Christianity – March To Maturity https://marchtomaturity.com Sat, 18 Jul 2020 03:32:49 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://i0.wp.com/marchtomaturity.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/cropped-March-To-Mat-Full.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Christianity – March To Maturity https://marchtomaturity.com 32 32 193255068 Dangerous Christianity Part 4: He Whom the Son Sets Free https://marchtomaturity.com/dangerous-christianity-part-4-he-whom-the-son-sets-free/ Sat, 18 Jul 2020 03:19:12 +0000 https://marchtomaturity.com/?p=1641

Dangerous Christianity Part 4: He Whom the Son Sets Free

Christianity’s threat to evil, powerful, God defying, satanic agenda promoting entities can be summarized in two key pillars found in its life transforming teachings. Firstly, it sets human beings free. And Secondly, it attaches people to alternative sources of power. These two pillars are certainly central to Jesus’ claim that He came to set people free and that whoever He sets free is free indeed. Part 1 of this series dealt with the question of power and agenda setting. The issue of who is wielding power over us was discussed in Part 2 of this series. Part 3 explored the matter of nonconformity and the believer. We will treat with these two pillars as we explore the permutations and implications of the freedom that Christianity extends to the believer in this article.

Christianity is diametrically opposed to bondage. Bondage is where those who want to wield power for ungodly purposes over others thrive most. It represents their ultimate objective as they proscribe and prescribe actions and consequences for those who are oppressed. Those who wield power over the oppressed do so for many and varied reasons: economic power and wealth, political power and control over others; social status and the advantages it gives them. Their interest lies in the benefits they themselves gain from wielding power over others and not the best welfare of the people and institutions over whom they are exercising power. This is baldly evident in political arenas, for example, where despots, tyrants and kleptocratic leaders exploit their populations for their own gain. Other areas of life manifest evil purpose; and any slight attention to our TV and other news sources depict this same problem in stark relief as we are bombarded with all kinds of wicked deeds and events perpetrated by individual and entities who abuse their power over others. More well-intentioned power-holders may genuinely aim to liberate oppressed people through participation in the practices of the oppressor. This idea is expressed in notions such as changing systems from within. Idealistic individuals become part of the oppressive status quo with the intention to change it from the inside. They, unfortunately generally succeed in perpetuating the oppression.

Social Scientists have long sought to explain this seemingly inevitable, unequal and exploitative power relationship between the powerful and those over whom they exercise power. According to Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed, those who are being oppressed don’t know that they are in this state. They are very willing to perpetuate their state of oppression because of what they see as loyalty to their oppressor. They have to be animated or awakened to their plight as oppressed peoples. This is done through the work of an Animator or agent who comes to “conscientize” or awaken people to the reality of their situations. This awakening or conscientization is done through reeducation to enable them to reject oppression in favor of freedom. This idea, translated into our everyday terms implies that we, the ordinary people, are left with the illusion that we are free. We preach and sometimes practice our ideologies without much reaction from the powerful if we are lucky. Those who are less fortunate and live in non-western regimes instinctively keep our ideologies to ourselves as we tiptoe around those in power in order to avoid their wrath or vengeful actions and retaliation for encroaching on their power.

This tendency towards oppressive use of power is not surprising because Christianity teaches that human beings are flawed, sinful creatures who require redemption through Jesus death and resurrection. Redemption affords us the divine nature and the opportunity to walk in our spiritual, rather than carnal nature. This nature enables us to put on the righteousness of Jesus Christ and to pursue right action, driven by pure selfless godly purpose. This keeps us on the straight and narrow, but also shields us from carrying out the directives of dark agendas as we gain and begin to exercise power over others. In an ideal situation, the Christian can exercise power in a godly, liberating way – as opposed to evil oppressive ones. Only then can individuals and entities can attempt to ensure that their exercise of power does not eventually lead to selfish, ungodly purposes and outcomes. Put simply, outside of God all other attempts to wield power over others are doomed to eventual failure. One famous dictum notes that “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” to explain the corrupting nature of power. Christianity teaches that only God and those who walk in His ways can successfully resist the strong impetus towards oppression and selfish, self-seeking ends. Consequently, God warns us not to put our trust in political leadership because they are bound to fail (Psalm 118:9, 146:3).

