What is Legalism? And Why Is It Anti-Christ?

If you asked someone, “Are most people you know self-centered?” (Or you could name any other of a dozen sins). They will undoubtedly answer “Yes!” If you ask them “Are you self-centered?”, they will answer “Absolutely not! I am a very caring and unselfish person.” Human nature, as Jesus so aptly put it, is to see the splinters in our neighbor’s eye, but not see the 2×4 sticking out of our own eye.

Legalism is the same way. Everyone you talk to knows it’s bad, and that it’s a widespread destructive disease within Christianity, but you will never talk to a person who says, “I’m a legalist.” It’s always the church or the Christian across the street that is legalistic.

So what is legalism?

Simply put, legalism is set of religious beliefs and practices that is based on a system of law (usually euphemised as “moral law”). It’s an important distinction that these laws are almost exclusively “negative laws” — that is to say naming things you cannot do. Common examples are: you can’t eat pork, you can’t drink alcohol, you can’t use tobacco, you can’t gamble, you can’t have same sex relationships, you can’t have an abortion, etc.

So what’s wrong with having laws?

1. They are man-made laws claiming to be God’s laws. It is idolatry.

2. They are used to control people. Religious people make laws that they have no problem keeping, which makes them feel like the righteous ones and gives them the authority to issues edicts of punishment over those who break the laws.

3. They work contrary to God’s revealed plan of SAVING PEOPLE. That’s why it’s called a “plan of salvation.” Laws do not save anyone. All you have to do is look at our drug laws, the prohibition era, or drunk driving laws. Laws don’t prevent whatever behavior you outlaw, laws simply give you a basis for punishing people who do those behaviors. Legalism then, turns the church into a rod of punishment rather than an instrument of salvation.

So how is legalism anti-Christ?

1. It invalidates the word of Christ. Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” He only had two commands we needed to keep: “love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.” Legalism says, “No that’s not true.” Legalism calls Jesus a liar. On the one hand it’s much easier for a person to omit certain “sins” that they aren’t inclined to, than it is to love their black or Muslim neighbor like their own family member, or instead of buying that new boat or vacation home, using that money to feed the poor or provide shelter for the homeless or medical care for the sick.

2. It invalidates the work of Christ. The New Testament books of Romans, Galatians and Hebrews, especially, declare in uncertain terms that the law and grace are incompatible. That is to say that grace came to take the place of law. Romans clearly states that the purpose of the law was merely to condemn us (see point #3 above) and that the death of Christ satisfied the punishments of the law, making the law unnecessary and opening a way to God through the righteousness of Christ. We are saved by grace and that not of ourselves. It is not grace AND… The Galatian letter says those who are adding legal requirements have trampled the blood of Christ and made his death of no effect. They are putting themselves under condemnation again. We will either stand condemned by the law or we will stand saved by grace. There is no third option.

So what does that mean for me?

It means you need to reject the spirit of anti-Christ wherever you find it, even if you find it in a church. If your church or the so-called “Christians” you associate with, are focused primarily on a list of bad things they think people shouldn’t be doing (abortion, gay marriage, drinking, dancing, smoking, etc.) and yet you find they are guilty of far worse sins — tolerating/supporting racism, the oppression of the poor, immigrants, and refugees, aren’t actively involved in serving the poor, fighting for social justice, and so on; that should be a HUGE RED FLAG for you that you need to leave that association and find a body of believers that are actively involved in being an instrument of salvation and restoration.

Satan masquerades as an angel of light. There are many who call themselves Christian who are messengers of Satan intent on destroying the work of Christ. We need to have the discernment to recognize the difference and not be found to be enemies of Christ. Christ only has two laws: Love God and Love Your Neighbor. Christ’s laws don’t condemn anyone. Christ’s laws don’t bring punishment to anyone. They bring healing, restoration and reconciliation to a broken and hurting world. That is what we who call ourselves by His name are to be about. By their fruits you will recognize them.

The Unwanted Child

I am admittedly on the fence on the abortion issue.  I lean pro-life.  That is to say, in theory, when the idea is considered apart from the practical realities of life, the pro-life position is the perfect ideal.  However, the real world realities leave me burdened with a feeling of responsibility that if I’m going to tell people they need to give birth to all their unwanted children, then I need to consider what  I’m going to do to ensure these children are given the love, nurture and quality of life that every human being deserves.  A “right to life” argument that doesn’t consider the right to life after birth seems to be in the realm of cruel and unusual — inhumane.

The following excerpt is from Christina McKenna’s, “The Misremembered Man”. While it’s fiction, true stories exactly like this are repeated daily by the tens (if not hundreds) of thousands all over the world in orphanages, foster homes, and other “alternative” living arrangements for the unwanted kids of the world.  It begs the question, what is our social responsibility?

Excerpt follows:

“Re­mind me why you’re here, Eighty-six?”

