The Kingdom of God is Not Identical to the Church

The Kingdom of God is Not Identical to the Church

Nov 13, 2023 | Eschatology

For all of my Christian life (over four decades), I tended to see the kingdom of God and the church as the same thing. In my mind there was no differentiation between the two. When Jesus prayed “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” I thought he was referring exclusively to the church because that is where kingdom values could grow and flourish among God’s redeemed, covenant people. Outside of that, not so much. The kingdom to me was something specifically “spiritual,” something that really couldn’t happen outside of the confines of God’s people. Out there was God’s common grace, as Jesus says, the sun shines and it rains on the just and the unjust. In my mind the “spiritual” kingdom of God had nothing to do with this fallen world which is passing away. I was wrong, but more on that in a minute.

I look back at this with a sense of irony because ever since I discovered Francis Schaeffer in college, I’ve been a big Christian worldview guy. I believed the Christian faith applied to all of life, and rejected any kind of sacred/secular distinction. As the great Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper said, and I believed, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” Yet there was a bifurcation in my mind, a fork in the road where God’s kingdom and the church went off in one direction, and the fallen world inevitably in the opposite direction. I now believe this is not the biblical understanding of the kingdom of God, the church, or the world. This goes back to my eschatological epiphany of a year ago August that entirely changed my perspective on what it is God is doing in history.

This is a big topic requiring far more space than a blog post can adequately address, but we can briefly focus on the first three chapters of Genesis to make the point. The entirety of redemptive history is found in these three chapters, creation, fall, and redemption, and they will help us see why the kingdom and the church are distinctive entities in God’s economy.

Creation and Fall
When God created the heavens and the earth he emphasized its goodness, that it was for His glory and the flourishing of man who was to exercise dominion over it. We call this the cultural or dominion mandate. We read His charge to Adam and Eve in Gen. 1:28 (KJV):

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

First let’s notice God’s desire for humanity, the apex of his creation: He wants them to be fruitful. When we look at a tree and see fruit on it, what do we think? There should be many things Christians think, but one is that bearing fruit is what trees do, it’s what they are made for, their telos or purpose. When God made man, male and female he created them, it was to bear fruit, it is what they were made for. It is critical to understand, though, that this is not solely referring to creating little humans, but bearing fruit in every area of our lives. God, as the book of Genesis makes very clear, wants to bless us, as I wrote about here recently. The word is used over 60 times in the book, the first of which is in this verse. Contrary to the devil’s lie, God is no big meany out to keep all the goodies for himself and make us miserable. Sinners easily believe that, but it’s not true. 

The secret to true happiness is found in this verse. The first is to have babies, if you are married and can. God is clear throughout Scripture, more babies, more happiness. It is our telos! One of the ways to unlock this secret is to become both less self-absorbed and self-obsessed, and marriage and babies will most certainly do that. 

Then, we are to subdue and have dominion, i.e., rule. What does that mean? A lot! God uses two different words for a reason. Subdue according to Strong’s means to “bring into bondage, force, keep under, subdue, bring into subjection.” Unlike Rousseau thought and his current secular leftist followers think, “nature” is not our friend. It must be brought into subjection—we call that civilization. Dominion or rule is more positional, in that it gives us the authority over creation to act as its rulers as God’s vice regents, His image bearers. We are Christ’s body on earth, so it is our responsibility to exercise dominion in his place, as he exercises it over all rulers and authorities and powers, both spiritual and temporal. The fall didn’t change God’s charge to man made in his image.

When Adam and Eve decided to trust the serpent rather than God, the creation with man fell into sin and death. At that moment, the creation didn’t transfer ownership to the devil. Psalm 124:1 tells us, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” All he could do was pervert and distort what God created good, but he could not change the fundamental goodness of creation, of material reality. Modern Christians tend to think the dominion mandate doesn’t apply to us anymore, but it most definitely does. When you wake up every morning and fight to put bread on your table and a roof over your head, you are exercising the dominion mandate as God’s image bearer, and more importantly as a Christian.

