Get Out Of Bed Man

Next to Dorm 12, now a girl's dorm, stands my old reading tree. As a sophomore, I spent many hours in its high branches reading anything and everything. Crossing the parking lot, the sight of Dorm 14 brought a smile to my pensive countenance. Senior year I would often stop by Jessica and Sarah's window to talk on the way to my dorm. With the Keyhole parking lot behind me, I crossed the lamp-lit street to the intramural field and spent a few minutes watching an ultimate frisbee game. The customary light up frisbee spurred memories of freshman year. Night after night, Baina and Jeff would power their light up frisbees the length of the field as I battled with Aaron Meng in the endzone. His athleticism and defensive insticts often triumphed over my amature freshman frisbee skills.

So many memories. Liberty, as I remember it, is a defining part of my life. But as I walked the campus, my Liberty was but a distant memory. Today's student, barely out of high school, walks the campus with his head buried in his cell phone, earphones poking through his hair. I found myself lost in a sea of unknown faces. My friends have moved on. The freshman hall that I led as a senior is now dispersed off campus or in scattered leadership positions. My "enemies" from dorm 16 are now a hall of 70 girls. This Liberty is a great place. But my Liberty now abides solely in the memory banks.

The life that I have come to know and enjoy is amongst Southeastern Seminary students who, on average, are about seven years older than the archetypal Liberty student. The games, pranks, and experiences of my life at Liberty are but a distant, hazy dream to which I may not return. Now awake, this is the dream for which I grasp. I can no more relive those days than a man may resume his place as last night's sleeping hero. Yet, there are some who find themselves still lying in bed striving to gain one last experience of some sub-conscious world. There is no going back. It is time to get out of bed.

"When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things." Every man must accept that the childish will never again be possible. Now, as a man, the future is bright. I will never return to those Liberty days, but they have prepared me well for my life's task. The fruit of that time will always be a part of my life. But for that fruit to sprout other fruit bearing trees I must accept my place in society as a man and follow God's call to go.

The real world awaits. It is time for me to get out of bed.

Retraction: Rick Warren Is Alright With Me

A few months ago, I wrote the post Rick Warren Is Alright With Me. Recently, I read this article concerning Rick Warren that has made me regret my words. I am not one to go around slamming other pastors and teachers, but I do think the body of Christ needs to confront issues that threaten the Church. At first glance, ministries like Saddleback, Lakewood, and Mars Hill (Michigan) appear to be vibrant and monstrously successful. But the anthropocentrism (state of being man-centered) that pervades the doctrines of these churches must be combated by Bible-believing Christians.

In II Timothy 4:2-4, Paul warns Timothy with these words: "Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths."

I take the time to write these things not as an attack, but as a warning to a self-destructive American Church that breaks my heart. We need pastors who give the glory to God. We need pastors who will teach the Bible with respect to authorial intent. We need Jesus.

Today I experienced one of the most encouraging conversations I have had in a long time. My good friend, Bear Yarbrough, is raising support over the next two years to begin his life work in Mali amongst a tribal group of 2.7 million people. His team's 35-40 year plan involves four years of diligent language and cultural study followed by years of a systematic discipleship, church planting, pastoral training, and Bible translation ministry. His desire for the end of his life can be summed up in these words, "I want to sit back at the end of my work and watch the people preach, teach, and disciple one another. I will sit under their teaching and marvel at what God has done."

This is the heart of a godly man. This is the heart of a pastor.

Proud To Be An American

Justice. Representative government. Freedom. Civil rights. Equality. Self-sacrifice. Morality. All in decline. By these ideals the United States constitution was written. This national document America holds up next to the sacred texts. And just as sacred texts are further undermined by each successive generation, so is the constitution. These values upon which the constitution was written to stand are now nearly replaced in American society.

Justice is replaced by greed. Democracy by socialism. Freedom exchanged for bondage. Civil rights for oppression. Equality is being skewed to communism. Self-promotion now rules the political scene. Sex worship has overtaken morality.

