Dead American

Of course we can include any religion other than Christianity in this. Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and several others have naturally grown due to the larger number of immigrants from certain parts of the world. These do not regard Christ as the only way within their doctrines, however they may honor Him as a good man or prophet.

As a historian, I am familiar with many pacifists, their views and methodologies. Three of them I am especially fond of: Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. One of my favorite books to read to American History classes is A Testament to Hope, a collection of Dr. King’s complete writings and speeches. It’s a big book (no, I haven’t read it all), but indispensable for understanding his philosophy.

I will not attempt to really place all three of these men in the same category, only to use these unique individuals to find some important common ground within pacifism to make a couple points. (I place Gandhi within this group because, while definitely not a Christian, he based much of his philosophy on Christian principles)

Pacifism is a belief that is not an appropriate means to any end. Pacifism, at its heart, sees any done of man against man as wholly evil and to be avoided.

I actually find strict pacifists quite noble. But true, biblical pacifism, is willing to suffer , even to the point of , in order to show love to those bound by violent solutions. Biblical pacifism is not non-confrontational. Rather, it is fairly aggressive in its passion to show love speak truth. It is realistic in its expectation that while true love is shown in righteousness, will be shown by others, many times to great extremes.

All three of these men, King, Gandhi, and Bonhoeffer, all made the ultimate sacrifice for their beliefs. King and Gandhi were both assassinated by those of extreme predjudice, and Bonhoeffer was executed by the regime he opposed in his own home country. While neither desired , nor did they shrink from it.

Another common theme, however, was their ultimate failure in their respective causes. Gandhi mourned the division of India and Pakistan, of Hindu and Muslim; even though they gained freedom from their British oppressors, Gandhi knew they were still bound by their religious . Bonhoeffer suffered in prison as other nations brought Germany down and the aggressive German resistance, which actually attempted to assassinate , failed. It was Bonhoeffer’s hope that Germans would rise up to oppose . It never really happened.

And for our great Dr. King. He stood next to Johnson for the signing of the Civil Rights Act of ‘64 and made his famous “I have a Dream” speech that still gives us all chills. But he was largely marginalized by the youth movement in the early ’60’s that rejected his nonviolent approach and insisted whites be seen and treated as the enemy. What was once a wonderful movement for peace and brotherhood disintegrated into division and power plays and, yes, .

While each definitely moved with spiritual motivation, they also fought for temporal gain. Here is where modern pacifism breaks down.

True pacifism only works when exercised by the people of God, filled with the Spirit of Christ, and done for eternal reasons alone. Each of these men, while great men of history and greatly inspiring to me personally in their writings and example, sought temporal gain (Bonhoeffer with the salvation of Western Civilization and the removal of the regime, Gandhi with an independent and united India, and King with equal rights under the law for all men).

Jesus and the apostles of the New Testament, while supremely non-violent, were not concerned about these things. They were only concerned with the organic and pure growth of the Church as in the world but not of it. None of these men, the Son of God included, could have approved of the highly oppressive actions of the Roman empire, based on the principles of their teaching and writings. They most assuredly condemned them, but neither did they try to change them.

If we could assume any political concern, it was within the influence of the Jewish culture unto Christianity. Clearly, however, it was not a political concern, i.e., the rise or fall of a Jewish state in opposition to the Roman tion. The apostles were not concerned with an independent Jewish OR Christian state. There was no attempt to convert the Roman empire into a Christian state. They were also not concerned with the equal rights of all men under Roman law (half of the men and women in the Roman empire were slaves).

We hear nothing of these issues in relation to the world, even though they were highly problematic.

But they did address them in the Church. We fight for an eternal kingdom. Our citizenship is in heaven, so we are concerned with heavenly things. Earthly distinctions (rich/poor, master/slave, Jew/Gentile) all disappear within the community of faith. There we are equal. You do not lie or steal or cheat or bring if you are in the Church. There is no need. This is the standard for the Church because we alone possess the indwelling Spirit of Christ that can empower us to live such a life.

But it is severely unwise to hold the world to such a standard. First of all, the world does not have the Spirit of God and cannot truly love at great cost to themselves, even their own . And secular pacifism also mixes a type of godliness with temporal agendas (equal rights, social injustice, poverty relief, political success, or the removal of one from power).