Redemption
Jesus as the second Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45-49) fulfilled the covenant that Adam could not. What Adam lost, a world blessed by God without sin, Jesus came to redeem, and not just individual sinners, but the earth, creation itself. Thinking Christianity is primarily about dying and going to heaven misses the larger point, as Paul says in Romans 8:

18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

In eternity, God promised the Son that this fallen creation, including man, would be given to him to redeem and restore (the covenant of redemption). This promise is given to God’s people in Genesis 3:14-15, where we learn the seed of the woman will crush the serpent’s head. There is nothing subtle or nuanced about crushing—it is total, it is absolute. Jesus accomplished this crushing by his life, death, resurrection, ascension, and reign at the right hand of the Father. This is already done; working it out is just details, of which you and I get to be intimately involved. We are, to put it bluntly in redemptive terms, in the crushing business! 

Sadly, most Christians don’t believe this, thus the salvation is dying and going to heaven focus. We think on a practical level that Jesus came to redeem our souls, and not so much the earth, creation, this material fallen world. Of course we know how it ends; Revelation 21 and 22 make that perfectly clear. But we are under the impression that the new heavens and earth comes down out of heaven as a one-time event, a complete rupture in the space-time continuum, old fallen earth out, new redeemed earth in. As I used to see it, the devil has the upper hand “down here” and basically wins the world war of material reality in a fallen world. When Jesus returns he cleans up the mess, puts the furniture back where it belongs, and we live happily ever after. The only problem with my previous perspective is that it was utterly wrong.

Christology as the Key to Church and Kingdom
The study of Christ, Christology, is seeking to understand his nature, who he is, and his mission, what he came to earth to accomplish. As we delve into him more deeply, we’ll see that we’ve been constricting his mission to a narrow sphere of existence we call “spirituality.” Modern Christians tend to live a dualistic existence, upstairs-downstairs, where the spiritual, eternal next-life stuff is more important than the mundane, material everyday this-life stuff. It is not. This is the bifurcation I mentioned above. 

Let’s say we do our morning Scripture reading and prayer, the “spiritual” part of our day, that’s one road, the most important road, by far. Then we go down the other road where the fork is, and it has a sign that says, “The Rest of Life,” and that’s what we do every day after our worship time with the Lord. Mind you I did not think this at all. I knew everything I did was “unto the Lord,” but my theology missed the mission of the Messiah, the Christ, Jesus now seated reigning at God’s right hand. Or course I knew he is there and interceding for me before the Father, wretched sinner that I am, but that’s just it. It was for me! What about the rest of creation? That, my friends, is a huge question, and our answer will determine how we look at life. The answer will broadly fall one of two ways: victory or defeat.  

I believed creation, the earth, will be redeemed at the end, but I missed that Jesus started redeeming and transforming it when he ascended to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This redemption Jesus accomplished and the Holy Spirit is applying, is a package deal, his people and his earth. Remember the crushing? That started 2,000 years ago. Adam lost his ability to rule, to exercise dominion, and Jesus gave it back. He is now exercising the dominion Adam forfeited through us! Does that sound strange to you? Not too long ago, it sure sounded strange to me. How does this actually work? We read about the authority Jesus was given when he was coronated as King at the ascension in several passages, including Ephesians 1:15-23, and Daniel 7:9-14. We further read that his reign is not only over the hearts of Christians, his people, but over his enemies and is happening now and until they are all defeated. We learn this in I Corinthians 15:25, and Psalm 110 says the same thing: 

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

These enemies are not just in our hearts and in our struggle to overcome sin, they are everything and everywhere in a fallen world. Keep in mind, Jesus is conquering his enemies through us his church until the final enemy, death, is destroyed at his second coming. The church is the staging ground, and from there  we are daily sent into the world to transform it.  It is a gradual thing, not a one-time cataclysmic event like I used to believe. And we’re only 2000 years into it, so we’re just getting started!

John the Baptist got the ball rolling when he declared: Repent, “for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Jesus started his ministry with the exact same words. It is instructive to note the word kingdom, basileia- βασιλεία in Greek, is used over a hundred times in the gospels. The word church, by contrast, ekklésia- ἐκκλησία, is used three times in two verses in Matthew. You can come to your own conclusions, but something tells me we’ve ignored the kingdom of heaven and of God to the church’s and societies’  detriment. The ἐκκλησία was the assembly of citizens in the city-states of ancient Greece, those who helped govern and rule the Greek polis (i.e., city). In the same way, the church, this spiritual assembly, is to participate in the reign of Christ over the earth. The church has the authority to minister the word and the sacraments, and Christians go into the world extending Christ’s reign, advancing this kingdom of heavenly and Godly values, and building his church. Through His word and our words, not swords and violence, we bring the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control, and justice. In Hebrew this is called Shalom.

