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Prophe-Zine Issue 078
PropheZine #78
May 15, 1999
Bob Lally Publisher
Mimi Nila Senior Editor
Rick Woodcock Asst. Editor
Abraham George Asst. Editor
Lori Eldridge Asst. Editor
Bob Ippolito Asst. Editor
ARTICLES
Bob Ippolito............. A STUDY IN PARABLES-The Church in the Last Days
Ken Onweller...............The Tapestry
Ray C. Stedman...............What is Authentic Christianity?
COMMENTARIES
Berit Kjos........ FROM THE LITTLETON CRISIS TO GOVERNMENT CONTROL:
How Clinton fueled the crisis he now promises to "solve"
POEMS, Etc.
Fran Maiers.......To:Littleton....From:God
****************************************************************
Hello Everyone!
We are shortening the newsletter due to many requests from subscribers. The new version should print at about 25 pages +. The old newsletter printed at about 40 to 50 pages. I hope this will help those people who like to print the newsletter by helping to reduce the paper usage. We are also removing the Israel news since John Terry and his staff do such a great job with the PNB News every week. If you are not subscribed to the PNB news you may want to do so to stay informed of critical "last days" news in Israel and around the world. You can do so at http://www.prophezine.com (choose Email Lists). We are always looking for constructive criticism and suggestions on how to make the newsletter better for you. Please send Bob Lally (bob@prophezine.com) or myself (mnila@ibm.net) a note.
Although we live in perilous times as Christians, our strength lies only in trusting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
Pslam 5610:11 "In God will I praise his word: in the LORD will I praise his word. In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me."
In His Service,
M. Nila
Mnila@ibm.net
====================================================================
"INCREDIBLE!" "BRAVO!" "It had me sitting on the edge of my seat." See what many are calling the best Christian film ever--APOCALYPSE II: REVELATION. Biblically accurate, Hollywood quality production, highly entertaining and powerfully evangelistic! Visit this full-length movie's complete website now at www.jvim.com/apocalypseii to learn more about APOCALYPSE II: REVELATION and how to order your own copy on video today!
Also visit the Jack Van Impe web site at http://www.jvim.com
====================================================================
|==========================================
|
| A STUDY IN PARABLES - The Church in the Last Days
| by Bob Ippolito
|
The Kingdom Parables - Matthew 13 - Christianity vs christendom
This group of parables is often misinterpreted as a number of individual and somewhat unconnected parables. Secondly, the interpretations are quite often erroneous as readers may focus on the comparisons being made, rather than on the biblical meanings of the nouns which are actually the subjects of what is being compared.
WHAT IS A "PARABLE"?
Old Testament:
The Hebrew word "Mashal" is used, meaning a similitude or parable. In a wide range of use this word covers several forms of suggestive and picturesque speech. It is never used in the narrow technical sense as it is in the New Testament. (Num 23:7, 18; 24: 3, 15; Job 27:1; 29:1.
Examples:
the Wounded Prophet - I Kings 20:39
Jehovah's Vineyard - Isa 5: 1-7
the Plowman - Isa 28: 24 - 28
New Testament:
It is from the Greek word "parabole" (Matthew, Mark and Luke) meaning "to represent or stand for something", and "paroimia" (John) meaning "being drawn from common objects and incidents".
Another Greek word derived from these roots is the Greek word "Paraclete" for the Holy Spirit, as one who "goes alongside" or is our Advocate.
From these roots we also get many English words such as parallel (runs alongside of), parameter (the sides of), paragon (model of excellence), paraphrase (to say the same thing differently), parabola ( a curve that loops around and comes back).
Applications:
A common aspect of life is employed for the sake of illustrating a higher truth.
An earthly story with a heavenly meaning.
An outward symbol of an inward reality.
Mirrors of spiritual things.
Parables deal with the truth of God; they are correspondingly lofty, with illustrations true to reality - in a parable there is never anything contrary to the truth of nature. They are always related to the territory of the possible and true.
Although Jesus did not invent the parable, He elevated it to dimensions never before attained.
PARABOLIC TECHNIQUES
Simile - a statement of resemblance. A is LIKE B
Metaphor - the concept of replacement. A IS B
Allegory - similar to a parable; deals with past events and carries a teaching.
Prophecy - events yet to come, and means what it says.
Proverb - Usually brief; deals with less lofty subjects; a wise saying.
Fable- fictitious story used to communicate teaching or truth; less lofty subjects using a lower kind of figurative speech; faults ridiculed, vices scorned.
Type - has the force of a copy or pattern; such figures of speech are throughout the Bible.
ADVANTAGES OF A PARABLE:
1- attract attention and are easy to remember
2- require thinking and must be studied to uncover their meaning
3- reach into the emotion and stir up. e.g. - hell as a "furnace of fire"; conscience as a "gnawing worm".
4- arrest and hold attention; Jesus used the suggestions of the moment - the Lillies of the field, the birds of the air.
5- preserve the truth; what men think through becomes their own; mere words, of themselves, can change meaning; but the common symbols of life and nature, as used in parables, do not change.
6- conceal truth from disinterested hearers and rebels (Mat.13: 11-15)
7- add understanding to those who love the truth; but take away understanding from those who are confused by the parables. (Mat 13:12) like a two-edged sword (1 Cor. 2:14) convincing the disciples while condemning the Pharisees
8- fulfill prophecy (Mat 13:14-17, 35.
INTERPRETING THE PARABLES:
1- look at the context introducing the parable BEFORE attempting to understand it.
2- first consider and understand fully the earthly or non-spiritual sense of the story.
3- seek the central statement (the interpretation) being made by the parable, in view of the above. Do not allow the details to cloud or shift the central teaching or lesson.
4- there is ONE interpretation, although it may be dispensational or prophetic, and there may be many applications, both moral and practical.
5- use Jesus' example as a guide (Mat 13:18-23, 36-43)
6- pray and rely on the Holy Spirit to reveal the meaning to us (1 Cor 2:11,13)
7- the details are not intended to be cryptograms with each and every term having special significance.
8- traits which, if literally interpreted, would contradict Scripture, are to be taken as dressing for the main point. Do not pull detailed doctrine out of parables. e.g. - the number of wise virgins being exactly equal to the number of foolish virgins.
THE MATTHEW 13 KINGDOM OF GOD PACKAGE OF SEVEN PARABLES:
The chapter is about:
the nature of Parables v 10 - 17, 19
the kingdom of God v 3 - 52
people and the kingdom of God v 3 - 52
prophecy and the kingdom of God v 30 - 33, 40 - 43, 49 - 50.
THE PARABLE OF THE SOILS - v 3 - 8 (told), 18 - 23 (explained) (Parable #1)
The problem of the soil:
In it we have an explanation of HOW the kingdom is created (out of the WORD of God in people's hearts)
The seed is all GOOD (the WORD of God)
The soil (the hearts of the people) is of 4 types:
1- the wayside - hears - yes; understands - no ; lives it - no ; persists in it - no .
2- rocky soil - hears - yes; understands - yes; lives it - no ; persists in it - no .
3- thorns - hears - yes; understands - yes; lives it - yes; persists in it - no .
4- good soil - hears - yes; understands - yes; lives it - yes; persists in it - yes.
The message: of the many who profess Christianity, it is only those who hear, understand, obey and live by the WORD of God who are children of God in the kingdom of God.
They are the Church, while the others are simply practicing 'CHURCHIANITY'.
I - THE FIRST GROUP OF THREE PARABLES: What is the ultimate result in the world of the responses?
The Tares among the Wheat
The Mustard Seed
The Leaven in the Loaf
The Mustard Seed and Leavened Loaf are often summarized as "the church grows to be really big" - WRONG! It is this aberrational interpretation that has led many to the false doctrinal position of "Kingdom Now Theology" which believes that Christ won't return until the world is evangelized and ready to receive Him back willingly. THIS IS TOTALLY CONTRARY TO PROPHECY AND TO THESE PARABLES!
THE TARES AMONG THE WHEAT: (the problem with the field) (Parable #2)
v 24 - 30 (told); v 36 - 41 (explained)
Jesus tells in parabolic form, something about the nature of the people of the world.
Then, separately to His disciples, He explains it: (He is training them in this and the above parable, how to interpret parables)
While many people try to explain this parable in very simple examples of people in the pew of the church, it does not hold, because Jesus has already explained it, less we misunderstand this one:
the Sower = the Son of Man (JESUS)
the field = the world (the WHOLE world with ALL its people)
the Good Seed = the sons of the kingdom of God (John 1:12)
the tares = the sons of the evil one, the devil (John 8: 43 - 47)
the enemy = the devil
the harvest = the End of the Age (not the end of the world)
the reapers = the angels of God
The people of the world, represented as seed sown in a field in this parable, had their heart condition depicted as 'soil' in the previous parable.
