Over the course of the years
2001 and 2002, I engaged in a comprehensive investigation of
Scripture, and discovered that much of what the World calls
"Christianity" is not actually biblical. I was once a
thoroughgoing Catholicist— as "Protestant" as I considered
myself to be. Much of that was because I gave such credence to
the Augustinian-oriented Romanist agenda accompanied by "conservative
Christian" indoctrination: the desire to force compliance with
the law through the designs and agencies administered by Caesar.
But through it all, many crucial questions gnawed at me. After
this visceral engagement with His word, He graciously dropped
the scales from my eyes, so to speak, and I saw the door to His
beautiful Kingdom opened. The following questions were drawn up in 2003
(modified a bit for this site) and shared with selected
individuals at that time to perhaps stir their desire to know
and to understand.
All of the answers are
in Scripture. This website is intended merely to direct the
genuine seeker of His truth and grace to those words.
¨
If this is a “Christian nation,” then how come so many people in
it are so evil, or so given over to non-Christian religions and cults—even brazenly endorsing them and their practices as harmless or of no
real consequence? Why do so many give so much lip service to the First
Commandment yet so readily disregard it? (Certainly many
perceptive Christians may indeed truthfully acknowledge that, while very
religious, the United States is not a Christian nation.
That is not the question here though. The question is about how come so
many are so strident about their conviction that it is
“Christian” and what it actually means when they say that.)
¨
Why does the church always seem to be running in place? There’s
talk of revival every once in a while, but on the whole the culture is
still as wretched as it has always been, if not more so. And the excuse
that this is just the World doing its worldly thing has always been so
disconcerting, because shouldn’t our “light” be drawing people out of
that world? Where is the fruit of that?
¨
If this is a “Christian nation,” then how come the government
does so many evil things, attested to in spades by both conservatives
(their concerns) and liberals (their concerns)? And yet, on the
other hand, isn’t government supposed to be a legitimate force for good
in a civilized world? This inconsistency has been extraordinarily
troubling.
¨
Why is it that even the most intelligent Christians are all over
the map about things of government and politics? Some brashly stay
in ignorance about the most simple concepts, while others who say they
know usually come off sounding crazy or cruel or both. Otherwise
we just shrug and assume highly credentialed scholars know what is
really going on out there (most don’t know either), and I still wonder,
why doesn’t anyone who names the name of Jesus really know?
¨
What is the real deal with judging? The secular world
roasts Christians about “judge not lest ye be judged,” but Jesus still
said “judge righteous judgment.” While everyone must make moral
judgments all the time, how can we do that without feeling like we
appear to be foaming at the mouth, and at the same time not be considered
timid, gutless milquetoast?
¨
How come some times I see so much difference in what Republicans
and Democrats want and at other times I see so much similarity? What is
it: are they different or are they just the same? What’s what?
¨
How in the world can so many Americans in a “Christian nation”
endorse what Democrats want? Things like enabling the murder of unborn
children and endorsing government confiscation of wages to reward
irresponsible behavior are particularly repulsive. And how on earth can so
many Republicans be so powerless, even spineless to do anything about
those things?
¨
How could a “Christian nation” government, supposedly
administered by good wholesome Christians, be so adept at pursuing,
prosecuting, and incarcerating the most wicked evildoers, when
everything about the gospel is about manifesting the fruit of the
Spirit? Really, how is that possible if they are really
Christians?
¨
What is “separation of church and state” really about anyway? Is
there even such a “separation”? And why is there so much belligerence in
the discourse about it one way or the other, and yet still it seems so
few know anything about what it means?
¨
If I’m a devout Christian and I am physically attacked by an evildoer,
or more urgently, my family is attacked, what do I do? Turn the
other cheek? —That would be not loving to my family. Seek to harm the
attacker? —That would not be demonstrating the fruit of the
Spirit. (Indeed there are many fine philosophical answers to this
age-old problem, but to be honest, none have been truly satisfying.
Particularly disconcerting is Augustine's "Just War" treatise, something
trumpeted by many scholarly Christians but still hideously ungodly in a number of
ways.)
¨
How come so many endorse being good and doing good and they work
so hard at it, even going around speaking about how good everyone is,
when it is only God who is truly good? It seems we never cease taking to
newer heights the glorification of man and his dazzling humanistic
efforts to fix the world—what an offense to the God from whom all
good things come.
¨
Isn’t evil certainly a worthy foe to wage a battle against?
Shouldn’t we be joining the forces of “good” in the common cause? Isn’t
the “culture war” worth fighting? If the answers to these questions are
“yes,” how come so many “Christians” in the conflict simply do not seem
to be very kind, empathetic, or understanding?
¨
Really, who should I vote for? Should I cast an impact
vote (for the “lesser of two evils” because he has the better chance of
winning) or the conscience vote (for the principled candidate who has
no chance of winning)? And why can’t we talk about who should be voted
for from the pulpit—or should we at all? In that vain, what has the
501(c)(3) tax exemption status really done to our churches—or does it
even matter?
¨
Why are taxes so excessive? And in that, how come the U.S.
Government and its people have such a codependent relationship? This
just doesn’t make sense in a “Christian nation,” that as such should
be filled with people relying on God for their provision and
graciously thanking Him to the extent that they can’t help
but actively love their neighbor. Are we really giving to Caesar what’s
his, or are we giving more and in doing so bringing great
dishonor to the God we claim to serve?
¨
From where does the government really get its authority to
rule?
-
From
the people? How can that be when they are sinners and prone
to foster tyrannical oppression themselves? How exactly, in this
sense, does the government official as a sinner justify
prosecution of the citizen as a sinner?
-
From
God? How can that
be when so many in “His” government are so evil themselves and must
know so much about evil to pursue evildoers?
-
From
the law? How can
that be when in a "democracy," the law can only come from the people or from God to begin
with?
-
From the
status quo, such as an entrenched line of monarchs or dictators? How can that be
when the origin of legitimacy of these leaders is still, for all
intents and purposes, derived from seemingly unascertained, inauthenticated sources?
¨
Why do so many Americans (and others certainly) claim to be
Christian, and yet have a near pathological desire to live under the
burdensome weight of the law? Americans are obsessed with the parameters
of the law, even to the smallest detail. The Bible, however, says that
grace and truth are from Christ—that’s the way Christians should
be living; the law is from Moses and is less “glorious” than the
freedom that comes from the Spirit. But so many people are so wounded, so shredded by guilt, shame, confusion, denial, and fear. At
the same time so many are flatly leading sickeningly immoral lives, and
they have insatiable hunger for power in some form or another. The key
is that they all want their sin to be “managed” by the law. And
while many are touched, saved and healed by God, why is this “Christian
nation” in such apostate condition? All the while we wear such smiling
happy masks—frequently saying ultimately pointless things like “It
really isn’t so bad, America is the greatest country in the world, so
deal with it.” Why the extraordinarily profound inconsistency here? Even
the very best “Christian” makes excuses like “Nobody’s perfect”—but he
would never do that to excuse a thief or a rapist. What is the
truth about all this?
¨
In this sense, it comes down to this question: Why are
those in a “Christian Nation” simply not living out the true joy,
peace, and love that Christ said we would? And how are they all so
successful at pretending that they are?
***
Scripture
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This "Christian" Nation |
Cain's Legacy
Some of the Ways
Christians Still Wallow in Babylon
For a start to see some of those answers, check out the
Citations page
Chapter 1 >> Chapter 2 >>
Chapter 3
This page was originally posted by David Beck at
yourownjesus.net on October 23,
2004
This page was
updated June 27, 2020
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