Listening this morning to Arlo Guthrie and Jim Wilson’s
new version of “Hard Times Come Again No More.” I began to understand some of
the vitriol, conspiracy mania, and slander heaped upon many public officials
and the medical professions. And here I am thinking of people I know, people I
am close to, who are not usually inclined to vent so ardently against others. I
know there are those who purposely and with evil intent invent outlandish tales
of conspiracy against others, but these are not the people that have initiated
my concern. I am Reformed after all and “What is the matter with you people” is
my byword as long as it includes myself.
But watching the depression photographs in the video I
realized so many have no memory of those hard times or of the devastating losses
of World War II. And if they are not particularly interested in history they will
not have absorbed the pain and sorrow of that time or any other time for that
matter. It seems to me, we Americans, at least in the last few decades, insist
on everything turning out rosy. We build our hopes on Shangri-La and reach for
idealistic dreams. Added to this sense of optimism is a belief that it is
possible to know the exact reason why something has happened and the way it has
happened and thus to swiftly end any intruding evil.
For instance, some insist that covid-19 occurred because
a person or a group or an organization manufactured it as a means of destroying
enemy’s lives. Or, so many people have died because politicians, or/and medical
groups or/and a particular political party are lying about the cure. Or, it’s a
lie that so many people have died, with multiple explanations for the lie.
The real truth gets lost in our rejection of truth—we are
suffering—more suffering is ahead of us—we must gather strength and hope from
somewhere beyond answers that are materialistic, conspiratorial and slanderous.
The truthful answer will not be to dissuade or dispose of enemies who are supposedly
seeking our harm. The truthful answer will not be to ignore the mandates of safety
for this particular moment in our history. The truthful answer is—we are
suffering—God help us!
Recently a friend suggested I watch a movie about
Lilias Trotter a 19th century artist and missionary to Algeria. In
the movie, “Many Beautiful Things” Trotter’s potential to become a famous
artist is sacrificed for the sake of following Christ to North Africa. One of
her beautiful statements is:
Measure thy life by loss not by gain, not by
the wine drunk but by the wine poured forth for love’s strength standeth in
love’s sacrifices.
The life God calls us to, in the midst of pandemic, brutal
riots and police brutality, aims us straight into His love. His intention is to
pour, through us, His love out upon the worlds we inhabit. Our time, this day,
this year, the years to come, are times to draw near to Jesus, to think on His
cross, to rest in his love, to walk in his love.
If we have lost, in these hard times, faith in
humanity—good—now we will have a deeper faith in Jesus. We will cling to the
brother and sister who in their weakness and humility still holds to Jesus. We
will find in Jesus the government, the kingdom, the joy, that this time, this
place cannot give.
Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great
mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable
and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected
by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the
last time.
In
this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you
have been destressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith being
more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be
found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him
now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of
glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. (1
Peter 1: 3-9)
There are circumstances when I feel a great need to bury
myself in God’s word and let Christian hymns and praise sweep over me. I feel a
need to have truth and goodness wash my mind and soul. Often the reading I do
for research has that effect. Sometimes just circumstances, ugly circumstances,
place me in that position. For several days I have been listening to some
extremely horrible videos. My concern for a few friends on Facebook who seem to
be affirming conspiracy theories, even placing information by people who are
involved in the Q or QAnon movement on their Facebook pages, initiated my need
to understand the religious/social side of this movement; to hopefully
emphasize the evil of this strange ideology which in some cases is mixed with a
rather heterodox Christianity.
Recently, The
Dispatch published an article “The GOP’s
Conspiracy Theorist Problem,” which high-lighted several Republican candidates who are involved in
conspiracy theories and the QAnon movement. In the article the author, Audrey
Fahlberg, devotes a paragraph to the religious side of the QAnon movement
writing, “QAnon’s doomsday flair has even captured the attention of fringe
churches, including Omega Kingdom Ministry
which regularly interprets Q drops through a biblical lens.” Fahlberg also refers
to “Home
Congregations,” a site Omega Kingdom Ministry is connected to.
I explored these two sites and their strange videos.
And yes, there is a faith
statement that sounds like orthodox Christianity with a twist. There
is this part of their faith statement, “We believe that Christ never intended
to start a religion, but that men have built the church as we know it today. We
believe that Christ never intended that His Body become a business or an
institution, but a family. We believe that Christ has called us out of the
crowd to be His Ekklesia, a governmental body, a ruling congregation of the
Kingdom of Heaven on earth.” This statement eliminates most connections between
QAnon believers and orthodox Christianity since the meaning is that only those
house churches abiding by the teachings of “Home Congregations” and the
predictions of Q are performing God’s
will.
