A Request

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

I recently sent a short e-mail...which I consider a timely prophetic word...to all the Christians I know.  Posted it as well on facebook, despite the sleaziness of that venue.

It's a call to repentance ("re-thinking"): and nobody ever likes to hear that, since it implies we've been doing wrong.  As we have.

So I prayed, and tried to make it as gentle and non-judgemental a call to repentance as possible, entitling it simply "A Request."  I re-worked for weeks before sending it, and hesitated and prayed for a week or more before sending it: but I think I kinda got the tone I hoped for.  If so, that's God's answer to prayer: I am not usually gentle in prophesying against evils that beset the Church.

That e-mail is below: and below it, a short comment on why I felt I needed to be extremely careful in its wording, and in sending it.
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Friends in Christ:

 

    We can all see that the spirit of lies and

unrighteousness is more ascendant in our

country today, than ever before.

 

    Christians have played a part in bringing

that about.  But greater than the damage to

our country, we've done violence to Christ's

Name and His Body, by joining them to evil-

doers.

 

    If we can still see today's growing evil, it's

only because God's Spirit gives us light.  But

if He gives us light today to see, we dare not

ignore Him, and offend Him, by continuing to

follow and justify evil-doers.

 

    If we do, God has every reason to withdraw

His Light and His Presence from us, and leave

us in hopeless darkness.

 

    While we still have light to discern between

good and evil, truth and lies, God has enabled

us, for this time, to see the way back to Him.

 

    I strongly sense we are at a fearful dividing-

point today.  Please seek God's guidance on

this.

 

    Blessing to all who set their heart to listen

for God's voice, and heed Him.  Amen.

 

                                           In Jesus, Steve

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The reason I tried to be so prayerfully circumspect in my wording, and in sending the e-mail, is that I'm relatively sure some of my Christian friends and relatives took my message as an attack on their political beliefs (and it certainly has strong political implications).  I was fearful that a call to hear God and return to Him, in the worldview of many "political Christians," would be perceived as an unAmerican, "Democrat" or "liberal," screed.

I've been pleasantly surprised that the few responses I've received did not "attack" back: even one from a cousin who's been quite "politically Christian" for years.  I'm thankful to God for that.  Maybe those who chose to take my e-mail as an attack were simply too livid to reply.  If so, I'm also thankful to God for that.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Was it "God's Will" Trump Be President ?

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

I recently read the following comment on a Christian blog I follow.  It's a common belief.  A common deceptive belief, I think; so I wrote a reply to it.
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“I know God put Donald Trump in the White House, there is no possible doubt about that since every country leader in the world is God ordained.  What is unclear now is the purpose.”

You reference Romans 13:1-4, that all human (worldly, or "secular") authorities are "ordained" by God.  I'd urge you to look into the Greek word there: understanding it to mean that God "chose" or "caused" all human authorities is not entirely an accurate take-away.

That passage absolutely teaches that we should obey human authorities, in recognition that God’s Authority is the ultimate and ONLY one which exists. It also teaches that rebelliousness against human authorities likewise equates to rebellion against God’s authority; satan’s own sin.  (A sin very prevalent among some "political Christians" during the previous President's tenure.)

(The debate about when and how we must distinguish between God’s commands and those of human authorities…as in Acts 4:18-20…comes in here: but is not my point.)

That scripture does not teach, however, that because a man holds a position which carries God’s Authority, we should deduce that individual occupies that position by God’s will. God’s Authority is vested in the function (or office, or position) of ruling: not in the ruler. Jesus attested (at least some) men seize the kingdom of heaven (denoting God’s rightful Authority, Realm, and Rule) contrary God’s will, “by force” (Matthew 11:12).

God’s will and purpose throughout all history is that He Himself rule, and that He Alone be glorified. He characterizes mankind’s contrary desire for human rulers as “rejecting” Himself (I Samuel 8:7).   No human system of government could be more contrary the rule ("the Kingdom") of God than men's belief in “demokratia:” that the people (“demos”) should rule (“kratia”).

The existence of the American presidency (or any other human position of authority) can’t itself be said to be God’s will. The human system which puts anyone in that office cannot be said to be the working of God’s will: rather the opposite. There’s even less reason to believe the man who currently possesses that office does so by God’s approbation.