Christianity not only provides the foregoing diagnosis of the human proclivity towards misuse of power, but it Challenges this thrust towards oppression and domination by beings and entities with evil intent. It offers a protective shield against their wiles and sophisticated schemes with its active, alternative, paradigmatic framework, and its continuous provision of alternative sources of information that pierces through any attempt at programming and manipulation of people’s worldviews and ideologies. It also resists and defeats attempts to fix allegiances to their agenda as it constantly orientates and redirects the believer towards submission to and worship of the sovereign God.

Christianity’s answer to who sets the agenda (explored in Part 1 of this series) is simply “God”. God is the Sovereign who rules over all and reigns in the affairs of men (Dan. 4:17). This Soverign demands the Christian’s allegiance, so that obeisance and allegiance to all other authorities are secondary.

This obvious allegiance is a challenge to any despot or totalitarian regime. This for example is why the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic under Stalin reputedly deliberately set out to destroy Christianity and attempted to exalt the state as “god” in its place. In Western democracies, where there is freedom of religion, less obvious, possible more effective methods are used to try to replace or reorder the believer’s allegiance. For instance, the welfare system is used as the channel or excuse to become involved in individual’s personal lives. With the provision of welfare, common defense services such as police and military, education and other social services, comes the almost inevitable attempts to dictate to individuals and families how they should be structured, whom they should marry, or the way they should train or grow their children for example. Other subtler forms of intrusion against the allegiance order of Christians are found in popular culture that promotes ideas, worldviews and values that directly contradict the teachings or operations of the Kingdom of God.

Consider for instance the phenomenon of “political correctness”. Christianity presents a danger to those who want to advance political correctness because it offers counter commands. For instance,

“speaking truth in love” is one such injunction which runs counter to political correctness.

“But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:” (Eph 4:15 AV)

God places a premium on truth speaking and believers are constantly encouraged to abide by and practice this and other principles that He has outlined. The challenge to the establishment is evident. People who conform to divine injunctions in this regard, will not be controlled by attempts at enacting laws and policies promoting political correctness, nor any other god defying, Satan promoting agendas. Believers who pledge and keep their allegiance to Christ will obey the directives of the Kingdom, rather than the dictates of this world’s leadership.

The word teaches that Christ came so that we may be free. Jesus goes so far as to claim that whosoever He sets free is “free indeed” (John 8:36). We are taught that true freedom is provided in all areas of our lives: Physically as we are freed from negative behaviors from sin and carnality, addictions and ties that bind us to bad, destructive habits;

. We are given hope, comfort, and joy instead. Spiritually, we are freed from sins dreadful hold over us and its deadly consequences. Mentally, by providing us with an alternative paradigm and way of thinking so that we can resist the world’s ideological programming and embrace the new powerful reality available to us. Politically, we are freed from allegiance to evil powers who despitefully use us as our allegiance is transferred to a kind and loving King. Finally, Jesus also changes our identities so that we have access to God’s divine power and we can do all things through Him (Phil 4:13). God’s promise of all things stands as Jesus assures us that although things may be impossible for us, they are certainly possible for God (Matt 19:26, Mark 9:23,10:27).

This freedom eventually comes to permeate our lives as we begin to manifest God’s divine will and plans in our earthly existence.

The bible constantly reminds us of God’s plans to set us free indeed. Our minds are freed from the influences of political machinations, agendas transmitted through media, popular culture, and the education system. Our systems of value can be redeemed and changed to reflect those which God wants to impart to us. Our personalities are freed as we begin to transform in to what God plans for us.

God’s divine power empowers the believer by enabling him or her to do all things through Christ, assigning him or her the tools for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3), effectuating his or her transformation by mental renewal. This empowerment does not stop there and can be translated into the social and political sphere. It equips the believer to begin to exercise authority over his or her reality through transformed mental attitudes, word and action. He/she can apply God’s teaching to his or her ordinary daily reality and adopt the mind of Christ that transforms his or her outlook and manifests in empowering, liberating decisions and choices. Faith is seen as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11:1) and the source of empowerment for radical, transformative human action in the spiritual, social, economic and political spheres in the Scriptures. This is detailed for example, in the Hebrews chapter 11 hall of faith’s list of successful achievers. This is supported by secular history that shows that believers from the early, fledgling days of the Christian religion have successfully overcome great odds, such as persecution, changed political, social and economic systems like the Abolition movement in England with William Wilberforce; Created enduring effective social intervention driven institutions such as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, and the list could go on.

