Church History

Yesterday, I completed a rather lengthy survey of church history from the Apostles to the 1900s. I wrote a curriculum for teaching the basics of church history to teenagers over 7 one hour classes. Having completed this textbook, I have many observations about what I don’t know about Christianity.

1) I know very little about centuries of the church, namely in the Middle Ages. I went into the study of the period between Constantine (4th century) and Luther (16th century) expecting to find a nugget here and a story there. Something inside should have sounded alarms when 1200 years, or over 30 generations of people sat nestled in this period. The truth is, there are many people within this time period who contributed fascinating thought and effort to ensure a genuine faith arrived here for me. Chief among those who interested me were:

• Peter Waldo – 12th-13th century reformer who was excommunicated for his beliefs. Had he been born 300 years later, we would lump him with Calvin & Luther.
• Pope Gregory VII – monk who reluctantly became pope and ushered in many ideas and traditions that formed Christianity more than most would imagine

2) The Church is much bigger than I imagined. Having been more thoroughly introduced to the concept of the Greek Orthodox Church, its history, and its focus, I am floored that an entire worldview about Christianity exists without my knowledge. Whether or not its use of icons, the iconclast controversy, and the veneration of worship spaces is legitimate is not the point. Our American eyes present us with a lens than causes us to read and relate to the Hebrew and Greek Testaments in certain ways. For those in the Eastern/Orthodox Churches, the lenses are very different. Perhaps embracing a more global worldview isn’t such a bad idea. They definitely knew/know how to build a building.

3) Catholicism, while imperfect, has many elements today’s Protestant expressions are missing. There is something powerful about being able to convene a council of global church leaders to make a decision to thwart a heresy. As a result of schisms, protests, church splits, and more, we don’t have 1 pope – we have millions of popes (and a laity who progressively believe they are popes as well). It is unhealthy to assume we are all an authority about a faith with such a rich and critical heritage. At some point, to decrease the effects of the plethora of heresies floating around, some measure of authority or unity of authorities would do us a lot of good.

4) The Inquisition was worse than I thought. For those not up on this, the Inquisition was the Church’s response to heresies or those who refused to convert to Christianity. The sentence for the trials was eventually execution, a black eye for our history, to say the least. Its ugly twin, the Crusades, was also awful. The desire to execute Jews, Muslims, and even other Christians to politically take land is what I would call a great adventure in missing the point.

5) 19th Century theology was vast. I have been scarcely introduced to high criticism of Biblical text, though I am certain I will learn much about it. I will spare you the details about this, but just know that there is much more to the Holy Text than meets the eye.

Sandcastles

A popular children’s church rhyme trains kids to recite the basic details of a parable of Jesus with stanzas declaring:

The wise man built his house upon a rock (3x)
And the rain came tumbling down

The rains came down and the floods came up (3x)
And the wise man’s house stood firm

The foolish man built his house upon the sand (3x)
And the rain came tumbling down

And the foolish man’s house went crash!

So we quaintly say that the rock is the Bible and the sand is when we don’t base our lives on the Bible. This is easy and makes us feel safe, but is this really what this means? The context of the verse in Matthew 7 might indicate otherwise:

²¹ “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. ²² On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ ²³ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’ ²⁴ “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.

As Christians, it is really easy to conclude that a person who has the most robust ministry, largest attendance, biggest crowds, most infamous miracles, most exciting delivery, and best expressions of spiritual gifts must be the person who knows God the best. This the person who has the strongest foundation. After all: why would God bless his or her ministry if they didn’t?

This notion, according to Jesus, is flawed. Instead, it is little more than a sandcastle, constructed of a substance that can easily be exposed or damaged.

It is the business of kings to convince us that their sandcastles will last forever. It is the business of prophets to introduce sandcastles to their biggest enemies: oceans of reality.

The reality is that Christians who devote their lives entirely to spritiual gifts are spending their lives chasing fruit. While fruit tastes good to others and can look delicious, fruit is not an end unto itself. Rather, fruit is intended to come as a result of constructing a more sure foundation for the house we are building.

