And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the LORD.” Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?” And they said, “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the LORD of whom we may inquire?” And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the LORD, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.” Then the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, “Bring quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah.” Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah were sitting on their thrones, arrayed in their robes, at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them. And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron and said, “Thus says the LORD, ‘With these you shall push the Syrians until they are destroyed.’” And all the prophets prophesied so and said, “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and triumph; the LORD will give it into the hand of the king.” And the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, “Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king. Let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.” But Micaiah said, “As the LORD lives, what the LORD says to me, that I will speak.” And when he had come to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we refrain?” And he answered him, “Go up and triumph; the LORD will give it into the hand of the king.” But the king said to him, “How many times shall I make you swear that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?” And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the LORD said, ‘These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.’” And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?” And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; and the LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ And the LORD said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’ Now therefore behold, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the LORD has declared disaster for you.” Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, “How did the Spirit of the LORD go from me to speak to you?” And Micaiah said, “Behold, you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide yourself.” And the king of Israel said, “Seize Micaiah, and take him back to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son, and say, ‘Thus says the king, “Put this fellow in prison and feed him meager rations of bread and water, until I come in peace.”’” And Micaiah said, “If you return in peace, the LORD has not spoken by me.” And he said, “Hear, all you peoples!” 1 Kings 22:22-28
“…they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him” Acts 7: 57 (c.f. Matthew 13: 15.)
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Mathew 11:15 ; 13: 43, Mark 4: 9, 23, Luke 8: 8; 14: 35.
“We hear what we want to hear.” Countless wise men and women
Ahab met his end at Ramoth-gilead. Did this happen against 400 to 1 odds? Are ‘odds’ how we determine who is actually speaking authoritatively for God? In the end, we do what we want to do, say what we want to say, and believe what we want to believe—the Christians are the worst among us in that we claim the authority to speak for the Almighty. Despite being wrong time after time, we persist in claiming the authority of the infallible God anyway. The charismatics have ripped open the Church from pubis to chin for the purpose of restoring God’s name in our country.
Despite being wrong, our prophets who led better than 80% of us to vote for an evil man, largely continue to double down on the evisceration of the church (and our country.) At work, amongst ‘conservatives,’ I am in the clear minority concerning the direction of the country. Paraphrasing, the complaints call us to look at all the Latinos charging the border, Biden’s various senile statements, and the Libs whining about ‘racism this and racism that!’ All the lies, despite rejection in over 60 court cases, my peers honestly believe the election was not legitimate. We really do live in separate worlds of alternative facts. This will lead to further violence.
Social media and the American Church are largely responsible for the rise of Q-anon radicalizing a significant portion of our friends and neighbors. The belief in the fictitious (at least in the world I live in) satanic cabal is so firmly entrenched that even satire cannot penetrate. It floors me that my peers do not seem to think January 6th was a big deal. It was (and is) a deadly serious (and continuing) threat to this country.
How they are not mortally embarrassed by backing Trump, the man who fueled and used this despicable movement, is beyond me. I am guilty of ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ is the implication made by my level of disgust and anger. I am ‘deranged’ for having certain moral standards and expectations? Again, we live in different worlds.
The excuse is that all presidents lie. True; they do and many of those lies were egregious and horrifying, leading to great death and destruction. So granted, Trumps thousands and thousands of casual lies, some more destructive than others, could rate somewhere in the middle of the continuum perhaps. The difference then lies not particularly with the horrible man named Donald J. Trump, but in who he represents and what they, the represented, expect. This whole mess just didn’t appear out of nowhere, it has been a long time in the making. We expect lies, we crave them—Trump delivered. We ingest them with relish so we can build fantasy worlds in which we matter not realizing that we are the ones being fed upon and used like toilet paper. (Just ask those who thought Trump was going to protect them while they stormed the Capitol.) It is all just incredibly stupid.
The Church has long abandoned its intellectual roots. It feeds the sheep a diet of emotion; it’s junk food. Over time the malnourishment, the overt abuse and fraud, has left the faithful ill-equipped to determine how to nourish themselves on their own. (Study the Bible referencing accredited scholars having familiarity with the original languages, Pray, Fast, Meditate, exercise, commune with nature, and cultivate the mind in general.) For all the hostility certain branches of evangelicalism have expressed towards the Pope in Rome, they too have set themselves under the authority of a system of ‘apostles and prophets’ who use their special status to elevate themselves above their other brothers and sisters. Just like our political systems, our systems of appointment strongly favor liars as well.
