S O M A

"Soma was a fermented juice drink which was believed to have been consumed by the Hindu gods and their ancient priests, the brahmanas during rituals. Thought to be an elixir its consumption not only healed illness but also brought great riches".

World History Encyclopedia.

"Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit".

Ephesians 5:18.

So, I want to begin this entry with a big thank you to David Clay for his piece on Mockingbird this month on the nature of Christian righteousness. David does an excellent job of laying-out the broad brush strokes of what this does (and does not mean) for the believer and the church, and thereby adds some more flesh to the 'bones' provided by Dr Rod Rosenbladt in a recent 1517 taster on the same matter.

What really spoke to me, aside from the excellence of the points being made here, was the argument touches on whilst Christians themselves may well be morally disappointing, faith is, in its most fundamental nature, not about that - it stands or falls entirely in respect to the truth which delivers redemption (the touchstone of Christ's life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension - 1 Corinthians 15), so the horror that cannot be revoked in Christianity, as scripture shows, is not particular sins (which will indeed plague us - see Romans 7 - but can indeed be forgiven - see 1 John 1) but prostituting the faith by espousing/practicing particular heresies, which in truth seek to discard the work of God in His Son (Galatians 1: 8 & 9).

This is crucial distinction. - and we're far from scott-free here.

In his piece, David brings up the historical example of Augustine seeking to make clear that grace must always trump any claims in respect to individual piety, but this also speaks to the key trouble - the church perilously errs when its 'teaching' is believed to encapsulate what is sound, but in truth, like strong wine, inebriates and intoxicates believers in such a fashion that they are no longer understanding what is taking place around them and are thereby almost entirely oblivious to the ramifications and the immediate dangers such a condition has generated.

Mike Horton and associates show this tellingly well in the book The Agony of Deceit, which examines (in respect to today's long history with them) various pernicious doctrines that guised themselves as 'spiritual' in the late 70s and 80s, but far more murderous 'beliefs' are now being sheltered in the very bosom of the mainstream church.

When we reach a point where established churches believe they are entirely right to practice their faith only within the bounds prescribed by state, then that, at the very least, should set a measure of alarm in our thinking.

Imagine if the early church had sought to adhere to only this - what would have happened when the secular powers required them to 'tone it down' and to confine themselves to, perhaps, quiet little gatherings away from public view where their "beliefs" could have been tolerated as just another one of those 'fringe' practices so common in the Roman world?

We don't have to trouble ourselves very long with such a 'what if', because the answer is simple. Such adherences and the practices associated with them by various religions indeed remained fringe and irrelevant to mainstream culture. Christianity became paramount because the church continually put its life front and centre before the empire, and would not leave those in power untroubled by its uncompromising message.

In the final analysis, secular power is given and constrained by God (Romans 13), and that constraint is particular in respect to the 'increase of His dominion, of which there will be no end' (Isaiah 9:7), so "magistrates" and the like can fall into line with that truth or be swept away by it on the day of reckoning (Psalm 2).The problem really comes back, then, to the ministers of the lively oracles of God. Are they encouraging a faith which is tuned to such truth, especially in respect to these days and times, or are they in truth providing a muted, obscured noise in their instruction to the saints, and, in effect, leading the saints into a condition where they can longer be effective?

This is not in any respect a merely theoretical question. Those placed in these roles most earnestly need to pay attention to Paul's warnings in respect to those who teach God's flock (see 1 Corinthians 3:10-17).

The night is almost over, writes the Apostle, the day is much closer, so we must be ready. Arm yourselves, enter the fray, and look up, for redemption is close.