Guest Writer John Immel: An Open Letter to Infidels
In light of last night’s terror attack in Nice, France, I think we all need to be reminded once again of just who exactly we’re dealing with.
Originally Posted June 21, 2016
By John Immel; edited by Paul M. Dohse, TANC Publishing.
“No society can hope to survive collective psychosis. No nation can endure when the political powers seek to compel the people to join a break with reality. Western civilization cannot survive with this ongoing campaign of collective treason against the central premise of Enlightenment ideas: A is A. Without this foundation rational man, civilized man, is doomed.”
Dear Infidel, there is no such thing as Islamic “Extremism.”
Full stop.
Dear Infidel, remove every –ism from the proper noun and that will bring clarity to what is affecting the whole world.
Full stop.
Dear Infidel, there is no such thing as a “Moderate” Muslim.
Full stop.
Dear Infidel, the Quran divides the world between three classes of people—the faithful, apostates, and infidels. This existential divide might be marginally benign but for this fact: The faithful have a singular standing order—do heinous things to the apostates and the infidels. So for all practical purposes, in the world according to Islam, everything is metaphysically divided between the faithful and their 100% commitment to the edicts, commands, and dictates of Allah as bestowed upon the world by the Prophet Mohamed–May peace be upon Him–and everyone else.
How do I know this is true? Oh . . . because I can read. And if there is any confusion about what I read, I am willing to let the experts on the Quran speak for themselves and if I am tempted to dismiss their judgment for my own, I can temper my credulity by observing the historical themes played out generation after generation after generation after generation.
More on this historical observation in a minute . . .
Of course committing these words to print puts me in societal crosshairs. No one is allowed to be so direct about Islam and anyone who is this direct must be an intolerant, bigoted, racist, homophobic, angry white male who doesn’t like women and puppies and wants all old people to die eating cat food, because he will take away their social security. Only Donald Trump class bigots dare point out the reality of Islamic supremacy and its Jihad against Western culture in general and America in particular.
Dear Infidel, let’s think about this accusation . . . that those who understand Islam as stated above are little more than fearful little haters. Let us think about who is painting infidels, like myself, with the disqualifying brush of intolerance.
Western cultural intelligentsia, entertainment moguls, political pundits, heads of news agencies and government representatives have all decided that Islamic Clerics and Muslim Dr’s of theology, Imams, and mullahs can’t possibly know what the Quran says and are epistemologically incapable of understanding the Hadith. And therefore anyone committing an act of “terrorism” must, without equivocation, caveat or addendum; MUST be perverting a great religion.
So let’s watch how the smartest people in the room put this worldview into action. If a Jihadist, slaughters 49 gays in a Florida night club, calls 911 while committing his act of war and declares his commitment to ISIS, the motive cannot possibly be that he was a Muslim committed to the enforcement of Sharia law, but rather his violence is the byproduct of Republicans refusing to abolish the Second Amendment, or his violence is because “assault rifles” exist, or because American culture is a culture of “toxic masculinity,” or because he is “radicalized” by exposure to the “internet” or because America is mean and this poor young man just couldn’t take the meanness anymore, or he was (whispering) a closet homosexual who struggled to come out of the closet because America is homophobic.
Of course, the anti-American bigotry laced throughout these rationalizations is perfectly fine, perfectly reasonable, perfectly acceptable forms of political dissent and social commentary.
America (and white privileged Americans) are the villains and everyone else including the Jihadist dujour are the victims. And the only correct political action is to abolish the Second Amendment, prosecute Americans for “hate” crimes because Muslims are “offended,” lecture free people that they have no business expecting liberty, conduct endless warrantless searches on Americans traveling by airplane, immediately establish Sharia courts within the United States and—in the name of peace and compassion—throw our borders wide open to Muslim “immigrants” because anyone who knows anything knows that there is NO direct relationship between Islam, Muslims, Jihad, and the scattered few aberrations of Work Place Violence in Fort Hood and San Bernardino and the World Trade Center.
