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A Choice of Culture
“Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.
Well, it is official. Our President has announced – “We are no longer just a Christian Nation.”[21] I am not sure if he realized what he was communicating. At any rate, being a nation under a leader who confesses that we are no longer under God, but under many gods must make us pause and take notice because we know what happened at Babel. Unfortunately, I must agree with President Obama. Just consider what we have become and why.
We seem to be a nation out of control. Our government is failing and our society seems to be at odds with itself. In some ways it looks like a tangled ball of threads. Let’s identify these tangled threads. Basically there are two main threads by which we govern ourselves – the moral and the economic.
The Moral Thread: This deals with how we live and interact with others. It includes our core values and focuses on how we build relationships with others. For my purposes, I am defining the moral thread as the root of a society’s understanding of right and wrong. These moral truths help determine how we both establish right relationships and then how we relate to each other in them. Trust is the key ingredient in any sound relationship and without moral truth, you cannot build trusting relationships.
The Economic Thread: This deals with the administration or process of the practical exchange of goods and services within a society to accommodate and support its standard of living.
For my purposes, I am defining the economic thread as the way a population uses its money to affect their standard of living as well as the form of political government that administers that wealth.
While there are only two kinds of thread, there are a multiplied variety of colors and lengths that wind together to comprise each thread.
The different “colors” within the moral thread include but are not limited to:
Ethnicity: perspectives established over thousands of years that the culture has determined to be right or wrong.
Spirituality: right and wrong as determined by the gods of its people.
Judicial Systems: man’s attempt to provide order for society by establishing laws. Here we see man’s concept of right and wrong set into rules in order to manage a nation’s way of life.
The economic thread includes forms of government and economic systems. These include but are not limited to:
Democracy
Communism
Dictatorship
Monarcy
Capitalism
Socialism
When you consider the United States and the various ethnic groups with their diverse values and spiritual philosophies making up our nations’ “melting pot”, you can begin to see how the ball of thread has gotten tangled up. When you add the integration of free market capitalist with socialist ideas, it becomes even more difficult to sort out and untangle the mess we have gotten ourselves into.
The unique plan of our founding fathers was to create a framework for all of this to work together. This framework is our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Over the two hundred thirty plus years of our existence as a nation, many people, for many reasons, have bent that framework out of shape. I believe the framers wanted the nation to rise above the aforementioned threads and create a unique American way of life based on the ideas and principles of those documents. I also believe that they established both the Declaration of Independence as well as the Constitution on Judeo-Christian Principles. In other words, they wanted us to be a nation under God! While many will try to deny this perspective, it is indisputable historical fact. Any unbiased examination of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will reveal that Christian principles lie at their core. Indeed these framers embarked on a bold experiment, but it is clear that this experiment could fail. It seems that our country is divided more than ever. Several major areas of division are obvious:
The word politics has several meanings. For my purposes this is how we will define it:
the art or science concerned with winning and holding positions of authority within a government
the art or science of guiding or influencing governmental policy
The key ideas separating our two political parties have become the front line battleground in our nation’s culture war. But the world of politics combined with many leaders’ desire for power has moved us away from our core principles by their attempt to set the agenda for what is permissible speech and what is not. When you control speech, you can limit public debate to subject matter acceptable to those in charge. By controlling speech, you can also set the premise for debate. But what if the premise is flawed? What if both sides of the debate are headed in the wrong direction? Along with this, the process whereby candidates obtain money to get elected has also contaminated the purity of what the country’s founders intended. When someone gives money, they expect something in return. As a result, politicians give special treatment to donors with special interests. Special interests then take precedence over what is good for the whole.
It’s no surprise why our American culture seems to be in such turmoil. Paradoxically, our melting pot of various cultural, spiritual and individual ideas and concepts have finally come together in one great divide.
