My wife and I saw this bumper sticker on a car on Sunday at lunch, and both of us were floored.
I can't understand how anyone would mistake Jesus for a liberal, and it would be nice if someone at least attempted to explain it.
I could easily say that Jesus was a communist, with just as much accuracy. The heart of communism isn't a ogliarchical regime, but rather "from those with means to those with the need". Everyone is supposed to share, no one is supposed to be wealthy and lord it over others (not even government officials), and every person is equally necessary to the structure and survival of society. Those given the most authority also have the most responsibility live on a precipice of accountability. That very message is contained quite nicely in the letters to the churches (epistles).
But it's far from the truth.
The difference is in the heart behind what's being done, and, ultimately, who is glorified by the doing. Communism exalts the state, and will sacrifice all for the glory of the state. The goal of the liberal is to glorify the individual. Sacrifice everyone for the sake of one person's rights, no matter how much each person's rights tend to conflict with each other's.
As Christians, our mission, our heart should be to glorify the Lord, and give all for His glory.
If the poor are provided for and the hungry are fed, and the credit is given to the government, rather than to the Lord, then it's all in vain. If personal responsibility and morality are discarded in order to benefit one person, then truth becomes irrelevant.
If anything is exalted above the Lord, then it's idolatry. Removing our dependence on the Lord (and His chosen method for doling out his provision for the world - the CHURCH) is not just wrong, it's sinister. It is a herald of the antichrist (whether that's a person or an ideology that's coming is irrelevant).
Jesus wasn't "conservative" or "liberal". He was and is godly (He IS God), and in order to follow Him, we need to understand His heart in all things.
I can't understand how anyone would mistake Jesus for a liberal, and it would be nice if someone at least attempted to explain it.
I could easily say that Jesus was a communist, with just as much accuracy. The heart of communism isn't a ogliarchical regime, but rather "from those with means to those with the need". Everyone is supposed to share, no one is supposed to be wealthy and lord it over others (not even government officials), and every person is equally necessary to the structure and survival of society. Those given the most authority also have the most responsibility live on a precipice of accountability. That very message is contained quite nicely in the letters to the churches (epistles).
But it's far from the truth.
The difference is in the heart behind what's being done, and, ultimately, who is glorified by the doing. Communism exalts the state, and will sacrifice all for the glory of the state. The goal of the liberal is to glorify the individual. Sacrifice everyone for the sake of one person's rights, no matter how much each person's rights tend to conflict with each other's.
As Christians, our mission, our heart should be to glorify the Lord, and give all for His glory.
If the poor are provided for and the hungry are fed, and the credit is given to the government, rather than to the Lord, then it's all in vain. If personal responsibility and morality are discarded in order to benefit one person, then truth becomes irrelevant.
If anything is exalted above the Lord, then it's idolatry. Removing our dependence on the Lord (and His chosen method for doling out his provision for the world - the CHURCH) is not just wrong, it's sinister. It is a herald of the antichrist (whether that's a person or an ideology that's coming is irrelevant).
Jesus wasn't "conservative" or "liberal". He was and is godly (He IS God), and in order to follow Him, we need to understand His heart in all things.
1 comment:
Hello Brian,
"Jesus was a....liberal?" Well, it depends upon how one is defining the term. If one defines liberal in the manner in which Isaiah used it, then yes, Jesus is a liberal. Of course, the bumper sticker's creator(s) isn't using Isaiah's meaning. I do though.
I do that for the reason Isaiah gave that the meanings of words would be put straight.
Jesus used words in ways that the self-authorized powers that be who denied Jesus's inheritance at the time didn't like. In fact, they murdered him for it. They feared God but in the wrong way. They didn't respect God. They were afraid that the truth would bring them down. It did. They're all dead as defined by Jesus.
I realize you see that the current mainstream usage of liberal and conservative do not apply to Jesus unless one takes the best of each and combines them. That's why Jesus was the fulfillment of the law. He was the law without hypocrisy; hence, he was the real law.
You wrote, "The heart of communism isn't a ogliarchical regime, but rather 'from those with means to those with the need'. Everyone is supposed to share, no one is supposed to be wealthy and lord it over others (not even government officials), and every person is equally necessary to the structure and survival of society. Those given the most authority also have the most responsibility live on a precipice of accountability. That very message is contained quite nicely in the letters to the churches (epistles)." I find all of that in the Gospels.
The truth is that Jesus is a communist. He isn't though a Marxist. He doesn't hold with the Communist Party. Real communism (the truth) predates Marx by eternity.
Since you know that this is what Jesus taught, take back the term "communism" from the Marxists and capitalists. Take back the term liberal as well.
The glory of God is in doing righteousness where righteousness is defined as Jesus exemplified. We are to follow his words. He did say to be perfect. He said perfection begins with giving and sharing all for the sake of the needy. He did command that his lambs and sheep be fed. He did say we are to be one. This is the Christian mission, among all the other points he stated and exemplified. It all fits together.
The real government is to be God's reign coming to the Earth in our hearts so that we always do the New Commandment, individually and together. We don't have to confine ourselves to using the terms government and state and politics and economics as the fractured have broken up those terms. We can use those terms as they all fit perfectly together in Jesus's message.
You are absolutely correct to credit God with the movement of the spirit within to do the right things Jesus taught. The real government is the Church: The souls of true believers. God dwells with Jesus within the heart of each true believer. We are to come together in that spirit and do those things he said to do.
Please feel free to chime in via a comment on my post. The truth must shine. Those who believe in it must network together as the Church.
God bless,
Tom Usher
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