Mirecki Allegedly Beaten
In a recent article we find that Dr. Mirecki, controversial biblical studies professor from the University of Kansas, was allegedly beaten by two men in a pickup truck. What is the Christian response?? Bind up his wounds and pay his medical bills. Pray for his salvation. Refuse to slander his name (though we must speak honestly about his erroneous beliefs). Show the love of Jesus to the lost and He will honor Himself.
I am not a pacifist. I believe the government has been given the God-ordained right to defend the nation with military strength (Romans 13 is clear). But on the individual level, we battle not against "flesh and blood." We are not at war with Mirecki or a culture that wants holiday trees instead of Christmas Trees.
I for one, do not rejoice at all in the senseless beating of a fellow human being. Those who follow Jesus Christ must understand that our weapon in this culture is not beatings or the passing of legislation, but rather it is and always will be the Gospel of Jesus Christ! If you want to change your culture, quit fighting for your right to publically display God's Law, quit fighting with non-believers over what to call a tree, and start actively sharing your faith in Jesus Christ and loving unbelievers. That will change the culture from the inside out, not the outside in.
Mirecki needs our prayers. Lord, will you bring to bear the joy and the eternal life that is in Christ to the heart and mind of this professor. Lord God, I know he reads the Bible and so he is exposed to Your precious and eternal Word. Will You send the Holy Spirit to open his heart, his eyes, and his ears to see the truth. Only You can do this. Forgive us Lord when we rejoice at the pain of others, believers or otherwise. Especially since You call us to exemplify the love of Christ. Help us, King Jesus, to take up our cross and follow You.
I am not a pacifist. I believe the government has been given the God-ordained right to defend the nation with military strength (Romans 13 is clear). But on the individual level, we battle not against "flesh and blood." We are not at war with Mirecki or a culture that wants holiday trees instead of Christmas Trees.
I for one, do not rejoice at all in the senseless beating of a fellow human being. Those who follow Jesus Christ must understand that our weapon in this culture is not beatings or the passing of legislation, but rather it is and always will be the Gospel of Jesus Christ! If you want to change your culture, quit fighting for your right to publically display God's Law, quit fighting with non-believers over what to call a tree, and start actively sharing your faith in Jesus Christ and loving unbelievers. That will change the culture from the inside out, not the outside in.
Mirecki needs our prayers. Lord, will you bring to bear the joy and the eternal life that is in Christ to the heart and mind of this professor. Lord God, I know he reads the Bible and so he is exposed to Your precious and eternal Word. Will You send the Holy Spirit to open his heart, his eyes, and his ears to see the truth. Only You can do this. Forgive us Lord when we rejoice at the pain of others, believers or otherwise. Especially since You call us to exemplify the love of Christ. Help us, King Jesus, to take up our cross and follow You.
8 Comments:
If you want to change your culture, quit fighting for your right to publically display God's Law, quit fighting with non-believers over what to call a tree, and start actively sharing your faith in Jesus Christ and loving unbelievers.
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Excellent, excellent point. But Evangelicals cannot do that...because they are Constantinians. Their presuppositoins lead them to fight the culture war as part of the system.
Roman 13 clearly establishes the prerogatives of government to wield the sword, "to defend the nation with military strength," as you say. But Romans 12 precludes the Christian's participation in those just actions of government.
The civil government responds to evil with force, coercion and violence, if necessary. We respect that. But Christians must respond to evil as our Lord commanded and Himself demonstrated; by turning the other cheek and attempting to overcome evil with good.
For Christians to fight in the military is to eviscerate the Faith of its substance and its Light. It is to conflate Christianity and the world. And it is to betray the Lamb who is our King, hiding His Kingdom under the way of the world.
Reading the regular comments left by against christianity on this site, it seems he needs to start loving believers a lot better before he starts to lecture all of the rest of us about loving unbelievers. He would also do well to re-read Matthew 10 (assuming he has already seen such), where Jesus makes it clear that "culture wars" are inevitable for the Christian. And he should remember that his position against Christians in the military is a minority position in virtually every era of Christian history.
Against,
Let me be clear that I am intersted in "winning the cultural war" only it is not a war. I want to see people come to Jesus, which WILL CHANGE the culture (call it winning if you want).
As to the brand of passifism you are promoting, I certainly respect it and can see some of the texts where you are pointing as possible supports, but Dr. Cowan's article (on this blog) on the Just War Theory, I think, makes much better sense.
Merry Christmas!
