Mythical Identities

 

 

I love the early morning, spending time in communion with our Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit; meditating in the Word of God, praying for friends, family, and others. I love listening to creation awake, the birds singing. I love watching the first hint of sunshine reflecting off trees and flowers.

 

As I write this I’m reminded of a morning in Daytona, Florida in February quite a few years ago. I arose early that morning, as I normally do, and decided to walk around Daytona International Speedway. In just a few hours the racetrack would roar to life as the command, “Gentlemen start your engines,” was given, then, after some warmup laps the green flag would wave and the Daytona 500 would begin – NASCAR’s premier race. At the beginning of my walk all was quiet around the outside of the track, but by the time I returned to my father-in-law’s RV where we were staying, the racing community around the track was waking up and I could hear stirrings inside the facility.

 

The capacity of the speedway is listed at 101,500, and it seemed as if all those people were in RVs and campers parked around the track, though I knew Daytona’s hotels were also full of race fans, as were accommodations in surrounding towns and cities. The thing about race fans in campers and RVs is that virtually each vehicle has at least one flag flying, a flag representing the race car driver whom the occupants of the RV identify with and want to win the race. Many vehicles have more than one flag because often a husband identifies with one racer and a wife with another. Some of these flags are modest; others are huge.

 

NASCAR fans not only fly the flags of their favorite racers, they wear shirts and hats with the racers’ car numbers and names – and they speak of them as if they know them personally, generally using their first names, even though most fans have never met those whose flags they fly, and if they have met them, it was only for a brief moment – perhaps to obtain an autograph.

 

Whether it is a fan of a race car driver, the fan of a singer or musician, or of an actor, or of an athlete in another sport – when people strongly identify with someone popular or famous they often derive a measure of their identity from that person. People can become obsessed with details about a celebrity’s life, thinking that they personally know the celebrity. The same can be true with identifying with sports teams. It can be true with politicians. It can be true with ideologies. It can be true with cultural practices. It can be true with our view of history.

 

In one way or another, much of what we identify with is myth and image, it is not real, it does not match the reality of the person, the political movement, the history or the culture or region or country – when we idolize others, when we idolize images, we gloss over the fallenness of mankind, we ignore sin, and we look to others and images as our saviors and redeemers and source of wholeness.

 

College sports is a particular reminder of this for me; in Virginia many of my friends identify with either the University of Virginia or Virginia Tech – and when their team is winning all is right with the world. They wear hats and have stickers on their cars indicating that they identify with the Cavaliers or Hokies – this is part of the “identity culture” in Virginia. However, this uncritical identification ignores the reality that much of what transpires in these universities is hostile to the image of God, the Gospel, and the commonsense moral and ethical health of their students. Parents and grandparents don’t really want to know what is taught and practiced in the colleges they send their children to and pay tuition to - they would rather subscribe to mythical images. The same is true for our public schools – it is easier to root for the high school football team than it is to critique what is being taught in classes and to evaluate the (a)moral and (un)ethical practices inculcated in our children.

 

Because of the media tools at our disposal, the power of myth and image is so much stronger today than it has ever been in history, it is what a friend once called “electronic cocaine.” Our attention spans are shorter than previous generations and our capacity for critical thinking is diminished more than they have probably ever been.

 

When we have culture clashes and disputes over the reading and interpretation of history, much of it is about mythical identities rather than the truth – for the truth puts us on our faces, for when we see the truth, as fragmented as our vision may be, we have to acknowledge deep moral and ethical failure in humanity. We are angry when others challenge our myths, we are afraid to see our myths for what they are, and we are most afraid to question our mythical identities – whether they are cultural, ethnic, racial, regional, national, political, or having to do with religious tradition.

 

For sure we should beware of seeking to unmask the mythical identities of others while leaving our own untouched – for unless we know something of the pain of confronting our own myths, it is unlikely that we can communicate with others in such a way as to help them see their own.

 

Perhaps this is one of many reasons why the message of the Bible gives us hope, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God – this means, in part, that none of us is measuring up to God’s original intention for us. The Cross is the great leveler of humanity, “there is none good, no not one.” That means me and it means you, and perhaps more importantly in the context of mythical identity, it means “us.” We are all infected with mythical identities. It is only when we discover our true identity in Jesus Christ that we can begin to shed the mythical identities that have encumbered us.  

 

By God’s grace I have encountered mythical identities in my own life, and that is one reason I refuse to use words such as liberal, conservative, progressive; it is why I don’t care for the words clergy and laity; it is why I much prefer Mere Christianity to a franchised brand that would distinguish me from other Christ-followers; it is why when people do coalesce around labels, or attack labels, that I try to understand what they really mean…and have found that often they don’t know.

 

I have been appalled at the mythical identities that I have worn without question.

 

Can you identify mythical identities in your own life?

 

Galatians 2:20; 6:14

The Cup of Rebellion

 

Yesterday I happened upon a piece I wrote back in 2010. As I read it and thought about the ensuing years, and where we are today, I realized that if the piece was true then, that it is so much truer now. The world does not add to the burden or challenge of being a Christian, it is the professing church; it is one thing for the world to lose its mind, it is another thing for the professing church to lose the mind of Christ.

 

When Christians Drink the Cup of Rebellion

Robert L. Withers

February 10, 2010

 

            Last night before retiring I checked my email and read something that made me physically sick – it was as if I had ingested spoiled meat, rancid with maggots. It began:

            “This belongs in the ‘Email Hall of Fame.’ How’s this for apocalyptic literature. This was written by a pastor’s wife in biblical prose as a commentary on current events. It is brilliant.”

            What follows is a verbal and pictorial attack on the President of the United States, Barak Obama. “Attack” is too mild a word. The verbal sarcasm and the disrespectful pictorial caricatures are dung splattered upon the man who is the President of the nation in which American Christians live, the man who represents duly constituted authority – not only authority under the Constitution of the United States, but authority under the God of the Bible.

            I am going to restrain myself in this piece. I have already restrained myself by choosing the word “dung” above – there are more appropriate words to make the point, and I suppose that if I had the presence of a Luther I’d use them.

            Two preliminary comments on “biblical prose” and “brilliant” above; then I’ll move on to the heart of the matter.