There’s good reason to believe the current president gained that office by deceit and corruption (possibly even corrupt dealings with nations who wish America’s destruction); or as Jesus said, “violence” contrary God’s will.

He has further distinguished himself as a man of lies: which makes it hard to believe he’s “God’s Man” or God’s “choice” in any way whatever, when he so overwhelmingly manifests the character of “the father of lies” (John 8:44).  Manifests too an extreme tendency to glorify himSELF, and not God: which is also a prominent fact of satan's character.

God’s purpose and will, His rule and His glory, will be enacted despite, and even in, whatever evil men may do. But you say rightly that we can’t yet see in what way God will manifest His rule in America’s current situation. Keep in mind there are times He manifests His rule by watching over people, even His Own people, for disaster and destruction (Jeremiah 31:28, 44:27ff).

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

666 Today

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Kind of a longish post, but I wanted to set in context a couple occurrences of "666" I'm keeping my eye on.

One is the zip-code.

Working at the Post Office, you quickly pick up that the zip-codes of every major U.S. city can be identified by their initial three digits.  Kansas City, Missouri's, for example, are "641."  The different areas of the city are designated by the last two digits.  So I grew up in zip-code 64127, and later got an apartment in the Westport neighborhood, zip-code 64110.  I went to college at U.M.K.C. in 64111.  My parents moved to 64134.  My cousin lived north of the river in 64151.

It was a handy trick to know when you worked at the Post Office.  The zip-code for Kansas City, Kansas, is 661.  Wichita is 672, St. Louis 631, Chicago 606. New York City 100, Washington, D.C., 200; and Los Angeles 900.

I was always bemused that the hick capital of the hick state where I now live had the zip-code 666.  It seemed an odd cosmic joke that Topeka, Kansas, ended up with the scriptural "number of the Beast."

In recent years, I've found that fact less and less of a joke.  I'll just say that the political faction which has ruled in Topeka for some years has done a great deal of evil to our state, while loudly claiming to be the faction of "Christian values."

In that faction's (lack of) thinking, "Christian values" have played out as victimizing the poor, the sick, and the alien: fanatical "Second Amendment" lawlessness (including criminalizing federal enforcement of federal gun-laws in our state !), and short-changing our schools to enable corporations to pay no taxes.

I'd also mention that the primary national funders of "conservative" propaganda, the Koch brothers, are natives of our state, and hugely influential with (i.e., in full control of) the faction ruling in Topeka.

But the individual I've been most keeping an eye on is the amoral and hugely-ambitious Kansas Secretary of State, Kris Kobach.  A native of Topeka and graduate of Harvard, Oxford, and Yale, Kobach has established himself as his faction's top man for voter-suppression and anti-immigrant fear.  The first Kansas politician to join the Trump campaign, he is currently co-chair of the Trump committee "cleansing" America's voter-rolls of all those illegal alien voters.  He professes to be a Christian.

It's been clear ever since Kobach has been on my radar that his intention is the Presidency.  He's currently on track to be the next Governor of Kansas.

The zip-code that identifies Topeka is 666.

A couple months ago, N.P.R. did a lengthy piece on the Kushner family, and how they achieved the prominence that made their son Jared a fit mate for Donald Trump's daughter, and now the president's closest personal advisor.

It's a fascinating story.  All of Jared's grandparents were Holocaust survivors.  N.P.R.'s story included some of their recorded testimony of their experiences.  And after coming to America in the late 1940s, they prospered in New Jersey rental-properties, eventually owning several thousand.

Jared's father Charlie built the business even larger.  He also became a major player in state politics.  And there the story becomes very tangled, and Charlie's maneuverings (personal, business, and political) very questionable.  Eventually Charlie was convicted on federal charges by the rising young U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Chris Christie, and served 14 months in a federal prison in Alabama.

Jared was out of law-school by then, and remained loyal to his father, running the business in his father's absence.  He visited Charlie in Alabama every week. And when Charlie was released, he stayed behind the scene at the Kushner Companies, and let Jared lead.

The Kushner Companies' first big move after Charlie's return was something that had always been Charlie's greatest desire.  As wealthy as New Jersey real estate had made him, Charlie always knew that the neighboring Manhattan real estate scene was the real Big League.

