Modern Love, Pt 2

Words have meaning!

Did you know that 'nice', according to some older dictionaries, means, 'foolish'? Makes sense, really, with all the nice people out there these days! Look even at the modern definition of a nice person; a nice person today is usually one that doesn't cause trouble, likes everybody, doesn't judge anyone, and more or less is happy with the status quo, 'a nice guy' ( or 'girl' ), one of the sheeple!

There is much verbiage out there that has lost its original meaning, and the blame can only be laid out our own feet ( collectively )! Actually, Christians ( corporately ), I believe, must bear the brunt, because, not have we been influenced overmuch by a puritanical, even pharisaical legalism, we have gone so far as to allow an unbelieving world to define such terms as 'love', and 'truth'!

We've covered this territory numerous times, and it's probably getting kinda annoying by now, but 'love is an action, not a feeling'!

Yes, feelings are nothing to sneeze at, we all have them; it's only natural, God gave them to us! Our feelings are simply one of the senses that enables us to interact with our neighbor ( or not ). There is nothing wrong with feelings, but the Scriptures really say nothing much about them in connection with the act of love! ( okay, The Song of Solomon, et al. may be an exception ) Parts of Paul's sermonette to the Corinthian Church, in I Corinthians 13, seem to connect the two, but even in his terms, the feelings are contrary to ordinary human nature. As Jesus said, 'it is hard to kick against the goads'!

When someone tells you that they 'love you', the natural response is to return in kind ( I'm guilty of this, though I doubt I'm the only one ). Most people will, and do love those that 'love' them, but and I'm not saying that this love based on feelings is not real, but that kind of love is subject to change! When the other person, whether it's simply an acquaintance, or that 'special someone', doesn't 'love you' anymore, it's not only very difficult, but when it's based in feelings, well-nigh impossible to love that person, or persons any longer! It's easy ( believe me, I know ) to have those warm feelings that we call 'love' toward someone that has those same, or similar, warm feelings toward us!

Feelings, as we all know well, can change like the seasons! We may have those warm feelings toward our spouse, or 'significant other' for years, and then all of a sudden, either one or both of those involved doesn't 'love' the other one anymore, and the relationship falls apart! How many marriages, even Christian marriages, have you noted, where the couple lives happily together for years, seemingly anyway, and then, the 'love' just isn't there anymore, and there is a divorce, sometimes fairly amicable, but often with hard feelings left behind?

‘This Modern Love is Not Enough’

‘They send me love songs, with store-bought words’

‘They make promises, like politicians’

‘We stumble and disconnect’

‘Over and over again’

‘This modern love is not enough’

Again, ‘words have meaning’, but in the truest sense, if they’re not followed by action, they are rendered meaningless! We’ve been here before, as well, but one person can tell the other ‘I love you’ till they’re blue in the face ( I’m sure this happens more than we’d like to admit ), but if we do nothing to prove that love, it is worse than meaningless, it sows the seeds of doubt as to whether they can trust anything else that person says!


‘Whatever shall we do?’, you might ask, ‘wherever shall we go?’ Well, frankly my dear, we DO give a damn! 

There is One to Whom we may turn to remedy, not only ‘this modern love’, but the false, pharisaical ‘love’ that has plagued us for thousands of years; that One is Love Himself! Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God embodied that love when He divested Himself of His Glory and took upon Himself human nature, living in inglorious hovels all His Life and finally stripped of even that divesture and cruelly tortured and crucified upon a Roman cross with all His ingloriousness on display for all the world to see!

This is Love, says the apostle John ( 15:13 ) ‘that He lay down His Life for His friends’! This is perhaps, other than the genesis of Creation, and the forming of Covenant with His people, the greatest act of Love ever witnessed!

‘This modern love’, as Matt Nathanson sings, ‘is not enough’; it’s mere words! Scriptural love is not mere words, and it’s not based on feelings! The apostle Paul wrote, ‘husbands, love your wives’ ( Ephesians 5:25 ). He did not give us an ‘out’, whereas if our spouse does not love us anymore, we are within our rights to divorce her, or anything similar. In fact, the reason he gave for this imperative was, ‘just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for Her’!

We, as the Body of Christ, now embody that Love! Sadly, we have not shown that very well to a watching and hurting world; we have spread hatred in the name of Love instead, and have sown the seeds of bigotry, so that now the Body of Christ is seen as a laughing-stock, purveyors of mere thoughts, words, and ideas.

It is only by returning to the One who defines and embodies Love that this world will ever know True and Lasting Love! We must show the world that we are Love, as sons and daughters of the King of Love, not by accepting every belief system out there as equal and true, but in showing Love to every individual creature of God, for we are all His Creation, and we are ALL worthy of His Love!

As His Love,
Charles Haddon Shank

The Natural Use of Women; Au Naturel

 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

Romans 1:26 & 27

It's doubtful that there are many women, and even some men, today, who would not shudder inwardly if a statement like that were made! 'The natural use of the woman'?!What a sexist statement! The nerve; like women are there just to be used by men! Sadly, this is the notion that many men in our society have, and was prevalent even in the Hebrew culture that the apostle Paul came from and lived in!

The Bible, however, does seem to plainly state, especially in the passage above, that there is a certain specific use for women in a Godly society! For years, and by tradition, this 'use' seems to have been a merely physical one, the act of sexual intercourse in copulation for the purpose of producing heirs and offspring. ( this is probably one reason that the subject of masturbation is taboo, both for men and women, in Christian circles )

As we've discussed before, and this should be obvious; it is not biologically possible for two men to copulate together, or for two women to do the same! We all, probably, are at least somewhat familiar with the biblical story of Sodom & Gomorrah in Genesis 19. This is where the act gets its name wherein men masturbate with each other, and sometimes even with women.

As with all biblical principles, though, I believe that this condemnation of the physical act of sodomy is not so much a prohibition of the physical act, as it is a reference to the greater spiritual sin of adultery towards Yahweh!

Is it wrong for a man to commit sodomy, whether with men or women? We as heterosexuals, for the most part look with disdain, if not outright abhorrence at this act, which is called 'unnatural' by the apostle, and this is the reason, we are told, that Sodom & Gomorrah were destroyed by fire. Is that the extent of it, though; is that why those cities were destroyed? Going back to the previous chapter, in verse 20, 'Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave', therefore Yahweh Himself went down and destroyed it for that wickedness, which is not here named.

In reading these Scriptures, we must remember to take them in the greater context of the depraved history of Israel. Though Israel, per se, was never accused of the same depravity for which Sodom is infamous, though it was known to happen ( Judges 19:22 ), they were compared numerous times to these wicked cities throughout the prophets ( Deuteronomy 32:32, Isaiah 1:10, Jeremiah 23:14, Amos 4:11 ). We read in places like II Peter 2:6 and Jude 7, that these cities were destroyed, not for any certain and specific sexual immorality, but simply for sexual immorality, and what Jude calls going 'after strange flesh'!

