Tag: Christianity

Of Powers and Principalities and Following Christ in the Midst of the Fray

The post-Christian right and post-Christian left battle for our allegiance

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I have listened to all 30 episodes of Season 1 of the podcast, The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God, by Justin Brierley. I have listened to dozens of podcasts, and I think this is one among the best, most well-produced podcasts I have found. The first episode of Season 2 inspires my writing today.

In this episode, Justin Brierley poses the question, “Whether the seeming rebirth of belief in God is right wing?” A return to Christian values seems to coincide with a resurgence in conservative politics, but, let’s look closer.

Is Christianity right wing? The African American church would beg to differ. Does Christianity have a right wing and a left wing? Or is Christianity another bird entirely?

At about the 45 minute mark in the podcast, Glen Scrivener identifies three strains of culture in the current western world. One strain is “blasting off into progressive liberalism.” Another strain is “snapping back to the worship of the strong”, a return to the world of Nietzsche. A third strain involves the “surprising rebirth of belief in God”, as Brierley puts it, where a trickle my become a flood, and Christian revival happens.

Scrivener is hopeful that the signs of Christian renewal in the west foreshadow revival, but he observes that these different strains of culture are moving forward at the same time, albeit in conflict with each other. They each have a trajectory that will continue into the future, and, “It will be a mess,” says Scrivener.

He believes Christian revival will happen, but he believes that progressive liberalism will also continue on its trajectory, divorcing itself more completely than it already has from nature and the Christian story. He believes that a devolution into what he calls “the default nature of the flesh” will continue as well, where might makes right.

Indeed, these things are happening now. Will they continue on the same trajectory into the future? Time will tell, but I think he is right: that there is a “post-Christian right” and a “post-Christian left” that are presently locked in a battle for the minds of the people of the western world.

I would add that the world, generally, is and will continue to be the devil’s playground until Jesus returns. At least, that is what the Bible says (millennium variations aside).

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Redeeming Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion

DEI has become a weaponized, pejorative term.

kevingdrendel4 Comments

Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (otherwise known as DEI) has become a pejorative label for the “evils” of progressives that is a target of the Trump administration in their take down of government as it existed when Donald Trump took office. I don’t want to talk about politics. I want to address something to the Church in America. Something I think we need to think about prayerfully in these times.

I have been through a DEI session as a mandatory component of my professional continuing education. My experience is limited, so I discount it, but it will serve my purpose of introducing the subject I want to address.

Honestly, I would characterize the DEI session I went through as cringy. It was uber sincere, preachy, and not a little condescending. I also didn’t think it was very effective for these and other reasons. Well-intentioned, maybe. I will give it the benefit of the doubt, but I am afraid it rubbed me the wrong way – privileged white man that I am.

I can see how people outside the church might feel about the uber sincerity, preachiness, and condescension of Christians. It can be … well, cringy. I find it ironic that the progressive world (it seems to me) has overtaken the Church in self-righteous condescension, preachiness, and overall cringe in its own beliefs that it appears to be trying to cram down the throats of people it views as less than.

But, I digress. I want to take a step back and re-examine the ideas of diversity, equality, and inclusion. I am not going to do a deep dive, but I want to recapture these words that have been hijacked by political operatives and used alternatively as political bludgeons and pejoratives.

Diversity was created by God when he confused the languages of the people. God confused their languages because the people had unified together with one common language to make a name for themselves and to resist God’s instruction to be fruitful and multiply over the earth. God “confused the language of the whole world” to scatter people around the world as He originally intended. (Genesis 11:1-9)

From this, we see that God is in control, and He has a plan. Well, He is still in control, and He still has a plan. People are either working with Him, or they are working at cross purposes to His plan.

As Christians, we don’t ever want to be working at cross purposes to God! Diversity was God’s idea going all the way back to Genesis, and He shows where He is going with it in Revelation. This is the vision He gave John to share with the world to let us know His end game:

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.  And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb."

Revelation 7:9

God’s plan is to bring all the nations, tribes, and languages back together in all their diversity! Every different nation, and every different tribe, in all their different languages – diversity. But, they will be unified in their worship of the Lamb who sits on the throne. (Notice, it isn’t the Lion of Judah who appears on the throne, but the Lamb of God.)

God celebrates the diversity He created by gathering all the nations, tribes, and tongues together from around the world where they were scattered. Diversity is not pejorative. It is something God created in His wisdom that we can celebrate as we worship Him in one voice and many tongues.

If we pray authentically as Jesus taught us, we pray, “Our Father, who is in Heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven!” If we are praying for God’s kingdom on earth – now – as it is in heaven, we cannot really mean that if we do not embrace the diversity that God created on earth.

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What Does the Word of God Say about How Rulers Should Rule?

God’s approved rulers do what is right and just.

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Let’s lay politics aside for a moment, and just consider the Word of God. Politics, of course, is the backdrop to this article. A person cannot be completely apolitical, no matter how hard one tries, but political positions shift, evolve and change, while the Word of God is eternal. Therefore, we should put the Word of God first over our political inclinations.

If you believe your Bible, the Word of God existed before God made the universe, and all of creation was made through the Word of God. (John 1:1-3) God spoke the entire universe into existence (Genesis 1) and made all things by His very command that are seen from what cannot be seen. (Hebrews 11:3)

Of course if you are a Christian, you believe that the Word of God became flesh. (John 1:14) The Word of God who became flesh is Jesus: God with us; God incarnate; God who became man. He proved himself by what he said, by the miracles he did, and by rising from the dead after he was tortured, crucified, and buried.

The Word of God (at least some of it) is preserved in writing for us as it was spoken to and through people who heard God’s voice and responded in faith by preserving it. Jesus, Himself, quoted extensively from the books of what we call the Old Testament as authority for what he said and did. (Interestingly, he never quoted from apocryphal texts.)

Thus, Jesus, who we believe was God who became man and who rose from the dead, treated those Old Testament writings with great deference – as the word of God.

Jesus quoted Scripture often from Genesis to the Prophets. When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, he quoted scripture, including Deuteronomy 8:3: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” When Jesus began his ministry, his first public statement and description of his ministry according to Luke came from the prophet, Isaiah, which he told the listeners was fulfilled by him that day in their hearing (Luke 4:18-19):

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

After Jesus had risen from the dead, he explained how the Scriptures from Genesis through the Prophets were about him. (Luke 24:27). Jesus was both the Word of God through whom God made the universe, and he honored the word of God preserved in the Bible – calling it his daily bread. It defined his purpose; and it is all about him.

With that set up, my theme today is the Prophets and what they said about how God’s people should act in the world, especially rulers who wield governmental influence and power. Our political views, how we conduct ourselves in politics, and who we champion as our rulers should be informed and driven by God’s Word.

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The Top 10 Most Read Articles in 2024

This blog has picked up some steam in the last year, and COVID era articles lead the way

kevingdrendel2 Comments

I have been blogging since 2012. I began in simple obedience to what I believed God was prompting me to do. I didn’t initially set out to write for anyone in particular. I endeavored only to be obedient to use the gifts God has given me. This blog began as a journey of faith for me, not just as a way to be obedient, but as a way of listening, seeking to understand, and working out what God was working in me.

This blog still is those things, but I soon realized that I wasn’t just writing for me, that I had an audience, albeit a very small one. The audience to whom I found myself writing in those early days was the seeker, the unbeliever, the curious, and the doubter.

Over the years I find have found myself writing often for a different audience. I still have a heart for the seeker, but I find myself writing more to the American church, the people who call themselves Christians, whether their claim is predominantly political, cultural, or spiritual.

I see a large segment of the church identifying uncritically with a political and cultural form of Christianity, as I once did, and missing the ever counter-cultural nature of the kingdom of God. My heart is to urge people to be faithful to Christ alone – not to a nation, a culture, a political party, or even a denomination.

These concerns prompted the article that had the highest views in 2024. With 6241 views, Who Were the Sons of Issachar? And What Might They Mean for Us Today? was the most read article on Navigating By Faith this year. Fitting it is, given the shift in my writing.

This article was a “Covid baby”, written in 2020, as I wrestled with the way some Christians, including some of my friends, embraced a mixture of unabashed support for Donald Trump and an appetite to follow crazy conspiracy trails down rabbit holes as we neared a presidential election in the throes of a worldwide pandemic.

Our nation was greatly polarized, and voices in American church were just as polarized as the world around us. Those tensions over politics, how we should respond to COVID, and how we should faithfully reflect God to the world around us drove me to reflect on the days when nation of Israel was torn between King Saul and David, the man after God’s heart.

These tensions continue today. We all want (or should want) to be people after God’s heart. We still need to know how to understand the times and how God would have us live in them, being faithful to His purpose in harmony with the kingdom of God, which is not a kingdom of this world. These concerns have not abated, which may be why this article has been the most read article each year since I wrote it.

Another, more personal and timeless reflection was the subject of the second most read article in 2024: The Redemption of Korah: the Sons of Korah. Also written during COVID in 2020, this article was viewed 3580 times this year. It has been the second most read article on this blog each year since I wrote it in 2020.

The Redemption of the Sons of Korah speaks to the redemptive work of God despite our worst tendencies. The article followed some research I did about the sons of Korah. Korah led his tribe in rebellion against God’s man, Moses, and they were all swallowed up by the earth.

That seemed to be the end of the story, but something in the text caught me attention, and began to search the rest of Scripture to find out whether any descendants of Korah survived and what became of them. What I found is one of the most poignant, but beautiful, redemption stories in the Bible.