The differences between the house
churches connected to QAnon and orthodox Christianity, including Protestant,
Catholic and Orthodox, are vast. It is the eschatology of the QAnon churches
that shapes their theological differences with true Christianity. Always they
are informed by the conspiracy theories of QAnon. Yes, they believe in the
return of Christ but their focus is on political events deeply colored by the
unknown person or persons they call Q.
In one particular video a
leader, Russ Wagner, explains what he believes is the difference between
“Church,” and “ekklesia”. He states, “ekklesia was a governmental word ‘called
out assembly.’ Tracing what he sees as the history of the words, Wagner adds,
“The body of Christ on earth today is his [Christ’s] governmental ruling
council. Wagner goes on to emphasize that, “We have been given authority to
rule what is lawful and what is unlawful in our city and in our region.” Additionally he opines, “We have been given
the authority to take legal and militant action against the destructive forces
of hell in our city.”
Since Wagner is a
charismatic most of his view of taking authority is demands made to demonic
spirits, however his concepts belittle the cross of Jesus. In a different video
he quotes Jesus’ words, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that
he might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8 NKJV),” then Wagner says,
“You see, the Kingdom of Heaven coming down to earth destroys all the work of
the enemy if the ekklesia of Christ is functioning in any given city.” In other
words it is Jesus’ manifestation plus the ekklesia functioning that destroys
the works of the devil. There are two big problems here:
First because Wagner has
made a difference between the Church and what he calls the ekklesia he places
the Church outside of the purposes and the work of Christ. But the bigger
problem is Wagner’s lack of acknowledgement of the completed work of Jesus
Christ on the cross. The beautiful hymn in the first chapter of Colossians
details this:
For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and
transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption,
the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the first born
of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on
earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or
authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before
all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also the head of the
body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, so He
Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s
good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to
reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of his
cross, through him I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. (Colossians
1: 13-20)
Adding to Wagner’s views
about the Church and the authority of what he calls the ekklesia is the problem
of placing the conspiracies of QAnon alongside his and other’s teaching. Their
web sites are full of videos and the messages in the videos are not only
extreme conspiracies, they are theologically unbiblical. There is also the
potential for anti-Semitism in several of their wild tales. The basic conspiracies
are the usual; there is a group of families, the Rothschild’s are considered
first, who are controlling the world, own all the banks and the Federal Reserve
and most businesses and institutions. They intend to destroy all that is good.
But in the QAnon tales there is an additional concern. What is called, the deep
state, a group consisting of most presidents, many celebrities and wealthy
individuals like Bill Gates and of course Soros are involved in a worldwide
ring of pedophiles.
This is where President Trump
supposedly comes into the story. There is a plan, the Q plan, in which Trump is
involved with some military leaders to arrest all of the offenders of sex trafficking
and move the world toward a golden age. This plan involves the arrest and imprisonment
of such people as the Bushes, the Clintons, Bill Gates and Soros. And supposedly peace will come to earth
because the conspirators had been controlling such people as North Korea’s Kim
Jung-un and China’s Xi Jinping who will now make peace. As an aside, one video
suggests that Trump in the end won’t be the leader but instead John Kennedy Jr.
who didn’t really die in a plane crash!
All of that weirdness is
itself unbiblical, because it is untruthful and horribly slanderous, but here
are the theological problems. One particular video insists that all of the
conflicts and hatred happening in the world aren’t caused by common humanity
because it isn’t the nature of humanity to commit crimes or cause conflict. We
are good and those committing such atrocities are the enemy. But what does
Scripture say about the goodness of humanity? “…for all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).” And Psalms 53 is very clear:
The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God,’ they
are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice; there is no one who does
good. God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there is
anyone who understands, who seeks after God. Every one of them has turned aside;
together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.
(1-3)
If even a part of humanity
were good, born without sin, there would be no reason for the Incarnation and
the death of Jesus on the cross so once again the cross is belittled. Instead
some of humanity is lifted up as those who in their goodness will help to bring
about utopia. And although there is here and there a commitment to Jesus and
his salvation, in many of the videos Trump is seen as the ultimate liberator,
the one who will deliver the world from the cabal of pedophiles, the deep state.
Jesus’ uniqueness, sacrifice and triumph is simply treated as nothing when one
commentator states that Q’s plan will, “be regarded as the greatest story ever
told.” Another speaker, a professor, Douglas Belmore, who professes to be a
Christian, insists that his listeners should not worry because “Q owns the most
powerful military intelligence the world has ever known.
