Vehicle

It’s the thing that gets us to the thing. The new series on AMC, Halt and Catch Fire, uses this phrase to explain that completing the reverse engineering of a computer is simply one step that will begin to open the doors that create an opportunity to gain wealth and fame. It is not simply a task, but a plan entailing prescribed elements that must be completed in order to take the next step that eventually leads to that end goal. Each task may seem to be unrelated to the end goal, but accomplishing those necessary steps are essential to achieve the grand plan. Progressivism is overtaking much of our society. Academia, government and now the church is being overwhelmed by progressive ideals that look to destroy rather than lift up. Radical change is the goal of progressivism and conservatism is the great evil that is in the way. You see, those traditional minded, conservative based individuals champion concepts that progressives find repulsive: Traditional marriage between one man and one woman; the right to life of an unborn child; personal responsibility. the right to bear arms; enforcing the border of a sovereign nation; and especially objectionable is the concept of an all-powerful God that would not only have the temerity to have His only Son killed to satisfy His anger, but also imposes rules upon a humanity that has apparently reached the pinnacle of enlightenment.

But, progressives find many roads that lead to the achievement of their goals. The carefully calculated humanitarian crisis that has hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant children crossing the border is one example. “We must take care of the children!” “Any civilized society would protect those that cannot protect themselves.” Unless you happen to be an unborn child, or as Cass Sunstein would say, if the child is under two years of age. Think about that for a moment. Abortion, or what should be correctly called infanticide, is not enough for one of our President’s czars. He believes that a child, under the age of two, can be aborted. How can a person justify killing a living, breathing child? When one does not value life, anything goes. Back to the vehicle used to get what one wants. The progressive in government looks to that government to provide for, nurture and control the populace. In order to control the populace, having that populace beholding to a government that provides the means for their income, health care, housing and other necessary items gives that government a means to control that portion of the populace. Creating an ill- informed, permanent underclass by giving them free stuff creates a populace that tends to vote to continue their handouts. Make that number greater than half of the total population and you create a permanent majority that allows the progressives to maintain power. How better to build and maintain that voting bloc than by opening the border gates and allowing the poor and destitute to enter. Then create entitlements for those undocumented immigrants and add to those who vote to maintain those entitlements, or simply put, to continue getting all their free stuff. It’s the thing that gets us to the thing.

Make note of the professionally printed signs that most “grass roots” activists display today? Wasn’t Nancy Pelosi the one who coined the word “Astroturf” to describe the grass roots uprising by the Tea Party? Occupy, immigration, women’s reproductive health, and other progressive activist groups are very well organized. There are no spontaneous demonstrations when it comes to a progressive’s plans. Every protest, every march is dedicated to achieving the results that move them closer to their ultimate goal. The “Overton Window” shows that by simply using tactics currently employed by progressives, one can swiftly move society to accept what was once looked upon as aberrant behavior. First move the public perception from unacceptable to radical, next move from radical to acceptable. Then move from acceptable to sensible. Take the next logical step from sensible to popular. Then complete the transition from popular to policy. It doesn’t take as long as one would imagine. Abortion leapt from unthinkable to a woman’s right to choose in a manner of years. Out of wedlock childbirth went from a family disgrace to a badge of honor, once even glorified in a popular network TV show, within a few decades. And homosexuality flew out of the closet to first become hip and now applauded as “heroic” in a just a few short years.

A must read for any conservative should be Alisnky’s “Rules for Radicals“. After all, it is important to understand one’s enemy, especially one that is hell-bent at utterly destroying the competition. Is the radical Islamist the greatest threat to democracy? No, and if you truly understand the progressive, you will recognize that they pose the greatest threat to country, individuality and particularly, Christianity.

From “Rules for Radicals”

“The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist. (Perception is reality. Large organizations always prepare a worst-case scenario, something that may be furthest from the activists’ minds. The upshot is that the organization will expend enormous time and energy, creating in its own collective mind the direst of conclusions. The possibilities can easily poison the mind and result in demoralization.)

“Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. (Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, regroup, recover and re-strategize.)

Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

Sound familiar. The Evangelical Church in America has become quite proficient with these types of tactics. Take the time to read some of the current ELCA member comments on their own “Living Lutheran” website. Those that remain true to the authority of Scripture and believe as Luther taught are ridiculed and castigated by our ever loving, ever tolerant brothers and sisters from our former synod. As the ELCA proclaims, God’s work, our hands, their leaders push their members further away from the path God has set before them. God’s chosen, Israel is reviled by the leadership of the ELCA as they peddle outright lies to their membership to breed hatred while lifting up the plight of the very organization that wants to not only wipe Israel from the face of the earth, but also would destroy Christianity. Want to kill your unborn child? If you are employed by the ELCA, although the workforce continues to wane at Higgins Road, their insurance will pay for the procedure. Want to placate the selfish cravings of a sinful humanity and deny your Savior? All you need to do is invoke your bound conscience and you can not only have your same sex relationship recognized as a marriage by this wayward church, you can preach, unrepentantly from the pulpit as an ordained minister. These are the things that get them to the thing. And apparently that thing is elevating man above God and replacing Him with images of themselves.

