This is my Father’s world, so I have nothing to fear. Rather, following the counsel to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16), we watch what this world does and prepare to exploit human events for His glory.
Between the two blogs, I’ve tried to enunciate a doctrine that we cannot expect any human political activity to gain even the faintest direct support from God, particularly in the sense that He was involved in Ancient Israel. There is no government today that actively participates in any of the Law Covenants revealed in Scripture.
Granted, we’ve had no end of people claiming some direct approval of God, but it requires first swallowing varying amounts of mythology that is alien to Scripture. Are we not amazed at the vast number of Christians who forget the full implications of Jesus’ statement to Pilate that His Kingdom is rooted in another realm of existence (John 18:36)? Jesus’ own viewpoint on things was emphatically otherworldly. Whatever you want to make of His departing commands, it was not aimed at capturing political control on this earth. He stated flatly that He could have done that at any time, and plenty of folks begged Him to do so, even trying to force Him into it.
This world as we know it is slated for destruction; that’s what the final act of redemption will be. Any reference to conquering this realm of existence quite obviously refers to our internal conquest of the fallen self as an ally with this realm. We fight against our internal cursed impulses and commit ourselves to reflecting His glory into this world precisely so we can leave it. Dying is our reward unless we happen to be around when He returns. That so many people who can read English would choke on that teaching simply reflects how easy it is to get lost in all kinds of deceptions.
I have no complaint with the so-called Charismatic gifts of the Spirit. What bothers me is that, after direct involvement in churches where those gifts were emphasized in any way, I found that there was simply too much obvious fakery attached to most of it. By no means was it all fake, but I have to step back and question anything that doesn’t lead to self-conquest. When the presence of those manifestations of power lead to any kind of obsession with this world, there’s something wrong. I kept running into people determined to make this world a better place in materialistic sense, and that is not our divine calling and mission. Those gifts were not granted to consume upon our own excitement and personal human fulfillment. However, the Charismatic experience itself is not a problem.
This abuse of the gifts was one bad trend. At the same time another bad doctrine was growing, and it typically goes by the nickname of Dominionism. This doctrine is a direct reflection of Reformation teaching about harnessing the power of civil government to enforce some sort of public morality. The Dominion doctrine is more specific and carefully structured for concrete plans to take over secular human government. No one should be surprised that Dominionism and Charismatic teachings would merge.
Don’t get lost here; this is not a question of numbers and how many individuals and monster churches follow this. Rather, it’s a question of influence. Lots of people embrace this in churches where Charismatic and Dominionist teachings aren’t officially supported, at least not openly. This combination has captured the interest of a powerful politically active minority, and God alone knows how many trillions of political dollars are behind it.
Finally, we should hardly be surprised that this thing is also largely Dispensationalist. How could the Neocons miss this opportunity? We dare not forget the cynical principle of Neocon politics that using religion to steer the masses is in everyone’s best interest. We saw it in Constantine’s fake adoption of Christian religion. It goes all the way back to the Tower of Babel, using astrology to seize control of humanity and steer them away from God’s direct command to disperse after the Flood. The Neocon political doctrine is a direct result of Zionism, and uses Christian Charismatic Dominionism to ensure America serves the Zionist agenda.
This is what’s behind the election campaign of Ted Cruz. There’s a video at that link pulling together several clips from his senate campaign, and the same stuff is happening right now with his presidential campaign. This whole thing is yet another manifestation of what I called the rising right-wing backlash. At this point the establishment GOP leadership is on the verge of anointing Cruz as their man, if they haven’t already agreed on it; he’s courting them. How this plays out in the actual Republican Convention and election remains to be seen. However, this powerful force will not simply go away if Trump wins.
Familiarize yourself with the flavor, because this is a taste of the future.
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I am so grateful that Father allowed me to feasibly distance myself from this world. Yes, i paid a serious price with my health, but the reward of living simply, unconfined, and independent of human pressure was well worth it. It’s not that I don’t care about what is coming and how it will affect people: it’s just that I don’t spend a moment worrying about it. I am able to live my life free of societal encumbrances.
Hope that made sense.
Well, it should be obvious that worrying about this stuff will take away your power to see clearly and act in divine justice.
I remember reading about Dominionists way back when. Even then when I cared about politics it was a huge turn off.
I first encountered Dominionist ideas at the Chalcedon.edu site. I was led there from a peculiar branch of the patriot militia folk; some of those groups tend to overlap a lot. What made it seem even slightly interesting at first was that Chalcedon rejected Dispensationalism. The whole thing with building a Christian dominion is that we are supposed to have inherited whatever earthly authority Israel was comissioned to exercise. Israel failed, so it now falls to Christians to implement the original mission — so the teaching goes. They represent the old school Reformation viewpoint, but the newer groups simply lifted out the Dominionist agenda without the underlying doctrinal orientation. It seems these new kids assume we will do this alongside Israel, as the latter will pick up the slack later… or something.