Beautiful in its time

I don't claim to know what is coming. I do know that increasingly I hear God speaking of judgement. Some I respect as devoted servants of God have even said the time is past for us to pray for America. That may indeed be God's word to us right now: it wouldn't be contrary to what I'm hearing.

For the Church what I hear most strongly is "dividing." We have followed deceivers for nearly a generation, and their false teachings have led many brothers and sisters away. The time seems near when those who will hear Jesus' voice, who will set their hearts on following Him, may find themselves being separated from those following such false gospels as "Americanism," "conservatism," and "patriotism."

Called to follow Jesus, it's not a time for us to congratulate ourselves on our prescience, or superior spirituality, or good fortune. Those who separate to follow other gospels may yet repent: God does not desire than any of them should perish.

Our place in God's purposes has not changed, but our fervency must. Let us be more humble, and more grateful for His mercy to us. Let us more fiercely seek His rule in our life and the life of the Church. Let us cry more loudly to those deceived by the god of this world, "Repent, and follow Jesus Christ !!"

Statism

A word...more importantly, a concept...I'm increasingly hearing in "Christian conservatives' " discourse is "statism"...the essence of all evil in their formulation, which (of course, and self-flatteringly) they bitterly oppose.

The word triggered a faint memory. I'm sure he didn't invent the idea (or word), but in the 1870s the Russian thinker Bakunin wrote "Statism and Anarchy," generally considered a foundational text of modern anarchism. In his formulation, any kind of government was "statism," and the source of all human societies' woes. Bakunin's sovereign corrective, of course, was to have no government: anarchism.

I'd run across Bakunin when I was an anarchist, though I didn't start with him. Even 40 years ago, it was clear American government had failed, and I read Jefferson intensely: it seemed the one whose thought was the foundation of American government would be the place to start figuring out what had gone wrong. There's no missing the distrust and fear of government that pervades Jefferson's thought, but reading Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" was the actual spark for me.

Neither of my heroes counted themselves among (in Thoreau's dismissive phrase) "those who call themselves no-government men," but "Civil Disobedience" seemed to have no other logical point. Thoreau started his essay by "heartily" endorsing the motto "That government is best which governs least" (usually ascribed to Jefferson): which, he said, "...finally amounts to this, which also I believe,--'That government is best which governs not at all.' " I became a convinced anarchist soon after.

(Of course, I gave up anarchism when I became a Christian. I now understand human government as God's authorized (albeit limited) agent for mitigating some of the mundane consequences of man's rebellion. In the Christian view, anarchism seems as quaintly wrong-headed a corrective for sin as "naturism.")

It seemed necessary to read Bakunin, the "father" of modern anarchist thought. I'll confess, I found Bakunin heavy going, and gave him up quickly. But hearing "statism" condemned by today's "Christian conservatives" brought him to mind again. They, like Thoreau and Jefferson, lack the rigorous honesty to follow "anti-statism" to Bakunin's logical conclusion: but it's always instructive to know where any "new" idea comes from.

In truth, I doubt more than a handful of "conservatives," tea-partiers or "Christian," have even heard of Bakunin. Their faction probably owes its "anti-statism" less to him than to Ayn Rand. "Statism" was always her great bugaboo, the chief hindrance to her philosophy of "ethical egoism" (i.e., selfishness). I'll confess again, I tried to read her stuff and gave it up. Her writing is wooden and shrill, with the literary merit of supermarket tabloids.

Nonetheless, leading "conservatives" have found her "philosophy" compatible with their views. Ronald Reagan called himself her "admirer." Justice Clarence Thomas cites her as a major influence on his life. Alan Greenspan was a long-time member of Ayn Rand's inner circle: she stood beside him when he was sworn into government service as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in 1974. (She died before Greenspan was appointed Reagan's Chairman of the Federal Reserve.) Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck recommend Ayn Rand's books to their followers. (Libertarian "conservative" Ron Paul was likewise an Ayn Rand admirer: but his son Randal, current Republican senator from Kentucky, chose the nickname "Rand" himself.)

