Tag: #Gospel

Me; My; Mine

Published by mhelbert on April 13, 2020

I debated long and hard about writing this post.
Part of me really wants to sit back and ignore what other people think.
Their opinions are just that, “Theirs.”
And, if no one appears to be injured by that opinion, why not just leave well enough alone?

Then, there’s that other part of me.
You know, that part that causes the hair on the back of my neck to stand on edge when I sense injustice. When people, whether consciously or not, say or do things that may clearly impact others negatively.

Yeah, I think that’s the part that wins out today.

Truthfully, what I have to say today may not mean much to anyone reading this. It may simply seem like a minor disagreement about religious ideas.
Bear with me.
I’ll get to the point eventually.

Yesterday was Easter. Christian High Holy Day of all Holy Days.
It is the celebration of Messiah Jesus’ victory over death.
For this the entire Cosmos celebrates.

But, we must remember that the only way that we get to Easter is straight through Good Friday.
Most of us know that on that day, Jesus was stripped, beaten, and ultimately nailed to a tree and left to die. Gruesome? Yes. Heinous? Yes. Necessary? Also, Yes.
Jesus knew that his path lay along that path. His prayer the night before lets us in on that.
“Father, if this cup can pass from me.”
He knew what was contained in that cup.

Here’s the part that we don’t usually think of right away.
Jesus CHOSE to drink it anyway…to drain it to the dregs.
Jesus’ entire public life was characterized by this same self-giving.
The apostle Paul recorded this in the letter that he wrote to the Church at Philippi.
Jesus, he wrote, “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” Phil. 2:7.

Jesus also taught his followers that they must consider others more important than themselves. They must love one another with the Same Self-Giving Love that He had for them. That they must, “Take up their cross” in order to follow him.

Paul consistently told the early Church that they would need to suffer as they followed Jesus. And, that they should count that suffering as Joy!

These are the things that characterized the first followers of Jesus.
Distilled to the essentials, “Self-giving, self-sacrificing Love.”

So, yesterday I watched a half hour Easter presentation by the senior pastor of a local Mega Church Wannabe.
His message of “hope” revolved around how we can, because of Jesus, turn our graves into gardens.
Because of Jesus all of our needs can be met.
Our sorrow becomes joy as we kneel before Jesus.
We are “saved” from all kinds of evil because, yep, Jesus.
All of our tears may be dried and our hope and dreams come to fruition if only we trust Jesus.

Now, all of that sounds kind of ok, right?
It’s a positive message.
God’s love seems to be displayed in this kind of talk.

But, what is the primary thrust of this?

A close look reveals the lie.

Everything this person said was all about, “Me; My; Mine.”

It is all about what God will do for ME!
This is a self-centered false gospel that elevates my wants and desires above those of anyone, and everyone, else.

The danger in this kind of false gospel is that it is a reflection of, and a justification for, the kind of individualist exceptionalism that is far too prevalent in our culture.
From the Seven Mountains heresy to America First the idea of God pouring out blessings on Me becomes the main, and only, focus of what it means to follow Jesus.
We see this played out every day by people who claim that THEIR religious liberties are being threatened. They cry out that THEIR rights to do this or that should take precedent over YOUR rights.
This false gospel reinforces the Reformation ethic of my personal salvation is all that matters. It states that if I was the only person who needed saving, Jesus would still come and die…for ME.

I’m not saying that Jesus would not do that. I am simply pointing out where the focus of such a statement lies.

With ME.

I’m sorry.
That’s not the way the Gospel works.
That’s certainly NOT what Jesus and the early Church modeled.
Make no mistake.
The Gospel is all about God reconciling the Cosmos to God’s Self.
It states that God’s faithfulness is always trustworthy.
God has always loved the Creation and desired to share God’s own Love with it.
And, God took the initiative to make it so through Jesus.

That’s how the Gospel works.

