Jesus Warns of Mis-"leaders"

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

"And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you.  For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many."

                                                                                              --  Matthew 24:4,5

Jesus speaks as if the end-times will be especially characterized by the proliferation of deceivers.

We've always believed false prophets and false doctrines will increase in those days, as the "father of lies" tries to lead astray, if he can, even the elect.

But Jesus is Lord of all things, not just "religious" things: and the father of lies doesn't limit his deceptions to only false "religious" prophets and doctrines.

I have to believe Jesus means we should as well beware those who spread false history, or false science, or false "news," as specifically "Christian."  David Barton, for example, who peddles lies of "America's Christian heritage" as his "Christian" version of American history.  Or the media-organizations "WorldNetDaily" and "The Blaze," spreading partisan lies as Christian "news" (though "The Blaze" founder is himself actually Mormon).

Significantly, Jesus doesn't warn us against the deceivers that "Christian" spin-doctors warn us to fear and hate: "the homosexual agenda," communists, jihadis, Trilateralists.  I've never heard any of those proclaim their lies in Jesus' name: nor heard of any Christians misled by them.

Jesus says rather to beware those who "mislead" in His name..."Christian" deceivers.

I understand Him to mean those grasping for worldly power by teaching lies, hate and fear...in Jesus' name.  Maybe He means the "Christian" Conservative political machine.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Nationalism and Patriotism

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

"Kingdoms of men”…by definition…are always opposed to The Kingdom of God.

If we "believe in God," God's view is always The Truth on any matter.  And that’s God’s view when the people of Israel ask Samuel to give them a king “…like all the nations…”

“The Lord said to Samuel, ‘Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them.’ ” (I Samuel 8:5, 7, my emphasis)

When we compound our rejection of God with PRIDE (satan’s own sin) in our human kingdom, it’s hard to see that any affront could be more odious to God than nationalism and "patriotism.”

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Morning in America Again ?

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

One of Ronald Reagan's presidential campaigns used the slogan, "It's Morning in America Again."

It was a famous, and successful, image for Reagan.

Never mind that Reagan's reality was shallow ideology, boastful false-front "toughness," "deregulating" corporations to citizens' harm, hostility to commonsense environmentalism, and rebellious nationalist spirituality posing as Christianity.

It was a very evil time.  The beginning of mourning for Christianity prostituted to political deceivers.

But never mind all that.  Image was what Reagan was about: and what his followers believed.

We seem to have another president for whom image is greater than reality.  Though we should give him credit for being unhindered by ideology...except as unrelenting self-promotion is an ideology.

It's Mourning in America.  Again.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Conspiracy Theory

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                               

Conspiracy theories are the plague of today's world.

Worse than a plague.  The Black Death killed millions, filling anonymous mass graves throughout the world.  And with the death of their bodies, the plague lost its power to do them harm.

But plagues of mind and spirit do harm for as long as mind and spirit exist.

I used to think the harm of conspiracy-thinking was that it was untrue.

But it's not.  There truly are conspiracies.  The Soviet Communists were completely open
about theirs (if a conspiracy can be "open"), telling us to our face "we will destroy you."

But there are far too many conspiracy-theories to spend our lives trying to determine which are true.  Perhaps International Jewry really is working behind the scenes to pervert our morals, and subvert all gentile nations.  Perhaps the Trilateralists are secretly manipulating all national and international power-structures to do their nefarious will.  Or it could be the Rosicrucians.  Or the Jihadists.  Or the race-mixers.

Maybe "they" are all working together, a grand pan-conspiracy of conspiracists, to implant electronic-chips in our bodies and fluoridate our water.  Maybe "they" are all conspiring together to convince us they don't exist, and we should "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."

But where conspiracy-thinking goes wrong: or rather, starts wrong: is its operative idea that some group of people are working behind the scenes of mundane reality, doing evil, and we should be afraid they will harm us.

Undoubtedly, evil forces are working behind the scene...and on the scene.  Undoubtedly, some evil men are always willing to (as they believe) use those forces to their advantage.  And some people are always willing to use that fact to create fear, to their advantage.

What rules conspiracy-theory out of Christians' thinking is the knowledge that God is also working behind the scene, and on the scene, in His sovereign authority.  And against God's rule no evil . . . conspirators, conspiracy-theorists, and fear . . . will EVER prevail.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
 

God and Caesar

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
  
 "And Jesus said to them, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.' And they were amazed at Him."     (Mark 12:17)

Jesus' most fundamental purpose and teaching is always the Kingdom of God.

