Come Let Us Return Unto The Lord

New York Daily News' provocative article about God failing to address our nation's violence. "God isn't fixing this". We hide behind useless platitudes. We call on God and he does nothing. I don't remember them printing their prayers for help, you know, in big bold print so God is sure to read it from the sky. When were they asking for his help? If anything I recall us as a nation telling God he was not needed or welcome anymore. So what do we have? People firing guns in the streets and in schools. People acting like there are no moral standards or higher power to be accountable too, hmm... Now sadly this wasn't lamenting God's absence, because that would be something. No this is a smokescreen, an obvious cover of the bigger agenda of gun control. Now control should be discussed, but not here. That should happen in times of peace when our heads are on straight not in the wake of mass human loss. This isn't a political blog, but they brought him up, so let's talk about God's part in this.

What they are doing here is a provocation for us to move on something that will have actual impact, you know, because God doesn't? Because everyone knows God doesn't exist and we are silly for praying to him, right? How empathetic we are to those in mourning.

I guess calling on God for help is so 2001. Even before 9/11 I remember 1999 with Columbine and the prayers that went out. But since then apparently science has solved us of our God problem and politics have delivered us from evil, or have they not yet? But it is a good question even though it wasn't a question of a truly agnostic heart. Why isn't God helping us?

So another tragedy has taken place on American soil and rather than call out to God for help, we use him to push an agenda. They mock those who call on the name of the Lord. They even took the time to highlight all the silly people who do call for prayer. This reminds me of 2 Peter 3:4-9.

knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.7But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

They mock and point out that God has not arrived yet. Where is God? Where is your deliverer? Where are your answered prayers? They say this and all the while they forget that God is delaying judgment so that more might repent. They fail to realize that while they mock they are being added to the very judgment, the very justice, they mock for not coming. 

Could part of the problem be we are more interested in politicizing this tragedy than calling for repentance? But Gabe isn't writing a blog about this doing just that? Well, no because I am offering real help to the real problem. We have lawless people running around in what is becoming an increasingly morally bankrupt America. We need a moral solution, one that is bed-rocked in something greater than ourselves. God. If we actually wanted God to fix this problem the place where we should start is on our knees. The direction of our culture however has not been one of seeking God's help. If we want God's help then why is our country going out of its way to remove him from public and personal life? Ah so he is probably not fixing this because we want no part with him. I am then reminded of Psalm 2

1Why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,3“Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,and terrify them in his fury, saying,6“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”7 I will tell of the decree:The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. 

Now before we misunderstand, God does not sit and laugh at our tragedy he laughs at our plans to usurp him. He weeps at our tragedy, he beckons us to return and be made hold. He desires us to repent and be saved. He says I have set up my King in Zion, Jesus, go to him! He calls us to take refuge in him, but we have no interest in his blessing, we are busy with our prodigal living and show no sign of turning back to the ranch. This is on us, and maybe this is what the Dahli lama was trying to get at a few weeks ago, but we do need the welcoming arms of God to do it. We have run off, and we need to come back.

God has already said my help is available but we would have none of it! Verse 3 is telling of us when we as a people have said to God "let us break our bonds and cast the cords away from us."  How? Well we have made him unwelcome in our government, in our schools, he has become unwelcome at work, and we work to remove him from the streets. He is unwelcome in our morals, in our laws, in our speech. What's next, soon our homes maybe?  We are even taking steps to keep him away while making way for our false gods to take up residence. Our kings and rulers have said We will not have you rule over us! We have spit in the face of God but now we want to invoke him to make an impassioned plea and provoke a response from his people to make a political point for our system. We mock God but God is not moved by our ridicule or our arrogance, he laughs! But he is moved by humility.  If we will humble ourselves and return to the Lord and call on the name of Jesus that we have cast away, then and only then, will he rise from his position and perhaps help us.

