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Morals are not the same as ethics.

There is no difference between the meanings of the two words, ethics and morality from an etymological view. They are from two different languages: ethics being a Greek word, and morality being a Latin word, which means manner and customs of people. Ethics, however, carries the additional connotation of internal standards because of Aristotles’s philosophical treaties on ethics, “Nicomachean Ethics“.   Morals, on the other hand, tends to lean in meaning towards the mores of a people or the outward manners and customs of a people just as the word customs is the root to the word costume.

The technical distinctions aside, words have a predominant meaning by the current usage.  In deed, most words are used by people without regard to the etymological meaning.  For example, the word “blessed”  has moved beyond Christian usage and is used by people of all faiths to mean privileged and favored, with happy circumstances.   The etymology of blessed is uniquely Christian, however, because it literally means “blood-covered”  (bled-sion) and comes from Medieval Catholicism.  To be covered in the blood means to be in covenant with God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Consequently, such a covenant brings favor and privilege in happy circumstances.  But the word is used without any regard to its origin.

Likewise, I wish to elaborate on the deeper differences between our subconscious usage of the words “ethics” and “morality” which merit having two different words from two different languages grafted into English usage.   Ethics, in my opinion, leans more towards decisions of the conscience, whereas morals leans towards accepted public opinions and customs.  As such, ethics are expressions of God’s will, and morals are the expression of man’s will. Read the rest of this entry →

Seeing and knowing what is right

Too many people do not trust their own senses.  Too many believers rely on the law instead of the leading of the Spirit in their lives.  We have been encouraged to not trust ourselves which results in rootlessness.  The political government encourages us to rely on them not ourselves.  The church government does the same.  The book of Judges is considered to be a time of anarchy by most in the Church.  The famous line that is quoted is,

In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. (Judges 17:6  KJV)

which is also repeated in Judges 21:25.  As I began my journey away from organized religion and began to question the role of governments both in the Church and politically, I wondered if we had misunderstood the book of Judges.  In 2008 I wrote my first blog on the topic .  No one responded to the topic, so I let it go.

However, the Lord has brought this back to my mind and I have been meditating upon it again.  I must confess at the outset that I am so influenced by the general negative opinion of the verse that it still seems like a negative statement.  But the facts of Scripture speak against that feeling  which shows how we are so easily influenced by other people’s opinions that it blinds us to the plain facts.

The influence of the world permeates every area of our thinking.  Christians think that more laws are the cure for society’s ills.  Recently I heard Jerry Tuma make a similar statement in his radio broadcast.  He recognized that the problem is government, and broadcast  the soundbite of Reagan’s famous saying:

“Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem.”
—  Ronald Reagan Read the rest of this entry →

When we build our views on the opinions of others we precipitously see only the tip of the iceberg.

This Word has been growing in my heart for several weeks. I wanted to write this earlier, but my business had kept me quite busy.

A few weeks ago in teaching gymnastics at my Christian Gymnastics School one of my children was practicing a handstand to a bridge.   She fell on the landing mat without doing the bridge.  I told her to push up the bridge.  She said, “Yes,” then began to stand up.  I told her to get down on her back and push up the bridge.  She looked at me perplexed then realized I meant “now”.  So she pushed up the bridge.

I stopped the class and told all the students that unless they do the movement for themselves, they will not learn to do gymnastics.  I asked the children, “Where in the Bible do we have this command?”  None of the kids knew.   One of the moms sitting watching raised her hand, and said, “I know, I know!”  So I let her answer.   “In James. We are to be doers of the Word, not hearers only.”

So I turned back to the kids and told them, unless you make Jesus your own God, He will remain the God of your parents, not you.  You have to believe Jesus for yourself and test Him for yourself, so that you will know that His Word to you is true. Read the rest of this entry →

Emergent Church Analysis

When I listened to an interview of Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck on the Point of View radio show with Kirby Anderson, I was astonished at how spot on their observations of the emergent church theology that guides its leaders and followers.

Kevin DeYoung  is the Sr Pastor   in the  University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan.   Ted Kluck is a journalist who usually writes sports stories.

They pointed out that the demographic heart of the Emergent Movement are white males in their 20′s and 30′s.  Rob Bell’s, Mars Hill appeals to this demographic.  The books of Brian McLaren are consumed by many of this age group.

They make a distinction between the Emergent Churches that embrace a style as opposed to the Emergent Movement which is a deeper theological epidemic.   It is in this camp that I have had most of my dialogues online since I have abandoned the system of gathering in favor of Spirit led relationships.  So I took great interest in dialoguing with many proponents of the Emergent Movement.   In time, however, I was shocked when I understood how they have abandoned many basic moorings of the faith.  I only abandoned the system of gathering, not my faith in Christ.