The possibility of
anti-Semitism comes in a series of videos that attempt to explain communism by
linking it to the occult and what is called the Illuminati. Two men, Benjamin Chasteen and
Rob Counts, are the producers of this series. In their video, “The Illuminati End
Game: The Secret Societies behind Communism,” they use Nesta Webster, the
author of World Revolution the plot
against civilization as their main reference. They explain that in the
academic world she is known as a Nazi sympathizer but they attempt to explain
that away. They state that in her “findings Nesta made a grave oversight; she
found that people who called themselves Jews were behind several subversive
movements because of that she confused these people who called themselves Jews
as actual Jews.” And “she ended up joining societies who considered themselves
Fascist before those societies are considered what they are today
But Bob and Rob show their
own anti-Semitism when they attempt to excuse Webster’s. Because her information
is mostly made up and partly based on the fake Protocols of the Learned
Elders of Zion it is Webster who
named them Jews. She was not confused; she not only joined several British
Fascist societies but also wrote for an anti-Semitic journal, The Jewish
Peril.[1]In a third video, “Deep State Funded Lenin,” Bob and Rob state that a Rothschild
and several other Jewish bankers funded the early communist revolution, adding
that J.P. Morgan also funded them. The creators of these videos keep bringing
up Jewish bankers without admitting to their own anti-Semitism. They suggest
that Hitler was a Rothschild and was raised by Ashkenazi Jews and then make fun
of the four letters at the end of the word.
The leaders and members of
these two religious organizations and the many other Q followers insist that
there is a personal great evil above the deep state which will be brought to an
end by political, martial and judicial ends. There is a personal great evil,
but one that has already been defeated on a bloody cross. We live in the
already/not yet of that defeat. And if we are Christians we live beneath the cross,
not under the manipulative hands of slanderous mythical tales. Our times are in
the hands of Jesus, our fellowship is with the Church, His body. Do not forsake
the one who bought you.
When I began this blog
posting I was letting the word of God and this Christian song sweep over me:
For a daily devotional I use The St. James Daily Devotional Guide. This morning I was pleased
with some commentary about the difference between truth (the eternal forms)
which are true by necessity and the truth which is Jesus Christ whose truth is
displayed in freedom.
I believe it was in my junior year of college at the
University of California, Sacramento, when I won the philosophy contest for
that year. In my essay, “Plato’s Four Concepts of Soul in the Phaedo,” I
attempted to prove “a great deal of the confusion of the concepts with one
another is caused by Plato’s idea of personal souls and their likeness to impersonal
forms.” I have thought about this often, we Christians cling to a personal God,
unchanging yes, but that unchanging includes compassion, mercy and forgiveness.
And in that unchanging merciful God is freedom.
The author of the commentary, Patrick Henry Reardon,
is relating this to Mark 4:35-41, the story of Jesus calming the winds and the
waves. Reardon writes:
…in today’s Gospel story,
the truth he revealed to those disciples threatened by the storm on the lake—fearful
for their lives—was utterly free, backed up by no explanatory or metaphysical
necessity. He overwhelmed the apostles—along with the waves and the wind—by the
redemptive assertion of his presence. Christ’s debarim—the things he did and said—formed an absolutely free gift,
conveyed in the experience of grace and election.
…Always, the truth
revealed in Christ is pure grace—truth freely and generously given, truth
freely and humbly received.
Here I think it can be pointed out that not only was
this grace and truth freely given it was so very personal. The Hebrew Bible clearly
tells us that God controls the seas and storms, “He caused the storm to be
still, so that the waves of the sea were hushed (Psalm 107: 29).” But in Jesus
the disciples see the personal, the face of God as the storm is stilled. And
there is more.
In Mark’s account of this story there are other boats.
Mark writes, “Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat,
just as he was; and other boats were with him (4:36).” R. Alan Cole in
the Tyndale Commentary suggests that
this may be like the closing words of Jonah, “and also much cattle (Joh. 4:11),
with its undertone of the infinite mercy of God.” This personal God, very God
of very God, as the creed states, was not just training Apostles he was caring
for the crowds of people as he did when feeding the five thousand and the four
thousand.
Here we are living in the midst of a pandemic, living
in the midst of unholy racism, living in the midst of unholy riots, perhaps
fearful of what is coming in the future—and yet here stands our Redeemer who created
the universe and controls the universe. This personal God, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit, knows us personally and has us in his tight grip. Fear not.
