An Honest Political Opinion

Let the controversy continue. I see the church being divided when it comes to political opinion in a pretty hard way. It divides the nation, but we let it divide the church as well. With something so dividing, I feel like the discussion should be had in a very honest and open way. So, let's get into it. 

I guess I'll start with the Religious Right. This has been the party most associated with Christianity for quite some time. However, the only real stand-out point between just the Republican party and the Religious Right is that these are the people who would have us be a distinctly Christian nation guided by Christian morals. Now, that sounds pretty good at first glance, but it gets a bit muddled up in my opinion. Take the emphasis put on not allowing same-sex marriage as an example. Since marriage according to the Bible is one man and one woman, this party does not support it. I'll say that I don't at surface level agree with same-sex marriage, but let me explain. Christian marriage would not allow for it, but do Christians have a monopoly on marriage? Hinduism practices marriage, so it’s not a distinctly Christian practice. Should we outlaw any non-Christian marriage? Should Vegas weddings be made illegal since they are often far from the Biblical example of marriage? It would seem hard to push all of our Christian ideals off on the nation at large. I've said it multiple times before, I say it now, we are NOT a Christian nation that is set apart by God. Israel was the only one, and the church is now. So, the church is set apart, but our nation is not. God gives us freewill to be a part of His bride; people should not be legally bound to live in the church. I'm sure I'll end up saying more about this, but for now let's just leave it at that. 

OK. The Republican Party. Marked by small government, capitalism, working hard, and elephants. Like I said before, the Religious Right isn't really far off from here. So how does it measure up in terms of Christianity? I should say to begin that I think this party works pretty well when it comes to creating a prosperous nation. However, prosperity isn’t a concern of Jesus, and in fact, he condemns it from time to time. 1 John 3:17 says “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother or sister in need, yet closes their heart against them, how does God's love abide in that person?” The same might be said of those who despise all forms of financial aid to the poor because it “builds character” and “you have to earn what you get.” Granted, many make the argument that this is the church’s job, and not the government’s, and I would agree with that. However, most who say this (and in all reality, me when it comes down to it) really are not anywhere near where Jesus would have us be in terms of benevolence and compassion. Most of the time, we don’t give a crap about the poor, and if I said that from a pulpit, many might care more that I said crap than they do about the poor. Jesus loved the poor though, and asks us to do the same. What if “loving your neighbor as yourself” actually meant not spending more than half your income on yourself while spending the other half on your poor neighbor? It’s a heck of a thought. 

The church described in the NT is one marked by persecution and love. They willingly went the second mile when asked by a Roman soldier to carry a pack one mile and they were often martyred by a nation that rejected them. This seems to be a far stretch from the 2^nd Amendment loving, gun toting, give me liberty or we’ll secede mindset of the Republican Party. This is also the party that is most likely to support the death penalty and war, both of which do not exactly measure up to the “enemy love” ideal set forth by Jesus. Jesus wouldn’t have us love “Merica” and all the butt kicking that comes with it, he would have us love our enemies and turn the other cheek. The government “does not bear the sword in vain” (Romans 13:4), however, we are told just a few words back that as the church, we should “never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God” (Romans 12:19). So, it would appear we don’t get to be a part of that. We instead are told to “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them…Live in harmony with one another…Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:14-18).

Now it’s time to switch to Left wing of things. Both parties like bigger government in some areas, this side just likes it less in issues of values and morals and more in the domain of finances and other areas. Christians in this party tends to not feel as though they can push morals off on people, but include other issues of life in this. Most notably, abortion most commonly gets thrown in with this party. I’ve written more extensively on being “pro-life” and so I will just recommend looking back, but this tends to be an issue that gets at a lot of Christians, and I can’t blame them. 50,000,000 babies have been killed via this means, and I wonder if we’d give that more of a thought if they would have all been born first? While I don’t think we can push our morals off on people, I think this is an issue that Christians should work to better because a healthy respect for life is a great attribute for a country to have (and that’s all I’ll say here since I already wrote on it).

