘Glory Cloud’ at Bethel, or Todd White’s parlor trick ‘street healings’ (no shortage of videos on Youtube,) rather than the testimony recorded in the Bible—that’s old and weak, we are doing ‘greater things’ now.
Likewise, since the laws, statutes, traditions, and procedures which were designed to regulate the cesspool, that is Washington D.C., to our satisfaction, the aggrieved now seem to accept the idea of trusting one man, our anointed, to openly smash the balances of power that those means provide. It seems the aggrieved do not understand that the man Trump is strongly incentivized to keep us fearful, angry, divided, and suspicious of the institutions which have served as balance in the past, because that is what increases not only his power but the chance that he gets to keep his job; we do not see that the ‘Lord’s Anointed’ are incentivized to keep the faithful biblically ignorant, suspicious of the concept of equals (Colossians 3:11) under a commonly accepted authority (Acts 17:11) to then hold each other accountable (Proverbs 27:17; James 5: 19-20,) so they, the ‘Anointed,’ may be called ‘Rabbi,’ have the positions of honor at banquets and the like, order people about, and, of course, keep the money flowing. The cultures of Church and State have merged, the methodologies and justifications are much the same; the ends-justifies-the-means brings us our healing as we use government power to build a righteous world in line with the Seven-Mountain-Mandate. Churches are being infected all over the world with this mindset through Christian music and mass media. I do not envy conscientious pastors trying to keep this out of their respective churches.
As I sum up the Rise of CHRINOS: Judging by how we act, how well we play pretend, and who we’ve chosen to follow, the apparent purpose of our healing is to bring our success, our prosperity, our strength to bear so we may be the envy of the world. Our witness will be imitated as those around the world do as we do in order to be like us—this is our strategy. Truth is what we make of it, appearances and bluster suffice to cover our lack of empirical evidence of effective result. No one dare question, for to believe in what is yet unseen is the greatest testimony to Our Great Faith in the merger which is ushering in the new world. We will show how great is our piety as the old institutions which separated powers, in which we held each other accountable, are junked to prepare us emotionally and spiritually for the coming benevolent dictatorship of Christ Almighty—our pious submission to those who now rule in his stead are preparing us well for that day soon to come. Is not the Lord with us (Micah 3: 11)? Our submission to the State is righteous for it is God’s State; CHRINOs has risen.
Whether it stays risen is your choice. Perhaps there will be a child who state the obvious and convince the rest of us to once again walk in freedom. One last try for today; consider the words of Christ,
“Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.” (Matthew 22: 15-22.)
Will we stop judging on appearances (a whole lot of talk, boasts, and projections) to render a proper judgment (John 7: 24) that the State should be, as Christ taught, regarded as a separate entity from the Church? Shall we repent from placing our faith in a liar, and in a system, which has no mercy upon the most vulnerable (as it seeks to set one interest against another to further empower itself?) If we did this to once again embrace freedom from the State, then we could be healed from our arrogance for trusting in political power and our ignorance of scriptural imperatives. Will we repent?
Since the restraint of laws, bureaucracies, and traditions, which have served as restrictions upon the centralization of power, has been rejected, so that our central power is apparently only accountable to the voter, it seems the future of the Church as a rising political power, is entangled with the results of the next election. If Trump is reelected (by whatever means) then the prophecy would be confirmed in the minds of the majority. The Christian Right is strongly incentivized to reelect the one in whom so much hope has been placed and will do whatever it takes to make this happen. The fact that most Christians believe the authoritarianism of Trump and our increasing reliance upon the power of the State to forward our interests shows that the slope has been amply greased. There is no Bible to support placing our hope in the State hence the active interest our leaders have in keeping us ignorant yet feeling pious is clear. Our healing could start with the next election. Will we abandon our investment? If we choose the liar, the petulant child, the abusive whiner who surrounds himself with little pharisaical wannabe tyrants and bootlickers trumpeting ‘God’s America,’ then the choice, as the nation, will have been made; we’ll have declared the emperor to have clothes of resplendent majesty to whom we owe our godly allegiance. The ‘truth’ will have been declared as we keep singing about God’s ‘Reckless Love.’ Our new world will be better for some, and much worse for others.
If this happens, I will mourn; the ‘city on the hill’ then may as well be Atlantis, sunken below the waves dead and gone, its only power lies in inspiring myths of freedom, innovation, equality, and opportunity for all. Most Christians will have chosen their prophets and bowed their knees to the power of the State—righteous and sure. But, as always, I take solace in the fact there will always be those who will not surrender—the truth of this was revealed in a whisper (1 Kings 19: 9-18) and, I believe, remains true to this day. May I not lose hope. I am not alone. Healing will come someday as I relinquish all attempts to control when (and how) this happens—and persuade others to the same; so help me God.
These also are sayings of the wise. Partiality in judging is not good. Whoever says to the wicked, “You are in the right,” will be cursed by peoples, abhorred by nations, but those who rebuke the wicked will have delight, and a good blessing will come upon them. Proverbs 24: 23-25
It is no secret that in the past, viruses, and other natural disasters have been blamed upon God’s wrath upon certain sinful behaviors. It does not need to be cited that, for example, many Christian leaders have claimed the HIV virus was God’s specific judgement upon homosexual behavior. Now we have a virus which seems to be infecting people at an alarming rate (some estimates claim could kill some 40 million people if left unchecked,) and has killed over 32,000 people worldwide (as of March 29) without signs that we’ve reached the peak. I know the Trumpers have said this thing is no worse than the flu. It is foolish and destructive for our beloved to so blatantly undermine our ability to sort facts by constantly speaking and tweeting out contradictions, misinformation, and outright lies to serve his own interests; it’s all ‘fake news’ right? Here are some facts about the differences.