Years ago, working as a researcher for Apologetics
Resource Center, I was examining the actions and theology of a group known as
Aggressive Christianity, a group that was preying on the youth of evangelical
churches. They were persuading them to enter their commune, leaving behind
their church, families and friends. The leaders knew I was in the midst of my
research and writing an article about them. One day we received their little
newsletter. In its pages was a caricature of Walter Martin, evangelicals will
know him as The Bible Answer Man, he was holding a dog by its leash. The dog
had a name, Viola Larson, Heretic Hound.
All of us in the ARC laughed at this and even
suggested we produce a button to wear with the name heretic hound.
But the true
gift of the insult was the letters we received from others who had also
received the newsletter. Their big question, “Okay, tell us what this group is
really into”?
This particular group was not Christian although they
professed to be. Their beliefs and their actions had moved them far beyond the
right to that holy title. They destroyed families and constantly insulted the
Church, pastors and other Christians.
That was, as I stated, years ago, today, I am not
laughing but grieving because of some who profess the name Christian and yet
are willing, in the same manner, to insult other Christians, even lying about
them. These are such troubling times and it seems to me that a great divide is
happening among us. Not between the progressive and the orthodox but among the
orthodox.
I believe an
idol is lifting itself up, attempting to pull the Church in pieces. Of course
Satan is the one who wishes to destroy the Church and he does push idols in our
path. But what that often means, in our own time, for the last several centuries,
is we turn our attention to human
idols—we look for salvation in the human—those who magnify themselves as
saviors—and we believe the lie, and so we lie. Examples are endless.
Several weeks ago I was troubled to find a friend had
posted a video produced by Jon Harris who insists he is reformed and orthodox
while at the same time appearing to be racist. In his video, “Why are all my
friends Marxists, he places a quote by Abraham Lincoln. It is actually from a
debate with Stephen Douglas during Lincoln’s campaign to become Senator.
Lincoln states:
I am not nor ever have been in favor of
bringing about the social and political equality of the white and black races
that I am not nor ever have been of making voters or jurors of Negroes nor
qualifying them to hold office, or intermarry with white people; and I will say
in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and
black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together
on terms of social and political equality … I will add to this that I have
never seen, to my knowledge, a man, woman or child who was in favor of
producing a perfect equality, social and political, between negroes and white
men.
Harris is attempting to prove that Lincoln did not
fight the Civil War over slavery but for political power. Henry Louis Gates, the
“Alphonse
Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African
& African American Research at Harvard University,” seeing the quote in
a different context looks at the evolving views of Lincoln. He writes, “But the
truth is that until very late in his presidency, Lincoln was deeply conflicted
about whether to liberate the slaves, how to liberate the slaves and what to do
with them once they had been liberated.” Gates concludes:
“Two things dramatically
changed Lincoln’s attitudes toward black people. First, in the early years, the
North was losing the Civil War, and Lincoln quickly realized that the margin of
difference between a Southern victory and a Northern victory would be black
men. So, despite severe reservations that he had expressed about the courage of
black troops (“If we were to arm them, I fear that in a few weeks the arms
would be in the hands of the rebels…”), Lincoln included in the Emancipation
Proclamation a provision authorizing black men to fight for the Union.
Three days before he was
shot, Lincoln stood on the second floor of the White House and made a speech to
a crowd assembled outside celebrating the recent Union victory over the
Confederacy. With his troops and Frederick Douglass very much in mind, Lincoln told
the cheering crowd, which had demanded that he come to the window to address
them, that he had decided to recommend that his 200,000 black troops and “the
very intelligent Negroes” be given the right to vote.”[1]
It was evidently this last speech that was the cause
of his death at the hands of John Wilkes Booth.
With another video Harris attempts to prove that Ahmaud
Arbery’s death was not murder. Additionally Harris attempts to attach both a
secular and a progressive viewpoint onto those Evangelicals who are concerned
about racism. Because they use some terms which are academic and secular, such
as critical race theory, as tools in their ministry to overcome racism within
the church Harris calls them “woke” Christians.
Harris, in many videos has disparaging words to say about
almost all well-known Evangelicals. This includes Russell Moore, The Gospel
Coalition, Beth Moore, Mark Dever, Timothy Keller, even Rosaria
Butterfield, the lady who was a lesbian professor who became a
Christian and married a conservative Reformed pastor.
The awful put downs of those whom God is using during
this troubling time cannot be the work of the Holy Spirit. The disquieting
divisive comment made by another friend is simply a lie. Concerned because
David French, Senior Editor of The
Dispatch was encouraging Christians to
not be afraid of their witness the person uttered what I consider one of
the most contemptible lies about a fellow Christian. He wrote, “French and his
wife now seem to agree with the policies of the Democrat party straight down
the line, including infanticide and persecution of Christians who dissent from
LGBT.”