The devil doesn’t stand a chance. He’s already been crushed.

Next time you sing the Christmas carol, Joy to the World, think about the Lord is come, the Savior reigns:

3 No more let sins and sorrows grow,
nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
far as the curse is found,
far as the curse is found,
far as, far as the curse is found.

 

 

Uninvented: Why Did Judas Betray Jesus?

Uninvented: Why Did Judas Betray Jesus?

Nov 9, 2023 | Uninvented

As I often say, Christians need to read and study the Bible from an apologetics perspective, meaning we find in the text and stories its veracity, that it is true history and God’s inspired, divine word. I wouldn’t have included Judas in that perspective until my recent read through the gospels. It’s a sad story on many levels, and I’ve always wondered why he did it, what his motivation was. The gospels seem to make him a disreputable character, but how was it that he lived intimately with the other apostles for three years and nobody ever pegged him as a traitor? Even during the Last Supper as he walked out the door to hand Jesus over to the Chief Priests, nobody suspected him. It wasn’t until he walked up with the crowd of armed soldiers that they realized he had betrayed Jesus and them.

At the Last Supper Jesus reveals one of them will betray him, and each one wonders if it might be him. From Luke 22:

20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. 21 But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. 22 The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed. But woe to that man who betrays him!” 23 They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this.

It wasn’t at all obvious to any of them that Jesus was referring to Judas. I can only conclude that Judas was a true believer, but what he believed was not the truth. Before trying to understand the psychology of Judas, you might ask what makes this uninvented and evidence for the veracity of the gospels.

Israel’s History and Messianic Expectations
Fundamental to understanding the gospels is the Jewish nature of the world into which Jesus was born, lived, and died. Because of that, Jesus would have been impossible to make up given Jews of the time would never have conceived of a Messiah like Jesus, not in a million years. Judas was one of those Jews. He believed passionately Jesus was Israel’s long awaited Messiah, but for some reason Jesus wasn’t playing the part. Jesus was a complete enigma to everyone he encountered, especially to those who thought they knew who he should be. I can imagine Judas got increasingly frustrated as time went on. Jesus was not proving who he was to the Jewish religious leaders and acting like the king he was supposed to be. I believe he even thought he was doing Jesus a favor when he handed him over to the Jews.

Jewish Messianic expectation is the heart of the gospel story. Jews had been waiting over 400 years for the Messiah to finally come and vanquish their oppressors once and for all. Jews had as many varying opinions about their eschatology as Christians do today, but they all agreed the Messiah, God’s anointed, would be a king like unto David, only far greater. In John 6 we see what a powerful expectation this was among the people of Judea. Jesus had fed 5000 men, and additionally women and children, with a few loaves and fishes. Notice their response:

14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

That Jesus was a healer and could feed thousands of people with barely any food was amazing, but that wasn’t important to Jews who were looking for a new King David to overthrow their Roman oppressors.

Jewish Messianic expectations of the time were primarily about rectifying the political disasters of Israel’s history, once and for all. It’s impossible for any of us to capture the psychology of the Jews of Jesus’ day. One author described the times as electric with expectation as Jews hoped every man who acted like a prophet would be the one. King David reigned a thousand years previously, and Solomon solidified the kingdom both militarily and economically. It was the golden age of Israel. Everything that God had promised to the Patriarchs a thousand years before had finally come to pass. As soon as it was established and seemingly secure it started to fall apart.

First Solomon’s son as successor didn’t work out so well. Soon there was a civil war, and the kingdom was broken up into the northern ten tribes, Israel, and two other tribes in the south, Judah. This takes us to the time of geopolitical turmoil we read about in Kings and the prophets. Because Israel listened to the false prophets who scratched their itching years, and not God’s prophets who foretold doom, horrible times were ahead. First the northern tribes fell to the bloodthirsty Assyrians in 722 BC, and the Babylonians took Judah in 586 BC, destroying Jerusalem and the temple. This period was traumatic on the psychology of the Jewish people (they first were called Jews during their captivity in Babylon because they were the people from Judea).