What is this 'strange flesh'?

Young's Literal Translation ( YLT ) uses the words 'other flesh', rather than 'strange flesh'. This is not only probably a truer translation; it makes more sense, given the adulterous history of the Israelites! Although they no doubt were guilty of physical adultery with and without the borders of the Land, they were, more importantly, guilty of spiritual adultery against Yahweh, if not only for the condemningly singular fact that they looked to other nations for help and aid, rather than to Yahweh!

So, getting back to 'the natural use of the woman', while still keeping in mind this adulterous history ( Genesis 6:2, et all ), it's fairly plain to see that it is not simply an issue of 'using' their women incorrectly; it was an issue of rebellion against Yahweh, the one who had made them and instituted His Covenant with them. 

By lusting after flesh other than what Yahweh had blessed them with through His Covenant, they committed spiritual adultery and sexual immorality against Him!

The Most Wise God ( along with the wisest man ever ) said that '[ It is ] not good that man should be alone' ( Genesis 2:18 ( Ecclesiastes 4:8 ). Women were made to physically complement men, women do not complement women, nor men men; this is a biological fact, they do not mesh, physically ( sexually ) speaking!

As we have seen though, it is not merely about biology; the biology is merely a symptom of a greater spiritual problem, that of rebellion against Yahweh and His created order!

Can a man 'mesh' spiritually with another man, or a woman with a woman? This seems to increasingly be the case; however, I will allow the reader to draw his or her own conclusions!

Charles Haddon Shank

The Six Days of Creation

'The six days of creation', theologically speaking, has been a matter of some controversy for centuries! The question of whether the days were strict 24 hour periods or whether they referred to epochs, to long periods of time ( ages ) is still heartily and often heatedly debated as a matter of utmost importance! One might very well ask the question, though, 'is it really all that important?' 'Yes', some will say, 'it IS all that important; the Bible says that God created the heavens and earth in six days, and rested the seventh, thereby setting the pattern whereby we work six days and rest on the seventh!' Well, okay, but there are several problems with this statement, especially for traditional orthodoxy; most blatantly, if the creation week set the pattern for our work week, why aren't we resting on Saturday, the seventh day? 'The Sabbath was changed to the first day of the week', these will say, citing Acts 20:7, as well as other assorted passages as proof that it was switched to Sunday. 'Because the Resurrection of Jesus occurred on the first day of the week', you might also hear . All the 'evidence' aside, though, it is really only speculation that our Heavenly Father intended for us to gather for corporate worship on Sunday rather than Saturday ( by the way, I am not advocating a return to Saturday worship! )!

Whether you trust in 'Creation Science' or have moved 'Beyond Creation Science', it should be obvious to even the most casual reader that  the account is not about the creation of the known universe ( no mention of planets, for one thing )! By 'moving Beyond Creation Science' I am not only shamelessly 'plugging' a book written by a good friend of mine a few years ago, but to the fact that the creation account in Genesis 1, instead of referring to a creation ( out of nothing ), instead refers to a forming, fattening, and the cutting of a covenant; to see why we say this, look up the Hebrew word for 'created' in Genesis 1:1!

'So, why does it not really matter', you ask, ' whether the 'days of creation' were literal 24 hour periods or ages ( hundreds, even thousands of years ) for each recorded day?' Well, besides the facts that the day-age theory is really rather ridiculous, even to our western ears, and that the Books of Moses were written by an Ancient Near Eastern writer to a group of Ancient Near Eastern people, it really doesn't matter because the account is written in such a way as to foreshadow a greater spiritual Truth! The account tells us that on the first 'day', Light was revealed, although the Sun is not mentioned as being formed for three more days! The point here was that the Sun, our closest star, and giver of light, is not the True Giver of Light, but only physically foreshadowed Him Who Was To Come!

The 'pattern' set by our Heavenly Father, that we should work six days, and rest the seventh, whether we start with our labors on Sunday or Monday, physiologically speaking, has been proven over and over to be a good idea! The human body can only work 24/7 for so long; we need, not only that 6-8 hours every night ( although some 'skate' by on much less ), but our body needs that period of rest, at least one day of the week, or at least, that's the theory! Psychically speaking, we need that period of time where our mind can rest from our normal day-to-day activities as well. Traditionally speaking, we have set aside one day of the week to gather together, as The Body of Christ for corporate worship and fellowship in order to 'recharge' spiritually. Spiritually speaking, we are in that Rest, or that Sabbath, that our Heavenly Father commanded in Exodus 20:8!

One might argue, even after or in spite of all this, that interpreting our Heavenly Father's 'clear commands' in this way naturally leads to a false and heretical interpretation of other patterns that have been laid out for us in the hallowed pages of Scripture; this is true, it could! Maybe it needs to!

This calls for a thoughtful and prayerful examination of numerous key passages in Scripture, some of which are clearly culture-based, some which are not so clearly based on that Ancient Near Eastern culture, and others which are based, not upon any certain biological culture, but are truly patterns by which God's people, of all ages and cultures, are to lead their lives!

As the people of God, the Body of His Son, we should live according to the basic pattern that Jesus the Christ, God Himself, set for His people in Matthew 22:37-40, 'Love God and your neighbor'; we can do no less, we need do nothing more!

Charles Haddon Shank

Modern Love, Pt. 1

'Here we go again!'

'A divorced man is gonna tell us what love is?!'

Well, yes and no. I've written a number of times before that love is not a feeling, but an action, and still, we are bombarded by the notion, from all sides, that love is just an 'ooey-gooey' feeling. I'm divorced because my ex-wife thought it was this sort of feeling, and she 'just didn't love me anymore'! ( well, that's part of the reason, anyway ) Acting in love toward someone can certainly lead to those 'ooey-gooey' feelings, and in fact, in some haphazard way are sometimes a result of them, don't get me wrong!

However, as we've discussed previously, feelings can change, so when your love is based upon those warm and changeable feelings, guess what happens to the love? It dries up and blows away!

Love in action, based upon God's Word ( and here I'm speaking of God's Incarnate Word, not the Bible, or even Scripture ) will last through the changing of the seasons, and usually even prevents the seasons from changing, because, as we mentioned, active love usually leads to that warm feeling that is more commonly and popularly known as love!

Sometimes love, even active love, seems to have a breaking point. In the case of divorce, especially, we'd like to believe that we tried to love our ex-spouse, but that we could only love so far before we reached the breaking point, and stopped loving that person. One might question though, if the professed love in action was genuine, or if it too, was based on feelings.

