Heart of the Matter ESPRESSO
Live from Salt Lake City, Utah, this is Heart of the Matter ESPRESSO! where we do all we can to worship God in Spirit and in Truth. I’m Shawn McCraney, your host.
Upcoming Event
Those of you who live in the Logan Utah area on up to Preston Idaho, this may of be of interest to you. On Wednesday, June 21st 7PM I am going to be speaking in a home outside of Preston about Mormonism, Christianity, and a relationship directly with the Lord. I will be bringing up all of our books for those who desire them and will have food and a Q and A afterward. ALL are welcome – of any stripe, shape or ilk. That’s Wednesday, June 21st 2017 from 7 to 9P PM – join us if you are from that area.
A Call for Religious Tolerance
Got a good friend – Dave Bartosiewitz – who came out of Mormonism and started an online ministry to reach people. Recently he found a religious home in Greek Orthodoxy – much like Hank Hannegraph, the Bible Answerman. And like most acolytes he has (perhaps unwisely) touted the beauties he has discovered in the faith to the online world – and of course the fallout is that he is being assassinated.
I am not a universalist – all roads to not lead to heaven. Nor am I a syncretist – nor ecumenical – have no real appreciation for any brick and mortar hierarchy nor think that they should all come together for the common good – because they NEVER will. But, perhaps we are at a point in our Christian history that at the grassroots level the INDIVIDUAL sold-out believers for Jesus might begin to GENTLY – gently defend all peoples rights to live their faith out as they choose – no matter what that organized faith or religion is. I publicly support Dave Barto and Hank Henngraph and whoever else is being maligned for their choice of religious expression on the grounds that all Christians are both responsible (and possess the right) to worship God in whatever way they personally desire. That Christians are Christians by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and NOT by the church they attend, and that there is no theological or practical or ritual someone chooses to embrace that can take from their Christianity IF the Holy Spirit is with them through faith in Christ Jesus.
We do NOT war against flesh and blood. We love all flesh and blood and encourage them to receive Christ (or to continue in their walk with Christ). Naturally, if individuals seek information out from us or our opinions on things we can certainly share and teach what we believe – but the public assassinations by some Christians upon others who have elected to practice their faith in Jesus through one institutional form or another perpetuates evil and hatred – something our King ardently opposed. If we claim Christ, let’s be as Christ was! Especially with those who claim Him as Lord.
A Spectrum of Corruption
To be fair, WHENEVER there is a group of people gathering to achieve or accomplish something, there will be to some extent or another, some manipulation, some burdening that has to go on. Then there will always be some who bear some sort of the burden that others do not. In gatherings there will always be thankless contributions, expectations, and demands that would not exist if the group did not exist. Perhaps these unfortunate realities are all relative to the size and scope of the institution created. In other words, create a group that is small and low key with low overhead and minimalist demands and expectations and perhaps the manipulations and burdens will be kept to a minimum. But if the institution is large and complex so will the burdens and manipulations be large and complex. We might liken an extremely low overhead and low expectation religious gathering and an extremely high overhead and high expectation church to a man who has to care for five square feet of concrete versus a man who has to care for a skyscraper – the costs and overhead and demands involved are commensurate. In capitalism, the goal is always bigger, stronger, better because these things typically mean more money. In religion, the idea is bigger means more souls saved or served – at least that is the justification. But served in what way? Let me
Comparing Parental Approaches
Two sets of parents each raising a son. The first set of parents believe that this son ought to be surrounded by all the material comforts and activities a boy could imagine. They purchase a huge mansion, marble floors, servants, and lavish him with entertainments, recreations, parties, celebrations over his birthday, his merits, yada yada yada. But the second set of parents believe that the external comforts are not only not primary but can actually serve to hurt their son and his character. So they approach his life with a reasonable focus on euridition – especially on spiritual matters. Sure, they allow him to participate in things he was created to do – whatever those things are – and are not fanatics against the wonders of this world but the foundation of his upbringing is not the outward or creature comforts but on the inward; not on the flesh, but on the things of the spirit, not on the material things of life but on the things that cannot be seen, echoing what 2nd Corinthians 4:18 says “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."