When the Persians conquered Babylon in 539 BC, we read about the Jews making their way back to Jerusalem to establish the city again and rebuild the Temple in the 400s in Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. These are the end of the historical books of the Old Testament. The final communication of God to His people came through the prophet Malachi and the last book of prophecy written around 430. From then on it was silence from God and much turmoil for the Jews. They were ruled by the Persians until Alexander the Great defeated them in 333, who then conquered Judea shortly thereafter. When Alexander died, the Jews were ruled by a combination of Greco-Macedonian kings, until finally in 160s to 150s they gained some semblance of independence under the Maccabees. Less than 100 years later, however, the Romans gained control over Judea; and in 37, Herod the Great, a questionable Jew, was appointed “King of the Jews” by the Romans. There was a whole cross current of ideas among the Jews trying to deal with this centuries long upheaval, but they all expected a divinely appointed human king like David, not a miracle working itinerate preacher who would be killed on a Roman cross for blasphemy.

Judas Doing Jesus a Favor
It’s easy to condemn Judas with 20/20 hindsight, even for the first Christians. We can see this condemnation in the gospels, and that makes sense since it’s a fully human book as well as a fully divine one. What would motivate him to betray Jesus? The only plausible explanation is that he wanted Jesus to prove himself, and that he was in fact the promised Messiah he and other Jews so desperately wanted him to be. His motivations were clearly psychologically complex because nobody suspected him before it actually happened. I’m sure he couldn’t fathom the Jewish religious leaders would put Jesus to death, although like other Jews he knew what happened to the prophets. Plus I’m sure it was well known Jesus’ life was in danger from the Jewish leaders. I suspect because he believe Jesus to be the Messiah, that Jesus would never allow that to happen.

In addition to the Luke 22 passage, the others are Matthew 26 and John 13, both also showing that nobody suspected Judas would be the traitor—most interestingly that Judas didn’t see himself that way. Matthew tells us one of the others said, “Surely you don’t mean me, Lord?” And it’s clear Judas didn’t see himself as the betrayer either.

25 Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi?”

Jesus answered, “You have said so.”

In John 13 Jesus tells Judas to go do what he has to so, and none of the others know what he means:

28 But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. 29 Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. 30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.

Sadly, we know how it ends. From Matthew 27:

3 When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. 4 “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.”

“What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.”

5 So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.

The only plausible explanation for Judas’s action to hand Jesus over, and then regretting it after, is Jewish Messianic expectation. He didn’t see himself as betraying Jesus but doing him a favor so he could finally assert himself as the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. Even at this point he could have repented like Peter did, but he didn’t. Why?

Who knows what goes on in the convoluted mind of sinful emotional people, but Peter had Jesus’ words to hang on to. In Luke 22 before Jesus tells Peter he will deny three times that he even knows Jesus he says to him:

31 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

Of course Peter had no idea what these words meant, but when he was in turmoil after the crucifixion he must have held on to them for some kind of hope. Judas, on the other hand, might have had these words ringing in his ears only hours have he heard them and Jesus was condemned (Matt. 26):

 24 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

Even then as a pious Jew he could have known there was forgiveness and atonement, but Judas chose despair, self-pity, and death.

Uninvented on Creation Today Podcast

Uninvented on Creation Today Podcast

Nov 8, 2023 | Notable Quotations, Uninvented

I recently had the honor of being on the Creation Today podcast. I was interviewed by Eric Hovind, the president of the organization, and it was an incredible experience because he was very excited and positive about the book. It made me feel like maybe I sort of know what I’m doing. After this, I may have to go back to humility school and take a couple courses. If you watch you’ll see what I mean. That others are affected and get something out of my work is one of the great blessings of my life. You can learn more about their ministry at creationtoday.org. This is the entire hour long recording. They do the first half hour on social media, then go behind the paywall. I was able to get the entire thing to inflict on my readers.

Forgive the strange spacing on this post. It’s a Vimeo embed, and I can’t get it to work like YouTube or Rumble embeds. It plays the same, though.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: A Parable for Our Times

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: A Parable for Our Times

Nov 6, 2023 | Politics & Government

I don’t know how many years it’s been since I saw this classic 1939 movie starring Jimmy Stewart and directed by the great Frank Capra, so I didn’t realize how relevant it would be to 2023. And I mean spot on relevant. Those two, by the way, teamed up to make the also classic, It’s a Wonderful Life in 1946.

