How can you cure what you don’t understand? March 5, 2008
Posted by reformedville in : Government, Media, Theology , 2commentsLooking out of my window I respond indifferently to the presence of dirt on the ground. Should that dirt makes its way into my home, however, my feelings change and I proceed to sweep it out because it does not belong there.
Sin was in the world while Jesus was here and he witnessed it throughout His life. His life did not seem to be one of marching on Rome to bring an end to social injustice or even telling His followers how to vote. Corruption was running rampant in government when Jesus was here, and people were being taxed heavily. When they attempted to entrap Jesus on the government and tax issue, he asked to see the coin that would be using to pay this tax. He asked whose picture was on it. The Jews had accepted the rule of the Romans and were subjected to their government and taxing authority. As long as they were not neglecting or violating their responsibilities to God. He told the people they should give the government what was owed and to give God what was His.
But when it came to His Father’s House, He showed He was serious about His Father’s House.
And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”
While God opposes all error and sin, He is especially passionate about expressing this opposition when error and sin come into his house and when his children are affected. Paul models the heart and actions of a servant of God responding to an internal corruption of the church as he says “I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.” The intensity of his response is dictated by his zeal for God and his love of the Church. Servants of God feel the inappropriateness of God’s house being defiled. God’s shepherds feel responsible for guarding the flock. This divinely inspired, holy passion compels an appropriate response when God’s house is trashed and his people are deceived.
Fast forward to today
Today we live in what most theologians agree is postmodern America. We have had Christians involved in politics heavily for the past generation urging Christians to make their voice heard and politicans responding by at least paying lip service to this block of voters and citizens. There is nothing wrong about that, and I encourage everyone to exercise their civil right and duties to vote.
However, we have many who look to the government to be their solution, rather than God. Many churches have becomes social gathering points, activism centers and the social gospel, rather than the gospel of the Bible.
All the candidates have at one time or another cited their faith openly during the campaign. John Mc Cain has even castigated some for their misuse of their faith, calling them agents of intolerance and hurting the ideals and principles of the party. Obama has teamed up with Rick Warren of Saddleback Church previously in a world AIDS initiative
Political season is upon us, and we recently saw photo’s of Senator Obama in the dress of tribesmen while on a visit and the use of his middle name Hussein, a name given to him. Many wrongly have tried to assert or leave a impression that he is Islamic, which leaves another impression, that he is a terrorist or is sympathetic to terrorists. No wonder people don’t want to run for public office and we have a hard time gtetting good choices for the office of leader of the free world!
Obama disavows false claims
Obama replied that he is a devout Christian and prays to Jesus every night and has belong to the same church for twenty years. Politicians bring faith into elections so you can get an idea what values they embody aned what they believe, so the voter can identify with their core values. Senator Obama belongs to Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago .
The Trinity website is clear about what they believe:
We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian… Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain “true to our native land,” the mother continent, the cradle of civilization. God has superintended our pilgrimage through the days of slavery, the days of segregation, and the long night of racism. It is God who gives us the strength and courage to continuously address injustice as a people, and as a congregation. We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a Black worship service and ministries which address the Black Community.
The Pastor as well as the membership of Trinity United Church of Christ is committed to a 10-point Vision:
- A congregation committed to ADORATION.
- A congregation preaching SALVATION.
- A congregation actively seeking RECONCILIATION.
- A congregation with a non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA.
- A congregation committed to BIBLICAL EDUCATION.
- A congregation committed to CULTURAL EDUCATION.
- A congregation committed to the HISTORICAL EDUCATION OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN DIASPORA.
- A congregation committed to LIBERATION.
- A congregation committed to RESTORATION.
- A congregation working towards ECONOMIC PARITY.
The church is also clear about their mission
Mission Statement: What Trinity Is About
Trinity United Church of Christ has been called by God to be a congregation that is not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ and that does not apologize for its African roots! As a congregation of baptized believers, we are called to be agents of liberation not only for the oppressed, but for all of God’s family. We, as a church family, acknowledge, that we will, building on this affirmation of “who we are” and “whose we are,” call men, women, boys and girls to the liberating love of Jesus Christ, inviting them to become a part of the church universal, responding to Jesus’ command that we go into all the world and make disciples!
We are called out to be “a chosen people” that pays no attention to socio-economic or educational backgrounds. We are made up of the highly educated and the uneducated. Our congregation is a combination of the haves and the have-nots; the economically disadvantaged, the under-class, the unemployed and the employable.
The fortunate who are among us combine forces with the less fortunate to become agents of change for God who is not pleased with America’s economic mal-distribution!
W.E.B. DuBois indicated that the problem in the 20th century was going to be the problem of the color line. He was absolutely correct. Our job as servants of God is to address that problem and eradicate it in the name of Him who came for the whole world by calling all men, women, boys and girls to Christ.
