The Chinese are Coming

What would you say if I told you that you are financing Chinese concentration camps and helping them build ICBM’s? What if I told you that Iran, North Korea and the PLO have benefitted from your financial investments? Despite our Lord’s command to love our enemies, I don’t think that extends to financing their evil intentions. Yet this is exactly what millions of Americans are unwittingly doing through their investment holdings. Private and government retirement plans are buying equities and bonds in Chinese concerns. Many mutual funds and other “basket” investments now include companies that support the Chinese effort to become the next world superpower.

The latest issue of Imprimis has a shocking article detailing the depth to which Americans have gone to finance the Chinese program of world domination. The author of the article is Robert W. Robinson, Jr. Robinson was a member of President Ronald Reagan’s National Security Council. He has served in several other high-level positions that give him a clear view of the subject of Chinese plans. Robinson’s article is quite detailed and perhaps too arcane for general consumption. I will summarize what he wrote hoping to wake readers to the eminent danger.

Robertson begins by explaining how important President Reagan’s economic strategy vis-à-vis the Soviet Union was in precipitating their demise in 1989. Simply put, the USSR was using Western capital to finance their plans for world domination. President Reagan used his power to systematically defund Russia’s efforts. Reagan’s plan involved no guns or missiles, but he destroyed the USSR as completely as if he had ordered a nuclear strike on Moscow.

Robertson believes that America is now in the same position with China that Reagan was with the USSR. Robertson goes into fine detail to show how China has been systematically penetrating the American markets through trade deals, clandestine investment, industrial espionage and outright theft. China relies on American dollars to finance its expansionist policies. China gets those dollars in a number of subtle ways, but the most egregious is through investment by American mutual funds and retirement programs, both private and government sponsored.

Once upon a time, I was a Registered Representative. Since that time, I have been more aware of the importance of financial markets to the average person. Back in the 1990’s, we were concerned about responsible Christian investing: no alcohol, tobacco or other “sinful” investments. Several mutual funds were created to meet the need for “socially conscious” investing. These funds typically underperformed, so many languished or disappeared. Money was more important to people than principles.

In this current situation, we may be dealing more with our very existence as a free country than as a “moral” country. If China continues to leverage its control over American markets, they could conceivably create a situation that would make the crash of 1929 look like a church picnic. I’m not an alarmist; I know God is in control. I also know that He expects us to do what we can to promote justice and equity in the world. Promoting China promotes the opposite of our cherished principles.

You are pretty much powerless to change what your company retirement plan invests in. We all have some say in what our government plans invest in. Robertson suggests that what is happening has already run afoul of SEC regulations and government restrictions on foreign investment. As arcane as it may be, I am asking that any of my readers who understand what this all means to make some noise. Call a congressman; lobby your investment counselors asking them to investigate this; check what your mutual funds etcetera are involved with.

This situation may be an example of what Yeats meant when he wrote in “The Second Coming” that the center cannot hold. We may be spiraling into the void. He prophesied, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst \ Are full of passionate intensity.” The “rough beast” he foresaw may be Chinese. Do what you can or don’t be surprised when the second coming is not what you expected.

The Virgin Shall Conceive

The question of how the birth of Jesus came about is common at this time of year. I don’t mean the King James version from the Gospel of Matthew, “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.” The idea that Mary was pregnant without the cover of marriage is not hard to believe. People generally have no problem with the idea that Matthew and Mary had to travel to Bethlehem to partake in the census. Government intervention in private family events is well understood. What troubles some of us who believe that Mary was a virgin is precisely how the pregnancy was initiated.

First, I want to confirm that it is absolutely necessary that Mary be a virgin. If Joseph or any other human male was the sperm donor, Jesus’ mission would have been doomed from the beginning. Since the Father had sent the Son to pay the ransom price for the entire human race, the Son could not have sin of His own to pay for. Every human born since the Garden of Eden is born in Adam’s lineage. What that means is that all humans are under the curse of Adam which is separation from God. So, if Jesus were born in Adam’s line, He would not be the spotless lamb, the sinless man to take others’ sin.

This situation necessitated a unique birth. The subject who was to take the punishment for the sin of all mankind could not be born of Adam. However, the subject had to be a representative human to pay the human price for Adam’s disobedience. This is the dilemma: how could there be a human who was not “human” for the purposes of sacrifice? We are told that God accomplished this with language that is open to interpretation.

When Mary asked how she could be pregnant, never having “known a man” meaning she was a virgin, the angel from God said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.” That is Luke’s version. Matthew has the angel from God tell Joseph, “that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” Mark doesn’t mention it and John simply says, “The Word [the eternal Son of God] became flesh.” None of these explanations satisfies the curious mind. Not mine anyway.