Oh no, no, no. Shame, shame, shame (stroking my index finger like Catholic School Nun) Islam is a great religion. It is a religion of peace. How dare you think otherwise?
This might be a quaint trip into political posturing if it weren’t for the fact that the leadership of the whole Western world, from Germany to France to Belgium to Great Britton seems to have arrived at the same fundamental conclusion. The whole western world has decided that Muslim leaders, renowned throughout the globe for their doctrinal mastery, are really just a few scattered crazy men that have “perverted” a “great religion.”
Never mind that in 630 AD Mohamed—May peace be upon Him—inspired Bedouin tribes to roar out of the backwater Arabian dessert with a singular goal—world domination in the name of Allah. Never mind that the whole of Islam has continued to act on this objective from the 7th century to the present day. Never mind that 95% of all modern military conflicts have Muslims on (at least) one side. Never mind that it is only because the Sunni and the Shia can’t stop slaughtering each other (because they can’t agree on who is the greater tribe of apostates) long enough for Islam to conquer the world. Never mind that the top Islamic minds, in every century since the 7th have repeatedly reaffirmed the declarations of war against the infidels over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and . . .
Never mind the obvious. The Western intelligentsia, with their superior grasp of reality, their pure hearts and broad minds and inclusive souls . . . oh no . . . they will not be duped by “extremists.” They know better—their understanding of the Religion of Peace is far better than the ayatollahs, mullahs and Imams issuing fatwas. They understand religious freedom better than the whole world.
So who are the crazy people in this scenario?
Dear Infidel, answer this question: Who is educating the West on the “Religion of Peace?”
Can you name one Billy Graham equivalent Muslim evangelist explaining the vagaries of Quranic doctrine? Where is the cavalcade of “moderate” Muslim’s instructing America on the Hadith’s central doctrines of benevolence?
Anyone have a name?
If Moderate Muslims are the dominant force within Islam’s 2 billion followers why don’t those names fly off your tongue like their Christian counterparts: Falwell and Swaggart and Molher and Copeland and Dever?
How come the names that do fly off your tongue—Bin Laden, Zarqawi, Khamenei, Badie—advocate anything but “moderation”?
So now let’s answer the question. Who is educating America on the “Religion of Peace?” The answer: A Who’s Who of pop culture personalities, politicians, and corporate media talking heads.
For example; Ben Affleck, who makes pretty good movies, regularly doubles as a Muslim apologist on sundry talk show panels. John Kasich insists on defending “moderate” Muslims as if his Catholic catechism gives him unique insights to the Hadith. And Paul Ryan who seems to get his boxers in a twist anytime anyone suggests there might be a problem with Muslim immigration. Or tune into pretty much any cable news program and you will be treated to an anchorette, smiling brightly into the camera, denigrating anyone who dares suggest that Islam had anything to do with the San Bernardino shooters or the Orlando Jihadist. Such intolerance, such Islamaphobia, she will insist is the height of bigotry.
Isn’t it curious that I’m impolitic for pointing out that our current theological educators should more properly be seen (and not heard) on an episode of Entertainment Tonight?
What are their credentials as Islamic spokesmen?
Because Ben Affleck produces and stars in the movie Argo, a film about the Iranian hostage crisis during Jimmy Carter’s presidency, he is an Islamic theologian? He knows a few “moderate” Muslims?
What to say about John Kasich? He is the (current) governor of Ohio and (was) a presidential candidate. So these are sufficient credentials to quote the Quran, Surah and Ayat?
Really?
Uh . . . remember, Dear Infidel, that this is the same man, who in a Presidential debate manufactured a conversation with Saint Peter to justify his Presidential policy to seize your private property in the name of “godly” compassion. I defy anyone to find a “biblical” reference to discussions with Saint Peter at the Pearly gates. And the reason I defy you to find it is because John Kasich made it up! So if John Kasich can manufacture Christian doctrines out of whole cloth what do you think he actually knows about Islam?
