She Shall and Must Go Free

313 A.D. came and Christianity is completely shaken. Constantine the Emperor of Rome declares Rome to be a Christian nation and in doing so makes Christianity a thing of the state. Practices that had defined our beloved faith had been done away with and all sorts of new additions had been made. Up until then Christianity had been growing and had been not only scattered but under heavy persecution. Overnight it became acceptable and people were even given money by the Government to join this religion mere years ago the Government would have executed for practicing. The meeting places became more centralized like the pagan worship of the day, no longer would you learn about the Kingdom of the Messiah in homes and workshops but now in state funded churches. The leadership over the Body of Christ was appointed by the State and became political. The word was not brought by every member of the community but by the appointed official. Years passed and after a while the Bible was not available to the common man and within the Church as a whole arose an aristocracy.

Yet this was not without origin or even foreshadowing. The importance of Israel was nearly done away with in the second and third generation of believers and Gnostic thought began to creep in through men like Origen. The vision of a future Messianic reign in Jerusalem dissipated amongst the ashes in AD 70 and was nearly done away with the final crushing of the Jews by the Roman Empire in AD 135. At this time there were many great champions of the faith and many church fathers that not only held the line on doctrine but gave their lives bravely for the Gospel. Many suffered under intense persecution not only by the state of Rome but by the hands of Jews as well, thus estranging many in the Christian faith from the identity of Israel and God’s heart for them.

With these foundations many embraced the Christianization of Rome and some perceived it as the Kingdom of God. Many were wearied by persecution, many took these changes and pushed hard to keep the faith authentic, and many left known civilization to become monks in the desert. By this time there were few miracles happening, much of the churches activity was spent contending with and explaining the Gospel through the lens of Greek Philosophy, and Israel was almost completely out of the picture. The centuries continued and the Kingdom split into the Eastern and Western Roman Empires and with that came a dichotomization of the faith with the Great Schism birthing Roman Catholicism and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Due to the nature of the intermingling of the Church with politics and taking into account man’s brokenness and thirst for power, much corruption arose within the church as a whole. The common man was left ignorant and amongst the papacy there were feuds and even wars. This is not to take away from the fact that there were indeed many revivals that did take place with monasteries, mystics, and missionaries. Yet the common man was left in the dark and the knowledge of God was not in the land.

This changed around the 16th Century with the reformation. There were the reforms within the Catholic Church beginning with Jan Huss who was then martyred at the hands of the Church. His work however became the foundation for the Pietists and the Moravians with Count Zinzendorf. This sparked one of the largest mission’s movements which the world has ever seen.

On the flip side men like Martin Luther and John Calvin rose up and began to challenge the work of the Catholic Church. By this time the ruling class was selling salvation for their building projects, the Bible was not translated into any other language but Latin and was withheld from the commoner, and the highest chain in Europe’s political structure was the Pope. At this point the people of God began to regain the knowledge of God that had been lost over the centuries. So much had been done away with and God began to rebuild and revive the faith of His people. During the Reformation the concept and belief of personal salvation was restored. No longer was one’s salvation understood to be based on works or political affiliation but was the result of faith in Jesus Christ.

Many factions begin to break away from the system that had become the Catholic Church and the Catholic Church itself went through much reform. The Evangelical and First Great Awakenings continued and deepened this work in this truth bringing refreshing and renewal to many streams in the body of Christ that had since grown dull and depleted. Even looking at the ministry of John Wesley and George Whitfield, their main audience were members of the Anglican Church. The move of God went further than just the place of personal salvation but began to introduce a call for holiness and began to highlight the process of sanctification. Many schools were even built in order to facilitate this move of God and many became prestigious universities, one of which is Princeton.

