Category: Bible & Theology

“False Presence of the Kingdom”, by Jacques Ellul

In 1963, Jacques Ellul published a sequel to his earlier work, The Presence of the Kingdom. Ellul’s second discussion of the nature and significance of the

Jacques Ellul

kingdom of God was titled, False Presence of the Kingdom.

Having used the earlier book to lay out his understanding of what the kingdom of God is and how the Christian church ought to be living within that kingdom, Ellul now goes on to diagnose what he believes are the most common misunderstandings and misappropriations of the New Testament kingdom theology.

As always, Ellul gives today’s reader a lot to think about and to digest, most of it rather uncomfortable but absolutely necessary and, hopefully, not entirely indigestible.

Below is today’s excerpt from Jacques Ellul’s False Presence of the Kingdom (all emphasis mine). I quote a section where Ellul focuses on the classic distinction between fact and value and the modern error of assuming that facts have a self-evident, intrinsic value of their own.

By the way, as I write this, I am thinking of several recent conversations with fellow Christians who said things to me that are perfect examples of the problem Ellul is critiquing:

If one attributes inherent value to fact, and if the moment the fact exists it is useless to bring an ethical or spiritual judgment to bear upon it, then I say that this should be carried to its logical conclusion. Capitalism? It’s a fact. War? It’s a fact. Parachutists? It’s a fact. Torture? That’s a gross fact. . . One is quite simply hypocritical and dishonest in advancing the argument that one is faced with a fact, and that moral judgment is to be avoided on that account.

 There remains, moreover, the question why one employs that argument. The answer, alas, is easy. . . one avoids debate by eliminating the moral problem on the ground that facts elude such judgment. . . (If) a fact is a final value, one yields to the fact. Nothing can be done about it. Whenever, in an ordinary argument, one person is able to say to the other: “First of all, it’s a fact,” there is nothing to be said in reply.

 To give up passing judgment on a fact, to assume that all one can do from then on is to yield to it, to adjust to it, that is precisely and totally to abandon the Christian life in its entirety. There is no position more radically anti-Christian than to give way to a fact. It is to accept fate. It is to agree that the material factor is the determining one. It is to agree that the Christian life is nothing but a morality. At the same time, it is a renunciation of spiritual discernment, and of the possibility of injecting truth into the context of reality.

 That entails enormous consequences, which, to be sure, are never foreseen by those Christians who think they are realists because they announce: “It’s a fact.” . . . (Such) Christians obey the world’s logical inconsistencies. Their thinking is so unstable that the very ones who accept fact as final judgment in matters of technology, progress, mass culture, economic growth, urbanization, etc., are the same ones who reject fact in the case of colonialism or of the present government. But perhaps, again, this is nothing but a conformism . . .

 Once again, let’s make it clear that it is no part of our thinking to deny the facts, or to say that they do not have to be taken into account. What we are saying is simply that it is a gross intellectual error to transform fact into a value, to conceive of fact as being or as containing a value in and of itself. We are saying it is a gross moral error to renounce judging a fact, that is a gross spiritual error to urge man to bow before fact, that is to say, before the fatality of whatever exists.

I used to have a personal mantra that I would repeat to myself in times of difficulty. I’d say too myself:

I will only deal with what’s real in order to strive for God’s ideal.

That’s what Ellul is talking about. What’s your kingdom mantra?

“The Presence of the Kingdom” by Jacques Ellul

I visited Grand Rapids, Michigan last month, and I did what I always do when I travel; I checked out the used bookstores!

This trip, I picked up two books by the French, Christian thinker, professor, philosopher, Jacques Ellul which were new to me.

Jacques Ellul (1912 – 1994)

If you’ve never read Ellul, you need to begin today.

You’ll find few Christian writers as thoughtful and penetrating in his deconstruction of the modern world, its technological idols, and what it means for a Christian to follow Jesus faithfully through the maze of an ever evolving and broken society.

Rather than write up two book reviews for my readers, I decided to post a few excerpts to give you the flavor of each book, both about the kingdom of God.

Naturally, I never agree with everything Ellul says. I don’t even agree with myself much of the time! But I am always challenged and stimulated, often in a surprising, back-handed way, to think about the issues more deeply.

I hope you will be challenged too.

The first book I am excerpting today is Ellul’s 1948 publication titled, The Presence of the Kingdom (all emphasis is mine):

. . . The Christian is constantly obliged to reiterate the claims of God, to re-establish this God-willed ‘order,’ in presence of an order which constantly tends towards disorder. In consequence of the claims which God is always making on the world the Christian finds himself (sic), by that very fact, involved in a state of permanent revolution. Even when the institutions, the laws, the reforms which he has advocated have been achieved, even if society be re-organized according to his suggestions, he still has to be in opposition, he still must exact more, for the claim of God is a infinite as His forgiveness. Thus, the Christian is called to question unceasingly all that man calls progress, discovery, facts, established results, reality, etc. He can never be satisfied with all this human labour, and in consequence he is always claiming that it should be transcended, or replaced by something else.

 In his judgment he is guided by the Holy Spirit – he is making an essentially revolutionary act. If the Christian is not being revolutionary, then in some way or another he has been unfaithful to his calling in the world. . .

 . . . Thus, one who knows that he has been saved by Christ is not a man jealously and timidly attached to a past, however glorious it may be. He does not cling to the past of his Church (tradition), nor even to the past life of Jesus Christ (on which, however, the certainty of his faith depends) – but he is a man of the future…of the eschaton, of the coming break with this present world…All facts acquire their value in the light of the coming Kingdom of God, in the light of the Judgment, and the victory of God. . .

 . . . This theological truth also applies to social and political facts. The actual events of our world only acquire their value in the light of the coming Kingdom of God. It is the imminent return of Christ which gives genuine seriousness to each actual event . . . Without this direction history is an outbreak of madness. Now in this matter the Christian has no right to keep this truth to himself; by his action and by his thought it is his duty to bring the ‘coming event’ into the life of this present world. . . Every Christian who has received the Holy Spirit is now a prophet of the Return of Christ, and by this very fact he has a revolutionary mission in politics. . .

