The Benevolent One

Here it is Wednesday [now Friday as I go to publish this], and I am just getting around to reading the Review section of the newspaper, The Australian.  I know, you are thinking “You still get a newspaper delivered???”.  We get the weekend edition and spend the entire week working our way through it.  It’s a comfort thing, I reckon.

In this past weekend edition was an article about the similarities between two novels written early in the 20th century—WE by Yevgeny Zamyatin and 1984 by George Orwell.  The point of the article was to suggest that 1984 was quite possibly plagiarized by Orwell from Zamyatin’s book written 25 years prior.  If something like this had taken place today, Orwell would have been called to account for the similarities in the two story lines.

I have not read either book in their entirety—I think I fell asleep watching 1984 the movie.  I do recognize and have used many of the terms from 1984—“Big Brother is watching”, “thought police”, “doublethink”.  These phrases have become a part of our lexicon, never mind the term “Orwellian” to describe all things dystopian.  But this claim of plagiarism is not my interest.  At this point in history, what purpose does it serve other than to highlight WE and its parallel sense of a world operating counter to the “common” sense of justice and the evils of suffering?

What caught my interest in two books I have not read is the fact that both suggest a direction of sociological belief and desire to live in a world, Oceania, controlled by “Big Brother” or in the case of WE, the Benefactor of the One State.  Both authors zeroed in on a human desire to be “governed” by The One.  Winston Smith, the protagonist of 1984, comes to the realization that he, in truth, loves Big Brother.   Well, you can see where this is headed.

Of course we have an innate desire to be governed (dare we say loved?) by The One!  It is in our DNA, so to speak, we are hard wired to desire love, mercy, fellowship, and yes, even discipline from The One we love.  We just part ways when it comes to His identity.  From my perspective there are just two choices—The One is human or divine.  I don’t really see much of an alternative since within all of history, no others have revealed themselves.  No sense borrowing trouble with silly notions of extraterrestrials and the like.  Let’s just deal with the evidence at hand.

Many people scoff at the notion of theocracy, the notion that a God could govern the world.  But as a Christian, isn’t this exactly what we believe?  While we may have earthly leaders and governors, they ultimately govern at the behest of the Almighty. “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” Romans 13:1 Even though God has set people in power for His purposes, He ultimately rules!  A blinding statement of the obvious.  Or is it?  Big Brother and/or The Benefactor?  No…Yahweh.  He is watching to gather unto Himself those who love Him and accept what He has done for us in Christ.  We don’t deserve His love, His mercy, or even His discipline.  But thankfully He provides it to those whom He predestined and called.  “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

So this apparent innate desire to have some one to rule over us is legitimate, beneficial, and biblical.  The issue is WHO that ONE is…and that makes all the difference.

“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. ¹⁵ And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:14-15

 

Mission Impossible–Rogue Faith

Dum dum, dah da, dum dum, dah da dum…you know, the theme song to Mission Impossible.  You are humming it now and it will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day.  You are welcome for that 🙂

I went to see the new MI movie the other day—the disbanding of the IMF (no, not the International Monetary Fund) because of their questionable tactics and even more questionable results.  It was a hoot especially the opening scene.  Very cool hanging off the side of an airplane taking off, then getting sucked into the aircraft only to parachute out the tail end attached to a pallet of chemical rounds.  Great stuff, Ethan Hunt!

So how on earth does this fit into theologicalcudchewing, you might ask but there is a connection.  This is what the Christian community of faithful believers needs to create, an IMF for the Christian community.  I am not kidding.  Our complacency has caught up to us.  We were lulled into thinking that we were living in a culture that believed in the Christian ideals and in some respects we were not wrong.  But like the proverbial frog in the water pot growing ever warmer on the burner, we did not see the changes until they smacked us in the face or burned our derriere to stay with the previous metaphor.  We were not on guard watching and as a result the land is not friendly any more, if it ever was.  But should we succumb to hand wringing and “woe is me” platitudes?  No.  It is time to dust off our armor, polish our helmets, and practice our swordsmanship because we are at war.  We should never have set down our armor allowing it to rust and deteriorate but we were taught that sharing the Christian faith is a milquetoast, feel good, lukewarm proposition and we bought into it.  Well there is a reason Jesus told his disciples to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves”.  Innocent only to the ways of Satan but wise as the ways of the Lord.