This party usually gets the wrap for being “socialistic” or “communistic” as well. Honestly, that kind of sounds like what the early church was about, at least at a lower community level. One of the things that gets me though is how these things tend to be incredibly wasteful and godless. No nation has ever tried “communism” without “atheism” being very attached to the idea, and that’s kind of unsettling to me. I don’t know why it is, it just is. “If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing” says Paul (1 Cor 13:3). This makes me not so sure this can be praised as “Christlike” if it does not associate with Christ. Plus, at a national level, the idea just really doesn’t seem to work out the way utopians want it to. Just an observation.


I'll say it, labeling this party as communism isn't fair. However, This party is surely connected with larger levels of governmental control in these areas. Whenever the government runs an arena, there will be insane amounts of waste because of the concepts of third-party purchasing (someone using someone else's money to buy something they will not personally use). So, there will always be waste. I think some of this is actually connected to the idea of doing something without love as I mentioned above with 1 Corinthians 13:3. It's impersonal. Also, programs that do seek to help people usually perpetuate the cycle of poverty rather than break it. While I say that, it is better than nothing. There are times when I am running somewhere and am able to do little more than give a few dollars to the person with the sign on the side of the road. However, this does nothing to break the cycle of poverty. Neither does a single meal. The answer to breaking the cycle of poverty is love, not money. When you have the type of love that frees you from monetary selfishness, there's the ticket. 

Now, I don't plan on everyone agreeing with everything I just said. I'm sure there are countless counterpoints and differing views. However, it's cool because the rest of my view actually makes up for any inaccuracies or discrepancy in opinion.

This is where we come to my real opinion about politics. What party do I associate with? NADER!

Just kidding. None of them.

How could I vote for a party that doesn’t respect life or a slew of other things the way I feel they should? Neither side is the Jesus side of things despite each claiming to be. Here’s what Jesus said about politics “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Luke 20:25). Pay your taxes. That’s all Jesus says about it. That’s really all that Paul says to do in Romans 13 as well, in addition to submitting to authorities (e.g. not breaking the law unless that law contradicts God’s law).

A guy named David Lipscomb taught (concerning politics) that Christians should neither vote nor participate in government, because that was earthly kingdom business and we are to be about Kingdom of Heaven work. The only thing he said we should do is obey the law to the extent that it doesn’t make us go against God, and to pay our taxes. I think it’s possible to be very actively pro-life and benevolent without being involved in government. I think when we are about Kingdom work we do what really needs doing.

The early church was not concerned about making any government more churchlike. They focused only on making the church more Christlike.

For Lipscomb, being involved in government meant having to make too many decisions that simply were not in line with Christian thought. After all, the government is an avenger, and Christians are told not to be.

So, am I saying that it’s wrong to be an active member in government or vote? Nope. I think there are good reasons not to but I don’t think I can truly justify saying that as a hard and fast rule. However, I am very willing to say that earthly kingdom work is 1,000% second to heavenly kingdom work.

For myself, I don’t vote and am certainly not in line to change things about our government. I am far too concerned with changing things about our church that seems to be so nation influenced to be concerned with any of that other garbage. I want to change the hearts of men and women, not the heart of an institution.

After all, discipleship is strongest in situations where persecution exists. The early church we admire so much existed within a governmental frame that was far more oppressive and negative towards Christianity than ours is. It was when the church became associated with the state (Constantine) that some of the strongest corruption entered the church. It seems the church is more negatively influenced by the state when associated with it than the state is positively influenced by the church.

The church does not need the government in order to be effective in this world; the opposite may be true in fact.