The facts are that this virus is on track to kill a lot more people than the flu, from all walks of life (though it is hitting older folk much harder) and differing faiths and lifestyles, worldwide, simply because of its ability to spread and its much higher lethality. Now for the religious questions: is this virus a specific curse from God? And if it is, what is the specific sin? The purpose of this essay is to evaluate some very common ‘Christian’ sayings and beliefs which uphold the notion that God specifically curses some while blessing others leading to the conclusion that God favors those who appear to be doing well according to our standards of what ‘doing well’ means (e.g. you are healthy, in control of yourself, your surroundings, your position in life, and have wealth.) Though we may mean well, these beliefs lead to some serious contradictions, say terrible things about God’s intentions, and hurt lots of people. Hopefully, I will shed some light on some harmful stuff and at least plant a seed so we may abandon the ‘health and wealth’ (and their progeny, the ‘New Apostolic Reformation’) teachers who are poisoning the church with things which sound good (2 Timothy 4: 3-4) when times are good but crumble when trouble comes. I’m going to point out some ways in which these teachers try to protect themselves from the implications of their own teachings now that we have a ‘curse’ which is reaching out to the whole world, point out a few contradictions along the way concerning dispensationalism and evangelistic intent, and point out the glaring overreach and pharisaical hypocrisy of ‘two-kingdom theology’ heavily promoted by leaders in the Christian Right.
(In doing this I’m going against the majority of the ‘Christian’ teaching out there; the ‘hateful divider’ (a given label I willingly accept—though the ‘hateful’ part describes what I feel towards demonstrably false (if one accepts biblical authority,) and self-serving teaching; not towards people) speaks again…)
Our common language which includes ‘God won’t give you anything you can’t handle’ (here is a link to some solid teaching on the saying) and ‘God helps those who help themselves,’ coupled with a cacophony of contradictory ‘Christian’ theologies and eschatologies, lead us to believe we must understand (and, by intention or not, manage) the ‘Will of God’ experientially by our relative perceptions and definitions of ‘blessings’ and ‘curses.’ The attachment (made by our celebrity teachers) of our perception of ‘blessing’ to God’s personal favor (i.e. ‘health and wealth’ theology) leads us to suppose those who cannot manage the pressure upon their lives or happen to be suffering from some sort of attack, like a virus for instance, must be either inadequate in their faith, or must be doing something terribly, and specifically, wrong to warrant God’s specific curse. The claim has been made in past about natural disasters being judgments for specific sins; now that we have a ‘curse’ which is affecting us all, how are the leaders of the Christian Right handling the implications of past proclamations to today’s reality?
Fox News regularly has Pastor Robert Jeffress, friend and steadfast cheerleader for Trump, on for commentary. In the past, Jeffress stated specifically that 911 was a judgment from God for the sin of abortion. Yet now he claims the Coronavirus is not a specific judgment because, in his eschatological framework, the antichrist is not on the scene yet. Considering past statements Jeffress has made on the antichrist, this current claim has me scratching my head for a few different reasons. As a Preterist, I want to make clear that Dispensationalism is a ridiculous theology (I know ‘everyone’ believes it) which leads to the self-contradictory reasoning Jeffress employed in his sermon entitled “Is Coronavirus a Judgement from God?” in an effort to protect his defense of Trump and ‘Two-Kingdom Theology.’ I’ll explain. Referring to RightWingWatch link above, Jeffress stated that our ‘collapse was inevitable’ because our spiritual and moral decline and that Obama was ‘paving the way for the Antichrist.’
In the Texas Monthly article above, Jeffress claims that it is desirable to act in ways which would delay the coming of Christ to ‘give us more time to save people.’ It seems his support for Trump comes from a desire to buy us more time through Trump’s actions to stave off our moral decline and the arrival of the antichrist. Although Christians United for Israel, for example, denies that we have the power to hasten or delay the return of Christ, Christian Zionists (who are typically dispensationalists) act politically in ways to foster conditions to hasten the return of Christ according to various dispensational speculations. Two obvious examples are the Balfour Declaration and the current strong support for Trump’s policy concerning Israel which, if this really is what God wants us to do, helps create the conditions required in the various dispensational frameworks to hasten Christ’s return to earth.
The simple fact is most Christians believe Jerusalem being is Jewish hands is critical to the fulfilment of end-times prophecy since they believe in the dispensationalist ‘Third Temple’ prophecy. (One of these years, I’ll post my essay on this ‘prophecy.’) This goes well beyond these Zionist groups claims to be merely trying to benefit from God’s promise of blessing to Abraham in Genesis 12.
Here we have a glaring contradiction between various teachers in the dispensational camp: What should we do Pastor Jeffress? Work to hasten (2 Peter 3:12? Σπεδω can also mean ‘to desire earnestly’) or slow it down (as if God isn’t interested in saving everyone possible 2 Peter 3: 9)? Trump’s actions to stave off our moral decline (which, apparently, will delay Christ’s return) by appointing Judges who are loyal to him, err, oops, will reverse Roe v. Wade, are in tension with his Israel policies which many Christians believe will hasten Christ’s return. Who to believe?
Setting aside this contradiction of evangelistic intent (by using government power to make us all behave better to delay the arrival of the antichrist—so we may save more people) as opposed to desiring the return of Christ soon (which dispensationalists again believe in using government power to meet this desire,) Jeffress seems to be forced to conclude Corona is not a specific judgment from God but rather a general consequence of sin. I would agree with that statement; disaster in general is a consequence of our sin, our bad decisions, our misguided desires, our stupidity, our arrogance… Therefore, to be consistent Jeffress, you should recant your statement concerning 911 and its cause. The notion that God sent those men to hijack those planes and drive them into those towers is akin to the saying that ‘God won’t give you more than you can handle.’ Both assertions support the notion that God is the cause of evil. What happened on 911 was evil. The wars which came as a result cost trillions of dollars (which could have been used to alleviate human suffering) and hundreds of thousands of lives were evil. What is the purpose of God’s judgments anyway? Did 911 result in the revocation of Roe v. Wade? Did it drive us to repentance and revival? No, it didn’t. Can we then say God’s judgment for the sin of abortion was less than efficacious to drive us all back before His throne? Good for you to get it right this time about Corona, but I am afraid your correct deduction may well be motivated by a desire to protect yourself and your defense of a narcissistic, incompetent, utterly self-centered sociopath as our path to staving off the antichrist; this virus threatens older folk (Trump’s base) the most hence we ought be careful about suggesting they may have grievously sinned shouldn’t we? Jeffress, I think you should reconsider your whole theology (and eschatology) and ask yourself a few very painful questions: “Have we sinned by embracing some false teachings which led us to place our faith in government power to fulfill our desires (however varied they may be) so that we would accept and support the notion that government is not accountable to the same moral rules to which individuals are accountable?” “Is it really justified to support an immoral man who is a liar of epic proportions, who has worked fervently to undermine our trust in anyone but him because we believe he is the key to our restoration as blessed people?” And, “Does the Bible teach us that the ‘ends justify the means’?” You’ve made some very bold claims in the defense of the use of government power resting in the hands of an immoral man even claiming those who do not support Trump are ‘morons.’