The message of this parable, when combining it with the message from the Parable of the Soils: The reason that so much of the soil in the field is so unfertile and unproductive, is that it has been contaminated by the devil from the beginning. The manifestation of the evil deed is seen in those who are unresponsive to God's Word. It is God's Word that illicits a positive or negative response as the harvesting mechanism. People respond according to what they are. The effect of the Word is like a magnet being passed over the world, attracting some, and repelling others. In plain, doctrinal teaching elsewhere, it is that the LIGHT of the Word of God in the world brings change to some, but others hide in the shadows because they prefer the darkness. (John 1:9, 3: 19).
THE MUSTARD SEED v 31-32 (parable #3)
(no explanation needed for them in Christ's time; but WE need it today)
The external appearance of the Church:
A mustard seed is the least of all seeds in that it is very small. But, as they well understood, it grows into a good sized BUSH (not a plant or a tree).
The Church started out small (Ephes 2: 20) and should grow into a bush, in the sense that God's people have always represented a minority or a remnant in the world. It is an herb, and proliferates for a season, never getting very large (the Father prunes it) by accumulated growth as does a tree. But the mustard seed in this parable grew into a tree (very noticeable and not natural) and the birds of the air (used negatively in the Bible in Mat 13: 4; Dan 4:10 - 15a; Rev 18: 1-2; Ezek 31:1-10) came and nested in its branches. Prophetically (as well as in keeping with the previous two parables about the birds eating up the seed and the big bonfire at the End of the Age) it is pointing toward the flourishing of a politicized church that would be a mixture of a multitude of teachings and doctrines and agendas, one that would get itself involved with Crusades and Inquisitions and End Times cults, and New Age teachings, etc, etc, etc. The World's idea of the visible church is a cornucopia of organizations and a Babylon of confusion.
Nature's clear teaching: - a bush seed does not become a tree.
The Bible's clear teaching:
a) the End Time condition of christendom (churchianity) would be an apostate church (2 Thes 2:3, Luke 18:8, Mat 24: 23 - 24; Rev 2:14, 20; 3: 17)
b) the world hates the real Church (John 17:14)
c) the real Church is invisible (John 17: 22 - 23; 3: 8)
THE LEAVEN IN THE LOAF v 13:33 (Parable #4)
The words and the meanings:
leaven = sin
woman = leads into spiritual adultery
three pecks = a great measure of wheat
all leavened = permeated within
a Woman:
Jezebel - Rev 2:20
whore of Babylon - Zech 5:7; Rev 17:3-5
Eve was deceived
a woman HID:
Indicative of spiritual adultery or immorality being sown in.
John 3:20-21
LEAVEN :
leaven of the Pharisees - Luke 12:1
legalism - Gal 5:9
immorality - 1 Cor 5: 6 - 8
unleavened bread for angels - Gen 19:3
purge the houses of - Ex 12:15-20
the "leaven of Herod" (worldliness) - Mark 8: 14 - 15
"leaven" used 13 times in the New Testament, indicative of evil and Satan
in THREE PECKS of meal
enough to make a huge amount of bread;
enough to make MANY loaves (1 Sam 1:24; Gen 18:6; Judges 6:19)
BUT the Church is ONE loaf (1 Cor 10:17)
until it was ALL leavened:
the spoiling of the 'church'
Gal 2:4; Jude 4-5; 2 Tim 2:6-7; 2 Thes 2:7
The lessons from the Mustard Seed Parable- REJECT OUTWARD GRANDEUR.
The lesson from the Leavened Loaf Parable - REJECT INWARD HERESY.
THE LAST THREE PARABLES: How the individual comes upon the word of god.
the person was seeking for truth, and it was found.
TREASURE IN A FIELD- v 44 - (Parable #5) (Isa 65:1)
The person was NOT seeking, but stumbled upon it.
It did not belong to the owner of the field and the finder found it more valuable than all his possessions, proceeding to sell all to obtain it.
This reminds us that:
Satan is the God of this world - 1 John 5:19; Rev 13:3
We should love God with our WHOLE heart and soul and mind and strength - Mark 10:21
THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE: v 45-46 - (Parable #6) (Jer 29:13)
This person was seeking the truth, knowing what he was looking for, and recognized it when he found it.
God's precious gift of the truth in Christ in the wrong hands is like pearls before swine - Mat 7:6; 1 Cor. 2:14.
THE DRAGNET: v 47-50 - (Parable #7)
With this person, the truth found him!
Perhaps good examples would be Christ as the Good Shepherd, seeking His lost sheep. Like sheep, we're pretty stupid. Some of us are not, were not, looking; some of us wouldn't know the truth if it were served on a silver platter. Somehow, praise be to God, He finds us!
SUMMARIZING IT ALL:
Parable #1- The knowledge of the mystery of the Kingdom of God is received differently by different people, according to the condition of their heart. The majority have a heart against God.
Parable #2- The condition of the hearts of most people in the world has been turned against God by the devil.
Parable #3- The love of the world for power and grandeur will cause the worldly appearance of the church to seem much larger than it really is seen by God's standards. God is not fooled.
Parable #4- Because of the worldly love of sin and compromise, the worldly standards for the church will accommodate doctrines and practices that God's real Church will NOT stand for. God is not fooled.
Parable #5- Some find The knowledge of the mystery of the Kingdom of God as a result of stumbling upon it by accident.
Parable #6- Some find The knowledge of the mystery of the Kingdom of God as they are seeking it.
Parable #7- God makes sure that all those who are His are captured by The knowledge of the mystery of the Kingdom of God.
In the end He will sort out His children from the children of the devil. God is not fooled, nor robbed, nor will He lose even one.
In the service of the King,
Bob Ippolito
Associate Editor - Prophezine - WatchmanT@aol.com
Founder and Editor - The Watchman's Trumpet - http://pages.prodigy.net/hippolytus
====================================================================
"INCREDIBLE!" "BRAVO!" "It had me sitting on the edge of my seat." See what many are calling the best Christian film ever--APOCALYPSE II: REVELATION. Biblically accurate, Hollywood quality production, highly entertaining and powerfully evangelistic! Visit this full-length movie's complete website now at www.jvim.com/apocalypseii to learn more about APOCALYPSE II: REVELATION and how to order your own copy on video today!
Also visit the Jack Van Impe web site at http://www.jvim.com
====================================================================
|==========================================
|
| The Tapestry
| by Ken Onweller
|
It has been said by some that when we get to Heaven, we will be able to look back upon our lives and to see how God has been behind every aspect of it in ways we never could have seen. But if we start to examine the Tapestry today, we can begin to develop a new appreciation for God and what he is doing in our lives that should strengthen our faith!
Allow me to explain what I mean by the Tapestry. The only ones dwelling in Eternity are the saved.
--------- Revelation 21:24 ---------
24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
The unsaved will be forgotten and be as if they never existed (Ecc 9:5; Rev 21:8). Now come back to Mortality (where we are right now): we have living today both the saved and the unsaved. God already knows the state of each person in Mortality (Rom 8:29). The ones with which he is concerned about are those who are saved (or will accept salvation during the course of their lifetime). The rest are not his concern. Jesus alluded to this when he said:
Joh 17:9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
So then, what about those who will never be saved? Why does God allow them to live? What purpose will they serve? This is a question that has been perplexing me for a very long time until I saw this:
------------ Romans 9:21 ------------
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
In other words, God created some vessels for honour and some for dishonour. But why create vessels (mortals) who were destined to never be saved? Why do that?
------------ Romans 9:22 -------------
22 [What] if God, willing to shew [his] wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
We can see that God created these unsaved vessels for the sake of the saved. And this implies that what God has done is to create some people whose sole purpose is for our benefit!
If there were only ever going to be 5 people in Eternity and God knew that these 5 people had to go through various life situations before they were even ready to accept the call to salvation, would it be wholly unreasonable for God to create other people whose entire purpose it was to lead these 5 to the point where they would accept salvation? This is EXACTLY what Rom 9:22-23 is saying!!! There are people who have been created for the sole purpose of YOUR SALVATION.
In other words, think of yourself as one of the 5 people in my analogy.
The bible even gives a very vivid example of one of these unsaved's that God created expressly for a purpose:
Ro 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Just stop and think about it. God has been working through your life from beginning to end for the entire purpose of preparing you for Eternity! He has directly worked in your life; he has also created people for the sole purpose of bringing you there! What a great gift he has given you.
Now look back upon your life and think of all of the critical events you went through which make you who you are and the people who have been pivotal in getting you there.