Loyalists to the Constitution and Bill of Rights would have us be true to the founding fathers’ vision of a small government with strict interpretation of the laws established in those visionary documents. The citizenry should generally be self- reliant. Anyone can become anything they desire with effort, education, and sometimes just plain hard work. At the same time, those who have achieved success can and should help those in need through philanthropic means and donations to charity.
On the other hand, others believe that the constitution should change and adjust according to the current needs of society. And if they are not able to change the laws of the land by electing into power legislators to enact what they want, they would adjust our laws through judicial activism or executive fiat. Our government was established with checks and balances by creating three distinct branches with three distinct roles - the judicial, the legislative and the executive. Along with confusing the three governmental branches, the “flexible constitutionalists” also have strong feelings about institutionalizing help for the poor. While it is true that we must provide for people who can’t help themselves, their view of morality would be to help those in need through programs run by big government.
How you choose to interpret the constitution is not the main issue. While the framers’ vision was sound, it would be impossible for them to envision how our education system and technological advancements (especially in the areas of communication) would shape the moral aspects of our way of life. Indeed while the political and cultural divisions exist as they always have, it appears to me that our decline as a nation has not been driven by political and cultural differences. The main issue is spiritual.
Let me state this simply and clearly: we are failing as a nation for one reason only. We have turned away from the one true God and have become a nation of many gods. As a result, we have reaped moral confusion and a warped sense of right and wrong. In my view, moral prosperity precedes economic prosperity and moral decline precedes economic decline. This has been the roller coaster ride of our nation. While the upward ride was fun, no one expected how quick and steep the decline would be. Hopefully we can still find our way back up. But my personal opinion is that most people won’t follow God’s prescribed route to real prosperity.
God’s desire is for His people to be unified, to be united in Christ (Psa. 133:1, Eph. 4:1-13). The author of evil has done an effective job of dividing God’s people spiritually. We have allowed doctrine through denominationalism to separate us. Spiritual unity is essential to God’s purposes and the success of any nation. Destiny is always related to being aligned to God’s purposes.
I want to examine two critical areas to explain why we have spiritual division and God’s plan to bring about unity.
Doctrine and the teacher’s perspective-who is teaching and what is being taught
The learner’s perspective-the responsibility of being a disciple
United in Christ – the ultimate teacher
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
(Heb. 5:12-14, NKJV)
Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
(Heb. 6:1-2, NKJV)
The Author of Good gave us five ministries of Eph. 4:11-12 (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers) to equip His people for the work of service, not simply to have a service. But to some, it can be more important to have a good Sunday service than to equip believers to see Christ’s divine opportunities to minister to others. When leaders properly equip believers for the work of service, they seek to usher them into the presence of the Author of Good and then train them to yield to His transforming power especially during times of trial. Teaching is one important function of the five ministries. While any of those in such ministry can and should teach, when it comes to understanding proper doctrine, we should give special attention to those called to be teachers. Through the grace given to them, they have a unique ability to connect the seemingly disparate parts of scripture, and with insight, can communicate it in an understandable way. In fact, their anointed teaching will bring revelation!
Gifted teachers are critical to the health of the Body of Christ. If doctrine is not permeated with the presence of Christ, Christian believers will remain in spiritual infancy. On the other hand, teaching infused with the presence of God will draw us into intimacy with Him. While those who bring only spiritually dead doctrine may actually bring an accurate study of elementary Christian principles, Christ Himself is principle made alive by the power of the Holy Spirit and revealed in our response. In fact, He is life itself. Hebrews chapters 5 and 6 clearly reveal the two major sections of Christian teaching.
The elementary principles of Christ (These should be considered spiritual milk for spiritual babes)
Repentance from dead works
Baptisms (water and Spirit)
Laying on of hands
Resurrection of the dead
Eternal judgment
The word of righteousness (These should be seen as solid food for the spiritually mature)
Having our senses exercised to discern good from evil (from God’s perspective)
The practical application of our discernment through good works
“...though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him…”
(Heb. 5:8-9, NKJV)
The Christian life is about much more than proper Christian teaching. We may want to spend our whole lives in the classroom, but at some point we need to put into practice what we have heard! While proper Christian doctrine may inspire us toward godliness, Christ in us is the power we need to live out that teaching.
