Merry Bogus Christmas

Anyone who’s ever read my blog during the Christmas season knows I consider it a bogus holiday.

Not totally bogus: Jesus was born: though almost-certainly not on the day we celebrate His birth.  Not that that's a big deal, or at all unusual.  Even as recent an event as July 2nd 1776, we celebrate on the 4th.

That God was born into the world in human flesh, and lived in this world among human beings, IS a truly big deal.  It's the most important event that ever happened, for the human race, and for our understanding of God . . . except when He willingly died an unjust human death to set human beings free from death, and sin.  Which was His reason for being born as a man.

In previous years, I've gone into the bogus history of Christmas in detail, at length.  That Christians of the first centuries didn't celebrate Christmas, for example: that Christian writers in those centuries ridiculed pagans for celebrating their gods' birthdays.

One of the major pagan "birthday" celebrations in Rome was for "Sol Invictus" ("the unconquerable Sun") on December 25th.  It also fell on the last day of Saturnalia, the great feast of the god Saturn: a period (which got longer, and more riotous, through the centuries) celebrated by giving gifts, and drinking, and decorating trees.

Both those Roman "holy-days" continued among pagans into the early years of Christianity's official status as Rome's religion.  It seems pretty clear that the invention of "Christ's Mass" in that same period was a deliberate attempt to give the people a Christian holy-day like the ones they were used to.  Even the Christianizing Emperors weren't brave enough to tell people the new religion did away with their favorite, most licentious, birthday party.

It seems significant that many of God's purifying moves for His Church since the 300s A.D. have taken direct aim at the pagan custom of Christmas.  Particularly significant for American Christians, because most of the reforming churches of our colonial ancestors considered the celebration of of Christmas (in the words of Puritan Governor William Bradford) "pagan mockery:"
 
The story of how the celebration of Christmas became resurgent, and dominant over Christianity's teaching against it, is well told in a biography of Charles Dickens, The Man Who Invented Christmas.  The title says it all.  Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" (which notably does not contain the name "Jesus," nor the title "Christ," except as an element of the words "Christian" and, especially, "Christmas") was the origin of modern Christmas: not Jesus' birth.

Many people of course have warm sentimental feelings about the Christmas season. That's obvious.  Good for them.  That is, however, not what Christmas is about, or what Christmas celebrates.  Personal sentiment has no place in validating Christian truth.

I can testify that God still speaks past, or around, the bogus sentimental religiosity of churches' "Christmas," to anyone who will listen for Him.  But I can also testify that the Christmas season is, for anyone who wants to listen to God and worship Him, the year's greatest season of Spiritual drought.  For the whole month of December (and sometimes longer), all the Church' thoughts and efforts are mostly...sometimes entirely...toward, and for, and about, the holiday.

This basic incompatibility of "Christmas" and Christianity is particularly well-illustrated this year by the churches in my area.  Several area churches (including my daughter's church, in a nearby area) have cancelled their Sunday services on the 25th...because that's Christmas day.

I don't say this to censure those folks.  In our cultural context (and our "Christian-culture" religious reinforcement of it), their decision is practical.  Many church-members will be traveling, or have a houseful of out-of-town family.  Opening all the Christmas presents takes up the whole morning.  Preparing Christmas dinner (especially for a large family) takes hours and hours of exhausting work.

It is nevertheless a telling example of core Christian purposes marginalized in favor of the purportedly-"religous" holiday.  Church-people like to chirp that "Jesus Is The Reason For The Season."  Get down to it, I have to doubt that's anything more than an empty slogan.  It's something of a real-life parable this year, that worshipping God is canceled because of Christmas.

Procedural Note

Some people have objected to my calling the incoming-president an "unrighteous" man.

My using that term comes from a recent conviction that human beings don't have moral "standing" to call any other human being "evil" or "good."  Both are assertions what someone's spirit IS, absolutely and without admixture.  At the most basic level of reality, that's a dishonest view of any human being.

Certainly Jesus forbids us to call anyone "good": even Himself in the days of His flesh: because "No one is good except God alone" (Mark 10:18 and Luke 18:19).

But Jesus does speak of "evil" people.  In all the other gospels, His references are to men's evil deeds or thoughts: but in Matthew, there is an evil generation of men (12:39, 12:45, and 16:4), an evil slave (24:48), an "evil person" He tells us not to resist (5:39), an "evil man" who brings forth evil treasures (12:35).