Do these recent events lead you to question anything? Or do we all double down to support our prior claims no matter what God may be asking us to look at? Could this very real and costly problem be God’s means to call us to question, evaluation, and discipline? It is seems you have backed yourself into a corner to which you cannot, to save face, admit you’re in—you must ‘double down’ and say the virus is not a specific judgment because, according to your claim, that God’s discipline only comes to those who are not living rightly.
This ‘moron,’ who evidently is, according to your claim, morally and spiritually deficient, stands on a different base pastor. I do not rely upon the modern-day equivalent of ‘chariots and horses’ (i.e. government power—see Psalms 20: 7; Isaiah 31:1; Hosea 10:13) but rather stand in faith that is ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts’ Zechariah 4: 6. This frees me from having to hitch my wagon to the fortunes of some earthly leader who is going to allegedly restore us. This is but one of the Achille’s heels of ‘Two-Kingdom theology’ which forces the adherent to ‘double down’ and make up new stories and excuses when things go south. There are always and will always be (should the Lord tarry,) groups of people who will not be ‘living rightly’ hence there will always be something or someone to blame for our troubles. But what happens if the appearances and consequences of those troubles fall upon the faithful? Should we doubt and question that (largely unaccountable government power) upon which we’ve based our faith? Do we not think that hitching our witness, our commission, to the efficacy of the use of worldly power to make our country a more ‘Godly’ one, makes that witness dependent upon our own abilities to manage people (to be more Godly) by either shame or force? If that isn’t pharisaical, what is?
Pastor Jeffress, is but a mere man. Hence, he has neither the right nor the ability to pick and choose what is a specific judgment from God and what is a consequence of the Fall (Genesis 3.) To claim the powers of a prophet to make such determinations paints him into a corner when we have a generalized disaster such as that which is unfolding right now. His determination to uphold prior claims requires the man to say Corona is not a judgment from God because to say otherwise would strongly imply that our collective Christian reliance (and faith) upon (and in) government power (and in Trump) has failed miserably to bring the blessing which comes from ‘living rightly.’ The fact is that our faith in known narcissistic liar, whom we’ve accepted is unaccountable to the moral values the rest of us are, has failed since our government’s response to the outbreak has been bungled from the start (in good part due to the obstruction and constant stream of misinformation, contradictions, and outright lies from the leader of our government.)
Perhaps this disaster is God’s call to evaluation (Psalm 26:2) and self-reflection (Lamentations 3:40; 1 Corinthians 11:28-31; 2 Corinthians 13:5; 1 Thessalonians 5:21.) Perhaps we should reconsider our commitment to the belief that government, which claims to be 90% Christian, is not accountable to the same moral rules which apply to the rest of us? Isn’t it at least possible that this pandemic could have been contained if our government, under Trump, had been truthful about the threat to then move decisively to protect the public despite appearances and the possible threat to our leader’s re-election hopes?
Jeffress does not know the Bible as well as he claims; the truth is, God disciplines those he loves (Deuteronomy 8: 5; Psalm 119:75; Proverbs 3:11-12; Revelation 3:19.) We may believe our hearts rest in the right place but if we are wrong-headed and unwise is it not merciful and just for God correct us through some wake-up call? (Proverbs 10: 13) There is great hope in receiving this discipline since scripture says this proves we are not illegitimate (Hebrews 12: 5-11.)
It is by hardness of heart that one refuses to accept discipline (Leviticus 26:23; Proverbs 3:11) by we could grow wise (Proverbs 19:20.) Our Christian Right leaders, like Jeffress, are not entertaining the notion that the seriousness of this outbreak could be a consequence of our misguided faith in a man completely unfit for office because our Christian leadership tells us our support of this man is God’s Will to bring us back to greatness. Perhaps this is a wake-up call to the hypocrisy of having a government which claims to be 90% Christian by self-identification yet at the same time is not accountable to Christian moral values?
Jeffress claims, ‘there is no such thing as the separation of church and state.’ If this is true, our witness is damaged by our acceptance of blatant dishonesty and immorality to meet some ‘higher’ goals. We’ve hung our hopes on the power of government to meet our commission and fulfill our responsibility to live as examples. Our leaders, political and religious, like it or not, are teachers who teach by example. If it is true that there is no separation of church and state, then our majority Christian leadership is not following the Bible instruction concerning the responsibilities incumbent upon teachers. Scripture says,
‘Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.’ Titus 2: 7-8
Therefore ‘morons’ like me are hostile to the false teaching from those in the Christian Right who suppose a lack of separation between church and state; the obvious bad behavior of the state has many people saying bad things about us—and rightfully so. It would be far better, I believe, if Christians in government would keep their mouths shut about prophecies and the will of God (as spoken by some yahoo who claims to be a modern-day prophet,) manipulating history to meet some dispensational (or dominionistic) fantasy, to rather work diligently to seek the truth, uphold justice, protect the weak, and hold wrong doers accountable (Romans 13: 4) without going around kissing Trump’s rear-end because that is what you are told to do to save your position. This is sick; and we now call it ‘Christian.’ Christian in government, simply be a servant of the people—nothing more—that would be an excellent witness. Thank you.
