INTRODUCTION: There are ten heavenly, corporate declarations and anthems of praise in the book of Revelation. These corporate exaltations (Revelation 5, 7, 11, 12, 14, 15, 18, 21 and 22) are like oases of joyous exhilaration and supernatural strength in the midst of raging fires of apocalyptic trouble and temptation. This lesson is about how to draw on the power of these “pools of jubilation”. Their waters will give us strength to stand, and overcome (Revelation 3:21) through difficult seasons of our life, as well as the heat and pressure that come with the end of the age.
THE UNIQUE PRESSURES AND THE UNIQUE NEED FOR THE END OF THE AGE
A. The end of the age will be jammed with the greatest temptation, with the greatest deception, with the greatest social pressure that the world has ever collectively experienced.
For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.(Matthew 24:21-22)
B. It will require supernatural, Spirit-borne strength to walk through this intense hour of human history with our faith, and love for Jesus remaining vibrant and flourishing. This is the strength that Paul prays for the believers in the Church at Ephesus.
I pray… that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the with, and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.(Ephesians 3:16)
C. These intense pressures, or crises are meant to draw us into controversy. And these controversies are meant to draw the passageways of our hearts into deep, honest dialogue with the Lord about… 1. Who He is, and 2. His unique ability to purify, and bless us through these circumstances.
When (Revelation 8:10) hits, and a third of the world’s water resources are poisoned, and there isn’t enough to go around in your community, what will your heart attitude be? When politicians lie and want you to champion their lies, and their lies are helping you, but hurting other people, how will you operate? When millions die in a plague, and your unbelieving family members question the goodness of God in the midst of so much death, what will you say? What will your heart testimony be? Through the crises of the great troubles that are on the earth will you be able to grow in first-commandment love? Will you be a champion of Jesus’ beatitudes? Will the fruit of your life still be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Will you increase in Christlikeness in this context?
D. Two questions that the Lord is most keen to confront us with through these afflictions are: 1. Are you growing in first-commandment love for Me? 2. Are you growing in vibrant Christlikeness? Are you coming forth, through the fires, looking like My Son? Are the beatitudes the attitudes of your heart? Is the fruit of your life, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control?
Later, in Ephesians 5, when Paul talks about Jesus removing every spot, wrinkle, and blemish in His Bride, (Ephesians 5:25-27), he’s talking about removing every impediment to first-commandment love, and brilliant Christlikeness. Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
E. This purging, maturing process is what we see happening throughout the book of Revelation: 1. Jesus is confronting, and calling the seven churches to grow in love for God, and purified Christlikeness. 2. The pressures, (thlipsis = judgments of the Lord) crises, and troubles that are on the earth are forcing the issues re: the truth about God, and the worthiness of Jesus to reign on the earth. Who is God? Is He worthy of your love? Is Jesus worthy to rule the nations, AND rule your heart? Will your heart come into alignment with His will, emotions, plan, values, and priorities? 3. The Bride makes herself ready (Revelation 19:7). Through all the pressure she’s clothed in whole- hearted love, and she has taken on the heart and character of her Bridegroom King.
QUESTION: What are the great pressures and deceptions that we see mounting in our culture today? How are they tempting us away from Christlikeness, and first-commandment love for God? How are these great “troubles” able to help us cultivate Christlikeness, and first-commandment love for God?
F. The fact of the matter is, the great tribulation, (along with great sin, great temptation, great evil, and great delusion) will actually accelerate great first-commandment love, and great Christlikeness – unlike any other time/atmosphere in human history. Here’s the salient point: If we know this now, we can prepare ourselves (and others) for it now. The 100,000 question is, HOW DO WE DO THIS NOW? What is the Lord’s strategy for forging loyal, faithful love, and Christlikeness in the Bride?
II. WE NEED UNIQUE POWER IN ORDER FOR OUR LOVE AND CHRISTLIKENESS TO OVERCOME THE INTENSE AFFLICTIONS FLOURISH UNTO THE END OF THE AGE
A. This is what the Bible says about this overcoming power:
To him who OVERCOMES I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, AS I OVERCAME and sat down with My Father on His throne.(Revelation 3:21)
How did Jesus overcome?
Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, LOOKING UNTO JESUS the Author and Finisher of our faith, Who for the JOY that was set before Him endured the cross… and sat down at the right had of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)
The JOY of the LORD is your STRENGTH.(Nehemiah 8:10)
The kingdom of God is… RIGHTEOUSNESS (Christlikeness) and PEACE (SHALOM blessing) and (that comes through) JOY in the HOLY SPIRIT.(Romans 14:17)
B. What does this Christlike power look like in our lives?
Dallas Willard notes: “The human will has little STRENGTH to OVERCOME when it has little JOY to draw upon.”
JOY is the real, tangible, dynamic that explodes in our hearts as we give ourselves to 1. REVELATIONS of the GOD/MAN, CHRIST JESUS 2. PERSONAL EXPERIENCES of GOD INTIMATELY BLESSING US WITH DIVINE LOVE
C. When we give ourselves to these experiences, JOY will be the result in our hearts. And when the human heart is filled with this type of kinetic joy, our wills are clothed with strength to love, and strength to say “yes” to His ways, even through great threat and persecution.
The good news is, we don’t have to wait for “great threat and persecution”. We can fill our bank account with experiences of exhilarating joy, today – right now!
D. Again, the book of Revelation is all about the redeemed engaging these dynamics. As we see the judgments, and the great calamity on earth, we are also presented with the pattern and the norm of heaven – with the high praises of God in the mouths of the redeemed, and the created order. These dynamics actually lean, build, and draw upon each other:
The turbulence on earth stirs prayers in the saints. The prayers of the saints are received in heaven – mingled with the praise of the angels and the redeemed; the glory of God is released to earth; and the saints on earth are filled with confidence, joy, and love; they overcome the threats of the enemy; and Jesus is glorified on the earth; hailed as uniquely qualified to rule the nations and the human heart.
What happens on earth, moves heaven. And what happens in heaven spills onto the earth.
E. We absolutely want this heavenly strength. But, according to Jesus, it’s costly. The return-rate on our investment is out of this world, but the pursuit of wholehearted love, and vibrant Christlikeness does require faith, and intentionality. We won’t get it on the run.
I believe, cultivating love, Christlikeness and joy is what Jesus was exhorting the Laodiceans to do in Revelation 3:18 “I counsel you to BUY from ME, GOLD REFINED in the FIRE that you may be RICH.”
Again, the good news is we can give ourselves to these experiences now, prior to, or apart from being touched by deep tribulation, hardship, temptation and great deception. There is enough tribulation in our lives in 2025 in order to let them forge Christian gold in our hearts and lives today.
F. How can we do this? How can we “buy gold refined in the fire”? How do we“buy ample oil”(Matthew 25:4)?
G. Both, the Father, and Jesus promise that the Lord’s House, will be called a HOUSE of PRAYER, and the atmosphere of that house will be JOY.
