Sunday, January 25, 2015

A True American Horror Story: The Puppetmaster


Some of the religious minded expect you to check your mind at the door and download all that they teach with no question. The premise of this is that they have the whole truth and nothing but the truth. If this is being requested of you, please take a minute and think what is being expected of you.

 Here is the fact: There is a plethora of factions within the churchscape today and they will continue to proliferate and fragment. This is the nature of standing 2000+ years from the author whose life was recorded by a people and culture long dead and whose perspective on the true meaning of what they communicate is scattered in the sands of time. I am not saying that truths cannot be made known to us (see below) . But I have to say that NO theologian worth their salt will ever profess the real and complete meaning of any one scripture. The field of exegesis is one where truth is not defined, it is approached. So, the underlying premise is the truth can only really be approached, it cannot be fully known. That is why there are so many factions, each believe they have a correct application of the scripture. So what are we left to do?  

Here is a thought: There are basic fundamental truths that can be taken approached directly. These truths are not changeable and the basic premises and teachings of them are clear. One sign of  genuine truth is that it has always been with the church and before. What am I talking about?  

THREE POINTS OF TRUTH

The atonement is required because of sin, it is the blood of Christ that cleanses the sinner.  

The offering of Christ was accepted by God as payment for ALL sin, if claimed. It is a FINISHED work - nothing to add to or take away from it without the invocation of curse. 

Jesus Christ is defined as the Truth. As we live for Him we approach all that HE is. 
It is upon these truths all factions agree. They are global.  

 THE TRUE AMERICAN HORROR STORY

The American Horror Story is that the above is said not to be enough. It is taught there is more and the deep things of God are yet to be discovered. Church history is replete with those who had a revelation with accompanying signs and wonders that gave them the premise that they were the true keepers of the faith and in so doing, they devolved from humble servants to ones who smirk in arrogance and believe all not like them are sub-normal, mal-formed and incomplete. See where this premise takes them:  

THE THREE POINTS OF ERROR 
They have the truth and no one else. 
They solely hold the oracles of God. 
To believe differently causes doubts as to the eternal state of those not like them.  

If you read your bible, you will see this mentality not in the Apostolic church but the Gnostic, the Pharisee, the Nicoliatan and the Judaizer. In Church History you see it in the Catholic, Jugenot, Waldensian, early Menonnite, Zinzindorfans, Moravians, Puritans, Early Methodists, all the Holiness churches, United Pentecostals, Latter Rain, Discipleship, five fold churches (Apostolic) and Prophetic churches. This spans that entire historical period of the church. These all cite the three points of error above. 

What has this lead to?  

In each case above, there can be no real and substantial initiative of the person who is held in such bondage: where you live, where you work, what you wear, who you marry, how many children you have, who your friends are, who your 'family' really is (they redefine God's definition and design), what you are to believe, what you are to practice in your home. Your money and resources are at the mercy of the Puppetmaster.  

You live in a state of fear that in not being regulated as listed above, that you will be cast aside. One word of dissent is enough to drive you from them. One independent thought and action is met with a veracity that is hard to imagine.  

Hold on..... 

I know this resonates with some of you who read this. But there is another way. The reality is you have traded in one type of bondage for another: The bondage of the Lost for the bondage of the religious. 

Fact: they are both from the same place of origin: 

To steal freedom and free thought and to replace that with thoughts they want you to think ever living in the state where you are building someone else's  life and power and all they give you is mud and straw.  

Here is another thought: 

If we all can only see through a glass darkly, then could it be that God is for ALL of us each with our different take? In other words, a thought for you to ponder:  

"What if God is on both sides?"  

How can this be? 

Not because He is inconsistent, we are ignorant. 

He takes us where we are in our ignorance, cultural bias and generational iniquity and whispers teachings to us that are timeless. 

How do we know these teachings and whispers are from God? They cause us to look differently at the one not like us. They cause us to have compassion and expand our concept of the people of God. 

To their dismay, there will be all types the Puppetmasters will be at table with in Gods' realm.  

Your life does not have to end in tragedy, they have designed for you. There is a true American Horror Story and it is that your life is being stolen minute by minute to line the pockets of your Puppetmaster. It is time to look where you are headed. 

It is time to cut the strings and live your own life Christ has given you.