Perhaps we are being judged for our ‘pragmatism’ trusting in ‘horses and chariots’ rather than in the power of God. Maybe we are suffering the consequences of our toleration of a liar as our chosen one to restore our nation to greatness, our duplicity towards truth (Ephesians 4:15; 1 Peter 1:22,) and our syncretic merger of church and state to suppose we can impose ‘righteous’ rule by dishonest means. We have been corrupted by the mechanisms of the dishonest state (1 Corinthians 15:33.)
Scripture does not speak well of the merging of conflicting principles which can only lead to corruption and injustice (2 Kings 17: 33-41; Deuteronomy 4:2; 12: 31.) Without self-regulation, the power of the state becomes necessary to impose order. It becomes a disaster in itself when the church, which should serve as a moral beacon to uphold the truth and serve as examples to a world which relies upon the power of the state to maintain order, sees itself as essentially the same as the state in how it should maintain that order. The power of internal reformation (Romans 12:2) a central teaching of Christ and His apostles is thus denied. Jesus was greatly concerned about what is inside rather than external appearances (Matthew 23: 25-28) because “(T)here is nothing outside of a person that can defile him by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles him” (Mark 7:15.) Ironically, even though the Christian Right may claim to mean well in guiding the nation back to God, acting rightly by serving as examples to truth, justice, and mercy rather than compromising with dishonest uses of power, would, I believe, bring about the reformations they claim to seek. We are plainly commanded to not compromise or associate with dishonesty (Deuteronomy 25:16; Psalms 26: 4; 101: 3; Proverbs 11: 1; 20: 23.) God seeks the heart and it is the very essence of biblical teaching that God desires our hearts. Type in a word search for ‘heart’ in your Bible app and you will find that this is what God desires—your heart. What do you receive in return for dishonesty? (Psalms 20: 17; Isaiah 28:15; 59: 8; Jeremiah 5: 27; 6: 13; 8: 10.) Distrust, plain and simple.
There is an obvious common theme in my polemic—compromise with a deceitful person (or system) is anything but righteous. The Christian Right has sold its soul to power—earthly power. And as such is reaping, along with the rest of us along with those who have pledged fealty to such an arrangement, its benefits which come from allegiance to a dishonest, self-interested sociopath who is at its head. May God have mercy on our arrogance (and in our leader’s pathological, raging incompetence.)
We should not think of ourselves so highly to think we are above being disciplined. Scripture says, ‘…when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned with the world’ (1 Corinthians 11: 27-32.) In receiving the elements, we not only remember the sacrifice of our Lord, but we pledge fealty to the principles our faith calls us to (John 6: 55- 59; 1 Corinthians 11: 17-34.) We cannot be syncretic in this agreement (1 Corinthians 10: 21.) The statement of judgment so that ‘we not be condemned with the world’ is very important to accept so that we will not corrupt ourselves by doing things according to the way the world conducts business. We are supposed to be the beacon to truth (Proverbs 16:6; Zechariah 8: 19; 1 John 3: 18; 1 Timothy 3: 15) and justice (Psalms 45: 7; 99: 4; Isaiah 61: 8; Hosea 12: 8; Amos 5: 15.) Please do a word search on ‘truth’ in your Bible app to understand the importance God place upon that principle and the commitment to it. I really do not understand how one can pledge allegiance to a liar such as Trump (and the bunch of self-interested, shifty, feigned sycophants in the Republican Party, and the Democrats who are every bit as calculating and crafty) and still believe one is following the will of God according to scripture. Reliance on any power but God’s makes you a slave! God wants you free…
Judgment is real thing and is warranted because we are guilty. There is nothing arbitrary about judgments—they are given as consequence to what we do. We live under a New Covenant—the sin of the world has been judged at the cross. The Jewish Temple system was judged according Jesus’ prediction (as recorded in Matthew 24 and Luke 21) by the Romans. All Christian vestigial reliance upon the Temple system was obliterated; this was recorded by Josephus in his account of the First Jewish War. Now we still live with the consequences for our beliefs and actions—there is no immunity or excuse. I claim no status as prophet but stand rather on the authority of God’s Word as upheld by numerous councils and scholars throughout the ages who have struggled and suffered to maintain integrity through time. I believe and stake my faith upon the testimony of suffering—not upon the so-called ‘miraculous’ testimony and parlor tricks from charlatans and frauds. There is no need for superstition or hocus-pocus. But we are nostalgic, aren’t we? The old notion of the ‘divine right of kings’ has been resurrected by the Christian Right and ‘kings’ do take notice of this belief in their subjects; and these ‘kings’ act accordingly. Our ‘king’ demonstrably acts as if he is the only one who matters; his interests are supreme (even though he said he was being sarcastic when he referred to himself as the ‘chosen one.’) We have placed our faith in such a man who would play with matters so serious and grave. It is a shame that our ‘greatness’ is wrapped up into and attached to a boastful liar (and irresponsible child.) I pray that we hear this call to repentance for believing in our own power and in those who testify falsely as to the will of God. We are experiencing the consequences of our misplaced faith in a very bad man. There is nothing spooky or arbitrary about it…
P.S. If you do not buy my argument that we are ‘experiencing the consequences’ of supporting Trump, here is another argument…
The HuffPost article “Christian Lawmakers Group Blames Satan After Twitter Poll Goes Badly Awry” describes yet another example of the Christian Right’s blindness to what should be obvious to those who are biblically literate. We, the blessed, the holy, won’t see the obvious miscarriages of justice fully condoned by those +90% Christian legislators as the cause of people telling them ‘no’ to more ‘Christian’ legislators; corruption, hypocrisy, and the obfuscation of justice are not the cause—Satan is. How convenient for us that no self-reflection is necessary—just posture appropriately. I’ll outline a few of the problems strongly associated with the blame-shifting common in Christian belief today, outline a few ways how the shifters obfuscate and confuse matters to keep themselves in power and in-the-chips, and describe a few other costs of our complaisance.
