This Wednesday in our New Testament class we’ll be discussing my book Christian Archy, whose premise is simply that all of our proud substitutions for Christianity are but false Christianities. Whenever we put our petty gods above Christ, we reject Christ’s archy (rule). These include all of our “good” archys that rely on our own moral competence to “fix” our problems or “advance” the kingdom of God. Any Christian movement or ideology that takes the place of the cross has absolutely no biblical or theological foundation for its existence.

This is one reason I am reticent to identify myself with the “homeschool” movement or the “agrarian” movement or the “church growth” movement or other similar movements. Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated a beautiful spiritual truth when he wrote, “The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.” Many modern evangelical “causes” or “movements” are, frankly, in love with their causes and movements. We are tempted to enshrine our programs in golden calves and “Christian” bureaucracies. Indeed, once you start a 501(c)3 you feel obligated to do all you can to perpetuate your organization. You fight for the limited resources that are out there while forgetting that God is bigger than our petty organizations. Bonhoeffer was right. When we love our “dream” or “vision” more than the reality, we end up destroying both.

I want to make a modest suggestion: Our goal should not be to establish our majestic mega-church models but to embrace a “movement-less” kingdom that grows by simply caring for those around us sacrificially. I take great courage from the fact that I meet students who are beginning to study the earliest believers in the book of Acts, people whom Paul could describe as “the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world” (1 Cor. 4:13). In my opinion, we need more little people in our churches today, people who are taking steps to grow a more humble kingdom. The Jesus Revolution is a celebration of Christ’s archy. It stands in awe of no man’s “system” or “movement” or “program.” We are nothing but a ragtag bunch of Jesus-followers who are quite content to be ragtags. Or at least we ought to be!

Your fellow nobody,

Dave

(From Dave Black Online. Used by permission. David Alan Black is author of Energion titles The Jesus Paradigm, Christian Archy, Why Four Gospels?, and Will You Join the Cause of Global Missions?)

The answer is simple. I think the New Testament is very clear about this. The fact is that you can attend churches in America today where the ministers are traitors to the cause of Christ. Jesus described them as wolves (heretics) in sheep’s clothing. Paul told the Ephesian elders, “Even from your own numbers men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:30). It’s a tremendous strategy of the Evil One – angels of light appealing to us through deception. No doubt about it. Philippians does not teach unity at all costs. So please do not say that I teach we are to put our brains in park or neutral when we become followers of Jesus. Pastoral ministry begins with an inventory of the enemy’s strength and tactics. So says Paul in Phil. 1:9 (love must be controlled by knowledge and full discernment). So if we desire true Christian unity, we must stand up and fight for the truth, taking the great doctrines of God out of mothballs and hurling them back at Satan.

As all of you know, there’s a trend among evangelicals to “seek first the kingdom of America” rather than “the kingdom of God.” I encourage us all to be true defenders of doctrine by refusing to put our faith in anything other than Jesus and the radical, self-sacrificing, Calvary-style mustard seed kingdom that He established through His blood. It is absolutely scary to hear the things certain evangelicals are saying about their favorite candidate for president. No doubt about it – the nation is looking for a savior, a messiah to bail us out of our ills. Every candidate who is vying for the nation’s top job claims to have THE answers to all of life’s questions. “Our opponents say this, but the REAL answer is ….” Folks, I’m a citizen of a different country (Phil. 3:20), and I am here for only one purpose, and that is to be a full time ambassador of the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is the hope of the world. Our only real security is in Yahweh. As I mentioned at the outset, I have a hard time justifying all the pom-pom waving I see in light of Philippians’ call for all Christians to humble themselves and put their complete faith and trust in King Jesus. I’m convinced that it is only when we foreswear all nationalism and ANY human means of advancing God’s kingdom that we will find our true identify as followers of Jesus.

Live for the kingdom!

Dave

(From Dave Black Online. Used by permission. David Alan Black is author of Energion titles The Jesus Paradigm, Christian Archy, Why Four Gospels?, and Will You Join the Cause of Global Missions?)

I wonder if this is what Jesus had in mind when He said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

It matters little to me that some Magisterium in Texas has anointed Santorum or that the evangelical subculture prizes conformity above all else. Allegiance to any human institution or political party is not faith. It is misplaced faith.

Let’s stay focused on the King.

