This, this, THIS! is the post I was looking for. THANK YOU! FINALLY someone hits on the real issues here. I can't +rep you right now, but I think you deserve four or five at the very least for this post. Well done.
The whole "America's enemies are God's enemies" issue hits on a critical point for me. Its one thing to say that you would torture someone to save a family member in a "ticking time bomb" scenario, though I still think its wrong. Its another thing to be in such idolatry of a nation that you will assume that it is always right.
I do not understand how Christians can be statolaters. And the major churches in America is full of them.
What do you think the call to "come out of her" would look like? And, how do I know if my church is just wrong on some important issues vs being "outside of Christ" so to speak. I tend to think my church is in the former category, but then, my church really doesn't participate in the empire. It isn't united in opposition to it, but we don't celebrate it either. I have a hard time thinking of those churches that institutionally celebrate the empire as anything but demonic, even if they say good stuff at times.
This entire nation is screwed up. So many people, even those who are fairly well-grown in Christ in other areas, just totally brainwashed by statolatry.
I know I've droned on about it enough you must have heard it at least once, but I cannot stress enough the impact of the 501(c)3 tax status on this. It sounds like a technical issue or some overly formal transgression that may not appear to do much 'where the rubber meets the road' but it
does. The 501(c)3 tax status turns the government into an idol that is worshipped (often unbeknownst) above God.
The Johnson Amendment allows donors to write donations off on their taxes. Money that would otherwise go to Uncle Sam now goes to the 501. Therefore it is technically funded by tax money. Since the US Government funds the organization with tax money, it may now regulate the speech of that organization. In the case of 501c chartered churches, the US Government regulates what kinds of speech may come out of the pulpits.
The pastor, seeing extra money to fund their projects, says, "I wasn't planning on talking about that stuff anyway." but it's not a pastor that decides what comes from a pulpit of God, it's God. You can't accept that extra regulation on speech from the pulpit without placing government
above God. Idolatry.
Acceptance of a 501(c)3 charter for a church fundamentally sets the US government above God. In so doing, the US government has (in their perception) taken on the character of what they believe to be God. It is taking the place of God even while they believe themselves to be Christian.
It has done so in secret, with only a few people even understanding the curse aroused under 501(c)3, a sin like leaven in bread, where you can dab a little over on one spot and before you know it it has leavened the entire loaf.
Because the modern American church is fundamentally premised on the idolatry of the US Government as a principle of it's very existence, is it any wonder they conflate America with God? America's enemies are God's enemies? Can you see how this IRS regulation over the pulpit
creates this?
Statolaters. How can it possibly be that sooooo many Christians idolize the state when they seem ok in other areas? Because soooooo many Christians idolize the state
and they don't even know it. What is the Johnson Amendment if not a voluntary agreement to statolatry? What percentage of US churches are 501(c)3 organizations? Nearly all of them.
So
nearly all American Christians are statolaters by definition before you even start to look at their doctrines. Even if they are in that position unaware, that entire state of being promote further statolatry, leading to the justification of such things as torture.
It sounds absurdly technical and overly simplistic. but almost all of this roots down to the Johnson Amendment. 501(c)3 is the taproot pumping the idolatry of government straight into your Christian neighbor's mind. Every Sunday and Wednesday, sure as a bureaucratic clock.
Now, what do I think the call will look like? I think it's addressed to every soul like a fingerprint. Like a series of decisions where you are shown something, and you are called to discern it, and either it is OK or it is NOT OK. If it is NOT OK then you start looking for the exit right? And it's not just one thing but a series of things over time. Over a journey. Torture is one of these things. To support torture as a nominal Christian one must necessarily idolize the state. A heart moved by Christ will see the Christians around them supporting torture and choose either to be around them, or to come out from among them. I believe that God is
increasing the awareness of issues like torture and dragging them specifically through the "Christian Right" on purpose to inspire just that kind of discernment. I believe these spiritually wedging issues like torture (and many different issues) will become louder and more often, increasing the opportunity for discernment and thus increasing the volume and frequency of the call to "come out of her."
Each individual will hear their own unique call in the circumstances that surround them, and in the decisions each of them have to make as a result of those circumstances. These statolators will be led to decidedly unchristlike behaviors whereupon those who would be in Christ have a decision to make.
At the
end of all of that, then, when it is time for the last of the lit souls to light out of the dead church is when I think the call will become extraordinarily obvious in a manner I do not yet perceive, thereby catching even the most gullible soul, yet having accomplished pretty much the entire exodus in silence.