            What follows in the email is hardly Biblical prose, it is more akin to something out of Mad Magazine; it is juvenile, written in the style of Mother Goose – with apologies to both Alfred E. Newman and Mother Goose. The only claim the prose and drawings have to any Biblical association is that the Bible warns us against the sin of disrespect for authority and positively commands Christians to honor authority.  It is brilliant in that Satan has not only used a Christian to write it, but also that our enemy is using Christians to propagate it – Screwtape must be envious.

            In 1 Peter 2:13 – 17 Christians are taught that their attitude toward government is integral to their testimony. Considering the political, economic, and social disabilities with which these First Century Christians lived – the American Church doesn’t know what an unjust government, social or economic system is. Yet, these believers are exhorted to, “Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.” Note the proximity of fearing God and honoring the king. Those who indeed fear God will honor the king for they recognize that all authority is from God – those who do not fear God, but set themselves up as rebels after the fashion of the enemy, will decide whom to honor and when to honor and how to honor.

            Paul teaches, in Romans 13:1 – 7 that, “…there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.” Paul also speaks in this passage of rendering honor to those in authority. Again consider the historical context; the recipients of this letter were Christians living in the city of Rome, the seat of Imperial power and hence the foundation of persecution against Christians – in this context Paul teaches them that God is in control and in that knowledge Roman authority should be honored.

            Jesus lived in submission to authority. In Matthew 8:1-13, the Roman centurion recognized that Jesus was not a rebel or loose cannon in terms of authority – the key element that the centurion recognized about Jesus was not that Jesus had authority or was in authority, but that Jesus was under authority. The centurion understood that only those who are under authority can exercise legitimate authority – Jesus commended the faith of this Roman soldier.

            What better picture of submission to authority could we have than Christ before Pilate? Then there is Paul and his numerous appearances before Roman authorities. And then we have the other Apostles in the Book of Acts when they disobeyed the Sanhedrin by continuing to preach Jesus Christ – they gladly suffered the punishing results of their obedience to God without exhibiting a disobedient and rebellious attitude toward authority. We might speak of David, who even after being anointed by Samuel as a future king, knew that only God had the prerogative to execute a change of authority – that it was not given to David to effect a change on the throne. When David gave in to temptation and demonstrated disrespect for Saul he repented and asked Saul’s forgiveness.

            A characteristic of false teachers is rejection of authority, Jude 8, 2 Peter 2:10; but this does not appear to deter Christians from heaping disrespect and rebellious abuse on the President of the United States. When we consider that the root of rebellion and slander is found in “our ancient foe,” ought we not to pause and consider the cup from which we drink?

            The Biblical books of Daniel and Revelation teach that all power is in God’s hands and that God sets up and casts down whom He will. Disrespect of the President of the United States by Christians is a manifestation of unbelief in the teaching of Daniel and Revelation – though it is a manifestation of the Satanic spirit which these Biblical books describe.

            The introduction of the email I received terms the piece apocalyptic literature. Perhaps it is ironically apocalyptic in that in Revelation we see a religious system riding on the Beast and the Beast then devouring the religious system. Any religious system, including elements of the American Evangelical Church, that rides the Beast in a symbiotic relationship has had fair Biblical warning. Let us recall that Revelation is a letter written to the Church, not to the world; it is a warning to the Church, not to the world. The irony is that the email is a picture of the people of Jesus giving themselves over to a temporal political, social, and economic agenda to the point where they join in rebellion against duly constituted authority. There is no moral ground in slander, vitriolic, and in disrespect for authority; there is, however, spiritual quicksand. The very wing of the American Church that reviles elements of society that have abandoned “traditional” values, has itself abandoned the foundation of those values in adopting the spirit of this age – they that live by the sword of rebellion will perish by the sword of rebellion. The Beast has room enough for all to ride.

            For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself, Philippians 3:20 – 21.

            Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? But He turned and rebuked them…, Luke 9:54-55.

           

           

           

 

           

We Need More Veterinarians

 

 

“A beast does not know that he is a beast, and the nearer a man gets to being a beast the less he knows it.” George MacDonald, quoted by C. S. Lewis in George MacDonald An Anthology, page 160.

 

“Creatures, I give you yourselves,” said the strong happy voice of Aslan. “I give to you for ever this land of Narnia. I give you the woods, the fruits, the rivers. I give you the stars and I give you myself. The Dumb Beasts whom I have not chosen are yours also. Treat them gently and cherish them but do not go back to their ways let you cease to be Talking Beasts. For out of them you were taken and into them you can return. Do not so.” The Magicians Nephew, C. S. Lewis; One Volume edition The Chronicles of Narnia, page 71. Italics mine.

 

Based on the above it appears that we need fewer doctors and more veterinarians.  

 

“See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of unrighteousness; the tongue is set among our body’s parts as that which defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race.

 

“But no one among mankind can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way. Does a spring send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, bear olives, or a vine bear figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.

 

“Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the see whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” James 3:5b–18.

 

Books and More Books (3)

 

Have you read Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman? It is a must read. Considering it was published in 1985, I can only imagine what Postman would say today, were he still living. If you want to read some real prophecy, read this book. This is an example of prophecy and discernment birthed by common grace and general revelation and God-given common sense, and it far surpasses most of what is marketed as prophecy by many pastors, teachers, and “Christian” authors.

 

“It is my intention in this book to show that a great media-metaphor shift has taken place in America, with the result that the content of much of our public discourse has become dangerous nonsense.” Postman, page 16.

 

Not just public discourse, but discourse within the professing church.

 

“Television is our culture’s principal mode of knowing about itself. Therefore – and this is the critical point – how television stages the world becomes the model for how the world is properly to be staged. It is not merely that on the television screen entertainment is the metaphor for all discourse. It is that off the screen entertainment is the metaphor for all discourse…Americans no longer talk to each other, they entertain each other.” Postman, page 92.

 

“What all of this means [our show business culture] is that our culture has moved toward a new way of conducting its business, especially its important business. The nature of its discourse is changing as the demarcation line between what is show business and what is not becomes harder to see with each passing day. Our priests [and pastors, and worship leaders, and evangelists, and small group leaders] presidents, our surgeons and lawyers, our educators and newscasters need worry less about satisfying the demands of their discipline than the demands of good showmanship. Had Irving Berlin changed one word in the title of his celebrated song, he would have been as prophetic, albeit more terse, as Aldous Huxley. He need only have written, There’s No Business But Show Business.” Postman, page 98.

 

“…it is not that religion has become the content of television shows but that television shows may become the content of religion.”  Postman, page 124.