“Be­cause…’ He swal­lowed back the tears. “Be­cause I’m bad and me mammy d-didn’t want me…and she put me h-here be­cause…’

He stopped, ter­ri­fied. Her un­blink­ing eyes and doughy face made him think of hooded fig­ures in the for­est, death and buried bones, a head­stone-crowded dark­ness.

“Stop that at once!” She slapped him across the face, grabbed him by the shoul­der and trailed him to a bench set along the wall. He im­me­di­ately scram­bled up onto it.

“Stand up!” They were at eye level. “Do you know why your sis­ter is not here, Eighty-Six?”

He shut his eyes tight. He did not want to say the word. But an­other blow to his cheek brought the an­swer she re­quired.

“Di…died, Sis­ter.”

“She died. That’s right: she died.” She spat the awful word into his face. “Your mother put the pair of you in a shop­ping bag and dumped you on our doorstep. Your sis­ter was al­ready dead. We saved you.” The boy was look­ing down at his feet, the tears falling freely now. “Only for us you would have died too, you un­grate­ful, greedy, thiev­ing lit­tle devil.”

She pulled him off the bench and flung him across the floor. He col­lided with the bucket, send­ing the water every­where. He ended up sprawled on his knees in the dirty pud­dle, un­able to right him­self.

“Now look what you’ve done.” She un­hooked the strap at her side.

He screamed and dou­bled up under the lash­ing leather, be­liev­ing that the tighter he held him­self, the less pain he’d feel, an in­stinc­tive yet use­less tac­tic he’d used many times be­fore.

Then she stopped. He heard her rapid breath­ing and slowly un­curled him­self into the full, throb­bing af­ter­math. He re­trieved the damp cloth and at­tempted to soak up the “sin” he’d just been found guilty of.

“I’m not fin­ished with you yet, Eighty-Six.” She hauled him to his feet again. “I’m wait­ing, Eighty-Six. Your mother put you here be­cause what?”

“Be­cause she want…id, w-w-wan­tid you…y-y-y-you to make me…make me good, Sis­ter?” His whole body shook as his words slid every­where. He stopped and swal­lowed deeply.

“And if you’re not good and you don’t do your work, what will hap­pen?” Her face was a mask of dis­dain. Sweat misted her brow. She grinned, lips peel­ing back from dingy teeth.

“God will puniss…pun­ish me, and me ma…me mammy won’t come for me.”

“Cor­rect, lit­tle man.” She straight­ened up. “Now get to it or there’ll be no bed tonight and no break­fast in the morn­ing.”

She marched to the door, then halted. He set im­me­di­ately to work, fear­ful she might come back to beat him again.

“Eighty-Six, change the water when it gets dirty. Do you hear? If you can’t see to the bot­tom of the bucket it needs to be changed. You un­der­stand?”

“Yes, Sis­ter.”

And with that she left him in the joy­less hall with the bucket, the brush and his small heart pound­ing, a trail of dread and dan­ger bat­ter­ing in her wake.

Two hours later, he was fin­ished and lay in the dark­ness in the crowded dor­mi­tory, three rows, ninety-six beds in all. Ninety-six hun­gry boys, hun­gry for love and hun­gry for nour­ish­ment, and their sleep dis­rupted for lack of both. Ninety-six re­jects with no gifts or grace, on whom a cloud­less sun would never shine.

They were all under ten years, yet none of them knew their age, or what birth­days meant, or what pre­sents were for, or that Santa Claus came at Christ­mas. In their long years in the or­phan­age, they’d never been hugged, never been smiled at, never eaten meat or used a knife and fork; they did not know the plea­sure of bathing in warm water, or the feel of cot­ton sheets against the skin.

Their only crime was that their moth­ers had died, or been too poor to keep them, or too fright­ened to re­sist the forces of power and au­thor­ity that deemed them unfit for the ma­ter­nal role. Each child was pay­ing for the “love” that had brought him into being: a love that in the “holy” eyes of the chil­dren’s “car­ers” was tainted, be­cause it had come from lesser be­ings—poor peo­ple.

 

 

 

You Don’t Have to Believe in God — He Believes in You

One thing is clear: neither my voice nor Ellen’s is a “lone voice”, but they are rare and often hard to hear above the din of widespread messages of hate, intolerance, and judgmentalism. Ellen says she is not an apologist. Take it from me — I was an apologetics major in seminary, and Ellen writes one of the best apologies for Christianity I have read anywhere. Well done, Ellen.

So the next time you hear about some whacko Christian saying God hates gays or liberals or Muslims or pushing some political agenda…I hope you’ll remember this one lone voice piping up at Christmas time saying, um, no. That’s not true. That’s not true at all.

…

You don’t have to believe in God. He believes in you. … And beyond that, that he loves you.

And to that I say, “Amen!”

______________________________

via For What It’s Worth: Apologetics.