He taught that God created the heavens and earth and all that is in them, and that God forever rules over all things. Jesus' teaching raises a fundamental question:

what things did Jesus believe belong to Caesar ?

The fundamental question for Jesus' followers is whether we will think as radically as He does.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Which Way ?

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Jesus says "I AM . . . the Way, and the Truth, and the Life . . ."  (John 14:6)

Jesus is present and active in the world today.

Jesus says satan is a murderer, and the father of lies.  (John 8:44)

The murderer and father of lies is also present and active in the world today.

How do those who follow the world's "way" say they believe Jesus' words ?  How do those who love lies and liars, approving war and other kinds of "legal" murder, persuade themselves they are following Jesus ?

How are those who disbelieve Jesus' words, and don't follow His Spirit active in this world, Christians ?

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

"Christian Conservative" Explains God's Will

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Michelle Bachmann, 2012 Republican presidential wannabe who became a Swiss citizen when she lost out, said this week she knows why Trump won the presidency.

It was God's way to make America "a Christian nation again,"  Bachmann assures us.  He wants America to enact righteous laws that enforce all of Jesus' tough teachings against homosexuals and gay-marriage.

Trump will make that happen.  So God made a violent egotist liar our president, to lead America in His righteous ways.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Seeing God's Glory

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

I've been reading Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove's "Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers: Prayer for Ordinary Radicals."  Their observation about God's Glory, as the great object of our prayers, particularly struck me.

Our God is all-consuming Fire (Deuteronomy 4:25), and He is jealous of His Glory.  It is His alone, and He will not give it to another (Isaiah 42:8, 48:11).

So great is His Glory that even the sight of it will destroy men.  When Moses begs to see Him, God tells him "...no man can see Me and live !"  (Exodus 33:20.  And when God is gracious to allow Moses to see His "back" in passing, even that glimpse infuses Moses' face with radiance that no one can bear to look upon.)

But John begins his gospel of Jesus saying that God "^...became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14, my emphasis).

God is even more gracious to us than He was to Moses.  He enables us to see His Glory, and live.  He lets even the unrighteous (us) see His Glory: and when we do, it makes us live, not die.

He does not give His Glory to another.  But we can only see His Glory the way He is pleased to show Himself: in a dusty Jewish carpenter executed as a criminal.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

White Horse

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Yesterday N.P.R. was profiling the new Governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, who took office after the elected governor was forced to resign for sexual involvement with a staffer.  (Three of Alabama's last six governors have been forced from office by scandal, the other two for
financial shenanigans.)

They interviewed a long-time Alabama legislator, who had high praise for Mrs. Ivey.  Then talk turned to the departing governor, who'd won office as a "Christian conservative" with strong "family values."

Paraphrased, the experienced legislator observed that in politics, "when you ride a white horse, you have to stay out of the mud."

Well-put advice.  I hope self-professed "Christian" politicians, and their followers, will take heed of the difference between political pose and real-life Christianity.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

The Holy Spirit and Hermeneutics

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Researching what scripture says about the Holy Spirit as Interpreter of scripture, I was also glancing at some of the online commentary on the subject.  I was particularly impressed with the lucid comments of Dr. Daniel Wallace:

The Holy Spirit and Hermeneutics

At one point, Dr. Wallace makes a striking distinction: that the "inner witness" of the Spirit's interpretive function is primarily toward scripture's essential truths-of-the-faith (Christ's divinity, His full human-ness, His resurrection, our sonship toward God through Him, etc.): but found it "...doubtful that the Spirit bears witness to the time it took for God to create the universe, or whether dispensationalism or covenant theology is the better system...what form of church government is to be preferred, the role of women in leadership...", etc.

Dr. Wallace' distinction is that the Spirit's interpretations in this regard are those essential to the life of the Church, and not necessarily those necessary to the "health" of the Church.

It's easy to see possible mis-applications of that distinction (indeed, being the contrary creatures we are, mis-applications are virtually certain).  But it seems a fruitful one, in the most-basic consideration: that God sovereignly creates and guarantees the life of the Church...but that we, the living stones of which the Church is built up, are responsible to act in obedience with God's thoughts and ways, to keep the Church healthy.