 

It seems as if Postman is hitting the nail on the head. Here’s one more that speaks not just to advertising, but to much of the professing church:

 

“The television commercial has oriented business away from making products of value and toward making consumers feel valuable, which means that the business of business has now become pseudo-therapy. The consumer is a patient assured by psycho-dramas.” Postman, page 128.

 

Whereas Dorothy L. Sayers wrote that, “The beauty is in the dogma,” we now preach that the “beauty is in the mirror of self.”

 

Well, if you want to get a clue or two about why we are Biblically illiterate in the professing church, Postman’s book provides valuable framework.

 

I recently had a church elder tell me, after I suggested a book to him, “I don’t read.” Once, during my annual review by church leadership, I was criticized for expecting the leadership to read material I was giving them. Considering that elders are to be “able to teach” (1 Tim. 3:1) and that deacons are to be “holding the mystery of the faith” (1 Tim. 3:9); where do we get this idea that we are not supposed to read?

 

Yes Mr. Postman, we are indeed amusing ourselves to death.

 

 

 

Not Incumbent

 

It strikes me that it is not incumbent upon the follower of Jesus Christ to have an opinion about everything, nor are we called to judge all things – we have better and higher things to do. While Martha runs here and there, with her attention like a shotgun blast with pellets everywhere, Mary sits at the feet of Jesus with her heart, eyes, and ears fixed on Him. Martha moves to a cacophony, Mary responds to the sweet voice of Jesus Christ (Luke 10:38).

 

This is not to say that we, as a people, cannot judge all things if needed (1 Cor.2:15), but it is to say that we have better and higher things to do, living lives fixed on Jesus Christ and in service to others.

 

The notion that we can transform the world and culture, when the world system and its culture is under judgment, is a notion that distracts us and dissipates our strength (John 12:31; Gal. 6:14; 1 John 2:15). Yes, we are called to be salt and light, mitigating the evil and darkness of the world and leading others to Jesus Christ, but this is not the same as thinking that somehow we are going to make what is inherently evil and opposed to God into something righteous – see Psalm 2 and Daniel 2.

 

One benefit of realizing that it is not incumbent on us to have an opinion about everything is that we can model hearts and lives which are devoted to Jesus Christ, we can model what it is to sit at the feet of Jesus. This is the Light that others need, this is the City which does not need lesser lights, for it has the Light of the Father and the Son (Rev. 21:23; 22:5). How foolish to carry a flashlight when the sun is brightly shining, how nonsensical to eat food dead by the roadside when the Master has a seat for us at His Eucharistic Table.

 

However, it is not just that it is not incumbent upon us to have an opinion about everything in the world, it is also not incumbent upon us to have an opinion about everything in the Kingdom – indeed, it can be dangerous. Paul asks, “Who are you to judge another man’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand for the Lord is able to make him stand” (Rom. 14:4). Then, “Judge nothing until the time comes…and then shall everyone have praise from God" (see 1 Cor. 4:5). (Writing this is not without irony!)

 

When Peter wanted to know about the trajectory of John, Jesus says, “What is that to you? You follow me.” (John 21:21ff).

 

When we should be relieved that we are not called to know everything, to judge everything, to meddle in everything...we insist on being mental and emotional busy bodies…and we call this wisdom and understanding? What’s worse, we model this scattered way of life for others and make it normative.

 

The ways of the world are not to be our ways, it is not incumbent on us to know everything, to understand everything, to have an opinion on everything, to judge everything. It is, however, commanded that we love God with all that we have and all that we are, and that we love our neighbors as ourselves and our brethren as Jesus loves them. It is incumbent on us to lay our lives down for others, with our eyes looking unto Jesus.

 

If we desire to demonstrate the relevancy of the Gospel, it is not by responding to every headline in the news that we will accomplish this; but rather by living in Christ, as Christ, declaring the Good News that there is an everlasting Kingdom and an eternal Way – the Way of Light and Life, the Way of Jesus Christ.

Five Less Books

 

I saw it in the mainstream media yesterday, and I wondered what the “seekers” thought who had been in his audiences over the years. I wondered about those who had asked him sincere searching questions. I wondered about those who had trusted him; both those inside and outside of Christ.

 

Through reading news reports from within the professing – Christian community I had known about this sadness for some time; yet another professed servant of Christ is revealed to have been a fraud. Fraud! Fraud! Fraud! But now it is in the mainstream media; and yet, I suppose we’ve arrived at the place where this kind of behavior is so widespread that it is not receiving the mention it may have generated just a few years ago. We have become experts in compartmentalization, the truth no longer matters, it is only what we want that matters – for verification of this consider the abundant conspiracy narratives around us, consider the farce of the impeachment “trial” where the truth does not matter; many senators deciding how they will vote prior to the commencement of the trial.

 

When we have one “Christian leader” prostituting a university, and another “Christian leader” prostituting his evangelistic association, why should we be surprised that, after his death, we find that another “Christian leader” has sinfully gratified his sexual lust and damaged the lives of women over whom he wielded power. Of course, success makes right in much of the professing – church; money matters, political power matters, book and video sales matter. Just as we don’t want to know what happens to our children when we send them off to college, so we don’t really want to know what happens within “Christian” power centers. And let’s face it, there are many stories of what has happened to the man or woman, especially the woman, who dares to question the words and actions of people (usually men) in “Christian” power. “Christian” power centers, whether they are churches, universities, denominations, or para-church organizations, have a record of snuffing out the “smoldering wick” and stomping on the “broken flax.”

 

When I first read about the egregious sin of the person in question (see 2 Peter Chapter 2 and Jude), I wasn’t surprised. This is not because I had suspicions or red flags, it was because I am somewhat numb after report after report of ungodly behavior and hypocritical “leadership” in a “Christian” culture that worships success rather than the True and Living God who is Holy. In fact, I had appreciated this man’s ministry, I enjoyed listening to him and I had five of his books on my shelves – one of them on marriage, in which he used his own marriage as an example of a godly marriage.

