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SHOULD WE SUBMIT TO GOVERNING AUTHORITIES?
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, May 12, 2024 – Jerusalem was a hot mess during the time of Jesus’ ministry. Under the grinding heel of the Roman occupiers, the majority of the locals had learned to adapt to their unhappy circumstances either by joining forces with the Romans, signing on with a rebel faction, or silently enduring the humiliation of paying obeisance (and taxes) to a pagan authority. Jesus chose to do none of those things but instead lived and moved as if he were neither the occupied nor the occupier.
We, as Jesus’ followers, are to do the same.
One of the most misapplied of all scriptures (and that’s saying something, given the seemingly endless parade of false prophets these days) – one of the most egregiously misapplied scriptures is the one about the need to obey governing authorities. Not only is this scripture liberally misapplied, but it’s also taken out of context, making it mean the opposite of what the authors intended.
We know that Jesus did not stay where his teachings were not welcome, and he instructed his followers to do the same. We also know that Jesus avoided places where there was a price on his head and that he submitted to the arresting authorities only when it was his time. There are only a few instances where Jesus advises us to heed governing directives, such as when he was asked to pay the customs tax, which he did by way of a miracle, or when he instructed people he’d healed to make the appropriate sacrifices stipulated by Mosaic law. As well, Jesus reminded his followers to obey the religious authorities that sit on the seat of Moses solely because they taught Mosaic law. At the same time, though, he cautioned his followers not to live as those teachers lived, as they were hypocrites.
As I mentioned at the outset, Jerusalem was a hotbed of intrigue, sedition, and rebellion during the time of Jesus’ ministry. This was nothing new, however, as it had been that way for hundreds of years already and continued to be that way right up to and beyond the destruction of the second temple. When Peter and Paul advised the faithful to submit to the governor and honor the king, they meant to steer clear of aligning themselves with any of the dozens of rebel factions operating throughout Judea at the time and whose mandate was the violent overthrow of the Roman occupiers. In cautioning believers to steer clear of aligning themselves with this or that political faction, Peter and Paul were reminding their flocks of their need to focus solely on spreading the Good News, not getting involved in political conspiracies. You can’t love your enemies and at the same time plot to kill them.
This context is conveniently overlooked by today’s religious powers-that-be, who themselves have aligned their churches with the worldly powers and so not surprisingly are misapplying and purposely misinterpreting Peter and Paul’s directives, to the benefit of their puppet masters. I’m not saying the local pastor down the street is purposely misleading church members (he or she may or may not be), I’m just saying that the heads of these church corporations work hand-in-glove with the political ptb and so are nearly always on the same page and taking their directives from whomever is directing the political ptb. This is no great mystery, as Jesus tells us outright that God has put the world under the authority of Satan, which means the worldly church is also under Satan’s authority.
Should we then submit to Satan? Of course not, but we should also not get in his way, as Satan takes his orders directly from God and can only do what he is enabled and permitted to do by God. Let Satan conduct his affairs, as enabled and permitted by God, and let us conduct our affairs in willing submission to God, as Jesus did. This is what Peter and Paul meant when they instructed us to obey the governor and honor the king. We are to live at arms-length from governing authorities, presenting no opposition to them but also not actively working with them or supporting them.
So, for instance, during the “pandemic”, I could not and would not wear a mask or be injected. For a time, I could circulate in society without these things, but when barrier after barrier to my free movement was erected via government mandates, it got to the point where I could no longer move freely and so I relocated to a rural area and let others bring whatever I needed to me, for a fee (which God provided in much the same way as he provided Jesus with the gold coin in the fish’s mouth). I didn’t actively oppose the mandates, but I also didn’t comply with them. Only when they were removed did I return to cities and towns.
We are to submit only to God, but we are also not to present, or align with, any kind of organized opposition to the powers-that-be, understanding that those powers are under the authority of Satan, who himself is under the authority and direction of God. So, if you work in active opposition to Satan (I don’t mean here turning down his temptations; I mean actively plotting against him), you’re actually working in active opposition to God, which is something you should never do as a born-again believer.