Quite frankly, I think the church has better things to worry about, especially on something that divides people so often and makes them so lividly angry. "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all" (Romans 12:18)

Captain America: The Red, White, and Blue Jesus

So, got to see the new Captain America movie, and it was really quite good. Kept me on my toes the whole time and it really did just pack a cinematic punch. Much better than the first one. There was action, adventure, ethics, and allegory. So, I highly recommend it. Great movie. But let’s deal with that last descriptor, allegory for a bit. Note: this will be brief; I'm sure there are other things to talk about. These are just the highlights that I saw. 

I can’t say this was the director’s intention, but I saw such a strong allegory between Captain America and Jesus. He’s sacrificial (even from the beginning of the first movie), a leader, justice minded, above reproach, and brings freedom to people. Now, all those are great attributes that both the character and the Savior share, but there is something different about the movie guy – all of those attributes are just dripping with red, white, and blue.

He’s sacrificial for people…and the American dream. He’s justice minded…with the constitution clinched in fist (figuratively). He brings people freedom…from tyrannical fascists. He possesses many of the qualities and attributes that we see in Jesus, he just possesses a very American version of them.

Why do we want Jesus to be a butt kicker? Mark Driscoll makes the argument that Jesus was not a pansy by looking at the end of times, and says that he doesn’t want to follow a Savior he could beat up. I don’t feel like a good number of people are far behind that line of thought.

What Captain America, as well as all super hero movies teach me is that we have a deep and desperate yearning for a savior. However, we would much rather him be strong, look hot, dress like it’s the 4^th of July, and preferably want Hitler to be taken down.

Really wrestle with this – would Jesus kill Hitler? Now, I don’t plan on answering that question or the question of whether it would be right to do so, after all, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was an avid Christian pacifist and was also one of the leading minds of operation Valkyrie. It’s a question Christians have struggled with for years. But really stop and ponder. What would Jesus do?

Now, some people will read that and say “You’re saying Jesus would do nothing?” to which I would reply, "He did everything." Why must we always see every solution in violent terms? In all reality, that violence hasn’t really worked in every case (if not most cases) throughout history. I will say that Romans 13 describes the government as a retributive institution, so perhaps God was bringing Hitler’s reign of terror to an end, but my question remains of would Jesus had been an active, violent part in that?

Captain America fights for what is right. Jesus died for what is right. 

Now, this allegory isn’t all bad. There are positive aspects too.

For starters, Captain America values life immensely. Granted, he still kicks the crap out of his enemies in the name of freedom, but he doesn’t bust out the heavy artillery (minus his super boomerang shield) almost at all. He’d rather people live than die, and that’s something that truly comes out in the movie in two HUGE ways...if you haven’t seen the movie, I suggest skipping the next paragraph.

SPOILER ALERT: The first and foremost display of this is in his taking down of the fascist means of person elimination. I’m not sure everyone picked up on it, but the technology used by the German cult thing was basically a holocaust super weapon. It predicted what a person’s future would be like (by examining their past) to determine if they would live or die. Now, this could almost sound good. After all, this rids society of murderers, thieves, and so on. However, the movie portrays something else. When the machine collects its targets, EVERYONE seems to be one the list. If God wiped all the wicked out…it’d be an empty earth. Not a one of us are clean without the blood of Jesus. This is why we’re told not to judge. Second thing. I think that Bucky represents humanity, in particular the scoffers at the cross, in this allegory. Once Captain America finishes his mission, he refuses to fight Bucky, but instead shows sacrificial love to him to the point of death if that is what will come. It echoes Jesus when He said to “forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” Jesus absorbed violence into Himself; He didn’t reciprocate it. 

OKAY, it’s safe to read again if you haven’t seen it. So, Captain America taught me a lot. He taught me a lot about God, he taught be about Jesus (both comparison AND contrast), and he really taught me about our values as a nation and a church within that nation. I hope and pray that if you met the rejected, mistreated, bloodied and bruised Jesus in the street and Captain America walked by, you’d take the Christ. He alone can save, the rest is just flash and smoke.