Assuming Donald Trump is
the Republican nominee, I can’t vote for him. Even if I do like some of the
things he’s done, he lacks the character to be president. But I cannot join
some of my Never Trump friends in backing the Democratic nominee. Many of them
may well pass the character test, but I cannot vote for a person who would put
in place policies I believe are harmful and potentially destructive—especially
to unborn life.
These words by French are part of his faith commitment.
They are his commitment to Jesus Christ. How can any Christian in these times attempt
to assassinate another’s character as Jon Harris and the Christians on my
Facebook page are doing? Many are looking to Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the
Confessing Church as examples of how the Church must act today. They see the
division between the German Christians and the Confessing Church as a
reflection between the orthodox and the progressives of today—and some of that
is so—but the story and the reflection is far more complex than many
imagine.Yes, the German Christians as a
whole were liberal, even progressive, in their theology. But they were also
nationalist. Their vision of the greatness of their nation and their desire to
be power players in that nation put them at odds with the Confessing Church.
I return to the insults, the lies—the gift in this
case is the privilege of standing on the side of Christ, the crucified Christ.
In 2010 after listening to Suzanne Stabile, considered
an expert on the Enneagram, place the enneagram above the authority of
Scripture and the Lord Jesus Christ I wrote about it on my blog, Naming His Grace. A friend, Marcia Montenegro, who I had met at an Evangelical Ministry to New Religions conference, let me know she was writing an article evaluating it
from a biblical perspective. Recently, Montenegro together with Don & Joy
Veinot have written an excellent book, Richard
Rohr and the Enneagram, from both a biblical and historical perspective. Since
Richard Rohr is the main promoter of the Enneagram within Christianity they
examine his theology as it relates to the person of Jesus Christ.
Montenegro and the Veinots, evangelical Christians, are
concerned because the use of the Enneagram has entered the evangelical church.
Two evangelical publishers have published books which promote the use of the
Enneagram as a means of Christian growth. Some Christian churches and
organizations such as Intervarsity have used the Enneagram as a spirituality
tool. Both Montenegro and the Veinots are uniquely qualified to analyze and
write about the problems with Rohr’s theology and the history and biblical
problems of the Enneagram.
Don Veinot is an ordained minister and the president
of Evangelical Ministries to New
Religions. He is the author of several books including Preserving Evangelical Unity: Welcoming Diversity in Non-Essentials. He
has written for many Evangelical publications including Christian Research Journal, Journal
of the International Society of Christian Apologetics and the Midwestern Journal of Theology.
Montenegro, before becoming a Christian, was involved in the occult, Eastern
spirituality and astrology. She was chairperson of the Astrology Board of Examiners
and “President of the Astrological Society in Atlanta, GA.” Since becoming a
Christian Montenegro has an M.A. in Religion from Southern, Evangelical
Seminary and serves as a missionary with Fellowship International Mission. She
has written Spellbound: The Paranormal
Seduction of Today’s Kids; her web site is Christian Answers for the New Age.[1]
Undoubtedly the most important feature of Richard Rohr and the Enneagram is that
every subject covered is enveloped in Scripture. A non-Christian could not read
this book without at least coming to an awareness of the good news of Jesus’
life, death and resurrection. A Christian who reads the book will find clarity
that comes from Scripture concerning the various deviations taken by teachers
of the Enneagram as well as the theology of Richard Rohr.
The basic description of the enneagram given by the
authors is:
It is a geometric design
consisting of a circle with equilateral triangle and an irregular hexagram
inside which touches the circle at nine points. The current version has numbers
added at the touch points around the circle …[2]
They go on to explain, “Each number within the
Enneagram is ‘a path,’ and with the help of Enneagram coaches and authors, it
is up to the individual to discover their personal path.”[3] The authors then explore
what “personal path” means within the context of the Enneagram versus
Scripture.
One of the very interesting subjects of the book is
the true history of the Enneagram versus the false history. Most enneagram
authors, teachers and coaches, even Christian ones, will insist that the
enneagram is ancient. That is false but the true history begins with a 19th
century esoteric teacher George I. Gurdieff. The authors write that “Gurdieff
believed all the secret laws of the universe could be seen in his diagram, and
he used it to play around with mathematical formulas—what he called the ‘Law of
Seven and the ‘Law of Three.’[4] According to the author’s
research Gurdieff never used the Enneagram for “character or personality
assessment” as contemporary coaches and teachers do.