4 Comments

There’s Madness in My Method…Or Something Like That

Published by mhelbert on April 9, 2020

Some of you may be wondering why I have suddenly gone off on some weird theological tangent.
“Why is he getting so worked up over something like this? It doesn’t have anything to do with what’s going on in the real world right now!”

I get that.
It does appear that I’m taking something that is not relevant pretty damned seriously.
Especially, something that I don’t really have any control over.
I mean, who am I to presume that my tiny brain and even tinier voice could have any impact on something as deeply entrenched as Western Christianity.

And, you would be right!

My voice is like a whisper in a hurricane.

That doesn’t give me a pass, though.
For, at this particular moment in time the Voice in my heart speaks loud enough.
That Voice compels me to speak.
If only to one other person.

So, back to the question I asked.
Why does this call for a new Reformation get me worked up?
Why should I, or anyone, care?

I’m glad that you asked that question!

I believe with all of my heart that the Faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah and the trust that Paul, Peter, and all the rest of the nascent Way of Jesus was misunderstood by those who followed them. Particularly, those who, I’m sure in good faith, tried to reconcile a specifically Jewish narrative with the prevailing Hellenistic world.
The introduction of the philosophies of Greece, particularly Aristotle and Plato, in effect
co-opted Israel’s story and planted it firmly in soil that was unable to sustain the growth that Jesus, Paul, et al had begun.

Ok. So what?

In the Greek mind, as I wrote yesterday, the rich tapestry that was Israel’s story was reduced to binaries.
Good/Bad; Black/White; Us/Them.
Paul’s theology was likewise reduced to fit this worldview.
What had been a beautiful Gospel of hope in the God of Abraham to reconcile the Cosmos was turned into a Frankenstein’s monster of Greek pieces with Biblical language used to justify the creation of such an aberration.

The result?

A dualism that allowed theologians to find in the Scriptures a way for humans to gain entry into some Ideal, Spiritual realm called “Heaven”. While at the same time creating a necessary antithesis to this called “Hell.”

The Gospel, and the Church at Large, became a means by which humans could receive salvation for their Immortal Souls.
From there it was a very short step to compelling people to assent to some Church prescribed proposition that would somehow, (magically?), insure that they would one day walk with God in heavenly places while avoiding the Inferno that awaited Everyone Else.

Today, that’s pretty much the same false gospel that churches foist on unsuspecting people.

What? You want proof?

Look around!
So called ‘evangelists’ standing with bullhorns on college campuses yelling at people to Repent or Burn!
Evangelical groups standing at the entrance to clinics that offer Women’s Health care abusing women who may be at the most vulnerable time of their lives.
People carrying signs outside of funeral homes that carry the message, “Death to Fags!”
Scamvangelists like Paula White who is a counselor to donald trump.
Hate mongers like Robert Jeffress and Franklin Graham who speak of God’s love out one side of their mouths while proclaiming eternal hellfire for anyone who doesn’t buy into their particular form of religious belief.
Bircher and false prophey Tim LaHaye.
Pseudo-Historian and christian nationalist David Barton.
The dangerous heresy of the Seven Mountains.
The damnable blasphemy that states the God. Hates. Your. Guts.
Indigenous Genocide.
Manifest Destiny.
The wholesale destruction of our environment by people who believe, (Falsely), that God has mandated that humans subdue and use, (re. ‘Exploit’), the environment.
The fact that I cannot walk into any Evangelical church without anxiety rearing up in my chest and mind.
How about that thousands and thousands of people who have been abused by those who preach such a hateful message?

Need I continue?
I surely can.

All of this…ALL OF THIS…is the result of humans who were deceived into believing a false gospel.

So, I write and I speak.

Do I claim to have all the answers to these issues?

Oh, hell no!