(From Dave Black Online. Used by permission. David Alan Black is author of Energion titles The Jesus Paradigm, Christian Archy, Why Four Gospels?, and Will You Join the Cause of Global Missions?)

Here’s my rational for this assumption: it completely subverts Christ’s teaching. Jesus demands that all of His followers carry the cross and persevere in sacrificial suffering for His name’s sake. The only kingdom we’re to sacrifice for is the kingdom of God. We are to be noted for our Calvary-like, counter-cultural lifestyles. Consequently, we must always be on guard against substituting the kingdom of America for the kingdom of God. The character of God’s kingdom is widely different from what is commonly envisaged today. Its glory is revealed only through suffering – a point that Jesus’ disciples, then and now, have been slow to understand. The kingdom of God is never imperialistic. It has no political ambitions. It conquers not by force but by love.

Experience has shown that once the church has become just another worldly archy, once it has allowed itself to be subverted by politics, it has achieved a “victory” at the expense of the Gospel. The Gospel is something intolerable because it requires us to renounce our illusions and the blind cul-de-sacs of our religious archys. The tragedy is that so many Christians have freely chosen this course of action. They have voluntarily opted for Christendom over Christianity. This “subversion of Christianity” (the title of one of Jacque Ellul’s books), this matter of putting our petty gods above Christ, causes the church to miss its way. When the church behaves like this, and when its leaders and theologians go along with it, it utterly fails to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth, overcoming evil with good (instead of with political force). Jesus taught us that only powerless love is the basis upon which to build the kingdom. In Him we find a true Revolutionary who is capable of saving the world without political coercion or violence of any kind (including military).

In my opinion, the efforts to crown an American “Jesus candidate” is nothing less than shocking. You know the church is in trouble when Washington replaces Jesus as the hope of the world and when America replaces the kingdom of God as the rule we are to persevere for. I could go on and on but I think I’ve made my point. I’ll end by simply noting that Jesus never connected freedom with political freedom. The chief business of the church is to emulate the true Jesus and the true kingdom He came to establish. That’s why it’s a waste of time to look for a political Messiah, be he a Mormon or a Baptist.  Let’s refuse to put our trust in the archys that are premised on replacing the true kingdom of God.

God bless,

Dave

(From Dave Black Online. Used by permission. David Alan Black is author of Energion titles The Jesus Paradigm, Christian Archy, Why Four Gospels?, and Will You Join the Cause of Global Missions?)

Most of you are aware of my conviction that there is no distinctively “Christian” position on political issues. In this light, it seems to me that in principle there is no inconsistency in being a Christian and voting for a non-Christian (or a Mormon) for political office. (I’m not saying I would do this, only that I see no inconsistency in acting this way.) As I pointed out in my book Christian Archy, followers of Jesus aren’t called to get (overly) involved in political causes or disputes.

Read his entire essay at Dave Black Online.

10:35 AM Arthur Sido needs help. He writes:

They are hawking a “God Bless America” T-shirt (to the exclusion of other nations I assume). How exactly is buying and wearing this particular T-shirt going to honor God? If someone living in Iran wears a “God Bless Iran” T-shirt, is he also honoring God? What about “God Bless Liechtenstein”?

As I think about this issue I have concluded that the one thing that might keep us from successfully insourcing missions, the one thing we have not learned from the past, is the danger of American exceptionalism. When evangelicals moved from cultural obscurity to become a major force in U.S. politics in the 1970s, along with this change came a pressure for conformity to the Religious Right. Calls to “Take America Back!” became ubiquitous. This rhetoric reflected a deep-seated theology of triumphalism — the Army of God marches forward to take over the federal judiciary, overturn laws deemed inimical to Christianity, support Israel, etc. Obviously this agenda is incompatible with a Great Commission mindset and with the Jesus who tells us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Jesus had strong words for the moralists of His day, the religious leaders who saw the speck of sawdust in someone else’s eye and paid no attention to the plank in their own. Evangelicalism, it seems to me, has lost its capacity to stand against what Paul called “the principalities and powers of this world.” As I argued in my book Christian Archy (p. 16):

It seems that our steel is fatality flawed after all. It is only faith in Jesus Christ, the Originator and Finalizer of faith, that we have any possibility of salvation. In reality, the Gospel is the only source of personal, familial, and societal renewal. What matters, then, is not that we lose ourselves in futile political or social agitation. What matters is that we recognize in the incarnation of Christ, and in his death and resurrection, that God was intervening in the course of human history to give us not only eternal life but an abundant life every day. There is now only one response we can give – calling all men and women into a relationship with God through this same Jesus.