I find it troubling that "Christian conservatives" adopt Ayn Rand's ideas and attitudes toward "statism." Her teachings (Bakunin's as well, for that matter) are militantly atheist: her core belief is the supremacy of human reason. The Judeo-Christian teaching of altruism is her particular bete noire, and comes in for repeated attack: man's highest good, she teaches, is "egoism."

Even those who embrace Ayn Rand's "philosophy" doubtless see its problem. Even corrupt human reason can work out that bad trees produce bad fruit (as Jesus teaches in Matthew 7, Matthew 12, and Luke 6); and I doubt any rational person honestly believes the world needs more selfishness.

My "Christian conservative" friends who profess to hear Jesus' voice in their faction's "anti-statism" may or may not know anything about Ayn Rand or Bakunin. I'd hope, however, they would consider, on Jesus' authority, what kind of tree that idea grows from. If God is gracious to them, perhaps they'll yet be able to hear His call to repentance above the din of the "doctrines of demons" their faction embraces.

Gun Rights

My state is voting today on rewording a state constitutional provision on "the right to bear arms." There is basically no opposition to this change: who would dare speak against peoples' "rights" ?

I'm suspicious. The question was put on the ballot by a "gun-rights" group (whose leader is, not coincidentally, owner of a local gun-shop and shooting range), and promoted by the usual Republican suspects, on the make for votes again.

Proponents say the contitutional change is necessary to "correct" a Kansas Supreme Court decision of 1905, which ruled that the provision in the state constitution was the "collective right" of having a state militia. Today's revisionists want the constitution changed to specify that the individual "right" to go armed is protected. It sounds suspiciously like "conservatives' " argument against the "militia" meaning explicitly stated in the wording of the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment: which document I'm sure takes precedence anyway over any law my state passes.

On "gun rights" issues, the question that seems most relevant to me is always, "what problems of our society will be made better by more people having more guns ?" I have yet to think of even one.

But "gun rights" people always come back with the fact that our society is increasingly violent, and citizens need guns to protect self, home and family.

I find it particularly strange for Christians to argue we should have guns. It reminds me of the line in Tom Lehrer's satirical song about the atomic bomb, "Who's Next ?"

"Israel's getting tense,
Wants one in self-defense.
'The Lord's our Shepherd,' says the Psalm...
But just in case...we better get a bomb !!"

Scripture's teachings about our relationship with human government all command Christians' peaceful subjection to rulers, the bad as well as the good. Jesus is our Example when He tells Pilate, "You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above..." (John 19:11).

We are subject to human rulers because God put them in authority. They exist to do the job He's given them: to punish evildoers (I Peter 2:14). In God's economy, human government "...is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil." (Romans 13:4b)

If we take scripture's view as true, "anti-government" people are ultimately in opposition to God. It's His Authority behind the human governments He puts in place, and His Power that enables them to do the job He has set for them. Christians who align themselves with rebellious political factions might do well to rigorously check their thinking against scripture.

And "gun rights" people are always from the "anti-government" crowd. Their illogical argument that violence in our society requires LESS government control (especially of murderous weapons) seems to me an argument for MORE violence in our society. It's the fallacious logic of the argument made for "naturism:" that there would be less shame if more people practiced nudism.

Repentance is the corrective for disobeying or ignoring God's word. I hope my "anti-government" Christian friends will repent. But if repentance is also a corrective for plain muddle-headed thinking, perhaps my "gun rights" friends should repent as well.

Pharisees and Pharisaism

We all know the Pharisees, the "hypocrites" Jesus excoriated repeatedly during His earthly ministry. He denounced their hyper-scripturalism that missed God, their traditions they made equal with (or greater than) God's words, their political-social agenda that ignored people's suffering. The Pharisees' self-congratulatory pretence earned Jesus' fury: religiosity separate from God always does.

The pastor's sermon this week was on the parable Jesus told about the Pharisee and the publican. But it was the introductory sentence that hit me: "And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt." (Luke 18:9)

It's the underlying mindset of partisan divisiveness: we ("I," and those who agree with me) are righteous and right, and "they" (those we've chosen to contrast ourselves with) are evil and wrong. Think, for example, of "Christian conservatives' " attitudes toward those they call "liberals" and "godless."

Indeed, there are probably other similarities between the "Christian conservatives" of our time and the Pharisees. If so, Jesus regards them the same.

