“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”
— James 4:8.
The Gospel for Passion Sunday ends: Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. The first thing we notice when we come into church on Passion Sunday is the veiling. All the statues and crosses are covered over with purple cloth. The Church asks us to shroud what I call “visual aids” so that we can more deeply engage our imagination as we recall these last days of Our Lord’s earthly ministry.
We don’t talk much about the use of imagination in our worship of God. But God has given us imagination to enable us to grow in spiritual maturity. Deprived of the visual image of the crucifix above the altar, we must take hold of it in our mind’s eye. Through the imagination, we place ourselves at the foot of the cross. We are present to observe the conversation between Our Lord, John the Beloved and the Blessed Mother. We envision Our Lord giving His Mother to us. We observe the two thieves, one on each side of our dying Lord. We witness the last breath of Our Lord and the soldier piercing His side. In short, our imagination allows us to enter more deeply into the mystery of Our Lord’s passion and death.
The Epistle appointed for Passion Sunday is from Hebrews: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? With these words, we begin our meditation on the passion of Christ and its effect on and for us.
Many scholars believe that the Epistle to the Hebrews was written to a very special group of recent converts from Judaism: Levites who ministered in the Temple. We read of such a conversion in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 6.7). The intent of the Epistle is several-fold; the writer seeks to remind the converts that the New Covenant in Christ is infinitely superior to that established at Mt Sinai as well as to explain how the sacrifice of Christ fulfills perfectly the precepts of the Law and ritual worship given to Moses.
The appointed passage speaks of the Day of Atonement, the only day of the year in which the High Priest could enter into the Holy of Holies (the holiest part of the temple) and atone for the people’s sins as well as his own, with the blood of a bull for his own sins and the blood of a goat for that of the people. One extraordinary detail might escape our attention. Normally when exercising his priestly duties, the High Priest dressed in vestments that made him look kingly. (The origin of this is to be found in Exodus chapter 28.) As mediator between the people and God, these elaborate vestments were befitting. On the Day of Atonement, however, he was to dress in plain white linen, setting aside his kingly vestments. On this day he looked more like a slave than a priest.
In the normal course of his duties, the High Priest reflected the splendor of God as he ministered among the people. But when he entered into the presence of God, he came in humility and simplicity.
In Holy Week, we will witness more closely the passion of Christ. We will watch as He prepares to enter into the true Holy of Holies by way of the Cross; stripped completely of his garments. The divine Son of the Father set aside his glory, [and] made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant [slave], and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2.7-8).
As the Gospel states, Our Lord will hide Himself, but this time as our High Priest. He will be taken down from the altar of the cross and placed in a sepulcher, a cave made into a tomb. Through our imagination, we will be able to follow Him as He enters the heavenly Holy of Holies to atone, not for His sins, but for ours. Not with the blood of bulls and of goats, but with His own most precious blood, will he purge [our] conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
He will remain hidden until the third day, when He rises victorious over our ancient enemies of sin and death. May we faithfully accompany Our Lord throughout this Passion-tide, so that on Easter Day we may more fully enter into the joy of His eternal victory.
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The Rise of ‘Me Christianity’ on the Left
BY: Brandon Morse
Jesus is not a prop. He’s not an accessory. He’s not your puppet.
But that’s exactly what the left wants him to be. I’ve seen so many instances of “churches” and “men of God” spouting abject nonsense into the ether in an attempt to lead people astray, not as a mistake or a misreading, but with the intention of driving them to a political conclusion that God had no intention of people ever reaching.
You’ve likely most recently seen this from Texas senatorial candidate James Talarico, a Presbyterian pastor turned Democrat politician who is the manifestation of the wolf in sheep’s clothing.
A recap of what James Talarico believes:
– Jesus Christ was a “radical feminist”
– White men are the “greatest” terror threat
– There are “six” biological sexes
– The border should be a “front porch”
– Atheists are “more Christ-like” than Christians
Talarico is hardly the only person doing this. It’s happening all over the United States.
Not long ago, I wrote on the growing issue of LGBTQ+ churches that weren’t just pushing agendas on their parishioners; they were doing it to children right there in the church.
This is an attempt to redefine Christianity. Mainstream culture will embrace it. Your resolve is about to be tested.
This kind of “Christianity” isn’t at all Christianity. It is, underneath, an issue that humans have been grappling with since Eve bit the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and that’s attempting to replace God with the individual.
It boils down to becoming the way, the truth, and the life, thereby replacing Christ while, ironically, using Christ as the authority by which your beliefs are legitimized.
It’s “Me Christianity.” It’s the latter person C.S. Lewis described in “The Great Divorce“ when he wrote, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.'”
And if you were to ask me, I think these people pose more of a threat to Christians than other religions, including Islam.
Islam is a defined enemy, and those who follow it declare themselves proudly. They make their intentions of conquest and death known to you and aren’t shy to tell you they’re coming for you.
Anti-theists, likewise, can’t often hold their resentment back when discussing God or Christianity. They make it clear they’re not on your side at all when it comes to the worship of God, and will often take action directly against Christian interests, usually on a legal level.
But these people who bastardize the word of God are attempting to deceive Christians directly. Their hope isn’t just to mislead themselves; they want to bring everyone they can along. They want to slap Jesus’s face on their lies in hopes that you won’t just agree with their politics, but that you’ll hold them up as some moral authority that is ultimately above Christ.
For seasoned Christians, this obviously isn’t a problem, but for the youth who are mostly ignorant of the Bible’s teachings and rely on guidance from more learned people, this can be particularly disastrous. Even if they aren’t fully misled, they can still get the wrong idea about parts of the Bible and develop expectations that will be destroyed at some point and may cause their walk with God to become wobbly.