The Christian faith puts believers on the cutting edge of proper, purposeful godly exercise of power over themselves and others. As an influence on decision-making it has kept us flawed human beings on the right side of the exercise of power as we seek and trust God’s divine purpose and intervention into our everyday lives. It enables us to promote Godly agendas to transform lives and impact the world for good as history shows. When pursued according to God’s design, Christianity helps us to avoid corruption and the promotion of the satanic agenda. As a paradigm, it empowers us to raise a standard against attempts at programming and bending us toward godlessness and iniquity. It gives us the capacity to resist the devil and force him to flee (James 4:7), overcome self, and exercise a faith that is the victory that overcomes the world (1 John 5:4).

Learn More about Early Christianity’s evolution and development from Dr. Johnathan Phillips’ “Ancient Roads: From Christ to Constantine” at:

https://www.tpt.org/ancient-roads-from-christ-to-constantine/

 Learn more about the formation of the Salvation Army and the Red cross.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/subdivisions/salvationarmy_1.shtml

And:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Red_Cross_and_Red_Crescent_Movement

Learn more about William Wilberforce and the movement for abolition of slavery in Britain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wilberforce

Learn more about Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Freire, Paulo. 1972. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Herder and Herder.

Learn more about Building on the word of God and Faith from March to Maturity.

Sproul, Wendy. 2017. March to Maturity: Grounded and Built. North Charleston, South Carolina. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

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Dangerous Christianity Part 1: Who sets the Agenda?  https://marchtomaturity.com/dangerous-christianity-part-1-who-sets-the-agenda/ Sat, 24 Nov 2018 00:03:10 +0000 https://marchtomaturity.com/?p=1529 If you are like most of us, you watch the news and think that it is reporting reality. It is a channel for letting us know what is happening around us in our neighborhoods, cities and countries. We can rely on the news for accurate information about our worlds. We assume that the issues which are covered are reflections of the concerns, interests and facts which exist. We are getting a good grasp on the world as it is. What we fail to recognize is that the news is the product of careful agenda setting. People, institutions and entities choose to let us focus on what they want us to see. “Reality” is carefully crafted to produce a particular outcome for us to live with.

 

Similarly, we go through our everyday lives often assuming that life and reality are random. Our experiences are series of coincidences as we travel from our home to offices, stores, airports and places of business. If we are fortunate, we get to where we are going incident free. Sometimes we may encounter mishaps which might range from the mild and inconsequential (if we are lucky) to the extremes where we are severely injured or killed.  We make decisions, pursue our careers and participate in life’s events without noting the small or big rational choices which constitute the series of events which run together to make up the courses of our lives. We attribute the sum total of our life’s activities and events which happen to us to luck if we do not subscribe to any religious beliefs and God or some other supreme being if we do.

 

Contrary to the seeming randomness of life and chance that happens to us, our realities and lives are shaped by people and forces which make decisions, influence agendas, manipulate, and constantly strive for control over our minds, thoughts, lives, and futures.  A frightening thought, many of us dismiss these possibilities as “conspiracy theories” and relegate them to the fringe where weirdos and paranoid people live. In all of this, we rarely think about who sets the agenda and who is behind the seemingly random things and consequences we are experiencing.

 

That reality is not so random as we believe has been studied in major universities. For example, there is a whole body of theory that looks at choice, decision-making, the nature and exercise of power, and their effects on human reality and behavior in the Social Sciences.  Accomplished sociologists like Steven Lukes identified three “faces” or dimensions of power. The first is Decision-making (who makes which decisions for others).  It is in the first face or dimension of power that powerful people or entities make decisions about others. They make choices that affect our ordinary, everyday realities as we move through their spheres of influence in the course of our existence. For instance, government makes decisions which translate into laws and policies which have direct bearing on our behavior or the alternatives available to us. Heads of companies and chairmen of boards make decisions which influence their companies, leaders of nonprofits and communities make choices and decisions about the directions of their organizations.

