Divide and conquer.  I am sure you have heard the term.  It is a term for a tactic that is used to defeat an enemy.  The concept is that if you can successfully cause a group of enemies to turn on each other it is easy to sweep in and conquer them.  It is the oldest battle tactic of all.  The enemy used it in the beginning to divide the created from the creator and it has been used ever since.  And very successfully.

One aspect of using this tactic successfully is to deceive your enemy in a way that they do not always see the division.  Until it is too late.  Our adversary has continued to use this tactic since that first epic division with great results.  There are many that have entered into an eternity without God because of it.

I am following a lot of discussions and situations in the body of Christ that are causing dissension, distrust, confusion, and anger between the participants.  It seems most are not even aware or concerned with the harm that is being done or how the arguments over things that are either not essential to the mission or just blatantly wrong are helping to divide us.  When I try to determine essentials as it concerns the Gospel I actually see it as rather simple.

Joh 3:16  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Mat 22:37-40  And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Mat 28:19  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

These three things are the essentials.  These three are all we really need to know to stay on mission.  The rest of the bible can be seen as instruction on understanding and learning to apply these three.

God loved us so much He was willing to become one of us in the person of Jesus so He could rescue us from the clutches of the enemy that we had allowed to enslave us, then He instructs us to love Him and each other, and finally to go and tell all about this great love of His and to show them how to spread it also.  So the real essential is the mission of spreading love.  And nothing else.

I see more dissension being sown than love being spread as I look at the body of Christ.  One of my main objections to God even existing for most of my life was that I saw very little love, hardly any sacrifice, and only token agreement within Christianity.  This is a historical and a present reality even now.  I am a part of the body now and still see the same things.

Luther, Calvin, Arminius; no agreement there.  Spurgeon, Moody, Wesley, Finney; no agreement there.  Piper, Wright, Pinnock, Conn, Spong; no agreement there.  Baptist, Episcopalian, Catholic, Pentecostal; no agreement there.  COG member and another COG member; no agreement there.  Not only is this sad, not only is this divisive, this is dangerous.  Hatred is being spread, intolerance is being observed and souls are being lost.  The mission is not being done because we are too busy telling the other how wrong they are.  We must wake up to the tactics of enemy that is walking among us.

The arguments and the view of essentials in my own denomination and even my own church are very disconcerting to me.  Tongues as initial evidence, alcohol consumption, missional or Pentecostal, and a misplacement of love are just a few areas where lines are being drawn and the enemy sits back laughing while watching us pound on each other.  I am sorry but I can’t even find the scripture where Jesus spoke in tongues, I can show you where He drank wine, His focus was wholly missional and relational, and He point blank told us who to love.  Take notice where our love is supposed to be applied.  It is to persons and not things.

Instead I am reading declarations of steadfast love for a denomination while those same advance no attitudes of love or outreach for the ones outside the Kingdom.  In fact, some of the things they are arguing against in their unyielding traditional, denominational defenses cause those we should be reaching from even giving us a chance to spread the love we are supposed to be spreading.

The Church of God is an institution, an organization, a denomination; and I do not love it.  I love the people in it.  I also love the people in the Assemblies of God, the Baptists, the Methodists, the Catholics, the Muslims, the Hindus, and the list goes on and on to include even the agnostics and atheists.

We have people that won’t accept anything but the style of preacher that they want, the music that they want to hear, the order and method of service they grew up with, and even the times the services must be done.  When are we going to wake up to the machinations of our enemy?  When are we going to realize the necessity of unity even if it means sacrifice?  When are we going to discern our own self-centeredness?  When are we going to apply our misplaced love appropriately?

If the lost in my community want to sing reggae, country spirituals and this will keep them in church long enough to become disciples, then shouldn’t we be willing to throw out the hymnals and praise choruses?  If the lost in my community want to sit on couches with the lights turned down a notch and have a spiritual discussion instead of a pulpit pounding, corn shucking, belt jerking, spittle spewing preacher yelling at them, then shouldn’t we be willing to give it a try?

Mat 28:19  Go therefore to church, sit on the pews, sing only what you like, keep a pastor and stand behind him only if he preaches to you and only if he does it the way you want him to, and do not in any way suffer the person that does not agree with you, in the name of (insert your own name). (Self-centered interpretation)

This is how we read this commandment today for the most part.  Isn’t it time we went to war, got back on mission, and at least tried to do what Jesus said?  It will take sacrifice.  But He sacrificed Himself so you could sit there on that pew and be wrong.

What if that lost person that won’t come to church because of your self-centered requirements is your grandchild?  Will you sacrifice then?

I love you all (and hope you can still love me)

We were on our way to church last evening and the last few minutes of daylight were passing away.  At one point I became entranced by the size of the full moon that was fully visible despite the daylight.  This vision got me to thinking about the reality of things and the ways we interpret the bible.  Figure that one out.  The paths our thoughts sometimes make are amazing.

What I thought about was how most of us interpret the first ten chapters of Genesis.  I, like most of you, look at these passages as literal as I can, especially the creation account and the fall.  I tend to think of Adam and Eve as real people and of the Fall as a real event.  But there are some that do not.

There are theologians that look at these first verses of scripture as allegory, or an attempt to metaphorically represent certain spiritual truths.  This view is nothing new as most things theological are not new.  There has been a division over this view of interpretation from the beginnings of Judaism.  This approach can be consistent with an inerrant view of the bible but not from a fundamentalist style of literalism.

Gen 1:16  And God made the two great lights–the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night–and the stars.