I think there’s a reason warnings against false prophets are mentioned over 100 times in the Bible. The damage they do is ultimately far worse than anything anyone can do with a blade or a pen.
People like Talarico cannot be given power, not just because he’s a lunatic of a Democrat who has all the values of a San Francisco hippie while he wears the skinsuit of a southern preacher, but because he will turn his office into a pulpit for a “god” whose real name is James Talarico. Christians of every variety should be coming down on this false teacher like a hammer, not just because of his politics, but because of his heresy.
I don’t expect every Christian in the world to know everything there is to know about God, the ins and outs of the Bible, and every context there is to know. The Bible is widely debated even among Christians, and ultimately, we can’t know the mind of God.
But I think we can all agree that there are hard lines in the sand, and these “Me Christians” are crossing every one of them and declaring “Jesus said it was cool.”
We have to make it clear that they’re wrong for the sake of Christians everywhere, including the young ones.
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The ‘LGBT Church’ Issue Seems to Be Getting Worse
BY: Brandon Morse
If you can’t beat ’em’, join ’em’.
The LGBT community has been in a long war with Christianity, and in the socio-political way it exists in the U.S., it seems to only hold a hatred for Christianity above all other religions, including Islam, which actively promotes the murder of LGBT individuals.
But despite years of attempting to destroy Christianity and plague Christians, the activists in that community seem to have hit a wall. They can’t seem to overcome Christians, even if they do win legally. It only motivates Christians to fight harder and buckle down on their faith. So if you can’t destroy them from without, the next logical move is to try to destroy them from within.
And that’s the new trend. The rise of the LGBT churches.
I’ve touched on this before, and called for Christians to begin paying attention to this rising problem. These “churches” teach a skewed and perverted form of the gospel and morph God’s word into something that suits their lifestyle in an attempt to infiltrate and corrupt the church:
This is the LGBT activist community infiltrating, corrupting, and destroying the Christian community from within. They’re putting forth the idea that America, the body of Christ, and the children within it are guilty of some original sin that oppresses groups and that these oppressive systems must be destroyed.
The “oppressive system” they’re speaking of is the word of God. That’s what they’re trying to corrupt the Christian Church into turning its back on, Christ and His teachings.
And I want to reiterate something. While you are your church might be safe, others are not. These concepts and opinions are weaseling their way into every corner that they can, and that includes the children within the Church. Last year, I reported on this very thing, and gave a great example as you see a pastor attempting to normalize the concept of drag queens to children during a service.
The sad fact is that this isn’t a wholly unsuccessful venture, despite the fact that we may think they’re stepping into a highly protected realm. The goal of the LGBT community is never outright assault, it’s subversion. It’s working themselves in slowly, usually through the youth, and once they’ve influenced them, they can begin the work of dismantling any institution from within.
According to Pew, openly gay and lesbian members in leadership roles increased from 18 percent to 26 percent . . . and that was from 2006 to 2012. By 2015, acceptance of homosexuality has grown in major denominations, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church, United Methodist Church, Episcopal Church, and Presbyterian Church.
The United Church of Christ brags it’s the “world’s fastest-growing LGBTQ+ affirming church movement,” with over 1,700 participating churches.
You can even see these “groups” popping up on social media feeds. Here’s one that I was served by Instagram one night out of the blue. Notice that most of the people here are teens and young adults, and they’re all listening to a man in a dress talking about how the more he heals, the more he realizes he’s “f***ed up.”
When I see things like this, I can only conclude that there are two kinds of people in that room.
Firstly, there are those who were raised to believe that they should love everyone, but that they can’t square their Christian faith with its supposed hatred of LGBT people. To be clear, we are commanded to love, but we are also commanded not to sin, or allow sin to corrupt the church. Homosexuality is a sin. Period, however, due to the machinations of activists, this nuance is lost on young believers, or potential converts. In lieu of actually receiving the word as it is, they attend sermons like the one you see above, or ones in corrupted churches, and receive messaging that is more propagandistic than it is salvational.
These are the sheep led astray, and God has some very harsh warnings for those who would lead his children away from him while posing as his shepherds.
Which brings me to the other people in the room, the ones willfully subverting the will of God and attempting to mislead people for their own gain.
Some of these people may don robes and look official, but in the end, they hate God. Their purpose isn’t to teach His word, or lead people to salvation, but to get them to join in on a political movement that will eliminate Christianity through corruption. The Bible is clear about their beliefs, and so they want to subtract from God’s word while claiming His authority.
It’s also funny that they do all of this in the name of “inclusion,” but really it’s about exclusion of the very foundation of what they’re supposedly basing their teachings on.
Christians should start speaking out about this churches in large degree. While we don’t want hate of LGBT people to infect the church, we don’t want the influence it might bring.
It’s important to understand that gay and lesbian people are welcome to attend, but in hopes that they turn from their sin, not embrace it.
No one dreams of opening a church where drug use is considered permissible, or even advocated by God. Vice is discouraged by God and quite a bit of it is considered sinful, yet of all the vices, sexual degeneracy seems to be the only sin people want to put on God’s okay list.
Why?
Because it’s the easiest thing to rope people in with. It’s easy to paint something as inclusive and loving because it involves intimacy and closeness, which we all crave.
However, this is a perversion of what God intended, and we can see in the many verses in the Bible what he intends intimacy to look like. Anyone who says differently is trying to lie to themselves, or worse, fool others. As Christians, we can’t let that happen silently.
GFK
Observations From The Fifth Estate 