Purge

We belong to Christ and are now citizens of heaven; yet, He places us here on earth to be good citizens and reflect His glory. Jesus was asked by Pilate if He was the King of the Jews.  We can read in John 18:

36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here." 

37 Pilate therefore said to Him, "Are You a king then?" Jesus answered, "You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." 

38 Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?" And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, "I find no fault in Him at all...

We have to keep that in mind when we are weighed down by the concerns of this world, including the hostility that we may face as people of faith.  We claim the cross and that means that we may bear a cross as the result of our confession of Jesus as our Savior. But, each day, we can make it our ambition to reflect Christ to a society that so desperately needs hope, to see and experience the love of the Savior; we have been dispatched for this purpose, in this place.

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There is an attempt to misrepresent what Biblical Christianity is all about. Philippians 3 talks about the perpetrators of deceit and the promise of the Kingdom of God:
18 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame--who set their mind on earthly things.
20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.

This week, the so-called "Select" committee to look into the events of January 6; what has come to be known as the "insurrection," will occur.  Only, the selections were all made by one person, who dismissed some of the selections of the other party.  So, it's not really a bi-partisan committee; ultimately, it seems the aim is to control the narrative and attempt to disqualify and marginalize political opponents leading up to the 2022 election.  

What happened on January 6 was an unfortunate chapter of American history, and nobody should admit that the actions deployed by those who entered the U.S. Capitol were by any means right.  You had people in Washington that day who had been invited days in advance to show solidarity with the former President of the United States.  And, yes, there were Christians in the crowd at the White House and at the Capitol that day.  There were people that were a) driven by political passions to support Trump b) motivated by beliefs that the election results were suspect or at least there were irregularities and/or c) concerned about the direction of the country if the apparent winner were to be sworn in. It was a toxic mix that exploded. 

Not only were hundreds arrested, most of whom have not even been brought to trial, but the events were used to create the narrative that people who support Trump, including people of faith, are extremists, white supremacists, enemies of the government, and should be objects of suspicion. We are seeing an unprecedented level, I think, of suspicion toward one another as Americans and members of the human race.  

CRT is turning people against each other based on race.  The Marxist ideology that assigns characteristics to people based on the group to whom they belong is creating chaos and division.  And, the demonization of Christians, even by fellow Christians, as "white supremacists" or "racists" is certainly unhealthy in the body of Christ. 

Two weeks ago, Jimmy DeYoung mentioned an article by Caroline Glick, who is an Israeli journalist - his comments, consistent with his perspective on the Middle East, was that American efforts to combat the Iranian threat were really just windowdressing.  But, the article really presents a number of areas of concern which I found interesting.  The article ran on the Jewish News Service and related:

During his Senate confirmation hearing, Defense Secretary General Lloyd Austin gave an ominous description of how he viewed the Pentagon’s mission. He began his statement blandly enough.

He immediately added, however, “But we can’t do that if some of those enemies live within our ranks.”

Upon entering the Pentagon a week later, Austin issued a 60-day stand-down order to all units in the U.S. Armed Forces to enable commanders to deal with “the enemies within our ranks.”

So who are these enemies? Glick shares:

Although no evidence has been presented indicating the protesters were at the Capitol to advance a white supremacist agenda, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley intimated in congressional testimony that the Capitol Hill protest was informed by white supremacy.

Austin, Milley and their colleagues are using the misrepresented events of that day as an ongoing justification of their efforts to purge the U.S. military of the “enemies within the ranks.”

Robert Jones, who heads the research firm Public Policy Research Institute, makes a similar claim about the culture at large in a Religion News article, including the popular notion that Christianity and white supremacy are somehow tied together:

On Jan. 6, an undulating sea of rioters revealed, with their flags and signs and totems, that this attack on our democracy was animated not just by fealty to a single leader but also by deeper allegiances to both white supremacy and Christianity.

Comfortably intermingled with these tributes to white supremacy were Christian symbols and rhetoric. There were numerous Bibles, crosses, “Jesus Saves” signs and “Jesus 2020” flags that mirrored the design of the Trump campaign flag.

This shows why all Christians should be concerned - this is evidence of an attempt to take the narrative of January 6 and tie it to the practice of Christianity in general.  Jones goes on to say:

But these awful events had one value: They put on plain display the unholy amalgamation of white supremacy and American Christianity that lives among us today.

These unsettling connections among white supremacy, white Christianity and support for the former president are not confined to the extremists who attacked the Capitol.

This is a sinister effort, I believe to tie Christianity, which is made up of a beautiful tapestry of people from every "tongue, tribe, and nation" and misrepresent it as a bunch of white supremacists who are a poison to our nation.  And, unfortunately, we must be purged.

Or reprogrammed.  That's what Caroline Glick is contending is happening within the military. And, it's happening in companies across America as well as churches.  She writes:

A key component of the purge is indoctrination. Officers and enlisted soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines are now compelled to study and internalize progressive texts and other materials that are aligned with Critical Race Theory. As army veteran Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.), defined the term in an article in National Review, “Critical race theory repudiates the principle of equality under the law that is articulated in the Declaration of Independence and that has motivated civil-rights reformers for generations. It claims that this American ideal is a sham used by the white majority to oppress racial minorities, and consequently that America is racist to its core. The theory concludes that the only way to end perceived discrimination against racial minorities is to systematically discriminate on their behalf.”

Glick notes that: 

Cotton and Rep. Dan Crenshaw set up a “whistleblower hotline,” for service members who feel assaulted by the indoctrination.

It's not just our military - there is an attempt to change people's thinking, and the horrific events of January 6 give progressives an opportunity to purge the principles and practice of true, Biblical Christianity from our culture.  

Now, mind you, those that breached the U.S. Capitol were passionately devoted to a cause; they just went about it the wrong way.  And, thousands outside the Capitol, where you saw banners proclaiming the name of Jesus, were exercising their right to peaceful assembly.  Real, authentic peaceful protest, unlike the rioting of last summer, where personal property was actually being destroyed and a nation was on edge. 

But, we should not allow the attempted intimidation of Christians through the use of this "insurrection" narrative to be successful. We should continue to be prayerful for our nation - throughout the Scriptures, we see God working in the the events of nations, including the nation of Israel, the people He chose to be His own.  Israel's relationship with other nations is a key element of the Biblical text.  He has placed you in this nation for a purpose - that's not "nationalism," it's a sense of God's purpose and desire to use you for the advancement of a Kingdom, headed by Christ.  Ultimately, we are citizens of that Kingdom, but we are called, I believe, to be actively involved in civic life. 

In the next few days, there will be further information revealed about the events of January 6, but there will be an attempt to paint groups of people with a broad brush.  Some of the fallout has and perhaps will land on our doorstep.  We have to continue to faithfully live our lives, to understand the attempts to lure us away from a pure and authentic walk with Christ, and to reject ideas that are not grounded in Scripture.  Now is not a time to draw back; we must speak clearly about who we are, and most importantly, who our Savior is.