Picture Peter learning at Jesus’ feet, soaking in the wisdom from the Lord, walking on water at Jesus’ direction, and then defending him in the Garden with a sword. Then comes the betrayal, not once, not twice, but three times. In a warped imitation of Peter, the church has been complacently listening to sermons that tickle our ears instead of convicting our hearts, learning from lessons written by earthly men instead of scripture breathed out by God, and loving our neighbor to death instead of holding each other accountable to the word of God. Our moralistic therapeutic deism has finally imploded. We have denied our Lord in turning a blind eye to the abortion industry, we have sheepishly ignored the rampant tradition of pre-marital sex, we have robbed people of their life savings with financial schemes too numerous to name and too difficult to understand, we have ordained those who engage in immoral behavior as elders, deacons, and pastors, we have treated the scriptures like historical fiction, and we have now blessed the unions of same-sex couples. Are we awake now? Betrayal from within by “Judas’s” who think that they know better than the Lord Himself and cry “peace, peace” when there is no peace, is an all too familiar theme.  Is it time to panic?  Should we sit back and watch by sweetly loving our neighbor right to the gates of hell?  No, the Lord knows what He is doing and His timing is impeccable.  But we need not go “out there” ill-clothed because we have at our disposal the whole armor of God (rusted as it is) and should now take seriously our calling as soldiers of the cross.

Before you get your panties in a twist, I do not mean a renewal of the crusades in the sense of a literal battle to the death.  But I do mean a spiritual battle where we do away with nice little pleasantries and ear tickling and get down to the business at hand by putting starch in our message and backbone in our walk. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”  In military terms this is an op-order that the commanding officer expects his soldiers to carry out immediately and diligently.  We do not have time to waste because we are one of the means that God uses to carry out His purposes and if we do not take His commands seriously, He will find someone who will.  Soldiers who disobey orders get court-martialed.

Too harsh for you?  Don’t like the military terms?  Take up your objections with the apostle Paul– ‘Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” Ephesians 6:10-13.

We have weapons for this war:

1. Belt of Truth
2. Breastplate of Righteousness
3. Shoes of readiness
4. Shield of faith
5. Helmet of salvation
6. Sword of the Spirit (the word of God)
7. Prayer, perseverance, supplication

Does this sound like the accouterments of anyone but a soldier?  And so we are.  This is what we have lost and need to re-claim.  Be brazen, stick your neck out, challenge secular thinking, reason with wisdom and expect God to act.  We inhabit a world that is unfriendly to God’s way of thinking and it always has been—we were just too complacent to see it.

Does this mean we no longer come alongside people couching our words with the fruits of the Spirit–love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control?  That would get you court-martialed as well. But we should expect to hear a bit of clanging along the path and expect arrows and swords to fly past our helmet.  That’s OK,  we have an armorer beyond compare.

This also means we stop thinking that Sunday school is enough—for you and most especially your children or grandchildren.  Soldiers don’t train one day a week but daily.  Summer requires intensive training and sometimes we must deploy (mission trips, summer training camps, or vacation bible school).  All this because we are under fire daily.  In your dotage, don’t you want to look at your children and grandchildren knowing that your raised them to put the Lord and His precepts first above all else, before the travelling team that practices on Sunday mornings, before the ivy league school that scoffs at the Christian faith and comes with a price tag whose debt will follow you to the grave, and before the extravagant home that requires both parents to work long hours in order to pay the mortgage so that the kids can attend the “right” schools with the highest SAT scores?  The answer is plain…“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” And do not go outside without your helmet–it’s raining spiritual forces of evil.