But not while he while we continue pointing our finger in his face. We have thrown off the bonds of God and have the gall to wonder why a godless nation produces men and women who want nothing to do but steal, kill, and destroy. But rather than ask those questions about how we got here, why we are here? We focus on the symptoms. We make it about the particular instrument used in the incident. We pretend that the particular weapon is the problem rather than the people who do these things. Why don't we ask those deeper questions instead? What is wrong with our people, our souls? May it is because those questions will reveal a condition of the human heart that we all posses? Maybe a heart that we have fostered and coddled and paraded as virtuous. Oh I think we know and we don't want that curtain pulled back.

Well we pushed and wanted a godless nation and we got it. So much so that we will only bring God up to drag his character through the mud just to continue building our own kingdom of refuse. We have so little regard for God that we will jump on the first occasion to both undermine him, his followers and continue our world without him. Even while our nation crumbles. And we wonder why we are here? We dishonestly comment on his failure to help.

I don't say this gleefully, but...

Congratulations America, you are getting the utopia you purchased with your own sins.

But not all is lost! So do we pray? Yes we pray! We pray even when we are ridiculed for it. We pray in our times of want and in our times of plenty. We pray because we have a God who acts! We ask because we have a God who forgives, and not just that he does but he wants to! A God who will even forgive our mocking of him. Let us take him up on his offer. Seek refuge in the Lord!

It is not too late to return to the Lord, today is the day of salvation. Be warned O' Kings of the Earth. Kiss Son lest he be angry and you perish in the way. There is a warning and a call. He is calling to us. C.S. Lewis says that God is shouting to us in pain. He is saying Return and be saved! But to do this, well, that would require looking in the mirror once and awhile and bending our stiff necks.

thanks

My Dahli Lament

War, war never changes. To quote a modern proverb. With the recent attacks on Paris the world once again is reminded we have an enemy that will not relent, will not stop until we all convert or are killed. Shame on us for forgetting. These wolves will not go away.

The Dahli Lama is a great man who has suffered more than the most of us, but I will critique his theology on prayer. He spoke about the recent tragedies with terrorism. He challenged more people to love and spread the love, and quite frankly it is not a bad message. However in this instance thinking that more love will do anything in the face of this enemy is utterly misinformed. He continues on about the need for love and said that if we emphasize harmony and non-violence then we usher in a new era. Now I appreciate the sentiment but it really doesn't solve much in this instance. Failing to understand that we are dealing with demonically fueled hate from a false god will never help the situation. It would have been similar to John Connor trying to convince the Terminator not to murder him. Kyle Reece explained to Sara Connor what the Terminators do.

Listen, and understand! That Terminator is out there! It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead. Terminator (1984).

This is not something we can win out with love and good intentions. This is not the case of religious differences but the kingdom of man wrestling with the kingdom of darkness. Powers, Principalities, Rulers, Authorities have raised themselves an army of darkness and now march on the earth to wipe out mankind. This is literally what Paul was warning about with the armor of God in Ephesians 6. But these demons do have foot soldiers. If we don't understand the enemy or their mission then any attempts at solutions will only fail or worse yet enable the spiral to continue, insert American foreign policy. Trying to reason against a growing army with an evil conviction committed to death and destruction is a failure to respond.

But this is not a political blog, the bigger issue I had with his statement apart from a misunderstanding of extreme Islam, was the obvious one that the media have latched onto, him urging the people to stop praying for Paris. Part of his thought was fine because I think that he was trying to say that more than simply prayers were needed. Now this is true, our governments should step up. But his other reasoning was that God's answer would be "No, solve the problem yourself, because you caused it." Well perhaps Buddha may respond saying something like that because he is quite incapable of doing anything, but God is.

The problem with this is that this is not God's nature. He is loving and compassionate. He encourages us to humble ourselves and pray and to repent. God encourages interaction with himself. If God cannot and will not help then get a new god. This is why Paul speaks about the armor of God. This absolutely has a spiritual element to it and we need God's help.

2 Chronicles 4:14 teaches this principle.
14if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

I think the problem is we have gone on long enough without the help of God. 

The other issue is God is not a pacifist. He raises up kingdoms and brings others to the ground. God gives the power of the sword to the governments for the very purpose of curbing evil. The governments of the world are supposed to rise up and topple this evil, that is their very purpose. They in a sense hold the peace until true justice returns. 