As students of Christ, we learn in various ways. We do so not only through someone presenting a teaching, but directly from the Holy Spirit as we pray and meditate on God’s Word. Scripture itself is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Tim. 3:16-17)
We also learn through the consequences of our actions in normal everyday life. We get spiritual exercise as we respond to the various trials of life. As we lift the weight of life’s burdens the proper way, we begin to build spiritual “muscle” (We become strong in spirit). When life is going well, it is easy to do what we ought. But life becomes decidedly more difficult when we are brought under pressure through the loss of a loved one or a job, or through increasing persecution or rejection of some kind. In such times, we are being tested. Though it is difficult, God instructs us to look on these trials with joy! The testing of our faith produces patience and patience produces maturity that makes us complete and lacking nothing (James 1:2-4).
When I took chemistry in high school, we would spend time in the classroom learning the elementary principles of chemistry. Then we would go into the laboratory to actually mix the chemicals and assess the results. Similarly, as believers, our lives are the laboratory where we mix the “spiritual chemicals” of the Author of Good. These spiritual compounds such as patience and kindness are used together. The opposite are “chemicals” such as hate, anger or lust etc. which came from the author of evil. When mixed together these various chemicals produce a reaction. For example, when we apply them to our relationships they either become acts of righteousness, or acts of unrighteousness. In the natural, if you mix two parts hydrogen with one part oxygen, you get water, a clear liquid, which is good to drink. However, if you mix chlorine with hydrogen, you also get a clear liquid, which is Hydrochloric Acid. These chemicals are like character attitudes that we bring to various relational conflicts. Like chemistry, you can choose which elements you bring, but you can’t choose the resulting reaction. One set of attitudes, produces life, the other produces death.
Because we have been made righteous by Christ’s sacrifice, we must begin to express the evidence of our righteousness by the way we love each other (John 13:35). Such fruit proves that we are His learners (disciples). If we have truly repented, then we have plugged ourselves into the source of our power! As we remain plugged in to Him, He enables our light (how we live our lives) to shine.
In these days, God is calling His people to be mature! When we take communion together it is a time to truly examine our lives and remember what Jesus did for us. He walked His talk and He is calling us to do likewise!
That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-Christ
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Christ unites us! Unfortunately, we have become separated through emphasizing various doctrines above our love for each other. But, we can become united again in Christ when we begin to understand what Jesus’ life truly means for us. He became for us:
A sacrifice that paid the penalty for our rebellion
An example of how to commune with God (i.e., how to live)
In the church, our emphasis has clearly been on the first; however, the second is no less important. Both are needed for God to accomplish His eternal purpose in us. Jesus was the ultimate example of how we are to live as human beings. He perfectly expressed how a man can live connected to the perfect spiritual being – Creator God!
When Jesus entered the “prison” and was confronted with man’s spiritual separation, He addressed it as the lack of the knowledge of God. After a 30-year time of preparation, he began to teach and show who God is and how our relationship with Him is supposed to work. As important as His teaching was, His example coupled with His teaching fully revealed the beauty of a man in full communion with God in the Spirit. Human beings living in physical bodies connected by the conduit of their souls to the realm of spirit will produce physical actions that reveal which spirit they are connected to. When we are joined to God’s Spirit as Jesus was, love is revealed in us as we walk it out. Jesus demonstrated that oneness with His Father by going to the cross in obedience to Him. Jesus knew he was going to suffer a horrible death not only for those who loved him, but also for those who hated Him. He made this choice as the ultimate expression of Love.
