restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

About Those Sunday School Quarterlies

 David Alan Black  

InterVarsity Press’s newly releasedRediscovering Paul is, I am discovering, a happy addition to my very selective library. It contains so many gems I don’t know where to begin to list them. The very first page of the Introduction has this truthy nugget that ought to make every believer blush:

Some things Paul said did not fit well, but we were able to work it out. Usually I just ignored those statements. My own denomination helped. It printed Scripture passages in our Sunday school booklet (so we would not have to use our Bibles). The assigned passage might be 1 Corinthians 12:1-7, 12-26, nicely avoiding those troubling verses on tongues, healing and miracles (p. 13).

Every Sunday School class needs to think about this statement, and so should every church. There should be no excuse for people leaving their Bibles at home when they gather at church. The fact is, by providing people with these quarterlies, we are simply facilitating their neglect.

I know, someone will bring up the seven last words of the church: “We’ve never done it that way before.” Possibly many of our people don’t really want to dig deeply into the Scriptures anyway.Friends, we’ve got to be willing to forsake our traditions! The healthy church makes courageous decisions. The Scriptures cry out to be front and center, at the top and at the bottom of everything. The Bible is not something we consult when our Sunday School curriculum stumps us. Any church that does not understand this is doomed to ultimate enslavement to the mere words of men.

Our church meetings must deliberately revolve around Christ and His Word. Why resort to the flair of Madison Avenue when we can have the food of Divine Revelation? The Bible is one of God’s greatest gifts to us. Only when we are rich in Him and in His Word will we richly nourish one another, which is why we gather in the first place (1 Cor. 14:26).

And let’s not forget: the money we save by taking Sunday School materials out of our budgets can be released to serve people who truly need it. (The same can be said for bulletins and glossy magazines.) God has a haunting love for the world. He loves people! Outsiders were always on Jesus’ heart. Clearly, one way we can be like Jesus is by generously parting with our “church” money for the great needs of the world.

In his book Stop the World, I Want to Get On (Glendale, CA: Regal, 1974), p. 66, C. Peter Wagner observes that “the rule of thumb for churches that have been fired with a vision for a lost world in need of Christ is a minimum of 50 percent of the church budget for missions. They spend at least as much on reaching others for Christ as they do on their own needs.” Can that be said of our churches? 

A missions focus in our finances is not an option to be chosen but a commandment to be obeyed (Matt. 28:19-)!

August 18, 2008

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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Erecting Buildings (Part 2)

 Becky Lynn Black 

(Ethiopia, December 2006 – January 2007, Part 3b)

Two days before we left Ethiopia, we went to the bank and transferred funds to begin the building of two new churches: Bassa and Besheno. We had already visited the land at the Bassa church. It is a nice rectangle. Muze is the founder and primary leader of this little congregation; he donated this large portion of his land to build a church. Muze’s father is a community leader. When Muze first converted, his father would publicly beat and disgrace him in front of all the Imams.

The day of our visit, however, we crossed the road to the home of his father. Sitting at the base of a tree was an old man. He was very hard of hearing, and he had suffered a stroke. Muze asked us to pray for his father. The old man willingly, eagerly submitted to the prayer time. As we stood over him, our hands falling on his head and shoulders, I was thinking of the sovereignty of God. Just a few short years before, this man ruled with an iron fist. Now he was weak and old. And yet God’s grace and love were still present. How patiently our Lord waits for us! Many times people delay to come to Him for salvation; many other times we delay to obey Him as Lord. How patient He is; yet a Day of Judgment will come! Let us beware, and heed Him while He is still patient.

           A brotherly hug with Muze.                           Muze and his family.

The land Muze donated for the meeting hall.

Besheno is far to the north of Alaba Town. The leaders told us it was far too dangerous for us to go there now. But after the church is built it will be OK. So we hope to go next summer, if our Lord wills. The Besheno congregation has been recently adopted by the Family of Faith congregation in Ohio. The founder and leader of the Besheno church is Tesfaye; it was his 8-year-old daughter who was murdered brutally just 18 months ago because of his Christian work. We were allowed the privilege of funding her burial and court costs. It is a 6-hour walk from Besheno to Alaba Town. This time when Tesfaye came to meet us, we presented him with a special gift for his two remaining daughters: the dollies of Olivia and Lydia Grace Meggs in Virginia. Once again, love reigned.

As these churches (Besheno, Bassa and Keranzo #1) are completed, will you give yourself to prayer?  Pray that the Evil One will be prevented, that the workers will be kept safe, and that a strong testimony of our great God will be given in the process of building.

