What's Up With The Reformation ?

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

A blog-post I read this morning by Peter Corak, re-blogged at "Christianity 201," seems to me the best commemoration there could be of today's 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

Whatever Luther's intent, whatever the effects of the Reformation in subsequent history...what was God's purpose ?  Is there any other "reason" threaded through world events and human history ?
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"I guess I don’t normally think of God as a seeker. Maybe that’s because I think of seekers as needing something and I don’t think of God as in need of anything. But while God has no need of anything, there are some things He desires. This morning I read of something the Father seeks. Of something that He’s actively pursuing–something, in a sense, He craves. Something, go figure, that I can provide.

'But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.'   ~ Jesus   (John 4:23 ESV)

"God is a seeker. And He seeks true worshipers to worship Him."

(Peter's meditation can be read in full at https://mymorningmeal.com/2017/10/10/seeker-friendly-2/)

 

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Calling Out Franklin Graham

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Donald Trump gave a speech at the United Nations last month.  In part, he said,

"The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.”

I'll admit, I've become so used to his appalling bombast that I don't even hear it anymore; or if I do, I just ignore it as meaningless, as Trump being Trump.

If I thought about his words at all, it was only about his attempted cleverness in denigrating Kim Jung Un as "Rocket Man."

Benjamin L. Corey's blog made me remember that words, even Trump's words, have real meaning.  Made me remember that Jesus said, "But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken" (Matthew 12:36, NIV).

Corey pointed out that Trump's speech (even if it was Jesus' definition of "empty words") was a threat to kill 25 million people.  That his words meant he would kill all the civilians in North Korea.  Kill all children and babies who happen to have been born in North Korea.  Incinerate all its citizens who hate the government of North Korea, as well as the brainwashed millions who love it.  Kill all North Korean truck-drivers, grandparents, Christians, housewives, foreign diplomats, nurses as well as soldiers, because of where they live.

Even for those who accept Augustine's "just war" theory, Corey pointed out, Trump's threats do violence to all Christian understanding of Jesus' teachings, and all that He calls Christians to be.

Franklin Graham evidently didn't get it, says Corey.  Graham seems to have missed what Trump's words mean, or what Jesus' words mean.  Graham's facebook comment on Trump's speech was

"Thank God we have a president who stands for truth and is not afraid to speak truth to the whole world. President Donald J. Trump's address today to the United Nations General Assembly may have been one of the best speeches ever given to that body. It made you proud to be an American. I hope you will join me in praying for this man, that God will guide and direct him. He reminded the world, 'If the righteous many do not confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph.' "

Corey's full blog-post is at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/formerlyfundie/franklin-graham-trumps-kill-speech-one-best-ever/.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Alienated from God's Heart

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

In our discussion of a Sunday-School class, a friend referred to justice and mercy as "God's middle name."

That seemed a perfect way to put it: that immediately and inextricably following the reverence due His Personally Being I AM, is His Personal BE-ING toward human beings.  As Jesus called our reverent following Him in that "Be-ing,", the second greatest commandment (Matthew 22:36-40).

It's been quite noticeable in our time that the qualities of "mercy" and "justice," literally God's Own heart toward mankind, have been marginalized in many parts of the Church, regarded as side-issues of interest to only a fringe-element of believers.  (My perception is that, in America, that attitude had its roots in the white evangelical churches of the South, as an attempt to disassociate their doing "church" from the black churches' involvement in the Civil Rights movement)

Most recently God's commands that His people practice mercy and justice have been further marginalized; indeed, reviled; by dominant Political Christianity characterizing that "fringe-element" as "liberal" Christians.  Not "liberal" in the normative meaning of "generous," by which we say God is abundantly liberal: but in the current narrow sense of Evangelicals' chosen political faction, "liberal" meaning "enemy," and "evil."

America's current political "Evangelism" marginalizes God's command to "do justice, [and] love mercy" (Micah 6:8);  and indeed, treats those as "enemy" teachings.

Could "Evangelicals" be any more alienated from God's very heart ?

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Weighing Trump

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Those of us horrified by Donald Trump have to be careful that we don't spend so much time and thought on his evil idiocies that he becomes the central figure of our lives and our world-view.  When we do, we become mirror-images of Trump's followers.

But worst of all, that would be to share Trump's hyper-inflated self-image of his own magnificent importance in EVERYTHING.  Sharing Trump's thinking in any regard is disgusting.  Concurring in his self-image would be

So I'll affirm, once and for all, that Donald Trump himself matters in human affairs and world history less than a pinch of owl-dung.  Human affairs and world history are the story of mankind's relationship with God, written by God.  Donald Trump is a transitory bit-player under God's stage-direction.


