Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Jesus Plus Nothing His Word




Only the sick have need of a physician. Those who say they do not need to get better or do well, do not know of their need, and do not accept the Physician. And millions today who have words to that effect, were drawn not by nets or by conviction unto sorrow working repentance, but for a purposeful life, for a better changed life, for direction in life to do and see great things--to build "Jesus' kingdom", to acquire and finally have a not-dysfunctional/abusive/messed-up family but one with wisdom, happiness, comfort, love, folks worth trusting and listening to because that they have been promised Jesus can do...and I'm afraid that such has nothing to do with precisely with what He Himself said was necessary to possess Him. (Though versions of these things certainly can be--and some certain become--consequences of inheriting the King.)

For instance, millions--literally millions--scoff and blaspheme those who insist that doctrine not only ought be correct, but that it is Jesus Himself that warned it needs be correct, else one may have been taken captive by wolves in sheep's clothing, teaching and doing in His name--and doing noble things that are great powers!--but will be told, "I never knew you"; so often I have heard men say about this that whether one will hear this is dependent upon their works rather than Jesus', or that therefore they'll keep working to build His kingdom and draw men nigh unto a right life, "loving" and "preaching" what they call "Jesus"!

But of course, that's kind-of the thing, supposedly, the very men he speaks of coming to Him, having done in His name and yet, "I never knew you" is their reward along with being sent away. Millions more...have dead orthodoxy if any at all, while the zealous nowadays? Zealous for works, but their own. While pretending to themselves to be faithful they go and do what the "liberals" did a century ago--divorcing the life and walk from the doctrine, the thing ill-described with modern notions of "message" or "teaching" used vaguely and without precision to hew to the word, though perhaps a lot of ostentation and sophistry.

So I would edit this^ (propaganda photo) if it were of my making. I need to get better--of my ignorance and sickness of heart, deadness in sin and ruin by its indwelling and fruits; by the false doctrines spread about in the name of Jesus and thousand little kingdoms built in His name and by attribution to His work blaspheming and causing Him to be blasphemed in regards the many departures and substitutes proposed in the stead of His own word, interpretations for a real reading of His revelations, and so forth: indeed perhaps more do I need repair from the counterfeits substituted for the real thing to draw me and others in, than many other things one could think needing healing for: if cancer, auto-immune conditions, depression, despondency, endless grief...let it be that I have instruction from the Father and Son, through the Spirit and by His leading, to be washed of poisoned and muddy waters, and kool-aid where the blood of the Only-begotten was needful for drinking. I need...to be made well by Him who is the truth and yet warned of the many counterfeits coming--a message His apostles spread and warned of, and wrote eventually "even now there are many antichrists" (in Gr. = substitutes for Christ).

Why write all this^? Because there is a false piety and love of "simple religion" consisting of "all I want/need is 'JESUS'", divorcing the Man from His word--the life from doctrine, the change of life from a heavenly birth and attributing it to "the philosophical result of the right use of the constituted means" (full context given below*), to give a quote (of an heretical quality) from the hero and model for contemporary "evangelicalism", which has nary an simile to the historical sort named such by the Lutherans; whether a behavioristic manipulation of men with clever speech and attention to what key phrases and current fads catch attention, or looking for "felt needs" (emotions) to take advantage of: no wonder they "burn out" and die, and must "refresh" endlessly at yet another empty well of conferences filled with men's ideas, who think they're rich and praise one another about their humility and knowing one another's hearts. (* "There is nothing in religion beyond the ordinary powers of nature. A revival is not a miracle, nor dependent on a miracle, in any sense. It is a purely philosophical result of the right use of the constituted means—as much so as any other effect produced by the application of means. . . . A revival is as naturally a result of the use of means as a crop is of the use of its appropriate means" [Charles Finney, Lectures on Revivals of Religion (Old Tappan, NJ: Revell, n.d.), 4-5].")

NO, in the modern context--due to the abuse of that language--though literally true I think it cannot be said while communicate truth accurately, "I just need Jesus": these have, after all, become words to which the "Christian" population is conditioned to react, to shut-down their thought and turn them upon critics and any who dare "attack" their religion, beliefs and actions alike--or forgive me, "spirituality"...for those who get offended even by this, "Just Jesus!"; those four little words cannot in such a poisonous context be used to proclaim faithfully--when one is cognizant of such difficulties or else fallen prety to the counterfeit now embodied in these few words--and explaining, very thoroughly, also all that entails and what He said--of which it seems the highest preachers are ignorant (I was shocked at the shock of Ted Haggard falling, for instance: around 10 years-old I was in his church several weeks upon invite of mother and I by her friend, and heard him blather about not sinning by mere will for weeks, and instructing all "pray about something only once, else you're doubting God!" obviously diverging from Jesus and apostles--and I hadn't even read the Bible, just heard exerpts in a Catholic mass to which my great aunt would take me). To the modern mind "Jesus" say person; to the ancient, and historical one, just as He said, He is not received apart from His word--or the Father's dragging a man to Him. (Apart from these, there is no surprise that men should abandon "their" faith: the faith--and its Object--were never theirs. Actually, such men are often better off: better such truth become evident to them, than remain in company of men deluded by false religion.)

And ostentatious as it may seem to use such words from another time and tongue, they're now a technical phrase which embodies--like most technical statements--so much more such that, for those who know that substance, they know whether they are here a fitting end,

Solo Deo Gloria.

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