I’m quite happy to let the political realm move in whatever direction God enables and permits it to move. My job is to “watch”, that is, to be aware of what’s going on around me politically, culturally, etc., not actively engage in it. Rather, I’m to work around it all, finding workarounds, as God presents them to me.
In a nutshell: We’re to obey the local laws, customs, and directives unless they conflict with God’s, and if/when that occurs, we’re to find workarounds, and if/when those are no longer possible, we’re to leave. We’re not to protest or actively oppose the governing forces, we’re simply to leave, like Jesus did.
Until it’s our time.
A WORD ON MOTHER’S DAY
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, Mother’s Day, 2024 – Just a quick Mother’s Day reminder for those of you who have less than optimal childhood memories: The Commandment to honor your parents is non-negotiable. Even if your mother is no longer with us, you still need to be kind to her in your words and thoughts.
(Let this also be a reminder that God knows all your words and thoughts, and you’ll be judged on them.)
I am blessed to have a mother who is not only still among us but is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside, and oh, what a singing voice! So my memories of her, thank God, are optimal. But I’ve heard and read horrendous comments over the years by people who call themselves Christians or even born-again, denigrating their mothers as “controlling” or “abusive” or “drug addicts” or “alcoholics” or “co-dependent”, etc. While it may be true that these mothers are exactly as described, the Commandment forbids us to speak harshly of our mother.
To honor one’s mother and father means to be kind to them in person and kind in our communications about them, which is not difficult to do if we focus only on the positive: Everyone has at least one good characteristic we can admire. Now that doesn’t mean we put ourselves in a position to be abused again; it just means we choose to forgive for no other reason than that God advises us to forgive, and to honor for no other reason than God commands it.
Again, regardless of how justified you may feel in being angry or resentful toward your mother, nothing overrides God’s commandments. If God says to honor your mother, you honor your mother.
That is non-negotiable.
And for all you mothers reading this – Happy Mother’s Day to you! Though your children may not know (or may have forgotten) how much of yourself you gave to them over the years expecting nothing in return, God knows, and you will be rewarded accordingly.
Enjoy your special day!
PRETTY IN PINK? WHEN AURORAS MEAN DANGER
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, May 12, 2024 – In one of the many science fiction “invasion” movies I have unfortunately subject myself to over the years, a woman in a crowd stares up in awe at a massive spaceship hovering in the night sky over her head. The invading ship is covered in twinkling lights, and the mesmerized woman just manages a breathless “So pretty!” when the “pretty” ship fires down a laser beam, instantly incinerating her and all those around her.
I’m reminded of this and similar movie scenes when I read the breathless descriptions of the auroras that have been painting our skies over the past few nights. The shimmering and dancing otherworldly lights have been described as “amazing!”, “once-in-a-lifetime!”, “vibrant!”, “awe-inspiring!”, or just plain “WOW!”
But there’s one thing wrong with this picture – many of the auroras have been pink, and pink auroras are well known in the scientific community for being not only incredibly rare, but also a sign of extreme danger.
As breathtakingly beautiful as they may appear, auroras are first and foremost an indicator that the electromagnetic shield protecting Earth from harmful solar rays is under attack. A geomagnetic storm battle is being waged wherever you see auroras, with the colors indicating the danger level that we below the lights may be exposed to. Most auroras are red or green, indicating the battle is relatively moderate and being raged well above Earth and outside the danger zone. Red and green auroras also indicate that the shield has the invasion more or less under control. But when pink auroras appear, which prior to the past few evenings was only on very rare occasions, the battle is extreme and very close.
Not only that, but pink auroras indicate that a tear has occurred in the shield, allowing the solar wind to literally pour down on top of our heads.
A tear in Earth’s electromagnetic shield is not a good sign. In fact, a tear in the shield is a very, very bad sign. As “pretty in pink” as they may appear, these auroras tell us that a major breach has occurred in Earth’s defenses, which means that all life in the vicinity of the breach is being exposed to harmful rays at dangerous levels. While pink auroras may not instantly incinerate us like a laser beam from an alien ship, their mass and simultaneous occurrence globally is a massive heads-up that all is not well – and is in fact far from well – with our electromagnetic protection field.