DeYoung and Kluck point out these fundamental issues.

Knowing God: The Emergents I have talked to do not seem to have a grasp of who God is.  Gender confusion is acceptable with God because He is a Spirit, so why couldn’t God be a She?   DeYoung points out that they confuse uncertainty with humility. Kevin pointed out that Emergents have a term  they call, “epistemic humility,”  which means being humble in our inability to know God.  He rightly states that biblical humility is in regard to ambition and pride, not knowledge.   It is true that knowledge can be a path to pride, but it is not the knowledge that creates pride, but the motive.   So they think they are   pious and humble in their disavowing an ability to know God.  Yet Paul had no problem telling the Athenians of Mars Hill about their “Unknown God.”  Paul was certain in his knowledge that Jesus Christ is the “Unknown God.”

Authority of Scriptures: This was the most frightening aspect of meeting with Emergents.  But I must add, it is not just emergents.  Many in house churches who are not part of any particular stream are being swayed by Emergent theology.  They do not believe in the inerrancy of Scripture.  When I have defended this as a basic doctrine of the faith, I have been met with scorn and derision.  Shocking since they claim to be more humble since they deny both our ability to fully know God or the inspiration of Scriptures.  To them the Bible is just a useful conversation starter, and not the final word on matters pertaining to God.  They make the argument that the Bible is not the Word of God, for only Jesus is the Word.  To which I agree that Jesus is the Word, but the Bible has many statements regarding God’s view of the Bible, which He has set above His own self.

Kevin concluded the conversation with Kirby with a succinct summation.  The emergent group view the relationship with God in the imperative: go and be like Jesus.  They take it as a social gospel in what we can do for God and humanity.  But the message of the gospel is in the indicative. It is the good news of what God has done for us, not what we have to do for God.

I have edited the conversation down, and believe it is well worth listening to.

 Emergent Church Off Track [38:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Politics in the church is merely the flesh using the world system

Left Foot of Fellowship

A few months ago I was asked to leave a house church because I refused to qualify my statements with “I believe,” or, “I think,” or “In my opinion.”  My response was that I already qualify those statements that I am unsure of, but I would not qualify those statements that I was certain of.  I left the fellowship as they requested, because it seemed that the egos of the group and leadership were a fragile group.  If my contributions were unwelcome, then I would rather go where I was wanted.

The experience prompted me to read a  couple of books on spiritual abuse.  First I read, “Twisted Scriptures” by Mary Chrnalogar and then “Healing Spiritual Abuse” by Ken Blue.  The first book is difficult to read but has nuggets of truth.  The latter is clear and concise and I recommend everyone read it.  Before they gave me the left foot of fellowship I had listened to an incredible testimony  on Tuesday Conversations by Kyle Knapp with David Clute who suffered spiritual abuse and founded Aquila House Ministries.  The podcast has since been deleted to my regret, as well as their website.  The salient point of the podcast that I remember was that David found recovery when he realized that the spiritual abuse he had experienced was the same as what was practiced in cults.  In studying how people were delivered from cults he found the path for spiritual healing from church abuse.

What is this cultism that is found in churches, and to my surprise, house churches?  Please do not misunderstand me, I am not talking about satanic cultism, although it can reach that extreme.  I am talking about the gamut of “us four and no more” to the total “accountability”  groups  -  a needless activity since we are already accountable to God Himself!   One may also call it church politics.  But spiritual abuse is specifically abuse by trusted leadership, although it can happen from anyone in any kind of authority.

Spiritual abuse reached its height in the “shepherding movement”  of the 1970′s which took control of others in the tiniest details of their lives.  It is also noteworthy to know that the modern “cell groups” used by many denominations came from a book by communist Douglas Hyde, “Dedication and Leadership: Learning from the Communists” in  1966 in which he urged Christians to adopt the cell group.  This was picked up by the shepherding leaders and has remained to this day.  The communists used cells as a way of brainwashing those who disagreed with them. Most cell groups that I have been in were merely appendages to the pastor’s agenda, increasing the control of the pastor over the congregation. Read the rest of this entry →

The world is top down management, the Kingdom of God is from the bottom up.

For those who don’t me, I am a gymnastics coach who had been involved with both theater and gymnastics training. Consequently I fell in love with acrobatic gymnastics which is a very theatrical sport. I now own my own business which is a school in acrobatics as a medium for developing Christian community. Every summer I run a special circus program which extends the class curricula to include unicycling, juggling and group acrobatics. While assembling the pyramid routine that I would teach the children, the Lord dropped into my heart a message to them on the subject.

