Paul's Passing Thoughts

Hopefully, the home fellowship movement will create a music awakening among Christians. Right now, whether contemporary “Christian” music or church hymnals, the lyrics, for the most part, represent lies in general and a false gospel in particular. The vast majority of all music in the church venue propagates progressive justification. Consequently, going to hell has never sounded better.

Point in case: the 60’s Rock song, “Get Together,” calls for a choice between love and fear in a spiritual sense. That’s the dichotomy between under law and under grace  that the Bible highlights. The song also mentions the one who has left us behind to preach this distinction. Good stuff.

What does Protestantism advocate for sanctification? Luther and Calvin taught that fear was the primary fuel that drives sanctification. Also, according to Protestantism, sanctification is the progression of justification (salvation). Hence, the same fear that saved you also sanctifies you, viz, keeps the salvation process moving forward. Since we are “all [saved and unsaved alike] sinners saved [being continually saved] by grace (salvation),” of course we should fear condemnation because we are supposedly still under law. According to Luther and Calvin, no fear of damnation would denote sinlessness.

Per Protestant assimilation using deception through the assumption of word meaning, “We are all sinners saved by grace” should be stated this way if stated honestly: “The saved are still totally depraved and are continually saved by returning to the same gospel that began our salvation.” That’s Protestantism, and it’s not arguable. And this doctrine defines its music in every church venue.  

I have documented the citations regarding these facts with thousands of articles, but I would recommend the book, “It’s Not About Election” which goes into Protestantism’s sabbath sanctification in painstaking detail.

We may also mention what will be absent from Rock music because of its separation from church; Jesus is My Boyfriend lyrics. Jesus is my romantic lover music comes from the Protestant historical-redemptive hermeneutic. Since every verse in the Bible is about Jesus and His salvation, well then, the Song of Solomon must be about Jesus and the church and not romance on a horizontal level because the Bible is strictly about the vertical. Hence, James MacDonald’s “Vertical Church” claim to fame.

If you want good and practical music about horizontal life that doesn’t include Protestant mysticism, look for it in Rock music or other secular venues that have commonsense lyrics.  

Again, I have documented the citations regarding these facts with thousands of articles, but I would also recommend the book, “The Gospel Transformation Bible; a Tool for Keeping Our Salvation?” in reference to the historical-redemptive hermeneutic. 

If you leave your address in the comment section along with a request, I will edit your address out of the comment and send you either or both of these books for free while supply lasts, or a pdf file.

So it’s Sunday, and a good day for listening to some good spiritual music…enjoy.  

Right, that’s the Protestant gospel, and that’s why it’s false. If we must repeat the same way we “became” a Christian in our ongoing lives, that is obviously progressive justification per John Calvin’s chapter stating such in his Institutes of the Christian Religion (3.14).

In other words, Calvin clearly advocated a progressive salvation in that chapter which shouldn’t surprise us because that’s what Protestantism is. And, the favorite cover for this is the subtle exchange of “salvation” for “grace,” and in this case, “we became a Christian” as well. You can restate the meme this way: “We live by faith ALONE to keep ourselves saved.” It’s clearly perpetual salvation through living by faith alone.

By the way, anything we do with intentionality, no matter how passive, or whether active or passive to keep ourselves saved is a form of works salvation. Keeping ourselves saved by doing nothing with intentionality is still a works salvation. If salvation is not presently complete as apposed to Protestantism’s “final justification,” we must DO something to keep ourselves saved. An unfinished salvation is mutually inclusive with works salvation in every case; this is unavoidable.

And this is is nothing new; James wrote a treatise against faith alone in the Christian life, “faith without works is dead, being alone.” Rather, we live by “faith working through love” (Gal 5:6).

paul

“… the drunkenness of control-lust hardly seeks to advocate the law of individual conscience.”

Truism’s make us feel better and supply cover for living a lie in various venues of life. “The church isn’t a building, it’s the people.” Right. That one is only rivaled by the laugher in my line of work: “It’s about resident care, not personal agendas.” Right.

The problem with institutional caring, love, if you will, is that institutions are intrinsically related to authority. God, who is love, of course, has all authority, but is not an authoritarian. That fact is apparent; God is not presently in control of all things. That’s future; ie., the Millennial Kingdom. Even then, folks have freewill and things are not yet perfect, that comes via the “new heavens and new earth.”