“I will bring the nations to My holy mountain, and EXHILARATE (ושׁמחתים – rejoice greatly, delight, be made glad, jubilate, exult) them in MY HOUSE of PRAYER. Their worship and sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for MY HOUSE shall be called a HOUSE of PRAYER for ALL (peoples).”(Isaiah 56:7)
H. Because the Church has often starved herself on this vital, Kingdom oxygen, we find her gasping for breath, caught up in false forms of exhilaration that don’t cultivate either vibrant Christlikeness, nor first-commandment love. And when crises and trouble hit our world, or our lives, we don’t grown in love, and we don’t grow in His character – and sometimes, we even fall back into despair, or fall into false hopes for consolation.
The Lord your God is in your midst! He is warrior! Who can deliver? He takes great delight in you! He renews you by His love! He shouts for joy over you! (Zephaniah 3:17)
I. THIS is the primary dynamic that goes on in the House of Prayer. (In Matthew 21) Can you see why Jesus was SO put out when His Father’s House was turned into something else?) Let me say, IF THIS ISN’T HAPPENING in our lives, our fellowships, etc. THERE IS SOMETHING VITAL MISSING in the HOUSEHOLD of GOD. Something we need to be prepared for tribulation is absent!
J. As we come to the Lord in our tired, broken, dim, and imperfect state, engaging Him in the place of worshipful prayer, the Holy Spirit fills us with supernatural joy, exhilaration, passion, inspiration, unction, contentment, brightness, pleasure, gladness, and delight that is unlike anything else we can experience, and this EXHILARATION is what gives us courage to operate in the beatitudes, and not squelch the fruit of the Spirit in the times of uber-hardship.
In the House of Prayer, we do engage in intercession for all types of needs and issues, but it ALL flows from the atmosphere of exaltation and joy – because that’s the atmosphere of heaven. Exaltation and joy is the power-source to our prayers. And so, I could say, this is the atmosphere we chiefly aim to maintain; but it’s more like, what we focus on entering into.
Beloved, if we’re seated with Him in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6) we are in a realm of joy.“In Your Presence is the fulness of joy…”(Psalm 16:11)
K. This exhilarating, unified strength is precisely what Jesus prayed for His followers to receive when He prayed to the Father in the garden, just before His crucifixion:
Now I come to You… that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.(John 17:13)
Jesus’ exhortation to the Church is not, “Sit at My feet and be joyful”. His extraordinary invitation is, “Let Me be your joy! Find joy in Who I Am!” In His presence Jesus delights to reveal that He, Himself is our joy!
Though you have not seen Him (with the naked eye) you love Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. (1 Peter 1:8)
L. As we respond to His Word, we are filled with supernatural exhilaration, so that have power to resist the carnal inclinations and temptations, and yield to the fruit of the Spirit, the crucifying work that produces Christ-like qualities, and make choices that cultivate first-commandment love. We have power to joyfully agree with God’s glorious purposes for our lives.And, as a result, we can’t help but sing His praise, and magnify Him with our lives.
Over the last several months, the Lord has provided a gracious, and sure way for individuals, families, and fellowships to navigate His judgment upon Houses of Prayer, and His own evangelical household in the United States.
Those who have given themselves to a.) the endless deprecation and devouring of others; or b.) the gamesmanship of defensiveness and pretense, will only have an “expectation of punishment” (Hebrews 10:27) for their determination to avoid this way of the Lord’s mercy and purification.
At the same time, the judgments of the Lord are primarily about the Lord bringing rewards to the Church; rewards that will encourage radical, authentic Christlikeness. Those who have navigated these judgments in the soul-searching spirit of mutual humility, lament and repentance, allowing the Lord to purge their unrighteous ways, can expect to receive great rewards for their intensive labor of dethroning self, and appropriating the way of Christ.
Here are the 10 blessings for navigating the judgments of the Lord under the deep, purifying grace of the Lord:
1. The joy-filled blessing of beholding the Lord in the beauty of His holiness. With our sensors “cleansed”, we are able to behold Him with great perception, and tenderness of spirit.
2. The blessing of the fearless spirit that comes from having been clothed with the preeminent fear of the Lord. If our hearts are rooted in the fear of the Lord, we become confident, and emboldened in every other context. We know Who is holding all the cards. And we tremble at His perfect authority to bring those who are playing games with His righteousness, into alignment to the sovereign majesty of His Son.
3. The blessing of the unassailable conscience that comes from walking with Him in the light. Peace abounds within those who know they have been brought to lowest of lows – having let the Spirit illuminate and purge the deepest of their wicked ways.
4. The blessing of increased Christlikeness. As we submit to crucifixion of self, we become unhindered in our attainment of Christlikeness. We are fully liberated from impediments to the formation of His character and power within us.
5. The blessings that are attached to all 8 of the Beatitudes. (You couldn’t navigate the judgments of these last few months with the Lord without touching all 8 of the dynamics of Matthew 5:3-12)
6. The blessing of a clean conscience that comes from having built humble, loving relationships upon the redemptive grace of the Lord, and not upon law, pretense, or the fear of man.
7. The blessing (and honor) of increased authority in the place of intercessory partnership with the Lord.
8. The blessing of “witness”, knowing that the way you and your company navigated the judgments of the Lord is an example to others about the way to respond to future judgments of the Lord.
9. The blessing of “witness” (part 2), knowing that the way you and your company navigated the judgments of the Lord is a testimony to the perfect, good, and just leadership of the Lord.
10. The blessing and pleasure of living in vibrant righteousness; knowing your heart, mind, emotions, behavior and relationships are being aligned to the right order of the King, and are fully alive to the purposes of God in this hour.
The question remains: Why would any follower of Jesus Christ (much less any leader within the Body of Christ), see the judgments of Jesus Christ, and choose the route that Jesus Christ DIDN’T choose – namely to “save self” – and thus forfeit the glorious rewards that come from being purely, and wholeheartedly aligned with Jesus Christ?
Here’s one more list of “Ten Things” surrounding the Lord’s current judgment of the House of Prayer. Each of these values has been established by the Lord, not only in the scriptures, but also via life-applied truth that has seen the marvelous Kingdom fruit of such emphases. Our House is asking the Spirit of the Lord to give us the grace to remain plumb-lined to these vital New Testament dynamics.
As a part of the orthodox, apostolic confessing, Bible-believing Church, we believe the Lord is calling our House of Prayer (All Nations House of Prayer Southwest) to press into these 10 realities without reservation, apology, or pretense:
1. In all that we are, and do, we exalt the God/Man, Christ Jesus as the priority of our duties. Above, and beyond all, it is the revelation of “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2) that has power to pierce the heart of sinful men, and fulfill the mission of our Lord’s great commission. This is also known as the ministry of the forerunner; the friends of the Bridegroom. This priority entails living faithful lives that are established upon the “first commandment”: “You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind, and all of your strength.” (Luke 10:27)
2. Jesus calls us to bear our cross every day, unto His increase, and His return. “He must increase. And I must decrease.” (John 3:30) This means cultivating a tangible lifestyle of fulfilling Jesus’ most ubiquitous invitation into His Kingdom: “If anyone would be My disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23) This requires a preeminent love for the Person of Jesus Christ, that requires then, the subjugation of self to the increase of His glory, and dominion in our lives, and secondly in our ministries.