 . . . To be revolutionary is to judge the world by its present state, by actual facts, in the name of a truth which does not yet exist (but which is coming) – and it is to do so because we believe this truth to be more genuine and more real than the reality which surrounds us. Consequently, it means bringing the future into the present as an explosive force. . .

What’s Wrong with Promoting “A Christian World-View?” The Answer is Everything

Let’s begin by watching this short clip from the Christian Broadcasting Network interviewing pollster George Barna who offers dire warnings about the imminent dangers let loose by American Christians’ lack of a Biblical world-view.

The CBN video clip is titled “Few Professed Christian Parents Hold a Biblical World-View.”

 

Frankly, I have never been a fan of the idea that Christian’s must hold onto a well-developed “Biblical world-view.”

For many years I taught at a college that required all incoming freshmen to take a class intended to press upon their young minds the details of a Reformed world-view. I was never a fan of that curriculum decision, either, and I spoke out against it at the time.

As a Christian educator, my basic objection – which I will elaborate below – had to do with the difference between education vs. indoctrination.

A basic principle of all good education, including a so-called Christian education, I believe, is to grasp the crucial distinction between teaching a person how to think as opposed to indoctrinating a person into what to think.

Focusing on the maintenance and preservation of a “Christian” or “Biblical” world-view places the emphasis on indoctrination rather than on learning how to think for oneself. This is why indoctrination so often fails once the pressures, expectations, and boundaries of homelife and college performance are finally lifted.

In all likelihood, that young mind will eventually decide that he/she has outgrown the days of being told what to think and believe.

Young adults have agency. They are not robots. Mr. Barna’s facile insistence that every young person who lacks an adequate Christian world-view is necessarily the derelict product of parental failure is both glib and harsh. It is also offensive.

The church is filled with a wide variety of adults with very different views on parenting. Of course, the church has always had its share of hypocrites, which is certainly noticed by the community’s young people.

I observed a great deal of hypocrisy while growing up in the church. Yet, I eventually decided to devote my life to following Jesus. Others are raised by strict, religious parents far more intent on both indoctrination and the maintenance of an indoctrinated lifestyle than mine ever were. Yet, I have watched many of them walk away from the church and abandon their youthful professions of faith.

For years I was ordained in a denomination that included an extensive Catechism (that is, an exercise in doctrinal education – a world-view – that was laid out in a question-and-answer format, typically memorized by the students) among its doctrinal statements. This Reformed version of “Sunday school” was valuable to many young people. But, trust me, I have also heard many stories over the years from others who eagerly repudiated their Catechetical confession of faith as soon as they were free to do so.

So, in my not-so-humble opinion, Mr. Barna needs to zip it when it comes to asserting simpleminded, cause-and-effect relationships between parental responsibility and the irreligious world-views of young people.

But let’s probe more deeply into the fundamental errors of such misguided insistence on the creation of a Biblical world-view.

First, I must object to the indefinite article “a.”

Barna’s discussion is typical in its assumption that there is only one, that is “A,” Biblical world-view. Just as there presumably is A Marxist world-view, or A relativistic world-view, there is supposedly A Biblical world-view.

Really?

Whose interpretation of the Bible are we talking about? The original, ancient Biblical world-view insisted that the earth was flat, and that rain fell from an ocean of water contained somewhere in the sky, to mention only a few of its “Biblical” principles. Should “faithful” parents teach these archaic, anti-scientific notions to their children?

Furthermore, who draws the boundaries distinguishing (1) a properly Biblical world-view from (2) a tendentious cultural world-view?

For the vast majority of American evangelicals such cultural artifacts as raw individualism, inalienable rights to private property, unregulated capitalism, and US style “democracy” are all self-evident, necessary ingredients of a truly Biblical world-view.

But are they? Really?

So, the many thousands, if not millions, of faithful Christians throughout western history who espoused Christian socialism (like Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer), defended the divine right of kings (like John and Charles Wesley), or insisted that true Christian faith demanded communal living where all goods are held in common (like many, early Pietists) – they were all deluded by defective world-views that sadly led their children astray?

Who exactly decides THE one legitimate Biblical world-view? Who draws its boundaries? Who makes the final, authoritative distinction between the necessary, Biblical truths and the unnecessary, peripheral cultural add-ons? And whose Biblical truths become THE Biblical truths?

Personally, I have never heard these unavoidable questions addressed adequately in any of the conversations I have listened to or read that promoted this idea of a “Biblical world-view.”

And this is a big part of the reason why I think the entire conversation about world-views is bunk.

My most radical critique, however, drilling down to the most fundamental error of world-view thinking, is the neglect of discipleship.

Yep, I know that world-view advocates will protest here. They insist that possessing a Biblical world-view IS fundamental to Christian discipleship, and a large majority of the evangelical church agrees, in principle.

But this is precisely where the American church goes astray. Because the real focal point of Christian discipleship is Jesus, the crucified, resurrected Galilean.

Disciples know Jesus personally. They follow after Jesus closely. They submit the entirety of their lives to Jesus’ Lordship, and they want to conform their lives to Jesus’ own pattern of living and instruction.

Genuine discipleship is not acquired by memorizing theological principles, nor by mastering critiques of alternative world-views, nor by learning the right way “to think” about life’s questions.

Disciples are made through submission and obedience to the crucified Savior who becomes so loved and adored by the sinners he has saved that they will do anything he asks of them, no matter how odd, counter-cultural, counter-intuitive, offensive, or difficult it may be.

Many of the most serious disciples may never be able to articulate a coherent, integrated “world-view,” at least not to Mr. Barna’s satisfaction. But they will know the living Jesus and follow Him faithfully to the bitter end.

Certainly, genuine discipleship requires Bible study. But the focus of that study turns from learning doctrinal proof-texts to focus on the absorption of stories and lessons about Jesus’ shocking lifestyle among society’s most marginalized.

The focus turns to Jesus’ ethical teachings about selfless love, radical obedience, personal sacrifice, self-denial, anti-materialism, simplicity, generosity, sharing, and absolute allegiance to the resurrected Lord, even to the point of dying for Him, if necessary.

