Freedom allows people to succeed and fail. This inevitably leads to inequality.
Therefore, freedom cannot stand alone. It needs a counter force to give those who fail a second chance.
God has always provided that counterforce. In the Old Testament land-based culture, he provided the Jubilee land law. In the more-diverse economy of the New Testament, he provided giving and sharing, and giving away unrighteous wealth.
More here.
The same law should apply to both to the native-born and to the foreigner residing among you (Ex 12:49).
Christians in South Africa had to learn that God will not bless a system based on apartheid. It took them a long time and the lesson was painful and embarrassment.
The Jewish leaders of the nation of Israel have still to learn the same lesson. It will be painful and embarrassing for them too.
Christians who hitch their horse to their wagon will share their pain and embarrassment.
God did not give his system of government by law and judges to the early church. The early Christians were not in a position to implement an alternative system of government, so they would have becomes embroiled in unnecessary conflict with Rome and distracted from the gospel.
Instead gave his system of laws much earlier, so that it would be available for the church when needed. The perfect time to give the law was when the Israelites were entering the promised land. They needed laws at that time to organise their society to maintain peace. The benefit of God’s law is that it worked reasonably well without the gospel, so it was OK to give it to his people before the gospel. Then it would be there for the early church when it needed.
Of course, God’s system of justice will work much better with the gospel.
The Zika virus is becoming a terrible threat in many parts of the world. The consequence for babies affected by the virus is abysmal. A virus that stops a baby’s head (microcephaly) is about as bad as it can get.
The common view is that the emergence of the zika virus is just a natural outworking of evolution. The virus has mutated by chance to become harmful. Or the mosquito has evolved its behaviour in a way that spreads the virus to many new places. If this view is true, evolution is a terrible god to serve.
I believe that we live in a world where what happens in the physical world is strongly influenced by what happens in the spiritual realms. Humans have given the spiritual powers of evil authority to work on earth and they love to do evil. Jesus said,
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10).So when we see killing and destruction, we should assume that the spiritual powers of evil are behind it. The did not just make a mess and then retire. They are still at work. One of their techniques is to dabble in the natural world to modify simple organisms to become more harmful. I presume that the Zika virus is their most recent and most blatant attempt.
The spiritual powers of evil hate God and his creation. That is why they love to destroy life and rob people of its fullness. We must not attribute their works to God.
Everyone in this world needs Jesus:
We need a new breed of evangelist, who can:
Protesters against the TPPA are concerned about loss of sovereignty. I am not sure whether the benefits bought by free trade will outweigh the negative effects of the investor/state dispute settlement process, but I am more worried about the loss of sovereignty to the state than to the TPPA.
Modern governments claim absolute sovereignty. They claim authority over every aspect of life. That authority is more dangerous than the TPPA.
The TPPA was signed in New Zealand last week. Large crowds marched in the streets to protest against it. Their main concern seems to be loss of sovereignty, due to the investor/state dispute settlement process provided by the TPPA.
The problem with this concern about sovereignty is that we do not have any sovereignty. We lost our sovereignty a long time ago.
Sovereignty is authority. At the beginning, God gave authority over the earth to humans. However, the first humans rejected God, and by default, gave authority over the earth to the spiritual powers of evil. That is why the wold is such a mess.
Jesus defeated the powers of evil on the cross and took back the authority (sovereignty) that they had stolen. However, most humans ignore Jesus, so they lose the benefit of the authority he restored, enabling the spiritual powers of evil to continue exercising authority on earth.
The protesters are angry about the economic poverty and related social problems. They blame the government, but they are looking in the wrong direction. They should be blaming the spiritual powers of evil, who have stolen sovereignty on earth and used the authority to wreak havoc on earth. Unfortunately, they just ignore protests, or stir them to achieve more evil.
Today is Waitangi Day in New Zealand. Our nation was founded by a covenant, not by an invasion. Unfortunately, it did not continue the way it began, and the government resorted to legal manipulation and war to get control of land for European settlers. God takes covenants seriously, so breaking this covenant has created problems. Fortunately, recent governments have looked for ways to honour and fulfil it, but there is still a way to go. More at the Treaty of Waitangi.