3. The Lord is a judge. And He justly, compassionately, and with great redemptive power judges His household (1 Peter 4:17), for the sake of our good, and (most importantly) the purification of His Son’s Bride. The corporate judgments of the Lord, are invitations to corporate repentance. This is the plenary message of the book of the prophet Joel.
4. We are called to sacrificially love, and mutually edify other praying, Spirit-filled, cross-bearing believers and communities, unto His increase, and the fulfillment of His great commission.
5. We are to operate by the full, Biblical, powerful leadership of the Holy Spirit. This includes relying upon His grace for evangelism, prophetic words, signs, wonders, mutual accountability, forgiveness, living Sermon on the Mount lifestyles, and walking in the light with humility toward one another.
6. We are called to engage in worshipful, intercessory partnership with Jesus, the Great Intercessor, unto His righteousness being established on the earth. We are also called to encourage churches and New Testament fellowships into the priorities of perpetual corporate prayer, meditating on the Word, with singing, and making melody in our hearts together for His glory.
7. We believe the scriptures (both Old and New Testaments) tell us it is wise and vital for believers to pray for the salvation of Israel and the Arabic speaking peoples in the land.
8. All Nations House of Prayer Southwest is specifically commissioned to intercede first, for the Lord’s Intended noble destiny for the Native peoples of the Southwest, and then the destiny of other people groups in the Southwestern United States.
9. We are called to live fruitful lives that stem from the gospel, that express themselves in vibrant righteousness (Psalm 37:6, and Daniel 12:3). These lives include walking in open, humble integrity, living the Sermon on the Mount, compassionately caring for each other – especially the least, and the overlooked; operating in contrition toward others, testifying of the beauty of Jesus, and offering our sin-cursed world covenant hope re: all matters of personal, relational, and social morality.
10. We engage in these mandates under the glorious weight of the fear of the Lord. This lifestyle, and these values are privileges that the one, true and living, holy God grants us to live in by His Spirit, and by His daily grace.
Over this long, last year of reflection, revelation and reverberation from the collapse of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, the Lord has faithfully led me, my wife, and our All Nations household through months of intentional confession, weeping, listening, repentance, lament and contrition. It’s been our “in house” Joel Assembly.
While it is important to understand the dynamics of how the organization, and individual leaders sinned against God and others, it is ESSENTIAL that we bring our own selves into His cleansing light, to purge us of our own sins, and the strong, endemic inclination to “jump out of the number”. I share in IHOP’s sins. I share in her abuses. When I can say that, AND understand WHY I’m saying that, I am free to walk in the light, as He is in the light. His light doesn’t shame me. His light is able to be “true life” to me – all of me.
At the same time, if I am not willing to walk in the light and let Him illuminate my sinful ways, I have no business dialoguing about the sins of others within the organization… Jesus condemned this haughty, critical spirit as “the blind leading the blind”. (Matthew 15:14)
With this in mind, here are 10 places where the Lord has specifically humbled me into honest confession, and repentance, so that I can heal, engage the process of renewing my heart and mind, and (where God permits) help others to do the same.
1. I let the hope of elevating “self”, and cultivating relationship with prominent personalities dissuade me from embracing, living, and teaching the the crucified life.
2. On too many occasions, I did not listen to others; and didn’t make space for them to simply and purely share, emote, weep, etc. re: their cognitive dissonance re: IHOP – because it was IHOP.
3. Too often I attached more weight to the narratives of those who had “achieved platform status” than those that didn’t. (That’s called idolatry.)
4. Too often I was more interested in defending a beloved organization than simply, and faithfully championing God’s best for the individual souls being shaped by that organization.
5. Too often I accepted IHOP’s Prophetic History stories because either it was Mike who was telling it, and “Mike wouldn’t fudge the truth”, or I simply wanted the specific story to be true. I didn’t apply the same rigor to these stories that I do to many other notable prophetic words.
6. I lived, cultivated, and taught a casual, latte-sipping, attitude about serving as a “priest” before the supremely holy God of 300 trillion galaxies.
7. I succumbed to the lie that a ministry could routinely injure a few people and families, and still be achieving great good for the purposes of God.
8. I let the IHOP model of prayer crimp my prayer-life; pruning me from equally needed prayers of confession, lament, repentance, and contrition.
9. I let go of my circumspection, and stopped objecting to where I was experiencing the white, nationalist, male, 21c American cultural lens, because it was IHOP.
10. I’m letting the Holy Spirit show me whatever 10 is; and 11, and 12… as He graciously brings light to my own soul.
In 1983 Leonard Ravenhill wrote: “There’s going to come an awakening. God Almighty doesn’t care if He sends America bankrupt. He doesn’t care if we have to stand in bread lines. He doesn’t care if our automobiles rust because we have no gasoline… The greatest impediment to this (awakening) will be a Church who refuses to give themselves to prayer and repentance.”
Awakening is a God thing. In our carnal, disengaged state we believers will sleep (and sleep and sleep…) It requires a supernatural response to the Word of the Lord for a soul to be awakened and remain awakened in Christ.
Awakening is also a Church thing. The world can’t wake up. Only those alive in Christ can wake up. The world is dead in their sins and trespasses. The New Testament call to wake up is to the covenant people of God who have had their souls dulled and weighed down by the paradigms, narratives and thinking of the flesh; thoughts that don’t stimulate faith, first-commandment love and the fear of the Lord in our hearts. This happens naturally in a fallen world, and at different times happens to all of us.
Waking up for a believer entails the same response to the Lord as being raised from the dead does for the unbeliever.
• Being Stirred by the Word of the Lord
• Responding with Repentance
• Being Filled with the Spirit
• Taking Up Our Cross
As the Church is awakened, she finds her Spirit-empowered voice:
A. The intercessory voice we use to bring the lost before the throne of God’s grace in prayer.
B. The prophetic voice that arrests the slumbering and those endangered by the crossless spirit of this age.
C. The evangelistic voice that makes clear the powerful message of the gospel, and has the power to raise the dead.
The fact of the matter is, these “voices” all have as their singular, magnificent obsession, a Man; a crucified, resurrected, Jewish God/Man. The declaration and acclamation of this beautiful Man is the ruling passion and preoccupation of awakened voices. EVERY TIME! EVERYTHING ELSE is a shadow, and an expendable extra to the increase of His glory.
Here’s the trick: (And in today’s politically supercharged culture it IS a trick) Don’t let someone (no matter how prominent and/or popular) wake you up to a SHADOW rather than THE ONE WHO is casting the shadow. Our waking up is to HIM – and nothing else; not political power; not deep spiritual insight; not even justice for the poor.
The Holy Spirit is wholly invested in waking us up to HIM. The Bride belongs to the Bridegroom. He’s the One (and the only One) you want to wake up to. There’s more than enough of Him to wake up to to keep us engaged and enthralled – for eternity.
The truth of the matter is, none of us are as “awakened” as we can be. In Christ, there’s always more to be awakened to. He’s that big.
