Life, and health, and peace...

"Luther discovered that the very highest goal of human desires is to be righteous according to the Law, fulfilling this in ourselves - but this desire is NOT spiritual - it is the worst of the flesh"... Flesh always has a goal, but it is not from God.

Dr Stephen Paulson - Lutheran theology.

Most certainly, this is the "religion" of the hour! 

Obscured

 "In 1500, and for almost a thousand years before that, the Western world was completely enmeshed with God for everything it saw. That meant that the industry of religion had both a huge influence and market. It meant that Jesus could only be accessed through that industry". The Reformation of the Internet - Duo Dickinson.

"Christ and His Cross stands between us!". Michelangelo - The Agony and the Ecstasy. 

"Before whose eyes Christ was displayed as Crucified" Paul - Galatians 3:1.

A recent posting here (The Depths of it All) gained an interesting response from someone I've enjoyed discussing issues with a great deal this past year. I was, apparently, being somewhat transparent in my passionate appeal to call to those who read the piece to be pastoral in their approach to people in the particular light of the present troubles.

Friends will know that one of my all time favourite movie moments is from the film of Irving Stone's 'The Agony and Ecstasy', quoted above, in which the renascence artist faces the clerics of his day concerning their charge that his work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel amounted to nothing more than obscenity. Michelangelo's response not only drips with righteous anger, but is informed by a theology that the poison of the religious machinery of his day couldn't begin to comprehend.

This wasn't a minor aberration, as Duo Dickinson shows in his essay, but a road-block that made Luther and the Reformation essential for the health of Christianity.

The problem - a serious error in thinking - had been continual in Roman Catholicism for some ten centuries, and it was most commonly expressed in Art.

In the opening of his work, Vicars of Christ - The Dark side of the Papacy, ex-jesuit Peter De Rosa shows how the apparent 'kindness' of modesty had insured that any religious depiction of Jesus upon the cross never showed Him entirely naked. Christ's genitalia were always covered, thereby ensuring that something as cruel as this execution could be venerated by the faithful, but this omission allowed a far worse cruelty to fester.

The cloth hid the fact that this Jesus was a circumcised Jew, and with this mark veiled from the public, the lie became easy to perpetuate that it was the "unbelieving Jews" who had been solely responsible for Christ's death. Centuries of pogroms, ghettos and badges of disgrace followed, finally allowing a particular anti-semite to profess that his 'struggle' against the Jews was identical to that pursued by the church.

Lies are most pernicious when they are embroidered with what makes the eye and then the heart desire them. The lie here allowed the Papacy free-reign to practice terrible things.

Evil always follows when we seek to hide the true nature of Christ and our faith to one another, and replace this with a contrivance of what is deemed 'expedient'.

When Paul addressed the church at Galatia, it was because they were adopting an approach to God which masked that naked, exposed raw truth of what the Gospel was, and what was entailed for each of us to trust in it - the negation of lies.

The Good News of God revealed in Christ has to, once again, break through the present 'religious' architecture of this moment and end our adherence to the presumed myths of the day. Vital Christianity makes that untainted manner of connection entirely viable.

Incrementalism

 Give an inch... they'll take a mile.

There is no fellowship twixt darkness and light. 2 Corinthians 6:14.

Scripture leaves us in little doubt when God shows up. Whether it's a burning bush, the abrupt termination of a storm, dry land amidst rivers, or global floods, people are somewhat struck by what unfolds when these moments happen.

It's common today for people to presume that such moments are mythological in nature, but I suspect many could still testify of encountering something that suspended the norm for them, and made them very aware of the intervention of a care and mercy beyond everyday means.

The point here is that God's will and domain, whether we see it or not, always has an "immediatism" in respect to its bounds, its absolute ends, and its manner of establishing these. Compromising such ends is shown continually in Scripture as bad, causing peril and usually the first step into the mire.

So, why is it that today, so many believers are incrementalists?