Our English Bible tells us that 'love suffers long, and is kind; love does not envy.....................does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil.............' ( I Corinthians 13:4 & 5 ) Further on in this same chapter, we read that 'love is the fulfillment of the Law' The same author, in his letter to the Galatians ( 5:14 ) wrote, 'all the Law is fulfilled in one word, even this, 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself'.

To learn what this means, 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself', we must go back to the Hebrew Scriptures, or the Old Testament of our English Bible. It is here where Jesus drew His famous summation of the Law in Matthew 22:37-40. When the Pharisees asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was, Jesus responded that the first was to love God 'with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind ( Mark adds here, 'and with all your strength' )', and that a second was like it, 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself'. These words are further expanded in the famous 'Ten Commandments', found in Exodus 20. The first half of these 'Ten Words' are about how to properly show our love for God, and the second half is about showing love to our neighbor. As Jesus said at the end of the parallel passage in Mark's Gospel ( 12:29-31 ), 'there is no other commandment greater than these'!

With these words hidden in our heart, we should see that love needs to be active or it is not love at all!  'Is it enough, though to hide these words in our heart'? How many men like me and women out there have lost their love toward their spouse because, for whatever reason, their feelings changed, they 'just don't love him/her anymore', and a divorce occurs?

As we have sat under the ministrations of the two teaching elders in our congregation over the past number of years, 'The Abiding Love of God' has ever been impressed upon our minds! God set the pattern for us as spouses. In the prophecy of Hosea, we read abut the wife that the prophet was commanded to take, and then how she left him for a time, after which he eventually reconciled with her, even though she had defiled herself with other men. It's really quite an inspiring story!

We often feel  very warmly towards those we love, and sometimes we're downright passionate about it! I'm not saying that we shouldn't admit these feelings, or that we should stifle them in any way! All I'm saying, as I've said before, is that these feelings shouldn't rule our love for that person, because there are times that we would rather not even be around the one we love.

Feelings are kind of funny that way, they seem to change like the weather!

Charles Haddon Shank

The Hand of God

When you're faced with a wicked man like Barack Hussein Obama, and are dealing with his unlawful and un-constitutional policies, it's hard to se why you should be thankful, even as a Christian! Why should we be thankful when his ungodliness is forcing us to either shape up ( according to his policies ) or ship out, to pay up or pay the penalty.

The thing that most or many Christians have not considered, is that we are being chastised for bowing to other gods!

The writer to the Hebrews, quoting Proverbs 3:12, wrote to his brethren, 'For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son He receives'. We see in Job 5:17 that a man should count himself blessed when he is chastened by the Lord. Just as any good father, our Heavenly Father has need to discipline His errant children at times, and more often than not.

At this point, some Christians may object, saying anything from, 'Well, I sure didn't vote for him', to 'he's gotta be THE anti-Christ: Jesus is coming soon!'

You may well object yourself, but when you sit down and really think about it, isn't Obama and his ilk just what this country has been asking for?  Obama is the people's choice, and he is by no means the peoples's worst choice, he is simply the latest. We have but only to wait for the next presidential election to see the next contender for 'worst president ever'; the people's choice just keeps getting worse and worse!

Why would I say that Obama is just what this country has been asking fo? Well, not only is Obama the people's choice ( however he got them to vote for him ), there are many evils that have been perpetrated in this country for the past century or so, that it's almost a wonder that we've made the progress we have, and enjoyed so many blessings on top of it!

Maybe the most blatant and dastartedly crime that this country is guilty of is 'the murder of the innocents'! Some 55,000,000 innocent and helpless babies have been mudered in this country since the Supreme Court handed down its infamous decision in 1973, opening the floodgates for all kinds of evil! Sure, there are many churches that have picketed abortion clinic, and there have even been organizations like 'Operation Rescue' that have taken steps in the past to do a bit more than simply protest. For the most part though, most pulpits are silent on the issue ( for whatever reason ), except to 'poo-poo' it or even to preach that it's 'the woman's choice'. So many pulpits out there are silenced by their 501 (c) 3 status, that pretty much all they'll preach anymore is relativity and 'feel-goodism'!

This is barely scratching the surface of the evils that America is being judged for, and the reason why evil men like Obama ( remember, he's just the latest ) are and have been in power for the past century. If America's Church would hearken unto these chastening prophets that God is sending, and repent of their harlotry, then we may see once more the blessings of God on this great nation! The way things are going in this country ( 'hell in a handbasket' comes to mind ), if some drastic change doesn't occur soon ( likely it's already too late ), this country may not make it to the next recession!

There is hope, however; this is God's Kingdom, God's Empire, and He rules it with an 'iron fist'! Just as He used the Assyrians and the Babylonians ( to name a few ) to bring His people back to Him, so He is using the wicked rulers of this 'world' to bring His people to their knees, to make them realize that it is harlotry to bow before any other god, or the Husband to Whom they are covenanted!

This being the Season of Thanksgiving, we should thank our Heavenly Father for all the blessings He has bestowed on us, especially the chastenings!

Charles Haddon Shank

Bibliolatry; the Law and the Temple

‘He removed the high places and broke the [sacred ] pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days, 

the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan. 

II Kings 18:4

‘Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery [serpent], and set it on a pole; 

and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks on it shall live.’ 

Numbers 21:8

As we can see from the example above, it is quite possible for people to take something that God had anointed for a certain purpose and make an idol out of it!! Under the Old Covenant, which was mediated by the man, Moses, maybe the most noted example was that of Israel’s idolatry of the Law and later, the Temple. In the New Covenant, which is mediated by God Himself, many still have a tendency to ascribe too much glory and honor to something which simply gives the account of the Law and the History of God’s Covenant people. Too many Christians today revere the pages of Scripture almost as highly as they do God Himself, almost as if they were God Incarnate, or the Very Word of God!

The Scriptures as we have in our Bibles today are undoubtedly the written record of the Revelation of the Word of God; we can read this in places like II Timothy 3:16, and we have faith that what the Bible, or Scripture says about itself is true. Though it is the Revelation of God’s Word ( His Son ); it is not that Word itself; that Word dwells in His People! The Scriptures, as given up to the first century, were what we call the Old Testament Scriptures. These were the available Scriptures of that time, being written on scrolls and handed down from generation to generation. As Jesus’ ministry expanded and the apostles began to plant His Seed, writing their letters to the various established congregations throughout the Empire, these letters came to be on par with the Scriptures, as they taught nothing new or different from what had been given in the Law & the Prophets!