The book of Revelation shows us how the mature apostle John was “awakened” to a new dimension of awe and fear and love for His “friend”, Jesus. Although John had watched Him heal the sick, feed thousands and refute the wisest teachers of his day; although John himself performed miracles in Jesus’ Name; although John was an eye-witness to His crucifixion – felt the earth-quake under his feet – and even walked into his Friend’s empty grave; when Revelation 1 happened to him John still fell “as though dead” at His feet.
There’s no shame in waking up to more of Jesus. Ever. The only shame is for us to assume that we are fully awake to Him and Who He is.
Come. Let’s let the Holy Spirit awaken us, all the more, to the glory of Who He is.
11 Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed. 12 The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let’s rid ourselves of the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let’s behave properly as in the day… 14 (Let’s) put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 13:11-12,13,14)
JSB • May 2, 2022
POST-SCRIPT Living revelation of the beauty of Jesus is THE vital (Matthew 25:3) oil our hearts need in this age. More than a call to believe the right theological truths about Jesus, this is a call to a lifestyle that cultivates an adoring, faithful heart, that’s been awakened to His beauty.
Without being saturated with revelations of the truth and majesty of Jesus, our hearts will be vulnerable to…
the compromising lies of demons,
the rage of humanism,
hostile self-determination,
self-insulating pride,
phobic suspicion,
idolatrous worship,
shame-filled pretense,
and incessant (hellish) condemnation.
These are the true, toxic threats to our culture; dynamics that plague every human heart; liberal, conservative, apolitical, monk, wealthy and poor…
And there’s only one solution: the daily application of the revelation of the Person of Jesus that engenders first-commandment love, and self-crucifying fidelity.
Not a better argument, a more popular opinion, or a more detached and objective spirit…
ONLY life-activated exhilaration over the magnificence of Jesus will keep our hearts alive and loyal to Him through this turbulent hour.
What is the nature of the nationalist fervor which has fallen upon our nation? How do its tenets pollute the ethos of the ekklesia, and the pure proclamation of the gospel? How does the nationalist fervor influence the body of Christ to walk out of step with the Spirit and ways of our Lord, Jesus Christ? What are the real, and pragmatic faith issues that are at risk, because of this fervor? What evangelical declarations need to be reenforced within the Church in this hour?
These were questions that stirred within Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and other pastors and theologians, who were watching a menacing political spirit overtake the people of God in 1930’s Germany.
In 1936, when Bonhoeffer did most of the writing of his book, “The Cost of Discipleship“, the Nazi rallies in Nuremberg were at their height of popularity. These rallies would run for a week, and include marches of various segments of the nation (ie. Labor workers, women and mothers, youth, religious etc.) who would participate in elaborate, festive parades that would snake through surrounding villages – all culminating in the large amphitheater in Nuremberg.
The Rally included speeches on the topics of The Power of the German Workforce, the Bolshevism in Theory and Practice, Homeland Security, The Youth Movement, The Task of the Judiciary, The Task of the German Press/Newspapers, The Financial Health of the German Government
On the seventh day of the rally, “the Fuerher” would address sometimes upward of 700,000 attendees.
“I see before me endless columns of the flags of our new Reich. I make this prophecy to you: This Reich will grow in the coming centuries, becoming strong and powerful! These flags will be borne by ever new generations of our people. Germany is healthy once more! Our people is reborn! I greet you as the hope of the present and the guarantee of our future. Fight! and Be upright and determined, fear no one and do your duty! If you do so, the Lord God will never leave our people. Heil Germany!” Adolph Hitler • September 14, 1936
The following Sunday, hundreds of thousands of these same people would go to church. (In 1936, 95% of the German population identified as Christian – 65% Protestant, and 30% Catholic.)
The pro-Nazi “German Christian” movement became a force in the church in 1933, primarily preaching that Bolshevism was using race as a way to pollute and divide the German people. The majority of Protestant churches, Lutheran, Methodist and Baptist fell in league with the Nazi Party by 1936, forming the “Protestant Reich Church”, and glorified Adolf Hitler as a “German prophet”.
Early on, some Catholic bishops prohibited Catholics in their dioceses from joining the Nazi Party. This ban was dropped after Hitler’s March 23, 1933, speech to the Reichstag in which he described Christianity as “the foundation for German values”.
The Reich Ministry of Church Affairs was established in July of 1936, creating for the first time in Germany an independent, centralized government ministry with responsibility for the Reich’s religious life.
Two years earlier, (1934) Bonhoeffer, along with a handful of other leading Protestant theologians, seeing the growing contraChrist spirit overtaking much of the German Church, formed “The Confessing Church”, centered around “The Barman Confession” (originally titled, “Theological Declaration Concerning the Present Situation of the German Evangelical Church”) http://postbarthian.com/2018/05/21/karl-barth-and-the-barmen-declaration-1934/
“The Barman Declaration” (chiefly written by the Swiss theologian, Karl Barth) contained six propositions, each rooted squarely in Scripture, stating its implications for the present day, and rejecting the false doctrine of Nationalism. The declaration asserted the church’s fidelity to Jesus Christ alone, Who stands as Lord in every sphere of life – and Who’s ways are to govern the manner of His Body’s witness within each of these spheres as well.
THE BARMAN DECLARATION In view of the errors of the “German Christians” and of the present Reich Church Administration, which are ravaging the Church and at the same time also shattering the unity of the German Evangelical Church, we confess the following evangelical truths:
1. “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved.” John 10:1,9
Jesus Christ, as he is attested to us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God whom we have to hear, and whom we have to trust and obey in life and in death.
We reject the false doctrine that the Church could and should recognize as a source of its proclamation, beyond and besides this one Word of God, yet other events, powers, historic figures and truths as God’s revelation.
2. “Jesus Christ has been made wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption for us by God.” 1 Corinthians 1:30
As Jesus Christ is God’s comforting pronouncement of the forgiveness of all our sins, so, with equal seriousness, he is also God’s vigorous announcement of his claim upon our whole life. Through him there comes to us joyful liberation from the godless ties of this world for free, grateful service to his creatures.
We reject the false doctrine that there could be areas of our life in which we would not belong to Jesus Christ but to other lords, areas in which we would not need justification and sanctification through him.
3. “Let us, however, speak the truth in love, and in every respect grow into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body is joined together.” Ephesians 4:15-16
The Christian Church is the community of brethren in which, in Word and Sacrament, through the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ acts in the present as Lord. With both its faith and its obedience, with both its message and its order, it has to testify in the midst of the sinful world, as the Church of pardoned sinners, that it belongs to him alone and lives and may live by his comfort and under his direction alone, in expectation of his appearing.
We reject the false doctrine that the Church could have permission to hand over the form of its message and of its order to whatever it itself might wish or to the vicissitudes of the prevailing ideological and political convictions of the day.
4. “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to have authority over you must be your servant.” Matthew 20:25-26
The various offices in the Church do not provide a basis for some to exercise authority over others but for the ministry [lit., “service”] with which the whole community has been entrusted and charged to be carried out.
We reject the false doctrine that, apart from this ministry, the Church could, and could have permission to, give itself or allow itself to be given special leaders [Führer] vested with ruling authority.
