Army of Priests

People are dying. Thousands of people – everyday – the forgotten machinery in our 21st century economy. We all have blood on our hands. We have participated in a system that values people solely by their purchasing power and bought goods based on their price or quality regardless of their morality. We have elected governments that “protect” our economy through tariffs and trade barriers whilst demanding the removal of the exact same protections from poor countries. We have enforced structural adjustment programs on our neighbours and imported goods created in working conditions that would be illegal in our own country.

And what have we gotten out of it? No man is an island. We are so consumed by our thirst for material goods that we have devoted our lives to it. We don’t care who we hurt whether its a peasant in a 3rd world country or our own family and friends who just want to spend more time with us. We’re certainly no happier for it. We have less leisure time than anyone since the Feudal Ages and the suicide rate continues to rise.

Watching the world is like watching a train rushing at high speed toward a precipice.

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The words of Donald Miller in his book Searching for God knows What:

Everybody who met God in the bible was afraid of Him. People were even afraid of the angels, so the angels always had to calm people down just to have a conversation. I would think that would be very annoying if you were an angel, always having to settle people down just to talk. It makes you wonder if the first thousand years in heaven will have us running around screaming like we would during an earthquake, the whole time God saying to us in an enormous, booming voice, ‘Calm down, calm down, will you, it’s just Me.’ If you ask me, the way to tell if a person knows God for real, I mean knows the real God, is that they will fear Him.

The parable of the Minas in Luke 19:11-27 is, in my opinion, one of the most misunderstood parables of the bible due to the heavy cultural meaning and subtle references to actual historical events. I have even heard Christians use this parable to advocate against helping the poor! I have tried to modernised this passage in a way that gets across the message that I think Jesus was trying to send. Read it bellow and give me your thoughts:

Jesus told a parable, because his audience (made up mostly of poor, oppressed labourers) had seen all his actions over the last few days, and were expecting him to immediately launch a political campaign in revolt against the ruling elite. Jesus thought he would remind them what usually happens when revolutions are fought the normal way:

An owner or a third world textiles business went to the nation’s capital to help his preferred political party get into power and then return. Summoning ten of his managers, he gave them each a factory to oversee and ordered them, “Engage in business until I return”.

But his employees hated him and sent the union to petition the government against the reforms that the business owner wanted.

When he returned, having helped his political allies get power, he called his managers to report to him, so he would know what profit they had made.

The first came and reported that he had lowered the workers wages from 4c to 3c an hour, and made them work 16 hours a day instead of 14. He had also reduced breaks, and denied workers help when they got injured. As a result his factory had increased it’s output by 30% – an excellent return.

The business owner was very pleased. “Well done, my astute manager,” he said, “I will promote you so that you can implement these improvements in 9 more factories.”

“The second came to him and reported that he had run the factory the way the business owner would – long hours, horrible conditions, and low pay. Thus he had maintained the factory’s consistent, healthy profit. The business owner was still pleased, and put the manager in charge of 5 factories.

Then a third manager made his report. He said to the business owner, “Here, have your factory back! My conscience would not let me implement your cruel practises because you are a severe man. I sent the workers on a holiday instead! You take what you did not deposit, you reap what you did not sow, and you are stealing the life out of these people.”

The business owner was furious. “You fool! Pay attention to your own words, you inefficient and worthless manager. So you know that through my cunning I have taken what I have not deserved. So what? You should have at least not paid the workers you sent home – that way they would go hungry and be willing to accept even lower wages when I took them back. Take the factory from his control, and give it to the manager that runs 10 factories.”

“He already runs ten factories!” Noted his accountant.

“That’s the point,” said the business owner. “We make sure that whoever is rich always gets richer and the poor always get poorer.

“Now bring these employees who petitioned against the policies I wanted. I got the government to outlaw unionisation. They’ll all be thrown in jail for trying to be so subversive.”

