The Wonder Springs Chronicle

The Christian Diaspora

5 May 2010

Volume 12, Issue 18

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Last week we wrote about those awful sinners that control, or seek to control the land, the Social Darwinists. Those really bad guys are really bad, because they only think of themselves and that is because they haven’t asked Jesus into their heart.

I once attended a church where the young pastor in a Sunday sermon brought up the reality that sinners — sin! The reaction from the congregation was one of almost dumbfounded amazement. He pointed out that sin was their job description. “It can’t be true, people need Jesus, but to call them sinners is almost un-American.”

In this particular denomination the world is made up of three classes of people, the saints, the carnal Christians, and the people who need Jesus. Not a sinner in the group! In Bible days within the Jews, they had three similar groups, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the gentiles or the goyim.

The interesting thing about the financial crisis was it was brought about by sinners — sinning. It was their job description. We called them last week Social Darwinists, but why are most Americans so dumbfounded that the greedy elitists were doing just what comes naturally?

But what is even more amazing, is that people think that with a massive set of regulations passed by Congress, signed by the President, and codified through reams of bureaucratic regulations, this is somehow going to curb the abuses.

We are nearing the point where we will reach the cross over where if we had let the too big to fail — fail, would be bypassed by real bankruptcies and the new growth of a financial spring, but that is a missed opportunity, a road not taken. This was a political decision based pretty much upon the basis of short-term political expediency. Now again short term political expediency (that must be complete before the fall elections) again is called upon to make a long-term decision on how to regulate the unregulated.

None of this understands the basic tenant that common sense easily comprehends; a big bungling bureaucratic government dinosaur cannot catch a fleet footed competent individual, unless the individual makes a really stupid mistake. So why try?

The answer is simply that Federal Politicians in Washington DC, believe they have no other tools at their disposal, and for way too long Americans have believed that if big is good, bigger by definition is better, which ergo leads to the conclusion that too big to fail is the highest form of reality.

So we have reached the ultimate paradox, sinners regulating sinners is a recipe for disaster. The problem is that is the only solution sinners have, that is their job description.

This brings us back to the theological error of the pastor’s sermon, which is really a logical advance on most evangelical sermons, yet still creates a basis for the Christian Diaspora, which has happened in scientific terms in situ.

So let us begin at the beginning. The Bible begins with the creation account. In Genesis Chapter 1 we see that God first created the universe and then over time finished His creation with the individual human personality that the Bible names Adam. This universal to individual creation scheme we could call truth, or natural law, in theology an indicative, or perhaps the best term for our day and age, an Absolute, meaning a truth that exists outside of our human capacity of reason. So briefly stated in Absolute terms, “Occurrences from God operate from the universal to the individual. That is the way God created things to work, and God being God, those Absolutes still apply.

In Genesis Chapter 3 we see what is generally described as the Fall of Man into sin. From that time forward we have an established Biblical Absolute that all people are born as sinners, and left to our own devices, just as the pastor said, we sin. If we fast-forward a few more chapters we come to Genesis Chapter 11, here we see in ancient Babylon the human principle, based in sin, on how humans left to their own sinful ways create communities. That Absolute, concisely stated, means that we sinful humans desire to create our forms of governance from the individual to the collective. Within that hierarchy we form a class or classes of rulers, who by some relative standards become an elite, which theoretically look out for the benefit of us all. In most human societies, there are three principal elite classes, the enterprise leaders, the military leaders, and the political leaders. In that triune leadership structure we attempt to balance essentially the sin of other sinner groups.

Now what is missing from this common or natural organization is any type of restraint superior to these human desires for order and security. That moral constraint is normally performed by a separate religious class that may be independent of the other elites, intertwined with the elites, or isolated in one of the elitist classes. Those religious leaders can be theists, polytheists, or even atheists, all that matters is that the common human communities get outside guidance from these individuals, consistent with the cultural mores of the society.

What makes the United States unique, like no other nation in history, is that it was formed out of the norm of the collective governance of England, but yet through the American Revolution we saw the unique founding of a governance based upon God’s common creation account, in that America is founded upon God’s inalienable rights given to individual humans, and community governance is designed to flow from the bottom up, rather than from the elite on down. Since America’s founding other nations have taken pieces and parcels of that Godly understanding, but most of those pieces have been made to work within the structure of the ruling elites, especially within the spread of western culture, but still most countries even with so called democratic elections, still essentially reinforce the Babylonian model.

The American Republic has lasted as long and as strong as it has, because it is based upon the Godly model of governance in which only authority comes from above, but power comes from below. It should also not come as great wisdom that this concept of governance is under constant attack. When you add natural entropy (a natural law) and the sinful human desire of the elite to rule over others, it truly must be assumed that by God’s grace alone, the United States has stood as strong as it has for as long as it has, and these current troubles really are not the death of a nation, but rather the birth pangs of renewal or rebirth.

What was missing from our beginning pastor’s statement was a true incorporation of God’s grace. Implied in his statement was sinners’ sin and hence are under God’s judgment and by extension saints don’t sin. And all God’s people said Amen and Amen!