If we take the moon itself as the lesser light, and we certainly do not have too, then we can see this as metaphorical and we know it cannot be literal.  And there are other arguments that can be raised also.

I am not really concerned with the debate between theologians over this issue.  What I am concerned with is the questions that are asked by non-believers over some of these same issues and our inability to give in on some things to reach out to them.  There are so many people out there that won’t give Jesus a chance over some of our unbending views of creation, the flood, etc. and etc.  Shouldn’t the love of Christ and Him giving Himself for us be the focus and isn’t that enough.

I am not against those ministries that put all their resources into some of these views about the bible but when they think that an argument concerning a young or old earth is going to bring lost souls into the kingdom, I have to wonder about that and them.  These types of arguments should, in my opinion, be reserved for those that are mature in Christ, and not the lost.

As far as whether the first chapters of Genesis are literal or allegorical, I will not commit.  It seems to me that both have their merit.  But I do know that Jesus, who I know is God, primarily used parables to teach His truths.

Love you all

I am saddened by what I see going on in the leadership of some of the churches around us.  There are loads of things being done and accepted in the name of relevance, tolerance, sensitivity and freedom.  But the main one at the moment and the focus of this post is about Pastors flaunting their perceived liberties.

I have been following many different discussions about the consumption of alcohol on a bulletin board site that is listed in my links.  It will not be there after I am through writing this because I am tired of seeing people in a leadership capacity in my denomination flaunting their liberties in direct conflict of their vows.  I am not denying the freedom we have in Christ.  I actually believe that the grace of God for the redeemed is probably covering more than we think.  So what is my problem?   

The Bible addresses the issue of alcohol in many places.  It never condemns but does warn of some dangers in its consumption.  Do a search for alcohol and you will find this in many, many scriptures.  Too many to list here.  But again, I emphasize that it does not condemn drinking alcohol.  It does however, not only condemn, but actually commands us to not be drunk. 

So the first question is; what is drunkenness?  Is it falling down and passing out; or is it a certain blood alcohol level; or is it simply the alteration of our normal state of mind, like a “buzz”?  I don’t know.  But I will say that I lived in Germany for three years in a culture where drinking alcohol was just a normal part of the culture.  You could buy beer at McDonalds.  I saw firsthand a culture that drank alcohol with no agenda other than to have something to drink.

But in America, most, note I said most, people drink to achieve at the very least, a change in their state of mind, an altered consciousness.  They want to loosen up or be different than whom they are and if they are like the way I used to be, they are trying to get high or drunk.  And that is going directly against the word of God. 

But there are quite a few people proclaiming that they do drink alcohol, but only in moderation.  So what is the problem?  Well, in other denominations I don’t know if there is one.  But as far as the Church of God goes, we all made a commitment to certain doctrinal precepts and practical commitments when we became members.   This is an excerpt from the practical commitments we agreed to uphold.

One of the primary benefits of our liberty in Christ is freedom from the domination of negative forces (John 8:32, 36; Romans 6:14; 8:2). We are counseled not to put ourselves again under bondage (Galatians 5:1). Therefore, a Christian must totally abstain from all alcoholic beverages and other habit-forming and mood-altering chemical substances and refrain from the use of tobacco in any form, marijuana and all other addictive substances, and further, must refrain from any activity (such as gambling or gluttony) which defiles the body as the temple of God or which dominates and enslaves the spirit that has been made free in Christ (Proverbs 20:1; 23:20-35; Isaiah 28:7; 1 Corinthians 3:17; 5:11; 6:10; 2 Corinthians 7:1; James 1:21).

Now some are arguing about drinking not being a sin and that they will never preach that it is.  That is okay with me.  I see nothing in the preceding statement saying that this must be preached about as sin.  Some are also saying that it is alright to drink moderately since it is not a sin.  And to this I also say okay.  But here is where the problem comes up and why I am saddened and close to angry.

Jas 5:12  But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

Deu 23:23  You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the LORD your God what you have promised with your mouth.

As I said, when we became members of this denomination, we actually let it pass from our lips that we would uphold these practical commitments.  Members should search their hearts and see if they are truly honoring God by not letting their “yes” be yes.  But that is between them and our Lord. 

But Pastors and leaders, or those claiming to be, are the ones that upset me.  Why?  Because I want to follow a leader I can TRUST.  If you only follow 99.5 percent of the vow you made, as one pastor boasted, then you might as well not follow the rest.  At least that is the way I see it.  If I can’t totally trust you to have the integrity to adhere to your vows, I can’t trust you at all.  And you have people’s lives in your hands.

I am probably the first one to question beliefs and doctrine in my church.  And as I said, I do not see that the Bible teaches that all alcohol consumption is sin.  There are other things, such as gluttony being sin, which is a whole lot clearer. But there is nothing unclear about James 5:12 or Deu 23:23 in the least. 

If they believe the practical commitments are wrong, outdated, or unbiblical, which I believe some of them could be, there are other options for them.  They can follow the proper procedure to change them or leave the denomination.  If I wanted to drink a beer as bad as some of them evidently do, then I would surrender my membership immediately.  Some of us seem to love ourselves a little too much. 

Pastors and other leaders, instead of flaunting their liberties about the consumption of alcohol,  need to be the first to stand and say that they will honor their vows.  If they do not then they will answer for it someday.  Their liberty about alcohol is overruled by the lack of liberty to lie.  As for me, I would never submit myself to them or sit under their leadership. 

How could I?  I am sorry but, I can’t trust a liar.

Love you all