Given the necessity that Jesus be outside Adam’s line, I am compelled to ask how God accomplished that when He used Mary, clearly a human from Adam’s line. Two explanations arise. Commonly, theologians have declared that since lineage was accounted through paternity (the father’s line), Mary’s lineage was not important if she was a virgin. The Holy Spirit was the “father,” and Adam’s line was interrupted. This is satisfying for most people.

I am more inquisitive than most people. I have always wondered if the Holy Spirit introduced a non-Adamic sperm into Mary’s egg thus avoiding Adam’s parentage. This could work legalistically, but it is not fully satisfying. Mary’s Adamic nature is still in half the Messiah’s DNA. There is a second possible explanation. I admit I am far beyond biblical confirmation, but I propose a possible alternative. What if the Holy Spirit did an “in vitro” fertilization, placing a fertilized egg or an embryo into Mary’s womb? In this way, God would have completely avoided the cursed Adamic line.

I find possible support for this in the Greek text that explains what happened. The Gospel of Matthew comes closest to describing what happened. Joseph is told that, “Mary was found to have [something] in her womb from the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:20) The simplest explanation of this is that Holy Spirit deposited in Mary’s womb a creation from God which met the requirements of being human yet not being from Adam’s corrupted line. Paul calls Jesus the “second Adam.” Since God formed the first Adam of earthly materials (the dust), could He not form the second Adam from whatever materials met the criteria?

All of this may have dulled your happy Christmas spirit, but I hope not. God’s ways are not our ways, clearly. Yet, He wants us to know that what He does is righteous, holy. God did not violate His justice when He placed the sin of all mankind on His only-begotten son. The Son had to be a spotless sacrifice. The sacrifice had to be something special.

I could be wrong. I am not presenting this theory as a biblical fact. I am suggesting what I have reasoned could be a way to reconcile the need for a sinless Savior with the fact that He was born of a human parent. When you look at the manger this Christmas, bow in reverence to a God who accomplished for us what we could not do ourselves. That is the message of Christmas. I don’t know how He did it, I simply rejoice that He did. Hallelujah! And Merry Christmas.

What’s the Haps, Bro?

Sometimes the King James Version says something so right that you have to admire it. When speaking of how Ruth found a field to reap a small harvest for herself and her mother-in-law, the KJV says, “her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz” (Ruth 2:3 KJV). Birds “light on” a branch; mosquitoes “light on” an arm. Ruth happened to (her hap) light on a field that would lead to more than that night’s supper. Just as God's eye is on the sparrow, he knew Ruth’s need and was there for her.

In case you wonder sometimes if the Old Testament has anything worth reading today, look at this passage from Ruth. First some history: Old Testament law required land-owners to leave the edges of their fields unharvested so that the less fortunate could “glean” from them. Gleaning means picking up what is left over. Record this: Ruth gathered what was “left over.”

Second, Old Testament law had what was called the kinsman redeemer clause. A “kinsman redeemer” is a person who, as the nearest relative of another, is charged with the duty of restoring the rights of another and avenging his [or her] wrongs. Ruth’s “rights” were to have children of her Israelite husband, but he died before that could be accomplished. As such, she stood by law as one who had had her rights denied. Little did Ruth know that when she vowed to follow Naomi, her mother-in-law, back to Israel, she would get the opportunity to have those rights granted.

So, her “hap” was to choose a field owned by the next nearest relative of her departed husband. If you know the story, you remember that the nearest relative didn’t care to fulfill his duty and gave Boaz the right to take on the kinsman redeemer role. He did. The progeny from that marriage eventually brought forth the one named David from whence comes the one called Messiah. All because Ruth’s, “hap was to light on a part of the field belonging to Boaz.”

What’s the lesson? Nothing is without significance. By “happenstance” Ruth went to a field that was owned by someone who could make the course of history flow in the correct channel. The Messiah came to redeem the world (That’s another kinsman redeemer fulfillment, by the way.)  The most insignificant things can change the course of history. What if Brutus had flinched at the last moment when Julius Caesar walked by? What if John Wilkes Booth’s pistol had misfired? What if Admiral Yamamoto had decided the weather was not right for the Pearl Harbor attack? What if the assassin’s bullet had missed Martin Luther King? History turns on the most “insignificant” things.