"But Gabe, Jesus was a pacifist!" You are right, he was for his purpose in his first coming and he requires it of his followers as well. That is why he has governments in place to handle the wet work. They are not expected to handle this task with protest and peace vigils. God raises up governments and kings for this purpose. They maintain order and they and bring the sword when it is necessary. As Ecclesiastes teaches there is a time for hate and a time for war, also read Revelation.

When these neo Nephilim reek havoc on the world then God's avengers must stand up. I already wrote about God's avengers though. If God expects his avengers to do something then do we expect him to turn a deaf ear at our prayers? In fact sending in governments from around the world to combat this evil may very well be one of his ways of intervening and answering prayer. God raised up armies to do that very thing in the Bible all the time. God judged his own people with Assyria and Babylon. God used his own people to judge the Philistines, Canaanites, the Ammorites etc.  

So go read a Psalm about calling on God to intervene on the world stage. He does it all the time.

Psalm 94 is a psalm calling on God to act on the enemies.
Psalm 10 is calling God stop the wicked.
and this from Psalm 58   

O God, break the teeth in their mouths;
    tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
7 Let them vanish like water that runs away;
    when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted.
8 Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime,
    like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.
9 Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,
    whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!

10The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
    he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
    surely there is a God who judges on earth.”

God cares about justice. This is not to say do not pray for your enemies though. Jesus does tell us to do this. So while I pray for them to turn from their wicked ways and come to the Lord I hope in the meantime their violence will be stopped whether by a solider doing his job or a missionary doing his. 

So while he meant well, the Dahli Lama only caused me to lament at having missed this one. So I want to end by offering a prayer. Thank you God for being a God who hears, a God who acts, and a God who cares. We have indeed made a mess here of your beautiful creation. We are in need of help from the enemy of creation. Delivery us oh God from evil and if this be a judgement, keep us oh Lord during it and let all people return to you. God help us, oh Lord and continue to bestow your grace on France and anyone else suffering at the hands of this regime of evil.

thanks

Temptation to Ashes (brothers part 2)

 I read the story of another "christian" that turned away to atheism. It makes me sad. It should make us all sad. Why? Because this whole believers versus non-believers thing is not a popularity contest.  It is not even an "us" versus them, it is an "us", every single last one of us, versus eternity. It is about the very destination of our souls.  It is about whether or not they make it into God's presence in an active relationship or a passive one.  Rest assured they will meet God. I know the non-christian especially the atheist wants to parade these individuals as brave for leaving the oppressive system of religion. 

I have read the wiki guide for how to lead a Christian away from God. The steps are so simple! I have also read Richard Dawkins's God Delusion and Christopher Hitchens's God is not great.  These people so want to convince others that God is not there. They have so much animosity towards him and religion, why? I think Paul answers that question in Ephesians 6.

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. ¹¹ Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. ¹² For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

There is a battle going on. There is war going on. Just because we may stop paying attention does not mean that the assault stops. This is similar to the wars across the world that we do not know about; unless it is fresh on the news we may be tempted to think it was resolved or no longer happening.  C.S.Lewis reminds us about this idea in the Screwtape Letters. The experienced demon Srewtape informs Wormwood just let them think that we aren't there. I am not sure if Sun Tzu used this war tactic but it does seem easiest to fight a war if one side is completely unaware. I believe that this is our temptation, to simply just muse and wander why some people, certain people are so evil? Why do they want to destroy God and tear down people?  

We have probably all heard the cry in frustration "I hate people!" If we as Christians are not careful we can fall into this trap of thinking that people are the real problem when they are in fact the mission.  Paul points out that the people are not the problem but the demons. Why do they do this? All we can do is speculate ultimately, but perhaps since they have lost, the only thing they can do is take as many people down with them. The whole not going down without a fight thing, is not so virtuous after-all.

If we forget we are in a war then the call to be strong in the Lord loses urgency. If the call to be strong loses urgency then our shield of faith gets lowered.  As this passage continues on to mention. When the shield of faith is lowered we begin to rely on our own strategies or more realistically not make any. But this is guaranteed to make us fall as the passage mentions; we get hit from the arrows of the enemy.  This is what happens if we do not realize we are in a war. We start to think that perhaps their is no fight, perhaps no faith, and perhaps no God, and perhaps nothing to hold on to. And perhaps we should just walk away, and thus another article is written about a brave soul leaving religion.