Contrary his own belief, Donald Trump is not the main character in that story.  Neither is Hilary Clinton or Barack Obama (both of whom I mention only because Trump seems to somehow think they are his rivals for the title of History's Most Important Person Ever: though I doubt Clinton or Obama either one thinks of themself in Trump's terms).

But Trump is not deterred, believing that his personal importance is proved by the fact he holds the highest office in the Greatest Nation in the World.

Trump has to affirm that about America.  It would diminish his personal sense of his own glory if "his" nation was anything less than the Greatest, Strongest, Most Wonderful, Richest, Most Powerful country that ever existed.  But those of us not in Trump's perceptual-thrall don't have to be, and shouldn't be, as delusional.

In the story God writes of human affairs and world history, there's no good reason to consider America anything more than another kingdom of men.  No reason to believe Trumpland is God's ultimate be-all and end-all for humankind.

Trump himself, and the fake-news "America" which he creates for himself, matter less than a pinch of owl-dung. 

But in a regard Trump seems not to recognize, both have significant weight on God's scale of mankind and his history.  On God's scale, Trump and his alternative-reality nation weigh in as a huge spiritual evil: man's self-pride vaunting itself against God.


                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Going the Wrong Way

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

When the teaching started going around that Christians should be involved in politics, I rejected it.  It was an obvious ploy by the "Moral Majority" of the late '70s to trump up Christian support for Republicans.  Having become a Christian during the Watergate days, I was deeply skeptical that Christians should take political "sides"...especially with the "side" that gave us the most corrupt and destructive government in our history...to that point.

I was...and am...impressed that Galatians 5:20 lists "factions" (Greek haireseis, literally, "dividings") as a work of the flesh.  It was hard to see how the "Moral Majority" and its (quickly-burgeoning) imitators were not such "factions," involving themselves as they did in the worldly power-mechanics of human governments.  New factions springing up is how politics works: but introducing a "dividing" in the Church wounds the Body of Christ.

I was also skeptical that the goal of worldly political power was one Christians should pursue: it seems a serious mis-reading of Jesus' mandate to seek FIRST the Kingdom of God.

The 1980 election confirmed my suspicions.  The major candidates were a staunch Christian and a self-proclaimed "conservative."  The "Christian Conservative" faction delivered its votes overwhelmingly to the "conservative."  It showed where the heart of that faction truly lay, and still does.

But my view has become a bit more Biblically-nuanced in the last 40 years.

I'm more convinced than ever that "Christian conservatism" is an unscriptural faction (unless I've missed some important admonition by Jesus that His followers be "conservative"); and that human political power has no part in enacting the Kingdom of God.  There is no scriptural mandate I'm aware of that we should seek first (or at all) involvement in the human politics of this world's kingdoms.

But that world is where our life takes place, and politics is part of that world.  If we believe Jesus is "Lord" of all things, He is Lord of all that world, and all its human activities, including politics.  It's not our priority to seek; but in their contacts with and responses to the world's politics, Christians should manifest Jesus' rule even that enemy realm.

And there's the problem.

A tourist in Ireland was driving cross-country, and had become lost on a country road.  Seeing a farmer working on his fence, he pulled to the side of the road, and called,

"Excuse me.  Is this the road to Dublin ?"

The farmer paused to look down the road...and turned to look down it the other direction.  Then he looked at the tourist.

"Aye, 'tis," said the farmer.  "But ye're goin' the wrong way."

American Christians' mandate is to manifest Jesus' Lordship, even in the world's political realm.  But for 40 years American Christians have been going the wrong way.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Tell Me, Please

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Tell me, please...is political perception greater, or spiritual perception ?

 By "greater," you understand I mean more pleasing to God...?

From your spiritual perception, then, Christian...

did Jesus say His very Identity is "The Truth" ?

does God hate any sin more than pride ?

does it please God when we act in wisdom...when we "do the right thing"...or in moral foolishness ?

Is it political perception or a spiritual perception, then, when we say America is currently governed by lies, pride, and foolishness ?

Is it a political or a spiritual characterization of American "evangelicals" that they overwhelmingly choose to follow lies, and pride, and unrighteousness ?

"And My people love it so!
But what will you do at the end of it ?"     --  Jeremiah 5:31

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Freedom and False Freedom

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

There's a tendency in American Christianity to equate what scripture calls "freedom" with the “freedom” vaunted in the Declaration of Independence. That’s probably the essence of 90% of the “4th of July” sermons every year.

It’s a false equivalence.   America's founding doctrine is that freedom is a matter of exercising our “inalienable rights”…or as we call them in current political jargon, "entitlements"...and defending those "rights, by violence if necessary.

Jesus said otherwise.  He said freedom is a matter of knowing TRUTH (John 8:32).

If Jesus is right, the enemy’s greatest lie may be that by demanding, or even warring for, our “rights,” we can “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”

Brother Appolus, in his blog "A Call to the Remnant," gets Jesus' teaching about freedom and "rights:" and even more, Jesus' example: exactly right: “Would you be free today ? Lay down your rights.”