What we call the New Testament, though, really only covers ‘the terminal generation’, the generation that witnessed the Advent of the long-promised, and long-awaited Messiah! As we see in these storied pages, it was ‘this generation’ as well that killed their Messiah! Though Jesus Himself taught nothing but what the Law & Prophets had foreshadowed, these Jews, or the majority of them, could not see this ‘Living Law’ as the True Law, and missed the blessing of God’s Presence because the Law written in stone cast too great a shadow on their stubborn hearts!

Like many Christians today, they could not, or would not believe that God would ever stoop so low as to make His people His Temple. They revered Him so highly, in fact, that they destroyed His Temple, even though, as He claimed, He raised it again in three days! ‘Yahweh must only dwell in a beautiful structure, built perfectly straight, with no flaw’, they might have said. Today, you might hear something like, ‘until humanity is sufficiently beautiful and incorruptible, without sin, we will never be fit to be the Temple of God ( the Holy Spirit, maybe, but not God )’!

The fact of the matter is, that according to the record of Scripture, the People of God have been presented to Himself as a glorious new Temple, perfect and faultless!

As there are many different versions of the Bible, there are many Christians out there who claim to say ‘thus saith the Lord’. Some are right! Although there are many different versions of the Bible out there, as someone once said, in most of them you can read the Gospel. Slightly different wording, perhaps, more words in some than others, but the same basic Gospel! By comparing what these say, whether about God, or how to live Godly, with what Scripture has to say about God and how to live Godly, we can establish in our own minds whether they speak truth or whether they prophesy falsely

We, as the Temple of God, have His Word etched on our hearts, and while Scripture is useful as a tool or measuring line to gauge our lives upon, I believe that many of us too often forget that we are His Dwelling, and trust, as the Jews of Old did, in the word or Law written in stone!

Are we trying to pour Old Wine into New Wineskins?

Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary [ principles ] of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,  of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.  And this we will[a] do if God permits.

Hebrews 6:1-3

The Church today, even those who have moved past those elementary principles that the writer to the Hebrews spoke of, is still enamored, for the most part, with discussing those doctrines of baptisms, the resurrection, and the final judgment. 'Should we or shouldn't we, will we be or are we now ( not to mention, the nature of the resurrection- 'How will we come?' ), is it in the past, or do we look for one to come?' Are these things important to affirm? Yes and no. We should be clear on whether or not we believe that these occurred in the past, even the nature of them, but more importantly, we should be affirming them in our lives, living out the effects of our baptism and resurrection, and living without fear, knowing that judgment has been passed!

Our English Bibles today are man's translation of the Scriptures, which were originally given to the people of God in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. As such, they can, for the most part, I believe, be trusted to convey the history of God's dealings with His Covenant People in the past, and we can and should glean instructions from them on how we should live as His People today. We should not, however, view them as the inerrant Word of God! Are they the words of which Peter & Paul spoke ( I Peter 1:21, II Timothy 3:16 )? Not necessarily, although as I intimated earlier, most of the versions out there agree on the main points, and contain the most necessary truths!

God said, through His prophet Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 31:31-34 ) that the New Covenant which He would establish with His people would not be like that first [ covenant ]; this time, since they would not, could not circumcise their hearts, He Himself would inscribe His Law on their hearts, in their Spirit. Rather than a Law that was written in stone or on paper, this would be an incorruptible Record, inscribed indelibly on their ( our ) hearts!

For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law,

 these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves.

Romans 2:14

The people of God, like those Gentiles, have the Law written on their hearts, and so, in that sense, are a Law unto themselves, as we do not need a written Law to tell us that this is wrong, and that is right! As Partakers of the Divine Nature, we are assured by our own cleansed conscience that we are right with our Creator, even though we are still pricked by its goad when we would do what is contrary to that Nature. 

Again, this is not to say that everyone out there who bears the Name of Christ can do whatever is right in his own eyes ( we are not moral relativists ), for comparing Scripture with Scripture, we can ascertain whether or not their words, and more importantly actions are true.

As a People who represent an immutably unchanging and Living God, we know that as God was in the Old Testament Scriptures, so He was in the New, and so He remains now! It is His People who have changed, for we are His Creation. We can change, corrupt or destroy what we have written, whether on stone ( new tablets? ) or on paper, but we cannot do any harm to what God has etched in our inmost Being!

This is where the Word of God resides, not in Temples made with hands, or printed on paper!

May we realize this Truth, and see Scripture for what it is, not something to be overly revered, but respected as a record of the Revelation of the Word of God.

WE are the Revelation of the Son of God!

Charles Haddon Shank

A Gentile Baptism, Part One

By my writing here today, I aim to destroy once and for all the dangerous heretical and pharisaically Gnostic notion that one MUST be baptized in water in order to be saved, or gain entrance into the Body of Christ!

I will not do this!

The main reason I will not do this is because I cannot! I may be able to prove beyond 'a shadow of a doubt' that baptism in water, beginning in the Old Testament priestly and sacrificial washings, was only ever a symbolic and ritual sign pointing toward the Priestly washing and Sacrificial Purification of the Body of Christ, True Adam and True Israel! I may even be able to prove to anyone with the sense to see it, that the baptism of which Jesus often spoke was not water baptism! ( Yes, the baptism of which Peter spoke WAS water baptism, but we may get to that later ) Paul spoke of 'one baptism' ( Ephesians 4:5 ). Whether this 'one baptism' was the baptism of the Holy Spirit of God, or whether it was/is baptism by immersion ( being whelmed ) in water has been in question of late, although it should not be! The very notion that any action of ours, whether done in faith or not, could ever save anybody is dangerous at best, and gnostically heretical and damnable, at worst!

Some may say that water baptism is a beautiful picture of one's entrance into communion with the Body of Christ; it surely is that, but is this baptism necessary for one to enter in to the Body of Christ? Is it necessary to go through the motion of symbolically washing in water in order for the Holy Spirit to baptize ( whelm ) one's heart? Some would say that it is, and worse yet, would wreak havoc with Scripture to prove it!

One might ask at this juncture, 'is it really all that important, whether or not one believes it is necessary to administer the sign of water baptism, and the other doesn't?' Well, yes, of course it is! To believe that one must still receive the sign of water baptism is to call God a liar! 'Whoah', you might say, 'isn't that a bit extreme?' No, it is not, and here's why! To argue for the necessity of water baptism is to say that the Spiritual ( internal ) Reality to which this Natural ( external ) Sign pointed has not yet appeared! Either that, or man really does order his Creator around like a dog!

Why do some find it necessary to lay loads like this on other men's backs? 'We are willing to bear this burden', they say, and indeed they are, but is it a burden that MUST be borne? Is it not just a leftover, continued tradition of men, one that reeks of legalism, and hearkens back to the Pharisees of Jesus' day? Did Jesus ever give a plain indication that one ( individually ) needed to be baptized in water in order to enter the Kingdom ( be saved )? Some would say yes, but it is far from plain!

