History... Wash, Rinse, Repeat...
Notes
Transcript
Welcome
Prayer
Opening
Two weeks ago we looked at the first part of Chapter 13 and discussed the concept of Church as family. This week we are going to pick up on this thought and talk about why this concept of family was important in the first century and why it is important today. As is usual with me, I beg your patience as work through to bring you to my point about the text and the world today. I will tell you right now, my point is going to be to draw your attention to the fact the modern Social Justice Movement is nothing more than the current iteration of the godless ideology of Karl Marx. So, with that as an opening, Let’s take a look at the text:
As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.
The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him.
And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “ ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”
And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district.
But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
How did this situation go from “we want more” to “get out of town?”
Who were these “devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city” that the Jews incited?
I preparation, I found some authorities that indicate these were Jews, and some authorities that indicate Gentiles. While the phraseology is not absolutely clear here, in context, I believe Luke is referring to Gentiles. Jews did not have the clout to drive anyone from Gentile Antioch if the Gentiles really wanted them there, so, I think Luke here is indicating the Jews went to those in power in Antioch and filled their ears with lies in order to drum up support for driving Paul and Barnabas out.
In Roman culture, you would not be a woman of high standing or a leading man of the city unless you were a good citizen of Rome. Some of the things required for a good citizen, among others, were
Being loyal to Rome
Participation in Politics
Observing Roman religion
Understand there was no “separation of church and state.” The state was the church. The state was the religion. While Roman religion was complex, it could be reduced to 3 main things;
A polytheistic (many gods) pantheon (and various temples)
Festivals for those gods (The Roman religion emphasized the importance of maintaining good relations with the gods to ensure the prosperity and well-being of the state and its people. This was done through ceremonies, sacrifices, rituals, festivals and games held in honor to the gods.
Worship of the emperor as a god.
It is fairly easy to see how those opposing Paul and Barnabas could incite the women of high standing and the leading men of the city. All they had to do was tell them that these men, who the whole city is listening to, are teaching that there is no God but Jesus and that Jesus is the only true King. Paul and Barnabas were preaching a message contrary to the entire Roman religious-political system. If these people of high standing allowed this to occur, and did not drive them out, and the word got back to Rome, they would have some serious problems with the Emperor.
From 112 AD we have a record of Pliny the Younger writing to Emperor Trajan for advice on how to handle Christians. Beginning under the reign of Emperor Domitian in the early 90s, Christians were persecuted for the crime of (as odd as this sounds) atheism because they did not believe in the Roman gods and they refused to participate in Emperor worship or the state festivals. For this crime they were murdered by Rome. Emperor Trajan issued an edict continuing this and it is to this edict Pliny is responding. His letter read, in part:
Meanwhile, in the case of those who were denounced to me as Christians, I have observed the following procedure: I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished.
Soon accusations spread, as usually happens, because of the proceedings going on, and several incidents occurred. An anonymous document was published containing the names of many persons. Those who denied that they were or had been Christians, when they invoked the gods in words dictated by me, offered prayer with incense and wine to your image, which I had ordered to be brought for this purpose together with statues of the gods, and moreover cursed Christ—none of which those who are really Christians, it is said, can be forced to do—these I thought should be discharged.
Others named by the informer declared that they were Christians, but then denied it, asserting that they had been but had ceased to be, some three years before, others many years, some as much as twenty-five years. They all worshipped your image and the statues of the gods, and cursed Christ.
Christians had a choice: renounce Jesus and worship the state, or suffer the consequences.
(first note “History is a long story of worshiping the state, or suffering the consequences.”
This pattern has repeated itself over the centuries in various different ways; the satan and the principalities and powers of this world (as repeatedly referred to by Paul) are quite clever and, in many centuries, hid behind the facade of the “church” (which had merged with the state) to enforce worshiping the religion of the state (including emperor worship - i.e. the pope) upon the penalty of death.
The true church of Jesus followers has always been under attack in one way or another since Paul and Barnabas were run out of Antioch.
Fast forward 1800 years to 1848 and a man (who you are undoubtedly familiar with) named Karl Marx (and his friend Friedrich Engels) publish a political pamphlet in London called “The Communist Manifesto.” In it, Marx argued:
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed...”
The ultimate point of the Manifesto is that the history of man is a history of struggle, ever progressing to a higher state ultimately culminating in a communistic state.
Skip forward ten years to 1859 - and a man (who you are undoubtedly familiar with) named Charles Darwin publishes a book titled “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection” putting forth his theory of evolutionary biology and a naturalistic (i.e. atheistic) explanation for the existence of living organisms (i.e the birds and bees and you and me). The theory, in short, is only the fittest survive - might makes right - the fittest dominate and procreate.
“Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
Karl Marx read and admired Darwin’s work. It provided a “scientific basis” for Marx’s concept of progression through struggle. So much that (skipping forward another 10 years to 1867) he referenced it in his magnum opus “Das Kapital” (Capital: A Critique of Political Economy) .
In a letter to communist activist Ferdinand Lassalle (January 16, 1861), Marx stated,
“Darwin’s book is very important and serves me as a basis in natural science for the class struggle in history.”
Thus, Darwinism, became a support underpinning Marx’s ideology. As stated in Das Kapital:
“Nothing can have value without being an object of utility.”
Marx’s communism was atheistic from the start - the state is the ultimate reality and:
“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the feelings of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of unspiritual conditions. It is the opium of the people.”
For his part, Darwin - while no friend of faith or religion - did not like what Marx and others were doing. I particular in a letter to Karl von Scherzer in 1897, Darwin stated he believed it was a “wild idea’ to merge socialism and evolution through natural selection as had been suggested by some German socialists (i.e. Marx and others), yet, at the same time, writing in his book “The Descent of Man” in 1871, said...
