The Jericho War
Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
This is so profound, in light of a truth that I thought I should add after writing about how the protracted world war has been going and going and going, since the dawn of humankind, indeed most notably since Cain committed the first human sacrifice as the archetypical action of the city established to do human sacrifice as its chief prosecutorial weapon.
It is a truth that a seasoned humanist materialist would see when the "Everyone is at war all the time no matter what" claim is made, that someone who thinks they have the upper hand on not-having-war because they are so gol-darned tolerant and inclusive and all the rest of it. That claim:
"What about you Christians? What about YOUR wars? You have them too!"
Ahh. Touche.
They are right. We do war.
The real question is, what is the nature of that war?
The Roman Catholic Church will employ its best Thomist casuistry to rationalize the System's warring with "Just War" equivocation, trying to justify its required belligerence on a macro scale. Yet again it is what the System does. As the Legacy of Cain it is what it must do by God's permission.
The follower of Christ's role amidst this perpetual conflagration is described quite clearly in the passage. Our ministry is to share Christ with those who can't stand being a part of what the Ecclesiocracy is doing to them and want genuine freedom from it. They are tired of the institutionalized deceit leveled against them to engender their support for the warring world, and want instead, yes, set apart yet again here in this writing for emphasis...
The Kingdom.
They want to stay in the System? Believing the System things? Living out the benighted lives they've adopted by continuing to listen to what's blapped at them in their college classrooms and then out across the airwaves? God lets them. They can if they want.
But they can also have Christ.
And yes, the follower of Christ also knows there is their war too.
For the gospel is about warring against those evil things that make the System's war continue unabated.
When God really got started establishing a nation from which the Deliverance from self and System death would emerge, yes, there was war. It was ruthless.
Joshua was the selected leader who would lead the war effort. But it was very clearly stated, the battle was the Lord's. Indeed the Israelites walked around Jericho, blew some trumpets, shouted, the walls came down, and every occupant except Rahab and those in her family were killed.
Sure enough the clever humanist materialist who does not understand look at that and, again: "Look at you warring Christians, you're no better!"
What they do not realize was as much as Jericho and much of the rest of the region suffered the same fate for the purpose of His nation, it was also because the Canaanites and other tribes were regularly practicing the most heinously evil things. Israel needed to protect their land from invasions and threats for the entirety of the Old Testament.
Here's a great example of God taking on the battle Himself. Hezekiah was facing a devastating siege by the Assyrians and knew all he had was God. He prayed, essentially, "We confess we are weak, but we do want to turn and serve you, and we do want to be a part of your vision for this nation -- making your name known as Lord God Almighty." God then took care of business, leaving thousands of Assyrians dead on the plains outside Jerusalem. Just like that.
Huh, quite sobering. And if you think these poor innocent Assyrians did not deserve such a fate, do you know who the Assyrians were? What they did to people? How they behaved? What is so crazy is that God still, still had a heart for them! Jonah knew about the Assyrians and definitely didn't want to share with them what God really wanted for them.
His mercy and forgiveness.
Please know, this is the same today. God has every right to withdraw His very breath of life within anyone, very justifiably so. But His very Son gave His very life explicitly so souls may be reclaimed.
As far as Israel goes today there are some who think it is the same as the Old Testament one, others say it is just a very prominent part of the World System network of nations, nothing more. Whatever the case, Israel as a sovereign nation today is having to go to great lengths to defend itself. I do believe much of that, with the present version the whole Israel-Hamas thing and the supposed Iran threat and all the rest of it all out there, it is indeed mostly World System warring. In a very real sense, Israel, as is Iran, as is Russia and China and even the United States are all just pawns in the World System Ops' Perpetually Waging War Games.
For the follower of Christ right now? What does it say there in that third chapter of the second letter to the Corinthians? How are we supposed to "wage the war"?
Shine Christ's light in that darkness.
