"We Hold These Truths To Be Self Evident"

In the 8th chapter of John is found the story of the scribes and the Pharisees bringing to Jesus a woman caught in adultery. They were looking for an opportunity to accuse Him, and we remember from this story that Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground, and all the accusers left one by one. Jesus says to the woman; "Did no one condemn you?", to which she answers; No one, Lord". "I do not condemn you either. Go. From now on, sin no more."

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American values have changed dramaticly in just the last 50 years. For example, sex outside of marriage is no longer considered a sin. This is not only a secular view but it is held as well by many church going people. The reason for that is simple. We live in a country which is covered by a thin veneer of Christianity, overlaying a core mostly made up of non-Christian values. This was not always so. Even though there have always been a lot of non-believers, non-religious, or other religious people in this land, most our our founding fathers, such as John Adams, were well educated and deeply committed Christians. Or they were Deists as was Thomas Jefferson. Our country's founding documents reflected the mindset of a large majority of the early leaders that there existed an Almighty God, and that all rights and obligations of a country and it's citizens were based on what came from Him. And through the centuries, as both everyday evangelism and large revivals drew scores into the faith, and as colleges, universities and churches were founded to educate young Christian minds, most laws and judicial decisions reflected values consistent with Christian scripture.

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This didn't make America a Christian land. Christianity was not a state religion. But it was considered right and natural to acknowledge God, and to ask for His guidance and blessing publicly as well as privately. People were still sleeping with others outside of marriage, and all the other vices were evident. Yet overall, society in America had laws and values that reflected the Christian beliefs of a good portion of it's population. And in most cases these were not people looking to throw the first stone to condemn the sinner, but neither were they seeking to condone the actions of the sinner.

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It is different today because worms have eaten away the meat of the wood beneath the veneer. We still have the founding documents, but more and more they are interperted by "an evolving social conscience". We still have prestigious centers of higher learning, but they are now bastions of secular thinking. Even in most colleges that are Christian in name, many students that are Christian by family affiliation still freely engage in sexual relations, heavy drinking, and drug use, finding no contradiction between historic Christian teaching on morals and doing what safisfies their bodily desires. We still have seminaries that were founded in response to spiritual awakenings, but now the gods of situation ethics, scriptural demythology, and passionless, blah-blah, milky-toast theology walk many of the halls. And we still have a wide variety of church buildings in most cities and villages, many of them now pastored by men and women taught by the gods of those liberal seminaries. Now it is the conservative Christian who is ducking stones, accused of violating the chief value of this post-Christian society, "tolerance". In the public mind, truth, rights and obligations no longer flow from the will of an Almighty God. And if the light that reveals truth does not come from God, it must then come from the mind of man. A mind that is strongly influenced by the desires of the flesh, and just as easily deceived by the appealing lies of the evil one.

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Just after His conversation with the woman caught in adultry, Jesus says the following things; "I am the light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life . . . You judge according to the flesh; I am not judging anyone. But even if I do judge, My judgement is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me."

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"Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever, but the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed . . . I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me."

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We need to have a firm foundation in our relationship with God, being reborn in the spirit so Jesus is truly our Lord and Savior, and we need to build upon that foundation in truth and light. We come to know the will of the Father through prayer and worship, by studying scripture and other inspired commentaries, and through interaction with mature believers. In all this we should be attentive to the move of the Holy Spirit. And we need to be diligent in leading our children to the light, providing them a foundation in the scriptures, and teaching them, by word and example, how to listen to the Spirit, and how to stand firm against temptation. The values of a society are determined by the people of that society. Truth must be proclaimed and defended. And the light of truth comes from the Father.

Saint Tifying Grace

John Paul II is on a fast track for becoming a saint. This last week papers were submitted to the proper department in the Vatican, giving medical proof that a certain nun was healed of an incurable disease after praying to him. As soon as the Vatican approves a second confirmed miracle, they will file the right documents, and shortly afterwards John Paul II will officially be declared blessed, on route to becoming a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.

