Paul's Passing Thoughts

Well, it has been an interesting year, no? So far, as someone who is 63 years old and lived through the turmoil of the 60s, I haven’t been too concerned because I have seen it all before. However, the whole deal with Donald Trump makes it a little different. Well, maybe a lot different. First, this ministry totally predicted 11 years ago that the church would be in bed with leftist ideology and an arm of the Democrat party. Sure, there are some churches still confused about what matters and mean well, but most churches are now what we call, “woke.”

Church was never defined as being apart from the state. Church is a product of the 4th century and was created in a church state and for the express purpose of church state. To connect church with the book of Acts is a rewriting of history. The church is not the biblical ekklesia (called-out assembly). The only ekklesia history is the New Testament in general and the book of Acts in-particular. Church history begins in the 4th century and is just that, church history, and nothing else. The dawning of America confused church identity. There was never any separation of church and state before America came along. America is a historical parenthesis regarding church. Don’t forget: we know from the book of Revelation that the church state comes back with a wrathful vengeance before Christ’s visible second coming.

In my study of church history, I concluded early on that church is like seeing a group of ducks walking down the road. You know where they are going; they are going to a body of water. Likewise, church is always heading back to the state. That’s inevitable. That’s how church started, and that’s how it will end. As far as things that are certain in life, you can add this to death and taxes, and we are seeing it today. The woke church is merely courting the state and dressing up its whoredom in Bible verses. This is what church wokeness is about totally.

I will give you two wild guesses regarding which state the church wants to remarry. The one that broke up its first marriage, or the one it was originally married to? Now look, I am going to stick with the really big picture in this post; we are talking about boiling things down to the least common denominator.

So, what’s with the present-day insanity that we are seeing? Well, here is the problem: America pulled the genie out of the bottle. It opened Pandora’s box…however you want to state it. Americans have been allowed to live according to man’s intrinsic purposes for the past 200 years plus. Why is America the home of the brave? Because it has experienced something worth dying for and discovered that it is more valuable than life itself: freedom

You can’t argue against the American dream. You can’t argue against what is “self-evident to all.” There is only one way to beat America: burn it down. That’s what we are presently seeing. Those opposed to the freedom of the individual have tried to manipulate the populous politically to redefine America, but then the information age came along. Now, there is only one way to defeat Americanism: burn it down. Again, that is what we are presently seeing: nothing more; nothing less. There is little discussion about what will come out of the ashes, but I have an answer for that. Answer: anything but America’s idea of self-rule. Anything would be a lesser evil, so whatever it is, bring it. That’s the mentality at hand.

This explains every dynamic we have seen between the COVID pandemic and massive rioting. Leaders on both sides are watching our cities burn and doing nothing while the rioting is clearly being endorsed by woke church leaders. The left and the woke church have one thing in common: they have a huge problem with the individual being free to do what he or she wants to do. Even churches confused by Americanism struggle with that. Let’s look at the best of them who say, “God’s law is higher than man’s law” and think it would be wonderful if every member of congress was a church-going Christian. Supposedly, that would make this country a Christian utopia. Would it really? We should remind ourselves that many former governments were controlled by the church and it did not turn out well. Since America came along and divided the two, there has never been a greater force for good in world history.

Many child level commonsense arguments could be used to refute the present narrative of systemic American racism. When America was the only country on earth with the A-Bomb, why didn’t we just take over the whole world? Wouldn’t a free world be better? Who would have blamed us? In fact, General Patton and others wanted to end communism while we had the chance. Why didn’t we take over Africa and enslave all of them? We could have. What did we do instead? Rebuilt all the countries that couldn’t stand on their own two feet and those of our enemies.

The present-day narrative is ludicrous and the arguments for it are things that even children scoff at, so what’s really going on? I said I was going to keep this basic and constrained to the least common denominators. So, here is the answer to “what’s really going on?” The essence of sin is what’s going on. Sin is in the world and the essence of sin is a desire to control others. This is very central. When America broke up the church-state, communism filled the void. The timing of communism entering the world is no coincidence. Americanism not only changed America, it greatly influenced the world and created a huge tyranny void. Communism filled that void. The uniting of the church and Marxist ideas should be of no surprise to us.

Of course, slavery and freedom are a major theme in the Bible. Those who have not been born again are said to be “enslaved to sin.” The Bible is very specific about how this dynamic works, and the dynamic can be seen clearly in politics right now. If you want to understand today’s politics, merely understand Genesis 4:6,7.

(to Cain): 6 Why are you angry? And why do you look so despondent? 7 Don’t you know that as long as you do what is right, then I accept you? But if you do not do what is right, watch out, because sin is crouching at the door, ready to pounce on you! You must master it before it masters you.

