Clarification to the Offended

I want to make something clear, I know often in my rants, that many individuals who may run across what I write here, seem to think it is personal attack, against them.
Nothing of what I ever write is to condemn others, or to judge them, only God is judge, I like the prophets of old am compelled to speak only against their practices, beliefs or teachings that oppose the Who is God, and Who is the Son.
What we believe doesn't change that Christ came to die for all of us and that we all needed that, but it is His life - the message we must understand as well. It must be applied in every area of our lives.

However, history proves that people will kill to defend their beliefs, doctrines, or practices and thus the world rages now. The message cannot be applied but by His grace in our lives, but we must first approach God the Father through the Son always in prayer, not by doctrine or our "Orthodoxy or Orthopraxy."

Religion, Politics, Foreign Policy, Criminal Justice you name it, has it's roots in the sinfulness of men.
Systems are not pure, as the early Christians so better understood.
They may have used the term Devil or Satan but they had a definition outside of what later developed within the context of church. They didn't believe in the Devil, as an entity in competition with God, a second god. They were not dualist. They understood that "Adversary" was all that opposed God's love and mercy, and that individuals, groups, governments and the world are the "Satan".
They never perceived of Him as the church does or we have been taught to do. The Satan is not some weird little pointed ear, long tail, horned and red in color individual that was a "fallen angel" that is in some great cosmic game of chess with God using mankind as the playing pieces.
This teaching so widely accepted with all religions which are pagan, even our "christian paganism," are false and do more to excuse all people from personal sin, then anything else. It has done more to produce the very opposite of what God's revealed love in Jesus was to produce within His people.

All of the "adversaries" of God that I have not completely listed above are the "Satan" they are merely a reflection of the entire human condition of sin and death in this world.
Just as we are, and can be, when we fail to receive God's grace in our lives. We become and are the "Satan" - the adversaries of our Creator.
There is much more that could be said here on the dualism teachings of the church, and the gnostic origins of the church for what is taught but that's for another book perhaps. There have been some very good books written on this matter as well, by men who are thinking men, who have opened their eyes and ears to Jesus Christ, and not Jewish myths, traditions of men, and all the things Paul warned the body of Christ of, time after time. and John and Peter as well.

I love people of all races, because Jesus didn't die for the Caucasian race only as some would have us believe. He lived and died for all men regardless of race, color, creed or religion.
We all needed Him. We all still do.

What I stand against if you have read my writings enough is the total disregard, we, Christians, have for all people, just because of their race, color, creed or religion, and don't see ourselves in light of the living Word of God, that all men are in the same condition, and all institutions are in the same condition, all governments are in the same condition and all religion is in the same condition.
We are without redemption from our evil, ourselves, our violence, our hatred, our selfishness, without Christ being the centrality of our life. Not the Jesus that has so wrongly been portrayed to the world, but the Jesus of the Gospels.

We have far too long focused on doctrinal matters (and most often, been wrong) and not enough on living matters.
God loves the hater as well as the hated, the evil doer as well as those who oppose evil, but without Him, Jesus Christ coming to us, changing us, by seeing the life he lived, the death he died, and what resurrection and Pentecost really mean, we are hopelessly lost in our hatred, and our being a victim of it. We are lost in our doing of evil, and our being a victim of evil.
It is the love of God, that has been shed abroad in our hearts that Christ body needs and the world at large.
Far too long traditional Christianity has defined the atonement in terms that are falsely Judicial rather than Christ the Victor terms. 
God's mission to bring Justice, was in the person of Jesus Christ while He was here both in the life he lived, and the death he died.

Biblically to "bring justice" does not mean to bring punishment,

but to bring healing and reconciliation.

Justice means to make things right. All through the Prophets justice is associated with

caring for others, as something that is not in conflict with mercy, but rather an expression

of it. Biblically, justice is God's saving action at work for all that are oppressed:

"Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the

fatherless, plead the case of the widow". (Isaiah 1:17)"This is what the LORD says:

"`Administer justice every morning; rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who

has been robbed" (Jeremiah 21:12)

True justice can only come though mercy

"This is what the LORD Almighty says: `Administer true justice: show mercy and

compassion to one another. (Zechariah 7:9) "Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;

he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice".( Isaiah 30:18)

--From Penal Substitution versus Christus Victor Atonement-

"The Rebel God" a blog linked on this page.

