In the States we are celebrating Thanksgiving this week. And I am certainly thankful for all the blessings that God has given us. However, I have chosen not to write an article focusing on Thanksgiving...namely because it's too late and I didn't really have an article to write.
But starting on Sunday, Nov. 29, 2020, I will be writing a weekly Advent devotion. I will also be challenging folks to 24 days of prayer. You can choose what prayer you want answered, there are no limits!
It started with one friend saying "Find me on Parler." I immediately started looking at what Parler was. According to wikipedia, Parler is a United States-based microblogging and social networking service launched in August 2018. Parler has a significant user base of Trump supporters, conservatives, and Saudi nationalists. Posts on the website often contain far-right content, antisemitism, and conspiracy theories.
As I watched my friends, sign up for Parler, it seemed that those who were moving were moving for one reason, they don't want to be challenged by the left. They don't like being challenged by those who didn't vote for Mr. Trump. That is the only reasons they can be ignoring the fact that Parler's far-right content, antisemitism, and conspiracy theories. In fact, the only way I can explain what is going on is Exodus.
In fact, I personally don't see how Christians can go over to Parler in good conscience.
Antisemitism should stop Christians if nothing else does. No doubt there is plenty of overt anti-Semitism, whether in the blasphemous slur that all Jews in all places are responsible for the death of Christ, or in other forms of stereotypical assumptions on display in Christian communities about Jewish people. Anti-Semitic attitudes can be quite subtle too.
A common interpretative move in Christian circles is to extrapolate from the anti-Pharisaic passages in the New Testament to Judaism writ large. Many contemporary Christians see themselves as the spiritual ones, while imagining that “the Jews” are the Pharisees of the New Testament, unyielding in their legalism. The notion that all Jews are “legalistic” and obsessed with ritual instead of a living relationship with God is quite prevalent in Christian communities. My experience has uniformly been that people who espouse these beliefs do so almost entirely without actual knowledge of contemporary Jewish belief and practice and have no deep friendships with Jewish persons.
At its worst, these attitudes may contribute to persons becoming actively anti-Semitic. At the very least, such attitudes contribute to a culture of apathy and moral disconnection from our Jewish neighbors. Christians have a moral obligation to vocally condemn anti-Semitism through education and interfaith relationships.
Christians are commanded to love God and love their neighbor. A Christian cannot in good conscience do either of these things and be racist and anti-Semitic.
With respect to Christian attitudes towards Jews, it is important to know that Christianity was a Jewish religious movement. Jesus was Jewish and all his earliest followers were Jewish. The concerns, sacred texts, ethical assumptions, and theology of Christianity grew out of the context of Second Temple Judaism.
Jesus’ most fundamental teachings arose out of engagement with the sacred texts of Judaism. The spiritual and ethical core of Christian practice can be traced to Jesus’ response to the lawyer who asked him which was the greatest commandment of the Law in Matthew 22:35. Jesus responded with a pair of scriptural commands from the Hebrew Bible, the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:17-18.
Loving God and loving neighbor were the greatest commandments, Jesus said. And these were of course entirely consonant with the teachings and practice of Judaism. So, to hate any person is a violation of the command to love God and neighbor. For all persons are made in the image of God and we cannot love our neighbor if we hate them and spread lies about them.
So because of my beliefs, my love of the Jewish people I can't join Parler. If you are a Christian and you have made the jump for "Freedom of speech" remember you have freedom of speech, you can say what you want, you can share what you want, and believe it or not, you should be fact checking all this time.
Recently with the election happening in the USA, and a personal experience I had during a protest, I immediately realized that what our nation is facing isn't a natural battle, it's quite honestly spiritual. I started reading everything I could on spiritual warfare, so when this book came up for review, I knew immediately, I wanted to read it.
C.S. Lewis reminds us that "There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. The sort of script which is used in this book can be very easily obtained by anyone who has once learned the knack; but disposed or excitable people who might make a bad use of it shall not learn it from me."
Gilhooly, takes a topic that is often obsessed over and makes it relatable and easy to understand. Historically, it is understood by Christians that humans are made for relationship with God. Second, there are seemingly no rules relating to the supernatural. Finally, even though there are seemingly not rules to the supernatural, Satan and his demons as well as God and his Angels are real. Therefore, spiritual warfare must be real. While I didn't agree with the author on his definition of Spiritual Warfare, I definitely enjoyed the book and it challenged me, and gave me reasons to question what I believe about spiritual Warfare.
Topics include:
It is 9:50 pm on Friday of election week; we still do not have a president-elect. However, I am honestly tired of all the conspiracy theories that are flying around. I am tired of all the judgment that is being welded against Christians who merely say "This needs to stop."