Scrawled across exposed desert rocks and on cave walls high up in the mountains in the western United States are depictions of auroras that were carved in stone thousands of years ago. These petroglyphs stand as a testament to a catastrophic event that wiped out much of the world’s population, with the survivors retreating to higher ground and finding refuge deep in caves. There, they would have been shielded from the worst of the electromagnetic storms, which were alleged to have lasted for years or even decades. While there’s no indication from the petroglyphs that the auroras painting the skies in those days were the notorious pink ones, we can imagine they likely were, and that Earth’s magnetic shield had been violently torn like the veil separating the Holy of Holies from the profane part of the temple was torn at the moment of Jesus’ death, signifying the exit of God’s Holy Spirit from the place.
Like pink auroras, the exit of God’s Holy Spirit from a place is a rare and very, very, very bad sign. So tonight, and every night from this day forward, if you look up and see pink auroras, consider whether “Wow!” is really the right response, given what the colour signifies. It’s not a time to be awed and rapt in wonder, but a time to prepare spiritually for what lies ahead. For if the state of the natural world reflects the world’s spiritual state (which indeed it does), it ain’t pretty.
“FATHER, FORGIVE THEM”
CHARLO, New Brunswick, May 11, 2024 – I’ve written here before about the Bible being messed with. By “messed with”, I mean that it’s been added to and taken away from, which has changed the content and therefore the meaning of certain parts. The Bible’s also been messed with through translation, which is a built-in hazard surely, but in certain instances it’s been purposely mis- (or better said, dis-) translated. All of which is why you need to read the Bible not with your own understanding, but with God’s.
Even better is to have God read the Bible to you.
One particularly concerning change that’s been made in newer translations is the replacement of “charity” with “love”. The two words are not the same – they aren’t spelled the same and they don’t have the same meaning. This is obvious to us. Not sure why it’s not obvious to the translators unless they’re driven by some agenda other than God’s.
Charity is a form of love that doesn’t require emotional engagement. Charity is based on obedience to God’s directives and indicates a seamless alignment of our will with God’s, an active willingness to do as God advises, which in most cases is either to give or to forgive, or both.
Love, on the other hand, is a deeply emotive feeling that yearns as much to receive love as to give it. Being emotion-based rather than obedience-based, love is an entirely different dynamic than charity, so the two terms should never be used interchangeably.
It’s not “faith, hope, and love”, it’s faith, hope, and charity, and of these, Paul reminds us, charity is the greatest.
In one of his letters, Peter talks about the primacy of charity:
“And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.”
In the newest translations of the Bible, the word “charity” used here has been changed to “love”, which entirely alters the crucial teaching that Peter intended to convey. When you love someone, you don’t have to be prompted to be “fervent” towards that person or to consider his or her wellbeing ahead of your own. You just do those things as a matter of course, as an outpouring of your emotions, prompted by no other directive than your depth of feeling. Your kindness and caring are natural expressions of your love for that person.
But when you don’t feel that depth of emotion (or any emotion at all or only negative emotion) for someone to whom God has asked you to be kind, it takes charity for you to positively respond to God’s request. This is not an emotion-based response but rather a conscious decision to choose obedience to God, and through that obedience to offer something that you otherwise would not offer. You make that choice for no other reason than that God advises you to. That’s charity.
As you can see, there’s a vast gulf in meaning between love and charity, and the two terms cannot and should not be used interchangeably.
Peter was a huge fan of charity. So was Paul. This should not be surprising, as at its core Christianity is all about charity, though not in the sense that the word is used today, either in the new translations of the Bible or in everyday parlance. Charity today has been corroded and cheapened into mostly meaning giving money to a tax-dodging organization that collects financial or other donations for redistribution allegedly to “the poor”, but the lion’s share of these donations usually ends up staying within the organization. This is not the type of charity that Peter and Paul wrote about.
For me, the best example of Christian charity is Jesus’ last words on the cross. According to scripture, they weren’t his only last words, but they were by far his greatest. Jesus said of his executioners: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Instead of cursing his tormentors or lamenting the unjustness of his circumstances, Jesus looked past it all and positioned himself firmly in the realm of charity. He wasn’t responding emotively to the situation but making a conscious decision to choose righteousness rather than self-pity or revenge.
