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are in the process of final editing so it can be published in standard book
format. If you would like information on obtaining a publishing information
please email us at: healland@createleaders.org
In this series, all scriptures will be from the King James or Authorized
version unless otherwise noted.
Christianity makes sort of a mediocre religion. By my estimate only the
fourth best in the world. Doesn't sound like good news does it? Unless of
course Christianity should not be a religion at all. Then perhaps a fourth
place finish is good enough. But I am getting ahead of myself, some have said
that you truly don't (or can't ) understand the really good news about the
Christian gospel, until you comprehend just how bad the sobering bad news
really is. So let us begin with that analysis.
From what I have seen, and many of the emails that I have received since the
September 11th attack on the World Trade Center, a very disturbing scenario is
unfolding within the American Evangelical church. This, I might have presumed
among the masses of the so called laity. Butwhat is truly most appalling is the
lack of a true understanding of the New Testament gospel of Jesus Christ, by
many of the leaders of our bastions of religious faith.
Now I am sure one of these leaders is preparing a book with the title
something along the headline above. Fresh with an advance from a worldly
controlled publishing house, this little gem will I'm sure soon find its way
onto the best seller lists of Christian authors, and be available at your local
Christian store. Combined with a book tour, God only knows just how successful
this book might become. The point of this preemptive sequel, now there is a
term for our age, is that God does know, and He is appalled at this misappropriation
of His grace offered through Jesus Christ to the whole world. I'm just a
radical Christian terrorist trying to upset the established Christian order.
Victory in war, especially in the present era, is just as much a battle of
words, as it is bombs and bullets.
If you haven't guessed already, the title of this chronicle is based upon 2
Chronicles 7:14: If my people, which are called by
my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from
their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin,
and will heal their land.
Now whether you believe the September 11th attack is some sort of judgement
on America for her perversion, is a blessing from God to bring about repentance
and revival, or just some isolated event of evil, is of limited consequence.
The appalling point is that by applying this scripture to present circumstance,
while in current context may be a good thing, this is definitely not the best,
appropriate, or wise application.
The grace of God offered in the Messiah of the Jews, known in Christian
circles as Jesus of Nazareth, is the biblical focus of both the Old and New
Testaments. This covenant of grace begins in the Garden of Eden, after the fall
of mankind into sin and reaches its cumulation with the admonition at the end
of the Good Book in Revelation 22:21: The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen
A part of that revelation of the nature and work of Jesus Christ is what is
known as the Law revealed to Moses in the desert of Sinai. The specifics of the
law, portrayed as the Ten Commandments and other rules for life, are found in
the four biblical books ascribed to the writing of Moses, after the Book of
Genesis. The law is not good news. It is bad news, very bad news. For no one of
completely human decent can live up to those requirements. Put another way, to
be justified under the law, you must live perfectly according to its
attributes. Violation of any statute brings retribution.
If you don't, or can't understand these legal commands, just focus upon the
requirements of the Islamic laws brought to bear on the impoverished citizens
of Afghanistan by the Taliban rulers. This is a type of religious law based
upon the requirements of religious obedience. Sin, however it is interpreted,
brings punishment, suffering, and perhaps death.
But we are not under sin but under grace! That begs the question, who are
we? Are all the people who sing "God Bless America" or have a
"God Bless America": sticker on their car under that grace, or is
there more to it than that? "God Bless America" on the reader board
of a topless bar sends a message, but is that the gospel? I think not. Most
Americans don't understand this irony, and the church and her leadership are to
blame for this gross stupidity.
This misappropriation of the Old Testament exhortation supplied by God in 2
Chronicles, is really its postulation as an act of sound, wise, and obtainable
contemporary religious observance. Why in God's name, would anyone truly set
free from the law by the saving grace offered through, and in Jesus Christ
alone, want to go back to Sinai and the law's limitations. You really don't
have to be all that intelligent to understand, that if you read the actual
passage in 2 Chronicles, is that obedience brings blessing. Disobedience brings
judgement.
These words were spoken by God to Solomon after the dedication of the
temple. No where in the Old Testament writings do you find that Israel, other
than in extremely brief instances, where able to fulfill the requirements of
this statute. In fact, it was Solomon himself, the wisest man of all time, who
led Israel into idolatry before his life was complete. It is the summit of
arrogance to believe, that in America, or the rest of the Evangelical church
for that matter, we could by religion achieve this level of righteousness and
blessing.
The fact is that really all that present Evangelicalism knows is the gospel
of "bless me (materially) Lord." This is all we have been taught, so
how can we understand anything different. Voices that teach, or prophesy any
other gospel, are generally drown out in the noise of the clamor to get more.
Not more of God, but more of His blessing. Few would doubt that the healing
that is sought for the land by most Christians, is maintenance of my life-style
and all the idolatry and self righteousness that it entails. But God does not
answer us out of our corruption, but by His grace and love.
Therefore, as we continue through this series we will see how this current
time will not bring about the healing that we think we seek. It will not be
fulfilled in the Old Testament blessings we understand, but in New Testament
grace, sufficient for the day. Along the way, much and many of our shallow
aspirations and its self promoting leadership will be torched and disappear.
In Matthew 3:10 and Luke 3:9 John the Baptist, the last prophet in Old
Testament terms prophesied : And now also the
axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. There is only
one tree that brings fruit that will not be destroyed, and that tree is the
cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus speaking in Luke 9:23 personalized that (His)
cross stating: And he said to [them] all, If any
[man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily,
and follow me.
To be alive in this time is true opportunity, to see again and to play a
part, as God does a little lumbering in the forests of His garden. The wood
obtained from our now hallowed grove of religious trees, will become the
paneling for a new temple, truly expressing the glory of God and not just His
material blessing. For until now, just as many environmentalists, we have
worshiped the created, instead of the Creator.
The roots of the American religion are revivalism and piety, those trees grow
all over the land. Over the next installments we shall see how God shall cut
off His church from those roots, and reestablish His church on the true
evangel, grafting it into the cross of Christ and the remnant spiritual Israel.
The root stock of revivalism and piety are not deep enough to anchor the church
for the road ahead. For while they may seek lasting fruit, only berries of the
sensational and the transitory ever ripen.
As God answers this Old Testament prayer from our fear of losing all, many
will find, as some have already discovered, "Today that which once was the
center of my life, doesn't seem all that important any more." By the power
of the Holy Spirit, a new everlasting temple of living stones will shine in
this world, paneled with dead trees of dead religion. All shall see God's glory
shine in the lives of His people, by His grace alone. The voice of God again
will be heard in the land as He spoke in Zechariah 4:6: Then he answered and spake unto me,
saying, This [is] the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might,
nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.
Now throughout the land has gone out the call to pray based upon the
blessing of 2 Chronicles 7:14: If my people, which
are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and
turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive
their sin, and will heal their land.
Revivalism and piety are an acceptable source from which to begin to pray
and to seek God's face. As we shall see through this Chronicle, the roots to
turn from our wicked ways, however do not lie with piety and revivalism, nor in
the blessings of the Old Testament law, but in the New Testament gospel that fulfills
the requirements of God's righteousness required in the law. The justification
that comes as adopted children of God. Along this narrow way, many well known
religious personalities will disappear and many churches will become empty
tombs of dead religious promise.
The good news is that most of God's people already are grafted into this
eternal source of freedom and love, they just have not been taught the right
way to look for the eternal blessings amongst the noise of the world's
religion. Next week, in that quest we shall present another installment.