Ideas about the Kingdom of the Heavens around us and the unity of believers in Christ within it
The continued existence of ethnic Coptic and Assyrian Christian minorities in Egypt and the Middle East demonstrates God’s faithfulness and the possibility of a literal fulfillment of Isaiah 19:23-25. If God can preserve these ethnic groups across two millennia of persecution in order to fulfill a prophecy, can he possibly need my “help” doing anything in my own life?
When Jesus unfavorably compared the unrepentance of the Galilean towns where he had preached to the repentance Tyre, Sidon and Sodom would have shown to the same preaching. the repentance of which he spoke clearly included behavioral change.
God did not curse Adam and Eve when they sinned. He told them what the mostly natural evil consequences of their decision to live apart from him would be. In doing this, he did NOT decree any of these evil consequences as things as a part of his perfect will. Sexual and class inequalities are evil consequences of sin, not God’s will.
The question whether God still speaks impacts a number of other issues, ranging from the nature of a believer’s relationship with God, to the miraculous, to church offices and authority.
For unity to be seen in the Church, there must be submission—first submission to Christ as Head of the Church, then mutual submission to each other. A part of this necessary submission is to submit to those God has placed in leadership in the Church. But submission to leadership must come after submission to Christ, and be an aspect of mutual submission to each other. Much division has been caused by leaders who have insisted that they, and other human leaders, should be “in command” of the church. Only Christ is rightfully in command.
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To commit the “Scarecrow Fallacy,” which I have named after the Scarecrow character in the 1939 movie the Wizard of Oz, is to mistake a diploma for knowledge or a credential for God’s calling. God usually makes use of available formal education, and often acts through the organized Church’s mechanisms of licensure and ordination, but has never bound himself always to do so. It is possible to have a very powerful calling from God with no formal human recognition, and also, unfortunately too common to have excellent ministry credentials and no relationship with Jesus whatsoever.
The term term translated “elder” refers to the age and wisdom of persons functioning in this role in the Church. It often seems to be used interchangeably with “overseer” (or “bishop”), and the way a person legitimately functioning in this capacity is to be recognized (often called the “qualifications”) is the same as for an overseer. Like overseers, elders teach and lead by example, not by fiat.
Our peace, joy and effectiveness are dependent on our unity as shown by forgiveness and the resolution of offenses between us, God takes division and unforgiveness so seriously because it damages all parties to the offense and limits the Body of Christ. When we neglect this, we are given over to the tormentors–guilt, fear, anxiety and mental illness.
The ultimate solution to our national racisms lies in the Church, in who we are in Christ. We are not called to uncritically support the current social order, no matter how unjust. We are called to show how social divisions are overcome by the Holy Spirit among us.
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There are those who say that a good Christian should always rejoice because of anything that happens, and must never grieve. These people are wrong. Our instructions are to grieve physical death, and to grieve the sinful condition of our world that leads to it, as God himself does, but to do so in a way that expresses our hope in the resurrection. Do not deny grief, but show hope in grief. Groaning is not a sin.