Captain America may fight so that people can have a slew of freedoms including freedom to practice religion, but Jesus died so that you can have spiritual freedom, and He asks that you worship Him despite whether you have the freedom to or not.

The Bible In 1400 Words

So I started thinking in the shower about how I would present The Bible and how it all works and flows if I was given the task. Here we go. There could be a perception that there is a lot of discontinuity in the Bible and at times, that may almost be right. There are certain stories and topics that seem to contradict others and what not. However, there is a way of piecing all the really big themes together. Granted, this is only one take on it. I am sure that there are several themes that you could trace through all of scripture, however, that would be volumes of work. I plan on trying to sum up my thoughts in a single blog post. So, strap in.

We start out this story in a garden. And this place is good, God says so Himself. Now, whether you take the first part of Genesis literally or figuratively does not matter too much, the lessons remain. In the beginning was perfection and shalom. Shalom, a word that is translated as "peace" but goes so far beyond that. It represents completeness and being whole, lacking nothing. A great way to think about it was given to me some time back – Nothing is missing, nothing is broken. That’s shalom. That is where creation starts. There was not a single thing that was not perfect. There was no sin, there was no wanting, there was no strife or enmity. We shall call this the Edenic ideal. The way God wanted things to be. During this time, God dwelled amongst His creation, walking with them daily.

Sin enters the story and perfection and shalom are lost. But, God has a plan. He wants to make things right again. He wants to offer shalom, relationship, and dwell with his creation once again. The main reason that sin enters the world is that we tried to be on God’s level, and that is never good. We are asked to mimic Him in love and mercy, knowing that we will fall short, but we started wanting to be like Him in other ways, having knowledge that we are incapable of exercising rightly. God is the author of life, He gives it and can take it away for He is holy and just. Humankind tried to do this as well, we see it with Cain and Able and later on in the story God decides to start over new by wiping out humanity because “the earth was full of violence” (Gen 6:11). The Edenic ideal of shalom was long gone, and now people were deciding to play God, deciding who could live and who could not. God could no longer dwell physically with His people.

The next major piece in getting us back to that Edenic ideal was the Law. Now, this was an imperfect law and the Bible does not hide that in the least. It made great improvements on the culture of that time, but still there is violence and things that go against the ideal. As an example, things like polygamy and divorce were allowed in the Old Testament and Law. This was not God’s ideal, as can be seen by creation and as is attested to by Jesus himself, but the Law as a whole made great improvements on the standards of God’s people. As we progressed through time, our relationship changed, just as any normal human does. We don’t hand out driver’s licenses at age 5, the rules change as time progresses. The Law is talked about this way, described as a nanny or guardian (Gal 3), necessary for humankind in it’s young years.

This is a unique part of the story in terms of God’s dwelling. God is wanting to dwell with His people again, moving back towards the Edenic ideal, and so this is also a progression. God attempts to make an earthly location His dweilling place, but He cannot be around that which is unholy. This is one of the reasons that God has His people drive out the inhabitants who are defiling the land of Canaan. This is to be God's dwelling place on earth. The OT is in many ways about the external, including this arena.

One of the more helpful things to remember reading the OT is knowing the difference between something being described and something being prescribed. Many stories are recorded about people and a lot of it is far from good, after all, if someone were to catalogue your life in detail, you likely wouldn’t want your mother to read it. However, that does not mean that God wished every piece of every story in the Bible to happen. Sometimes it states clearly that this is no bueno. Sometimes though, the story is merely reported as it happened. It is described. So, it is necessary to do this at times in the OT when there is the feeling of discontinuity in the story I am unfolding.

The prophets make up a good bit of the latter part of the OT. They began to foretell of a time when things would change, and they particularly started condemning things like violence, injustice, and trust in military prowess. Idolatry was a huge concern, for nothing should be trusted over God. God is also consistent in His ethic of needing His dwelling place on earth purified. For this reason, God sometimes even purifies the land of His own people when they become corrupt, and He does this in the form of exile by foreign nations. Some of these prophets talked about a man who would change all this, and pointed to where the story was heading.