It is easy to continue to build our sandcastles, impressing the multitudes that the beach is the safest place to dwell. Worse yet, we can fall into the trap of manipulating others to come dwell in the sandcastles as if we are not only good craftsmen, but shepherds. The person who delivers such promises faces three judgments for this herding:

1. The tree that bears this fruit will be chopped down (Matthew 7:19)
2. On judgment day, despite reminiscing about their many miracles, they will be told that Christ never knew them (Matthew 7:23)
3. Their sandcastle will crumble with a crash (Matthew 7:27)

Christians must first have a relationship with God. Not an objective relationship where they know of God, but a relationship that affects us. Christians who presume to understand God’s preferences, but have never been stunned by his preferences, are in danger of expanding a mansion with numerous bedrooms that will crumble when a wave of reality washes it away.

Deicide

The April 1966 edition of Time Magazine lives in infamy for its bold title: Is God Dead? The cover is on many lists of the best magazine covers of all-time, and for good reason. It pulls at the heartstrings of many and forces us to ask questions we’d rather not ask.

The truth is, at one point, He was. Dead.

It is hard to fathom just how twisted humanity must be to assassinate God, Himself. To think ourselves self-sufficient enough to eradicate the very God that gave breath to our lungs was the pinnacle of the pride of mankind being exposed in the most grotesque of displays.

Deity sprawled across a wooden beam as humanity challenges Him by mockingly saying God couldn’t even save Himself.

An ancient portion of the Jewish text called the Torah had a portion that read:

לֹא־תָלִין נִבְלָתֹו עַל־הָעֵץ כִּֽי־קָבֹור

תִּקְבְּרֶנּוּ בַּיֹּום הַהוּא כִּֽי־קִלְלַת אֱלֹהִים

תָּלוּי וְלֹא תְטַמֵּא אֶת־אַדְמָתְךָ אֲשֶׁר יְהוָה

אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לְךָ נַחֲלָֽה׃ ס

Ever so haunting are those letters. God’s own law used against Him by humanity, so that every person who is placed across a tree is cursed.

Make no mistake about it. Jesus was executed for political purposes. The idea that the Jews might have a new emperor was threatening to Romans. But the Jews were more haunted by the idea that a Messiah wouldn’t wipe out the Romans to set-up a political Kingdom so they could get revenge. They couldn’t wrap their mind around God not being their flavor of perfect. The Messiah they had spent years inventing wasn’t real.

God, Himself, had killed their idea of God, Himself.

It seemed an injustice and a fraud for this mere Nazarene born in rural Bethlehem to allow people to call Him King of the Jews. This wasn’t the king they’d craved. He had just let them beat Him with no measure of retaliation – what kind of a King does that?

God had a funeral. He was given burial spices even as a newborn. He was placed in a tomb with a boulder to seal to entryway. A soldier of the occupying political regime was placed before the tomb. They said it was to guard the tomb, but perhaps the imagery was the greater intention. The Romans had conquered another potential insurrection by slaughtering an innocent. Once again, the Pax Romana (Peace of Rome) remained. Peace through death. Yet another successful crucifixion.

The light of the world – blown out like a candle.

Converting Gnostics

Several months ago, I addressed the tenants of Gnosticism compared to Christianty. Since then, I have been teaching a class to Christian teenagers about the Apostles Creed, the ancient list of things people are required to believe to be Christians. I did a somewhat blind test comparing ancient Gnostics to ancient Christians. Upon comparing the two groups, I was less than surprised when many believed they belonged in the “Gnosis”  column.

Gnostic Cross

The truth is, modern Christianity, as many have understood, it is in danger of crumbling under the force of the very heresies the Apostles aggressively attempted to prevent from distorting their faith. The Apostles Creed was framed to combat the beliefs that are now popular amongst adults and are being passed down to their children.