The world of the ‘Christian’ Right is haunted by demons who are the ethereal cause to all human malady providing cover for what in reality is human choice inspired by a terrible theology. What if the spiritual links of the Apostles of the Right aren’t to that which we believe they’re connected? Satan has but to plant the simple idea in a relatively few ‘spiritually connected’ influential people to spread the word that is not ‘not our fault’ as to whatever happens as a result as of the many ideas about how we use force to bring about Revival and Christ’s Return. This approach to the Great Commission allows its adherents to dodge personal responsibility abrogating choice and common sense when things go bad—just blame a demon—while taking credit for ‘doing God’s Will’ when things are perceived to be going well. (What, and who, defines what ‘going well’ means? Scripture is not enough now, so says an apostle.)
Such is the theology which dominates the ‘Christian’ teaching behind those who back the ‘Chosen One’ as it also empowers those who lay hands, in a very devout public display, upon the president. These pious displays are efficacious in swaying the simple who cannot place two and two to figure God values truth—as the truth—over appearances. (Sincerity doesn’t cut it as a test; it should be obvious as to why.) A considerable number of psychological studies have shown that it is extremely difficult, at best, to look at an unknown person’s behavior at that time and tell with reasonable certainty that they are not lying to you. (Even with neuroimaging-based lie detection.) This is where ‘track records’ over time and motive (what stands to be gained) in determining if someone can be trusted should be employed by the faithful so that they won’t be fooled by the swindlers who’ve persuaded the masses to embrace ‘cheap grace’ as the highest value of Christian practice.
The Christian Majority who’ve ignorantly
bought into the new apostolic system, as swayed by the new masters,
figure those who oppose the chosen liar are themselves demonic; the fact
that he lies constantly without any remorse is inconsequential, his flagrant
abuse of power is justified simply because our accepted authorities tell us
this is so. The investment made is huge and there is much to be gained and lost.
The theology exemplified in the video about (Apostle) Paula White is what I
found to be the most telling as to why the Christian Right endorses a sociopath
to bring about a ‘greater good.’ They have it in their heads that they are in
control of history and they are going to make things happen by declaration.
Word-Faith (an established theology) is fully embedded, coupled with a perverse
belief that the secular state of Israel is central to ‘end-time’ events—now
morphing from the pre-millennial ‘Left-Behind’ prophetic mindset, to the ‘post-millennial’
paradigm the new apostolics endorse today—in full commitment to doing
God’s work by using force to bring about the events required, according to
certain interpretive structure, so that Christ may return. If the plans of the
holy are opposed and fail to bear the expected fruit, the declarations
were apparently nullified by the lack of faith in people like me who identify
as Christian but have failed to submit to God’s Will embodied in today’s
apostles—and we can blame Satan as well. Blame-shifting is a very important belief
and behavior to provide cover for failed declarations and to those who
teach this doctrine. To this I ask, ‘Where in the Bible does it teach that we ought
make declarations, using the force of faith, to bring about God’s Will
in history’? Let’s examine that claim…
The best argument the Word-Faith (and their progeny, the New Apostolic) folks have lies in a certain interpretation of Mark 11:23-24 in which Jesus states that if you believe in whatever you are asking for you will receive it. A couple of questions come to mind: Who controls history? If God, then does He either inform His apostles on earth of what His current plans are and how they should declare (in order to make real) God’s desired reality and bring about its existence by force, intrigue, or outright deception (as they are doing with Trump.) If man, as allegedly guided by God’s various desires, so the ‘righteous’ shall be God’s instruments to bring about the ultimate end whenever His instruments finally get around to doing, using the force of faith, what they should have be doing all along. (Is there really an appreciable difference between the two above options?) The Word-Faith theology, its godfather Kenneth Copeland (an extremely rich and arrogant old swindler,) places man at the forefront of history, in both the above options, as it is Copeland’s teaching that even God uses the force of faith to make stuff happen. (That’s right, there is a force apart from and bigger than God.) Paula White, pastor of Donald Trump, the one who led our Underlord of Lies to the Cross, makes declarations over reality. Is this how Jesus taught us to pray? ‘Give us our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others’ is not an appeal to power but to submission. Jesus prayed, ‘not my will but Thy Will.’ Copeland, White, Johnson, and others throughout the popular church do not teach submission as the Bible teaches; they teach us that words have power—and when those words fail, they must have something or someone to blame. The theology of declaration is set by these men and women who have set themselves above the rest as authorities, and we now believe is ‘Christian.’ The course of history now hangs upon our words and our (lack of) faith.
If you are biblically literate and know a little about history and human nature this ‘new’ paradigm should scare you. Karl Marx and Bill Johnson, for example, share at least one thing in common, they both believe(d) that new social conditions would give birth to a new kind of man; the reality of both of these men’s philosophies is that when practiced by fallen men, which is what we are, is extreme inequality and the persecution of minorities. In Marx’s case it was the creative and independent minded who were, and still are in some places, crushed and in Johnson’s case those who are not as ‘spiritually-in-tune’ as he is must bow to him for God’s marching orders. We’ve traded one Pope for about 400 (so far) of them. Our power and sense of success is attached to them. If their words don’t come to fruit, we have been taught to blame the Devil and people like me.
What I do not see from Christian leadership is the libertarian option which withholds judgement from make specific endorsements of certain people to serve as champions and refrain from the use of force to enact some proclamation of God’s Will by some authority to instead rather live and act according to truth, mercy, and justice without perverting the same to bring about some desired result. (Maybe if our ‘Christian’ legislators (instead of blaming demons) would render righteous judgements and not tolerate lies and corruption, their poll numbers wouldn’t be so hostile?) But this would put us out of the control of history wouldn’t it? And it would put those apostles and prophets out of business.