Because I believe in a God who is in ultimate control of the outcome, I can trust in the details that lead to the outcome. I don’t have to like it in the outworking. Jonah probably didn’t enjoy his time in the smelly insides of the great fish, but it worked for the greater good of Nineveh, one of the greatest cities of his time. Moses probably didn’t relish his time on the backside of the desert in Midian, but it prepared him for God’s mission: freeing his people from bondage. Jesus certainly did not look forward to his torture and execution at the hands of the Romans (via the Jewish leadership), but He endured for the joy set before Him.

Don’t dismiss the “small stuff.” Someone wisely said that the devil is in the details. More importantly, the God who runs the universe is also in the details, and He overrules the devil every time. When it is our “hap to light on” something we don’t understand, know this: The God who knows everything is working everything for our good, and he will never lead us into anything we cannot handle with Him present. Keep your eyes open; redemption is at hand.

And the Light was Good

If you are a regular reader, you know that I am fascinated by many things, but few interest me more than the intersection of science and faith. I am not one who sees contradictions or disagreements between what God’s Word says and what science asserts. I firmly believe that where such differences appear to exist, the problem is either in our interpretation of the biblical text or in our understanding of the science. The problem is never in the biblical record itself.

Some of the most heated debates concerning science and the Bible center on the first few paragraphs of Scripture. Naturally, many unbelievers argue that the concept of an omnipotent deity creating the material universe is a pre-scientific myth. The best approach to that position is to pray that the Spirit who gives faith to the fallen would open their hearts (and then their minds) to the truth.

There are other issues that even believers struggle with. Did God create all things ex nihilo (out of nothing), or did He begin with a pre-existing something, perhaps an earlier creation of His? Does the Bible in fact claim that God completed His creative work in six twenty-four-hour periods? Did all the creatures survive on a vegetable diet as originally created?  How could God create light (Day One) before light-makers (Day Four)?

I would like to suggest a possible answer to the last question. Know that the theory I propose stems from a deep reverence for the biblical text and a desire to treat it as literally as the context will allow. In that framework, I suggest that when God spoke light into existence, His creative act included more than just the visible spectrum of electro-magnetic (EM) energy which we call “light.” Light is the only part of the spectrum that would be sensible to the first readers of the text, so the idea would be coherent to them. Science has since discovered that visible light is a miniscule part of the full EM spectrum (on a linear scale it is 0.0035%).

We have also learned that much of what was thought to be “matter” is really not matter but energy. As science has bored deeper into the nature of all material things, it has become clear that what we call matter is in fact organized energy. I mean that the building blocks of “matter,” such things as protons, neutrons, electrons, etc., may actually be packets of energy. The science beneath this assertion is still in its infancy. Einstein began the discussion of whether light is a particle stream or an energy wave. Strangely, scientists have discovered that light behaves as a stream of particles when studied as particles, and it behaves as a wave when studied as a wave. As far as I know, there is still no clear explanation for this phenomenon.

Elementary logic insists that if A and B are different, A cannot be B and B cannot be A. Therefore, light cannot be both a material particle and an energy wave. If I set that dilemma aside for the moment, I can still see how God could have brought energy into existence initially and then organized it into the forms we know as matter. The text of Genesis lends itself to that idea.

According to the Faithlife Study Bible, “The Hebrew word for “create” (bara or בָּרָא)…. conveys the idea of ordering or determining function, suggesting God’s creative activity consists of bringing proper order and function to the cosmos.” In other words, God spoke the building blocks of the material universe into existence and then organized them into the organic and inorganic things we perceive as matter and energy. Chaos first; then order.

Curiously, the Hebrew words for evening and morning to delineate the days of creation also lean toward the idea of organizing. For reasons of His own, God chose to begin His day with “evening” and end it with “morning.” We know the Jews have historically followed this order; they begin the day with sunset. When you consider that according to Genesis 1:2, God started creating when “darkness was over the face of the deep,” it makes sense that evening would be the beginning of the creative day

The New Testament continues support for this concept. The Greek word for the material universe is “cosmos” and has a basic meaning of “order.” The opposite of order is chaos. Sin, by the way, is stepping out of order into chaos. “Walk in the light,” John says, “and we have fellowship….and the blood of [Christ] cleanses us from all sin.” Interesting. God started it all in darkness; then turned on the light. Chaos first; then order.

There are additional New Testament passages that lend support to this theory. In Colossians 1:17, Paul asserts that Christ “holds all things together.” Years ago, when scientists discovered that the nucleus of an atom has an unknown force holding it together, they dubbed it the Colossian Principle. I suspect it was tongue-in-cheek for the secular mind, but I find it quite descriptive. Christ, by the Word of his power (Hebrews 1:3), does indeed hold the material universe together.