Peter's 'discourse' on baptism, found in and around I Peter 3:21, has been the subject of some controversy, and remains so, I believe, to this day. Is Peter actually saying that water baptism ( itself ) saves, and even if so, was he speaking of it saving individuals? Noah was saved, with his family, through water, although not actually BY the water; they were safe and dry, INSIDE the ark! Touching on an example that I remember hearing from my childhood, Moses led the children of Israel through the Sea on dry land; they were saved THROUGH water, but not BY it, however the Egyptians WERE destroyed BY it; Moses ( a type of Christ ) parted the waters for the children of Israel, and thus saved them! Paul recounts this event in I Corinthians 10:1 & 2.

Did Paul advocate water baptism? It is likely that he did, for Paul was a good Jew, even 'a Pharisee of the Pharisees'! We must understand several things though, about his ministry; Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, not that he abandoned his own people, but his ministry was primarily to the Gentiles. Can you blame him after his own people tried to kill him so many times and rejected his message? He understood though, how that first ( covenant ) was set up; he understood that the sign of baptism was necessary to show the Gentile believers that they too had entered the Promised Land, just like those 'children' we just spoke of.

We see in the book of Acts ( 9:26-39 ) that Philip baptized ( in water ) an officer from an Ethiopian court, a Gentile believer. From this account, it is not clear why the officer thought he should be baptized upon believing, but I think it is safe to say that Philip did not suggest it. There is no indication that he did, and this would make sense, as he himself was most likely a Gentile convert.

Now, in Peter's case, as evidenced in the conversion and baptism of Cornelius, and in Peter's instructions to the assembly in Acts 2:38, water baptism was most definitely what was in mind. Again, we see here more evidence of Gentile believers being baptized, not because doing so would save them, but to show externally that they too, as Gentiles had received the Holy Spirit. Note that Peter's question was very like the question that the Ethiopian officer asked in Acts 9, as well.

Did not Jesus tell His disciples to 'go into all the world..............baptizing them................'? Well, He most certainly did, and while this 'Great Commission' was carried out in the first century ( 'you will not have gone through all the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes'-Matthew 10:23 ), it is not as clear that Jesus meant for His disciples to go around baptizing in water. His words could well simply mean, 'go and overwhelm them with the Good News, of which I am the Vessel'! The Greek 'baptizo', as translated by James Strong, simply means 'to whelm'. This can be done through means of water, but just as well, and better, through 'the washing of water by the Word' ( Ephesians 5:26 )!

John indeed baptized, pretty clearly, with water! Why did John do this though? That is the question that we must ask ourselves! Why did he find it necessary to travel that far outside the city? Why that location in particular; do you think maybe he could have found a body of water closer to the city that would have done just as well? Look at the spot that he chose; the Jordan River, barrier between Jew and Gentile, if I'm not mistaken. Eastern border, anyway, of the Promised Land; John was bringing them through the Sea again, into the Promised Land, a re-baptism of sorts, urging them to 'be saved from this wicked generation'! Even so, John told them that he baptized them with water to show their repentance, but Jesus Himself, of Whom he was but the herald, would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire!

There is more that could be written here, but in fact I do not wish to bore my readers, and I have already written on the subject; you may refer to these other articles if you wish. It is my wish, indeed our wish, that you would go over this material, prayerfully, and see for yourself that this baptism by water was simply for those who lived during the transition period between the 'ages', between the Death, Resurrection and Ascension of the Son of God and His Return in Judgment on His Covenant people.

There are those who would say that when the sign of water baptism is administered, it is not just a 'sign' of the inward Reality, it is that Reality itself! This is so wrong that we can only begin to discover or relate why it is so wrong! Can we actually move the Hand of God, guaranteeing an inward change ( on His part ) by an outward action ( on our part )?

We will investigate further in our next study!

Charles Haddon Shank

Is the ( Institutional ) Church Dead?

When the church begins to conform to society, it has become just another social club!

As an institution, the purpose of the Church was to transform Society! Reading the History of the Institutional Church, one can see that to varying degrees this was a successful mission, but of late ( 500-1,000 years ) one may wonder, into whose image was Society transformed? Did the Church ( IC ) really fulfill its true Mission, or failing in its mission to transform Society into its image, has it begun to conform to the image of a rebellious and God-less Society?

Many churches today are run more like businesses, with corporate CEOs rather than than spiritual leaders! This is only one of the many ways in which the church has conformed to 'the way of the world'! Many pastors today are worried more about the financial health of their congregations ( numbering in the  thousands to tens of thousands ), more concerned with 'the bottom line' than in leading their congregation to search out the truth of the matter.

Another area is the matter of accepting the homosexual, lesbian, and transgender lifestyle as 'only natural'. Whether you believe that God created an LGBT 'gene' or not, the Scriptures are pretty clear how God instituted certain things ( marriage, for instance ). Marriage was not instituted between a man and a man, a woman and a women, men were not created to be compatible, physically or otherwise, with any but the opposite sex! Now, can a man love another man, a woman love another woman, and so on and so forth? Of course they can, and this is only naturally; God created us to love each other! Did He make a mistake and place a man in a woman's body, or vice-versa? To claim to be transgender is to say that God made a mistake!

Not to get too far off track, many churches ( and more everyday ) have excepted this perversion as natural, and not only that, have begun to 'marry' such individuals, and even ordain them to positions of leadership! It is now just as acceptable in many evangelical churches today to say 'it's the just way God made them', as it is in society at large. In fact in some areas, society at large has adopted a better position on some of these issues than the church ( IC ) has!

One area in which the Institutional Church succeeded in its mission ( to mold Society in its own image ) is in the use ( or misuse ) of the biblical injunction, 'judge not, lest ye be judged' ( Matthew 7:1 ). Society ( to a large extent), concerning the LGBT community especially, freely uses this injunction to condemn those who are not open-minded enough to accept these perverts for what they are. In this area as well, the IC has conformed, yet again, to the image that it presented itself in, to society! Talk about kicking your own ass!

What the church ( IC ) taught society has come full circle, biting its own head off, and devouring itself!

Beginning I don't know when, the church taught that we should not judge those who are outside, based on a misreading of Jesus' injunction. Somehow, this teaching filtered into a thirsty Society, and opened the gates for all kinds of biblical perversion to become acceptable and even encouraged. Now the Church has begun to conform to this false image which itself sought to transform Society by in the first place!

What irony, what lamentable irony!

Charles Haddon Shank

The Perfect Law of Liberty

But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

I Corinthians 13:10

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

Jeremiah 31:33

Liberty, according to most any dictionary out there, is the ability to freely choose, not through some outside force or arbiter, but through the exercise of one's own free will. Like Law & Grace, some would probably say that Law and Liberty are two opposing ideas! Law and freedom seem like they would be in opposition, right? If there is an external Law saying that you cannot do a certain thing, then wouldn't you say that hampers your free will just a bit? Sure, you have the free will to disobey that Law, but then that usually hampers your Liberty! 