For much of my adult life I have been convinced that one of the great failings of the American church has been its preference for teaching the theological complexities of the apostle Paul rather than exploring Jesus’ outrageous moral requirements.

A proper, Christian world-view only emerges in the hearts and minds of those who wake up every morning with a renewed commitment to follow hard after Jesus, to become more and more like Jesus, to love Jesus with all the sincerity of someone who has pledged herself to “obey all of Jesus’ commandments.”

Does my alternative to world-view thinking give us a guaranteed, uniform answer to every philosophical question? Does it keep us all on the same page about knowing how to address life’s problems? Of course not.

But it does set us on the right path.

It does clarify that the heart and soul of the Christian life is not so much about what we know as it is about who we love and the way we live.

It does make us real Christians, not fakes.

It does put us in touch with God’s voice as He speaks through His Word, both through the words of holy Scripture as well as the words of His one and only holy Son.

And oh, my goodness, what a difference it would make in this world if the church were to prioritize wholesale obedience to our suffering Savior Jesus Christ – even to the point of our own suffering and death – as its number one value. The supposed need for a Biblical world-view would vanish in an instant.

Did You Know that America was Hitler’s Main Model for The Nazis’ Nuremberg Laws?

I recently read James Q. Whitman’s eye-opening book, Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law (Princeton, 2017).

No school teacher had ever explained to me that during the second half of the 19th century and first half of the 20th century the USA was THE most officially racist country in the world.

What Whitman demonstrates is not only that our Southern states had racist Jim Crow laws intended to disenfranchise anyone who was not white from exercising their constitutional rights as citizens. But beyond that, the entire country, both north and south, was governed by an elaborate system of laws, ordinances, and regulations legislating three vital arenas of citizenship: immigration law, citizenship law, and marriage law. And these laws were far more restrictive than those found in any other country.

These were “the Big Three,” the three legislative arenas that made the good ole’ US of A the most racist nation in the world.

As state legislatures around this country continue to make new laws banning the teaching of Critical Race Theory – even in places where it is not being taught! – I wish that my public education had included the historical information laid out in Whitman’s important book.

Below is an excerpt from Hitler’s American Model. I urge you to read the entire book for yourself. I will make a few comments after the excerpt:

On June 5, 1934, about a year and a half after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of the Reich, the leading lawyers of Nazi Germany gathered at a meeting to plan what would become the Nuremberg Laws, the notorious anti-Jewish legislation of the Nazi race regime…The meeting involved detailed and lengthy discussions of the law of the United States. In the opening minutes, Justice Minister Gürtner presented a memo on American race law, which had been carefully prepared by the officials of the ministry for purposes of the gathering; and the participants returned repeatedly to the American models of racist legislation in the course of their discussions. It is particularly startling to discover that the most radical Nazis present were the most ardent champions of the lessons that American approaches held for Germany…Indeed in Mein Kampf Hitler praised America as nothing less than “the one state” that had made progress toward the creation of a healthy racist order of the kind the Nuremberg Laws were intended to establish. (1-2)

This too is a part of American history.

There is only one way to teach this history: straightforwardly and honestly. Hiding it, ignoring it only perpetuates the cultural deformities that gave overt racism so much power over our society in the first place.

Yes, every student in an American classroom needs to learn about this part of our story. Yes, courses in Critical Race Theory must continue in colleges, universities, and law schools. Efforts at teaching multiculturalism and inclusion must continue unabated, from our elementary schools on up.

The fact that so many are now fighting against such educational efforts to make the full spectrum of America’s racist history known is, perhaps, the nation’s loudest bellwether proving that America is, in fact, an anti-Christian nation.

Genuine followers of Jesus want to know the truth, the truth about themselves and the truth about the world around them.

Genuine followers of Jesus are more devoted to their citizenship in the kingdom of God and the ethics of Jesus than they are to the mythologies or civic religions of any earthly nation-state, including the one they live in.

Genuine followers of Jesus willingly confess the ugly truths about themselves, their heritage, families, and societies. This is because genuine followers of Jesus are in the habit of confessing their sins and seeking forgiveness from both God and others.

Genuine followers of Jesus eagerly work to make amends to those who have been injured by the consequences of whatever evils their heritage has inflicted onto others.

Genuine followers of Jesus, inasmuch as it is possible, seek reconciliation and work for justice in their relationships with those around them.

The disturbing fact that so many ostensibly “Christian” leaders are in the forefront of this current culture war campaign to hide the story of how America triumphantly won the crown as the world’s most officially racist country, tells us a lot about how unimportant the crucified Jesus truly is to American evangelicalism.

Cheap Grace, Judgment, and the Glory of God

Yep, this is a long one. But I hope you will read it in stages, if not all in one sitting, and seriously consider the Biblical evidence undergirding my argument.

Thanks for your patience. I pray that my readers will be challenged and edified, to use an old fashioned word. And share this with your church leaders, if need be.

Now, let’s think about Cheap Grace, Judgment, and the Glory of God.

This past Tuesday provided an opportunity for me to reflect on the all-too-common tendency within the American church for teachers to avoid any mention of divine judgment with the same determination exhibited by a maniacal, bug-eyed cat as it panics at the sight of a soapy bathtub.

Yet, for anyone who pays attention to Scripture, it should be clear that acknowledging the looming inevitability of God’s condemnation of the sin in our lives – yes, a final judgment for every follower of Jesus Christ as well as for the rest of humanity – is the only way forward for anyone hoping to grasp the magnitude and meaning of Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross.

If there is no threat of judgment, then why must Jesus die? That is the heart of the issue.

Without a straightforward explanation of why God judges universal human rebellion, a rebelliousness which everyone must own up to eventually, whether in this life or the next, it is impossible to understand the blood-curdling “injustice” of the Father’s holy judgment executed against an innocent, sinless Galilean at Calvary.

Far too many church-goers are suckled at the teats of cheap grace, even as they speak admiringly of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s heroism and pass around lightly worn, rarely read copies of his masterwork, The Cost of Discipleship. But the fact is, a cheap misappropriation of God’s grace – if God’s grace is ever truly appropriated at all – is the only brand of faith available when its significance is divorced from the holiness of God and the imperative of judgment.