This is the kind of charity Peter and Paul wrote about. As well as being the highest level of charity that we can aspire to, Jesus’ final words on the cross were also his greatest teaching moment. Everything Jesus had said and done up to that point blossomed and bore fruit in those few words. For me, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” is both a summation of the New Testament and the most precious of our earthly inheritances: Jesus entrusted us with those words so that we would cherish them and apply them in the same way he did, so that when our time comes, we would leave those same words in the safekeeping of our brethren, like Jesus did, and like Stephen did, and like countless other martyrs have done down through the ages, blessing their murderers in their final breath rather than cursing them, and showing us how it’s done.
Love and charity are not the same thing and should never be used interchangeably. Love is an emotion, whereas charity is a choice. There is no greater achievement than the offering of charity in the face of hatred and violence. We not only need to know this but to internalize it so deeply that when our final test comes, we’ll be able to repeat Jesus’ last words unprompted and as if fully natural to us, and in so doing cover our own multitude of sins.
WTSIWTG
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, May 8, 2024 – Jesus says that you if you love your loved ones more than him, you’re not worthy of him.
Jesus says that if you don’t pick up your cross and bear it like a yoke every day, you’re not worthy of him.
We see through our own eyes and by our own understanding, but we need to see through God’s eyes and by his grace.
Heaven is a hella place to get into. I wouldn’t want to be there if I weren’t worthy of it. I wouldn’t want you to be there, either, if you weren’t worthy.
The world, for want of a better word, sucks. I wanted to be more positive here, but there’s no point in lying. There’s no point in using a sugar-coated donut word when a plain one will do. The world is the realm of death and dying, of built-in obsolescence, and it was made that way by God himself. God made it to be the realm of death and dying and built-in obsolescence. God made the world to suck so that we’d look for something better and hope for something more, not in the way the devil does, trying to make something of time and space that it can never be, but wishing and hoping for something, I don’t know, something we can only see in our mind’s eye and feel with our heart. The realm of dreams and visions, but dreams and visions from God, not from the other side.
I don’t want anything in Heaven to suck, and from I’ve seen so far, nothing does. It’s perfect, but not in a cloying way, not in a fake way, like impossibly white capped teeth. Heaven and all those in it are unaware of their perfection because they have nothing to compare it to – there are no imperfections in Heaven and no memory of the imperfect world, so what they see is what they get, and what they see is perfection and only perfection.
I have cried over people I know who are gone now and I do not think made it Home. I weep and pray over those who are still here but who want nothing to do with God, let alone Jesus. God tells me who to weep and pray over and who to let be and let go. I do as he says. There’s no winning that argument with God.
There are those who call themselves Christian and yet who question God’s decision about who gets into Heaven and who doesn’t. Well, that’s an argument as old as the fall of Lucifer himself and just as unwinnable. Who are we to question God’s judgement? Jesus argued with his enemies over this same point of doctrine. They thought being a child of Abraham was all it took to get into Paradise, but they were dead wrong. The more Jesus tried to warn them just how wrong they were, the more they hated him for it.
People today think you only have to “believe” – close your eyes and cross your fingers and click your heels together three times. They think believing is as easy as blowing out birthday candles. But believing is what Jesus said it is – picking up your yoke daily and labouring not in a course of your choosing but being driven by a hand you cannot see. That means choosing to love your enemies when every cell in your body wants to kill them in their sleep. That means choosing to do what Jesus taught us to do rather than what we want to do. Belief starts with a decision of the will, not a feeling. Belief starts with doing something you may not want to do but you choose to do for the sole reason that Jesus taught you to do it so you know it’s the right thing to do. And after you’ve sincerely made the decision and God knows you have, he fills you with belief, the way a child colors inside the lines.