Paul Ryan, the current speaker of the House, often lectures the American people on the need for open immigration policy and refuses to heed the warnings of the FBI and CIA director in sworn congressional testimony that the flood of ISIS Jihadists coming across the US borders are at a historic high point. Paul Ryan has apparently forgotten that he is a representative of American citizens NOT foreign nationals. (As an aside I suggest that we encourage Speaker Ryan to go find another occupation—greeter at Wal-Mart or maybe an employee of CAIR or a field reporter for Al Jazeera—by supporting whoever challenges him in the upcoming election.)
And let’s not leave out the ubiquitous cable news anchorette sitting, shaved legs crossed at
the knee, cleavage imprinted behind her blouse, hair flowing free, defending Islam with her mega-watt smile. Never forget, as she blathers on sagely about religious freedom and the plight of Syrian refugees, that if she were seen, dressed as she is on TV, on the streets of Iran, Saudi Arabia or ANY other country where Sharia law is enforced she would be killed to wash her Western whore dishonor from her family name: burned alive or stoned, or beheaded or have her face whipped for her immodesty. Somehow American news anchorettes and college educated coeds seem to be the only ones who don’t know the open secret that the Islamic world knows: Under Sharia law a woman’s opinion is irrelevant.
(The definition of absurdity is American women, whose political and religious freedoms are the byproduct of Enlightenment thought, pontificating sagely about the benevolence of Islamic doctrine. But I digress.)
Dear Infidel here is the point: We are taking Islamic theology lessons from people who have no clue what they are talking about and at their request, in a fit of catastrophic delusion, defiantly rejecting the outward, overt, unhidden words of theological professionals. We are pretending that people who have (very likely) never touched a Quran—let alone read its words—insist they have a keener insight to Muslim doctrine than those who have dedicated their lives to its study. Men who have graduated from the world’s top Islamic universities, men who choose to abandon enormous wealth to live in huts and hovels and caves and blow themselves up to wage war in the name of Allah.
Arrogance is its own despicable vice but arrogance and delusion are the seedbed of disaster. No society can hope to survive collective psychosis. No nation can endure when the political powers seek to compel the people to join a break with reality. Western civilization cannot survive with this ongoing campaign of collective treason against the central premise of Enlightenment ideas: A is A. Without this foundation rational man, civilized man, is doomed.
Here is a novel idea. How about if we accept the word of Islamic professionals? How about if we take their declarations seriously? How about if rational men quit trying to put words in the mouth of mystics and quit making excuses for savages? How about if we judge reality and see exactly what Islam says of itself. How about if we identify the A of Islam.
What do the professionals say the Quran and the Hadith teaches?
Simply this: Mohamed—May peace be upon Him—declared war on the whole world in the name of Allah. Chapter after chapter after chapter in the Quran affirms the objective. And, big shock, every generation of Muslims since the 7th century has worked towards that end. The whole of Islamic history is a story of conquest, war, destruction, slavery, and oppression. The history of Islam is a singular effort to wipe out the Jewish people and the enemies of Allah in the name of his prophet Mohamed—May peace be upon Him—with not so much as a blush of shame or guilt or repentance by any Muslim intellectual leader that matters.
But John even the Islamic theological big dogs say that Islam is a “Religion of Peace?” So if the big dogs say this then, shouldn’t we believe them?
Of course, you should believe them. It is true. Islam is a religion of peace. The logic is simple: the world will be at peace when it is subjected to Allah and His Sharia law as the undisputed law of the world.
The Islamic definition of Peace is they win.
Full stop.
Dear Infidel, are you willing to give up the First Amendment? The Second Amendment?
Oh wait; yeah, stupid me. American’s are obviously willing to abandon the constitution since they sit idly by while politicians and judges and law enforcement make it a mockery. After all, it was written by evil rich white men. Who would dare stand up for such a thing? Of course, people don’t give a #$#% about liberty and freedom; so of course, they will give up their rights to life and the pursuit of individual happiness for “peace” and “security.” Of course Americans will give it up because white people better never “offend” a living soul.