The Deception of Political Christianity

God never said mankind's problem is evil politics, bad government, or false philosophies. Those works of man are evil because they grow from man's corrupt heart.

God never said the solution to man's problem is improved human politics, human government, or human philosophies. The remedies themselves are from man's corrupt heart, poisoned, and only speed death.

May all who think man's works are the problem, and those who think man's works are the solution, REPENT !!

False Equivalence

It's increasingly clear the cornerstone of today's false Christianity is false equivalence. I'm amazed at how many honest and good believers have never thought to examine, or will not examine, the idea that "conservatism" (itself falsely so-called) is somehow equivalent to Christianity.

One friend, perhaps more thoughtful than others, tells me that he is "conservative" because Christianity is about righteousness. He disavows any blanket endorsement of "conservatism" per se, but perceives "conservatism" as the faction promoting righteousness in its stance against abortion, against feeding those who won't work, against homosexuality, etc.

Given the deeds which "conservatism" increasingly includes: fellowship with (even leadership by) manifest enemies of Truth (Mormons, for example), blatant nationalism (under the guise of "patriotism"), and the continual untruthfulness of "conservative" politicians (like all politicians): my friend is wise to leave himself an "out" from identifying with that faction. Beyond that, I don't buy it.

A faction is a faction, however rationalized; and scripture teaches factions are "a work of the flesh" which excludes people from the Kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21).

Nor is identifying righteousness with "conservatism" different in kind from equating the Church with "conservatives." God's Character no more has a political equivalence than does Christ's Body. I solemnly testify here against the idea that there is any human equivalent (least of all a political equivalent) to the Kingdom of God.

May God heal His American Church of spiritual blindness ! May God lead His American Church to repent !!

Variance and Unity

It's always disappointing to be reminded how much I'm at variance with other Christians. It's humbling, and forces me to go back over why I believe what I believe. I'm sure both are part of God's working His purpose.

It feels awful. You like to think you're at one with the other Christians you love and worship with. The Psalmist puts it well:

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!
It is like the precious oil upon the head... (Psalm 133:1, 2a)

Enjoying unity is God's anointing, a blessing. And it wasn't even an operational desire in my life before Jesus. In fact, disagreement had something of pride in it. Disagreeing with a friend, my carnal man could simply say, "Screw you, I'll go my own way." Knowing who Jesus is and what it means to be His Body doesn't allow me that attitude.

Disagreement now is part of keeping my spirit humble. If I'm at variance with other believers, there's always the possibility they may be right. That keeps me checking my leading: this week's disagreement with a church committee made me again re-check operative ideas I've always found rock-solid. Tested again, they still are. I'll continue to operate on them.

When it happens, being in agreement with other believers is a blessing from God. But ultimately, settled peace doesn't come from that: like unity, peace is God's gift, and He gives it to those who do His will. My first rock-solid belief is it's God will our every attitude, idea, thought, word and action be grounded on what He says, in the Bible and in the Spirit.

None of my friends, or any other believing Christian, would say otherwise. Yet millions in the American Church, including most of my friends, have bought the idea that being a Christian means being "conservative." None of those friends, challenged to show a scriptural basis for their belief, have been able to do so. Nor can I. I'm satisfied it's an unscriptural, indeed unChristian, idea.

The supposed equivalence "conservative" is, moreover, a formulation of a temporal human kingdom and society. No wonder that the deeds which grow from that unscriptural operative idea are "deeds of the flesh:" "...enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions..." (Galatians 5:20). Jesus proclaimed and lived the Kingdom of God. So should Christians.

I can't help longing for unity, and feeling frustrated when it tarries. There's always the temptation to grasp at it by agreeing with other believers, or simply keeping my disagreements to myself. But unity doesn't come by believers' agreement with each other: we are one in the Spirit, agreed together in hearing and doing God's will, or not at all.

I'm told my attitude is arrogant. I think rather that arrogance would deny unity altogether and say, "Screw you, I'll go my own way." Arrogance would feel no need to re-check its thinking, and certainly not against anything greater than its own opinions. Is it arrogant to hear God speak, when He commands we do so and promises He will ?