Montenegro and the Veinots follow the history to
Richard Rohr a Catholic priest whose books are popular among mostly progressive
Christians but also among some evangelicals. One of his most popular and latest
book is The Universal Christ. Rohr,
who is a panentheist,[5] divides the person of
Jesus, separating His divinity from his humanity. The authors’ write, “Since
Rohr teaches that the first Incarnation of Christ was Creation Christ is
literally in Creation.” And then
quote Rohr:
“God is not just saving
people; God is saving all of creation. This is not pantheism (God is
everything), but panentheism (God is in everything).
Christ is the eternal
amalgam of matter and spirit as one. They hold and reveal one another. Wherever
the material and human coincide, we have the Christ. That includes the material
world, the natural world, the animal world (including humans), and moves all the
way to the elemental world …)[6]
Montenegro and the Veinots also analyze Rohr’s
understanding of the Bible. They write, “Rohr believes the Bible reveals men’s
thoughts at different stages of consciousness. He refers to Ken Wilber’s
(1949-) theory of “Spiritual Dynamics®” of colors to explain this.” [7] In the same why Rohr has an
unorthodox view of sin, atonement, resurrection and salvation. Quoting Rohr the
authors write:
Rohr argues that
“salvation is not a question of if but when.” Rohr believes everything and
everyone will be swept into the final point of perfection drawn to that end by
Christ.
“All who look at the
world with respect,” writes Rohr, “even if they are not formerly religious, are
en Cristo, or in Christ.”[8]
The authors explain how this heretical view of Jesus, Bible
and redemption feeds into Rohr’s use of the Enneagram and other contemporary teachers
including evangelical writers and teachers. Much of the problems circle around
the idea of having a supposedly core true self and a false self. The Enneagram
is meant to uncover the true self. This raises several issues such as using a “tool,”
the Enneagram, rather than Scripture for spiritual growth. And another,
although made in the image of God, humanity is fallen, the image is broken, we
do not have a true self. As Christians we have the undivided Lord Jesus Christ—that
is our identity.
Montenegro and the Veinots in their book explore such
teachers, coaches and writers as Suzanne Stabile and Ian Cron who wrote, The Road Back to You, Chris Heuertz who
wrote The Sacred Enneagram and has a
new book published by Zondervan, The Enneagram of Belonging: A Compassionate
Journey of Self-Acceptance. Another Beth McCord is an Enneagram coach whose
past teacherswere mainly new agers.
Don and Joy Veinot and
Marcia Montenegro have provided the Christian Church with a well-researched book
about the Enneagram. It isn’t just about heresy but is filled with orthodox
theology and an excellent exegete of Scripture as it pertains to the spiritual
life of the Christian. They clear away all of the lies, seductive nonsense and
misplaced applause to instead honor Scripture and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[1]Rohr and the Enneagram, See “About the
Authors,” 152-153.
[5] A
panentheist sees God as the head is to the body, in other words creation is a
part of God but not all of God.
[6]
Ibid., 72,73, found at Richard Rohr, “The Christification of the Universe” Center for Action and contemplation (CAC) website
(Sun., Nov. 6, 2016) https://cac.orgthe-christification-of-the-universe-2016-11-06/.
And Richard Rohr. “This is My Body” (Center
for Action and Contemplation (CAC) website (Mon., March 4, 2019);
https://cac.org/you-are-the-body-of-christ-2019-03-04/.
The title is
a reminder of a movie I loved when I was 10 years old. It is from a Catholic
novel about the Christians during Nero’s rule. The words Quo Vadis are supposed
to be Christ’s words to Peter as he leaves Rome. Jesus is calling him back to
Rome to be with the Christians who will die in the arena. But I thought of
those words as a question to those who in the midst of this pandemic are constantly
turning to conspiracy theories to explain what is happening.
Not everyone is into conspiracies, not
everyone believes the Democrats started the virus, not everyone believes that
Bill Gates is a monster leading to the anti-Christ, but I am seeing far too
many, friends, Christians, stating such things as facts. And where this all
leads is terrifying.
I saw on
Twitter a lady harassing Jonah Goldberg of The
Dispatch because of something he wrote. I wasn’t familiar with her until
others put up information about her so readers could understand where her
ideology is moored. Michelle Malkin, once an acceptable conservative speaker writes
“I will not take the Gates Vaccine. I will not bow down to jack-booted
globalists. I will question the corrupted public health industrial complex
& its financial conflicts of interest. I will use my platforms to share
silenced views of whistleblowers & dissidents.” That rant isn’t a lot
different than some I have seen on Facebook.