Large human organizations need a hierarchy of authority to transmit information and to direct actions. Messages and instructions pass down through the hierarchy to the people on the bottom. Reports go back up in the same way. Hierarchy also allows decisions to be made at the appropriate level. The person at the top sets the general policies and rules, but delegates simple decisions down the hierarchy to an appropriate level of responsibility. Difficult or important decisions are delegated back up to the top. A hierarchical structure is very effective, but it is also dangerous, because it concentrates power in the hands of a few people.
Satan is a major user of hierarchy. He probably invented it, because he had no other way to control his empire. He is confined to one place in space and time, so he has to communicate and implement his decisions through a hierarchy of demons and evil spirits (Ephesians 6:12). His problem is that many of them are deceitful and rebellious. They disobey him frequently, so his will is not always done. When reporting about events in the world they often lie, so he is often in the dark about what is going on. Satan is at the top of a large, unreliable and unstable empire. He is a finite being, so he has to use hierarchy to control his organization.
God is not constrained in this way. He is omniscient, so he knows everything that is happening, everywhere in the universe, all the time. He is not dependent on reports up a hierarchy. God is also omnipotent, so he has the ability to decide what should be happening in every situation in the universe at the moment it occurs. He can speak to any person in the universe, whenever he chooses, so he does not need to work through intermediaries. Therefore, God has no need for hierarchy.
God does not need hierarchy in the church. He knows what is happening to every Christian all the time, so he does not need anyone to report to him. He has a personal plan for every Christian, so he does not need to delegate decisions down to a church leader. The Holy Spirit lives in every Christian, so God can communicate his will directly to any one he chooses. He does not need to speak through a hierarchy. If every Christian obeys the voice of the Spirit, God’s will will be done, without the need for any intermediaries.Being Church Where We Live, pp.46-47.
We are living at a pivotal time in history. While things are going badly for the church, the situation is even worse in the world. You don’t have to be a prophet to see the dark clouds on the horizon. The kingdom of man has over-reached itself and is rotting from the inside.
Christians should not be pessimistic about the future. God is in control and is working out his purpose. He is refining his church into a holy and beautiful bride. He is shaking the nations, so his people can establish the Kingdom. We can share in that victory, if we understand his plans and get ready for battle.
The shaking of world system will be a great opportunity for the church. In times of crisis, power flows to those who understand what is happening and are ready for action. Joseph understood what God was doing, so he was able to use the seven good years to prepare for the seven bad years. He rose to power during a crisis, because he understood what was happening and knew what had to be done.
The times are urgent. We should be using our time to prepare for the political, economic and social upheaval that is coming. We should be joining together, so we can advance God’s Kingdom when the kingdoms of the world collapse and fall. Radical change is needed, so we can shine brightly in the darkness and share in the victory that God has planned.Being Church Where We Live, p.6.
Matthew MacWilliams claims that the common characteristic of Trump supporters is authoritarianism.
That’s right, Trump’s electoral strength—and his staying power—have been buoyed, above all, by Americans with authoritarian inclinations. And because of the prevalence of authoritarians in the American electorate, among Democrats as well as Republicans, it’s very possible that Trump’s fan base will continue to grow.
While its causes are still debated, the political behavior of authoritarians is not. Authoritarians obey. They rally to and follow strong leaders. And they respond aggressively to outsiders, especially when they feel threatened. From pledging to “make America great again” by building a wall on the border to promising to close mosques and ban Muslims from visiting the United States, Trump is playing directly to authoritarian inclinations.
It is time for those who would appeal to our better angels to take his insurgency seriously and stop dismissing his supporters as a small band of the dispossessed. Trump support is firmly rooted in American authoritarianism and, once awakened, it is a force to be reckoned with.Authoritarianism has always been a strong force in the US, but it can be very dangerous.
In his book The Great Heresies Hilaire Belloc explains that Islam spread because the social conditions were right.