By teaching the Apostles Creed line by line to teenagers, I have discovered  a few things:

1. Modern Christian youth crave theology teaching that is ancient, well-reasoned, and gives them room to make decisions.
2. In doing this teaching, assumptions must be thrown out the window. Most youth haven’t thought these sort of things through yet.
3. It goes without saying that this teaching must be creative, interactive, and utilize multiple teaching methods that adapt to various learning styles.
4. We must be firm that certain beliefs being thrown out are grounds for not being Christians.

Other observations I’ve made tend to be more general. Since most Christians are neo-Gnostics, we must approach education with these from a missional perspective. Todays individual is presented with a multitude of religious options, but Christianity in its intended format has distinct advantages over Gnosticism, Islam, Hinduism, Atheism, and other religious/non-religious movements.

It seems to me that Gnosticism has grown seeped into Christian thinking for a few reasons:

1. Dispensationalism, that is, the belief in the rapture as God’s boat of salvation Christians aim to attain
2. Christians believing the world is evil as morality declines, and thus, yearning to escape the world
3. Popular media, film (perhaps including such films as The Matrix), and Christian media fueling the prior two reasons
4. Dialog in funerals, such as, “Being in a better place” and “No longer suffering” (which aren’t entirely wrong, but leave out the rest of the story)

Christians have a hope that is even better than living in Heaven for eternity. We are stoked that one day, Christ will return to Earth to judge the living and the dead, and those who have been dead in Christ will rise first. Those who are living will join, and a reign of Christ will commence. Maranatha.

Among those who believe they are already Christians, the Creed, when restored, is a fantastic tool. It should be instituted as a measuring stick for genuine Christianity.

The Apostles Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty
Maker of heaven and earth

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
Born of the virgin Mary
Suffered under Pontius Pilate
Was crucified, dead, and buried
On the third day he rose from the dead

He ascended into heaven
And is seated at the right hand of the Father
He will come again to judge the living and the dead
I believe in the Holy Spirit
The holy Christian Church
The communion of saints
The forgiveness of sins
The resurrection of the body
And the life everlasting.
Amen.

Empire (Part Four)

The Bible is a story with several smaller stories that tell the story of insignificant nations being conquered by large Empires, and God’s provision for groups of people who cry out in despair for His aid (see this book for more). The problem is, after several generations, people begin to accept Empire as a normal way of life.

At the arrival of Jesus, many of the Jewish people were on pins and needles for God to intervene on behalf of their Hebrew nation to rid them of the Roman Empire. The Disciples craved Jesus’ end to the Roman occupation of their borders, but Jesus rarely acknowledged the Romans explicitly (though he implied such in many encounters, including the Gadarene Demoniac). Jesus told his followers to pray for God’s Kingdom to come, which was a very political statement (just ask the Romans, who executed Him).

After Jesus’ resurrection, his followers began to build this Kingdom Jesus proposed, but it wasn’t built with bricks. Instead, it was built with people (or “living stones,” as Peter called it). With their swords beaten into plowshares and their spears traded for pruning hooks, this people, known as “The Way” began constructing a different kind of Empire – the Empire of Christ. It was a community that chose love, had respect for the dead, gave before it took, and would die for their cause. Borders meant nothing, for this was to be a global nation.

One of their leaders from Turkey named Saul (later Paul) wrote something interesting to a mega-church in Ephesus:

We don’t fight against people. We fight against the Kingdoms and Kings of spiritual wickedness, darkness, and blindness.

This letter-writer was advising his fellow builders of Jesus’ Empire to lay down their guns and recognize their real struggle. It wasn’t Nero on the throne of Rome, it was the systems and spiritual inflences that made Nero do what Nero did. It was the structures and sources of Anti-Kingdom.

Another of Jesus’ followers, John, got in so much trouble for spreading this Empire that he was sentenced to die on an island. While there, he wrote a letter to other Kingdom builders, giving them a different perspective for their journey. This was a Revelation from John that saw the Roman Empire as a giant beast that arose from the (Mediterranean) Sea to swallow up their movement and destroy them, but the bigger struggle wasn’t with the political Rome, but the system Rome brought with it.