All three or my examples, King and Bonhoeffer expecially, understood the truth that tyranny and oppression are evil and not of God and must be opposed on some level, but not at the expense of one’s own soul. Hence their non-violent philosophies (to varying degrees and method).

Biblical non-violence and pacifism seeks the eternal redemption of man above all other agendas, which also includes the building of the CHURCH, not manufactured organizations centered on dogma but organic communities of faith centered on love. Christians seek the redemption of others even at great physical, emotional, and relational cost to themselves. Jesus suffered the sin of mankind and the rejection of His Father. Moses asked to be stricken from God’s Book rather than see Israel forsaken. Paul was willing to be accursed for the veil to be lifted from the Jews.

So … if a Christian tells me that he is a pacifist, that he cannot justify of any kind, will not participate in it, will not support it, and seeks the same testimony among the Church for the sake of love, I’m all for it. This can be a high vision of love and supported by scripture.

However, if a Christian uses the same priciples to apply pacifism and non-violence to the world, he is unwise and due for disappointment. His pacifism becomes an idol that cannot speak or act, and without the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit of God, it is doomed to temporal and eternal failure (a sad but great definition of “epic failure”). It is an idol because he is worshipping something man can create apart from the Church, the dwelling place of God, the “work of his own hands.”

Next week I’ll tackle one short idea and bring some balance to all of this before a conclusion.

Peace.

As before, we’ll start with the Ten Commandments. “Thou shalt not murder” is there.

But we can also go a little further back to Cain and Abel. The first murder occurs in the second generation of mankind … before adultery. Not soon after that, God judges the earth for being “filled with violence” in a flood. After the flood, God gives a law within His covenant with Noah, “whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God He made man.”

So even in Genesis, God deals with the violence of man against man, and He connects its seriousness with man’s created image, a divine spark that is to be respected and protected.

Before we move on to the New Covenant, we have several prophetic verses and psalms that equate evil with violence. One is a messianic prophecy quoted heavily by the early church: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks” Isaiah 2:4. We must be cautious sometimes with messianic prophecies because they also speak of the heavenly realities at the end times, as well. But for those who pray, “on earth as it is in heaven,” even these verses apply.

In Romans 1:30, Paul lists being violent as evidence of being given over to a debased mind. In Galatians, he lists contentions, outbursts of wrath, and murders as works of the flesh. Peace and longsuffering are the fruit of the Spirit. Colossians tells us to put of anger and wrath as part of the old man.

In Hebrews 10:34, the author commends the Christians in Rome for “joyfully accepting the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.” Rome kicked out all the Jews at one point from the city, and the writer of Hebrews notes that while violence was being done to them, they did not return it. Rather, they joyfully accepted the persecution.

Is this not like Christ? Jesus tells Peter to put down his sword because “those who live by the sword shall die by the sword” Matt 26:52 … Jesus was actually quoting Ezekiel 7:15 before healing the ear of a man leading Him to His death.

Jesus also says in His “good confession” before Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews” John 18:36.

We are told to live in peace with all men. Jesus tells us, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called Sons of God” Matt 5:9.

Nowhere in the New Testament are we encouraged to be aggressive or violent to get our way (or even God’s way). In fact, we are taught to have the mind of Christ, to be willing to suffer violence ourselves for the redemption of others. We are told to love our enemies, that love never fails.

We could find many examples of God ordained violence in the Old Testament, though. God has not changed, so don’t get confused.

The Covenant has changed. Where the physical Israel had a constant physical struggle to inherit a physical promise, we have no such promise in the New Covenant. On the contrary, our promise is wholly eternal and spiritual. Therefore, we fight by spiritual means against spiritual forces to attain a heavenly kingdom. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood.”

And the New Covenant is infinitely better than the Old, as Hebrews states. With such a heavenly promise, we have no earthly kingdom to attain or fight for. Remember, when Judas runs out to betray Jesus, Christ says, “now the Son of Man is glorified.”

We (as in Christians) need to stop trying to build kingdoms on this earth through our political ideologies, national allegiances, social agendas and ministries. Of all of those, God is most offended when we build a kingdom for ourselves and call it a ministry.

If we have no kingdom on this earth to identify with and we’ve forsaken our possessions and family to be His disciple, what do we have to fight for?