For an explanation of what will happen if He ever releases His hold, read 2 Peter 3:12, “and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.” (KJV) Splitting the atom has uncovered an energy source like no other. We refer to “nuclear power” and “nuclear bombs” to explain the awesome power that results from releasing the force that holds the nucleus together. Imagine the energy that will be generated when Christ calls an end to this material universe in preparation for the New Heavens and New Earth. Imagine the energy (heat) that will be generated when every atom in the universe expends is nuclear energy. Fervent heat indeed!

According to the Faithlife Study Bible, “God calls His handiwork good seven times in [Genesis 1]. The Hebrew word used here [for “good”]… generally describes what is desirable, beautiful, or right. In essence, God affirms creation as right and in right relationship with Him.” I picture God sitting back on the seventh day and saying, “All right!” Sadly, things went all wrong shortly thereafter, but God promised to bring things back to “right” when He sent the Word (His organizing principle) to be the Light of humanity (John1:4 LEB) One of the many things Jesus called his followers was “the light of the world.” The church, as Christ’s body, is the light shining in the darkness as many Old Testament prophecies proclaimed.

As believers, we are rescued from the power of darkness and relocated in the kingdom of [God’s] beloved Son, who is the Light. (Colossians1:13) In response, we let our light shine like stars in the universe so that our fellowman may see God’s goodness (order/righteousness) and turn from their darkness (chaos/sin) to the Light of the World. It all began when God said, “Light! Be!” And it was good!

Honor the King

Many Christians are unsupportive of the lifestyle and language of President Donald Trump as am I. His lewd remarks and thoughtless Tweets display character traits that no believer can admire. I have written previously that despite his character flaws, President Trump has been the best friend Christians have had in the White House since Ronald Reagan. His administration has done much to reverse the anti-Christian bias that his predecessor instituted. Trump’s selection of conservative judges at all levels of the court will have positive consequences for years to come.

Even non-believers must admit that the economic situation is vastly improved under Trump’s leadership. This makes sense, his being a consummate businessman who, regardless of the progressives’ class hatred, has amassed a personal fortune proving he knows how to make business succeed. His foreign policy positions with respect to China, Iran and North Korea have also put America back in the position of a superpower to be reckoned with rather than a weakling to be ignored. I also believe his stance with Mexico and the border are in America’s best interest in the long run. (See Pilgrim’s Progression and Man the Lifeboats)

In spite of these empirically measurable benefits to the common good, some Christians still resist the idea of supporting President Trump, many to the point of refusing to vote for a second Trump term. This is unfortunate because any selection from the contestants on the other side of the aisle would be a worse choice in almost every way. Be assured that if conservatives stay away from the polls or cast a protest vote for a non-electable candidate, a Democrat will win the White House in 2020. The coattail effect will likely shift the balance of power in the US Congress as well. Thus ends America being made great again.

Enough about politics; what about the important matters? This morning I was reading the account of King Saul’s death and soon-to-be-king David’s reaction in 2 Samuel. The background is familiar to most of my readers, but I will briefly fill it in. After King Saul directly disobeyed God with regard to the Amalekites, Samuel informed him that the kingdom would be given to another. The prophet then proceeded to anoint the shepherd boy, David, as his successor. During the many years between his anointing and ascension to the throne, David was mercilessly mistreated by Saul and hounded as a criminal worthy of death.

In spite of Saul’s despicable behavior, David remained honorable, refusing to take Saul’s life on two occasions when he could have easily done so. Then when the report of Saul’s demise reaches David (via an Amalekite, ironically), rather than rewarding the bearer of the news, he has him executed for reportedly killing God’s anointed servant, Saul. David honored God’s choice of king because of the honor due the position, not the man.

This is where I began to think of the situation with Donald Trump. Christians don’t like him. His personal habits are not admirable for the most part. Yet he is God’s “anointed” in a manner of speaking. Romans 13:1 says that the powers that be are ordained by God. If you believe as I do that even election results are within God’s sovereign control, then you have to admit that Donald Trump has been placed in power in accordance with the ultimate purpose of God, whatever that may be.

Later in Romans 13 (verse 7) Paul instructs believers to give honor to whom honor is due. Remember that the “powers” Paul referred to were the vicious, pagan Romans who persecuted Jews and Christians with social restrictions, torture and death. By comparison, Trump is a “saint.” Not that that matters, since honor is due him because he is President. In my case, I intend to honor him by voting for a second term. I would ask my fellow-believers to consider David’s relationship with King Saul and imitate his behavior. Plug your nose if you must but honor the office by voting Trump another term. The alternatives will be much more unpleasant in my opinion.