Everything from buying and selling to safety and homeland security required those within the Roman Empire to pledge allegiance to Caesar Nero and take a mark on their head or hand on the way (known to prophecy gurus as 616, possibly the true rendering of the infamous “666″). Worse, though, was that Rome was part of the world system of vengence, revenge, war, violence, and power structures designed to dehumanize.

John was so worried about this that he called this system a prostitute and cautioned Kingdom builders about her temptation. All the other cultures had been “drinking the wine and wrath of her sexcapades, and the CEOs of the multinational corporations have propheted greatly through her endeavors. John warns (in Revelation 18), metaphorically:

Get your bodies out of that prostitute before she brings you sexual pleasure, too. You’ll become just like her if you don’t!

The Christians did build a great Kingdom, one we share in today. But what happens when that Kingdom, designed to be a spiritual Kingdom and an alternative community within society, is made to be a literal Empire with borders? And when it happens, and we live in the tension of these Kingdoms, how shall we live?

Stay tuned for the final installment of “Empire.”

Muses

Unedited. Very little thinking behind these. Possibly deep. Possibly shallow. A stream of original, ponderable statements.

 

If your schedule had no voice, would your life speak the message of Christianity?

With no true authority for the global church, how can heresy be made heresy, doctrine made doctrine, and theory theory?

Prayer is a skill.

In a generation of increasing illiteracy, perhaps the answer isn’t more images. Perhaps substance will trump shallow.

Is exclusivity the new big event?

False teachers and prophets never went away. We just created more sophisticated words for them like artists, politicians, founders, and leaders.

In a world where everything is spin and opinion, apologetics becomes less about facts and more about application.

Discipleship is messy. As soon as it can be defined, its scope and ability has been limited.

Every life has a song. Sometimes it isn’t the lyrics that say anything. Its the melodies, rhythms, and cover art.

Boxianity and Boundaries

I’m the sort of person who tries to read things from the various “camps” in Christianity. I’ve had my share of charismatics (growing up as one) and very protestant churches (went to a few of those, too). I like reading stuff from Tozer and CS Lewis to Brian McLaren to NT wright. There’s nothing wrong with searching for truth in odd places. That being said, Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis is a book that wrecked me in 2006. Never before had I read something so fresh and from such a different viewpoint. Some call me a heretic for liking it. If that’s the case, I guess that’s okay. I’d rather be an exploring heretic than the alternative.

The alternative scares me. Christians find themselves trapped in something of a self-imposed box like my friend below:

Mime trapped in glass box

Imagine that I took you to the zoo and dropped you off in the seal exhibit. Now there’s nothing wrong with visiting the seal – they are quite cool and amusing. But if I told you its the only exhibit, you’d cuddle up and would miss out on all the other exhibits – tigers, penguins, giraffes, and more. The truth is, many Christians have mimed themselves into the seal exhibit and refuse to explore.

 

Don't just look at this guy

 

 

Then there’s the other ditch – exploring outside the boundaries of orthodox Christianity. Since as early as 85 AD, Christians have been required to believe in the Apostles Creed. This Creed (a subject for a discipleship program I’m plotting for February) is essential for Christians to find as boundaries to never cross. It reads:

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate
Was crucified, died, and buried,
He descended to the dead; the third day he rose again from the dead
He ascended into heaven,
And sitteth on the right hand of the Father Almighty:
From thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit:
The holy Christian Church; The Communion of the Saints:
The Forgiveness of sins:
The Resurrection of the body,
And the Life everlasting.
Amen.

Now there are other Creeds that extend on this (Nicene, for instance) extend on these concepts, but the boundaries are set. You see Scripture woven into this – Acts 16:31 and Genesis 1, for instance. But one could possibly say that once you agree with these Creeds and Scripture, itself, the rest could be discussed.
 

