A Fun Day: Christian Bigotry

I do not know if you’ll think this is funny, surprising, or appalling.  You decide.

A few years ago 25 of my friends and I attended Missions Fest in Vancouver, Canada.  I have attended about 12 times.  I represented three different ministries over the years and have spoken a few times in the smaller sessions…100-200 people.  The plenary sessions are attended by 5,000.

Missions Fest is huge, 200+ ministry booths, and over 20,000 people attend this three day event.  Because we have went so many times and I wanted the event to be more meaningful than just listening to the same old speakers, I came up with a plan to encourage and insight Christians to action.

We wore a provocative shirt that said ”The Hippies were right” and gave a small tract on the obligation to love.

When we were handing them out we were asked not to.  I thought this was strange and I was upset, but I gave them our tracts in good faith to show we meant no harm and weren’t trying to be disruptive.  We still wore the shirts. 

We continued to visit with people.  People would stop us because they saw the shirts everywhere, or what seemed everywhere.  We would have a talk with them that went like this.  They would ask “What’s the shirt about?”  and we responded “The hippies were right about love but didn’t know how to do it, much in the same way we, the church, talk about love and have trouble manifesting it in a tangible, relevant way.  Then we would explain a scripture 1 John 3:10:

“ This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.  NIV”

We had great discussions and no conflicts…we are not rebel-rousers…we had no idea what was to happen next.

They were still disturbed by our presence. The organizers finally warned us not to solicit talks with people.  We explained our Biblical orthodoxy, our desire to encourage the body toward love and good deeds.  I reminded them that we weren’t promoting a cause, a ministry or anything of the sort.  The previous tract had nothing offensive and didn’t have names, phone numbers, ministry names… I do not think it would have been out of bounds to include these but I could see them not desiring this.

The straw that broke their camel’s back was when they saw me visiting with someone, who had stopped me.  They warned us to leave or they would call the police…security was there to escort us out.

I think it funny because we had no ill intent, did nothing disrespectful.  We had good reason to be offended and dismayed…  Wow, what a bees nest, we had no idea this type of censorship, fear, mindless bigotry was going to ever sting us this way.

My final assessment of why this happened is simply found in social psychology.   They saw us as a threat because we were doing something different and they didn’t understand.  They couldn’t understand why we would do this.  It was a parodical, “Who tries to encourage the Body of Christ without a permit…insane, preposterous!”  They assumed a sinister plot; maybe a cultic invasion.  The only foul committed was that of ignorance.  We never conceived of being offensive and it never crossed our minds they would threaten police action and kick us out.  Maybe I’m just stupid.

We didn’t go back…I was embarrassed and ashamed and convinced not to do this kind of thing again….but… maybe I’m “sinister” enough… or smart enough to come up with a plot to “spur the church to love and good deeds.” lol

Luke 16:8 "The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. NIV

Matt 10:16 I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.  NIV

Afflictions Ain’t that Bad: Fellowship

Do Not Shut-Up

I hate pain.  I used to train as a wrestler and it was grueling.  I don’t think I can explain it well, but I’ll give an example.  When I was a freshman in High School we were doing a “Red Alert.”  You moved from station to station: push-ups, sit-ups in another, running stairs…etc. Each station was 1 min.  We did it straight for 45 min.  You did it with as much energy as you could give.  

Anyway this one time I was dying.  I hurt so bad; muscles and lungs.  In my despair I gave a grimacing look to the coach and asked the stupid question “How much more time?”  He responded “30 more minutes.”  I just cried.  I was already whipped.  I didn’t think I could finish.  Lest you think I was weak, I was in the 110% club on the team, I was amongst the hardest workers.  By my senior year I would do the Red Alerts, wrestling practice and then run after practice four miles from school to my house.  My perspective changed and my endurance for pain increased.

I have found that carrying out the will of God is more grueling than Red Alerts.  We have to suffer.  It is normal for life.  Some pain is self-induced along with natural suffering.  But taking on Christ is an additional pain that is surprising.