Satan rejoices in the progressive movement. They are doing the things that get him to the thing he most longs for, a church that denies their God, a society that accepts murder, a society that replaces God’s will their flawed human sensibility, in fact, calling God a liar, and a church that is working to destroy God’s chosen people. With God out of the way, any perversion is possible. Jeremiah 23:25-27, “I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their ancestors forgot my name through Baal worship.” The Baal that the leaders of the ELCA worship is tolerance, acceptance and diversity. Their leaders bow in worship at the altar that lifts up the desires of a sinful humanity and leads their membership into the abyss ruled by the evil one. Remain in fellowship with the ELCA and one day you may find yourself falling into the trap of the evil one with no escape. Luke 13:22-25, Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ Pray unceasingly for the hearts and minds of those trapped within the ELCA to be opened to the truth

Spiritual Logic

“We don’t have to force Jesus on anybody, or convince individuals that their spiritual logic is faulty. Our task is to embody Christian love, not play savior” Peter W. Marty, an ELCA pastor in his column, Leaving Church Behind for the June 2014 “The Lutheran” magazine. Marty is a good soldier for the ELCA. Now fulfilling his oath to his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ is another matter. As with all good ELCA henchmen, the church and its’ congregational life is the most important aspect of their faith. Inclusivity, tolerance and diversity are what church is all about, isn’t it? After all, how could one properly embody true Christian love without an organization that leads the otherwise faithful. Marty muses about those that have kissed congregational life goodbye or have grown indifferent to faith. Curious the choice to place congregational life before faith is so very typical to this wayward denomination. This essay details several parishioners that fled his congregation. One couple left after reading his essay, Serendipitous, where on a particular Wednesday night, Marty inexplicably stopped at home to find his wife collapsed due to a brain aneurism. Marty’s Wednesday nights are typically filled with church activities and he seldom got home until very late. Not this day though. No credit given to God for directing him home at the precise time to enable him to save his wife’s life, simply an acknowledgement of a convergence of circumstances. Take a look at all some of the comments that accept Marty’s explanation that God is not in charge and that the Holy Spirit had nothing to do with this apparent miracle. It is so sad when a pastor decides that he needs to lead his flock astray in order to declare himself to be the smartest person in the room.

Marty cites another example of a self-absorbed man at whom Marty snarkily comments, “I sometimes wonder if Shawn is addicted to himself. He certainly figures frequently into the center of most conversations.” It appears that pastoral guidance and direction are above his pay grade. Marty then poses the question of what to do with those who were once shaped by Christian community and are a great distance from anything that hints of religious practice within an institution. Concern for their spiritual well-being will have to wait for someone else, perhaps like the ELCA doctrine of “Accompaniment”, since the seeds of faith were planted, his work is done. From there Marty moves into the blame game. Oh, those Christians that have the temerity to believe in the authority of Scripture. Those rotten Bible thumpers are always casting aspersions (and stones) on those lost souls that do not believe as they do. Holding true to the faith, believing that Jesus is the way and the light and the truth, believing that there is no way to the Father but through faith in the living Christ, apparently makes traditional Christians purveyors of exclusivity, building a wall between themselves and humanity. Yes, Marty does not specifically state this in his essay, but the inference is loud and proud. “Presumptuousness over our preferences and tastes is not a virtue.” Marty may liken himself to some of the great theologians that espoused novel and innovative interpretations of Scripture, but he doesn’t get it at all. In other words, his version of an explanation of the path God has set looks like so many lemmings falling off a cliff.

Yes, as followers of Christ, we are to embody Christian love. We are to share the love that He first gave us. We are to share the forgiveness that He gave to those who don’t deserve it. When we allow ourselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit, the love of Christ will flow from our hearts like a river. Everything we are is a gift from God. Pleasing Him is our greatest joy, yet our deepest disappointment as we fail, over and over, to follow our Father’s will. Paul said in Romans 7:14-25, “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.” Jesus chose Paul to preach His Gospel to the world and even Paul found that his inner sinful nature caused him engage, over and over, in sinful behavior. We are no different. Through faith in the Risen Christ, one is no longer subject to the law, whose penalty is death. But, knowing that obedience to the law is pleasing to God, we can come to better understand the path He has set before us.

Therein lies the dangerousness of the doctrine of bound conscience that affirms sinners and disregards their sin. Without our acknowledgment that we are indeed sinful and cannot free ourselves from the grip of sin without our Lord and Savior, we are destined to fall away from His presence. Jesus Christ was sacrificed for us, a sinful humanity. Faith in the Risen Savior grants everlasting life. Our call is to share the love of Christ in our actions, in our words, and in our lives. It is the Holy Spirit working within us, not us trying to play savior. If someone’s spiritual logic is faulty, it is our responsibility to act to help lead them back to the Truth. 2 Timothy 4:2-4, “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” Sorry Marty, the theology of the ELCA is drifting much closer to myth as it continues to abandon God’s Truth.

Again, as in most ELCA essays there is the cursory nod to diversity and sensitivity. “We get to think and talk thoughtfully, bringing fresh clarity to our faith convictions while expanding our sensitivity toward what may seem like the odd practices of others.” This is also promoting the idea of universalism that seems to be overtaking the ELCA and the hands off approach to evangelism that abandons their responsibility to reach the lost for Christ. Seems to me that Marty is intent upon challenging Christians to stand down and accept the diversity of other religions, rather than to proclaim the Gospel and reach the lost for Christ. If this distorted version of Christianity continues to be exposed to the world, more and more of God’s children will be lost.