It’s time for a little update, not much, but I am no longer new to blogging. I have been at it a few years. Not that I have gained any particular stature. I simply can’t claim to be new at it. I still write as part of my profession, but blogging is more interesting. Blogging is my way of sharpening ideas and fleshing them out. It’s a journey, and I know I don’t always “get it right”, but I take it seriously.
I have been on a journey for truth since I emerged from the haze and confusion of adolescence, much of it self-induced. Stepping out of that myopic existence I began to get an inkling that a world of truth lay in front of me to encounter, and so I set off. I didn’t realize, then, how much faith is required to seek truth.
I have been reading Embrace the Tension by Tommy Nixon. He has resonated deeply with me, especially in this time. Christians in the United States seem to be living in a golden moment with a president openly engaging Christians and a popular segment of the church celebrating a symbiotic relationship with the president and his administration.
We don’t have to look too closely, however, to be concerned. Many prophetic voices have distanced themselves from this expression of Christianity. They stand outside the structure of this church and state power duo sounding an alarm. The foundation of this relationship is power and influence, and the fruit of the Holy Spirit is missing,
Satan tempted Jesus by offering him all the power of the kingdoms of the world, and Jesus flatly turned him down. When Jesus’ own followers attempted to seize him by force and make him king, he escaped into the hills. When Pilate confronted Jesus about the confusing things he was hearing – Was Jesus really king of the Jews? – Jesus told him that his kingdom is not of this world.
Jesus explained to Pilate that his power was given to him by God. If Jesus had come to take over, his followers would have risen up and seized control, but that isn’t why he came. He came to good news to the poor and to die on a cross. He came to introduce people to the Kingdom of God that is here now – growing in the midst of the kingdoms of this world – though the reign of the Righteous King is not yet.
Jesus will not reign as king until he comes again at the end of the age. In the meantime, he was clear that his followers are to be salt and light in the world. The church has no mandate to take over the kingdoms of the world. The church is commissioned to make disciples – followers of Jesus.
Tommy Nixon recalls in his book the church at Antioch. They were diverse, but not for diversity’s sake. They were diverse because Jesus loves and came to save the world. They were unified, but not for unity’s sake. They were unified in Christ and in his purposes. They had power, but not for power’s sake. The power they wielded was found in taking up a cross and following Jesus. They experience the joy of the Holy Spirit, but not for joy’s sake. They experienced the joy of the Holy Spirit in the midst of a world that was orientated against what God was doing.
A dramatic change in the church took place when Constantine became king and issued the Edict of Milan, proclaiming religious toleration for Christianity within the Roman Empire, followed by the Edict of Thessalonica, in which Christianity was made the state religion. This is how Tommy Nixon characterizes the change:
“What seemed like a triumph for the church was the beginning of a dangerous compromise. The same empire that once persecuted followers of Christ now embraced Christianity as its own. The gradual fusion of the church with the state followed, leading to the kingdom becoming the empire. Political power and cultural dominance diluted the gospel message. It was no longer good news to the margins; it was a tool to maintain control.
Embrace the Tension: Choosing the Radical Middle Instead of Picking a Side by Tommy Nixon, page 142
If we make an honest comparison of the church before the 5th century and the church after the first century, we can see the influence that state power had on the church. Before the church had any power it was persecuted and marginalized, but it revolutionized the Roman world in the love of neighbor and the love of God. The church was subversive in the best possible ways, led by people authentically walking the path of its suffering Savior, preaching good news to the poor – as Jesus did.
From the 6th century on, the became wedded to state power and than more deeply embedded in state power. Church and state became inseparable, and the corruption of the Church ensued. We call those years the Dark Ages for good reason.
Not everything was dark, of course. God was still at work in His church and in the world, despite the evil and corruption that litter the annals of this period of the history of the Church. The Crusades and the Inquisition are among the rotten fruit that grew in the name of Christ, though God always preserves a remnant in every age.
Tommy Nixon is nothing if not brutally honest and authentic:
“We see the effects of this today. In the United States, the surge of Christian nationalism and the conflation of faith with political ideology reveal how deeply the empire has shaped our perception of what it means to be a follower of Christ.”
