troubled by pacifism 2

God is not passive but active against those who break His law. He must be, because if He is not, then there is no justice, and if there is no justice then God is not good, And if God is not good then Who would make the free will choice to follow him or allow him to rule us. If this where the case then we may as well rule ourselves as God is no better than us.

So I hope you can see by this reverse logic that God can not be passive. This is the problem that I have with pacifism.

On the other hand we who are not good and are self confessed law breakers (sinners) must not raise ourselves up in judgment of others because we possess not the goodness to judge rightly, and therefore must rely on God's judgment and do his will. Obviously murder is not God's will. But it was his will to drive out the Canaanite nations who where possessing the promised land by the sword. why did God deem that the Israelites were more worthy of possessing the promised land and even just living we don't really know we could speculate but we don't really know so we must rest in the sure knowledge that God is Good and always Judges rightly and justly.

I believe pacifism is born of a false belief in the superiority of humanity or human rights. They that hold to this view are mortified that God should destroy a wicked man I am not. In some ways I don't believe we are as wonderful as we believe our selves to be in a lot of ways we really are just pots. God is the great potter and gives us our initial shape but as we age and harden we are total effected by what we choose to fill ourselves with. A man who habitually practices lawlessness becomes set in the image of sin and can not be changed. When we repent and are filled with the spirit it is like we don't set at all but are constantly being changed more and more to conform to the image of God. Just as the potter is within his rights to smash a bad pot so it is God's right to destroy the wicked and preserve the righteous. Pots have no rights. But they can expect the Good potter to forfill his promises to them, because if He doesn't He ceases to be good.

It really is a truth most wonderful to me that God is Good. He doesn't have to be. Nobody can make Him. He just is!

troubled by pacifism

Another blogger that I read often is writing about violence right now. http://www.getrad2.blogspot.com/ Ron obviously has pacifistic beliefs and that is great because of course we are followers of christ afterall who came ".. as a lamb before the slaughterers is silent..." as our perfect example of meekness . Outwardly weak but inwardly mighty.
He is trying to reconcile the new testaments 'turn the other cheek' with the old testaments 'eye for an eye'. And traveling the 'translaters got it wrong' route. I feel this is unnessasary and dangerous.

If you haven't read the blog, Ron highlight's the nonvoilence of our Lord Jesus and compares it to the 'total destruction' that the God of the Old testament commanded against the Canaanites and others.
Then finding these unreconcileable, procedes to explore the idea that the translators gave us 'total destruction' from a word which could could have meant something far milder. He also is saying that the Israelites misrepresented God by their violence when this was not what God intended.

The Old and New testaments work together for our benefit but they are very different.
OLD TESTAMENT
-Isarel Gods choosen people
-A physical people group, nation
-A physical temple where God's presence dwelt
-A physical priesthood
-under law written in stone
-visible
-in the flesh
NEW TESTAMENT
- the Church of Jesus Christ his choosen
- scattered in every nation
- Body of christ invisable Holy Spirit in us
- Priesthood of all believers
- Under grace written on our hearts
- invisable
- in the Spirit

The Old testament is not a failed attempt by God to bring about the salvation of the world it is a powerful demonstration of the futility of man's attempts to obey God and be reconciled to Him and saved from the penality of sin except by the perfect sacrifice by a sinless high priest. A work only possible and brought about by the power of the Holy Spirit. God himself has done it all. Man could not even meet God halfway the Old testament proved that forever.That throws us completely at the mercy of a God whom the Old testament teaches us to fear.

He's the same God in both testaments and his wrath against sin and those who harden themselves in it, is violent and righteously so.
He himeself totally destroyed the Pharaoh and the Egyptian army and those Israelites that disobeyed and rebelled against Him in the wilderness by his own mighty hand and outstreached arm.
But His violent anger is only shown to those who first have heard his will, sometimes many times, and had the oppotunity to sumbit to it or harden themselves against it.

McChurch 2

It all starts with a name. When a group of any description meet, also pertaining to christian groups of course, they begin to need to identify the group some way, an identity is created and a name is given to it.
" ...this group is about such and such and we the leaders or leader have democraticly (or autocraticly) decided to call it such and such..."

This is a natural and in some ways nessesasary development. However once an entity is created it begins to take on a 'life' of its own. When I say life I don't really mean life in the sense of a living thing because that is something men can not do. When we do create a work we must be careful and do so only in accordance with God's word so as that he who directed us will provide the life. This is because the works we do without from God are like us without God Dead. He is the life giver. Don't the scriptures tell us ..."its no longer I that liveth but christ that liveth in me.."

Christ Himself didn't come speaking His own words or do his own works but those taught to him by his Father.
And we must be like Christ in this way.

What I am trying to establish then is that Christ doing the work of is Father did not give a separate name to the church. Except his own. We are the people who serve His name. It is by his name alone that we are saved etc.

