Thinking Like Jesus

"...our goal should be to act like Jesus. The primary reason people do not act like Jesus is because they do not think like Jesus. Behavior stems from what we think – our attitudes, beliefs, values and opinions."

-- https://www.barna.com/research/a-biblical-worldview-has-a-radical-effect-on-a-persons-life/  Barna's 2003 study concluded that only 4% of American adults base their decisions on a "biblical worldview."

 

These twenty years later, Barna and other pollsters find that 75-80% of self-described "Evangelicals" unswervingly follow a politician whose manifest character is lies and violent contempt for others (Jesus' definition of "murder" in Matthew 5:21-22).

Jesus told some His followers they were "children of the devil," loving lies and "murder" (John 8:44).

Do today's proudly self-proclaimed "Evangelicals" think like Jesus ?  Obviously not.

"Letter to the American Church," by Eric Metaxas

I recently read the book Letter to the American Church by "conservative" author and media-personality Eric Metaxas, and felt led to challenge his deceptive argument in this letter.

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Dear Mr. Metaxas:

                I’d hoped your Letter to the American Church might be a desperately-needed call for the American Church to repent.

                Those hopes were raised by the words of your introduction, that “…the monstrous evil that befell the civilized world precisely because of the German Church’s failure is likely a mere foretaste of what will befall the world if the American Church fails in a similar way at this hour.”

It was deeply disappointing that your call was for the American Church to repent its silence (as you claim) against the evils of “Marxist atheist philosophy…in economics or in any other sphere,” and sexual deviance.

                So it’s impossible to credit the prophetic parallel you purport to find between today’s American Church and German Christians of the 1930s.  Did German Christians need speak out against Marxism and homosexuality when their violently anti-Communist rulers, espousing traditional “German family values,” had silenced Marxists and homosexuals, and removed them from German society ?  Wasn’t German Christians’ sin rather their silence against the evil deeds of those rulers ?

                Jesus spoke of the enemy forces on earth as “children of the devil,” whose spiritual paternity is manifest in their doing satan’s desires, lies and murder (John 8:44).  You quote those words of Jesus (p. 77): and I have to think you’d agree that Germany’s rulers in Bonhoeffer’s time merited Jesus’ characterization.  Wasn’t the disastrous moral failure of German Christians their silent acquiescence, even collusion, in the lies and murder of the political faction that had seized power in their nation ?

                Jesus also categorically defined “murder” as violent words of contempt against others (Matthew 5:21-2).  You’re surely aware that a faction in America today has made such murder, and egregious lies, its chosen political identity.  Surely you're well aware that a great many American Christians silently acquiesce and collude in, even loudly proclaim, the doctrines of that faction.

                I’d urge you to consider that fact is the most-telling prophetic-parallel for American Christians in this day.  And urge that the desperately-needed call for the American Church’ repentance must be that it reclaim its identity in Christ, and turn back from being a slavish political “demographic” for today’s “children of the devil.”

 sincerely,  Steve Hicks

Test Your Spiritual Discernment Here !!

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Reading I John, this series of verses caught my attention:

I John 2:18 says there are already "many anti-Christs" around us.

I John 3:10 says the children of God and the children of the devil "are obvious."

I John 4:1 says we should "test the spirits to see whether they are from God."

That set of scriptures sounds like a challenge: or rather, when God says it, a command.

Since I John is where God gives His main teaching about anti-Christ, maybe He wants us
to check and see if our spiritual discernment is functioning well enough to spot him.

Jesus told us in John 8:44 what's obvious about "sons of the devil:" like their father, they
love lies, and they love murder (and Jesus says in Matthew 5:21-2 that "murder" is angry
contempt for other people).

There's our spiritual check-list.

Of course, we should first run the test on ourselves:  do we love lies and murder ?  If so,
we have to repent before we presume to run that check on anyone elses' spirit.

O.K., done.

Now...looking around ourselves, testing in today's world to see if our spiritual discernment
is in working order...can we spot any of the "many anti-Christs" out there ?

It shouldn't be hard: as John rightly says, they are obvious.