Sin masters (enslave) people through condemnation and guilt. If you are a bad person, you should let “good” people rule over you, no? If you have low self-esteem, you will likely capitulate to anyone who wants to control you. That’s the way it works. Sin crouches like an animal ready to pounce waiting for a reason to condemn as a means of control. The prey can be controlled by people supposedly wiser, more intelligent, more spiritual, or the so-called highbred. Those who want to control you will attempt to make you believe things about yourself so that you will be self-condemning and easy to control.

Sin’s biggest client is the highbred. And since what family you are born into seems to be something beyond human control, this is a kissing cousin to predeterminism. Church leaders are said to be “called by God” to “oversee” God’s people. “Called by God” or receiving God’s call resulting in being an “overseer” is soft terminology for being preordained to rule over God’s people. One verifies this predetermined calling by buying a church license to rule over God’s people commonly known as a seminary degree. Likewise, we allow experts to rule over us because they have psychology degrees from leftist universities. It should be noted that caste systems have totally dominated human history since the day Eve ate the apple. It is also astounding to note how much money we pay control freaks to rule over us.

The primary idea of being saved in the Bible is not being under condemnation. Those under condemnation are still, according to the Bible, “enslaved to sin.” Sin is able to enslave through condemnation. The Bible refers to this unsaved condition as “under law,” “under sin,” and “under condemnation.” The law (Bible imperatives) empowers sin (1Corinthians 15:56), but where there is no law, there is no sin (Romans 4:15).

This is not some biblical legal loophole, the new birth does bring about a change of nature and heart. It also calls for the Christian to look at reality in a whole new way. It is the difference between an under-law worldview and under-love worldview. Under law depends on authority for unity around a given ideology whether the ideology agrees with one’s conscience or not. Under love depends on a cooperative body of willing members functioning on common principles that are self-evident. The Bible states that people are born into the world with the works of God’s law written on their hearts and their consciences either accusing them or excusing them. I believe this refers, in part, to people being born in God’s image. Murder is the destruction of what God has created. This seems to be another basic characteristic of sin; it disdains anything God has created.

All of these principles are seen dominating the political realm in our present day. Issues of more or less government, white guilt, freedom of conscience, and predetermined white racism rule the day. Tyranny never before seen in our society is on the march. What is good for the goose is not good for the gander; the new nation of Chop has border walls, no free speech, and segregation which otherwise proves white racism. Everything going on is the epitome of divide and conquer. In order to burn down America, it must be divided.

And with predeterminism, repentance under compulsion will not bring unity, only total and perpetual repentance will sustain peace. Remember, if your lineage predetermines your sin, their is no hope of change, and the best you can hope for is ongoing atonement as a way to broker peace and a life that will be determined for you by others. If you are repentant enough, your existence may be bearable. In our day, politics, and religion of old have found unification in these principles.

For certain, true Christians should support America wholeheartedly. Regardless of our kingdom that is coming, God demands freedom and justice in the here and now, and no country has ever defended justice more than America. If God wants us to feed and clothe the poor, and he does, capitalism has done that better than any other financial system. Americanism is the closest thing on earth to biblicism that has ever been, and therefore, Christians should defend it.

With that said, we need to start taking the Bible literally regarding our identity. We are literally of God’s lineage through the new birth. We are literally citizens of his kingdom. We are literally “ambassadors” representing our kingdom. When Christ comes and reins from David’s throne, none of this nonsense will be allowed.

In the midst of this insanity, it is time for the ekklesia, what we call the Home Fellowship movement, to focus on offering an alternative. Those who get it are doing some great things, but it is time to be a bit more consolidated. Susan and I have made a commitment to focus this ministry more on sanctification and the Home Fellowship movement in 2020 and will be sharing our ideas in a couple of weeks. When the smoke clears, we believe Christians will be looking for solid alternatives and concrete answers.

This is behind our Revelation series. What hope can be found in what the book of Revelation states objectively? Even if Donald Trump is reelected in November, his administration will be relentlessly harassed. Freedom and individualism is at war with tyranny because freedom and individualism is on the rise under the Trump administration. Before Trump, individualism was docile and easily manipulated. The empowerment of the middle class is indicative of a true open society. It is the true manifestation of a representative republic.

For purposes of keeping our sanity and practical reasons, we must refocus on our Christian identity and find hope in God’s certain plan for the future. We must find our peace and hope in that while supporting America to the best of our ability.

In the near future, church will not be acceptable to any serious Christian. It is time to come home to the true biblical expression of Christ’s called out assembly.

TANC Ministries