As the wheels of history continued forward the worldview, specifically of those in the west, became significantly changed. With the Enlightenment in the 19th century came the separation of Christianity and science and Deism became the prevailing thought system which not only influenced the Church but the collegiate realms as well. With God being pushed away in the scholastic realm He released a greater move to bring life and correction to the Church with the Second Great Awakening. Many other revivals began to follow in suit and God began to restore many more things to the church especially by strengthening and giving clarity to the grace of sanctification, the process of becoming holy. Along with this many mission’s movements were birthed and the Gospel began to have a greater impact abroad.

The scholastic world forged ahead and with the embarkation of thought systems given the world by the likes of men such as Nietzsche, Darwin, and Freud. Christianity began to again come into a critical position and another move of God was primed to give strength and restoration to the Church around the beginning of the 20th century. With salvation and sanctification restored, the baptism of the Holy Spirit was next. Notably seen in the Welsh Revival and the Azusa Street Revival, the power and the presence began to again manifest in heavy ways in the body of Christ.
The gifts of the Spirit were on the increase and over the century the Church saw the restoration of the gift of healing and in the restoration of the prophetic. Yet, this is by no means the finality of what God is going to do and restore amongst His people, it just happens to be the juncture we in the 21st century are at. Even with all that has been restored, that which has been restored has not been complete or perfect in its restoration and we in the Western world face a crisis as believers. Post modernity has begun to seriously erode and attack the foundations of our face. Religious tolerance is beginning to make Christianity blend in with other faiths. We lack power and even more than that we lack understanding. There is a vast ocean of casualties of people who have been wounded with the misuse of power in the past moves of God because broken people still are broken people. The Church has become split into countless denominations and most every Protestant denomination of antiquity has embraced sin within their core doctrine. Scholars have held the keys to the knowledge of God and now the reaction from a highly emotive generation runs with what they feel out of either fear of understanding or offense against the system that is. Christianity is openly mocked and the many in the Church are in complete compromise and full-fledged friends of the world. This is not denying the many sincere believers who are passionately following God who are actually seeing God move, but rather an overview at the understanding and expression of Christianity at large.

Our current situation begs the question, “What is next?” Looking at my surroundings and seeing the trailers for Saw IV and coming under the sobriety that the film Zack and Miri Make a Porno is no longer taboo but socially acceptable, hope seems to lag. With growing endorsement of universal religion and many in the Body of Christ being swept into the vat of humanism it’s easy to think that God has forgotten His people and is clinging haphazardly to a remnant that may get it right. Too many churches are sources of entertainment for a dull and hungry generation and provide no power, insight, identity, let alone answering that groan within. Even personally I look back at those who I went to church with and see many of those who I followed God with dull, distracted and some not walking with God whatsoever. This is not an indictment against all of the leaders of us but the truth is the system that has been in control has not worked. The system is flawed and we are in dire need of God lest masses leave the faith and become partakers of eternal damnation.

Yet in light of the current situation there is hope. In light of the prosperity of the wicked and negative trends worldwide it is easy to lose faith if not grit your teeth through it hoping for that final end and the return of Christ. Couple that with a history of not seeing God move and knowing a Christianity that has been powerless and not bringing full on upheaval to society and despair becomes a very easy option. Yet the promise of God stands true, He is always with us (corporately) and he is the author and perfector of our faith. He is the Shepherd and He is the one who is fashioning His people into His image. The status quo at this current time is no shock to Him. He declares the beginning from the end and His plans are unshaken.

In times like this we need to remember the faithfulness of God and who the church is called to be and will be for that matter. He is still the one who carries the wounded and gently leads those with young. He is also still the one who leaves the ninety-nine to pursue the one. He is still the God who remains faithful to His wife despite her adulteries. Though we are faithless He is faithful. The truth is that He will have a church equally yoked to Him. He will have a church doing greater signs and wonders than He did on His earthly ministry. He will have a church that is making disciples of all nations and will have a church who is built up to the full measure of a man. He will pour out His Spirit on all flesh and all of His sons and daughters shall prophesy.