So, soon after Charlie's release, the Kushner Companies made the splashiest possible entry to the Bigs, buying the premier midtown-Manhattan property then available, for what was at the time the largest price ever paid for a piece of real estate in American history.  The N.P.R. story traces how that venture also turned to ashes for the Kushners.

But what most caught my attention in the story was the property the Kushner Companies chose as their flagship entry in Manhattan real estate.

That building is 666 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan.

The full N.P.R. story is fascinating, and is online at

https://www.npr.org/2017/10/26/560276794/how-politics-have-complicated-business-for-kushner-companies

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Jerusalem

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

The president declared today that the United States will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, against almost universal warnings by people who have a burden for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalms 122:6).

With all the Baptist end-times preoccupation I soaked up as a kid, I've long regarded Israel as key in God's end-time plans (sorry, American nationalists); and Jerusalem as the apple as His eye.
 
In 1967 (certain of God's destiny for Jerusalem, though at best a superficial believer) I eagerly wrote the Israeli embassy in Washington, volunteering for the Israeli Army when the Six Day War began.  (The war was over by the time I got a reply.)

When I became a Christian, it was under the ministry of Derek Prince, a man whose "dangerous privilege" (he said) it was to have lived in Jerusalem during the War of Independence, and who maintained a home in Jerusalem all his life.

Brother Derek was the most profoundly scriptural preacher I have ever heard.  All his life he taught that we owe a debt of gratitude to the people whom God chose as His own, through whom He gave us the Torah and Jesus; and that we must recognize Israel's special place in God's affection.

(I'd hasten to add Brother Derek also preached that God repeatedly said His laws in the Torah, and the just society He enjoined on Israel, were for both the Jews and "the alien [alternatively "stranger"] who sojourns among you:" and that "...the aliens who stay in your midst...shall be to you as the native-born among the sons of Israel..." [Ezekiel 47:22].  His love for Israel was entirely based in scripture, and not in nationalism.  His family comprised Jewish, Palestinian, and Kenyan orphans.)

When I went back to college in the mid-70s, U.M.K.C. had a new program in Judaic Studies.  I was a new Christian, and wanted to know as much as I could about everything in the faith: so I took as many of its courses as I could, and graduated with a minor in Judaic Studies.  My wonderful Hebrew teacher, Tzivia Gaba, was the wife of a man who'd helped smuggle arms to Palestine before the War of Independence, whom I was honored to meet one time.

I consider myself a staunch long-time friend and admirer of the Jewish people and nation.

I am nonetheless conflicted by Trump's rash action today.

And I have to say I'm greatly put on guard when a world-leader who's established himself as a "man of lawlessness" (II Thessalonians 2:3) postures, for his own self-glorification, about the status of Jerusalem, the city of the Great King.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

I've been hearing a lot about the Republican tax-cuts.  We all have.  It's doubtful anyone who has listened to a radio or a TV in the past month is unaware of the matter.

In one way, it's not at all a "spiritual issue."  Other than general scriptural admonitions (such as Romans 13:8's "Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another..."), there are probably no specifically "Christian" issues involved; at least, not in the way that the political manipulators make issues "Christian" issues today.

But of course no human thoughts or deeds are ever truly "non-spiritual."

I know very little about financial matters; especially governmental financial matters.  But it looks to me like all the evidence is that the Republicans' "middle-class tax-cut" will primarily benefit the already-wealthy, and corporations.  That's the finding of the non-partisan Congessional Budget Office, whose job it is to tell Congress (and us) how their legislation will play out in financial reality.

The Republicans' plan seems very similar to Republican Governor Sam Brownback's 2012 tax-plan for Kansas, and predicated on the same "conservative" theory.  That theory is that if businesses pay less in taxes (Brownback eliminated corporate taxes altogether), they will use their increased wealth to create more jobs, and we will all benefit from a stronger economy.

That theory hugely failed in Kansas.  It essentially bankrupted our state.  And every citizen of Kansas suffered because of it, in cuts to our state's education-system, roads, and health-care.

They say that true insanity is doing the same thing again, and expecting different results.  By that rule, Republicans are insane.  I'm not.  If the Republicans impose their failed "tax-cut" theory on America ...if it passes the Republican Congress, and is signed into law by the Republican president who's been demanding it...I expect it will do unimaginable damage on our country, the way it did to Kansas.