Our body is comprised of flesh, bone and blood. Our soul is made up of our mind, will and emotions. But our spirit is that part of the marred image of God in every person. It is made alive when one is born again and receives the Holy Spirit. Then it is formed through communion with God and then expressed through conscience as He develops godly character in us. Because God breathed His Spirit into Adam and he became a living soul surrounded by flesh, bone and blood, it is imperative that we, who are Adam’s descendants, understand the spiritual more than the other components. The human spirit became the place where God’s Spirit could dwell in us. It is through His Spirit that we have both natural and spiritual life. Spiritual life is established by our connection; connection to anything else is separation from Him which is spiritual death. God desires for us to live eternally joined to Him. Being eternally connected to evil is to be joined to destruction and is likened to being thrown into a “lake of fire”. Jesus was so concerned about the fate of mankind that He spoke of hell more than anyone else in scripture. We are either joined in our spirits to the Author of Good or the author of evil. Both connections produce fruit. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love expressed through joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Jesus showed us by how he lived what would happen when we stay connected in spirit to our heavenly Father. He came to reestablish communion between God and man so He prayed that we would be one with Him as He was one with the Father. He then poured out His Holy Spirit to establish the answer to His own prayer. Today, millions walk in communion with Him.
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:
The word “know” in John 17:3 is the English translation the Greek word ginosko. It signifies “to be taking in knowledge, to come to know, recognize, understand,” or “to understand completely”.[22]
When we commune with God in our spirit, He causes our conscience to become sensitive and able to discern right from wrong, good from evil. As we commune with the Author of Good, He forms His character in our spirit as He teaches us both to discern good and evil from His perspective and then to walk in what He shows us. Character is not a part of our soul, but a part of our spirit. It is found in us by God (usually through suffering) and confirms our connection with Him. The word character comes from the Greek word charaktēr. It means a graver (the tool or the person), that is, (by implication) engraving (“character”), the figure stamped, that is, an exact copy or [figuratively] representation): - express image. It also comes from the word: charax, khar’-ax From “charasso” (to sharpen to a point; like the idea of scratching); a stake, that is, (by implication) a palisade or rampart (military mound for circumvallation in a siege): - trench.[23]
Character has significant implications. If we are joined in spirit to God as Jesus was, He will etch or engrave our spirit with the knowledge of who He is. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit He will draw our soul to work in conjunction with Him. He will begin to renew our mind by making our conscience sensitive to Him (we begin to get the mind of Christ). Along with this, our emotions will begin to heal through the fruit of the Spirit’s work in us. Through grace, we will learn to subject our will to His Spirit dwelling in our spirit. This transformation process whereby we begin to move from glory to glory is established when we learn to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Jesus is our perfect example. He fully manifested the Life of the One to whom He was connected (1 John 1:2). He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
As God’s people we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. As we center on Him and His righteousness, He will unify us. Christ will establish unity among us on the foundation of His own person. We must live joined to Christ and receive by faith His grace to express the fruit of the Spirit toward others in the form of good works. As we submit to Christ, He will unify us in His righteousness!
While political special interest groups have gotten more vocal over the years in their attempts to influence the direction of the nation, Christians have grown more silent. As a result evil has run rampant over our nation. Here is what I believe happened.
While we have promoted a “form of godliness” we have denied its power to confront evil and change lives. While many Christian’s lives have been changing, they are not changing for the good, but for evil. It is true that many spiritual leaders learn and teach many theological facts, but somehow as a people, we are not coming to the “knowledge of the truth”. It seems we have compartmentalized the Gospel of the Kingdom and failed to present the bigger picture. The bigger picture is the purpose of God. He has an end in mind and we must align ourselves to that greater purpose. His purpose is for His manifold wisdom to be expressed through the church to principalities and powers in heavenly places. His House is His dwelling place and His house is on display. Jesus was sent to establish Himself as the foundation and builder of that house! We must yield to Him and His rule in our lives. Remember, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and too many Christians have simply not taken God at His Word! The church is not a building or a religious organization; it is an assembly of believers. If we say we believe but have no practical evidence of that faith in our lives, then we are simply living in religious dead works. Or to put it like Jesus did in one of his parables, we have not put on a proper wedding garment (Matt. 22:2-14).