To reiterate, God is not surprised at the current global scene. Not to negate the growth of evil, the Great Tribulation, and the great falling away, but God is going to manifest Himself powerfully I His people and the world is going to see a revival like it has never been able to fathom. The Church will arise and the world shall witness the power of He who conquered sin and death and the one who binds up the broken heart and delivers all oppressed of the devil.

In closing: when looking at the overall state of the Church it is easy to get discouraged, especially in the Western world.  Yet one thing must be kept in mind, that is God’s faithfulness to His people.  In discouragement in the present day one must thrust themselves upward to behold that which lies in the future.  This is which marks Christianity apart from so many things, our relationships with each other and with God are those rooted not just in the past and the present but the future.  This was a brief overview of Christian history post-ascension and the story has yet to unfold.  Our hope is rooted in the fact that God is going to do all He said He would do and partner with it now.  Be it in prayer, action, or even just acknowledgment, our place as Christians is connected to who our fulness is and that is our hope.  It is from this place knowing who God is and knowing who He made us to be and the power He has towards us.  God has by no means forgotten His people, His promises shall come forth.

Oh Mercy!

Oh Mercy

Up until just recently I have been a firm and absolute fan of the Judgment of God, eternal punishment, and the cross.  Don’t get me wrong, it is not that I have ceased my profession of these realities or even have changed my stance.  I have come to the point of realization that I do not believe in these things deep down.  A strange dichotomy has emerged between my holding principles I believe to be true as true and actually believing that they do indeed work themselves out in real life. 

When I was young the only thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up was a super hero.  I would hope for encounters with things like radioactivity or being struck by lightning or somehow unearthing some unknown secret in which I could use to fight crime.  Stimulated by the idea of the threat of super villain out there that needed to be subdued and unending situations in which to take out bad guys, I wanted to be a crime fighter. 

As time passed I learned that there were no Red Skulls, Jokers, or Magnetos out there I began to see another type of super villain emerge.  I saw the greedy corporation.  I saw the serial rapist.  I saw the corrupt politician. I saw the cultural stigmas imposed on those it was feeding off of.  My mindset shifted quickly from that of the worlds of Marvel and DC in that of the legal system and political revolutionaries.  I bonded quickly with the voice of the raging punk movement and ironically embraced strong conservative ideals.  I dreamed of leading revolutions that saw Hollywood go up in flames.  I dreamed of taking down huge corporations in lawsuits.  I dreamed of writing books like Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book that would influence the masses and shift the entire culture from within. 

Things then changed again when I began my journey into prayer and theology.  Snagged immediately by preaching regarding eternal damnation and the physical and geopolitical judgments of God my paradigm shifted again.  With a revelation of the effects of intercession and the coming Kingdom of God I took the fight to the place of prayer.  I searched out the ways and reasons for judgment in the Scriptures.  I set myself the best I could to stand in the gap and pray for mercy in the land and I began to experience God as one who not only judged but as one who had a kingdom whose increase of government and peace will know no end.  I ate up with exuberant joy every message regarding punishment and found it as solace in the place knowing that someday things will be okay.  In regards to eschatology I sank deeply into Old Testament prophecy and allowed that essentially to be my only and primary lens.

Yet much of the thrill and desire of the vigilante still burned and still does within me.  As much as my heart connected with the day in which all things were to be made new, I was disconnected from God’s heart in the here and now.   For example I am a fan of cop shows and love to watch programs in which villains are hunted down, caught, and then prosecuted.  I love to watch it and something in me smiles when I see a guy getting roughed up and then locked away.  It’s even a bonus that if during the process they lose all of their money and are utterly put to shame.  Mind you the perpetrators in these instances are repeat murders and rapists and others who fall under that kind of dossier. 