Law, though often external, and outside of oneself, is in this case written on our hearts! The Law as given through Moses on Sinai, and written on tablets of stone, was simply a shadow, in part, of what was to come, that perfect Law, written on our hearts by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit!

But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

James 1:25

Not much earlier in this same chapter, James talked about 'the implanted word'. This is that same Word/Law which the prophet Jeremiah wrote of as being written on our hearts. Because this Law is now written on our hearts, and internally implanted on our conscience, we can now truly obey this Law with Liberty, since it is an integral part of us ( 'in Him we live, move, and have our being'-Acts 17:28 )!

Previously, we have explored the notion that Jesus was the Law of God incarnate, that He not only filled up ( fulfilled ) the Law, but that He, in His Flesh, was actually the embodiment of the Law! As the Body of Christ, and in that sense, the corporate Son of God, we are, in that sense, a Law unto ourselves, that Law being the Law of Love!

We have the Scriptures, our English Bible, in various forms, to which we might turn for instruction in righteousness ( I Timothy 3:16 ), and it is usually a good thing that we do, because there is such a cacophony of voices telling us what we should and should not do, what we do and do not want, that we might quickly become confused and unsure of what voice to listen to!

Though we have the Scriptures in written form, with 'the implanted word' being written on our hearts, as God promised through Jeremiah, one might wonder then, 'Do we even need the Bible any longer?' Well, yes! James also writes later on in his epistle, 'faith without works is dead?' Although it is truly Faith Alone that saved us ( 'not of yourselves.......'-Ephesians 2:8 ), God works together with us, by our works proving our faith. Through our religious knowledge ( in action ) of His Written Word, we thus prove the inner work of the Holy Spirit, and the Law written on our hearts.

What shall we do with this 'perfect law of liberty'? Shall we become libertines, and do as Israel did in the times of the Judges, 'every man doing what was right in his own eyes', since we are, in effect, a Law unto ourselves? How much Liberty would there be in that? No True Liberty, for in doing whatever we wanted, we would be hampering, or outright denying the Liberty of another! With the Perfect, or complete Law of Liberty, as found in Jesus the Christ, the Law of Love, there is no hampering or denying another's liberty! 'Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed'; conversely, if the Son does not set you free, you are not truly free! 

There is no freedom, no true liberty apart from Christ!

Charles Haddon Shank

Called to Perfection; The Community of Divinity

Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,
And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

Ecclesiastes 12:7

 I said, “You [ are ] gods,
And all of you [ are ] children of the Most High.

Psalm 82:6

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son. 
Hosea 11:1

'Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect' ( Matthew 5:48 ). The Greek 'τέλειος', transliterated 'teleios' has more a meaning of completeness than of the way that we think of perfection today. When we say that someone is perfect, whether its in our own eyes or in God's sight, we are usually saying that one is with sin, or flaw, as in 'a perfect body'. In the latter half of Psalm 101:2, David writes, 'I will walk within my house with a perfect heart'. Again, the Hebrew 'תֹּם', transliterated 'tom' has more of a definition of 'completeness' than what we usually think of as 'perfection'. Now, please don't get me wrong here: I am not trying to say that we should not strive for the modern definition of perfection, as found in phrases like, 'Adam & Eve were created perfect'. We should always be concerned with doing right, with living up to the completeness, or perfection in which we, as the Body of Christ, have been called and made!

If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, 

and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

John 14:23

 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, 

to an innumerable company of angels,

 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn [ who are ] registered in heaven, 

to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 

to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant,

 and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than [ that of ] Abel.

Hebrews 12:22-24

Biblical history is linear; there was a Beginning, and there was an End! In the Book of Revelation, we see this 'Alpha & Omega'. God began by 'creating', and ended by decreating, yet creating anew, in a very perfect chiasm. The more we study and search things out, the more we are convinced by the Hebrew usage that the creation account in Genesis 1 &2 was not that of the universe and of humankind ( from their inception ), but of 'the Land', and then 'Man on the Land'. God instituted His Covenant with Creation by beginning in one small area, what is commonly know as 'The Cradle of Civilization'. From there, the knowledge of God spread outward to the known world, which, at the time was the Mediterranean region, in particular, 'the Land', more commonly known as Israel, or Palestine. From there, this knowledge spread out further, to the far reaches of what became the Roman Empire, and through succeeding empires, throughout the whole world, and every nation under heaven!

The writer to the Hebrews told his readers that they had arrived at this end, the eschatological Hope that had been foretold throughout Scripture; they had attained perfection, not through any merit of their own, but by 'the blood of sprinkling'. Through this Baptism of the Holy Spirit of God, through the sacrifice of the Christ, the had been 'made perfect', or complete, they had reached the End, which was the Dwelling of God with and in His People, His True Temple! This had been pictured and foreshadowed throughout the History of Israel, Beginning with the Garden of Eden, and Ending with the destruction of Herod's Temple in 70AD, the last man-made vestige of God's Temple. Now was the Time for the Temple 'made without hands' ( Daniel 2:45:58 ). to be revealed. This Temple, in and through Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God, is the Body of His People, 'Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice'!

'This is inconsistent', you might say, 'with other pieces you have written on the subject of 'All God's Children'!' Is it? You may judge for yourself ( and please do ) whether what I have said here is inconsistent with my previous writings, but I do not believe that it is! Just because all are God's children does not mean that all are God's Temple, as David wrote in Psalm 50:5 above! As John wrote ( John 14:23 ), it is those ( of His children ) who obey His Covenant and love Him that God enters into and makes His Dwelling!

The perfection to which we, as the People, or Temple of God have attained unto is not simply a flawless beauty which comes through any physical prowess, nor is it what we most often think of as perfection ( at least in Christianity ) a flawless obedience to God's Holy Law of Love ( although that may be included );the perfection to which we have attained is the Marriage of Heaven & Earth, wherein God Dwells in His Temple, and we are One!

Married and loving Him,
Charles Haddon Shank

The Glorious Body of Christ

Is Glory Relative?

In relation to humanity, what is glorious to one may may not be glorious to the other. In biblical usage, the Greek doxazō almost sounds relativistic. We must remember though, that we are dealing with Absolute Truth here, with an Immutable God! Though we as humans may ( and do ) have our differing opinions about whether a thing ( or Person ) is glorious or not, our opinion, and theirs is just that, merely an opinion, nothing more, nothing less. As the saying goes, 'it is what it is'; The Body of Christ, no matter how we see it, is glorious, and nothing that we can do or think will make it otherwise!

Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, 

“Peace to you.” But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. 

And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts?  

Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. 

Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.

 Luke 24:36-39

This passage, and the parallel one in John 20, is traditionally used to prove the nature of Jesus' Glorified Body, but I believe that when we use such speculation as to say that our glorified bodies will be physical, yet not ( being able to walk through walls and such ) is to miss the whole point of Luke's relation here! The point is not that He was able to appear in their midst even though the door was locked ( significant of their stubborn hearts of unbelief? ), but that He appeared in their midst. The point was not that He had the self-same Body or not ( 'Behold My hands and My feet' ), but that by doing all these things, He had unequivocally defeated Death!

We, as human beings, have a natural tendency toward individualism! Because Scripture says that 'we will be like Him' ( I John 3:2. Philippians 3:21 ), we think that our ( individual ) body will become somewhere in between, physical but yet not. We will be able to walk through walls ( like Jesus? ) yet we will also be able to eat and drink, marry and be given in marriage. We will be free from any kind of pain for old things will have passed away, and all things will have become new!

Is this what Scripture truly teaches, though? The writers of Holy Writ, we can see from searching both the original text ( Greek & Hebrew ) and the covenant context, were not concerned with individual bodies being raised from the grave, but of the corporate Body of Israel being resurrected from the dead, and made to stand again, as pictured in Ezekiel 37, most succinctly. Much of the traditional doctrines ( of men ) that we read into Scripture, especially of individual bodies being raised ( although there is no doubt that this did happen ) come from a faulty translation, and ultimately, a rebellious spirit! Because we are not satisfied with the good creation that God has made us, we strive to speculate that one day, the Creation that man has ruined will be renewed, and made like Adam was in the beginning, physically perfect, without blemish!

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

 ( Ephesians 5:25-27 )

The Gospel writers wrote individualistically, in many cases, it may seem, but these individuals, for the most part, as we see above, were and are simply pictures of the Greater Reality! The author of Hebrews, for instance, writes of this corporate reality, the Body of Christ Himself, in Hebrews 12:18-24. 

The biological body with which Jesus appeared to His disciples in that famous upper room was obviously the self-same body in which He was buried, or which had been place in the rich man's grave. His glorious physical body, though, was in effect, no different then His body before He ascended to His Father, as Daniel foresees in his prophecy ( Daniel 7:13 ), for His physical resurrection was simply a picture, an indication, of our resurrection, the standing ( upright ) again, of the corporate Body of Israel, the Body that had fallen through the Death of Adam!

In previous studies, we have explored the notion, the fact, as I believe it to be, that Jesus' biological Body was raised simply to prove to His generation, who were 'slow of heart' ( Luke 24:25 ) that He had indeed defeated Death! He appeared to them, first, as the symbolically risen Christ, then as the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost to comfort and strengthen them in their tribulation! As the Risen Christ, he comforted His disciples with the fact that Death no longer had any power over them, and He prepared them ( John 8, etc. ) for the coming ( back ) of His Holy Spirit, who would strengthen them for the great trial and tribulation that they would soon face!

The biological body of Christ was glorified, made glorious, no doubt ( 'Do not cling to Me'-John 20:17 ), but His glorification was simply a picture of the final glorification of the People of God  ( Romans 8:29 ), His Church, the Glorious Body of Christ!

May we realize this simple and absolute Truth, and act accordingly,
Charles Haddon Shank

A Divided Kingdom?

If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
Mark 3:24

Looking at the institutional church today, anyone with eyes to see can plainly see that, like Israel of old, it is divided against itself, and so cannot stand much longer! Scripture tells us the laborious and often shockingly perverted history of Israel as a nation; her rises and falls, the intricacies of her idolatrous and adulterous web-weaving and harlotrous death-style, all of which led ultimately to her final down-fall as a nation, never to rise again!

As an institution, the church has become so laughable that many Christians have found better things to do on Sunday mornings! There are so many different denominations, and they all believe that their doctrine is the correct one, that you might find yourself hard-pressed to see a big difference between its members and the local motorcycle club or gang! 

The Israelite nation that we read about in the hallowed pages of the Bible, particularly in the book of Kings, was so similar to what we see happening in much of the world today, especially in America, that one is almost tempted to make a comparison of the two, and to forecast the same end for America! America, just like the institutional church, if she even survives the coming cataclysm, will never be the same again, and do you know why? Because this is God's Kingdom, this is God's Church ( His People ), and He rules the nations with a rod of iron! 

Empires rise and fall at His command!

The Church, or Body of Christ can never be divided! 

Here is where the nation of Israel went wrong; they thought that, since God had made them His special people, a nation of priests, that they should keep themselves separate from the other nations forever, and instead of being priests to the nations and spreading abroad the knowledge of their Creator, they thought to keep Him all to themselves, and thus, through their own perversions, rather than priests, became a laughing-stock!

The institutional church today, not necessarily the Body of Christ, has made much the same mistake. If one is not within the fold of some institutional church, or does not live within the confines of some written code, then that one is seen as heretic, and without the Kingdom! He may be brought within its confines, but only if he subscribes to said written code ( in one form or another ), and hunkers down inside the four walls of some church building every Sunday ( and maybe Wednesday )!

As the Body of Christ however, the Church will never and can never be divided! According to the purpose and foreknowledge of Almighty God, our Creator, there are members of this Body within the institutional church, and I daresay even that there are institutional churches which are largely made up of members of the Body of Christ! We must remember though, and I believe this is one of the church's ( and Church's ) gravest mistakes; we are priests to the nations, the healing waters, the leaves of the Tree of Life that flow to the nations; if we simply hunker down and hold the fort, we will lose!

Only as we realize, turn and repent as a Body Politic, will we have the Desired Effect on His Creation, only when we recognize the spirituality of God's nation of priests will we begin to heal the nations through shining His Light, as 'a city on a hill'!

May we realize this truth, that we are not a divided Kingdom, but one Body, and One Tree of Life!

Charles Haddon Shank

Molech Worship; We're Killing our Children!

How many Christian parents out there ( for I do not call them anything but ignorant ) place their offspring in the public, or government school system, thinking that somehow, their impressionable and immature children will not succumb to the peer-pressures of the evil that it has become, but will instead have a salvific effect on that corrupted society?

Common sense alone should tell you that, if your child's teachers tell your child one thing for 8-9 hours a day, no matter how much you try to train up that child in the way he or she should go, you're going to be fighting a losing battle and your child will most likely end up being more confused than those other children, along with whom he or she is being indoctrinated!