The reason for the Western church’s love affair with cheap grace is simple.

The Impostor of Therapeutic Religion

American Christianity has become a mercilessly cheerful, feel-good brand of therapeutic religion. The average church service is meticulously orchestrated and stage managed as a place where no one should ever be made to feel uncomfortable, for any reason at all. The projection of a unilateral, universal standard of approval – not of appropriate acceptance, mind you, but of blanket approval – is a therapeutic demand of the many professional pastor/therapists teaching from our pulpits.

Philip Rieff explained America’s new religious reality years ago in his prescient book, The Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith After Freud. Exploring the rising dominance of psychotherapy in Western society, Rieff observes the West’s thorough-going rejection of such ancient religious values as self-denial, sacrificial obedience, acts of penance, and the confession of true guilt born of personal sin. As a result:

“Western man [sic] could be free at last from an authority [i.e., the historic Christian church and the biblical gospel of Christ] depending upon (the individual’s) sense of sin. Even now, sin is all but incomprehensible to [Western society] inasmuch as the moral demand system [that is, Western culture] no longer generates powerful inclinations toward obedience or faith, nor feelings of guilt when those inclinations are over-ridden by others for which sin is the ancient name” (209-210).

Tragically, in a vain attempt to maintain its “relevance” and attract new members, the Christian church drinks deeply from the same therapeutic fountains and then goes skinny dipping with the same therapeutic sharks that are drugging and devouring the rest of Western society. Rather than behave as the gatekeepers they are called to be, too many church leaders make themselves indistinguishable from the practical atheists (whether religious or not) who trace their therapeutic, or “pastoral,” credentials back to Freud.

As I observe the consistently glib presentation of the Lord’s Supper in our Protestant churches – and no, I am not referring to an absence of “liturgy,” however one defines it, but to the remarkably unserious way in which the sacrament is typically wedged into a tight service schedule and then presented in a manner that barely touches upon the terrible redemptive drama of sin, judgment, and grace found at its heart – I am reminded of Rieff’s summary of another churchman’s defense of therapeutic Christianity:

“Any religious exercise is justified only by being something men do for themselves, that is, for the enrichment of their own experience…What then should churchmen do? Become, avowedly, therapists, administrating a therapeutic institution – under the justificatory mandate that Jesus himself was the first therapeutic” (215).

Rieff concludes, “Both East and West are now committed, culturally as well as economically, to the gospel of self-fulfillment.”

Before leaving this issue, I recently attended a communion service in a mid-western Reformed church. As the pastor offered the two elements to his congregants, no mention was made of the broken body or the shed blood of Jesus. Instead, the bread and the wine were described as the beneficial products, the fruit, of God’s good creation, given to us by the Creator to sustain our lives.

I seriously considered walking out rather than listen to such pretentious, blasphemous, therapeutic drivel.

Naturally, many will object to being tarred with the therapeutic brush. But I will return to the opening of this article and submit as exhibit A in my defense of Rieff’s argument the simple fact that precious few congregations are ever made to confront these two essential, Biblical truths: 1) that divine judgment lies at the heart of the New Testament gospel (for without divine judgment there is no gospel), and 2) that the ultimate purpose for every believer’s redemption is not the forgiveness of his or her sins but the magnification of God’s glory.

In other words, the New Testament gospel of Jesus Christ is, in fact, the most anti-Western, anti-cultural, anti-therapeutic (in the contemporary sense of the word) message in the world. And it always has been.

No, Christians Are Not Delivered from Divine Judgment

First, every Christian must rid him/herself of the pervasive misconception that faith in Jesus’ sacrificial work on the cross will deliver us from eventual judgement. It won’t.

Jesus himself warns the disciples, and anyone else listening, that public shame and embarrassment, that is, future judgment, awaits us all when God eventually reveals our secret, hidden acts of wickedness for all to see and to hear:

For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. Therefore, consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them. (Luke 8:17-18)

Consider carefully, indeed. I don’t know how else to read Jesus’ words except to understand that all of my sin, beginning with my many secret sins, will be publicly exposed on Judgment Day. Everyone will know the full measure of my guilt.

No sinful act, malicious thought, or evil intention will remain hidden when God’s righteous eternity finally swallows up our fallen temporality. For our holy God intends one day to lay it all bare for public viewing. And He has an important reason for doing this, which I will explore below.

The apostle Paul also anticipates “the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares” (Romans 2:16). Notice that the assurance of future judgment is an integral feature of Paul’s gospel! (For example, see Acts 17:30-31; 28:25-27; Rom 2:1-12). Paul also repeats Jesus’ warning about supposedly “secret” sins never remaining secret before God. Furthermore, the context of Paul’s statement offers no room for distinctions between believers vs. unbelievers. No. The Father’s impending judgment will apply to everyone, equally. No exceptions. And anyone who imagines they are explaining the gospel of Christ while failing to explain the inevitable judgment of God is not sharing Paul’s gospel. Period. Full stop.

Paul also compares that Day of Judgment to a house fire that will burn through everyone’s home, revealing the truth about everyone’s life. Every secret is revealed:

…their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Corinthians 3:13-15)

I will have more to say about this passage before I conclude.

And finally, we have 2 Corinthians 5:10:

For we must ALL appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good OR BAD.

The Books Will Be Opened

A common theme in ancient Jewish literature depicts the Last Judgment as the final balancing of God’s heavenly account books. “The books” are opened. God has been keeping an exhaustive record, throughout all of human history, preserving a heavenly balance sheet of every righteous and unrighteous act or thought performed or harbored by every human being who has ever lived.

No one is exempt.

Recall the New Testament’s lengthiest description of Judgment Day in the book of Revelation 20:11-15:

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

We must honestly confront the words in this text.

Each and every person, without exception, will be judged by God according to “what they had done.” Of course, everyone’s account will fall short. When judged according to “what we have done,” no one’s life proves satisfactory or acceptable to the Holy One.