We all suffer just being alive.  We get colds and cancer.  We stub toes, go to work, and have neighbors and other conflicts.  And then there is family lalala.  You get the idea.  Inescapable!

Then there are the stupid things I’ve done.  I’m talking primarily about sin.  Seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, and a desire that is insatiable; this all lead to trouble.  Always wanting and striving caused me a lot of pain and lead to emotional and physiological issues.  There is no peace in this state.

Coming to Christ, like many, I thought “If I do what is right with God, things would go better.”  No one had to tell me this, “It just goes to reason.”  Do good and God will bless you and do bad, well, “Karma” will kick your hinny.  I did find that as I quit striving as a pagan much of my pain subsided.  I received a relative peace. 

I was still suffering the natural pain though.  I knew I would, I guess, but it was buried deep.  I think it was tied to cultural superstition of the Bible and Jesus.  This was frustrating.  I still had bills, family, work problems…I was disillusioned quickly.  This was good; the illusion was gone and I could move on.

But here is the chaw.  This greasy slim of bitter Coppenhagen in the lip, an over-active salivary gland that makes you spit.  I would now take up the suffering of Christ?  I thought “But wait, I wanted less trouble.  That’s why I went to church, that’s why I started doing good.”

Like Jesus we will suffer.  A student is not greater than his master.  We suffer in two ways for being CHRIST-ians.  There are two enemies.  The pain from serving and the suffering of tares, we will call them christians not CHRIST-ians.  This is a funny side note.  I’m trying to write “christian” in a lower case c to emphasis the “said-follower” over the real CHRIST-ian and my program hardly lets me. 

The suffering from helping others comes in various forms.  You have less money to care for you, you have less time for you; you have more trouble.  You take on the trouble of others and receive no appreciation.  And to boot, those you help often times reward you with mistreatment.  They speak poorly about you, guilt always does, and they steal and manipulate.  You bear the weight of their idiosyncrasies and on and on.  I could write a book on this; actually I am.  This is inspired by experience and Richard Wormbrandt, Voice of the Martyrs founder; Sufferology is the topic.

Now I’m finally to why I’m writing.  The Christian will assail you for serving as Christ would have.  “If they hated me they will hate you too.”  We think it is the world that persecutes and we have evidence of the fact.  But I’ll let Voice of the Martyrs write about that.  There is a surprising resistance in the church to self-denial and cross bearing.

The context of Christ is a religious community.  He suffered from them not Rome.  All his comments on mistreatment are to be understood from this point of view.  We can see the religious Jews hated him.  They resisted Him.  They killed Him and a Pagan ruler tried to save him.  Pilate is a great foil.

You won’t experience this unless you obey Christ.  When you step outside the herd, you disturb the religious ether.  The “spirit” in Christ’s religious context still resides today.  A demon possession of its host.  The host is the visible church.  

Those who abide in Christ, these are part of the invisible, worldwide, universal church.  Read my blog on abiding…as audacious as it sounds you probably do not understand it. 

Remember Jesus speaking of the tares.  I think you do, so I won’t explain.  These are by far the majority population in the church today in America.  Are there truly 224 million Christians in the American church?  I have a friend who pastors a large prominent church In Seattle, WA.  He says his guess is that 80% of his congregation will perish in Hell.  Of course he doesn’t tell them and I won’t give his name.  He needs his job; I say this tongue-in-cheek. 

You will be rejected, ignored, marginalized, threatened, shoed-out and maligned.  I had an assistant pastor tell my brother-in-law that he wanted to punch me in the face.  By the way this pastor is a good guy.  You would love him. I think he is cool too.  But he wants the status quo; that which he is accustomed.  Overall it doesn’t matter what the Bible says for many of us.  Desire rules!  People will stand strong and boldly, dogmatically, bigotedly over benign doctrines that do not effect lifestyle.  But!  If you mess with a guy’s life; Well “Those are fightin words!”    

Previously, I’ve written a blog entitled “A Fun Day: Christian Bigotry” Read it to get a strange example of rejection.