Uh . . . hum, what will Americans actually fight for . . .?
Twiddling my thumbs thinking . . .
Are you willing to give up bacon?
Now that thought has most of you ready to pick up your “assault” rifle.
But John, what about all the “moderate” Muslims?
Dear Infidel, you do realize that the Quran also requires the faithful to deceive the infidel, right? They are theologically mandated to do the following: lie to you. Again, just take the theological experts at their word and it makes understanding reality much simpler.
Here is the dirty little secret that isn’t a secret. There is no such thing as a “moderate” Muslim.
Dear Infidel, think a minute. On what specific issue are these mythical Muslims “moderating?”
Come on, this “moderation” should leap off your tongue. They are not “moderating” whether they eat pepperoni or bacon or have a pet dog. They are not “moderating” whether they keep Ramadan or face Mecca when they answer the call to prayer. They are not “moderating” whether they can wear a hijab and a micro bikini at the same time. They are not “moderating” whether to impose Sharia Law in every nation on earth. They are not moderating on whether Mohamed—May peace be upon him—was just a “good man” or the Prophet of Allah. They are not “moderating” which tribe—the Sunni or the Shia—is the rightful heir to the Caliphate. They are not “moderating” on the Islamic equivalence between New Calvinism of the Wade Burleson kind vs the New Calvinism of the Al Mohler kind.
They are “moderating” on the means and methods of Jihad against the western infidel. They are moderating on whether they will Kill us or not.
Hey, here is a news flash. Muslims don’t get applause for refraining from killing me. That is a baseline standard. That is the threshold of civilized men. Not killing those who hold other ideas, not killing those who reject Islamic theology, is an expectation NOT a #%$&^ favor.
But make no mistake the “moderate” Muslims that currently forgo chopping off your head to advance the Caliphate, are not moderating on establishing the Caliphate. They are still working to establish Sharia law but they use our political system to overthrow our government and impose Islamic law.* The fact that they use lawyers and ad hominem attacks instead of bullets and beheadings doesn’t change the final goal. They are still working towards Mohamed’s stated end: World domination in the name of Allah. And any Muslim not deemed dedicated to this end—deemed by those who have the guns and perpetrate the greatest savagery—are, in Islamic parlance, apostates. So every Muslim who takes full advantage of Western democratic freedoms is not participating in an alternate, “enlightened” expression of Islam. All they have done is chosen to ignore Islamic orthodoxy precisely because our culture affords them a freedom they would never have in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Iran and a list of other countries where Sharia is enforced.
This is an almost impossible distinction for Americans to grasp because we treat religion like a vast smorgasbord that we can graze over at our leisure. If we don’t like what the preacher says we start another church instead of burning him at the stake. As Americans we like it when someone compromises on principles so it sounds reasonable to hear a hard-line “religious nut” equivocate on theological absolutes. The Western world in general and America in particular has not had a religious war in generations precisely because our philosophical foundations make religion an action of individual conscience: we are free to pick and choose what we want to believe and how we want to practice those beliefs.
But there is no individual conscience in Islam because any act of “moderation” is a death sentence. There is only one God—Allah. There is only one Islam. There is only one Prophet Mohamed—May Peace be upon Him. There is only one law: Sharia. Every Muslim that says otherwise is a hypocrite and all hypocrites are apostates. And the apostate’s end is the same as the infidel: heinous death adjudicated by a Sharia court.
Full stop.
I will say it again because it bears repeating: no matter how much wailing and gnashing of teeth you hear from CAIR; no matter how many times they bluff and bully and shout you down in public; no matter how many times they call you a bigot, there is no such thing as a “moderate” Muslim.
Dear Infidel, you must understand this fundamental fact. There is no way to have Sharia and the American Constitution side by side. Your political leaders absolutely know this which is why there is such a concerted effort to undermine the American constitution. But more fundamentally the constitution recognizes that man lives for himself. Islam demands that the whole of humanity lives for Allah. The choice you face Dear Infidel is simple: Sharia or objective law, Islamic theocracy or secular liberty, tyranny or the pursuit of individual happiness.