5. “Fear God. Honor the Emperor.” 1 Peter 2:17
Scripture tells us that by divine appointment the State, in this still unredeemed world in which also the Church is situated, has the task of maintaining justice and peace, so far as human discernment and human ability make this possible, by means of the threat and use of force. The Church acknowledges with gratitude and reverence toward God the benefit of this, his appointment. It draws attention to God’s Dominion [Reich], God’s commandment and justice, and with these the responsibility of those who rule and those who are ruled. It trusts and obeys the power of the Word, by which God upholds all things.
We reject the false doctrine that beyond its special commission the State should and could become the sole and total order of human life and so fulfill the vocation of the Church as well.
We reject the false doctrine that beyond its special commission the Church should and could take on the nature, tasks and dignity which belong to the State and thus become itself an organ of the State.
6. “See, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matt. 28:20 “God’s Word is not fettered.” 2 Timothy 2:9
The Church’s commission, which is the foundation of its freedom, consists in this: in Christ’s stead, and so in the service of his own Word and work, to deliver all people, through preaching and sacrament, the message of the free grace of God.
We reject the false doctrine that with human vainglory the Church could place the Word and work of the Lord in the service of self-chosen desires, purposes and plans.
The Confessing Synod of the German Evangelical Church declares that it sees in the acknowledgment of these truths and in the rejection of these errors the indispensable theological basis of the German Evangelical Church as a confederation of Confessing Churches. It calls upon all who can stand in solidarity with its Declaration to be mindful of these theological findings in all their decisions concerning Church and State. It appeals to all concerned to return to unity in faith, hope and love.
Verbum Dei manet in aeternum. (The Word of God endures forever.)
Is it time for the American Church to establish her own Barman Declaration? Is it past time?
What is the nature of the nationalist fervor which has fallen upon our nation? How do its tenets pollute the ethos of the ekklesia, and the pure proclamation of the gospel? How does the nationalist fervor influence the body of Christ to walk out of step with the Spirit and ways of our Lord, Jesus Christ? What are the real, and pragmatic faith issues that are at risk, because of this fervor? What evangelical declarations need to be reenforced within the Church in this hour?
In 1930’s Germany, the national churches, both Catholic and Lutheran, were very orthodox in their theological beliefs. They largely held to the infallibility of scriptures. They believed in one God. They believed that Jesus Christ is God. They believed that there is one way to salvation through Christ.
Where they deviated from the faith of the apostles, and the Spirit of Christ was in the praxis of their faith in Christ. They allowed the dictates of Christ (ie. the universal exhortations of taking up our cross and living according to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount) to be supplanted by nationalist arguments built upon ever-increasing levels of fear, anger, hatred and pride.
A cult doesn’t grow up over night. It takes years and decades of cyclical reasoning, fear-mongering, narrative formation, redaction, group-speak, enculturation, apologetic development, and legend enhancement. Along the way, the cult is shaped by pundits, philosophers, politicians, pastors and (false) prophets, who essentially tell potential cult participants HOW AND WHAT TO THINK about important events and issues in their world.
A flash-point of “crisis” lands in the midst of the society and a flurry of opinions break in upon the populace. (Every human that’s ever existed is hard-wired to want to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). In our age, the immediate availability of information (true or false) via social media gives our starving souls the security-information it craves – immediately.
The devil has been waiting for this age.
Whether its a plague that touches the nations; a riot that erupts in our capital; a wild argument launched by our President; or a geo-political conflict that rages in a far-away land, we are quickly submerged in thousands of “arguments and vain imaginations” (2 Corinthians 10:5) that tell us HOW TO THINK about these events. And in spite of what we vehemently assert to the contrary, WHAT WE EVENTUALLY BELIEVE does varying levels of injustice to the authority of the Word, and infidelity to the Spirit of Christ.
In April of 2020, approximately 85% of our evangelical family was adamant that it was good for churches and other public gathering places to be shuttered, or fully closed on account of the COVID plague. Less than 6 months later the beliefs were nearly inverted. WHAT CHANGED THE NARRATIVE?
In February of 2021, 70% of our evangelical family had serious misgivings about the behavior of our President on January 6. Less than a year later nearly 65% believed he was justified in his claims about the election being rigged. Four years later, I believe (I don’t know) the belief in the intentional interference of that election is even higher among our sisters and brothers in Christ.
I don’t know what the polls show re: our evangelical opinions re: Russia and the Ukraine, but I’d imagine that we’re undergoing a similar drastic shift in opinion – ALL BECAUSE OF THE ASSERTIONS OF ONE MAN.
As I mentioned, it takes years to shape cult-thinking. Many within our evangelical family are well-down this path. Many are slower, and/or more circumspect. Some, have not gone on the journey at all. But the truth of the matter is, in March of 2016 well-more than 75% of our evangelical family had serious, deep, Biblically principled objections to the idea of an unrepentant, serial sexual-abuser/adulterer serving as our national, political representative. We couldn’t have imagined that in the intervening 10 years, event after crisis; statement after episode would have led our family to the type of unfettered, near-inerrant adulation we would be heaping upon this one man, and his fantastic beliefs/vision/values/logic.
I’ve said it before, I’ll maintain it to the cliff: no single individual in our generation has made a larger impact on how we think about the world around us, than Donald J. Trump.
Our evangelical family is being over-taken by a praxis of CULT THINKING; no less than the German Churches ceded their highly logical thinking to the influence of one man and his eroding effect upon his culture’s values and principles. Whether our submersion into cult-thinking arrives at similar levels of infidelity to Christ, and human devastation remains to be seen.
(PART 1) RAGE IS AT THE CORE
“I know your dwelling place, your going out and your coming in, and your rage against Me.” (Isaiah 37:28)
At the foundation of all CULT-THINKING is RAGE AGAINST GOD, and the things, and ways of God. (The lower left quadrant on this chart)
This RAGE is the essence of our natural/carnal relationship with God. It is born in us. It’s passed from generation to generation. And today, it churns within all 8 billion of us on the earth.
It was the seething spirit of rage that materialized in the words of the serpent in the garden: “You will certainly not die.” (Genesis 3:4) (ala. GOD LIES!) Indeed, Jesus identified murderous rage at the core of the devil in John 8:44: “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desire of your father. He was a MURDERER from the beginning.”
Whether it’s Joseph Smith’s original vision where the “spirit” told him, “You must join none of them [the churches that were experiencing revival during America’s second great awakening] – They are AN ABOMINATION to me.”
Or, it’s “You’ve got to FIGHT like HELL!” Donald Trump’s infamous rally cry uttered minutes before the crowd stormed the capital on January 6. Or any of Trump’s first nineteen juvenile fights he picked with Marco Rubio, Megan Kelly, John McCain, Carly Fiorina etc. when he first entered the GOP race in 2015.
Decades ago, our family was able to identify the MILITANT RAGE in the foundations of Marxism, Planned Parenthood, the LGBTQ, Agnosticism, etc. Now, our own “DOUBLE-DAMN-YOU” fire against all things (woke, libtard, Biden, Obama, Hillary, Brandon etc) has blinded us from being able to perceive the hellish gasoline that burns in the bowels of MAGA.
