The Kingdom of God in history remains intact, even when human accretions hide its innate Power and Glory. Like the many re-touches of Da Vinci’s Last Supper through the centuries, Christianity remained intact but with its pristine energy and attractiveness covered. That led to the Cause Camouflaged.
This blog mentions only one of many other practices that corrupted Biblical Christianity into a darkened, vain imitation of Christ’s blindingly brilliant FAITH! Replacing the universal priesthood of believers of I Peter 2:9 serving others with a limited priesthood assuming spiritual authority over bothers began the decline. The Savior’s exaltation of the 70 that he sent to preach in his name should have prevented an ordained priesthood. Indeed, he saw Satan’s fall in their success—not in the earlier success of his twelve disciples Luke 10:17-23. And, seeing verse 23 as the conclusion of his appraisal, the victory of lay believers being spiritual giants should have warned ambitious churchmen from assuming that only they could master the Christian life. The selection of seven disciples as deacons reinforced Christ’s earlier praise of laymen Acts 6:1-7. Paul’s epistle to the Philippians emphasized the local nature of leadership: deacons and elders/overseers/bishops—the latter three words referring to the same in function in a local church. This is but one departure from New Testament teaching that hid Christ’s persuasive excellence from view. Ends Part VI
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The mystery known always to God, but revealed to mortals only at his behest, has been revealed through Christ. That mystery is: Jesus Christ has come and all of God’s enemies will be destroyed Revelation 10:7, I Corinthians 15:24-28.
In previous blogs, then, God’s Hidden Cause became God’s Personalized Cause. This blog considers Christianity as God’s Evangelistic Cause, based on the book of Acts. Repeating what he had earlier said to the Eleven disciples in Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus ordered the Eleven Disciples-Apostles to be his witnesses in “Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” Acts 1:8. Acts 2-5 record successful apostolic efforts in two of the four areas needing evangelism. Satisfaction supervened, as is often the case after any great numerical-growth period. Apostolic leadership inadvertently brought it. Who wouldn’t want to belong to an apostolic-led church with thousands of members having daily needs met, welcoming new members daily by baptisms, worshipping daily in ample temple courts with thousands of fellow Christians? Success stalled outreach and localized what God wanted universalized. God responded with an administrative change that became the catalyst turning Christianity from a local church of thousands in Jerusalem into mostly local-home churches across the Roman Empire. The alteration began in Acts 6 with the selection of seven deacons to serve daily needs of Grecian Jewish widows. One of them, the redoubtable Stephen, proved such a powerful presence in preaching and miracles that vested Jewish interests had him arrested. Which proved counter-productive for their cause since his charismatic preaching posed a threat they couldn’t correct and wouldn’t tolerate. His death led to the persecution Saul of Tarsus initiated, which led to Philip’s preaching in the third area and to the initial outreach into Africa. As Acts 11:19 records, it also led to the diffusion of Grecian Christians from Jerusalem into the wider Roman world. Which led to God’s eventual choice of Saul of Tarsus and Barnabas to ignite evangelism OVER ALL the Roman world. Which led to approximately 10% of the pole in the Empire being Christian in the final 65 years of the century. End Part V God Personalized his kingdom in two personalities. First, John the Baptist. His arrival as Messiah’s forerunner roused excitement never seen in Israel since Malachi preached. Then, when Herod Antipas stilled his influence, the Christ he introduced Personalized God’s Kingdom as the eternal seismic Krakatoa of the Sunda Straits, as shattering Santorini of the Aegean, as explosive Vesuvius of Italy.
As this writer has repeatedly demonstrated in his four volume Their Own Best Defense, no explanation of Jesus Christ in the Gospels that differs from Their Explanation of Jesus Christ will ever explain the Jesus Christ of History! We understand Satan’s rabid hatred of Jesus. He’s the only person Satan hates with an equivalent fear. He knows that the historic Christ of the Gospels dooms him to Hell. The voices of every demon Jesus exorcised in his ministry proves that he also doomed them to Hell. Without exception they recognized Jesus as the lightning and thunder of damnation. Critics who discredit the supernatural origin of Jesus, who deny the supernatural acts of Jesus, who reject the supernatural death and resurrection of Jesus, have less awareness of Christ’s deity than demons; and less fear of the Christ than the devil! Who would want to have less awareness and fear of Jesus than they? Much more can be said on this point, but.... End Part IV Because Jesus Triumphs, the Christianity he embodies also Triumphs. This is seen in the Personalized Cause. Which features two personalities.
First, in Elizabeth’s conception of John the Baptist. His ministry had been forecast in Isaiah 40:3-5. Meaning: not even Elizabeth’s barren womb and Zechariah’s old age would be an obstacle to John’s birth. John faithfully served as Christ’s forerunner
Because Jesus Triumphs, the Christianity he embodies also Triumphs. Even as the Hidden Cause—from Creation to Malachi. Genesis 3:15 offers God’s first promise: his enmity--seed placed between the woman and the serpent would crush it while suffering slightly. Even then, while no effect of sin had been felt, God predicted Christ’s coming, the inevitable event since he had been “chosen before the creation of the world” I Peter 1:20.
Not until Abram’s call in Genesis 12 did God choose the human forefather of God’s enmity/seed. The effect of sin had been felt repeatedly by that time, including the catastrophic universal Flood of Noah that judged impenitent, fallen humanity, followed by the corruption of God’s Singularity into boundless idolatry and its accompanying wickedness. Following 430 years of Egyptian servitude, God’s chosen race left triumphantly, protected by the blood of the Passover Lamb—a type of Christ; led by the Pillar of Cloud and Light—types of Christ; fed by manna—a type of Christ; thirst quenched by the Rock—a type of Christ. All through those years of preparation, God’s ultimate Cause remained Hidden, awaiting the historical development when it would be Personally Embodied. End Part II With all hope gone of avoiding General Grant’s enclosing army, some of General Lee’s officers besieged him with requests to break into guerilla-sized units and continue the struggle. President Jefferson Davis favored the idea. General Lee refused that chimera and surrendered his entire army to General Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, 9 April, 1865. The unsuccessful effort to dismember the Union of States into a Confederacy of competing, and ultimately splintering, states remained in the Southern consciousness as the Lost Cause, the emphasis being on Lost.
It could never be won on battlefields since Lee refused the requests to continue as a guerilla war. Even that effort would have been doomed through exhausting the resources of willing states and counties. The Civil War—mis-called War Between the States by embittered rebels—was over and could be revived and nurtured only in the psyches of unrepentant confederates as the Lost Cause Which brings us to the subject of this series. The words Lost Cause never apply to Jesus and his Christianity; not to him, the Savior who saves; and not to Christianity, the embodiment of him in history through individual Christians. He and his Perfect FAITH remain in history as his Overcoming Spiritual Crusade. Nothing opposing him ever wins; nor can it ever exist as a noble experiment that history eventually dismissed as something good for its time but outgrown as society changes. Einstein might say the Bible is nonsense, but he’s dead and, while his cause continues in the humanist, it will one day be—not merely LOST but DEMOLISHED. As will every cause but ONE PERISH in the fires at the end. End, Part I |
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