I could be wrong.  I'm little knowledgeable about financial matters, especially governmental financial matters.  I can only go by the realistic financial analysis of those whose job it is to do realistic financial analysis, and our experience of Kansas' disastrous tax-cut "experiment" (as Sam Brownback called it.

If the Republicans' "tax-cut" becomes law, as it now looks like it will, and proves as disastrous as it seems it will, we'll probably see a great many people turning against Trump and the Republicans.  No doubt that will include many of their "Evangelical base" who have overwhelmingly supported that faction and its candidates for 40 years.

I'd have to understand such economic "repentance" a profoundly spiritual event.

It seems very few of the "Evangelical base" have turned against their political deceivers because they teach evil.  Because of Reagan's doctrine of rebellion ("Government IS the problem"), for example; or the anti-Christ Mormon spirit Mitt Romney worships; or George W. Bush's blasphemy that "the ideal of America" is the light of the world; or their continual lying (who'd Jesus say is "the father of lies" ?), like the current president.

The "Christians" who comprise those politicians' "Evangelical base" have shown no discernment, and no fear of offending God, in their willlful disobedience to Him when His commands contradict their political "principles."  And acting by their political "principles," they have inflicted great harm on our country.

So if the "Evangelical base" finally turns against their political (and their "Christian") (mis-) leaders because of economic collapse, it would be a good thing...though probably too late.

But what does it say about a people who willfully ignore The King's commands, continually offending the God they say they love...if they finally "repent" when their financial well-being suffers ?

My spiritual take-away would be that it shows the god they truly love, and trust in, and serve, and worship in their heart, is Mammon.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Two Choices

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

There seem to be two choices being enacted among American Christians in these dark days.

Probably some actually believe their (or their mis-leaders') justification that Donald Trump is a Christian, and "God's choice man."  Maybe I'm too charitable, but I think very few Christians truly, wholeheartedly, believe that.

My perception is that most Christians actually see what Trump is (it's impossible to miss)...but want to believe they are justified in supporting him.  When we want something, even (especially) if we know better, we all have infinite capacity for self-delusion.

But there seems to be a division in the ranks of Trump's supporters who (thus far) can still see the truth.  After a year of his foolish misrule, they are going one of two spiritual ways.

Some have turned decisively against the lies from Trump and about Trump.  And thus far, God is still merciful to forgive any of us who admit doing wrong, and being wrong.  Thank God, some who were not fully deceived, but persuaded themselves to follow lies anyway, have now turned back to God, and repented.

Others are still in danger.  They see even clearer, as the lies come thicker and faster, that there is no truth in Trump and his way.  But they still want to support him...

The rationales I hear from friends in that situation are, "That's just Trump," or "He doesn't really mean that," or "It's just politics."  All of which are ways of saying "I choose to accept lies."

Their danger is incremental acceptance of evil: the "cooking lobster" effect.  We eventualy become comfortable with every "new normal."  We persuade ourselves that it's O.K. that our country is being led in the spirit of lies. or that mass-shootings can be expected to happen every month or so.  After we cross God's inflexible moral line against evil, we easily adjust and accept it when evil becomes only slightly worse next week, then a bit moreso with the passage of a month, and moreso a year on.

Perhaps some in that dangerous position think they'll be safe because they can still see the evil.  Perhaps they persuade themselves that being able to see, they will be able to spot the moral "point of no return," and will not follow after evil past it.

They delude themselves.  Without the Spirit of God's illumination, no one can discern between good and evil.  There is indeed a "point of no return"...but we do not determine it.  The point beyond which no one can any longer see Truth (Who Jesus said He IS), and can no longer choose to turn back from following evil to its destructive end, is when God chooses to withdraw His Spirit from our lives.

He withdraws His Spirit from those who continue in refusing the Spirit's illumination...those who can see what's evil, but continue to WANT to follow it, making excuses to themselves for following evil.
God's "point of no return" may be very near for some today: much nearer than they delude themselves it is.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Thanksgiving 2017

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

I was thinking yesterday how much we have to thank God for this year.

It's constantly on my mind, and evident in every day's news, that evil increasingly rules our earthly kingdom.  Righteousness and truth are glaringly absent from our current national life.  And it's a frequent topic here that the Christians of our nation have played, and are playing, an instrumental part in making it so.

So I'm especially thankful God has given us this time to re-think our ways, and repent.  Nothing is more certain that God's judgement against those who practice unrighteousness and lies in His name.  The only question is when: and He has been merciful to give us time this year to repent, and turn back to Him.