The Small Things Matter

Firefighter Mark Bezos reminds us that the small things we do for others do matter. In fact, I suggest that the small things matter most.  The big heroic opportunities to rescue a drowning child don’t occur everyday, but the chance to stop by an visit someone shut in or ill, the chance to shovel an elderly couple’s driveway or cut their grass, the chance to take a bag of groceries, or volunteer to watch their child, offer a ride to the doctor’s office — these opportunities are around us everyday in volume.  Enough people doing these small things, or one person doing enough of these small things on a regular basis, makes a huge impact.

If you have something to give, don’t wait, give it now.

What Does Christmas Have to Do with Poverty and Quality of Life?

I think most of us recognize that Christmas celebrates Christ’s birth as God’s gift to the human race.  This recognition is demonstrated in our long-standing tradition of gift giving (though the commercialism may obscure that fact for some).  Yet, for many the true significance of God’s gift of His son is lost, even to those who consider themselves ardent Christians.  The gift wasn’t just His divine status, but what He brought to the world – His impact, how he would change life on earth for the whole human race.

To understand the significance of this we have to start back in the Old Testament.  So many Christians today have become so “heavenly-minded” that we’ve lost sight of the fact that earthly life was from the beginning how God related to man.  He walked and talked with Adam in the garden.  Whether punishment, forgiveness, or blessing, God always related to His people in concrete ways that impacted quality of life.

¹⁴ if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  -2Chron 7:14

Notice that restoration – “healing the land” – is the expression of God’s forgiveness.  Always in scripture life-centeredness is at the core of man’s relationship to God.  Leading His people from captivity to a land where “milk and honey flowed.”  The Bible is a life-centered story of man’s relationship to God.

In this pre-Christian relationship to God He repeatedly promises them that He would send a Messiah, a servant, who would come to bring healing and deliverance to His people.

The Lord says,

1 “Here is my servant, whom I strengthen—the one I have chosen, with whom I am pleased. I have filled him with my Spirit, and he will bring justice to every nation.

2 He will not shout or raise his voice or make loud speeches in the streets.

3 He will not break off a bent reed nor put out a flickering lamp. He will bring lasting justice to all.

4 He will not lose hope or courage; he will establish justice on the earth. Distant lands eagerly wait for his teaching.”

5 God created the heavens and stretched them out; he fashioned the earth and all that lives there; he gave life and breath to all its people. And now the Lord God says to his servant,

6 “I, the Lord, have called you and given you power to see that justice is done on earth. Through you I will make a covenant with all peoples; through you I will bring light to the nations.

7 You will open the eyes of the blind and set free those who sit in dark prisons.

It is worth noting that not a word is mentioned about punishing evildoers, fighting immorality, and so on.   His entire purpose was to do away with injustice on earth — in fact, it’s mentioned four times in cased we missed the first three.

So now, when we move into the life of Christ (the greatest Christmas gift of all), we find Jesus echoing and confirming this very mission Isaiah prophesied.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed.” -Luke 4:18

Again, Jesus mentioned nothing about His mission involving setting folk’s theology straight, passing laws against specific sins, making sure people believe the right things.  It wasn’t even primarily about getting forgiven so you can go to heaven someday – though that is certainly a future benefit.  No, he came to bring immediate benefit – to minister to the poor, heal the sick, end oppression – in short, establishing the social justice God had promised through his prophet Isaiah many years ago.

So what does all this mean for us?

It means that Christ came to begin a work, not complete it.  He was only on this earth for a few short years, only three of which were spent in ministry.  He began a work that He intended His followers to carry on.  A Christian’s purpose, then, is to be the hands and feet of Christ.  As a body, the church is commissioned to complete the work he started; namely, restoring the world to it’s pre-fallen state, reversing the effects of sin and the curse — and this doesn’t just happen in the sweet bye and bye; it starts here and now, and it’s our job to carry this work on.

If you are thinking, “If I become a Christian will God give me this or that, do this or that for me, give me prosperity, and so on”, you are not yet ready to be a Christian.  The question is, “If I become a Christian what will I do for others to bring Christ’s mission closer to completion.”

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  – James 1:27

Imagine if every person who came to follow Christ fully committed and immersed themselves in the work of ministering to the poor, healing the sick, visiting shut-ins, ending poverty, discrimination, oppression, social injustice, etc., as they are sharing the good news.   As every new convert joins Christ’s following they too become fully committed to carrying out this mission and work of establishing peace, justice, healing and restoration.

If Christians were the kind of disciples Jesus envisioned when He commissioned His church, in a country like America where the majority of citizens profess Christianity by name, there should be very little poverty, oppression or injustice.  The fact that America is no better than other developed nations on the social justice scale (and falls behind many) is a clear indicator that most who spend the season railing on those who are
“taking Christ out of Christmas” have no idea what the real significance of either Christ or Christmas really is.

I wonder what would happen if Christians spent as much time and money lobbying for health care and poverty relief programs as they do lobbying against gay rights?  If one dares, imagine if Christians actually spent time and money investing in and spearheading relief programs?  It’s hard to imagine in our world, isn’t it?   It makes one wonder if Jesus has given up on His dream yet.  Somehow, I doubt it – and neither should we.