I believe sincerely anything outside of the action of love, self sacrificing love, in the exemplary way that Christ lived and died, is not Christian. We can turn the Holy Bible into something more unholy so often by all the traditions of men, then hearing the Word of God and seeing the Living Word. We like to shake our fist at the Muslim and their Quoran. When we treat the Truth of the Word of God, and especially the story, the One we trust in, in disregard of the Story, we have reduced our "Holy Bible" to nothing more then that we accuse the Muslim of having - "a book of violence that propagates it."
Wrong, all religion propagates violence, even ours if we treat the Story- Jesus, as a book, defined and dissected by us, into a few choice verses, to justify our own sin. Then it becomes as unholy, as any book claimed to be God's truth, when it is in contradiction to all Jesus lived and died for. This is what the serpent did in the Garden, he was the first Theologian, a simple animal, became man's first great Theologian. The first to WRONGLY divide God's Word.
When we as men, turn to concepts of man's justice, man's hatred for others, man's pride, man's powering over others, man's solution as war to the problems of the world, we have negated Christ in His teaching, His life, and His death. How dare we call ourselves "Christian."

So what I do is stand against all that makes us less then what we are too be or claim to be in Christ, this includes, false teachings, practices, and living. I stand against those things which say, powering over others, rather than submitting to others, is the way we win.
No we win, when we see the REAL JESUS, and we turn to the love He showed, practiced and gave right down to the Cross.  The reasons most Christians don't live this life, is because of false teaching, and listening to evil more than the Holy Spirit and story of God's love to us who deserved none but Christ won the victory for all of us, the victim and the victimizer.
He redeemed us not so we can say, now I can live like the world, think like the world and do like the world and go to heaven. No! He redeemed us, that we redeem others, in this life, by allowing His life to be lived in us, through us and as us. So, that in all that we do and say, it is the same love expressed through Him by the Father to us, that we by the Holy Spirit express that life to others.
His entire story, the message we miss is found in who God is. We have too long tried to define God in every whim of doctrine rather then answering the simple declaration of the Word of God.
God is love!

Thus I oppose war, and power structures, that leave men powering over others.
I believe as Jesus lived and taught, it is in powering under, that we gain real power, It is when we get down and wash each others feet, and the feet of our community, our State, Our Nation and the World, is where real power comes from, resurrection power.
It is when we lay down our lives in love to all men, that we have lived in obedience to the Spirit of Christ and not the spirit of this World (this is the Satan).
So, when I attack a teaching or practice it is to redeem God's people from the sinful thinking that it brings in their lives, and in the end when acted out, it destroys them and all those around them.  Jesus turned over the tables in righteous anger against those taking advantage of the poor, the widowed and the orphan, I get angry and rant... Jesus loved the table tenders, He hated their belief system that had translated the "house of prayer" into a market system.He may have flogged them, but he didn't go get a AK-47 or any kind of sword that physically kills or maims, if any killing was done, it wasn't people that He killed, He killed their "adversarial actions and beliefs about the Father". He chastised those He loved the Temple market place people. We twist that, and say, well in the New Testament Jesus did get angry, so war and hatred is justified.
Yes, He did get angry, righteously angry and He is still angry at our total disregard of our love for Him first, and then our neighbor. He is still flogging us, as a person, a nation, and world. Not to destroy us but to save us, and make His people not the Temple, His house of prayer.

So, don't become personally offended, but do if necessary.
Become offended enough to re-evaluate your actions and belief system in light of no longer proof texting everything you do believe, this is the worst thing that we can do to God's Word, we have come to think to "rightly" divide the Word, is to divide it up into one or two verses, that will appease our sinful nature, make a doctrine out of it, form a group around it, and hate all those who oppose it.
God's "RIGHTLY" dividing is the opposite of our dividing, rather than division it creates unity among those who believe the story. It will always divide when we "search the scriptures thinking we might find life in them, when they speak of Him."
The Bible is not one million verses on how to keep from going to hell, it is the story of God's love to and for His creation. He doesn't want to deliver us from some future "tormenting fires". He wants  to get us out of the hell all men are in right now, in the here and now. This is only accomplished by trust placed in the story of His love expressed through the first human to ever be the full expression of who He is- Jesus Christ- the Second Adam. Our trust is in Him, because of the unity of the story, not it's divisions created by men. This is the worst thing men ever did, at first was to divide it up into chapters, verses, paragraphs, sentences, words, etc. The Christian church has used that division of the story far too long, and miss the entire context from Genesis to Revelation.
God is love.
In light of everything Jesus was, did and is. He is the full expression of the Father. He is love.
Jesus didn't come to formulate a new religion but to deliver us from religion to a life of love for the Father first, and then to our neighbor. 

Then we will find common ground as Believers when we trust the subject of the story and it will be "God is love."

Doctor J.