Twiddling my thumbs again pondering closing comments . . .
Well, I’ve come to this conclusion. I don’t think Americans want liberty and freedom any longer. Most of you, Dear Infidels, are more concerned over a threat to bacon than our President’s “common sense changes” to the Second Amendment.
Tell you what, Dear Infidel, I’ll help ease your transition into Sharia. You should probably start practicing your Allahu Akbars. Women, you should immediately get fitted for a burka—a long black bag that makes New Calvinist modesty look positively indecent. And Dear Infidel, when you say the name Mohamed remember to add—May peace be upon Him.
_______________________________________
*Editor’s Note: In fact, according to several polls, while a vast majority of Muslims living in the U.S. decry “extremists,” the same vast majority endorses Sharia law.
Tim Hawkins is a Funny Guy, But His Gospel is False
Many videos attached to PPT posts are converted to “private” settings or pulled down by the subjects. The video that is the subject of this post is another example.* I wanted to repost this article because it has some good definitive statements that clarify problems with the Protestant Reformation’s false gospel.
“The gospel is a call to those under the law to be born again under grace. Those under the law are enslaved to sin, provoked to sin by the law, and will be judged by the law. Those under grace are …
Source: Tim Hawkins is a Funny Guy, But His Gospel is False
*Addendum – We have found another source for this video. The quality is not as good as the original, but you can view it below or in the original post.
Protestants: Willing Participants in a Truman Show Reality.
Truman Burbank lived a seemingly normal life. He was just your regular, ordinary kind of guy. Everybody liked Truman. He had a pretty wife, a nice house, a good job. He had everything anybody could ask for. His life was perfect. Or so it seemed.
Of course, Truman Burbank isn’t a real person. He is the titular fictional character in the 1998 film The Truman Show. Those of you who are familiar with the film well know that while Truman’s story is fictional, the reality of his world in that fiction was fiction as well; a fiction engineered specifically for him. The problem was, Truman did not realize that his reality was fake. Unfortunately, just like Truman Burbank, 99% of Protestants don’t realize that their reality as they know it is just as fake, yet they willingly accept it. Truman Burbank offers a perfect philosophical metaphor, so I am using him to illustrate my point.
At the time we meet him in the movie, Truman is approximately 30 years old. From the time he was born, his entire existence has been in the world of Seahaven, FL. It is the only reality he has ever known. And up until now he has never questioned the truth of his reality. What he does not know is that this world is a carefully crafted façade, and every other person in his reality is nothing more than an actor playing a role. Their sole purpose is to make Truman believe that everything he sees around him and everything that happens to him is real. And as he goes about his daily life, hundreds of tiny hidden cameras capture his every move and broadcast his life to the world 24 hours a day. You could say that Truman was the first reality TV star.
How is it that a person can live his entire existence and not realize that his reality is fake? Because Truman’s reality consists of a very deceptive hermaneutic. Everything that happens in his life is carefully interpreted for him so that his understanding of reality remains consistent with what he observes. On this scale you can be sure that this is a very complicated feat to pull off for thirty years.
Such a task can only be maintained for so long, and eventually, unexpected “glitches” begin to occur. For example, one day a strange object falls from the sky and smashes on the ground just feet from where Truman is standing. It happens to be a stage light that is labeled, “SIRIUS (9 Canis Major)”. On another day, while listening to the radio in his car, his radio suddenly begins broadcasting the director’s instructions to the cast, and Truman realizes that the voice on the radio is describing every turn he makes in his car. Yet another time, Truman enters an elevator only to realize when the door opens that no elevator is there but instead he sees a group of stage hands on break around a snack table.