One thing before I get to my thoughts. It’s refreshing to watch a movie that doesn’t have gratuitous F words thrown around all over the place. In fact, the entire movie didn’t have one single vulgarity, and it didn’t affect the verisimilitude of it at all. Every new TV show and movie, unless it’s specifically a Christian production, has to have F this and F that all over this place. It’s banal now and tiring, and is ruining a perfectly good vulgarity by overuse. Now to Mr. Smith.

You might be surprised to learn the exact same dynamics we see playing out in 2023 politics has always been so. In fact, the more I learn the details of America’s founding era, the more I see nastiness is the nature of politics. There never has been nor will there ever be a golden age of politics. However, there have only been two periods, so far, where bloodshed was required to get political answers to intractable problems. The first was the Revolution where Englishmen engaged in a civil war to see whether political independence would be a reality for the American colonies. Once it did, keeping the states united in their independence was a struggle. It wasn’t at all obvious the United States of America would last. The next time our countrymen went to war against one another was the Civil War, the conflict caused by the great scourge on our country, slavery. There too it wasn’t at all obvious that the United States of America would last. We are now in third period of American history where America as we know it seems like it could easily fall apart. As it is often said, we live in a time of cold civil war.

The Nature of this War
In the book I just finished (I’m in the process of getting it published), I wrote a chapter on the re-founding of America. The republic as founded if not lost is slipping away, quickly. The current regime, junta really, has jettisoned the rule of law. Now, Democrat-leftist politics is law, the in-Justice Department and their military, the FBI, has created a police state. This weaponization of government—which only goes one way, left against right, Democrats against Republicans, Media-Industrial Complex against regular Americans—started back not long after 9/11 with the Patriot Act. Promoted by the Bush/Cheney administration, it passed the House that year 357 to 66, ironically the majority of the no votes coming from Democrats (62). It is important to understand what happened in this legislation:

  • The Patriot Act turned the intel surveillance radar from foreign searches for terrorists to domestic searches for terrorists.

What was allowed in other countries, i.e., spying on people, was now allowed on American soil, all in the name of catching terrorists, of course.

Then two things happened when Obama was elected president and took office in 2009. Remember he boasted five days before the election that his goal was “fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” This began happening in two ways. First, leftist groupthink took over the Democrat Party and the corporate media. For the latter, all pretensions to objectivity went out the window. The media was now the cheerleader for all leftist-Democrat policies and politicians, and complicit in discrediting their opponents, Republicans and conservatives. All things leftist not only took over government, including the intelligence bureaucracy (CIA, DOJ, FBI, etc.), but the culture as well. The war against America, its fundamental transformation, was waged on two very effective fronts. The second relates specifically to the Patriot Act.

  • The Obama/Biden administration redefined what a “terrorist” is to include their political opposition.

This happened during his presidency, but we began to see the full pernicious power of this “deep state” before Trump even took office. Despite Republicans controlling both houses of congress, the wheels of injustice kept turning because Republicans hated Trump as much as Democrats (it’s called the Uniparty after all). If you want to take a deep dive about all this to see exactly what patriotic Americans are up against, I encourage you to read this detailed piece at The Conservative Treehouse on The Post 9/11 Weaponization of The U.S. Govt. It is sobering.

You’ll also want to watch this trailer, and eventually Dinesh D’Souza’s new movie called Police State. It’s almost unfathomable this can be happening in the United States of America, but alas, it is. The Marxists are in charge, and like all good Marxists they will do whatever it takes to keep and extend their power. Power is an aphrodisiac to some, and a responsibility to others. Mr. Smith understood it was the latter. The problem for the bad guys, however, is us, and the genius of the Founding Fathers of America. There is still enough of America left to save it all.

How We fight back-We the People . . . .
I encourage you to watch Mr. Smith Goes to Washington if you haven’t seen it, and watch it again if you have. It’s almost da ja vu all over again. The people and the technology have changed, but it’s eerie how it mirrors our own day. It shows that there is real, substantive power in “We the people,” something never before given to a people in the history of the world. We just don’t take advantage of it. We the people are the first words in our Constitution and have changed the world in too many ways to count. Yet, what do we do? Complain. We’re terribly good at it too. We even delude ourselves into thinking that means we are doing something. It most certainly does not!