How then should we create or support a denomination. Do we serve christ or our denominaton?, is salvation found in christ alone or in our denomination alone? the answers may seem obvious but we must beware because it is so easy to break the first commandment. When we join with a denomination we join one we aggree with and suits our likes and tastes, we begin to prefer it and be exclusively loyal to it. we then may work to promote it and work towards its increase, constantly emphisizing the destintiveness and superiority over other groups to ourselves and others.

In other words we create a brand (or a franchise) and live for it.

All of which is plain simple idolatry to my mind. We create a god of our own making then procede to serve it and lift it up all the while supposedly worshiping the true God.
1 corinthians 1-4 deal well with this apostasy. Unforturnately the problem didn't end in corinth.

McChurch

Denominations are they really just a just franchise's for the mechandising of christ ? Probally not but it certain seems that way from my perspective some times more soon.

Little Names.

The scripture says in many places;
" For their is no other name in heaven by which a man must be saved "
I am very particulaly concerned here at the 'brandbuster' blogsite about all the elements of our modern life which divert us as a kind further and further from our Fathers kingdom. A particularly uriksome phenomonen is that of brand names, trademarks and "logos". The fruit of markerting industry.
These's things have really only become intrenched in western culture during my life time and you might ask why worry about them whats the big deal?

logo is a greek word for the written word and this bothers me because 'The word' is how we know about Yahweh and His Kingdom, Yahushua His Son is 'The Word' in the gospel of because He is the full final revealation of Yahweh to mankind. God's name is the only name that ort to be lifted up and glorified and trusted in for salvation of any lasting kind ( the kind where you stay saved!).

Through their marketing stratagies company's and small operaters attempt to lift up a name. A little name. And through this name offer salvation. Salvation from hunger 'McDonald's' salvation from unnoticable footwear 'Nike'
Salvation from an average sex life 'Viagra'.

I have read some of the jargin that companys put out talking about 'providing a throughly comprensive and positive brand experience from the moment a client walks through the door'. They seem to want to walk beside you through your life from the cradle to the grave The actual product is it seems only a part of this.

The problem I have with this is that this is a false salvation. All these things will perish and burn up or rust. And these people don't really care about people all they care about is money. How to get more of it and creating an image thats right IMAGE that draws more people to give more money. This is dehumanising because it reduces people (God's images) to a loaf of bread( or some other thing).

Whats in a brand?

A brand is a oldtime method of marking cattle to identify its owner. It uses a uniquely shaped iron which when heated in a fire is used to sear the animals hide creating a permanent scar in the shape of the iron. Its very effective but somewhat brutal method that is still used but has now been largely replaced by the use of eartagging because in these days where people love animals more than their fellow human's branding is not very politically correct.

At least if we're talking about marking cattle that is. If you want to brand people to show that you own them thats fine! Quite ironic. But that is just what marketers are after. They love these people who for instance are known to love Holden cars, If you were going to buy a present you would know that anything with a Holden brand is going to be a sure bet. You've seen them. People that have the car, the T-shirt , coffee mug , pen, hat , even golf bag. They are a Holden Man. (even women now love Holden's).
These folks are like Gold to marketers because their lives are just a living advertising medium, for which they willing part with large amounts of cash!

This reminds me of the Gods description of unfaithful Israel,


Eze 16:31
"When you built your shrine at the beginning of every street and made your high place in every square, in disdaining money, you were not like a harlot.
You adulteress wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband!
Men give gifts to all harlots, but you give your gifts to all your lovers to bribe them to come to you from every direction for your harlotries.
Thus you are different from those women in your harlotries, in that no one plays the harlot as you do, because you give money and no money is given you; thus you are different."

Denomainization - The Splintering of the Body

I have retired from an evangelical denomianation. I did this because of (one of a few reasons) the wholesale importantion of not just ideas but programs (for example Rick Warren Product) from other places wholly unconected with our life in this small corner of Gods green earth. These cookie cutter solutions to lack of vision just dont fit with me and I believe we where made for more than this.
Any body must have leaders but if these people have no vision let them stand down and give others in the congregation a chance to release what God has made them for instead of holding tight to the reigns of power and borrowing or buying the vision of others.let each body take the shape of the people who are there and make it up instead of making a cheap copy of another body . This I believe is idolitry and mechandising christ. Idols and false gods really do abound especially in the denominational church.

Not made with Hands

2Cr 5:1
For we know that if our earthly house of [this] tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

This is a phrase that repeats in the bible why is it significant?
I believe that the third commandment has two parts you shouldn't make and you shouldn't bow down to graven images.

Exd 20:4
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth:

or to connect the thought, ' To make, is to bow down'.

The things that God has made are Good but man made things are like us faulty. that is why we should stick to making useful things like houses and not images of animals etc. to fill them. God did tell the isrealites to make images like the snake in the wilderness and the temple included graven animals and trees also the ark of the covenent had angels and maybe other stuff on it to. But these things have been taken away now because God knows that they would have been worshiped in his stead. Worship God not the things he has made and definately not the things man has made.