Henry David Thoreau writes, "[We] hesitate, and we regret, and sometimes we petition; but we do nothing in earnest and with effect. We will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy the evil, that we may no longer have it to regret... There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man."

You can point the finger at liberals, but the blame rests on us all. Silence is consent. As the years passed, we have ceded access to justice, legislation, and rule. We permitted the redefinition of life, standing by as infants were slaughtered by the millions and the sick permitted to expire. We watched as family and marriage made the transformation from firm foundation to nebulous concept. We neglected the needs of our own children by allowing them to be brainwashed by hostile education and culture.

They fought against a well-oiled and just system. They fed you lies and over-exaggerated the democratic flaws. They took full advantage of the right to freedom in order to steal yours. They advocated everything the Creator hates. They stole from Christians the idea of education and used it to indoctrinate young minds. One institution at a time they overtook to patiently weed out the defenders of the weak. From Harvard to Yale to Duke, they systematically wiped out the only true moral voice and, consequently, the one that opposed them.

"Down with the bourgeoisie!," they cry. Then, in the night, the unthinkable happens. One morning you awake to a wholly new bourgeoisie. Now, they have the power. Now, they have absolute control. Now, they make the rules. All the wonderful promises are dust in the wind. The very people they once claimed to defend, they now oppress. Yet, hindsight shows that they were oppressors all along. Subtle, coercive oppression that seduced you and teased at your senses. She lured you in with the promise of pleasure, security, and unity. She bound you in chains while you slept. And she left you to die.

When will the revolution occur? Will it take 30 more years of famine or plague or sword to usher in their great and glorious new age? Or, maybe the next great disaster will serve as the conduit to their seizure of power. Perhaps all they need is the panic of a self-induced healthcare crisis. They promise deliverance. They promise peace. They promise prosperity. Money. Power. Control. They even promise freedom. But freedom is just as easily taken as it is given.

"Look to the past!," you say. "What of the great Christian men by whom this nation was founded? We must return to the values that our founding fathers held."

For centuries America has benefited from Christian reforms. The very concept of social justice spurred on a system of checks and balances that leveled the playing field for all. The contribution of hospitals, schools, science, and freedom permitted Christian influence to be tolerated a little longer. A pagan nation, as many other pagan nations, had for a time been tamed for use by the true King. Pragmatism rode the wave of Christian ideals to the peak of civilization at which time Christians themselves were no longer necessary. Do not fool yourself, this nation you love is not a Christian nation. It never was.

From its inception, America has been a pagan nation infiltrated by Christians. Sympathetic deists wrote the constitution in such a way as to allow such an invasion. The truth of Scripture as absent from their Bibles as an utterly transcendent god from his own universe. For the proof of paganism, one need look no further than the nation's sacred temples. Modeled after the greatest idolators in the history of the world, our high places resemble those of ancient Egypt, Helen, and Roma. Men of old immortalized and worshiped as gods. The city centered by a rising obelisk that reaches toward the sun and its god, Amon Ra. Men, women, and children of all colors and walks of life journey to this sacred place to pay homage to the savior, democracy.

In like fashion to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, men such as Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Samuel Adams, Charles Finney, and Martin Luther King, Jr. served as prophets calling the nation to repent and change its ways. Always an uphill battle, Christians pressed forward against criticisms, slanders, and outright paganism. With the rise of the neo-liberal, the Christian purportedly carries no more value for this society. The difficult soil that Christians have toiled to plow for hundreds of years has nearly completed the process of petrification. These are the very rocks that tomorrow will be used to stone the faithful.

The time is soon coming when all Americans will be united. We'll strap up our boots, throw on our matching jackets, and march to the beat of the one drummer. Our American pride will be evidenced by the insignia worn by all. "Sieg Heil" replaced with a new, more chilling cry born out of the ashes of democracy. In the new fascist state, Neo-Arians will take precedence. Yet, Arians they will not be, but Moors. They will gawk with pride at their people's greatest accomplishment. As democracy yields to sharia law, a message of terror will ripple through the nations.