But there is
more. Malkin also claims to be the mother of the “groypers.” As columnist Mona Charen puts it in her article in The Bulwark, they are “a group … led by a
21-year-old YouTube host named Nick Fuentes. To get a sense of just how
loathsome this figure is, have a look at this video in
which he wonders, grinning, about whether 6 million “cookies” could really be
baked in ovens and how the “math doesn’t add up.”
Charen goes on to note that Fuentes was one of the marchers in the “the
2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.” Malkin has linked herself with a
group of anti-Semitic and racist fanatics. Using conspiracy theories as a
filter to explain events is how many get pulled into places they never intended
to go.
There are conspiracies in the Bible. Jezebel conspires with the elders
and nobles in Naboth’s city. They accuse Naboth of cursing God and the king.
Naboth is put to death so that King Ahab might possess his vineyard (1 Kings
21).
Judas conspires with the Chief Priests and officers to betray Jesus to
death.
But these conspirators are named and their exact sin pointed out. There
is greed, egotism, envy, malice, pride and deception. Not an elusive attempt to
take over the world. There is the possibility of repentance, forgiveness and
redemption because the people are known and confronted personally. There is
also God’s judgment on those who do not repent. Redemptive history is very
personal; there is no place for conspiracy theories.
Dabbling in such slanderous understandings of other’s intents is sinful
and leads to further sin. And this is the path that Malkin and others like her
have taken. They have compromised their ability to speak truth to power and to
offer good news to broken people. They
can only bless in a manner that pulls the needy into a deeper darkness.
Revival and tragedy, within the Christian faith, have
something in common. They both tend to produce heretical movements and bizarre
ways of embracing reality and the future. I am troubled by what I see rising
out of this pandemic not only on the edges but even in the midst of the church.
I still remember, almost forty years ago, standing in
line for the Saturday night concerts at Warehouse Ministries in Sacramento. It
was during the Jesus Movement, a time of revival. Hippies, drug dealers, sophisticated
cynics and others were coming to Christ. And yet some used the concerts to
persuade others to come with them and find truth elsewhere. In some cases the
Children of God sect or Free Love Ministries, a cultic group which later
renamed themselves Aggressive Christianity. The Children of God practiced
something called flirty fishing gaining converts using sex. Aggressive
Christianity majored in demon possession enticing the youth of other churches
to move into their commune and denounce friends and family. Both groups were
spin offs from the Jesus movement.
In an earlier time, the New York area, referred to by
religious historians as the burned over area, because so many Christian
awakenings occurred there, was also a place where many unorthodox movements
began. Some were radical and extreme in nature some simply unorthodox.
In this century when tragedy occurred in the same
area, 9/11, a few (a very few) progressive Christians, believing that the
United States government conspired to destroy the World Trade Center, added to
a growing conspiratorial movement which on its very fringes embraced
anti-Semitism. And conspiracies are part of the falseness coming out of this
pandemic.
Recently a woman who is a member of a respected
renewal group, on Facebook, put out a bizarre call to prayer against a streaming
program titled “One
World: Together at Home.” It was a six hour streaming of music, spoken word
and requests for money and signatures. Supposedly the group was laying the
foundation for the coming of the anti-Christ. The lady wrote, “The spiritual
battle in the heavenlies has landed mightily with an event set to play over the
globe in the next few hours.” Then she included a “key” article written by
another person.
The article stated, “… The front runner organizations
that were assigned by satan to lay the groundwork for the global single ruler
order (which will be government of the anti-Christ very soon) are the WHO
(World Health Organization, and UN, Major businesses that have been empowered
by the dark side to facilitate the agenda are such as Bill and Melinda Gates
Institutes, Facebook, Amazon, Disney, CNN, Google, etc.”
The author of this article goes on attempting to prove
her point by pointing out all of the 6s involved in “this pandemic.” For
instance, “Keep ‘6 feet’ away social distancing.” And, “CDC unveils ‘6-phase’
pandemic response blueprint.” Also, “The word Corona has ‘6 letter’, simple
gematria = 66.”
While
many, including myself, would not agree with many of these celebrities or
organizations’ religious and philosophical views this kind of call to prayer is
senseless. It is belittling people who are attempting to help in the middle of
a pandemic. And it is asking Christians to use their precious God given time to
pray against nonsense when God has called us to compassionate care, prayer for
those affected by the pandemic, prayer for the Church and prayer for those who
disagree with our faith. It is giving the Church a strange view of God’s
providential care and promises in the midst of evil.
Another
Christian pointed her readers to a video which is filled with half-truths, lies
and manipulative garbage. Rev.