It is all God, brethren! Each event and each person He has placed there for you and your growth.
This is the Tapestry.
Now, with this in mind, does this passage not make more sense to you?
Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].
Remember that EVERYTHING in our lives is designed by God to prepare us for Eternity. And, there is NOTHING going on that isn't spiritual in nature. IF you can realize this, you will begin to enjoy and to experience the Tapestry. We cannot see nor understand its fullness at this time, but we will one day. For now suffice it to say that God has gone to immeasurable lengths for you. Isn't that awesome?
Ps 68:19 Blessed [be] the Lord, [who] daily loadeth us [with benefits, even] the God of our salvation. Selah.
(kender@ix.netcom.com)
|==========================================
|
| What is Authentic Christianity?
| by Ray C. Stedman
|
The Great Imitation
The Christian life begins with an encounter with Jesus Christ. It cannot be otherwise. "He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life" (I John 5: 1 2).
Many things may lead to that encounter and much of it may be intensely religious, but until a person responds to the promise of Christ and receives him as Lord there is no possibility of eternal life. That "receiving" may be so effortless and gentle as scarcely to be chronicled, as with a child; or it may be spectacular and dramatic, like the Apostle Paul; or peaceful and with little or no feeling except warmth, like John Wesley's conversion; or even tortuous and painful. As with St. Augustine. However it occurs, it must occur before there can be any hope of living a Christian life.
The Bible Says . . .
That encounter with Christ, so vital to becoming a Christian, assumes a number of things which rest upon the written record of the Bible. Consequently, some knowledge of the Bible and/or of its teachings is essential to believing in or receiving Christ. It is the biblical account of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus which gives us any reason for believing that Jesus is alive and available to us; that Jesus can, by the Holy Spirit, actually come to live within a human being and so entwine his own life with that person that from then on the two must be regarded as essentially one. It is the biblical account of the life and character of Jesus that gives us any basis for assuming that Jesus is truly the Savior he claimed to be and that he has the power and wisdom to deliver and free all who come to him. You recall that Jesus said, "Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28); and "I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12).
No Other Way
But no matter how clearly one may understand who Jesus is and what he can do, and even how he does it (by the principle represented in his cross and resurrection, or what some like to call "the plan of salvation"), nevertheless, until the human will responds to the invitation of Jesus and chooses to receive him, obey him, and follow him there can be no impartation of eternal life. All offers of salvation in the New Testament are directed to the will to make the choice of surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus. One does not become a Christian by intellectually comprehending the historical facts about Jesus. By the same token one does not become a Christian by grasping the theological implications of his death and resurrection. One does not become a Christian by adhering to certain moral and ethical standards which Jesus taught. Nor does one become a Christian by seeking to relate one's life to God apart from Jesus Christ. Rather, one becomes a Christian by asking Jesus to come in as Lord and by then believing that he is capable of doing it and has actually done it by means of the Holy Spirit. Whenever (and however) that occurs, what is essentially a miracle takes place, though it may well be without outward demonstration or feeling. A new quality of life (called eternal life) is imparted to that individual and he is "made alive in Christ." It is this divine action that makes him a Christian, and nothing else. "He that has the Son has life; he that does not have the S o n does not have life." It is that simple.
Signs of Life
But that is just the beginning. As a human baby, fresh from its mother's womb is truly a person, though its life may be undeveloped, so a newly regenerated individual is truly a Christian and shares the life of Jesus. This is true even though there is much to be learned and experienced before that life achieves anything that can properly be called maturity. Happily, however, certain manifestations of the new life do appear soon. Perhaps the easiest to recognize is a sense of peace and well-being, especially in terms of one's feelings about God. It is, as Paul tells us, the result of God's Spirit bearing witness with our human Spirit that we are now the children of God. And that sense of peace is made more intense and lasting as we come to realize the full implications of sins forgiven through our relationship to Christ. This release from guilt is a large part of the peace Christians experience. Another element soon present in the new Christian is a sense of belonging to a family. We learn that we are not alone, but have become members of a large and ever-growing family. As members of that family, we have many brothers and sisters to relate to and enjoy while at the same time we have continual access to our heavenly Father through prayer and love. For many the most joyful part of that new life is release from the fear of death and what lies beyond. To have the certain hope of heaven rather than the fear of hell is a relief beyond all expressing. Because of these elements present in varying degrees at varying times, many new Christians experience intense excitement and joy. The Bible becomes a fresh and exciting book, and meeting with other Christians is a continual joy. The change in their own attitudes and outlook is apparent to everyone, and they find it difficult to understand why they did not become Christians years earlier.
Three Possible Choices
This initial state of euphoria may continue for weeks or even months. But inevitably, sooner or later, the old natural life begins to reassert itself. The glow begins to fade from Christian worship, and Bible reading becomes less and less rewarding. Christian fellowship in meetings and individual contact becomes dull and routine---old habits of thought and action reassert themselves. This is a critical time when one of three possibilities may occur. First, the young Christian continues his decline to the point of dropping out of all Christian relationships, neglects his Bible totally, has little or no time for prayer, loses interest in spiritual matters entirely, and is finally living no differently than he was before he became a Christian. It is true there may be occasional periods of remission with the possibility of eventually establishing a fairly consistent Christian life, but in the majority of cases there is no return, at least for many years, and grave doubt is raised as to whether the individual ever became a Christian at all. The second possibility is that he becomes aware of his cold and rebellious heart, is frightened by the thought of regressing to what he was before, and casts himself in repentance and frustration upon the Lord anew, renewing his trust in God's promises, and perhaps seeking the help of older, more experienced Christians and thereby returning to a state of peace and joy. This cycle may be repeated many times until it becomes the pattern of his experience and he comes to think of it as normal Christianity. On the other hand he may, happily, learn something from each repeated cycle till eventually his eyes ate opened to the truth that will deliver him from his roller-coaster experience and he becomes a settled, stable, Spirit-led Christian.
The third and most likely possibility is that the new Christian may discover what millions of others before him have learned: It is possible to avoid the pain and humiliation of repentance and renewal by maintaining an outward facade of spiritual commitment, moral impeccability, and orthodox behavior. In so doing he can preserve a reputation for spiritual growth and maturity that is satisfying to the ego and seems to gain much in the way of opportunities for service and the commendation of the Christian community. Such a Christian life-style is usually so prevalent and so little condemned that the new Christian can hardly be blamed for adopting it and regarding it as the expected thing. He drifts into it with scarcely a pang, little realizing that it is a total fraud, a shabby imitation of the real thing. He would be deeply offended if anyone should call him a hypocrite. To him hypocrisy is a deliberate attempt to deceive others, and his own commitment to the doctrine, moral standards, and practice of Christianity is deep and sincere. But in reality he is a hypocrite because the peace he claims to have is present only while his circumstances are untroubled, the joy he sings about seldom shows on his face, and the love he is forever extolling is reserved only for those who please him. It is all a giant sham, though for the most part an unconscious one. He may be a true Christian in whose heart Christ dwells, but except for rare moments (usually of desperation or high ecstasy) he does not live the Christian life. The quality of life may be moral, often even generous, and it certainly is religious, but it is anything but Christian. Actually it is virtually the same life he lived before receiving Christ, but now it is covered by a thin Christian glaze, a veneer which quickly disappears when events become irritating, difficult, or distressing.
Different More Than Somewhat
This may seem like a harsh judgment to many. True Christianity in certain circles is equated with doctrinal purity, and whenever true teaching is adhered to it is very difficult for those who view life this way to accept the charge that they are not yet living an authentic Christian life. But it must be remembered that true Christianity is more than teaching it is a LIFE. "He who has the Son has life"! Remember? That life is more than mere morality, it is more than doctrinal accuracy, it is more than inoffensive gentility. It is positive, not merely negative; it is radical, not superficial; it is humble, not self-praising; it is compassionate, not indifferent; it is courageous, not retiring. It is a far cry indeed from the mild compatibility that passes for Christianity in thousands of churches across the land. The Great Imitation is so widely accepted as genuine Christianity that the real thing is often regarded as a threat or a heresy whenever it appears.
It is the purpose of this book to trace the sharp distinctions between the phony and the genuine. We shall be guided wholly by the revelation of Scripture for the Word of God is the only sufficient guide to distinguish truth from error. We shall explore together a major passage from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians chapters 2:14 to 6:13. In this passage Paul helps the Corinthians to distinguish between authentic Christianity, as he himself lived it and the pale imitation that many of them had mistaken for the real thing. Then the apostle takes them on, step by step (and us with them) into an understanding of the enormous enrichment that awaits those who learn to live by the New Covenant, which gives life, and not by the Old, which kills. The treatment of the passage will not be theological (in the bad sense of that term), nor will it be devotional (horrible word), but intensely practical and forthright. If you are interested at all in radical and authentic Christianity, read on.