Embrace the Tension, page 142
Once again, a segment of the Church flirts with the power and influence of Empire. In this context, Tommy Nixon refers to the Book of Amos. Amos was a prophet in Israel in the 8th Century BC. He warned Israel, that was once the oppressed living in slavery, that it had become the oppressor. Idolatry and injustice were rampant, and God was giving them an opportunity to repent and turn from their waywardness.
They didn’t listen, of course. Within 30 years of the ministry of Amos, the northern kingdom was exiled to Babylon.
Though Amos spoke at a low point in the history of God’s people, he ended with a message of hope. He spoke of a day when God would “restore David’s fallen shelter,” and “repair its broken walls,” “restore its ruins,” and “rebuild it as it used to be.” Amos 9:11-12
I don’t think that God intended to restore the nation of Israel exactly as it was; God intended to restore Israel as He designed it to be. Amos says God would do this so that his people would “possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name.” God’s blessing and promise to Abraham was always to extend to all the nations.
We see the reality of this, of course, in Jesus. He came first to the lost sheep of Israel, but his ministry extended far beyond the remnant of Israel. It extended to all of us and to all of time.
God’s ways are not our ways. He sent his only Son into the world that all who call upon his name will be saved – in Israel, Judah, Samaria, and all the world: the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, El Salvador, China, and to all the islands of the world.
Tommy Nixon concludes his assessment of the church in America by saying. “It doesn’t have to be this way.” We don’t need to devolve into the corruption of state power. “We can continue to be the rebels, but we have to be honest about the rebellion. The church needs a lot of work, but you and I are the church. It is time to be brave and own our hypocrisy and do something about it.”
Tommy Nixon speaks truth when he says, “The church is the problem,” but our hope is in the fact that “the church is also the solution.”
It’s time for the church to be the church, to repent, and to get back to what it means to be followers of Christ, fellow cross bearers, suffering servants in the way of Jesus, who live out the kingdom of God in our daily lives, preaching good news to the poor, suffering with those who suffer, mourning with those who mourn, and sharing the good news of the kingdom of God to anyone who will hear.
Jesus could have taken over the kingdoms of the Earth, but he knew who it was who had the present authority over the kingdoms of the world. The will of God was to introduce His kingdom on Earth and to raise up an army of suffering servants who would pray and live into the reality of the kingdom of God on Earth as it is in heaven.
We are tempted by the same things that tempted Jesus, and we should reject them the same way Jesus rejected them. His kingdom is not of this world. We have missed the mark in our attempt to protect the power and influence we have gained in this world at the expense of being like Jesus – the ambassadors of his kingdom.
Just as Amos prophesied it is not too late. It is not too late for the remnant of God’s people in this age – the church – to be the body of Christ, representatives of Jesus in this world. We do not need earthly power and influence. As a matter of fact, earthly power and influence will corrupt the whole thing. It always has, and it always will until the day Jesus comes again. As God told Amos, God will do what He says. We only need to be faithful.
“And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, ‘To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.’
And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, ”You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.””
Luke 4:5-6, 8 ESV
From this passage it seems clear that Satan has authority over the kingdoms of this world. Satan has the authority to grant authority and the glory that goes with it to whomever he wishes. That the kingdoms of the world have been delivered to the devil. is a jolting statement.
In this passage, Jesus does not deny what Satan says, but he refuses to be tempted by Satan’s offering. He rejects the idea that he should take the authority that has been given to Satan over the kingdoms of the world, saying that a person should worship the Lord God and serve only Him.
This is one of the four temptations of Jesus with which the devil confronted him in the wilderness before he began his public ministry. All of those temptations are instructive for us, but I think this one in particular is instructive for us in this political moment of the United States.
As Jesus was about to go into his public ministry, he certainly knew that he could usurp all the authority of the kingdoms of the Earth. Jesus also knew that all the authority over the nations of the Earth came from God, but that authority had been given to Satan for the present time.
I believe this is why Jesus did not deny that authority existed, and he did not deny that the devil had been given that authority to hand out as he desired. Jesus did not deny any of that, but he rejected the idea that he should take the authority the devil had to give. (Matthew 4:8-10)
To be clear, the offer was “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor” in exchange for worshipping the devil. The fact that the devil has the power and authority to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world does not necessarily mean that someone who is in a position of power achieved it by worshiping the devil. I don’t want to leave any impression that I think that.