I do not know if I’ll make it Home. I played the Wicked Witch of the West in my high school musical. Not Dorothy. Not Aunty Em. Not the Good Witch. Not even Toto, the dog. I was the witch who was condemned even before she’d stepped into the spotlight. In my stage make-up, I was as ugly on the outside as I was on the inside and I scared “Dorothy” so much that she refused to go on stage with me at one point. The children in the audience were screaming and howling and running out of the auditorium in tears. I didn’t see all this; I only found out about it afterwards when the adults were laughing at how scared their kids were of me. I had no recollection of it; it was to me as if it hadn’t happened.
You would not have wanted that Charlotte in Heaven.
The world is full of what I once was. There are billions of what I used to be running around out there. I don’t want any of what used to be inside of me and is now inside of them to get into Heaven. Jesus says that if we love brother or sister or mother or father or husband or wife more than him, we are not worthy of him. He said if we love our own lives here, we’ll lose the only life that’s worth living.
Those who make it to Heaven will have no recollection of the Hell they left behind, including anyone they knew who didn’t make it Home. They’ll only remember the good, but only God is good, so they’ll only remember God. I am grateful for that promise.
It’s God’s decision, who makes it Home. Being a Christian isn’t a ticket to paradise. Even being born-again isn’t a ticket.
Belief isn’t a mindset or a recitation or a forced opinion; it’s not something you put on like a costume or stage make-up: It’s a state of being that comes from God and God only. You don’t choose to believe; you choose to submit to God, who then fills you with his Spirit and you believe. Belief becomes your de facto state of being so that it’s not something you contrive but something you are.
Submission to God you can choose. But belief – genuine belief – comes only from God.
WHEN SPIRITUAL VICTORY LOOKS LIKE DEFEAT
“Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?“
Matthew 26:53-54
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, April 24, 2024 – Even before I was a believer, I knew that Jesus’ crucifixion was considered by Christians to be a victory. I thought it was all foolishness at the time and couldn’t be bothered even to hear their explanation as to why they saw Jesus’ torture and execution as such a good thing. Peering through my cracked and foggy lens of atheism, all I could see was defeat propped up by an improbable fairy tale that only gullible losers could believe.
Fast-forward to today.
Well, as this blog attests, I became one of those “gullible losers” myself, and I now see Jesus’ death on the cross not only as a good thing, but the greatest victory ever achieved for mankind.
God has a plan. As believers, we hear this so often that it pretty much goes in one ear and out the other, but God does have a plan. He has a plan for you and he has a plan for me, and it’s up to us whether or not we want to go along with his plan. He’s revealed his plan in scripture and he’s also revealed his plan for each of us, one on one, like he revealed it to Jesus and to Peter and to Paul.
In revealing his plan to us, God doesn’t hold a gun to our head and tell us we have no choice but to comply with it; he shows us plainly and well in advance what it is, and then he stands back and lets us choose whether to go along with it or not.
Jesus told us he always did that which pleased the Father. And we know this is true, because God told us: “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.” From this, we can see that Jesus and God were clearly on the same page. There was no divergence between them. No conflict. No contradiction. Still, when God explained to Jesus what his mission was, he left it up to Jesus to accept it or not. Nothing was forced on him.
God’s plan for each of us also includes spiritual victories that will appear to the world as defeats. Many of us may already be living that reality. We also know (because scripture tells us publicly and God tells us personally) that if we at any time feel overwhelmed by what we’ve agreed to and want to back out, all we need to do is to call out to God and he will in fact send 12 or 50 or even 100 legions of angels, if that’s how many the situation warrants. This option is always there for us.
I don’t know about you, but I’m spiritually greedy. I don’t want to settle for plan D or plan F or some other fallback plan after I’ve chickened out of the main one. I want to do plan A, no matter what it entails. And as grateful I am that God has those twelve or more legions of angels on call should I need them, I don’t want to have to use them. Like Jesus, I want to do that which pleases the Father. I want to comply with God’s plan without contradiction or conflict. I want to endure, as Jesus advised us, to the end.
Like with Jesus, this might require me to look like a loser or a failure or a criminal to the world, but if that’s God’s plan, then so be it. You can imagine that the last thing Jesus wanted was to hang on a cross with the world pointing and laughing at him and sneering that God had deserted him. Jesus didn’t go up on that cross because he wanted to; he went up on the cross because it was God’s plan, as laid out in scripture and as told to Jesus personally by God. And because it was God’s plan, saying “no” to it wasn’t an option for Jesus.