I must quote from an article written in The Atlantic in April 1877 by the twentieth president of the United State, James A. Garfield, then a member of the US House of Representatives. It is called “A Century of Congress,” and he reflects on the history of American government focusing on congress and its importance to a well-functioning republic. It could not be timelier or more apropos for our day because of the inherent fragility of this experiment of government of, by, and for the people (in Lincoln’s memorable phrase):

[N]ow, more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand those high qualities to represent them in the national legislature. . . . The most alarming feature of our situation is the fact that so many citizens of high character and solid judgment pay but little attention to the sources of political power, to the selection of those who shall make their laws. The clergy, the faculties of colleges, and many of the leading business men of the community never attend the township caucus, the city primaries, or the county convention; but they allow the less intelligent and the more selfish and corrupt members of the community to make the slates and “run the machine” of politics. They wait until the machine has done its work, and then, in surprise and horror at the ignorance and corruption in public office, sigh for the return of that mythical period called the “better and purer days of the republic.” It is precisely this neglect of the first steps in our political processes that has made possible the worst evils of our system.

Chalk this up to the more things change . . . . I like the way someone in our day, Eric Metaxas, puts the opportunity and danger inherent in the American system of government:

[B]y itself the Constitution could do very little. What it promised would require the efforts of all those who henceforth called themselves Americans. It was they who must keep it, the republic and the grand and noble promise of that republic. That is the wonderful, spectacular genius of it all, and the terrible, sobering danger of it all too. The document and the men who created it put these unimaginably great and fragile things in the hands of the people.

Notice very carefully what President Garfield concluded: “It is precisely this neglect of the first steps in our political processes that has made possible the worst evils of our system.” So if you want to know who to blame for what’s going on in Washington, DC right now, look in the mirror. We call this tough love.

What Can I Do?
Well, I’m glad you asked. I can’t explore in detail here what civic engagement will look like for each person. It will look different for each one of us depending on our talents, aspirations, age, commitments, resources, etc. As the Apostle Paul said, different parts of the body have different functions but they are all of value and necessary. But I will share a few thoughts.

For most of my life I’ve seen the key to changing our country happening from the top down; I was wrong. Many Americans agree with me, realizing nobody is coming to the rescue; that if our country is to be saved it is going to be up to us—we the people. Change has to happen in large part from the bottom up, at the local level. We’ve become fat, happy, and lazy believing if we just vote things will take care of themselves. Clearly they won’t. This is a challenge for those of us of a conservative bent like me who just want to live our lives, take care of our families, and enjoy God’s blessings. That is no longer an option. I know the 80/20 rule is a fact of life, that twenty percent of the people do eighty percent of the work and vice versa, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and we must encourage each other to get involved or lose the right to complain. But what if twenty percent of God fearing patriotic Americans actually got involved? We could turn the world upside down! 

Those inclined to run for public office can serve in local city government, or county, or even at the state level. This is a heavy commitment which is why we need to pray for God to raise up Godly men and women of integrity committed to America’s founding principles. Those not so inclined must hold accountable those who are. This takes time and often money. It means showing up, writing e-mails, and making calls. I started seeing the possibilities of this when I discovered Steve Bannon’s War Room. There are patriots all over the country who realize the desperate times in which we live, and Bannon offered me a window to see this happening. It’s one of the reasons after the 2020 election and J6 fiascos I turned from a pessimist into an optimist. Because of the genius of the Founding Fathers, even as far gone as America is now, there are still many legal, peaceful means to fight back and defeat America’s enemies. 

One thing my wife and I have done (which doesn’t require an extensive commitment) is become precinct committeemen in our local county GOP. On War Room in February of 2021, I learned about something called the Precinct Strategy on his show as a means for conservatives to take over the Republican Party. There are over 400,000 of these positions throughout the country, and at least half are empty. I learned we can take over the Republican Party from the RINOs, who are not committed to America as founded, by becoming voting members of the Party. Unlike the Democrat Party, the Republican Party was developed to be run from the ground up to truly reflect what America is as a self-governing representative republic. People can be involved a little or a lot or anywhere in between, but I’ve seen this make a difference at the ground level in various states. I always think about the 200,000 empty positions when I see people complain.