When we make this mistake for whatever reason we become a casualty of the fight that we weren't paying attention to.  Sadly a common reasons tend to be "I wanted to stop fighting temptation"  This however has made the battle about something that Christ has already won.  Temptation is very real but we misunderstand when we seem to think that since Christ died for our sins, that holiness means we now have to strive to be perfect. Temptation will always be there, our goal is not to achieve a sinless life, that is part of the blessed hope. Our conduct is important because we are in love with Christ and we want to be like him but we have a different nature and a different advocate now.  The difference is now the Spirit aids us and Christ welcomes us when we fail. If we are doing it for any other reason than we are holding our sword backwards and swinging with the blunt end.

I really think the problem is as Christians we fail to understand balance. This passage is a good example.  It tells us that people are not the enemy but that spirits are, yet we are still to dress in the armor of God. Doesn't the battle belong to the Lord?  Isn't the outcome settled?  Yes and Yes, then why do I need to care about the battle?  Because the Lord calls us to join him in his kingdom. Being in God's kingdom means being a participant.  Yes God died for our sins and we are forgiven and we need to pay attention to our conduct. But if we let one overtake the other we get in trouble. If we only focus on the grace we can slide into license, but equally if we only focus on sin management then we become discouraged and wonder what the point is.  If we can't understand biblical theology in balance then we will always be at odds with some other passage. 

This has sadly left some in a place where they walk away from the faith.  They say I was tired of being somebody I wasn't. It's as if Christianity is about being perfect and they were tired of being a hypocrite. They are half right.  They are hypocrites if they think they should be perfect, because they will never attain it, but the answer is to fall into Christ's loving arms once again after we fail.  Not to walk away. They really just reveal that they did not understand the Gospel.   

But...

Because if we forget who the actual enemy is, we can tend to let the story end here and it is our temptation to quote only verse 10 from Proverbs 24 when this happens.

¹⁰ If you faint in the day of adversity,
    your strength is small.

But let's not forget the counter that God gives in verse 11.
 
¹¹ Rescue those who are being taken away to death;
    hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.

We are at war and so are the soldiers next to you, watch their backs. Are we going to leave our soldiers to burn or we will realize we are in a battle and Christians don't leave men behind.

When we hear stories like this we shouldn't shake our heads in judgement but we should return to our knees and fight the fight where the battle is.  Remember Paul's encouragement to the Galatians.

6:1Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5For each will have to bear his own load.
6Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. 7Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

This is a big part of that laying down your life for a friend thing that thing that Jesus says there is no greater love than. If this doesn't make sense to you go and watch Saving Private Ryan. Let's not leave our brothers to ashes. 

Band of Brothers is also very good. 

thanks 

A Lack of Clarity (all those versions part two)

The reason I wrote the first blog about this subject was because of a tendency I have seen to write off the Bible because "You know the Bible has changed and been re-written over the years by many different people right? You do realize this right?" In other words you are foolish to put too much stock in its pages.

I cannot tell you how many times I have seen someone post this on comment sections about anything that has to do with Christianity. I know, why read the comments, it is the bane of our existence?! 

But I wrote that last one to point out that actually we have extremely accurate Bibles that highly reflect authorial intent which Christians believe were God breathed.

2 Timothy 3:16 
14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

But I didn't address the other line of argumentation fully which is also used just as often: that the Bible is just not that "clear". Well I have mentioned this in passing a few times and after having read yet another article about how we all need to chill because the Bible is not that clear. I felt the need to stand up once again and defend Gotham. Not that Gotham needs my defending, nor am I Batman but the church has a history of good theology and I don't want that to go away with a flood of misinformation. Louder voices on the internet are not always good ones.

So in my response I wish the Christians would admit about the Bible though difficult can be understood with study and practice. Maybe not to full complete understanding or liking but that is why humility is important in knowing God. I may not understand everything fully but let's stop tossing babies around in bathwater.