Obviously, such events would be out of the ordinary in Truman’s reality. Here is a conflict between what Truman thinks to be true about his world and what he observes, and he has no idea how to reconcile these contradictions. At this point a mediator is needed to reinterpret what Truman has observed to reconcile the contradiction and convince him that nothing is wrong, everything is as it should be. No, that wasn’t a stage light that fell from the sky, it was a part that fell off an airplane flying overhead. No, you didn’t really hear a guy on the radio announcing your every move. Our station accidentally picked up police frequencies, ha ha, sorry it sometimes happens. Oh did you hear? There was a freak elevator accident in the building next to yours, and a woman was critically injured- no you didn’t really see a stage crew taking their break where an elevator should have been.
The producers went to great lengths to discourage Truman from leaving Seahaven, because as a boy, Truman had a longing for exploring. They posted subtle messages around town with outrageous warnings about the dangers of travel. Sometimes, drastic intervention was required. They even created a scenario one day where Truman was out on a boat with his father, and a sudden storm swept his father overboard, never to be found again. Of course, it was all an act, but to Truman it was very real, and it made quite an impression on him as a small boy. So much so that Truman developed an acute fear of the water and never thought twice about leaving Seahaven by boat, or even crossing a body of water. But as things progress, Truman’s suspicion grows. He begins to ask serious questions of those around him, who continue to simply play along with their roles in a vain attempt to deflect his suspicions.
But despite all these obstacles, Truman was determined to find answers to his questions. He discovered that he could make unusual things happen anytime he was unpredictable. Those involved with the show could not react fast enough to his spontaneity, and this would give them away, only furthering his resolve. Truman knew something was not right about his world, but he did not know why. He could not explain it, but he was no longer willing to accept the explanations given to him by those around him.
We could summarize the salient points about Truman’s reality this way:
- Truman’s understanding of the world was based on a false assumption.
- From time to time Truman would encounter contradictions in his reality that he could not reconcile.
- Truman needed mediators in his life to interpret reality for him.
In much the same way, the way that Protestants understand reality is based on a false assumption. Doctrines such as total depravity (total inability), determinism and God’s sovereignty, election, and many others present man with a view of reality where man is evil and therefore cannot know truth. Believers go to church week after week so that they can be told not just what to think but also HOW to think about not just what the Bible says but also how the world itself works.
Invariably there will come a time when a believer will encounter a contradiction. It may be that he comes across passages of scripture in his Bible that seem to contradict each other. It may be that he encounters something in life that runs counter to what he was taught from the pulpit. Something that he cannot explain, like how can man have a free will if God is sovereign? “Well, you know God’s ways are higher than man’s ways, so we just have to accept that there are some things we just can’t understand and accept as true because God says so.”
Most often, contradictions are handled from a matter of interpretation. This is where the mediator steps in and reinterprets scripture for the believer in its proper “gospel context”. You see, because man is unable to know truth, he needs the authority of a mediator to explain it to him. This is the role of pastors, elders, deacons, bishops, et al.
For Truman Burbank, his mediators were not just a select few in positions of authority. It was the entire cast of characters from the crew behind the scenes, to the actress who played his wife, to the guy who sold him his daily paper at the newsstand. Every person in Truman’s life was a willing participant, regardless of how much they were aware of their overall impact in shaping his life. Extras in the cast, for example, would dutifully play their part all while being totally ignorant of the ultimate level of control the producers sought to wield over Truman’s life.
Truman himself was a willing participant in this ruse. One could argue that he was simply an innocent victim in the whole matter, but consider how much he was willing to overlook in his life for such a long time just so that he could go on living the only life he ever knew. That fact was a major point in the film, when a disgruntled viewer called the show and told the show’s creator just how wrong she thought it was the way they were using Truman for their own ends. The creator’s response was profound and powerful. He said that if Truman REALLY wanted to discover the truth, he would find a way, and that when that happens, there would be nothing they could do to stop him. The point being of course was that the mere fact that Truman lived this life for so long was a statement to the reality that he really didn’t want to know the truth.