Love has little to do with authority. True love flows from freewill and pure motives. Where authority is present, one is compelled to mimic love, especially when it is being paid for as a service. I am not sure there is a better example than the Nurse Aide line of work; those who receive immense satisfaction in caring and those who are just there for a paycheck are not hard to sort out. And when a resident knows they are being cared for by a clock-puncher, and trust me, they know, it is perhaps the most grievous form of abuse, but yet legal.

And in the Nurse Aide business, clock-punchers don’t like lovers because the lovers shine a light on their clock-punching. Certainly, institutions can cultivate a true love culture, but that is hard work and institutions are notorious for lazy management. Hence, nursing facilities are fraught with steroidal politics and loving aides pose a threat of challenging work for management. Mediocracy is easier to manage, but cultivating a culture of love is very hard work.

Well, they think mediocracy is easy to manage, but it is really misery on an installment plan. Primarily, facilities are notoriously shorthanded for the following reason; lazy management. Again, cultivated the right aide culture is hard work…initially, that is. But if the path of least resistance is the policy (because it seems that it is the least resistance), aides that love what they do who get in by happenstance will create all kinds of conflict leading to pretense-driven politics of the highest order. And how do aides who love what they do get in? Their presentations of themselves are assumed to be pretense or they appear to be clock-punchers because they don’t talk about what they do, they just do it after the fact. But if their actions raise the bar, Katy bar the door.

You can’t legislate love or the motives of the heart. Here is the thing about authority; it can’t make any person do anything. Sure, you can execute someone, but you can’t make them do anything they don’t want to do. They may capitulate to authority, but that’s not love, and in fact, one may reject some forms of authority out of pure love. This is where freewill is an obvious metaphysical fact. God Himself created mankind with the built-in impossibility of making anybody do anything they don’t want to do; He will eventually punish them for not doing what they were created to do in His image, but mankind is inherently a freewill creature.

God is love, and we are created in his image. People are able to love. God is presently in the love business, and when it is time for His authority, that will be very evident. His authority guarantees the outcome that He wants; it guarantees a happy ending for all who love Him and His ways of love, but He presently seeks those who will glorify Him through love.

Institutions attempt to accomplish things through authority which translates into a lack of love. When love takes place in an institution, it is a freewill individual act that can’t come from authority. Institutions, though absolutely necessary, have a very limited role in actual goodness and are intended to free goodness and individualism by force if necessary. In other words, institutions should free the individual to love, but are unable to produce that love.

To illustrate this from a biblical perspective, sin uses law to create desires within people to reject said laws. Laws, though necessary, assume the worst about humanity and reject the ability of individual conscience, and the ability to cultivate an individual conscience to produce more love. This is why institutions with authoritative high standards will end up being bastions of hypocrisy; conscience is legislated rather than assumed. If you tell people they are evil as illustrated by “necessary” laws to restrain such evil, they will act according to expectations.

In contrast, if the “Here is why we do it this way” is presented rather than “You better do it this way, or else,” coupled with the initial hard work of cultivating a culture of true love, employees will function more from personal conscience which determines their actions anyway. Institutions cannot replace personal conscience which is the only true source of love to begin with. Wise institutions, that is, as much as they can be wise, seek to create an atmosphere where consciences flourish, not conformity to pseudo-utopic laws.

This is why I am convinced of the following: the called-out assembly of Christ is meant to function as a cooperative body in a family-of-God setting rather than an authoritative institution. This is in addition to the fact that the Bible explicitly states such.

Institutions are God’s ministers to free the individual conscience according to what is evident to all, because God created conscience in all people according to His image. But institutions cannot produce love. Instead, unless their purpose and limitations are known, they incite the sinful tendency to control others within caste systems full of class-envy-lust where individual self-importance can be purchased through credentials, political skill, drugs, and sex. Invariably, the mentality that institutions are the endgame will produce a quagmire of political intrigue. And, the drunkenness of control-lust hardly seeks to advocate the law of individual conscience.

