Purpose, Mission, and Engagement
of the Church
Bible 104: Christian Theology II
12 May 2021
Word Count: 2976
Ripped
from the Headlines today
Churches
Imposing Vaccine Mandates are Dividing Christians with a ‘Different
Gospel’
John
17:23
states
“I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect
unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love
them as much as you love me” (biblegateway.com) Separating
people sends a clear message that unity is not the main purpose of
the church. It destroys the importance of fellowship. It removes the
spiritual nature of the church where it is constituted of God’s
people. The celebration of equality is broken from we all belong to
him and he belongs to us to feeling of not belonging. Why go to
church if I am in the unwanted section. Jesus must not even want me.
It also reinforces fear that presses into vulnerable people by
removing that sense of belonging. I’m afraid the church is just
mirroring our society right now as opposed to being led by Jesus
Christ. We’re afraid of Facebook posts. We have become pleasers of
the world, as opposed to the pleasers of God. Romans 16:17 has a
warning about such behavior that divides congregations as it states
“And now I make one more appeal, my dear brothers and sisters.
Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people’s faith
by teaching things contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away
from them” (biblegateway.com). Leaders of the church are shepherds
and should never draw a dividing line through his flock. The church
must live out James 1:27 “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of
God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress
and refusing to let the world corrupt you” (biblegateway.com).
The Bible
neither needs or finds authority outside of itself. It fully contains
the will of God. It is forbidden to add or take away from the word of
God. The Bible is the only cannon of truth. “God uses it to prepare
and equip his people to do every good work” (New Application Study
Bible 2 Timothy 3:17). Churches need to stand up, stand strong, stand
firm in Christ not allowing the pressure of division to take hold as
compromise only leads to more until church is no longer stands out as
a representative of God. Instead of bending to the world the church
needs to educate, equip, inform, and engage its congregation. The
Culture should not shape the narrative of the church. It should be
based on God’s word. Make sure that the message is centered
vertically with God and horizontally with all people. The purpose of
the church is to welcome and bring them to Christ. Dividing people
based on a secular ideology will only confuse and lose the souls of
those lost who are coming to a church for acceptance, encouragement,
and love. Jesus spoke of how to care for the least of these and
separating them physically by labeling one group clean and the other
unclean was not what is envisioned for churches today.
“The
body of Christ is also universal. All ethnic and social barriers have
been removed” (Erickson, 396). Paul addressed this by announcing
that “in this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a
Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric uncivilized, slave or
free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us”
(Colossians 3:11). The heart of ministry must be actively proclaiming
the gospel. The apostle Paul insisted that the gospel was absolute,
therefore nothing should be added or removed from it so Paul was
determined to defend it. This is especially important today as the
church must prepare its congregation to confirm the gospel and give
reasoned arguments of it truths. The church has a responsibility to
love and show compassion to believers and non-believers. “Social
concern includes condemning unrighteousness as well” Erickson,
403). The church should show concern and take action to condemn evil,
wrong-dong, and call out corruption. “Amos and several Old
Testament prophets spoke out emphatically against the evil and
corruption of their day” (Erickson, 403).
The
church has a responsibility to equip its congregation with the
spiritual tools and weaponry to give them courage to proclaim the
gospel but to also not compromise truth. Refutation is recognizing
and taking action against what is not right in the culture of this
world. “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the
world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the
world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish
strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets
itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every
thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish
every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete” (2
Corinthians 10:3-6). The mission of the church works through the
hearts of men, but world ideologies are at war with Christianity with
falsehood and lies that are “reprehensible because they not only
harm those to and/or about whom they are told, but they also
blaspheme the vary character of God who is truth” (Baucham, 41).
False ideologies the church must confront are: Critical Race Theory,
Intersectionality, Social Justice, Conflict Theory, and Gender
Theory. These sociological, psychological, and political theories
have permeating our culture and making its way into Christ’s
church. The teachings of the gospel is threatened and scriptures are
being misrepresented. This leads people away from God’s grace and
true salvation in Jesus Christ. “Values borrowed from secular
culture are currently undermining Scripture in areas of race and
ethnicity, manhood and womanhood, and human sexuality.” (Baucham,
235). These dangerous ideologies corrupt moral values. The challenge
for churches is to not allow their influence to spread through
biblical doctrines and principals.
It
is important to understand that groups tried to box Jesus in
politically and socially, but he would not allow it. Jesus never
swayed from his purpose which was to bring the gospel and share with
people the Kingdom of God not liberalism or socialism or Marxism.