Material Religion and its Impact
It is wholly intriguing that in several places in the New Testament God is described as invisible – and yet in our worship and seeking of Him we focus on the visible. That God does not dwell in temples made with hands but we focus on surrounding ourselves with these very things – made with hands. So the idea that material religious institutions are corrupt to some extent or another is not the issue – they are and they will always be. The issue is that most religious institutions (and the men and women who run them) work very hard to make their churches bigger and more complex with these desires being tantamount to wanting more corruption, manipulation, disappointment and in the end not only burdening people but becoming actual places that are opposite in nature to God himself!
There is a call going out through the world – can you hear it? I can. It’s screaming for true Christians to demand for a deconstruction of the overhead that has been imposed upon them by religious dreamers. It’s a call for Christians to persuade their preferred churches to begin to eliminate all the elements of playing church. To openly resist material religion, burden making and playing church in any way. Demand that your church teaches the Bible then pushes people out into the world to live and their faith. Nothing more!
Emancipation from Religious Overhead
When and if organized religion has been reduced down to manageable proportions, when overhead is minimalized, when requests for involvement and expectations for constant participation are eliminated, the corruption and potential for corruption, burden and alienation will be minimalized – and believers will be emancipated from the wiles of Man.
The Victory of Christ
So we are now Striking the Root instead of hacking at the branches. We have at the far left of the chart the VICTORY Christ brought into the world through His life, death and resurrection. And the first part of that victory we have discussed is the Good News. In the second row we have a continuation of the Good given us as recipient of the Good News . . . and UNBURDENING of CARES.
Let's try to look backward over the course of recorded biblical history. Generally speaking, when the World fell (due to Adam’s sin) all of us thereafter were born into a realm burdened by having to live with pain and discomfort. These pains and discomforts extend from first.
The Promise of Liberation
All part and parcel of being born into a fallen world and all a burden. As a temporary means to ameliorate the effects of such things from the Nation that would provide the world a Savior, God through Moses, gave the Law, which, while granting some certainties to the children of Israel, also kept them in chains and under a burden. But God promised them – and then all the world that follows – a Savior. And with this savior came the promise of liberation – from the effects of the fall, from the effects of the Law, from the pain of sin, from the fear of death and the uncertainties we all face as human beings.
Job 39:5 Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass? Psalms 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Isaiah 58:6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Scriptural Precedent
Of course, when God’s only Human Son walked the earth He entered into a synagogue and standing before the congregation opened the scripture and quoted Isaiah 61:1 “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; And then he tells them there, “today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears.” Yahweh anointed Jesus to preach GOOD tidings (which we talked about last week) to the meek, to bind up (heal) the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that were bound!
Oh, how we preach this fantastic result of the Good News! Freedom! Liberty! Dead to the Law! Sin is overcome! The prison doors are open! All mankind is free! Death is overcome! Hell is cast away! Satan is in the Lake of Fire! He has already come!
The Result
No longer are we under the burden of Sin! Jesus has paid for it 2000 years ago! No longer are we under the burden of the Law – we are dead to it! No longer are we to fear death – He has overcome it and has given afterlife resurrection to all! Quite frankly, in the face of sound New Testament understanding and proper eschatological exegesis, there is no fear of Satan and Hell or an unsettling and rapturous second coming! All of it has been done. And all we are left with, because of Him and His victory over sin, death, the Law, and Satan – is to grow in faith and love. Praise God! Right? Right? No?
These things are not accomplished through Him? You mean we still have fears, and requirements, and laws, and demands? You mean we still have to worry and fret and rub our hands together anxiously? THIS is what religion wants you to believe. And in getting us to accept their manipulation people are RE-BURDENED with all that Jesus came and liberated us from!
Freedom and Liberty! Dead to the Law! Sin is overcome! The prison doors are open! All mankind is free! Death is overcome! Hell is cast away! Satan is in the Lake of Fire! He has already come!
