Walking as Christians in the Age of Fulfillment
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah
This is Heart of the Matter –
And I’m your host, Shawn McCraney. Let’s keep learning together about walking as Christians in the age of fulfillment. Let’s pray together, my brothers and sisters, Sons and Daughters of the Living God by faith in His son who walk by the Spirit and not the flesh!
God and Suffering
PRAYER
Show 29B Live Rand or Dostoyevsky
July 7th 2020
Last week we had an off-air question I missed before ending the show and it was about God and suffering – meaning, how can we believe and trust in a God who allows such suffering to go on throughout the world. It is a great question because on there is no escaping the fact that according to Christians God is all powerful, is all knowing, and that in the face of such a being suffering – horrible suffering – exists in this world – a world he created in the first place.
What to say? I really have only one response to this and it is a heart of the matter response meaning it is at the heart of the issue. It’s a response that sounds contradictory but in the end, I submit that our suffering is actually proof that our God is good – and not the reverse, as some people maintain.
Freedom in Creation
We can sort of see this principle at play out here in the United States with the demonstrations that are taking place recently. Last week I stepped out on our small patio in downtown Salt Lake and watched 2-300 young people chanting together in the intersection below. They were chanting and marching against the police. They had placed a truck with loudspeakers on the back smack dab in the middle of the intersection and put a stop to all the normal traffic that typically flows through these streets.
There was lots of noise and commotion that disrupted the relative peace and quiet our part of the city enjoys. After a minute of watching them I started to wonder where all the traffic was and I leaned out and looked down the street and what did I see? Several police cars that had stopped the flow of traffic coming that direction and were redirecting it – which allowed the noisy protesters to do their thing. After about 20 minutes, and the protesters moved on down the road, the police followed in behind them silently protecting them from the cars that normally use those same streets for driving . . . instead of protesting.
In a country less free, with less liberty, what I witnessed would not be the case. My point is the freedoms and liberties of this country allow for the right for people to protest against it – even noisily. But that is a good thing. And so it is with God – because he is Good, he adores and loves freedom and liberty in the lives of the creations he made in his image. And loving them he must allow them to reign over themselves and make choices.
Extending these liberties to fallible creatures comes with a price – and that price is pain, discomfort and in the end unfairness in the lives of many – we call this suffering. Some people believe that if God was Good then he would not allow suffering to exist at all. That would be akin to a government not allowing protests to exist, which might make for a more peaceful country, but it would not make the country good. Adam and Eve were created perfectly and as representatives of the human race freely chose to bring sin and death into this creation that God made.
He did not make them badly nor did he put them in a bad garden full of disease and death and pain. For a good God to create, and for Him to give his creations freedom, which is good, he would have to allow for the natural results of that freedom to occur – pain. That is what our first parents introduced into our world and LISTEN – if they didn’t do it, one of us would have at some point in time down the line.
So why create us in the first place? So bottom line, God is Good. Creation and life is Good. Freedom and liberty is Good. The price for all of this is going to be pain and suffering. But God so loved the world He gave us His only begotten Son to reconcile the fallen sinful world to Himself. No, for him
The Role of Suffering
To interrupt the suffering would make him a bad God. But he does provide solace and comfort to those willing to seek it through Him. Others choose sex, drugs, bitterness, anger – whatever. But he offers Himself to offset and assuage the issues. He does not seem to put an end to suffering in our lives, but in and through such, God also knew that we would learn, mature, and grow.
Suffering also moves human beings to effort. In a world where it did not exist, human beings would wind up as a collection of couch potatoes. Loving us, and wanting us to reach our potential, perhaps he also permits suffering so we could work to figure out ways to reduce it. At the end of the day, the suffering God allows is a far far far better approach to governing a people given freedoms and liberty than the humanist idea of a pain-free life.
It all reminds me of a quote from the film, The Third Man by Graham Greene that says:
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.
Navigating Faith and Politics
Over the years I have long maintained that Christians, including pastors, ought to stay out of the political arena meaning that we ought to avoid mixing the sacred faith with political issues. This discussion usually winds up with me criticizing the Evangelical Right for using Jesus and our supposed duties as believers to vote one way or another. I maintain that Jesus kept the faith separate from state and we should too.
What I am about to talk about is not political, but I am going to use the terms Right and Left to explain myself. My use of the Right is in reference to Righteous and my use of the Left is relative to the Goats on the Left Hand of the Lord. So try and understand that when I have criticized the Right, it is ALWAYS and ONLY what we call the “Evangelical Right” (and NOT specifically conservative views of which I have little animus) and tonight I am going to criticize the Left but not the Liberal Political Left but instead what I am calling the Dark Left (whether they be politically active or not.)
