Notes: Do everything that is good in the name of Jesus… do all for His glory; You can always be safe following the Golden Rule–how would you want to be treated?; Don’t follow the simplistic templates in religious literature… follow the leading of the Spirit; When you see the crowd–particularly of your own nation or religious group–begin to form in a mob, inciting each other to demonize groups or take aggressive action in anything other than love, then turn the other way, even if they don’t understand your action or motives; Obviously exploit God’s Word as your primary source of truth and reality about our world… and the one that we don’t see as well–don’t let others tell you what it means; Look to other unexpected sources and voices for surprising wisdom as well… get used to separating the baby from the bathwater with such sources; Remember that the differing opinion you hear may be the one you adopt later, a few years down the road… so be slow to judge; Jesus doesn’t always need defending; Always be on the lookout for subtle idols in our lives… anything we set up beyond critique in our lives–a status that only God deserves… these can be our patriotism, our loyalties to our political ideology or party, religious denomination or movement, or other label or tribe; When in doubt, always remember that it is always about Jesus; The person and work of Jesus Christ will aright a ship that’s listing in troubling and confusing waters, and straighten any crooked path; Set the captives free… spread Christ’s love… bind the devil… and elevate Jesus as God in flesh who dwelt among us and died in penalty for our sins, and who’s coming again
Notes: Last parting words for his Futurians… what Dr. Future has learned from the last 7 years; When issues get confusing, just err on the side of love… when you don’t know the motives of someone else, err on the side of love… when you don’t know how to address a societal or personal problem, err on the side of love; If you do, and you still get it wrong, I am confident that Jesus Himself will forgive you for your own error; Do not judge entire societal, ethnic, national, or even religious groups by the actions of a few bad apples; You will find out when you meet individuals of such groups that almost all people tend to want to live in peace, raise their kids in safety, and let them have a better life than they, and be kind to their neighbors; They also tend to want to please God in the way they understand Him, with the same human and sinful struggles; Never forget that we never have the whole story… only God… and give others the chance to explain themselves and their views, and take their perspective seriously and fairly, whether you finally agree with them or not… or only partially; Particularly listen to those who do not have a voice from established groups; Take the breath of life you have today as a gift, and a responsibility to make the most of it for the Lord’s kingdom
Notes: Constantine wanted Christianity to flourish… but it would flourish at the demise of the Roman Empire… he had a problem that needed a solution, and some of the best minds went to work, such as Augustine; Augustine, then, started writing things like this: “War is waged to serve the peace”; Here we have within Christian circles the first time that peace as a means and peace as an ends is separated; Additional quotes from Augustine; In his writing he turns more and more to the Old Testament, and then you see another trend happening that happens within just war theory… and that is a desperate attempt to find some clue in the teaching of Jesus that might tell us He didn’t actually mean what He said and say what He meant in His very clear teaching on the way of peace; And so we see this snippet, or that parable, or this over here, and that starts to come up… that pattern still exists today… comes up often when talking with non-pacifists, and we see it begin in the writing of Augustine; Luke 14:23; It is an exercise in exegetical desperation… but we see it become the norm in Augustinian thinking and rationale
Notes: One of the last voices before the Constantinian shift that we hear from is Lactantius, who is actually the tutor of Constantine’s son, Crispus; Quote from Lactantius; In this commandment of God, no exceptions at all ought to be made to the rule that it always wrong to kill a man, whom God has wished to be regarded as a sacrosanct creature; From Constantine on, things change, and over the centuries ahead we get a new norm; Examples of what becomes normative after Constantine; Quote from Jacques de Vitry; Now pacifism is seen as demonic; Quote from John of Mantua; What we find in much of their writings is the shift has moved from the example and teaching of Jesus to the example of other Old Testament saints, where violence is used to establish the kingdom of Israel and maintain the kingdom of Israel… and so David, Joshua, and others become the heroes of the faith, and Jesus steps to the sideline in much of their writing; Quote from Pope Innocent IV
