Sun, Sep 20th - 6:58AM

“Disciple” or Just an Ordinary Christian

If any [man] come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.  And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.  For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have [sufficient] to finish [it]?  Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish [it], all that behold [it] begin to mock him,  Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.  Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?  Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.  So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.  Luke 14:26-33

        The term disciple in its noun form is rarely used today amongst Christians, at least to my hearing.  I don’t think I have heard someone referred to as a disciple, or in evangelistic outreach that a person needs to become a disciple of Jesus Christ.  The words “Christian” or “believer” are the common terms used to describe persons in the contemporary churches, even though “disciple” is the definitive word used by Jesus in the Gospels to describe one of His followers, or would-be followers.  A word search in the Bible (AV) yields a differing proportion of the use of these terms.  The word believer is used twice in the singular form, in Acts and First Timothy, and not in the plural.  Christian is found twice in the singular, in Acts and I Peter respectively, and once in the plural in Acts.  Now the word disciple can be found about 29 times in the singular, and about 232 times in the plural, once in Isaiah and the remaining times in the Gospels and Acts.

          I believe that there are at least two distinct reasons for the reversed imbalance in the use of these terms amongst contemporary American Christians.  First, there is a simple, linguistic ease that accompanies the word Christian.  It seems to cover the full range of persons associated with what has culturally and religiously been labeled as Christianity, or all of the religious groups who profess some relationship to the historic Jesus.  But the deeper and more essential reason is that becoming a disciple, in the strict, disciplined devotedness that this term implies is no longer thought to be absolutely necessary as accompanying conversion and salvation.  The Gospel has undergone a shift in definition in the past half to three quarters of a century.  Whereas the command to repent before a holy God and have faith in the atoning work of Christ was the historic message delivered to the world, today a very simplistic formula is given for would-be converts:  “simply believe.”  Those who state or imply that a full, radical change of lifestyle is needed upon conversion are accused of proclaiming a “works gospel,” or one requiring some kind of good deeds in order to be saved.  These newer gospel proclaimers have so intimidated those who would present the whole message that Christ and His apostles proclaimed, that they have effectively silenced them, and supplanted the Biblical Gospel with their newer, abbreviated version.  Even a cursory look at literature commonly used in evangelism today by well-respected denominational and para-church groups would confirm this assertion.

“Just ‘believe’ in what Jesus did for you on the cross, and go on your happy way to heaven.  Never mind the ongoing problem of sin in your life, and Biblical commands for holiness, because you are always going to sin no matter how hard you try to overcome it.  Perfectionism is a false idea promoted by legalistic, works-oriented believers.”  This statement is the sum total of counsel given to those who would come to Christ as new born babes in today’s Evangelical culture.  Certainly a form of discipleship is taught, but, again in a very simplistic and hollow, non-essential form.  “Read your Bible and pray every day, and find a Bible-oriented church to be a part of.”  I suppose that with this advice, shallow and lacking teeth to its imperatives as it is, a new believer could conceivably set out on a course for heaven.  The trouble with such spineless gospel preaching is that the hard sayings of Christ must somehow be dealt with in such a manner as to either negate them altogether, or spiritualize them in the mind of the new convert.  By this I mean that this new believer sees such commands to forsake all to follow Jesus, and to take up the cross of self-denial as merely metaphorical imperative rather than a real and practical one.  For a preacher, professional or otherwise to incorporate these New Testament sayings of Christ in his presentation to his audience would be tantamount to high heresy and place him in danger of excommunication by the bishops of today’s Evangelical Rome.  Hopefully, my facetiousness here conveys a serious, and actual fact in the church world today.  Though every theological system devised by man seems to have its good as well as bad points, it appears to be that the “Dispensationalists” must take the most blame for this present undermining of the historic Gospel and supplanting it with an easy, “no-cost” one, often devoid of persevering commitment rooted in genuine repentance.  Sadly, these folks have been looked up to as being very conservative in religious, social and political outlook and practice, and yet their pet doctrines have, likely done more harm to the body of Christ than many other teachings coming on the modern scene.