What poisons the whole program is the certainty by which our apostles operate. How do you, the adherent, have their certainty? Does God personally speak to you and confirm what these yahoos are saying about your commitments to which you ought to commit? I doubt it. (And if you do, lucky you getting to bypass the middleman!) As I’ve argued elsewhere, the very fact that these apostles make declarations over reality and history, as if Mark 11:23-24 grants a blank check to the fulfillment of our every desire as we declare ourselves in righteous alignment with the Will of God, shows, because I do not believe they speak for God, an expectation that the faithful personally bow to that particular apostle—simply because of the disconnect between those who have a direct ‘phone line’ to God and those who do not. This is really what the new apostolic program is really all about—people exercising power over people.
Should we suppose Jesus means any desire of our heart—like a pony or a new Aston-Martin, should we believe it firmly enough—be granted? How far do we take this? The Word-Faith folks are all over the map on what constitutes a godly desire worthy of fulfillment. It seems to me that if faith really is a force (which even God uses) then once you master the power of words then what limits the ceiling of wish fulfillment? Funny enough, 35 years ago I read a book on white witchcraft (written from their perspective) which today gives me insight into ‘Christian’ Word-Faith teachings. The theologies are very similar, get the words and the names right to alter reality to your liking. (Especially amusing, is when Word-Faith folk get to talking about witchcraft, ‘satanic pregnancies’ (yes, I know she wasn’t talking literally,) Harry Potter and the like, when what they do in their declarations is the same thing witches do to change reality.) In today’s ‘Christian’ vernacular all sources of evil are demonic and territorial (leaning on a certain interpretation of Daniel 10.) What is left out is our own capacity for evil and deception without our wills being subverted by the demonic realm. In popular ‘Christian’ teaching, we the weak-willed victims need some spiritual expert to exercise the demons who have been given dominion over an area, a sickness, or certain sin. If the territorial demon is not exorcised, then the apostle in that region can affectively blame you if the problem remains. As Bill Johnson links salvation and all manner of healing
—here on earth—to Christ’s redemptive
work on the cross, very unsettling uncertainties can arise; if one is still
sick, not ‘prophesying’ according to expectations, or not affecting change in
the world around you as desired, then perhaps you may not be saved (or at least
you are not behaving in the ‘correct’ way.) I’ve witnessed this kind of blaming
in my culture numerous times (was even able to dig up a short, silly example of
it on YouTube.)
,
We could invoke the power of unity (Ecclesiastes 4:12) to suppose the prayers of a unified many outweigh those of a few (even when those few hold the office of Apostle.) Our experts now teach us all to make declarations over reality to make us all part of the crime. In the case of the #WakeupOlive event down in Redding, it is at least possible, as when thousands of ordinary folk were making declarations of faith to raise the little girl back to life, that those adherents under the authority of that regional authority (in that case, Bill Johnson) did not have the faith to back its leader to provide the spiritual power to raise the dead. ‘Success’ or no, the apostle retains the upper hand as he downplayed the event as a prayer meeting leaving the many to struggle with that failure. If Bill solely made the declaration to raise Olive under his apostolic authority and it didn’t happen then the failure may be perceived as his alone—but Bill is smart enough to provide himself cover through what he teaches others to do.
This newly revised Word-Faith theology destroys people in several different ways. I’ve read and heard numerous accounts and testimonies from those who’ve been severely damaged by this teaching which strongly implies that if you are sick or depressed then God must not love you as much as the successful and happy. This is the most devastating consequence of all the Word-Faith/New Apostolic teaching, with all its confident and smiling prophets and all the adherents doing their best to imitate the smiles and joy of their leaders, that there is something spiritually defective in you if you suffer. These wolves, who largely establish their credibility on Christian radio as their songs are sung in churches around the world regardless of denomination, spread a message which aims to be deadly to the credibility of the gospel story itself.
People will suffer and die for what they believe in—this is obvious. But will people live a life of suffering and persecution, willingly going to their deaths, for what they are able to know for a fact to that which they are testifying is a lie? Such is the testimony of the real Apostles, witnesses of a risen Christ, who suffered and died testifying to that which they claimed to be true. This is the only reason I am a Christian—I believe their testimony under the conditions of suffering. Bill Johnson says this testimony is inadequate, instead pitching testimonies of ‘signs and wonders’ while sitting in the most important seats at the banquets and driving around in his Aston-Martin. Bill’s talk is cheap; would people make stuff up to live like this? You bet.
The Christian life is suffering.
Sometimes we must sacrifice ourselves in the service of others—physically, emotionally,
relationally, even spiritually. We are called to examine ourselves (2
Corinthians 13:5.) When we find ourselves (or are shown Proverbs 27:6)
to be guilty, repentance requires that we accept the blame to that which are
responsible. If the wound or disease is not properly diagnosed, how can it be
properly treated? The Christian life is community as we keep each other
accountable to the revealed and sufficient truth which does not rest on a
single mere human, comforting and encouraging each other in our suffering as we
live honestly and justly upholding the cause of the weak without discrimination
and fear—all the while praying that God’s Will be done and affirming our
submission to that Will.
Satan would gladly have us all believing everything that goes wrong is his (or his minions) fault, and would agree to us blaming him for it, if in trade we (1) keep believing in our own good intentions in controlling history to establish through power what we think is right; and, more importantly, we (2) keep undermining the credibility of the original eyewitnesses who testified under conditions of suffering and persecution. Under this agreement, we get to feel better about ourselves without serious self-examination and the Devil gets to undermine the testimony of the real apostles; a terrific bargain, don’t you think?
‘O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God. I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.’ Jeremiah 5:3-5 KJV
‘What exists now is what will be, and what has been done is what will be; there is nothing truly new on earth’ (Ecclesiastes 1: 9.) NET
‘Each man did what he considered to be right’ (Judges 17:6; 21:25.) NET
Proverbs 23:23 ‘Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy
wisdom, instruction, and understanding.’
Isaiah 1: 17 ‘…learn to do good; seek justice, correct
oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.’
