Drunken Mystic

In my past post on “defining hate”, I genuinely sought evidence that Republicans/conservatives were guilty of the name calling and destruction of private property during the campaign in November.

Either no one could give me one or they didn’t care … but I thought of one:  at a speech by McCain, where he was criticizing Obama, someone in the crowd yelled “kill him!” or something to that effect.  Upon hearing what had happened, McCain clearly stood against such rhetoric and stupidity.

Maybe I missed it, but I don’t remember a similar speech by Obama about crude T-shirts about Palin or destruction of property owned by those supporting McCain.

But someone did bring up to me, in person, the church that went around to the funerals of dead soldiers who happened to be gay and carried signs calling the soldiers names and saying things like “God hates fags.”

While not really what I was looking for, I’ll bite and say this is a great BAD example.

To me, there is a large gap between “your sin leads you to death, and God desires for you to repent and have life and have it more abundantly” and “God hates fags.” 

How does “God hates fags” give any message of hope for redemption, restoration, or life?  Not to mention the sheer crudity of such a derogatory term for another human being.

Let’s look at what Jesus says about name-calling.  To say “Raca”, a word similar to our f-word in its courseness to Jesus’ culture, if not more so, Jesus claimes you are in danger of worldly authority, the Jewish council.  But call someone a “fool”, Jesus clearly states you are in danger of hell fire.

(Some would say Jesus was participating in hate speech right there!)

We have millions of Christians in America that shudder if someone uses certain curse words but they don’t think twice about calling someone “stupid” or worse, especially political and religious figures … or when you’re driving.

To call someone a derogatory name does at least three important things:

1.  Denies their individual humanity, their creation in the image of God.  That image might be marred by sin, but a human being is still one of God’s creations, loved enough that God himself would sacrifice his own son.

2.  Exposes religious pride.  Check what Jesus said about the Pharisees and religious leaders of his day.  He hated their pride more than the harlot’s sin.  Remember also the man who prayed, “thank God I’m not like that sinner!” only to find that he was not justified before God and the sinner was.

3.  Denies God’s ability to redeem fallen man.  Love “believes all things” because we understand that no matter how bad the sin, or deceived the sinner, God’s arm is not too short and he is able to redeem.

I remember once when my high school basketball team went to this basketball camp before my sophomore year.  One of my “friends” was just putting this other kid down, calling him names and making fun of him.

I had just recently committed my life more fully to Christ.  What came out of my mouth in no way came from me, a tall skinny 15 year old.

An overwhelming sense of pity for my “friend” came over me.  I said, “You must really feel bad about yourself if you need to put someone else down just to feel good or cool.”

The whole room got awkward and quiet, and then they tried to point their ire my way; but it was half-hearted at that point.  The Spirit, through me, exposed his heart and motivation.  The rest of the guys mostly mumbled and went away.

I should be secure enough in my own righteousness before God that I don’t need to point fingers at another’s sin to feel righteous … or put another person down.  It just proves that I don’t know God.  I don’t have to prove someone else wrong to be right.

When I am called upon to expose sin in another, it is then to offer them life, not label or marginalize, for God is not far from anyone.

We will always be able to point to those who are BAD examples, just as Christ did.  But let us not be discouraged in our call to preach “repentance and acts consistent with repentance”, for Jesus preached that Gospel out of love.

Peace.

Part of the test of this life is to realize there are many opportunities to exit the highway of the narrow way.  This is a filter to see who will “endure to the end and be saved.”

After a particularly disturbing message in which Jesus watched many of his followers leave him, the Messiah turns to those closest to him and says, “Are you going to leave me, too?”

Peter’s response: “Where else can we go?  You have the words of life.”

These men did not turn the world upside down because they were open to other options.  There was no other option.  There was no plan B.

Even James’ encouragement to “ask and do not doubt and you will receive … because any man who doubts will not receive,” speaks of such a singular heart that you are fully convinced of receiving what you ask for.

At what point is being “open-minded” just an excuse for doubt because we cannot say with Paul: “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against that day.”

We have not been given a “Spirit of fear, but power and love and a sound mind.”  A “peace that passes understanding.”  Think about a “peace that passes understanding” … this is not hyperbole.  This is a reality that speaks of such a spiritual stability that even the mental faculties aren’t fully involved.  It is a truth that transcends even my ability to fully understand it.

My main scripture today, though, will be from Hebrews 6, after the writer rebukes them for being immature and “on milk, not solid food!”:  “therefore let us leave the elementary teachigns about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.  And God permitting we will do so.”

The foundation has to be set before you can build on it or you will have a very unstable structure.  These six truths are so foundational that without them, you cannot move forward into maturity.

At some point, these truths must be so entrenched in your being that they are unchangable by anything.  You become “closed-minded” about any way of thinking or philosophy that challenges it.

That doesn’t mean that God cannot add to the revelation you already have, but it the new revelation doesn’t change the original revelation, it only enhances and strengthens it.  These become truths at our core, because without this transaction, two things occur.

First, you are prepetually immature.  Continued “open-mindedness” on essential truths stagnates you in spiritual childishness.  You always look like the tower that was begun but never finished … a fool.  You are an incomplete foundation without walls or a roof or other things.  God cannot fully inhabit an incomplete foundation.  And to attempt to build on it only sets you up for quite the fall.

Second, you become more susceptible to falling away when Christianity becomes difficult (remember the building of a house on sand … an unsure foundation), like the seed on strong ground that had an insufficient root to weather the hard times.

Why would Hebrews so clearly rebuke a whole group of people for their immaturity?  Unless moving on to maturity was essential.  Chapter 6 continues to explain what happens when someone who has “tasted the heavenly gift” falls away.  There is cursing.  There is burning.