 

After reading that the sin in question had been verified, I took the five books and put them in the trash. We cannot compartmentalize our lives with impunity, no matter what others say. We as a nation, and we as a professing church, have bought into the lie that morality has little, if anything, to do with function, with vocation, with leadership. How can we have fallen so far not only from philosophical common sense (I’m thinking of Greek and Roman and Asian philosophers with their emphasis on virtue), but from the clear teaching of Scripture, the Word of God? Leadership (to use a term I’m beginning to loath) must begin and end with character, and for the Christian it must begin and end with holiness and virtue in Christ, and derived from Christ – a character with the transparency of the New Jerusalem. Leadership begins with washing the feet of those around us, its ethos is that it has not come to be served, but to serve and to give its life for others (John 13:1 – 17; Matthew 20:20 – 28).

 

The Bible and the Church Fathers are clear that holiness of life in Christ is inextricably bound up with the illumination of the Holy Spirit in understanding the Word of God and enjoying a life of communion with the Trinity. In other words, we are not going to experience true Biblical understanding without living in the light of God’s Word in Jesus Christ. This necessarily includes living in accountable and transparent community within the Body of Christ.

 

But what have we done? We have said to the world, “Come and build with us! We will adopt your ways! We will utilize your principles! As long as it works it must be good!” (Ezra 4:1 – 3). Where are the faithful shepherds of God’s people who will say, “You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God”?

 

Our epistemology must not be that of the world. Our ontology must not be that of the world. Our teleology must not be that of the world. Our pedagogy must not be that of the world. And please, O please, may our paradigms of leadership and success not be derived from the world.

 

Where are those who will act and speak as Paul and Barnabas, rather than receive the worship and accolades of man? “But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd crying out and saying, ‘Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God…’” (Acts 14:14ff).

 

Where are those men and women?

Russell Moore and The Roman Road from Insurrection

 I admit that I am fatigued from the news and the chaos. But I am reminded of Proverbs 24:10, "If you are slack in the day of distress, your strength is limited." (NASB). Below is a link to a piece from Russell Moore - well worth pondering. 

https://www.russellmoore.com/2021/01/11/the-roman-road-from-insurrection/

Musings on January 3 and beyond

 

I’ll admit that the past few days have been somewhat of a fog. I am incredulous that professing Christians are endorsing and advocating violence and lawlessness – this can come from nowhere else but the abyss and is assuredly demonic (James 3:13 – 18; 2 Thess. 2:1 – 12). I am also baffled at the lukewarm response to this insane idolatry by Christians who do know better, where is the clear denunciation of evil in the church? Most of the language I’ve read from people with a broad platform falls far short of calling evil and idolatry what they are – perhaps it is just this sort of cotton candy leadership, which is not “rightly dividing the word of truth,” that has contributed to our present condition.

 

Where are those who speak with authority and not as the scribes? Who will speak as the oracles of God? What have we come to?

 

Below is an email I sent to a friend the morning of January 3. On Sunday mornings I make it a special point to pray for pastors I know, and their wives and families and churches. On January 3 I had a particular burden and sent the note below to a pastor friend. The burden manifested itself in Jeremiah 4:19 – I was living that verse, my heart was pounding in intercession for the church and my country. Little did I know what January 6 would bring.

 

I also knew I was to fast on Monday and Tuesday, I broke the fast late Tuesday. I didn’t know why at the time, but on Wednesday I did.

 

I’ve engaged a few professing Christians in conversation about violence and nation – worship over the past few days, and sadly it has stressed friendships…how can this be? How can professing Christians endorse what is clearly demonic? How can they ignore Christ and the Bible? It appears that what passes for the church in much of American is simply a house of cards. Here’s the email excerpt:

 

 

Sun, Jan 3, 7:58 AM (12 days ago)

 

Good morning…

 

I've been wondering how Ezekiel and friends could possibly live with the images and knowledge they had...such as idolatry in the Temple...sickening. I suppose it is all a Burning Bush dynamic, how else to consider it? Yet it does seem at times as if the frail bush will be consumed

 

Then this morning, Jeremiah 4:19 (and this is one of those passages in which I wish I really knew Hebrew to the point that it oozed from the pores of my skin) - for I don't think any English translation can probably do it justice...though perhaps you could capture it? (Hint).

 

This is likely one of those passages in which unless a commentator has lived it to some degree that any explanation will taste like flat soda pop. But then, unless the reader has touched it, and been touched by it, the flat soda pop will taste okay.

 

And then I've been thinking that we've had conflict since the beginning of the New Creation in Acts...as the Epistles bear witness to...and we insist on desecrating the Temple...even setting up our own Roman standards....or perhaps reenacting Antiochus Epiphanes...with only an altar, a swine, and with images...and we think it is normative.

 

Poor Jude, he had so much he really wanted to write about, but he fell under the necessity to appeal that his readers would contend for the faith once delivered...do we even know what that "faith" is? Strangers we are to the Creed...as Dorothy L. Sayers wrote many times, "The beauty is in the dogma."

 

It's all well and good to be excited about being in the Body of Christ...until you realize just what He is going to do with His Body...

Caesar and God

It just so happens that my small group is looking at Matthew 22:15 - 22 next week. Here is the handout I sent them this morning. 

Good morning brothers,

Perhaps it is an accident that we have this passage next week...but maybe not.

I don't cry often, but I cried yesterday...not just for our nation, but for the abdication of a distinct witness by much of the church in this land - when Christians are politicized all hell breaks loose. 

Matthew 22:15 – 22.

 

This is the first of four questions in Matthew Chapter 22:

 

1.    Matthew 22:15 – 22, a sociopolitical question about taxes; how much should we give ourselves to our country?

2.    Matthew 22:23 – 33, a supernatural question about Resurrection.

3.    Matthew 22:34 – 40, a Scriptural question about the Greatest Commandment.

4.    Matthew 22:41 – 46, a Sonship question about the Lordship of Christ.

 

Pharisees = think religious group

 

Herodians = think political group

 

Isn’t it nice when both groups combine?

 

They both have an interest in killing Jesus.

 

If Jesus says that the tax shouldn’t be paid then He can be accused of violating Roman law and siding with those against Rome – inciting the Herodians. If Jesus says that it should be paid then He can be accused of endorsing Roman occupation and inciting the Pharisees, and more radical Jews.

 

Jesus literally asks, “Show me the coin of the tax.” The silver denarius was a coin minted for this tax, with the head of Tiberius Caesar on one side and the head of his mother, Livia, on the other. On one side of the coin was printed, “Ti[berius] Caesar, worshipful son of the divine Augustus.” You might call this a “portable idol.”

 

When Jesus asks whose image and inscription is on the coin, He forces them to say “Caesar’s”, to acknowledge the image on the coin and who the ownership of the coin belongs to.

