CommonChristianity: civil law

5:00 PM | Posted by Common Christianity | | Edit Post

Friends: I don’t think civil law against displaying the Ten Commandments, or for displaying them, is a good idea. But new wolves are roaming, God knows it, and Christians need to keep watch. Blessings, Bob

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Labels: civil law, Colossians 2:16, Matthew 7:15, Meg Basham, Republicans go soft, Sabbath, Ten Commandments, U.S. Election, woke funding

Spirituality Column #930

September 10, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

No Time for Sheep

By Bob Walters

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits.” – Jesus, Matthew 7:15

Back in June Louisiana’s governor signed into law a requirement that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom in the state.

I’m all for the Ten Commandments, but I winced that this became law. Please understand, I teach high school history and government at a Christian academy with a full-on biblical worldview, but to me this law smacks of mis-use of government power.

Christian faith has to be a voluntary, cultural, and loving thing. I often say that you’ll never argue the Holy Spirit into anyone, and I firmly believe that the Ten Commandments are not so much about pleasing God as they are about loving one’s neighbor. The Ten Commandments were part of God’s instructions to Israel as it wandered the desert as well as timeless, divine direction for functioning human society:

To wit: 1. Love God, knowing supreme truth and purpose exist, and 2. Love others, knowing we are, each of us, created in God’s image. Thus did Jesus boil down the Ten Commandments to the two “Greatest Commandments”: Love God, love others.

Yes, the Sabbath commandment (No. 4 of 10) changed with Jesus, who becomes our sabbath and peace and is with us all the time and everywhere. The New Testament proscribes religious festivals or the sabbath (Colossians 2:16), but Jesus as Sabbath is a powerful glue that holds humanity in obedience and fellowship.

Or at least, He is if we let Him. At the moment, most Americans don’t let Him.

We are in this fierce and weird U.S. presidential election being contested by two American political parties who, in case you missed it over the summer, have now both essentially abandoned Christian conservative values. Didn’t get the memo?

The Democrats, of course, went off the ranch 60 years ago, championing the elimination of the Bible (1962) and Christian prayer (1963) from public schools and, over time, public spaces and public view. Awful. But this summer the Republicans off-loaded its thin slice of Christian moral mindset and is now playing the middle field of popular American morality of liberal abortion policies and buy-in for the gender agenda.

If you missed it, just listen carefully to what Democrats and Kamala Harris, Republicans and Donald Trump, and roughly 90+ percent of the media, are saying.

After these past 60 years, the current Republican command has realized that the Christian right has offered morality and talking points, but generally insufficient votes.

And America’s secular institutions across the board – corporations, academia, charities – and spurious social issue bullies – climate change, immigration, abortion, race, gender fluidity and the LGBTQ circus – have poured hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars into defeating Christian morality, sanity, and doctrinal cohesion.

Meg Basham’s new book, Shepherds for Sale, just out this summer, explains the Woke money pressure put on many of America’s largest churches and most prominent ministries. There is a reason so many churches have gone wobbly on Bible truth and heavy on LGBTQ doctrine; illiberal lies are being bought and paid for … massively.

The wolves in sheep’s clothing are prowling, and it will be the doctrinally vigilant and Bible truth defending Christians who must cultivate Christ’s fruit – truth – on earth.

U.S. political parties have quit their posts; Christians need to stand with Jesus.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) will offer a more hopeful viewpoint next week. In the meantime read article, article, article, article, and Miracles of Stupidity. All great.

FYI: Here are the titles, in order, of this week’s column links….

Great & Wonderful Days by J. Douglas Johnson | Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity
Miracles of Stupidity by S. M. Hutchens | Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity

611 - Faith, Fear, and Freedom

5:00 PM | Posted by Common Christianity | | Edit Post

Spirituality Column #611

July 31, 2018

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Faith, Fear, and Freedom

By Bob Walters

“…The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” – Galatians 5:6

Will we behave and feel better – morally, civilly, intellectually, spiritually – because we love and respect something, or because we are afraid of and dread something?

I wonder about this because while the answer seems to be obvious – love is better than fear; relationship is better than abandonment – the great Christian argument about faith vs. works winds up on both sides of the same coin. Our thoughts and hearts vs. our actions and intentions define the world’s joys and miseries. It is nearly impossible for most people to rest in their faith alone, or to think works and behaviors don’t matter. Whither salvation and the Kingdom of God?

The Bible’s argument – the example of Jesus and the truth of the New Testament – resides in faith that Jesus is the resurrected son of God and in love that is spiritually animated in us by Christ’s creation, humanity, and authority (John 3:16, 5:24, etc.).

Paul’s epistle to the Galatians, cited above, is an entire book explaining the superiority of faith over works; specifically, faith in Christ over obedience to the Law. Or more specifically, really, Galatians is Paul’s bombshell lobbed at the Jews who continued to insist that Jesus was under the authority of the Law rather than the other way around; Jesus fulfilled the law, His person was the law, and Christ Himself held and holds “all authority in Heaven and on Earth” (Matthew 28:18). His followers were freed by God from the legalistic shackles of coerced, works-dependent religious slavery.

Galatians 5:1 says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery.” Americans stumble and read this as civics, but Paul is talking about freedom in Christ and slaves to the Hebrew Law, not the U.S. Constitution and the past slavery of the American south.

We bring up civics here both because of the religious freedom aspects of our U.S. government and the often negative effect of religion on civil liberty. It is an endless political topic: what to do with faith and works in the public square? In anything short of heaven on the one hand, or an iron-fisted monarchy / dictatorship on the other, the “God-shaped hole” in the human heart leads the single-soul toward freedom, and leads humanity’s fallen nature toward fearful self- survival. In other words, I’m comfortable with “my” truth but “your” truth scares me. If I have so much as an ounce of freedom or, conversely, a sliver of fear or doubt, my faith – as it crosses hopes, promises, and swords with yours – causes civic havoc. Early America saw a lot of that.

Our founding fathers discerned, rightly, that civics and religion need to be protected from each other. They knew that only a moral, loving heart allows civic freedom; and religion best promoting love of others and trust in God rises on its own.

We needn’t fear each other’s faith, but simply trust our own. Human freedom depends on understanding that freedom is originally a gracious gift-of-God thing, not a legal gift-of-government (or man) thing. If we’d all just behave like it, we’d all feel better.

That’s what Jesus was trying to tell the World.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) trusts Jesus, loves others, and always votes.

930 - No Time for Sheep

611 - Faith, Fear, and Freedom

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