Usually, this is evident when you look at something like the pro-life movement, especially in America. The notion is you 'push' towards the ending of abortion whilst you accept any legal amendments that take 'along a direction of travel' that will hopefully, finally, get you there. Trouble is, of course, is such amendments usually just "adjust" the pro-choice policies already in place, and they don't stop the deaths, so you're not moving very far... if at all.

What's clearly required here is a national repentance for such a sin, and the only way you see that is if there's a spiritual awakening that causes people to open themselves to truth.

I was fortunate enough in the seventies to catch the cusp of something that could have become that before it was swallowed whole by charismatic excess, so I've 'tasted' the distinct difference between such an hour and what we have now, and there is a very real difference.

Sadly, it's now evident that such thinking isn't exclusive in the church in respect to an issue like the death of the unborn.

Incrementalism is in play when it comes to accepting aborted cell-line medications, obeying non-faith based 'health' policies, accommodating mass media 'news' as our standard measurement of current affairs, to name but a few of the most pertinent realms in which God's actual take on a matter is given a backseat.

There's no problem with us engaging with this culture, but what that needs to bring is a clear, untarnished voice, not merely a stuttering to echo the 'stars quo' of the moment. God has revealed, down the line, what is good and just Himself, so it's up to us make sure we're standing on the right side of that line when His hour of reckoning descends.

The mirage of the moment is that we can, in effect, plant our feet in both realms - secular and spiritual - at the same time, and all will be well, because we're looking for incremental change. The fact is that once such compromise is in play, the only accommodation is on the side of what is genuinely required - men's hearts will always de-fault to what is wicked.

Time to wake up and stand firm or be lost in the roar that builds to judgement.

The Landing Strip

 The Late Richard Feynman produced a very telling paper which highlighted the plight of the South sea islander "Cargo" cult.

Here's the essential facts...

During the second world war build-up of American Pacific Forces in the operation to rout the Japanese, a group of islands were annexed that were inhabited by people that had never seen an aircraft before.

Over the build-up period for the campaign, flights would regularly arrive into their world to bring all manner of items that they could barely comprehend, all apparently 'gifted' to them by these astonishing wonders from the sky, which descended upon the "field" these other men had constructed for them. Their lives were changed entirely.

Then, one morning, just as suddenly as it had commenced, it was over.

The strangers had gone. The 'sky birds' stopped coming, and so did the benefits.

Years later, other visitors arrived by sea and were amazed at what was discovered - the islanders had reconstructed the entire airstrip from bamboo and other materials, clearly thinking that if they did so well enough, the prior conditions could be renewed, and they could once again benefit from this.

It's a scenario that is often employed today in situations where people want to provoke with respect to a moral dilemma - think the ever present "non-interference" policy (hardly ever followed, of course) in Star Trek.

The reason I raise it is because it suddenly dawned on me this week that we're equally living in such a 'cargo-cult' culture. Our 'airstrips' may be virtual, and our oft-insatiable needs far more extensive than coca-cola and chocolate, but the consequences and impact upon each of us is almost identical to those islanders. We expect the infrastructure of our day to quite literally 'drop' into our laps the solutions we need, as and when we need them, and when they apparently do, we merely imbibe these 'goodies' with very few questions asked.

Some of us, of course, are old enough to recall some of those dystopian movies of the seventies that sought to show that this wasn't necessarily a good thing. Movies the likes of Soylent Green, Rollerball, and Demon seed asked if there were very real dangers to giving people what they want, when they want it.

The answer in such scenarios, and today, of course, is yes.

The health secretary 'lost it' on camera on Wednesday when a reporter rattled him with the fact that there was a known 37% chance of passing along the virus after full vaccination. A few days ago, the PM of New Zealand terminated a press event when a reporter dared to try and ask her about the disturbing data from Israel regarding falling vaccine efficacy. The head of the NHS lied on camera about the actual numbers of hospital admissions this month. All of this happened in "mainstream" media coverage.