Within this text, we see a few boundaries that are being violated today. The Early Church wouldn’t allow someone to be called a Christian if they said they didn’t say they believe in the Church. Christians must believe that they will resurrect from the dead one day. Mary was a virgin when Jesus was conceived. Communion is necessary (which can’t really be done alone, by the way). God created this whole shabang. Jesus really rose from the dead. On and on.
 

Let’s be the sort of Christians who don’t trap ourselves in boxes. Let’s also be Christians who don’t leave the boundaries of our Ancient Faith. There is plenty of evidence to dictate that this faith is inspiring and genuine.

Leaving Behind “Left Behind”

As a high school student, I was an avid reader of Tim LaHaye’s “Left Behind” books. For those who missed out on this phenomenon, LaHaye & Jerry Jenkins authored a series of books about Christian doctrine of the “rapture” and what takes place thereafter that went on to sell 40,000,000 copies, spawn three movies, spin-offs, and more. It became a 1990s phenomenon that my church even adopted for a production of the same name. If you’re already familiar with it, just scroll past the bullets if you want.

In the series, the dispensationalist doctrine of the rapture takes place. As the world picks up the pieces, a group assembles together to create an alternative community of Christians who warn of the judgments of Revelation coming. A figure-head of a global government arises named Nicolae Carpathia to rule the globe (with his trusy sidekick, Leon Fortunato playing the part of “the false prophet”). A literal interpreation of Bible prophecy is transformed into a narrative story that slowly covers three years (or so) in 16 books.

Early on into the eighth book called The Mark (which I spent months anticipating), I had this sudden thought of, “why am I reading these books?” Faster than you can say “you just wasted $30,” I threw the book down and began pondering exactly what I had been reading. This wasn’t really Bible prophecy – this was an artisitic twist on speculative events. Something instinctively made me realize I was wasting my time.

Years, a college education, and a lot of reading later, I’ve revisited a look at what I missed. Apparently not much:

• I saw the first Left Behind movie and thought it was awful. Poor quality and not at all believable. They went on to make two more movies that were even more terrible.
•  A CD for the series was released with a “who’s who” of CCM. I’ll spare you the gory details of who’s part of this compilation, but let’s just say most of it leaves creativity and beauty in music as an optional component.
• Comic books – for those who can’t read, I guess.
• Left Behind: Eternal Forces was a video game where players “use the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world.” Not only was the game awful by video game standards, but it begs the question, “What is spiritual warfare?”
• 40 kids books, 5 novels, 2 spin-offs, and a partridge-in-a-pair tree

I paint this picture to let you know that this is a juggernaut – and one I was extremely familar with. Sadly, I’ve been reading some of the “wrong books,” that theologians who read Left Behind don’t read.

• Surprised by Hope
• The Secret Message of Jesus
• Jesus for President

In these books, a different picture is painted of Revelation and other such theological texts. Consider a few thoughts:

1. 1 Thessalonians 4’s “meet Him in the air” was a common phrase in the day for greeting a prominent person and escorting them into a city – sort of like southern hospitality. See this document for more.
2. Revelation was a story John wrote, largely to emplore early Christians to come out of empire through allegorical language that made sense in the day and now seems cryptic.
3. The infamous “mark of the beast” was happening as Revelation 13 was being written. A person who wanted to shop in a first century supermarket had to check-in as they entered the store, pledge allegiance to Caesar, and take a stamp on their right hand or forehead with Caesar’s emblem on it. 666 is a simple math equation – nrwn qsr (knowing that Hebrew letters also have numerical values) that add up to NERO CAESAR.

I could go on and on, but you can do that on your own if you’re interested.

So what am I saying? I’m here to offer casual Christians a means to re-think what we have been told for quite sometime.

