Distraction not Persecution

In a recent conversation with a co-worker, the subject of religious persecution and martyrdom came up. My co-worker's thought was that since America has been turning away from the Christian faith now for quite some time, it won't be long before Christians will begin to be openly persecuted and martyred here as well. I agree with him to a point but I think something different is already happening in this regard. In the study of warfare tactics, one comes to understand that different methods of warfare will be more or less successful depending on the circumstances and the nature of your enemy.

The Christian foundations of the United States don't really set the ground for open, direct persecution. I believe we are already seeing (at least for the last 100 years) the more successful demonic tactic of distraction.

I believe it goes something like this. The Protestant Reformation created the mindset of individual freedom and the validity of private interpretation. And then with the formation of the United States, the mentality of rugged individualism set us on our current course, that is, if you don't like your church, go to a different one and if you cannot find one you like, then start your own. This allows for the mentality of focusing your attention upon whatever doctrinal/theological/moral trifle that catches your attention. One generation of adults thinking this way will raise the next generation to take it one step further and apply this thinking to secular life. This second generation will focus their time and attention on those trifles that interest them, whatever they may happen to be.

In this the devil has succeeded to distract an entire generation with pretty lights and sounds, and this under the guise of Christian freedom. When we begin deciding for ourselves which things are important and garner our attention, we have bought the lie that the Church is not an authority and we can make these decisions for ourselves. We have become distracted by things inconsequential and have neglected addressing the things and practicing the things that will aid us in our holiness.

When we become distracted by earthly and temporal things, the devil doesn't have to bother persecuting us, for we are not accomplishing anything of eternal value that will help anyone.

Persecution in America?  We are too distracted to notice if there was.

Discouragement

I am becoming more and more discouraged by the state of our nation. In theological/doctrinal, moral, and economic terms, our nation is descending into chaos and foolishness. One of the greatest problems currently at hand is the watering down of the Christian faith. The mediocrity and easy believism of American evangelicalism makes the way we self identify as Christians deplorable. When Christians allow their pattern of thinking to be formed by popular culture, their economic behavior to be directed by worldly economic theory and their definition of what it actually means to be a Christian to be defined by secular psychology, we have completely lost our bearings.

Our country is so far gone, that, by considering what has happened to other nations over the past centuries who have followed this same path, we can only conclude that God will allow our nation to reap the fruit of the crop we are sowing. In other words, as we continue to descend into madness, our blindness won't allow us to turn and repent. I'm afraid that the only possible end to the path we are on is severe hardship. We will probably have to suffer at the hands of our own economic and spiritual foolishness before we see any light. And those who actually are striving for holiness may have to suffer along with the rest of society, as we suffer as one people, not as a bunch of individuals.

I'm afraid serious hardship is our unavoidable future. But this says nothing about my belief in postmillenialism. Far too often people's eschatological beliefs are centered around the cultural and historical context in which they live. A good example of this is seen in our day. It goes something like this: America is falling away from the Christian faith, therefore Jesus' second Coming must be soon. This is akin to cultural bigotry. Why do we associate the entirety of the Christian Church to northern Europe and the US?  I truly believe that the fall of America may very well result in the appearance of another nation in its place and the rise of the Church there or elsewhere. The Holy Spirit is moving greatly in Russia, Africa and Asia. The US and Europe may pass through another period of intellectual, moral and spiritual dark ages. It could be that a large portion of the world will pass through a long period of Islamic dominance, wherein the Church suffers and is refined by martyrdom. The fall of America should not be thought of as a sure sign of the return of Jesus Christ.
May God have mercy on us.

An Argument for the City

In our current age, there has developed a strong push towards environmentalism. The kind of mentality that argues for a return to nature, for the equal treatment of animals (or even for the superiority of animals), and a deprecation of technology.

It must be first recognized that a discussion such as this must be held in a proper context and balance. We must not fall into the error of only seeing a dichotomy. We must not argue for nature or for the city. This would be false. There is in fact a middle ground.

The first place to begin is with the concept of stewardship. God has given us this universe to take care of and develop. It started in a garden that was already beautified and man's responsibility was to extend that work over the entire planet. It is interesting to note that man was originally placed in a garden and history ends with man worshipping God in a city.

The original structure of creation was threefold. There was the world abroad, there was the land of Eden and there was the Garden of Eden. With man's sin of rebellion, he was cast out of the garden and into the land. With Cain's sin of murder, he was cast out of the land of Eden and into the world abroad.  With the global sin of mankind during the time of Noah, all men except for Noah and his family were removed from the world. At this point in history, mankind started over and began working back toward the garden. Noah was placed back into the world after the flood, then with Noah/Joshua, God's people were placed back into the land (Israel), and then finally, with the construction of the temple (which was designed to look like a garden on the inside), man was allowed back into the garden. But this structure was symbolic. The incarnation of Jesus Christ brought the reality and fulfillment of these symbols. Now that Jesus has defeated sin and death by his life, death and resurrection, we, as a redeemed, cleansed and sanctifying people, can again take up the responsibility of ordering and structuring the universe. Allow me to make this very clear. Our goal is not to return to a garden state. That has already been accomplished by Jesus' work. Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law, reopening the Holy of Holies. Jesus has provided access to the garden.

Our job now is to take that garden and turn it into a God glorifying city. This may take a very long time, possibly thousands of years. This is one reason why I believe that the second coming probably won't happen for a very long time.