Save the Electoral College

This is not a political blog: it is civics. If we don’t understand our civics, we will go astray in our politics. Most people in this country are in dire need of a civics lesson. (Note to educators: put Civics back in the high school curriculum.) Please keep reading even if you are sick of the political scene. This blog is inspired by the latest issue of Imprimis, a monthly publication of Hillsdale College. Right away some of you are squirming, but please stay with me.

In the article in Imprimis, Trent England, a well-credentialed conservative speaker, summarizes a speech he gave at Hillsdale in April of 2019. He makes a strong case for the continuing existence of the electoral college to select our future Presidents. Dr. England believes that the current effort to eliminate or weaken the Electoral College is pure partisan politics in a gambit to garner undeserved power in Presidential elections. He bases his argument on the very reasons our Founding Fathers created the Electoral College system in the first place.

The wise men who established our form of government realized that direct election of the national leader had two possible undesirable outcomes. First, it might become a popularity contest with people voting only for their favorite son candidates. Secondly, more importantly, popular voting could allow more populated areas of the country to gain an unfair advantage over lesser populated areas. Dr. England points to examples from history when a popular vote was countermanded by the electoral vote resulting in a President elected by majority of States if not a majority of votes. This makes for a better representative type of government.

That word “representative” is significant. We do not have a democratic (small “d”) form of government, despite the misapprehensions of the likes of Hillary Clinton who opined after the Florida debacle of 2000, “In a democracy, we should respect the will of the people, and to me that means it’s time to do away with the Electoral College.” The United States of America has never been a democracy (sorry, Hillary), nor did the founders want it to be.

The Founding Fathers rightly saw that a true democracy – one man, one vote – could easily devolve into the tyranny of the majority. Today, for example, a true democracy would mean that our national policies and politicians would be dictated primarily by the East and West Coast, a situation those of us in “flyover” country would detest. But that is precisely why so many Democrats (Progressives) want that unfair advantage.

Dr. England points to another very good reason to maintain the Electoral College: it limits the effects of voter fraud. Because each state chooses electors to select the President, fraud in one state would affect only that state’s selection. This is still a cause for worry, as free and fair elections are fundamental to our type of government. However, if we did away with the Electoral College, the whole country would suffer under the “vote early and vote often” attitudes of places like Illinois where someone once bragged that even the dead get a vote.

If you are watching politics these days, you may have heard of the national Popular Vote Interestate Compact, or NPV. Dr. England correctly reveals this ploy as a Democrat attempt to do away with the Electoral College by slight of hand. NPV takes advantage of a loophole in the language which mandates the Electoral College. Each state is allowed to determine how it selects electors. NPV would allow states to ignore their state’s voters if the national popular vote supported a different candidate than their state vote. Hidden in its name, NPV shows that it would ignore a given state’s popular vote and promote the popular vote nationwide, thus taking away the will of its own voters. It is instructive that only Democrat-controlled states have signed on to NPV so far.

I have attempted to summarize what I think is a very important argument for the continuation of the Electoral College. You can read the entire article on the Hillsdale College web site. This blog may seem to have nothing to do with Heaven (which always matters most), but I believe the free and fair elections our country has held for two centuries are responsible for the free and fair (mostly) representative government our founders envisioned. If we lose this freedom and succumb to the wishes of the liberal elite, Christianity will probably be outlawed outright. We could still live under that stricture, but it would not be pleasant. I pray it does not come to that anytime soon.

Lies We Have Been Told

From Sunday school to Bible college to seminary I have been told that sanctification is a process. The reasoning was that justification was complete at the moment of regeneration; glorification will be complete at the moment of translation; sanctification is the process through which believers must labor between the other two. No one ever challenged this reasoning until a couple weeks ago when Ray Leight (Bethel Church, Redding, California) blasted us with the truth: sanctification is completed when justification takes place.

This biblical truth is so plain and simple that it is a wonder that we have believed the lie. Simply understanding what sanctification means clearly puts it in the category of things completed at the moment of regeneration. To be “sanctified” means to be made holy. The Greek language does not have two different words as does English: “holy” and “sanctified” are from exactly the same Greek word (hagios). There is another lie buried here that says I am not already holy in God’s sight – I absolutely am. The Bible tells me so. The righteousness of Christ was imputed to me when I came to Him. Period.

This misunderstanding of sanctification or holiness has given rise to another pervasive lie among believers. Many Bible-believing, born again, blood bought Christians think their works have something to do with their salvation. Years ago, I canvassed our church neighborhood with a survey intended to identify people who might be interested in attending our services. The survey ended with the Evangelism Explosion question: “If you were to face God tonight, and He asked why He should let you into Heaven, what would you say?” Scores of people who had identified themselves as church-going, Bible-believing Christians said, “I have lived a good life.” This implies they believed their good works earned them a place in Heaven. Ugh!