Consider the fact that the “rapture” wasn’t an existing doctrine until 1861 thanks to Margaret McDonald & John Nelson Darby. It spread a bit in Europe, but spread like wildfire in America. It rarely caught on around the world to the rest of Christians – you need only look at worldwide sales of Left Behind to see the proof. This is a Western phenomenon. No one in the early church had this idea. It would seem that something so critical to doctrine would have a whole lot more about it listed in Scripture than one verse and a few loose references.

I really don’t know much about Bible prophecy – I used to know everything if you’d asked me. Eschatology (as its called) is something that should have more questions than answers. Want proof? Find your favorite Bible prophecy expert and order their books from 20 years ago. If Christian doctrine swayed as much as their Revelation Unveiled “truth,” this religion would have never gotten off the ground.

The eschatology I do know is that Christ is one day coming to literally be grand emperor of Earth. I don’t mean this figuratively – I mean that all the states and nations will have one ruler to rule them all. Those who are “dead in Christ” will rise to join along in this new Kingdom.

Jesus: Don’t Follow Me

American Christians are obsessed with “going places.” Perhaps its our hustle-bustle lifestyles once again affecting our spirituality, but let’s be truthful: sermons about Moses or Jesus “going to the other side” really get our mojo going.

It goes without saying that this creeps into our perceptions about saying “Jesus, I’ll follow you.” This is said with the best of intentions when it is said, but how does that actually play out in everyday life? “I’ll follow you anywhere” is pretty ambiguous when Jesus isn’t physically on Earth, and especially when we seem to think Jesus is trapped in churches we can only interact with during certain times of the week like “adult swim” or something.

What if the term “follow” isn’t what we thought? What if its a call to a different perspective of life?

In Mark 5, an interesting exchange takes place. A man who is heavily influenced by demons has been living in caves like a savage and is so animalistic (anti-human) that people would try to restrain him with chains. Funny thing is, even that couldn’t control him. This guy was a fanatic. I would imagine that even without the demons, this was no Mr. Rogers – this was the college party guy who loved to get in bar fights and has a cell reserved for 72 hour jail time. He would take sharp rocks and cut himself like they were razor blades just to see himself bleed. For the record, being a “cutter” isn’t anything new.

Jesus encounters the man, though he is so vexed by demons that he talks back and forth to the demons. They had a military name (Legion), and thus were quite unified in their actions. Jesus commands the demonic military to hitch a ride in some pigs, which in turn leads to what had to be an amazing site – 2,000 maniacal pigs spinning circles, oiking in a frenzy, and hurling themselves one after another off a cliff into the sea. Kind of what the disciples were hoping Jesus would do to the Roman government.

Gadarene Demoniac

 

Following the pig bath, there was this man left in his home of caves and graves. He had lived for a very long time out of his mind around dead bodies and couldn’t have any healthy interaction with humans. This was a man who was probably thinking clearly for the first time in ages. The “Gadarene Demoniac,” as he is often called, did what every preacher craves to see when they deliver their favorite softball altar call.

“Parakleo autos hina o meta autos.”
“I beg that I might follow you.”

For the average preacher, this craving would be the ultimate! To pray for a man like this in a church who is bound by chains, cutting himself with rocks, and lives in a graveyard to be freed of demons, then in one swoop delivers the “I’ll follow you, Jesus” would make a preacher take his wife and kids out for stake after church.

Funny thing is, Jesus isn’t who we thought He was. His reply doesn’t follow the script.

“No, go home to your friends. Tell them what has happened to you, what God has done for you, and that God had compassion on you.”

Yes, if you’re asking – Jesus told the man not to follow Him.

Maybe Jesus knew something about this man that we don’t, but I think there’s quite a bit of instruction, here. We often fall into a trap of trying to overspiritualize “following Jesus.” We turn our “God-given destiny” into an unreachable, unidentifiable, unpredictable place we must follow Jesus for all our lives to reach. Yet, Jesus commandment to this brand new follower was to take His newfound narrative to his everyday, mundane life and spice it up.