The mask has slipped. The 'deliveries' may have been packaged to look satisfactory, but the contents are clearly below standard, and some of the 'islanders' are aware that things were actually better before all this became the only imperative.

It's rare for most us, even when things get a little 'tight', to really have to struggle, at least until something takes hold that won't be denied, and we discover our confidence in 'the norm' (whatever form that may currently take) was misplaced or even very misguided. The day is going to arrive when everything around us will begin to fail, and we're left facing a far greater truth about what we are.

Laying any resources here has to be temporary at best. The treasure we should be genuinely focused upon, Jesus shows, is going to endure for so very much longer.

The depths of it all...

"Truth is swept under the rug. If you’ve never known truth, then you’ve never known love”.

The Black Eyed Peas - Where is the love. 

 I want to speak pastorally (Galatians 6:2) today, so let me begin with this. 

 Just yesterday, author Laura Dodsworth spoke on a UK national radio channel about an NHS nurse (who wished to remain anonymous at present) - a lady who has dedicated her entire working life of many decades to the care of others. Laura comments on just how wise this lady is in respect to the issues involved (and how others who have read her full story quickly wanted to step in and help). 

After almost two years of service amidst the present crisis, this nurse faces a point of true trial. She has very sincere reservations about being jabbed, because of very clear convictions. She has already had the virus, and has confirmed anti-bodies against it. She understands that the current vaccination treatments cannot provide immunity, or even prevent transmission to others.

Clearly, a moment is approaching when, like UK care workers this week, she is going to have to take her leave… and that raises another major issue.

How can we allow a situation to develop where we, in effect, create a two-tier society? 

Interestingly, Laura notes how one of the very first people to contact her in response to this story was a minister, asking if he could meet with the nurse to offer support.

So, my question to each of us is how do we, as church, step into this gap? 

How do we seek to aid the weak, those now being made powerless by others?And how should such an intervention be shaped by our fundamental thinking about what we are - what role we are meant to be taking right now?

It’s as we keep these key things in mind that I want to set down these following, painful yet essential truths about what has ‘overtaken’ us - not simply to rebuke, but, as is so often the case in the history of God’s people, to bruise and break in order to bind and to heal, so please accept this admonition in that intent.

"In almost every place where the reformation flourished there was not only religious noncompliance; there was civil disobedience as well".

Francis Schaeffer - A Christian Manifesto.

"Professing Christians who set aside the Lordship of Christ", notes Dr Joe Boot, "instead following tempered pietistic patterns of thinking are, unsurprisingly, "sheep-like" in their behaviour and, most telling, in their response toward the state". And there is, sadly, no limit to the foolishnes of those who follow men rather than Christ the Lord when this ensues, because there no reigning-in of such abuse of power – they are indeed, like sheep before a butcher, noted William Tyndale,to be sheared and torn by others. 

The issues may have become coloured by the contemporary, but the focus has not actually changed at all. 

As Dr Boot continues - "False piety and virtue signalling manifest in a pharisaic insistence and compliance with mask mandates, social distancing, self-imprisonment and a quasi-religious hope in experimental vaccines, lockdowns, and various other restrictions".

To be seen openly complying with and strongly supporting all these self-denying and self-sacrificing measures is regarded as a form of social righteousness. 

If particular action(s) were simply to aid and assist in a tried and trusted fashion - like safety belts in cars - employing them would indeed be useful, even imperative in particular circumstances, but when we are dealing with materials where the reality is far from sure and certain, it is clearly dangerous for us to simply condone what is being stated to be ‘good’ (how many “teachers" have worked evil inside the faith on that premise!) 