Relevant Magazine had an article about things people need to admit about the Bible and they are right ; to undermine the scriptures is a great way to undermine the Christians faith which is very relevant to enemies of God. So I will respond to their five points.

Point 1 The Bible is not magic but a collection of Books with different Genres. Good, true point.

Point 2 The Bible isn't as clear as we'd like it to be. Um sometimes it isn't but I think that this is more of a passing blip than a point. It is awfully clear on many things. It is awfully clear on many things that people do not like. Just because we do not like something doesn't mean it becomes unclear. Let's not let the little ambiguous ones undermine its authority. It's little foxes that spoil the vineyard afterall. Well we are at it let's talk about the one you think are so ambiguous that you think we should create a principle that actually undermines its authority. See I have seen this point but people don't want to discuss it.

The example used the point of violence as God commands against it but at other times uses it as judgment. Why is God so inconsistent? It must be unclear. Well to understand this point apply your first one. In one way God is commanding obedience for his people to act as judgment on the nations, and in another he is commanding no personal vendettas. God says vengeance is mine. It is not inconsistent for him to carry out such vengeance with the hands of his people who he actively governs over. See distinctions which come about through study shouldn't make us conclude that the Bible is too difficult to make assertions, but that is always what this line of argumentation wants to argue.

Jesus often spent a lot of time quoting from the Old Testament saying it is written for his line of reasoning. It as is if he put a lot of stock in what was recorded in ink. Jesus even combated his own temptations with the words of scripture, but Satan tried to do the same. Jesus didn't throw up his hands and say "You are right Satan we are both using the same scriptures, it is just so unclear!" No, he seemed to believe that the words long written down had meaning when properly understood and applied. 

This point should be the Bible doesn't always ask easy things of us; but a lack of understanding does not mean a lack of clarity. 

Point 3 The Bible was inspired by God not dictated by God. True so what are you getting at? It seems since this was not fleshed out into any real reason, that this is simply to undermine the authority because  "You know God didn't directly say it? This is that same argument that "You know it's not in red letters so Jesus doesn't believe that!" The Bible does give testimony on what its' readers should believe about it. 

The Bible acknowledges that many people will rise up and misuse the word and that false teachers will abound. The answer is not to throw up our hands in hopelessness. No, the answer is to study to show yourself approved.

2 Tim 2:15
14Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. 15Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Point 4  We all pick and choose the Bible we Believe, Preach and Defend. Well, some may I guess, but largely as a whole no we don't. But as you have displayed, the weak Bibliology that is being build on this premise will conclude from the flimsy foundation you are building with points 2 and 3.

People will do this if we continue to uphold a view of the Bible that is so grounded in man's own ability to comprehend God. But when we ground our view in the Bible's own testimony, that it does come from God then there will always be someone to point out that the Bible does in fact say something worth listening to. If this is really the truth about Christianity then we are a stupid people indeed. In fact if my Bible is simply the version that I like then who is to say who is right, or if anyone is? And for that matter why not go find one that is a little better, perhaps the book of Mormon or the Koran? See, if we have this little regard for the Bible than we really have no right to use it to make lists of 5 reasons that others should pay attention to.

Point 5 God is bigger than the Bible. Again true, to the point of obvious. But this is usually meant to mean that being spiritual is as and if not more important that understanding God's revelation. But then if you are not willing to submit to his own revelation about himself, if you are not willing to acknowledge that his delivery system was also for a reason, than who is now even bigger than God? Well, you are. All world religions believe this. They believe God is bigger than the pages of scripture so they inevitable leave them to find him elsewhere, and we get another religion. So which one will you let define your God? I will rely on the revelation that he gave from his disciples inspired by God himself. You can rely on your world experiences if you want to.

We live in the internet age where everyone is welcomed a comment. Ok sure, even I am using that privilege. But just because somebody writes something doesn't make it true, just as my own words are subject to scrutiny. I used to tell my students in ministry no speaker, no writer, no pastor, no blog, nobody is better than the word. Every speaker, writer, blogger, pod-caster whatever on matters of Christianity, God , Theology, everyone is this area is only as good as they are submitted to the word. Even Paul didn't just say "Well because I say so!" he commended the Bereans who went out studied what he said. Don't let someone convince you of something just because they are eloquent or they have a platform. Search it out, submit to God and he will lead you into truth. Solomon said it this way

Proverbs 25:2
It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.

