I come in Peace

Hello, my name is Colt Smith, and I’d like to share my story. 

They told me that I was created for a purpose; they sold me the biggest of dreams. They spoke of peace that has never been seen, and would be achieved by me. I would end world hunger, they told me. They molded me into the most perfect specimen; years they invested in me that I may deliver the hope of the world; peace, security, and prosperity. My training has been unmatched, there are none that have succeeded as much as me. There has been no equal to what I have achieved. There are untold millions that owe a debt of gratitude to me and successors. 

I remember my first assignment like it was yesterday. Mr. Sam came into my room and told me how proud he was of me. His smile lit up the whole room, from ear to ear was his smile. You are all that we had hoped you would be, he told me. 

My first assignment came and went without a hitch. I was sent in to bring the peace. I went out to a large crowd and waved, followed by a few words and the whole town became quiet. My creators were right, I said to myself. My first mission, and I had produced peace. Everyone was so excited at what the future held, gone are the days of chaos, I thought to myself.

But one day I was taken on a mission that revealed the purpose of my creation. I had traveled far to a little town that had much unrest. I thought that the day would go like so many assignments before, speak and wave to the crowd and all would be settled quietly. However, this crowd could not be reasoned with. As tempers flared and threats were made, there was a loud, explosive sound, followed by screams and the scattering of people. The chaos was soon calm, and I was assured that peace was found on this day because of my efforts. The images of that day haunted my dreams, so ingrained are they, like scars that never go away. 

I came home to a hero’s welcome, the band played and the mayor gave a great speech of what I had achieved. But his words seemed so shallow and empty, because his eyes had not seen what I had done. 

Years later, my work carried on. I traveled the world to bring rest to towns, cities, states, and countries that were filled with calamity. I was no longer timid about what I had to do, I had been bringing peace, security and prosperity, just as I was told. Jobs and been created as a result of my efforts, entire cities were built because of me. Untold fortunes have been made because of me. Prosperity should have been my name. I controlled the wealth of the world, because I had brought peace to it’s citizens. 

I was given many nicknames, but the one that I particularly enjoyed was, Justice. I brought low the tyrants and the barbaric men of the world. The men that would kneel to no one, kneeled to me. 

I was created to for a purpose you see, and my purpose was death. 

Where is the Hope

Where is the hope?

There is much confusion, much sin, much pain, wars, famine, plagues, death, mythical dragons that terrorize the lands. There is no conquering these great enemies. Who would dare to challenge such foes. The world is most assuredly cursed; but who, I wonder has brought about this seemingly unending curse. Is there no one, or no god that hears the cry of the people. 

Wars and rumors of more wars. Genocide runs rampant, and no one gives an ear to stop such tragedies. Oh, but some conquerer comes and claims peace, but only after thousands, or tens of thousands, or millions more are slaughtered. And yet,  this conquerer would dare to claim he has brought peace to the land. Thousands of widows, and orphans lay down their heads and cry as they wonder why they have no husband, father, grandfather. Yet some conquer would dare claim he has brought peace.  Does not the sword only bring death; does the sword bring healing, or only death? 

They are taken from their homes, and sold like chattel. The market ripe with buyers for the human product that they plan to use and reuse as they wish. Where is the one who would be justice to this great evil? 

They tell us they are feeding the poor, yet the poor remain hungry. The wealthy lay in their comfort, and claim they have helped the famine. 

A land so powerful, so wealthy that their pets are obese. The young boy who is so hungry he eats his beloved canine. 

A land so wealthy it spends billions giving their poor the luxuries its culture has come to accept as a birthright. 

When will the world be restored? Who dares to confront such atrocities? Is the no end?

Snapshot Community

With social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, among many more, we have created a community of snapshots, which reveals what the user wants about their life. People are living their lives vicariously through their various online personas. I'm not talking about people who are creating fake usernames, although they exist too, but rather people who are embellishing their life narrative through social media.

When I got the idea to write on this subject, I just happened to listen to a morning radio show that was talking about this very idea (not exactly, but the subject at hand).  There was a young lady, who I am assuming is semi-famous that was complaining about her life. She said, "I just don't enjoy my life", and "I'm just existing".

Those statements were followed up by one of the radio hosts that said, "judging by your Facebook you seem to have an amazing life."

Those statements are the synopsis, or rather the totality of the problem existing within social media.

There are a variety of social media users. There is the depressed person who never seems happy. There is the happy person who never seems to have any issues. There is the overly successive person. The person who only promotes personal agendas, i.e. business, real-estate, etc.