But, I do know a fake when I see it.
And, the Western Church, by and large, supports and acclaims a false gospel.
The true Gospel is one that reveals God’s love, not only for humans, but for the entire Cosmos.
The true Gospel has the power to reconcile, not divide.
Paul wrote that in Messiah Jesus there are no walls to separate.
There is neither Jew nor Greek; Free nor Slave; Female nor Male.
We can extrapolate this to say that there is neither Black nor White; Gay nor Straight; Republican nor Democrat.

The bastardization of the Gospel cannot say any of those things.
It sole purpose is to divide.
There is Saved and Damned; Believer and Pagan; Us and Them.

May that Gospel be damned!

So, yeah.
I’m worked up about this.
It’s of paramount importance to me to speak against these abuses and Blasphemies.
Yeah. I said it. The “B” word.
That’s what that false gospel truly is.

So, there it is.
And, I will continue to speak out.
At least as long as I must.
If that bothers you, well ok.
But, not sorry.
If you have similar thoughts and feelings, please share this.
Perhaps our collective voices may amplify these abuses until people begin to notice.

There is Hope

Published by mhelbert on December 14, 2018

Ok, I’ve been a bit hard on Evangelicalism recently. And, with good reason. The theology that this particular brand of Christianity preaches is toxic. Like I wrote yesterday, Evangelical theology is rotten. The whole root is rotten. It needs to be yanked out of the ground and burned on the garbage heap.

That being said, I really need my readers who are Evangelical to know that I don’t begrudge them their faith. I wrote yesterday that these folks really desire to follow Jesus faithfully. But, I don’t believe that they are being given that chance. They are locked into a system that cannot accept any kind of question or dissent. For Evangelicalism to survive it must enforce a “my way or the highway” mentality.

It’s very clear that many religions deal in binaries. That is, everything is either right or wrong; black or white; good or bad. That’s the primary way in which they determine who is in and who is out. (Another binary.) Perhaps more importantly, these binaries assure ME that I am right. Evangelicalism provides this kind of hope to its adherents. By making a “decision” to “commit my life to Jesus” and be “born again,” I place myself on the “right” side rather than the “wrong” one.

And, this produces a real feeling of security for a person. It allows them to see themselves as part of a large family.

It also places them within a theocratic bubble.

A line is drawn that separates my new family from everyone who is NOT a member of that family.

This is problematic. Mostly because, unlike Paul Simon’s wish to be a Rock or an Island, humans are not isolated like that. We are all members of humanity first and foremost. That, my friends, isn’t wishful thinking. It’s an empirical fact. So, even if Evangelicalism provides a mechanism to divide Us from Them, this is at best a false dichotomy. People become lulled into thinking that all the stuff that those people “out there” are part of or produce is somehow tainted. “We can’t be a part of that!”they say. Or, “Those products are part of that world. We can’t use them! Let’s make our own!”

Walls go up. Divisions become set in stone. Dislike and disdain grow steadily until their natural fruit, “Hatred,” is ripe.

I hope that you can see where I’m going with this. Evangelicals are all good, well-meaning people. But, they have been duped into believing a false narrative that positions them in opposition to EVERYTHING ELSE!

This is not the Way of Christ. Never has been; Never will be.

The Way of Christ is one where the playing field is level. There is not male or female; slave or free; black or white; gay or straight; us or them. There isn’t. There just isn’t.

It’s wrong whenever people build walls to keep the ‘Other’ out.

It’s especially egregious when they use God as the mortar to build those walls.

That is exactly what Evangelicalism does. It is Evangelicalism’s only raison d’être. It’s sole purpose to exist. From the beginning this theology was designed to separate people. It is past time to put a stake in it and move on to a better Way.

Into the Hands of a Hateful Church

Published by mhelbert on December 13, 2018

Yesterday I wrote a piece about how Evangelicals embrace something called Penal Substitution. They believe that this is foundational for the Real True Gospel, (RTG). I also said that along the way people who really don’t care about religion or theology would be able to take from it. After all,who really does care what a bunch of religious folks think? As long as it doesn’t affect me, let them believe whatever nonsense they want.