Only the individual conscience can produce love.

paul

Fear dominates humanity. In fact, it saturates every level of human existence. Individually, it plagues us with thoughts of uncertainty, lack of confidence, and fear of an unknown future. Fear is not only a very poor prognosticator, but a deliberate liar; very little of what we fear comes true. Medically, in almost every case, fear is present as an agitator delighting in torment if not the primary culprit itself. And fear is always the weapon of choice for those who want to control us.

Fear is also accepted as a natural experience that has a cosmic right to be present. From there it plies its ability to compound itself and debilitate. No foe dumbs down human potential and a positive life experience more than fear.

According to the Bible, the formula is simple: condemnation leads to death/judgement and all fear flows from this dynamic. God’s law, the Bible, not only defines all of these realities, but creates certainty as set against fear’s uncertainty. The Bible states that ALL sin worthy of condemnation is imputed to the law. God created the law to define sin; apart from the law, there is no sin.

Then Christ came to end the law. Say to all dominated by fear: “Embrace Christ, and there is no law to judge you.” The apostle Paul stated it this way: “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.”

Many want to control us through fear by presenting God in a certain way. How do you control people who are under no law that can condemn? You cannot; they are free souls. This is what slander is all about; if they have nothing on you to condemn, they will make something up, and since people who are under law have a tendency to feel guilty to begin with, slander is a very effective tool for controlling people.

However, those who embrace Christ are still under a law. The Bible calls it, “under grace.” The word “grace” simply means, “love in action, or help.” In every single place we see the word “grace” in the Bible, the word “love” fits in the context. Grace speaks to God’s love in action.

This now involves God’s dual purpose for the Bible. For the imputation of all sin that condemns, and the standard for loving God and others; it is a law that brings death for those not of Christ, and a law that brings life and love more abundantly for those in Christ.

Christ’s death and resurrection established the gateway to this salvation; the new birth. How certain should you be that you are not condemned in Christ? “Where there is no law there is no sin.” Those in Christ stand in no court that can condemn eternally. Even if a believer where to be taken to such a court, the judge has no law, and would say…

“There is no fear in love, but mature love casts out fear. Depart in peace, there is no condemnation for I have no law that condemns you.”

paul

How should we interpret the wacky world we live in? One example: regardless of clear historical evidence that our economy thrives under lower taxes, Democrats are hell-bent on raising taxes. But why?

Another example: life was just fine in the 80’s and 90’s when everyone thought racism was behind us. Then, during the historical exclamation point on this; ie., the election of President Barack Obama, racism came back with a vengeance. Seemingly, that makes no sense at all.

Now, everything is about race. So, as someone who didn’t hear anything about race for 20 years and thought little about it, neither did I give it a second thought while watching the women’s U.S. Open Tournament until I was remined that “everyone in the finals are women of color, and this is historic.” Uh, ok, whatever, I was just enjoying the tournament and never gave race a thought because you know, it’s tennis.

In addition, we can examine how people who have benefited greatly from Americanism are anti-American. Huh? Seriously, I have been scratching my head on this since I was a 6-year-old sitting in front of a black and white TV set watching the Huntley-Brinkley report back when news was really news. From a commonsense perspective, liberals have been driving me nuts for almost 60 years.

Then the hub of what explains all of this madness was revealed to me while reading the Bible:

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it” (Genesis 4:6,7).

Herein, among other places in the Bible, we are introduced to “sin.” We find that sin is “crouching” like a predator waiting for the right moment to subdue prey. And for us, what is that moment? When we do something wrong.

Also note the essence of sin: a desire…to control. And what does sin use to control us? Guilt. Shame. Condemnation. It goes something like this: “Look what you just did. We can now add that to the list of your failures and awful things you have done. You are a bad person and very unwise; therefore, you need to let someone who is worthy rule over you.”

God’s exhortation to Cain follows: you must not let sin control you; you must control sin, and you must not give sin a beachhead by giving into sinful desires. If you do what is right, you will be “accepted” and not condemned. The footnote to this is Christ’s death on the cross to end the law’s ability to condemn. When the ability to condemn was taken away, sin was stripped of its power. Yes, NO law to condemn you is very good news. By believing on Christ, you eliminate the possibility of standing before any judge that has a law in which to convict you. The apostle Paul stated it this way: “Where there is no law, there is no sin.” Christ came to end condemnation and strip sin of its power to condemn and control.