>>Reading the regular comments left by against christianity on this site, it seems he needs to start loving believers a lot better before he starts to lecture all of the rest of us about loving unbelievers.
That only begs the question of who is a genuine believer. Inviting Jesus into your heart does not constitute such. Those who sincerely believe will follow Jesus in the Way of the Cross. American Christianity does not produce brothers like that and is therefore ripe for criticism.
>He would also do well to re-read Matthew 10 (assuming he has already seen such), where Jesus makes it clear that "culture wars" are inevitable for the Christian.
You'd have to define what you mean by culture wars for me to properly respond here. I'll say this though, off the cuff; you can't force the presuppositions of Constantinian, Wesern Christianity into Matthew 10. That would be a total joke. The church is to propagate the Faith and grow her own godly culture in the midst of the darkness of this world. That is the agenda; not fighting for pro-life Supreme Court judges and haggling over the proper manner to name the current season. You Consantinians have already lost the culture war. The foundations of "Christian" America have eroded. The Liberals have defeated you and I for one am delighted that we are quickly returning to days very similar to the ethos of the early Christianity. The props of Evangelicalism are collapsing one by one. Your children, for certain your grandchidlren, will face a world without all the protections which you have enjoyed. They will experience the persecutions of Matthew 10. There is great hope for the recovery of the genuine New Testament church just around the corner.
>>And he should remember that his position against Christians in the military is a minority position in virtually every era of Christian history.
Spoken like a true Constantinian. Good grief. If I am in the minority it only serves as the greatest possible confirmation that I am right! I can just hear the Pharisees addressing your very point to Jesus against the backdrop of "every era of Jewish history." The crowd is always wrong, my friend, and on the wide road leading to destruction. Pick up some Kierkegaard along this line. If you don't like him, return to Matthew. Chapter 7 this time.
Good day.
>>Let me be clear that I am intersted in "winning the cultural war" only it is not a war. I want to see people come to Jesus, which WILL CHANGE the culture (call it winning if you want).
It all depends how you are defining culture war. Are you after the levers of American political power? Then you know not the Way of the King.
I want to see the darkness rolled back by the advancement of Christ's Kingdom. And that requires, as you've properly stressed, winning people to the King. But those converts must be formed into a community which lives by the Cross and forms its own unique Kingdom culture right in the "backyard" of the world. Then persecution will come and then the darkness will be rolled back. The triumphalism and political haggling of the Christian Right only stymies the advancement of Christ's Kingdom. And the Left leaning Jim Wallis types are no better.
>>As to the brand of passifism you are promoting, I certainly respect it and can see some of the texts where you are pointing as possible supports, but Dr. Cowan's article (on this blog) on the Just War Theory, I think, makes much better sense.
It only makes "sense" if Christians are called to preserve the government and national stability of their host countries. But that has nothing to do with the way of the King and is, in fact, antithetical to it. Americanity is not Christianity, Jason; and nothing makes sense which requires a disciple to betray His Lord, which military service most emphatically does. You cannot serve two masters and two kingdoms. To love and protect the American kingdom is to betray Christ and His Kingdom. America says, "Kill the enemy that we may survive as a nation." Christ says, "Overcome evil with good that you may be my disciples and My Light will shine in the world."
>Merry Christmas!
Allegiance to the King!
"It all depends how you are defining culture war. Are you after the levers of American political power?"
Not me...I define "culture war" like you do.
My definition of "Merry Christmas": Have a happy time celebrating the Incarnation of the Logos as a human being (Rom. 1:1-6) in order to save His people from their sin and declare them righteous.
To me that is not to far away from "allegiance to the King," regardless of what Constantine might have thought. He's dead now.
Constantine is dead, but his presuppositions permeate Western Christianity. In fact, Western Christianity is built upon the counterfeit capitial of Constantinianism.
I've just started a new book called Mere Discipleship, by Lee Camp. The first couple chapters on this problem. You owe it to yourself (more so to Christ) to get better informed on this subject. Get the book. Only $10 from Amazon.
Merry Christmas :-)
Yeah, well, better keep an eye on Mirecki, guys.
www.michellemalkin.com has some good detail.
As an ex-cop, I can tell you the alleged Mirecki assault smells.
Going by my guts, Mireki was embarrased that his crackpot hate-filled behavior became widely known and got negative national coverage for his school AND his department. Unable to handle the heat, he resigend his position in the department (under pressure) and staged the assault for publicity and sympathy.
If I were you, I would pray that God cures his lying, hate-mongering anti-Christian heart.
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