Ok, fair enough.

In 2016 a person was elected president of the U.S.This person is at best unqualified for the office. At worst, he’s a danger to the Republic. How did this happen? Social scientists, anthropologists, news pundits…everyone has a theory. And, they all make sense.

One thing, though, that sometimes gets overlooked is that 81% of White Evangelical Christians voted for this person.

Eighty-one Percent!!!

And, some recent polls indicate that support has remained at or near that level throughout the last two years.

How is that possible? Seriously. How can an entire demographic that has historically touted its moral superiority over the immorality of “the world” support a known liar, adulterer, womanizer, misogynist, thrice married, ignorant buffoon? It boggles the mind.

Unless…unless you understand the Evangelical mindset.

The simple answer is a single issue.

Abortion.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Evangelical position swung from being OK with abortion to one of vicious opposition. That one issue became the rallying cry for all who followed the likes of Pat Robertson and,especially, Jerry Falwell, Sr. So loud was the cry that the Christian Right made it the litmus test for any political candidate. If a candidate’s platform included the words, “anti-abortion,” then they were a good choice.

The Republican Party sensed that and made abortion a part of the party platform. Now, when Evangelicals went to the polls their decision was made easy. Vote Republican! Easy-peasy!

So, when the current president embraced the Republican platform, including the anti-abortion plank, Evangelicals saw their savior.

Ok, that’s the simple answer.

But, it’s not the only or even best answer.

To find that we need to look deeper into the heart of Evangelicalism.

Yesterday I wrote that many in the Evangelical camp sincerely believe that God is so Just that it’s impossible for God to be in the same room as sin. (Whatever that is.) In fact, God hates sin, and by extension, those who practice sin. Hate, hate, hate! Over time this has been hardwired into the hearts of the faithful.

God Hates!

This has enabled those who embrace this picture of God to also hate. They, by Divine example, now have a binary that they can follow. They can know in their knowers that they are righteous and oh so good with confidence. There is a line. On one side the righteous followers of God; on the other is Everyone Else. There is no gray.Everything is black and white. They can even go to their Holy Book and find all sorts of texts to prove just how righteous they are and how worthy of their hate everyone else is.

This is where the danger lies for us and for the world. By dividing everything and everyone into Us and Them they can in all good faith destroy what they don’t like or agree with and tell themselves, “Well, it’s what God wants us to do.”

Are you reading this starting to see the picture form?

Evangelicals in the U.S.have and agenda. And, it’s not simply a religious agenda. It is entirely political. Falwell and friends decided that there could be a political solution to a very Spiritual issue. Their Evangelical followers then sold their collective soul to the devil in order to see their twisted and misguided theology become a physical reality.

The U.S.,to them, was a Christian nation that they could reclaim and, through political means, force their idea of God and righteousness on everyone. (This is the main reason that I think that Mike Pence is more dangerous than our current president.)

Now, I admit that this is an oversimplification of a very complex issue. Evangelicals are not monolithic. There are sincerely faithful people who hold to the tenets of historical Evangelicalism. I know many personally. They are good people who really want to follow Jesus faithfully.

But, the truth of the matter seems to be that the root of Evangelicalism that has been passed along from the First Great Awakening until now is rotten. It has grown into a macabre caricature of the Church that started as a result of Jesus Christ’s life.

It is dangerous.

It is foul.

It must be resisted at every front vigorously.

Hopefully, this is something that you can take home with you.

2 Comments

Into the Hands of a Loving God

Published by mhelbert on December 12, 2018

There are a lot of people who grew up in Evangelical churches that followed a kind of Calvinist path. They now call themselves ex-vangelicals. Or, Exvies for short. While their stories are varied, they allshare certain similarities. They speak of authoritarianism, patriarchy, and the abuses that go with those. Purity culture and sexuality are mentioned a lot.Especially, those who are LGBT people. And, they share how difficult it was for them to leave the Evangelical bubble. (I would add that it’s just as difficult to remain within that bubble.) One thing that underlies their concerns, however, is the toxic theology that props these Neo-Calvinists up. What is it about Evangelical theology that is so toxic?