The Dark Left's Influence
So when it comes to souls I see the world as possessing those that are of the Contrite Right and those that are of the Dark Left. As a believer, I am to love them all as persons – and I do, but I want to give some attention to what I call the Dark Left souls. Understand clearly this is the Dark Left's world – it is not those of the Contrite Right. The Dark Left run the comings and goings of the planet. This is their world, their ways, and their time in the sun. The people who truly love and seek God, the Contrite Right, are merely visitors holding temporary passports with limited freedoms herein.
The Dark Left has zero interest in the things of God and in fact war against all that is of and about Him. I have addressed the errors of the “Evangelical Right” because they, in my opinion, have forgotten that this is not the Christian’s world and have errantly attempted to govern the planet and war with the Dark Left through what I feel is a misappropriation of the Kingdom of God and Christ. But the Dark Left – the puppeteers and manipulators of Human beings, those seeking to imprison and to strip all liberties from the masses who use money and power and fame to get their way – the message tonight to Sons and Daughters is be very careful. I am not blind to the extremely sinister nature of the Dark Left. Nor am I ambivalent to what they are capable of doing in their kingdom of bondage and pain.
Central to their every act is self, pride, and the desire to own and occupy the all the sacred liberties of others. More and more they are manifesting themselves as wearing cloaks of “caring, and loving and helping the world” when in reality under those airs of benevolence are chains, violence, and depredations. Our youth are easily taken in by their promises and many souls are recruited into the mindsets and lifestyles the Dark Left promote as normal, good.
Spiritual Contrast between Light and Dark
But the fact of the matter remains – they are in the dark, they are children of the dark, and they have no interest in being children of light or the Sons and Daughters of God. But I simply want to reiterate to you that this is their world – it is not ours – and it has ALWAYS been their world. Those whose Kingdom is within and above, who are black, white, brown, yellow or red, male or female, bond or free, and of any faith expression, and even lifestyle are quickly polarizing into one expression (the Contrite Right) while those of the Dark Left are gathering on the opposite. We are seeing and will see more and more this world embracing their ways, their opinions, and their expressions. More and more the children of Light are becoming the minority, for “few be there who find him” or who want to.
Our answer is NOT of the flesh, not in political warfare not in fleshly resistances – they never have been. Our answers are found in Him, the Light, and in agape love, and in the things of the Spirit. Those of the light no matter what “physical differences” we possess share unconditional LOVE each other, sustain and support each other, and ought to more and more refuse to let denominational or doctrinal divisions keep us apart.
The Heart's Condition
And let me say this plainly: The Dark Left are not dark because of the sins of their flesh (as reprehensible as such sins can be). Those on the Light Right have sins too – often the same ones. The difference between the groups is the condition of the heart – the mindset, the motivations, the justifications, the rationalizations FOR the evil that we all do. An adulterer on the Contrite Right will feel shame, remorse, and guilt – and seek God for His or her forgiveness and to try and refrain from the behavior. An adulterer on the Dark Left will justify their deeds as human, spread the philosophy as acceptable, and engage with as many as he or she can find. Homosexuals on the Dark Left will parade and promote and recruit people to their side, those on the Contrite Right will admit their fleshly desires and turn to God seeking Him to assist them in whatever way He will. The same is true of every fleshly failure – those of the Contrite Right will always approach their fleshly ways with humility, contrition, and brokenness before their maker. Those on the Dark Left will stand on pride, justification and even mockery of the God who gave them life. The difference is NOT the sin – the difference is the response to sin – one is of broken contrition the other is of hubris and arrogance and pride.
A Matter of the Spirit
This is NOT a war between races, between genders, even between sexualities. Its NOT a war between sinful human propensities and perfect people, it’s a matter of the heart, a matter of the Spirit, a matter between light and dark, God and non-God, and the difference is palatable and growing more intense. People of the Contrite Right know it when they are in the midst of the Dark Left – you cannot help but sense the depravity, and people of the Dark Left cannot wait to escape the company of the Contrite Right – they hate the ambiance. And so it has been since the fall of Man.
Don’t let the loudest voices direct your path, my friend, or move you from broken humility before your maker. Let the True Voice of the Spirit lead you to that place of humility where God wants all of His children to live. Children of Light will NOT win the turf war going on in this world. But God will continue to win souls in spite of it. We can clearly see a day when the citizens of this world will be boiled down to a camp of Spiritual Light and Spiritual Darkness. Choose you this day whom you will serve, don’t curse the Darkness – love those of it – but let your Light shine as a beacon of hope to those wanting to be free.
(beat)
So, let’s go to our comments from shows in the past but first a couple emails I received over the last week:
Hello Shawn!
I hope this message finds you well. My wife and I recently left Mormonism and wanted to first say thank you for all the work you have done to reveal what the church
Exploring Mormonism and Doctrine
Really teaches and how it does not lead people to salvation. My wife and I were wondering if you had any pointers or things you would look for when considering a church to attend? Obviously since we are not going to lds church anymore we wanted to start attending one that teaches Jesus and the bible. Any help you can give us would be greatly appreciated!
Dear Shawn,
My name is Alex Ray. I am a Bible believing Christian. I’m a 21 year old college student. I first found “heart of the matter” shortly after me and my girlfriend saw the play “Book of Mormon” in Chattanooga in 2019. We saw the play, and I was fascinated by what this play was saying Mormons believed, about Joseph Smith digging up plates, Jesus in America. I never believed it, but it was just so fascinating. I'm from a town right outside of Nashville, Franklin, Tennessee. The Nashville Temple resides in Franklin and is located about 7 minutes from my house. Anyway, after me and my girlfriend saw the play, I ended up searching for facts about Mormonism, and found your show. Your show has given me so much information, and countless hours of stuff to listen to when I’m bored. I even went to the lds meeting house and asked for a copy of the book of Mormon so I could look up verses online and highlight them. For example, the verse in Alma that states Jesus is to come from Jerusalem. Epic fail by Joseph Smith… I didn't tell them that was my end goal though haha. I doubt they would have given me one had I said my intentions.
Anyway, I started watching some of your videos explaining and examining the bible, and for whatever reason, people are commenting that you have turned away from God, that you now believe more of a Unitarian point of view, opposite of the Trinity. I wrote this email to thank you for all of the information you gave me on Mormonism. When I get passionate about something I love to learn about, I go all in. My girlfriend has had to sit and listen to me go on and on and on about Nauvoo, and Brigham Young, and everything I learn. She isn't as interested as I am. I am also writing this email to ask you straight from the horse’s mouth what you believe about the Trinity. I hope I haven't proposed my question in an offensive way to you. You are a religious figure I very much respect. I am just curious what your beliefs are about these comments about you. Again, thank you for all the countless hours of information you have provided to me about Mormonism. Your story is truly inspiring, and I hope you’ll find the time to write back, but if you’re too busy, it’s okay haha. Thanks again, Shawn.
Insights into Trinitarianism
Hey my brother!
Thanks for writing. I will try and articulate my response as succinctly as possible; otherwise, this email would be a book! And let me begin by saying that I do not hold anything against people who see God as a trinity – we all see through a glass darkly, and I am not the judge of anyone. Admitting this, I also add that I too am off on my views on many things for sure, so I suggest agape love override all division over doctrine. Please remember this first paragraph over what I am about to say.
I cannot teach something I cannot see sustained in a contextual analysis of scripture; not an interpretation of what scripture says, but what I see when I read/study it myself. In other words, I refuse to pass a doctrine along I cannot see or comprehend.
What I see and comprehend in many ways accords with creedal Trinitarianism. Hear that clearly as I believe that there is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and I ardently maintain that they are all GOD. No question.
Where I differ with Creedal Trinitarianism is I believe that the Man Jesus of Nazareth was the word of YHWH before the world was, not a being or person separate and distinct from the Father as separate and distinct as you and me – nor do I believe that the Holy Spirit is a separate and distinct third person of YHWH – I believe the Holy Spirit is simply the Spirit of YHWH.
I also believe…
Understanding the Relationship Between God and Jesus
that GOD HIMSELF was in the Man Jesus of Nazareth, His only human Son and was leading the Man Jesus of Nazareth through his human existence and that post resurrection Jesus of Nazareth was deified and made the Man-God; that he, from that point forward was literally Man-God and before His flesh was merely flesh embodied with the Logos of His Father.
I worship One God, and agree with every one of Paul's descriptions of God – and no other. I worship one Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and agree with all of Paul's descriptions of Him and no other.
Finally, I am convinced that by the time Constantine and the group think was underway to define God as a means to both resist "heresy" and to unify the faith through Creeds, the truth took a back seat to the apostolic letters.
Personal Reflections on Modern Evangelicalism
I could provide my arguments in scripture – that is what I do weekly on the shows and the two verse by verse teachings we do here in SLC, but I just wanted to respond to you with my own words. It breaks my heart how people with differing ideas are received and treated in modern Evangelicalism. I have devoted my life to reaching, teaching and serving the Living God in Jesus name. That being said, my views are mine, and they are too important to me to ever back down in order to be or feel loved or accepted.
I pray that the Living God continues to guide you in your life, my friend, and that all of his light, love and truth pours out over you and yours. Sons and daughters seekers seek, and seekers find.
God bless,
Shawn
Personal Struggles with Tithing
I have been struggling with the concept of tithing for a bit. The church I attend now, ask for tithing every week. Plus they have quite a few missionaries they want us to help support. I see where missionaries are necessary to spread the Word of God and help others. But I always feel so guilty when I don't contribute. I do pay a tithe when I can. Because I have a limited income. What I want to know is how do I approach it biblically? And you being a Shepard for the Lord what is your understanding of tithing? I enjoy your show. You helped me get out of Mormonism.
Lori Neilson