There is certainly nothing wrong with the Christian body placing in front of us the example of lives lived in submission and service to the Lord. Hebrews presents a list of people from the Old Testament whose faith without seeing affected the way they lived and acted, demonstrating their trust in God and His promises. The book of Acts talks about people like Stephen, who served God in the power of the Spirit, and was the first martyr of the body of Christ. 

As a youngster I read about the lives of various Catholic saints, and lately I've enjoyed books giving accounts of great missionaries, or men and women used by the Spirit during outbreaks of revival. However, the true witness of each story is not in the greatness of the individual, or the magnitude of their accomplishments, but rather that they had a part in advancing the kingdom of God on earth. 

It is good to have their examples placed before us, but ultimately all the praise and glory rightly belongs to God, who moves through people by the power of the Holy Spirit. If we miss this, we miss everything. God is our designer and creator. He desires not just our obedience, but also our worship. He loves us, and wants us to spend time with Him. He is jealous toward anyone or anything that becomes a priority before Him.

During the 40 years that the Jewish people were in the wilderness, God gave them the law and the tabernacle, showing the direction He desired for them. His first commandment declared that He is the Lord, their God, and they were not to have false gods before Him. When God sent them into the promised land His instructions were to wipe out the inhabitants, possess the land, and worship God as He had taught them.

God did not want the Jewish people to be compromised by the pagan idols, holy places and practices existing there. He forbade displaying images of man, animal or insect, less they become objects of worship. The ancient enemy rebelled from God, desiring the worship due to God alone. And pagan temples, high places, sacred trees and sacred objects are dwelling places of evil spirits who serve the enemy. Unfortunately the Jewish people did not fully possess the land, did not wipe out the inhabitants, and they did not have a land free from pagan worship.

In Leviticus 19:31 God says; "Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God". Saul was the first Jewish king. In 1 Samuel 28 is an account where Saul is surrounded by his enemy and becomes very frightened. "When Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by Urim or by prophets. Then Saul said . . . 'Seek for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go and inquire of her'". In defiance of God Saul consulted with the witch of Endor, a medium, wanting to talk with the spirit of the prophet Samuel. Mediums do not have the power to bring forward the spirits of the dead. 

The illusion that this happens is brought about by deceiving evil spirits, who may know information about a particular person. But in this instance, to the surprise of the witch, God intervenes, bringing the spirit of Samuel to Saul to give him a devastating prophecy about Saul's kingdom and royal line. In the Old Testament God forbids contacting the dead. The practice invites the involvement of evil spirits into a person's life. And no approval is given or examples found for this in the New Testament.

So how did the practice of praying to the souls of the dead gain acceptance in the organized Church? The beginning Chruch was composed primarily of people from a Jewish background, who brought with them a foundation of scripture, traditions, and a mindset that acknowledged Almighty God. But eventually Gentiles became the majority. They were ex-pagans living in a pagan dominated society. And they brought into the Church some compromising ideas that conflicted with scripture. 

The idea of praying to Mary or to the souls of the departed martyrs is a good example of this. In the ancient world the most powerful and appealing deities were those associated with the mother w/child goddess. Eventually the qualities ascribed to Mary went beyond that of her yielding to the desire of God and the move of the Holy Spirit to become the vessel God used so that the Word would be made flesh. She was given non-scriptural qualities such as being born sinless, remaining sinless, staying a virgin, ascending to heaven, being a primary intercessor or mediator between man and God, and reigning as queen of heaven. She became god-like in her qualities, which made it OK to direct towards her prayer and veneration.

Along with this was the fact that the first three hundred years of Christian history saw intense periods of persecution, resulting in many martyrs. The examples of those martyrs were naturally used to encourage the faith and hope of others who might one day face the same trial. And as Mary was elevated and it became OK to pray to her, it was easy to allow prayer to the souls of the martyrs as well. 

These are traditions and theology that gained acceptance early on, both in Rome and in the other centers of Christianity. And they put up barriers to a direct relationship with God, and to experiencing a free and powerful moving of the Holy Spirit in a person's life. Religion replaces relationship, obedience to religious law replaces discernment, and praying to Mary and the saints replaces a direct conversation with the creator of the Universe, robbing both us and God. 