 

Bruner writes, “Their reply half answers their own question: they possess in the coin the possession of another. Is it ever wrong to return property to its owner? Jesus could have stopped there. But he adds one more stroke, his great principle, to teach with all possible clarity the truth of loyal but limited responsibility to political power.”

 

When Jesus says, “Render” the Greek word means to “give back” – since it belongs to Caesar give it back to Caesar.

 

Here are some other passages regarding Christians and government:

 

1 Timothy 2:1 – 2 (many Christians seem to only pray for those they agree with); Romans 13:1 – 7 (note context); Titus 3:1 – 3 (many Christians ignore this, “Christian” vitriol and sarcasm is sickening); 1 Peter 2:13 – 20 (the context of this is suffering, Peter expects his readers to respect the state even if the state persecutes them).

 

I’m going to close this handout with an extensive quote from Frederick Dale Bruner’s commentary on Matthew, Bruner is a Presbyterian, but what he has to say is not unusual historically, nor among those who struggle with the implications of the Bible’s teaching (the Barman Declaration that Bruner mentions was a document of the faithful German church (a minority) drawn up during Nazism when most of the church was being politicized for nationalist and political ends – of course that would never happen here, thank goodness). The underlining is mine:

 

“But if the first half of Jesus’ answer means the honor of the state, the last half means the limitation of the state. “But [you give back] to God the things that belong to God!” As Caesar’s coin bears Caesar’s image and belongs to Caesar, so God’s human beings bear God’s image and belong to God. God provides humanity with all kinds of services through the state, and so now God mandates through his Son that humans honor God’s servant state, with a due reciprocity – with a due, not a deified, reciprocity. The “total” in the word totalitarian signifies undue respect for the state. “My country, right or wrong” is a totalitarian statement. The only reality with a total claim on conscience is God. Jesus’ Caesar – God formula means that we are to give Caesar a great deal, but not an allegiance that knows no bounds. God is the boundary of the state.

 

“The state is God’s servant, and the preponderance of NT witnesses to the state lays emphasis on this dignifying fact. But the state can become demonic, and it is one ministry of the book of Revelation to paint this fact colorfully (esp. Rev. 13 and 18). The state becomes demonic in the measure that it asks for itself “the things of God,” such as total commitment, unconditional obedience, or uncriticizing allegiance (e.g. “America, Love It or Leave it”). Some governments play God or the special friend of God. In such cases, the warning of the Presbyterianism’s Confession of 1967 is salutary: “Although nations may serve God’s purposes in history, the church which identifies the sovereignty of any one nation or any one way of life with the cause of God denies the Lordship of Christ and betrays its calling” (see the fifth thesis of The Theological Declaration of Barmen for similar limitations).

 

“Implicit then, in Jesus’s imperial answer is a twofold critique: (1) of those who give the (even usurper) state too little, such as the anticolonial revolutionaries and later the Zealots, and (2) of those who give the state an almost divine too much, like the Herodians and all later hyperpatriots. Jesus’s command frees the secular – political realm from ultimacy and makes it penultimate. Every attempt to make our politics God’s, or to make the political divine or ultimate, as the Far Right and the Far Left are always inclined to do (“Far” usually means the divinization of a cause), must shatter on this Word of Stone. Fundamentalisms of all kinds illustrate this evil dramatically.”

 

Much love,

 

Bob

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When The Church Becomes A Whore

 

January 6, 2021

 

I wrote this a few days ago, but then thought maybe it was too strong and I put it aside. Now it isn’t strong enough. Shame, shame, shame on so many “professing Christians” who have abandoned the Way of the Prince of Peace.

 

What sacrilege, what idolatry. What a disgrace of the Gospel.

 

It seems we’ve traded the white linen of Christ for the brownshirts of the “man of lawlessness.”

 

Robert L. Withers

 

The Price of Infidelity – When the Church Becomes a Whore

 

How can we explain the alignment of professing Christians with people who engage in vitriol, weave webs of lies, and advocate lawlessness and violence? How can we explain the adoption of these sins by professing Christians?

 

How is it that those who purport to be followers of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the Prince of Peace, engage in verbal and physical violence and intimidation; idolizing and defending the narcissistic and indefensible?

 

How is it that knowing that the devil is the accuser and slanderer, that professing Christians propagate accusations and slander?

 

Let’s remember that the primary Biblical image for idolatry is adultery, spiritual promiscuity. With this in mind, consider Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 6:15 – 20:

 

“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Far from it! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “The two shall become one flesh.” But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” (NASB)

 

While the immediate context of this passage is physical promiscuity, note the introduction of the spiritual in, “But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” As we see throughout the Bible, we become what we worship; we take on the characteristics of that which we join ourselves to – and no amount of rationalization can alter this fact. In 2 Corinthians 6:14 – 7:1 Paul writes:

 

“Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,

 

“I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people, says the Lord. And do not touch the unclean; and I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty.

 

“Therefore, having these promises, believed, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness n the fear of God.” (NASB)

 

So then, how do we account for the fact that so many professing Christians are manifesting the spirit of lawlessness and violence, rather than fulfilling their calling in Christ Jesus to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9; Hebrews 12:14; James 3:13 – 18)?

 

It is because rather than being faithful to Christ as a pure virgin (2 Corinthians 11:1 – 3), much of His Bride has believed the, “Has God really said?” of the serpent. Having believed that, they have engaged in adultery with those elements which war against our Lord Jesus (Psalm 2) to the point where they take on the characteristics of these elements…forgetting that they are called to be the sons and daughters of the living God.

 

When God’s people join themselves to prostitutes, they take on the characteristics of prostitutes. Though as the Lord says concerning His people in Ezekiel 16:32 – 34:

 

“You adulteress wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband! Men give gifts to all harlots, but you give your gifts to all your lovers to bribe them to come to you from every direction for your harlotries. Thus you are different from those women in your harlotries, in that no one plays the harlot as you do, because you give money and no money is given you; thus you are different.”

 

 

 

Augustine…Depraved by Good Fortune

 Here are some words from Saint Augustine worth pondering:

 

“Christ did not come down into the flesh that we might live softly; let us endure rather than love the things present; manifest is the harm of adversity, deceitful is the soft blandishment of prosperity. Fear the sea, even when it is a calm. On no account let us hear in vain, “Let us lift up our hearts.” Why do we place our hearts in the earth, when we see that the earth is being turned upside down?