Clarification
Clearly, Senator Obama is not Islamic and it is unfair to incinuate that. At the same time when someone calls themself a devout Christian, there are inferences and values attached to that term. What Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Mc Cain and Dr. Ron Paul view as Christian may be different.
It is my educated guess that what Senator Obvama and his Church deem as the mission of the church, as stated in their mission statement is radically different than the other candidates.
W.E.B. DuBois indicated that the problem in the 20th century was going to be the problem of the color line. He was absolutely correct. Our job as servants of God is to address that problem and eradicate it in the name of Him who came for the whole world by calling all men, women, boys and girls to Christ.
When Jesus was alive racism was alive and well. The descendants of Abraham were the Chosen People of God. Roman citizens enjoyed different rights than non-roman citizens and could be treated different. Jesus did not set out to change the culture or the government, but used a grass roots approach of changing a mans heart. Jesus was counter-cultural . Jesus left us with a misson statement:
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Given all authority needed
Jesus Christ gave orders to the eleven remaining apostles on a mountain in Galilee regarding the spiritual conquest of the whole earth, the first thing that He did was to declare the foundation for this mission. The imperatives of the Great Commission are based on the fact that Jesus Christ has received all authority. Christ’s reception of “all authority” is emphasized in the original language. The verb is in the emphatic position: “Given to Me was all authority.”
Pay attention, this is the Risen Christ who has completed His earthly ministry and accomplished His mission. He is giving His orders. Now you may ask, “If Jesus Christ is God how could he receive all authority? Didn’t He already have infinite power?” When discussing the humiliation and exaltation of Christ, one must keep in mind that we are discussing the divine-human Mediator.
Christ’s humiliation consists of laying aside the divine majesty; assuming a human nature (body and soul); coming in the form of a servant; and subjecting Himself to the demands and curse of the law (Gal. 4:4). Berkhof writes: “On the basis of the passage in Philippians [2:7,8] it may be said that the essential and central element in the state of humiliation is found in the fact that He who was the Lord of all the earth, the supreme Lawgiver, placed Himself under the Law, in order to discharge its federal (covenant) and penal obligations in behalf of His people. By doing this He became legally responsible for our sins and liable to the curse of the law.”
After Jesus Christ the Mediator and federal head of His people merited eternal life (by perfectly obeying the law and by taking on Himself the full penalty for the guilt of sin at the cross) He received exaltation. His exaltation is the reward for His perfect obedience. It is “the judicial result of the state of humiliation.”
Thus, Christ is referred to in Scripture as: “the first fruits of them who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20); “the first among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29); “the firstborn from the dead” (Col. 1:18). As the Mediator, Jesus secured a judicial re-creation. Christ’s resurrection and exaltation is a judicial declaration by the Father of a perfectly achieved salvation by the Son. Therefore, although as God Jesus already had all power and authority (metaphysically), as the divine-human Mediator He received all power and authority to complete His judicial mission of taking the elect unto glory. As the pre-incarnate Son He created the earth and as the mediator He created the church (Col. 1:15-22).As Ken Gentry puts it, “In the Great Commission the claim of Christ to have received from God ‘all authority in heaven and on earth’ formalizes judicially what was already true metaphysically: God’s rulership over all.”
The Great Commission has three participles: go, baptize and teach. That is precisely what the apostles and evangelists did in that first generation of the church. In only one generation churches were established throughout the Roman empire and beyond. “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace…. Their sound has gone out to all the earth, and their word to the ends of the world” (Rom 10:15, 18; cf. Ac. 17:6; Rom. 1:8; Col. 1:5, 6, 23). As A.W. Pink said, “Christ expected His New Covenant people to go, that is, to be militant in their promotion of the true faith.
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Wrong Diagnosis
Senator Obama has told people judgment is key. He cites he was not for going to Iraq. Hillary says she hoped that the President wouldn’t use the authority she gave him, and John Mc Cain said they messed up after they were there, but offered a new approach. But he has told us we should look to his initial call to not go to Iraq in the first place as why he has superior judgment.
Using that same criterion, and the fact that Obama is a devout Christian, we look at his churches diagnosis of our problem; racism and it’s cure, eradicating it, and see no where does the Bible indicate that this is the case.
He is offering behavior modification as the cure, where Jesus had this to say about hatred: “If the people of the world hate you know that they hated me before they hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember what I told you, the servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have understood and kept what I have taught them, they will understand and keep your teachings too. But they will do all kinds of evil things to you for my names sake, because they don’t know He who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would no be guilty of sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin.
To offer hope for a cure, one must first understand the problem. I am not sure the Senator does. You decide.
Amazing Jets March 5, 2008
Posted by reformedville in : Government, Uncategorized , add a comment|
http://wcbstv.com/slideshows/jet.fighter.fighterjet.20.228729.html?rid=0# |
