Who or What is Being Worshipped?

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American Evangelical Pathogen

Evangelicals will be accountable for the role they have played, and continue to play, in Trump’s egotistical denial of reality.

Unfortunately their actions will also reflect negatively on the Lord Jesus who they claim they serve.

They pay no regard for Trump’s spiritual state and show no interest in his eternal destiny. Instead they turn a blind eye to his constant lies and proven immorality because they think he will be of use to their personal political agenda.

Their mercenary attitude to Donald Trump portrays him as a type of “Cyrus”, useful for a supposed restoring of America to mythical Judeo-Christian foundations. Evangelicals with a genuine interest in the gospel and leading others to Christ, would abandon the self-serving “Cyrus” appellation and start to hope Trump is a potential Nebuchadnezzar. That ruthless, self-glorying Babylonian ruler had a confrontation with the living God, leading him to the point where he could proclaim: ” I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation.”

Instead, enabled and spurred on by an “evangelical” cheer squad, a COVID infected Trump continues his boorish bravado, while potentially facing death, along with his wife and around 30 others who have been infected throughout the White House (to date) due to his arrogant negligence.

The MAGA Church (A message to US ‘evangelicals’.)

The name of God is blasphemed … because of you. (Rom 2:24)

I believe that Donald Trump IS God’s current choice as president of the USA – but not for the reason his ‘evangelical’ supporters think.

God has no desire or intention to Make America Great ‘Again’.

He who exalts his gate seeks destruction. (Prov 17: 9)

God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble (James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5)

The fear of the Lord is to hate evil;
Pride and arrogance and the evil way
And the perverse mouth I hate. (Prov 8: 13)

When pride comes, then comes shame; But with the humble is wisdom. (Prov 11:2)

By pride comes nothing but strife, But with the well-advised is wisdom (Prov 13:10)

Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall. (Prov 16:8)

A proud and haughty man—“Scoffer” is his name; He acts with arrogant pride. (Prov 21: 24)

I have no interest in who America selects as the next president. But I am concerned by the way US evangelicals have embraced and continue to embrace Donald Trump as a saviour figure. From the very beginning this has brought the gospel and Jesus into disrepute -because of evangelical devotion to Trump and his very blatant disregard for truth or morality.

Recently I’ve seen prominent “Christians” proclaiming that a true Christian would have to vote for Trump and not Biden. I find it ironic that in my eyes, Trump’s major achievement has been to bring unity to the extreme charismatic prophets who proclaimed Trump to be a modern day Cyrus, and the extreme cessationists who usually denounce everything associated with those ‘prophets’.

I’m not writing this to promote any politician or political ideology. I write it as a cry to promote JESUS not politicians. To seek and serve the Kingdom of God not worldly kingdoms. And to avoid the idolatry of patriotism.

So many are getting caught up in worldly politics – as if any side of the political spectrum is able or willing to legislate godliness. Christians should be promoting JESUS not any worldly politician or politician ideology. I find this devotion to politics and nationalism (patriotic idolatry) is one of Satan’s strongest holds on the church today.

How NOT to Evangelize!

Todd Friel, referred to in this short video, is one of the most vociferous promoters of cessationist Calvinism on YouTube. But does he actually know and understand the REAL gospel ?

Beware the Leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees

Jesus had a strained relationship with the religious leaders and authorities of His time. The following quote shows one of the reasons (see bold type) why He saw it necessary to warn His disciples about them.

… the scribes and the Pharisees began to assail Him vehemently, and to cross-examine Him about many things, lying in wait for Him, and seeking to catch Him in something He might say, that they might accuse Him …

In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy”. (Luke 11-12)

Is His warning equally valid today? If so who do we need to beware of? Who would be the present day Pharisees and Sadducees? What individuals or groups reflect the attitudes and behaviors of those bible-era opponents of Jesus and His gospel? What did the historical Pharisees and Sadducess do in their desire to oppose Jesus?

There is one example in the quote above “seeking to catch Him in something He might say“. They scrutinised everything (not with integrity like the later Bereans, who wanted to find whether Paul’s preaching was valid or not) but with the intention of finding fault with anything Jesus was saying. They just wanted ammunition with which they could accuse and condemn Him. Eventually, when they found none, they chose to take His words out of context and give them unintended meaning.

Another trait was their unwillingness to recognise and accept the miracles that Jesus did. Instead, again, they tried to find fault because Jesus didn’t do things according to their own traditions and teachings. They even attributed His works to the power of Satan. When everything else failed they resorted to outright lies.

Eventually they condemned Him because He told them the truth – truth they refused to accept.

I suggest that any present day equivalent of those religious leaders would demonstrate the same attitudes and same tactics as their historical counterparts and similarly deceive their undiscerningly devoted followers, steering them away from the the opportunity to enter and experience the fullness of the gospel and the ministry life that Jesus came to give those who genuinely follow Him.

“Woe to you … For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.” (Luke 11)

Beware of those who deny the power of God and its continuation in the present day.

Beware of those whose major “ministry” is finding fault with what others are saying and doing.

Beware of believing accusations made against others without checking the truthfulness of those accusations.

Beware of those who CLAIM to honour the word of God, and yet see the need to dismiss or reinterpret those parts of it that don’t suit their particular theological agenda and traditions.