Notes: Pre-Constantine, the church that was associated with the Roman Empire rallied around a concept called “patientia“… it is Latin for “patience”… it meant “enduring evil so as not to commit it, rather than committing evil so as not to endure it”; They unanimously taught that we should do anything to avoid killing, because that would destroy our witness for Christ; It’s always ok to die for a cause… it’s just never ok to kill for a cause; Suffering well… dying well… loving your enemies as they extinguish your life… could be one of the greatest witnesses for the transformative nature of the kingdom of Christ at work in your heart… so why would we fight back to preserve our life?; The word “martyr”, which has now come to mean someone who dies for their faith, doesn’t actually mean that–it means a “witness”–someone who is a witness is a martyr; The early church said, well, one of the best ways you can be a witness is actually to die for your faith while you love your enemy; So to be one who dies for the faith came to be seen as the ultimate “witness”, and they were called “martyrs”; The unanimous voice of the church pre-Constantine… quotes from Origen, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Arnobius; You can agree or disagree, but this was the unanimous opinion of the church for 300 years
Powerful words spoken by my hero, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in St. Augustine, Florida in 1964…
Speaker: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Partial transcript: “It’s difficult advice and in some quarters it isn’t too popular to say it…Let us recognize that violence is not the answer. I must say to you tonight that violence is impractical…We have another method that is much more powerful and much more effective than the weapon of violence…Hate isn’t our weapon either…I am not talking now about a weak love. It would be nonsense to urge oppressed people to love their oppressors in an affectionate sense–I’m not talking about that. Too many people confuse the meaning of love when they go to criticizing the love ethic…I am talking about a love that is so strong that it becomes a demanding love. I’m talking about a love that is so strong that it organizes itself into a mass movement and says somehow ‘I am my brother’s keeper, and he is so wrong that I am willing to suffer and die if necessary to get him right and to see that he’s on the wrong road’.”
Will Grigg from Pro Libertate blog discusses Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the American evangelical church, Ron Paul, and the Golden Rule…
[Part3 of a 5-part series]
Show:Future Quake
Full Podcast: Show 295 1-6-2012 Future Quake – Seventh Annual Future Quake “Predictions” Show Date: 1/6/12
Hosts: Dr. Future & Tom Bionic Guest: Will Grigg Notes: Dietrich Bonhoeffer; Bonhoeffer’s letter to a friend: “If you are aboard a train that’s heading the wrong direction, simply switching seats isn’t going to do you any good”; He pointed out that they were unmistakably and irrecoverably on the hot rails to hell, in terms of what the German church was doing; The same thing is happening with the American evangelical church… which is more defined by what they’re taught to hate, than by what we are commanded to do, which is to love; That’s the one thing that betokens our discipleship–the one thing that He said would designate Christians as different from the world is our capacity to love–not merely to love each other, but to love whoever God happens to put in our path; The thing about Ron Paul’s movement that makes it so inexplicable and dangerous to the establishment is that he has the courage to insist that the Golden Rule applies in all spheres of life, especially with respect to what the government does
Chris Pinto from Noise of Thunder Radio discusses the practice of celebrating Christmas…
[Part 3 of a 3-part series]
Merry Christmas everyone!
Show:Noise of Thunder Radio Full Podcast:THE ORIGINS OF CHRISTMAS PART I
Date: 12/20/11 Host: Chris Pinto
Notes: Most Christians that are exercising discernment and are trying to figure out how we can be more faithful, more obedient, walk in greater holiness to God… they come across this struggle at some point–this celebration of Christmas; It is really a matter of the believer’s individual conscience before God; Romans 14:4-6; We have no commandment from God to celebrate annually the birth of Christ coming into the world… nevertheless, because we are under the new covenant of grace, we don’t have any commandment that forbids us from celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; Every believer in Christ should be “fully persuaded in their own mind”; Christmas is an opportunity to talk about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ coming into the world, whether it occurred on December 25th or not; God had foretold that a virgin would bring forth a child, and would call Him Emmanuel, meaning “God with us”; Praise the Lord!
Chris Pinto from Noise of Thunder Radio discusses the practice of celebrating Christmas…
[Part 2 of a 3-part series]
Show:Noise of Thunder Radio Full Podcast:THE ORIGINS OF CHRISTMAS PART I
Date: 12/20/11 Host: Chris Pinto
Notes: Is Christmas of itself wrong?; The Jewish festivals that are talked about in the Old Testament; In the book of Galatians, Paul specifically warns the church about observing the Jewish holy days, because he knows all of that is under the yoke and bondage of the law; Isaiah 1; It’s not so much whether you’re celebrating Christmas, or Passover, or whatever it is… if your heart is not right before the Lord and you’re doing it for your own vain, selfish pleasure, any celebration could and would become offensive in the sight of God; Isaiah 1:10-18; All of these things were according to Jewish law and custom… but it didn’t matter–the problem was that their heart was not right with the Lord–that was the whole problem… so that’s the real question
Greg Boyd, pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, MN compares the kingdom of the world to the kingdom of God…
[Part 19 of a 19-Part series. Click here for Part 1.]
