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@alexander-james-ink
The Church has failed to disciple people on a theo-political level. Christianity is itself it’s own politic, a way of living under the reign of God. Jesus is seated on the throne - that is the truth that we are to live according to. Too many have crossed the line from prophetic critique to believing that the government will do good for the Kingdom of God. Our worldly governments are anti the Kingdom of God in almost every way.
who else is kind of back because of quarantine?
The western church, for the most part, has been saved from suffering. While many of us still find ourselves in a place of privilege (after all, being able to isolate safely is a privilege), that which we are currently experiencing is a type of suffering we have never before endured on such a mass scale. Hopefully, this experience will cause us to come face to face with understanding that things are not as they should be on earth. It may cause many to ask how one follows Jesus in a world such as this.
The current way in which we function as the body of Christ has caused us to fall behind the head. We give little of ourselves and wonder why nothing is changing. We need to give more of ourselves to the messy transformation and renewal of all things in partnership with the Divine. This looks like grassroots movements and solidarity with the marginalized, following the example of our Lord Jesus. We have submitted ourselves to a way that is not the way of Lord Jesus, a way that grieves Holy Spirit, and is antichrist in action. Our mouths speak love but our actions belittle. Rather than the way of Jesus and the renewing power of the Spirit of God we have given our trust to systems, programs, and institutions that seek to impose their ways upon us with pretentious claims of primacy. As a friend of mine said,
“We tried separating church and state, but it ended up just diluting the church and making the state a religious entity again (in that people trust in the state to fulfill spiritual needs).”
Times like these are opportunities for flourishing that lead to revivals. May these hard times cause us to come together and identify the opportunities for renewal in our own lives and in the way we ‘do church’. May our contemplation at this time lead us to effective action for liberation.
Love of God (faith) without the love of neighbour (works) is dead.
If you don't mind, may I ask if Anarchism and Christianity are cohabitual? If a christian identified as an anarchist politically, are they in the wrong by doing so?
I believe Anarchism and Christianity absolutely can and should coexist. There are a lot of misconceptions about what Anarchism really means. It doesn’t mean that there wouldn’t be organization or cooperation or hierarchy, it just means that people wont rule over other people. Anarchism just says that such hierarchies and societal organizations be voluntary for all parties involved. It’s basically just the privatization of all the good things that the government does and the abolishment of all the bad things it does.
Now, some who oppose Anarchism point to Romans 13 as a proof text for the Bible’s affirmation of Statism/government. But in verse 6-7 Paul says that the reason taxes are due to governments is because they administer justice and punish evil. So the implication is that taxes aren’t due to government who promote evil and punish justice. It’s basically a claim that taxation should be voluntarily given to those societal systems that adhere to God’s law and promote justice by His common grace.
Biblically speaking, any government that demands fealty while committing mass murder, promoting injustice, punishing righteousness, and squashing dissent with violence and oppression… is illegitimate and will be held accountable on the day of judgment.
We don’t only give taxes to good government. Paul wrote that command under Nero, the worst culprit of injustice and cruelty in the history of the Roman Empire. We submit to every command the government has authority to give, even when they use it poorly. The government does not have the authority to force us to disobey God’s Law, but we don’t have the right to overthrow them when they do because they are in power by God’s sovereignty and their presence still does His work of curbing evil, no matter how evil they themselves are.
Well, first of all, Nero reigned from 54 to 68 AD but was only 17 years old when he came to power. Because of that, he largely followed the lead of his mother Agrippa and his tutor Seneca in the early years of his reign. He didn’t begin to take the lead until around 59 and the alleged persecutions of Nero didn’t happen until after the great fire in 64. The book of Romans, though, was penned somewhere between 51 and 58, most likely around 53 or 54. So to say that Paul was writing it in the midst of the height of Nero’s cruelty would be simply false.
Also, there’s not exactly a historical consensus on what Nero’s reputation actually was at the time. Tacitus, Suetonius, Cassius Dio, and others write negatively of him, but Epictetus, Lucan, Dio Chrsysostom, and several more wrote positively of him. Philostratus the Athenian acknowledged that he was very well liked among the common folk of Rome as well as by the provinces in the east. His style of rule was very populist and he was especially well liked among the lower class citizens of Rome, the same citizens that, presumably, would have made up the church in Rome.
Second, the tax rates of the Roman empire in the first century were about 1% and that was used exclusively on infrastructure since war was funded by acquisition of gold and silver mines through conquest. So taxes in the Roman system were much less oppressive and restrictive and didn’t contribute to the worst things that the empire was doing anyways.
Third, when Paul is talking about civil government, he almost certainly doesn’t have the emperor in mind. He’s almost certainly talking about local governors who are from the communities that they served. The system of government that the Romans instituted was one where the local authorities were left in place. There was a centralization of power in the form of the emperor, but it was also functionally decentralized in that, so long as it wasn’t causing problems for the empire, they left the provinces to govern themselves for the most part. So, again, it would have looked a lot more like a voluntary system that it would an authoritarian oppressive system.