The Real Thing
It has always seemed unfair to me that many churches (and some individual Christians) keep careful records on how many converts they make to Christianity, but never keep any records at all on how many they drive away from Christ. Fairness would seem to dictate that both sides of the ledger should be maintained. For the fact is, churches often turn far more people from Christ than they ever win to him, and frequently it is the most zealous and orthodox of Christians who are doing the driving away. The reason is, as we have seen, that though they may indeed be true Christians themselves, the life they are manifesting is false Christianity. It is as phony as a three-dollar bill.
False Out of True
True, there is a false Christianity which is practiced by those who aren't Christians at all. There are many religious frauds who have never been real Christians, and there are apostates who give every appearance of being Christian for awhile and then throw the whole thing over. But surely the most subtle stratagem ever devised by the Tempter to deceive and delude men is to take genuine Christians who truly know Jesus as the living Lord and Savior and mislead them into practicing a sham Christianity which they sincerely believe is the real thing. It can't, of course, be detected by a doctrinal statement or adherence to a creed, for this type of phony Christianity is always orthodox. It is frequently very zealous and feeds upon consecration services and dedication meetings. It uses all the right terms and behaves in the proper, orthodox manner, but the net result is to drive people from Christ rather than bring them to him.
In sharp contrast to this, there is the real thing---authentic Christianity as it was intended to be. When it is manifested, it never requires advertisement or publicity. It has a fascination about it that will draw people like flies to honey. True, it may antagonize many when they find out what its secret is, but the initial character of authentic Christianity is to attract and compel admiration. That was certainly its effect in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. There is, of course, no clearer demonstration possible of what real Christianity looks like than was evident in the life of Jesus. This was Christian life in its purest and most utterly consistent form.
An Apostle's Example
But the trouble with that demonstration, for many people, is that they feel Jesus had an edge over the rest of us in that while he was undoubtedly man, he was also God, and from that Divine heritage he drew strength to resist evil that the rest of us do not have That is a highly debatable point, but we shall not enter into the argument here. Rather, let's turn to one of the many other passages of Scripture which describe authentic Christianity in terms of someone we may feel a bit closer to at least at first. Since authentic or radical Christianity is the end result toward which all the Scriptures move, there are many passages in both the Old and New Testaments which could be used to guide us to this discovery. But we shall choose one particular selection from Paul's second letter to the Christians at Corinth. This letter is one of the most biographical of all Paul's letters. In it the apostle gives us insight into his own experiences and reveals to us in the clearest terms the secret of his great ministry.
The first one and one-half chapters of Second Corinthians indicate that Paul was being challenged by certain Christians at Corinth. They had been affected by some Jewish Christians from Jerusalem who suggested that Paul was not a genuine apostle at all because he was not one of the original twelve, and because he taught certain things that went beyond the law of Moses . Claiming that he was not a real apostle they insisted his brand of Christianity was not real Christianity. One of the Devil's favorite tricks is to brand the truth as a big lie, and that was what was going on at Corinth.
Five Unmistakable Marks
Paul's response to this is to describe for us the nature of his ministry. It has, as we shall see, five marks or qualities which cannot be successfully imitated. These qualities are always present whenever real Christianity is being practiced, and no matter how clearly false Christianity may try to copy them, it can't be done. They are inimitable. They have nothing to do with personality or temperament and therefore are attainable by anyone who discovers their secret. And they are not limited to one period of time, but are just as genuine when manifested in the twentieth century as in the first.
We shall begin our journey of discovery at the fourteenth verse of the second chapter of Second Corinthians. In this one verse are hidden three of the marks of genuine Christianity, and the remaining two are found in the verses that follow. "But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere" (2 Corinthians 2:14).
Unquenchable Optimism
The first of the five marks is found in the very first phrase, "thanks be to God." One unmistakable mark of radical Christianity is that it is a thankful life even in the midst of trial and difficulty. It is a kind of unquenchable optimism. You can see it clearly in the Book of Acts where a note of triumph runs right through from beginning to end despite the dangers, hardships, persecutions, pressures, and perils that the early Christians experienced. The same continual note of thanksgiving is reflected in all of Paul's letters as well as those of John, Peter, and James.
The kind of thanksgiving referred to throughout is genuine. It is really and truly felt. There is nothing put on or artificial about it. It is a far cry from the phony imitation that is sometimes seen in Christians today. Some people think they are required to repeat pious and thankful words even though they don't really believe them just because the Scriptures say that is the way Christians should act. Many have settled for a form of Christian stoicism, a grin-and-bear-it attitude which even a non-Christian can adopt when there's nothing much he can do about a situation. But that is a long way from Christian thankfulness. To listen to some sermons today one would think that Christians are expected to screw on a smile and go around saying, "Hallelujah, I've got cancer!"
But authentic Christianity does not do that. It feels all the hurt and pain of adverse circumstances as much as anyone else, and does not enjoy them in the least degree. But it does see an end result being produced (not only in heaven, someday, but right now, on earth) that is so desirable and glorious it is worth all the pain and heartache. Therefore, it can do nothing else but rejoice. An authentic Christian is confident that the same Lord who permitted the pain to come will use it to bring about a highly desirable end, and can, therefore, be genuinely thankful even in the midst of perplexity and sorrow.
There is an outstanding example of this in Acts 16 when Paul and Silas found themselves at midnight thrust into an inner dungeon in the city jail of Philippi. Their backs were raw and bloody from the terrible flogging they had received at the hands of the Roman authorities, and their feet were fastened immovably in stocks. The future ahead was very uncertain; they didn't know what might happen to them in the morning. There was no one around to be impressed by a show of courage and no one to whom they could look for intervention or help. Yet despite such a discouraging outlook, Paul and Silas saw something about the situation that made them literally break into song.
No one could accuse them of being phony or of putting up a good front in an effort to keep up their spirits. They were genuinely thankful to God and began to praise him at midnight because they knew that despite the apparent rebuff and lack of success, their objective had been accomplished. The church they longed to plant in Philippi now could not be stopped. That made them break out in praise and thanksgiving. Of course, they knew nothing at that moment about the earthquake that would jar their chains loose and set them free. They had no premonition at all of being set free, but were simply manifesting the inevitable mark of having found the radical secret of Christianity---unquenchable optimism and thanksgiving.
Unvarying Success
The second mark is closely linked to the first and is found in the next phrase, "who in Christ always leads us in triumph." Note how Paul puts it, "he always leads us in triumph." Not occasionally, or sometimes, but always. The apostle makes perfectly clear that the Christianity which he has experienced presents a pattern of unvarying success. It never involves failure but invariably achieves its goals. It involves, as we have seen, struggle and hardships and tears, but though the struggle may be desperate, it is never serious. It issues at last in the accomplishment of the objectives sought. Even the opposition encountered is made to serve the purposes of victory.
We must remember that these high-sounding words are not mere evangelical pep talk. They were not uttered by a pastor to a well-dressed congregation in a twentieth-century church to give them a vicarious thrill as they momentarily felt the challenge of faith. Instead, they were written by a man who bore on his body the brand-marks of Jesus and who had endured much difficulty, endless disappointments, and bitter persecution with great pain. Yet he could write with rugged truthfulness: "He always leads us in triumph."
This certainly did not mean that Paul's plans and goals were always realized, for they were not. He wanted to do many things that he was never able to accomplish. In the ninth chapter of Romans Paul tells us how he hungered to be used as a minister to Israel "my kinsmen according to the flesh." He even expressed the willingness to be cut off from Christ if only the Israelites would be delivered. But he never achieved that objective. It is not his plans that are in view here, but God's. The triumph is Christ's, not Paul's. But the invariable mark of authentic Christianity is that when any individual has learned to discover its radical secret there is never a failure. God cannot be thwarted in his will. Every obstacle becomes an opportunity and success is inevitable.
The Liberty of Prison
It is this principle of invariable triumph which Paul describes in the first chapter of his letter to his friends at Philippi. He is now a prisoner in the city of Rome, confined to a private, rented home but chained day and night to a member of Caesar's Imperial Guard. Things look bad for him. He must soon appear before Nero Caesar to answer Jewish charges that could mean his life. He can't travel about the empire, preaching "the inexhaustible riches of Christ." And he cannot even visit the churches he founded. What a time for discouragement. Yet no letter of the New Testament reflects more confidence and rejoicing than that of Philippians. The reason for this confidence, Paul says, is twofold. He writes, "I want you to know, brethren, that what has happened to me has really served t o advance the gospel" (Philippians 1:12). Then he lists two evidences to prove his point.