A Post Script……

There is one more church that we hope our Lord will build this spring. The name of this church is Zobechame. The Lord has been doing a great work in this congregation for the past two years. Currently it meets in a little rented building. The government has confiscated all the buildings next to this property; the land has been cleared to build a public facility. But the owner of this building is resisting confiscation; little does he know that our Lord is buying time until He gives the congregation their own property. A “perfect” property has been located not too far from the current location. It’s about 7-10 acres, an almost perfect square, and the Muslim who owns it is willing to sell! He has given his asking price (about $15,000), but the church is getting the official government valuation of the property to lower the price. We will probably end up paying about $8-10,000 for the land.

We visited the land. It is absolutely perfect! I noticed a really nice hut at the back side of the property; later I was told the story of that hut. It houses a very strong, influential witch doctor! This witch doctor is a young man. He is very well known; people come to him from all over Ethiopia. He’s very wealthy.  Few people see him, but apparently he has very long hair. The interesting thing is that the witchdoctor moved to this sight only a few years ago. His previous site bordered on Town Church #2! As they were building that church, he would come and cast spells on the property and people. But our Lord is much stronger than his god! The witchdoctor eventually gave up and moved to Zobechame! Now another church is being built next to him! For many years believers in Alaba have been praying for the salvation of this man; perhaps that time has come. Will you join them in praying for the Light to enter his dark hut?

We finished our time at Zobechame sitting on benches outside their rented building. Around us sat a church leader, a Town Church evangelist, and a man named Getahun. Instantly my heart was bonded to this man. Let me tell you a little of his story. He came to Christ from a Muslim background. He married a girl who was also a Christian, but from an Orthodox background. They had one child, a son.  Soon after this birth, his wife died. He had suffered severe persecution by his family, and he could not support his son. So the Orthodox parents of his wife are caring for the son. For many years Getahun has been living in the church building. He sleeps there. He guards the property. He provides janitorial services. And he teaches academic tutoring to a group of about 50 little children. His food is whatever food various believers share with him. And his clothes are whatever clothes people give him. This life of serving in poverty endeared him to me. We bought him new clothes, provided protein bars, and gave him money for medicine. I hope they will build him a simple hut near the new church so that he can continue his ministry. Please pray for Getahun; great is his reward in heaven because of his life of service to our Lord here.

We have not yet advanced any money for the building of the Zobechame church. The congregation currently numbers 150 on a Sunday morning; they overflow the little rented building, fill the yard, and even the street. They need to move soon, and they need their own large meeting house. Please be in special prayer, that our Lord will give us the property at a good price, that the witchdoctor will come to Him, and that a building that honors Him will be erected in His time and way.

Some believers in front of their rented building.

Discussing the property with the leaders.

Sharing stories of God’s faithfulness.

Getahun, a church leader, and an evangelist.

Coming up next: Taking Care of Each Other. 

January 29, 2007

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The FDR-ing of the Church

 David Alan Black 

Americans have always been a hard-working, resilient people. That is, until FDR. Today, as a result of government social programs, we have come to depend more and more on the federal government to take care of us. Government redistribution of wealth is now accepted as “normal” (does anyone really question the legitimacy of welfare or Social Security any more?), even though it is completely unconstitutional.

I would like to suggest that the same thing has occurred in the church. But instead of wealth redistribution taking place, we might say that responsibility redistribution is occurring. That is, instead of parents willingly and gladly assuming the responsibility to teach their own children as the Scripture commands (see Deut. 6 and Eph. 6), they have handed that job over to the church, whose paid professionals are only too eager to “help.” The only problem is that, just as wealth redistribution is wrong (since it involves taking your money through government coercion and simply giving it to someone else), so responsibility redistribution is wrong (since in involves parents surrendering to others their own God-mandated duty to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord).

Both approaches, it seems to me, are based on flawed assumptions. Take welfare, for example. Most of our politicians assume that the federal government has legal authority to create or administer a welfare program. (I say “most,” because there are men like Ron Paul, a Republican Congressman from Texas, who think quite differently.) However, Congress has only those powers that are explicitly granted to it by the U.S. Constitution. If you will read the Constitution with an unbiased mind you will be forced to conclude that there is absolutely no federal authority whatsoever for welfare programs. Yet our government willfully ignores that fact. As I have noted elsewhere, “Government employs us, feeds us, regulates us, and now claims to be able to solve our problems, including gambling…. For many Americans, the state has become their church, and the federal government has become an idol, stripping individuals and communities of their social responsibilities and engaging in the immoral transfer of wealth. And since the New Deal, a trickle has become a flood.”

To no one’s surprise, Bush’s latest proposal to revamp Social Security provides no systematic justification for involving government in social welfare. The reason is obvious. There can be no justification given for the state usurping the function of private individuals and the church. I agree with Ron Paul that “the federal welfare state is neither moral nor constitutional.” The tragedy is that American Christianity has so closely allied itself with the government of the day that the transcendent Gospel has become submerged in the world’s values.