To us a Savior is born. This was the part of God’s plan that would be the key piece in restoring the Edenic ideal He sought to establish from the beginning. Jesus taught enemy love, prayed for those who persecuted Him, and explained the intention behind the Law that He himself followed. It is in the ethics of Jesus that we begin to see the possibility of perfection and sanctity once again, but it comes at a great price. The ethics Jesus teaches (e.g. Sermon on the Mount) are extremely difficult to follow here on this earth, because they foreshadow something else. Most NT scholars agree that the miracles of Jesus point towards the future. When He healed someone of disease and forgave them of sin, He showed that in His Father’s kingdom, there will be no more sickness, no more sin. Jesus asks the same of us. We live a life that foreshadows a day when that Edenic ideal will be completely and utterly restored – the day that we get to be with God in heaven forever.

God’s dwelling can now be inside of humans, moving from external to internal. The blood of Jesus is able to purify in ways that no sacrifice before could, and so God’s spirit can finally reside within. This is why Jesus emphasized inner purity and extremely high ethical standards. A cleansing of the heart is needed, not of the land.

The rest of the NT is comprised of authors writing to ministers and churches, telling them how to be this Kingdom of God here on earth. And for quite some time, that’s exactly what they did. They showed love to all, even their enemies, they sought purity from the filth of the world, and they paid for it dearly because this world is not yet over. They were often martyred because living out Kingdom life of loving enemies and not fighting back on this side of heaven often does not work out by worldly standards, but it does point towards the future when all enmity and strife will once again be forgotten words.

So, you can see how eternity is bookended with places of perfect shalom – nothing is missing, nothing is broken. After the fall and the serious and quick decline of humankind, God has been working towards getting us back to that state of being, and it is most fully realized on this earth in the form of Jesus coming, redeeming us, dwelling in us, but also showing a completely weird and crazy set of ethics to live by.

So, that’s the Bible in under 1400 words. It’s not the complete story, but definitely a significant part of it. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and maybe gained something from it. Most of all though, I hope you seek to live out the Edenic ideal that God wanted for His creation from the beginning. Shalom to you. 

A Systemic Look At David

David, son of Jesse, is possibly one of the most recognized people in the entire Bible. His story is a rich and colorful one, his heart was one after God's own, but he was also a guy who failed at alot of things. It's the last two reasons that I think we like him so much, because he is such a prime example of what God's grace can truly mean. I'd like to take a very brief look at an aspect of his story that perhaps is overlooked though, and that is a systemic look. 

At the most basic point, systems theory "focuses on the interconnectedness of elements within all living organisms, including the family" (Gladding, 450). Many of you know that I am training to be a marriage and family therapist. It is through looking at systems and families' patterns of interactions that we treat both family and individual problems. More than pulling out a diagnostic manual or evaluating dreams, we think that most people are troubled by negative interactions within their family. Let me illustrate. As a youth minister, there's no doubt that someday a mother, father or both will drop a kid off at my door at tell me to "fix them" because they are misbehaving or doing whatever. At this point, I will politely tell them that they are most likely the problem, and without the entire family working together, the kid's problems will persist. 

So, it is through this lens that I want to look at David. What got David where he ended up? No doubt greed, lust, and a little thirst for fighting that he seemed to have, but what else?

Let's start at the beginning. We find David as a mere shepherd boy who is anointed by Samuel to be the next king. What major accomplishments does David have to deserve this honor (which really isn't too much of an honor because God wanted to be their only king)? Guarding sheep, and taking out a lion or bear on occasion with a slingshot. He was obviously pretty good with a sling, but he wasn't much of a warrior. Also amongst his accomplishments is harp playing, and he was pretty good at it. It was this gift that brought him to meet somebody, a king named Saul. The reason Saul needed some harp playing was because God's spirit had left him, and in fact, seemed to reside with David now. Saul now is tormented, troubled in the mind. Music seemed to help though.   