When people are so furious as to enter the war. Minister Him to them. When people are victims of that warfare. Minister Him to them. When people are so blinded that they think the System's counterfeit "gospel" of sodomism, racialism, socialism, or any other pretend utopian policy implementations are the answer to the world war when they only make it worse...
Minister His Grace and His Truth and Him to them.
No violence involved at all.
Challenges? Yes. Addressing concerns with rigorous industry? Yes, of course. Intense forbearance standing firm in the Truth Rules but still sharing mercy and compassion all the same? Definitely.
Yeah, it does feel like being in a war, it does.
I have to add that when the Israelites took over the promised land, sadly they still did not wipe out all the visages of those evil nations. They still allowed remnants to hang around, to their detriment for centuries. Eventually Rome did take over for good, and some biblical scholars have said for quite some time that Jesus was born and lived during a time when someone like Augustus could make the most vicious war against Rome's enemies so there would be some peace and stability in a wide enough geographical expanse for enough time for Jesus to walk, preach, minister, die, rise from the dead, and send off his disciples to share the gospel with a dying world.
Thing is, I kind of liken Israel's not-completely-ridding the land of those evil influences to the church today neglecting to keep itself pure and ungrafted to the World System. Virtually every church has a contractual obligation to the Ecclesiocracy through their non-profit tax-exempt registrations, in a very real sense making them just subdivisions of the Roman Catholic Church.
I don't know. Maybe that is what God is allowing for a purpose. I know many churches are good, Christ-honoring, righteousness-elevating ministers of The Light, I do. But I also see so many things pastors and ill-equipped people who think they know Christianity say the most idiotic things. This makes the Culture War rage even more.
Final thing is this, this war thing, yes, we followers of Christ are in a war. Right now it isn't anything like what Joshua did with Jericho, but we must still war by judging righteous judgment against the things Joshua encountered that are the same things we encounter today, but with Christ's light front and center. This is our task for a time, right now.
When the last day comes, however, those nations wholly given over to Cain and his rule will make an attempt to extend the war against the saints and Christ Himself, and if you peek at The Revelation, 19th chapter, you may see it described in great detail.
Yeah, it is a war. Really, it is the only war that really matters at all when it is all said and done.
But ultimately it is Christ finally defeating sin, evil, deceit, dread, woundedness, death, and the Devil. Right now, however, the Kingdom is offered to anyone who wants it, Christ waits right now at the gate with open arms. By the time of the last major battle, however, it will be too late.
I should add a quick disclaimer, just something I think is biblical about those who have a job waging war in the System in some authorized capacity. Many soldiers officially employed in the service of military activity, I know many are devoted followers of Christ. I do not think for two seconds they are not firmly in the embrace of The Savior. I also think the same thing of those employed as police officers or in any kind of law enforcement role. I even extend this to those who do feel they are justified in wisely and courageously defending their homes with weapons against those who would commit unrighteous or murderous acts against them.
All of this makes this discussion a difficult one, so I don't consider myself to be the final arbitrator of what is right or wrong about any of this. I have even frequently referred to the Roman Catholic hegemony necessary for cracking heads as God set forth in the fourth chapter of Genesis! These are all very difficult truths.
With my own webzine and blog work I only want to do one thing, whatever happens out of it. It is that one thing any follower of Christ is asked to do, again right there in that passage above.
Just share Christ in the face of all of it.
__
in Israel His name is great.
His tent is in Salem,
His dwelling place in Zion.
There He broke the flashing arrows,
the shields and the swords, the weapons of war.
more majestic than mountains rich with game.
The valiant lie plundered,
they sleep their last sleep;
not one of the warriors
can lift his hands.
At your rebuke, God of Jacob,
both horse and chariot lie still.
__
Obviously I'd posted one of Thomas Cole's best known paintings in his The Course of Empire. Couldn't help it. It is indeed a great depiction of what what is really happening right now even if mostly just in the hearts and minds of Americans. But it is undeniably looking more and more like this out in the real physical world.
__
Comments
Post a Comment