 

“…our God is everywhere present, wholly everywhere; not confined to any place. He can be present unperceived, and be absent without moving; when He exposes us to adversities, it is either to prove our perfections or correct our imperfections; and in return for our patient endurance of the sufferings of time, He reserves for us an everlasting reward.

 

“But the worshippers and admirers of pagan gods delight in imitating their scandalous iniquities, and are in no way concerned that the republic be less depraved and licentious. Only let it remain undefeated, they say, only let it flourish and abound in resources; let it be glorious by its victories, or still better, secure in peace; what else really matters? This is our concern, that every man be able to increase his wealth so as to supply his daily prodigalities…

 

“Let the people applaud not those who protect their interests, but those who provide them with pleasure. Let no severe duty be commanded, no impurity forbidden. Let kings estimate their prosperity, not by the righteousness, but by the servility of their subjects…

 

“For certainly your desire for peace, and prosperity, and plenty is not prompted by any purpose of using these blessings honestly, that is to say, with moderation, sobriety, temperance, and piety; for your purpose rather is to run riot in an endless variety of drunken pleasures, and thus to generate from your prosperity a moral pestilence which will prove a thousandfold more disastrous than the fiercest enemies.”

 

Augustine considers Scipio’s fear that the total destruction of Rome’s ancient enemy, Carthage, would lead to the decline of the Republic. Augustine writes that Scipio saw that “prosperity would corrupt and destroy you. He [Scipio] did not consider that republic flourishing whose walls stand, but whose morals are in ruins…Depraved by good fortune, and not chastened by adversity, what you desire in the restoration of a peaceful and secure state, is not the tranquility of the commonwealth, but the impunity of your own vicious luxury.

 

“Scipio wished you to be hard pressed by an enemy, that you might not abandon yourselves to luxurious manners; but so abandoned are you, that not even when crushed by the enemy is your luxury repressed. You have missed the profit of your calamity; you have been made most wretched, and have remained most profligate.”

 

The Lust of Rule

 

In Augustine’s preface to the City of God, he writes, “…we must speak also of the earthly city which, though it be mistress of the nations, is itself ruled by its lust of rule.”

 

There are, Augustine tells us, two cities…only two; the City of God and the City of Man. While Augustine would, no doubt, have preferred to only write of the city of which Augustine was a citizen, the City of God, under the circumstances (upheaval in the Roman Empire), he wants his readers to know that he’ll be also looking at the City of Man, the earthly city. This is in the tradition of Proverbs Chapter 9, and of Revelation chapters 17 and 18 set against chapters 21 and 22.

 

Augustine writes that while the earthly city is the “mistress of the nations,” that while it rules the nations, it “is itself ruled by its lust of rule.” The lust for power intoxicates the rulers of this age, both the rulers we can see and the rulers we can’t see. This lust for power has its roots in angelic rebellion (Ezekiel 28; Revelation 12:7 – 12), a rebellion which is permeating human thought, action, and society (2Thessalonians 2).

 

Consider Psalm 2:1-3, “Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against Yahweh and against his Christ saying, ‘Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!’”

 

This lust for rule produces an insanity in rulers, and this insanity can be unleashed in their people. This insanity can manifest itself in a political attitude of mutual assured destruction, where nothing matters other than the annihilation of the political opposition.

 

Dear friends, the People of Christ ought not to be participants in this foolishness. We are not our own, we have been bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:19-20) and we are called to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9). We cannot drink of the Cup of Christ and of devils (1 Cor. 10:21; 2 Cor. 6:14 – 7:1; and James 3:13 – 18). As James writes, anger and vitriol is “not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.”

 

The lust to rule which is manifesting itself from the White House, to Congress, to state houses, to the internet, to the streets of our nation – is demonic…and it bears with it the mark of all that opposes submission to the Prince of Peace. Let us not be so foolish as to think that we are immune from this lust – for it is nothing less than the temptation to establish our own kingdom, our own self-righteousness, our own idols.

 

Our nation and world need intercessors – people who pray intercessory prayers and live intercessory lives; not pawns in a game. Our broken world needs the People of God to be citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20), our very environment cries out that we would live as the sons and daughters of the Living God (Romans 8:18 – 23).

 

The world-system will suck the life out of the People of God and sell us into harlotry, and that includes all of the nations of the world, whatever their names and flags might be, whatever economic systems they may advocate.

 

Why? Because the City of Man has an insatiable lust for power, a lust to rule; it will seek to control us by pain, or to control us by pleasure – and how it laughs when it enlists us to serve in its brothel.

 

There can be no compromise for the Church of Jesus Christ – we will either keep ourselves pure for Christ or we will be adulterers and adulteresses. (2 Cor. 11:1 – 15; 1 John 2:15 – 17; James 4:4).

 

Are we living in the City of Man, caught up in its lust for power…or we are living in the City of God?

 

(Also, when you read Revelation chapter 18, note the emphasis on economics – this is a characteristic of Babylon, of the Great Whore, of Satan – have we been enslaved by economics? What really dominates our national thinking? Let’s not play the fool here, what is really at the heart of our lives and the life of our nation?”

 

 

Quotes and Questions

 

 

“The idolizing of material prosperity characteristic of Rome [Rev. 3:17] characterizes a whole church.”

 

“What the Nicolaitans and Jezebel are urging is not some minor accommodation to the ways of pagan society Christians have to live in, but complicity in that denial of the true God and his righteousness which characterizes the forces of evil incarnate in the Roman system. No wonder Jezebel is said to “deceive” Christians (2:20) – a word used elsewhere in Revelation only of the devil, the false prophet and Babylon…”

 

“Their [the Nicolaitans and Jezebel] teaching made it possible for Christians to be successful in pagan society, but this was the beast’s success, a real conquest of the saints, winning them to his side, rather than the only apparent conquest he achieved by putting them to death.”   Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation, pages 123 – 124. Italics mine.