When challenged on this position, most immediately said that they knew works couldn’t earn them anything, but the lie was already out of the bag: their gut-level response was to resort to their “goodness” as if they were doing something worthy of Heaven. This is deadly. While James does insist that true faith produces works, both he and Paul are crystal clear that works save no one. There are whole denominations of Christians and many quasi-Christian groups that preach works as the means of salvation. They are dead wrong. Paul clearly says that anyone who relies on his works is still dead in his sin. Period.

Perhaps the most debilitating aspect of the lie that sanctification (or salvation in total) needs our works is what it does to one’s true identity. This was the core of what Ray Leight exposed in his teaching. The minute we believe we are not good enough to merit God’s grace, we have fallen prey to the lie. If you re-read the last sentence it becomes obvious: “merit God’s grace” is a non-sequitor. One can never “merit” grace. By its very definition, grace is a gift. God graciously imputes Christ’s righteousness upon believers so that when He looks at one of His, He sees Christ. No work is needed. The work was done on the Cross and applied when the dead one became alive in Christ. Period.

This does not mean that our behavior doesn’t matter. Paul shoots down that thought in Romans 6 by reminding us that believers have crucified the old man bound by sin and now live as slaves to righteousness. To continue in sin, as the writer of Hebrews says, is to crucify Christ afresh. Jesus’ death on the Cross delivered everyone who accepts His gift from every sin everyone ever committed. All sin for all time is paid for by Jesus’ blood once for all. Period.

This means that as a believer I am holy, righteous, sanctified completely, and I am seated at the right hand of God with my Savior, Jesus, right now. That is what God sees. Remember that God is not bound by time as we are, so He already sees the completed work all the way to glorification. I am certain to mess up repeatedly after my justification and sanctification are completed. That is moot. God already accepted Jesus’ payment for my messes – all of them. I am complete IN CHRIST. Therefore, my true identity is also IN CHRIST. I am who Jesus is. That’s what God sees.

Bottom line: we need to stop believing the lie that we are anything but totally and completely sanctified at the moment we accept Christ’s sacrifice as our payment for our sin. We need to get out of our heads, as the saying goes, and start getting in the spirit. Our spirits are made new at the moment of new birth. Our heads (souls) still need to be aligned with God’s order. That’s where the work comes. Renew the mind, Paul says in Romans 12. Stop thinking of yourself as a “sinner saved by grace.” You are a saint (root word: holy or sanctified) living by grace. The same grace that saved you now enables you to live the life of Christ if you will remember to live by the spirit instead of by the flesh.

The Uncorrupted Life

Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely. – Lord Acton

“Corrupt” doesn’t necessarily mean to make evil. A corrupted file on the computer is not evil, it just quits working as it was intended. This same effect can be seen in men and women who come into great power. Notice that the correct quote is that power “tends to corrupt.” This implies that not all people will fall prey to the negative influence of power.

This thought occurred to me this morning as I was praying for President Trump. (Remember that we are commanded to pray for our leaders.) He seems to be one of a few Presidents (and congress-persons) who have not tended to be corrupted by the power of the office. He was lewd, crude and bossy before he was elected. He didn’t change much, although of late, I think he has grown into some of the restraint the office requires. And conservatives must applaud all he has done for religious freedom and economic revival.

Some others appear to have remained unaffected by the power: Abraham Lincoln, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush. These men were simple folk (more or less) when they entered the White House, and they stayed true to their principles. The media mocked each of them for their simple ways, but it didn’t change them. In fact, in the cases of Lincoln, Reagan and Bush, it served them well. The same cannot be said for Carter, but he was to his own self true, for whatever that is worth.

When I think of people like Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, or Jesse Jackson (Where is he?) I see what power can do to corrupt. These people live lives of incredible license and luxury, and they condescend to the rest of us as if they were one of us. Then they place demands on us from which they exempt themselves, sometimes openly, sometimes secretly. Their lives are corrupted in the manner Paul describes in his letters to the Romans and the Ephesians.

Politicians are not the only people who are subject to the corruption by power. Christians in this country are especially prone to the allure. I mean this in a different way than you might imagine. The power of wealth, that is the power to make our own way (like most Americans) corrupts our devotion to Jesus. I think many Christians have allowed their power/ability to make it on their own to corrupt their commitment to their Lord. Especially in America, we have it so easy that we forget we owe everything to Jesus.