Jesus wouldn’t permit his character to be defined by
socio-political ideologies. Jesus told his disciples to feed his
sheep because Jesus himself was the shepherd willing to lay down his
life for his flock. The
-isms are moving society away from Christianity to many forms of
secular religions. These -isms entice people who “want to belong to
groups, including ethnic, racial, religious, and economic groups.
People find identity, commonality, purpose, and even self-worth with
such attachments” (Levin, 8). These paradigms are potent because it
exploits people yearning for happiness. They are built on illusions
of removing God as he is a human invention. Religion just reflects
the heart of a heartless world. It is the soul of soulless. Karl Marx
promoted that Christianity is dangerous because it held each
individual accountable to the one true God. “Nothing in all
creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and
laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account”
(Hebrews 4:13). Marxism removes individualism for classism. “The
individual is dehumanized and nothing unless he identifies with a
group—the oppressed and victimized group” (Levin, 8). Individuals
who oppose or do not conform to the collective is condemned and
loathed as an enemy. Scripture is quite clear that this is contrary
to Jesus’s teachings while he was on Earth as the Son of Man and
even more he went to the cross for the salvation of the world. The
church is the hope of this world who are to be salt and light. “You
are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how
can it be made salty again? It is not longer good for anything,
except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot” (Matthew 5:13). “In
the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see
your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
More
Headlines
Anti-Racism,
Equity, and Inclusion Policy adopted by Clark County School Board
Education
has taken out how to be a good citizen who values God given rights of
life, liberty, freedom, and individual pursuit of happiness. It is
replaced with this new morality and ethical standards that uses the
separation of church and state as a weapon because if educators can
eliminate the power of values in society because there is a growing
hatred of “the traditional morality believes the nation was
established on sound moral, religious principles that were to have
enduring influence on life and law” (Feazel & Swain, 57).
“The
new morality believes that distorting truth or presenting falsehoods
constantly over time will one day result in those distortions being
regarded by impressionable minds” (Feazel & Swain, 59). This is
a reason in the timing of Critical Race Theory that at first
educators said it was only being taught in college laws schools to
discuss ethics through the lens of race. Today, it is found in the
classrooms of your kids even in elementary school. Then the teacher’s
union came out with a statement that they would fight against parents
who don’t want their kids learning about CRT. Then stepped back and
tried to explain their reasoning of it is just history and educators
just want to make sure students learn about slavery. CRT is no where
near in the shade of gray they want to portray. The truth is:
Problem:
Only the oppressors are the sinners in the world and those oppressors
are white, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied, native born males.
Problem:
All the oppressed are without sin which are everybody else excluding
the white-privileged
Problem:
The more oppressed you are the least responsibility you have and more
moral authority you are given
Problem:
Intersectionality is introduced-measured by your degree of oppression
which is being black, LGBTQ, transgender, etc...and the more
categories you can check off the more oppressed you are
Problem:
It is not just a conversation of race, but a lie as we come to find
that CRT and BLM and Marxism is interrelated vehicles used to destroy
the greatest nation God created.
Critical
Race Theory doesn’t stop at just distorting history regarding
slavery which pushes America’s July 4th,
1776 which celebrates diversity should be eliminated. Insert the 1619
project which is the year established as the founding of America when
black slaves arrived in America. This world socialist view has
spilled into other minority races who will challenge their conquest
of American history. Enter LatCrit(Latin Critical Race Theory) which
suggests that whites are the illegals in America so the indigenous
(Native Americans & Latino/Chicano) are the legals. There is a
focus on anyone who took over territories from the indigenous people
are the outsiders including those black slaves. It’s an attempt to
use race as a mechanism for redefining our society-redefining what it
was based on and how it impacts everybody, and it wants people to
believe that race is the most critical determinant of who you are and
what happens to you in our society.
Mask
mandate to remain in place into 2022, Nevada office says
The
faceless entities sit with other faceless entities. It is not Covid
itself that has led to the mass epidemic of child suicide, but
society’s response to a virus. Fear is a natural human emotion, but
government and media pressed the presence of danger that threatened
to harm every family member. The only option given to humanity was to
threaten their emotional and psychological freedoms. Kids were
isolated for no good reason. All routines were restricted. They were
made to wear masks and deprived from the ability to see their friends
faces or to be seen. They are seen as an elemental and fundamental
human experience in society. They were treated as though they were
diseased and locked away. We made them afraid of social contact and
people. We allowed them to even be afraid of the air they breathe.