 

 

Richard Bauckham – On Babylon in Revelation:

 

“The hyperbole makes clear what is at stake in the conflict between the church and the Empire. The conflict truly concerns the coming of God’s kingdom. But the hyperbole also shows that what is at stake in the ultimate conflict of that time is what is always at stake in the church’s history. The beast as the Roman Empire never held truly universal power, but what the beast represents, in a thousand other historical forms, contests the control of God’s world until the coming of his eschatological kingdom. Therefore also the street of the great city, in which the witnesses to God’s truth lie dead at the hands of the beast, need be neither in Jerusalem or in Rome nor even in the cities of Asia. It may also be wherever the unprecedented numbers of Christians martyrs in our own century have died. The eschatological hyperbole gives these symbols intrinsic power to reach as far as the parousia. Furthermore, it is not only the hyperbole that gives the images this power. Because John’s images are images designed to penetrate the essential character of the forces at work in his contemporary world and the ultimate issues at stake in it, to a remarkable extent they leave aside the merely incidental historical features of his world. There are enough of them to make the reference unmistakable; Babylon is built on seven hills (17:9) and trades in a very accurate list of the imports to first-century Rome from all over the known world (18:11 – 13). But they are sufficiently few to make the reapplication of the images to comparable situations easy. Any society whom Babylon’s cap fits must wear it. Any society which absolutizes its own economic prosperity at the expense of others comes under Babylon’s condemnation.” Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation, pages 155 – 156. Italics mine.

 

Now that we’ve read the quotes, here’s a question, “What society is wearing Babylon’s cap today?”

 

Here’s another question, “Can you think of a more remarkable victory for the beast, than that of seducing the professing church into the adulation of Babylon?”

 

Great is Diana of the Americans

 Yesterday was an interesting day in terms of the responses I received regarding John Piper's article. I was going to reflect on those responses today, but I think I'd better give it another day or two. In the meantime, this is a repost of a piece back in January, which is where my heart is on these matters.

Bob 

Great Is Diana of the Americans

Robert L. Withers

Written in January 2020

 

During the past few years, as I’ve become increasingly concerned about the engagement of professing-Christians in the political melee in the United States, John Newton has become an historical mentor to me in thinking, teaching, and behavior. This mentorship is particularly pronounced in the area of politics and nationalism.

 

In August 1775, four months after Colonists and British regulars fought at Lexington and Concord, Newton, Anglican priest and author of Amazing Grace, writes to a young friend concerning Britain and the Colonies:

 

“As a minister and a Christian I think it is better to lay all the blame upon sin. Instead of telling the people Lord North [the Prime Minister] blunders, I tell them the Lord of hosts is angry. If God has a controversy with us, I can expect no other than that wisdom should be hidden from the wise…I believe the sins of America and Britain have too much prevailed, and that a wrong spirit and wrong measures have taken place on both sides because the Lord has left us to ourselves.

 

“It seems to me one of the darkest signs of the times, that so many of the Lord’s professing people act as if they thought he was withdrawn from the earth…instead of unavailing clamors against men and measures they would all unite in earnest prayer, we might hope for better times, otherwise I fear bad will be worse.”

 

As the letter continues, Newton turns his attention to the idea of liberty; turning to Jeremiah the prophet Newton writes:

 

“He [Jeremiah] preached against sin and foretold judgment, but I do not find that he made a parade about liberty…He does not seem to have troubled his head, who was scribe or recorder, or who was over the host [that is, who was in charge of government and the military], for he knew that whoever had the management, the public affairs would miscarry because the Lord fought against them. When I hear the cry about liberty I think of the old cry, ‘Great is Diana of the Ephesians’ [italics mine]. Civil liberty is a valuable blessing, but if people sin it away, it is the Lord [who] deprives them of it…

 

“However a believer has a liberty with which Jesus has made him free which depends upon no outward circumstances. It grieves me to hear those who are slaves to sin and Satan, make such a stir about that phantom which they worship under the name of liberty, and especially to see not a few of the Lord’s people so much conformed to the world in this respect [italics mine].”

 

When I first read the above letter, a year or two ago, I was taken with Newton’s image (no pun intended) of Diana of the Ephesians from Acts Chapter 19. A few days ago I realized that Newton’s use of Diana preceded his 1775 letter, for in a 1773 letter he writes to a fellow minister:

 

“On the other hand, you and I, dear sir, know how much they are to be pitied who are frantic for what they call liberty, and consider not that they are in the most deplorable bondage, the slaves of sin and Satan, and subject to the curse of the law, and the wrath of God. Oh for a voice to reach their hearts, that they may know themselves, and seek deliverance from their dreadful thralldom! Satan has many contrivances to amuse them, and to turn their thoughts from their real danger; and none more ensnaring, in the present day, than to engage them in the cry, ‘Great is the Diana Liberty!’ [italics mine].

 

“…And already in some pulpits, (proh dolor!) [Latin: oh the grief!] a description of the rights of man occupies much of the time which used to be employed in proclaiming the glory and grace of the Savior, and the rights of God to the love and obedience of his creatures.”

 

It seems to me that Christian nationalism, and Christian political engagement, whether it be from the “right” or the “left”, or even the “center” – is a snare to the professing-church in that it obscures our witness to Jesus Christ and His Gospel as it exalts our “rights” and “liberties” and “personal freedoms”.

 

There is a sense in which, for the disciple of Jesus Christ, there is no “personal freedom”, for we are called to be servants of Jesus Christ; indeed, since we have been purchased and redeemed by Jesus Christ, we are no longer our own possession – to echo Paul, we are not our own, we are bought with a price.

 

The People of God are called to be distinct from the world, the flesh, and the devil. We are called to be distinct from the “right”, the “left”, the “center”; our Gospel is to be for all mankind without regard to ethnicity or national flag or economic system.

 

We are to discern the difference between the Bible and the constitutions of nations, the political systems of nations, the economic systems of nations, and the foreign policies of nations. If the Gospel of Jesus Christ is transcendent then the Church of Jesus Christ ought to express itself, in Christ, transcendently. How can this be otherwise, unless professing - churches within national boundaries prostitute themselves in the service of the world? Babylon the Harlot rides the beast until the beast destroys her (Revelation Chapter 17). Can we not be a foolish people?

 

We have been taught to make idols of liberty, prosperity, pleasure, our founding national documents, our foreign policy, our economic policies – and we seek our identity in these things rather than in Jesus Christ. As we fail to be citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven (Philippians 3:20) we fail to be good neighbors to our fellow earthly citizens and neighbors.