First, he says, ". . . it has become known throughout the whole praetorian guard, and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ" (Philippians 1:13). The praetorian guard is the Imperial bodyguard. Since he is a prisoner of Caesar's, he must be guarded by Caesar's picked guard. The guard was made up for the most part of sons of noble families who were commissioned to spend a few years in Nero's palace guard. Later on the group would become the king-makers of the empire and were responsible for the choice of several succeeding emperors. They were impressive young men the cream of the empire.
Anyone who can read between the lines a bit will see what is happening here. It is clear that the Lord Jesus, in his role of King of the earth, has appointed Nero to be the chairman of the Committee for the Evangelization of the Roman Empire. Nero doesn't know this, but then emperors seldom know what is really going on in their empires. Remember that when the time came for the Son of God to be born in Bethlehem, his mother and her new husband were 70 miles away, living in Nazareth. So God commissioned Emperor Augustus with the task of getting Joseph and Mary down from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Augustus felt strangely moved to issue an Imperial Edict that everyone should go to his hometown to be taxed. and that did the trick! So in this case Nero has given orders that his Imperial Bodyguard should have charge of the Apostle Paul. And every six hours one of the splendid young men was brought in and for six hours chained to the Apostle Paul !
I suggest that if you want to feel sorry for anyone that you feel sorry for this young man. Here he is, trying to live a quiet, pagan life and every so often he is ordered out and chained to this disturbing man who says the most amazing things about one called Jesus of Nazareth, risen from the dead. As a result, one by one these young men were being won to Christ. It is what you might call a chain reaction! If you doubt that this is what was taking place, then look at the next to the last verse of the Philippian letter. There Paul says, "All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household" (Philippians 4:22). Here is a band of young men, the political center of the empire, who are being infiltrated and conquered for Christ by an old man in chains who is awaiting trial for his life. It is not at all unlikely that some of the young men who accompanied Paul on his later journeys came from this very band.
This incident is a magnificent revelation of the strategy of God and, incidentally, of the weakness of human planning by contrast. No human mind could have conceived this unique approach to the very heart of the empire. We humans are forever planning strategies for fulfilling the Great Commission, but what we come up with is usually banal, routine, unimaginative, and relatively ineffective. The noteworthy thing about God's strategy is that it often takes the form of active opposition.
Progress by Opposition
That is what is recorded in the early chapters of Acts. The church in Jerusalem was growing by leaps and bounds. Some 2,000 to 5,000 Christians were gathering together weekly and enjoying the tremendous fellowship and excitement. Yet it was all contained within the city walls. When God wanted to spread these good things among the nations, he permitted sharp opposition to arise. As a result, the early Christians were driven throughout the empire, all except the apostles.
Since having learned to glimpse God's hand in these acts of opposition, I have begun to read missionary reports in a different light. Of late years there have been many reports in missionary magazines saying in one way or another, "Terrible things are happening to our country. The doors are closing to the gospel; opposition is arising, the government is trying to suppress all Christian witness, and we missionaries must soon pack up and get out." Now there is no question but what missionaries need much concerted prayer, and the national Christians are in terrible and immediate danger. Nevertheless, when I read such reports, I have learned to say, "Thank God. At last the missionaries are being forced to relinquish control of the churches and the national church is taking over." In Ethiopia, before World War II, the missionaries were driven out for twenty years, but when they came back in they found that the gospel had spread like wildfire, and there were far more Christians than if the missionaries had been allowed to stay. China is a similar story.
Bolder Brothers
Paul makes a second point in his letter to the Philippians to support his claim that the things which happened to him had only served to advance the gospel. He says ". . . most of the brethren have been made confident in the Lord because of my imprisonment, and are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear" (Philippians 1:14). Because Paul was a prisoner, the Roman Christians were witnessing far more freely throughout the city than they would have done otherwise. It was at this time that the first official Roman persecution against the Christians was beginning. Many, therefore, were afraid to speak of their faith. But when they saw that God was in complete charge of matters not Nero, nor the Jews they were emboldened to proclaim the gospel. As a result, there was far more effective outreach going on in Rome than even if Paul had been free to preach at will. This fact has always suggested to me that perhaps the best way to evangelize a community would be to start by locking all the preachers up in jail! Other Christians might then begin to realize that they, too, have gifts for ministry and begin to exercise them in effective ways. Sometime I would like to try It.
Living Letters
As we who live in the twentieth century look back upon this first-century incident, we can see still a third proof of Paul's claim that even he himself could not see at the time. If we had been with Paul in that hired house in Rome and had asked him, "Paul, what do you think has been the greatest work you have been able to accomplish in your ministry, through the power of Christ?" what do you think he would have said? I feel sure his answer would have been: "the planting of churches in various cities. " It was to these churches that his letters were written, and it was for them that he prayed daily. He called them, "my joy and crown" and spent himself without restraint for them.
But now, looking back across these twenty intervening centuries we can see that the planting of these churches was not his greatest work after all. Every one of the churches he planted has ceased its testimony long ago. In most cases, the very cities in which they existed lie in ruins today. But the work of Paul which has persisted to this day and has had permanent and increasing value throughout the centuries has been the letters that he wrote when he was locked up and could do nothing else! Those letters have changed the world. They are among the most powerful documents ever known to men. No wonder Paul could write, "Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph. " It is an unmistakable mark of authentic Christianity.
Unforgettable Impact
The third unmistakable mark follows immediately. ". . . through us {God} spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him {Christ} everywhere." Here is another of the beautiful symbols by which God teaches truth. It is that of fragrance, of perfume. Paul clearly implies that the Christian life, lived as it ought to be, is a fragrance, not only to men but to God. He enlarges further on this thought: "For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life" (2 Corinthians 2:15-16).
Most men have had the experience of being in a room when a strikingly beautiful woman enters. Before she came in she had applied a touch here and there of Chanel #5, and as she passes through the room, she leaves behind a lingering fragrance. All the males in the room take note of it, consciously or unconsciously. Perhaps weeks or months later they may smell the fragrance again and immediately the image of that beautiful woman flashes into their minds. The fragrance has made her unforgettable.
That is the picture Paul gives here. There is something about authentic Christianity when it is encountered that leaves an unforgettable impression. The Christian who has discovered this secret makes an enduring impact; he is never taken for granted by anyone. As Paul suggests, the impact may be in one of two directions. He either increases opposition to Christ (death to death) or he leads toward faith and life (life to life). If your life is one that reflects radical, authentic Christianity, then you are making people either bitter or better by contact with you. But one thing cannot happen: people will never remain the same. Those who are determined to die are pushed on toward death by coming into contact with authentic Christianity. Those who are seeking to live are helped on into life. Jesus certainly had this quality about him. No one ever came into contact with him and went away the same.
Many commentators on this passage have felt that Paul had in mind here a typical Roman triumph. When a Roman general returned to the capital after a successful campaign, he was granted a triumph by the senate. A great procession passed through the streets of Rome displaying the captives which were taken in the course of the conquest. Some went before the chariot of the conqueror bearing garlands of flowers and pots of fragrant incense. They were the prisoners who were destined to live and return to their captured country to govern it under Roman rule. Other prisoners followed behind the chariot dragging chains and heavy manacles. These were doomed to execution, for the Romans felt they could not trust them. As the procession went on through the cheering crowds, the incense pots and fragrant flowers were to the first group "a fragrance from life unto life" while the same aroma was to the second group "a fragrance of death to death."
This is the effect of the gospel as it touches the world through the person of a Christian. If it is authentic Christianity that is in view, it will be a fragrance to God of Jesus Christ, no matter what, but to men it is either of death to death or of life to life. Of course, if it is phony Christianity that is manifest, it will simply be a bad smell ! I once saw a card that said, "Old fishermen never die they only smell that way." That surely describes false Christianity. It never dies; it only smells that
Unimpeachable Integrity
The fourth mark of genuine Christianity is found in verse 17 of chapter 2: "For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word; but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ."
Remember, that is not a description of Christian pastors but simply of Christians. It has great application to pastors and others in the ministry, but its primary reference is to common, ordinary Christians who have learned the secret of radical Christianity. They can be described in two ways, negatively and positively. Negatively, they are not peddlers. The word means a huckster, a street salesman. Occasionally I hear Christian witnessing described as "selling the gospel." I cringe when I hear that because I don't believe Christians are meant to be salesmen for God. The idea here is that of a street hawker who has certain wares which he feels are attractive and which he peddles on the corner as people are passing by. He makes his living by peddling his wares.