I'm sure my friends, and all the millions of American evangelicals who've bought the false idea that Christianity is "conservative," would agree that our faith must be grounded on what God says. My hope is that they will act on their belief and examine that idea against scripture. My perfect hope is that the Church in America will cast off its filthy political rags and do the work of Him Who sent us to this feeble, poor, lost and diseased country.

God forgive us !!

Think It Possible You May Be Mistaken

The title is in reference to the warning Oliver Cromwell wrote to his Christian opponents.

"...bring not therefore upon yourselves the blood of innocent men, -- deceived with pretences of King and Covenant; from whose eyes you hide a better knowledge! I am persuaded that divers of you, who lead the People, have laboured to build yourselves in these things; wherein you have censured others, and established yourselves 'upon the Word of God.' Is it therefore infallibly agreeable to the Word of God, all that you say? I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken. Precept may be upon precept, line may be upon line, and yet the Word of the Lord may be to some a Word of Judgment; that they may fall backward, and be broken and be snared and be taken!...There may be, as well, a carnal confidence upon misunderstood and misapplied precepts, which may be called spiritual drunkenness. There may be a Covenant made with Death and Hell! I will not say yours was so. But judge if such things have a politic aim: To avoid the overflowing scourge; or, To accomplish worldly interests? And if therein we have confederated with wicked and carnal men, and have respect for them, or otherwise have drawn them in to associate with us, Whether this be a Covenant of God, and spiritual? Bethink yourselves; we hope we do."

-- To the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, 3 August 1650


I'd remind my "Christian conservative" friends of these words, and ask them to apply Cromwell's warning to their faction's ideas and operations. Most of all, I'd beseech anyone in that faction, in Christ's mercy, to think it possible you may be mistaken, and confederated with wicked men to accomplish worldly interests.

Church, REPENT !!

God is Liberal

If the title of this post makes you gasp...or makes you angry...you are operating on the wrong definition of "liberal." You're exactly the person I want to address.

"Liberal" means "generous"...look it up in any dictionary. God doesn't play games with words. He uses a word (in scripture, for example) to mean exactly what it means. He speaks to us straight that way because He WANTS us to understand His thoughts and His heart.

God doesn't twist words. But human politicians do. That's what happened to the meaning of "liberal." A political faction in England a couple centuries ago began to call themselves "Liberal." "Liberal" means "generous," and factions always find it advantageous to give themselves a good name...even if it's not really true.

But human politics being what they are, clever spin-doctors can turn the game on its head. One way to do so is to give your opponents' "good" name an evil meaning. That's what an American political faction did just that a few years ago. They hated the falsely-so called "liberals," so they perverted that word's good meaning to give it their false derogatory meaning.

I have to wonder if Isaiah 5:20 applies here: "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil..." ?

If you gasp to hear it said that "God is liberal," it's because you operate by that political faction's definition of the word. You've been manipulated to think exactly the way political deceivers want you to think, to serve their purposes. Your understanding has been so deeply corrupted that you think of God HIMSELF in a political faction's definitions !!

My message is simply "REPENT !!" Turn away from that deceptive faction and its perverted teachings, and begin to think honestly. The dictionary's honest definition is that "liberal" means "generous." That's the meaning God intends we understand when He uses the word in scripture. For a true understanding of God, begin to think in scripture's terms.

In real words and true meanings, God is absolutely, unrestrainedly, LIBERAL, now and forever. In scripture's command, we all must praise Him for being liberal. In scripture's promise, our hope is to be liberal like Him !

The Problems of "Christian Conservatism"

"Conservative Christianity" has always seemed a problem terminology. We know what its adherents intend it to mean: bible-believing Christianity. But the appended political modifier always raises a question: as opposed to. . . ?

The implied answer, of course, is "liberal Christianity." By the definition "conservative" Christians wish to claim for themselves, "liberal" Christianity must logically be Christianity that DOESN'T believe scripture, and DOESN'T follow scripture's teachings. That's a problem. None of my "conservative" friends would consider such a thing Christianity at all...as I don't...yet their self-identification as "conservative Christians" is based on what manifestly cannot be, being so.