Leaving them with a computer screen as their only access to the
outside world. Kids’ minds altered deprived of a sense of full
potential and identity. Students so lost they try to bridge some
sense of identity to they gravitate to the LGBT 50 labels that
changes by day by day. These kids have no sense of identity. They
have had nothing firm or consistent to anchor themselves to in
cyberspace.
As
students return back to school, they are still under an invisible
lock downs. Still sitting faceless behind masks. Unable to socialize
due to social distancing requirements. No connection to teachers or
each other for six hours a day is still mentally unhealthy and a form
of torture for kids who naturally gravitate to reading each others’
facial expressions and accepting smiles. They have forgotten how to
have real-life shared experiences. They anger easily so students
react violently to one another and any form of authority. These kids
are lost and ready to be plucked up by the evils of this world. “Woe
to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light
and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for
bitter” (Isaiah 5:20).
More
Headlines
Massachusetts
school offers ‘safe space’ for students of color
Parents
need to understand that public schools are a government institution
so if your child’s cultural and religious views can be implemented
by them and not you then they capture the culture then political
control will follow. Enter the analytical framework of
Intersectionality. This is defined as “the interconnected nature of
social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply
to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and
interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.” This is
seen through the curriculum of Critical Race Theory. These are tied
together so students will only rely on their racial cultural view
that promotes victims in society so when young people share their
anti-American displays is accepted as normal. Expectations of
programs like paying people to stay unemployed is acceptable in
society. Manipulating elections is almost expected for the betterment
of of minority communities. Victim hood includes “trigger words”
and now the need for “safe spaces.” Then on the other spectrum is
the bullying name calling to diminish the message of other opinions
which transforms into “wokeness” and “cancel culture.”
Drag
queen story hour in America’s Bible Belt
The
new morality teaches their brand of morality. “Our schools have
forsaken the moral compass that the founders believed to be vital to
public education” (Feazel & Swain, 95). Students are being
exposed to subject matter that they are not psychologically or
emotionally equipped. Parents are reporting their elementary students
are being introduced to sexual content to start building their
tolerance to view sexuality as pleasurable at age 2, 6, or 16.
Society has accepted a multitude of sexual orientation and behaviors,
but this free-sex philosophy that is found in classrooms taught by
people with educational degrees. At one time teachers warned of
stranger danger, unwanted touching, warning of students being
groomed, isolated, and then the abuser was exposed and punished.
Teachers have become complacent on introducing material that makes a
child predator a neutral family friend. Educators are entrusted with
the most precious gifts parents have so public schools have no right
to determine the correct view or practice of sexuality to teach
students. This new morality and its efforts to normalize pedophilia
must be stopped.
The
mission of the church is to be the hope of the world. They need to be
engaged in today’s issues without fear of speaking out. God
entrusted the church to make a difference for the kingdom of God. A
faith to build bridges that will reach from one generation to the
next. It is time for churches to develop leaders who build strength
within communities. To ensure that God’s kingdom continues to grow
into the future which is a significant part of the ministry. “And
he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds
and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for
building up the body of Christ” ( Ephesians 4:11-13).
The
purpose of the church is to stand firm in God’s words in truth
ready to battle against the darkness that wants to eliminate freedom.
The freedom that Jesus provided on the cross when he gave a path for
us to have the courage to not compromise his truth. “But in your
hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to
everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience,
so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in
Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better, it it is
God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil” (1
Peter 3: 15-17).
It
is time to take for the church to take on the armor of God. “Finally,
be strong in the Lord and in his might power. Put on the full armor
of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s
schemes” (Ephesians 6:10-11).
Bibliography
“Access
Your Bible from Anywhere.” BibleGateway.com:
A Searchable Online Bible in over 150
Versions
and 50 Languages.,
https://www.biblegateway.com/.
Bauchman
Jr., Voddie T. Fault
Lines;the Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism's Looming
Catastrophe.
SALEM BOOKS, 2021.
Erickson,
Millard J., and L. Arnold Hustad. Introducing
Christian Doctrine.
Baker Publishing Group, 2015.
Feazel,
Steve, and Carol M. Swain. Abduction:
How Liberalism Steals Our Children's Hearts and Minds.
Christian Faith Publishing, 2016.
Levin,
Mark R. American
Marxism.
Threshold Editions, 2021.
Life
Application Study Bible: NIV.
Zondervan, 2019.