Dr Boot continues - "In short, there is an atmosphere of societal ‘atonement’ about the whole enterprise. A culture in the grip of guilt and shame that rejects the atonement of Jesus Christ will be quick to leap at various forms of self-atonement in the hope of expiating their burdens by such individual sacrifice". The church, tied to such ends, effectively  becomes an extension of the secular will, which, by various means, incubates a belief in self vindication through external actions, deemed ‘righteous’ and crossed in the mainstream at great peril. 

All of this is possible because Christians loose sight of the fact that the source and authority for all key activity in life is not the various institutions devised to assist and enhance the well-being of daily life, but the manifold gifts and blessings given to us exclusively by God Himself (Ephesians 4:8), which society, in reality, has no right to take away. 

Adhering to some required social or medical advice for a specified period of time and may indeed be prudent, but this should in no manner open a means whereby our lives then become solely and entirely directed by such. 

Good medicine has to be about so much more than ‘influencing’ or even curing a disease - the genuine well-being of the patient should be paramount. 

Whilst the public focus of the secular in this crisis has been almost entirely upon keeping some “alive”, the church has, in effect, mis-placed the vital truth that The Lord, is indeed, “Lord over all” -“God has made Him both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2 2:36). This, as Schaeffer and others has noted, has blighted mainstream evangelical thinking for decades, allowing for either a ‘hyper-spirituality’ or a social pietism to become the mainstream forms of religious expression in the Western church, both consequences of a lack of trust in the Biblical faith to be pivotally relevant to the entire sphere of existence. 

The consequences of this have become truly evident in this crisis, where a ‘sanitised secularism’ has dominated the ‘spiritual’ response to the troubles, and where any kind of deeper examination of this naive approach, as required, indeed commanded, by scripture, (1 Peter 4:7), has been almost entirely judged as unnecessary, and out of place. This has allowed an immersion into an ideology of what can only be defined as cultural eugenics, via a “informed” media cycle which has fed comprehensive devastation. 

The justification by church ministers for such an approach is their employment of their own modified version of the official policy’s “precautionary principle” - that it is wise to assume the very best will result from your ‘careful’ actions - and that the very worse would arise if you sought to stray from such a golden rule. The ‘soul’, indeed, along with the body, is only made well when the ‘care' of the faith is vitally married to the insatiable requirements of the NHS! 

This would, perhaps, be at least credible in some measure if numerous impositions burdened upon the people at large had not proved so callous and wicked in their consequences. Christ’s Lordship, therefore, is practically defined as subservient (and thereby irrelevant) before the authority of such controls. 

The “leaven” (Luke 12:1) has indeed, left so many 'attending church' poor, blind, wretched and naked. Bared by the state. 

So, nearly two years on, what has come about from this woeful murdering? 

Douglas Wilson summarised it neatly in a current podcast: "It’s the case that ‘big-box’ evangelicalism, inculcating that “niceness” vibe, has been refusing to teach its people anything that might remotely equip them for what they are now facing. The (church’s)‘immune system’has not been working at all. Some have recalled that they are meant to be fighting off something, so, (and here’s where ‘the few’ come in), it has often rounded on those it was supposed to be protecting 

There are those who have sought to stand up to all this madness, to fight off this leviathan with entirely inadequate means… 

So, we (the church), had our trained ‘elite units’, well-stocked armouries, state of the art weapons, monetary backing and more, and, after this stalwart company just up’ed and quit the field, a rag-tag assemblage showed up instead with wooden swords and trash cans for shields, having no choice - somebody had to stand and face the great dragon, and as soon as they took to the field, they found themselves being attacked - by the church’s elite units!"

The way back from here is not an easy one. The uneasy alliance with the ‘Philistines’may be breakable for some, at cost, but only if the Prophetic voice and direction of the David-like motley crew rejects the call to be encased in Saul’s over-sized armour (1 Samuel 17:38-40….‘Weapons’that have proved so ineffective so far)! and takes to the field, naked, beside the armour of God. 

These denounced warriors will not flinch to call it like it is -‘who is this uncircumcised pagan, that he should defy the army of the living God?’. Evil will be called out and cast down. 