One other article topped 3000 views in 2024, but before I get to it, I pause to reflect on the fact that I previously measured the most read articles of each year in the hundreds. In some years, I could not find ten articles with even 100 views. By 2019, the total viewership had risen to just over 10,000.  It jumped to 20,000 in 2020, the year of COVID. The next three years topped out around 30,000, but this year viewership has jumped above 61,000!

I have no idea what accounts for the change. It isn’t that I have written more articles. I have written double the number and triple the number of articles in previous years. I don’t know what the explanation is for the increase. I don’t monetize this sight, and I only post the articles on my Facebook group, typically. Sometimes, I post to my public Facebook feed, and I post to LinkedIn even more rarely.

I don’t spend much effort to be found, but people seem to find me. In fact, 114,190 people found Navigating By Faith on search engines this year according to WordPress. This compares to 5272 people finding the blog on Facebook where I post all of the articles. Go figure.

Any way, rounding out the top 3 articles is God Meets Us Where We Are, with well over 3000 views. The three most read articles in 2024, including this one, were all written in 2020, during the “COVID era”. During that time, we were all home more, reading more, and reflecting more on the state of the world and our lives.

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Christmas: The Triumph of the Almighty God Is Not Exactly As We Might Have Imagined It

The hope we reflect on in wonderment at this time of year

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The words of the ancient prophet, Isaiah, are spoken often this time of year:

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”

Isaiah 9:6-7 NIV

These words were spoken many centuries before one, Jesus of Nazareth, was born in Bethlehem while his parents were in town for a census. This passage is full of triumph: “Mighty God”, an “Everlasting Father”, and “Prince of Peace”. “The government will be on his shoulders,” and he will “reign on David’s throne” – the “Lord Almighty!”

These words foretell of a mighty, conquering, benevolent God. (Benevolent after the conquering bit, of course). Human beings have always venerated and celebrated strength, and what could be more compelling to us than a conquering king (provided he is benevolent also!)

This is the way people view God and the world. This view of God inspired the crusades. It inspired many kings and nobleman through the ages like Stephen I, Szent István király. Born in 975, Stephen took the throne on December 25, 1000, and he became the last “grand prince of the Hungarians”, and he is the first King of Hungary.

I took the photos I have reproduced here when I was visiting my daughter in Hungary this time of year 6 years ago. The prominence of Steven and other kings in Hungarian lore is evident in the statuary around Budapest and in the stately basilica named after him that lies near the Danube in the center of the City.

Stephen succeeded his father as a grand prince of the Hungarians, but he had to fight for the throne against his own extended family. He fought many wars against surrounding tribes and chieftains, including his own uncle. He “converted his uncle’s ‘country to the Christian faith by force’ after its conquest,” and he “encouraged” the spread of Christianity “by meting out severe punishments for ignoring Christian customs.” (See Wikipedia)

Many modern minded people with sensibilities trained over the last generation likely squirm (or fume) over stories like Stephen’s, as children are taught in grammar school to recoil at the “imperialism” of our Western/Christian forebears. The so-called “Christian nationalists” among us likely count Stephen a hero of the faith.

Indeed, Hungarians today proudly celebrate Saint Stephen as a national hero, but this celebration seems more focused on nationalistic pride than the spread of Christian faith – if faith can be commandeered by force. Stephen is hailed for unifying the tribal regions around him under his kingship, giving birth to the nation of Hungary.

That the nation was unified under a Christian flag seems to be more of a national identity than a statement of faith. While I was visiting, I observed that Hungarians did not appear, as a whole, to be a people of devout faith.

A 2017 poll reveals that Hungarians, indeed, are not very religious. While about 76% of Hungarians self-identified as “Christian”, only about 8% of Hungarians attended church services on a weekly basis, “placing Hungary among the countries with the lowest church attendance in Europe” (according to my very cursory research using Chat GPT).

While the notion of a king conquering in the name of Christ may be a source of national pride for some, it makes other people feel uneasy. It makes me uneasy.

We celebrate at Christmastime the triumphal prophecies foretold by Isaiah of the Lord Almighty taking the government on his shoulders with zeal and reigning on David’s throne. Yet, this imagery contrasts with the images of the story of the birth of Jesus, born of a humble virgin in a lowly manger because they had no influence to make room for themselves anywhere else.

As this story goes, God incarnate was born in poverty, on the edge of the Roman empire, in the humblest of circumstances, to parents who were not even married. God came into the world as an infant, weak and vulnerable.

God is human form became a refugee when his parents fled to Egypt to avoid King Herod’s decree to kill the male babies in the region of Galilee. They returned after Herod’s death but moved to the more remote and neglected area of Nazareth where Jesus grew up in almost total anonymity apart from the small community of people who knew him.

These realities stand in stark contrast to the conquering and reigning king imagery of Isaiah and the images of kingly might we celebrate in people like Saint Stephen. We consider these paradoxical images this Christmas day, December 25, 2024, as we recall the birth of our Savior and Lord, Jesus, and what it all means for us.

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