“But Dave,” you say, “if government doesn’t take care of these people, who will?” The Bible teaches it is the church’s job to fulfill Paul’s injunction to “do good to all men” by helping non-Christians in need – feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, healing the sick. And no believer is exempt from this task (see Luke 3:11; 1 John 3:17; James 1:27). On the other hand, no Scripture supports an active government role in alleviating poverty or the use of coercive measures. Even Paul refused to command believers to help their less fortunate brothers, stating: “Each man should give what he has determined in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7).

Now let us apply these same principles to Christian education. Many parents have abdicated their responsibility to nurture their children and to teach them the things of God. As a result, the church has stepped in to provide a whole host of programs designed to compensate for the parents’ inactivity – Nursery, Children’s Church, Youth Ministry, Sunday School. The only problem is that these programs are unscriptural. They are also, by and large, ineffective. As Pastor Scott Brown of Trinity Baptist Church has noted:

The scriptures are perfectly clear: children should be trained in spiritual matters by their fathers. The father is the delivery system for the news of the kingdom of God, and when you bypass him, you reject the Biblical order for the church and the home.

As the church has followed the world system, she has nearly obliterated the scriptural role of the head of the household in church life. This has paralleled what the world has done in the broader culture. Unwittingly, the church has taken over the father’s role and given it to preachers, women, Sunday school teachers, and childcare workers.

The problem becomes clearer, when you look where the bulk of the energy of human resource is directed in the average church. Massive amounts of energy are plunged into things that secure short term attendance bumps by making low entry level slots for people to be involved, but neglect the long term activity and energy investment that secures a future for many generations.

Similarly, Doug Phillips of Vision Forum Ministries emphasizes the need for an age-integrated philosophy of ministry. Commenting on his church’s “youth program,” Doug writes:

I have the privilege of worshiping in a small, family-integrated church. When asked about our various church programs, I explain that we are blessed with more than thirty different organizations to which our members belong – they are called families. I further explain that we have more than sixty youth directors – they are called parents. In fact, we have such a full schedule of events that there is a mandatory activity every day of the week – it is called family worship.

What these men – and many others like them – are saying is simply this: It is the home, and not the church, that is the God-ordained seat of Christian education. Why, then, should the church make it easy for parents to abdicate their job? Why, in other words, should the church encourage responsibility redistribution?

In our day, parents seem to be busy with everything except the personal discipleship of their children. There’s got to be a better way. In fact there is. We can get off the church welfare dole and begin to build strong families. When that happens, the church itself will be the greatest beneficiary.

January 26, 2005

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. If you would like to know more about becoming a follower of King Jesus, please feel free to write Dave.

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The Core Problem Is Not Political But Theological!

 David Alan Black

If you are a Christian, let me invite you today to stand up for three solas of the Reformation: solus Christus, sola scriptura, and sola fide.

By emphasizing these solas, I would remind you that the controversies within American public life today are first and foremost a theological problem, not a political problem. Thus, by this understanding, the church of Jesus Christ has a theological, not a political, task. In other words, anyone who confesses Jesus Christ as the one Word of God has set a clear, unmistakable, and unambiguous limit to the divine aspirations of the state, its supporters, and its ideas.

What we are witnessing in our society is this fact: other lords than Jesus Christ, other commands than His commands, are gaining power over us. They are offering themselves to us as redeemers, but they are proving to be the torturers of an unredeemed world. I would remind you that, according to Scripture, the church does not face the state in silence. By reminding the state of God’s Kingdom, God’s commandments, and God’s righteousness, the church reminds it of its limits and at the same time tells the state what it simply cannot tell itself.

The church reminds the state that there are certain criteria for its actions that it cannot set for itself but are set by God’s Word. To these criteria, rulers and ruled are subjected, and to these they are responsible—whether they are prepared to acknowledge this or not. The church understands that it cannot itself act politically. Its task is to remind. It reminds the state that not only is the state necessary but that its monopoly of power is not absolute, but instrumental—to seek justice and peace.

In the church’s struggle against binding the Word of God to any ideologies, a new ideology has crept in through the back door, namely the ideology of expediency. I am “amazed” (Gal 1:6) at how easily the church has lost its prophetic voice of ensuring that the state fulfills its God-given function as state. The “true” church always has a responsibility to ensure that there is a “true” state. Indeed, having allegiance to Christ alone, the church is freed from the political intrigue that so often characterizes the functions of other groups within the civic community.

According to the New Testament, the state, as one of the angelic powers, is understood to be under the constant threat of demonization—the temptation to make itself absolute. When, therefore, the state takes on theonomous pretensions, it does so only through its presumption of autonomy, which itself it based on its renunciation of its true dignity and authority given and confirmed through submission to God. Thus the greatest service the church can render the state is to ensure that it never perverts its authority. The church is always to hold before the state an ideal of what it can and should be.