Rage is at the heart of all things CULT. The CULT will not gain traction in the heart of other humans without it.
Let me say this again: Rage is at the heart of all things CULT. It will not gain traction in the heart of a man, a woman, a group, a community, or a nation without it.
But let me be clear, “the cause” doesn’t ignite the furnace of rage within a man. The furnace of rage exists perpetually. It burns hot within a man, and GOES SEARCHING FOR “a justifiable cause” by which to fuel itself.
And in 2015, after eight years of the explosive advancement of humanist ideology across our land, evangelical Christians were boiling; primed to embrace a murderous Saul who would go to battle for them without having to navigate the bothersome encumbrance of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In Trump, our evangelical malice found a conscienceless champion for its “justifiable cause”.
Once the flame of hostility licks the fuel of a “justifiable cause” it burns, and burns and burns – hotter and with great intensity; protecting itself; building ramparts for its hearth; and slogans for its mantle; it roars with proud heat. And in its enhanced and congratulated state, it is extremely difficult (in fact, humanly impossible) to extinguish.
ONLY by the gracious gift of the spirit of humility and contrition can that oppositional spirit of raging enmity be doused and extinguished; and only by the circumspect Spirit of revelation can a rage-burning stove begin to settle, cool, and then be dismantled.
When Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their’s is the Kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3), THIS is what He was referencing. THIS is what He knew about the hostile nature of the human spirit.
“For the mind of the flesh is actively hostile to God. It does not submit itself to God’s law, since it cannot, and those who are in the flesh [living a life that craves sinful appetites and impulses] will not please God.” (Romans 8:7-8)
He knew that it was only by the infusing work of the Holy Spirit that the angry turbulence of the human spirit could be brought to “life and peace” with God. (Romans 8:6)
I’ll dare to be specific and offensive here: If the CULT of Trump were to lose its ire; if Trump, Vance and Hegspeth and Wallnau and Bannon and Flynn and Kirk and Patel’s etc, anger were to freeze tonight, the MAGA movement would lose all its inertia.
Allow me to continue: HOWEVER, if MAGA were to humble their rage before the fear of the Lord, acknowledge the utter depth of their sin and their need for God and the ways of God (along with the rest of us); if they were to repent of their hostility toward God’s principles, and their murderous malice toward SO MANY others (political opponents, former colleagues, nations etc.) and let the Spirit of the Lord clothe them in Godly submission – meekness, understanding, kindness, and compassion – I KNOW it would slay a million demonic lies; and we’d see the removing of a million red hats, a collapse of godless humanism, AND a bonfire of revival and true, peace-generating godliness throughout our land.
(Part 2) OUR RAGE GOES LOOKING FOR DECEIT TO JUSTIFY ITSELF
Whether it’s believing a white salamander spoke to your prophet, the Jews are engaging in a global cabal to dominate the global economy, or two African America ladies in Georgia were dumping ballots in the 2020 election, DECEIT forms the immovable foundation of CULT. This DECEIT, is composed of sedimentary layers of false narratives about our real world that enrage, or justify our RAGE against specific elements in our world.
For instance, if we already hate distinctives about native American history and culture, our SELF will readily accept a LIE that says “indians are being used to sow communism into the fabric of our society.” And once that lie is in place, both our evil heart and our fleshly heart go searching for more evidence to justify our wicked mix of concrete that will form the bedrock of CULT.
DECEIT actually forms the substance of CULT when we find, and encourage others into similar patterns of “belief” – and together we feed our minds, conversations, editorial pages, and conferences with mangled statistics, rhetoric, propaganda, and storylines that “cement” our toxic, unbowed beliefs. Deceit shapes our hatred into a weapon of “false justice”. And when many take up these weapons together, they form a CULT army, ready to wield their collective will upon the culture around them.
It’s important to know that the false narratives of CULT come in every langauge – in fact, CULT is at the Biblical root of why languages exist at all in Genesis 11, when God scattered the people of Babaa’l to break up the lie that they were swallowing about themselves. “Everything is possible to us; let us (together)build a tower that will reach heaven…” (See Genesis 11:4-6)
The false narrative of CULT will also be what scatters the nations at the end of the age, when collectively armed with rage against God, the 8+billion-member CULT determines to rid the earth of those who are “bound” by the truths of godliness.
“Why do the nations rage?… Let us (together) break the fetters of the godly and His/their Anointed King” (See Psalm 2:1-3)
Both the beginning of humanity and the end of humanity will entail God needing to come against CULT, and CULT THINKING in order to save humanity from the wiles of the one who is both filled with murderous rage from the beginning, and the father of all lies; and who cannot even speak the truth.
In John 8 Jesus gives humanity important information about what’s really going on beneath the CULTISH dynamics of the human heart; information that Jesus has had a front row seat to since the beginning: “43 Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. 46 Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? 47 He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”
In these few comments Jesus asserts that
A. those who were opposing His Words and His ways were, in fact, UNABLE to hear what Jesus was saying (v.43) because their hearts had already been filled with false narratives.
B. Therefore, their ears did not “itch” for the life-giving Words of Jesus. The CULT thinking made their ears “itch” for words that fueled their hatred.
C. Their hearts had become addicted to the food of the devil; who only had hatred and murder within him, and could only give what he was: a deceitful murderer who opposed the ways of life and truth at every turn.
D. Jesus alone has the Words of life. And everyone who hears His Words, and receives His Words must be ready to do more than disavow themselves of the devil’s lies; they must acknowledge that they themselves are hostage to, and stirred to murder, on account of the devil’s lies.
E. Jesus maintains, “only those who are OF GOD” can receive Jesus’ way of life and truth. Only those who are both willing to admit that they desperately need God, and those who look to God alone for life and truth can hear what God is saying. (OF GOD is also a reference to those who have been “tenderized” by the prevenient Voice of the Holy Spirit, Who prepares the heart of women and men to be able to both let go of the lies, and receive the truth that will bring eternal life to the human soul)
But this DECEIT isn’t just a factor in our conversion to Christ. Because “the whole world is filled with the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19) our hearts and minds will perpetually need to deal with the falsehoods and enmity that the evil one sows. This is why Paul exhorts the believers in the city of Corinth to “take every thought captive to Christ!” (1 Corinthians 10:5) This is a call for more than true facts about God and our world. Our minds are to be filled with both God-exalting truth, and human abasement to the God of all truth.
It’s only when both of these elements come together; receptivity to the revelation of Truth, and a humble posture that is willing and ready to let that Truth cleanse our hearts, that the Truth will profit us at all.
Unless we respond to these generous, and gracious movements of the Spirit, we WILL live – and encourage others to live – in the land of DECEIT.
“Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not uncovered your iniquity, to bring back your captives, but have envisioned for you false prophecies and delusions.” (Lamentations 2:14)
“You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.” (Psalm 5:6)
“The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?” (Jeremiah 5:31)
“In their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God.” (Revelation 14:5)
“For all this her treachery has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense,” says the Lord. (Jeremiah 3:10)
“Let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.” (Psalm 31:18)
“Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another.” (Ephesians 4:25)
(Part 3) OUR RAGE AND DECEITFUL NARRATIVES JUSTIFY BETRAYAL
Once our RAGE has found its JUSTIFICATION in FALSE NARRATIVES and HALF-TRUTHS, it is an easy matter for us to then also JUSTIFY disobeying, or “suspending” (often even the clear) admonitions of CHRIST. Our heated emotions, our stoked hatred, and our minds, having become fixed on a false storyline, are easy prey for the one who was a murderer from the beginning, and the father of all lies.