We’ll try to pull it all together tomorrow.

Peace.

Demonstrating the Power of God

Jesus and His disciples walked by a blind man. One of the twelve asks, “Who sinned, this man or his parents?”

Jesus answered, “Neither one, but this has happened to show the glory of God.”

This guy had been blind since birth. He lived a life of a beggar just so God could heal him and show His glory?

Yep.

Howabout the woman with the issue of ? Or Lazarus? Or the paralytic man? Or the demon crazed man in the graveyard? Did these people suffer these horrible afflictions just waiting for Jesus to show up?

Yep.

Sure they were healed, but they also suffered years or decades of tragedy before their deliverance.

This means that sometimes God allows the curse of this world to have its work so He can fix it, prove His power over all things (usually through His people, the Church!) and lead people to repentance. Nothing is impossible with God.

Conclusion

What therefore, is the conclusion of all this?

God uses tragedy and disaster (otherwise known as “bad things”) to punish wickedness, teach about the temporary nature of this world, try and test His people, and show His glory by supernatural deliverance and healing.

Unless we have a clear word from God, we cannot assume one over the other. Many times it can be all in one! Only He knows the end from the beginning. Therefore, we must hear from Him about these things.

And love. Whether we know God’s heart on the matter or not, we can be an example of compassion and grace in the midst of all circumstances. It is right and healthy to grieve, but not to sin. Sometimes God does not share the reason, but He always expects His children to love and learn to live righteously.

If you are willing to know this God of love, you will still have a hard road full of grief, but it will work a complete and mature faith learned at the feet of He who bore the cross.

And lived again to reign.

Peace

We’ll try this again …

Testing the righeous … or death from life

Some people can accept death as a consequence of sin, of doing something wrong.

But what about those who have repented and God is actually pleased with? Sometimes even worse things happen to them.

God pointed out Job to the devil and praised his righteousness. You’ve got to be pretty righteous if God takes notice. God then goads the devil unto bringing great personal tragedy upon Job. Ultimately God rebukes Job for questioning His right to test and afflict the righteous at His leisure.

You see, part of the curse is life from death, pain in childbirth. Jesus calls the sorrows of life “birth pangs.” This means God brings forth life amidst pain.

Isaiah says that God was pleased to wound His own Son. Why? Because He knew the reward and life that would result. Christ’s disciples were beaten, persecuted and killed. John died of old age, but not for lack of trying to kill him by the world.

God’s school of prophecy includes pain, suffering and great loss.

“Isn’t this a cruel way to teach us?” some have asked.

Absolutely not. It is love unspeakable and full of glory.

You know what a professional athlete does during the offseason? If he’s good and wants a productive career, he trains even harder than the regular season. This is why basic training in the military is tough. Do you want some fat lazy dude protecting your butt?

Professional athletes put their bodies through intense strain for worldly fame, fortune and glory. God, through our participation in the sufferings of Christ, is giving us opportunity for fame, fortune and glory in Heaven, for eternity!

This is why Peter could honestly say “rejoice to the degree you partake in the suffering of Christ.” And James could say, “rejoice when you fall under various trials and temptations.” And Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble; they hated me first.”

God left certain enemy nations around in the time of the Judges to “teach Israel war.”

David, the proverbial man after God’s own heart, was a warrior, constantly fighting. In such times when you are surrounded by enemies and your safety is at stake, there is greater unity, more efficiency in production, and you stay on your toes, always trained and ready to fight.

Solomon had peace and prosperity during his reign. During such overwhelming political and material blessing, he married foreign wives, worshipped foreign godsd in his own house, oppressed laborers and caused a divided kingdom.

Jesus was the Son of David, not the son of Solomon. Sometimes the worst thing God can give you is a life of ease and comfort.

With our sufferings in this world, we are also suffering for it. Just as Christ suffered so that others could live, our persecution and affliction causes life in others. “Death in us, but life in you.” We are taking part in the ministry of reconciliation and redemption, becoming more like Him so we can reign with Him.

And sometimes, honestly, God likes to have a reson to show off …

Peace.

Learning the Temporary Nature of this World

God does not want us trusting in the things of this world. They are fleeting and doomed to destruction. All things are headed towards some type of end: nations, individuals, relationships, companies, systems of government and economies, and even ministries, all things.

The world tries to seduce us into thinking that its wares last and are sure. We love moneyback guarantees. But a zillion things could happen and result in a company being completely unable to give your money back.

God (and His eternal purpose) is the only sure thing we can count on. Sometimes natural disasters and tragedies are only reminders that our day is short and this world is cursed.

Again, the motivation is to lead us to repentance, obedience, and longing for the next life — which will be so much better than this life, who could compare it? This is God’s love to us, teaching us that happiness in this world is vanity.

Some scriptures to illustrate:

“Our lives are but a breath.”
“Not by power or might but by My Spirit”
“Better is a man’s day of than his birth.”
“There is nothing new under the sun.”

The reason we get depressed when we read these kinds of scriptures is that we have a trite view of eternity, and we still seek some form of satisfaction from the things of this life.

Natural Consequences of Stupidity

This is my own insert, and I will make it short.

Eating junk food and getting fat and sick is not God’s doing. Smoking for twenty years, while not necessarily a sin, and getting emphezema is just a natural effect of unclean living.

The Darwin Awards are great examples of what I’m talking about. While still a result of the curse and God’s allowance, they are not necessarily the cause of sin and resulting judgment, nor are they intentionally teaching us about the temporal nature of our existence on this earth. Driving the wrong way on 85 might not be a sin, but neither is it wise to do.

Part 3 tomorrow.

Peace.

This one is from Matt M.

“I’m teaching a Bible study about tragedy, and I’m going to deal with the classic question, why does God allow bad things to happen?”

Yep. Pretty classic question. You can’t escape this thought and truly seek after God. It has tested and tried the faith of every true saint … a refining that leaves pure gold.

The following answer (I broke it up into several parts to make each post a little shorter!) will also address related questions: How can a God of love allow bad things to happen? Why does God allow bad things to happen to Good people? And so forth.

The biblical answer is not always popular, but that’s never stopped me before …

I won’t talk about free will here, because in the context of the question, it is irrelevant. Okay, so God might give us free will, but does that suspend His omnipotence and sovereignty? Not in the least. So, on some level, He allows tragedy or even causes it.

Going back to the Garden where everything started, we can see some important concepts. You know the story. Consequences of the curse that resulted from Adam’s sin include (which had not existed before), working hard to produce food, and pain in childbirth.

The interesting thing about God is that He begins to use the curse to teach and ultimately give life. Life is obedience, which requires repentance from a disobedient state. His every act of love is to lead us to repentance.

The first natural disaster recorded in Genesis was an intentional act of judgment by God. We’ll start there.

Punishing the Wicked

The wages of sin is . Therefore, in His love, God desires to teach us not to sin, to live in obedience to Him. So sometimes He brings natural/supernatural disasters upon people or nations to teach the truth that sin leads to destruction.

God is so loving, He actually gives people warnings even before He does it. The people in Noah’s day were so wicked in the eyes of God that He could only find one family willing to live right, this only a few generations removed from Adam. Peter calls Noah a “preacher of righteousness,” which assumes that either through his testimony or actual words, the people were warned.

Time and time again in the Old and New Testaments, God judges and kills sinners, especially people who should know better.

The New Testament, too? Oh, yeah. Remember Ananias and Sapphira? How about King Herod after he exalts himself in Acts? Sounds pretty painful to me.

In God’s mercy, He judges and kills sinners. In doing so, He fulfills the choice the sinners have already made and deserve (death), gives the opportunity for those still living time to repent, and gives an example to later generations of the destructiveness of sin (again, hoping they will repent).

In our pride, we quickly say, “it’s not fair,” and we judge God, claiming the of “innocents” and other injustices.

But if the wages of sin is and all have sinned, then any opportunity of life and time to repent is a great mercy. Remember the Revelation of Jesus Christ will be great and violent judgment upon those who refuse to repent and even, in their pride, accuse God (which is an act of the devil).

All this means that either God is not a God of love or we don’t really understand what love is. Humility demands the latter is true.

If God did not kill and judge sinners, then He would not love us. My discipline of my son is out of love to protect him and teach him what is right. Absolute freedom to rebel and choose for himself would be . God does not .

But disasters and tragedies are not always intentional judment of sin. Part 2 tomorrow.

Peace.