This understanding of church-state relationships is one that gives to the church enormous responsibilities with regard to the state. It demands an uncompromising “No” to the Promethean efforts of a state that has lost its true dignity by presumptuously feigning autonomous authority, as seen, for example, in the recent Supreme Court decision on sodomy or in the president’s decision to launch the nation into war in defiance of the law of the land, the U.S. Constitution.

If the church is to be true to its calling in American society today, it must resist humanity’s trust in its own resources—yes, adamantly oppose it!— for when linked to the self-aggrandizement of Kulturchristentum, such hubris can only lead to one thing, and that is disaster.

My friends, will you please consider this question: Shall the church keep silent, or will it fulfill its God-given role of “reminding”?

It is for you and me to decide whether we will stand up and be counted. If there is no true state today, it is because there is no true church.

July 22, 2003

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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Advice to Prospective Doctoral Students

 David Alan Black  

This week I am scheduled to meet with a couple of potential Ph.D. students. I will tell them, as I tell anyone who considers asking me to be their major advisor in our doctoral program, that I am not necessarily looking for more doctoral students. In fact, to show you how selective I am: the seminary has its application form, and I have mine!

What, then, do I look for in potential students? Men and women mature enough to know what they want — godly, humble, gifted, ambitious, versatile, restless, willing to think independently. Above all — and this will sound egotistical but it really isn’t — I am looking for students who for one reason or another have deceived themselves into thinking that studying with Dave Black might have some benefit to them.

When I was looking into doctoral programs back in the late 1970s, I well remember meeting students who told me they went to Aberdeen because of Marshall, or to Manchester for Bruce, or to Princeton for Metzger. To me, that seemed the only sensible thing to do. Many years ago in Germany students were constantly migrating from one university to another in order to profit from some course being taught that year by a famous scholar. There is, I think, much wisdom in that method.

Here’s something else I tell prospective students. All other things being equal, you will want a university doctorate rather than a seminary doctorate. I am not saying that seminaries do not offer excellent Ph.D.s, and I am certainly not saying that students should not earn their doctorates from SEBTS. But, I think, mature students fare less well in the typical seminary curriculum than in the more research-oriented program in most universities. The irony is that your favorite professor might very well teach in a seminary, in which case it will be obvious where you ought to study! When I ended up in Basel it was largely because I didn’t want to suffer through the busy work of the typical U.S. seminary Ph.D. program, and I most certainly did not want to get my theological education second hand. I was not disappointed on either count. Basel was for researchers who could work independently.

University degrees can, of course, be overrated. I recall reading, a month or so ago, how one New Testament scholar in his blog referred to his university as the “Rolls Royce” of theological education in North America. I had never before heard automobile models used as metaphors for educational excellence. I suppose for some teachers this is a useful fiction — something like Santa Claus. However, I dislike such self-aggrandizement intensely, and hope never to elevate my own institution’s status through such hype.

Basel may have been no Rolls Royse, but it certainly was an excellent place to study. We had no required lectures, though during my first semester I took 20 hours of weekly lectures, and 15 during my second. The New Testament courses were taught by men like Markus Barth and Heinrich Baltensweiler (an expert in Pauline theology), who tragically died of a heart attack though he was a relatively young man. I was naturally partial to courses taught by my Doktorvater, Bo Reicke. His public reputation, then at its height, had been won in the field of New Testament exegesis, but his wide-ranging intellectual interests were known to all. To me it was an immensely stimulating time — which brings me back to where I began this essay. Doctoral studies should be an exciting time. Absolute frankness and devotion to truth are formidable virtues to have if one is to benefit from a doctoral program. I recall sitting under my professors and hailing their latest publications with all of the rapture with which graduate students of today extol Tom Wright or Jimmy Dunn. What happiness to study under great scholars! It stole the hearts of crude young Doktoranden to watch professors teach as those having authority, and not as the scribes.

This, then, is my advice to prospective doctoral students. Anyone can study books, but books cannot guarantee wisdom. Perhaps the Greatest Teacher of all said it best: “When students are fully taught, they will be just like their teachers.” No one can furnish a perfect definition of teaching, but that one comes about as close as I think we will ever get.

November 29, 2010

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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Confessions of a Missional Greek Prof

 David Alan Black  

As I have been thinking and praying about my plans to travel and missionize abroad this next year, I have been forced to reflect again upon my own raison d’être.

Although I am perhaps known for my criticisms of much in the church’s practical life, I seek above all to be a churchman rather than a theologian or a scholar. For me, theology can be distinguished but never separated from the Christian life. I myself have sought to study and emulate the apostle Paul’s theology because it takes seriously the experience of Christianity. The mystical presence of Christ (Paul’s “in Christ” formula) forms the undertow of daily life. It affects everything we do – getting up, sitting down, eating, working, even sleeping. Nothing in our lives is “profane” if we live to know Him and to make Him known, as Paul did (Phil. 1:21).