This man was from a city called “Gadara.” This was no ordinary city – this was a cultural center for a region called “Decapolis” (Ten Cities) and was home of a lot of activity that influenced regions all over. Think of Silicon Valley, Seattle, New Orleans, Rome, Venice, Paris, and the like. The city had plumbing. The city had a lot of history (including the place where Balaam was stopped by an angel). The father of satire (who’s name was Menippus) was a local boy. There was an incredible library, as one of the Empire’s best poets had lived and died there 50 years ago. Around this time, Theodorus created a school where he trained future Emperor Tiberius. Basically, this place was hugely important.

 

Ruins of Gadara

 

 

Jesus, a culturally engaged prophet, sent this famous delinquent back into this city to tell all these influential people what had happened. Imagine those in Theodorus school hearing about this healing prophet turning “The Demon Guy at the Graveyard” into a perfectly sane man. By Jesus sending this man back into everyday life, he sent the first real missionary.

But he sent him home.

In our lives, we all have an influence on our own cultures. In our schools, jobs, and families, perhaps we do a better job of following Jesus by taking our stories of insanity gone sanity into everyday life. It would be as if Curt Cobain had had a life altering transformation at the peak of the Nirvana days, but instead of quitting the band, he took his new story and influenced an entire culture with it.

Follow Jesus. Where you are.

Political Jesus

It doesn’t take much these days to feel a crushing burden of confusion as one looks at the political landscape. One need only look at the limited choices we have in our “representative” government, designed to have the will and opinions of all people voiced publicly. Yet, the more I try to study the issues and candidates, the more I’m baffled at what chipping away the varnish reveals: this is all pre-fabricated spin. I can’t just blindly choose to vote for one party or the other when I know that more than half the time, they’re both wrong. Is it really right to vote for the lesser of two evils (doesn’t that philosophy admit to voting for evil)?

Reading the Bible through the lense of politics reveals a dangerous problem: the Bible is very political. Consider these Old Testament occurrences:

• God orchestrated a political revolution with millions of workers walking out of government jobs and becoming immigrants (bailing out of their lifelong contracts)
• God had a group of millions of people march towards cities and declare a literal war on other humans to establish borders
• God warned the Jews to take care of the aliens in their borders (illegal immigration commentary, anyone?)
• God authorized humans being removed from their communities for sins of certain degrees
• God was against the election of one person to serve as a monarch

What about the New Testament. This one is worse.

• Mary’s song about her Son said things like “He put down those in the upper seats and lifted up those below,” and “he filled the hungry with good things and the rich he sent away empty” 
• There were four main political parties on the scene when Jesus emerged. Jesus chose sides with none of them.
• A woman faced capital punishment for being caught cheating on her husband sexually with another. Jesus opted not to bring about the punishment.
• A wealthy man asked Jesus what to do if he’s followed all of God’s commandments. Jesus told him to sell everything he has (his oxen, his house, his stock, his Hummer, his mansion, his condo) and give it to the poor.
• Some of Jesus’ opponents wanted to ask Jesus about paying taxes. He told them to give the government what it asks, but also give Him what He asks.
• The “Gospel” was a term the Roman government used to designate its success in fixing the world. Sort of like saying Rome was bring “Change.” The disciples hijacked this term and used it for themselves. Country first? How about “Kingdom First.”
• Jesus said its easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle than for a person of great wealth to experience His Kingdom. It makes me wonder which Kingdom Wall Street lives in.
• Roman emperors were designated as “Saviors.” Proclaiming that a “Savior is born unto us” was like saying, “A new, better President has been born.”
• Caesar was known for riding a steed into town for a parade with people waving. Jesus did a similar action (with a smaller crowd) and on a humble donkey.
• King Jesus was assassinated for his admission that He believed he was the King of the Jews. This was a politically charged statement, like telling Fidel Castro that the real leader of Cuba is a plumber from a small village.
• Jesus was known to have crossed the border a few times to go talk to the wrong people and help them out. I wonder what he’d do for Mexicans these days.