Cut scenes, David goes to bring food to his brothers who are in a standstill battle. While he's there, he sees a pesky oaf named Goliath who is cursing God's name and decides that this simply will not do, so he decides to take him out. Saul doesn't seem to recognize the newfound hero (1 Sam 17:58), even though he's the musician. Before David goes out against Goliath, Saul tries to give David his armor. It doesn't fit, and David essentially says "that's not my style." But, from the get go, you can see Saul's potential influence. He tries to make an ironclad warrior out of a shepherd. 

There are perks to doing the king a favor: riches and Saul's own daughter. So now David is Saul's son-in-law. David also befriend's Saul's son Jonathan, and the two become as close as brothers. He's now in the family. Saul even makes David commander over his men of war because he continues to send David out to fight and he has success. Things are looking up for David it would seem. The people even sing songs about him (while simultaneously insulting Saul) "Saul has killed his thousands, David his Tens of Thousands." It's hyperbole, but it does show society's expectations of David, this new war hero. 

This song made Saul pretty upset, and the next day Saul actually hurls a spear at David. TWICE. David never once retaliates against Saul, and Saul sends David out to fight the Philistines in order to get him out of his sight. Saul even uses his own daughters as a means of bribery (marriage for Philistine...parts) to get David to go out and fight against the Philistines more and more, hoping that at the frontlines, David would die (sounds familiar). Saul continues to try and kill David, creating more and more violent situations, both by himself and by other enemies. All the while, David does what he is told, never retaliates against Saul, and is blessed by God (in many ways, but to Saul's distaste, by keeping him alive). (All this can be found in 1 Samuel 16 and onward). 

Cut forward a few years and David is now King, the best that Israel ever saw except for God  in the beginning and Jesus himself. God tells David that He has blessed him, taken care of him, and considers him a wonderful servant. However, God tells David he will not be allowed to build the temple because "You have shed much blood and have waged great wars. You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed so much blood before me on the earth" (2 Chronicles 22:8). Also amongst David's issues (although not connected to the temple) is his most famous encounter with Bathsheba, a married woman. He and Bathsheba get pregnant, which David tries to hide. He goes so far as to have Uriah, her husband, killed by sending him to the frontlines, a trick he learned from Saul. Maybe David learned from Saul that all it takes to get a woman you want is a little bloodshed. Violence was Saul's answer, and unfortunately, David occasionally acted in the same way. 

So you can see that Saul had a huge impact on David, and society did as well. A shepherd boy becomes a warrior with too much blood on his hands because of the world he was thrust into. God gave him victory, but not always the battle it would seem. David lived up to the expectations that both Saul and the people of Israel had of him - he killed his tens of thousands. 

This is all incredibly fascinating because it shows the true power of systems. As I have said, I think that most of our problems are caused by the negative interactions that we have with other people, especially those closest to us. I do not think that there are genetic factors that solely lead to our downfall, I think we learn it. 

There is another lesson to be learned from David though. Despite all of the negative familial impact he had from his father-in-law and society's thirst for a warrior, he also shows us that people can choose to be different, although constantly impacted. David is called a man after God's own heart because of how repentant and servantlike he was. David was influenced negatively, and it shows, but he also made distinct decisions to be different. It is these decisions that we admire and preach on time and time again. At the end of the day, we are responsible for our decisions, but making the right decision might very well mean looking at the influences that you have in your life at both a familial and societal level. David made the decision to not retaliate against Saul, to seek after God, to follow His guidance, and to repent when he messed up. 

So, I hope you enjoyed this perspective. I also hope though that you are able to examine your systems and truly seek to follow after God with all of your life, as well as set the example of how a system can influence for good as well. May our families and churches be places where we set the right example, and may we be called a people after God's own heart. 