Much Christian preaching and witnessing can be described that way. Men pick out certain elements from the Scriptures which have a power to attract people, and they major on these themes. Healing is a case in point. It is a legitimate subject for study and practice, but when singled out and harped on continually, especially when large offerings are connected with it, healing can quickly lead to hucksterism. Prophecy can serve the same purpose. If a man is known only as a prophetic teacher, I am troubled about him, for he has picked out something that is attractive from the Word, and if that is all he ever teaches, he is not declaring the whole counsel of God . He is a peddler, making a living by hawking certain wares from the Scriptures.
Four Qualities---One Mark
Paul says authentic Christianity is not like that. It is characterized by four things. First, we are "men of sincerity." In other words, we are to be honest men. We must mean what we say. Sincerity marks the highest demand of the world upon men. The world admires sincerity and feels it is the acme of character, but here it is but the beginning, the minimum expectation from a Christian. The least one can expect from a true Christian is that he himself believes what he says and seeks constantly to practice it.
Next, Paul says we are "commissioned by God." Here is the idea of purpose. We are not to be idle dreamers or wasters with no definite objective in view. We have been commissioned as military officers are commissioned, given a definite task and specific assignments so the Christian is commissioned. We are purposeful people with an end in view, an object to attain, a goal to accomplish, and we do not merely preach or witness as though that were a goal in itself. We are sent to accomplish something by our witnessing.
The third factor is that we do all this "in the sight of God." This indicates an attitude of openness to investigation, of transparency. To walk in the sight of men permits many deviations and contradictions behind the facade, but to walk in the sight of God is honest transparency. This does not mean sinlessness, but rather that there can be no hiding of sin when it occurs. It is to know that there are no hidden areas to God, that we are being evaluated and tested by the purity and knowledge and wisdom of God. A man who walks in the sight of God isn't interested in putting up a good front. He is perfectly trustworthy. You can trust his golf score. And if you get young people to do this, they can be trusted even in the back seat of a car.
The last characterization is that "we speak in Christ." What quality does that indicate? Authority! Paul says it clearly in chapter 5, "We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us" (vs. 20). Ambassadors are authorized spokesmen. They have power to act, to bind. Thus authentic Christians are not powerless servants. We speak words and deliver messages which heaven honors.
All this adds up to unimpeachable integrity. Men of sincerity, purpose, transparency, and authority are utterly trustworthy. They have integrity. You can ring a gold coin on their conscience. Their word is their bond, and they can be counted on to come through. They are responsible and faithful individuals. That is the fourth great mark of real Christianity.
At this point in the text of the Bible there comes a chapter division. This is unfortunate for it serves to divide two things which belong together. The apostle has not finished his line of argument. It is best to ignore the division and read right on, to find the fifth mark of authentic Christianity: "Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you?" (2 Corinthians 3:1).
Undeniable Reality
It is apparent that the apostle is aware that he is beginning to sound highly complimentary to himself. He knows there are some in Corinth who will immediately take these words in that way. Indeed, it is obvious from his words that some had even suggested in previous correspondence that the next time he came to Corinth he bring letters of recommendation from some of the Twelve in Jerusalem! They were thinking of Paul as though he were a man entirely like themselves: so continually praising himself that no one would believe him until he had confirmation from more objective sources. But Paul says to them:
"You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all men; and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts" (2 Corinthians 3:2-3 ).
He is saying, in effect, "You want letters of recommendation to prove that I am an authoritative messenger of God? Why, you yourselves are all the recommendation I need. Look what has happened to you. Are you any different? Have there been any changes in you since you came to Christ through my word? Your own hearts will bear witness to yourselves and before the world that the message which you heard from us and which has changed your lives is from God." In 1 Corinthians 6 Paul made reference to "the immoral, the idolaters, the adulterers, the homosexuals, the thieves, the greedy, and the drunkards" which he had found in Corinth. "Such," he said, "were some of you." But now they had been washed, sanctified, and justified by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. These changes were proof of reality. The Corinthians had written to Paul about the joy they now had and the hope and meaning which had been brought into their lives. They described to him the deliverance from shame and guilt they had experienced, the freedom from fear and hostility, from darkness and death, which was theirs. So he says, "This is your confirmation. You yourselves are walking letters from God, known and read by all men, written by the Spirit of God in your hearts."
Here is the last mark of genuine Christianity. It is that of undeniable reality, a change which cannot be explained on any other terms than God at work. Paul did not need letters of recommendation when this kind of change was evident in the lives of his hearers. Once I heard of a Christian who had been an alcoholic for years and then was converted. Someone asked him, "Now that you are a Christian, do you believe the miracles of the New Testament?" He answered, "Yes, I do. " The other man said, "Do you believe that story about Jesus changing water into wine?" He said, "I sure do." The other said, "How can you believe such nonsense?" The Christian replied, "I'll tell you how; because in our house Jesus changed whiskey into furniture!" That is the mark of authenticity. Such a marked change cannot occur except under the impulse of a powerful relationship that substitutes the love of Christ for the love of drink.
There are the five unmistakable signs of genuine Christianity: unquenchable optimism, unvarying success, unforgettable impact, unimpeachable integrity, and undeniable reality. They are always present whenever the real thing is being manifested. Mere religion tries to imitate these marks, but is never quite able to pull it off. By comparison with these marks, phony Christianity is always shown up to be what it is a shabby, shoddy imitation that quickly folds when the real pressure is on. The remarkable thing is not that men seek to imitate these genuine graces, for we have all been hypocrites of one kind or another since our birth. The truly remarkable thing is that becoming a Christian does not of itself guarantee that these Christian graces will be manifest in us. It is not being a Christian that produces these, but living as a Christian. There is a knowledge we must have and a choice we must make before these virtues will be consistently present. It is the knowledge of this secret which the Apostle Paul goes on to give us.
From a sermon by Ray C. Stedman. Later incorporated into the book Authentic Christianity. Ordering Information, Discovery Publishing.
For other messages by Ray C. Stedman see the online Ray C. Stedman Memorial Library at http://www.pbc.org/dp/stedman/index.html.
Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bi
ble Church. It may be copied only in its entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data file must contain the above copyright notice. This data file may not be copied in part, edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances, displays or other products offered for sale, without the written permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield Rd. Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.
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Prophezine Commentaries
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From The Littleton Crisis To Government Control - May 1999 From The Littleton Crisis To Government Control:
How Clinton fueled the crisis he now promises to "solve"
by Berit Kjos
"We must help parents to pass on their values to their children," announced President Clinton in a Rose Garden message on April 30, 1999. "We must help parents fulfill their most important responsibilities."
Some parents may like to hear that the president will "help" us do our job. Others shudder. They don't want Clinton's army of social engineers to tamper with their family's values. They don't trust his attempts to "fix" the social conditions that led to the Littleton shooting. And they fear that Clinton would use this crisis, as he has every other crisis, to persuade the masses to accept more government control.
A glimpse back into the seventies and eighties shows how Clinton helped create the conditions that weakened the role of parents. For example, his touchy-feely "Governor's School" -- an annual summer school for selected Arkansas high school students -- modeled many of the same psycho-social strategies for changing values that were used in Littleton. Founded in 1979, it infused its lessons with values-clarification, socialist economics, radical environmentalism, and shocking suggestions designed to "free" students from parental authority and traditional values.
Author Ellen Gilchrist, a guest speaker at the school, summarized this particular objective well. "Students do me a favor," she told the selected crowd of Arkansas youths. "Totally ignore your parents. Listen to them, but then forget them. Because you need to start using your own stuff, your real stuff that you have." 1 In his April 30 speech, Clinton also touted the "mental health" system being implemented in America under the guidance of the World Health Organization (See The UN Plan for Your Mental Health): 2 "Because many parents need help in recognizing the signs of illness in their children, we're working to expand access to mental health care for children of all ages. Next month, Mrs. Gore will host the first White House Conference on Mental Health. We are also working to expand counseling, mentoring and mental health services in our schools."
In the context of public health management and surveillance,3 mental health deals primarily with politically correct thinking, not mental illness. According to a government definition, "Mental health refers to how a person thinks, feels, and acts when faced with life's situations. It is how people look at themselves, their lives, the other people in their lives and explore choices." 4
The old ways of thinking don't fit the new paradigm or worldview. Global citizenship requires collective thinking, not individual thinking. People must learn to see themselves as part of the group, and their worth depends on service to the community. Solidarity and consensus are in. Christianity, individual worth, and national sovereignty are out.