Such an hour is most certainly close.

Thomas Cranmer, the architect of so much of English Protestantism, found a recovery of his faith and courage, and so clothed, was taken to the flames. 

William Tyndale, the furnisher of the English scriptures, prayed with his last breath for an opening of blind eyes. 

Martin Luther, after a fretful night before the crucible, stood firm before princes and powers on the immovable truth of Christ and His unchanging, eternal authority over all. Such is the validity of the faith. 

 So, dear ones, for whom Christ has given all, I would beseech you to see, to know, and to do, as the Apostle charges us, so that we might indeed be presented on that day as pure and chaste, that we unmask the beguiling of the hour, and lead one another back into the sincere and good union with Christ, escaping that ‘other’ Jesus garbed in the medical coat of state, insidiously seeding a very different spirit amongst us that leads us to hope and trust in an escape the gospel does not offer. Let us remind ourselves how readily we can entertain such violence because of the religiousness of our own souls (2 Corinthians 11: 3 and 4). 

In the surety of that truth, let us earnestly stand in this most trying hour.

Scammed

 "Through the insincerity of liars, some will devote themselves to diabolical teachings and practices, severing themselves from the goodness of the things which God had created and established for us". 1 Timothy 4:1 &2.

It's pretty rare these days that I hear anything exciting on a company health and safety training Course - there's only so many times that someone can 'remind' you how to move a box or to wear PPE - but this week brought just such a rare occasion.

I was working through a course on on-line safety when the issue of 'phishing' (getting bogus e-mails that intend to do you and/or your company harm) came up. The subject material sought to impress upon me the key reasons that such scams work so much of the time, and they most certainly bear repeating.

These are:

A sense of urgency (the materials often require a speedy response).

A need to please (they are framed in such a manner that you'll want to assist).

Greed (making you an offer you can't refuse).

Fear or Complacency (A sense of foreboding if you don't act, and that everything will be good if you do).

The opening chapter of Laura Dodsworth's excellent 'State of Fear', which I also started this week, shows how the government 'stay at home' announcement last March employed all of the above to 'freeze us in the headlights' of the moment and thereby to entirely accept the scam - that a disease as troublesome for most of us as seasonal flu entirely condoned the wholesale removal of our basic rights.

We're all now only too aware of the general social ills that have followed this, which, even if we snapped back to pre-2020 'norms' tomorrow (and there's currently no evidence that we will), would continue creating huge swathes of damage for decades to come, but there's another side to this coin.

If political and social leaders have, in effect, murdered the good norms of society, what of the church which has, aside from a few rare exceptions, chosen to side with this madness? Where are the vast body of believers in respect to this continuing crisis?

The reality is found in Paul's words above concerning the great apostasy of the last days. Notice what he says brings this about - men who become liars by searing their conscience (in respect to becoming obedient to men first) and in consequence marry themselves to teachings and practices that are 'diabolical' (demonic) in nature, for they sever the Christian church from its proper role - assembling and continuing to serve, particularly amidst a crisis. 

To conform to an edict in a nation that terminates church on the basis of it being 'of no importance' (Government statement) in the pandemic validates exactly what the Apostle is stating, and the sad truth is that in spite what has transpired since that dreadful day, nothing has changed in respect to the view of most church-goers concerning how to behave at such a moment - even though the entire history of the church, until 2020, speaks against this!

Yielding so readily to the perpetrators of this scam will leave a very real and deep stain- a perpetual wound - upon the church for decades to come - indeed, it may not ever be removed, as most believe there is no need for any manner of repentance about this - they were merely doing 'what they were told'.

This is exactly the manner of error made in Germany the 1920s and 30s by the church, which willingly yielded itself, in the main, to the decrees of the nazis, who also stripped the country of all rights and freedoms.

What is simply astonishing is that ministers and their congregations cannot see the parallels, and where this manner of 'obedience' ends.