It’s that riveting feeling that amongst the chaos and the suffering of the world evil is actually taken into account.  I am personally a fan of the show Law and Order.  My brother and I together have purchased several seasons.  One of the things we both love to see is the detectives get overwhelmed with rage at injustice and rough up the guilty.  It stirs that little thing in you that screams, “Yeah, take that!” or “That’ll learn em!” On the flipside some of the most painful moments are when the perpetrator gets completely off.  Whether it to be to their own craftiness or to a glitch in the technical system, the sting of the prior crime feels all the more deeper when there seems to be no atoning.

Then again time and time again I am left with the question, “What is justice?”  I mean time in jail doesn’t make up for a rape, sending someone to the electric chair doesn’t bring the dead back to life, and even when millions of dollars are returned from an embezzlement case is trust ever fully restored.  As poetic as it might me, is a murderer who was acquitted by the courts getting gunned down in a church he served in justice even in the cosmic sense?  I mean one life taken in a violent and traumatic way by no means brings back the multitudes of children that he prematurely took to the grave. 

So what is the response?  What then is the proper reaction?  There is the place of prevention in which one is removed from a situation in order that they can no longer commit the harm that was previously committed.  There is even the place of retribution of goods stolen.  There is the place of needed penalty in a society in which law is maintained.  With this I am a firm believer in Romans 13:4 which states:  for [the government] is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.  As much as I love these enforcements unto order, I ask again, is this justice?

I was watching an episode of Law and Order: SVU one night and the subject of the investigation was a character who was a serial rapist.  The hour long episode ebbed and flowed with suspense and intrigue leaving me on the edge of my seat until at the last minute where he was found guilty by the jury and all sighed a huge sigh of relief.  It was at that moment I felt God bring up the question, “What if he had repented and gotten saved?”  My prompt response was, “At least he’s not going to hell, lock him up anyway.  What a freak!”  Yet that didn’t sit well at all with me. 

The truth is, if he was to get right with God he would not only be absolved from all sin but would even become a new creation who would from that point forward be continually transformed into the likeness of Christ.  If absolved by God the highest authority, why still condemn in the lower courts?  There is the idea of paying a debt to society, but aren’t all found guilty?  All wicked?  All fallen short? None righteous? No, not one?   So often we separate the issue of the depravity of man and the reality of eternity that we split even the idea of justice into temporal and eternal.  More often than not the eternal is left to the speaking of metaphysical philosophical nuances and that which actually pertains to real life.

The truth is that there is no real separation.  In the end God is the one who judges all men for what has been done publicly and what has been done in secret.  Also the crowning moment of the return of Yahweh to earth is the wiping away of every tear as He acknowledges every ounce of pain and every injustice that has ever occurred.  Those who are unrepentant enter into the fires of eternal punishment and those who have come to Christ find the fullness of the One who binds up the broken hearted, sets captives free, gives sight to the blind, rebuilds the fallen ruins, and who gives beauty for ashes.   

As brief as a statement on the end could ever be, it is the time in which there is true justice, punishment and restoration in a total sense.  The thing is though, that is only an outflow of the complete sense of justice there is, that is the final reconciling of God with Creation.  Ever since the fall, that which God made as good for enjoyment has become corrupt, broken, and vile.  True justice is the restoration to the place where all things are good.  Wickedness and all that aligns with it will be punished and all found in Christ will be restored and brought into the place of New Creation, which is the point of redemption.

Jesus came to seek and save the lost.  He came setting all those oppressed of the devil free.  On the cross He disarmed all evil authority, now has the keys of death and Hades, and crushed Satan at the cross. At His resurrection the New Creation began and in Him heaven and earth are being reconciled.  He came that all might be saved, not to say that all will be saved but that all might be.  Looking at redemptive history the overwhelming thrust is that God in His mercy desires to reconcile wicked man to Himself. Even looking at the temporal judgments of the Lord are released in order to teach the nations righteousness and to have nations grope after God. 