The question becomes how one shows appreciation/love for what Jesus did. Jesus' command, “Do this in remembrance of me” regarding communion is only symbolic. What is the real remembrance? What is the real devotion? I want to suggest that true devotion involves living in remembrance, living as Jesus lived. That means a life of sacrificial giving and love for everyone, especially the ones who don’t know Jesus (yet).

It is wonderful when we gather as the church at Easter or when we share in the Lord’s Supper, perhaps shedding a tear when we think of all he suffered on our behalf. But we must go from that emotional gathering into our world with the good news announced by that suffering. . We cannot let our power – our ability to live comfortably – corrupt our devotion to the cause of spreading the gospel.  When I say, “spreading the gospel,” don’t think preaching; think living like Jesus. When Jesus shared the gospel, he met a physical need almost every time. We need to find our neighbors’ needs and meet them in Jesus’ name.

The Bible has much to say about corruption by the world (Philippians 2:15 for example). We usually think of this as being drawn into active sins – being corrupted by evil. But the Bible also says to know what is good and not do it is sin. Do not let the subtle power of comfort corrupt your faith. Be Jesus to a needy world everywhere you go every moment of every day. That’s the uncorrupted life.

Memories, Myths and Mysteries.

I often joke about how bad my memory is, and it is really bad, but I do have some recollection of things that have happened to me. Every healthy mind has the ability to retain ideas, images and impressions of where it has been. These ideas, images and impressions are what we use to navigate through the world around us and to judge validity of things we encounter in the present. Because I remember the pain of touching the glowing hot burner on a stove, I will not believe someone who tells me that touching a hot stove will not hurt. In millions or perhaps billions of tiny ways, my memory shapes who I am and dictates what I believe.

For many thousands of years, humans had no written records of their existence, past or present. They had no written language. We should not imagine that they had no memories. Simple necessity and human nature would have led them to share their memories, share the things they knew to be true. These shared memories became the knowledge base that allowed them to survive and prosper. Fire is hot; tigers eat people; acorns grow into oaks. People learned to trust in a shared knowledge base.

Human nature being what it is, it is natural to suppose that over time, people would embellish memories of their own deeds and those of their cherished ancestors. This is the syndrome we know as the “fish story.” Every time the fisherman tells the tale, the fish gets bigger. This propensity leads to my valiant deeds growing more and more exciting as the telling continues. By the time we are recounting great-great grandfather’s deeds, he has become larger than life. He has become a legend; legends woven into tales become myths. Myths retold over centuries form one of the foundations of culture.

It is probable that the characters in Greek mythology, for example, had once-living human beings as their antecedents. It is certain that the Cyclops and Medusa were drawn from pure fantasy, as were the supernatural powers of Zeus or Poseidon. However, one can easily imagine that there were living men in the shadows of pre-history who grew into the superheroes of mythology. Archeology has granted a glimpse into ancient civilizations about which little is known apart from the myths.

With the ascendance of science and reason over mythology some five hundred years ago, people gradually discounted the reality of myth, although they enjoyed telling the tales as entertainment. A quick scan of the movie guide today attests to the fact that we still enjoy mythology. The problem for Christians is that many moderns lump the Bible in with mythology. They admit that there may have been an Israelite named Moses at some point in history, but he didn’t literally part the Red Sea. Jesus may have walked the dusty roads of first century Palestine, but he couldn’t have literally walked on water.

The enlightened, reasonable mind is going to have trouble with the supernatural in the Bible. It resembles the “fish story” style of mythology. However, there are good reasons to believe what the Bible says is literally true. For one thing, whereas Homer intentionally fabricated much of the Greek “history” he wrote, Luke takes pains to recount in his Gospel only what he could verify from the memories of eye witnesses. The Apostle Paul, who wrote two thirds of the New Testament, lived the history he tells. The last book of the Bible was written when there were people still alive who had either been there, done that, or they were personally acquainted with those who had.

There is another strong defense of the Bible as truth: no sane person is going to die to protect a myth. Only a crazy person would die to preserve the story of Batman. Yet tens of thousands, perhaps millions have died because they believed the Bible was a true story. Of course, there are other reasons to trust the Bible. It has phenomenal internal consistency for a collection of writings gathered over hundreds of years. Archeology and secular historians have confirmed the facts as stated in the Bible in every instance in which they have been challenged. The scientifically verifiable fulfilled prophecies alone testify to the Bible’s veracity.