The new birth not only changes the jurisdiction of the law for the believer, it changes the believer’s attitude towards the law. Once indifferent to the law, the believer loves the law. Therefore, the believer does not use the new identity to indulge in sinful desires because condemnation has been ended; that is counterintuitive for the new creature in Christ.

Sin isn’t all about bad stuff people do; most of what sin is about concerns the control issue. Sin is the grandmaster of enslavement and freedom’s greatest enemy. People serve sin by controlling others and robbing them of their freedom. Sin is the heart and soul of tyranny. And from it all types of slavery and bondage flow. Sin inclines one to control everything and everyone in their environment, and this applies to every stratum of reality from government to a parent reading their child a bedtime story. The control discussion has a place in every human behavior. In one example among myriad, being in a position to decide if someone lives or dies is the ultimate control experience.

In regard to Western culture, the definition of sin as applied to societal models is mostly defined by Socrates. He believed that sin is defined by ignorance. People sin because they are unknowledgeable. This is why prisons in our day focus on education as the centerpiece of rehabilitation. Socrates believed that all knowledge is intuitive in everyone and is drawn out through dialogue, that is, moral knowledge that makes one a moral citizen. This is what got him killed because that ideology levels the playing field; remember that 90% of the culture in that day were slaves to some degree or another.

His primary understudy, Plato, adopted a more Eastern approach of caste. In other words, a caste system that separated those who could comprehend reality and those who cannot. Plato believed that the perfect society is mirrored by the soul of man; those who know (philosopher kings), those who know that there are knowers and those who don’t know, and the health of any given society is dependent on serfs submitting to those who know (the warrior class), and of course, those who can’t know or comprehend reality. In the soul of every person these three elements are intuitive, but one is dominant in each person determining what class they belong to in the caste-system pecking order. A person’s class is determined by lineage and lineage is determined by predestination. The fruit falls not far from the tree; this is why the Puritans forbade upward mobility and deemed upward mobility as not honoring one’s mother and father according to the ten commandments.

Aristotle, Plato’s understudy, returned to Socrates’ model of knowledge. It is still a caste system, but is based on upward mobility. One’s position in society can be earned through formal education. However, don’t miss this; in Aristotle’s caste system, those who obtain upward mobility should rule over those who don’t. This is why expertism plagues our present society. “Educated” people can propagate the most absurd notions and many will buy into them because the propagators have a string of titles after their name. Nevertheless, it is striking to note that this half-right view of reality that didn’t go far enough, and is still half pregnant with tyranny led to the Enlightenment era which led to the birth of the greatest nation in human history…America.

But along with the Enlightenment era came the concept of Capitalism and free markets. This enables the common man to beat the Aristotelian caste system…

…and that ain’t fair.

“I was in school for eight years and paid $150,000 for a Doctorate degree and that welder makes as much money as I do. This means our economic system is unfair. He’s an uneducated beer drinking hillbilly and probably the product of inbreeding, and I am of the upper crust of society. Something needs to be done about this.”

This is why people who benefit from American Capitalism are against it; they have to share their status with serfs and other unworthys. It just ain’t fair. And, remember, money empowers people. This is the crux of the issue; Capitalism levels the playing field and disregards caste, but because of sin, people love caste—caste is a control mechanism. This is why high taxation is in vogue; it takes away more money from the individual because money empowers.

Look about us in our politically correct society, it is saturated with guilt, guilt, and more guilt, and shame, shame, and more shame. The list is endless beginning with, “white privilege.” Why is racism making a comeback? Because sin seeks to control through condemnation. This is where politics and religion kiss. The two were partners in tyranny before the advent of Americanism.

Perhaps an unintended result of Americanism was Capitalism which truly frees the individual to bring what they want to the table. It makes the individual the only judge over the sum and substance of one’s own life with the sole purpose of government being the protector of this endeavor.

In the final analysis, it draws a line in the sand of reality. On one side, you have predestination, caste, bondage, death, tyranny, total depravity, collectivism, socialism, and condemnation. On the other side, you have freewill, freedom, life, ability, the image of God, cooperation, individualism, and I dare say…

…true fairness.

paul