One of the local churches, in which I have some involvement, has a pledge that the audience stands and reads before the offering is taken (I believe it has something to do with affiliation with Bill Johnson as I have also seen it happen in one other church). Whilst I don’t have the pledge written down, it is similar to this:

God, as we faithfully give our tithes and offerings we stand on your ability to provide for us. We claim that as we reach out in the supernatural we will see an abundance flow such as:

• Checks in the mail
• Favourable settlements
• Gifts and surprises
• Good health
• New opportunities
• Expenses decreasing
• Income increasing
• etc

This is the worst case of the prosperity gospel I have ever seen. Unsurprisingly, the pastor maintains that the congregation must be getting richer because the offerings increase each week. I’ve got a feeling there is another reason for this.

Not everyone in that congregation in wholly devoted to prosperity teaching. Some of these people feel that it’s not right but don’t know why. This post in my attempt to answer that question.

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Have you ever felt dirty for loving someone?

300+. That’s the new estimated death toll from the black Saturday bushfires in victoria. That’s 300 fathers, mothers, daughters and sons, brothers and sisters burnt to death as they tried to flee the advance march of hell. On top of this there are thousands and thousands of newly homeless families who have lost everything they own.

It makes me feel sick. I can’t stop seeing the pictures of roads filled with burnt out cars that couldn’t out run the fire. I imagine being one of the families who were never told it was coming. One moment I’m playing in the park with my fictional kids. Next minute, there’s smoke on the horizon. This doesn’t phase me until moments later flames appear… and grow, really fast. I grab the kids and head for the house, thinking I should check the news to find out what is happening. But I’m too slow. By the time I get home the street is filled with ambers. Houses are on fire. The smoke makes it impossible to breath. I grab my fictional wife and we get in my fictional 4WD. I strap my youngest kid into the child seat in the back. I drive, as fast as I can – but I can’t see, the windshield is full of ash. I open the window to stick my head out and smoke rushes into the car. The heat is unbearable.

I dodge flaming burning trees and debris from exploded houses. I make it onto a main road through the bush. I look backwards, and I see behind me the approaching wall of flame. I put my foot down, but it still gets closer. Drops of melted rubber begin to fly off my tires. My children are screaming. The fire gets closer. Damn, its fast. I look back to the road. I can’t see even a metre in front of me but still I speed. Suddenly, a log appears. I swerve. I hit a tree. The airbags go off. We’re trapped. The fire is so close….

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A few years ago a user of an internet forum was struggling to believe in God, so they wrote the following post, which I answered. My answer is not as complete as I would write today, but it was personal and adapted to match the personality to the questioner. I hope that it helps you any way it can.

I’ve been bored lately, and have probably written too much…but ahh well…

God is a mysterious creature that is either an all-everything super-force or an illusion created in the minds of men. I would love to believe the former. I would love to believe that God, the Christian God, created the universe and came in human form to earth and sacrificed himself to save all of our sins. I would love to believe the miracles in the bible, the stories and doings of Christ, and that Christ rose from the dead three days later. I don’t, and it’s not from lack of searching.

Many of my closest friends believe in God and Jesus Christ. I belong to a religious organization, CRU, and to a bible study. I enjoy worship at CRU and I love the things I learn at bible study. I want to believe. I pray and I hope, but in my heart and soul, there’s nothing. There’s no confidence and no assurance. In my heart, there is no Christ.

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I feel like the journey is only just beginning. I am slowly, but surely, getting a glimpse of the reality that Jesus taught – a reality of undeserved love, radical forgiveness, and sacrifice for enemies. After all these year, I am beginning – just beginning – to get a grasp on discipleship.

It seems to me that in most churches “a relationship with Christ” or “following Jesus” means not drinking, not smoking, not swearing, not looking at pornography, reading your bible, prayer, and church attendance. After intellectual conversion, Christianity has little more to offer. We believe in sanctification, but we understand precious little about what sanctification entails.

I used to be a very active member in the Australian arm of Campus Crusade for Christ. They were very keen on discipleship, often pairing a mentor and a protégé for weekly meetings where the mentor can pass on what they know. It was apprentiship. I appreciate their keenness to train new believers, but ultimately they only served to teach the same list of attribute listed above (reading your bible, prayer…); with one exception – a “disciple” in Campus Crusade terminology was self-reproducing (an evangelist).

