allies in culture war

Christians can be a very dissappointing bunch of people.

Thankfully, I know to keep my eyes on Jesus and my nose in the Bible. Otherwise, I would end up like most folks: turned off of Christianity by the shenanigans of those purporting to be "christians".

In recent news articles, it has been the Catholics and Mormons who were the most vocal in opposing the homosexual agenda. Where have the "evangelicals" been?

Consider that the U.S., Britain, and the Soviet Union joined in alliance against the Axis in WWII. Just because these countries were allies, does not mean that they had to compromise their national distinctives in order to join together against a common enemy.

Similarly, there should be some way that Christians can stand in alliance with Catholics and Mormons to fight cultural, social, moral, and political battles without compromising what we believe.

I don't follow Glen Beck or the Pope when it comes to matters of spirituality or doctrine. But I do agree with them on many cultural, social, moral, economic, and political matters. It is on those matters that we can be allies without compromising our core beliefs.

The danger of course is that many not well grounded in their faith may think that if we are allies in moral issues, that it somehow legitimises these other religeons and they may be lured away into these false religeons.

A sad truth is that more Christians convert to Mormonsim than any other group. I can understand why, as most "evangelical christians" are at best convenient, sunshine christians whose behavior is wishy washy and hypocritical. So "works based" religeons such as mormonsim and catholicism, or the "mysticism" offered by the emerging church movement become very appealing.

At this point my only solution is to spend 2 hours studying the Bible for every 1 hour spent fighting the culture war.

Eventually, the real solution becomes more about preaching the gospel and making disciples. After all, that is what we are commanded to do.

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”- John Adams

Absent from the Body

What happens to believers when they die?

Corinthians 5:6-10

Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Philippians 1:23

For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

already judged

John 3:30-36

He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Yep, now when I get accused of "judging others" I can say, "too late, your already judged".

Last Days Scoffers

2 Peter 3:2-6

That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished

Folks today are surrounded with the evidence of God's handiwork, however they are willfully ignorant--driven by their own lusts to ignore the truth and seek a lie.

Consider a child whose very clothes they are wearing, toys they play with, house they live in, protection from harm, and the very food in thier belly has been provided by a loving parent. Yet the child stands there shaking their fist at the parent screaming that they do not need them and they can take care of themselves.

We are the same way. Consider that the very oil, coal, and natural gas that powers our electric plants, moves our cars, and is a key ingredient to countless products was laid down during the global flood of Noah's time. They are so keen to deny the flood, however they cannot demonstrate any contemporary natural process that is replenishing these fossil fuels.

So far I've found no-one who better sums up today's post-modern attitude than the following from Aldous Huxley:

"I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning; consequently, assumed it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption....

"Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know. It is our will that decides how and upon what subjects we shall use our intelligence. Those who detect no meaning in the world generally do so because, for one reason or another, it suits their books that the world should be meaningless....

"The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics; he is also concerned to prove there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do....

"For myself, as no doubt for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from an certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom; "(1)

(1) HUXLEY, Aldous, Ends and Means, Chatto & Windus, London; The Macmillan Company of Canada, Limited, Toronto, 1937, pp 270/272/273.

Religion

I really don't want to have much to do with religion.

Religion is:

Man creates god after man's image

Man decides what is right/wrong

Man reaches up to god, trying to impress god with his "goodness"


Instead we are to have a relationship with God who created us in His image.

God decides right/wrong

We can in no way reach up to God, our righteousness is "filthy rags"

God came down and dwelt among us, gave Himself for us so that we can have a relationship with Him.

Repentance

Attrition - A feeling of regret for one's sins or misdeeds in the sense of "I regret that I've been caught"

Contrition - A feeling of regret for one's sins or misdeeds in the sense of sincere repentance and disgust for one's own behavior.