Saying “no” to God’s plan should never be an option for us, either.
God’s plan is never a mystery. God has, as Jesus pointed out, told us well in advance what his plan is, so that when it happens exactly as described, we’ll know who’s behind it. What is often a mystery to us is how God is going to achieve his plan. That’s where the miracles come in. That’s where faith comes in. That’s where we come in as we take our place up on the cross where Jesus once was, confident that this is where we need to be and that this will be our greatest victory, too.
THIS IS YOUR MIND ON GOD
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, April 24, 2024 – That look you get inside when you put all your trust in God and he does this to you, metaphorically speaking.
You’re still trusting God, even while you’re all trussed up and flailing; you just don’t know what the heck he’s up to.
That’s why they call it a test.
That’s why they call it faith.
It’s not God who’s done this to you, by the way. It’s always the devil or one of his minions. God’s given them the go-ahead, with clear limitations and restrictions, but it’s the devil who dreams up the schemes, the way he dreamed them up for Job.
Yet take this to heart: You’ll never be left trussed up and flailing beyond your capacity to endure it WITH GOD’S HELP.
I capitalized and bolded WITH GOD’S HELP so you’ll know how important that part of the test is. Many people leave it out and wonder what happened, why God never showed up to rescue them. If you come to a door with a sign on it that reads: “PULL” and you just stand there, waiting for it to open on its own, don’t be surprised if it doesn’t open. Ever. You need to PULL, like the sign says. And like scripture says, you need to ask God’s help to get you through your tests and trials. He’s not going to intervene without your request. You need to ask him.
You need to ASK. (It’s that pesky free-will thing again.)
I’ve recently embarked on a years-long course of action that’s required me to step out in faith and faith only. I have no idea what’s going to happen to me from day to day, but it’s as freeing as it is (somewhat) terrifying. Even so, I trust God and I know that a big part of the faith test and the trust test is not knowing how God is going to arrange this or that; if you know how God is going to arrange this or that, then you’re not operating by faith and your trust is in yourself only, in your poor and limited understanding of how things are or should be.
We, as born-again believers, need to move as far as we can beyond seeing with our eyes and hearing with our ears and understanding with our minds. We need to see with our ears and hear with our eyes and understand with the mind of God, like Jesus did. It may leave us feeling on occasion like that poor trussed-up pup in the picture above, hang-dog eyes and all, but it will be worth it in the end.
I know it will, because as bad as it got for Jesus right up to and including his crucifixion, it was definitely worth it for him when all was said and done. We know this from the 40 days and nights that he appeared to his disciples and followers after his resurrection, and we know this because we know Jesus one on one. We know that he sits at the right hand of the Father and will be there for all eternity. No matter how hard the tests got, Jesus’ faith and trust were not misplaced in God: There’s no-one and nothing else he could have put his faith and trust in than God.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I still have some flailing and pulling to do. ;D
WHEN THERE ARE NO MORE CONVERSIONS
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, April 23, 2024 – When there are no more conversions, the Church will look inward and tend to its own: “As ye have done unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done unto me.”
Where there are no more conversions, the times of the gentiles will have been fulfilled, and all those who will be sealed will have been sealed.
When there are no more conversions, the windows to Heaven will be shut and the doors locked, and all forms of communication will be turned to “private”.
When there are no more conversions, there will be time no more.
When there are no more conversions, the only ones calling on the Lord will be those who have already called on the Lord and have been sealed.
When there are no more conversions, there will still be trials and temptations and tests and tribulations and the falling away even of those who have been sealed.
When there are no more conversions, we must be kind to the unkind, as Jesus was kind to Judas and prayed for the souls of the doomed even from the cross.
When there are no more conversions, we must surround and protect our lambs like a sheep herd surrounding and protecting its lambs, knowing there’ll be no more lambs after these.
When there are no more conversions, it will be all-out war on the Church. To fight in this war will be to fight against God. You don’t fight the enemy, you avoid; and when you can no longer avoid, you endure. Spiritual warfare is not praying against your enemy but praying for your enemies and being kind to them.