With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We civilised men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one to the last moment.
There is reason to believe that vaccination has preserved thousands, who from a weak constitution would formerly have succumbed to small-pox. Thus the weak members of civilised societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man.
The ideas of these two men would arise profoundly roughly 50 years later in Europe and Russia through two different manifestations of socialism (go back to the communist manifesto and its predecessors). In Europe we had the rise of Socialist Fascism (of which Nazism is a sub-category (why Italy and Germany were allies) and in Russia we had the rise of Socialist Communism. Both Socialist Fascism and Socialist Communism demand worship of the state. There is no room for competition with the state. The state is supreme and anything that challenges that - like the true believing Church - must be eliminated.
Christians had a choice: renounce Jesus and worship the state, or suffer the consequences. The exact same as in the days of Paul.
An excellent example of a person who chose to accept the consequences in Germany was Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Dietrich was one of the earliest members of the “Confessing Church” in Nazi Germany in response to Hitler’s attempt to unify all Protestant churches into a single pro-Nazi (state worshiping) German Evangelical Church. Dietrich's story is too long and complex to tell here today, but I highly recommend you take the time to study his life and his writings. A few years back Eric Metaxes wrote an excellent book on his life. The Nazi’s killed him a couple days before the prison where he was being held was liberated.
An excellent example from behind the iron curtain is Romanian Lutheran pastor Richard Wurmbrand. In 1948, after communism took over Romania, he publically preached that Communism and Christianity were incompatible. He was imprisoned and tortured for roughly 14 years. It is likely the only reason he wasn’t killed was because his imprisonment had garnered attention in the West. After his release, he came to the US and started the ministry Voice of the Martyrs.
So, we’ve traveled through history up to today and you are probably wondering - what does any of this have to do with me today?
Social Justice Movement
For more on some of these topics, you can go back to Tad’s sermons from last year. But, for today, I want you to notice something in particular.
Today’s social justice movement is inextricably tied Marx’s theory. Start with its foundation - the theory of intersectionality.
Intersectionality: The theory that individuals can experience multiple forms of oppression and discrimination simultaneously due to the intersection of various social identities, such as race, gender, class, and sexuality.
What does this sound like? It is a modern day regurgitation of Karl Marx’s evil:
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed...”
Just like Marx advocated, the Social Justice movement does not care about the individual. What it cares about and calls for is a change in the system - the overthrow of free market capitalism - through Structural changes in institutions, policies, and systems to create a more just and equitable society.
Equitable is not equal. Equitable has nothing to do with equal. Equity has to do with outcomes, equality has to do with treatment or opportunity. The concept of equity is born out of Marx’s “preaching”
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
In other words, the state should take everything from everyone and then decide what each individual’s needs are and the state will give you what it believes you “need.”
And, last but not least, the Social Justice Movement is all about “solidarity.” It emphasizes the importance of solidarity and allyship across different “marginalized” groups.
As Marx said in the final words of the Communist Manifesto: In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things… They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The [working classes] have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Working Men of All Countries, Unite!
And when you hear “ruling class” SJM has renamed it “white cis-gendered males” and when you hear working class, it is everyone who is not a “white cis-gendered male.”
Again, why is this important to us today? Because the Social Justice Movement is the underpinning philosophy behind Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ push.
Please understand that the Black Lives Matter movement and LGBTQ movement are neither separate, nor are they about African Americans or Gay people. They are an outworking of the Marxist Social Justice Movement - i.e. modern socialists - and their attempt to disrupt western Judeo-Christian culture to the point where it can be replaced with a Marxist-Socialist culture.
Don’t be fooled for a minute:
BLM
Pride
Where does this raised fist symbol come from?
Soviet Russia
And Communist China
It is a godless ideology seeking dominance and control.
Last week a disgusting LGBTQ Pride Month celebration was held on the lawn of our nation’s capital. This display made the US flag subordinate to the LGBTQ flag.
This is a declaration by the Marxists to the rest of us, that you have lost and we have won.
LGBTQ rights is the tip of the spear, so to speak, for this godless ideology to insert itself - not just into our culture, but into the Church.
It is and has divided multiple denominations including, most recently, the Methodists.
Much like in Nazi Germany, slowly but surely there is a “Confessing Church” arising out of the godless culture which seeks to control and dominate the Church.
Like in the days of Paul, or in the days of Bonhoeffer, and countless other times across the various centuries and cultures, Christians today have a choice: renounce the true Jesus and worship the state, or suffer the consequences.
The true Jesus is the Jesus of scripture - the entirety of scripture - and not a truncated Jesus that fits our individual wants and desires.
Throughout history, the true church has always found its strength to resist through worshiping Jesus in community. Throughout the New Testament we find example after example of strength found in worshiping Jesus in community despite the headwinds of persecution in the outside culture. That was the strength of the Church in Paul’s day, it was the strength of the Confessing Church in Bonhoeffer’s day, it was the strength of the Church behind the Iron Curtain in Wurmbrand’s day, it will be the strength of the Church today.
Christian community is designed by God to function as a large family. This is why I tried to drive home the concept of Church family two weeks ago.
Family is where we are to find refuge. Family is where we are to find comfort. Family is where we are to find strength and support. Jesus gave us this family called the Church, designed and ordained by God almighty - the Creator of the universe. He gave us this family to support one another as we share the Good News of Jesus in a culture that neither recognizes nor honors Him.
This is why it is important to gather regularly - doing so helps all of us remember that we are not alone. That our faith is not a individual matter - it is a family matter - and Church is family.