When Jesus died, the curtain in the temple that separated man from access to the Holy of Holies was torn in two. No longer was there a need to present offerings to a priest, who would in turn present them to God. No longer was there a need for a high priest to enter the Most Holy Place to sprinkle blood for the sins of the nation. The blood of Jesus, our High Priest, did this for us. His Spirit now can unite with our spirit, so that we will become temples of the Holy Spirit. God does not need, nor does He desire, an intermediary between Himself and man.

The theology of Thomas Aquinas added another dimension to this. He taught that grace was a quantity of something, produced by the actions of Christ or man, that was stored in heaven, and which could be transferred to people on earth. Thus Jesus, by living a sinless life, and by His suffering and death, produced a limitless quantity of grace. But Mary also, by her holy life and her agony over the crucifixion of her Son, and the martyrs and other saints by their lives and sufferings, added grace to the heavenly storehouse as well.

The Holy Spirit would transfer this grace to men in two ways. One would be through participation in the sacraments of the organized church. And the other would be through prayer to God or to Mary or the saints. So salvation in a Catholic sense comes because the sacramental act of baptism transfers grace, earned by Christ on the cross, to the person being baptized, canceling out original sin.

Sin that occurs during a person's life must also be canceled out by grace, either acquired by that person through their acts and suffering, or through participation in the sacraments of the church. If what is produced in a lifetime in not sufficient, then more must be produced through suffering in a non-scriptural location called Purgatory, or through a transference of grace from the living.

If follows then that if John Paul II produced grace through his extraordinary life and holiness, and if that grace was sufficient to pay what would be due to either avoid or have a short stay in Purgatory, and if he had grace to deposit into the heavenly storehouse, then some of that grace could be transferred to whomever prays to John Paul II, thus affecting a healing. The healing would then be proof that John Paul II is in heaven, and can be declared a saint.

I do not dispute that people pray to Mary and the saints with sincere hearts, and that sometimes their prayers are answered by a loving God. But there is a better way.

He Is Risen!

There is always joy in my heart on Easter when I am with family and one of us will smile and say; "He is risen!", to which the other will always say; "He is risen indeed!" The joy is there because at one time I did not know the Father, or the Son, and I thought that the only thing that would remain of me after death would be memories, or what I had built or accomplished. But now I have an inner witness that the resurrection of Jesus was the first fruits for my eternal life with Him. Someday in the future, whether I am dead or alive, my body will rise up to meet the Lord in the air, and that glorified body will combine with my soul and spirit body and spend eternity with God. I can see that each of my children also share the same inner witness, the same relationship with the Redeemer, that causes us to smile when we reply; "He is risen indeed!" Together we celebrate, not our theology, but a living experience, through both good and rough times, of our love and trust and hope in Him. This joy increases as time goes on, and as I witness the faith life of my wife and children.

I have a larger family of faith as well. We may have differences in language, tradition and theology, but because our spirits are reborn we are all part of the same body, brothers and sisters in Christ. When Jesus asked His disciples in Matthew 16 to tell Him what people were saying about Him, they responded that some thought He was Elijah, or another one of the great prophets. "But who do you say that I am?", to which Simon responded; "You are the Christ, the son of the living God". Jesus tells Simon that this was not something that he figured out for himself, but rather it was revealed to him by the Father in heaven. Jesus calls Simon by a different name, Peter, which translated means, a little stone. "You are Peter (a little stone), and upon this rock (Simon's acknowledgement, revealed to him by God, that Jesus was the Redeemer and Son of the living God) I will build my church". The Church is compared in scripture to both a building and to a living organism. It is comprised of all, living and dead, who share with Peter a reborn spirit, made possible because of each person's declaration in faith that Jesus is God, and the He is Redeemer. This became possible for Peter and for us because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Neither the enemy or death (the gates of Hades) will be able to overcome us, and authority has been given to us (the keys of the kingdom of heaven) to bind the enemy and to set free the captive.