Danny Jones of Northlake Baptist Church covers every pandemic event with
the shadow of the coming anti-Christ and his promoters. He sees the Corona
virus 19 as a planned event and begins his speech describing the pandemic as “a
drill. It’s a drill it’s a simulation it’s a dress rehearsal if you will to
work out the bugs and get all the nations prepared for this world government.”
He believes in a global plot to bring the world into a
one world government. In his story Rockefeller was a leader but died, Soros is too old, and
Henry Kissinger is also too old. Bill Gates is of course the chosen one.
Here
are some of the half-truths and lies:
“On
Jan 24 the Unites States House of Representatives drafting a corona stimulus bill
called the Cares act.” The implication is that some insiders knew about the devastation
of the economy before the American people did. But it wasn’t a corona stimulus
bill at first, it was what is called a shell bill meant to be filled out later.
In Jan. it was called the (Middle
Class Health Benefits Tax Repeal Act of 2019.) In March it was passed as
the Cares Act.
“So
March 14th AP announced that the volunteers of Seattle were given
the covid vaccine. Wait a minute it was made by Moderna … and it was approved
by Dr. Facui’s National Institutes of Health.” Jones goes on to insinuate that
since Dr. Facui had stated that it would take 12 to 18 months for a vaccine and
this was only at the beginning of the pandemic something was shady. But a
vaccine experiment begins, as in Seattle, and then continues on for many
months. This early event has not contradicted Dr. Facui’s words.
Another:
“Chinese leaders are saying that American military that attended the world
games in Wuhan released it as a bioweapon against China. American leaders are
calling it the Wuhan virus and saying that the Chinese released it out of their
virology lab in Wuhan in order to affect the world. The truth is probably up in
there somewhere.” The problem here is first the idea that Americans might have
been involved in creating the virus. Jones' words should trouble a lot of patriotic
Americans listening to him. And on the other hand even if American leaders
believe that the virus came from a lab in Wuhan they believe it was an accident
not a bioweapon. Jones is unable to let go of the idea that the virus was meant
to be a drill or dress rehearsal for a one world government and anti-Christ..
There
is more in the video that is untruthful but the bigger problem is Jones’
attempt to take the biblical idea of anti-Christ and place that scenario over this
medical crisis.
There
are too many Christians eagerly pushing conspiracy theories in the midst of
this pandemic. Facebook and Twitter are full of them. This isn’t
about whether one needs to stay sheltered or quarantined; it is about the sin
of telling stories that have nothing to do with biblical precepts. Too
often the stories are woven together with warnings about the anti-Christ and a
one world government. They are stories told by those who admonish us to not
fear death or sickness while at the same time telling us to fear being
entrapped by the anti-Christ and his lackeys. This is not the biblical viewpoint.
Jesus
told us to fear someone, God in reverence. “Do not fear
those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him
who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” There are two important
areas to remember when thinking of our Christian walk and our understanding of
the last defeated and perhaps most powerful anti-Christ. The first is our
position in the Lord and His life in us, the second is the true evil of the
anti-Christ. These are both very simple and have nothing to do with conspiracies.
There
are many adjectives: “shrewd as serpents,”“innocent as doves.”“Be on guard, so that your hearts will not
be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and
that day will not come upon you suddenly like a trap.” (Luke 21: 34) Be
alert, praying … As I read on in the scriptures I could fill in this description
with page after page. The point is the Christian’s life in Christ is a holy
calling of walking in love and righteousness not always looking into secret treacheries,
trying to decide what system, or person is the final evil.
And
the anti-Christ, the Scriptures are far more concerned with his evil, his
opposition to Jesus Christ rather than his system or secret meanderings. Probably
the greatest evil of all anti-Christs, as 1 John puts it, is denying that Jesus
is the Christ. That includes those who see Christ as separate from Jesus. In
other words according to anti-Christ Jesus is simply a human who has the Christ
spirit. See 1 John 2:22-23.
Paul
in 2Thessalonians speaks of anti-Christ as the man of lawlessness. He is the
one “who opposes and exalts himself above
every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the
temple of God, displaying himself as being God.” Paul says his coming will
be with “the activity of Satan with all
power and signs and false wonders.” (2 Thessalonians 2:9) Even Revelation, describing
the anti-Christ as beast, dwells on his evil in denying God, His kingdom and His
people:
“And he opened his
mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle that
is those who dwell in heaven. It was given to him to make war with the saints and
to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and
nation was given to him.” (Rev. 13: 6-7)
As
for the saints Revelation says “Here is
the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith
in Jesus.” (14: 12)