This reckoning with the heavenly books proves once and for all that everyone falls short of God’s righteous expectations. No one is righteous, no not one. Everyone deserves eternal punishment in the lake of fire, including those who have cast their lot with the crucified, resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ.

Even the faithful who receive some measure of reward for their episodic obedience to Jesus – remember Paul’s words about the rewards for obedience surviving the fire of judgment in 1 Corinthians 3:13-15 – still deserve to be separated from God. For no human accomplishments, not even the most righteous acts of the saintliest of saints, can outweigh the overwhelming, immoral landslide of selfish, wicked decisions made by fallen people. And that includes you and me.

But there is a ray of hope.

For there is another book on display – the Book of Life. The pages of this book are not filled with lists of human actions but only with lists of names. And these names are written not with ink but with the shed blood of the crucified, resurrected Lamb of God.

This contrast between the multiple books issuing unremitting, universal judgment vs. the one book securing eternal redemption for everyone whose name is written in the blood of the Lamb is an extraordinarily powerful image. We must interpret this image clearly. Observe that even the redeemed, whose names are inscribed by Christ’s own steady, nail-pierced hand into the Lamb’s book of life, have been judged as deserving eternal damnation by the biographies of wickedness recorded in the previously opened books of works.

But the appearance of the Book of Life explains the difference between judgment and condemnation, for while everyone is judged to be a failure, not everyone is condemned to eternal punishment.

It does not matter how many rewards a Christian eventually receives from the Father. A towering mountain of glittering rewards would never be meritorious enough to rescue a guilty sinner, however saintly, from the lake of fire. No one will ever stand before Christ and say, “I deserve to be here with you because of the many good things I did in your name. Look here, don’t these rewards – from you, by the way! – prove it?” But, then, that is surely one of the damnable thoughts already judged when the multiple books of works were first opened!

I suspect that this very thought is harbored by many of us church-goers because we are all sinners and this is the way sinners think, even if only intermittently. After all, isn’t it a modern, therapeutic mandate to believe in ourselves, to love ourselves, to pump ourselves up by imagining that we can achieve anything when we put our mind to it? Isn’t self-actualization the result of forgiveness?

Insights Brought Only by God’s Judgment

Our heavenly Father, however, appears to be fully intent upon using His Day of Final Judgment to drive home the divine perspective on Christ’s crucifixion, and to make it apparent before the angels, demons, and all humanity.

I cannot point to any one Biblical text that draws together these various streams of theology and puts them all together coherently. But I do believe that my following conclusions are the necessary results of various lines of teaching scattered throughout the Old and New Testaments:

This heavenly moment of moral unmasking and divine accounting will, for the very first time, open the eyes of all humanity to see the Truth of Christ’s sacrifice as the Father had always intended.

For the first time, I will see, feel, and own for myself the full weight, ugliness, destructive power, and wretched blasphemy of the parasitic, destructive thing called SIN as it infects God’s creation and my personal life

For the first time, I will thoroughly understand how horribly deserving I am of God’s condemnation and unending punishment for my sinfulness. I will finally see how deeply offensive, even repulsive, my wickedness has always been to the Holy One enthroned in heaven.

I will finally understand the magnitude of God’s unending grace and mercy as He patiently withheld his judgment from me throughout a frequently rebellious lifetime that so richly deserved His daily condemnation. I will finally begin to appreciate the magnitude of God’s love, care, and patience.

I will finally know something of the full measure of guilt, shame, and condemnation that Christ took onto his own shoulders as he hung from that cross at Calvary. I will begin to see the horror that must have erupted within Jesus’ own being as the perfect, sinless Son of God not only experienced the penalty of his Father’s judgment on human sin but also appropriated the guilt and shame of wicked, human rebellion as his very own, causing the Father to turned his back on His one and only Son.

I will finally understand how and why the crucified, resurrected Jesus is the only mediator between myself and the Father, and how absolutely naïve, ignorant, rebellious, and repugnant is every alternative proposal for a “meaningful religious experience.”

I will finally grasp the incomparable sacrifice made by our heavenly Father when He devised this plan to execute his perfect, eternal Son in order to expiate, to propitiate, the raging, rebellious, blasphemies emanating from the noxious disobedience of every sinner who has ever lived.

The long-suffering patience, care, concern, mercy, devotion, commitment, fidelity, love, and grace of God the Father will finally become apparent to all, blinding the legions of fallen humanity with the brilliance God’s true glory. And all of humanity, including me, will finally give this Savior God the full measure of praise, adoration, and glory that He has always deserved, but never received…until now.

Even condemned unbelievers will glorify God for his righteousness and the fairness of his judgments as they are taken away into the lake of fire. And the demons in hell will welcome them as they all praise the goodness and justice of God together.

God Saves Us to Glorify Himself

Now we are finally at a place where we can appreciate the second biblical truth I promised above as a prerequisite for uprooting the Western malaise of popular, therapeutic religion.

The ultimate purpose of the Father’s gift of salvation in Christ is not the forgiveness of our sins but God’s glorification of Himself. Human redemption is first and foremost about the majesty of the Redeemer, not the good fortune of the redeemed.

Yes, guilty sinners find cleansing and reconciliation through God’s gift of grace available in Jesus. The forgiveness of sin is obviously an important priority in the plan of salvation. But ultimately even this gracious benefit of salvation finally works to recruit us into the army of saved sinners who will spend eternity exalting the glory of their Savior God.

The Old Testament, specifically the book of Exodus, begins this important theme as Israel’s Holy, Redeemer God, Yahweh, rescues His chosen people from their Egyptian slavery. Even as Yahweh promises to rescue Israel, He warns that He will harden Pharaoh’s heart, ensuring that Pharaoh will fight against Israel’s release. In other words, God deliberately creates obstacles to obstruct the accomplishment of His own redemptive plan!

Why would God do such a thing?

The answer: In order to make room for God’s glorification of Himself.

Pharaoh’s hardheartedness gives Yahweh the opportunity to perform His ten mighty acts, beginning with the Nile River turning to blood and finishing with the deaths of the first born on Passover night. Yahweh explains Himself by saying: I will harden Pharaoh’s heart…so that I gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army; and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD (Exod. 14:4); I will gain glory through Pharaoh (Exod. 14:17); The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I gain glory through Pharaoh (Exod. 14:18).

