Paul's Passing Thoughts

I try to make it a habit as much as possible to not comment on things that I haven’t educated myself on. One of those things is open-air evangelism or cold calling evangelism. It SEEMS to me that the biblical flavor is lifestyle evangelism; i.e., people see something they like about your life and ask what’s behind it. As a former business owner, I wouldn’t hire anyone who came in selling themselves as a Christian figuring they had to tell me because their life wasn’t going to tell me. I figured that to be bad for business. Besides, I learned that rule the hard way; professing Christians are among the worst employees that I ever managed hands down. The three best employees I ever had never told me they were Christians—it became evident over time.

Moreover, when I need services, I avoid the Christian Blue Pages like the plague; professing Christians are among the biggest crooks and business lowlifes that I have ever encountered. The apostle Peter nailed it: there is a tendency to use grace as a cloak for unrighteousness; especially in our day, when “real” Christians realize that we are to proclaim the gospel rather than attempt to “be the gospel” with our lives.

And here is another position of mine as far as where I stand to date: I don’t give a rat’s behind about how you live your life because I firmly believe that we will all stand before God to give an account face to face. I don’t go places and flaunt my beliefs; I don’t have a plastic fish on my car, and as far as your concern that I accept your moral equivalence, save it for God bubba.

With that said, let me reiterate the fact that a blog has an internet address; people are free to come here or not come here, and I write a lot about the big picture problem of forced participation. In countries like Russia and China, events like May Day (and in the case of China, public executions), are not voluntary in regard to attendance; they are mandatory.

America is the first country in the history of the world to separate religion from the state. The sole purpose of the state, according to the American experiment, is to facilitate the freedom of the individual to pursue life and happiness. It was founded on the principle that individualism does not lead to chaos and lawlessness. The principle recognized that governments are made up of individuals, so the problem becomes whose individualism rules? That problem, according to the tyrant side of us, is solved by determinism, or predestination; viz, a higher power of your choosing owns man and the truth, and has selected a few to rule over the many.

That is why I have abandoned my paradoxical view of election and am taking a much closer look; determinism’s role in history is conspicuous and scandalous. I seriously doubt any mass grave has been dug without the shovel of determinism, and anything deemed a higher power is religion—call it science till the cows come home if you must.

So, for the first time in human history, the rules have changed because of America; politics must destroy individualism so that we can once again return to our Neanderthal ways of the few ruling over the many. Behind the appearance of polished intellectualism and elitist religion is a caveman, club in hand, dragging a woman back to the cave by her hair.

I have never been comfortable with NFL players flaunting their Christianity on national TV. Why? The NFL is an institution of entertainment. I have been a rabid football fan for many years, and until recently, the institution knew its place in American culture. But now, it is church with its self-appointed Pope: Saint Bob Costas the First. I don’t watch football to get views on gun control, that’s Fox news. I don’t watch football to get the latest scoop on what fame and money does to some people, that’s ET.

Herein lays the problem of not keeping institutions confined to a specific purpose: judgment wars and political wrangling. Much of it starts with misguided Christianity that believes the power is in the mere proclamation of the name. “La, la, la, la, there is power in the name of Jesus.” No there isn’t, there is power in the life of Jesus, the one you live. TV viewers can’t see your life off the football field, so shut up, you’re stupid. This is America and its practical culture of freedom, now that you have said hurrah for our side, others begin to say the same, and now someone must judge as to who has the right to say hurrah and who doesn’t.

This is why Christianity was never an institution. It has always been an organic assembly of Christ. It is an assembly that does not get wrapped up in institutional politics. If Jesus liked sports, which one He likes is not stated in the Bible, and trust me, that is very deliberate. God does not grant any football team victory in any game because of their Christian players. You are not a great football player because it is your destiny. God is not going to take away your football powers or enhance your football powers depending on your televised verbal or symbolic displays, just ask Tim Tebow.

Now what we have is a big mess and many people like me who will probably stop watching football. Invariably, starting with Football Players for Jesus, we now have Football Players for Gay Pride as personified by a NBA player and a NFL player coming out of the closet. Let the Judgment games begin. This is America, once you start that game, there is no authority that can stop it, and it all started with Christians who prefer symbolism over substance, and are also arrogant per the presumption that being Christian is synonymous with the divine right of kings—the assumption that no other group would have the audacity to claim equal free speech bestowed on Christians by the gods. This is also part and parcel with the institutional church that has traditionally held to Dominion theology. It is the goal of the church to take over the world to the glory of God, football far from being excluded.

Football Players for Gay Pride have different ideas. Now, guess what? I can no longer watch football without Pope Bob Costas telling me that I am a bigot because I disagree with the gay lifestyle. Now, guess who doesn’t have the right to believe what I want to believe? Sure, I can believe it, as it stands for now, I just can’t watch a football game without being rebuked for it. We also have people losing their careers and means of livelihoods for things they said in private conversations. Why are such things newsworthy on sports TV?

My beef in all of this is the institutional church and its sectarian ways. “Sect” is a Bible word that means, “to divide by false doctrine.” Once again, the institutional church with its collectivism, determinism, dominionism, sectarianism, antinomianism, and symbolism over substance has started an unnecessary fight. For crying out loud, I go to a grocery store that has an excellent cashier who is also gay; am I going to picket the store and demand that she dress different or be fired? No, Jesus didn’t set any such example.

I believe Christians will suffer their fair share of genuine persecution, but I also believe that historical martyrdom has often been little more than political intrigue incited by a dominionist mentality. The world will have enough churches of its own making without ignorant Christians provoking new upstarts. The prime example is the new Gay Church of the NFL with Bob Costas as its first Pope. This is historically typical of how the institutional church divides people and has in fact started the majority of civil wars throughout history.

In contrast, Christ’s organic assemblies focus on making disciples and leaving judgment to God. That doesn’t mean that we don’t discern, nor does it mean that we don’t tell it like it is when somebody asks, but it does mean that we strive to be at peace with ALL men as much as it depends on us. Like Christ, we recognize that man is free to bear the  fruits of his own life, and in the end, will not have anybody to blame but himself.

paul