The best example of this dynamic is a rhetorical rebuttal that we’ve heard for the last ten years: “We don’t need the Beatitudes. We’re electing a President, not a pastor.” The argument here being, “In this dire situation, we believe that operating in direct disobedience to Jesus’ beatitudes will produce better results in our society than obeying them, and encouraging our political champions to obey them.
Essentially what we are saying is,
v.3 “We don’t believe humility will bring ourselves, and/or our neighbors into His Kingdom.”
v.4 “We don’t believe that weeping will salve our painful groan as we long for what Jesus longs for.”
v.5 “We don’t believe that meekness will inherit anything of value.”
v.6 “We don’t believe that He’ll hear our hunger for and thirst for justice without compromising His power and His ways.”
v.7 “We don’t believe being merciful will be a gateway to increased mercy. (Heck. Who wants mercy at all??)
v.8 “Who needs to be pure in heart??? NO ONE is really pure in heart…”
v.9 “We don’t believe this is a time to be a peacemaker. We need someone who will relentlessly declare war on evil, and everyone who champions whatever we deem to be “evil”.
v.10 “And when we get persecuted for championing the very opposite of what Jesus encouraged us to champion in the Beatitudes, we’ll cry ‘We’re being persecuted for the sake of Christ’!!”
Here, as our hearts are betraying the Words of our King, we do well to listen to the words of Peter:
“14 If you are insulted and reviled for [bearing] the name of Christ, you are blessed [happy, with life-joy and comfort in God’s salvation regardless of your circumstances], because the Spirit of glory and of God is resting on you [and indwelling you—He whom they curse, you glorify]. 15 Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or a thief, or any sort of criminal [in response to persecution], or as a troublesome meddler interfering in the affairs of others; 16 but if anyone suffers [ill-treatment] as a Christian [because of his belief], he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God [because he is considered worthy to suffer] in this name.” (1 Peter 4:14-16)
It’s important to note the converse of what Peter is stating here. Should we be reproached by our world on account of our pursuit of murder, criminal activity, and creating trouble in our culture, and still CLAIM the glory of PERSECUTION, we are actually bringing dishonor to God, and not sharing in His glory at all.
This is a real-time issue in the culture of the American Church in this hour – one that we would ALL do well to bring before the leveling perspective of the Spirit of the Lord, where we can thoughtfully and soberly ask the question of David: “Search me, and analyze me O God; and see if there is any wicked, rebellious, idolatrous, or hurtful way in me.” (Psalm 139:24)
5 ways that CHAMPIONING MAGA CAN BE a BETRAYAL of the way of CHRIST.
These 5 ways will most apply to those who are:
Voting but not speaking…
Voting, endorsing and not speaking…
Voting, endorsing, not speaking, and defending…
Voting, endorsing, not speaking, defending, but assailing others who are speaking
If you find yourself in any of these four above categories, I urge you to take some, or all of these WAYS of BETRAYAL before the Spirit of the Lord yourself:
1. MAGA has become a pathway to IDOLATRY.
2. MAGA asserts a way to RIGHTEOUSNESS that has no need, value or respect for JESUS’ WORDS in the Sermon on the Mount.
3. MAGA is wholly REPENTANCE RESISTANT.
4. MAGA refuses to LOVE, BLESS and/or FORGIVE its ENEMIES. In fact, it thrives on CURSING its ENEMIES.
5. MAGA is a siren call to LAY DOWN ONE’S CROSS. There is NOTHING about MAGA that values taking up one’s CROSS for the sake of the amplification of Jesus, His glory, and/or the REIGN of the JESUS of the Bible.
Again. These five WAYS of BETRAYAL are on a sliding scale. Some of our brothers and sisters in Christ (who ARE IN Christ) are at different levels on each of these evaluative points. Some are barely on the spectrum at all – while others are nearly at 100% on each of the matters.
These points are vital for us to get a grip on. They aren’t a MENTAL CHECK-LIST. They’re an INTERNAL PRAYER-LIST for ourselves. They point the way AWAY FROM FAITH in Jesus. And TRUE, “I am trusting Jesus for the way through life and the tribulations of life” FAITH is what Jesus is looking for within us as He returns to our blind and rebellious world.
“When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8) [NKJV]
(Part 4) THE CAPSTONE OF IDOLATRY
Once the rage, the false-narratives, and the will to compromise the way of God is in place, the devil confronts the heart with the way and spirit of IDOLATRY.
IDOLATRY is simply any person (apostle, prophet, president, angel etc), power or process that we look to in order to establish our way in the world; minimizing the bad, and maximizing the good; we willfully give this entity our allegiance, obedience and/or no dissent, and view it/him/her as a bonafide embodiment of that which our uncrucifed self is seeking to gain from the world.
IDOLATRY is resoundingly condemned in both the Old Testament, and in the New. The Lord is jealous for our direct reliance, and intimate communion. He will suffer no inferior surrogate “god”. No intermediary to the skin-to-skin reign of His own Son.
IDOLATRY is, at best, a filter between ourselves and the way of God. It interprets the way and voice of God to our itching souls. In truth, it perverts and turns our hearts from raw dependence upon God to a “necessary go-between”; often presented to us as a “necessary evil” in order to gain that which we’ve set our flesh upon.
But it’s also more than that. IDOLATRY is a demonic-pact, whereby needy humans promise to do, or give, or entrust some aspect of ourselves (we WHOLLY belong to Christ in our covenant with Christ) to the elevation, preservation, defense of, and/or exaltation of a medium entity. For the CHRISTian, IDOLATRY is establishing a COVENANT with the devil on the side. And it becomes a gateway to demonic influence within a person/family’s life.
“They set up their disgusting idols in the temple that I have claimed for My own and defile it.” (Jeremiah 32:34)
“They are all estranged from Me by their idols.” (Ezekiel 14:5)
“Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy.” (Jonah 2:8)
“20 But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.” (Revelation 9:20-21)
“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” (1 John 5:21)
Friends. This is a hard thing for many within our evangelical family to hear, but, in our lifetime, there has been no other person, entity, or philosophy that’s done more to corrupt the way of Christ within the family of Christ than the words, the spirit and the machinations of Donald J. Trump. We take up his rage, we believe his narratives, we allow him exemptions from the way of Christ, and we cheer him, put his words in our mouths, hail him, pray for/upon him, and bless his ways – endlessly. His influence over the way we view our world, relate to our world, and project God into our world, is unparalleled. There is no close second.
Our relationship with this one man has become 100% idolatrous. We love what he loves; we turn a blind eye to his own boastful words of self-exaltation, and we make sacrifices to him, for his benefit – sacrifices of the character of Christ Who lives and dwells within us. We choose the way of Trump over the way of Jesus. And in our zeal we encourage, argue, fight and divide the body of Christ to do the same. Such is our fidelity to this idol.