This is really a type of Wesleyan holiness of our Revolutionary days brought into today. Now John Wesley learned his form of piety from Lutheran pietists, so in true terms since Brother John was not a Calvinist and not a Lutheran, he had to be an Arminian. Early Wesleyans believed in personal holiness and they worked quite hard at attempting to live according to that standard. Over time, entropy being an Absolute, those standards relaxed to the point where they were no longer internally centered, but rather externally focused, and since they were based essentially on people being able to fulfill God’s law through their own efforts and merits, we have basically the formation of a class of Protestant Pharisees and hence the desire for the efforts to force sinners to become saints by legal fiat, rather than true conversion.

One aspect of entropy (that everything eventually runs out of gas), when coupled with self-righteous sin, is that we can do better today than what others did back in the primitive olden days. Since the invention of the printing press it is not all that difficult to find problems with what happened in the past. But rather than learning from historical mistakes, we arrogantly and full of pride believe that our superior position will make the results of our endeavors better, simply because we define better in relative terms in which we are both the judge and the jury.

However if entropy is an Absolute in this world, our better many times is dumbed down and inferior to what we hope to replace. Therefore if the historical example failed, there are excellent odds, that our enlightened solutions will fail quicker and with longer lasting results. That is especially true if our change model is based upon a Babylonian model of social justice.

Probably the best example of our wishful thinking is the concept of sin itself. Today we make a few mistakes, but really they are just shortcomings that we will correct as soon as we realize what we have done, and there will never be any serious consequences for our actions. Sin is an angry term from history where unenlightened people believed in an angry god that needed to be appeased. Today our god is a loving god, a jolly old fellow, who exists to give us the present desires of our warm fuzzy hearts.

There is an assertion in Christian evangelism that states essentially if people are unwilling to accept God’s grace, then give them a full dosage of law. That can be God’s law, civil law, common or natural law. However the Christian message is that Jesus Christ, by dying on a cross for the sins of mankind provided the propitiatory sacrifice and the justification for human redemption; to save us from our sins and the Almighty’s condemnation.

What was lost in the pastor’s sermon was that Godly empowerment doesn’t flow through keeping the law, but rather God’s grace bringing about salvation and the renewing or the rebirth, essentially from temporal death into eternal life. If once you understand the blessing of that gift, there is no need and in fact no justification for returning to the law as a means of bringing about personal and social change. Putting this in theological terms the indicative of God’s grace becomes the power source of the imperative to live the Christian life and perform good works for the betterment of our world.

This brings us to the Christian Diaspora in the United States and in the world for that matter. There are both saints and the non-elect in this world. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ is sufficient to save the whole world, but for reasons known only to God, not all are chosen to be his people. However there really is only one class of humans in the history and that is we are all sinners, some are saved by God’s grace, some are not, and for some reason that is how God planned it. However we are not to find our merit in ourselves as to keeping the law, nor in our election, for both take us from the realm of unmerited grace into the pride of sin and the curses of the law.

In other words, as transgressors we are all guilty, but sin is not like horseshoes or hand grenades, close isn’t good enough. So as Christians enter into a culture that no longer is a Christian nation, or even a secular nation based upon Judeo-Christian values, it really does no good to adopt the ways of the world in the effort to evangelize the lost, because salvation, or even conversions are not part of human God given responsibility, or theological imperatives. However in the world in which the Social Darwinists are the ruling elite and money is essentially the god and with enough money you can buy power, Christians playing by Babylonian principles have really no effect at all. In fact it is sort of like Esau in Genesis 25 where he gave up his birthright for a piece of bread and a bowl of lentils.

Being a member of the religious class, or put into the context of the Reformation, the priesthood of all believers, isn’t going to make you the most popular person in the world. That is especially true if you are as materialistic as any sinner and totally law driven in your so-called Christian worldview. However if you live in the power of God’s grace you will quickly learn a few things.

First of all you begin to understand the concept of no condemnation as outlined in Romans 8:1. This makes you by definition an eternal optimist, even though you might be having trouble with that concept on a day-to-day basis. In that respect you can see solutions where others hide from reality or struggle with fear. Then since you understand your empowerment comes through the grace of God, you can pass it on, without being judgmental, for since grace is a gift of God, it becomes like living water, that you can never give away without it being replenished in excess. That sure beats the law and material stuff hands down.

In your work, whatever that may be and wherever that may take you, you will begin to truly make a significant difference in your life and in your understanding of God. The more you grow the more you see how little you actually know, but at the same time you see opportunities where others see only chaos and problems, for your insight puts you into God’s development scheme. At the same time that makes you a threat to those who only understand power and money in Babylonian terms.

Finally you become part of the cure for the Christian Diaspora. When we go back to the beginning in God’s created order, as an individual you are the prime force for social change through equal justice. The better you understand who you really are as a divinely created human personality, the bigger part God has chosen for you to play in this time and place. The Jewish Diaspora forced the Jewish people out into the broader world. Since as a Christian you are already part of that world, all it takes for you to do your part is to go where that leads. The fear of the unknown will disappear and that may increase your witness, but definitely allows you broader access to the resources of this current change and helps to bring a visible renewal of Divine Sovereignty in the world.

The Christian Diaspora ceases when Christians discard being saints and become thankful for the unmerited gifts of God’s grace, both eternal and temporal.