Yet we look at wickedness and we see a strict dichotomy between the just and the unjust.  Between the wise and the fool.  Between the good and the evil.  Between the people of God and those who are not.  Yet at the same time God does not delight in the death of the wicked.  All men are born corrupt.  And yet those is Christ have their transgression not only forgiven but will have every wound healed, everything restored, and so much more.  Yet we must hold the tension that those not in Christ shall be judged and glimpses of the final one are seen on earth.

All of this said, how then should I as a Christian react in regards to the injustice of the world.  It is clear that might fight is not indeed with flesh and blood but where is that fight.  I believe that it is primarily in the place of prayer coupled with action fully immersed in the Gospel.  As trite as even I have found these ideas I am convinced that nothing is true.  This is not to dissuade any believer out of law enforcement or anything of that nature, but in looking at the full scope of the Bible the place of justice begins and ends with God.  We are called to be ambassadors of reconciliation and to be those who make supplication for all men.  We are to be those as Christ who not just held the line on what is right and what is wrong but to be facilitators of the restorative power which He gives by His Spirit.

It needs to come down to this because not everything is black and white.  Everything is broken.  There is the absolute place of free will in which there is sure consequence but when looking at the human race we are a perpetual cycle of pain begetting pain.  Even when presented with what is right we do what we don’t want to do and when trying to establish justice we do nothing but moan like doves and growl like bears.  At best our judicial systems bring containment to the problem but come nowhere close to fixing it, even the best rehabilitation program cannot make some one full good or even undo their acts.  Governmentally speaking deep down each one is driven by its own thirst for greed and when it comes down to it contentment.  Wars are not fought for pure moral purpose but in essence to benefit one’s own obligations or assets or holdings, or in other cases to protect one’s own sovereignty.  In WWII the United States opposed the forces of Hitler in Nazi Germany but did not do so until they were provoked by Japan and despite the warnings of Churchill England did not enter into the fight until they were attacked and threatened.  Another clear example was the Soviet Union who murdered thousands of their own in the gulags.  It affected no one else it seemed, and at best the worst that happened was that they got vilified in James Bond flicks.

Utopia has never been created and never will by the strength of man.  It will be by the slain Lamb to whom belongs power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.  Our hope cannot be in horses or in the systems and affairs of man but truly in the Lord.  We as those who are to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly are to let the overflow of Justice be seen through the lens of reconciling men to God because in Him alone is there true absolution of all crimes and injustice with the giving of a new and clean conscience and in Him alone is there found true vindication and restoration. 

Corporately it is to happen in the church and its fullness will come when Christ’s prayer is answered and we are one just as He and His heavenly Father are one.  It is seen as the church as a whole walks in their identity and have received healing and restoration on a personal level and begin to submit and prefer one another in love.  On an individual note it is seen in first receiving the love and power of God in your own life thus binding up your broken heart and loosing your chains.  It then proceeds as we in the fashion of Christ and operate setting free those oppressed of the devil by bringing them into a place of understanding and encounter with God.  We are to be as Paul was judging no one and making supplication for all men sobered by eternity.  This is to be that which drives us and this is to be the answer.  Justice begins and ends with Christ alone and anything short is by no means justice at all.

Hope Revisited

This truly is a great hour in America to be part of the body of Christ.  More specifically it is a great and glorious hour to be an intercessor in this nation.  We truly have entered into a unique season of not just national change but global as well.  January 20, 2009 Barrack Obama was sworn in as the 44^th president of the United States of America and many in the church and many even in our midst hung their heads in hopeless defeat. 

                However, this has been by no means a defeat of the church but a thermometer of her activity corporately in the west for the past decades, even centuries.  Simply put, the primary reason Barrack won is because Christians in America live for the most part without hope.  The gospel has sadly and painfully been whittled down to dealing with distant afterlife destinations and the morals needed to ascertain said preferred destination.  This view has left thousands upon thousands of Christians with an escapism mentality waiting to be taken from the world God has clearly left and in the mean time attempting to convert others so that they would not suffer the fate of the wicked.  The best hope is to have some sort of moral stability and in recent years referring to having a Republican in the White House so we at least do not lose the homosexuality and abortion fronts yet at the same time paying little to no heed of any of the other surrounding problems because if the world is already heading to hell in a hand basket what use is there in trying to fix it because for most God’s only concern is the future and often ethereal heaven or hell. 