Collective mankind on which the sun rises (5:45), and which the king invites to the marriage feast (22:10), includes evil people.  And Jesus is completely direct about who these people are, and what their nature is: "you, being evil" (7:11, 12:34).

I'll be the first to admit I don't understand everything about Jesus referring to people as "evil."  But knowing Who Jesus IS, I think He has the spiritual authority to make that judgement, which belongs to God Alone.  And I think His "...you, being evil" means no human being has spiritual "standing" to call any other human being evil.

I'm convicted we should rightly only characterize people by the nature of their deeds, and thoughts, and words.  We can call someone who does righteous things and speaks righteousness, "a righteous man."  Jesus has forbidden any characterization beyond that, for "no one is good except God alone."

And a man whose deeds, and thoughts, and words are manifestly evil and harmful is "an unrighteous man."  I'm convicted I'd be spiritually unwarranted in judging Donald Trump "an evil man:" but only as "unrighteous."

But that only explains the terminology I've chosen.  I could yet be factually wrong about Donald Trump.  God knows the thoughts of his heart.  My characterization is only based on what he's publicly done, and said.

So I here publicly invite correction.

If anyone who objects to my characterizing Donald Trump as "unrighteous" will make me aware of an instance I might have missed, in which he did or said a righteous thing, I will post it here.

In light of any verifiable evidence of his doing any righteous thing, or saying a righteous thing,
I will also re-think my characterization of Trump as "an unrighteous man."  And if anyone shows me proof that I have mis-characterized him, I will here publicly apologize.

Syria

Can anyone see or hear about the sufferings of Syrians caught in their nation's civil war without being moved to tears and prayers for them ?.

Can anyone who claims to have the heart and mind of Jesus not be moved to pray for peace and mercy for these sufferers ?

But politicians tend to see all things in political terms: the wrong priority when it overrides acting in mercy.  Bill Clinton's greatest moral failing was not his hidden adulterous immorality: it was his failure to use America's power to protect Rwandans from genocide as the whole world watched, day after day.

Politicians' delusional self-interest is not news.  And it would be no more than dust on the scales, weighed against the sufferings of Syrians: except that how politicians view that tragedy will determine how they act toward it.

And that, of course, many in the politically-enslaved American Church will quickly adopt the view of their politician-de-jour, and baptize his actions as "Christian."

(The unrighteous "Christian" faction that rules my state is ahead of that curve.  They have been posturing their rebelliousness for a year, trumpeting that our state will not accept any of the Syrians to whom President Obama gave refuge in his America-hating "tyranny."

God bless my state's former Methodist Bishop Scott Jones, who publicly called on congregations to act in Jesus' mercy, and help Syrian refugees relocate here.  I admire his courage for standing against the politicians: and even more his courage for standing against the members of those congregations, the majority of whom undoubtedly take the politicians' view more than Jesus' view.)

I have little hope America will act for peace or mercy in Syria.  The little our incoming-president has said about Syrians' suffering is that the military forces of Russia, Iran, and Syria's President Assad are "killing ISIS."

We all know Donald Trump lies.  And one consequence for those who choose to follow lies is that they themselves come to believe lies.  First their own (for all deception begins in self-deception), then those of greater liars than themselves: and in both, ultimately the "father of lies" himself (John 8:44).

We all know Donald Trump believes lies.  What crushes any hope that America will act mercifully toward suffering Syrians is that Trump shows he believes the lies of deceivers more deceitful than himself.

Trump, and America, will undoubtedly act on Russian lies, Iranian lies, and Assad's lies.  That the people suffering so horribly in Syria's war are evil people, ISIS people...who deserve to suffer horribly, and die horribly.

God is Saying . . .

"He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness, 
And to walk humbly with your God ?"

                                           --  Micah 6:8

Christians are praying wisdom and godliness for the incoming president.  We are praying wisdom, peace, and righteousness for America; and for the Church.  These prayers please God, "...who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (I Timothy 2:1-4).

But I continue to hear God say, increasingly and more insistently, that Christians MUST NEVER pray that the unrighteous policies and programs of the coming presidency will "Make America Great Again."

God's inviolable moral law is that doing unrighteousness will NEVER...CAN never...produce good results.

Acting against that law did not work for Adam and Eve.

Doing unrighteousness has never produced good results.  It never will.

And Christians must never pray it will.  Asking God to reverse the moral law guaranteed in His Own Character, and please let unrighteousness "Make America Great Again," is a prayer profoundly displeasing to God.

