Where did all the happy people go?
The other day I read an article that was entitled, “Why churches should brace for a mass exodus of the faithful: The more conservative churches, anyway.” With a title like that, who needs to read more, right? The author boasted about having written previously, where he was proud to point out how he saw the “acceptance of gay marriage” we all enjoyed now as due to the rejection of gay marriage by Christian churches. This was in particular the conservative branches, naming the likes of the Mormons and Catholics.
While he did not expressly say, he insinuated that the churches that were embracing same sex unions were where God was most happy. The author stated, “Jesus Christ taught the equal dignity of all persons, proclaimed that the meek shall inherit the earth, and declared that the last shall be first and the first shall be last.” He said the Churches of the West had been trying to figure out the logic of those “subversive teachings.” I’m still trying to figure out how Jesus taught the equal dignity of the Pharisees, which at last count were part of “all persons.” We are all equally flawed, but why celebrate those flaws equally?
The way I read this article, where the author goes on and on about the way women have been denied equal rights, to the point of causing them to turn away from the religious institutions that deny them equality, is he believes the same denial to homosexuals will have the same effect. He presumes religion is all about satisfying the wants of the congregations, such that the lasting religions are those who “go with the flow” and “roll with the punches” (my quotes as idioms, not quotes of the author). It is, therefore, the author’s enlightened opinion that women and homosexuals are “meek” and “last,” but God will bless them by letting them have their way. Woman power! Gay power! We shall overcome and become number one!
Remember to hold your signs up and chant real loud when the camera’s red light is on.
This is how the popular media is doing its best to destroy religious thought in America, and the West in general. By seeking and finding such false writers on religion, who are nowhere close to being in-touch with the truth that comes from Scripture, we are inundated with websites that pretend to offer news, but doing nothing more than projecting “religious articles” as if they have been deemed by God to be “the voice of the people.” This is insulting.
This article is nothing but a long-winded stroking of the ego in women (while inferring he is stroking something else in homosexuals). It says everything that upholds the principle of the Father is wrong, when that principle states discretely that there is equality in the principle of the Mother. Motherhood is not inferior to Fatherhood, but the same could be said about apples and oranges. Difference is obvious. This is inequality in difference, while equality in being. An attack of churches over feminism (a different issue entirely) is pure ignorance. However, by being so inept, it led me to look deeper into this “blessed are the meek” thing the author flipped around like a biblical weapon.
He should be more careful in the future; he could put his eye out with such sharp subjects. First of all, David beat Jesus to the “blessed are the meek” punch. In Psalm 37, verse 11, he wrote, “But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” (NKJV) It can also be read to say, “But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity.” (NIV)
The root word used by David is “anav” (“וַעֲנָוִ֥ים”) which can also mean “poor, afflicted, needy, and humble.” Jesus was repeating David, when he recited the beatitudes on his sermon on the mount. One needs to ask, “Why was Jesus saying what David had already said?”
Well friends, David was telling the children of Israel what they needed to do to maintain the gift of land, the Promised Land from God. Jesus came after they had failed to keep the land from stronger foes, so when David had said, “For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found” (Psalm 37:9-10), that was not how history played out.
When Jesus was on the mount, by then the Romans had inherited the land; and they followed the Persian and Greek inheritors. Therefore, Jesus was explaining how everyone has misunderstood what David meant by saying, “The meek shall inherit the land.”
The “meek” were the Israelites, Persians, Samaritans, Greeks, etc., or all who thought they were rulers of plots of soil. In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” (5:3a) He said, “Blessed are those who mourn.” (5:4a) Then, he said, “Blessed are the meek.” (5:5a) After that, Jesus leaned more on how blessed the righteous were, those who hungered and thirsted for righteousness, those who were persecuted for their religious beliefs, as well as the merciful, pure of heart, peacemakers of the world. (Matthew 5:3-10).
The way it should be. the little guy protected by a big guy with gnarly teeth.
Jesus even told us conservative Christians, us who see blessings as something best bestowed by God and not by people with hidden and not-so-hidden agendas, that we were blessed too. In verse 11, Jesus said, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.” Such as, “You idiots, those who struggle to see how Jesus blessed the meek, you will find no one sitting beside you in your empty church pews.”
When you take a deep breath, count to ten, and then take a step or two back (to get the bigger picture), you realize we are not supposed to want to inherit the earth. We are supposed to want to inherit an eternity in Heaven. So, if you are poor in spirit, raise them with the Holy Spirit and find your reward is the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus was not saying, “If you keep low spirits you get to go to heaven.” Likewise, if you are meek do not remain in that mild state.