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I was at a local church yesterday known for espousing the prosperity gospel on a regular basis. As usual the sermon was all about how God would bless us abundantly with whatever we ask for. Unlike similar churches tithing isn’t seen as necessary to get this blessing but it definitely helps. They had a ‘pledge’ that they read out before the offering saying asking that when they gave their incomes would increase, settlements would be favourable, health problems would go away, and a long list of other things.

During the message the pastor (who in the past published a note with the newsletter telling the congregation not to do good works in the community) bought up an issue that was unexpected. He said there was a “theology of hell” going about, especially in the young people, that involved good works, and prayer, and giving your possessions to the poor in order to curry favour with God.

Now most the young adults who once went to the church don’t any more. Quite frankly they are all too busy thinking up ways to do these community oriented things that the pastor has told us not to do. A few of us have sold a lot of what we own and given the money away. (I just finished my third wave in my ongoing campaign to get rid of the stuff that controls my life. I’ve found it liberating. I still have heaps of unwanted stuff to go though.) After the service I learnt that one of my friends had given away his musical equipment to people that needed it. “Selling you guitar” was one of the examples the pastor had used. It all added up now, the pastor had heard of this before I had.

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I sent this email some time ago to a bible study group after the “Rewards for Works” theology had been discussed. These days my knowledge of this theology has increased and thus my arguments would be different but I still believe this original email contains valuable insights.

I don’t know how many of you guys remember us talking about rewards for works at young adults two weeks ago. The general idea is that we are given different rewards in heaven for what we have done and this might be a higher status or a better job or a bigger house or something like that. I’ve been doing a lot of research and study and this is what I have found.

As far as I can gather “Rewards for Works” theology is a relatively new idea that first appeared in the book “Eternal Security” by Charles Stanley. This book was first printed as recently as 1990 and you can still buy it here (though the reviews are not good). Charles Stanley proposed that there were different “layers of heaven”. In the following quote Charles Stanley refers to the parable in Mathew 25:14-30 about the three servants with the gold and two servants double what they are given whereas one just buries it for safety:

The final verse of this parable is so severe that many commentators assume it is a description of hell. It is not . . . The point of this parable is that in God’s future kingdom, those who were faithful in this life will be rewarded and those who were not will lose any potential reward . . . Before we can understand the full impact of this parable, we must first determine what the “outer darkness” refers to in the context of the parable. It certainly does not mean hell in the parable. How could a master throw a slave into hell? . . . But what actual place was Jesus referring to in the parable? He gave us only one hint: “In that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” . . . To be in the “outer darkness” is to be in the kingdom of God but outside the circle of men and women whose faithfulness on this earth earned them a special rank or position of authority… We cannot conceive of the agony and frustration we would feel if we were to undergo such an ordeal: the realization that our unfaithfulness had cost us eternally would be devastating. And so it will be for many believers. Just as those who are found faithful will rejoice, so those who suffer loss will weep.

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I’ve have recently had two friends abandon their Christian beliefs. One has become Atheist, the other Zoroastrian. Whilst they had different reasons for their change they both agreed on one thing: Christianity does not make better people.

Its easy to see what they mean. Statistically speaking Christians are almost indistinguishable from the general public (except they are slightly more likely to get divorced or support torture). There are good Christians, and there are bad Christians. There are good non-Christians and bad non-Christians.

Countless holy wars have been launched by Christian leaders. The atheist, communist leaders of the 20th century are just as guilty. Countless charities have been started by Christians and non-Christians alike. Religion doesn’t seem to be a deciding factor in people’s actions.

Most Christians are functional agnostics. They’re not ‘good’ people or ‘bad’ people. They just blend in with the surrounding culture distinguishable only by their church attendance. Some Christians read their bible a lot and evangelise in their schools, campuses, and workplaces but there still isn’t anything different about them (at least not anything which other religions also repeat).

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