Thus I like to think of my own teaching as preeminently missional. If we really believe in the Gospel, what should we be doing to advance it? What is the church, and how can we help it transform society? Although I dislike the term “missionary” (the expression itself is not found in the New Testament), I admit candidly that I feel “called” to be one. Hence I always ask myself when I read Paul, “How did this letter contribute to his work as a church-planter and disciple-maker? And what can it teach me about doing the same?”

By and large, I have shied away from systematic theology. Instead, I have produced separate theological investigations of specific biblical texts – say, of Rom. 12:9-21 or Phil. 2:1-4, to take but two examples of passages that are replete with “practical” theology. I did this, I think, because of the time required of a person to do a larger investigation of a theologoumenon step by step and passage by passage. The closest I’ve come to doing that was my doctoral dissertation on astheneia and its cognates in the Pauline literature, which was published in 1984 under the title Paul, Apostle of Weakness. Today, if I wished to work on a similar project, I would naturally have to pay very close attention to the texts under consideration. In fact, I don’t think I will ever write another book like my work on Paul because the task obviously exceeds what I can do with my heavy teaching and travel schedule, in addition to numerous other obligations I have here on the farm. There are even days when I write nothing at all because God has not given me the opportunity to do so. I have simply tried in all of this to accept myself as I am, to acknowledged my own considerable limitations, and to take satisfaction in what I can without comparing my literary output with anybody else’s. Thus the quantity of my work has never posed a problem for me.

Not long ago I took the wholly unthinkable step of deciding to publish a book on politics, which, while it didn’t excite the general public terribly, rubbed many Christians the wrong way. However, I make no apology for questioning the unconditional loyalty that American evangelicals pay to the god-state, especially in its GOP manifestation. Similarly, while not a church historian per se, I am completing a study of the sixteenth century Anabaptists who took incredibly dangerous steps to restore the church to its New Testament patterns. The importance of Anabaptism within Baptist ecclesiology is often overlooked, even though their writings had a considerable and noticeable affect on the development of Baptist polity vis-à-vis the state.

But my primary concern is with the evangelization that the church is required to carry on throughout the world. I still remember how enthusiastically Lloyd Quast taught us the book of Acts when I was a student at Biola University in the early 1970s, and I suppose that his lectures were a milestone on what has become a long and exciting pilgrimage.

Do I really believe in the Great Commission? Do I really depend on the Holy Spirit alone for the salvation of souls? I must then continue to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send me out, and I must go, depending not on my own worthiness and merits, but on the ground of the merits and worthiness of the Lord Jesus.

April 1, 2008

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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Weeds

 Becky Lynn Black  

These days I’m usually up at 5:30am. The sun is just lightening the sky. The air is fresh. All is quiet and peaceful; the birds are beginning to awaken. The plants in my garden are fresh with dew, lifting their heads from sleep. It is a precious time for me and my Lord as I putt around here and there tending my garden.

The garden was planted many weeks ago. It’s well established. The focus now is on keeping the weeds down. As I work, my mind goes to the similarity of weeding a vegetable garden and living the Christian life.

What are weeds exactly? Living things. They are green. They are pretty. They have flowers. 

So why must they be destroyed? Don’t they have a right to life? What’s wrong with them? What is their great “sin”?

Frankly, they are thieves! Robbers! Cheaters!

They rob the vegetable plants of the nutrients in the soil; my vegetables need these nutrients to grow and produce their fruit. And they hog the sunshine; my vegetables need open contact with the sun in order to make plant energy.  And they crowd the living space; my vegetables need open air for circulation, so that the bugs, mold, and other diseases don’t cripple them.

Weeds can grow in the open field, but they have no place in a vegetable garden where they rob my plants of what is needed to produce a harvest.

As I was pulling weeds last week, I was thinking “God has planted Life in me. He planted me for the purpose of producing a harvest for His glory. What weeds are in my life? What is robbing me of that which is needed to produce the fruit He desires and rightfully expects?”

Unclean thoughts…idle thoughts…imaginations. Paul exhorts us to think only on that which is wholesome, godly, righteous (Phil. 4:8). From the thought life flows energy for self-restraint, for creative ideas for ministry, for correct priorities. “As a man thinks, so is he.” 

Lord, alert me to wayward thoughts; make me to do battle with ungodly rabbit trails! Bring my thoughts into conformity to Your Word, so that Your Life becomes my life. Remove this weed, so that I can bear more fruit for You.

What else robs me of being productive for Him? The weed of self-indulgence…a lack of self-discipline…wasted time…idleness.  Moses prayed “Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Knowledge is head-oriented; wisdom is living-oriented. By pulling the weed of self-indulgence, I remove the TV/Cable/Computer time robber. I focus my activities for eternal benefit. I harness each hour for the King’s service. I think to myself: what is the long-term consequence of this activity?