As has been from the beginning, the ebb and flow of history continues. Countless nations have undergone the Judeo-Christian transformation to the same demise. As the pagan nation weakens, it takes Christianity as its bride. Soon after, the pseudo-Christian paganism emerges from the womb. Weak and stumbling, it is quickly preyed upon by the conquering Muslims, or worse. The message of the past remains unheeded. No government will save. Government is only as perfect as the people that rule.

But is there hope? Yes, indeed. Yet, it comes not from where you may expect.

Amos is an account of the impending destruction of Israel, 8th century B.C. The slaughter awaits. Invasion is on the horizon. Captivity marches west from Assyria.

"Hear this word which I take up for you as a dirge, O house of Israel:

She has fallen, she will not rise again --
The virgin Israel,
She lies neglected on her land;
There is none to raise her up.

For thus says the Lord God,
'The city which goes forth a thousand strong will have a hundred left,
And the one which goes forth a hundred strong will have ten left to the house of Israel.'"

It is at this time that God sends one last call to repentance. This is a call that could save America should she choose to hear it.

"Seek the Lord that you may live.
Or He will break forth like a fire, O house of Joseph, and it will consume with none to quench it for Bethel, for those who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness down to the earth."

Amos 5:2-3, 6-7

Outlaws and Fugitives... Or, Law-Abiding Citizens?

The sound came from far away. An indiscriminate buzz moving nearer as it passed from another world into mine. The beginning and source were utterly unknown to me as I lay there helpless, constricted. Then, instantly, the realization of clucking snapped me to consciousness. Bright rays of awareness burned away the fog of deep sleep. My body was sweating wrapped in the zero-degree mummy bag. My nose, frozen, had become a conductor of the ice cold air from the bag's sole opening. Sitting up, I discovered the source of my re-entrance to consciousness. He stood blankly gazing at me from the doorway. Two bold steps my feathered friend ventured in my direction before fleeing a hungry dog through the entrance into the first beams of sunlight.

Searching my surroundings, I found everything precisely as I had remembered the previous night before sleep relieved me from a hard day of traveling. Piled in the corner of two baked-mud walls were mounds of potatoes. Corn hung from the thick, wooden rafters. Next to me were three other undisturbed sleeping bags. A few yards farther lay the already lit fire on the other side of the hut. Sitting next to the fire was Ewan, our host. He sat reading. Right where we had left him: by the fire, reading.

For hours the previous afternoon he had pointed to nearly every part of his body speaking his people's specific dialect in hopes that we would catch on. While eating potatoes and a mystery stew, we repeated these words and phrases back to him. With every new word, he joyfully chattered on while sporadically laughing at our repeated failures to correctly articulate. Eventually he tired of these games and the onus was left to us to stir conversation. It was at this time that I took the opportunity to begin the mission for which we had come. I presented to him our gift. This gift had traveled thousands of miles and passed, undetected, to where it did not legally belong.

Two days prior, our team of twelve had arrived in an undisclosed Chinese city. In a small, local hotel we piled into a room that we would never again see. It was here that we met our contact. Rosco, as he called himself, briefed each of the three teams individually as the others unpacked boxes of contraband and equally disseminated the materials amongst the twelve. Three hours later, we said our final goodbyes to Rosco and boarded an AirChina flight to a destination 300 miles away.

On the ground, Bear led our team of four to the bus depot from which we traveled four hours to our base city. After fighting through jetlag for a sleepless first night, we packed up our gear and began the trek over the mountain. For five hours, we made our own trail through the pines before discovering a breath-taking view from the peak to the valley and city below. Here the course was decided upon and the subsequent two hour hike took us across the ridge to the first village. It was here that we met Ewan, who now sat enjoying the rewards of our difficult task.

John 3 had been the catalyst to his mostly uninterrupted reading. As I placed the Bible in his hands, I opened it to John chapter 3 and opened my hands in a reading motion. For the rest of the night this book arrested his full attention but for three brief visits by other villagers. Each stayed long enough to experience Ewan's excitement before leaving him to return to his solace by the fire.