When there are no more conversions, the Church will have to feed its lambs only.
When there are no more conversions, the Church will have to feed its sheep only.
When there are no more conversions, the Church will have to feed its sheep only.
When there are no more conversions, you will know there will be no more, as the only ones reading this will be sealed.
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He that is unjust, let him be unjust still.
He that is filthy, let him be filthy still.
He that is righteous, let him be righteous still.
He that is holy, let him be holy still.
Revelation 22:11
ON FALSE CONVERSIONS AND REAL ONES
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, April 21, 2024 – As a born-again believer, I don’t hate lightly, but one of the few things that irk me on a visceral level (the way that Jesus was irked during his temple rampage) is false conversions. They make a mockery of the best and holiest experience on Earth, cheapening it and misrepresenting it, and in so doing blaspheming God.
Not surprising, the heaviest promoters of false conversions are the denominational churches.
I’ve written here and here (and throughout my blog) about the rebirth experience and about how you can know you’re genuinely reborn. For me, a former atheist, conversion was unsought, unexpected, instantaneous, thorough, and profound. I had zero doubt at the time that something monumental had happened to me – the fabled “sea-change” – and I’ve had zero doubt since. It’s never once occurred to me to question my rebirth.
My certainty in this regard contrasts sharply with the lingering doubts of many alleged converts, who are constantly running to their pastor or minister (or even random strangers on the internet) for assurance of their spiritual status. Unfortunately, they’re running to the wrong people, as most pastors and ministers are themselves unregenerate and therefore ignorant of what constitutes genuine rebirth. That’s not to say that those questioning their rebirth may not occasionally luck out, however, with certain random strangers on the internet, who will not hesitate to set them straight on what it means to be reborn. ;D
The Catholic church will tell you (like it told me) that you’re reborn at baptism. Well, I was one month old when I was baptised, and I can guarantee you that I wasn’t reborn at that time. Seven years later, clad in a red mini-dress and white fishnet stockings, I lined up at the front of my local Catholic church to receive first holy communion, and I can guarantee you that I wasn’t reborn at that time, either. Neither of those two “sacraments” appeared to have any positive effect on my soul. It seems that the more elaborate the ceremony, the less that actually transpires on a spiritual level.
Altar calls to “receive the free gift of the Holy Spirit” are another false declaration of rebirth. It’s disheartening how many people have been told they’re reborn simply from walking to the altar and being groped and mumbled over. Even when the alleged converts feel no different afterwards, they’re assured their salvation is a done deal and they’re on their way to Heaven. This level of spiritual fraud, if perpetrated knowingly, is a grievous sin. But most of the people misleading others are themselves misled. They simply don’t know any better and are a prime example of the blind leading the blind.
There’s no reason to be misled about what it means to be reborn because there are plenty of examples in the Bible. For instance, Jesus told Peter, “When you’re converted, strengthen your brethren”. Note that he didn’t say “If you’re converted”, he said “When you’re converted”, meaning that Jesus knew for a certainty that Peter would be converted – born again – and so he was, along with a roomful of others.
And how did that play out in real life? At a prayer session on Pentecost (ten days after Jesus’ ascension), Peter was “filled with the Holy Ghost” and immediately started preaching the Gospel boldly and in languages he hadn’t learned. He was so persuasive, that thousands of people joined the disciples, giving everything they had into the commonwealth of the group. A miraculous public healing followed soon afterwards. This caught the attention of the temple elders, who then accosted Peter and forbid him ever to preach in the name of Jesus again. Of course, the first thing Peter did upon his release was to preach in Jesus’ name, because that’s what you do when you’re reborn and ready for your spiritual close-up – you don’t shut up for anyone or anything until Jesus takes you Home.
Another scriptural example of genuine rebirth is Paul’s. On his way to Damascus to round up some of Jesus’ followers for execution, Paul saw a blinding light (so called because it actually blinded him) and then heard Jesus asking him why he was persecuting his Church. Paul then had to be led by hand to Damascus, where he cloistered himself, fasting and praying for three days and receiving visions from God. Then Ananias, being tasked by God to seek out Paul, laid his hands on him, and Paul received both his sight and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Shortly after that, he started boldly preaching the Gospel and continued to do so through hell and high water to his dying breath.