On the other hand, we should not be unaware that the authority over the kingdoms of the world is the province of the devil, given to the devil by God until Christ comes again.
This was the last attempt by the devil to tempt Jesus – a last ditch effort. I think this underscores the seductiveness of power and political influence. Power and influence is almost always accompanied with the accumulation of wealth. If the love of money is the root of all evil, the power and influence is its twin brothers.
In practical reality, there seems to be little separation between money and influence. People who have great influence nearly always amass wealth. Just look at the net worth of people in politics, especially at the national level.
Of course, money (itself) is not evil. It’s the love of money that is the problem. Jesus handled money, and it did not corrupt him. At the same time, the one man who handled the money for Jesus is the man who betrayed him.
Jesus warned his followers of the seductive influence of money when he said it is harder for a wealthy man to enter heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Given the correlation between money and power/influence, we should be just as wary.
Christians should not rush to gain influence any more than Christians should seek wealth. We cannot serve two masters. If we love one, we hate the other. This is true of literally anything we seek, exalt, focus on, depend on, etc., more than God.
When Jesus talked about love and hate in these ways, he wasn’t talking about emotions. He was talking about priorities. When he said that a person who follows him must hate his mother, father, sister, and brother, Jesus wasn’t actually telling us to hate them. He was telling us to prioritize them below our love of God.
And so it is with God and money. To love money is to prioritize money above our love of God. To prioritize influence and power above our love for God is to hate God in comparison.
To focus on governmental authority or to focus on money is a dangerous endeavor for a Christian. If Jesus could be tempted by power and influence, how much more are we tempted by those things? How much more susceptible are we to giving into that temptation?
I am going to be frank here. I think we have seen the disordering of Christian priorities in our country. As Jesus has plainly told us, there are many who will say, “Lord, Lord.” There are many who will say the right things, who will speak of God and of Jesus, but their hearts belong somewhere else. And Jesus said we would know them by their fruit. If anyone has gained power and wealth, but they have not love – the primary fruit of the Spirit – they are like clanging gongs and cymbals.
We overcomplicate what love is. Paul tells us plainly that love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy or boast. Love is not arrogant or rude. (1 Corinthians 13:4-5)
Power and wealth corrupt. It warps our priorities. It twists our character. We begin to think that black is white and white is black. We begin to think of power and influence as a blessing from God, rather than a burden that threatens our very souls.
Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who are persecuted.
Notice that the devil did not tempt Jesus with any of those things! None of those things would be a temptation, would they? Yet, Jesus tells us plainly that people who experience those things are blessed. None of these things are desirable in the world, but they lead to the great treasure of eternal life and relationship with God.
Power and wealth are highly desirable in this world, but none of it will matter in the next. They are a stumbling block in this world. The attachment to power and influence hangs like a dead weight on the backs of human beings who have not shunned it like Jesus did.
Jesus did not preach that a wealthy man cannot enter into the Kingdom of God, but it’s harder than you might think. It’s like a camel squeezing through the eye of a needle. However you understand that metaphor, you should not miss the point that wealth is a very heavy burden when it comes to entering the Kingdom of God – and power/influence is the cousin of wealth.
I think we should take notice that the devil did not tempt Jesus with money. He tempted Jesus with the power of the kingdoms of the world. Perhaps, that is because wealth naturally flows from having power. If it’s difficult for a wealthy man to get into the kingdom of heaven, how much more difficult is it for a powerful (and wealthy) man to get into the kingdom of God?
I think we should be sober and alert to the devil’s schemes. If Jesus shunned the power that is the devil’s to give power, how much more should we shun it? Do we have more willpower than Jesus?
That attitude, of course, will not get us anywhere in the world. It looks utterly foolish for us to shun power and influence, but that is the foolishness of the cross. It is the foolishness of God’s wisdom, and I think we would do well to reclaim some of that foolishness.
When Jesus taught his disciples to pray he taught them to recognize God: “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” Immediately after recognizing God for who He is, Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” These things are the foundation of our prayer life with God, according to Jesus.