After breakfast, we left satisfied, not so much by the Chinese tribal cuisine, but by the first taste of success. We set out for the first of many more villages that scattered the mountainside opposite the valley city. We knew the coming days would be long and demanding.

Two years later, I find myself preparing for a very similar task. This time, my adventure will extend the week to two years. And rather than China, I will be backpacking into the mountains of Africa. One other common denominator is the ethical issue with which I am still faced.

Is it a godly course of action to enter a country and violate their laws by smuggling in the gospel and corresponding materials?

Due to the nature of the question in conjunction with my lack of ethics experience, I have done much research on the subject seeking an answer. The following are the fruits of my labor. These sources include philosophers, both Christian and secular, and theologians, along with an example from the modern era.

At the turn of the 5th century, Augustine wrote a letter to Boniface that we now know as "Of the Correction of the Donatists". The Donatists were an early sect that branched away from the mainstream Christianity of the day. Unlike sects such as the Arians, they held no theological disparities with the Church. This sect simply refused to gather under the umbrella of the Church. Augustine writes this letter to Boniface towards the end of the movement to encourage him to allow reformed Donatists back into the Church. He notes in the letter not only their break from the Church, but the event by which they left. It was false charges this group brought to the government against Bishop Caecilianus of Carthage that marked the beginning of their secession.

It is in this context that he speaks of the ungodly nature of their actions in juxtaposition to what is right according to God. He writes:

"For, morever, when emperors enact bad laws on the side of falsehood, as against the truth, those who hold a right faith are approved, and, if they persevere, are crowned; but when the emperors enact good laws on behalf of the truth against falsehood, then those who rage against them are put in fear, and those who understand are reformed. Whosoever, therefore, refuses to obey the laws of the emperors which are enacted against the truth of God, wins for himself a great reward; but whosoever refuses to obey the laws of the emperors which are enacted in behalf of truth, wins for himself great condemnation."

Henry David Thoreau, the transcendentalist writer, philosopher, and historian, deals with this ethical issue in his famous paper, "Civil Disobedience". He states:

"If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go; perchance it will wear smooth -- certainly the machine will wear out. If injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn."

The Old Testament holds a number of examples for believers concerning civil disobedience. Two that come to mind immediately are Daniel and David. At the threat of death by King Darius' injunction, Daniel continued to kneel toward Jerusalem three times a day from his balcony. He followed God in direct disobedience to the government and its king. David, too, directly disobeyed the government as Saul unjustly sought his life.

David not only seeks rescue from King Saul in the Old Testament, he comes to God seeking rescue from other nations in Psalm 35:24. Augustine translates and comments on this verse:

"'Judge me, O Lord, and distinguish my cause from an ungodly nation.' He does not say, 'Distinguish my punishment', but 'Distinguish my cause'. For the punishment of the impious may be the same; but the cause of the martyrs is always different."

While the pericopes of the Old Testament shed light on the subject, the teachings of the New Testament bring the truth further into focus. Paul and Peter both teach on the subject of submission to governmental authority. Both command submission to governing authorities. Both advocate the one stipulation that the government must punish evil and praise good.

Romans 13:1-3 teaches: "Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same."

I Peter 2:13-14, 20 teaches: "Submit yourself for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to the king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right... For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it and patiently endure it, this finds favor with God."

The latter passage, in conjunction with Augustine's teaching, suggests that the one who does good despite the government will be punished. The man who finds favor with God does what is right, while receiving government opposition, AND patiently endures his punishment. Earthly laws still carry earthly consequences. But suffering for the sake of Christ has its own set of consequences. Therefore, while you are rightfully persecuted by the government, you are winning praise from God.

Paul's timely letter to the Roman church came from jail. In like fashion, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. also wrote a famous letter from jail. In defense of actions in Birmingham, Alabama leading to his arrest, he pens the well known "Letter from Birmingham City Jail" to his fellow clergymen. The following are a few of his thoughts on civil disobedience and the Christian's role therein:

"I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their 'thus saith the Lord' far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so I am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town."

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

"You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws... there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that 'an unjust law is no law at all.'"

To sum all of this up, Jesus said it very clearly:

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations"