Heart of the Matter Episode 47

Live! From Salt Lake City, Utah, this is HEART OF THE MATTERTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology. – and I am your host, Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion..

Show 47
I call Bull-Shitake!
September 18th 2018

Upcoming Interviews with McKenna Denson

Just a reminder – next week we will air part one of three with McKenna Denson who was allegedly raped by one Joseph Bishop when she was in the LDS Mission Training Center and he was the MTC President. Folks, this will be a fascinating verbal adventure into a freakishly insidious tale of religious chicanery, clandestine managerialism, and plain old fugly politics within the Mormon Institution – all met face to face by a feisty female of phenomenal fortitude.

So beginning next Tuesday, September 25th, right here on HOTM. Tell your friends. Also, we welcome a studio audience for the taping of these interviews so if you want to come and show support for McKenna Denson show up here next week, September 25th 10AM and you can be part of the audience.

The Case of Sam Young

Of course, most of you know that Bishop Sam Young has been excommunicated from the LDS church. The reason? He has criticized the leadership of the Mormon church openly and has not listened or hearkened to council. What did he do? Campaigned for a policy change within the regime.

The big irony being pointed out on social media is the fact that while men like Joseph Bishop or Kristy Johnson’s dad are in good standing in the religion (because they are part of the good ol boy system) but a man like Sam Young is kicked out. Which merely illustrates the insidious top-down ways of the LDS empire.

The Problem with Manipulation

I just wish every organized religion on earth – from the biggest to the smallest down on Main would fall under the same scrutiny where EVERYTHING that is done in the dark would be exposed to the light. Unfortunately we are not living in such a world today, folks – a world of true transparency – so men in power continue to puppeteer things from behind the scenes all the while preying upon others – especially women and those who do not have the will, means or power to resist them.

I personally hate MANipulation and despise all controlling governments, religions, clubs, parents, or any sorts who use force or manipulation to get their way. Having said that, a word of caution. Where the controlling manipulative threatening manners of many institutions are easily identified when exposed to the light there is a growing trend afoot where collections of special interest groups work really hard to do the very same thing to people they view as threats – and they appeal to the same force, similar threats, and equal manipulations to have their way. In my opinion these types are just as evil as the institutions that operate in similar fashions.

I’m talking about people and groups who try and control speech, words and terms, definitions, actions and the attitudes of others. What’s the difference between the Mormon church and their puppeteering of their membership through restricting access to information, and “controlling the language of how they want to be known” and a group of people who attack a person who voices an unpopular point of view?

Manipulation is manipulation no matter who is behind it, and freedom (of speech) ought to be freedom of speech. I sense that many folks who are pointing their fingers at the Mormon Machine are just as guilty of doing the VERY SAME things to those who oppose them.

In a similar vein, I have (and will continue) to ranted hard against the emotionalism Mormonism and some Evangelicals use to move people to believe, and to belong to their groups. The oboe music, the tearful testimonies, the Christian rock concerts, the charismatic frenzies – all emotionalism used to whip the masses up to belief – but how are they any different than the zeal of mass movements out in the streets protesting like a bunch of mindless idiots, or screaming street preachers telling passers-bye that they are going to burn in hell forever more if they don’t conform to their message.

Emotional appeals are emotional appeals, because, as we said, manipulations are manipulations. We need to be really smart, folks, and not fall for the pull of every mass movement but with wisdom weigh the actual real merits of a cause – and once proven, assess the BEST actions to remedy a situation. To do otherwise is to just play the same role of the master strategists, who prey upon the emotional needs of others.

Wanna read a fantastic book on the subject? Read Eric Hoffers, the

Understanding Christian Beliefs

True Believer, and you will be better armed to see what the master manipulators are doing from the pulpits, from the streets, and from behind their computers at home.

Well, let’s have a little fun tonight, shall we? How? Let’s address things people think are Christian, but they are not – remembering that Christianity looks something like: “Believing that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoso believes on him would not perish but would have eternal life; that Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, was put to deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God. for the sins (of the world) and rose again on the third day and that looking to this we are saved by grace through faith to love.”

Non-Essential Beliefs and Practices

So let’s work through a series of other miscellany that are not Christian, are not mandated to be considered a Christian, and are not stated as necessary to being a Christian. Ready?

• A Christian does NOT need to accept the Genesis story literally. A Christian does not need to receive any story in the Bible as literal and actual and historical. They can view some or all of the stories as metaphors or as literal – that choice is between them and God. But no matter how ardent others will demand that a literal interpretation of the Bible that is between God and the individual believer. This includes six-day creation, worldwide flood, literal exodus, etc., etc. Do I believe all the things in the Old and New Testament are literal – to me, some are and some not. But it is a personal perspective and does NOT play into whether I am a Christian or not. Number . . .

• A Christian does not need to be pro-Israel. They can be or they may not be, but no matter how it is spun, Christianity has nothing to do with the political state of Israel today. I would suggest that a Christian would certainly resist hating Israel, just as they should resist hating Islamabad, or Indonesia – as hate is anathematic to the Christian way – but the idea that a Christian must be pro-Israel is a misappropriation of biblical content for political reasons. I happen to possess an adoration for the Nation of Israel as I read about them in the Bible. But I have zero affinity to hold modern Israel up with any more import that any other nation on earth. Christians have this freedom. Refuse any rhetoric that suggests otherwise in EITHER direction, that a true Christian must love modern Israel OR hate it.

Christian Freedom in Political and Lifestyle Choices

• A Christian can be of ANY political party on earth – and in Christ they will receive all people who differ with their chosen political stances. A Christian can choose to be a socialist, a communist, a totalitarian, a Marxist, a Conservative, a Liberal – you name it. In the United States we have errantly allowed the loudest Evangelicals to make it seem like Jesus is a conservative member of the GOP – not so – ever. We do not have an American Jesus. We have a Lord and Savior of Heaven and Earth.

• A Christian can eat Carl’s Junior even after it ran racy adverts using a nearly nude Paris Hilton washing a car, they don’t have to support Hobby Lobby, Chik-filet or In and Out Burger – but they certainly can. Christians can go to Vegas, New Orleans mardi-gra, Brazil's Carnival, or watch R-rated movies. A Christian can watch porn. Don’t think it's advisable but such choices are between them and their God. Simultaneously a Christian can also avoid such places and things choosing to spend their time in other ways as they see fit. But these personal choices have nothing to do with whether a person has faith in Jesus – nothing – and it is up to God to decide if their faith was well placed in the gift they have called life.

Personal Practices

• That being said, a Christian can eat, drink and use any substance that they want, wish or desire. It is between themselves and God. They can eat ANY foods that have been forbidden in the Bible, smoke huka, heroin, pot, or tobacco. They can use drugs, legal and illegal, they can snort, they can drink as much alcohol as they choose, when they choose – a Christian can do whatever they are led to do – all the while

The Essence of Being a Christian

Knowing that they are His by faith, and whatever decisions they make in faith is between them and God.

As a pastor/teacher, if asked, I would emphasize the joy of truly being free in Christ while noting the implications of our choices, but I would NEVER forget that a Christian is a Christian, saved by grace, through faith. And I will not be the one to suggest that the choices of others are faithless – the Holy Spirit can and will do that. God will do that. Not me. Not ever me. And hopefully not you either. So while we are on the subject…

Faith as the Cornerstone

A Christian is not saved to the Kingdom by their righteousness, their works, or anything about themselves OTHER than their faith in Jesus. A Christian is not made more lovable to God through personal cleanliness. A Christian does not need to experience water baptism, they do not need to speak in tongues, they do not need to give money to anyone, and they do not need to attend religious services ever. A Christian does not have to read the Bible, they do not have to do anything other than place their faith on the finished work of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Period.

In the same vein, a person who has placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ may or may not possess all manner of issues in their lives: they may be divorced – ten times over, an adulterer or adulteress, a pedophile, a homosexual, a person of other perversions, a cross dresser, a hermaphrodite, a transgender, a liar, a cheat, a drunk, addict, scammer, a tax evader, a whatever – and they may struggle with such issues their entire lives – or not. Again, Christians are Christians because they have faith in the finished work of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Do you get it? People have taken this fact and either used it to initially describe a Christian only to later suggest that there is more required – but bottom line “faith” is the first principle of a Christian and it is the last.

Now, if you want to talk about what makes a Christian a Son or Daughter of God, that is another story – and those who seek Him in spirit and truth with all their heart, and are willing to suffer in their flesh for Him by dying to the self – that is another discussion. We are talking about being a Christian here and now. NUMBER…

Christianity Beyond Religion

As cliché as this statement is today, “Christianity is not a religion” – it is a relationship where a person is God’s by the Spirit in them through faith on His Son. As a result, there is no demerits of a believer because of where they choose to attend church. I would venture to say that in the past 2000 years there have been Christians in EVERY SINGLE religious expression on earth – whether they knew it or not is another subject. But God has had them and blessed them with His grace because and due to their faith.

Christians can be wealthy, they can be middle income, they can be poor. They can live lavishly, they can live in abject poverty. They are of every occupation and walk of life – some deal blackjack in casinos, some own multi-national conglomerations, some are broke as a church mouse. They spend their money in different ways and spend their time the same.

Not all Christians listen or like what is called Christian music. Some people who really love the Lord hate that stuff. And not all Christians like what are called Christian movies. Some Christians will never visit the Noah’s Ark theme park, Heritage Park, the Holy Land Experience, subscribe to Christianity Today, or listen to Focus on the Family. None of these things are connected to the fact that a human being has elected to receive and accept the fact that God so loved the world that He gave His only human Son to save it.

That chiz is cultural stuff that comes from the minds of Man. Don’t mix it up with the real deal.

Real Christian families and parents do not always send their children to private Christian schools, colleges and Universities.

Christian Education and Personal Faith

Many of them can’t afford it and wind up sending their children to public schools. • And I’m gonna say something here a lot of people aren’t gonna like but over the past twenty years I have met some very bitter now non-Christians people who were sent to “Christian school pre-k to high school graduation,” and they want NOTHING to do with God as a result of this – albeit their parents really thought it was the best thing for them at the time. Be really careful if you think Christian schools are always going to have a positive impact on a child’s life. Our own daughter went to a private Christian university and came out so angry and confused it’s a miracle she can see straight today. This FAITH was NOT meant to be INSTITUTIONALIZE by men. It is the Spirits and must be led by the Spirit.

NUMBER . . .

• Christianity has nothing to do with not making judgments of all things. Christians should judge and assess all things in life as a means to make proper choices. The fear of hearing, “You’re judging,” is without merit. We all have to judge everything in this world – we test things (which requires judgments) and investigate. Any Christian who does not judge is a fool.

Judgment and Condemnation

What Christians are not supposed to do is to ever, ever, ever condemn another person or suggest that they are going to hell or the Lake of Fire or whatever. Christianity has never been about failing to assess matters, but those who assess should never think it is in their right or capacity to condemn someone along the way.

Set a child-murderer in front of me I will NEVER condemn him or her – I will love them with all that I am able, as they are, but I will not leave my child in their care.

• Frankly, Christianity, if it can be said to be anything, it would be love – as love is defined by the Spirit and its fruit. In other words, Christianity is the type of love that is patient, and kind, and longsuffering, and temperate, and selfless, and hopeful, and encouraging, and humble.

The Essence of Love in Christianity

That is Christianity folks – it is possessed by all people who have accepted the fact, believed in the fact, that God so love this world he gave us His only human Son that whoso believes on Him will have eternal life, AND it is seen and known by our love. By our love. By our love.

In this love we can judge or assess situations and things, we can speak the truth, we can do all things – anything – whatever things God has for us to do and be – so long as LOVE is working in and through us (as much as it is possible).

And this brings me to a final thought for tonight.

If you know this about me, I apologize for the repetition, but I have been seeking truth without hesitation for most of my adult life.

I have had the opportunity to do this essentially full time since 2009 which means where some people get to seek truth in the morning, and then go to their job, or come home from work and seek it in their spare time, I have been in a position to seek God in spirit and truth every day of every week from early in the morning to early evening without a break.

This means I have been able to go after a number of things that I have found are not 100% true when they are tried and tested in the faith.

I have also turned from a number of positions I once held true and turned to several others that hold much more living water as it was.

Understand my searches, since 2006 or so, have not been through the wisdom of Men but through the Word of God itself. With the Holy Spirit (I pray) that is my guide.

And after all these years I have come to stand firmly on a few principles. First, I stand firmly on what Jesus said, that when “we know the truth, the truth will set us free.”

A couple of days ago I had an attorney friend stop in where I was working. He had come to receive Jesus out of Mormonism and this boy is on fire. He reads his Bible, and like a good Lawyer has systematized it to his

Freedom and Truth in Christian Doctrine

advantage. But he had yet to get to the heart of the matter, and remained like a young Neo, learning to navigate the world and his flesh through skills that don’t fully work in the Matrix. So it is with all of us – when we are operating on any non-eternal truth, we will find our ability to truly be free encumbered. What is the ultimate destination of freedom that consummate truth can take us too? Unadulterated, unlimited, unhindered ability to love as God. Therefore, we know that ANYTHING we stand upon that allows us to genuinely LOVE better, is a truth worth clinging too.

In other words, if you or I maintain a belief, opinion, doctrine, practice, or religious perspective that does NOT lend to genuine Godly love for Him and others, that truth ought to be reviewed. Think about this! Since love for God and Man is the end of the Law, anything that lends to such love must be considered of Him and therefore God, and anything that moves our hearts, and minds, and mouths and hands from selfless love to selfish love, can be readily seen as not of God.

Questioning Common Christian Beliefs

So, with all of that in tow, I want to illustrate a world view that is embraced in the Christian world that I suggest was never supposed to be part of this age in which we live. And as a result of its presence, which is a non-truth, Christians have been LESS loving – again proving that there is something inferior in the stance to begin with. What is the teaching or stance? You’ve heard it from me before but I will address it until it becomes clear. It’s that “Jesus is coming back to take His bride from the earth in the future.” Let me explain why this view needs to be rejected in relation to biblical truth.

Implications of Jesus Not Having Returned

If Jesus has NOT already come and taken His Church-Bride then: The New Testament Apostolic directives (meaning Paul’s teachings to the Gentile Believers) are still applicable. This means ALL the NEW Testament policies and practices, doctrines and teachings MUST still be in place (because Jesus must come and finally collect His pure Bride from this fugly world). If this is the case, then this bride must be pure and righteous in ways I don’t see evident in any church today based on the descriptions of her in the Epistles and especially Revelation. If this is the case, then the gates of hell have not in any way prevailed against His holy church for the past 2000 years (don’t see that anywhere). That if we are still waiting on Him to come then every single person who have not received Him by faith have gone to hell – which is a New Testament reality – or will go to hell (which is a New Testament promise). And that those who are waiting in hell are also waiting to be judged at a Great White throne Judgement and all who are not found worthy will be cast into a Lake of Fire which was made for Satan and his angels.

And since Jesus hasn’t returned (Listen – as He promised he would and as all of the Apostles who wrote SAID he would) then Satan is still roaming the earth seeking whom he can get. And if that is the case then Jesus has not had the victory over sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace., satan, death and hell – and believers today MUST do a number of things prescribed by Paul in the epistles:

1. They MUST be worthy to be taken and saved by Jesus according to the New Testament directives – all of them.
2. They MUST be doing church LIKE the New Testament describes from Apostolic hands.
3. They must Operate in the order the Apostles established.
4. All the gifts of the Spirit would be readily manifest – including great miracle by living, specially trained apostles.
5. (These are still trying to cast devils out of people who appear possessed because THAT was what was then) and
6. Women should shut the hell up in church, divorce is anathema in most cases, sinners should be ostracized from all congregations of His church – and the list goes on and on.

Now, there are many people today who, failing to understand the truth of His return, who are just missing this key component of the truth, who rightly understand these things in the Bible – and so they are continually trying to live by them in this world. They shun, they ostracize others, they hate sinners, they are rigid, and even appear hateful – because they are.

Understanding the Truth

Going by what the New Testament tells them to go by. But failing to possess the truth (which must be discovered through searching), they fail in being set free. And therefore, the end result folks, is they fail to fully love. Why? Because they are, with their best intentions, TRYING to live and apply Paul’s directions given then to them to this whole new world . . . and this has been an UTTER fail from the start.

A total UTTER fugly fail – from the errors of the early church fathers, to Constantine, to Roman Catholicism, to all Orthodoxy, to the Reformation, to the Restoration movements, to the modern approaches, the end results, because they have all failed to embrace this single truth – that Jesus has come and taken His only church-bride – and has had the TOTAL victory over all things in heaven and earth – which is also clearly described in the New Testament.

Liberated by Truth

What does understanding this truth do to a person’s heart? LISTEN – it frees them up to love as God loves. It allows the goodness of God to lead all people to repentance. It allows every man and woman to embrace every other man and woman in love, knowing that Jesus has had victory over their lives, and that we are free from having to condemn them and “their sin.” Being liberated from condemnation, we are free to fellowship, we are free to immediately forgive all men everywhere of all things, we are free from the prejudices heaped upon us by our parents.

Victory and Equality

Knowing that the victory has been had, that Jesus isn’t coming back to save some and destroy others, that women and men are equal in Christ, that Satan has been defeated fully, that hell is a thing of the past, that heaven is the destination for all (yes, all) and is a reality for those who want it in their lives now, enables us, through this biblically supported truth, to love all people all the time – there’s no reason not to.

You see, folks, in closing – most Christians believe that Adam made all of us sinful by introducing sin into this world. Wouldn’t Jesus, whom Paul calls the second Adam have the capacity to reverse all of that, and make all people right before God again? He would, He did – and understanding this truth, we are then free to love as God loves. Reject it, ignore it, refuse to examine it because it doesn’t fit with what you want to be true, and you will remain in some extent to another in bondage, and therefore unable to love God and others fully.

(beat)

Remember, next week for those of you in Salt Lake City area – at 10AM at the CAMPUS CHURCH studio we will be interviewing McKenna Denson and you are welcome to come and sit in the audience to support her. IF you can’t make it we will begin airing the interviews that night on HOTM.FAITH. See you one way or another, next week – God willing.