EVOLVING?

EVOLVING?

               

                There are many people that are placing all of their bets on humanity these days. The evolutionary concept is that mankind has been evolving for millions of years and that now our evolution is actually accelerating as our new technologies allow us to manipulate DNA, cure disease, unite the world, or to move away from arcane religious faith, since it tends to divide us.

                Accordingly atheism has now become the largest single people group in America, now standing at 21 percent. In other words there are more Atheists than there are evangelicals or Catholics, or any other religious group.

                But with the death toll now reaching 290 in the church and motel bombings in Sri Lanka… with hundreds being killed daily by earthquakes, floods, storms, droughts, famines, crop failures, new diseases, and a host of other earth threatening things,… and with hatred, both political and religious reaching a boiling point, I would argue that we are not evolving at all and that in spite of or maybe even because of our brilliant technologies and godless philosophies, we are plunging into an abyss of human devolution unprecedented in human history.

                Just like modern medicine, that borderlines on the miraculous, but comes with life threatening side effects, so is mankind’s rush toward solutions for every human problem. The technologies that seem to be saving us are actually killing us… and while they are accelerating our knowledge, they are also accelerating our demise. The global unity we now seek, rather than bringing the long sought for peace, will end in the biggest blood bath of all time.

                But the solution to our problems is not to become a better Christian, any more than it would solve the world’s problems if every Muslim was to become a better Muslim, or every Catholic to become a better Catholic or every Buddhist a better Buddhist, or every Hindu a better Hindu. And as I have recently found out, even our pursuit of the perfect doctrine will only divide us even within our own churches and send us to the trenches to shoot at one another.

                So, in my opinion there is only one truly evolutionary idea left on this planet .And since there is only one sinless One who came to give rather than to take and who actually died for us; the only truly evolutionary solution would be for us to die to all thought of evolving in this fallen kingdom we call humanity and to be born again into an eternal kingdom in which we actually live by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. We must receive within these fallen beings of ours a power greater than our own and learn to live by that power in order to be lifted out of this dismal swamp of human reasoning and to trust in the wisdom of the only One who has ever given Himself for the salvation of mankind.

                Jesus was much more than a revolutionary prophet on a suicide mission. His credentials tell us that He actually created everything that exists. He created it all for eternal purposes… purposes from which we are at present falling further and further away. And like I said our solution is not to create the perfect doctrine… after all ISIS has the most perfect doctrine and the strongest devotion. Just kill everyone on the planet that doesn’t agree with them and they will finally be at peace right? No, because they hate each other as well and Muslims are bombing Muslims over every difference in doctrine.

                So we can learn something from all of this. The best solution to our devolution is not to join the right church with the right doctrine and then to go out and become missionaries of that perfect doctrine. Our only solution is in the very Person of Jesus Christ… not a religion about Jesus, but in the receiving of His very Spirit and learning to live by that Spirit until we become disciples of His that reflect His love, His character and His penchant for redeeming the lost rather than shooting them.

                Religion of all kinds tends to want to kill the enemy and that is why most wars are religious wars behind the scenes. But Jesus taught us to love our enemies, thus diffusing war-like situations.

                Of course the problem with being like Jesus is that we become targets for all of the world’s haters. We raise the ire of the gods that run this planet. It is hard to hide the spirit of Christ in us, for even the smallest candle is glaringly obvious in a pitch dark place. And believe me, it is not our doctrine that causes us to shine in a dark place, but the very Spirit of Christ. Doctrines and even various interpretations of prophecy can be fought over, but few people will argue over feeding the poor, or loving the unloved, or sheltering the widow or the orphan.

                “If anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” James 1:26, 27.

                Some people like to brag that they keep the Law better than others, but in truth the law is not fulfilled by keeping it. James, the brother of Jesus told us this in chapter 2 beginning at verse 8 saying:

                “If however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well.”

               

                This statement agrees perfectly with what Jesus taught saying, “If you love me you will keep My commandments … and we, like Pharisees respond by lining up our laws and doctrines and preparing to shoot at one another… but our bristling for war should be quelled because He goes on to say that His commandment is that we should love one another even as He has loved us.

                The truth is that even as Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Law of Moses, he offered us a new set of commandments saying that we must love one another… even our enemies… that we must be born again… that we must deny self and take up our cross and follow Him.  He also told us to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Remember… the life is in the blood, so in other words, we can receive into ourselves His life giving Spirit and be healed by His stripes.

                We are no longer of this present fallen kingdom if we are truly born again, for we have died to the Law that governs this world and we have been born into the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and only in that Spirit can the Law be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

                Notice if you will that the wise virgins were not allowed entrance into the marriage feast because they had the right set of doctrines or attended the right church. They were let in because they had the oil of the Holy Spirit in their lamps and that Holy Spirit is the very life of Jesus imparted to us as we live by faith in Him.

                I have developed a new phrase in my life as the result of a recent round of arguments with someone who thought I needed his brand of doctrine. In his mind almost nothing I say is right and I found it hard to believe that we actually study the same Bible. The whole discussion became very oppressive to me and so I finally had to bring it to an end, but this is the phrase that came into clarity in my heart.

                When Jesus is in the center of the picture, then everything else comes into clear focus, but if Jesus is not in the center of the picture, then everything else becomes distorted.

                This is why I keep repeating certain Bible texts over and over again. We need to get this if we are going to actually live in the kingdom that we have now been born into. WE live in a new kingdom so we must learn to live by new kingdom rules. In Luke 24:27 Jesus went through the whole scripture beginning with Moses and showed how that everything pointed to Him. If we do not have Him as the focus of all scripture then all of scripture is misinterpreted.  Likewise I quote from Romans 8 a lot because it is those who live by the Spirit of God that are the sons of God. In other words, our religion is not an intellectual one, but a spiritual one and in that Spirit is all of the wisdom of creation and all of the wisdom of eternity and the mind of Christ who created everything.

                James goes on to say: “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. “

                And then James goes on to say some astounding things, beginning in chapter 2:14:

                “What use is it my brethren if a man says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?”

                Whoa… wait a minute here James, are you getting legalistic on us here? But notice what he defines as works as he says: “If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?”

                Isn’t this exactly what Jesus taught us in His story of the Good Samaritan? Yes it is… and we can go on beating each other over the head with the Ten Commandments, but in truth they can only be fulfilled in us if we live by His Spirit rather than by our flesh… and they are going to look different than they did in the Old Testament because they will now be fulfilled by love for God and love for each other and that means living lives that bear the fruit of the Spirit, for that is the only way that the Law can be fulfilled. And bearing the fruit of the Spirit gives us rest because it is His fruit being produced by His presence and His power and not our own.

                So even as we discuss various events and issues that we face in the world today: as we see the kingdom of the antichrist forming in our time, we must remember that it is those who live by the Spirit of God that will prove to be sons of God and it will only be those who love with the love of God that will fulfill the Law in the end… for as we see in the final judgment Jesus said: “ I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me. “ Mt. 25:35, 36

                When Jesus is in the center of the picture, it will change our priorities so that instead of throwing “truth” bombs at each other, we will begin to care for each other’s needs and so fulfill the royal law of liberty.

                I can already hear the religious doctrine oriented people saying, “Yes but.” But I say, live by the Spirit of God and you will not carry out the deeds of the flesh and we will become what we are predestined to become and that is to be conformed to the image of God’s only Son. Romans 8:29

                That is the only true evolution and it comes to us, not by taking but by giving…giving our lives… our time… our resources to the needs of others. And we do it all in the name of Jesus who alone can save any of us.