                The result is simple, a church who has no hope for any change in the current situation and embraces hardship and injustice hoping for some future escape in which they get to drink their fill in existential bliss detached from any “earthly” influence.  This however, was not the gospel, message, or even mentality that the Bible remotely preaches.  It message is that not only did God become one of us in every way but is returning to rule and reign on this very planet.  In the interim period He gave his Holy Spirit to His people in order that they may be witnesses to His coming rule and in their midst the Kingdom of God may be openly manifested, be it through healing which is physical justice or even social justice manifested in corporate love shown for one another in the fullest way.  Jesus put it plainly when He asked his Father that we may be one as He and His Father are one.

                We now stand in an era in which the general populace has rejected for the most part any idea of a detached Deity.  What is craved and longed for is a God who actually cares.  This is where in turn the Forerunner message comes in.  Like John the Baptist, we are called to proclaim the God who became one of us in order to bring to rights that which has become corrupted and distorted in society.  What he preached is that the Just One of Isaiah 42 was on His way and was not just coming to provide moral consolation and Gnostic escape but was indeed coming to reconcile man with God.  He preached a real kingdom, dealing with real people and situations, one that was an answer to the groan of injustice referred to in Romans 8 whose leader was not any one but the King of Kings the Son of God, Emmanuel who is God with us. 

                This is the thrust of His kingdom.  He did not tell us to hide in caves and wait for the end.  The Gospel is so adamant about that they don’t even give a single mention of the Essene communities.  Our mandate was not to cloister together and watch the sky, but to disciple the nations.  Jesus did not mandate isolationism but to contend for the Spirit unto the discipleship of nations.  He did not tell the disciples to embark on moral change in just individual lives but to bring dynamic cultural shift to the ends of the earth.  The Holy Spirit was not sent just for a good meeting or to overcome individual problems but to transform the world.  Our hope and mandate is to manifest the Kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love in such a measure the world staggers at the display of the Kingdom manifested through His body.  To this end we pray.  To this end we worship.  This is our message, not of a God detached from humanity.  We should never and can never start there.  His glory is in the way His kingdom is established and in His faithfulness as Creator to His covenants.  We preach a God who is not just intricately involved with the broken heart but the one who will bring utter and total transformation and is doing so already. 

                This is the glory of the church, and this is the mandate that has been thrown down over the past centuries and the only glimpse we have to look back to was European Colonialism.  This is our hour to contend for the breaking in of power.  This is the time to declare the King.  This is the time to yoke yourself to the groan of Creation and long for justice, not in some abstract manner but in real time and real life situations.  This is the time to show heaven and hell in their proper places not as ghostly netherworlds but as a Kingdom and the fate of the Kingdom’s enemies.  This is the time not to embrace a God who is a smorgasbord of attributes but as Creator, Deliverer, and Redeemer.  To see the face of Jesus as a real King and Judge who is like a Bridegroom to His people.  It is time for the Church to shake of the ties of Gnostic escapism and Humanistic sentimentality and look to the hope of the return of the King.  We are called to walk in the authority of this kingdom to truly be ambassadors of the age to come which involves every facet of life.  This is the hope for change.  This is the hope we can believe in.  We declare by word and deed the day when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ.         

Re-Emergence

With this I embark to re-emerge onto the ever growing playground of chatter, opinion, and message to swim amongst the vapid, innane, breathtaking, provoking, convicting and empowering.  This hopefully shall not be a fruitless endeavor, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.  So here goes yet again another resucitation on a new medium.  Blessings.