And then we can go back to shared memory. I have my own personal memories of all the times God has proven Himself and the reality of His Word. My father believed the Bible; his father believed; there were men and women in every preceding generation going all the way back to the writers of the book itself who will attest to its truthfulness. Textual criticism proves that the very words of the Bible, Old Testament and New, have not changed over the centuries. The Bible is not a collection of fish stories; the Bible is the record of a loving Creator redeeming His lost Creation.

Are there mysteries in the Bible? Certainly. Paul refers to one of the most significant ones in Ephesians 3, which was a mystery to everyone in Heaven and on Earth until after the Cross of Calvary: the mystery of human existence. Then there is the mystery of how God can be totally sovereign, yet humans can have complete free will. It is still a mystery what we will be like when we “shuffle off this mortal coil.” I agree with A.W. Tozer that we must make room for mystery. We are not God; we will never know everything God knows. But we can know this: the Bible is true, and it alone holds the key to the life of the ages. No mystery there. And I hope I never forget it.

The Disunited State of America (and the Church)

According to recent surveys, many young people are leaving the church because they say it has nothing to offer them. Although I have heard that reasoning used before, it struck me this morning that there is a fundamental flaw in its logic. The church is not meant to “offer” something; the church is supposed to be a place where believers offer something to God and to their fellow-believers. I think the church in 21^st century America is failing because even the leaders have turned its purpose upside down.

In my daily Psalm this morning I read Asaph’s inspired opinion that the Israelite generation who turned away from God in the Sinai wilderness did so because they were, “a generation that did not make ready its heart, whose spirit was not faithful to God.” (Psalm 78:8 LEB) I don’t want to parse this too intensely, but I think it is instructive that Asaph used two words to describe the inner selves of the faithless Israelites: heart and spirit. The “heart” can be used to mean the soul, the thinking part of a human being. The Israelites were not thinking straight. Because of this mental error, their “spirit” was not faithful. The spirit is that aspect of humans that relates to God. The Israelites mental error led them to a spiritual error.

The same situation is present in our generation: many are incorrectly thinking the church is a place that is supposed to meet their needs; they turn away because they are unfulfilled. The truth is the church is intended to meet others’ needs, other people’s and God’s; not that God actually needs the church (He needs nothing), but He has established it to accomplish His purposes on Earth. The irony is that as we selflessly give ourselves to God and others, we reach a level of fulfillment that no other activity can approach. That is another of the many paradoxes of Christianity akin to saying true freedom is found in complete surrender.

I wrote previously (What is the Church?) about the true purpose of the church, the ecclesia in Bible language. Briefly, the ecclesia is intended to infiltrate and indoctrinate a culture with Heaven’s priorities. It might help our understanding if we thought of church more like a political or military organization rather than a social club. In fact, when Jesus first mentioned church, ecclesia, He said that the gates of Hades would not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18); that is military language. If you read His words throughout the Gospels carefully, you will find numerous military analogies.

The problem of wrong thinking leading to serious consequences is evident in many places in our generation. Wrong thinking about the purpose of the family has led to its devaluation and dissolution. Wrong thinking about marriage has led to a scandalous divorce rate, even among believers. Wrong thinking about the human need for community has led to an explosion of social media “friends,” and to a lack of any real friendship among many of the younger generation.

Please excuse my soapbox, but wrong thinking about politics has led many Christians to abandon the field or consider it a lost cause altogether. The thinking in this arena is similar to the mistaken idea about church: government exists to meet my needs. The entitlement mentality is suffocating the very institutions that were meant to help the less fortunate. Multiculturalism, so-called, is fueling one side of the immigration debate to the point of idiocy. Apathy has caused the demise of the one weapon of political power every citizen has: the vote.

In a participatory form of government like ours (representative, not democratic), we the people actually do retain ultimate power: the power to un-elect miscreants, de-fund wasteful programs, and debunk the misguided policies that are causing America as we knew it to implode. Recent surveys indicate that approximately 60% of Americans identify as conservative. A similar number, variously in the 70-80% range, call themselves Christians. If those numbers are correct, I have to ask myself why clearly liberal (or progressive) policies and programs are being heaped upon us. I know the answer to my question: wrong thinking.

As my blog name says, Heaven always matters most, so the problem with the church is paramount. However, Christians are called to pray for their leaders and to give honor where it is due. I believe we dishonor the blessing of participatory government when we relinquish our right to participate. Voting, paying taxes and staying involved at whatever level one is called are the evidences of the honor that is due. And remembering that the church, the ecclesia, is supposed to be a culture-changer brings the two into focus. We have the blessing of freedom in this country. Let’s use our freedom to “do church” in every arena; we have Jesus’ promise that we cannot be overcome.