In most, if not all American prisons today, the inmates often lead a healthier ( physically speaking ) existence than some of those who abide by the laws of the land! A guaranteed three squares a day, a warm cot, and a free education ( if you want it ); sure, it can be dangerous, but, in some of our larger cities, isn't it just as dangerous outside the prison walls? Never mind the fact that probably at least 75% of convicts will live the rest of their lives behind bars, plaguing society with the burden that society has unwittingly and ignorantly laid upon their own backs! Sure, there are those who actually do pull off a true reform behind bars, and end up becoming productive members of society ( once again )! Some have even entered into a true and good relationship with their Heavenly Father while physically imprisoned! By the same token, it is quite possible, with God as their helper, that a young Christian could have an influence on, rather than be influenced by, the corruption that has become our society! Not likely though, and as Jesus replied to His tempter, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God'; for a Christian parent to place their child into one of these centers of indoctrination is akin to throwing him or her into a den of lions!

In today's American public schools, the education may be 'free', but is it really, especially for the Christian? Your child will learn that he or she is the only one that matters; what he or she wants or likes is what is most important! They will learn, among other things, that you can be anything you want in a 'free society' ( and I use both words very loosely ), as long as its's not a Christian, unless you keep it behind your eyes and between your ears. Even then, you'll most likely end up in some sort of trouble; either that, or end up losing your religion! Most, or many, will end up becoming so indoctrinated and brainwashed that they will end up behind the bars of a prisons, often before they have left the confines of the schoolyard! Speaking of schoolyards; how many public or government schools have you seen, or heard about that have razor wire fences raised high around their yards, whether to keep Nature out, or to keep the children in, until the whistle blows or the bell tolls? How many of these institutions of ( mediocre, at best ) learning have metal detectors that the children must walk through before they can enter? How many have bars on the windows ( for whatever reason )? How many have armed guards patrolling the hallways or standing at attention in darkened doorways? All this is quite understandable; reprehensible, but understandable. The government schools are simply a breeding ground for America's prison population!

How has America veered so far off course; where did we go wrong?

Public schools, not necessarily government schools in the beginning, started well, but because humanity is so prone to corruption, any human institution is prone to it as well! This is where the Church, or Body of Christ comes in: She is to be a transformational force in society, rather than conforming to it's image! As a body though, made up of corruptible and easily deceived men and women, the institutionalized church, rather than transforming society into the Image of the Creator of Society, has conformed so much to a corrupted society that there is almost no noticeable difference!

What may be done, you may ask, to remedy this abominable and horrific situation??

'And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.'

'You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.'

Deuteronomy 6:6 & 7 

We, as parents, especially Christian parents, are instructed to teach those children that God has entrusted to us, in the way in which they should go, the way of life! In the care of these ( government ) centers for indoctrination, they learn, more often than not, the way that leads to death; not always to physical death, but death nonetheless! We are to teach them the importance of communion in the corporate Body of Christ; the public schools teach them the importance of communion with themselves ( is that even possible?! )! We are to teach them to love God and their neighbor as themselves; there, they are taught the importance of loving yourself and being nice to those who are nice to you! We are to teach them to do unto others as we would have them to to us; there, they are taught to make a preemptive strike, doing unto others before they have a chance to do it to you!

If we, as Christian parents, would shoulder the responsibility that God has placed upon us and educate our own children, teaching them from their youth the way in which they should go. By not sacrificing them on the altar of convenience, and allowing a corrupted government school to confuse them, and likely foster their own natural corruptibility, we can break the cycle and begin to raise a new generation of God-seekers! 

There are those who have floundered through the public ( government ) school system and made it out okay, but, sad to say, most of these seek after God within the walls of some institutional church building! It  seems like a vicious circle, but it can be broken! It will be broken with the help of our beneficent and most gracious God and Father! With His help, and with the perseverance of His Saints, we will raise up a generation that knows no other God but the One, True and Living God!

May it be,
Charles Haddon Shank

The Perfection Point (for Ginger Schatz )

Is there a point at which humanity will reach physical perfection?At some point in the future, will mankind reach a sort of utopia where there is no sickness, no sighing, crying or dying? We'd all like to believe that there is such a place, and especially that we will live long enough to see it, or maybe our children or grandchildren; it's a beautiful dream, isn't it?

If we could only return to the Garden like it was in the beginning, where man had direct Communion with God everyday and everything was right, good, and as it should be!

What a minute; what about the snake, or serpent?! We can't forget either that there was a forbidden Tree in the Garden that God planted and in which He placed His good Creation! Whether you believe that he serpent was possessed by that fallen spiritual being known as 'Satan', or whether you subscribe to the Scriptural ( and shocking? ) notion that this 'serpent' was simply a man who was outside the special Covenant that God had typologically made with Adam and his descendants; the fact that God had placed this Tree in the Garden, knowing that Adam would disobey His voice and eat of it, should give us pause!

One would almost think that God planned it that way, knowing that man, in his imperfection, would carry out His Divine Will and Purpose for His Creation! Now, don't get me wrong; I'm by no means saying that because we carry out God's Will in our imperfection, that we should, as the apostle Paul was accused of preach, 'sin more, that Grace may abound'; God forbid! All I'm saying is that we should rest in the fact that though we are imperfect, at least, according to the modern usage, God works His purpose through those imperfections, for, as the apostle also wrote that His 'strength is made perfect in weakness'.

Now, as we can see, from passages like Hebrews 10:14, we have been 'perfected forever'! This definitely is not ( by any means ) to say that we, as individuals, are perfect, at least, not according to the modern usage, but as the Body of Christ, the Body which all of the writers of Scripture had in view, we ( corporately ) have been made perfect, or complete in our fullness, in Christ. Another way to say this is that we fulfill His perfection; we fill it up daily by living our lives according to God's Law of Love!

According to the modern usage of the word, we do not fulfill God's Law of Love on a daily basis, not to mention hourly, minutely, or even secondly!

In his first letter to the churches, John wrote, 'There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love' ( I John 4:18 ); was he saying that if one fears, he does not love in truth, or was he saying that if one has fear, but casts it aside for the sake of love, that he has been made perfect in love? Earlier in this same passage, John wrote to his 'children', 'If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us'. It sound like, if we love God, and our neighbor ( brother ), that we have reached the 'Point of Perfection'!

Now, again, do we do it perfectly? Not at all! But, like a wise man said, 'we have been perfected in our imperfection'!

Will we ever reach the point of perfection, where we will never fail to always love perfectly, will we always be able to cast fear aside and love without fear? Its a nice dream, but human nature has proven time and time again that this is impossible! With God, however, we know that 'all things are possible', and it is only through and in Him ( Him in us ) that we have reached that 'Perfection Point'!

May we always remember John's words, for by loving God, and our neighbor as our self, we can be assured that we have been perfected in His Love, and that all fear has been cast aside!

Charles Haddon Shank