 

When we adopt a faulty sense of our national identity in place of a true sense of “a better country, a heavenly country” (Hebrews 11:16) and we cease to live as pilgrims and strangers we, as Esau, sell our birthright for a mess of pottage; we trade our high calling for short-term pleasure and gratification. We forego identification with the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ for temporal agendas that will turn to dust. The beast will eat us and we are so drunk with the world that we won’t even know it – it devours us even as I write this.

 

Newton chose Christ above everything. When other ministers of the Gospel attempted to pull him into political and nationalistic orbits Newton resisted, when others appealed to “liberty” Newton recognized the danger of liberty outside of Jesus Christ. Newton saw the that great need of mankind was not political liberty, but rather liberty from sin and death. Newton saw that Christ held him accountable for preaching the Gospel, and that not a day was to be spared in the service of temporal movements outside of the Gospel.

 

Newton saw that the turmoil of his nation and world could only be the result of sin, and that there is no political remedy for sin.

 

Lest we forget, Newton was engaged is serving the fatherless, the widow, the hungry, and the slave; the Gospel of Jesus Christ for John Newton included serving the “whole person” – John Newton knew, as we should know, that the only hope for this world was, and is, Amazing Grace.

 

Paths to Ruin

 

Good morning dear friends,

 

John Piper has written a piece that has given me great encouragement, and is a model of faithfulness, courage, and fidelity to Jesus Christ. I hope you will read it, I’ve provided this link.

Policies, Persons, and Paths to Ruin

PONDERING THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE 2020 ELECTION

 By: John Piper

Heavenly - Mindedness (10)

 

Continuing our reflections on Geerhardus Vos’s Message on “Heavenly Mindedness” from Hebrews 11:9 – 10:

 

“The patriarchs had their vision of the heavenly country, a vision in the light of which the excellence or desirableness of every earthly home and country paled. Acquaintance with a fairer Canaan had stolen from their hearts the love of the land that lay spread around like a garden of paradise. Of course, it does not necessarily follow from this that the author credits the patriarchs with a detailed, concrete knowledge of the heavenly world. In point of heavenly-mindedness he holds them up as models to be imitated. In point of information about the content of the celestial life he places the readers far above the reach of the Old Testament at its highest. To the saints of the New Covenant life and immortality and all the powers of the world to come have been opened up by Christ. The Christian state is as truly part and prelibation of the things above as a portal forms part of the house. If not wholly within, we certainly are come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God. And in this we are more than Abraham.

 

“No such Gospel broke in upon the solitude of these ancient shepherds, not even upon Jacob, when he saw the ladder reaching up into heaven with the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. But do you not see, that precisely on account of this difference in knowledge the faculty of faith had addressed to it a stronger challenge than it has in us, who pilgrim with heaven’s door wide open in our sight? For this reason it is so profitable to return again and again to this part of the Old Testament Scriptures, and learn what great faith could do with less privilege, how precisely because it had such limited resource of knowledge, it made a sublimer flight, soaring with supreme dominion up to the highest heights of God.”  Geerhardus Vos.

 

Since the beginning of the above quotation is linked to what will follow in Vos’s message, most of this reflection will consider the contrast, or distinction, between the Patriarchs and Old Covenant saints, and those of us in the New Covenant.

 

“The patriarchs had their vision of the heavenly country, a vision in the light of which the excellence or desirableness of every earthly home and country paled. Acquaintance with a fairer Canaan had stolen from their hearts the love of the land that lay spread around like a garden of paradise.” This continues the theme of heavenly – mindedness, and Vos will return to this in our next section, but let’s not skip over it less we miss the thrust and import of the sermon. Vos tells us that the vision the Patriarchs had of their heavenly country was so overwhelming that all earthly homes and countries paled before that vision and desire. And that while the earthly land they lived in was a paradise, that nevertheless their affection for that earthly paradise had been “stolen from their hearts.”

 

Do we have such a vision in our own lives? Are we living lives of such heavenly – mindedness? Let me especially ask this of us who live in the United States, for we have been raised in cultural isolation from the rest of the world, in a land that is wealthy beyond the imagination of much of the world (even though we must acknowledge that there is much want and need and inequity within our borders), and in a land in which the pursuit of “happiness” and pleasure is pretty much a religion.

 

We live in a land in which much of the professing church reflects not a vision of heaven, but rather a vision of the values, priorities, and pursuits of earthly culture.

 

Furthermore, in our nation we have a syncretistic Christianity that is often enmeshed in nationalism to the point where the “church” is placed in the service of the State, of political parties, of economic agendas. In some circles it is safer to criticize and doubt the Bible than it is to question the Constitution or a political perspective. The fact that we are generally safe from foreign enemies and that we are prosperous and entertained makes the foregoing seductive. It also means that, in our pleasure – induced stupor, having our hearts stolen away from the surrounding earthly culture by a heavenly vision is a pretty rare thing.

 

The fact that much preaching and teaching demands little or nothing of us in terms of the Cross and discipleship, that our Christianity generally caters to ourselves, and that the peer pressure of going along with the narcissistic culture of our nation is so great – means that to break out of this gravitational pull and share in the heavenly – mindedness of the Patriarchs has many obstacles.

 

In this election year of 2020, the fact that some so – called “Christian” leaders have attacked one political party on behalf of another political party, and have cloaked these attacks with a syncretistic “gospel” of “Christian” nationalism, makes the challenge of being heavenly – minded all the more pronounced. When the world culture and irresponsible pastors, preachers, and teachers want to steal our hearts away from Christ and His heavenly Kingdom and way of life – we have much to strive against to break away from the earth and live in the heavens in Jesus Christ.

 

Can we, the professing church in the United Sates, say that, “the excellence or desirableness of every earthly home and country [has] paled?” What is our honest answer?

 

What does my life reflect? What does your life reflect? What do the lives of our congregations reflect?

 

What challenges are we facing in this regard? In our hearts and minds? In our relationship with Jesus Christ? In our relationships within and without the church?

 

Can we be honest with ourselves about the state of our souls in this regard? Can we be honest with our holy Father and our Lord Jesus? Is the Holy Spirit searching our hearts and minds? Can we be honest with others about this matter, within and without the church?

 

Have our hearts been stolen away from the things of earth, no matter how desirable they may be, and made one with the heart of Jesus Christ in our heavenly home?

 

Well, I wanted to cover more in this reflection, and I actually wanted to focus on Vos’s thoughts on the distinction between the Patriarchs and ourselves, but one central thought is enough and it’s time to close. The Lord willing, we’ll look at the distinction question in the next post.