Christian Nation Building

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. -- John 15:10

It is almost like a tautology, because the vital commandment of Christ is to abide in love, to love God and to love our neighbors.  As we are told elsewhere in Scripture:  Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:10).

Love does what is right by others.  Love also confronts, protects, and defends.  Love sacrifices for the good of those we love.  Sometimes that means not defending ourselves against slander.  Sometimes it means letting air and light into evil.  There is no way to keep the commandments of Christ or abide in His love apart from the Holy Spirit. 

Lewis says somewhere that a truly Christian society would be “right wing” in its moral behavior but very nearly communistic in its social structure.  In other words, it would not be vastly different from the rural community where I grew up.  Though we were far from perfect, people cared what their neighbors thought – for the most part, and we could count on family, friends and neighbors giving aid to those in need.  Everyone I knew was a cultural Christian if not an actual church-goer. 

Culture, without the salt of practicing Christians, becomes corrupt over time.  Communism and socialism attempt to impose the acts of love through force.  In a different context, this is known as rape.  The socialists never seem to learn.  The instant they have control of the power of the state we are all going to live in their imagined utopia – whether we like it or not.

The reason the communist is so hostile to Christianity is because Christians take care of one another without the coercive power of the state.  The state can’t be god in that case.  The priests of the state cannot gain power over people who don’t need to be forced to do the right thing.  This is not to mention how the “right thing” as defined by the state is what is good for the state and its ministers rather than what is good for one’s neighbor. 

I don’t want a government that is Christian.  Christians do not need much government.  We don’t need “faith-based” initiatives.  Take away all the federal regulations, all the programs and bureaucracies – and leave the money it takes to run a massive and equally inefficient government in our pockets.  Stop being hostile to Christians and the country will become a better place.  Get rid of welfare.  The Church will take care of the homeless, the orphan, and the unwed mothers.  Christians will build hospitals and clinics that anyone can walk into if there is no Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance.  There will be more St. Jude’s.  We will fund the medical research.  We don’t need government schools.  We can build our own and educate our children as we see fit with Christian values. 

Of course, none of that can happen until we kill all the lawyers.*

*Just kidding

Tree of Knowledge, Tree of Life

You have wearied the LORD with your words. But you say, How have we wearied him? By saying, Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them. Or by asking, Where is the God of justice?  -- Malachi 2:17

We have set ourselves up as gods.  Our technology is impressive.  We believe this makes us capable of judging right and wrong.  As humans, we are not called to judge but to discern.  Judging is a function of the soul, which, in the Fall, was exalted over the spirit.  It’s what we would call, in more modern parlance, ego driven.  You will have noticed that those who scream mostly loudly that no one has a right to judge them are the most judgmental, and the intolerant cry loudest for tolerance while the greedy and envious denounce greed and envy.   In order to maintain the illusion of being god-like in our souls, we judge and we condemn those around us.

Most people seem to think this attitude of judging and condemning is restricted to the religious.  In that both religion and resentment are natural to the sons of Adam, this is true.  It is only through Christ, the revelation of the Trinity and the God Who Is Love that we may be delivered from the prison of self-consciousness.  The God who dwelt complete, isolated and alone, who delivered the Law to Moses inscribed on unbending, unyielding stone could not be selfless.  He demanded compliance and submission.  We see him today in the stringent requirements of Islam. 

Moses and the Law could reveal only the Absolute One.  To know grace and truth, we needed God Incarnate, Jesus Christ who showed us the Father, the Son, and, at the end, the Holy Spirit.  He enabled us to know that the Father thought not of Himself but of the Son, that the Son did not His own will but always the will of the Father, and that, through the Spirit poured out when the Son was glorified, we might be as one even as the Godhead is one. 

We are now free to renounce the judgments, resentments, and offenses of the soul with its intellect and emotions.  Right and wrong are plain to the spirit within each of us.  We can perceive the truth and recognize virtue directly by our spirit.  We need live no longer by rule and formula, rationalization and folly.  Now we know that God is love, and the law of Christ is to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love my neighbor as myself.  Now we no longer need bear the burden of self-consciousness for on the Cross, it was crucified with Christ.    

Changing Worlds

But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. -- Hebrews 11:16

Making the world a better place sounds like a good idea.  I think, sometimes, those who reject God and criticize believers -- especially the followers of Christ, are disappointed, perhaps even frustrated that we have not, through the power of God, gotten rid of evil and corruption. 

Utopian plans and schemes are towers of Babel.  The foundations may start out well enough, but before the builders reach the heavens, there is conflict for their goals and their visions are no longer one.  The utopias – even the Christian ones, will invariably come up short. 

There is a saying that some people are so “heavenly minded” they are no earthly good.  C.S. Lewis, though, somewhere in his writings, suggested that it was really those most oriented toward heaven who ended up doing the most good on Earth.  If heaven is our goal, we get Earth thrown in.  When we seek only the good the world has to offer, we get neither. 

Living in the kingdom, living the kingdom life, transforms the world around us.  Anyone can see it on a smaller scale if they fall in love or have a child or grandchild.  The presence, even the thought, of a loved one lifts the soul and spirit, makes the darkest day brighter.  The world becomes a slightly better place because there is someone we love.  The kingdom of heaven, with its law of love, does the same thing on a grander scale. 