When you lay your life down and live a life style of service, when you state without equivocation that this is the way of Christ and what salvation is;  “Boy, you done hit a bees nest.”  And if you obey the scripture to figure out a way to move the church in that same direction of love and good deeds, it will be unpleasant.  Go try it it’ll be fun…that is, if you like fellowship with Jesus and His suffering. 

Phil 3:10-11  I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. NIV

How to Make a Churchy Cow Go Mad

How should we spur one another on?

It says “consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds.”  Ouch really.  Poke someone with a spur.  That doesn’t seem Christian does it. Well the Word is the Word.

On Any Sunday

Three important points are made in this scripture: consider, spur, and love and good deeds.  Consider means to think about, or plan.  We need to think about and plan and act.

Devise a plan to spur others on. Spurring and goading are little unpleasant.  Think of a horse and a cowboy giving him the spur.  It doesn’t hurt but it is motivating.  Think of a goad, a long pointy stick that is used to move cattle.  You jab the animal in the rear to move it in the right direction.  Again this is unpleasant but if done right it is futile to kick against. 

This is all done to urge others on to love and good deeds.  Love and good deeds that’s obvious right?  You know make a lot of money to give away or use your summer and Christmas break to help your neighbors.  Plan a summer camp for poor kids.  Give soccer clinics to children in poor neighborhoods. Forget about retirement and work half-time to make more money for service or sell your big house and move to a poor barrio to serve.  

Move together with another family to gain time and money for service.  Live in a travel-trailer on your friend’s property.  Get educated as a lawyer to help under-represented lawbreakers.  Bring home convicts, grab up a homeless person…use your loving imagination to spend your life’s energy on others.  It only hurts if you think about it; so don’t.  But when you do it you’ll share in Christ’s joy.

Your job is to act out a specific regular plan to reach out to people to do whatever they need.  Then you’ll form a scheme to encourage others to do the same.

My specific plan is to engage the poor through various programs that already exist.  You know the Salvation Army or feeding programs.  Then get to know the people and engage in their struggle on their behalf.  I’ll do whatever they need to progress.  I’m blogging and developing a network of friends that will obey the command to love and I will encourage them. I’ll give ideas and assistance.  I goad the Christians who I interact with along with those in my church.  I will spend as little as I can on me and more on others.  I must be attentive to the needs of those in my fellowship also.

What will you do?  How will you promote love and good works in your own life.  What is your scheme to spur this on in the life others? 

Note:  People do not like to be goaded, so you might not get a pleasant response.  I herd cattle and never saw a cow turn around and give me a smile for poking it with a goad.  So here comes the ridicule and persecution you thought didn’t exist in the American church.  This is another topic for a blog huh?

Are you Sure? Assurance of Salvation

Now this is Protective Security!

I felt the affrontive stare.  I remained confident bearing down looking for more accepting faces; but one.  One rejected the words.  After the lake-side sermon not all were content.  The singular-one came to correct the words.   He asserted “Pastor Cliff, we are saved by grace not by works.  It is a free gift.”  Not having time, I couldn’t reaffirm the message or clarify, although I’m sure he was dug-in.  He is a good guy with an incomplete message and like others, are incidentally damning others through inoculation from salvation through an over-simplified, partial Gospel message.  I confess I was in that state for quite awhile too.  Many walk in a false assurance.  

When I was first taught, I too believed as He.  I would argue with Mormons and Catholics, asserting they were depending on works for salvation.  I could really kick their butts in that day; you know I was 1 ½ in the faith.  I was a giant!  That’s funny huh?  It is a little embarrassing to look back.  

Early on I was given scriptures of assurance of salvation in a Bible Study.  We memorized a couple of these scriptures.  I never really understood exactly why but I’m a “good boy.”  I guess I was supposed to use them when I sinned.  

I eventually I changed my views.  It took me a few years of personal study to detangle myself from the half-message Gospel.  I didn’t share my new found revelations at first; I felt like I was going to be branded as a heretic. 