I’m glad you asked that question.

Most Evangelicals, at least in the U.S., grow out of the rich soil of what historians call, The First Great Awakening. This was a religious phenomena that swept the New England colonies in the early to mid 18th century, (1730-1755). One of the leaders of that movement was a man named Jonathan Edwards. He was basically a Puritan who held to a kind of Reformed, or Calvinist, theology. Now, I know that this doesn’t mean a lot to any of you who don’t study these kinds of things. But, stick with me here. I promise that you will find something to take home with you.

Anyway, Edwards and others preached a message that people must be born again in order to receive God’s salvation. That meant that each individual person must make a personal commitment to ‘receive’ Jesus into their heart as personal Savior. They were called the ‘New Lights’ of the Church. And,what they said resonated with people who lived in the Colonies. Life was hard. Things were changing at an unheard of pace as the world rushed through the Enlightenment. To many, the world looked as though it was spiraling out of control…going to hell in a hand basket.

Enter Edwards and friends. They preached a message that condemned the world. All things that were not explicitly FOR God were necessarily Against God. These would all burn in hell. That “all things”included people. They taught that any person who did not choose to follow God THEIR way was already the object of God’s wrath. God was portrayed as a great Judge who was prepared to slam the Divine gavel down and pronounce sentence…eternal,physical torment in the unquenchable flames of hell. Edwards preached a sermon in 1741 that still influences Evangelicals today. It was entitled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. I’m not going to link to it because I believe that the sermon is false and, by the estimation of some, heretical.

The gist of the sermon, and Edwards’ theology, is that the wicked are under God’s just wrath here and now. If they don’t ‘repent’ and accept Jesus, the God will have No Choice but to send them to their rightly deserved judgment in hell. God, in Edward’s opinion, was oh so pissed with humanity because of sin. One in particular. Yeah, that one that the first humans, Adam and Eve, committed. Because they ate the forbidden fruit, all humanity lived under God’s curse. Because of their disobedience, all humanity was disobedient. And, as a result God’s righteous anger was kindled.

Scary stuff!

What’s scarier is that this is what modern evangelicals still think and believe. In the church that I was a part of for about 30 years, Edwards and others like him, Billy Graham, Tim Keller, et al. were held up as formidable spokesmen for the Real True Gospel, (RTG). Some of the leaders ofthis church would speak about Edwards wistfully. “If only I could preach the RTG like Edwards. Ahhhh….” They thought it was a good thing that when people heard Edwards read that sermon originally they were grabbing onto the church’s pillars and crying out in fear, “What must we do to be saved?” These people were deathly afraid that the ground beneath them was about to open up and swallow them at the very moment! Yeah, this is the kind of response that many, including the leadership of my old church, wish they could garner.

One of the associate pastors there has a stock phrase tha the pulls out of his gospel holster regularly.

He states, “God hates your guts!”

Please. Let that sink in a bit.

God.

The Father of Jesus Christ.

Hates your guts.

In fact, if it wasn’t for Jesus stepping up to the plate and sacrificing himself to appease this God, we’d all be on our way to eternity in a burning garbage dump.

To him, and all of the other Evangelical people who hold to this belief I have but one thing to say…

I’m sorry. But, you are mistaken.

Now, I could take a lot of time to explain my position. And, really, who cares outside of a small circle of friends?

And, so what? Who cares what these Evangelicals think anyway? I mean, let them blow steam all they want. It doesn’t affect me at all.

Well, maybe it actually does. But, that’s a topic for another post.

Below is a link to a short video by Brad Jersak. While I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says in it, for the most part I believe he is spot on. I encourage you to take a few minutes and take a look/listen to what he says.