The church must be called back to the genuine soundness and rightness of what the Lord has established. Only then can we be healthy.

"Where the Battle Rages'

"So, the law is paralysed, and justice does not proceed, for the wicked have surrounded the righteous, and thereby justice has become perverted".

Habakuk 4:1. 

"Now Deborah, a Prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgement".

Judges 4:4-5.

Chad Bird notes some telling things about this moment (in Judges) in the history of God's people.

Deborah (Hebrew - d'torah - "Bee") provides a sweet honey to the land amidst crisis, not only by her 'judgements', but in the fact that these stem from a conviction, a courage and a deep wisdom, that was sorely needed. Like others given the title (Miriam - Exodus 15:20, Anna - Luke 2:36 amongst them), the people came to understand that they should listen to her in respect to 'mishaps' - words that were weighty when it came to the evaluation and direction from heaven in respect to their situation. It was such great conviction and strength which motivated her to rouse the wavering Barak to war, and would in turn cause the people to then strike hard against the enemy of God's work and witness.

Defining herself as a 'mother' of the nation in respect to her engaging in the battle, she shows us a clear picture of what character is required in the face of what often appears to be overwhelming adversity.

Notice what the passage also tells us of where her role was carried out.

Deborah dwelt (and held a seat of judgement) in the heights of the land (Ramah), close to the house of God (Bethel), in a region of abundant fruitfulness (Ephraim), and clearly, expressed a nature aflame for truth (which probably partially explains the name given in relation to her husband). Her name also has a connotation of a prime or even queen Bee - a figure that others will follow.

All of this was clearly needed. The oppression of Ehud on the people through his military leader, Sisera, was extreme - some 900 chariots (Judges 4:3) being employed to underline the degree of tyranny that was implemented due to the people's wickedness.

Evil, the scriptures inform us, brings this manner of cruel folly. The Israelites thought that freedom entailed allowing the corruption of pagan culture into their everyday existence, but the Lord allows the consequences of such accommodation to become evident so they will cry for genuine freedom from this misery.

The Lord instructs Deborah to call a particular man - Barak - to lead some 10,000 men to take up arms against the oppressor in the sure understanding that the Lord will use this instrument to bring down the enemy. Barak, answering her call, is clearly far more uncertain about this project, but agrees to do as he asks if she will accompany him on this mission.

The assembling of this force soon draws the attention of Sisera, and the chariots start to roll out to quell such insurrection. The Canaanites, no doubt, thought that they were more than ready to deal with Barak, but Deborah knew otherwise, and it wasn't long before the battle overwhelmed Ehud's forces, the supposed 'power' of the day being put to the sword (4:16). Sisera flees into what he believes to be a refuge - only to face a sudden, violent demise (4:22). The rout of this elite, this totality, was absolute.

We can glean a three-fold victory in this event.

Deborah understood what was actually going on around her in the land, and, equally vital, heard the Lord's voice on these troubles.

Seeing well in such times is the essential first step we must take if we are to know genuine health in our life and deeds when such trials come upon us.

Secondly, she was a person of such genuine, living faith, that she was able to properly evaluate what was taking place and to thereby determine what was good and evil in such circumstances. Such judgement always begins amongst God's company - truth brings with it the imperative of making such essential distinctions.

Finally, recognising the times, and certain in the convictions supplied by both faith and wisdom, Deborah acted in bringing together the resources to over-turn the tyranny of the moment, and because she properly understood the day and the assets made available, the victory was certain.

See, judge, act is the manner that the faithful should live.

If you are someone who is now looking around you and wants to know how to proceed from here, follow this example -

Know the times and the Lord who is far above all principalities and powers.

Discern what is taking place well.

Inform your actions and responses on these key things.

The night is here, but the daybreak is fast approaching, so gear up, people, and get into the fight, because we being called to a sure and certain perfection of all things!