For your reference, I wrote a blog “Aenology: That Big Word” that completes the statement “If you believe in Jesus you’ll be saved.”  Here is a quote from that blog; a synopsis of the “if then statements” of I John and Hebrews.

“If we are in the light and obey, if His word remains in us, we give to those in need, acknowledge Jesus, and if we love our brother, we do not love the world, hold to the courage and the hope, firm to the end, and continue in faith then the truth is in us, we know Him, His love is made complete, the Son and Father remain in us, His love is in us, God lives in us, we truly love God, we are His house, we share in Christ, and are saved.

If we remain in faith in Jesus that results in love for one another until we die then we truly have fellowship with God and eternal life. 

1 John 2:5-6 But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. NIV

Bull’s-eye!  This is the target ‘Walk as Jesus walked and be saved.’” 

Assurance of salvation belongs to these.  It is misapplied if your system of belief is not as previously shown in the Word.  So many professing Christians will miss many crucial scriptures because of this false-start.  When you “know” you are saved and have put on this assurance, you are blinded from many other scriptures and few can escape this trap.  They are locked in their misunderstanding by these scriptures of assurance.  Misapplied assurance is bad however there is great assurance in Jesus.

Assurance rests on Jesus.  He is God “compassionate and merciful.” He showed His abandon to us with Jesus on the Cross and His power to resurrect.  He promised this eternal life to the faithful.  Jesus is faithful and can be trusted fully.  But assurance is only for His faithful.

Here is a synthesis of the assurance scriptures.

In Christ we have confidence, he will finish His work in us, nothing can separate us from the love of Jesus, we can know we have eternal life, we have a purpose, the Holy Spirit is in us as a deposit, we have the Son of God in us, and nothing can take us from His hand.  

This is a great comfort to those who are “working out their salvation with fear and trembling.”  We need this comfort.  We will win!  Our souls will be preserved if we stay in the faith using our warfare tactics and armaments.  See my blog “War for Your Soul:  What is the war we fight?”  We are guaranteed to win and gain the salvation of our souls.  It is promised; be assured!

Support Scriptures:

Phil 1:6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. NIV

Rom 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  NIV

1 John 5:13-14  I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. NIV

2 Cor 5:5  Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.  NIV

1 John 5:12  He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.  NIV

John 10:28-30  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one."  NIV

2 Tim 1:12  That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.  NIV

Heb 7:25  Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.   NIV

Thank God for Hell!

I’m the economist. The investor, the gambler betting the odds for profit. If I apply myself to the afterlife where do I put my money. What is the best bet for my investment?

Pascal’s wager is well known. He deals in the prospect of a Heaven and a Hell where obeying God or not will determine the outcome. He suggests that betting on God has great potential if it is true and no downside. But betting against the existence of this Judge could reap little benefit and potentially a cataclysm that is unbearable. Bet on God, get Heaven and lose nothing, bet against God, get Hell and gain nothing.

Bet the odds!

Now, what if there was no Hell?

How would this change our betting? How would this change your life? Would you strive for souls? Would you purify yourself?

If there is no Hell, Stalin and Moa won’t be punished for the murder of a 100 million people. They will die outside Heaven into nothingness and non-existence like my aunt who didn’t follow Jesus either. They get the same punishment as my wonderful aunt who only crime was not loving God. She never killed anyone, yet she would get the same light sentence as Lenin and Douhlmer.


Death would mean RIP. You would sleep forever, not much of a punishment.

The Apostles and Jesus would be liars. They claim we were sons of the Devil destined for the fiery lake with all those outside of Christ. If this is not true, what about the promise of Heaven? Could they be trusted?

If there is no real punishment, just sleep forever, then there is no deterrent to sin and especially for the most vile types of iniquity. This would prove to promote a “live for today” attitude with ultra-selfish ambitions. This would produce a real chaos.

If there is no Hell, I think the sacrifice of God’s only Son on the Cross is the most grotesque waste of beauty. He would have saved us to Heaven and saved us from dying forever. But eternal rest isn’t a bad alternative to Heaven. No more bills and bad marriages, no more tears or sorrows…doesn’t that sound eerily like Heaven? If there is no Hell there is no down side. Why spend His beautiful Son for this?