Stand for what is right and take ownership of the earth, letting the power of the Holy Spirit move you to be bold. Inherit the earth so that others can benefit by making heaven and earth one. However, if you stay meek and inherit a diseased world, then your meekness will have been what brought on the disease.
The definition of “meek” then cuts two ways. You are one who is easy-going and polite, while not surrendering your moral values. Or, you are one who writes articles that condemn Christianity and Judaism, while saying nothing about the views of homosexuality and women in Islam, Hinduism, Communism, and the Hopi Indians (or basically, every possible sect and cult ever created). That would make you be wussy “meek,” worthy of inheriting a world gone crazy from a lack of being able to tell right from wrong, or make one size fit all. One is meek, while the other is meek; and they are on two entirely different levels of piety. One is blessed by God, while the other is blessed by Satan.
As for the teaching, “the last shall be first, and the first last,” the same concept applies. Matthew told of Jesus saying this when the rich man asked how he could be assured of going to heaven (chapter 19). He told them it was easier to get a camel through the eye of the needle, than it was to get a rich man to heaven. He then told the disciples that everyone who leaves all earthly things behind, to follow him, will make it to heaven. Thus, “last” means sacrifice and acceptance of persecution, hunger, sorrow, and meekness under the foot of an oppressor, while “first” is the one causing all of that.
Pain and suffering, unjustly, on the earthly plane will be rewarded with happiness and bliss in the heavenly realm. Thus, the “first” in Heaven will be the “last” on earth. Matthew then repeated this message from Jesus, in chapter 20, when he recounted the parable of the owner of a vineyard paying laborers the same wages, whether they came to work first or last. The ones who came first complained about getting the same pay, when the owner paying the laborers told the complainers, “I can give whatever I want. If they received more for less work, then I have the right to make that a gift. You, however, got paid what we agreed on.”
This says that you cannot count on going to heaven just because you go to church. Therefore, homosexuals will get no preference by running homophobic Christians out of their churches, and neither will they benefit from complaining about not receiving more attention for being homosexual.
What the article suggested was that the poor, persecuted women and poor, persecuted homosexuals should become the persecutors themselves. They should stick it to the people who think they have an inside track to Heaven. Any points he made about the shortcomings of the churches (and there are MANY that can be named – always were, always will be) were lost by the mere suggestion that the table should be turned. Let those in first place drink the poison, while those who have been last rise to be the first.
That is not the intent of what Jesus taught. It is very clear that the world is in a troubled state. Religion is now persecuted, as it has been since the Age of Reason began, when thinking began to conclude, “If we cut the heads off of kings and queens, and seize the lands held by the Church, claiming it as our own, then we will be first and they will be last. Hip, hip, hooray!”
Religion has been under the control of evil entities for a long time; and it is they who have run the Holy Bark aground. They act as irresponsible as the captain of the cruise ship Costa Concordia (Latin, meaning “Wall of Harmony”). Not coincidentally, both ships had captains having sex in an inappropriate place when the accident occurred, and both saved themselves first, leaving others to die.
Symbolic of the Bark of St. Peter?
Religion is seen as where the first in line for heaven wait, so the envy of those in the last position has them strike out in anger against those in front of them in line. Religion is then used against the religious, so the ones taught nothing by meek leaders can do nothing but become meek in defense. “How can I argue against Jesus,” they ask?
A church that changes to meet the demands of a changing world is a rudderless ship, always finding rocks just below the surface to run aground on. The excitement of running such a big ship aground seems to have attracted inept pilots, who take delight in going towards the dangerous rocks, to volunteer to take the helm. It is dangerously exciting to be having private sex while waving to an adoring crowd on shore, daring the rocks to crash the bow.
The problem Christians face today is being meek in the face of this persecution, which comes from the politically motivated media and comes from materially motivated Church leaders (all denominations). Christians are individually forced to stand tall in the face of this adversity, as right is always attacked as wrong, and never as being too right to still be right some more. We need no middle-men to confuse us, either in the churches or in the media (certainly not politicians).
Please do not throw spears of Scripture that you are not willing to fall down upon them, if the evil you target points back to your heart. Either lead by example, follow from inner guidance, or get out of the way. In the end it is only about one in relationship with the One God. Anyone bringing up the subject of sexuality has nothing of merit to say.