The Emergent Church

I think the Father is using this to draw the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy away from set in stone doctrine or traditional doctrines not based on the Word of God, and even practices which aren't based on the Apostolic tradition, it will make them think I pray and move more toward the centrality of Christ and Him alone along with community, and action toward the world.’ Ah! in other words, let’s let the Spirit of God to do the teaching, and let’s live it out in community, and toward all the world.
This is a very good thing, because as Post Modern , it is calling on the Orthodox to a more Generous Orthodoxy. It is a break away from the scientific, rationality of the period of Enlightenment, which is why so many people are stuck in trying to figure the Father and Jesus out, rationally rather than living in Him experientially and leaving it at that. One's Orthodoxy is narrowed down to just words, but to the life within, the life of Christ within them. Now there is an orthodoxy, don't get me wrong, I don't buy the entire emergent churches message, in some of what I am hearing. I think yes, we must be absolute that having been born of the Spirit and Christ being that resurrected life, we must believe He is the only way to eternal life, which isn't defined by the afterlife effect, to often we have traditionally sold this to mean- heaven, but Christ defined it as this - to know the one true God and His Son whom He sent, Jesus Christ, of course then entails more than a head or doctrinal knowledge or asset to who he is, but a real life, where the rubber meets the road, intimate relationship with His presence in our life, which is lived out in God's defined love toward others.
It is like I have said many times. Each Christian man’s truth is his truth, but that truth isn’t related to which doctrine, eschatology, which one is absolutely correct, or truth, Truth is only embodied in Jesus Christ alone, and that relationship to Him and His life within you, though it may draw you in inwardly to see yourself for who you really are, and why you need Christ, but it will not remain your individual little box to put God in, but if it is truth it will take you outwardly to confront and engage the world around you in love and compassion, mercy and God’s justice not men’s concept of it. It will lead others to Christ, without having to use words to condemn, but love to win.
It is for this reason I no longer accept the Penal Substitution atonement as absolute, but rely and believe more in the Christus Victor, atonement. Explanations for what the Father did through the Son is still mere words, and concepts of men. I think Christus Victor atonement brings and relates more to who the REAL HEAVENLY FATHER IS by recognition from the story, and my experience, and not the doctrines of men.
The Penal Substitution Atonement Theorem to me is based on the fear of God, like in the Old Testament, rather than the love of God as expressed in the New Testament. "Perfect love casts out fear."
Anyway read this -
Brian D. McLaren has written several books, the first one I have peeked at on Amazon, is “The Secret Message of Jesus, and this one http://www.amazon.com/Generous-Orthodoxy-conservative-contemplative-fundamentalist/dp/0310258030/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288804759&sr=1-2#reader_0310258030

