Having failed to take the path to maturity as believers, many Christians repeat the elementary sayings of the faith or any good-sounding slogan or maxim, without so much as a second glance.
In this they are like man’s best friend, dining on regurgitate and putting up signs to announce their nourishment.  At the juncture where they should be establishing their fidelity to Christ and their calling we find them clinging to the cheap and unhinged evangelical playbook. They find foes where there are none and report victories when no battle had been fought, all the while the supreme accomplishments of Christ’s sscrifice is merely a popular blip in slogans and soundbytes.

Church and state conflict?

When we read about a “church and state conflict” from these cowards we are not surprised.  We know they have been drinking.

And Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were amazed at Him. 

Mark 12:17

It is obvious that a scholar who tries to create a facade of warrior mentality while showing no interest in the priority of the written words of Yeshua the Messiah is not worthy of any attention.

This level of feeding is not a 21st century phenomenon.   Isaiah gave a full-bodied tour of this descent into darkness. The salient points in Isaiah’s guide are these.

1. They are full of talk.  Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote, Isaiah 29:13
2. There is intoxication in the picture. And these also reel with wine and stagger from strong drink: The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, They are confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink; They reel while having visions, They totter when rendering judgment. Isaiah 28:7
3. They do not read.  The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, “Please read this,” he will say, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”  Isaiah 29:11

Are these guys not the same people who say that believers do not protest, that believers must honour the “king” and obey government?  These are the same cowards who never lifted a pinkie in defense of African dignity, never cared for Jewish people, Muslims or First Nations (except as a talking point about loving and giving thanks for all humans)

They love themselves “more than these”

So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.” 

John 21:15

2 Peter 2:18-19 tells us about a class that enjoys “speaking arrogant words of vanity  enticing by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, (19) promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.

Drunk with their own meagre accomplishments, they quickly run out of fantasies and theories.  I prefer any day a “Yeshua told us so” than an “I told you so”.  The authentic struggles and progress of the kingdom life eludes most (75%) Christians.  Solomon’s maxim that he is greater who conquers his own soul (desires) is greater than he who conquers a city aligns with the apostolic teaching that uncontrolled lusts (desires) put a damper on spiritual growth.

He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city. 

Proverbs 16:32

Faith and civic society

There is a canyon between the antics of any civic society and faith in God that no argument can bridge. Filthy dreams and fantasy, sometimes disguised as faith in the God who does impossible things, will never pass the smell test.  What a waste that so much energy is spent on enemies that do not exist!

There is a guy who is so eager to be seen as conquering hero,  so committed to his own self-evaluation, is so positive that he sees “no” when the King of Truth says “yes” and “amen”.  No to God’s offer leads to a “nope” attitude and eventually to being drunk with the social concoctions of our times.

Deadly drink from a doomed giant

And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.”

Revelation 14:8

Earth’s population intoxicated

with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.”

Revelation of John 17:2

A thoroughly detailed warning

1) But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2) Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; 3) and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

2 Peter 2:1-3

Peter is not being negative.  If the pastors of the modern era spent any time learning the fundamental concepts of church and pastoral work they would stand in contrast to the growing mass of hucksters and marketers, posing as the repairers of broken human lives.

“Nope” is the main street of empty religion

Great, swelling, and passionate words may not only be based on selfish pride, they also tend to be deceitful. Maybe the speakers have forgotten to be examples of their message. What to do and not to do in order to be free is not the lube of the spiritual life. Christians are not freed beings because of their performance. Who though can believe that a messenger in the grip of the common ups and downs of life is a liberated soul? Peter said “Do not buy it”. Corruption is their companion.

18) For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, 19) promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.

2 Peter 2:18-19

Observation not accusation: capitalism sinks the ship

14) having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; 15) forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

2 Peter 2:14-15

Having shrunk from accepting what God has to say about his creatures we should expect to end up drunk with the wine of prostitution.  Whatever concepts we can cobble together serve as our safe places.  Man, are we intoxicated!

The gospel makes no cowards.  The Spirit may be heard saying “Shush” but we are authorized to speak and act as liberated people, warriors whose Commander has defeated death, defanged the Devil (destroyed his works), and assured us peace with God.

An admonition from the extreme

Ezra was a great scribe and preacher (7:6, 10, 11), but an activist for the causes of justice and philanthropy he was not (9:14). The gospels mention scribes 60 times but Acts contains 3 references. They may look like a dying breed, but Christ assures us that He will raise up scribes too for the church. Scribes can tell you what the Bible says but way too many, like Ezra, fall off the truck in their zeal to defend the past without checkimg the full range of history.

You would go crazy if you ever stepped back from the fast and furious lists of moral imperatives and stared Christ right in the face, even briefly. The number of people calling themselves believers and distancing themselves from the gospel and the more sure prophetic word is being revealed as the huge multitude on the broad road.

We have a high priest

We do not read the book of Hebrews and come away telling ourselves that God sent his own Son in order to establish the conventions of the levitical system. As surely as David’s lord – the expected priest-king – belongs to an order outside the Jewish tradition, the glory and benefits of which fade into irrelevance for the human family.

High Priest #1
Hebrews 4:14
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

High Priest #2
Hebrews 8:1
Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

High Priest #3
Hebrews 10:21-22
21. and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22. let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.


A Soul Anchor
Hebrews 6:19
This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil,

Confidence
Hebrews 10:19-20
19. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20. by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,

No single operative can demand our undivided attention!

A cloud of witnesses
Hebrews 12:1
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

An Altar
Hebrews 13:10
We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.

A Good Conscience
Hebrews 13:18
Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things.