Holiness

Public School is a Sin

Wayne — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 12:13:02 -0400

I've said it countless times, but here it is again.

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"I'm offended"

Wayne — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:39:49 -0400

There is little more ubiquitous today than offense. Everyone claims to be offended. Of course, the causes of offense are well known: Jesus or even the mere mention or display of His name (Luke 7:23, Luke 21:12), Biblical values, liberty, responsibility, holiness, and so forth. Those so offended go on to promote sexual deviance, slavery, abuse, and other evils, using their supposed offense as an excuse.

We know well why people are offended by Godly values and such. The Word of God tells us as much. It may be less spiritual and more psychological, but I find related wisdom in Proverbs:

An offended brother is more unyielding than a fortified city. (Proverbs 18:19 NIV)

Offense gives people power—more than a fortified city. This is key. It's emotional manipulation, an attempt to use others' desires for emotional harmony to extort a more favorable outcome for the offended.

There is a simple antidote to this power play: integrity. Maintaining your holy integrity, refusing to yield to others' offense, keeps your holy values intact and refutes the power-grab by the unholy. Their attempts to exert power over you are easily thwarted when you recognize their offense as sinful and treat it accordingly. The offended manipulators may perceive your holy integrity as apathy, arrogance, or rudeness, but certainly intransigence. Never mind. You each must face the Judge eventually; bear this in mind before you compromise with evil and surrender Godly values for the sake of the offended (2 Corinthians 2:16).

I find it unfortunate that the response to offense is integrity. This is one virtue even the more pious tend to lack today.

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Psychosis

Wayne — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:51:53 -0400

American Heritage dictionary defines psychosis thus:

A severe mental disorder, with or without organic damage, characterized by derangement of personality and loss of contact with reality and causing deterioration of normal social functioning.

If we assume there is only one, perfectly correct worldview (aka "religion"), and if we assume this correct one is the Biblical one, then those persons who don't wholeheartedly embrace the correct worldview are, to varying degrees, perceiving, interpreting, and reacting to distortions of reality rather than reality itself. As these distorted worldviews also pervert the Godly design for society (and the individual components therein), there is also deterioration of normal social functioning (e.g., socialism, P.C., social autism, crime, etc.). Derangement of personality is almost redundant with the former symptoms, since it is merely a dis-ordered perversion of the natural personality. Insofar as personality is expressed through a worldview, a loss of contact with reality can be understandably seen as a deranged personality. Therefore it's quite reasonable to suggest: A person may be considered psychotic to the degree he rejects the correct worldview.

The implications of this assertion are interesting. First, reject the correct worldview. Once this divorce with reality occurs, all kinds of contradictory, destructive, and evil possibilities emerge. I remember a trick in algebra whereby I could make any number equal any other number (e.g., 1 = 2). The key to this trick was an algebraic maneuver that was completely valid except in one case. This one case resulted in a "divide by zero" operation that is highly illegal. The trick capitalized on the subtlety of this division by zero—it was difficult to tell that a division by zero was occurring—and yielded nonsensical results. Psychosis is like this algebraic trick. Pervert reality even a little bit, and the end results can be fantastically idiotic: e.g., liberalism, leftism, collectivism, totalitarianism, socialism, fascism, Islam, Mormonism, Rabbinic Judaism, liberal Christianity [sic].

It's telling to see such stupidity (as the above listed ism's) explained as psychotic. Adherents to these wrong worldviews are mentally ill. They're in need of psychological help...from the relative few (in our culture, anyway) who strive for and hold to the correct worldview. I believe most of these have not chosen their psychoses consciously. Don't get me wrong. They have chosen. They do bear responsibility, and they will answer to the Judge for their choices. I just don't think these decisions were made so much consciously as subconsciously. In most cases (all?), they're seeking to justify their sins rather than repent of them. Their resultant, perverted worldviews are then rationalized a posteriori, rather than chosen purposely. I don't mean to absolve culpability, mind you. I merely mean to suggest that discipling—leading these patients out of their psychoses and into the light of truth—is more like psychological therapy.

The western church today fails miserably at discipling, and this failure to recognize it as counseling may be the reason. Therapy in groups has limited application; it's superficial at best. Life-changing growth occurs when we discover for ourselves the great truths, when we willingly—almost desperately—abandon our old, unsuccessful ways in favor of tactics earning desired results. Effective counseling is merely a way of reflecting a more accurate perspective of reality. In other words, counseling is translating reality into terms the psychotic can understand. When reality is understood properly, presented in psychologically acceptable ways, there is a natural (Godly) tendency to correct one's worldview to embrace a greater understanding of reality. Most counseling fails because the counselor himself does not have the correct worldview. Most discipling fails because believers are not equipped to counsel. It's an interesting if depressing conundrum.