Lord, impress upon me the great loss when I waste the life you have given me this hour. Never again will this hour be given to me; when it is passed, it is gone forever. One day the books will be closed, and I will give account of each hour that You gave me life. Teach me to pull the weed of self-indulgence and sloppy management.

What about the weed of untidy relationships?  So many relationships are unfocused, haphazard, without purpose. They just exist. The Evil One delights to rob us of purposeful contact with people. He wants us to be satisfied with talking about sports, with smiling greetings, with sharing recipes, with talking about the weather, with just getting along. This weed of sloppy relationship robs us of fresh air. Mold and disease grows; much emotional energy is wasted on sloppy relationships.

God, help me to use each touch with another person to spur them to look Heavenward to You!  Help me to be Eternity-focused in my relationships with people! Don’t let me settle for just being comfortable in relationships.

Of course, there are many other weeds. The weed of ingratitude. The weed of unharnessed tongue. The weed of financial mismanagement. The weed of pride. The list goes on and on.  Each of us has our own set of personal weeds.

For a week I was laid up and unable to get to the garden. Of course, during this week the weeds didn’t sit back and take pity upon me. No! They were busy grabbing the opportunity to grow! And by the time I got out to redeem my vegetable plants, these weeds were well established.

So what is the lesson here? First, no matter what the circumstances of our lives, the battle of the weeds is always there. The Evil One tempts us to think that because we are sick, because we are financially strapped, because we had a stressful childhood, because our spouses are the way they are….whatever the “reason,” we can afford to give ourselves slack and ignore the weeds. This is a lie straight from the Evil One! He knows the nature of weeds. He knows that Time passed is Time lost. He is the great deceiver. No matter our circumstances, we must always give diligence to removing the weeds

Second, often it is when we are “down” that the Evil One and his world system insist we redefine “weed.” By changing the label, we are excused from addressing the issue, we are lulled to spiritual sleep, we slide into compromise. So instead of lacking self-discipline, we say “that’s just my personality, and I have a right to express my personality; it’s part of me.” Or instead of dealing with idle thoughts, the world system says, “It’s human nature.  How can you avoid it?  Lighten up a little!” Or instead of harnessing lost time with a view to God’s glory, the Evil One and his world system try to convince us that we have a right to relax after a long day, and what’s a few hours of “enjoyment” anyway! Besides, there are some good things on TV/Cable/Web. Why be so picky about using every minute for the Lord?

No matter the temptation to redefine, we must call a “weed” a weed. We must deal honestly with ourselves about the issue. We must remove it from the garden of our lives.

Thirdly, weeds dealt with early are easier to “pull” than weeds well established. The longer I delay, the more entrenched the weeds become. Not only are there wasted nutrients, sunshine, and space, but also the act of pulling the weed often injures the vegetable plant.  Roots are intertwined. Leaves are wrapped around each other. Initially the vegetable plant is left “wounded” from the removal of the overgrown weeds.

So it is far better to recognize a weed and remove it when it is still young. And so it is with us. We must recognize the robbers in our lives, and remove them before they become entrenched habits. And if we have already allowed these robbers to become entrenched, we must still remove them, even if we are left “wounded” in the process. I’ve often heard “It’s hard to remove _________ [you name the weed].” Actually, the difficulty of the process is irrelevant. It is utterly irrelevant! It needs to be done, and the sooner the better. Pain postponed is pain increased.

So if we are going to recognize weeds early and remove them early, how do we recognize a weed? Well, often in my garden, when I am planting, I place the seeds in order. Sometimes I use a string to mark a straight line, and I place the seeds along that string. As the little baby plants sprout, I check their alignment with the string. If they don’t line up, it’s safe for me to assume the baby plant is a weed. And it is removed.

This is much like the Word of God. The same God who has planted Life in you and me has given us a “string” against which to measure things. That marker, that standard is the Scriptures. For example, when the Scriptures say, “Do all things without grumbling or complaining,” it means, do all things without grumbling or complaining.All things – at the dinner table, at chore time, at school, at work. “All things without grumbling or complaining.” There are many forms of grumbling and complaining. Dawdling is grumbling, an unsmiling face is grumbling, a whining voice is grumbling, “discussing” the situation is grumbling.

The Evil One delights to confuse us into redefining a weed. We cover the definition with psychological ramifications, age-limitations, social issues, cultural variances, physical dynamics… But the string of God’s Word remains, and it will remain for all Eternity. We must discipline ourselves to deal honestly with God, with each other, and with ourselves by calling a weed a “weed” as God defines a weed. This is just another aspect of the Lordship of Christ. He is the One who defines “Weed.”. No discussion. No debate. No excuses.   