How much can the same be said of Protestants? To what extent are Protestants willing participants in their own “Truman Show” existence? How much are we willing to overlook just so that we can be comfortable in our lives? How much abuse and evil are we going to tolerate just so that we can have some sense of security in where we think our salvation lies? Do we blame the cast of mediators who create this charade for us? Their role is obvious, and they play their parts well, wittingly or unwittingly. But the laity are playing a role as well. They shoulder just as much of the blame as those under whose self-appointed authority they have placed themselves. And they will dutifully pay their tithes and offerings each week, and they will warm their spot on the pew every time the church doors are open, and they will sing when told to sing, and they will stand when told to stand, and they will pray when told to pray, and they will outsource their minds to someone standing before them who will tell them what to think about life. And they will never ask a hard question, even when a stage light falls from the sky.
But there is hope! Because if Protestants really want to know the truth, they will find it. If they really want to find a way out of the nightmare that is the institutional church, they will discover it. And when they are determined to do so, there isn’t a thing the church can do about it!
Andy
Moving On As a Contemporary Child of God; All Those Who Do So Have Their Own Blessed Broken Road
“The Protestant teachers proudly proclaim themselves as bad people and even laugh about it, but yet the simplicity of cause and effect somehow escapes us.”
“In all cases, orthodoxy is the knowledge handed down to the spiritual peasants to inform them on how to be progressively saved by the institution.”
“…in the final judgment followers will stand alone before God.”
Recently, the host and domain address for eldersresolution.org came up for renewal. With everything I have going on with TANC Ministries the due date slipped between the cracks and the site is temporarily down although there are other extensions of the site online (clearcreekchapel.com).
Looking through the information that the site documents was a defining moment and one of deep reflection. I decided to renew the domain address and move it to another site that I will develop sometime in the near future. Perhaps this very post will be the centerpiece.
Before I move on to the primary ideas of this post, let me say that eldersresolution.org, which can now be found in pdf format at http://clearcreekchapeleldersresolution.weebly.com/ was the work of my son-in-law, Pastor David Ingram, and pioneered the concept of using websites to hold the institutional church accountable in a public way. He came up with the idea as a way to take a stand in my situation (circa 2008), and to my knowledge there were no such sites on the internet at that time. It would seem that the Bangladesh missionary kids (https://bangladeshmksspeak.wordpress.com/) were also innovators in regard to the concept early on. In 2009, the concept went viral in response to the heavy-handed leadership mode of the New Calvinist movement which had finally come of age after 39 years of covert growth; what many called the “Quite Revolution” (http://founders.org/library/quiet/).
Reviewing the information made me cringe as it revisited what a weak and confused person I was at the time. With that said, it was also a major turning point in my life that I find impossible to regret. How many times did I dismiss the numerous and serious problems I saw in the church with, “What else is there?” For 27 years I struggled to find relevance in the church.
The turning point was the New Calvinist movement, and specifically the New Calvinists that covertly obtained control of Clearcreek Chapel (Springboro, Ohio). I had been a member there for 20-years-plus and a former elder. As these leaders began transforming Clearcreek from Reformation Light to Reformation Lager, I wondered if I had finally stumbled upon the answers to why Protestant sanctification is so anemic, illogical, and irrelevant.
Like the Protestant leaders I had rubbed shoulders with in the past, they couldn’t answer the hard questions, but this time I really pressed the issue because they were just adding more confusion to the confusion I had found a way to live with. That was troubling to me. Then, when they started responding to my persistence with passive forms of aggression, and later not so passive, I figured I was on to something.
Funny, one question I kept asking publically in Sunday school seemed to be the lightning rod: “How do we know when we are trying to please God ‘in our own efforts’ and what exactly does that mean to begin with? How should we do effort?” It was very obvious to the congregation that they didn’t want to answer the question, but I kept pushing the issue and that’s when all of the trouble started. It would seem that in my search for Protestant relevance, I had finally found the right question. If Christians are to rightly partake in a right effort versus a wrong effort, how is that determined?*
And of course, now I know why they didn’t want to answer the question. Protestantism teaches that sanctification is a “Sabbath rest” in which we “rest in what Jesus has done—not anything we do.” This is what Protestant Light formally criticized as let go and let God theology. But of course in the scheme of things, the folly of this construct is fully realized: not doing things is a metaphysical impossibility; so, what we are talking about is two different types of works. That would be, not working work and working work. Or if you may, faith alone works and work work.