Furthermore, and finally, the Lord Himself is behind this idol. There is a calculated reason why the Lord has allowed this man, who has lived his entire life contra-Sermon-on-the-Mount, to become a feature on the landscape of our culture unlike any man in our lifetime. The Lord is “judging” His house. He’s placing an idol directly in our path to see who will and will not bow before the power, wisdom and the beauty that this man declares that he has.
The cry of the Lord is clear to those who are listening in the Spirit: “Who will refuse this man their allegiance? Who will turn away from his carnal power? Who will see the ways of this man that exist in themselves and yet bow in repentance and obeisance to Me? Who, in this hour of great threat and need will bow their knee, their rhetoric, their narratives, their fearful and raging heart to Me?”
Beloved. At this point in our heavenly storyline, it is no longer possible to bow to Christ, and also serve as an apologist for Trump. To do so, is to say “yes” to idolatry.
THE HARDENING OF THE HEART
Once our rage has found a narrative to justify its endemic hostility against God and others, and the solution to the narrative is urgent enough to justify our compromise with the way of Christ, and our compromised solution finds a host who promises to lead us into (all) good and godly things, the CULT-CYCLE is fully established within our hearts. And our hearts begin to form a paradigm, or a prism, through which it (mistakenly) sees, internalizes and understands the whole of the rest of the world.
In this state, even Jesus observed that there is no hope to stave the pattern of destruction in their souls – like trying to lead a fall, down drunk to pray the sinner’s prayer, or a wealthy woman who is rushing through the mall to surrender her heart to Jesus. The feverish intoxication of their mind-set has become an impenetrable fortress.
“For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.’” (Matthew 13:15)
In this state; the state of years and decades of CULT THINKING, nothing can break the sedimentary cycle of the hardened heart – except the piercing power of the “unfamiliar” Word of the Holy Spirit.
It’s important to recognize that Jesus says that our hearts “GROW dull”. They don’t just get hardened, resistant and rebellious overnight. He knew the cycle gradually does its work: anger finds self-justification, narratives find compromised solutions, compromised solutions find heroes, and heroes stimulate more enmity and rage. And as the cycle turns within the person, it hardens the soul to external thinking. “Transcendence” is needed, but it cannot be conceived of, nor appropriated.
Add to this cyclical process, relationship with significant others who ALSO internalize their worlds through the same cyclical pattern of thinking, and mutually reenforce each other’s cycles of rage, narrative, compromise, idol worship, and you have a full-fledged “CULT”.
One more time: Rage against God and others looks for a narrative that justifies not tempering the rage. The urgency of the narrative provides permission to violate the ways of Christ. The compromised way is championed within an individual, or collection of heroic individuals. These “idols” promise us freedom from the things which have initially stimulated our rage. And these promises are like carrots on a stick – always before us – always being thwarted by some version of “evil” that justifies filling ourselves with more rage toward “outside” others.
It’s a cycle that’s as old as the garden. And it’s a cycle that will lead to the destruction of billions of souls at the end of the age.
There’s only one solution. And it can only come as we pass through one door. And that door is held open by One Person: the Person of the Holy Spirit.
But He not only holds the door open; He calls out to us; woos us, and then walks with each of us through the door, into the process of freedom. And it is a process…
THE WAY OUT: HOW TO BE SET FREE FROM THE POWER OF CULT
“Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you. For I am merciful,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not remain angry forever. 13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God, and… you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the Lord. 14 ‘Return, O backsliding children,’ says the Lord; “for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. 15 And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” (Jeremiah 3:12-15)
There is ONE WAY to be SET FREE from the supernatural power of CULT. And there is ONE MAN WHO retains the authority and compassion to release the human person from the ravages of RAGE, DECEIT, BETRAYAL and IDOLATRY. It’s vital that we both acknowledge this, AND that we traverse the lengthy journey to freedom with this firmly rooted in our minds.
The ONE WAY to navigate to true freedom is to allow the Holy Spirit to bring our hearts to true humility, acknowledging that we NEED His illumination for every thought, every emotional response, every act, and every word of understanding and rhetoric. We are WHOLLY dependent upon Him for truth, the measure of truth, and the application of truth in our lives. We must “unhook” ourselves from our own incessant appetite to continue to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and allow the Holy Spirit to feed us as much as He will, when He will, and no more. We must affirm our need to be WHOLLY bankrupt of knowledge without Him; and without the revelations that He gives. And we must yield to His first truth: that we are all ignorant and devoid of the ability to distinguish light from darkness without His discerning aid.
Jesus indicated this ONE WAY succinctly in his first Words in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit; for their’s is the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 5:3) We have no hope of navigating the ways of His Kingdom without being made poor, and lowly and traveling at impulse-power, with Him leading us step-by-step, episode-by-episode, and analysis-by-analysis. This will be all the more true as Jesus (continues to) bring His Kingdom (closer) to the earth. He will not return to earth without a BRIDE who is “leaning on Him” in “the wilderness” of this age; praying, listening, responding in nimble faith, moving at His impulse.
The ONE MAN, therefore, is CHRIST JESUS. He Himself is our freedom. It’s as we WALK WITH HIM through the firestorms on the earth, in intimate dialogue about the issues that are in our heart, that we actually cultivate the liberty that allows us to break free from the shackles of the thought patterns of this world. JESUS set forth the pattern to freedom in His restating of the “She’mah” (Deuteronomy 6:4) in (Mark 12:30) “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.”
It is as we focus our gaze on the glorious MAN, JESUS that we find that CULT THINKING loses its “sticking power”. The more we behold the beauty of JESUS and allow our HEART to be drawn to His matchless character, the more our IDOLATROUS AFFECTIONS will lose their magnetism.
The more we surrender our SOUL-WILL to the leadership of JESUS, the more our ways of COMPROMISE and BETRAYAL will seem shallow, and tasteless.
The more we TAKE EVERY THOUGHT CAPTIVE TO THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST, the less our MINDS will fall for, and accumulate the sensational DECEIT, CONSPIRACIES and NARRATIVES of the devil.
And the more we allow the STRENGTH of our FLESH to be CRUCIFIED unto HIS INCREASE, the less fuel we’ll have to stoke the flames of rage in our own lives.
It’s a day-by-day process, that must be undergone with as much sobriety as the detoxification of a drug-addict. And, NO ONE will do this deep, hard, honest work “on the run”. It will require intentional, focused counter-intuitive dialogue with the Lord in the place of much “poverty of spirit” prayer.
The good news is, Jesus is endlessly patient, and since He exists out of time as the Alpha and Omega, He has ALL DAY to walk with us in the deep, honest places of our hearts.
Our core, burning RAGE can’t hold a candle to the quasar of GOD’S LOVE. HE is FAR MORE COMMITTED to giving us GREATER GRACE than we are to stay ANGRY at HIM, to BELIEVE LIES, to REBEL AGAINST HIM, and to IDOLIZE the things of this world.
He has ALL DAY to walk with us in the deep, honest places of our hearts.
SPIRIT WORD & CROSS 