The only thing remaining is for us to pull the weeds in obedience to His Lordship. And to keep pulling. Pull soon, when they are young. Pull if they are “painful.” Pull so that we can bear the fruit He has planned for us, and for which purpose He gave us life. The purpose of the Church is to spur each other to love and good works. Part of that spurring is pulling weeds. Let us help each other. Let us band together. Let us be honest about calling a “weed” a weed. Let us help each other in the pain of extraction. And then together we will bear abundant fruit for the Master who planted us and gave us life.

July 14, 2008

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   restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

Weapons of Mass Delusion

Mitchell S. Flinchum

It now appears to be a foregone conclusion that no weapons of mass destruction (I hate that phrase) will be found in Iraq. I feel no joy however in being able to say “I told you so.” I believe our actions in Iraq, as well as our previous actions around the world only make the future price we have to pay higher, and I fear that price will be higher than we can ever pay.

I am amazed, however, that there is no public outrage at our actions, either domestically or from abroad.  It appears that the spin is being generated to blame our intelligence agencies for the failures. Someone about the same caliber as Oliver North will probably take the fall for the whole lie. The question that keeps coming back to me is what would happen to an individual or group of people that embarked upon a similar mission as the U.S. and Britain did upon Iraq?

Bear with me if you will, but I would really like to explore this perspective. Imagine if you will that in some outlying area in a remote part of any country that there is an individual (we’ll call him old Mr. X) who is despised and reviled by all.  This person could be the political head of his small province, but most likely he is just an ornery and eccentric recluse.  He’s the kind of person that people whisper about, because they’re scared of him. Rumors have been spread about this individual for twenty years.  Finally something horrible happens in this community. For example a child disappears, or is found murdered. Instantly fingers are pointed at strange old Mr. X.  After all, Mr. X is a known Satan worshipper, child molester, murder, rapist, and libertarian. 

After much prodding and public outcry, public officials investigate Mr. X. The investigation goes on for ten years.  Much money is spent, but nothing of any consequence is found.  Aside from determining that Mr. X is indeed an eccentric and a libertarian, the state will not attempt to bring a criminal case to court.  “Nonsense”, cry the townspeople.  “It is a known fact that Mr. X has been killing and eating babies for generations. Why, we’ve heard their mournful cries on dark nights. We also have an eye witness that he pulled the wings off of flies.” 

Fueled by its own rage and rationalizations, the fury of the lynch mob grows. The father of the murdered child enlists the help of some family, friends, and fathers of other small children who set out to make the province safe for children.  Citizens of the realm that believe in the old man’s innocence say little or nothing for fear of retaliation. The mob breaks into the old man’s home and they search for baby’s bones, satanic instruments, and the like. They find nothing.  They dig in the basement, the yard, the surrounding fields, barns, and forests and still find nothing. They torture the old man to make him talk, but he only cries. Finally the old man dies, taking any secrets he has to his grave. “We know he was guilty,” the mob exclaims. “We will find the evidence, just give us time.”

Now if this scenario took place in any country in the world, the members of this mob would be imprisoned. Vigilante justice is not tolerated in modern society, despite real or imagined failures of the criminal justice system. Evidence based on rumor will not hold up in a court of law. Good intentions do not justify the wanton killing of a perceived criminal.  One must have evidence, and even then the state must be the prosecutor.

Actions such as these have taken place in our society. The most blatant instances that come to mind were also instigated under state authority such as the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, and the French revolution. So what happens when the state misuses its prosecutorial power?  The answer is:  nothing, unless there is a revolution.  You or anyone else cannot successfully fight city hall.

The real problem here is that there is no one to bring the state to justice. People can say it, but I’ll never believe that our intelligence on Iraq was so catastrophically wrong. How could this be? We have the best intelligence in the world!  The message to the world is this:  if we suspect you of harboring WMD, thinking about WMD, or if we just plain don’t like you, we’ll accuse you, then blow you up and no one will say a word! What are you going to do?  We’re the biggest and strongest bully on the block. When it’s all said and done the American taxpayers will step up and pay to rebuild your country. Isn’t life grand?

Hence comes the dilemma:  either the U.S. made a huge mistake and someone should be criminally liable for the negligent use of faulty intelligence to justify attacking a sovereign and impotent nation, someone lied to the President to make sure force was used against Iraq, or the President and all his cronies lied to the world about Iraq’s capabilities to justify an unjust war.  Which scenario is correct? It doesn’t matter. The President as our commander-in-chief bears ultimate responsibility for our use of force in Iraq. A great wrong has been done here and justice cries out to be served.  Could you imagine the characters in our above example being set free even if they truly believed the person they assaulted to be guilty of a heinous crime? The state would never allow anyone to go free in this situation. So why should our leaders expect to go unpunished, either for mistakes or genuine criminal acts?