This boils down to Protestant orthodoxy classifying works according to the traditions of men. They determine what faith alone works are as opposed to works that are “self-justifying.” It boils down to the following: obedience to their definitions determine your salvation. Non-self-justifying works pertain to Protestant ritual that keeps you saved. And of course, the sacrament of tithing keeps the money pouring in for infrastructure that bolsters the aurora of authority. What will people pay for their eternal salvation? Observe the splendor of Protestant temples and institutions that pollute the landscape everywhere.
Eldersresolution.org is merely a documenting of the symptoms. The domain will always be there, but I am not really sure why it is a good idea. It was originally constructed to warn others about the Clearcreek Chapel elders who had supposedly distorted Protestant orthodoxy and done really bad things to other people. What I know now is that Protestantism itself is the bad thing. Bad things happen in church because church is bad. In fact, one of the premier leaders of the present-day Protestant church, Dr. John Piper, brags about being bad (https://youtu.be/6-GxkAJ1OBU). The Protestant teachers proudly proclaim themselves as bad people and even laugh about it, but yet the simplicity of cause and effect somehow escapes us.**
Other mediators other than Christ necessarily demand institutional salvation based on what is supposedly God’s authority by proxy. This is why the body of Christ is a literal family and NOT an institution in any way, shape, or form. It is a literal family that one is literally born into by the baptism of the Spirit otherwise known as being “born again.” It is the literal “household of God” and the family of God the Father—not an institution any more than any family is an institution. Christ’s mandate to His assemblies is to be carried out through a family format—the literal family of God. Any vestige of institutionalism will cripple the cause of Christ to the degree that it exists within the assemblies of Christ expressed where families dwell: in homes, not institutional purpose buildings.
ALL institutional churches and religions have these things in common: mediators other than Christ or mediators in addition to Christ. There is a claim of authority other than Christ or a shared authority with Christ, and finally, there is always a gnosis caste system; the haves and have-nots in regard to the ability to know truth owned by the institution. In all cases, orthodoxy is the knowledge handed down to the spiritual peasants to inform them on how to be progressively saved by the institution.
False religion is always a broken road, but unfortunately, the pain of that road will rarely lead people to other places. But when it does, the pain of that road becomes an irrelevant and distant concern. It is a pain that is finished and its purpose completed. It is swallowed up by the experience of where the road has taken you. The story of your broken road will rarely warn others of danger or save anyone; people will forgive or look the other way in many, many things in order to gain eternal life. In the minds of the “good Germans” during WWII Germany was not perfect, but what else was there? In their minds; nothing.
In the mind of a good Protestant or Catholic what else is there? Nothing. It may be a nasty bus, but it’s the only bus going to heaven because the authority of men says so. But in the final judgment followers will stand alone before God.
And so it is. The broken road has led me to a place that makes its potholes and highway robbers a distant and irrelevant memory. Their work is finished. When experience teaches you a new way, and you begin to live in that new way, that’s healing.
Staying on the broken road and revisiting its experiences will never heal. Never. When pain is a finished work…you are healed. It is little different than Christ’s obedience to the cross which He despised and bore for the joy that was set ahead.
It is finished.
paul
*Chad Bresson, an elder at Clearcreek Chapel once prayed before the congregation: “Lord, we know that we have tried to please you in our own efforts this week, please forgive us.”
**The father of the Reformation, Martin Luther, stated in a letter to Philip Melanchthon: “If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides.”
Be Careful About What Protestantism Allows You to Assume.
“Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye WERE without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: BUT NOW in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;“
~ Ephesians 2:11-19
Praise God!
Andy
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