Ministry:Woodland Hills Church Full Podcast:Be Thou My Vision Date: 5/23/04 Speaker:Greg Boyd Notes: 1 John 4:12; Ephesians 5:1-2; The difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world is as clear and as obvious as the difference between absolute ugliness and absolute beauty–the difference between Jesus and Caesar is apparent… it’s there… it’s obvious; The one thing people are supposed to see–the one thing that’s necessary to see–the one thing that God leveraged the furthering of His kingdom on–is our love; Paul says if they don’t see love, the rightness of your position, the rightness of your cause, and the stances that you take, are self-serving and they’re absolutely worthless (1 Corinthians 13)
Greg Boyd, pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, MN compares the kingdom of the world to the kingdom of God…
[Part 18 of a 19-Part series. Click here for Part 1.]
Ministry:Woodland Hills Church Full Podcast:Be Thou My Vision Date: 5/23/04 Speaker:Greg Boyd Notes: When you lose your life, you find your life; When you die to self, you find a truer self; There’s a dimension of joy and a dimension of peace that comes from dying to self–letting go of that retaliation game; When you die to striving for your own security, you find the supernatural security that’s found in Jesus Christ; You find something that’s more important than life itself–something that’s more important than your self-preservation; The hope of the world is not found in one nation getting a few more bombs, and a few faster bullets, and a few better strategies… it’s found in the person of Jesus Christ; When the church embodies that perfect, unconditional, unsurpassable love that is God throughout eternity, then the world sees it
Greg Boyd, pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, MN compares the kingdom of the world to the kingdom of God…
[Part 17 of a 19-Part series. Click here for Part 1.]
Ministry:Woodland Hills Church Full Podcast:Be Thou My Vision Date: 5/23/04 Speaker:Greg Boyd Notes: This kingdom is gonna be radically different–it’s the kingdom of God; Jesus wasn’t trying to tweak a kingdom of the world… He was planning an entirely different kind of kingdom; To enter into this kingdom you have got to crucify some of the most basic, fallen instincts of the human self–you’ve got to crucify the flesh; As kingdom people we commit to doing one thing, and one thing only, and that’s loving like Jesus loves–imitating Jesus Christ
Greg Boyd, pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, MN compares the kingdom of the world to the kingdom of God…
[Part 16 of an ongoing series. Click here for Part 1.]
Ministry:Woodland Hills Church Full Podcast:The Difference Between the Two Kingdoms Date: 4/25/04 Speaker:Greg Boyd Notes: Our unique role as kingdom of God people is to see through the veneer, and don’t be fooled by it; If we buy the veneer–the civic religion–as closer to the kingdom of God than the civic religion in Cambodia or anywhere else, then we lose our focus… we pollute the distinct missionary call on our lives; You are a missionary in the United States as much as if you were in Cambodia, it’s just that it’s a little more difficult to see sometimes because there’s this civic religion–this quasi-Christian sort of veneer around–which convinces people that they’re already on the inside; What needs to happen is for God to get a hold of their heart and show them that they need Jesus Christ, not just in a social appropriate kind of way, but in the core of their being–in a transforming sort of way; The kingdom of God that you are should be no different whether you’re in America, or in Cambodia, or in South Africa, or in the Soviet Union… the kingdom of God stays the same; Your opinions about how the kingdom of the world should operate will differ from place to place; 2 Timothy 2; Our job is to–towards everybody at all places and all times by every possible means–sacrifice of our life to ascribe the worth that God ascribes to them on the cross of Calvary… that’s how this mustard seed, radically alternative, very different, foolish-looking kind of kingdom of God is gonna grow
Greg Boyd, pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, MN compares the kingdom of the world to the kingdom of God…
[Part 15 of an ongoing series. Click here for Part 1.]
Ministry:Woodland Hills Church Full Podcast:The Difference Between the Two Kingdoms Date: 4/25/04 Speaker:Greg Boyd Notes: Being a missionary in Cambodia (or any other “non-Christian” nation), you’re never tempted to confuse your opinions about how the government should be run with the missionary focus that you have as a kingdom of God person; That clarity is precisely what is lacking here in America; What we’ve got here is a civic or social sort of religion, but pull back the veneer of quasi-Christian externals, and what you will find is something that is altogether pagan; You are as much a missionary in America as you would be if you were in Cambodia
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