Yesterday I posted on my Facebook timeline "I understand holding prayer vigils and such for the president, but do you all not think that God already knows what is going to happen? Is He not already on the other side of history? What if a Biden presidency is a part of His ultimate plan? Do not despair." I wrote this to encourage my Trump-supporting friends, family, and people of faith who think they have it all figured out. The democrats are lying, they are cheating, there is voter fraud, etc. And then as I was speaking with my mom, I realized that "Yeah, God does have this figured out. This is a part of his plan, he really is already on the other side of this and He already knows that is going to happen." After all doesn't Jeremiah 29:11 not assure us that God has a plan? “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
In fact, when I posted this question, "And what if Biden is God's plan?" on several friends time lines it was well accepted that I was encouraging them, in fact, I had no issues with my question until a self-righteous cousin of mine posted her response "The HOLY GHOST will lead you into all truth." I am sorry, what truth do you have that I don't? She then posted "Once you receive the HOLY GHOST, with evidence of speaking in tongues, GOD will guide you into all TRUTH and you shall know that GOD put TRUMP in the white house in 2016 and He shall do it again, even this year, saith the Lord.
Nowhere in scripture does it say that tongues are the only evidence of Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Pastor Goodlett goes on to say, "I don't want you to be ignorant of spiritual gifts and how these things work. There are lots of different gifts, lots of different workings, but it's all by the same Spirit." He goes through these different things, and he says one has faith by the same Spirit, another, tongues, by the same Spirit, another, healing, by the same Spirit. And his point is not to pick the gifts apart and say, "Which one do you have?" His point is all of these are the work of one in the same Spirit."
Luke Wayne of CARM says, "No, you don't have to speak in tongues if you receive the Holy Spirit. God gives different spiritual gifts to believers so that we will be able to bless and edify one another. "
So from where does this teaching come? According to Stanley Frodsham's book entitled, "With Signs Following - The Latter Day Pentecostal Revival":
At 11:00 p.m. January 1, 1901, Agnes N.O. Ozman La Berge, who began attending Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas (Stone’s Folly or Mansion), requested that hands, most likely those of Charles Parham, be laid upon her so that she would receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, while typically praying the benediction of Hebrews 13:20-21 "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."Frodsham’s book also states that Agnes Ozman-La Berge said:
"It was common for me to pray the verses while praying, and it was as if hands were laid upon my head that the Holy Spirit fell upon me and I began to speak in tongues, glorifying God. I talked several languages, and it was clearly manifest when a new dialect was spoken. I had the added joy and glory my heart longed for, and a depth of the presence of the Lord within that I had never known before. It was as if rivers of living water were proceeding from my innermost being."
Later in her life, Agnes admitted that she had been wrong to believe that all people would speak in tongues when they were baptized with the Holy Spirit. Writing in The Latter Rain Evangel of January 1909 she wrote,
"Some time ago I tried but failed to have an article printed which I wrote calling attention to what I am sure God showed me was an error. The article maintained that tongues were not the only evidence of the Spirit’s Baptism. When that article was refused I was much tempted by Satan, but God again graciously showed me He had revealed it to me and satisfied my heart in praying that He might reveal this truth to others who would spread it abroad. For a while [sic] after the baptism I got into spiritual darkness, because I did as I see so many others are doing these days, rested and reveled in tongues and other demonstrations instead of resting alone in God."
R.C. Sproul, one of my favorite teachers, was involved in the Charismatic movement. He desired to speak in tongues and even pursued the gift, but he states, "The major obstacle I still faced was the question of whether what was happening in the contemporary charismatic movement was indeed a revival of the New Testament gifts. That is, was the modern outbreak of glossolalia the same thing that was practiced in the apostolic church?" Even though R.C. Sproul chose to practice tongues, he enjoyed being able to pray with understanding; but continue to research tongues.
At this point, maybe you are a speaker of tongues. I am not saying all tongues are not a gift. It is the high view of tongues that is detrimental to the church. "This gift splits the church into two classes of Christians. Those who are baptized in the Spirit and those who are not. Those who were “spirit-filled” and those who were not. This dichotomy, I became convinced, not only was not taught in the New Testament but was contrary to what is taught there. I came to realize that the charismatic view of the Day of Pentecost represented a distortion of its Biblical significance. The charismatic view of Pentecost was a low one, not a high one."
Do not despair dear brothers and sisters if you do not speak in tongues, my bible tells me there are many gifts of the spirit and each one is given by the same spirit; therefore are of equal proof of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:11 All the gifts are produced by one and the same Spirit. He gives gifts to each person, just as he decides. The only other thing I know for certain, is that God's will, will be done in this election. He has a time, a place and a person for everything--including the end. And brothers and sisters, I tell you now, I know the ending, because I have read the book.
I don't typically write political articles. It goes against my nature to even write such stuff. However, that being said, I have spent some time this week, reviewing the Theological Declaration of Barmen. If you don't know, the Theological Declaration of Barmen was written by a group of church leaders in Germany to help Christians withstand the challenges of the Nazi party and of the so-called “German Christians,” a popular movement that saw no conflict between Christianity and the ideals of Hitler’s National Socialism. The Barmen Declaration (1934) was originally titled the "Theological Declaration Concerning the Present Situation of the German Evangelical Church." This present situation was that the Nazis had risen to power in Germany, and Nazi sympathizers known as the "German Christians" had infiltrated the German Evangelical Church (DEK) and inundated this confederation of churches with Nazi propaganda, and then seized control of this largest confederation of Protestant churches in Germany, and surrendered it to the control of Adolf Hitler—and no one protested it!
Today is election day in the US and as such, I believe it is time for the church in the United States to come up with a Theological Declaration, except that to write such a document in the US, churches would have to band together against wrong and Declare what is ultimately biblical. The church's need to be biblically sound has been drowned out by the unsoundness of its desire to be culturally relevant, by pastors who want to be speakers, not doers of the word. The church no longer wants to interpret the scriptures rightly, instead, the members want to be individually right.
So today, I am publishing The Declaration of Barmen as found in the Book of Confessions (PCUSA). Each thesis starts with a scripture and then the reason for its rejection by the evangelical churches in Germany.
THE THEOLOGICAL DECLARATION OF BARMEN1 I. An Appeal to the Evangelical Congregations and Christians in Germany
8.01 The Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church met in Barmen, May 29–31, 1934. Here representatives from all the German Confessional Churches met with one accord in a confession of the one Lord of the one, holy, apostolic Church. In fidelity to their Confession of Faith, members of Lutheran, Reformed, and United Churches sought a common message for the need and temptation of the Church in our day. With gratitude to God, they are convinced that they have been given a common word to utter. It was not their intention to found a new church or to form a union. For nothing was farther from their minds than the abolition of the confessional status of our churches. Their intention was, rather, to withstand in faith and unanimity the destruction of the Confession of Faith, and thus of the Evangelical Church in Germany. In opposition to attempts to establish the unity of the German Evangelical Church by means of false doctrine, by the use of force and insincere practices, the Confessional Synod insists that the unity of the Evangelical Churches in Germany can come only from the Word of God in faith through the Holy Spirit. Thus alone is the Church renewed.
8.02 Therefore the Confessional Synod calls upon the congregations to range themselves behind it in prayer, and steadfastly to gather around those pastors and teachers who are loyal to the Confessions.
8.03 Be not deceived by loose talk, as if we meant to oppose the unity of the German nation! Do not listen to the seducers who pervert our intentions, as if we wanted to break up the unity of the German Evangelical Church or to forsake the Confessions of the Fathers!
8.04 Try the spirits whether they are of God! Prove also the words of the Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church to see whether they agree with Holy Scripture and with the Confessions of the Fathers. If you find that we are speaking contrary to Scripture, then do not listen to us! But if you find that we are taking our stand upon Scripture, then let no fear or temptation keep you from treading with us the path of faith and obedience to the Word of God, in order that God’s people be of one mind upon earth and that we in faith experience what he himself has said: “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” Therefore, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
8.05 According to the opening words of its constitution of July 11, 1933, the German Evangelical Church is a federation of Confessional churches that grew out of the Reformation and that enjoy equal rights. The theological basis for the unification of these churches is laid down in Article 1 and Article 2(1) of the constitution of the German Evangelical Church that was recognized by the Reich Government on July 14, 1933: Article 1. The inviolable foundation of the German Evangelical Church is the gospel of Jesus Christ as it is attested for us in Holy Scripture and brought to light again in the Confessions of the Reformation. The full powers that the Church needs for its mission are hereby determined and limited. Article 2(1). The German Evangelical Church is divided into member Churches” (Landeskirchen).
8.06 We, the representatives of Lutheran, Reformed, and United Churches, of free synods, church assemblies, and parish organizations united in the Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church, declare that we stand together on the ground of the German Evangelical Church as a federation of German Confessional churches. We are bound together by the confession of the one Lord of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.
8.07 We publicly declare before all evangelical churches in Germany that what they hold in common in this Confession is grievously imperiled, and with it the unity of the German Evangelical Church. It is threatened by the teaching methods and actions of the ruling church party of the “German Christians” and of the church administration carried on by them. These have become more and more apparent during the first year of the existence of the German Evangelical Church. This threat consists in the fact that the theological basis, in which the German Evangelical Church is united, has been continually and systematically thwarted and rendered ineffective by alien principles, on the part of the leaders and spokesmen of the “German Christians” as well as on the part of the church administration. When these principles are held to be valid, then, according to all the Confessions in force among us, the church ceases to be the church and the German Evangelical Church, as a federation of Confessional churches, becomes intrinsically impossible.
8.08 As members of Lutheran, Reformed, and United churches, we may and must speak with one voice in this matter today. Precisely because we want to be and to remain faithful to our various Confessions, we may not keep silent, since we believe that we have been given a common message to utter in a time of common need and temptation. We commend to God what this may mean for the interrelations of the Confessional churches.
8.09 In view of the errors of the “German Christians” of the present Reich Church government which are devastating the Church and are also thereby breaking up the unity of the German Evangelical Church, we confess the following evangelical truths:
8.10 1. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6). “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. … I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved.” (John 10:1, 9.)
8.11 Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death.
8.12 We reject the false doctrine, as though the church could and would have to acknowledge as a source of its proclamation, apart from and besides this one Word of God, still other events and powers, figures and truths, as God’s revelation.
8.13 2. “Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” (I Cor. 1:30.)
8.14 As Jesus Christ is God’s assurance of the forgiveness of all our sins, so in the same way and with the same seriousness is he also God’s mighty claim upon our whole life. Through him befalls us a joyful deliverance from the godless fetters of this world for a free, grateful service to his creatures.
8.15 We reject the false doctrine, as though there were areas of our life in which we would not belong to Jesus Christ, but to other lords—areas in which we would not need justification and sanctification through him.
8.16 3. “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body [is] joined and knit together.” (Eph. 4:15, 16.)
8.17 The Christian Church is the congregation of the brethren in which Jesus Christ acts presently as the Lord in Word and Sacrament through the Holy Spirit. As the Church of pardoned sinners, it has to testify in the midst of a sinful world, with its faith as with its obedience, with its message as with its order, that it is solely his property, and that it lives and wants to live solely from his comfort and from his direction in the expectation of his appearance.
8.18 We reject the false doctrine, as though the church were permitted to abandon the form of its message and order to its own pleasure or to changes in prevailing ideological and political convictions.
8.19 4. “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant.” (Matt. 20:25, 26.)
8.20 The various offices in the church do not establish a dominion of some over the others; on the contrary, they are for the exercise of the ministry entrusted to and enjoined upon the whole congregation.
8.21 We reject the false doctrine, as though the church, apart from this ministry, could and were permitted to give to itself, or allow to be given to it, special leaders vested with ruling powers.
8.22 5. “Fear God. Honor the emperor.” (I Peter 2:17.) Scripture tells us that, in the as yet unredeemed world in which the Church also exists, the State has by divine appointment the task of providing for justice and peace. [It fulfills this task] by means of the threat and exercise of force, according to the measure of human judgment and human ability. The church acknowledges the benefit of this divine appointment in gratitude and reverence before him. It calls to mind the Kingdom of God, God’s commandment and righteousness, and thereby the responsibility both of rulers and of the ruled. It trusts and obeys the power of the Word by which God upholds all things.
8.23 We reject the false doctrine, as though the State, over and beyond its special commission, should and could become the single and totalitarian order of human life, thus fulfilling the church’s vocation as well.
8.24 We reject the false doctrine, as though the church, over and beyond its special commission, should and could appropriate the characteristics, the tasks, and the dignity of the State, thus itself becoming an organ of the State.
8.25 6. “Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Matt. 28:20.) “The word of God is not fettered.” (II Tim. 2:9.)
8.26 The church’s commission, upon which its freedom is founded, consists in delivering the message of the free grace of God to all people in Christ’s stead, and therefore in the ministry of his own Word and work through sermon and Sacrament.
8.27 We reject the false doctrine, as though the church in human arrogance could place the Word and work of the Lord in the service of any arbitrarily chosen desires, purposes, and plans.
8.28 The Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church declares that it sees in the acknowledgment of these truths and in the rejection of these errors the indispensable theological basis of the German Evangelical Church as a federation of Confessional churches. It invites all who are able to accept its declaration to be mindful of these theological principles in their decisions in church politics. It entreats all whom it concerns to return to the unity of faith, love, and hope.
The Barmen Declaration's focus on Christ specifically does not signify withdrawal from the world, society and culture. On the contrary, it opens up the whole of reality and all its areas in the light of Christ in order to set people free and strengthen them for the Christian life within that reality. The second thesis makes this clear: Jesus Christ … God's vigorous announcement of his claim on our whole life; we belong to Jesus and need justification and sanctification by him in all areas of our lives. “Through him befalls us a joyful deliverance from the godless fetters of this world for a free, grateful service to his creatures.”
The author of the previously linked article points out that in 1956, the then still united Evangelical Church in Germany had stated: The gospel places the state under God's gracious appointment which, as we know, stands regardless of how state power and its political form came about. The gospel sets us free in faith to say no to any claim to totality by a human power, to defend those who are disempowered or tempted by it, and to choose to suffer rather than to obey laws and ordinances that are contrary to the will of God.
From now until Christ comes, all kingdoms of the Earth are placed under God's gracious appointment, and that it is God's grace that will set us free.