According to the ‘Big Five’ personality test, as described by
the acronym OCEAN—Openness, Conscientiousness, Extravertedness,
Agreeability, and Neuroticism, I score high in attributes O
& N. My perceptions of the Christian experience have led me to believe
our specific culture generally elevates the qualities described by E & A
as those the American Christian should strive to exhibit in themselves. Was
(Is) this a good thing? (That is, if my perceptions are not a bit more than a
little skewed.)
Focusing on the A attribute, Agreeableness does not necessarily mean one must equally (and consciously) regard all propositions as true, but rather the attribute denotes a general desire to minimize conflict and is more concerned with how others may perceive our actions and beliefs. Nice, right? Is it possible for us to agree that American culture in general has been very polarized? If so, then forgive my suggestion that our collective increasing distaste for disagreement and debate has herded us by force of everyday habit into isolated tribal circles. Since the possibility of argument itself is often seen as being not only ‘rude’ but even morally repugnant, the avoidance of possible conflict all but guarantees the formation of echo chambers—social media technology facilitates the ‘closing of the bubble’ very well. We are rapidly losing the ability to disagree with each other.
The costs are high; there is and will be even more (and uglier) conflict in the future because of our mistaken trust in the (alleged) moral value of ‘not saying anything which may hurt someone’s feelings.’ Judging (ugly word I know) from what I’ve seen of human nature, there are plenty of people out there who see great benefit in cultivating our cowardice (avoiding conflict and hurt feelings) to form a populace which does not settle matters of import through rational debate but rather inspires loyalty by perceived benefit. Philosophers have been warning us of the collapse of all that has been previously regarded as true for well over a century. I believe that collapse is well under way and with this realization our handlers now position themselves to take advantage of the noise and confusion; easily manipulatable feelings remain as demagogues and con men work the respective terrains. As the pursuit of truth is devalued as unattainable, personal allegiance to champions is substituted to fulfill a basic human need.
‘Sides’ must be chosen in this environment if anyone is to
remain with a sense of conviction. The unifying force of conviction lies
no longer within the very social act of debate to find truth among respected
adversaries (each given the benefit of the doubt by the other that they both are
searching for what is good and true) but with a conviction found within the righteousness
of your chosen side as experientially guided by some force of conscience and/or
God Himself. (Of course, I’m not immune from this.) The quality of loyalty (which
is obviously not bad in itself) is elevated as a virtue as the substitute for abandoning
the search the world taught us is hopeless.
The fear of rational debate according to cold
standards and rules has led to our heated separations as we seem to forget
there still is a need for a common authority for a personal sense of
unity and communal cohesion. We are social creatures; without a commitment to
a, admittedly elusive, single source of authority, we will multiply the number
of sources to meet our need to belong to something. The central question for the
seeker of love, meaning, purpose, and community (in other words, a human) revolves
around which source of authority to best fulfill those human needs. If debate
is distasteful, then one should gravitate towards like-minded humans to not be
rude and keep the peace. Echo chambers multiply as a result, increasing
division. ‘Sugar’ (what I sometimes call either the mysterious power of
charisma or outright bribery) tends to become the currency within groups which
are reluctant (and ill-equipped) to rationally challenge other groups. (Seriously;
what else would provide credibility within that social arrangement—barring
titles of nobility and the like?)
This might not be so bad if you naively committed yourself
to a charming soul who has your best interests in mind; this may be what you
need to tell yourself to keep your own existential angst to a minimum in such
an arrangement. How willing are you to place that much power into the hands of
another human being and trust that he or she is truly altruistic? Apparently,
millions upon millions are willing to surrender their credibility and trust
into human hands to save themselves work and discomfort. People can now regard
loyalty itself as the premier virtue. Below, I’ll talk more about my own biases
and the causes and costs of what I see as our laziness, cowardice, and our misinformed
commitment to being ‘nice;’ and how I see wicked folk taking advantage of the fracturing
of authority to exploit others and to enrich and empower themselves.
One serious beef I have with the ‘Big Five’ is that it seems
to ignore where a person may lie in the authoritarian/libertarian spectrum
which is a big factor in how a person views the world, and, perhaps more
importantly, other people. Being raised within an authoritarian household I
view the motives of others, even proclaimed Christian leaders, with skepticism
and high suspicion. I see today’s direction of ‘Christian’ leadership as generally
pointing towards the acceptance of human authority as the hope for a ‘better
life’ for the sheep. The evidence for this is seen in our celebrity pastors and
megachurch networks, our trust in our leader’s call to support a sociopathic,
unrepentant liar as our ‘Chosen One,’ and in our subsequent sharp, measured decline
in basic Biblical literacy. A central idea within the Reformation ethic, that
the responsibility of knowing the scriptures personally lies with us as
individuals, is dead. We look to celebrities now; our virtue lies in our
loyalty to them.
This is very useful to celebrities both religious and political; we elected someone who is the epitome of a celebrity for prophetic reasons, for entertainment reasons, and because his opponent was so unlikeable. Our unified Conditioners (C.S. Lewis Abolition of Man) have merged the religious and political interests in a cynical bargain as both sides are interested in keeping things as muddled as possible. On the political side of things, Trump’s strategist Steve Bannon played to his boss’s greatest natural ability to ‘flood the zone with shit,’ (applying copious amounts of cacophonous and contradictory noise, which can be designed to affirm existent biases and beat us into submission) ‘truth’ (whatever that is now) has become something we’ve been trained to believe is unattainable though our own investigations. Some can just shrug their shoulders to find meaning and purpose elsewhere, perhaps desiring to be wooed. Some may choose radical individualism, whether principled or unprincipled. But a majority will attach ourselves to a champion who will fight for our interests because of the perceived loss of both personal certainty and power. Personal fealty is what our champion openly demands as the requirement ‘to make America great again.’ Our ‘Christian’ leadership, as the religious side merges with the political, using the authority they’ve attained through decades of manipulation and self-promotion, confirms, in our charismatically driven faith, that we must pledge unquestioning loyalty to an evil man (who has launched an all-out assault upon the very idea of truth) else be cast aside as disagreeable—or worse, an unjust judge.