Note how these famous conversions are wildly different from each other. No two genuine rebirths are the same, because no two souls are the same. Even in mass conversions, such as the one that took place at Pentecost, rebirth will play out in different ways according to the person being reborn. Some will take time to process what happened to them and wait until their faith is stronger before being sent out by God to preach and teach the Gospel. Others might have the breadth of knowledge already but not the Spirit to inform and enliven it, so at their rebirth, they’re ready for immediate release to the public, like Peter was.
Me, I was reborn from atheism, so it took me years of learning about God and Jesus and deepening my faith in them before I was ready for public duty. I had a very steep learning curve, with lots of bumps and bruises along the way, but even in my “hidden years”, I never once doubted my rebirth. When you’re genuinely reborn, you don’t doubt it. I would sooner doubt my existence than doubt my rebirth.
Being filled with God’s Holy Spirit for the first time is the best experience a soul can have on Earth. Nothing comes close to it. It’s so amazing, you remember everything about it in minute detail as if it just happened yesterday. Your life is then divided between Before Conversion and After Conversion, you’ve changed so radically and instantaneously. Certainly, you remember your life (or what passed for a life) Before Conversion, but you don’t want to go back to it; not for a second. All you want is your After Conversion life and to live every second of it in the grace of God’s Holy Spirit.
I have it on Good Authority that the only experience that exceeds the amazingness of spiritual rebirth is a soul’s Homecoming in Heaven. I can’t imagine that level of euphoric bliss, but I hope some day to experience it for myself.
I hope you do, too.
THE TEMPTATION OF THE END-TIMES CULT
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, April 20, 2024 – Christian eschatology, or the study of end-times prophecies from a Christian perspective, is big business. Along with televangelists and internet prophets, an endless stream of movies, books, videos, conferences, workshops, etc., is spreading breathless predictions about when Jesus is or is not coming back, what he will or will not do when he gets here, and what the world may or may not be like when he arrives. All of this is being channeled (in the darkest sense) 24/7 into the psyches of those weak in faith and knowledge. Inundated with the propaganda, many have become obsessed with end-times prophecies to the point where it consumes their entire witness. They eat, sleep, and dream the end times, and then rush to YouTube to post a video about what they’ve dreamed.
But it wasn’t always like this. Relative to his other teachings, Jesus spent very little time on the end times, and for good reason: He knew the end times had an allure that would draw people away from learning sound doctrine and entice them instead into believing religious fairy tales, to the detriment of their soul.
The early Church likely wouldn’t recognize today’s end-times-obsessed believers as one of their own. Jesus’ first followers were consumed not with play-acting and spit-balling visions of the end but with surviving day by day: They were already living the nightmare of a world where their very existence made them targets of roaming death squads. Jesus’ warning that his followers would be outlaws wasn’t meant for a time two or three thousand years in the future but for the years and decades following his ascension. There was no need for the self-inflicted emotional distress that die-hard rapture-believers subject themselves to today; early Church members needed only to self-identify as followers of Jesus to experience the beast system up close and personal.
Yet even under constant threat of apprehension, torture, and execution, Jesus’ first followers still focused on spreading the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Had they not done so, we wouldn’t be here. The world would have long since ended like Sodom and Gomorrah, which is how it’s going to end after Jesus takes the last of his Holy Spirit-filled followers Home.
Certainly, the early Church eagerly awaited Jesus’ return, but they also took to heart Jesus’ teachings about putting their shoulder to the wheel so that when Jesus did come back, he’d find them labouring as he’d laboured, not pining away and play-acting end-times scenarios based on dubious interpretations of the book of Revelation.
In short, the end-times-obsessed movement is a cult that shares some elements with Christianity but has splintered into an entirely separate belief system that has nothing to do with God’s Church. Knowing this, we born-again believers need to avoid the temptation and allure of the end-times cult and instead labour as Jesus laboured – and as his genuine Church has likewise laboured – focusing on supporting and guiding each other with sound doctrine and bearing ever-joyful and truthful witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 