If the truth sets you free, it shouldn't lead into a bondage of ambiguity. Because the author is right about this thing; everyone does have their version of the truth. The question is does it reflect God's or not? Is it submitted to God? People waver, people change, people fight, people argue, people disagree, but that is people not God's testimony. James gives a warning on this matter in his third chapter.

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
 
The clarity questions is really about accurately reflecting God's word or not. So take the time to make sure you are.

thanks

Do we really need to fight the Avenger?

With another law passed from the supreme bench in our country some have started to speak out more about rebellion. But what is all this rebellion business about?

The obvious example is the civil war but is that what we really want? 

Well the question is of course at what point should the church stand up to a corrupt government? You know because of Nazi Germany? Well how about instead of going to that extreme which may be a legitimate barometer for a culture to at least reference, let's instead ask how should a Christian think about this?

I am not so interested in how a republic should respond to this type of losing of its rights; I will leave that aspect to the political scientists. Since the government is not a Christian institution how should it act fair in this instance? How do you legislate for a people of differing values? differing worldviews? How should both anti-discrimination laws and free speech work? It can become so nuanced that someone is going to feel violated at some point; probably making an executive judicial ruling in favor of one over the other without the input of the people is not such a great idea, but here we are. I am no lawyer so I can only speak to the faith of those who feel like they are living in an increasingly sinful world with no help from a system they thought would help them.

So if using the system doesn't work as many feel in this case what does a Christian do? Do we grab our guns and religion and start a revolution? I sure hope not, and here's why.

We should always look at how those who resisted in the Bible did it. We are called to live at peace with everyone after-all. Christians do not go to war for their rights. They do not even go to war over the Gospel, they peacefully present it and they accept the consequences.

But even Biblically speaking there is precedent to run for our lives but never, never to kill for them. We have too many times in history taken principles in the Bible and have turned them into reasons to kill for and quite frankly we have been wrong every time. Vengeance is God's.

We have to of course deal with what Jesus said to Peter about the sword. In preparedness Jesus told the disciples that a time was coming where they may need to buy swords, but was this for going on the offensive? When the time came for Jesus to be taken away one of the disciples decided that that was the purpose of the sword and rose to the occasion. But what was the outcome?

When this account happens in John:

Jesus said to Peter, "Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?"

It was more important that God's will be done even when they were threatened with physical violence.
Luke records the same event. Luke 22:47-53
This time Jesus rebukes his disciples when this happened and even goes so far as to heal the man's ear.  He did not want his disciples engaging in acts of violence and even restored the person.  

Mathew records it this way.
52Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?

Jesus teaches that if one wants to live in such a way that he takes justice into his own hands then he will be opening himself to that kind of death. He also reminds Peter of God's own sovereignty and plan.

So yes he did tell them to obtain a sword, but was it to go on the offense? It seems that this was not what he was getting at. It seems he was simply acknowledging it may be dangerous out there and be prepared, an object lesson perhaps?

So let's understand the context they are in the process of putting Christ to death and he was not at all interested in the self-righteousness of even his own protection from this with acts of violence from his followers. Ah but that was for a pivitol time in redemptive history, what about when something not as essential as Jesus dying on the cross is happening? Well if the answer is not already in the question then let's look at the New Testament. 

Paul writes to the church is Rome. Now when we hear Rome we think of cool ruins and exotics locals over in Italy and that awesome movie Hudson Hawk. Nice.  But think about what that culture was really like. I was just in Italy last year I walked the halls of the Vatican, strolled over the canals of Venice, and the stood in the middle of the Roman Colosseum. The Roman Colosseum was a system in place for the sport and entertainment of the people. But the sport was brutal fights to the death, often with Christians and simple slaves trying to stay alive. Not only this but the system supported cults, temple prostitution, and yes homosexual lovers was common. You could also be jailed with no supply or care for your lively-hood for speaking against the Caesar. He used Christians as human torches for his garden parties and blamed the fire of Rome on Christians to incorporate open and free persecution of them. There were so many religions and gods that if you violated one of them you could bring the ire of the whole community down on you. You could say sin abounded. In fact Paul points out the state, not of just humanity, but of Rome in the beginning of his letter to the Romans.