Well, I know of no one that likes Saddam Hussein or no one that thinks he was a good person. The fact remains that the U.S. invaded a sovereign nation, unprovoked and on false pretense. Much the same way as it did Mexico, the Confederate States of America, Spain, Korea and Vietnam It also entered WWI under false pretense. Meanwhile citizens of both sides have paid with their lives and the American taxpayers have paid for the wars and the rebuilding.  How long can this continue?  How long before the subjects rebel against the empire?

February 24, 2004

Mitchell S. Flinchum is a native North Carolinian and a resident of Alamance County. He and his wife Teri have been married for 15 years and have two children. They attend Kimesville Road Baptist Church. Mr. Flinchum, a CPA, earned his undergraduate degree in economics from Elon University and his masters in accounting from UNC-Greensboro. He is a member of the SCV and the chairman of the Burlington chapter of the NC League of the South. He may be reached for comment here.

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We Will Live To Regret It

 David Alan Black 

So we voted Bush back into the White House. Do we realize what we’ve done?

We reelected a head of state who believes preemptive war is the best way to deal with international terrorism; who prefers unilateral to international cooperation; who turns a deaf ear to public debate and consultation; who discourages dissenting views; who has a track record of manipulating intelligence analysis – a man who has, in short, created an imperial presidency.

No wonder our enemies – and even our allies – hate us. We are determined to use our military might to solve international problems. We are willing to act alone. We are determined to see that no other nation achieves military parity with the United States. We are pledged to bring the “gift of democracy” to every corner of the globe.

What hubris.

And how does Bush get away with it? Largely by Congress’s outrageous abdication of its responsibility. It has granted unfettered discretion to a single individual to wage war, and war-waging he has done.

When Congress passed the now infamous Tonkin Gulf Resolution, intended to prevent further aggression in Southeast Asia, the result was an even deeper involvement in Vietnam – the longest war in American history. ww

Likewise, today we are on the precipice, and the nation is in full denial. We have given Bush carte blanche in Iraq and have washed our hands.

Judging from the emails I’m receiving, Europeans are convinced that the U.S. is a nation of warmongers. Iraq has become the central front in a global war on “terrorism.” And now we are told to get ready for another dose of “shock and awe” – an offensive euphemism if ever there was one.

Bush’s pipe dream of forcing democracy on the Middle East has put over 300,000 of our sons and daughters at risk of losing their lives. Terrorism has proliferated in places where there was none before. Our tough talk inflames the Muslim world against us. We have killed too many women and children to ever regain legitimacy in the minds of Islamists.

Still, we reelected George W. Bush.

Mark my words: We will live to regret it.

December 2, 2004

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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We Ought To Be Ashamed

 David Alan Black 

Today many of our nation’s leaders have accepted theological pluralism and therefore have no real basis upon which to make moral and spiritual decisions. It is appalling how often and where this evil business shows up. When the First Lady of the United States uses sexual innuendo to refer to her husband in public, can we be so deaf as to not hear all the warning bells? Not to do so is accommodation to the world’s spirit at a crucial point that eventually will carry everything else down with it.

Is the erosion of the sanctity-of-life view really so alarming in the face of the spirit of accommodation that characterizes our leaders in America? If we can put aside so easily the reverence a wife is to have for her husband, how will it be possible to restore respect for the preborn? We could use a lot of plain, old-fashioned respect in this world today. Too many, even of God’s people, impress us with power and performance but never learn how to be reverent and deferential. A truly great spouse is respectful. There is nothing weak or effeminate about it. Anybody can tell bawdy jokes. Only great souls are truly honorable.

Except the Lord built the house we labor in vain who build it. This is as true of a nation as it is of a family. The principal business of this age is accommodation and men-pleasing. It is easier to get people to bustle about in all kinds of religious activity than it is to get them to be the kind of New Testament Christians that will produce New Testament families. In the Book of Revelation, our Lord had something against the churches of Pergamos and Thyatira. In both cases He had to reprove them for their sinful tolerance. Note carefully: Our Lord judges us for what we tolerate. No doubt there are good Christian people in Washington and they are to be commended for their faithfulness to the Lord Jesus, but the Christ of the Lampstands will not tolerate false teaching and worldly living.

None of us is above reproach, but God sent His Son into the world to be the Adam of a new race, and as many as receive Him receive the power to become – and to behave like – sons of God. All I lost in the old creation due to sin I have gained in the final creation made possible through the blood of Calvary.

The world can never understand what the saints find so objectionable about crude humor. It is even more tragic when professing Christians allow themselves to be squeezed into the mold of the world, taking it and its values for their fashion plate.

Shouldn’t the church be more than a feeble reflection of the pagan world around it? If so, then we can start by the way we show honor to our spouses in public.

May 3, 2005

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. If you would like to know more about becoming a follower of King Jesus, please feel free to write Dave.

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