Convergence: social justice, the supernatural, and scholarship

I have noticed that streams of Christianity that have a limited view or limited experience of the Holy Spirit tend to err toward conservative, legalistic fundamentalism or universalistic and licentious progressive liberalism. Unfortunately, in the past, streams of Christianity in western culture that have embraced a full experience and practice of the Holy Spirit have tended toward anti-intellectualism and a cult of personality.

Thankfully, what is emerging now in America is a stream of Christianity that fully embraces the Holy Spirit and scholarship and is also informed by global, charismatic Christianity. Global Christianity sees no conflict between caring for the poor and believing in miracles. In fact, one informs the other.

The greatest representative of this convergence of social justice, supernatural Christianity, and scholarship is Heidi Baker. As a missionary she has run an orphanage for decades that cares for hundreds of impoverished children. She also happens to evangelize by using signs, wonders, and miracles. Specifically, she and her team enter a village, call forward the deaf and blind, and show the power of the gospel as they pray for healing and see most of them get healed. This all happens in front of the other villagers who, naturally, then want to know more about this Jesus who heals. She also has a PhD in systematic theology from King’s College London. She is currently launching a university in Mozambique. She daily lives out this beautiful convergence of social justice, the supernatural, and scholarship.

Global Christianity is teaching American Christians that churches which don’t operate in the power of the Holy Spirit are ineffective. Our brothers and sisters around the world are also teaching us that empowering women and caring for the poor is essential to the gospel. Likewise, they are warning the American church that caving to a sexual ethic that is at home in America but foreign to the Bible and global Christianity will weaken the Church and diminish the gospel. And as global Christians get beaten, imprisoned, and killed for the sake of the gospel, they expose universalism for the lie that it is.

The church in America is shrinking while global Christianity is exploding in revival. It is time we learn from them and from the convergence they represent.

All In

“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn
“‘a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law
a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 10:32-39

Those who like to paint Jesus as light and fluffy tend to skip over scriptures like this one. Those who like to think the gospel is all about unity and peace at any expense–at the expense of truth and surrender–are offended by Jesus’s words here. Try as they might to wiggle their way around what Jesus says here, they cannot.

These are not the words of a universalist. Persecuted Christians, particularly in Muslim countries, find hope and life in these words of Jesus. If we find these words difficult it is mostly an indication of the pampered and bastardized Christianity that has been handed down to us in the U.S. The hundreds of thousands of Muslims that are surrendering their lives to Jesus in Pakistan right now understand that the decision to follow Jesus is one that will likely cost them their families and might cost them their lives.

Universalism is not a message of grace and good news in countries where people are literally giving up their lives to follow Jesus. Universalism says their sacrifice was pointless. Universalism declares to them that being ripped from their family, rejected by loved ones, beaten, bloodied, scarred and broken was all very unnecessary. It tells them they could have lived in comfort and ease, rejecting Jesus, and everything would have been just fine. Does that sound like Jesus to you? Or can you now see it for the lie that it is?

Universalism is far from good news to the millions of persecuted Christians around the world. It is a message of mockery to their tremendous sacrifice. It also makes a mockery of Jesus’s own words here in Matthew 10.

The good news of Jesus is that if we are willing to surrender our lives in their entirety, we will find true life on the other side. If we are willing to join Jesus on the cross and in the tomb we will also join Him in the resurrection. If we are willing to make Jesus THE priority in our lives above all else, we will discover a river of life flowing through our life.

Clearly, Jesus is not messing around. He’s not playing church. He’s not interested in establishing a religion. Jesus is interested in sold out, all in, lovers who are willing to surrender everything to Him and His Kingdom.

Have you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ? Are you all in?

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to humankind by which we must be saved.
Acts 4:12

The One Who Is Victorious

“To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:
These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.
Revelation 2:8-11

A couple observations:

First, the lie of universalism becomes more obvious in light of passages like this in scripture. These are the direct words of the ascended Jesus. If all will be saved one day, what is the point of suffering persecution? What is the point of being faithful? What is the point of Jesus saying that “the one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death” unless there are those who will be hurt by the second death?

This passage couldn’t be more clear–there will be some who are saved and others who are not. Jesus is encouraging the church of Smyrna to withstand persecution for their faith and not fall away so that they can inherit the victor’s crown of eternal life.

Secondly, when Christians around the world today undergo persecution and imprisonment for their faith in Jesus, there are many reasons offered up by our culture. Some offer a political reason. They say, “We need political pressure so that religious freedom and human rights will be adopted by that country.” Others offer a social reason. They say, “We just need greater concern for the religious minorities, and all minorities, in countries across the globe.” And while there is truth in both of these approaches, the political and social realities are just symptoms of the deeper reality that is being missed.

Jesus is clear about who and what is causing the persecution of Christians around the world. He tells the church in Smyrna that it is the devil who is testing them and persecuting them. It is the enemy, Satan, who tries to get Christians to turn away from Jesus by causing suffering. Everyone else is just a pawn in this game the devil is playing. Jesus couldn’t be more clear.

How ironic it is that people then blame God for their suffering. Jesus warns us that suffering will come (“In this world you will have trouble…” John 16:33). Then Jesus tells us who the author of that trouble is–the devil himself (also see Ephesians 6:12). Finally, Jesus encourages us that if we stand firm in the faith we will be rewarded. And what do we do? We turn around and blame God for our suffering…(smh).

“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.“

Rejecting Jesus

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
1 John 2:20-23

John tells us that the reason he writes these sorts of things is because of “those who are trying to lead you astray”(1 John 2:26). And when we read the above passage, we are reminded that there are many theologians and leaders in the church who are still trying to lead people astray with false teaching.

Here’s the reality: it is impossible to read the above passage the leave any room for universalism. Universalism says that people with all different religions and belief systems will ultimately be accepted by God the Father. It says God accepts all belief systems equally and so everyone will make to heaven to spend eternity with God.

But the only way to hold a universalistic understanding is to completely ignore this passage of scripture (and many others like it). One cannot believe in the Bible and be a universalist. You can pick one or the other but not both because the two are incompatible.

John is clear about what the truth is. The truth is that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. To deny Jesus is to reject God. To deny the Son is to deny the Father. There is no equivocation here. John makes no attempt to soften his language or side-step this foundational truth. If you acknowledge Jesus for who He really is, then you have connection and intimacy with the Father. But if you deny that Jesus is who He says He is, then you are simultaneously denying the Father.

John confirms this truth by referencing the anointing of the Holy One, the Holy Spirit. It is the internal witness of the Spirit that confirms the truth of these statements. About the Holy Spirit John goes on to say, “As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things…”(1 John 2:27). The Holy Spirit is ultimately our teacher and our guide. He confirms the truth of God’s word in us. And the Holy Spirit never contradicts the word of God.

What is interesting to notice is that the same sections of the church that dabble in the falsehood of universalism have also created distance from themselves and the things of the Holy Spirit. When we stop listening to, engaging with, receiving gifts and power from the Holy Spirit, our teaching is sure to become more and more influenced by the corrupt thinking of the world.

By the time many seminarians finish seminary, they’ve been filled with false teachings and emptied of any intimacy with the Spirit. They start doubting the truth that they read in scripture and begin distancing themselves from the authority of the word of God. As someone who went to seminary, I saw this firsthand in my own life and I continue to watch it happen to others. No wonder the churches in American are shrinking and dying. We need to return to the boldness that John writes with, proclaiming the exclusivity of Jesus as the Christ and the only way to the Father!