But the hope for the immature is that we can “imitate those who through faith and perseverance inherit what was promised.”

In other words, settle these things and MOVE ON.  Your very salvation may depend upon it.

We have a thousand years of seminaries and formal religious training that constantly banters about these basic truths.  Is it any wonder the most educated section of the Body of Christ is also its most glaringly immature?  There are other factors, but this is a big one.

Let us not skip over, either, the context that this was written to a group, not an individual.  There is a validity to a cohesive body of people moving past these things and settling them.  Not that individuals don’t also need to settle truth and move on, but it helps to have a body in unity settled in these truths.  The “new converts” or “immature” then have plenty of opportunity to imitate true maturity.

Peace.

Third, seeking true spirituality through worldly debate is fruitless.  We are saved by “grace through faith and not of ourselves lest anyone should boast.”  And faith comes by “hearing the word of God.”  Paul told the Corinthians that he did not preach or teach with “wise or persuasive words but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.”  Why?  “So that your faith might not rest on man’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”

When it comes to the truth of the cross, it is “foolishness to those who are perishing.”  No apologetic argument can convince the perishing otherwise.  “Jews seek a sign and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”

No one has ever truly been led to repentance by an argument.  Only revelation by the Spirit can get past the worldly mentalities of the Jew and the Greek.  Something way more fundamental must change that arguments and “signs” cannot touch.

(speaking of “signs”, remember what Lazarus told the rich man … they will not believe even if they see someone raise from the dead.)

In fact, when we do seek wisdom, we are not told to take a class or read a book.  We are told to “ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.  But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt … that man will not receive anything.”

So here is what we are to be open-minded to: God and him alone.  We are to be open to his voice and truth.  “Let God be true and every man a liar.”

Sometimes, being labeled closed-minded (or narrow minded … isn’t it a narrow way?) is quite the compliment when the Truth is so settled in us that all else is foolishness.

Of course this is spiritual wisdom given to men and women of the Spirit.  You can be closed-minded about things that don’t really matter, both in this life and the life to come, and that is really a waste of time and energy; not to mention unnecessarily dividing and offending.

So with this student, I kept going back to truths of eternal weight.  God created life.  Life comes from life.  Man was made in God’s image as a special creation, and Man will therefore be judged according to our stewardship of that gift in relation to all the things done while on the Earth.

If this does not resonate with the heart of a man, or a student, he hasn’t been given revelation and “ears to hear.”  It is all just “endless geneologies and vain arguments.”

Next: when it is good to be spiritually closed-minded.

Had a discussion with a student last week.  The second such discussion that I’ve had with him, centering mainly on his strong and educated belief in evolution.

While I very calmly expressed what I was saying, he became agitated and angry.  I quickly asked him, “Why does it anger so much that I don’t believe that evolution and natural selection was how life began?  Why are you upset that I believe life comes from life?”

(As an aside, let me note that I wasn’t trying to convince him of any creationist belief, and I didn’t split hairs on specifics.   I clearly expressed to him that evolution and natural selection are valid scientific principles based on observation and fact.  The statement that upset him was that I believed God created the universe, and that I didn’t believe that evolutionary theory had to ever enter into the equation for me because A) no one was there to observe … except God himself and B) the transition from inorganic to organic matter has never been observed or reproduced in any way or form.

Also, upon his “conversion” to evolution, he gave up his “belief” in God and became a staunch atheist.)

His response to my question was, “You seem like a very intelligent guy and I think that if you were open-minded and looked at the evidence, you would be convinced otherwise.”

Now, at this point I could have addressed several different assumptions, not the least of which that I am intelligent, but I chose to focus on one idea: “Why do I have to be open-minded?”

This is close to sacrilege to the Western world, and even to many Christians who have adopted the same high-minded value.  One of the most-used statements against Christians is they are “closed-minded”, as this student expressed.

But what am I to be open-minded about?  Everything?  There are plenty of people who believe that marriage itself is an oppressive institution and that multiple partners at once is natural and completely acceptable.  Am I to be “open-minded” to their views?  To run around and commit adultery on my wife?

Even this atheistic student agreed that I didn’t need to be open-minded about adultery.

(I also got him to admit that he was completely closed-minded to the possibility of intelligent design, despite the mounds of evidence and theory there, as well … that even in looking at their evidence, he supposed it was all “a lie” and “doctored” to prove their agenda … which begged me to question why I should be open-minded to his view and the evidence he might use to support it when he could not bring himself to the same point of supposed intellectual honesty.)

The conversation continued while I focused on faith and knowing God and the judgment to come while he focused on very elaborate theories on how organic matter could come from inorganic matter.  Again, I refused to get into a debate on evolution, not because I believe it is true but because there are more fundamental issues going on.  So allow me to continue to expound here.

Of course complete closed-mindedness is also dangerous in that we could deny access to new ideas, information that could be beneficial.  But how much of this is my own ethnocentrism and cultural training?  How much of this is a “Greek seeking after wisdom”?

Let’s be a little narrow-minded and look at what the Bible says about this subject.

First of all, I can’t think of one scripture that encourages me to be open minded to new ideas, at least as our Western culture defines it.

Second of all, the Bible actually sees many new ideas as dangerous in and of themselves.  “Beware of false teachers.”  “If anyone preaches a different gospel than what we preached, let him be accursed.”  Paul repeats that one again, just for emphasis.

Or how about this one: “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than Christ.”

And there’s a lot more where that came from.

So we can see that ideas are important and can be very deceptive.  To have a general “open-ness” to ideas is actually dangerous and not what the Bible teaches.  This makes a highly educated nation very nervous.

to be continued …