 

The second dimension of power is distinguished by non-decision making or agenda setting. If you want to know who holds most power in a group or country, just look at who sets the agenda. Who determines what comes up for mention or is considered important. This can be seen in policy priority areas, what items the media and other news outlets give prominence to, what is promoted or suppressed.

 

The third dimension of power is characterized by ideology and manipulation. In this dimension the person who is able to influence or shape the wants of others is demonstrating this kind of power. It is here for example, that education, media, marketing, culture, political ideologies, and other paradigm shaping mechanisms are used to mold the wants, worldview, and moral values of the people over whom they are exercising power. This is where popular culture can be tweaked to instill certain notions of what is good or bad, what is acceptable or not, and what is desirable so that those who are experiencing this manipulation come to want what those who are more powerful determine that they should desire.

 

Although we would probably want to retreat to the comfort zones of the mundane, predictable chaos of our seemingly random lives (Where we do not have to contend with forces out of our control, nor the implications of our actions and choices on the outcomes of our lives) Christianity also teaches that our lives are not random, nor do our realities form in a chaotic, uncontrolled fashion. Psalms 37:23 indicates that our steps are ordered by God, and Jeremiah 1:5, 29:11 tells us We are called into being for purposeful lives.

 

In this ordered stratum (1 Ch 16:31, Ps 47:1-8,93:1-2, 96:10, Is 40:21-23) God governs as King. He sets the agenda of our lives. He has a definite will and rules in the affairs of human beings (Da 4:17). When our lives are submitted to God, believers respond to, shape, activate, and carry out this agenda in our everyday worlds. God designs the incidences and courses of our lives so that nonbelievers (knowingly or unknowingly, deliberately or inadvertently) also play roles in carrying out God’s agenda or will. This divine weaving ensures that all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose (Ro 8:28).

 

The Divine agenda is expected to dominate the believer’s worldview and activities. It demands absolute allegiance and comes into sharp conflict with the dictates of this world. There is an inherent dichotomy between the rules, principles, operations of the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of this world.

God is constantly working towards the ultimate fulfilment of His Agenda. This agenda necessarily conflicts with what those who wield power in the decision making, agenda setting and the ideological dimensions of power want. The Scriptures teach us that human beings are rebellious and do not want to be controlled by God (DE 31:27, IS 53:6). It also informs us that those in power deliberately promote their own agendas. Although they may believe that they are actually in control, they are subject to manipulation from Satanic forces which are bent on promoting the objectives of the Kingdom of darkness.

 

More often than not. Those who rebel against God are carrying out the wishes of the Satanic agenda. They often use institutions such as government to make decisions and legislations which directly contradict God’s moral laws, oppress people and destroy opportunities for those who are poor and disenfranchise. They fail to provide beneficial services such as justice and security for their populations because of the destructive decisions and choices they pursue in the political, social and economic spheres. God repeatedly decries these practices through the voice of His prophets in the old Testament. In doing so, God inserts a set of contrasting information that both condemns the sins or wickedness of bad decisions, and presents an opportunity for decisionmakers to choose godly alternatives. Decisionmakers are constantly reminded of the outcomes of bad or good decisions so that those who choose to wield power in this realm have no excuses for failure or advancing the satanic agenda.

 

In the agenda setting sphere, major social institutions such as political parties, the media, educational and school systems are used to advance the issues and priorities which powerful elites want to have promoted to the detriment of others which are beneficial and godly. These priorities are in conflict with God’s will and teaching, and serve to advance the Satanic agenda. We can think of many social and cultural issues which directly contravene God’s will. These issues are paraded on our television screens and promoted as political agenda items which ungodly politicians use to propel themselves into office. Moreover, when in office they resort to the mechanisms of decision-making to enact on an unsuspecting population.

 

Many of these agenda items are sold to the potential voting population as beneficial, when in fact they are destructive and deadly. More significantly, they are ensuring the achievement of the Satanic agenda which is in deliberate and outright opposition to God. Those who promote a satanic platform can identify godly issues and policies which they can advance if they so choose. Those who are actively working against god’s agenda are inexcusable as God provides through Christianity, godly, wholesome priorities and not the selfish destructive issues which now parade before us.