Actually he has written several books not just these few. I still see the greatest failure of the Orthodox is to judge those that aren’t or who to try to reshape Orthodoxy to perhaps fit society (Materialism), but in the end only reduce Christ to a feel good sermon, or less than who he is, and they create a God once more in their image, rather then the image provided to us in the Flesh- Jesus Christ.
At least with the Emerging Church, they are not approaching God, centered on Orthodoxy ( defining what is acceptable and true doctrine of which no matter what or how you live, if you believe these things, then you are OK with me) but on Orthopraxy ( the living out in practice of the truth- the life of Christ within)
See Orthodoxy may hold a few tenants of definable truth but the only real truth is Jesus Christ being the central one, but those tenants of faith and doctrine have changed over history, and time, and are still argued today. Calvinist, versus Armenians, Catholics versus Protestants, Universalism, Limited Grace, etc.
Whereas, the life, the action, the move, the missional, the doing, has never changed, for we cannot argue or disagree on the story of Jesus, or the life he lived. The division comes down to when we try to explain in inept words, rather than just allowing the Spirit to do it, in us, as us, and through us.
Don't get me wrong, to say you can have that intimate knowledge of God, through religion any religion other than a relationship with Christ, I don't believe that.
I don't believe in the Emergent Churches, lack to define this, and don't accept their idea, that all religion, can get you to the Father. Matter of fact I believe even Christian " religion" will not get you to the Father or the Son, there must be genuine change of heart, and a new birth from the incoming presence of Christ, coming to live within you. Now no matter what the Emergent Church may say, if we let that go, then you can't even be a "Christian." You might be religious, and even globally religious, is what I saw at the Glenn Beck rally- which I didn't agree with. He is buying the one world religion baloney, that I fear the Emergent Church may sadly be moving toward. We don't need a one world religion, we need people throughout the world to be born of Him!
We must not be tossed about by every wind of doctrine, and the way to avoid that is to make Christ center of it all. One must eliminate the questions, of whose, right on all the issues of eschatology, theology, etc. and get to the basic, the center of what faith is, it is a relationship with Christ, an experiential one as well as the story as revealed in Scripture, but that doesn’t remain in a inward focus, I’m right and everybody else is wrong, it must result in a reaching out to a world that is hurt, lost, and in need, but not to bring them in for our specific doctrine, or orthodoxy or even our so called “truths” but, in bringing God’s justice to a world that doesn’t know it. This becomes the revealing of the real Jesus, who reveals the real Father. His justice is compassion and mercy, not judgment and condemnation, or dividing up in little groups of creed or doctrine, or even eschatology for that matter, there must be a hands across the table compassion to everyone, for this was the life that Jesus lived, right down to what took him to the cross.
We avoid this in our lives, because to be radically different, not necessarily in our statements of faith, or creed or doctrine, but in the way that we differ is our absolute surrender of love toward the Father, by the Son, to the absolute surrender to love others, at no matter what the cost, even the Cross.
This is why we generally avoid, love, mercy, or even justice, is because it will cost us to much, it is to take up our Cross daily and follow Him, because in the end, it all leads us to Calvary, but what better, then to die to ourselves, and the way this world does things, and do it the Jesus way. What better than to die at that cross with Him, and see the morning dawn in our resurrection. Our true resurrection as we become Him, in life, word and deed,
We cannot discount the thousands of Christians, missionaries, Pastors, and others who have lived that life, and even given up their lives for the sake of others, for though they may have had titles, and even been called great by men, if we look at them, many of them carefully and reserve judgment for God, we will see, their hands scarred like Jesus. We will see a life, that touched the lives of others in ways and means that you and I have never approached yet. Thus do we discount the many that maybe they weren't Orthodox in the sense of what we or the group we belong to defines it thus. Protestants in general will never see the good, of the Mother Teresa's or the St. Francis of Assisi's because they hold to much prejudice against Catholicism. Yet, their lives, regardless of trying to define or judge what their reasons were for doing it, by their Orthodoxy, we must and have to say, the results were real because of their Orthopraxy, the lives they touched and lifted from out of despair to hope. This is the life of Jesus, not some sitting in our living rooms and placating ourselves, with an hour of CBN or TBN. It's not an hour of Sunday sermon, 10 minutes of Bible reading, and ten percent of our money, it's not a prayer before our meals or bedtime, it is the life of Christ, lived out in us, as us, and through us, and all that we do and say. That message is love for God and love for others above all things, and to love like Jesus loved will cost you everything, even your Orthodoxy at times.
I am not disparaging those who may do so, for they may just be right where God wants them for the moment, but if that moment, turns into a lifetime, can we say, that they had true faith. For Faith without works is DEAD! This is where the rubber meets the road.
We can go to church on Sunday, but when our lives are lived out just like the rest of the world who live in despair and hopelessness, because we are individualistic, materialistic, and self worshiping, and self serving, what good is our faith. What if Jesus would have remained a Carpenter, and not have changed his occupation to Fisher of men and become the Itinerent Preacher who empowered the powerless, the unloved, the dredges of society, and just preached, and that was it, and then died. Would we still see God as love? No, as the people said, he spoke with authority, not like the Pharisees, and the Scribes, you can talk all day long about love, but unless I see it, in the love that is expressed as Jesus expressed it, your words, deafen me. Jesus words didn't deafen the Pharisees, they challenged them, they chose to put their own fingers in their ears, for to listen would have required change, loss of title, loss of recognition, loss of being self righteous to become humbled and give up the things so cherished, that they valued their lives on, their sense of pride.