Work Cited: 

Gladding, Samuel T. Family Therapy: History, Theory, and Practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill, 2002. Print. 

Demons & Oppression

I probably have no business writing about what I’m going to write about. I haven’t done extensive study in demonology and all of that stuff; I just have had some thoughts recently that have really culminated into a kind of understanding that I want to share.

I’ve said this before in posts, but I really like movies about possession, demons and really just religious themes in general. I like them because they show me perspective on God, even when what is displayed is the opposite. Every perspective on God is a peering into the most important part of another person, as weird or wrong as it may be.

You might say I’ve had a life full of the supernatural. I say supernatural, but such a term is rather loaded. As a Christian, I believe fully that God’s Spirit works within me. This is a rather accepted view in Christian faith. Now, that in itself is “supernatural” because it is a force beyond the physical. In my life though, I admit that things have happened both within my family and to people I’m very close to that go above and beyond even that. I won’t go into lengthy stories, if you desire to know them, holler at me sometime.

I know a lot of people who have “ghost” stories and the like. Some embrace this rather well and some reject it, all within the faith community. The spectrum is quite large amongst Christians as to what really does happen and what is kind of bogus. I’ve already admitted that I feel some of these things happen. Way too many stories from people I trust and personal experience within my family to deny that. Most of the things within my own family are actually quite pleasant stories, not scary or creepy…maybe a little weird but sometimes they are simply comforting.

The point of this post though is to focus on the really negative side of all this. My mind really got on this subject after writing a paper for a class on mental disorders that I’m taking currently. We looked at one of the gospels and wrote about the perspective on sickness and healing.

I chose Matthew. Matthew recounts many, many healing stories, and there is something incredibly fascinating about them. The view of the day was that physical ailment had to do with people’s sin. This is somewhat reflected in the story of Job as well as when people ask Jesus stuff like “Who sinned, this person or their parents?” In Matthew, there is a moving away from such thought. I’ve said it in many posts, but suffering can actually be a privilege to the Christian. Some trials are able to build us up into the people we are supposed to be. However, there’s another side as well. In Matthew, there is a distinct difference from sickness that is purely sickness and sickness that is brought on by a demon. One chapter you’ll read about a mute man who Jesus heals, and another chapter you’ll read about another mute man that Jesus casts a demon out of in order to heal him. The accounts of these events distinguish between the two causes.

I somewhat expected my teacher to use this assignment as a way of saying that perhaps more healing can be explained as the healing of some sort of psychological event, instead of demon possession. In fact, my teacher did the opposite. He said that perhaps today we try to explain too much by physical processes and instead there may be a balance and we should look at evil forces that could potentially be at work.

MIND BLOWN.

So, I’ve come up with a very important distinction based on my reading of Matthew. There is suffering in our lives that builds us up and causes us to be better disciples of Christ. This suffering is the result of us living in a broken and imperfect world where there is disease and hurt. But, there is also suffering that is brought on by oppression of evil entities that is in fact meant to break us down both physically and mentally, and make us vulnerable so that Satan can more easily get at us.

I think I’m beginning to notice oppression more and more. Satan tempts us away from God by all of the vices that create a chasm in our relationship with God. There is brutality in the psychological oppression that comes from guilt of addiction to anything unholy. This is one kind of oppression that I see greatly. Sin. Satan is the father of sin and entices us with it greatly.

There’s another type of oppression I’ve seen though, and it is a mix of physical and fear. I have several extremely close friends that have had encounters with dark entities in their life. Several have described this type of entity as a black, shadowy figure or mass. 

I'm not saying this is the image, I'm just saying that it’s a terrifying image. Some have mentioned interaction with this figure from something moving that shouldn’t have to literally being pressed around the chest/heart area by the figure. These kinds of encounters need not always be black shadowy masses. There is variety. But, I have seen this as a theme.