Here's the real problem. People believe that they know someone simply because they follow them on social media. They believe they have a sense of the person's character, their family, their business, their romantic life--or lack thereof. Social media may be a community, however, it is largely a faux-community.

There simply isn't enough intimacy for there to be a real community, its simply not tangible enough to be real. Real community won't allow you to delete the person that has wounded you, betrayed you, lied to you. Real community requires you to deal with the real issues that are ever-present. Real community requires people to get to know the real you; the good, the bad, the ugly, the pain, the betrayal, the suffering, the beauty, and not simply the things that you want them to know about you.

Real community is a real family, and real families have real problems. As a general rule, no one gets into enormous battles with a total stranger. Why? Total strangers are incapable of wounding you the way a family member can, will, and do on a semi-regular basis.

True community is not a selfie showing the world how wonderful, or how horrible your life is. True community is a home video with the kids shaving the dog, and spray painting the priceless family heirloom; it requires repentance, and therefore forgiveness.  True community requires a deep commitment to love one another. True community is a true family.

Drift

Where can I run? Everywhere I turn is a dead-end. Every Road takes me to a place of despair.

Every spring that seems to be flowing with fresh water, is nothing more than a mirage.

Life has played a cruel hand. The burn from its sting is far worse than any yellow jacket. 10,000 hornets couldn’t bring this kind of pain.

There is no riddle that could bring this much confusion. The is no professor that can solve this equation.

Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. No one to rescue me from the swelling tide.

Deeper than the depths of the ocean. No anchor can reach the earth’s crust.

Left to drift in the open.

Cage-Rage, Aftermath and Apologies

There are many things that I love about Calvinism, however, there are far more that I have developed quite a disdain for i.e. the angry Calvinist, or the snobbery that exist within the ranks. The point of this article is not to go through and identify everything that needs critiquing but rather to speak on a few personal notes, and issue some apologies to the people who have been wounded by my anger.

I went through a season of life that many Calvinist do, which is the "Caged Calvinist" stage. For those who are unfamiliar with this, it simply means, to lock the angry Calvinist (usually new) until he matures so that he doesn't hurt himself or anyone else. There's an old cliche that says, "hurt people hurt people". There is a great deal of truth to this, but it doesn't necessarily need to be true. 

I wrote a series of blogs that were harsh in tone, and directed at a very specific group of people with specific people in mind. This is where the apology is confusing, because I am not retracting the content of what was said, but rather the motive and the tone of what was said. I don't want this to be confused with the type of backhanded apology that we are all to familiar with, which is, "I'm sorry you took it that way" or "That isn't what I meant to do".  The apology is one a regret. Regret that I wrote the blogs in the manner that I did, with the desire to wound or inflict harm on people.

To those whom I harmed on a public level (meaning there are many of you and in no way can I apologize to each individual as I don't know the lengths of this) I want to ask that you forgive me. There is an additional note to this: I have had a personal conversation with the one that this was directed at, and sought forgiveness. 

When sins are done in a public manner they deserve to be confessed in a public manner, with forgiveness being sought in a public manner.

Note: I decided to delete the blogs that had a personal vendetta within them.

Coram Deo,

Douglas Herron

Inevitable Chasm

There have been many important distinctions that have been made throughout Church history. These distinctions have been used to set the Church apart from its surrounding culture. The fathers of the Christian Faith fought many battles to make these distinctions clear. The modern liberal church however, has long distanced themselves from Church history because the very historical documents would remove all credibility from their claims. This tactic quickly turned on the postmodern church so they have sought out a new tactic known as revisionism. Revisionism seems to be the ruling force in modern evangelicalism. 

One such revision is the gay agenda. The gay agenda is spreading through the Church like the Great Plague of London. However, unlike the plague London faced, this is necessary for the vitality of the true Biblical and Historical Church to continue in the future.  It is necessary because of the perversions the evangelical Church continues to place itself in as this agenda continues to advance for the Church to accept the gay lifestyle i.e. Gay Marriage and allow them full covenant member status, churches and denominations that maintain the biblical standard are going to further the great chasm. Before I continue any further I want to make something clear. This is not an article about how the Church should handle homosexuals, but let me say this simply, the Westboro Baptist people of the world is not what ministry should look like to the homosexual community. 

There are numerous shifts the modern/postmodern church has made of the last century, and the first part of the 21st century isn't looking any better. What makes this news encouraging is that the church is separating and fragmenting into very distinguishable segments. There have been at least a dozen prominent experiments that have all exploded onto the scene only to disappear as quickly as they came. There was the Jesus movement (1960-1970), Promise Keepers, the pesky liberal Emergent movement, Pentecostalism, the Charismatic movement (also known as the Second Wave), to name a few. Not all of these were damnable, but each one has made for itself a distinction from the Church at large.