One of the most disappointing aspects of this is the lost opportunity to turn away from our long history of church sponsored racism; some recognize it, some don’t. Of the relatively few who acknowledge racism, and that the superiority of the white race ought be preserved (as the will of God,) this makes things simple as it is unlikely one is ever going to convince them otherwise. We must only hope, for those of us who believe everyone ought to be regarded as equals, that the demographic realities, which will lead to future power shifts, will occur relatively peacefully. This is unlikely given the history of many of the racial clashes in the past where whites felt threatened. Of those who do not acknowledge the reality of systemic racism the situation is far more complicated. The devil in whom no one believes exists can do his best work in secret. This is where the Church has provided, once again, cover for the devil’s work sanctifying the unification of the racist component of the movement which has Trump, who actively stokes the fear of nonwhites and non-Christians to increase his power, as its de facto leader with the righteous ‘other’ goals of the Christian Right. Yet another turd has been launched into the punch bowl; and few seem to believe the latest turd is significant enough to pay notice. The American Church which heavily influences the American ethic has let fear determine its path to embrace its racist past; it has once again refused its reckoning.
The ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality is now firmly infused into the mix as the insurrectionists stormed the Capitol in Jesus name. Prayers were offered, Jesus signs displayed, the ‘Revelation Song’ played, along side bear spray being sprayed and the Confederate, American, and Trump flags being waved, amongst the beatings being given the police with fire extinguishers and flag poles, amongst the broken glass and the vandalism enacted, amongst the ‘Murder the Media’ graffiti being scrawled and the feces being smeared, the congressmen being hunted with zip-ties in hand, and amongst the repeated calls to hang Mike Pence. You put Jesus’ name on this despicable display? Do imagine yourselves as Christ driving the money changers from the Temple? How could you not be ashamed of being attached to this? How could you believe this is no big deal?
As one who still believes Jesus is the Son of God, our Creator, my King, and our mediator, I sincerely apologize to those on the ‘outside’ for what the American Church has largely become; a political movement which advocates violent authoritarianism for the ‘right’ cause. I’m aware of what our ‘prophets’ say. Let’s just say, I’m not playing the ‘400 to 1’ odd. There is no room in the Bible for White Christian nationalism, as there is no support to bear the modern apostolic and dispensational weights which have been placed upon it by our ‘prophets.’ The test is simple, and I’ve already mentioned it many times. They’ve been wrong, they are wrong, and will continue to be wrong because they have not spoken from the LORD but out of their own greed and pride. More frighteningly, they offer an easy, vindictive, out from the problems of the world which will not come to pass; they both form and play upon your desires for the easy out (rapture.)
God has the power to make us all behave but He doesn’t because He doesn’t want puppets; He wants people, all people. You, Mr. and Mrs. Christian Nationalists, suppose to see yourselves as God’s ‘force’ (army) on earth. I was led to sing those songs as a kid as well and now it leads us to a scorched earth policy of blatant hypocrisy, lies, and the embracement of evil to suppose we can sanctify the political process. We are the process. The whole concept of ‘Chosen’ pollutes the process as well; have you read the book of Jonah lately? There is no specifically ‘special’ people; God love us all.
Faith is not simple folks. Simple faith is not pious but grossly inconsiderate of the mighty gift that we’ve been given. Your evil leaders have purposefully taught you to have a simple faith because it makes you easy prey. We’ve conflated our will with God’s Will which is extremely easy to do and makes the simple easily manipulatable. I’ve spent decades deprogramming from all the ‘cultural’ training I received from the church from a young age. I haven’t reached the point of becoming an Exvangelical yet, but I do sympathize with the term ‘theologically homeless.’
It’s a sad and lonely place to be. Since I apparently live in a different world with different ‘facts,’ reconciliation with the new apostolics and the Trumpers seems hopeless. I’m at a loss as to how to positively proceed in my state of alienation and disgust. But I do know that I’m not going to speak as I’m expected to speak…
…and I’m not going to drink the punch.