The kingdom of heaven is within you, Jesus said.  Love cannot be imposed by external forces.  I may comply with the laws of an earthly kingdom but I cannot be made to love, and without love, there is no transformation.  It is possible to manipulate people with fear, hate, lies and deception.  They will go along with the plan, to some extent, for a while.  It all ends, as we saw in the last century, with bloodshed, millions dying by violence and starvation – all for the “greater good” and the glorious utopian dreams of the well-intentioned. 

But they reply, The blood-letting was done by mad men.  Indeed, it is the mad who rise to rule where God is locked out, and men become mad when they have the power of life and death. 

Love or death is the only choice reality offers.  Experience the metamorphosis of love.  Enter the kingdom of love and let the God of love rule in your heart.  The world will change.   

Speaking the Truth in Love

Therefore thus says the LORD:  If you return, I will restore you, and you shall stand before me.  If you  utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth.  They shall turn to you, but you shall not turn to them. -- Jeremiah 15:19

I can understand how Jeremiah felt.  He was living in the midst of wretched perversion and an atmosphere of spiritual apathy when it was not outright apostasy.  Judgment and destruction hung over the heads of his nation and his people.  He was ridiculed, condemned and threatened for his warnings and his calls for a return to righteous standards. 

Can we blame him for feeling a little down?  Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me (Jeremiah 15:10).  We live in a time when doing good and living right are cursed.  When I would read these passages just a few years ago, it never occurred to me that something like this could be the state of affairs in my nation in my lifetime.  Hollywood has been making Christians the villains for many years, but I suppose I have always assumed that the First Amendment would protect us from direct government hostility.  I’m not so sure anymore. 

Like many of us today, Jeremiah began to wonder if perhaps God was playing him:  Will you be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail? (v.18)  You, Lord, are telling me to say all this, to stand up for holiness and truth, yet nothing is happening.  I’m beginning to wonder if You are going to back me up or if maybe You are just going to make a fool out of me. 

This is why God reprimanded Jeremiah.  The prophet was uttering what was “worthless”.  God is merciful.  He is patient and long-suffering.  He would rather we repent.  For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live (Ezekiel 18:32).  I personally am most thankful for that.  God’s love and mercy are the only reasons I’m not burning in hell right now – a fate I enthusiastically earned and richly deserved. 

Nevertheless, we live in a time of weeping and sorrow.  Reality cannot be changed by changing the meaning of a few words.  If I am driving my truck toward the edge of the Grand Canyon at a hundred miles an hour, my refusal to listen to “negativity” is not going to alter what will happen at the bottom.  It is not time to stop telling the truth; it is time to speak it relentlessly, regardless of opposition.  Comforting lies will spare no one in the end.

The caveats are few.  Our motivation must be love.  We should always, for our part, endeavor to be speaking from a place of peace.  We seek to heal, enlighten, and liberate, not control, dominate or manipulate.  God will speak to the heart.

Hard Head, Soft Heart

Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads.  Like emery harder than flint have I made your forehead.  Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. – Ezekiel 3:8-9     

I know this person – actually, there are several people I know that are like this – this one who thinks I am easily deceived.  Ben was talking the other about giving and when it is appropriate to give money to someone who might misuse it.  This person comes and gives me a story, usually pretty elaborate, fairly desperate.  It always starts out, “I hate to even ask you.”  One of these days I may reply, “Not as much as I hate to hear you say that.” 

The thing is, I know I am being lied to.  One of the things I prayed for when I first became a Christian was the gift of discernment.  I don’t know if I got that, but I certainly have the gifts of suspicion, skepticism, and cynicism.  None of us probably tell the whole truth all the time.  I don’t, but it’s not with the intent to deceive.  It’s more like changing the names to protect the innocent – and sometimes to protect the guilty.  There are details that people really don’t need to know.  It’s good to be laconic. 

Anyway, Ezekiel in general, and these early chapters in particular have always meant a lot me.  Ezekiel and Thomas, and, to a lesser extent Gideon, are the men in the Bible that I identify with most closely.  Not that I was ever called like them, but they did their jobs.  They did what they had to do.  If I had a motto it would probably be something like “Stick to it.”  To do that, you have to be a little hard-headed.  There is a form of stubbornness that is positive, a refusal to quit even when it’s hard and when it hurts and it’s not going your way.    

There is another side to all this, though, for the same God who made Ezekiel’s head harder than flint said, Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you (Psalms 32:9).  Later on, in Ezekiel 11:19-20, the Lord spoke of a change He wanted to make in His people:  And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

There is nothing wrong with being analytical and skeptical in terms of the intellect, but, in the end, the intellect must be informed and guided by the heart.  And the heart must be open and sensitive to the Spirit, to hear God and respond.  This has become something of an expansion of the comment I made on OC yesterday about love and logos.  We can be intellectually rigorous with regard to doctrine so long as it serves love and is motivated by love. 

What my deceptive friend does not understand is that I do not help a person because they can come up with a good story.  Usually the better the story, the less apt I am to buy it.  My head is too hard.  It’s my heart that responds to the plea the Spirit makes between the lies.