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Who Is Mike Pence

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

When Mike Pence was announced as Donald Trump's running-mate last year, we were all hearing that he was chosen because he was a stalwart "evangelical" who would appeal to that Republican "base."

It seemed to work for some supposed "values voters" I knew, who were torn about voting for Trump.  I don't think any of us had really heard much about Pence before: but the "buzz" (doubtless produced by the "Christian" political machine) was good, and I heard people bring up Pence' name as the reason they thought voting for Trump was a "godly" choice.

Seeing how his relationship with Trump played out, I didn't buy it then, and don't buy it now.  Pence has defended Trump, and "interpreted" his lies to make them seem palatable: he's had no discernible influence in changing Trump's character.  Bottom line, Pence has seemed merely another shameless sycophant of the kind Trump likes around himself.

But my biggest problem with Pence was that he used his "Christian" reputation (even if it was mostly political hype) to whitewash Trump's character.  One time my daughter and I were talking about the role Pence had played in some Trump outrage, and found we had come to think of him in exactly the same words: "Christian whore."

My friend Tim in Australia and I were discussing some months ago where Trump might fit in God's end-time workings.  Neither of us considered that Trump could himself be anti-Christ.  Scripture portrays that man as a uniter, likable, a professing "believer," and widely popular: a master-deceiver, able to hide his evil spirit from his followers.  That's obviously not Trump.

But we didn't really go on to consider that any constitutional process replacing Trump (following his death or impeachment) would give us President Pence.

I blogged several months ago that post-Trump politicians (of all factions) will undoubtedly try to bring forward "...a 'leader' perceived as more honest, intelligent, and likeable than Trump," to whom people will gladly give their allegiance.  ("Who's Next ?", 6/16/17).  Again, thinking of him entirely as a creature of Trump, Pence didn't even cross my mind.

But a profile of Pence in the New Yorker this week makes me think I'd better consider Pence actually could be "who's next."   Rather than a creature of Trump, Pence has long-time personal ambitions, telling high-school friends that he was going to be President.  Nobody but Pence can know how sincere was his conversion to evangelical Protestantism; but he's certainly made it part of his political persona.  He has also cultivated a mutual relationship with the Koch brothers, espousing their causes and accepting their contributions.  Over it all, he projects a voter-friendly image of "Midwestern nice."

I highly recommend the New Yorker piece for its insight into Mike Pence' character and intentions.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/23/the-danger-of-president-pence


                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

The Greater Fool Theory

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

This week we celebrated (if that's the right word) the 30th anniversary of the 1987 stock-market crash.

I heard an N.P.R. interview a couple days ago with a woman who's written the story of that event.  She mentioned, which I'd never realized, that the little-remembered 1987 market collapse was worse than either the 1929 or the 2008 crashes.

She placed the blame on the computer trading-strategies of the time: that when any stock started to go down, the computers were automated to sell...driving the stock-price further into decline.

She didn't say; and I'll have to leave to people who understand better than I do the workings of the economic system...which is most people; what part seven years of Reaganomics played in the crash.

I remember listening to "Morning Edition" that day as I was sorting mail at the Post Office.  Bob Edwards, the show's host at the time, asked a financial expert why the crash had involved even "blue chips:" the stocks of companies considered rock-solid in any crisis.

I have never forgotten the expert's answer.  (It is in fact the cornerstore of the sparse understanding I have of how Wall Street works.)

You have to remember, he said, that the stock-market operates by the Greater Fool Theory.  My remembrance is that Bob Edwards chuckled as he said, "The Greater Fool Theory ?  What's that ?"

Investors don't buy stocks because they believe in the issuing company, said the expert, or because they believe in the company's product.  An investor purchases a stock because he believes that, in the future, a greater fool will pay a higher price for it.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Jesus Says How It Is

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

I know I'm increasingly one-note in my thinking.  I'm O.K. with that, because my understanding is that it's the right note.

When Jesus said "I AM...the Truth..." He characterized Himself as reality, Personal, whole and entire.  The personal implication for me, for every human being, is that living in reality is the only way of life that "works."  That may be why His full statement was, "I AM the Way, the Truth, and The Life."

When Jesus said satan is "the father of lies" He said the enemy of life is futile and destructive unreality.  And that satan himself is the personal, whole and entire source ("father") of unreality...beginning with his telling Eve she would "surely NOT die" by disobeying God, after God had warned her she would.

We know who Eve chose to believe.  And we know, from her and our experience, who told her the truth.

I choose to believe Jesus.  That means my whole and entire way of life is about loving truth.

That includes politics.  When Jesus said "I AM...The Truth..."  He said politics is not really about politics.  He said politics is a spiritual matter, in which we make a spiritual choice.  Our choice determines our life...or death.