We risk God's extreme wrath to flippantly pray "God bless America," if we are asking Him to bless unrighteousness.

Micah tells us the Law by which God judges men's deeds.  It is the Law by which He judges men's political deeds.  It is the Law by which God judges all nations of men.

 May America do the righteousness God commands.  If America does unrighteousness, may we pray for forgiveness, and follow with deeds of repentance.  May we NEVER pray that God act against His Own Character, and His Own law...and His Own righteous judgement.

Spiritual Warfare again

One more time:

Spriritual warfare is not about people.  People themselves are not spirits.

People have spirits.  And in their spirit, every human being is part of the all-pervasive warfare of creation, between God and the enemy.

But people are flesh and blood beings.

So "...we do not war according to the flesh" (II Corinthians 10:3): and "...our struggle is not against flesh and blood" (Ephesians 6:12).

Political manipulators do everything in their power...and their powers of deception have proven very great...to convince Christians we are fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies.  Donald Trump's saying of his opponent in one national debate, "she's the devil," is only the most blatant example.

But scripture says that spiritual warfare is not about people.

Every Christian makes a choice who they will believe: the politicians they have shown they love, or scripture.

God's Word Without Glasses

I was thankful God directed me to the teachers He did, local and national, when I was a new Christian.  Bob Mumford and Derek Prince were the two main Charismatic leaders whose teaching I followed.  They, with Don Basham, Ern Baxter, and Charles Simpson joined together in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the early '70s to hear and spread God's word for that time.

I always admired that these men, each having his own successful individual ministry, willingly entered into covenant with each other.  To teach and live the Kingdom of God, they submitted their ministries, their teachings, and their personal walks to each other.

I admired their integrity.  After Derek Prince was widowed, he met a woman he was convinced God told him would be his wife.  But Prince submitted his re-marriage to the others.  When the other men counseled against the marriage, he parted from his fiancee.  It was only after the other men became convinced God approved the re-marriage, and gave their approval, that Prince and his second wife were wed.

More importantly, these leaders showed public integrity.  When they perceived that the "Shepherding" movement that grew from their collaboration had gone beyond scripture's teaching, Prince, Mumford and Simpson distanced themselves from that movement and publicly repented their involvement in it.  (Basham and Baxter had passed away in the meantime.)

They were very different men. I consider Prince my mentor in the faith.  I was baptized in the Spirit after one of his teaching-meetings, and thank God for his teachings then, and in all my Christian walk since.  Prince was born in India in a British military family, and had been a fellow in Philosophy at Cambridge University before he became a Christian.  His scriptural teaching was as thorough, logical, and penetrating as his academic training, and always powerfully spoke God's word to my heart.

Bob Mumford had been a knock-about American kid, with divorced parents and a 9th-grade education.  His teaching style was as folksy and humorous as Derek Prince' was intellectual and disciplined.  Bob used to say that when people were laughing, he could hit them in the teeth with the gospel, and never even split their lip.  I loved the teaching of both men, and loved the contrasting ways God made His word memorable !

One teaching of Bob's I especially remember was about wearing "glasses" when we read scripture.  As he put it, "If you're wearing your Baptist glasses, you can find water baptism in the Song of Solomon."

We all know what he means.  People can always "find" what they want to find in the Bible.  The problem is that's only their prelude for reading out of the Bible what they wanted to find.  We wear our "glasses" because we think they'll help us "read" the Bible better.  They actually make us blind to the Truth: which the Bible is.

We've all heard hundreds of these "the Bible says/teaches..." deceptions.  Christian clowns or white supremacy, prosperity gospel, abortion "rights," gun "rights," unitarianism, "Christian socialism" and "Christian conservatism," bus-ministry, capitalism, monarchy and democracy, cremation, angel-worship, slavery...  Whatever glasses you choose to wear, you can "find" it in the Bible.

(If you can't "find" it, you can always put it in the Bible by way of false "translation"...like the Jehovah's Witnesses' New World version of scripture.  Or invent a "Bible" of your own, like the Book of Mormon.  For those who want to hear something other than the truth of the Bible, the ways of lying, and the lies, are infinite.)