In short, the purpose of the church is to be God’s missionary people in the world. To put country above the Gospel is a gross error. Such thinking is a sin against the truth.

(From Dave Black Online. Used by permission. David Alan Black is author of Energion titles The Jesus Paradigm, Christian Archy, and Why Four Gospels?.)

8:23 AM I see Newt is officially in the race. I notice, too, that he is eager to gain the backing of the Religious Right, despite his multiple marriages. More and more of the “clergy” will no doubt find it advantageous to lend him their support. In American politics it has become popular to be a Christian and to cast a religious coloring over one’s political ambitions. One day perhaps, religion will no longer play a major role in U.S. elections, but that day has not yet arrived. Popular campaigns for public office will continue to glorify their causes with religious sanctions, and this means that God’s people, the only “holy nation” that exists today, must maintain a guard against any symbiosis of church and state

(From Dave Black Online. Used by permission. David Alan Black is author of Energion titles The Jesus Paradigm, Christian Archy, and Why Four Gospels?.)

11:16 AM I have a confession to make. For years I failed to understand the power of Satan to derail the work of God in Ethiopia. Yes, I knew that an eternal battle was raging between Christ and the devil. But I severely underestimate the severity and depth of the conflict.

Not any more.

In recent days we have seen how the devil operates. He is unspeakably cruel. He is cunning beyond all imagination. And he has unseen hosts of evil at his disposal. The Bible declares him to be:

• the god of this world
• the prince of the power of the air
• the ruler of this world
• a strong man, fully armed
• a murderer from the beginning
• a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour

Today, Satan is attacking along the front lines of the church in Ethiopia. The problem is much more then a clash of religions. The problem is diabolical. Its outward and visible manifestations vary. There might be open persecution. Or there might be internal dissension and carnality. Either way, these conflicts and issues are matters of the heart, the will, the conscience. In other words, our battle, again, is spiritual. It does not take place in a geographical location but in the most treacherous depths of our hearts.

This great truth brings with it an important lesson for me. Even though we can never succeed in destroying the devil, we can aim for his withdrawal. “Submit yourselves to God,” wrote James. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” God promises that the devil can be turned back, if only temporarily. What’s more, although we should expect attacks as being usual, we can also also accept them as being usable– if we allow them to help us grow our spiritual muscle. Happy the Christian who sees every attack, every trial, every setback as a means to that great end!

Church in Ethiopia, as you face the trials, temptations, and pressures of  living in this evil world, may you have it as your settled aim in life to always seek God’s approval in all you do. The battle with the devil is life-long. He will attack us as long as we live. May we, then, lead a “life that is worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him” (Col. 1:10), regardless of the temporary outcome.

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7:57 AM As the year draws to  a close, I encourage you to read Michael Westmoreland-White’s excellent piece called Taking the Passed Torch: Theologians Who Died 2000-2010 As Challenge for Those Who Tarry. This is biblioblogging at its very best.

Update: For 2007 Michael notes the following death:

Vernard Eller (1927-2007). American theologian, pacifist, Christian anarchist, and minister in the Church of the Brethren.  A major interpreter of Søren Kierkegaard, Karl Barth, the Blumhardts and Jacques Ellul, Eller had a folksy way of speaking and writing that led some to underestimate the seriousness of his theological writing.  He was a major critic of much feminist theology, especially the use of feminine imagery for God, which Eller believed led to a lapse into Canaanite fertility religion.  He was also a strong critic of materialism and nationalism in Christian churches, advocating for simplicity, reducing possessions, radical sharing of wealth, and critical of sacramental views of baptism and the Lord’s Supper (which he believed would rob them of their ethical content).

I call this to your attention for the simple reason that the writings of Eller are practically unknown today in evangelical circles. For what it’s worth, I have tried to popularize his thinking (and that of Jacques Ellul) in my book Christian Archy.

(From Dave Black Online. Used by permission. David Alan Black is author of Energion titles The Jesus Paradigm, Christian Archy, and Why Four Gospels?.)