We who haven't fallen for the enemy's lies must also be thankful for that.  That is God's grace towards us... nothing of our own perceptiveness.  (Trust in their own perceptions is exactly what led so many Christians into the enemy's camp.)

For those of us He's kept from being deceived by the world, it's seemed He has made His light brighter to us, and in us, because the darkness is so much greater than ever before.  For that most of all we should pour out our praises and thanks to God.

We can rightly thank God for keeping us from the national corruption in which we currently live.  Our faith thanks Him too for His swift and sure judgement on the evil-doers who mislead His people.  But our greatest thanks this year must be that God has increasingly separated us to Himself, and is drawing us closer to Himself.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Manson

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Charles Manson died the other day.

If we are honest with ourselves, about ourselves, we know we've done wrong with the life God gives us.  We know we've hurt others, even (especially) those who love us: and we fearfully know we've offended the One who gives, and most wishes, all blessing to us.  C.S. Lewis wrote that " [God] is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies."

God alone is so intimately knowledgeable of each of us His enemies that He alone knows with certainty when we truly repent our evil...if we truly do  Only God's judgement of any man's life is just.

But even with our moral-squint that sees only "in a glass darkly," we can see what a man is.  We can see what a man does, and know on God's authority that it shows what is in a man's heart (Proverbs 23:7).  And even we can see if his life subsequently shows fruits of repentance (Matthew 3:8).

So it has to look to most of us like Charles Manson was a very evil man.  And without question, we all know there are very evil human beings.

But that's not my question.

The facts are that Charles Manson murdered no one.  That was not the evil he was convicted of by our human legal system, or sentenced to death for.  His guilt was that he inspired others to murder, and sent them to murder.

So what do we say of his followers, who did the evil he devised ?  We can say they were deceived by an evil man, because they were foolish enough to believe him.  We can say that they themselves chose evil, by choosing to do the will of an evil man.  We can say they joined in his evil, and satan's evil, by their willingness to believe that doing evil is a right and good thing.

What then do we say of those who follow and do the will of the deceiver now our president ? Are they guiltless who believe, against God's word, that unrighteousness and the spirit of violence and lies is good, and will "make America great again" ?

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Humility and Truth

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

People show they operate in reality, show they acknowledge truth, when they admit that human beings are fallible.  That is to admit no human being is God.

But people show they are committed to truth by the humility of admitting they themselves are fallible, and may be wrong.  That is to admit truth is greater than our Self.

Humility has a personal price.  We learn humility by being humiliated.  The greatest humiliation any of us can ever suffer is to admit that we are wrong.

The way of the world's "great ones," more in evidence today than ever before, is to assert that truth proves they are "right."  But truth flatters no man: truth is that all men are fallible.  Those who say truth glorifies themselves are lying, and the truth is not in them. (I John 2:4)


                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Screw Your Theology

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Many...perhaps even most...Christians believe we are acceptable to God on the basis of our theology.

There are several problems with that belief: the biggest being that our theologies are a product of a human consciousness...and certified "acceptable" to us, on the rare occasion we're honest enough to subject them to re-examination...by the same human consciousness that crafted them.

Another problem is that however well-informed, profound, and clever our theology is, it's inevitably wrong in some part.  When we're honest with ourselves, we know that.

And however honestly and hard we strive to make our theology valid and complete, it will never in the least begin to encompass God's Being.  Can a thimble hold an ocean ?  How acceptable is any theology that misses Who God IS ?

And however "good" and complete our theology may be, do we really live up to it ?  Isn't the take-away of any theology we make, what it makes of us ?

If we expect to be acceptable to God on the basis of our theology, none of us will ever possibly be acceptable to God.  We're screwed.

God is The Real "I AM."  He desires to be with who we really are,...even when (as right now) we're totally unacceptable.  Even when our theology is mistaken, mis-shapen, and pitifully insufficient (as it always is, and always will be).  Screw your theology.

Is there any true truth we can ever know of God that's learned someplace else than near Him ?  As Brother Lawrence wrote, we must "...establish ourselves in a sense of GOD’s Presence."  Is there any blessing except His Presence ?  Any heaven except His Presence ?

And God makes it easy for us to be near Him, and acceptable to Him:

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