They are as most of us, we dare not walk away from all that we own and have, and give our lives, to reaching out to those less fortunate then we are - why others would say were foolish, irresponsible, and all the things, that put man in bondage and offer us no freedom at all of our Spirit to break away from the commonplace, the common sense. Thus the rich young ruler could live the Orthodox, the keeping of the Law, but he could not go and sell all that he had, and give it to the poor, for that would have cost him everything, thus it is often our comforts in life, that quench the Spirit of God in our lives, to really know and experience the Kingdom of God.
Yes, there may be many who did things for the wrong motive, but who are we to judge what their motives were. If the fruit is good, so isn’t the tree, if they be not against us, as Jesus told the disciples, they are for us.... This is what we must look at, there are Catholics, Protestants, and others, of all groups in some way , at sometime, that had individuals within them, even as today there are, that knew, Christ was the center of it all, and that, living that out, was to die to self, and live for God, right down to the cross, so even great saints of the church, like St. Francis of Assisi, understood that, whether he was Catholic or not, he gave his life in love, to the centrality of Christ, in love toward his fellow man, especially those, like Christ did, the very one’s the world rejects, hates, judges, disdains, the dredge of society, the poor, the downtrodden, the unsuccessful, the prisoner, the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, this is the life of Christ lived out, not in an individual cocoon of self righteousness, or self assertiveness, that I am correct and everyone else is wrong, it is the fruit of giving in missional life, that proves the tree. The tree is worthless, if our life, is just another, business as usual even if we go about saying the name of Jesus or arguing a new or old doctrine, what worth is it? What good does it do? If we do not offer the hope, and the reality of love to those we meet, in a sacrificial way, for to do good to those who deserve no good, is to definitely, find ourselves, in precarious situations in the eyes of the world, matter of fact, it will stir up the anger, of those who have bit into and lived the lie of the ages, of good versus evil, rather than holiness, which is only achieved by a life lost to Christ and to the Cross. This is the only resurrection that can be achieved, is when we die to us, no matter how painful or dreadful, we lay down our lives for others in the larger community of the world, then just to think, that we really are doing something, by going to work everyday, and bringing home a dime or two. Though for some that is fine, but it is what do we do with that dime or two, are we willing to let it go, to reach out, and lift up those without hope or sustenance. Do we only take enough as Paul taught to be content with food and clothing, or have we drowned out the cry of the hurting, the loss, those without any hope, in exchange for our own comforts, of society and family.. any real faith, or faith that is real, will be expressed in your personal loss, and someone else's gain.
This cannot be done alone, it does take Community, and a heart for others, but it must be a heart, not superficial or an attempt to appease God or men, but in the reality of the life of Christ in us, that moves us, for this is the work of the Spirit in our lives.
In every case, we see, where the Spirit of God, is, He is gentle but forceful, silent but active, always creating life anew. Christ is the center of all of it, this is what I believe and though not in perfection have reached for constantly, to be continually broken and of a contrite heart, so that He can renew, create, and move within me, to live out His life first and foremost through me, to a world, that needs light and salt. Light can hurt our eyes, and salt can sting, it is only when we know the benefit of these, that light becomes good to us, it dispels the darkness, not just for us, but to all of those around us, and salt, is healing, and flavorable, and it feeds the spirit, and flavors the spirit, and brings, flavor to the stale food of life that many around us, may be experiencing. I wished I could only put in words, what I feel in my heart, and what I know to be true, but then, if I could, someone would turn it into a doctrine, or orthodoxy, or creed or doctrine, and it would become the yeast of the Pharisees, this is where Theology has erred, it has attempted with scientific reason, most limited, by the human mind and linguistics, to put into words what can only be known in the heart, and this is why, we have such division, because each man tries to find the right one, that points to his present experience, with God, and there is no, right one way to express the truths of God, because the Father encompasses all of human experience, travail, pain, wonder, love, art and more. He is in all through all things of the human experience, relating Himself to us, and we must never sit down, and draw up, a decree.. of who he is, or what he is, or how he is, but only look to the one, that was He- Jesus Christ, what does the story say, it’s not about the Words as much as what the story tells us, about the Father as lived out, and by the Son, why He was here. This is where we miss it, we don’t see the story, we see, words, and we try to encapsulate and extrapolate, on these, instead, of allowing them to be the very soul and heart of the Father, our Creator, the one who is love without bounds, mercy without judgement, compassion without condemnation, He is always reaching out, touching and healing the sick, making the blind see, opening the eyes of the deaf, casting out the evil that binds men, raising the dead, feeding the hungry, this is God, expressed through the flesh and blood of His Son, and how He expresses himself, in those who are born of His Spirit, washed in that precious blood, crucified to self, raised in newness of life. This is what effects the world around us, and we often don't understand, why some people seemed to be blessed, when they in our Orthodox opinion are so evil.
See we have put the Father in a box, of good versus evil, rather than that which the story tell us, For Christ died for YOU and ME and ALL while we were yet sinners. For Jesus said, He gives rain to the just and the unjust. Be ye therefore perfect as your Heavenly Father. How?
Treat Orthopraxy as more important then Orthodoxy, and life changes will come, you will begin to love as He did, the undeserving, and perhaps even learn to love yourself. In truth, when Christ is lived in us, as us, and through us, we can say, we are Orthodox, and isn't always going to be down the line, of any particular denomination, creed, sect or other. It will be in line with the life of Christ in us.
It is not an easy road, it is the road to Calvary, but it is easy, because He is inside, we can draw upon Him, wait in Him, live in Him, but it ALL comes down, to Him! See Jesus is Lord, not you, not I, not Catholicism, or Protestantism or any of our "ism's" - He is Lord!

Joe
Your brother in Christ and in Him alone always,