Yes, God dearly wants to rescue his suffering people. But beyond that, redemption’s ultimate goal is the fulfilment of God’s holy desire to “gain glory for Himself.”

No prophet explores this theme more thoroughly than Ezekiel.

Ezekiel proclaimed God’s message to the scattered people of southern Israel, known as Judah, explaining to them why they had been destroyed by the Babylonians and why God was going to restore their fortunes by returning them to their homeland. God’s explanations are not what we would expect:

I had concern for my holy name (says the LORD), which the people of Israel profaned among the nations where they had gone. Therefore, say to the Israelites, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes. (Ezek. 36:21-23)

Similar explanations recur throughout the book. I urge you to read the prophet Ezekiel and look for them sometime.

God punished Judah for its rebellion and sent the people into Babylonian exile in order to protect the “holiness of His name.” Now, God says that He will soon rescue Judah from their captivity, but their coming deliverance is not something He is doing for them as much as it is something that God is doing for Himself.

“I am not saving you for your sake, people of Israel, but for the sake of my holy name,” says the LORD.

In other words, our Savior God keeps his promises, first and foremost, so everyone can know that God always keeps his promises. And, oh yes, by the way, we get the added benefit of knowing that we can trust in God’s faithfulness as a result, BUT that is a secondary benefit of God’s faithfulness. The primary benefit is God’s final exaltation, his glorification by all of creation as The Supreme, Holy Promise Keeper.

Personal Salvation is Intended to Glorify God

Ezekiel’s theological evaluation of Israel’s deliverance from Babylonian exile is no less true for the gift of God’s one and only Son and the final revelation of God’s holiness and justice at the Final Judgment. Our heavenly Father sacrificed his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, in order to glorify himself as the one and only merciful, gracious, redeemer God who willingly suffered on behalf of his people.

The fact that all those who have faith in Jesus will receive the forgiveness of their sins is gravy, folks. Pure, gracious gravy dripping over the edges of God’s spacious banqueting table. But the main meal is God’s exaltation.

We are not the centerpiece of God’s story. God is. And ALL of God’s works, but especially Jesus’ suffering on the cross, eventually point back to the Father and find their fulfilment in him as they glorify HIM.

But, of course, none of this is particularly therapeutic.

In fact, many find it deeply offensive. Doesn’t this perspective paint God as the supreme ego-maniac, a heavenly narcissist sitting on his preposterously ostentatious throne demanding that everyone kiss his ring? What type of God stages history in such a way as to make everything point back to him as some kind of heavenly hotshot?

Alternatively, we have the people, including Christians, who make jokes about how boring heaven will be if we are expected to sing never-ending praises to God for all eternity. How mind-numbingly inconceivable that would be!

In fact, such unimaginative, banal, and ultimately ego-centric protests – for they really are protests against God’s nature, not questions in search of clarification – reveal several things:

that we have no concept of what it means for God to be God;

that we have no concept of what it means for God to be Holy;

that we have no concept of what it means for us to be guilty sinners;

that we have no concept of what it meant for Jesus to suffer and die as our substitute on the cross;

that we have no concept of what it means to be a sinner saved by God’s gift of grace.

For only on the day of Final Judgment will all these pressing, existential, spiritual concerns be made clear. And only then will we all sing with full-throated adoration that it is only right, and true, and just, that the ultimate goal of our salvation has never been the forgiveness of our sins, but has always been the magnification of the glory, honor, worship, and praise of the eternal, holy Savior God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who devoted themselves to the redemption, not only of humanity, but of the entire creation.

In that moment, we will praise God for issuing his judgment over our fallen lives because it was only through his revelation of judgment that the scales fell from our eyes, allowing us to see the Truth of who we are in the presence of the Holy One.

Only then will we be equipped enthusiastically to join with the angels in singing:

“‘Holy, holy, holy

is the Lord God Almighty,’

who was, and is, and is to come.”

“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”

Evangelicals Share Their Stories of Dealing with White Racists

Journalist Adelle M. Banks has an interesting article at the Religious News

Journalist Adelle M. Banks

Service describing a recent evangelical conference held at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D. C. called “Let’s Talk.”

The purpose of Let’s Talk was to address the continuing problem of racism within the white, evangelical church. Ms. Banks’ article is entitled “Stories of racism permeate ‘Let’s Talk’ evangelical reconciliation kick-off event.”

Below is an excerpt:

The “Let’s Talk” initiative was hosted by Bishop Derek Grier, a northern Virginia

Bishop Derek Grier

pastor who asked clergy at the kickoff to agree to a “Statement of Change,” financially support the initiative and meet monthly via Zoom starting Dec. 7. The monthly calls will offer more opportunities for participants to share in small groups the kinds of stories heard Wednesday under the crystal lights of the museum’s ballroom.

“Tonight, we are going to step on the third rail together, the place where angels fear to tread,” he said. “We’re going to talk about race and religion.”

Grier said he believes God prompted him to take action after the Jan. 6 violence at the U.S. Capitol — just blocks away from their location — to try to bridge divides in the country.

He read portions of the Statement of Change, which noted the Bible’s call for humility, cited the three-fifths clause of the U.S. Constitution that normalized slavery, and defined racism as “inconsistent with the heart of the Holy Spirit” and scriptural teaching.

“Because men and women are made in the image of God, every person, regardless of race, religion, color, culture, class, sex, or age, has an intrinsic dignity and should be respected and served, not exploited,” the statement reads in part. “We believe both the spirit and clear moral imperatives of scripture require the Christian community to lead the way in defeating racial bigotry.”

Grier also shared, via video, some of his personal experiences with racism. When he was a child, a white female classmate informed him her father said he would beat her if she kept walking home with Grier, her Black friend. As an adult, he saw his son initially denied access to a school’s gifted program until Grier asked a teacher about his child’s scores and learned they were higher than most of the students who already were in the program.

You can read the entire article here.