So let's understand the context that Paul writes when he pens Romans 13. 

1Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.

Remember this is the government that eventually puts Paul to death. To further the example the new Jewish converts had to live through John the baptist being beheaded, James the brother of John being beheaded. Phillip the evangelist being stoned to death and let's not forget Jesus was put to death as well, he rose again thankfully. If you read Fox's book of martyrs the traditions are that almost all of the disciples had their end in this way. But the persecution was never a reason to get organize and raise the capitol. In fact the disciples had a reputation of rejoicing when they were persecuted for the Gospel's sake. The only other response that came about from persecution was a scattering and a spreading of the Gospel. 

The resurrection took the power out of violence. What is the point of physical striving with arms when there is a resurrection of the dead to look forward to?

In other words the response of Christians to a corrupt government is a doubling down on the preaching of the Gospel. The message is reinforced by Paul telling the people to "Owe no one anything except love." Now love did have stipulations for living for sure, but for Christians. We see in the rest of chapter 13 that the responsibility was to display love nonetheless. I mean Paul reminds them to keep paying taxes. It would be nice that if I can't go to war at least I can stop supporting them financially. But Paul seems to think that the Christian should continue to love and support God's avenger. 

If part of our system of government is to allow dissent then we are still in fullfillment of Romans 13 by using the system as given to us. This is what Paul did in appelaing to Rome, he did not simply let the system silence him he used it for the gospel's sake. But when a system changes for the worse all we can do is thank God for time that he gave us to establish his kingdom in the way we were able to do and then continue to do so under a stricter hand. 

Part of the rub for us I know is that we live in a society that grants us a voice of dissent. In fact our free society was based on a voice of dissent. We are blessed to live in a country that started out honoring God and thus adopted some tenets of freedom. But unrestrained and undefined freedom will always consume itself. It will leave behind all those good intentions of the people who believed that man was somehow better than he actually is. 

See if our anthropology is that people are basically good then we will think that ultimate freedom will lead to utopia.  But an anthropology that reflects true human nature reveals that when we are given more freedom we use it selfishly, sinful humans with ultimate freedom leads to more moral decline and the collapse of society or at least one that wants to live in opposition to God. That is why our founding Father's though wanting to establish a free society still recognized the need for laws and even laws to protect the people from the newly instituted government. The separation of church and state as Thomas Jefferson penned it, not in the constitution I might add, was to prevent government interference with religion not prohibit it. Now somehow it is interpreted backwards. But if God's deems our plight worthy of an exodus then he will provide his own Angel of Death, he doesn't need us for that role, but if not and probably not, we must continue to be faithful and humble ourselves. All we can do is pray for our leaders to change or for the Maker to return.

If our prayer leads us to anger and temptation to rise up then our focus is wrongheaded and we are not resting in the one who has both the power to raise up kingdoms and bring them down.   

Daniel 2 reminds

“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
to whom belong wisdom and might.
21He changes times and seasons;
he removes kings and sets up kings;
he gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who have understanding;

When commanding Jeremiah the prophet God tells him of his power over the nations

1:10See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.”

Psalm 75 is also about this. 

The last point is simply this. We are not Israel, so we are not a true theocracy and we do not get to act as his sword. He did that under a different covenant for judgement, but at this point in history he has reserved all judgment to the Son, who when he returns will administer it all. As I said before all we can do is know that they will give account, even the very avengers that we had a hard time living under that God allowed for a time.

This is a hard truth no doubt. It takes humility to let God handle his own affairs in the realms of men but they are his affairs. His affairs are justice, mine are obedience. The only warfare Christians wage are on their knees humbly before God.  So maybe we should we should enact some warfare: take it to the Lord in prayer. 

thanks