Although all spirit reborn people belong to the same body, and are part of the same spiritual building called the Church, there are and have been since the time of the apostles many divisions that keep us from sharing the joy of salvation with one another. In the book of Acts, Paul takes Peter, who God used first to bring the faith to the Gentiles, to task for not associating with Gentile believers. And Paul again had to urge the leadership of the early Church, at a council presided over by James, not Peter, to accept new non-Jewish believers into the faith community, without putting on them the burden of Jewish traditions and laws. After Pentecost, Jerusalem was the primary center of the Christian faith. But as time went on, Jerusalem was destroyed, and major centers developed in many places, including Syria, Northern Africa, Asia Minor and Rome. Each center had it's own character, they developed different traditions, and doctrine and liturgy were not imposed by any central authority. At around 165 AD, there develooped several major areas of disagreement on specific theological points, so each center made lists to trace their spiritual lineage, and by inference, the correctness of their theology.

The church centered in Rome eventually took this one step further, claiming primacy over the entire Church. Roman bishops traced their roots back to Peter (who may or may not have acutally been in Rome) and Paul. And they taught that Peter was given authority by Christ to rule His Church on earth, as were each of his successors. Suffice it to say, although you can find a list of popes going back from Benedict to Peter, Peter had the scriptural office of apostle, not bishop, all the early bishops of Rome were given the title "pope" posthumously, and bishops of Rome did not exercise authority over other centers of Christianity for hundreds of years. Even in the first example scholars cite, a letter written about 190 AD to the Roman bishop Victor, from a bishop of Alexandra, asking advice on a serious matter. Other bishoops were consulted as well, and Victor's advice was not taken. Politics, economics, and brute force consolidated Roman power, and made dominate Roman theology and tradition.

Jackie and I were baptized, raised, and educated as Catholics, and we know many Catholics of deep faith who have reborn spirits, and who share the same joy of the risen Savior as we do. Jackie never wavered in the faith she had since childhood, but grew closer in her relationshiop to Jesus after being baptized in the Holy Spirit during the time we were dating in college. In high school I became an agnostic, and was atheistic throughout four years at a Catholic college. After asking Jesus into my heart and being filled with the Holy Spirit several months after marrying Jackie and graduating from college, we still worshipped in the Catholic church for 10 more years. As our children grew, and as scripture became clearer, we became more uncomfortable with the teachings and the traditions of Catholicism that seemed to us to clearly run counter to how we understand scripture. And eventually God gave us the freedom to leave. The most difficult part for us after leaving was that our parents felt in a sense that we were rejecting a part of them. We were not just leaving a religion, but a culture as well.

In future posts I may be talking about some of the traditions and theology that gained acceptance early on, both in Rome and in the other centers of Christianity, which I believe stifle the free and powerful moving of the Holy Spirit, and which have created barriers to a personal relationship with the King of Glory. My intent is not to condem a faith tradition, but to explain to the best of my ability the truth as I understand it. The logic found in Catholic doctrine is consistent throughout. If A and B are true, then C must follow. But if A or B are wrong, it does not follow that those who teach or believe such doctrine are evil people. Nor does believing that A + B = C negate the possibility of a real relationship with the Lord, even if we use different terms and worship in different ways. Truth must be declared, but the author of truth is a loving God who gave His life in love for all who will honestly seek Him.

Interesting Times

A couple of days ago public television had a show about Aimee Semple McPherson. Sister Aimee was a traveling Pentecostal evangelist in the early 1900's who later on built a large church in Los Angeles. From that church arose a major Pentecostal demonination, The Church of the Four Square Gospel. Jack Hayford is perhaps the best known leader identified with that group today. There were photos dated from about 1910 to 1920 showing her riding in a variety of cars while on a preaching circuit, and painted on each car was; "Jesus is coming soon". The idea that Jesus could come at any moment was one of the driving forces compelling the early Pentecostals to go out and evangelize, and there are interesting correlations between the history of the Zionist movement leading to the establishment of the State of Israel, and the move and direction of the Holy Spirit in the Christian Church, although I will not get into those for this post.