As I think about this today, the realization strikes me that praying, “Thy kingdom come,” needs to be accompanied by a willingness to reflect God’s kingdom and God’s will in the way we live. If we pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven and don’t think that prayer means anything for us in the way that we live, do we really mean it?
These thoughts came to me as I was worshipping God and thinking about the song we were singing, which was an expression of faith in the promises of God. If we
pray or sing these words to God without any intention to reflect the God we are worshiping and praying to in our daily lives, is our worship and prayer anything other than a clanging gong or a banging cymbal that Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 13?
When Jesus began his public ministry, the message he preached was the coming of the kingdom, which he said is near at hand. (Mk. 1:14-15l Matt. 4:17, 23) Jesus said that the reason he was sent was to preach the coming of the kingdom of God. (Luke 4:3)
When Jesus spoke in his hometown synagogue, he said it a little bit differently: he said that he came to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom to prisoners, to give sight to the blind, and to set the oppressed free. (Luke 4:18-19)
Throughout his public ministry Jesus demonstrated what he came to do. He touched lepers, though doing so would make him unclean under Jewish law, and he healed them. He gave sight to the blind. He healed the sick and the lame. He set people free from demonic influences. He forgave sins. He lived out a tangible demonstration of what it means for the kingdom of God to come, and he extended God’s favor to Samaritans, a Canaanite woman, and a Roman centurion.
He also challenged the religious people of his day. He repeatedly healed people on the Sabbath. He even went right into the synagogues and healed them in front of the religious leaders, knowing that it would provoke them in their religiosity, because they didn’t understand what it means for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.
The religious leaders were angry when Jesus challenged their understanding of the law and therefore of God. In their best moments they were just confused.
When Jesus healed ten lepers and instructed them to go show themselves to the priests, only the Samaritan leper came back and thanked Jesus. The priests asked, when would this kingdom that Jesus was preaching come? Jesus said, God’s kingdom isn’t any particular place, because God’s kingdom is within us. (ἐντός (entos), meaning inside (us) (adverb or noun) — within (us), sometimes translated “among us” or “in our midst”)
They still didn’t know what he meant. All they could see was that he was breaking the rules – the requirements they had established to protect people from breaking the mosaic Law of not working on the Sabbath. They didn’t understand that the Lord of the Sabbath was standing in front of them, telling them they were getting it wrong.
Jesus said the kingdom is in the midst of His followers. He come to announce that God’s kingdom has come, though it is also still to come. He introduced his kingdom, and he called his followers to recognize it, to repent, and to live in its reality.
The question I want to ask today of myself and anyone who might be reading this is this: Are we doing that?
I joined a Facebook group for discussion between atheists and Christians recently. I tried to engage in discussion and was disappointed to find that people were more adept at the use of laughing emojis and one-line put downs than discussion. I was disappointed because I hoped I hoped for better, but I realize I should not have been surprised.
I also hoped for better from myself, and I was disappointed, if not surprised, that I was inclined to be offended. I wanted to react in kind. I found myself dwelling on a sour post for long after reading it, fighting the urge to post a quick-witted comeback, and – when I couldn’t think of exactly the right tightly packed and insightful retort – to flame the disrespectful responder with the not so inimitable laugh emoji. Ugghh….
I mostly resisted my urge to respond. The few times I succumbed to my weakness, I regretted it. There was no discussion. Just a hailstorm of barbed quips, memes, and emojis (mostly laughing – the ultimate form of online mockery).
My weak attempts to start a conversation were for naught. Perhaps, if I had stayed the course, persisted in my focus on conversation, and resisted all temptation to lash back, I might have found a real discussion. Maybe. And maybe I am just hopelessly hopeful.
I don’t know how many days I lasted in that group. It didn’t take long before I bowed out with a parting question: “Why do atheists spend so much time talking about a God they don’t believe in?”
I admit the question wasn’t meant to start a discussion, or reflective thought, or to get at anything deeply meaningful. It was a not so subtle parting shot – a little monument to my own inability to rise above the clamor and din of the social media frenzy that belies the evolutionary doctrine of the inevitable upward progress of mankind.