Check Out Part One of My Conversation About Christian Nationalism at the Determine Truth Podcast

I recently had the opportunity of doing a two-part interview/conversation with my friends Rob Dalrymple and Vinnie Angelo, who are the hosts of the Determine Truth podcast (and website).

My book, I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America, served as the jumping off point for our conversation.

I understand that part two will become available next week. I will notify my subscribers when that happens.

I am convinced that the errors of Christian Nationalism are now major impediments to the health and maturity of evangelical Christianity in America today.

Christian Nationalism is a seductive idol that has captured, crippled, and sidelined far too many who say that they follow Jesus. However, you can’t love Jesus and extoll American empire at the same time.

You can listen to part one of our conversation here.

I hope you will tune in and come back next week for part two!

My New Book, Like Birds in a Cage, Is Now in Print and Available

I am happy to announce that my new book, Like Birds in a Cage: Christian Zionism’s Collusion in Israel’s Oppression of the Palestinian People (Cascade, 2021), is now available.

So place your orders now (please!) and share what you learn with your family and friends. Just click this link.

Rather than talk about my own book, allow me to share a few of the recommendations the book has received from other scholars in this field:

A keenly reasoned, comprehensive, full-frontal critique of Christian Zionism. Equally at ease interpreting St. Paul, critiquing ideologies of privilege, deconstructing Israel’s discriminatory legal regime, and narrating scenes of unarmed, tear-gassed villagers, David Crump mounts a formidable case against the troubling logic, and deadly deployment, of ethnocracy and territorial exceptionalism. This prophetic call to walk not where Jesus walked, but as Jesus walked, is more urgent now than ever.

Bruce N. Fisk, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow, Network of Evangelicals for the Middle East

This new volume by David Crump may be the most comprehensive critique of Christian Zionism by an evangelical author to date. As a former ‘insider,’ his unique perspective has delivered a tour de force by combining scholarly biblical exegesis of key texts the incisive theological analysis. His solid grasp of the relevant political and historical context of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle adds context and texture to this wonderfully written book. I hope this volume will be widely read and reviewed across the evangelical spectrum by pastors, biblical scholars, students, and perhaps most urgently, evangelical politicians.

Don Wagner, author of Anxious for Armageddon

Like Birds in a Cage is destined to become a standard text on Christian Zionism in the USA. With devastating precision, Dave Crump exposes the cancerous nature of this deviant theology. For Evangelicalism to survive with any credibility, it must repudiate the justification of apartheid and ethnic cleansing in Palestine. Crump’s book provides not only the diagnosis but also the cure.

Steven Sizer, Founder and Director, Peacemaker Trust

This book is quite unique in the way that it combines a sound grasp of the history of Zionism, careful interpretation of the Bible, and first hand, recent experience of everyday life for Palestinians living under occupation on the West Bank . . . My hope and prayer is that this book will help American Christians of all kinds to wake up to the very significant ways in which Christian Zionism has contributed — and continues to contribute — to this tragic conflict. They might then be more able to challenge their government’s policies.

Colin Chapman, author of Whose Promised Land?

Are You Being Tempted by Satan? I Doubt It.

I recently had coffee with a new friend from church who listens to the podcasts of a well-known, influential mega-church pastor.

My friend began to tell me about this pastor’s latest sermon on temptation and the role of wicked thoughts in the Christian life. The preacher’s main point was calling people to recognize that evil thoughts or fantasies are never my own. Rather, such temptations are planted in my mind by the devil.

He urged his listeners to tell themselves, “These aren’t my thoughts; they are the devil’s thoughts. So, devil, get away from me!” That was his recipe for dealing with temptation.

I hear this kind of thing a lot in Christian circles. You have probably heard it, too. I sometimes get the impression that a certain brand of church-goer imagines a demon lurking behind every bush, waiting for another opportunity to harass the hapless Christian and sabotage her life.

Don’t misunderstand me.

I believe in a personal Satan. Defeating demonic powers was an important aspect of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Such work was central to Jesus’ message about the coming kingdom of God.

The question is, what does that mean for Christians today?

When I told my friend that I thought the radio pastor was wrong and that he was giving his listeners very bad advice, his reaction was predictable. He immediately quoted 1 Peter 5:8b, “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

Don’t Peter’s words prove the pastor’s point?

The answer depends on what we take Peter’s words actually to describe. What specifically does he mean? I don’t believe he means that every individual’s struggle with sin and temptation is the direct result of personal demonic interference.

My first problem with this popular misunderstanding is that it lets the Christian off the hook. In other words, we shift the responsibility for sin and temptation in our lives away from ourselves and onto an invisible, (apparently) ever-present force we call the devil. As the comedian Flip Wilson used to say, “The devil made me do it!”

Or, at the very least, the devil made me think about it!

Not only is this mantra that way too easy, but it also underestimates the significance of my own personal sinfulness.

Blaming the devil for my personal temptation and sin creates a serious spiritual hazard because it fails to take my “sinful nature” as seriously as it deserves. I am a sinner. So are you. I am born into this world as a fallen creature with a predisposition to disobey God and rebel. I don’t need to face demonic temptation in order to consider evil and to do wrong.

I am very good at tempting myself and embracing wickedness all by myself, thank you very much. I don’t need the devil’s help to be a sinner. It comes naturally to me, as it does to you. The world has been this way ever since our first parents rebelled against the Creator in the Garden.

Yes, Genesis 3 gives us a story about a personal Satan personally tempting Adam and Eve. But the result of their first rebellion was the thoroughgoing corruption of all creation, including every human being. At that point, Satan’s goals had been accomplished. He didn’t need to tempt each and every individual personally for the rest of history. The sinful inclination had taken up residence within us just as Adam and Eve’s failure had thrown a monkey wrench into God’s original design for the world.

Satan was free to sit back, sip a martini, and watch human history fall apart all on its own.

****

Furthermore, I can’t help but notice the absence of any clear, New Testament evidence instructing Christians to view their lives as an ongoing contest against the devil.

Two New Testament passages explicitly discuss the inner turmoil caused by temptation. They are Romans 7:7-25 and James 1:12-15. Both passages have at least two points in common.