 

At the ideological sphere where people are manipulated to want or desire things which are to their detriment, social institutions and mechanisms such as media, popular culture, government policies, education systems, and entertainment are used to obviously or subtly shape the desires of an unsuspecting population. For example, advertisement and marketing campaigns are used to sell products or services which people are bluntly told are good for them.  These products and services are promoted in ways that entice the unsuspecting potential consumer. More subtly, political ideologies promote lawlessness, destructive behaviors in attractive and sophisticated policy language which eventually become enacted.  Universities are tools that advance paradigms and ideologies which help to carefully indoctrinate or plant particular ideas and notions in the minds of students who are seeking to be educated. These educated people then gravitate towards the desired objectives, and go out into the general population to further the agendas of those who want to have them promoted. Stripped down to their barest elements, many of the goods, services, ideas, paradigms, and desires have been shaped or inculcated into unsuspecting individuals and groups. These recipients then begin to express desires, ideas, and behavior patterns which line up accurately with a Satanic agenda that seeks to steal, kill and destroy human beings who may not realize that they are effectuating the dictates of the dark realm.

 

Christianity presents a powerful alternative ideological framework for influencing and shaping people’s wants and behavior. It sets up a potent, contrasting moral code that is inimical to the interests of the Satanic Kingdom. Further, it pierces through the propaganda of the dark realm to empower its adherents to resist evil programming that fosters sinfulness and wickedness, and leads people away from God.

 

Us ordinary people are for the most part unaware of the battle between the Kingdom of God and that of the Kingdom of darkness. We live every day without realizing how the conflicting agendas spill over into our mundane, ordinary existence and are shaping our choices, activities, and life events. We, by and large, take it for granted that our worlds are just the way things are, not recognizing that what we call reality is being shaped by beings and groups who are presenting to us what they want us to see. We are ignorant that there are other alternative realities which can be implemented and that our current constructs of reality are not inevitable. Most important and to our detriment, we do not comprehend the amount of power we also possess over our own malleable reality and we relinquish control to other entities who wield power over us.

 

We are often blissfully unaware that the events and occurrences which seem so detached, inexplicable, and meaningless have their origins in this epic conflict. For instance, some random stranger drinks to excess and runs into someone’s vehicle on our way to wherever. That random offender, unbeknown to us, is in the throes of an addiction to alcohol that was introduced to him or her through others who are bent on making money at all cost. This addict cannot help him or herself, but still needs to carry on his or her daily existence. This existence requires a trip to the supermarket. This unfortunate addict chooses to drive him/herself and winds up killing another random stranger. Sin’s consequences have played out on many levels in both random strangers’ lives with deadly consequences right before our eyes.  The Satanic objective to use others to introduce that random stranger to addictive substances which eventually steals his or her self-control leads to that individual destroying an unknown innocent victim. To our minds, this happens so frequently that we accept it with the stoic understanding that this is just one of life’s tragedies. Meanwhile, if we had enough information to analyze the chain of events in their entirety, we could trace their origins back to the conflict raging in the unseen realms. We might even find out that the Satanic agenda was to destroy both the addicted perpetrator and the victim of the accident.

 

Christianity is dangerous to the powerful on many levels. It conflicts with the satanic designs against humanity. It challenges those who wield power to do right and carry out God’s will. It empowers the individual to resist the machinations of the dark realm and those who would promote dark agendas. It enables us to withstand the wiles of the enemy which are packaged in enticing paradigms and ideologies.  It empowers and liberates those over whom power is being exercised by granting them access to alternative power sources from God’s unlimited divine reservoir.

 

Finally, its danger also lies in the fact that it is guided by God’s inexorable, invincible will. This means that any design that emerges in opposition is surely doomed to destruction and failure. Translated simply, all the machinations and cunning devices which humans or Satan can devise are doomed to fail. God consistently reminds His children of this fact as He inserts hope in the lives of those who submit to Him. This constant reminder also empowers those who work in this kingdom to resist the Devil and his proxies, regardless of where they manifest.

 

Learn more about God’s personhood, nature and power in:

 

Sproul, Wendy “March to Maturity: Grounded and Built (2017) Create Space. USA.

 

Learn More about Steven Lukes three faces of power from:

 

 

http://changingminds.org/explanations/power/three_faces.htm

 

And:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Lukes#The_three_dimensions_of_power

 

 

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