Truth is One, Jesus.  My experience in life fully convinces me that all Truth is in the Bible.  The way to get to more of Him is to go further into what the Bible says.  Jesus is also the One Way.  When we take our pet theories and doctrines out of scripture context, we move away from Jesus, and take scripture the wrong way.  Taken out the unity Truth IS, our "proof-text" scriptures become not-quite-truth.  Even in the natural, we don't consider a bit of Frank's body, removed from Frank's body, is still somehow "Frank."
 
There's no secret to reading scripture truthfully.  Come to scripture with an honest heart: read scripture without your glasses.  Ask the Spirit to "lead you into all truth," as Jesus promised He would.

Everybody knows this.  The amazing thing in these dark times...when our One Hope of Life is The Way we follow The Truth...is that so very, very, few do this.

Freedom Is a Choice

I've been hearing from God for some months that He is preparing to set many people free.

That was, of course, God's promise in the passage of Isaiah that Jesus chose for His first public teaching (Luke 4).  And after He read that scripture, Jesus told the people gathered in Nazareth's synagogue that it was about Him: that He had come to

 "...proclaim release to the captives,

And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed..."
 

My theology is that God doesn't change: and that what He promises, He will do.  He sent Jesus to set free all who will receive Him.  Jesus still does what The Father sent Him to do.  Jesus still sets people free.  And nothing is more certain than that Jesus will continue setting free all who will receive Him.

That is the hope and the very "Good News" for increasingly dark and evil times like these.  Hearing Him so certainly speaking "Freedom !", I praise God more than ever.

But the fact is that some people don't want to be free.

Union soldiers marching through the South in the last days of the Civil War, destroying the homes and infrastructure of Confederates, delighted in announcing to slaves that they were now free.  But their journals and letters often record their amazement at the slaves' response.

Some slaves didn't really understand what it meant that they were "free."  Union soldiers told them it meant that they didn't have to work for their masters anymore, that master didn't own them anymore: that they could do what they wanted and go where they wanted.  Union soldiers were often amazed that, when they understood...many slaves didn't want to be free.

 It's not really hard to understand.  We all have a strong operative impetus toward the familiar.  We like to be with the people we know, doing what we're used to, in places we're familiar with.  Criminal investigators and profilers use this very human tendency to solve crimes, looking at criminals' patterns of behavior, Modus Operandi, and "zone of comfort."

Even Jesus' disciples acted in those human ways.  After Jesus' resurrection and their return to Galilee (which Mark and Matthew say He commanded them), seven of them went back to fishing !  (John 21:1ff)
 


But we consider slavery an unnatural state for human beings.  At least, so the Declaration of Independence argues: and that argument (unlike many others in the Declaration) probably has some scriptural basis.  Man is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), for example; so oppressing any man is an offense against God.  Creating a lesser class, to force them to do the will of other men (the definition slavery) is contrary to God's Own just impartiality toward all men (Romans 2:11, and Ephesians 6:9).

How then are men persuaded to accept their slavery, contrary God's will ?  We naturally think of the tortures and murder by which American slavery was enforced on its victims.  But Frederick Douglass, who had been raised a slave, and been beaten by one of his masters to "break" him, was more perceptive.  A man is only effectually enslaved when he is "contented" in his slavery, said Douglass.  And

"...to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one.  It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason."

Slavery is a mindset.  Slaves will only willingly and cheerfully do the will of another when their understanding of what is right, and what is true, is effectually "darkened."  Men will only remain slaves when they choose to surrender what cannot by any means be taken from them...their God-given power of reason.

There are many slaves in the American Church today.  Many Christians who have "bought" the enslaving ways-of-thinking their political masters have taught them: most destructive among these, their unBiblical self-image as "conservatives." 

Many in the American Church today, and for the last 40 years, have willingly and cheerfully done the will of their political masters.  Even when their masters ordered them in recent years to serve the deeply anti-Christian spirit of Mormonism, or the forces of pride and unrighteousness...they did so.  Willing slaves, content in their slavery...they did as they were told.

 God has promised freedom to the captives and the oppressed.  His word is sure, and the increasing frequency and insistence of that word convinces me that His chosen time of liberation is at hand.  He is preparing to set FREE all who will hear Him, and receive Him, and receive from Him what He is gracious to give.

Some will not.

In Frederick Douglass' insight, those thoughtless of righteousness, and the unreasoning content in their slavery, will not want to be free.  Freedom is a choice: and that means people can also choose against it.

But God bless all who welcome Jesus as their Master, and accept freedom from Him: they will be free INDEED.  God covets the sincere praise and worship of the truly free, His Own freedmen, above all others'.