First, neither text says anything about the devil even though both of them offer a perfect opportunity to do so had the apostles imagined that the devil played a significant role in personal temptation.

Second, both texts place the blame for temptation and sin squarely onto the sinful inclinations that dwell within us all. Again, the devil is most noticeable by his absence.

Paul exclaims, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” He does not say, “Who will rescue me from this demonic harassment?”

James explains, “Everyone is tempted when, by his/her own [fleshly] desires, he/she is dragged away and enticed.” Again, I can’t imagine a better context for making the devil’s role in temptation clear, if indeed he has any role at all. Yet, that’s not what James says, either.

Both apostles tell us to focus upon ourselves. We are the problem, not the devil.

****

What about Satan’s temptation of Jesus in the wilderness? Isn’t this story the final proof that Satan does attack Christians individually?

I am not arguing that personal demonic temptation may never happen. But can we really compare ourselves to Jesus? Are any of us as important to God’s work of redemption as he is? I think that Christian humility demands that we recognize that I am not the most important component in God’s cosmic plan. Many others are more important than I am. Personal attacks may happen at times to some. But it is certainly not the normative experience that so many make it out to be.

It’s also important to understand that when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, he confronted Satan as the new Adam – an important New Testament theme.

Jesus had to succeed where the first Adam had failed.

If Satan could derail Jesus’ mission and personal identity before it even got started – as he managed to do with Adam and Eve – then perhaps he could once again sit back and sip another martini for the rest of time. God’s plans for recreation would be as hamstrung as were God’s intentions for the initial creation.

Particularly important, I think, is the explanation Satan offers to Jesus for why he is able to tempt Jesus as he does. In the gospel of Luke, Satan shows Jesus “in an instant all the kingdoms of the world” and then explains, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me.”

In some mysterious transaction that is not explained, Satan’s victory over Adam and Eve allowed him to go on to dominate every human society throughout history. The devil’s power to pervert has permeated “all the kingdoms of the world” such that “their authority and splendor” are all his.

Evangelicals have traditionally limited their public concern for this demonic dominance to three areas: sex (read pornography), money (read tithing to the church), and alcohol (read tea-totaling). But these individual concerns only scratch the surface of our larger social problems, in ways that are not always helpful.

Satan’s boastful words open the door on how God’s people confront demonic temptation on a daily basis, in the all-pervasive authority structures of our dazzling but corrupted societies and cultures.

When wickedness is made normative, it becomes normal to accept wickedness as, well, normal. So normal, in fact, that it is not recognized for what it truly is.

For American Christians – at least for those who fail to take seriously their proper place as citizens in the kingdom of God – such wicked abominations as manifest destiny, American exceptionalism, nationalism (especially religious nationalism), militarism, white privilege, systemic racism, neo-liberal economics, commercialism, consumerism, competitiveness, multi-generational poverty, a growing chasm between the haves and the have-nots, and a host of other structural, authoritative networks of evil influence, all conspire to deform God’s purposes in our world.

When we cooperate, we surrender to sin and incur guilt.

We “give in” to these degenerate forces because it’s all so normal. It’s what everyone else does and believes. The devil doesn’t need to do a thing to any of us personally, or individually, because he has already done the greatest part of his evil work corporately, collectively.

He has succeeded in making evil look normal. And if it’s normal, it can’t be evil. Right? After all, it’s the way the world works. It’s the air we breathe. It generates the system that sustains us as Americans in our Americanisms.

One of our problems in this country is that we are far too individualistic and melodramatic. I suspect that these, too, are wicked features of the way Satan has structured American culture.

The Christian love of melodrama habituates us to the excitement of fighting as “warriors,” typically as “prayer warriors,” in the cosmic battle of righteousness against wickedness.

Personally defeating, whether by calling out, or standing against, or binding, or exorcising, or naming, the demonic powers attacking me makes me a “victorious” Christian.

Aside from the fact that I am convinced this is rarely an accurate description of a Christian’s struggles in life, such a focus on personal, spiritual melodrama effectively blinds the Christian to the real, overwhelming, systemic dangers that have entangled us all in their web of corruption and deceit.

So, we bow to the authority of our preferred political party and behave accordingly, treating others as the enemy because that’s what politics does to us nowadays.

We approve of another US military intervention, and cheer on American forces as they slaughter foreigners who also are made as the image of God.

We look forward to buying the bigger, better, shinier, more expensive, upgraded model of whatever it is we want because that’s the normative behavior for an American consumer. Never mind the corrosive, personal, spiritual effects of our habitual, often addictive, acquisitiveness.

We stand with everyone else in opposing low-income people of color moving into our neighborhoods because it will lower property values. It’s only the wise, economic thing to do.

The examples and illustrations are endless. And through all of it we are  blissfully obtuse to the multitude of ways that we remain spiritually stunted, immature, and overwhelmingly guilty of normalized sins that contradict everything we ought to understand about life in the kingdom of God.

Yet, we never consider these types of behaviors as demonic. They aren’t wicked temptations, we tell ourselves; they are opportunities that smart people take advantage of. Or they are responsibilities that every good citizen must fulfil.

Yep, the devil has us exactly where he wants us, behind the spiritual eight-ball, when we behave “normally” like the average, civil, well-behaved, successful, patriotic American.

I can see Satan now, sitting back, legs up, taking long sips on another big American martini.

Check Out My Essay About Critical Race Theory at Comment Magazine

Today the online version of Comment magazine published my essay about Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the conflict is has generated in American society, but especially in US evangelicalism.

This essay began as a review of the best-selling book by Voddie Baucham, Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe, a book that is highly critical of CRT describing it as a major threat to the Christian church.

What began as a simple book review evolved into a larger essay discussing the broader historical and social context of our current culture-wars over CRT.

You can find my essay HERE. The title is “Among the Tailings of Southern Segregation and Western Imperialism.”

I appreciate the editorial staff at Comment for their willingness to publish this article, as well as for their acute editorial eye.

I hope you will find my essay helpful, educational, and suggestive of the changes needed today in the American church.

Have your friends read it too!