Both in the world of Hither Asia and in the Graeco-Roman world of the Mediterranean, but especially in the latter, society had fallen, much as our society has today, into a tangle wherein the bulk of men were disappointed and angry and seeking for a solution to the whole group of social strains. There was indebtedness everywhere; the power of money and consequent usury. There was slavery everywhere. Society reposed upon it, as ours reposes upon wage slavery today. There was weariness and discontent with theological debate, which, for all its intensity, had grown out of touch with the masses. There lay upon the freemen, already tortured with debt, a heavy burden of imperial taxation; and there was the irritant of existing central government interfering with men’s lives; there was the tyranny of the lawyers and their charges.
To all this, Islam came as a vast relief and a solution of strain. The slave who admitted that Mohammed was the prophet of God and that the new teaching had, therefore, divine authority, ceased to be a slave. The slave who adopted Islam was henceforward free. The debtor who “accepted” was rid of his debts. Usury was forbidden. The small farmer was relieved not only of his debts but of his crushing taxation. Above all, justice could be had without buying it from lawyers... All this in theory. The practice was not nearly so complete. Many a convert remained a debtor, many were still slaves. But wherever Islam conquered there was a new spirit of freedom and relaxation.
It was the combination of all these things, the attractive simplicity of the doctrine, the sweeping away of clerical and imperial discipline, the huge immediate practical advantage of freedom for the slave and riddance of anxiety for the debtor, the crowning advantage of free justice under few and simple new laws easily understood— that formed the driving force behind the astonishing Mohammedan social victory. The courts were everywhere accessible to all without payment and giving verdicts which all could understand.
But there was another— and it is the most important cause. The fiscal cause: the overwhelming wealth of the early Mohammedan Caliphate. The merchant and the tiller of the land, the owner of property and the negotiator, were everywhere relieved by the Mohammedan conquest; for a mass of usury was swept away, as was an intricate system of taxation which had become clogged, ruining the taxpayer without corresponding results for the government.
The success of Mohammedanism had not been due to its offering something more satisfactory in the way of philosophy and morals, but, as I have said, to the opportunity it afforded of freedom to the slave and debtor, and an extreme simplicity which pleased the unintelligent masses.Many Christians in America are scared of a take over by Islam. They assume that it will succeed by force. What they do not understand, is that if society continues in its current direction, Islam might be welcomed by people who have forgotten Christianity. Many of the conditions that Belloc described, already exist in the Western world.
Although born in France, Hilaire Belloc was was a prolific writer in England during the early twentieth century. His Catholic faith had a strong impact on his works. One of his most important works was the The Great Heresies, published in 1938. One of the heresies that he discusses is Islam. His unique perspective was seeing Islam as a Christian heresy.
Mohammedanism was a heresy: that is the essential point to grasp before going any further. It began as a heresy, not as a new religion. It was not a pagan contrast with the Church; it was not an alien enemy. It was a perversion of Christian doctrine. Its vitality and endurance soon gave it the appearance of a new religion, but those who were contemporary with its rise saw it for what it was— not a denial, but an adaptation and a misuse, of the Christian thing.
Belloc suggests that Islam teaches the main Christian doctrines in an oversimplified form.
The very foundation of his teaching was that prime Christine doctrine, the unity and omnipotence of God. The attributes of God he also took over in the main from Christine doctrine: the personal nature, the all-goodness, the timelessness, the providence of God, His creative power as the origin of all things, and His sustenance of all things by His power alone. The world of good spirits and angels and of evil spirits in rebellion against God was a part of the teaching, with a chief evil spirit, such as Christendom had recognized. Mohammed preached with insistence that prime Christian doctrine, on the human side— the immortality of the soul and its responsibility for actions in this life, coupled with the consequent doctrine of punishment and reward after death.
Mohammed never dealt with the inconsistencies that this produced.