Fourth, there’s no reason that a private, voluntary, decentralized system of civil organization couldn’t do everything that the established oppressive form of government that we see today does, while neglecting to do the horrible things that it does. Such a system would be no less in power via God’s sovereignty. Also, the gaping hole in your argument is that you seem to be suggesting that governments have no right to force us to disobey God’s law, but that they have the authority to disobey God’s law themselves, and have the right use our money to do it. I say that no man, institution, or government has the right to violate the law of God.
As a christian and a libertarian I honestly have trouble reconciling with biblical verses saying we should support our government, when it seems on no matter what end of the political spectrum they fall on all they want is power and to violate people's freedom. I know how blessed I am to live in America but it seems like every day our leaders get worse and worse and it causes a great deal of internal conflict in me. What are your thoughts?
Hey, great question.
I don’t think there are any verses that say that we should support our government, no matter what they say or do. The typical place that people point in order support that idea is Romans 13. The main thrust of Romans 13 is that the “governing authorities” exist as an ordinance of God, to dispense his justice and secure the common good. Now, that’s fine and good… unless the “governing authorities” don’t hold up their end of the bargain.
See, at the end of verse 6 and in verse 7 Paul puts a big asterisk on the preceding verses of the chapter. He says “For rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.” So he’s saying tax, custom, fear, and honor is due to those who are servants of God, administering justice and punishing evil. But this raises the question… what if it is the government that is administering evil and punishing justice? What if they are the ones who are pushing evil, injustice, moral decay and degeneracy? I would argue that the charge to acknowledge them is no longer binding.
Edmund Clowney puts it this way…
“Paul elaborates on this teaching of Christ when he charges Christians to obey human government for conscience’s sake, since “the powers that be are ordained of God” (Rom.13:1). Paul assumes that rulers are ministers of God for good. It is a fair implication of his teaching that if a ruler so subverts the business of governing that the state becomes a terror to good works rather than evil, the Christian conscience would be no longer bound.”
So personally, I have no qualms with saying “No king but Christ.”
Good eschatology brings with it good ethics. If you want to be a better and more holistic follower of Jesus, know your eschatology. It will determine the way you live your life for better or for worse. Good eschatology will free you from dualism as you understand how the gospel changes your body, spirit, soul, and your social surroundings. Eschatology will change the way you shop, eat, and vote. Eschatology will change the way you share the gospel. Eschatology will change the way you interact with your fellow humans, even the ones who don’t think, speak, act or even believe like you.
Holy Spirit doesn’t only fill us with power. Through her we are also able to cry out ‘Abba Father’. She convinces us that we are loved by a Father and it is through that convincing that we can walk in power and be witnesses to all the earth of the inclusive love of Abba.
If you want to know what God is like as a judge, read the book of Judges. He’s not some white haired dude in a black robe with a gavel.
Is anyone alive out there?
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
1 John 2:1-2
My friend’s wife was diagnosed with cervical cancer at the age of 24 like two months ago just before they were married. It’s now spread to her pelvic bone and two lymph nodes. Cancer needs to fuck off and bow in Jesus name. She’s going through chemo. Pray with me for her healing.
Here is an update on life/theological beliefs (theology affects everything thus they go hand in hand):
- I have been married just over 6 months
- Marriage is amazing and I highly recommend it
- The ministry school I’m helping start is beginning in 4 weeks.
- I’m enjoying my job and church
- I am a preterist (partial)
- Hell is real but how it plays out? Not sure
- The world is getting better because Jesus reversed the curse 2,000 years ago
- The Church will welcome Jesus to the earth when he returns to put the last enemy that is death under his feet
- Revival is lower divorce rates, low crime, and empty emergency rooms
- Prayer changes everything
- The Old Covenant ended with the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70. This is what the last days elude to in the scriptures. The end of the age was the end of the old covenant. The law was never the heart of God but always relationship which Israel rejected. God’s wrath was a result of the law and when the old covenant ended so did the wrath of God.
I’ve come to the conclusion that eschatology is the most important theology there is. It determines how you live more than any other.
You were not created for heaven. You were created for the earth. You were created to rule on the earth as an image bearer of God. Adam lost the keys in the fall but Christ took them back and has given them back to us. The curse is being reversed and the church is rising victorious. I believe the church is meant to rule on earth, to reform culture, to bring the Kingdom here on earth, to bring the earth under the rule of the sons and daughters of God. The earth is waiting for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God. Jesus will come back and in the twinkling of an eye we will be raptured to look like him and we will welcome him to earth. Darkness is getting darker but the light is getting lighter.
If you’ve never read anything by Andrew Murray you’re doing something wrong.
kittens are so fucking stupid & i love them
thats not stupid, that’s The Dream
tired: breakfast in bed.
Wired: Breakfast IS bed.
Why is it easier to identify with Adam more than Christ? Why is it easier to have greater faith in the nature Adam gave you than it is in the nature given to you by Jesus? Jesus I did what Adam did. You were a sinner saved by grace for one day but you’re not a sinner anymore. It’s not a part of your nature in Christ.