Anytime you are tempted to complain, think about Mr. Smith and the power of “We the people.” We have our own modern example of Mr. Smith and the power of “We the people.” That would be congressman Matt Gaetz. Almost single handedly he, along with five or so other congressmen he led, were able to get the Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, deposed, a first in American history. He stood firm for three weeks while being pilloried by so-called conservatives and the left-liberal media. But as Steve Bannon often says, courage is contagious. And like “We the people” in the movie put pressure on their elected representatives, so did “We the people” on the real congress, and Mike Johnson was elected Speaker, an unashamed Christian who brings his Christian convictions and worldview boldly to his duties as Speaker. We, with lots of prayer, are our only hope.

A Rebel with a Cause, Matt Gaetz Delivers Righteous Remarks to Florida Freedom Summit on Saturday. Mr. Smith would be proud.

The Hound of Heaven-Francis Thompson (1859–1907)

The Hound of Heaven-Francis Thompson (1859–1907)

Nov 2, 2023 | The Gospel

I’m bummed out that I was born AP, After Poetry. I don’t think that was 1960 yet, the year of my birth, but I’m confident the slide away from poetry in American life was well underway by then. The only real experience I had of it growing up was rock n’ roll music, the poetry of my youth. Outside of that, poetry left me dry. As I grew older and came to learn how indispensable poetry was in the history of the human race, I wanted to enjoy it. Unfortunately, I could never make myself do so. I glimpsed the beauty from afar, the allure, but couldn’t quite grasp it. It would always leak through my fingers before I could taste its sweetness. Since it’s not a normal part of our lived lives anymore, it has to be taught, practiced, and experienced to be appreciated. The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson written in 1898 would be a very good poem to start with.

I was recently on a podcast sharing my testimony, and I used the phrase hound of heaven several times because it so perfectly captures my reluctance to embrace Christ, and not only initially. It also wonderfully communicates God’s sovereign persistence that Jesus will have those he came to save (Matt. 1:21). I see the poem through much of my Christian life as God was slowly but surely sanctifying me whether I liked it or not. As a Christian of the Reformed, Calvinistic persuasion, I am convinced God saves His people to the uttermost, from the beginning of the journey to the end. We haven’t a chance to get away—the Hound always wins. As Augustus Toplady wrote in the timeless hymn, Rock of Ages, Jesus is the double cure for sin; we are saved from God’s wrath and made holy or pure. In theological terms we call that justification and sanctification. It’s a package deal.

I’ve listened to a lot of testimonies over the last several years, and my experience with the Hound of Heaven is not unique. I’m even reading a book now with the fascinating title, Coming to Faith Through Dawkins: 12 Essays on the Pathway from New Atheism to Christianity. Fleeing the Hound of Heaven seems to be the normal state of affairs for Christians to one degree or another. We’re persistent little sinners, and breaking the habit of wanting to be our own God is not easy; it comes to all of us like water running down a hill. I’m currently reading the last essay of a young woman who tried to get to truth through the New Atheism and psychedelic drugs for six years. Some people are really committed to getting away. About those years she writes,

All of it had left me here, crawling toward the cross, protesting and begging for some other way, some other rescue for the hell of my own creation than “this Jesus person.” . . .

Now that’s a serious commitment! Whatever the nature of our attempted escape, God is bigger than our sin and rebellion. He is creative and powerful enough, and loves us enough in his Son, that he uses our sin to coax us to fall in love with Him. Whatever form that coaxing takes, I guess that’s kind of up to us; not sure how all that works. Regardless, it’s a breathtakingly beautiful thing to behold in oneself as it happens, and joyfully amazing to witness it in others. God’s creativity is ever amazing in how he woos His people to Himself.

Christians experiencing the Living God like this, the existential dynamic of a real omni-everything being demonstrably in their lives, is possibly the most powerful apologetic for the Christian faith. Mere psychology and made up human ideas do not do this, cannot do this. Something merely coming out of the human brain does not have this power over such a prolonged period of time over so many different kinds of people, in every language and every socioeconomic strata of every kind of society. We won’t be surprised this was the plan all along. God’s promises to the Patriarchs was always to the nations, to people, as John says in Revelation, “from every nation, tribe, people and language.” It’s a beautiful tapestry only the Living God could weave, and finish!