He gave to Our Lord the highest reverence. On the day of judgment, it was Our Lord, according to Mohammed, who would be the judge of mankind, not he, Mohammed. But the central point where this new heresy struck home with a mortal blow against Christian tradition was a full denial of the Incarnation. Mohammed did not merely take the first steps toward that denial, as the Arians and their followers had done; he advanced a clear affirmation, full and complete, against the whole doctrine of an incarnate God. He taught that Our Lord was the greatest of all the prophets, but still only a prophet: a man like other men. He eliminated the Trinity altogether.
Mohammed’s teaching never developed among the mass of his followers, or in his own mind, a detailed theology. Simplicity was the note of the whole affair. But the resemblance to Christianity was one of the reasons for its success.
Prophecy must be delivered in the right attitude. We must speak the truth in love. A wrong attitude nullifies the truth of the word. Many true prophecies have been made false, because they have been spoken in a harsh or critical attitude.
All prophets should note God’s response when he saw the sins of the people who lived during the time of Noah.
The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain (Gen 6:6).God’s heart was “filled with pain”. A prophet cannot represent God during a time of judgement unless his heart is filled with pain.
Some Christians say, “A prophet’s job is to say what God says”. This is correct, but it is only part of the truth. A prophet’s job is to say what God says in the right spirit. Many prophets have spoken a true word without it being heard. Sometimes the true word was not received because the listener’s heart was hard, but more often it was not heard, because the spirit of the prophet was warped.
I remember a woman who was really upset, because her pastor had not received a word that she and a friend had given to him. She could not understand why this had happened, because the word was true. Her word rung true to me too, but I could tell from the tone of her voice why she was not heard. She oozed bitterness, hurt and frustration.
The hard truth for prophets to accept is that being correct is not enough. A true word from God can be nullified by a wrong spirit. In the spiritual dimension, a true word spoken wrongly is exactly the same as a false word. When God’s heart is “filled with pain” (Gen 6:6), he cannot be represented by just the truth. Jeremiah was a powerful prophet, because he felt the pain on God’s heart.
Prophets can minister at different levels.
1. People
Some prophets specialise in speaking to individual people. Personal prophecy provides:
3. The Nations
Some Christians will be called to be a prophet to their nation. They may also develop the ability to speak to other nations. A prophet to a nation provides:
When I wrote Kingdom Authority, I realised that some of the spiritual powers of evil were locked up following the flood (1 Pet 318-19; 2 Pet 4-5). But I did not understand why was God able to do this after the flood, when he could not do it before the flood? The penny has now dropped.
The reason is as follows. God gave authority over the earth to humans. They had authority on earth and over the earth, but they did not have authority over the depths of the earth and the structure of the planet. God retained control of the planet itself.
When Adam rejected God, and submitted to the tempter, he placed himself under the authority of the spiritual powers of evil. They gained authority over the earth. The powers of evil had authority to be there, so provided they remained in contact with the earth, God could not touch them. If they had attacked the spiritual realms where God dwells, they would have been defeated in a minute. As long as they worked upon the earth, they were safe.
At the time of the flood, some of the spiritual powers attacked the depths of the earth and broke them up.
On that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up (Gen 7:11).When some of the spiritual powers of evil attacked the great depths of the earth, they moved away from the place where they had authority upon the earth. God was able to send a host of angels and take them captive, so that they could not work on earth any more. God had authority to do this, because they had moved to a place where they did not have authority.
The story of Noah is wonderful. He demonstrated great faith, and God completed an amazing work through him. However, his life has a very disappointing end. Noah got drunk and cursed one of his sons.
If we understood the nature of spiritual warfare, the reason for Noah’s failure would be obvious.
Where were the spiritual powers of evil before the flood?
They were spread out across the world causing the people to sin and do evil.
Where were they after the flood?
Some had been captured and were bound, but the rest joined together to attack Noah. Under such a staunch spiritual attack, he did not stand a chance, as he was totally outnumbered. We should not judge him for his failure.
God waited for another opportunity. By the time of Abraham, the population of the world had massively increased, so the spiritual powers of evil had to spread themselves out across the world. God called Terah and Abraham his son. Because they were moving away from the centre of political power in Ur, they were not noticed by the powers of evil.