Is it hard to imagine that through decades of bombardment that charismatic and ‘powerful’ men and women would eventually pound it into our hearts and minds the idea of a new apostolic authority in which we look personally to these men and women for knowing the will of God? Is it any wonder that decades of looking to the government to solve every possible human need has led not only to our submission to the ‘lesser of evils’ but also to choose the most ‘entertaining’ option—because, in the end, our choices really don’t matter in the grand scheme of things? Cynicism will rule in the absence of commitment to truth and debate; bluster and obfuscation will win the day. This is where we are and the ubiquitous call to agreeability is a good part of why; our shocking decline in Biblical knowledge as we sit at the feet of one Christian celebrity teacher after another lends evidence to this transition. Truth has bowed to charisma as our moral (and cognitive) decline continues into the fear inspired by social media manipulated groupthink. Fake News? All claims are ‘real’ if we believe it; even to the point of believing our champion’s claims that he speaks the truth.
Blind agreeability is a dangerous thing to cultivate
but it seems our Christian leaders have succeeded in placing themselves in
authority by instilling this means of fear to conformity—so they may feed. Those
who are not so agreeable to this feeding are often seen as dividers
who refuse to acknowledge the heart of those who speak so lovingly and fervently
about Jesus. (This is all we have left to judge—how we feel about this
or that.) Those who object against the dominate mode of thought are said to be
unjust judges who ignore our master’s command to not judge. How easy… Is this
really what the Scriptures teach? I don’t think so (Romans 12:3; 16: 17-20,
1 Peter 1:13; 5:8.) But majority opinion (feeling) rules, right? (Judges
21:25.)
We’ve been here before. It is my hope and prayer that His
People will once again see through the illusion cast by our magicians who
have advantaged themselves of our abandonment of the pursuit of truth, to ‘trade
up’ to the universal pursuit of agreement, by any means, as the highest value. Is
this how God wishes we live? Do a search of the word ‘truth’ in your Bible application
and then ask yourself how we all came to endorse Donald Trump as our Hope
and Chosen One. It seems we’ve forgotten that it is truth that sets us
free (John 8:32.) We live in a land increasingly governed by a craven
liar who will employ every technology to spread targeted lies (so-called ‘micro-targeting’
algorithms in Facebook and other social media) to further increase his power
without any moral reservation (Isaiah 30:12, Jeremiah 9:6.) We’ve
forgotten that lies can only enslave us as we pledge allegiance to our
institutions, our prophets, our apostles (2 Peter 2) who instruct us to pledge
fealty to our savior—all so easily blessed by simply invoking the name
of Jesus.
The divider reminds you that:
Grace cannot exist apart from truth and justice (Isaiah 59:14-15,
Jeremiah 4:2; 5:1, John 1:17.)
Truth exists independent of human authority (Job 38.)
God is Creator who establishes; we can only discover.
Truth concerning God’s Will (apart from scientifically and historically discernable truths in regards to the natural world) is only discoverable by revelation from the Creator Himself in His Word (Isaiah 45:19) the understanding of which is debated by committees of people through centuries of struggle to keep each other accountable (Proverbs 11:14; 12:15; 19:20; 27:9, 17, Zechariah 8:16, Philippians 4:8, Ephesians 4:25.) The Church, which is a body comprised of many parts of cooperative function, is described as ‘the support and bulwark of the truth’ (1 Timothy 3:15.) As I reason therefore, the many parts regulate each other as analogous to our physical body’s regulatory systems. Our appointed apostles have elevated themselves above the body as heads (1 Corinthians 1:12) which can only lead to cacophony. There is only one Head (Ephesians 4: 14-16.) The rise of our reliance upon these deceitful workmen who claim to speak for God, with whom we must agree else risk being against the latest ‘movement of God’s,’ has led to our deep division and corruption. Our willful ignorance allows us to be played.
Father,
May we once again seek forgiveness for our abrogation of our
responsibilities towards being the ‘bulwark of the truth.’ May we stop relying
upon the pragmatic application of force to do ‘God’s Will’ to instead love the
truth and live as examples to it.
Open our eyes to see the ruins we’ve created by coveting
that which does not belong to us…
“You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice…” Exodus 23:2
The inevitable has happened; as God’s Bartender suggested as appropriate, Jesus apparently has fashioned a whip to beat all those who stand in opposition to His choice. The Christian Right stands vindicated as all the declarations of victory against demonic strongholds have come to fruition. As God’s channelers of the force of faith on earth work the political landscape, God’s purposes thus are served as the Apostles instruct. The Liar-in-Chief, the Obstructer and Obfuscator, our Lord Solicitor, our (and Israel’s) brazen Hope, and indeed God’s Chosen, has dealt a mortal blow to all the remaining conventions meant to balance power. The Senate has given the green light to our man; he can do (just about?) anything he wants if he is doing it to get reelected. It will be very entertaining to hear the justifications for our man’s gross misconduct (which is inevitable) and abuse of power in his second term when (in theory?) our man cannot serve a third.
Of what use is it to cite evidence? Is there anything anyone could say to change anybody’s mind? ‘There is nothing new under the sun.’ Facts and morals do not matter. Our Man did corrupt things (against established national security interests) with the intent of trashing a political opponent and the Senate put its stamp of approval on such corruption thus showing its true colors. The Parties run the show.
Our Man gave the Rich who run this country (thanks Citizen’s United) a huge tax cut. Both Republican and Democrat depend on this money. What the little guys get out of this deal is a dog-and-pony-show in which we are flooded with bullshit ads about how terrible the other guy is leaving us with the inevitable choice of the lesser-of-two-evils. This is nothing new; but this demonstration of the power of the moneyed interests, including the conglomerate of the Christian Right, to compel our great deliberative body to openly lick Trump’s boots is a new low.
“And they’ll tell you black is really white The moon is just the sun at night And when you walk in golden halls You get to keep the gold that falls It’s heaven and hell, oh no”