About two weeks ago a group of British armed forces were kidnapped by Iranian forces in the Shatt al Arab, which is a disputed waterway between Iraq and Iran, and is near the joining of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, flowing into the Persian Gulf. They were released this week. There are a number of things concerning this whole affair that I'm curius about, but one aspect is really interesting. This week I was reading a book by Bill Cloud which talks about the historical enmity between the Jews and Arabs and the connection between that and events in the last days before Jesus returns. In the book he mentions a scripture from Revelation 9. This tells about a time during the tribulation when the bottomless pit is opened, and out of the pit come demonic locust-like creaturres. "They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss, his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon". Interestingly, scholars have felt that the entrance to this pit is located near an actual town or island which is on the border between Iran and Iraq called Abadan, and which is in the Shatt al Arab waterway! I don't know what the connection is, but I something like this must be more than just coincidence.

Also this week were seen typical results of world efforts to bring peace to the Middle East. There was a mild protest from the UN concerning the seizure of the British troops by Iran. If the UN had its way, Israel, with 1/20th the land of it's Arab neighbors, would turn over half of that amount to the Arabs, leaving Israel with no defensible borders. The European powers still have done nothing to stop or slow down the Iranians in their nuclear advance. We saw a shadow foreign policy being conducted by the Democratic party who seems to think they have already won the 2008 presidential election. They sent the Speaker of the House to Syria, a state which harbours and finances Hezbolla, allows or directs foreign troops into Iraq against our troops, is dedicated to the elimination of Israel, and which I believe is storing Sadaam's WMD's. And violence continues between the different factions in Iraq. We know that this will one day be resolved because scripture is clear that Babylon, located in Iraq, becomes the headquarters for the coming world leader. I sure hope that it is God's will that the US is there, because we seem to be playing a major part in setting up conditions for what will happen in the last days prior to the return of Jesus.

I sometimes wonder if most Christians really believe that Jesus will one day return, or if we really think that it could be soon. There are many in the organized church who do not have a reborn spirit, so it would be surprising if they were watching for the Lord's return. And there are many who have a reborn spirit but do not have a theology that looks at scripture literally. Most of the Christians in our government's administration are typical of those who love Israel because of it's historical connection with Christianity, but do understand the promises made by God that are still in effect for the Jewish people and the Jewish land. They, like the rest of the world, believe that a political solution is possible to bring peace to the Middle East.

There is a statue, shown above, that is in a park next to the United Nations, with a saying on it from the 2nd chapter of Isaiah, which says; "And they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war". The saying reflects the desire of man to have a world organization that can bring about peace upon the earth. This is, of course, always a worthwhile goal, and Jesus Himself said; "Blessed are the peacemakers". I met a man this week who was from Israel, served in it's army, and had friends that were killed last year while fighting Hezbolla in Lebanon. War is terrible, and we should always strive for peace and peaceful solutions, but there is a context for the conflict happening there. It began thousands of years ago and it's conclusion will not be settled by a peace treaty.

The quote from Isaiah is part of a larger passage that talks about world peace being made possible because of the Lord coming to rule the nations from Jerusalem. "It will come about in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths'. For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; And (then) they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war".

The things happening today are just a fraction of an overall movement of events, clearly showing that we are in times leading to the soon return of Jesus. I believe the early Pentecostals thought it was close because the Spirit within them was testifying to it. Even though that was 90 years ago, which seems like a long time to us, we need to be mindful that the whole map of the Middle East has been redrawn in that time. Oil is drawn from sand, giving power to peoples who were nomads when Sister Aimee began her ministry. Israel reappeared in 1948, ruling itself for the first time in over 2000 years. Iran's traditional enemy Russia is helping them process uranimun, leading to events talked about in Ezekial 38. Traditional Christian religion is almost dead in the emerging United States of Europe. And ancient names found in scripture are appearing in the news.