          While strict dispensationlism, in its common variety certainly does not justify spiritual laziness and loose living, the implications of dividing the Gospel into two distinct messages for two distinct groups, Jews and Gentiles are really quite devastating to the essential message.  All the commands of Jesus and His early disciples can be easily dismissed for our modern world, because “they were given to the Jews, who were under the Law.”  We, on the other hand, it is asserted are under grace, and, therefore need only to believe on what Jesus did on the cross in order to be saved.  All of the various commands given in the New Testament to crucify the flesh, live a consistently holy and blameless life are, by implication only options to strive for if one has the inclination for the “deeper life” with God.  But to lay them on one’s fellow church member is certainly a “no-no.”  In the first place, they are virtually impossible to comply with, and in the second place implying their necessity would not be a sign of openness to “seekers,” surely driving multitudes of them away to the more “seeker-friendly” churches.        Alas, it can be seen why this non-discipleship gospel has become so necessary in our modern, self-oriented culture.  Thus, the practical requirement for being a disciple of Christ and all that is implied in it in terms of separation from the world and to God have been effectively eliminated from not only the message of today’s churches, but the very lives of their people.

          Now, I wouldn’t want to place all of the blame for the present sad state of affairs in the body of Christ solely upon these dear saints who advocate and promote their dispensational doctrine.  All quarters have had their compromises in order please men and gain members and followers.  It is ironic, however that the most conservative element in the church today, many of who consider themselves to be “fundamentalist” in the faith, adhering to the supposed basic tenants of Biblical Christianity may be, unwittingly undermining those very tenants.  While many of them have become busy criticizing and correcting the glaring faults of other segments of Christianity, i.e. the “new revelations” from the Charismatics, or the amillenialism and lack of rapture in the Reformed positions, that they have failed to remove the doctrinal beam out of their own eye.  Truly, the systems and concepts devised by men are all bruised, shaking and broken reeds upon which we often try to stand.  Truly, the teaching of the whole counsel of Scripture is clear that there is but one doctrine, as Paul states it, “...the doctrine which is according to godliness...” 1Tim. 6:3.   While justification before a holy God is without merit or works on the part of the one being justified, discipleship, practical holiness, bearing the cross, or whatever other language is used to describe God’s requirement for us to live a life of repentance, true faith and full obedience to all of His moral commands is not optional for the professing Christian.  What kind of tribulation, failure or persecution will it take to get this truth into our adolescent Evangelical heads in this wicked time in which we now live?

          I suppose I could harp on all of the compromises of the present program-oriented churches, as I often do.  My point is simply this:  let’s go back and see what Jesus and His apostles taught about the Christian life.  Sure, there were false believers, wolves in sheep’s clothing back then.  There were carnally oriented Christians, and perhaps even entire assemblies of them.  But the call has always, from the beginning been the same.  ”Come, deny yourself, take up the cross, die to your flesh, and follow me!”  I know it’s a hard message to preach in this modern, selfish world.  But if we are obedient to our Master, we’ll proclaim it faithfully till He comes.  Mary Poppins sang, “A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down...”

In our case, the sugar only diminishes the potency of the medicine.  Let’s give it full strength to a dying world, and let God be responsible for the results.

The disciple is not above [his] master, nor the servant above his lord.  It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more [shall they call] them of his household?  Matt. 10:24,25

Come, Follow Me

Take up your cross and Follow Me

A home in heaven waits.

Forsake this world and you will see

The glory of its gates.

The sting of death is what I bore

For you upon the tree.

To give you life and so much more

As it was meant to be.

"Disciple," I am calling you

Reproach for me to bear.

As I your teacher always knew

My righteousness you'd wear.

Do not expect the world to give

Approval or its love.

My Spirit in your heart shall live;

Your mind on things above.

Come unto Me, I'll give you rest;

The journey is not long.

Eternally you will be blessed

And sing redemption's song.

Did not the preacher tell you this,

That dying is your lot?

In clinging to this life you'll miss

Salvation that you sought.

This cross for you I've made today;

It's not too much to carry.

I'll help you bear it on the way,

So come, and do not tarry!

WMC

Sun, Aug 23rd - 7:35PM

Thu, Aug 6th - 11:22PM

Wed, Mar 18th - 10:34AM

Sun, Feb 8th - 12:15AM

Thoughts on the Shift in America’s Civil Religion

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.  Matt. 5:14

          Every society has a civil religion, either official or unofficial.  Every nation and culture has some primary religious underpinning, whether it formally acknowledges the fact or not.  One could travel to virtually any country in the world, and learn what that religion is after a very brief discussion with any citizen thereof.  Many countries today consider themselves secular religiously, but their citizens generally practice some form of religion, or several forms of religion.  A nation’s civil religion is not necessarily identical with some existing historic religion, such as Christianity or Islam etc.  But, the civil religion of a particular nation derives from one or all of the primary religions present in the culture of its people.  For example there are officially Moslem nations as well as unofficially Moslem nations.  The same holds true of so-called Christian nations.  Some were formerly Catholic by governmental decree and others can be called Catholic by virtue of the fact that Catholicism is the majority religion, and that nation’s values have been strongly shaped and determined by the teachings and practices of that particular denomination.  So then, the civil religion of a nation is not necessarily identical with some recognized religious organization or institution.  Rather, there is a value system underlying every culture that is essentially the product of one or more religious systems.  This may be easier communicated by explaining what I believe America’s civil religion has been historically, as well as what it is presently.