I was surprised again (though I don’t know why) that notices of responses to my frankly sophomoric question continued to appear in my feed days afterward. Three days to this point.
I was even more surprised at the sheer number of responses: 795 comments and 195 emojis (mostly of the laughing variety) so far. I don’t know if a single post I have ever put on Facebook has elicited that much response. Do I count that as a success?
I doubt that anyone in the group knows that I left. The sharks continue to circle the corpse of my failed attempt at a discussion, attacking the dead body with quips, memes, and emojis in a feeding frenzy that is truly remarkable, if not sadly cliche. Social media and its finest.
I am reminded of the word of the Lord to Isaiah in the temple. God sent him to preach to the nation of Israel and warned Isaiah in the same breath that the people wouldn’t listen. God, nevertheless, wanted him to be faithful, which he was.
I wonder how much Isaiah wanted to lash back at the people who mocked him and criticized him. (Perhaps, he did. I assume he was just as human as I am.) Perhaps, he was just as discouraged and disappointed as I am, though he stuck in there long enough to author a good-sized chunk of the Old Testament.
Perhaps, social media isn’t the best platform for engaging people in thoughtful discussion. (Yah think?!) The low-hanging fruit of social media tends to be pretty rotten, though I have seen some good proof from people who may be more like Isaiah than me.
I obviously do my own writing. (Like Isaiah, perhaps?) The flaming arrows don’t come as fast at me on this platform, nor are they as frequent. In fact, I’m not sure I have ever gotten 795 comments on articles I have written and posted on this site in a whole year, and 195 responses (laugh emojis and all😂) would be a record for any blog article I have written.
The scale of social media reach is powerful. The quality of that social media reach leaves much to be desired.
Perhaps, social media just reveals the reality of what is going on behind more mundane and seemingly less impactful forms of communication, like a watch. Perhaps, people are more apt to fly their true colors in the immediacy of a social media platform encouraging reflexive action that results in a more genuine response.
Perhaps, we get a better glimpse of what people are actually thinking and how they are actually responding, which we do not often see in other media. Perhaps, I should take some solace in this. Perhaps, I should be more understanding and frank in my assessment of the way my blog material hits. My writing probably doesn’t get the universal response I hope it will or think it does. On the other hand, I am probably hitting a more receptive audience that tunes into my blog writing than my posts on a Christian/atheist discussion site.
I feel like I’m trying to encourage myself not to be discouraged. Maybe I am trying to talk myself out of my disappointment – being philosophical about it. Maybe this kind of reflective thinking is what is necessary to avoid being swept up into the constantly reactive ways we are learning to live in a social media world. Maybe I am just fighting back in the way that I know how. Maybe I will do better next time.
All Scripture is inspired by God. Scripture is useful to teach us and it convicts us of what is right. Scripture straightens out our thinking, and it trains us in knowing and doing what it right. (2 Timothy 3:16) With this foundation, my inspiration today comes from Exodus 3.
“Then the Lord said, ‘I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey…. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.’”
Exodus 3:7-10 ESV
We are often comforted by God’s word to know that God sees our afflictions; He hears our cries; and He responds. We find comfort in this passage from Exodus that God sees, God hears, God knows, and God responds. This is undeniable, but it isn’t the primary purpose of Scripture.
If we only take away the fact that God sees us, hears us, knows us, and responds to us from this passage, we are missing the bigger picture. The purpose of Scripture is not primarily to comfort us. If you read 2 Timothy 3:16, which I paraphrased at the beginning of this article, it describes the primary purpose of Scripture, and the description does not include providing comfort to us.
Yes, Scripture is comforting to us, and we take great comfort in it as we should. That is part of having faith in and trusting God. The primary purpose of scripture, however, is not to comfort us, but to instruct us, to straighten out our thinking, to give us a new perspective, and to train us in what is right according to 2 Timothy 3:16.
In the passage from Exodus 3 quoted above, we are comforted to understand that God sees the afflictions of His people, hears their cries and knows their suffering, and God responds, but we should not miss that God responds through Moses who God calls to carry out His response. The focus of the story is God calling on Moses to carry out God’s response to what God sees, hears, and knows.