Probably few "conservative Christians" give any thought to the logical problem. What they can't miss, however, is that by identifying themselves with a modifier they proclaim themselves different, and separate, from other "Christians." Their intent is that we perceive them as they perceive themselves: a class of more-truly scriptural Christians (moreso than any others).

Surely they can't miss either, that desire to identify oneself as more scriptural, more true to the faith, oozes self-pride. And self-pride's manifestation in the Body of Christ is factionalism and divisiveness...contrary the unity Jesus prayed for us ("...that they may all be one; even as You, Father,... and I..." John 17:21) Can there be any regard in which the enemy more grievously wounds the Church than in deceiving believers to think of themselves proudly as " the real Christians" ? None of the evil doctrines of "conservatism" in which he misleads American Christians do as great harm to the Church as the enemy's assault on our unity in Christ with others who are in Him.

Honest criticism of any group must examine its teachings as formulated by its intelligent and articulate adherents. A "conservative Christian" friend who is both has written about what he considers essentially "conservative" in his beliefs: it's a good starting-point. This seems to be his central statement of that philosophy:

What then am I trying to “conserve” as a conservative Christian? In a nutshell, I want to protect the liberty provided by the Constitution and Bill of Rights that allows Christians and all other Americans to live peaceably, under the rule of law, free from government control and oppression, so that we may raise our families and practice our religion without hindrance. Put another way, I wish to conserve the liberty that I believe God has granted this nation, and oppose the soft tyranny of expansive government and secular religion that the statists seek to impose.

Political philosophies are always context-specific (and notoriously changeable). That's true of my friend's belief, whose context is America's human kingdom, at this exact point in time. What he defines as "Christian conservatism" here is obviously about this single nation, America, at this specific moment of its history. Christianity is contrary to such narrow political and national intent.

His operative ideas of "liberty" and freedom reinforce that political and nationalist relativism. His conceives both is the terms of American political culture, rather than as defined by scripture. He goes so far as to say liberty and freedom are "provided by") America's national political culture: with the same waffling generic nod to God we see in America's founding documents, which he cites. I'd question whether this philosophy of "Christian conservatism," based on human operative ideas in preference to scripture's, can be called Christian in any sense.

By those culturally-defined ideas, my friend holds that "Christian conservatives' " mandate is to "conserve" America's temporal human political "liberty," in order to "practice our religion without hindrance." He goes on to liken that mandate to Paul's using the privileges of his Roman citizenship to further the gospel.

The analogy doesn't work. Paul treated his earthly citizenship as incidental (secondary) to the purposes of God's Kingdom. He nowhere urges we seek or "conserve" the privileges of that citizenship as necessary (primary) in order to "practice our religion without hindrance." And we know that Paul's (scripturally-defined) liberty was unhindered by lack of those privileges, when he was in chains in a Roman jail.

Heavily telling against "Christian conservatism" is its already-mentioned lack of scriptural attestation. There's no scriptural evidence that Jesus was "conservative," or taught His followers should be. Rather, we know that Jesus regarded the "conservatives" of His time...the Pharisees...as embodying all the ungodliness and hypocrisy of human politics and religion.

But most telling of all is simply that the idea of "conserving" anything of any human system is contrary to the teaching of the Kingdom of God. Are Christians, transferred to the kingdom of God's beloved Son, told to "conserve" any part of the unrighteous world-system they were saved from ? Rather the opposite. As new creatures, living under God's rule even in the midst of an unrighteous world, we pray for God's Kingdom to reign on earth, as it does in heaven. The idea that God's purpose is to "conserve" anything good in human kingdoms, rather than replace human kingdoms entirely with His, is deeply counter-biblical.

"Christian conservatives" can rightly claim the latter identity: their attitudes, beliefs, and values are very much those of that human faction. The question is whether their core ideas may truthfully be called "Christian." In the absence of scripture's teaching those ideas, I'm not persuaded. And in "Christian conservatism's" operative pride, factionalism, nationalism, et al...I'm convinced contrariwise. I regard my friend's "Christian conservatism" is exactly the "secular religion" he opposes: and the enemy's deceit for calling itself "Christian."

God, in Your mercy, open the eyes of the hearts of Your deceived people !!