          There is a great debate raging today in America as to whether or not we are and have been a Christian nation since our founding.  Impossible as it may sound, there is a certain truth to both sides of this argument.  The secularists who argue that it was never intended nor officially proclaimed that the United States be a Christian nation are, to my knowledge correct.  But the Christians who, in counter-argument say that the mention of God in some of our founding documents, as well as some of the plain statements of some of the founders and early public officials is sufficient to prove that we have been a Christian nation from the beginning are equally correct.  In a cultural sense America has, until very recently always been, a Christian nation.  Now, what is meant when we say we have always been a Christian nation?  Certainly, it does not mean that the commandments and injunctions of the Bible were at any time directly incorporated into our government, even though Bible quotes may be found in some of our public buildings.  What it does mean is that the basic values of American society have always come, in large measure from the broad range of religious systems that owe their origins to the Bible.  From the beginning of the formation of the colonies that later became states of the union, Christian religious beliefs predominated amongst the peoples of this continent.  There was, however a significant humanistic belief system in the colonies, that co-existed with Christianity, as can be seen in the writings of Thomas Paine and even Benjamin Franklin.  But even these professed non-believers in Christ would have admitted to gaining at least some of their wisdom from the Bible and Biblical concepts of righteousness and justice.  Therefore, it is safe, as far as I can tell to say that America has historically been a "Christian" nation, in a very broad use of the term.

          To carry this further, Christians have, (until recently) had a very strong influence upon the American culture and its institutions.  That doesn’t mean that all public policy and political decisions were directly made from the Bible and Christianity.  It does mean, however that a sufficient evidence of Biblical truth and its resulting values can be seen to have shaped and directed us to become the people that we are as a culture and nation today.  The treatment of individuals, of minority racial groups, and of women in particular in America, as compared with most other countries of the world can be readily acknowledged to be far superior to that in those other countries.  Most contemporary Christians might assert that the balance has swung too far today in minority and feminine rights, but, at the same time these Christians would defend the rights of these groups.  The attaining of this superior treatment of individuals in American culture must be attributed to a Judeo-Christian, Biblical social ethic.  Though many anti-Christians today would defend the cultures of the world, nontheless, the stark contrast between these other cultures and ours would slap them hard, almost immediately if they spent just a little time in those countries.  The fact that women and racial minorities are little more than objects to be used and abused in many nations of the world is indisputable.  Christianity and the Bible from whence it derives, has done much to improve the moral as well as the social and economic condition of the American nation.  This benefit is both the envy as well as the point of resentment for many of the other nations of the world.

          As America drifts toward a more secularized, a more paganized and selfish, God-hating society, much confusion has come upon the professing Christian element within her.  The moral decay and self-destructiveness that has infected us in the past generation, and continues to plague us to the very present obviously comes as a result of this trend of secularization.  I think that most Christians would agree with this statement.  The response, however from most believers to the problems stemming from this moral decay is, I believe very misguided, and not in keeping with the whole counsel of the Scriptures.  The Lord Jesus, in what is called His “Sermon on the Mount,” summarizes very succinctly the essence of Christianity, and the disposition that every disciple of His ought to possess.  There is today, however, and has been historically in our nation an ideology that might generally be described as “Dominionism.”  I would define Dominionism as the belief that Christians should and must, not only influence the society and world in which they live, but actually take control of it by natural force, either through violence or by political activism in some form.  The American Revolution is often used as a proof for this belief, as being a result of the Divine Providence of God acting through His willing servants to bring about a more righteous nation and society.  By now, in this writing it should be evident that I disagree strongly with this notion.  Whatever reasons and purposes Almighty God had in allowing the United States of America to come into being as a new nation in the world community of nations, we can only conjecture.  That He would command, inspire and direct His servants to implement such a political upheaval resulting in the establishment of some psuedo-theocratic nation, is presumption of the highest order.  Jesus never taught such a thing, nor did His early disciples practice such activism and rebellion against existing governmental authority, no matter how unjust that authority was.  I call my Evangelical brethren to a simple re-reading of the New Testament, as well as history books detailing the life of the early Christian church.  I’m not speaking about the practices of Roman Catholicism and its unholy marriage to and usurpation of human governments, but rather the unorganized early congregations of believers in Christ.