OLD PARADIGM NEW PARADIGM
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Beliefs Based on Bible New Age, earth-centered blend
View of self Individual Part of a greater whole
Values Based on Bible Human idealism based on consensus
It's up to our schools, media, Hollywood, and all the other parts of UNESCO's "lifelong learning" program to conform the masses to the new ideology -- and thus "promote. . . the optimal development of the mental health of the population." 5 Professor Benjamin Bloom, called the Father of OBE, summarized their mission well: "The purpose of education and the schools is to change the thoughts, feelings and actions of students." 6 This process of change includes strategies that produce cognitive dissonance or moral confusion. In Clinton's Governor's School, the students were immersed into a seductive fantasy world that made traditional values seem unreal. The consensus process forced them to conform to a radical idealism that built hatred, not tolerance, for contrary opinions. So, by the time they left the school, an imagined utopia seemed more real than the actual world. As in Soviet brainwashing, they had been weaned from truth, facts, logic and reality. Their conscience had been twisted, their emotions destabilized, and their minds prepared to be manipulated. Would this be considered mental health by our global managers?
The transition back to reality -- to home, family and normal life was painful. For some it was devastating. "When I came back home, I sort of wrote a suicide note to myself," confessed LeAndrew Crawford, a former student. "Not actually wanting to kill myself, but wanting to kill the reality of what society had been teaching me for so long. . . . I was totally down, because my family just didn't feel like my family. . . . I didn't want to be back."
Brandon Hawk did commit suicide within a year after attending "mysterious cult-like meetings" which continued even after he left the Governor's School.
Hearing about his death, other concerned parents contacted Brandon's parents.
"They see the same thing in their kids that we saw in Brandon," the father explained. . . . They just sort of walk off and leave the family."
All the above quotes exposing Clinton's Governor's School came from Jeoffrey Botkin's documentary video, The Guiding Hand: The Clinton Influence on Arkansas Education. Through interviews with former students, parents and staff members, he unveiled the radical social philosophy behind "lifelong learning" and Clinton's education reform.
"They're taking the best, the cream of the crop... the leaders in our next generation," said former student Steve Roberts, "and pushing into them the values that Governor Clinton has that the leftist media has the values that go totally against what this nation was founded on. This is what I was exposed to. There wasn't any warning, there wasn't any one that said, 'Okay, now you're going to have to take all the values that you grew up with and put them on a shelf and be exposed to this.' If my parents had known what was going on there, they wouldn't have let me go."
So, what was going on? The most revealing evidence of planned mental programming with an ominous resemblance to the Communist "re-learning"7 comes from those who participated. Consider their testimonies as recorded in The Guiding Hand:
ISOLATE STUDENTS FROM FAMILIES AND THEIR VALUES:
"For the six weeks ... they are not allowed to go home except for July the Fourth. They are discouraged from calling home and talking on the phone.
They can receive mail but they are encouraged to have as little contact with the outside world as possible. So it's a closed campus." (Shelvie Cole, psychologist and concerned mother) "I don't think a lot of people understand what is going on... I felt that I needed not to talk about it. I don't know why. Maybe because we were supposed to stay here and the fact that we couldn't leave... I just felt like, hey, I'm not supposed to talk about this. No one else... who had gone before would talk to me about it." (Kelli Wood, former student)
DISCREDIT FORMER AUTHORITY FIGURES:
"Students do me a favor. Totally ignore your parents. . . . . " (Guest speaker Ellen Gilchrist quoted by a student) "[The instructors] tear down their authority figure system and... help establish another one... the student himself. They convince the students that 'You are the elite. The reason why you're not going to be understood when you go home not by your parents, your friends, your pastor or anybody is because you have been treated to thought that they can't handle.'
...[This] intellectual and cultural elitism gives them the right... to say, 'We know better than you.'" (Mark Lowery, former director for Governor's School publicity)
REINFORCE NEW LIBERAL, ANTI-CHRISTIAN VALUES:
"We watched movies like Harvey Milk. We learned about gay life those things that your parents say, 'This is wrong... You shouldn't see this type of thing because, hey, that's just not right...'" (LeAndrew Crawford, former student) EMPHASIZE FEELING-CENTERED (affective, not cognitive or rational) TEACHING:
"Rather than learning what 2 and 2 equals, they would be asked what they feel about 2+2. Right now we have a move going on in our Arkansas schools called restructuring, where they are trying to get away from more objective, substantive learning into this subjective area of feelings." (Mark Lowery) "I guess, if I could express myself, I'd close my eyes and just think, let things wander through, because that is just the type of sensation you got in Bill's class." (LeAndrew Crawford) "You would think that there would be some academic challenges... getting ready for college... The main textbook that I remember from there is a book called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and the book is totally.
Hindu religion defined." (Steve Roberts, former student) PROMOTE AN ALL-INCLUSIVE PANTHEISTIC SPIRITUALITY:
"It was kind of like that Baha'i idea. How you have Islam, Baha'i, Muslim, Christianity... They're all different kinds of trees, but underneath, its root system grows together [and] is the same god." (Steven Allen, student)
INSTILL THE TARGET BELIEFS A 'NEW' SOCIAL AND POLITICAL AGENDA:
"They're bringing a political agenda in the guise of academic excellence. .
. . It was something that was well orchestrated, well organized, it was mind-bending and manipulative. And the faculty all knew that it was going on." (Steve Roberts) "I think the whole intent of the Governor's School in taking 350 - 400 students per summer, is to pick out the four, five or six students that could be political leaders and then to mold their minds in this more liberal and humanistic thinking. . . The greatest influence of the Governor's School is to promote the thought. . . that to be considered intellectual by your peers. . . you have to be a liberal thinker... [This is] not teaching . . .
but indoctrination." (Mark Lowery, former director) "Prominent themes promoted by this school include radical homosexuality, socialism, pacifism and a consistent hostility toward Western civilization and culture, especially [America's] Biblical foundations." (Jeoffrey Botkin)
INCLUDE DEATH EDUCATION:
[Voice of student heard while classroom video shows morbid scenes]: "I saw bones, skeletons, dead bodies after dead bodies after dead bodies."
BUILD ALLEGIANCE TO THE NEW COMMUNITY:
"A lot of places. . . even Christian camps, you get that stress about 'What am I doing wrong?' . . .There it was like, hey, I can talk to God! Me and God are one, the world is one... Jump up and down, you know, just twirl around."
"They say relaxation, but there is a word past relaxation. There's a word in between the feeling of relaxation and love that we've missed. I don't know the word, but I came up with my own. I called it AGaia [he spelled it Ayuguya] . . . . A lot of my friends went around [saying], "Hey, Gaia, Gaia, Gaia. . . You know peace, love happiness. . . Bringing back the hippie age, I guess you would say." (LeAndrew Crawford)
GIVE AN ILLUSION OF FREEDOM WITHIN THE CLOSED COMMUNITY ANYTHING GOES:
"You could dress just about any way you want. We had almost naked people. It was real liberal. . . an awful lot of cursing." (Mike Oonk, former student)
IMMERSE LEARNERS IN A FANTASY WORLD WHERE ALL SEEMS PERFECT:
"The students. . . say, 'This is the perfect place. I never want to go home.' I caught myself saying that several times." (Mike Oonk)
After Brandon Hawk's suicide and the subsequent fear and confusion, concerned parents in Arkansas asked the same kinds of questions raised after the eruption of evil in Littleton. Why did it happen? Will it happen again? Could it happen to my child? What should parents do?
Indoctrinating students with pagan beliefs, socialist values, utopian dreams, and idealized love will lead to personal despair and social chaos. But that result fits the battle plan of globalist autocrats just fine. Notice in the chart below that America's biblical boundaries set the stage for personal freedom. But today's change agents demand social controls, and they needed social chaos to justify their oppressive action. That means replacing moral restraints with sensual freedom. Not only does it unravel the old social order, it gives an illusion of new-found freedom.
"As political and economic freedom diminishes," wrote Aldous Huxley in Brave New World, "sexual freedom tends compensatingly to increase. And the dictator... will do well to encourage that freedom. In conjunction with the freedom to daydream under the influence of dope, movies and the radio, it will help to reconcile his subjects to the servitude which is their fate." 8 OLD PARADIGM NEW PARADIGM Morals Biblical Boundaries Sensual freedom Rights Personal freedom Social controls Economy Free enterprise Socialist/Collective Government By the people By those who control the masses The Guiding Hand includes glimpses from a documentary video promoting the Governor's School. In it, former Governor Clinton shared his enthusiasm for his education model. "It would be impossible for me to describe to you just how exciting and unusual this educational adventure is," he said. Illustrating death education, the same video shows a group of students lying on the floor while a teacher asks, "Are you ready to divorce yourselves from your bodies?"
Clinton pushed the same brainwashing strategies in Arkansas' public schools. When he lost the governorship to Frank White, his successor was shocked to discover the "garbage in the curriculum." White tried to introduce conventional moral values to the school, "but Clinton accused White of badgering educators," says Jeoffrey Botkin, who produced The Guiding Hand.