When reading the story of “The Three Little Pigs” to my granddaughter Zoe, I noticed that the focus is not just on the little pig who built their house with straw or just the big bad wolf. Rather, the little pigs were going out into the world to seek their fortune. They had to decide what materials to use to build the house. Would they use improper material that was quick and easy to use, or the proper material that took time and patience? Would they live in the house that their oldest brother was building, one that was impenetrable to the big bad wolf? Sometimes we forget to notice and give attention to the moral of the story. For example, in our generation, young Christian believers are too often more influenced by the world than by spiritual leadership. Many who call themselves Christians are content at their present level of spiritual maturity and are not interested in having the Lord transform their lives by changing how they think. To be quite blunt, many are simply caught up in the world’s way of life. Just like the first two little pigs, they have taken the easy way. In other words, they are building their own houses with the wrong material.
What do Christian overseers today do when someone in the church is living in sin? Do they confront them? In too many churches, the answer is, “no”. What about you and me? Are we speaking the truth in love to our family and friends? Are we moving in the power and authority given to us? We have been given the keys to the Kingdom. Remember the King’s attitude toward those without proper attire at the wedding feast (Matt. 22: 13-14)?
Somewhere along the line, American families began to split apart. We experienced a disappearance of fathers.
“The U.S. is the world leader in families without fathers. From 1960 to 1990, the number of children living only with their mother jumped from 5,100,000 to 15,600,000. Just 27% of American kids live with their biological mother and father.[24]
The effects on children without fathers are well documented. In the areas of poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, physical and emotional health, educational achievement, crime, sexual activity and teen pregnancy, the statistics are clear. Children without fathers are more likely to be negatively affected in these areas than children with fathers.[25]
What has happened since 1960? Many ceased functioning as fathers because they didn’t get trained properly in spiritual matters. Ignorance infected whole families and the men stopped taking responsibility for the “headship” of the home (Eph. 5: 23-24). While all have been negatively affected by this phenomenon, men have borne the brunt. Today, men and women are confused about the “order of the house” and spiritual leaders are not holding them accountable to their responsibility to raise their children and keep their families trained up in spiritual matters. The fundamental responsibility of fathers as the head of the home is to love, to teach, to train and to discipline the children.
The living, the living man, he shall praise You, as I do this day; The father shall make known Your truth to the children.
”And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;
(Ps. 78:5)
Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.
And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
(Eph. 6:4)
Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of correction will drive it far from him.
How we need Godly spiritual fathers in the church today! We had many at the time of our nation’s birth. In fact, the reader may be surprised to know that many signers of the Declaration of Independence were church leaders.
These political, cultural and spiritual divisions are no accident! At the root of our chaos are tactics by the author of evil to intentionally divide our nation in order to conquer it. If you understand this, you can see the tactics being used by evil to keep us divided. Evil is at the source of racial divisions, socioeconomic divisions, political divisions and spiritual divisions. The war is spiritual in nature. As we attempt to govern ourselves, we must choose whether we will make our own rules or follow the ways of the Creator who was with us as our nation was formed. His road leads to abundant life and an eternal inheritance, the other path brings death (separation from God), the loss of our morals and prosperity (as though stolen by a thief) and total destruction. While these types of divisions are tearing the country apart and brought by evil to conquer, Jesus also came to bring division; but the division He is bringing is not against us but to rightly divide evil from good so that all can make a clear choice.
In this struggle between good and evil, we must take sides. There is no middle ground. We must decide who we will believe, trust and follow. We have become a nation that has relocated its foundation, from the moral, to the economic thread. As we have done this, we have come out from under God’s authority, protection and blessing. We have sought to build a name for ourselves. We are not seeking first the Kingdom of God. Our nation has become a nation seeking mammon. God said we cannot serve both!
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