Another obvious implication of the synonymy of unbiblical worldviews and psychoses is in the realm of politics. Campaigns, ads, shouting, and slogans will do little to nothing to further cause on the national stage, if a change of heart is the goal. Real change will occur one person at a time as they are counseled toward the truth. There is no economy of scale other than that of word-of-mouth. Real political change requires an investment in individuals' lives, counseling them toward the correct worldview, allowing them to repent of their linchpin-sins rather than defending them. By and large, this just doesn't happen today.

For years, I have preached the value of mentoring, counseling, discipling, and other such one-on-one or one-on-few ministries. I'm not suggesting all are called to one-on-one ministries but their importance is much greater than believers understand, and they are horribly underrepresented in the church. (Note that all are called to disciple!) Our unholy busyness is certainly one roadblock to curing psychoses, ours and others'. Our stupendous ignorance is another roadblock. Our lust for superficiality, our terror of facing our own sins, prevents us from being equipped to lead others in growth toward truth. Salvation and sanity share the same prescription: repent.

On the one hand, it's funny to think that 98+% of humanity is significantly psychotic. [As much as a third of the world claims to be Christian. Many of these include sects known by Christians not to be Christian at all (e.g., Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.). About half of the rest identify themselves as born again. Barna has shown that of born-again Christians, only 9% of American Christians can correctly answer eight fundamental questions of Christian doctrine. If this is taken to be typical, then it leaves only about 1.3% of the world's population as coming anywhere close to Biblical.] On the other hand, it means there's a whole lot of work ahead of us. Recognizing unbiblical worldviews as psychoses also means that discipling is far more than "getting people saved"; it's more closely related to psychotherapy than modern evangelism. It suggests our seminaries are nearly irrelevant, and our churches are a joke. Even those few who embrace a Biblical worldview are woefully unprepared to disciple others toward reality.

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Responsibility

Wayne — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:01:29 -0400

Events of late have reminded me of Spider-Man's oft repeated motto: "With great power there must also come great responsibility."

Attributed to Stan Lee, the creator of Spider-Man, it's derived from Luke 12:48.

"From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more." —Jesus

Those who can should step up and take responsibility. Like the Good Samaritan, we are not to pass on the other side but take responsibility for others as we are able. (Unlike socialism, we are to do it willingly and not coerce others with force.) Sometimes, this means going out of our way, too.

The verse that really hit home for me was 1 Chronicles 15:22.

Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was in charge of the singing; he gave instruction in singing because he was skillful.

This chief of Levites stepped up to the plate "because he was skillful." He was a leader and equipped (Acts 6:3), but more importantly—judged so because Scripture overtly provides the reason—he was skillful. He had what was needed.

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Bear one another's burdens

Wayne — Thu, 14 May 2009 08:04:49 -0400

Dictionary.com quotes Random House as defining "narrow-minded" as "conservative". Random House says they won't fix their dictionary because they've terminated the entire division. Dictionary.com, of course, ducks any culpability a priori by refusing responsibility for any of its own content. This is typical of today's antibiblical values where personal responsibility is avoided at all costs.

Pop psychology tells us to own our own problems and avoid taking on others'. There is some wisdom therein but it's a worldly wisdom. As is typical for worldly wisdom, it's shortsighted and self-serving. However, if we parse the language just right, we might be able to see how it can be fixed by God's wisdom. (It's common for worldly wisdom and values to be shadows of things Godly, just perverted enough to screw things up.)

God's wisdom tell us to bear one another's burdens. This seems to fly in the face of worldly wisdom which tells us to avoid others' burdens. Let's look more closely. Worldly wisdom tells us not to own others' burdens. God's wisdom does not tell us to own others' burdens either. In fact, the burdens are flatly called "another's", clearly implying that others retain ownership of their own burdens. God tells us to bear their burdens. This would be akin, say, to carrying their heavy box of things without a transference of ownership. "Here, let me help you with that." Now how hard is that really?

We need not take ownership of others' problems just to help them, and we need not avoid helping them just to avoid owning their problems. Step up as God commands. Help others as you're able. Don't take others' problems as your own, mind you—recognize who owns what—but neither should you avoid helping. Bear one another's burdens, and in so doing, you fulfill Messiah's law.