The economist says if there is no Hell; and Heaven is just a maybe. Do what you want now. Bet the sure thing. The worst case is you miss Heaven but have the life you wanted with no restriction. And this is how many live. They wish away Hell and live as they want, not believing that missing Heaven would be a loss.

Hell is a piece of the puzzle without which Christianity would make no sense. The day there is no Hell is the day I leave the faith. I’m an economist. If there is no tension for souls then there is no reason for sacrificial living. I am not an altruist. My pre-Christ nature is “everyman for himself.” Jesus changed me to a value system of love but not for loves sake but for my souls. I do not want to go to Hell.

Since I know that Hell is as real as Heaven, I am willing to sacrifice myself in this burning world that some may escape Hell’s flame. I wouldn’t sacrifice my life for an annihilationist philosophy. I would not bother caring for any but me and all that pleased me.

Hell is real.

Rev 20:10-15 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.

Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. NIV

Thank God the Father through Jesus His son.

Without Hell I wouldn't have known Him. Thank God for Hell!

Eanology: That’ a Big Word

If I had $1 million I would help a lot of people.  If am saved I’ll go to heaven.  “If” is a fulcrum that much depends.  Everything pivots on it.  If I believe in Jesus I’ll go to Heaven.  This is true but too simplistic and misleading.  Let’s look at some “if then” scriptures and fill this out a bit.

The “if then statement” is a logical statement.  If I have money and I have time, I’ll buy food at the store.  No money or no time and I won’t be able to buy food.  

Big if huh?

The objective in this blog is to get a clear target.  Many people assume too much when it comes to salvation and have over simplified it.  Much like a person who shoots an arrow at the side of a barn and quickly paints a red bullseye around their arrow.  “Perfect shot!”  Obviously we need to paint the target first and then take our shot.  Here is the target.

I John and Hebrews are the two texts I’ll focus on.  The scriptures are listed at the end of this blog.  The following is a synthesis of these scripture both in the negative and the positive:

If we are in the darkness, or do not love our brother, turn back, deliberately keep on sinning, disobey, do not give to the needy, love the world, or if His word doesn’t remain in us, or if we do not acknowledge the Son, do not love our brother, or give up our hope and courage, are not firm to the end, or do not continue in the faith, then we are liars, we do not know Him, His love is not in us, He doesn’t remain in us, we do not love Him, He does not live in us, we are not His house, we do not share in Christ, and we are not saved.

If we are in the light and obey, if His word remains in us, we give to those in need, acknowledge Jesus, and if we love our brother, we do not love the world, hold to the courage and the hope, firm to the end, and continue in faith then the truth is in us, we know Him, His love is made complete, the Son and Father remain in us, His love is in us, God lives in us, we truly love God, we are His house, we share in Christ, and are saved.

Here is a condensed version:  If we remain in faith in Jesus that results in love for one another until we die then we truly have fellowship with God and eternal life. 

If we do not remain in faith in Jesus to the end or our faith does not result in loving one another until death then we do not have fellowship with Him and will gain eternal judgment.

1 John 2:5-6 But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. NIV

Bullseye!  This is the target “Walk as Jesus walked and be saved.”

1 John 2:15-16 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. NIV

1 John 3:17-18 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? NIV

1 John 4:20-21  If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.  NIV

Heb 3:14  We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. NIV

Heb 6:6  if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.  NIV

Heb 10:26-27  If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.  NIV

Heb 10:38-39  But my righteous one will live by faith.  And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him."  39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.  NIV

1 John 1:6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.  NIV

1 John 2:3-4 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4 The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. NIV

1 John 2:24-25  See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us — even eternal life. NIV

1 John 4:12  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. NIV

1 John 4:15-16  If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.  NIV

Heb 3:6  But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.  NIV

Heb 12:25 See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?  NIV

1 John 2:5-6 But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. NIV