"The school simply went underground with its controversial philosophy until Clinton returned as governor. Since then, the full curriculum at the Governor's School -- including illegal psychological testing -- has been more carefully concealed from parents and voters."
This same transformative process lies at the heart of Goals 2000, the massive education program signed into law by President Clinton in 1994. But Clinton was no newcomer to an international team of change-agents. In 1989, he led the national Governor's Conference on Education. It's six goals for U.S. education matched UNESCO's six education goals, which were introduced the following year at the 1990 UN World Conference on Education for All.
Do you wonder how Clinton was linked to UNESCO? During the eighties, he served on the Study Commission on Global Education with globalist leaders such as -
1.Professor John Goodlad, who served on the governing board of UNESCO's Institute for Education. 9 In 1970, he warned his fellow educators that "most youth still hold the same values as their parents.... If we do not alter this pattern, if we don't resocialize.... our society may decay." 10 2. Ernest Boyer, President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which had been funding global socialist causes since the start of this century.
3. Frank Newman, president of the Education Commission of the States, which serves as an unelected body of social engineers who have been coordinating the writing of uniform education laws and standards in states from coast to coast.
Together, they prepared a report titled The United States Prepares for Its Future: Global Perspectives in Education. In the Foreword to the Report, New Age networker Harlan Cleveland, author of The Third Try at World Order, wrote:
"A dozen years ago... teaching and learning 'in global perspective' was still exotic doctrine, threatening the orthodoxies of those who still thought of American citizenship as an amalgam of American history, American geography, American lifestyles and American ideas. . . . It now seems almost conventional to speak of American citizenship in the same breath with international interdependence and the planetary environment." 11 "Conventional" to whom? And who were the obstacles to progress in this report?
THE REAL REASONS FOR SOCIAL DECAY God's Word alone can break through the human speculations and answer the hard questions that followed the Littleton crisis. Three key Scriptures show the decline of America.
First, in 1 John 5:19 we learn that "the whole world is under the control of the evil one." Satan, who hates God and His people, has been given power to influence and inspire all who refuse to follow the Shepherd. Freed from parental authority through government schools, few children can resist the peer pressure and occult temptations that tear down their protective walls of modesty and conscience. Small wonder youth are driven to kill by deadly desires, wild cravings, and unquenchable impulses.
Second, God said long ago, "All who hate Me love death." 12 Death education, an important component of global education, fits right into an education system designed by men who see biblical truth and Christian parents as their main obstacles to change. Today's love for shooting and killing didn't begin with occult movies and video games, those merely offered the opportunities. It began with a fallen nature inspired by the evil one who loves what is gross, cruel, crude, and deadly.
Third, Romans 1:18-32 shows the decline both of people and nations that turn from God to pagan beliefs and values. Three times it tells us that God "gave them over" to their own rebellious nature:
"The wrath of God is being revealed... against all... who suppress the truth by their wickedness. . . . Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. . . . Therefore GOD GAVE THEM OVER in the sinful desires of their hearts TO SEXUAL IMPURITY. . . . They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served created things.... Because of this, GOD GAVE THEM OVER TO SHAMEFUL LUSTS. . . . Since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, HE GAVE THEM OVER TO A DEPRAVED MIND. . . filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless."
Morally, America has become like a dying lake that looks clear on the surface while the algae and decay spreads in the darkness below. By the time the scum stains the surface, the whole lake is corrupt. The next eruption can happen anywhere.
Clinton can't fix this problem with mental health surveillance, universal health identifier for electronic tracking, gun control, forced solidarity, school based counseling, conflict resolution, anger management, values clarification, and other forms of the manipulative consensus problem. These will only speed the demise of truth, morality, and freedom in this country.
What's more, they will fuel the growing hatred toward all who hold fast to "obsolete" biblical truths and refuse to join the march toward a global consensus.
Nor is it enough to bring morality back to America. Americans must be brought back to God. His moral standards are good, but only by His life and strength can we meet them. Like Cassie Bernall, the Littleton youth who shared her hope with needy classmates before she chose to die rather than deny her Lord, Christians need to reach out and lead the confused back to the true Counselor. He alone can give strength, love, peace and victory in the midst of turmoil and decay. Therefore, "be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. . . ."
(Ephesians 6:10-14)
To order Geoffrey Botkin's video, The Guiding Hand, call 800-771-2147 ext. 85.
Endnotes 1. Guest speaker Ellen Gilchrist, author ofThe Anunciation and In the Land of Dreamy Dreams, quoted by a student. The Guiding Hand, produced by Geoffrey Botkin in 1992. To order, call 800-771-2147 ext. 85.
2 See "The UN Plan for Your Mental Health" at http://www.crossroad.to/text/articles/mh2-99.html.
3. Ibid. See also "Trading U.S. Rights for UN Rules: Executive Order 13107"
and "The UN Plan for Your Community"
4. The National Mental Health Services Knowledge Exchange Network (KEN) at http://www.mentalhealth.org/child/Wefsk4.htm 5. Nations for Mental Health, a World Health Organization networking agency that helps nations around the world change and monitor the ways their people think, choosem act. http://www.who.int/msa/nam/nam6.htm 6. Benjamin Bloom, All Our Children Learning (New York: McCraw Hill, 1981);
180.
7. See "Brainwashing and Education Reform" at http://www.crossroad.to/text/quotes5.html 8. Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (New York, HarperCollins, 1932), xvii.
9. Charlotte Iserbyt, Back to Basics Reform Or... OBE Skinnerian International Curriculum? (Bath, ME: 1993), 24.
10. John Goodlad, "Report of Task Force C: Strategies for Change," Schooling for the Future, a report to the President's Commission on Schools Finance, Issue #9, 1971. Goodlad also wrote the Foreword for Schooling for a Global Age (funded by powerful globalist foundations such as the Danforth and Rockefeller Foundations as well as the U.S. Department of Education. He said, "Enlightened social engineering is required to face situations that demand global action now... Parents and the general public must be reached also, otherwise, children and youth enrolled in globally oriented programs may find themselves in conflict with values assumed in the home. And then the educational institution frequently comes under scrutiny and must pull back. James Becker, Editor, Schooling for a Global Age, (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1979), xiii, xvii
11. The United States Prepares for Its Future: Global Perspectives in Education, Report of the Study Commission on Global Education," 1987. The report was financed by the Rockefeller, Ford and Exxon Foundations. Dennis Laurence Cuddy, Ph.D., A Chronology of Education (Highland City, FL: Pro Family Forum, 1993), 80.
12. Proverbs 8:36
For more information about "lifelong" training in the new global values, read Brave New Schools (Harvest House Publishers) and A Twist of Faith (New Leaf Press - 800-643-9535) by Berit Kjos. Available through Christian bookstores web site: www.crossroad.com1 800-643-9535.
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Poems...etc.
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To: L I T T L E T O N
From: G O D
Date: A P R I L 2 1, 1 9 9 9
Dear Parents, Friends and Loved Ones
Of these precious youth you've lost,
I see your broken spirits;
I know the terrible cost.
Though evil reigned at Columbine
And horror filled the air,
I wanted all of you to know
I left Heaven and came there.
I summoned Heaven's Angels
Long before the call came in,
To share the dreadful warning
Of what would soon begin.
The angels' wings were folded;
They knew what was to come.
When I said, "I'll lead this mission,"
They followed one by one.
"I will go and get these babies
And bring them home with me,
Where they'll live in Heaven's Schoolhouse,
Where it's safe and terror free."
Yes, I've prepared a Special Schoolhouse.
It stands out from all the rest.
The Welcome Mat reads, "Columbine;"
It's reserved for Heaven's best.
I was hovering all around them,
In the Library and the Hall.
When the evil forces entered,
Your children heard me call.
I wrapped my arms around them,
Pulled them close unto my breast.
"I've come to take you with me.
We must go and leave the rest."
"Your friends will long remember
All the cool times that we shared,
And the Angels will remind them
How very much you cared."
Yes, I took those precious children
In the twinkling of an eye.
We were on our way to Heaven,
To their Schoolhouse in the sky.
I know your hearts are broken.
I know the pain you bear.
My heart is also broken
By the evil everywhere.
Please help me fight this battle
To keep our children safe,
Through prayers and love and sharing
And holding to the Faith,
That Peace will surely reign one day
In schools throughout the lands,
For all our future hopes and dreams
Rest in our students' hands.
I'll give you peace to fill your heart,
Send sun to break the night,
Provide the strength to move beyond
The wrongs and do what's right.
You ask how I can know your pain,
From the loss of your dear one,
It's because it seems like yesterday,
When I, too, gave up a Son.
Fran Maiers
fmaiers@aol.com
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