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Kindergarten Curriculum

Wayne — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:46:43 -0400

Admittedly, this is Kalifornia, but it will spread just as all the other filth that's originated there.

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10 Big Reasons Not to Send Christian Kids to Public Schools

Katrina — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:46:42 -0400

http://www.crosswalk.com/homeschool/11603305/

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Witnessing to false believers

Wayne — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 09:41:22 -0400

Does doctrine matter? Most of today's churches will tell you it doesn't. They promote an emotional experience, but without a decent doctrine (not necessarily a perfect one), this experience may be with a god that is not יהוה (the LORD). How, then, might a true believer witness to or otherwise reach someone who professes to believe but actually believes in a false god? If a man claims to be a Christian but the "christ" he knows is a false one, how can he be reached to show that he still needs the very salvation he wrongly thinks he has?

The terminology has been coopted by the new church as they wrongly believe they've inherited their fathers' faith. "Christian" no longer means "little christ", "follower of Christ", or anything Biblical. Now "Christian" is merely a vacuous label including the churched, deists, and culturally Western universalists. In a way, it's ingenious. The Arabs in Israel did the same thing, stealing the term "Palestinian" from the Jews after 1967. Now they've fabricated a false identity with supposed rights to Israel's land. Likewise, the posers in today's churches have stolen "Christian" and all that's related, effectively disenfranchising the true believers, those who still submit to the living and written Word.

Truly, the toughest demographic to reach, far more so than unsaved or even Orthodox Jews, is the churched. So how do we reach them? I've seen it countless times: any attempt to suggest a more proper reading of the Word, and they return to their pastor's authority, the very one who led them astray. There are no abuses, per se, in today's wayward church as there were in the Roman Catholic church such that a Reformation, a clear departure from the errant church, is feasible. Today's church still preaches things very similar to what is correct, even while robbing it of its Power. "Isn't it better that the church preaches everybody is saved, that all paths lead to righteousness, than to condemn those who reject a mythical man?" the new churched ask. Those of us who warn others of hell are ourselves condemned for condemning [sic] people to hell. Right is wrong and wrong is right.

I honestly want to know: can we (the Holy Spirit through us) reach such false believers? If so, how? Or have these false believers eternally rejected Jesus by their embrace of false doctrines?

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Punished for prayer

Dave — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:55:18 -0500

A nurse in Britain has been suspended without pay, and may be fired, for offering to pray for a patient who didn't want prayer. Was the patient offended? She says she was not, but is "concerned other patients might take offense." The official basis of the disciplinary action is the nurse's code of conduct, which states that nurses "must demonstrate a personal and professional commitment to equality and diversity' and 'you must not use your professional status to promote causes that are not related to health'."

It seems to me that dismissing an otherwise competent nurse for the sake of political correctness and a thinly-veiled anti-Christian bias constitutes "promoting a cause that is opposed to health." Of course, you need priorities, and those of the British health care system are all too clear. And let's not forget the brave patient, who, though not offended herself, is so concerned that some unnamed individual might be offended that she has taken action which costs her nothing, but may cost someone else her job. Thanks to her, and others like her, we can walk the streets knowing that we will not be the victims of unsolicited prayer, public displays of the Ten Commandments, or the horrifying spectacle of a Christmas tree at a public building.

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Apostasy Unashamed

Wayne — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:47:24 -0500

I continue to see news of the church's apostasy. It's almost passé, now. Homosexuality is normal, even a gift from God. The Bible needs to be "reinterpreted", updated to today's morals. Jesus is not the only way anymore; all religions are acceptable, alternate ways to salvation (except Biblical Christianity, of course). The faith is a feel-good philosophy one can try before buying. It teaches all kinds of doctrines men like to hear: "Several heresies are commonly taught including tithing, Prosperity Doctrine, subtle forms of antisemitism (often including Replacement Theology or merely apathy toward God's Chosen People), Sunday Sabbath, various levels of rejection of the Tenakh, seeker friendliness, and more and worse." What a wonderful new religion these so-called, ill-named, reformed Christians (sic) have fashioned for themselves.

I'm not surprised by the heresies and apostasies. They're not even anything new, since the early church experienced the same problems. What's surprising to me is how open and mainstream, within Christendom, these are now. Apostasy is not an exception with the church; it is the norm.

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