Order of Construction

Pyramids have to be built in a logical order.  The larger athletes comprise the bases, the medium athletes are the middles and the smaller athletes are the tops.   The bases form first, the middles mount second then the tops climb up last.   Pyramids have to be dismantled in the logical order as well. The tops come off first, the middles come down second, then finally the bases can get up.

The bases are the first in building the pyramids and the last to leave the pyramids, whereas the tops are the last to mount the pyramid and the first to dismount the pyramids.  Consequently, the bases are doing all the work, and endure the weight the longest.  Furthermore, they are the only ones who really control the balance of the pyramids because they feel how the pyramids might tip and are in the position of being able to move the whole pyramid back into balance.  The tops have no control of the middle or bases, although they can cause the pyramid to fall if they lose their balances.  Neither are the tops bearing the burden of holding up any weight.   Consequently, the bases are in charge of the pyramid.

True Spiritual Authority

This is a clear illustration of  spiritual authority in the Kingdom of God.  We have a natural tendency to project the world system upon our understanding of the Bible.  In the world the person on top of the pyramid is in charge.  This may be the CEO of a corporation or the pastor of the church businesses.  He directs the middle management, or elders of the congregation,  in what he wants to have the workforce, or congregation, to do.

Not so, in the organic body of Christ.  In the context of forsaking all for Christ, Jesus said, “But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first” (Matt 19:30 KJV).  I asked the children, “Who is at the bottom of everything? Who takes care of everyone? Who keeps everything in Creation running?”   They knew the answer.  God.

God is not on top of Creation,  He is beneath it holding it all up.  To draw close to God is to go to the bottom rung where the work is really done. True spiritual authority lives in those who are serving the needs of all that God brings to them. Read the rest of this entry →

National Lampoon's Son of God comic

Yesterday a young boy in my gymnastics class struggled with the strength test that I gave the whole class.  So I stopped the testing to explain to the kids that their strength is not in their muscles, but in their will.  I motivate them with rewards when they master a particular skill that I am instructing. They understand how much harder they work with that incentive, which shows them that it is when their will power is turned on they do better.

Since my students are all Christians I made the same point about Jesus.  It was impossible for Jesus to die because death is the result of sin and He had no sin.  He said that no man takes His life but that he lays it down voluntarily (John 10:18). That was an act of His volition, or will.   Sin came on Jesus because He willed the sins of the world upon Himself.  Or at least, by his consent He allowed the sins to be placed upon Him, which is still an act of  His will.  In Isaiah, regarding going to the cross, it says that He set His face like flint (Isaiah 50:7), which means that His resolve to obey God was unbreakable. Read the rest of this entry →

The emasculation of husbands

Despite the title of the blog, I am not against women teaching.  I personally benefit and enjoy listening to Joyce Meyer,  Nancy Lee DeMoss and other intelligent women who hear God and speak on behalf of God.  And I believe that these women when broadcasting through the airwaves or any other public communications medium are fine, because they are not specifically teaching men. They are teaching whosoever will.  There is a significant difference.

I had to rethink through my point of view on this topic since I was recently excommunicated from a house church headed by a woman pastor.  In post expulsion communication with the brother that had brought me into the fellowship, I expressed regret to him that I had not heeded my conscience in continuing my attendance when I found out that the group was being led by a woman.  I told him that we have a tendency to rationalize and to justify what we want at the expense of the plain teaching of Scriptures which says:

I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. (1 Tim 2:12 NIV) Read the rest of this entry →

Ordained implies set apart for God

Depending on your translation of the Bible, a variety of words have been translated into “ordain”. The King James has many words translated into ordain that would be better translated as something else.

Every word has two meanings: what is meant and what it means.  That which the speaker intends, and is the common usage is what is meant, and the origin and changes of the word is what it means.  Words are more often understood by their popular usage than by its origin.  The origin of the word is its etymology.

Ordain by popular usage means “to invest with priestly authority,”  “to decree, and “to predetermine by fate” (Houghton Mifflin online dictionary).   However, the etymology of the word means “to set in order” (Online Etymology Dictionary). Legal ordinances are decrees of orderly conduct. But because of the religious usage of the word, the sense of divine mandate and predetermined fate is the strong connotation that colors our reading of the word as used in the Bible.  So, a person who has been “ordained” for ministry carries that flavor of being God’s man for the hour, and the authority of God that is not to be questioned.  Knowing what a word means by its origin goes a long way in diffusing the connotations. Read the rest of this entry →

Last night I was invited to meet someone in a home near my home.  This person was referred to me by a friend who has his thumb on people in the house church and free range networks.  She and her family live 30 minutes from my wife and I, so we had difficulty meeting.  She sent me an email saying that she wanted to visit a speaker that she knew of near our home. So we agreed to go.  When she shared in her email that there would be fellowship, followed by worship and then the teaching, my heart choked. Read the rest of this entry →