Jesus answered [the Sadducees] and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.
(Matt 22)

Beware of that same kind of blindness.

Religious vs Holy Spirit-Filled

Truth or Favoured Teachings?

Following is a reply I wrote to a commenter on another blog.

That person has spent some time arguing against a series of articles written by the blog owner, in which the blog owner was addressing the errors of “Once Save Always Saved” (OSAS).

The commenter includes links to a site promoting “Free Grace” theology – which basically says that once a decision has been made for Christ, then no matter what comes afterwards, that decision ensures eternal security.

As an example of this belief system, in one article posted by that commenter it was stated:

 “The Bible clearly teaches that God’s love for His people is of such magnitude that even those who walk away from the faith have not the slightest chance of slipping from His hand (my emphasis in bold type – onesimus)”

Such a statement is the worst kind of false teaching because the Bible does not teach anything of the kind, clearly or otherwise.

The “foundation” to this belief seems to be a single phrase “by grace you are saved” found in Ephesians.

In one of their replies to me the commenter said:

I told you not to bother answering me and to go back and study things…….didn’t think you would…….

 

This was my reply:

I have spent a life time studying, from my late teens.
The first years I studied what men said about scripture and what they said scripture meant, and I could quote verse upon verse to prove what they had taught me.

And then a lot of what I’d learned came crashing down when I found I could no longer push aside my increasing questions about why some of their teachings didn’t add up; that the parts of scripture they ignored tended to contradict some of the things they were teaching.

During the last couple of decades, I have let scripture itself be the authority and found it was much easier to understand than I expected.
I learned that proof-texting, or relying on individual bible statements to “prove” a point was not only counterproductive, it was destructive.
ANYONE can quote verses to “prove” whatever they want to believe. It’s often more enlightening to note which parts of scripture are avoided instead of the parts being quoted as “proof”.

The Bible is NOT a collection of countless individual theological points encapsulated in convenient quotable texts. The Bible, as a whole, is a developing revelation of God and His relationship with His creation, (in particular mankind) from the very beginning of this current creation, through to the establishment of a new heaven and earth.

It is impossible to grasp the truth by fixating on parts of scripture while ignoring the rest.
It is impossible to grasp the truth by fixating on individual words in scripture, while ignoring the rest.

Instead of fixating on a word like “grace” from one verse of scripture to establish an all-over doctrine of salvation – try getting an understanding through the whole of scripture, seeing God’s grace AT WORK through His ongoing relationship with mankind.
See God’s grace in action rather than applying man’s artificial definitions of what grace means.

It would be a worthless exercise for me to attempt to counteract the proof texts of others with proof texts of my own – I long ago recognised that proof text duelling is a fruitless exercise.

The truth will only be discovered and accepted by those who have a desire for the truth, who are willing to search the scriptures (the WHOLE of scripture) to find it.
It will not be discovered in out of context, cherry-picked parts of scripture.

Can Politicians Bring About Biblical Morality?

Essential reading
I highly recommend this very insightful article.

How and why would professing Christians think that supporting someone like Donald Trump is a good thing?

If you take faith in Jesus seriously, if you want to increase your understanding of what is going on in the world today regarding church involvement in politics, please click on the link below and read the article.
The issue goes much deeper than the support of one particular man.

 

 

 

What's Happening...?

I remember a moment, as clear as if it happened yesterday, although it was about 40 years ago (!) and it prepared me for what is happening today. Indeed, it was crucial, even though I did not know it at the time. Thank you Lord.

Fast-forward to today. I watched a short video [thanks to OnesimusFiles] that examined today’s political and religious events in America (America principally, but also affecting the rest of the world). That too recalled the truths I refer to above. Both roots sprang up together – because everything in our lives is ordered by God.

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An Unholy Alliance

The populist right is forging an unholy alliance with religion

 

This … might go a long way to explain why rightwing populists have scored so many victories in recent years: populists have proven very adept at hijacking religion.

The deployment of religion is not about the doctrinal strength of religious life – religious practice continues to decline steadily in most western democracies, and most citizens are not involved in religious institutions. Instead, populists’ use of religion seems to offer a way of forging a new consensus. It is a tool to engage a society that is felt to have lost its moral centre.

The French fascist Charles Maurras said that he did not believe in God but “thought it crucial that people believed in him”. Amid the dizzying effects of globalisation, “God and country” populism offers a way of incorporating capitalism into some kind of traditional religious framework.

Read full article here:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/11/populists-right-unholy-alliance-religion

When Politics Trumps Truth (not about Donald)

An article on the front page of yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald reported on attempts by Christian group to join with Muslims and Buddhists – all for the aim of opposing the “godless” Labor Party in the approach Australian Federal election.

I have to wonder what kind of alliance those “Christians” are looking for. Clearly they don’t recognise the hypocrisy of cosying up to “godless” Buddhists, and Son of God denying Muslims.

They display hypocrisy in the name of pushing a political agenda – diluting Spiritual truth for an attempted political outcome. Forging a religious alliance that compromises their own professed religion.

By making their opposition to secular “godless” politicians their priority, they willingly yoke themselves to unbelief., in the process undermining the gospel and casting aside whatever Christian witness they claim to have.