Let’s do a little amateur exegesis on the first stanza of the poem.

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat—and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet—
‘          All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.’

We could park on these words for days to mine the meaning of each of these evocative phrases for our own lives. Several years ago I realized I hadn’t actually ever read the entire poem, so I printed it out and kept it beside my bed to read before I retired. Each time through I felt I could relate to Mr. Thompson more. I also felt the power poetry must have had for previous generations.

I too fled, in too many ways to count, in days and years and confusing ways. I had to look up the word labyrinthine, although I know what a labyrinth is:

The adjective labyrinthine describes something that is as confusing, complex, or maze-like as a labyrinth. This could be an actual maze, a city, or even a convoluted idea. The word comes from the Greek labyrinthos, the structure built to contain the mythological Minotaur. In the story, Daedalus did such a good job making the building labyrinthine that he nearly couldn’t find his way out.

How perfect is that! We get so confused in our fleeing that we feel like we’ll never find our way out. I mean, it looked so clear when I took that turn; that way seemed so right to me. Alas, as God tells us, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Prov. 14:12).

Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

Who has ever fled from God when God was actually after them, and enjoyed it? We flee God’s word because it’s too convicting to think about. Our own rebellious thoughts are too sweet that even in the midst of tears we’ll try to convince ourselves things are happy and fine. Instead of turning around and repenting, we speed up thinking true fulfillment lies somewhere else other than the Hound chasing us.

          Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

I think I’m going up, and all I do is accelerate down. Life is scary and challenging enough with God, but without Him? Thompson is using big, massive images to convey what it’s like to really get our wish and have God just leave us alone. Even as we’re running away and getting more miserable, we flee. I’ve heard it said that evil is irrational, and indeed it is. We think it will give us what we want, long for, but it gives us just the opposite, and yet we go in for more. Mind you, this doesn’t have to be an active rebellion like our drug addled friend above. Ignoring God and His word, pursuing whatever our own selfish interests might be, will do just fine—for many rebellion looks like apathy.

Thankfully, these “big Feet” relentlessly follow us, and as I often say, God is never in a hurry:

          But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,

Even in our salvation (justification and sanctification) he works methodically at His own pace because only He knows perfect timing and every single thing about us. For Thompson, these “big Feet” represented something deep inside him he could not deny no matter how far he fled:

They beat—and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet—
‘All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.’

At some point in this journey of escape from God, all those things that promised to fulfill the God shaped vacuum in us leave us cold and empty. It’s a betrayal because they promise so much, and deliver so little. As Tim Keller often said, idolatry is turning good things into ultimate things, and all idols eventually lead to destruction.

I won’t explore the next stanza, but read it and experience the beauty and truth and see if you can relate. The entire poem is worth the effort, and maybe it will kindle a desire to have more poetry in your life.

          I pleaded, outlaw-wise,
By many a hearted casement, curtained red,
Trellised with intertwining charities;
(For, though I knew His love Who followèd,
Yet was I sore adread
Lest having Him, I must have naught beside).
But, if one little casement parted wide,
The gust of His approach would clash it to.
Fear wist not to evade, as Love wist to pursue.
Across the margent of the world I fled,
And troubled the gold gateways of the stars,
Smiting for shelter on their clangèd bars;
Fretted to dulcet jars
And silvern chatter the pale ports o’ the moon.
I said to Dawn: Be sudden—to Eve: Be soon;
With thy young skiey blossoms heap me over
From this tremendous Lover—
Float thy vague veil about me, lest He see!
I tempted all His servitors, but to find
My own betrayal in their constancy,
In faith to Him their fickleness to me,
Their traitorous trueness, and their loyal deceit.
To all swift things for swiftness did I sue;
Clung to the whistling mane of every wind.
But whether they swept, smoothly fleet,
The long savannahs of the blue;
Or whether, Thunder-driven,
They clanged his chariot ’thwart a heaven,
Plashy with flying lightnings round the spurn o’ their
feet:—
Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue.
Still with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
Came on the following Feet,
And a Voice above their beat—
‘Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me.’