Somehow, the experiences of the body of Christianity through the past two millennia, particularly the spiritual harlotry of Rome, and later of so-called Protestant Christianity, have brought this great mis-interpretation of the Divine intentions for bringing about God’s kingdom on this earth. 

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.  Jn. 18:36

How could we have erred so badly throughout the church age, and indeed continue in our blatant error in this regard to the very present?  There have been, of course exceptions to this folly in Christendom throughout the history of the church.  It can be established that a remnant of true followers of Christ has always existed, though as a small and persecuted minority.  The Waldenses of northern Italy and southern France, as well as the Anabaptists of Europe during the Reformation were among that remnant who sought to live the simple life of a disciple, with no allegiance nor physical resistance to earthly government.  Quakers and Mennonites were among those who, because of conscience could not participate in the Revolution, the Civil War, nor any other of America’s military conflicts.  This was not because of cowardice, but rather a matter of conviction for which some paid very dearly in our country’s history.

          Getting back to America’s civil religion, there is a “paradigm shift” taking place today that cannot be ignored by any, especially by American Christians.  Somehow, the Old Testament mindset of “possess the land,” which God gave to Joshua and the children of Israel regarding their inheritance of Caanan for their habitation has captured the thinking of modern believers.  We look back at the righteousness that once characterized American culture, the goodness that flourished in our midst, both here and in our generous dealings with the other nations of the world, and we lament with nostalgia and express great concern for our future.  Our hearts rise up to a call for battle against the forces of evil now besieging our beloved homeland.  This happened to me, half a generation ago during the Reagan era.  I took up the cause of political activism to restore righteousness to our nation.  Soon, however, my moral failings brought me to disgrace and imprisonment.  It was there and subsequently that I began to see the futility of trying to re-make and save the world to be something identical to, if not synonymous with the everlasting Kingdom of God.  It is the Sermon on the Mount, and the prophecies and whole counsel of the New Testament that taught me to stand for righteousness wherever I may find myself, but not to resist the great evil that soon must engulf this entire planet.  The shift I speak of in civil religion must, according to Scripture manifest itself in the worship of a human antichrist and his all-encompassing political-religious-economic system before the glorious return of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  (2Thess. 2:3 and the entire Book of Revelation)  All I can hope to do while in this body on the earth is to give witness to this truth, to testify of the salvation offered by the true and living God through His Son.  To swear allegiance to and pick up carnal weapons for the defense of worldly powers is not in my province as one of His followers.  This shift in America’s civil religion must take place, and I cannot stop it, even by fervent prayer.

          I was called to rembrance of all this earlier today, as I was working in a part of Colorado Springs known as “The Broadmoor.”  The house I had been working in was almost directly below the civil-religious shrine known as the “Will Rogers Memorial.”  Patriotic songs chime out at the city from this shrine hourly, being well-heard in the elitist and fairly conservative community below it in which I found myself laboring.  How distraught so many of my fellow Christian and non-Christian conservatives have become over the recent ascent of Barak Obama to the presidency!  But the conflict now being waged was begun and concluded long before the recent election, before Ronald Reagan’s presidency, and, indeed even before the birth of our nation.  Yes, I do feel a certain sadness in seeing all that was good in America dying away, and our beloved country turned into a wicked and diabolical society before my very eyes.  But Jesus gave consolation to me and all who, like me find themselves immeshed in the present turmoil and eagerly look for His coming. 

And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.  Luke 21:28

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father's house are many mansions: if [it were] not [so], I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also.  Jn. 14:1-3

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.  Jn. 16:33

 Are the words of our Lord not sufficient to comfort us as we see the world around us being transformed into the God-less, God-hating antichrist system?  Must we, like the world employ human means to fight for what will only pass away?  Must we try and prevail against those whose values are opposed to ours?  Is this our calling, or is our calling to another world which only those who are willing to die to self, can possess eternally?  Is our hope in the here and now, as is the hope of those who are of this present world?  Or are we fixed on another life, in another place at another time in eternity?  Now is the time to sort out these ideas, to examine what the Word of God is truly saying in all that is happening before us, and then, having done all, to stand fast in the grace that He so readily supplies to those who would seek Him.  May this truth find its way into the hearts and minds of all God’s people everywhere in the terrible day and hour in which we now live!

But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil...Matt. 5:39a

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.  Rev. 2:7

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.  Rev. 12:11