So we have the first argument of Adam's job of taking dominion over the earth. He failed at this by his sin of rebellion, giving power over to Satan. Satan of course did the reverse and led man into death spiral of chaos and confusion. We see this in the barbarism, cannibalism and destruction of man over all of history.

It has not been until the spread of the gospel through missionary activity that the trend toward chaos has begun to reverse. This is certainly not to argue that our efforts have been flawless. Man's sinful nature has caused many problems all over the earth including missionary work as well. But this was due to sinful or misguided or erroneous thinking and action on man's part, not because of fault with the gospel.

The second argument is seen in the development of Israel, the Old Covenant people of God. The pattern that they developed was not a return to primitivism and nature, but a development of the land around them into advanced culture and civilization. They came into the Promised Land and began taking it over, destroying what was evil and redeeming all the rest.
This is the pattern that we are to follow as well. Jesus Christ, as the archetype Joshua, has led us into the Promised Land (not any one particular nation but the world as a whole).  Jesus has defeated sin and death and given us the power and responsibility of cleansing sin in ourselves, thus purifying our world as well. We have the responsibility of maturing our world.

The third argument is about community. As the people of God, our faith is not "just Jesus and me".  Instead, we are part of the body of Christ, each an important part in the whole of the body. We are to worship, repent and grow together as part of a whole. We can only fully do this by being part of a city, with regular interaction in the body of Christ. This kind of interaction is, I argue, very difficult, if not nearly impossible to do in a widely dispersed agrarian or primitive culture. To take Paul's argument in a slightly different direction, when we are focused on the things of the world (the time consuming labor of farm work and/or manufacturing everything yourself), the high majority of our time is spent in earthly labor.

An argument for the city consists of a closely-knit neighborhood built around the church as the body of Christ, involving and revolving around one another in community. Specialization allows for a more efficient use of time and energy as we strive to grow in personal godliness and help one another to grow in our faith.

Ultimately, this is about growth and maturity, not just as persons, but also as the body of Christ. Just as Adam was created perfect, he was immature and needed to grow up, so too we as the body of Christ have already been perfected in Christ but still need to grow and mature. One way in which this manifests itself is in the physical realm. As man, we were created body and soul. As Christians we reject the idea of our spirit trapped in the prison house of the body. The sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, in addition to enlightening our darkened souls and purifying the stain of sin, will also sanctify and cleanse the world around us. What this means is a move toward civilization and culture, not primitivism.

What is the Church?

When we speak of the church, are we talking about the local church, that is, a particular congregation, or the universal church, that is, all local congregations, over all time, in all places?  When we say "all", in this regard, who is included in this?  Do we include all those who call themselves Christians?  Do we only include those who meet specific doctrinal criteria?  Do we only include those who are actually in communion with a particular ecclesial body?

To what authority do we appeal to make his definition?  Much of the problem stems from the Protestant Reformation and the framework of thinking that has been constructed since then. The option to think and act independently of an ecclesial authority must be questioned. Is there any other "body" which allows for independent action?  Certainly not any organic body. If you remove your spleen, it will not survive and function on its own. This is a valid analogy, as Paul compares the body of Christ to the human body. If nothing in the human body can survive outside of its body and independent of it, why would we think any different of the body of Christ?

The question then leads to how we define church. This has been a problem since the Protestant Reformation. With Luther and Calvin's decisive break from the organized church (albeit the Roman Catholic church, who themselves are out of communion with the historic church), they set a precedent that has exploded into many thousands of denominations, each answering for itself the multitude of doctrinal, ecclesiastical and practical answers.

The Orthodox Church would argue that church would be defined in a very practical, historic sense, that is, the church is those who are in communion with the practicing apostolic faith. Of course, that faith is found in the Orthodox Church and no where else. This is not to say that, in some mysterious sense, there are no Christians outside of the Orthodox Church, in the same way that there were odd exceptions under the Old Covenant. For example, Naaman did not take on the mark of covenantal inclusion i.e., circumcision, yet he was still a follower of YHWH. But this ought to be seen as an unusual and rare situation. In today’s context, are there Christians outside of the Orthodox Church?  Absolutely!  But I have to ask, why would someone choose that position?  Why would someone prefer to stay on the practical "outside" of daily communion with God and his people?

So what is "the Church"?  It is the body of Christ, as manifested by the Eastern Orthodox Church. If you profess the name of Christ, then you ought to be there as well.

The Right Kind of Military

Here is a good photo of what a soldier should be:

What is the point?

It is becoming more and more clear to me all the time that we need to ask ourselves one question and then live out the answer as consistently as we can. That question is, "What is the reason we are alive?"  Or said another way, "What is the point of our life?"

We can give the easy Protestant answer of, "To glorify God and enjoy him forever", but the self-centered nature of that answer and its vagueness don't really guide us anywhere.

The Orthodox answer is much more difficult to do, thus a more comprehensive and foundational means are required. We recognize our fallen nature, our tendency toward sin and the corruption of our darkened souls, thus we see the need to make life a continual movement of confession and repentance. We by no means see our sinfulness in its entirety. That would be too much for any man.

So what is the point of our life?  What is the reason we are alive?  Each of us has to answer that question, be honest with our answer and change our thinking if need be. As Christians, we ought to have the standard of Scripture within Holy Tradition. If we find ourselves thinking or acting contrary to that truth, we really must change.  If we feel we cannot, then we must seek help from someone older and wiser, probably a priest or a monk. Others will see in us things that we cannot see. We need to give these observations consideration.

           So what is the point of our lives?  Let it be holiness as defined by the Church and then act on it.