This is where some are like “Yeah! That happened to me/my cousin/my friend/etc.” and some people are like “pshhhhh, get out of here.”

This is honestly where I think that some horror/possession movies get it right. In the movie The Conjuring, famous demonologist Ed Warren (real person by the way) is giving a talk on the process of possession and labels it in stages. The second to last stage he labels as oppression. This is where stuff get’s moved, doors slam, shadowy figures arise, etc. All of these things strike fear into the people who are victimized by these things. This fear leads to all kinds of worry and psychological breakdown. This breakdown leads to what is described as the final stage – possession.

Now, possession is a concept way beyond my knowledge and grasp. But, I feel I can relate to that idea of oppression, because it is so vividly described to me by those I’m close to who have experienced something like this. Oppression and possession are also described in the Biblical narrative, where it is because of possession that a person is being oppressed by some sort of illness. I’m not sure how much possession goes on today, but I do see a good deal of oppression. It is oppression that I focus on.

Now, this isn’t a reason to be terrified. Most bumps in the night actually are trees hitting the window and creaky pipes. But, there are things to be learned from this in my opinion.

Firstly, it’s important to know that this crap is real. Spiritual warfare is happening all around us and so it serves us well to know who’s side we are on, and to truly take up that metaphorical armor of God we’ve heard about in Sunday school. The line from the end of The Conjuring is an actual quote by Ed Warren which reads “God is real, the devil is real, and as humans, our destiny hinges on whom we elect to follow.” Know who you follow, but know that God wins. So, probably best to be on that side.

Secondly, and I’ve said this before, but DON’T DABBLE IN THIS CRAP. This is also a point where I think Hollywood got it right on a couple of occasions. In both The Exorcist and Paranormal Activity (and potentially others, but these two come to mind), everything really hits the fan after they mess with a Ouija board or some other kind of deal. I would not touch one with a 39 ½ foot pole. I won’t go ghost hunting. I won’t cast spells, even as a joke. I won’t go to the special graveyard where weird stuff happens. I WON’T DO IT. YOU CAN’T MAKE ME. I’m fascinated by it, I’ll watch movies about it, but I will NOT participate. I don’t think it is smart in the least. I don’t think Satan can just waltz inside, I think you have to let him in. But sometimes letting him in is simply dabbling with something you don’t have any business messing with. I think even the strong can and are oppressed (for I’ve seen it happen to exceptional people), but that nothing can take hold if the person remains strong in God.

Thirdly, you have to rebuke the crap out of this stuff. In one of my friend’s stories, he was being pushed down by a black, shadowy figure and immediately he sat up, rebuked it in the name of Jesus, saying things by the Spirit within him, and immediately went back to sleep afterwards. THAT IS SO FREAKIN’ COOL! It’s one of most spiritually bad mama jama things I’ve ever heard of. To be at such peace, knowing that God will not allow the enemy to prosper against His servant, to the point where right after one of the single scariest things that could ever happen to a person goes down, he was just able to go right back to sleep…I admire that so stinking much. I told him he’ll have to put it on his resume one day – Accomplishments: I rebuked a demon once.

Rebuking can also mean admitting that you are weak in the face of temptation and asking for the power of God to rule in your life and get whatever pollutant is present to get up and LEAVE. It also means hardcore accountability with the people around you. It’s time we combat the sin in our own lives much more aggressively. We need to rebuke the things that God would not have for us.

So yeah, there are some thoughts. I’m sure it only causes more questions, but hopefully this kind of honesty helps us wake up to the spiritual battle that we are a part of and take a stand against Satan and his agents. Also, know that some of this could be wrong. I do not doubt the experiences of those friends I mention, but my interpretation could be a little off. After all, I cite three movies as examples for a few of the points I’ve used. Perhaps further study will inform me more, but at the same time, I really do believe what I’ve written here. Let this be a stepping-stone to further study.   

  

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm (Ephesians 6:10-13)

He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha (2 Kings 6:16-17)