Paul's Passing Thoughts

There is no doubt that God always brings good out of trials experienced by believers. But yet, we are also instructed to pray, “Deliver us from evil.” We are not to be anxious for anything, but are to make our supplications known to God.  We are to pray that God’s will in heaven is done on Earth; and there isn’t much suffering going on up there. Even Christ prayed for the possibility that His cup of suffering might pass by without a partaking.

I love the song “If You Want Me To” by Ginny Owens. I only take exception to the idea that God “wants” us to suffer trials. I think it’s His will at times, but I am not sure He “wants” it. But I can tell you what He doesn’t want: evil. As Christians, we are to prevent it, shun it, and take up the cause of those who are victimized by it. God is a God of justice. Unbelieving image bearers that have the law of God written on their hearts will not even tolerate evil much of the time. How much more true should this be among Christians?

It has been an interesting journey for me since the first hint that something wasn’t right at my church home of twenty years. Five years later, I now have a clear picture of what happened and why. Sure, my own sin didn’t help the situation any, but be sure of this: my most grievous sin was that of ignorance. I wasn’t paying attention, and the cost was great. Well, God did bring much good out of it, but Christ didn’t come with an attitude that evil is good so that more grace can abound; He came to destroy the works of the devil.

Until now, I have focused primarily on the doctrine that glories in a deeper knowledge of our supposed worthlessness and depravity—making that the sum of our sanctification.  To focus on that supposedly makes God bigger. A doctrine that embraces suffering as a good thing. A doctrine that propagates an indifference to injustice; after all, we are totally depraved and deserve to suffer. A doctrine that propagates unaccountable enlightened ones leading the Christian SpongeBob masses. I have done this and not focused directly on the “church” that sought to utterly destroy me for questioning their authority.

That now must change. Others have also recognized that remaining silent in order to not “make it about me” is not working out well, and lives continue to be decimated by ecclesiastical tyrants. Moreover, other leaders will not do anything because inherent in this doctrine is the “authority = truth” motif. I simply do not owe it to them to keep my silence and not use whatever gifts granted me to sound the alarm. I simply do not owe it to them to let others be led to the slaughter unawares. And as far as allowing them to present themselves as orthodox unabated: I don’t owe them that either.

I follow others who are doing the same; for example, http://joyfulexiles.com/. Others before us saw the light much sooner; for example http://fbcjaxwatchdog.blogspot.com/. Authority does not equal truth, and if the peers of today’s spiritual despots will not hold them accountable, our Lord God willing, we will.

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