Evangelicalism has been continually evolving over the many years with a wide array of reasons why the changes were necessary. Willow Creek is one such example of a church that created a massive chasm from the historical church. When they were questioned about their methods they simply responded by telling people to look at the growth and all the good they are doing - that is their great historical objection.  I've had numerous conversations with people about the overall damage that Pentecostalism has done to the Church, and the objection that is usually given from Pentecostals and non-Pentecostals alike is along the same lines as Willow Creek's, "look at all the good they've done" and, "they're leading the world in world missions". In fact, that is almost always their objection when they are challenged on pretty much anything regarding their methods and/or their theology.

It has long been difficult for outsiders to distinguish between the varying branches of evangelicalism, however, as evangelicalism continues to embrace the plethora of abominable lifestyles that scripture so clearly condemns, churches that continue to maintain biblical orthodoxy will continue to be the city on the hill (Matthew 5:14).

The point is, with anything that diverts away from the Biblical and Historical Christian truth will inevitably create a chasm in its wake.

The good news: Jesus is ruling, reigning, and He alone builds His Church. 

Matthew 16:18 I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it

America's Benign God

We live in a society that has created for itself an idol. I live in a suburb of Nashville, which is right smack in the middle of the Bible belt, with more than its fair share of every kind of Baptist that you can think of, plus a few more. The point to that isn't that Baptist are bad, or that even that living in the Bible Belt is bad, although there's some major drawbacks and hypocrisies that reach epic proportions, but that's another story for another day.

This idol that has been created is what I'm going to dub, "The feline of judah". The Church has made Jesus out to be an innocent, calm, gentle, totally incapable of destruction, little innocuous god. It is not very often that you hear of anyone being fearful of a God that is capable (and willing) to bring judgement. People who ought to be terrified of God's judgement, have no fear, no worries, and when something happens in their life that may very well have been judgement, or discipline, they brush it off as happenstance, that it was just the circumstances that allowed this to happen.

The Church has created a benign god that never judges.

Recently I had a conversation with a friend who had listened to a sermon from Paul Washer. In this sermon he was telling me that Paul Washer was making a point about how God didn't spare His own Son from His Wrath. During this conversation John 3:16 clicked in my headed in a manner that I've never had before.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

There's a rather large point that is missed here, I believe mostly because of how we have romanticized this text. However, Romans 8:32 sheds a great deal of light on this by saying, "He who did not spare his own Son". I believe that all to often we look at this and miss the big idea of what spare actually means. We interpret this to say that God sent his Son from heaven, all the while missing that the sparing was the very wrath of God (Isaiah 53:10).

Jesus took on himself the wrath of God; He satisfied God's wrath (Romans 2:23-25).


Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Here's the big idea: If God did spare His own Son, Jesus, then He isn't going to spare those who are outside of Christ. If we are not hidden in Christ, when the day of judgement comes (in this life or the next) we are not going to be spared the very wrath of God. When the people of Israel were preparing the first passover feast, they were doing so because they had to have the blood covering of an innocent lamb, because when it comes to judgement, there is no one who is innocent (Romans 3:23) outside of Christ. Had there been an Israelite who didn't do as he was commanded and shed the blood of a lamb and covered the doorpost with it, they would've been judged on that night.

I see this benign-god being talked about and preached from the mountain tops of the social world all the time e.g. the latest hit song Same Love is a great example of this. With lines like a "God loves all his children", and "Whatever God you believe in we come from the same one' strip away the fear underneath it's all the same love". It would take at least one long article to unpack those two lines, so I'm going to stick to the point, which is, this god that Mackelmore is talking about is a god that is only love, and according to his definition of love - it isn't love at all. This god has no judgement in him, and whatever you want to do, you are free to do because there is no judgement, only love.

As I pointed out earlier, if the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, according to scripture, then this is very bad news for anyone who has not put their trust in him. If God wasn't willing to spare his Son, He is not going to spare you eternal judgement.

The severity of God's anger, judgement, wrath, is what reveals his righteousness, grace and mercy.

The reality of this inoculated god that is preached in pulpits all over America has people who are totally unafraid of God. If you're not terrified about God's ability to judge you, in my opinion, you are in some very dangerous territory - Matthew 7:21-23 territory.

I pray that you put your trust in Christ, repent of you sins, pursue Jesus and let your life be hidden in him. (Colossians 3:3). When we put our trust in him we are justified by him and him alone (Romans 5:1).


Romans 8:33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.